Pylon Sounds

More consumers are aware of social login and subsequently expect a far more personalized online experience, according to new research.

In its second annual UK & EU consumer research report, user management solutions provider Janrain found that 88% of consumers surveyed have encountered social login – up from 78% last year – and that 67% believe social login should improve their online experience.

The research also highlights that 75% of respondents claim that personalization is increasingly important to them, compared with the 64% that last year stated they would return to a website if the experience was personalized.

Furthermore, the research shows that 71% of consumers found a company’s ability to suggest products based on their social information appealing, with 69% saying they found the suggestion of topics, articles and products very useful when on a website.

Other key findings:

• 75% of consumers think companies that offer social login are ‘more innovative’
• 75% are more likely to return to a site that recognises them
• 84% admit to having let a site in the past instead of recovering forgotten login information.

Russell Loarridge, Managing Director Europe at Janrain, commented: ““The research is quite clear. Customers want a more relevant online experience; they want targeted, timely offers; they don’t want to have to remember a unique username/password combination for each site; and growing numbers actively want to share social information, especially if it will contribute to a better, easier online experience.

“For the retailers and publishers still searching for the holy grail of customer insight and the chance to undertake true one to one marketing, social login is the simplest, most obvious solution.”

Pinterest just made branded pins a bit more engaging. The new rich pins allow brands to include a whole bunch of exciting data including real-time pricing, availability and location for purchase.

New rich pins include three varieties (product, recipe and movie) all with their own unique information. We'll get more into that in just a second.

Best of all, rich pins don't just apply to Pinterest brand pages. Anyone who pins from Pinterest-validated brand websites will use them. So, how does this all work? Here's a snapshot of the major changes:

Product Rich Pins

Product pins can now contain info on pricing, availability and where to buy (updated daily). Prices are shown at the bottom of the image and don’t require a click-through. However, purchase still requires a click.

A few brands currently using product rich pins include: Anthropologie, Etsy and Target.

Who Could Benefit From Product Rich Pins?

Product rich pins are great for e-commerce sites that allow purchasing online. For products with strictly in-store purchasing, product rich pins are likely unnecessary since they mostly encourage purchasing online.

Recipe Rich Pins

Recipe rich pins now include a variety of ingredient info, including what type of ingredients needed (produce? snack? dairy?), serving size, and if the item is vegan, vegetarian, paleo and/or gluten-free. You do still need to click-through to get step-by-step directions.

A few brands currently using recipe rich pins include: Better Homes and Gardens, Martha Stewart Living and Whole Foods Market.

Who Could Benefit from Recipe Rich Pins?

It's obvious that foodie blogs and merchants will benefit from recipe rich pins. But even if your page isn't strictly about recipes, these pins could be an easy way to transition to the rich pin experience. Lifestyle brands that sometimes post recipes could engage on the page with these multi-dimensional pins.

Movie Rich Pins

Movie rich pins contain content ratings, cast members and release date. Rotten Tomatoes rich pins also include the Tomatometer Score.

Brands currently using movie rich pins include: Flixster, Netflix, & Rotten Tomatoes.

Who Could Benefit From Movie Rich Pins?

Movie rich pins are pretty straight forward – they provide stable information about a movie. However, we would love to see movie rich pins incorporate showtimes and ticket purchases directly from the pin. (We're looking at you, Fandango!)

Old Pins From Beta Brands Will Also Update

Pins you've already added to your boards from participating brands will be updated. I pinned these sunglasses from Urban Outfitters five days ago, and now see they're in stock and $125. (Won't be getting those now. Sigh.)

A Few Things to Consider

Before you become victim to shiny-new-object syndrome, here are a few issues you should consider:

Consumers May Spend More Time on Pinterest and Less on Your Site

Without having to click-through for more information, users will now spend more time on the Pinterest site itself. While these changes may increase engagement and consumer time on Pinterest, they could also potentially discourage click-through traffic (a major reason brands took notice of Pinterest initially).

Incorporating Rich Pins on Your Site Isn't As Easy As You May Have Hoped

It isn't a breeze getting rich pins. Pinterest has a great how-to for developers but it's pretty technical. If you're not well versed in coding language, you might want to consult a developer or whoever manages your website.

Your Brand May Not Be in Those Categories

For some brands, rich pins won't be applicable. If your Pinterest features higher-priced purchases that are more of a "considered purchase," posting the price on your pin isn't the most appealing technique, and could steer people away from your page.

Multiple Product Tagging

It doesn't appear that multiple product tagging is available yet. This could be a hindrance for beauty video tutorial pins that use multiple products.

Well, there you have it. The concept is relatively new, so expect a few changes and perhaps more types of rich pins in the future. Until then, get pinning!

The post Get "Rich" or Pin Trying: New Pinterest Rich Pins Let Brands Share Even More appeared first on Ignite Social Media.

Guest Post by Karl Gude

Infographics: Inform, Illuminate

What makes infographics cool is that they can be extremely effective at explaining every conceivable topic in any industry for any reason. What’s being defined as an infographic nowadays ranges from decorating simple text blocks to make the content more appealing to incredibly complex data visualizations that reveal content because there’s no other way to understand it. 

I started out doing infographics in journalism (we called them “news graphics”), and the beauty of having creating them in this field is that news knows no topical boundaries; it can be about anything. Besides making infographics on the obvious breaking news stories (like bombings and plane crashes), every conceivable topic was fodder for making an infographic to help readers understand what was going on. We made news graphics on political, business, entertainment and sports stories as well as on all sorts of technical, medical, and scientific advances. 

This experience led me to realize the value of employing these sorts of visual explainers in other industries outside of journalism, and this has helped me be a better teacher and adviser now that I’m in academia. For example, PR firms, businesses and other organizations need to better engage their audiences, scientists need to explain their research to each other as well as to the lay person (like funders) and federal agencies need to make sense of huge data sets. The list goes on. 

The good news is that resources for creating infographics are exploding! There are a multitude of new free online tools for designing, creating and packaging charts, maps and diagrams (I’ve stored a great many on my wiki freevisualtools.wikispaces.com, so help yourself!) and more are coming along every day. Also, many more freelance designers and firms are learning how to make them. It ain’t as easy to make them from scratch as you might think, so don’t entrust your administrative assistant to make one just because he knows Photoshop! Your brand identity and credibility are at stake here!

But designing an infographic only comes after you’ve decided who your audience is, what message you want to convey to them and what information is needed to tell that story. This is where most infographics get tripped up, by conveying the wrong story. Always keep the dictum, “Form follows function” in mind every time you begin an infographic. Otherwise, your beautifully designed graphic will be all hat and no head.

In a nutshell, infographics can often convey a message to a target audience more effectively than text alone can. Or not. Done poorly, infographics can confound more than illuminate, and to me the key task of an infographic is to make people feel smarter, not dumber. This is when infographics are definitely NOT cool. 

Karl Gude is the former Director of Information Graphics at Newsweek magazine and The Associated Press. Karl left Newsweek after a decade to spearhead the first information graphics program at Michigan State University’s School of Journalism. Karl also teaches a class on the creative process and on social media marketing.  

Karl is a visual storyteller, artist and writer who consults with corporations, scientific institutions and government agencies, including the NSF and the CIA, to help them create effective infographics. He also writes a regular column for the Huffington Post.

LINKS: 

Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karl-gude/

Blog: karlgude.com

Twitter: @karlgude

New Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/gudeye?ref=hl

Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/karlgude/

Youtube channel with tutorials: http://www.youtube.com/user/kgude/featured

All publicity is good publicity, right? And good publicity? Well, that’s even better. Unless you’re Nutella, apparently.

The chocolate spread’s company Ferrero caused controversy yesterday after it sent a cease-and-desist letter to Sara Rosso, the founder and organizer of World Nutella Day, a global fan holiday boasting more than 40,000 fans on its Facebook page.

According to Rosso, Ferrero asked her to take down the site NutellaDay.com and its corresponding fan pages because they considered it to be an unauthorized use of their intellectual property and trademarks. (Despite Rosso having slapped disclaimers across the holiday promotional material noting that “Ferrero S.p.A is not officially involved with World Nutella Day, nor are the organizers compensated by Ferrero in any way”.)

Unsurprisingly, fans of the moreish chocolate and hazelnut spread were outraged. “More nuts in company management than in every jar” wrote one fan on the holiday’s Facebook page. “You’ve done so much to promote them? Why would they want you to stop? They should be paying you!” lamented another.

Rosso had been planning on taking down the site on May 25 until somebody in Nutella’s marketing department had a lightbulb moment, and action against Rosso and her site was suddenly stopped. Their excuse for so flagrantly looking a gift horse in the mouth? “Routine brand defense procedure.”

Ferrero and Rosso are now working together to find appropriate solutions to the issue, and the NutellaDay will remain online. Nuts, right?

What happens within an organisation, when the internal boundaries of departments, functions and even buildings are eroded by a new expectation of what collaboration should be, where the default is to be “open”, and information flows fast and free.

In his presentation at SMI13, and in his new book, Business Reimagined, Dave Coplin, Chief Envisioning Officer for Bing at Microsoft will explore the Future of Work and the role serendipity can play in driving innovation inside an organisation.

Learn more and register for the SMI13 conference today.

Week four in our conference giveaway and just a few more opportunities left to bag yourself a free pass to 360 Degrees of a Social Company, taking place June 13 in London. Read all about the program and make a date in your diary for what is set to be one of social media’s most eye-opening events of the year.

In the meantime, give us your thoughts on this year’s top social trends to be in with the chance of scooping a free conference pass. Just finish this sentence:

To enter, tweet your response to us @socialinfluence using #SMI13Comp, post it on our Facebook page, or email our editor at Rachel@SocialMediaInfluence.com. Can’t wait to hear what you think!

Is your local (U.S.) hospital more expensive than others? And how does its mortality rate stack up against others?

