The Social 6: Key Stories from The Last 24 hours, 8/2/12
As you may know, I’m a pretty voracious reader and generally share a bunch of news & reviews via my social platforms. Here’s a countdown of the top six most important articles I’ve shared in the last day. I curate this top six based on number of retweets, clicks, favorites, and mentions, so you guys are a large part of what ends up listed here :).
#6 5 Ways to Get Email Overload Under Control
Email's still one of the top ways that people are going social on a daily basis, but "email hell" is an issue for many of us. I'll confess, email is a pretty significant weakness of mine - which you may know if you've ever emailed me. Dmitri Leonov of Mashable says the only good news is that you’re not alone and that the average person gets more than one hundred emails per day. This piece has a number of great suggestions to keep email at bay, including but not limited to the super-useful Inbox Zero philosophy.
#5 13 Tumblrs to Satisfy Your Olympic Appetite
Are you a big Olympic follower and are waiting for the next big Olympic event? Well, I'm not. I could just never get into the Olympics the way it seems 95% of my colleagues do. That said, Tumblr has plenty fan-made sites that will keep you entertained and on top of all the latest Olympic developments. Christine Erickson of Mashable uses this piece to highlight some of the best.
#4 Pinterest adds new categories and is rolling out a redesigned repinning process
Pinterest has just added new categories, which could have a pretty big impact in terms of what types of content people curate onto Pinterest. The new categories include Quotes, Tattoos, and Weddings. Given how specific these categories are, we’ll probably see more appear as long as the site continues to grow in popularity. Plus, this piece has more on Pinterest's reported upcoming redesign of its popular repinning feature.
#2 Pinfluencer Gets Around the Pinterest Analytics Problem
More Pinterest news! Pinterest hasn’t been very friendly to people who try to use its site for commercial purposes. Liz Gannes of AllThingsD says the site flags short URLs and strips tracking codes, both of which are standard practice for brands in social media. Pinfluencer sits on top of Pinterest, rather than helping with any kind of tracking into user pinning and repinning activity.
#2 Psst. Facebook Turned On Its App Center Worldwide Overnight [Updated]
Facebook continues to make efforts into furthering its dominance as a social platform. Ingrid Lunden of TechCrunch reports that the company has now made its App Center, the storefront for Facebook desktop and mobile applications, available across most of the world. The App center went global overnight between 7/31 and 8/1, reportedly. It had already been overnight in most of the English-speaking world and a few other key markets - but the global rollout means that Facebook is doubling down on pushing itself as the dominant social platform across all devices and form factors.
#1 Google Buying Social Media Startup Wildfire
Here's a small piece I shared about Google's acquisition of Wildfire from Time's Techland section. Wildfire, one of the leading social media marketing companies, is now joining the Google empire - just like Salesforce purchased Buddy Media and Oracle acquired Vitrue. Not only does this show how the bigger players are looking to add social media marketing for business to their repertoire, but it also shows a concerted effort for these companies to have some ability to "keep tabs" on Facebook, by acquiring firms that leverage Facebook as their primary marketing channel.
The Social 6: Key Stories from The Last 24 hours, 7/25/12
As you may know, I’m a voracious reader and tend to share a good deal of news via my social platforms. Here’s a countdown of the top six most important articles I’ve shared in the last day. I curate this top six based on number of retweets, clicks, favorites, and mentions, so you guys are a large part of what ends up listed here :).
#6 The Rise of Digital Pollution
Lacoste's Senior Director of Ecommerce and Digital Strategy, Erik Lautier, posted on his Facebook page decrying how much digital pollution surrounds us all these days. In this piece, Erik discusses the rise of digital pollution, and starts to hint at what could be done to address it. Great read from a very smart guy.
#5 YC-Backed Chute Nabs $2.7M From Salesforce and More To Become The Twilio For Media Content
Chute has decided to take a different approach on photo-sharing or photo-syncing. They plan to expand beyond the photo field as well. Rip Empson of TechCrunch explains nicely how this works.
#4 YouTube Fights Comment Trolls By Discouraging Pseudonyms
It's no secret that YouTube videos contain some harsh critiques originating from people using pseudonyms. Often, these "comment trolls" just try to stir up unnecessary drama, rather than add any value to the conversation.. Writer Fruzsina Eordogh of ReadWriteWeb explains how YouTube is working to discourage pseudonyms - something I'm personally very in favor of. If you're going to say something spiteful, you should be willing to do it with your name attached.
#3 It's a platform, not a feature: Google+ Hangouts could bring YouTube-Level disruption
Google+ Hangouts are gaining traction in a lot of circles (no pun intended, G+ users!). It will be interesting to see if people will gravitate to Hangouts, leading them to become the new Skype or Oovoo - or if consumers will reject Google "controlling" most of their online experiences. Drew Olanoff of TNW gives a good description of Hangouts and their potential to disrupt.
