| SOCIAL MEDIA TOP STORIES | | | | | | | ALL STORIES SOCIAL MEDIA | | |
| Obama, Romney Campaigns Go Mobile With New Apps | | 5:55:45 AM | Alex Fitzpatrick |
|  President Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney have both launched new mobile apps for their respective presidential campaigns that were both made available for download Tuesday morning. Though the apps were released on the same day, they have very different functionality. Obama for America Obama's app, named "Obama for America," is a full-fledged political organizing tool that lives on a user's phone. The app delivers news about the Obama campaign, lets supporters locate and sign up for nearby campaign events (such as voter registration drives), allows users an easy way to donate to the campaign and includes a "Get Out the Vote" section featuring information about each state's voter registration policies and the location of nearby polling places. A great deal of social integration is also included in the app: Users can post to Facebook, tweet Obama-related news or invite friends to Obama events directly from the app. Baked-in Google Maps functionality also helps supporters find their way to campaign events. As election day looms closer, the app can also be used to report problems at polling places, which the campaign said will be "especially helpful for people in states with new voter ID laws." The most powerful feature of the Obama app is the "Canvass" section. Canvass has the potential to become a political field organizer's best friend: It loads a list of homes near a user, complete with information about the voters inside. Campaign staff and volunteers can use the app to walk door-to-door to recruit volunteers or get voters to the polls on Election Day. Every household's response can be loaded into the app and sent back to a database at Obama headquarters. The app takes field organizing into the digital era for Obama supporters walking neighborhoods, so the days of reams of paperwork stuffed into folders and binders are gone. "As we push through the last 100 days of this election, our focus remains on helping make grassroots organizing as easy and accessible as possible for the volunteers and supporters that are the heart and soul of this campaign," said Stephanie Cutter, Obama for America deputy campaign manager. "That's why we designed our new app to help break down the distinction between online and offline organizing, giving every supporter the same opportunities to get involved that they would find in a field office." Mitt's VP Romney's new app, on the other hand, has one purpose: Users who download it will be the first to know who Romney picks as his vice presidential running mate. The Romney app, which is available on both iOS and Android, is called "Mitt's VP." Users can sign in with their Facebook or "MyMitt" accounts. The app asks users to activate push notifications. Once the campaign makes a VP choice, it'll blast the message to all users. Like the Obama app, Mitt's VP also has social integration: Once users get the long-awaited news, they'll be able to share it immediately with their friends and followers. It also allows supporters to easily donate money to the campaign. "The first official way to learn the name of the Republican Vice Presidential candidate is by using our new 'Mitt's VP' app," said Romney Digital Director Zac Moffatt. "Users of the app will be the first to get the news on the biggest political decision of the year through an instantaneous alert on the one device most people carry around the clock -- their phone." You can download the Obama for America app at the App Store, and the Mitt's VP app at the App Store and Google Play. An Android version of the Obama app should be available "in the coming days," according to the campaign. What kind of mobile apps would you want from a political campaign? Share your thoughts in the comments. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, nhauscreative |
| HootSuite Now Lets You Create Storify Posts, Save to Evernote | | 5:21:21 AM | Brian Anthony Hernandez |
|  Social media management dashboard HootSuite added three new app plugins Tuesday: storytelling curation tool Storify, note-taking platform Evernote and help desk management tool Zendesk. App plugins allow people to send content from HootSuite such as Twitter and Facebook items to third-party applications such as Storify and Zendesk. Evernote for HootSuite comes as an app stream and plugin. To begin using the apps, people must install them via the 8-month-old App Directory. Here's what each new plugin does, according to HootSuite: Storify: "For users who want to curate social media posts into stories to publish and amplify the social media they monitor on HootSuite, the Storify app plugin for HootSuite allows them to add Twitter or Facebook posts directly to their Storify accounts. Users can select which story elements they're after, or create a new story to add an element to, and have the option to share these stories to their social networks using HootSuite." The embed code for Storify posts won't be available from within HootSuite, just at Storify.com. Evernote: "When HootSuite users find themselves having Twitter or Facebook conversations valuable enough to reference later, the Evernote app plugin allows them to save these conversations directly into their Evernote notebooks. With the Evernote app users can also view a stream of notes in HootSuite, allowing them to share notes to social networks, edit notes and more." "For example, let's say the user owns a bakery and comes across an interesting recipe that someone they follow had shared on Twitter," HootSuite spokeswoman Sandy Pell tells Mashable. "This user may want to test this recipe out later, or share it with followers to get feedback. In doing so, they'll need to save it so they can come back to it later. Using the Evernote plugin, this user can quickly and easily save this tweet to an Evernote notebook to refer back at a later time." Zendesk: "When Zendesk users come across a Twitter or Facebook posts requiring special attention, the Zendesk app plugin allows users to create tickets directly from posts within HootSuite, complete with Twitter conversation history or Facebook comments. During ticket creation, users are able to edit subjects and descriptions to suit their unique needs, in addition to selecting ticket type, status, priority level, and assign tickets to specific team members." Before the directory's debut in November, users already had the ability to distribute content on Facebook (and FB Pages), Foursquare, LinkedIn, Mixi, MySpace, Ping.fm, Twitter, and WordPress. SEE ALSO: HootSuite Adds Instagram to its App Directory HootSuite has since added Instagram, SlideShare, Zuum, YouTube, Tumblr, Flickr, Trendspottr, Digg, MailChimp, Chime.in, Identi.ca, RSS Reader, Vision Critical, Get Satisfaction, Constant Contact, InboxQ, Orkut, HubSpot and SocialFlow, some of which are only available for users with Pro and Enterprise accounts. HootSuite, which launched in 2008 and unleashed Social Analytics in March, estimates it will grow to 6 million users by the end of 2012. In the future, Pell says people can expect to see more plugins that streamline collaboration, customer support, CRM, digital marketing, publishing and content curation. To learn more about the addition of Storify, Evernote and Zendesk, watch this video: |
| 13 Fantastic Subreddits You Should Subscribe To | |  If you want to see what the Internet is talking about today, just fire up your good ol' Reddit front page. But sometimes you want to go deeper or much more specific. Much like magazines, there's a subreddit for everything: cooking, relationship advice, individual products, etc. SEE ALSO: The Beginner's Guide to Reddit We've hand-picked some of the more fascinating Reddit communities -- places where users congregate around shared passions and are happy to dole worthy advice. If any of these tickle your fancy, subscribe to make your home page a bit more personal. Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, Jeff Keacher. |
| iPad App Lets You Create Collages With Your Pinterest Pins | |  Want to get more creative with Pinterest? Now you can, thanks to Bazaart. The startup has released a free iPad application that lets you collage your pins, as well as those of other users on the network. It's easy to find, add, resize, rotate and otherwise assemble your collage. You can also add borders to images or select "crop" to remove white space. The app isn't perfect: If you have a board with more than 25 pins, you won't be able to load them all. (Gili Golander, Bazaart's fashion director, tells me this is a result of Pinterest's RSS feed limitation, and there's nothing they can do about it.) The crop button tends to completely erase light-colored images. An "undo" button would be a welcome addition as well. But it's a nice start. Beyond collaging, the Bazaart app is also a decent Pinterest client: You can explore other boards, repin items and pull up their source pages -- meaning that all of the products pins are also shoppable within the app. The app's creators are apart of the DreamIt Ventures accelerator program for Israeli startups in New York. This is the second app they have built atop Pinterest. The first, Pinvolve, lets Facebook Page administrators quickly transfer their content to Pinterest. |
| What Facebook Reveals About Olympics Fans [INFOGRAPHIC] | | Monday, July 30, 2012 7:55 PM | Sam Laird |
