[The Insider] 6 Wunderkinder

A new star appeared on the startups sky above Berlin. And it came with a bang. 6 Wunderkinder published their first to do list application wunderlist in November 2010 not even two months after they have been founded. It runs straight the top in major tech blogs, magazines and goes wild on Twitter.

Luckily the place we work is literally across the street of their offices. So we poked them on Twitter and arranged a meeting with “the marketing guy” Robert Kock to talk about this boost start and the role social media plays in this company.

[The Insider] 15 Talents

When you want to be the leading market place bringing together talented students with interesting company projects of innovative companies, you need to be where the students are. When the 15 Talents SIBE GmbH was founded in early 2008 it was the leading rule for structuring the company. This simple but powerful rule was the reason why 15 Talents was created with Social Media at its core, making it a true social media company.

Two years later the responsible for Sales and the company site within Xing, Andreas Griesbach, is giving us insights of the company structure and how it works today through an interview.

[The Insider] Schwarze Dose 28

Since the start in 2008 Schwarze Dose 28 (also called "28black" in the US) has been more than just an energy drink based on the açai berry. Right from the beginning the brand stood for quality, natural ingredients and aesthetics. Resulting in a huge success; offline and online. When they hopped on the Facebook-Hype going through Germany last year, they took over a community Fan Page with about a thousand fans. By now they crossed the 20 thousand marker and head for even larger numbers.

Julia Akra, Head of PR at Calidris 28 Germany, met with us and gave some insights about the beginning, the current state and the future of the Social Media involvement of Schwarze Dose 28.

[The Insider] Hotel Berlin, Berlin

With its 52 years "Hotel Berlin, Berlin" clearly is not a new comer in hotel business. But when the hotel was bought out of a big chain in 2006 the heads decided to reinvent the hotel and its meaning once more. Beside a new facade for the building this included a new brand and new ways of marketing; taking the hotel into Social Media.

And once again Berlins third greatest hotel is leading hotel business to new innovative ways. Last week we got the great opportunity to talk to Anne Bubner, Brand and Media Manager and her Assistant Maria Langhammer both managing the Social Media appearance for the hotel. Like no one before they showed us how Social Media is more than just another communication channel and deeply effects the hotel and its processes.

[The Insider] Freunde des Mauerpark e.V.

The Mauerpark in Berlin (between Pankow and Wedding) isn't a park as all the others. When you look at it during weekdays it looks like an old, dry fallow land you would never call "park". While on weekends it is overcrowded - feeling more overcrowded than alexander platz - and filled with all kinds of artists; there are bands playing, people dancing, there is open air karaoke and a fleemarket every sunday. It is a really special place.

And like every special place the Mauerpark needs people who take care of it. One society of 25 volunteers taking care of the Mauerpark is the "Freunde des Mauerpark e.V." ("Society of friends of the Mauerpark") who are trying to establish the park as a constant in Berlin, its culture scene and tourism. So when they thought about relaunching their webpage last year it was decided to get off the path of a "normal society webpage". The people behind "Freunde des Mauerpark e.V." wanted a website transferring all facets of the Mauerpark - they decided to go "social media". We had the great opportunity to talk to Alexander Puell from dfacts.de, the designer of the concept, the creator of the page (software wise) and the one behind most of the social media involvement of the foundation. And, boy, did we learn a lot!

[The Insider] Taz - Die Tageszeitung

"Die Tageszeitung" (aka "taz") is a German left wing cooperative owned daily newspaper with their offices in Germans capital Berlin. Since they started their "project" in 1979 the taz has evolved into a publisher with around 250 people on the payroll which still has some kind of outsider position in the newspaper market of Germany. As a result of it the taz has always been curious to experiment with new ways of publishing and journalism.

Years ago it was the first german newspaper you could read online and search their archives digitally (first published on CD, now you can get access online as well). Now it was one of the first publisher involved in Twitter, Facebook, using flattr for their articles and publishing a daily ePaper for the iPhone.We had the once in a lifetime opportunity to talk to Nina Schoenian, Creative Director of the taz.de and New Media.

What we've been working on

It is time to unveil what we have been working on the last couple of weeks. As I already said earlier we wanted to bring more value to you as the reader of our blog. Therefore we decided to start two new series: "The Insider" and "Should I care about...". We want to have one new article at least one a month for each series. They will be tagged with theInsider and ShouldIcareAbout to make it easier for you to find new and old articles. Don't forget to bookmark the links!

But first, let me explain you what they are about: