In a matter of minutes two things caught the attention of my “eyeballs”.  The first was an interview of Quincy Smith, the President of CBS Interactive.  It was a short and to the point piece where he discussed how CBS Interactive is integrating social media with traditional CBS content to dramatically increase reach, buzz and “capture eyeballs”.  He used words like twitter, blogging, texting, streaming video etc.   I can’t share the exact interview that I saw…but you can see similar remarks that he made here:

Enter…Chet the Dog

Next, I received an update from Web Ink Now, David Meerman Scott’s blog.  The lead article was Chet the Dog:  Blogging and on Twitter to sell Books.  Spencer Quinn, a new author has just published his first book, Dog On It:  A Chet and Bernie Mystery.   He is also using the power of social media to increase his reach, buzz and “capture eyeballs”!   Quinn set up a blog and twitter feed for the main character of the book…Chet the dog !  And there is also a Facebook page for Chet.

David versus Goliath?

The paradox is intriguing…big, major media company and an unknown start-up using the same tools to promote their brands, increase reach and their share of eyeballs!  It sounds like a David and Goliath story. 

The social web has leveled the playing field between large and small companies.  In both cases the marketing approach reflects a super smart integration of social media to accomplish their respective goals.  And the best part…David doesn’t need to kill Goliath to win!  In fact, the buzz created by Quinn’s strategy may cause Smith to pursue the movie rights for the book.  What do you think?