|  Olympics fans like sports. But what do they Like? Facebook -- who else? -- holds many interesting insights there. Social media advertising company Compass Labs recently analyzed Facebook fans of the official Olympic Games and U.S. Olympic Team pages to compile some revealing profiles of how the two groups match up. And don't worry about a small sample size -- combined, the two pages have about 5.7 million fans. Compass Labs cross-referenced Likers' other favorited Facebook pages to find which sports, movies, brands and TV shows rate highest with each group. Overall, the two pages corral similar demographics. Both the U.S. team and the Olympics at large have fan bases that are about 55% female, and each count the 18-25 age group as their biggest bloc. After that, though, things get pretty different. U.S. fans list track and field as their top sport, but it's just eighth among overall Olympics aficionados. Fans of the Games in general go for, in order: ice hockey, badminton, archery, rowing, field hockey and gymnastics. None of those crack the top 10 sports for U.S. fans. Among individual athletes, however, swimmer Michael Phelps rules with both groups. When it comes to brand loyalty, fans of The Olympic Games tend to be a bit more worldly with their biggest favorites than fans of the U.S. Olympic Team do. National Geographic, Gucci and Air Canada take three of the top four brand spots among fans of the Games. US Olympic Team fans' most-like brand, according to Compass Labs? Dow Chemical Company. We're not quite sure what to make of that either. Check out the full Compass Labs report below. Does any of this data surprise you? Let us know in the comments. Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, cmannphoto |
| 20 TV Shows With the Most Social Media Buzz This Week | | Monday, July 30, 2012 7:29 PM | Allegra Tepper |
|  The Olympics are world champions when it comes to event television, so it's no surprise that the NBC broadcasts are dominating this week's social TV charts. Friday's opening ceremony garnered 8.9 million mentions, topping the total number of Twitter posts during the entire 2008 Beijing Olympics in just one day. And despite NBC's abundant slip-ups in just the first few days of the Games (see: #NBCFail), the network's social media efforts clearly haven't been for naught. SEE ALSO: Olympics Opening Ceremony Album Hits iTunes Top 10 in 19 Countries Other particularly buzzworthy events thus far? Swimming and women's gymnastics, both of which were nail-biters for Team USA. The women's gymnastics qualifying competition had audiences and competitors in tears after a surprising upset. The U.S.'s Jordyn Wieber, the 2011 World Women's All-Around Champion, placed fourth in the qualifiers after one Russian competitor and two of her teammates. Countries can enter just two gymnasts in the all-around final, so Wieber did not qualify to compete. In the pool, a USA showdown between power duo Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps caused a chatter. Lochte bested Phelps in the 400-meter individual medley, solidifying the notion that this is his time to shine. After taking home a record eight gold medals in Beijing, Phelps is taking his last few laps on the international stage. Aside from the Games, we've got to tip our hats to America's Got Talent, the only program that managed to edge its way onto the chart amidst the athletic competitions. The data is compliments of our friends at Trendrr, who measure specific TV show activity (mentions, likes, check-ins) across Twitter, Facebook, GetGlue and Miso. To see daily rankings, check out Trendrr.TV.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, subjug |
| Goodbye, Gmail Video Chat. Hello Google+ Hangouts | | Monday, July 30, 2012 5:30 PM | Chris Taylor |
|  If you enjoy video chatting over Gmail the way you've been doing it since 2008, better wave your last goodbyes to your buddy list. Starting Monday, and continuing over the next few weeks, Google is going to be replacing Gmail video chat with Google+ Hangouts. "Unlike the old video chat, which was based on peer-to-peer technology, Hangouts utilize the power of Google's network to deliver higher reliability and enhanced quality," reads the explanatory blog post written by the Gmail team. "You'll be able to chat with all the same people you did before -- and, in fact, with Hangouts you'll now be able to reach them not only when they are using Gmail, but also if they are on Google+ in the browser or on their Android or iOS devices." The search giant is eager to promote the use of its social network, and has in the past attempted to blur the lines between users of Gmail, Google Maps and other Google services. If you're logged into any of them, the company says, you're logged into Google+. Nefarious network-boosting purposes aside, Google Hangouts is clearly a superior technology. In our experience, Gmail video chat had a tendency to stutter and occasionally quit -- a quality shared in the past with iChat video, but not with Apple's Facetime, Skype or Google Hangouts. Hangouts also scales a lot better, making it much easier to add new people to the meeting. Audio is spectacularly good at long range. It's likely the best choice for a company looking for a free alternative to Cisco Telepresence, for example. And then there's the feature that the Gmail team hints at in its blog -- the ability to add moustaches, beards, halos and other personal decorations -- not to mention cat and dog masks -- which will appear to follow you throughout the chat. Are you sad to see Gmail video chat go, or excited to see how Hangouts can boost your Gmail experience? Let us know in the comments. |