#2 Fancy That: Pinterest Rival The Fancy Passes 1M Design-Savvy Influencers
The Fancy, a new social commerce site, is letting its users become affiliates, getting commissions when their friends purchase products. They're positioning this as something of a game-changer, even though sites like Amazon have offered commissions for ages now. BrandChannel gives some great statistics on The Fancy & discusses their future in this piece - worth a read!
#1 This Movie Recruited Instagram Users To Make Its Posters
Talk about a buzzworthy use of a social platform: two Montreal-based filmmakers enlisted advertising agency TAXI to get the group "Instagramers Montreal" to collaborate and take images that would be used to publicize their new film, J’Espère Que Tu Vas Bien. The photos selected for the 87 (yes, really!) movie posters are made up of pictures taken as part of a Insta-Walk that Instagramers Montreal organized. Perfect fit for the film in my opinion, since the movie is an 87-minute, and follows the same route the Instagramers Montreal group took. Nice reporting her by Laura Stampler at Business Insider.
The Social 6: Key Stories from The Last 24 hours, 7/20/12
As you may know, I’m a voracious reader and tend to share a good deal of news via my social platforms. Here’s a countdown of the top six most important articles I’ve shared in the last day. I curate this top six based on number of retweets, clicks, favorites, and mentions, so you guys are a large part of what ends up listed here :).
#6 'Jeremy Lin That Iused to Know' Parody Laments Star's Departure [VIDEO]
You may find it heart breaking if you're a Jeremy Lin follower and love the Knicks. However, the NOC, a sports and entertainment YouTube channel, found a way to get creative in its despair! This parody shared by Sam Laird of Mashable brings out a good laugh.
This new creative way GE is using Instagram to market their brand by showing off pictures of GE products looking cooler than usual is a good example of a brand creating a conversation by posting engaging content. DP Blog shows one of their finest!
#4 Up close with Hometalk: The growing community of home and DIY projects
Hometalk is a new upcoming NY-based startup that gives you tips and ideas about what you might want to decorate in your house. Comparing it to Pinterest is an understatement because it does so much more. Nice article by Harrison Weber of TNW.
#3 Twitter Loses Another Comms Director, As Former iMeem Exec Matt Graves Steps Down
Believe it or not, Twitter's Director of Communication needs a break from Twitter too! It's not clear who will be replacing Graves as of now. Anyone looking for a good communications job?
#2 'Klout For Grownups?' Synthesio Launches Business-Oriented Influencer Tool
Synthesio created its own influence ranking system which it's claiming to be more business-savvy than Klout or Kred. The service already counts Microsoft, Nissan and BlackBerry as clients. It will be interesting to see how much traction Synthesio can gain in the marketplace, but so far I'm liking their approach.
#1 Social Retail: Finding, Engaging & Cultivating Today's Connected Consumer
Do you want to know how to take advantage of a new trend to catch the consumers eye? As technology changed, the consumer has changed their ways of purchasing. By doing what? Mobile shopping! Ron Schott covers social recommendations, friend and influencer interactions, social entertainment, and more. If you're a stats fanatic like I am, you'll really love this piece.
See you all tomorrow! Or, sooner....
4 Points About Crediting Pins on Pinterest
When you're thinking about Pinterest etiquette, there are a lot of intricacies. However, the best place to start is to follow this simply adage: give credit when credit is due!
Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
Just as I wouldn't steal pictures from Google Images to use on a blog post of mine -- I would instead buy stock photography and/or give proper attribution - I would hope that a Pinterest user would be sure to note where the original image came from.
Give credit. It's free.
Before pinning something, make sure you are giving credit to the original source! A quick Google search will help you ensure you're giving credit to the person who originally developed the content, not just the person who helped you find it.
Just because you can pin it, doesn't mean you should.
It is unacceptable for users to Pin without giving credit or linking back to the source. There are, of course, other sources that you should never pin from, including confidential or highly proprietary information. As a rule, if pinning someone's content has a near 0% chance of getting the original content developer any residual traffic, do not pin it. For example, awhile back, I saw someone pin another user's Slideshare presentation, slide by slide. As a result, the original content developer basically was ensured that no one would ever go to the original slideshare presentation to get additional information.
Effort's more important than style.
Don't worry about the exact format of how credit is given - just make sure you make an effort! If someone has enriched your life by providing great content, take the 10-15 seconds to run a quick Google search to link back to their Twitter ID, blog url, and so forth. It's a great way to encourage they keep providing great content for you to pin!
Let me know if you agree with my thoughts above. Plus, what are your biggest Pinterest etiquette suggestions? I'd love to hear via Twitter or Facebook.