Hospital Costs [kitware.com] developed by visualization and imaging company Kitware, contrasts statistics about hospital-specific charges of more than 3,000 U.S. hospitals with the mortality rate, for the conditions pneumonia and heart failure.

While the bar chart and scatter plot techniques are kept relatively simple, a rich set of interactive features are offered, such as the of filtering specific conditions or setting the variables of the 2 axes, to highlighting smaller subsets within the dataset.

So what is the least expensive hospital with the lowest mortality rate?

The interactive visualization Men's Eights 1980 - 2012 [feathersquare.com] by Feather and Square provides a complete overview of the "Oxford Summer Eight" bump race results.

Individual teams can be selected to explore their historical performance between 1980 and now

A bumps race is a form of rowing race which is particularly practiced at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford, at which boats try to catch up and "bump" the boat in front of them. Winning bumpers then move up in the next year statistics.

The Speed Comparison Chart, from the Guardian Digital Agency on Tumblr, compares the speeds of different vehicles, from cars to planes to spaceships.

Cool infographic design that tells one story really well.

The Speed Comparison Chart, from the Guardian Digital Agency on Tumblr, compares the speeds of different vehicles, from cars to planes to spaceships.

Cool infographic design that tells one story really well.

There are so many benefits and opportunities for brands to market themselves via social media. But, as we all know, sometimes you have to take the bad with the good.

So what do you do when a customer takes to Twitter to complain? The Triangle Business Journal spoke with Jim Tobin, President of Ignite Social Media, about best practices brands should use to diffuse a Twitter attack. This is Jim’s advice:

Move the Conversation off Twitter

You can’t troubleshoot a problem in a series of 140 character tweets, nor can a brand truly understand the full scope of the issue from one complaint. Follow the person and ask them to send a direct message with an email address or phone number at which they can be reached.

Say Something

If multiple people have entered the conversation, figure out what the issue really is and respond. If you were wrong, acknowledge that and follow up appropriately. If you’re still figuring out what caused the issue, say that. This is the quickest and best way to diffuse the situation and avoid it snowballing into an even bigger issue. If you need to buy yourself some time, simply say, "We are aware of the issue and are currently looking into it." Then reply as soon as you can.

Connect Your Social Media and Customer Service Teams

Let customer service protocols guide the interaction, not the platform. Brands that address social complaints with free products and giveaways end up encouraging more people to take to social media to complain. Once you've transitioned the conversation off of Twitter (as mentioned earlier) funnel the issue to your customer service team.

And, remember, always be genuine and try to help. Sometimes that’s all it takes. Finally: wash, rinse, and repeat.

Read Jim's full interview here.

The post How Brands Should Handle a Twitter Complaint appeared first on Ignite Social Media.

BBC Knowledge Explainer DNA from Territory on Vimeo.

An animated visual explanaiton of DNA found on creativeblog.com.

BBC Knowledge and Learning is exploring a wide variety of topics from social history to science in a series of three-minute online Explainer documentaries, and commissioned Territory Studio (territorystudio.com) to produce an animated film on the subject of DNA.

Three minutes is a short time to explore a subject where most doctorates only scratch the surface, so writer Andrew S. Walsh teamed up with molecular biologist Dr Matthew Adams to distil the script down to the most fundamental elements required to understand not only DNA’s form and function but how our understanding of these discoveries has affected the wider world. While this length may feel restrictive, the team found that this limitation acted as a lens, focusing the piece on the essentials.

The Explainer series is designed to intrigue and inform, encouraging those who discover the documentaries to further explore through links to additional information found on the BBC website.

Thanks to Jordan from sayitvisually.com for sending in the link!

Free ‘organic’ tactics such as creating branded pages and content remains the most popular social media strategy by large marketers, yet according to a new study, paid advertising is the most successful.

According to a new study by Kenshoo Social and Forrester Consulting, while large social advertisers (spending more than $100,000 per year on social advertising) use a wide range of both organic and paid strategies, more than one in three are not satisfied with their efforts.

However, branded pages alone do not make for an effective marketing strategy, and those opting for paid advertising were more likely to see desired outcomes, with those paying to promote their branded content most satisfied with the awareness they created, and those buying standard social ad units most happy with their ability to drive purchases.

The report also found that while more than half of the 105 companies surveyed use ad rotation, only one-third use granular targeting to reach the right audiences, and most of those who do target use only basic criteria such as demographic targeting.

So, the report swings very much in favor of paid tactics, noting that while many marketers still think of social media as a free channel – and it can be free – if you want to deliver results it shouldn’t be free. “Generally, social advertisers get what they pay for,” it notes.

“This research study demonstrates the importance of using advanced technology platforms to create highly-targeted campaigns at scale, leveraging a portfolio approach across promoted content and standard ad units to achieve overall business goals,” says Aaron Goldman, chief marketing officer of Kenshoo.

“Furthermore, marketers must connect the dots across paid, owned and earned media placements to understand the impact of each touchpoint along the path to conversion. Kenshoo Social is committed to delivering the tools needed by today’s social marketer to illuminate the value of social media and drive results.”

View the full report on Kenshoo’s website.

Knowing when to update social channels is key to optimizing reach and engagement, but just as each network boasts its own unique features, so too do their markets in terms of log-on behavior. It’s no substitute for your own research, of course, but this infographic from Social Caffeine provides a good starting point for the best and worst times to post on different channels. 

The White House has released a new infographic in April 2013, The Obama Energy Agenda, Gas Prices.  We have seen the White release a number of infographics as a communication tool, and they have consistently been getting better.

Gas Prices

Explore the infographic to learn about President Obama’s all-of-the-above energy strategy.

The prior Energy Agenda infographic I reviewed was in April of 2011, and it was a rough, early attempt at an infographic design for online publication.  This design is significantly better, and has a number of good points to highlight that all designers can learn from.

First, the data visualizations are well done with the chart axes clearly labeld and units of measure clearly shown.  The color scheme is simple and easy to understand, but some of the small, gray text is hard to read on the white background.

Second, the big issue with the prior designs was the lack of sources for the data.  This design does a good job of citing the source of data for each visualization (chart).  For an administration that is attempting to increase transparency, the sources are still very vague.  I would like to see URL links to the actual reports or data sets referenced to make it easy for readers to check out the data on their own.  Instead, most of the sources are listed as just “EIA” which is the U.S. Energy Information Administration.  Certainly a step in the right direction, but could have much done better.

Third, there isn’t an obvious, clear Key Message.  Most readers only look at an infographic for less than 5 seconds, and it’s the designer’s responsibility to communicate the key message in that short time.  The rest of the information should tell a good story, and support the Key Message, but isn’t required reading.  There’s a lot of data shown in this design.  Probably too much data.  It’s hard for readers to understand the flow of information because there is both top-to-bottom sequence of sections and side-by-side charts.

The area chart in the center of the design draws the reader’s attention because it is so large in relation to the rest of the charts.  This visually implies that it is the most important data in the whole design, but I’m not sure that was the intent.

After reading through the whole design, I believe that the Key Message is “The Obama Administration has supported increased domestic drilling for oil, but that hasn’t lowered gas prices at the pump.  We need to do more.”  An infographic design should make this message very clear and easy to understand without having to read through the entire design.

What do you think?

Top recruiters share how they use social media to source and screen job candidates.

What makes an agency successful begins not with fancy corporate jargon or a client roster of well known brands, but with the people at it. Choosing who those people are and who they collectively can be is a daunting challenge overall, but impossible without knowing what you stand for. That’s why core values are so important. At SHIFT, our core values are part of employee reviews. They’re part of monthly team meetings, when team leaders recognize accomplishments by their team members aligned with each of the values. They’re part of our hiring process, and candidates are evaluated based on how aligned they are with the values of the firm – and we’ve turned down many, many people who look good on paper but they weren’t going to be a good fit based on values.

Core values help you to implement the essence of strategy: knowing what to say no to. Without them, you’re a car without a GPS, and you’re just as likely to drive into a bad neighborhood as you are to get where you want to go.

If you want to learn more about what the values mean, read this series by SHIFT Senior Vice President Catherine Allen on each of the values and how we interpret them.

• Honorable
• Dedicated
• Connected
• Creative
• Ballsy
• Positive
• Smart

If you want “the secret sauce” to longevity as a business, it’s adhering to values like these, especially when the temptation to do something easier or more profitable arises.

In the digital world where user interaction plays an increasingly larger role in marketing, it’s crucial for brands to reach out to consumers. While some brands interact via a tweet or a Facebook post, Google Plus Hangouts has struck a chord with users.

The low costs of Google Plus Hangouts – often available free for a simple production – coupled with the high level of user engagement make live Hangouts a killer innovation. Hangouts save brands the money of planning and executing a live event while increasing their potential reach with an online audience.

These five examples of major brands using Google Plus Hangouts provide important lessons that marketers should consider for their next campaign.

1. Glamour Magazine

Glamour Magazine is taking advantage of Google Hangouts to engage their fans in ways that print can’t. This Hangout campaign by Glamour features staffers, online personalities, and brands.

Each Hangout is sponsored by companies such as Suave, Pantene, or SlimFast. Throughout the live broadcast, the sponsor’s products are subtly promoted or become the topic of discussion.

So aside from touching on topics that are of interest to viewers, Glamour Magazine is able to monetize the videos through product placements. However, since these product placements are part of the story, viewers are more engaged than they would be with a flat-out advertisement. It’s a win-win for both parties.

Furthermore, the featuring of guests and personalities in each video makes each Hangout unique from the last, while allowing Glamour the opportunity to take advantage of that personality’s existing fan base.

For brands thinking of using Google Hangouts in the future, consider collaborating with related businesses, brands, or personalities, to grow your audience and fan base. According to Gretchen Howard, the head of sales and online strategy for Google Plus, Glamour is the first brand to use product placements in a Hangout.

2. New York Times

While the New York Times consistently uses Google Hangouts, one of their most notable moments comes from 2012, when they hosted Hangouts with Olympic athletes.

