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The political visualization Words & Votes [sandyhookpromise.org], developed by digital agency R/GA for non-profit organization Sandy Hook Promise, provides a comprehensive look into the opinions of congressional representatives on the issue of gun violence.

More specifically, the visualization tracks each member of congress as being "neutral", on the side of "Gun Safety," or on the side of "Gun Rights". It then maps the evolution of these opinions over time on a vertical timeline.

These individual opinions have been based on two separate types of information: the analysis of the tweets sent by members of Congress and their voting record on Capitol Hill on laws and bills that relate to gun violence.

Individual members of congress can be explored in terms of being influential or vocal, or filtered by address, zip code or home town.

The political visualization Words & Votes [sandyhookpromise.org], developed by digital agency R/GA for non-profit organization Sandy Hook Promise, provides a comprehensive look into the opinions of congressional representatives on the issue of gun violence.

More specifically, the visualization tracks each member of congress as being "neutral", on the side of "Gun Safety," or on the side of "Gun Rights". It then maps the evolution of these opinions over time on a vertical timeline.

These individual opinions have been based on two separate types of information: the analysis of the tweets sent by members of Congress and their voting record on Capitol Hill on laws and bills that relate to gun violence.

Individual members of congress can be explored in terms of being influential or vocal, or filtered by address, zip code or home town.

Getting many of the SEO and social media experts of today in one place is a great way to compare thoughts and figure out what direction to take your business in the coming months. We asked eight industry leaders the following question: "What new SEO or social media tool (or new feature of a tool) are you most excited about using in 2013?"

You can show your Facebook ad to anyone, people who already like your page, or people who do not yet like your page. However, the “platinum,” is friends of connections. By selecting this option your ads will show to friends of your existing fans (those who already like your page).

Pinners can now send individual pins to their friends on-site as long as they both follow each other – before, pins had to be sent via email. Pins can be sent on both desktop and mobile devices, to both desktop and mobile devices.

With our company's famous Mystery Trip kicking off Friday, here is this week's Social You Should Know with a heavy emphasis on the folks at Google and some changes they rolled out this week.

Google+ Gets 41 Updates

Google has long said that they are in the G+ business for the long haul, and Wednesday's announcement of 41 updates gave credence to that. Google+ now has an improved multi-column stream, improved photo editing and sharing, automatically added hashtags and more socially centered Google maps. They also announced a new way to get brand logos into search results, similar to the "author images" you may already see. Hangouts, a popular feature, will also become a standalone app. Given Google's 66% market share in search, brands should pay attention to these changes. However, the network engagement is still low. The average visitor spent just under 7 minutes on G+, versus 404 minutes for Facebook. But, that is up from 3.3 minutes for G+ in February and Facebook is down from 429 minutes.

Google's Sister, YouTube, Opens Live Streaming to Many Channels

YouTube Live, which was announced two years ago but only available to select channels, is now available to any YouTube channel with more than 1,000 subscribers, assuming you are in "good standing" with YouTube. Channels will now be able to stream their live content, including multiple camera angles, and YouTube will do the work to make it available across almost all devices. This new feature is worth experimenting with, particularly if you support live events or produce a lot of content.

More Brands Using Instagram, says New Research

According to research from Simply Measured, 67 of the Top 100 brands now have an Instagram presence. Just three, however, have over 1M followers (Nike, MTV and Starbucks). What's interesting to me is that a higher percentage of these 100 brands have a presence on Pinterest (76 of 100), but the difference in follower count is dramatic. Those 76 brands have a combined 500,000 followers on Pinterest, while the 67 brands on Instagram have 7M followers.

We'll be back from our Mystery Trip bright and early on Tuesday. Enjoy your weekend!

The post Social You Should Know: Google+ Updates and YouTube Live Streaming appeared first on Ignite Social Media.

For the most part, the people who register for your webinar are qualified leads. Some will be competitors because they want to see what you’re up to and will want to copy you, but most will be people who want to do business with you.

Most of what you read about creating more reach for your Facebook Page either has to do with Facebook Ads or optimizing content. But these three little settings for your Page can also dramatically increase reach.

A new study found that 40% of adults used social media as part of a political campaign during the 2012 presidential election. Interestingly, online engagement was largely found to have been done by the well-educated and affluent amongst us.

