Seeing as Oprah already has a well-established online community and arguably one of the strongest brands EVAH...I still couldn't resist putting together a social media fantasy campaign.  Because while she does indeed have a Twitter account and a Facebook Fan page, there are so many unbelievably different ways the Harpo brand can leverage social media.

Let me break it down for you.

First, Oprah could do a lot with mobile.  How cool would it be if Oprah text message subscribers could get notified of her new book club selection fifteen minutes before it's announced?  I'd sign up for sure!  Oprah could offer lots of different text message subscriptions including: upcoming show alerts, recipes from Chef Cat Cora, fitness tips from her trainer Bob Greene, and inspirational text messages from Elizabeth Lesser and Martha Beck.  I'm just scratching the surface here, but you get the idea.

Harpo Productions could also roll out an iPhone application.  One could be a portable version of Elizabeth Lesser's Spirituality 101 or it could be a series of games designed to teach the most recent topics Oprah's been covering: money management, law of attraction, gardening, organizing,  etc.

Oprah could also add a Digg-like functionality to her web content along with a Share This functionality so that users can instantly share her content across social bookmarking services and social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.

Seems like there's a Facebook application for everything these days and I'd love to see Oprah roll out one.  I envision that it would be a quiz that Facebookers could take to find out: "What Oprah Guru Are You?".  The quiz would take stock of the user's knowledge on a variety of topics covered by Oprah's gurus along with their strongest personality traits.  Not only would this be a great self-discovery tool for users but it would be fun to take and share with friends, because, come one...who hasn't fantasized about being an Oprah guru (or maybe it's just me).  Oprah, if you decide to bring on a Social Media Guru, you know who to call.

During the first runs of the shows, Oprah viewers could sign up for a Twitter-like microblogging tool for Oprah community members only and interact with one another, microblog their reactions to the show as it airs, and participate in polls.  Some of the microblog entries would be shared onscreen as it happens allowing for an internet and television interactive experience.  Members could also opt to share this interaction by streaming it to Facebook and Twitter as well.

Finally, for this social media fantasy campaign, I'd love to see Oprah tap a team of bloggers, aligning them topically across her show, magazine, and associated brands.  Not only would these bloggers be given exclusive access embeddable video, images, advance press releases, and interactive widgets they could use on their blogs...they'd be given the opportunity to interview the many "gurus" for their blogs, be given advanced notice of casting needs to share with their readers, and would be given the opportunity to participate in Angel Network fundraising events at a local level.

Oprah, I've been a fan forever.  If you decide to dig deeper into the social media and digital marketing end of making my fantasies a reality...I will take your call any time day or night.  There's more ideas where these came from!

In the meantime, I look forward to meeting your personal trainer, Bob Greene, this weekend in Santa Barbara as we kick off the EA SPORTS Active 30 Day Challenge!


Just in case Oprah reads this and considers bringing on some bloggers, add a link to your site below so she can check you out!

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