Aside from discussing the athletic events in London, the New York Times gave full power of the Hangouts to the viewers. The Hangouts allowed users to submit questions for the Olympic athletes to answer during the live broadcast.

This level of user engagement excites consumers. How often do you get to have a question answered by an Olympic athlete? By encouraging user interaction instead of simply conducting a live interview, the New York Times was able to continue building a loyal following for their Hangout series.

Also notice how the NYT embedded the recording of the Hangout onto their website. This ensures that viewers still get to see the content once the broadcast ends.

3. Dell

If technology is innovative, then so is its customer service! Dell has already hosted more than 50 Hangouts, most of which were focused on customer service, and allowed viewers to troubleshoot any technical problems with an official Dell consumer sales group.

Aside from Hangouts that covered customer service, Dell used some broadcasts to focus on specific issues such as virtualization and cloud computing. By hosting Hangouts that appealed to both general and specific problems, Dell was able to attract both mainstream and very technologically savvy users.

Since customer service usually revolves around an individual issue per customer, brands should learn from Dell and their ability to relate to all viewers watching the broadcast regardless of the topic discussed.

4. National Geographic

To celebrate their 125^th anniversary, National Geographic decided to host a live Google Hangout.

This example has two main lessons for marketers.

First, a little creativity goes a long way! Similar to the previous examples, National Geographic had guests during their broadcast. What makes this creative, however, is that each of the guests was from a different continent, ensuring that all 7 continents celebrated the anniversary of National Geographic. This not only increased the potential reach of the audience, but showcased creative planning on the part of the producers.

Second, while many brands upload the full live recording of the Hangout to their websites, National Geographic edited it. While the live broadcast was certainly an hour long (maybe more!), the embedded version available for viewing is only 15 minutes long.

By editing out fluff content, brands can keep users engaged even after the live broadcast. Remember, any lulls in the conversation during a live broadcast are natural, but in a recorded upload, they slow the momentum and bore the viewer.

5. G+ Food Bloggers Community

Chefs were some of the earliest adapters of Google Plus Hangouts, using the broadcasts to showcase cooking techniques on the air. What makes their recipe demonstrations so unique is that unlike edited television, the chefs show viewers how they can prepare and cook food in real-time. The recipes vary from the simplest snacks to gourmet courses.

Brands inspired by the Chef’s Round Table should use Hangouts for demonstrations. Hangouts that focus on demonstrations work well because they allow you to show the audience how to accomplish a goal – viewers are receiving something of value when they watch for free.

Demonstrations also compel viewers to act, which, in many cases, is making a purchase. Aside from broadcasting a demonstration, consider using a moderator to help keep the pace rolling along.

By implementing the lessons from these brands into your next Google Hangout, you’ll be one step closer to fully igniting your social media presence.

The post 5 Examples of Brands Using Google Plus Hangouts appeared first on Ignite Social Media.

The challenge for social media marketing is telling stories at scale. Two areas – big data and content marketing – have been evolving rapidly but are far from mature. In this session Brilliant Noise co-founder Antony Mayfield will demonstrate some of the work his team are doing with Porsche and Nokia to think about how numbers and stories work together what this narrative data mash suggests about the future of marketing.

Antony is one of our longest serving speakers at SMI. In fact he’s taken part in every one of our eight conferences. There’s a reason for that. We like smart people who understand that social is more than just a marketing trick and Antony’s thinking and experience speak volumes.

Join us at SMI13 to hear from Antony and many other social media thinkers.

Common Causes of Tummy Aches in Children from Tummy Calm is guide for all parents, because all kids get unexplained stomach aches at some point.   The infographic does a good job of clearly walking the audience through the potential symptoms, causes and remedies.

A tummy ache can be a frustrating symptom to understand in small children.  While it’s a common problem, there are a wide variety of potential causes.  This infographic reviews many potential causes of stomach ache and offers pros and cons to potential remedies.

Designed by InfoNewt, this infographic is much more visual explanation and less data visualization.  Health-related topics are also designs that you need to be careful with.  You want to provide good information to the audience, but you don’t want to be interpretted as advising medical care.  The design was carefully worded to be helpful to parents, but also reviewed by a pediatrician to make sure the information presented didn’t cross the line into providing medical advice.

Fading web pioneer Yahoo has agreed to buy Tumblr for a rumoured $1.1bn (£725m) cash, according to company insiders.

The deal is expected to be announced early this week, and will mark the largest acquisition of a social networking company in years, surpassing Facebook’s $1bn purchase of Instagram last year.

The deal will be Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s seventh in a line of bold moves taken to restore the company to its former web glory, and sends a clear signal of how it plans to reposition itself on the social landscape.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Tumblr would continue to operate as an independent business and David Karp – it’s 26-year-old founder – will remain in his role.

To celebrate 40 years of partnership with the French Open, banking group BNP Paribas is inviting tennis fans to personally get involved with Jo-Wilfred Tsonga’s training program – via Twitter.

The ‘Tweet and Shoot’ campaign sees social media users drag-and-drop a tennis ball on a virtual tennis court, positioning their shot and then firing the ball at Tsonga. The shot is encoded as a hashtag and put into a tweet, which is then sent to the tennis champ, along with a personal message if desired.

Then on May 23 an on-court robot, connected to Twitter via 3G, will randomly select users’ tweets and launch tennis balls at Tsonga, precisely mapping the positioning of the user’s shot. BNP Paribas is also running a community competition for ‘VIP trainers’ who will win a guaranteed shot at the star, rather than hoping theirs is randomly selected on the day.

Tsonga said: “I’ve always loved a challenge and when BNP Paribas asked me to take part in a world first experience to mark its 40-year partnership with Roland-Garros, I was immediately intrigued. Being trained by fans on Twitter a few days ahead of the French Open – what a daring challenge.

“I’m looking forward to taking on the technical prowess of Twitter users. Hopefully, sharing this experience with all these tennis fans will bring me luck for the tournament.”

Designed and developed by social media agency We Are Social, the Tweet and Shoot event marks a world-first for sport and mass participation, and provides interesting clues as to where future campaigns could go in bridging the online/offline divide.

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[buy the print etc] [newsletter]

A CEO would need a lot of cajones to hang this one in the office.

It’s pretty contentious. Culturally speaking, its nitroglycerin.

But the thing is, there are two ways of reading it:

[One:] Oy vey, this company is a mess. Somebody please shoot me.

[Two:] Guys, becoming a company where this KINDA  stuff happens is JUST not an option, and if I hear about it, I’ll be really pissed off.

How it got interpreted, good or bad, would all depend on the company culture.

A junior who hung this in their cube without permission would probably get fired.

A CEO, however, could maybe get away with it. A brave one, anyway.

Hell, it could even do a lot of good.

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Link: gapingvoid business cards now available on moo.com!

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[Originally sent out in the newsletter etc.]

There is a popular idea that everyone hates marketing. So much so, my Twitter buddy, Scott Stratten has built an outstanding business out of the idea.

Of course, it all depends how you define “marketing”.

Making sure you hire really nice, friendly, chirpy people. Well, that’s marketing, but no one is going to hate you for that.

Few people begrudge you for building a better mousetrap, especially if they have a mouse problem. Whether you invade their chill time with a loud, obnoxious commercial, well, that’s different.

The problem people have, of course, is not with marketing, but with bad marketing.

I actually think people love great marketing, even more than they hate bad marketing.

A good thing to remember…

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[Originally sent out in the newsletter etc.]

I don’t know about you, but it took me twenty years to get from the bottom to the top of the pyramid. And I don’t think that’s outrageously long compared to most people, I really don’t.

Was it worth it? I don’t know, is being alive worth it?

It’s sometimes tempting to think that somehow it would be easier to think of your life not as an adventure, but as something else to be gotten on with, endured.

But it wouldn’t be easier, our spirits weren’t designed that way. And no amount of boozy late nights on the weekends will ever change that.

Idea Grove President Scott Baradell is among the speakers at next month’s 2013 PRSA Southwest District Conference, where he will participate with four other PR professionals in a panel discussion called Tackling Media Relations.

The panel will explore several challenges PR agencies face today, including:

• Reaching journalists through multiple channels
• Relationship-building with reporters who cover several beats
• Increasing coverage amid shrinking news holes
• Using analytics to measure results.

Appearing with Scott on the Tackling Media Relations panel will be:

• Alexis Patterson Hanes, associate director of Public Information for the Austin Community College District
• Lauren Butler, vice president/group manager at Ketchum
• Casey Norton, vice president of Media Relations at Weber Shandwick.
• Sarah Marshall, senior vice president of Phillips & Company, who will moderate.

The conference is sponsored by the Austin chapter of the Public Relations Society of America and takes place June 5-7 at the Omni Austin Hotel Downtown. The three-day event offers PR professionals everything from sessions on managing a crisis and making an impact to free yoga on the hotel’s roof.

Today, it is not enough to just have a great product. You have to humanize your brand and create lasting relationships among your consumer base.

Aliza Licht, SVP of Global Communications at Donna Karen, humanizes the brand brilliantly. She is the woman behind DKNY PR GIRL on Twitter and has managed to make the DKNY brand feel like an actual person. I found myself wanting to buy every piece of DKNY clothing, even though she sometimes talks more about ABC’s Scandal than the actual brand. Still, she has cultivated a loyal DKNY online community of close to 500,000 followers. In a recent TEDxTalk, Licht addresses “The Power of Being Real.” She says that the people she interacts with on Twitter are not followers, but friends. These friends embraced her when she revealed her true self on Twitter, despite her fears of being rejected. The fact that she was a real and not just a brand resonated with her followers. 

Being real doesn’t just apply to us, it applies to all businesses. The human touch is more powerful and compelling than most ads you will find out there. First off, we know consumers look and listen more to their peers when it comes to making a purchase decision than the brand itself. By humanizing your brand, you become more of a peer among your consumers, thus more influential.