In a bid to stave of overwhelming competition from the likes of Amazon and eBay, retailer Target is taking a punt at a social commerce venture which, they say, will “bridge the gap between digital and their stores.”

Cartwheel is an ambitious digital savings initiative between Target and Facebook, but its premise is simple enough. The program gives users personalized coupons to share with friends on the social network, and the scan in-store. When users claim an offer, Cartwheel generates posts to their newsfeeds. Predictably, the more coupons redeemed and the more friends invited, the more rewards on offer.

“Target recognizes that shopping is an inherently social experience,” Facebook said in a statement. “It’s been fantastic working with the company on the development of Cartwheel, and we’re excited to see how Target customers use the product.”

Well, points for effort for Target, which at least recognizes the need to create a strong presence in the digital world. But surely Facebook should know better by now – f-commerce has struggled to find its feet ever since its inception and with the rise of other social shopping models (P-commerce, or ‘participatory commerce’, in particular taking flight), many reckon that Cartwheel, with its mish-mash of commerce ideas, will fall flat.

Indeed, the editors of CIO Journal have already said the initiative is certainly “not a game changer”, citing claims from Forrester Research Inc that the service is “overly complicated”. Indeed, elsewhere around the web reports are trickling in that Cartwheel’s sharing function requires “a PhD from MIT” to turn off. Which means users’ entire Facebook networks will be able to see just how much booze they bought at the weekend, or how many packets of cookies they consider acceptable for a night in front of the TV. Is any coupon worth that kind of shame?

Of course, it’s still too early to call it. But certainly precedent suggests there won’t be any handstands for Cartwheel.

I’m a big fan of Pinterest and use it extensively both personally and professionally. Here are my top 10 tips that will having you pinning like a pro in no time.

It doesn’t matter if you have the perfect job and have no plans of leaving — consistent networking and personal branding efforts ensure you’ll stay on the top of your network’s members’ minds and be viewed as an authority in your field. That starts with your interaction with others, even in the space of digital.

Facebook marketing is a huge business and recently there have been massive changes taking place in the way pages for businesses are handled. Read on for information about Facebook Business Pages, along with five essential apps for your brand's page.

Instagram addiction, Twitterholism, Facebook fatigue… these are the kind of terms touted by the media in a bid to condemn the increasing amount of time we dedicate to social media – sometimes at the expense of real life.

But, as ‘social media addiction’ cements itself more firmly in our lexicon, is it something we need genuinely worry about? This tongue-in-cheek video by yourtango takes a humorous look at it from an extreme angle, on one hand taking the mickey of scaremongering media outlets, while on the other painting an uncomfortable picture of lives overwhelmed by digital demands. As Tweetsy, the Responsible Use of Social Media Bird, says: “Don’t tweet the whole day away and you’ll keep the social media fatigue at bay.” Wise words, Tweetsy!

Discover what it takes to make more human connections and smarter business decisions during this era of upheaval. Mobile commerce, social networks, smartphones, tablets and real-time connections all the time—this time period represents a huge evolutionary step—and it really is the end of business as usual. Will your company adapt, or go extinct?

Here's a Google+ cheat sheet to keep handy and get the most out of every post. This cheat sheet breaks it all down from post anatomy, notifications, style options, photo editing and more!

When it comes to growing business, business owners perceive having 2 million engaged Facebook fans more valuable than a Super Bowl ad, and far more desirable than having the same number of Twitter followers.

This week, developers and tech-geeks nationwide met at the annual Google I/O Developer Conference in San Francisco for three days of product plans, apps, and updates galore. Google added 41 new features to their social network darling, Google+.

Although Facebook tests everything and course-corrects as needed, the challenge here will be to find a balance between generating revenue and the psychology of what Facebook users think the service is (no one likes being sold to).

Last week, a gang of cyber criminals perpetrated a $45 Million fraud by hacking their way into prepaid card systems at several banks and extracting their take via ATM machines in 26 countries. The US portion of the scam took place courtesy of ATM’s mostly in the Northeast, giving too much publicity to the ensuing spending spree and clearly illustrating the risk that needs to be addressed via the EMV standard.