So you’re on Facebok, but every brand belongs on Twitter. Twitter is your new BFF, no matter what industry you’re in.  Turn up the romance and start getting cozy with this social network. Once you’ve lit the fires of love, develop a set personality for your brand. After all, every human has one and so should you. Social Media Today poses these questions: Who are you? What are you? Are you serious? Are you funny? Are you a combination of both? What is the tone of your conversations? The tone of your educational material? Social media is not for those who want to remain hidden in the shadows like an over-hyped vampire. It welcomes every person on the social network to come on it and see you at face value. You are exposed to the online world and you cannot hide. A set personality that best reflects your brand is your ultimate asset and weapon.

According to Social Media Today, Jon Iwata, Senior Vice President (Marketing and Communications) at IBM, stated, “We don’t try to manage the IBM brand. We try to manage our character as a business. And we’ve never defined IBM by what we’re selling.” Being human yourself, do you only talk about your business? Probably not. You shouldn’t do this with your brand either. For example, JonO is the epitome of a BzzAgent- chatty, informative and influential.

On Twitter and Facebook, JonO is an actual person but he still represents our brand. He mostly posts quirky and unique tidbits of information, but that’s exactly how we are here! With 90,000 “Likes ” on the BzzAgent Facebook page, JonO has 8,300 people talking about BzzAgent right now.  That’s over 9%, and that’s often up around 15%.  It’s an amazing level of engagement considering AdAge reports that brands only see about 1.3% engagement on Facebook. Obviously, you will need to talk about your business on social media, but adding those off topic pieces allows you to be more human and connect to your audience in a different way like JonO has.

The relationships that result from humanizing your brand are one of the most important products from this process. Cultivating relationships with your consumer base can lead to long-term loyalty and sales. Social Media Today wants you to remember that real people are behind those Facebook posts and Twitter handles. Engage with your consumers everyday. Respond to tweets inquiring about something or just to thank the person for showing their loyalty. The connections you make with your consumers now will be a valuable asset for the future.

Humanizing your brand is the next step you need to take in social media. Become not only a brand to your consumers, but a friend.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Are you a Stephen King fan? Have you yourself made these connections? From TessieGirl, The Stephen King Universe has been updated to include the many connections to the Dark Tower series.

When I was in Grade 5 (guess I was ten), my friend Tarnya Smyth brought her mum’s battered copy of Stephen King’s ‘Carrie’ to school. We broke it into about 4 pieces and passed them around, all taking turns reading each battered section. I told mum about it and she FLIPPED HER WIG and told me to ‘Stop reading that book immediately!!’ So I finished it.

Now, I TOTALLY do not recommend  ten year olds reading Stephen King books (messed me up good), but this was when my life long relationship with Mr King began. My love for his books is based around his characters. They are so full. I love Stephen King dialogue. I love his sense of humour. And I love the links and connections between the books. I am the kind of annoying person who likes to know the ‘In Joke’. So, of course, I MADE A FLOW CHART!!!

This chart is like my fourth child. Be kind to it. It means a lot to me.

I wish they had published a higher-resolution version online.  Some of the text is too small to read, but I think I can follow all of the connections.  A must have for any Stephen King fan!

Also, it’s available for purchase as a poster from the TessieGirl site for $25 plus shipping from Australia.  You can also see the original version.

Thanks to Becky for sending in the link!

Though pint-sized compared to other social platforms, Pinterest offers businesses the greatest ROI of all social networks. Why?

Because Pinterest is relatively young and its audience is already primed for making online purchases.

Consider the statistics:

• YouTube delivers 2 billion views per day
• Facebook has 850 million monthly users
• Twitter boasts 200 million users
• LinkedIn connects 100 million business users

With less than 30 million unique monthly users, Pinterest definitely has the smallest audience. Despite its youth, Pinterest delivers targeted traffic that brands desire because 83 percent of Pinterest users are women, who decide upon nearly 90 percent of household purchases!

Jetsetter, which prides itself on having the world's cheapest luxury vacations, has used Pinterest to grow its global brand. In fact, after strategic Pinterest posts, the discount travel agency saw twice the conversion rate from Pinterest referral traffic and boosted website traffic by over 150 percent!

Pinterest Branding Tips from Jetsetter

So how did Jetsetter accomplish this?

Simple: They optimized their Pinterest presence.

After aggressively increasing their strategic marketing strategy on Pinterest and investing in business profiles, Jetsetter grew their business to over $224 million.

Whether you're a small business or a large corporation aiming to boost your online presence, Jetsetter's use of Pinterest is a worthy example.

1. Know Your Audience

Since women make 70 percent of travel decisions and 80 percent of them research their travel destinations online beforehand, it makes sense for Jetsetter to focus their online presence where the women are.

Since 83 percent of Pinterest's users are women, it's the perfect place to broadcast discount travel services! By understanding how you want to reach your target audience, you can more effectively use Pinterest knowing that women are the core demographic on this site.

2. Organize Your Boards

Pinterest isn't just about your main profile – it's about the boards that you create and the images that you pin to them. Jetsetter visually categorized their services by creating boards specific to certain travel destinations such as the Caribbean, New York, and other "epic" getaways.

Since women are visual and can easily see groupings, organizing photos on Pinterest allows your brand to emphasize the content that matters most. It also makes it easier for users to navigate through your posts.

3. Host a Contest

While looking for a way to engage their users, Jetsetter decided to host a contest and promote user-generated content.

During the Jetsetter Curator promotion, they asked their 1 million members to create Pinterest boards that reflected their favorite or ideal travel destinations.

Within 30 days, over 50,000 images had been uploaded to Pinterest as part of Jetsetter's contest. A panel of celebrity judges such as Arianna Huffington and Glenda Bailee determined the winning board.

The result?

Jetsetter now boasts over 4 million followers on Pinterest.

4. Use CTAs

Online marketers always hear about why we should use CTAs, but we rarely hear advice on exactly how to use them. Fortunately, Jetsetter's CTA is a classic example of brilliant strategy.

Jetsetter simply encouraged pinners to explore their own site at jetsetter.com.

To do this, they created a two-week online scavenger hunt called "Pin Your Way to Paradise." Jetsetter released daily clues on their website and users had to pin pictures that best matched the clues. Not only was it a fun promotion, but Jetsetter was also able to garner valuable data about how visitors navigated through their site.

5. Collaborate

Yes, business-to-business collaborations can be done on Pinterest as well!

Jetsetter worked with Turks & Caicos to create a group board that allowed anyone to pin ideas of what to do, where to stay, and what to eat on a vacation. The interactive element thrilled fans while the B2B collaboration increased the scope of Jetsetter's reach.

6. Cross-Connect

Jetsetter realized that Pinterest fostered a culture of sharing. To take advantage of this, cross-connect your Pinterest boards with Facebook, Twitter, and your other social media and online sites.

By making your web presence cohesive, you increase the chances of people sharing your content, thereby growing your reach. Pinterest users are eager to share good content, so make it easy for them!

7. Optimize for Keywords

Though Pinterest is an image-based platform, you can optimize for keywords through the title of your boards. When Jetsetter organized their content into boards, words such as "New York," "Caribbean," and "epic," they suddenly made it easier for random browsers to stumble upon their pictures.

Watch Your Presence Take Off

When you incorporate Jetsetter's example into the way you handle your Pinterest marketing, you’ll be thrilled at how your online presence takes off.

Just like any campaign, ensure that your team is prepared and equipped to handle the potential onslaught of new traffic. After all, the first impression that your business gives consumers could determine whether or not they do business with you, so make that first impression a good one!

Also, as powerful as Pinterest is, it shouldn't be the only key element of any social media marketing campaign. Instead, integrate into the content that your Facebook and Twitter pages are pumping out.

Users who are engaged with your brand will want to follow your content through a variety of platforms – so while your Pinterest boards should have their own identity, allow them to mesh with your existing online presence.

By integrating these tips from Jetsetter, other brands will be pining over your Pinterest success!

The post 7 Ways Jetsetter Used Pinterest to Grow Their Brand appeared first on Ignite Social Media.

An app that gives Facebook users a one in six chance of having their profiles deleted has been banned by the site.

Social Roulette – aimed at those considering a break from the digital demands of social networking, or those just game for a gamble – promises to remove Facebook photos, friends, comments and updates before deactivating the account, providing the player drew the ‘loaded chamber’ in an app game mimicking the very real and lethal game of Russian Roulette.

“Everyone thinks about deleting their account at some point, it’s a completely normal reaction to the overwhelming nature of digital culture,” states the app’s website.

However, if users spin to an empty barrel, their accounts remain unaffected except for the message: ‘I just played Social Roulette and survived’.

But just four hours after the app launched, Facebook shut it down for “violating its platform policies”.

Some observers note that this is simply responsible behaviour on Facebook’s behalf: if the user strikes out and immediately regrets the decision, who can help? The developer? Clearly it’s not up to Facebook to clean up the metaphorical mess.

But on the other hand, some are accusing Facebook of being too controlling. After all, it’s your account to do with what you will, right? Well, that’s debatable – and perhaps it’s this level of control that’s prompting people to ‘pick up the gun’ in the first place.

Foul-mouthed British chef Gordon Ramsay was at the centre of a social media meltdown this week after he walked off an American episode of Kitchen Nightmares, claiming he was unable to help the couple who restaurant he was tasked with turning around.

The show revealed that the hapless restaurateurs, Samy and Amy Bouzaglo, of Amy’s Baking Company in Arizona, had fired more than 100 employees in a year, and would routinely shout at customers that complained of poor service. One diner who asked why he had not yet been served was told: “go f**k yourself.” Now, Ramsay is not adverse to the odd fiery outburst so for him to walk away from such behaviour is a damning indictment indeed.

In any case, the episode was aired and shortly afterwards viewers took to social media in droves to lambast the couple’s shoddy business ethic. Across the restaurant’s Facebook page and over Twitter, Reddit and Yelp shocked Kitchen Nightmares fans criticised the couple, with most – for once – on Ramsay’s side.

And then the Bouzaglos did the worst thing possible: they retaliated, raining down a maelstrom of abuse at the ‘haters’:

The tirade continued for several days before coming to an abrupt halt with the following message:

Hmm, obviously. Call us cynical, but it does seem a tad unlikely that this excuse could really hold up. Fingers crossed the ‘FBI computer crimes unit’ can bring the real perps to justice, or that the couple at least take a crash course in social media crisis management. Or manners, for that matter.

I just saw some mind-bending work Chartbeat is about to release about measuring the time users spend exposed to an ad online.

As background, to quote Chartbeat CEO Tony Haile: “Chartbeat monitors activity by checking in with users every second and looking for signals (mouse movement, key strokes, etc) that show they are actively consuming the content in front of them. This means they can measure how long readers spend actively engaged on a page and what parts they’re reading. Because of this Chartbeat knows how long are actively reading while an ad is in view — both for an average user and the cumulative time of all users.” Chartbeat then did some internal research that found high correlation between engaged time exposed and a user’s ability to recall the advertiser’s brand and message. This has many implications:

* Measured this way, ads that appear down alongside the middle of a story turn out to be more valuable than the supposedly premium banners at the top of the page. That’s because people quickly scroll past those banners and all the big hair on the top of the page — logos, promos, and all that — to get to the substance of an article, where they spend time. So inventory that was undervalued becomes more valuable.

* Chartbeat suggests this means that quality content that engages people longer yields better ad performance. That, they say, would be a good thing for better content makers everywhere.

* Now web publishers can sell time like broadcasters — only this is assured exposure time. Advertisers like buying time. Will this make them more comfortable with buying on the web?

* I think this enables publishers to take on some risk for advertisers — guaranteeing them assured exposure time — thus increasing the value of what they sell.

* I wonder whether this spells trouble for the big-ass ads and takeovers we users try to escape as quickly as possible.

* I also wonder whether this spells trouble for the slideshows and other gimmicks that pump page views without increasing time spent exposed to an ad.

* I’d like to think this opens opportunities to find new value in ads next to videos and games and also — this could be important — mobile pages (though don’t think that mobile’s value will come from exposure to messaging; it will still come from knowing people and serving them relevance and value). The longer we spend on a page, the longer we see the ad, the more valuable the ad should be, right?

* I can only hope that this is another nail in the coffin of the dangerous, old-media-like metrics of unique users and pageviews. Engagement will matter more.

A sample report on an ad location:

Those who declare advertising dead are Mark-Twaining-it, I think. There are still many things to learn to find more effectiveness and value in advertising online. This is just one lesson. I say the real value of the net and mobile is in relationships: in learning more about people by delivering them more value so we can be trusted to deliver them greater relevance and value and, in turn, extract greater value from the interaction. More on that later….

Guest Post by John Pring

For many, infographics are a relatively new phenomenon; we still get calls and enquiries from businesses and individuals who have ‘just discovered infographics’ and are looking to take advantage of the format. Similarly, many people who have seen the surge in popularity of a certain kind of data visualization consider infographics to be something of a ‘fad’ – an opinion usually formed by the combination of online proliferation of the term and the overuse of the format by SEO agencies as a link-building technique (just go to any SEO conference and you’ll be almost guaranteed to hear someone refer to infographics as a short-term trend that has already reached saturation point).

However, the truth is that infographics are by no means a new concept and they’re certainly not a fad that will disappear anytime soon (although I will concede that the general public will begin seeing a lot less of them once the SEO industry moves onto a new tactic for gaining inbound links to client sites).

Infographics and data visualizations have been around for thousands of years, even pre-dating the written language in the form of cave paintings from 30,000 BC, used to depict local resources and allow for visual records to be kept. Similarly, the Egyptians used hieroglyphs to tell stories about their culture, allowing future generations to learn a considerable amount about the Egyptian social structure and belief system. 

Example of a 30,000BC cave painting used as an inventory for crops

(By the way, just to address a common question there is a difference between data visualization and infographics, but clarifying the distinction here isn’t a major concern). 

Infographics have been around as long as we’ve been communicating with other human beings, and will continue to play an important role in our social and economic interactions for generations to come – which covers my first point in the consideration of infographics as a ‘cool’ format; they’ve been with us for as long as we’ve existed, facilitating communication and storytelling in a way that other formats (even written language) can often struggle to match.

But there are a couple of other reasons I love the infographic format, reasons that I think elevate them not just into the realm of being cool, but being one of the single most important communication tools at the disposal of the human race. 

SOCIAL IMPORTANCE & TRANSLATION OF COMPLEX DATA

Infographics boast a level of social importance that rivals any other form of visual media; in fact, it’s fair to say (without any hint of hyperbole) that infographics have saved lives.

In 1857 Florence Nightingale produced a series of infographics called ‘Coxcomb Charts’, charting the different causes of soldier deaths during the Crimean War. 

Nightingale was concerned around the number of deaths caused by poor hospital conditions, and decided to visualize the data in order to present a more compelling case to Queen Victoria. The Queen was shocked to see the data presented in such a clear an impactful way and these visualizations directly contributed to the improvement of hospital conditions, saving countless lives.

It’s worth noting here that Queen Victoria already had the statistics regarding solider deaths due to unsanitary conditions at her disposal, but it wasn’t until she saw the data visualized in such a dramatic fashion that she realized the true impact of hospital conditions compared to all other causes of solider mortality.

An excellent example of how infographics play a significant role in our everyday lives would contemporary road signs, particularly those in the United Kingdom. 

These signs were developed in 1957 by Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir, combining information design and semiotics to produce simple, clear pictograms that can be easily understood (even while driving at speed). These signs were produced well over 50 years ago and are still in use today, demonstrating their effectiveness at portraying information through visual stimuli. 

In 2013, infographics are still playing an integral role in the social and political landscape – being used to both inform the general public of important information (for example the National Health Service in the UK used infographics to inform the general population of important changes to the way the health system worked) and to help inform decision makers at the top of the political spectrum. Data visualizations are regularly used to communicate complex statistical relationships to the government, helping them inform their decision-making and see patterns that would otherwise be extremely difficult to realize. 

One of the main ways infographics can achieve this is through the compression and translation of large amounts of complex data; an achievement that is only possible through visual representation. 

A fantastic example of this kind of data compression is the ‘Snake Oil’ interactive infographic produced by David McCandless and Andy Perkins in 2011: 

The infographic presents data from over 1500 placebo-controlled human trials to visualize the effectiveness of specific supplements on certain conditions. According to McCandless the data took 3 researchers months to gather and validate, yet this visualization takes all this data and compresses it into one easy to understand graphic. The ‘balloon race’ concept (i.e. the higher the bubble the greater the evidence for its effectiveness in treatments of specific conditions) allows the reader to bypass the months of data gathering and reading, yet gain the same level of understanding (in terms of the most important information) as someone who had undergone the research process.

EDUCATION

So we’ve looked at how infographics have pre-dated the written language, can save lives, portray important information in minimal time-frames, inform decision-makers, communicate important ideas to the general public and compress and translate huge, complex data sets. That should be more than enough to place infographics well and truly in the ‘cool’ column, but it doesn’t stop there; infographics are also one of the most effective educational tools we have at our disposal.

It’s now universally understood that the vast majority of us are visual learners, and there are numerous pieces of research that confirm the notion that information is easier to understand when displayed visually. This has obvious applications for education (whether it be primary school students or adult learners), but it’s not just comprehension that is improved by presenting information visually, as retention can also be improved dramatically.

Bandwidth of the Brain, courtesy of David McCandless and his TED talk 

The above visualization from David McCandless shows how we take in information in any given second – as you can see the vast majority of the information we take in from the outside world is absorbed via sight, making it our primary learning channel. This visual absorption means information displayed visually is far more likely to stick in our brains, making data retention and recall far more successful. 

So that’s it for my post on what makes infographics cool – and we didn’t even look at data organization (studies have shown that it’s easier to see patterns when data is displayed visually), the versatility of the infographic format (entertainment, link-building, education, business, sales tools, how-to guides, etc. etc.) abstract and schematic infographics (like Harry Beck’s London tube maps developed in 1933) or the fact that they’re hugely entertaining and far more engaging than traditional forms of communication and portraying data.

However, I will leave you with this. If none of the above convinces you that infographics are incredibly cool, then consider the plaque designed for the Pioneer space probe by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake: 

Even when it comes to trying to communicate with extra-terrestrials, one of the most potentially significant designs in human history, it’s an infographic we turn to. 

John Pring is the director of inbound marketing and content creation at Designbysoap Ltd; a UK-based design and marketing agency specializing in content development and distribution.

Over the last few years John has overseen the production of thousands of bespoke infographics, data visualizations and interactive graphics for clients all over the world, including the European Commission, the BBC, AOL, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Ford and numerous others.

LINKS

Designbysoap Ltd:  www.designbysoap.co.uk

Designbysoap Facebook Page

Twitter: @Designbysoap

It’s week three of our SMI ’13 conference ticket giveaway and what a creative lot you are. Last week’s question, ‘A world without Twitter is a world without…’ delivered a raft of smart responses. ‘Procrastination’ observed one entrant. ‘Immediacy’ said another. One person even said that a world without Twitter is a world without friendships. Aww!

This week, we want your thoughts on Facebook. If the networking giant could introduce any feature to its platform, what would you want it to be? Remember, the wittiest, most thought-provoking  or insightful responses will win a free pass to SMI’s 2013 conference, ‘360 Degrees of a Social Company‘.

To enter, tweet your response to us @socialinfluence using #SMI13Comp, post it on our Facebook page, or email our editor at Rachel@SocialMediaInfluence.com.

This week sees the release of vukee M, a new app that allows photo enthusiasts to sell their iPhone and Android pictures on a mobile marketplace at the touch of a button. But it’s not the only app that lets users (moderately) line their pockets with their smartphone habits; we round up three – including vukee M – that promise cash rewards without interfering in your life.

GymPact 

A nice take on the crowdfunding model, GymPact effectively guilts users into meeting their self-imposed gym attendance quota each week, or else they risk a financial penalty. Every week gym-goers set their workout schedule for the next seven days and make a pledge of between $5 and $50 for every workout missed. At the end of the week, everyone that chose the couch over the treadmill coughs up, and the total is split between those that kept their end of the bargain. The app verifies workouts with check-ins, geolocation and connectivity with running app RunKeeper.

Platform and developer: Android, iOS (by GymPact).

Final word: Clearly not a good choice for existing couch potatoes, but for gym bunnies already making exercise a big part of their lives, this app could deliver nicely, as long as you’re okay taking money on the basis of other people’s failings in life.

vukee M

As mentioned above, vukee M – launched this week – allows snap-happy smartphone users to upload their photos to a central marketplace, where, allegedly, their images will be seen by thousands of agencies, editors and commercial buyers. No word yet on the sums involved, but the site claims that if a purchase is made, users will “enjoy a high percentage of the selling price, which they can use to upgrade their device, pay for a trip around the world … or do anything else that they wish”. This would suggest big bucks at stake, but we suspect the real figure is probably much more nominal.

Platform and developer: Android, iOS (by vukee M).

Final word: No doubt there is a growing trend towards candid, Instagram style photographs in marketing and editorial – even in store windows. If this app proves successful, it could pioneer this emerging marketplace, and give some power back to those whose pictures end up used without permission. But bankrolling a trip around the world? Unlikely.

Checkpoints 

Checkpoints is a rewards app that encourages users to earn points through playing games, scanning certain items in particular stores, logging check-ins and so on. Out and about, users can fire up the app, and it’ll tell them what’s available nearby. One check-in might be worth 20 points. Scanning a product nearby might be worth 40. Every time a product is scanned, the app will give the user the chance to win extra points through in-app games or special promotions. The app also builds on social connections, encouraging and rewarding users for sharing product tips on networks, or introducing friends to the scheme. Points can be redeemed in-app for dinners, gadgets, airline miles and hotel stays.

Platform and developer: Android, iOS (by inMarket Media).

Final word: Clearly the whole thing is an exercise in product marketing, a kinda ‘we’ll reward you for looking at this but hopefully you’ll buy it anyway, or at least get your friends to’ deal. However, it’s not an intrusive app, and doesn’t require any more effort than a cursory glance when you’re already out shopping. It’ll no doubt take a while to rack up a significant number of points, but what’s a few scans here and there if it means some decent freebies down the line?

Send to Kindle

[Originally sent out in the gapingvoid newsletter etc.]

No one is going to like your idea at first. Again, it’s all got to do with change.

New ideas, good and bad, mean change. And people are hardwired to fear change. It’s what kept our species alive for so long.

And then on top of that, there are the haters. They need something to do to fill the time in between watching Gilligan’s Island reruns and taking trips to the liquor store. And hating your idea fulfills that need, sadly.

That being said, just because people aren’t hating it, doesn’t mean your idea is a good one, either.

Like I said in Ignore Everybody, good ideas have lonely childhoods. It’s only after they’ve had a little time to grow up some and be able to beat up the haters (or at least prove them wrong) that they come into their own.

Just something to keep in mind…

When dealing with a market as competitive as the current one, the bottom line can sometimes trump the the demands of your followers. However, as I learned in a webinar from Social Today, you can get excellent ROI by focusing on your customers.

Webinar Summary

The two main speakers were Executive Consultant for Marketing and Internet Services for Kaiser Permanente Tim Kieschnick and Senior Vice President of Customer Experience for Fidelity Personal and Workplace Investing Parrish Arturi. Both work within industries, finance and health insurance respectively, that are increasingly toeing the line between customer satisfaction and driving profits. What's worse is due to the recent housing market and financial crisis, their industries are main targets for dissenters who have caught a raw end of the deal. To put it simply: empathy is essential to keeping a company in the black.

The main thing I took away from hearing these industry leaders speak was that empathy has three main components: listening, understanding and caring.

A company can listen to the complaints a customer has but it doesn't make any difference if they aren't willing to understand and care about those complaints. They can listen and understand, but you're not getting anywhere if you don't care. These are simple concepts, but the idea of empathy for your consumer or customer needs to be ingrained into your brand's strategy from the beginning, or you're not going to be successful. As Kieschnick puts it, "You can be successful in the short term without empathy, if you're lucky, but in the long term you can't be, even if you are lucky."

Mr. Arturi agreed, adding that the idea is to have the capacity to recognize emotions, and brands that are successful are those that can recognize and act on their customers' emotions.

Real Life Examples of Wrong and Right

I agree, it seems like common sense that in order for a brand to succeed they need to listen and adapt based on customer feedback.

Doing it Wrong

Some brands may have missed the memo. Case in point: Ryanair.

Ryanair is a discount airline based out of Dublin, Ireland that flies to destinations throughout Europe. There had been mumblings and grumblings about the company's poor customer service, from fees on printing boarding passes to poor interaction with airline attendants. The already volatile situation came to a head in August 2012.

A customer, Suzy McLeod, complained on the brand's Facebook page about having to spend more than 200 Euros to print her families boarding passes. The post itself reached over 350,000 likes and 18,000 comments. This, it would seem, would be a major problem but also a time where the company could engage their fans with empathy and help change their image. Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary took the matter in his own hands when he responded by saying, "We think Ms. McLeod should have to pay 60 euros for being so stupid."

This is an example of what not to do. O'Leary wasn't listening to his customers' problems, certainly didn't understand their anger and frustration, and definitely didn't care. Given this quick look at their Facebook page it would seem that the issues haven't been addressed and the problems with the brand continue to mount. In this age of feedback being broadcast across social networks in the blink of an eye, Ryanair's strategy needs to be addressed quickly and injected with a boatload of empathy.

Doing it Right

Luckily, there are plenty of companies out there that understand the need for empathy when it comes to great customer service. And, just as consumers are quick to call a brand out on poor behavior, they can also be generous about sharing great customer service experiences online.

We recently came across an example of how one company is doing customer service right when a Reddit user shared a screenshot of a conversation he had with a Netflix representative. The conversation itself is too long to share in this post, but here's a sample:

You can read the entire conversation if you like. To give you the highlights of the interaction, when the customer contacted Netflix with questions about their new SuperHD and 3D offerings, he received a response that was not only helpful, but also friendly and empathetic. The Netflix customer service representatives that helped him answered his questions and then went above and beyond expectations by taking the time to chat about their mutual interest in anime. They essentially gabbed like teenage girls.

The customer was satisfied with Netflix's friendly, detailed response to his specific question. But, what made this exchange stand out to the point that he wanted to share it on Reddit was the extra effort the Netflix rep made to recommend anime titles he knew the customer would like. I'm sure the Netflix rep was not expecting that private conversation to turn into an excellent public relations move, but companies should know that, in the world of social, the lines between privacy and sharing are very easy to cross.

Have you had a great, or not-so-great, social experience with a brand? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Interested in learning more about the ROI of Social Media?  Download our whitepaper 6 Ways to Measure the ROI of Social Media!

The post The ROI of Empathy appeared first on Ignite Social Media.

When dealing with a market as competitive as the current one, the bottom line can sometimes trump the the demands of your followers. However, as I learned in a webinar from Social Today, you can get excellent ROI by focusing on your customers.

Webinar Summary

The two main speakers were Executive Consultant for Marketing and Internet Services for Kaiser Permanente Tim Kieschnick and Senior Vice President of Customer Experience for Fidelity Personal and Workplace Investing Parrish Arturi. Both work within industries, finance and health insurance respectively, that are increasingly toeing the line between customer satisfaction and driving profits. What's worse is due to the recent housing market and financial crisis, their industries are main targets for dissenters who have caught a raw end of the deal. To put it simply: empathy is essential to keeping a company in the black.

The main thing I took away from hearing these industry leaders speak was that empathy has three main components: listening, understanding and caring.

A company can listen to the complaints a customer has but it doesn't make any difference if they aren't willing to understand and care about those complaints. They can listen and understand, but you're not getting anywhere if you don't care. These are simple concepts, but the idea of empathy for your consumer or customer needs to be ingrained into your brand's strategy from the beginning, or you're not going to be successful. As Kieschnick puts it, "You can be successful in the short term without empathy, if you're lucky, but in the long term you can't be, even if you are lucky."

Mr. Arturi agreed, adding that the idea is to have the capacity to recognize emotions, and brands that are successful are those that can recognize and act on their customers' emotions.

Real Life Examples of Wrong and Right

I agree, it seems like common sense that in order for a brand to succeed they need to listen and adapt based on customer feedback.

Doing it Wrong

Some brands may have missed the memo. Case in point: Ryanair.

Ryanair is a discount airline based out of Dublin, Ireland that flies to destinations throughout Europe. There had been mumblings and grumblings about the company's poor customer service, from fees on printing boarding passes to poor interaction with airline attendants. The already volatile situation came to a head in August 2012.

A customer, Suzy McLeod, complained on the brand's Facebook page about having to spend more than 200 Euros to print her families boarding passes. The post itself reached over 350,000 likes and 18,000 comments. This, it would seem, would be a major problem but also a time where the company could engage their fans with empathy and help change their image. Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary took the matter in his own hands when he responded by saying, "We think Ms. McLeod should have to pay 60 euros for being so stupid."

This is an example of what not to do. O'Leary wasn't listening to his customers' problems, certainly didn't understand their anger and frustration, and definitely didn't care. Given this quick look at their Facebook page it would seem that the issues haven't been addressed and the problems with the brand continue to mount. In this age of feedback being broadcast across social networks in the blink of an eye, Ryanair's strategy needs to be addressed quickly and injected with a boatload of empathy.

Doing it Right

Luckily, there are plenty of companies out there that understand the need for empathy when it comes to great customer service. And, just as consumers are quick to call a brand out on poor behavior, they can also be generous about sharing great customer service experiences online.

We recently came across an example of how one company is doing customer service right when a Reddit user shared a screenshot of a conversation he had with a Netflix representative. The conversation itself is too long to share in this post, but here's a sample:

You can read the entire conversation if you like. To give you the highlights of the interaction, when the customer contacted Netflix with questions about their new SuperHD and 3D offerings, he received a response that was not only helpful, but also friendly and empathetic. The Netflix customer service representatives that helped him answered his questions and then went above and beyond expectations by taking the time to chat about their mutual interest in anime. They essentially gabbed like teenage girls.

The customer was satisfied with Netflix's friendly, detailed response to his specific question. But, what made this exchange stand out to the point that he wanted to share it on Reddit was the extra effort the Netflix rep made to recommend anime titles he knew the customer would like. I'm sure the Netflix rep was not expecting that private conversation to turn into an excellent public relations move, but companies should know that, in the world of social, the lines between privacy and sharing are very easy to cross.

Have you had a great, or not-so-great, social experience with a brand? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Interested in learning more about the ROI of Social Media?  Download our whitepaper 6 Ways to Measure the ROI of Social Media!

The post The ROI of Empathy appeared first on Ignite Social Media.

This week is bike to work week. Why should you participate? The Bike to Work Week infographic from Fitness for Weight Loss explains the health benefits of participating as well as cost benefits!

Bike to Work Week is May 13th – 17th, 2013.

Thanks to Stephanie for sending in the link!

The movie shown below, developed by a real-time trading software developer Nanex, shows the stock trading activity in Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) as it occurred during a particular half a second on May 2, 2013.

Each colored box represents one unique exchange. The whote box at the bottom of the screens shows the National Best Bid/Offer, which often drastically changes in a fraction of a second. The moving shapes represent quote changes which are the result of a change to the top of the book at each exchange. The time at the bottom of the screen is Eastern Time HH:MM:SS:mmm, which is slowed down to be able to better observe what goes on at the millisecond level (1/1000th of a second).

In the movie, one can observe how High Frequency Traders (HFT) jam thousands of quotes at the millisecond level, and how every exchange must process every quote from the others for proper trade through price protection. This complex web of technology must run flawlessly every millisecond of the trading day, or arbitrage (HFT profit) opportunities will appear. However, it is easy for HFTs to cause delays in one or more of the connections between each exchange. Yet if any of the connections are not running perfectly, High Frequency Traders tend to profit from the price discrepancies that result.

More detailed information about this project can be found here. Via Huffington Post.

With the new Iron Man movie in theaters, everyone has Tony Stark on the mind. But have you noticed the scary similarities between the fictional character and Elon Musk? The Is Elon Musk The Real Life Tony Stark? infographic from vcars.co.uk gives us the breakdown on each guy and then summarizes the similarities and differences.

Definitely a fun design.  I wish they had visualized any of the data for easier comparison, like height and net worth.

Thanks to Meilen for sending in the link!

A couple of months ago we ran a story outing the 25% of women who regularly fib on Facebook in a bid to make their lives sound more glamorous. It was hardly groundbreaking research though – very few ladies would readily admit to slobbing in front of the TV night after night in the same grubby sweat pants.

Now though, a new study finds that it’s not just women telling the odd social porkie. According to a report by Barclaycard bespoke offers, nearly six million Brits regularly tell ‘white lies’ and embellish stories on social media.

Nearly 40% of fibbers put their dishonesty down to feeling pressure to have a good time or sound upbeat in their updates, and more than a quarter (29%) reckon their lives are just too boring without embellishment. Hardly surprising then that 40% admit to feeling envious of others’ posts.

Interestingly, men are just as dishonest when it comes to ‘microblagging’, with their primary motivation being to maintain a ‘cool online persona’, and being twice as likely as women to want to impress their workplace colleagues (22% vs 8%). While the fellas prefer Twitter, women are more likely to ‘Fakebook’, and are more likely to doctor photos using editing software before uploading it to the site.

The research also found that offline most tall tales take place at work, with 63% of respondents over-hyping a story among colleagues. So social media really is a digital water cooler!

It’s no mean feat promoting supermarket clothing ranges, namely because coveted terms such as ‘cutting edge’ and ‘trend setting’ are already reserved for catwalks or established high street brands. However, UK supermarket Tesco has seen a fair amount of success in touting its F&F label in previous months, most notably back in February alongside British Plus Size Fashion Weekend.

Now, to welcome the long overdue summer, the label has launched a new campaign designed to get shoppers thinking about their seasonal look, while promoting both its new collection and the launch of its official Pinterest channel.

The ‘Seven Days of Summer’ initiative encourages F&F fans to upload a picture of themselves rocking one of the season’s key trends, from stripes to sixties, via Facebook; by creating a mood board on Pinterest; or by tweeting their look with the corresponding hashtag. Those taking part stand to win a £75 F&F voucher, or – in a bid to generate more content – a £500 F&F shopping spree if they enter each day.

A competition like this running across three of the top social channels makes for valuable insight into the workings of the great social hive mind – where’s most of the action happening? Of course, the competition is being pimped equally across the platforms, but while the Facebook component comes with a slick upload app and gallery function, there’s not a great deal going on in the blue and white kingdom. There are several comments and likes, but visit the gallery and you’re presented with the same entry pictures regardless of the filters selected, indicating that well, there’s not that many. It’s worth noting that in order to enter in this way, users must complete a personal information form. A barrier to engagement, no doubt.

Over on Pinterest, meanwhile, there’s a considerable amount of noise – as you’d expect for a competition encouraging mood boarding, of which Pinterest’s community is so fond. However, while F&F is asking entrants to repin their boards as means of entry, most are simply linking to their boards underneath F&F’s competition shout outs, so as to ensure organizers do see their creations. It’s rather chaotic.

It’s only on Twitter, then, that we’re seeing the hallmarks of a solid social competition. There are no barriers to entry and no potentially-complicated or confusing entry requirements. It’s also possible for users to enter via a mobile phone, tablet, laptop or desktop – something which presents problems when it comes to the Facebook component. On Twitter, users just tweet @ClothingatTesco with a picture and a hashtag and they’re done. It’s easy to enter on a whim and on the move.

While this tells us a lot about the challenges Facebook is up against nowadays, these findings do reaffirm that when it comes to engagement, convenience is most certainly key. Customers are not going to jump through hoops to populate brand campaigns and content galleries – certainly not for a £75 voucher, at least.

Two big shifts in what social media means and more data on Facebook ad performance in this week’s Social You Should Know.

Highly Shared Vines Creeping Into Brand Marketing Plans

New research from Unruly Media shows that branded Vines are shared four times more often than branded Internet videos. They also found that four percent of the top Vines came from brands, while only one percent of the top viral videos were from brands. Vine is now only 100 days old, but big brands are starting to see some success. I suspect that the spread is because a six second, ad-free Vine is a much smaller commitment than watching a longer video, which could be made longer by a pre-roll ad.

YouTube now Selling Paid Subscriptions to Channels

Sesame Street, Cars.TV and the UFC are among the early partners for YouTube’s new paid channels. Want to watch their content on YouTube? Pay up. Costs start at $0.99 and go up from there. It’s an interesting model, taking aim at Netflix and other paid sources of streaming content. Unless you’re a frequent producer of high quality content, going paid is an unlikely move for most brands, but it is the latest signal that YouTube is changing its strategy.

Facebook Ads in the News Feed Perform 197% Better than Sidebar

Ads running in the right rail of Facebook (the original ad format) have long been blasted for their ineffectiveness. New research shows that ads in the News Feed are, well, a lot less ineffective. Ads in the News Feed have CTRs that are 17.1 times higher than the right rail ads, and the cost per click is 51 percent lower. That leads to a 197 percent improvement in ROI. That’s good, but let’s remember that this is relative. Facebook ads don't perform any better than traditional banner ads. And we know that organic views significantly outperform paid clicks.

Enjoy your week.

The post Social You Should Know: Social Video is Changing Rapidly appeared first on Ignite Social Media.

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Besides being a Roman Emperor (and damn good one at that), Marcus Aurelius was also one of the great Stoic philosophers.

His “Meditations” is one of the first self-help books, and it’s amazing how much of it still applies today.

Besides being a fantastic read, the interesting thing about Meditations for me is, they were written while Marcus still had a very demanding day job i.e. he wrote them in his military tent at night, while campaigning against the Goths. Like blogging is for many of us, it was his way to unwind.

Marcus Aurelius’ example reinforces my belief that a certain famous myth is a load of crock: that one can only produce great art if one does nothing else, besides “make art” yada, yada, yada.

Like the great art teacher, Robert Henri said, the artist is interested in everything around her, not just the stuff she makes.

But just as the artist must be interested in the world around her, so must the world be interested in the art around it. Both halves feed the other, both halves teach the other, both halves inspire the other.

That’s how real innovation happens, for artists and for everyone else.

Shark Attack! is a great infographic design collaboration between Ripetungi and Joe Chernov.  Based on data from a Huffington Post article, 100 Million Sharks are Killed Annually.

Recently received a Facebook message from content marketing wizard Joe Chernov linking to the Huffington Post article 100 million sharks are killed annually.  This was an astonishing fact and the enormity of the number made it difficult to wrap your head around.  Joe also shared an idea for a graphic to add context to this fact making it easier to comprehend, while exposing the outrageous ratio of the number of people sharks kill to the number of sharks people kill.

Great data visualization that shows readers the magnitude and scale of how many sharks are killed by humans every year.  It also puts the 11,417 sharks killed value into context by comparing it against the 12 humans killed by sharks.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m convinced that death by shark attack would be a horrible way to go, but some days it’s good to be at the top of the food chain on Earth.

We have a winner! Mike Drago has won our Way to Grove Award, which recognizes members of the team who achieve notable and tangible results for clients.  Mike won for his work helping to oversee a thought leadership website that has grown a sizable community and greatly increased online visibility for the client’s technology offering.

ServiceVirtualization.com was launched in April 2012 by the Application Delivery business at CA Technologies. The site focuses on a field of emerging software solutions that enable faster, better and less-expensive application development. Idea Grove was called upon to develop and oversee content on the site’s blog, which Mike began editing in October 2012. He quickly grasped both the complex technology and the community of people with an interest in it.

The site now ranks second in native search for “service virtualization” behind the Wikipedia definition. Along with the improvement in online search visibility, the ServiceVirtualization.com community has grown to thousands of members, and Twitter feeds that support the blog have nearly 1,200 followers (@svcvirt and @virtualization6).

“These kinds of tangible results are essential for Internet marketing firms; and they are clearly helping fuel the incredible business growth our agency has experienced over the past year,” said Idea Grove President Scott Baradell. “Since we are so focused on getting result for clients, it seemed only fitting to celebrate the most noteworthy ones with a quarterly employee award. Mike’s stellar work on ServiceVirtualization.com is exactly the kind of effort we want to be about as a company, and it was most worthy of this recognition – and a $250 prize.”

Mike joined Idea Grove in 2012 as vice president of content after more than two decades writing and editing for The Dallas Morning News and The Associated Press. At Idea Grove he specializes in content development and curation, focusing on our technology public relations clients.

Hey, Mike, way to Grove!

Tesco, the world’s third largest retailer, has launched a new site that allows customers to group together to buy wine in bulk at reduced prices.

Tesco Wine Co-buys uses Buyapowa social commerce software to connect customers wishing to purchase wine in bulk – completely legitimately – on the cheap. Shoppers register interest in products, the most popular of which is then put forward for sale. Customers then commit to a maximum price, but as more people get involved the price drops. How do others get involved? Social media, of course!

Committed shoppers are encouraged to share the deals via Facebook and Twitter, with the individual ‘recruiting’ the most buyers winning a case of wine.

The site will initially run as a 12-week trial, but already Tesco is said to be considering extending the model to further categories, which could include health and beauty, home and garden, and sports goods.

Tesco director of digital and social Tom Daniell said: “There’s a real social element to traditional shopping and there’s no reason why shopping online shouldn’t be just as fun. Family and friends love to shop together and seek out a bargain and co-buying lets customers easily share deals online and use collective buying power to get a great deal.”

This very shiny, consumer-friendly video explains it all a bit more.

In our line of work, it’s very easy to become bogged down with the whys and wherefores of social media – engagement strategies, revenue plans, influence circles, and so on. So it was refreshing to see this bunch of bright young things chat happily about what social means to them, and remember that its inherent purpose is to foster togetherness and sharing. Or, as one smiling sprite puts it, ‘Play time for big kids and grown ups.’ D’aww! 

L.A. Street QualGrades [latimes.com], developed by the Los Angeles Times Data Desk, maps the pavement quality rating for each of the 68,000 street segments in L.A., the largest municipal system in the US with about 6,500 miles of paved roadway streets.

Using a state-of-the-art van equipped with cameras and lasers, the Bureau of Street Services graded each single street segment of L.A.'s vast street network from from A (dark green) to F (dark pink). The grades were based on a 100-point scale called the "pavement condition index".

The accompanying news article can be found here. Via Flowing Data.

Enjoy the archive for "Evaluating Your Social Listening Tools: Is Your Social Media Analytics Solution Working for You?" in both audio and video format. The slides are also available for download. Once you listen to the archive we encourage you to take the challenge!

The YouTube Trends Map [youtube.com] is a visualization of the most shared and viewed videos in various regions across the United States over the last 12 to 24 hours. It accompanies the more analytical Trends Dashboard to provide a full overview of the the rising videos and trends on YouTube in terms of actual views or shares, filtered by geographical location, gender or age of the viewers.

The demographic information of viewers is solely based on the information reported by registered, logged-in users in their YouTube account profiles. Next to the geographical map, the Trends Map also include a series of horizontal bar graphs, each representing a graphical summary of the top videos for a different demographic. Within each bar, a video is represented by a colorful segment, the colors are drawn from the video's thumbnail. The width of a video's segment reflects the number of regions on the map where the video is #1.

See also:
. YouTube View Tracking Data Visualization
. YouTube Swarm Related Videos

It's been a while since we last updated our list of the top 10 YouTube channels with the most subscribers. So, here they are as of May 9, 2013:

10. Movies

YouTube's own channel where you can buy and rent movies online has cracked the Top 10 list. I have to say I'm a little confused as to what the benefit of subscribing is. There is no original content that you can view for free. Maybe YouTube has plans to change that.

9. One Direction VEVO

One Direction wins the efficiency award with the lowest amount of videos (70) of any channel in the top 10. Despite not having published a video in over a month, the band continues to gain tons of views and subscribers probably from having such a rabid and loyal fan base.

8. Hola Soy German

For those of you unfamiliar with this YouTuber, no, he is not a Spanish-speaking German person. His name is pronounced "hair mon" and he does speak Spanish. In fact, he only speaks Spanish, and his rapid fire, comedic approach has earned him more than 6.5 million subscribers.

7. Pew Die Pie

This hilarious Swede has gained the 7th most subscribers by pointing a camera at himself and playing video games. I highly recommend watching him play scary games. Seeing him scream is quite entertaining. Warning: NSFW Language:

6. Machinima

Machinima earns the honor of "They have how many videos?!" with a staggering 23K+ published videos. Honestly though, if you produce over 23 thousand videos and you don't have at least a million subscribers, you have no hope. Machinima has acquired their near 7.5 million subscribers through fun and informative videos catered towards gamers. Warning, most videos have NSFW language:

5. Rihanna VEVO

The Barbadian bombshell is by far the most-subscribed to musical artist on YouTube. She has multiple music videos with 100+ million views. Also, I imagine having a video where she sings in a bathtub has something to do with her place on this list.

4. nigahiga

Ryan Higa has acquired the 4th most subscriptions of any YouTube channel with entertaining observational humor. He combines the quick-cutting monologue style you see common on YouTube with fun cutaways illustrating the situations he talks about. You'll notice his earlier videos are much shorter. If you're starting out, it's always good to have short videos. Then once you build up a solid following, you can get into 5-10 minute territory.

3. Ray William Johnson

Ray William Johnson uses a formula that has served many comedy shows such as Best Week Ever, The Soup, and Tosh.0. Step 1: Curate a bunch of funny clips. Step 2: Make commentary. Step 3: Profit.

2. Jenna Marbles

My personal favorite, Jenna Marbles' brand of insight is unique and hilarious. She has a way of taking the ordinary and making observations like will make you think and laugh. Like in this example below, who knew there were so many variations of women's makeup and meanings behind them? (Warning: NSFW Content – you're probably noticing a theme here; YouTube's lack of censorship means you can get away with a lot more than traditional media)

1. Smosh

Smosh is kind of an enigma in that it's production values are very high and it's well-edited; however, the humor is somewhat... low brow. I guess they're targeting the teen demographic. Whatever the case may be, they're doing something right as they have more YouTube subscribers than anyone else.

Which YouTube channels not in the Top 10 are your favorites?

The post 10 Most Popular YouTube Channels by Subscribers appeared first on Ignite Social Media.

If you don’t think your Facebook news feed is cluttered enough already, stand by for video adverts, set to roll out this July.

According to the Financial Times the strategy is likely to feature ads across news feeds a la suggested posts. And they’ll autoplay, although they’ll be automatically muted. If a user unmutes the ad, it’ll start playing again from the top.

Word on the street is that the brands likely kickstarting the platform are those making up Facebook’s client council, so the likes of Unilever, Ford, American Express and Coca Cola.

No doubt the move is designed to tie in with the growing trend for prioritising video content, thanks in part to the role it plays in securing additional revenue; the New York Times has recently freed its video content from the editorial paywall and YouTube is alleged to be implementing subscription fees.

According to the FT, video ad integration could boost Facebook’s revenue by more than $1.5 million (just under £1 million) per day. Clearly this is a revenue stream worth pursuing, but one that depends entirely on an audience willing to help the process along. Such adverts could cause those already suffering from Facebook fatigue and advert irritation to give up on the site entirely, and then those revenue figures are liable to drop considerably.

A new social network has launched designed to give UK students the opportunity to ‘be themselves’ online without fear of retribution from snooping parents.

Unii.com is a student-only space, where individuals can chat, make friends, share photos, leave comments – everything Facebook offers – but thanks to its tight registration system (only authorized student email addresses are permitted), they can rest easy knowing only their peers have access to their hijinks, and that dubious photo from last night isn’t going to result in an angry phone call from family members, or in the hands of potential employers.

The site was developed in response to this very concern, with Unii.com conducting a survey that found that 50% of parents with kids on Facebook had found something untoward after snooping on their offspring’s profiles. The top five worrying findings are:

1) Inappropriate comments from a friend – 32%
2) Comments and updates including swearing – 28%
3) Pictures of drunkenness – 25%
4) A drunken status update – 21%
5) Nudity – 17%

As well as keeping questionable university pastimes away from prying eyes, the site will serve as a comprehensive jobs board and internships database, ensuring users don’t completely fritter away their carefree student years.

Marco Nardone, 24-year-old CEO of Unii, said: “Most students wouldn’t invite their parents to a party, or loop them into a phone conversation, so why should they have to worry about what they might see on social networks?

“University is a place where students experiment responsibly, make new friends and find their feet, so we’ve developed a social network that allows them to do just that solely amongst their peers. What happens at uni, can now stay at uni.”

Of course, the fact that Facebook started the same way can’t be overlooked, but as social network privacy concerns grow, could the locked-down Unii.com become new social choice for young people?