| Here's the Man Who Started #NBCFail | | Monday, July 30, 2012 4:46 PM | Sam Laird |
|  The hashtag #NBCFail has become an unavoidable sight on Twitter these past few days. On July 27, the day of the opening ceremony, there were just 212 #NBCFail tweets. By July 28, there were 6,000. By July 29, there were 20,000. Summer Olympics fans, media nerds and commonplace critics alike use it to complain about shoddy streaming experiences, editorial mistakes and -- most of all -- NBC's preference for obfuscating footage of major Olympic events until airing tape-delayed primetime broadcasts stateside. After Twitter suspended the account of British journalist Guy Adams -- acceding to an NBC request -- the hashtag became a trending topic. But there's one man who tweeted #NBCFail before it was cool. His name is Steven Marx and he's a web designer out of Peoria, Illinois. Way back on July 26 -- a full day before the opening ceremony kicked off the Games in earnest -- Marx posted this prescient tweet from his Mac: Marx was referencing the network's streaming app, which promises to deliver all the action from London in real time, but doesn't mention until the fine print that you need to be a cable subscriber. Marx is a bit of an enigma -- but according to his website has done web work for a farm, a compost company, a massage therapist, and a dental office, among other clients. At time of writing he had just 18 followers, but we expect that number to grow. We've also contacted Marx for more details on the man who started a movement, and will update this story as we hear more. News of of Marx's avante garde tweet comes to us via the social media analytics company Peoplebrowsr, which tracks conversations across the web. NBC's coverage issues and lack of sharing spirit have also inspired a couple of hilarious parody accounts. Do the denizens of Twitter just enjoy being mean to big media -- or is this hashtag a sign that NBC really is screwing up badly? Give us your take in the comments. |
| Music Monday: Mashable's First MP3s | | Monday, July 30, 2012 1:02 PM | Katrina Ball |
|  Today, music is widely available and free thanks to the internet and streaming services such as Spotify and Rdio. We can find and listen to millions of songs through these live-stream services or through sites such as last.fm and Youtube. But not too long ago (before the dawn of iTunes), sites like Napster and Limewire ruled and downloading MP3s was the preferred mode of acquiring music. On this Music Monday we asked Mashable staffers: What was the first MP3 you ever downloaded? The responses were diverse and maybe even a little embarrassing, but we created a Spotify playlist to share them with you anyway. Looking back, downloading our first MP3 was a milestone in our lives and these songs offer a glimpse into our digital pasts. From Kelly Clarkson to Metallica, check out what we were downloading over dial-up. Music Monday is a weekly post that allows us to share the music we love with you. So every Monday we publish a Spotify playlist crafted around a specific theme. Last week we stepped even further back in time to bring you a playlist of our favorite Throwback Tunes, and we invited you to share yours with us. What does your first MP3 say about you? Whether it was from iTunes, Napster or your file-sharing service of choice, we want to know what the first song you ever downloaded was. Here's how you can share your first MP3 with us: Tell us in the comments. Make sure to include the artist and the song so we can be certain to find it. Tweet us your song choice @mashableHQ and use the hashtag #MusicMonday. If you send us a Spotify link, we'll give it a listen and add some of our favorites To grab a Spotify link, control-click on any song in Spotify and "Copy HTTP link."
If you're not a Spotify user, you can still send us a link to wherever the track is hosted, and we'll do our best to listen. |
| 11 Social Media Tips for the Public Sector | | Monday, July 30, 2012 12:01 PM | Nextgov |
|  Social media applications have become an (almost) accepted standard to explore new ways of communication between government and its stakeholders. However, government agencies willing to jump onto the bandwagon had to jump over many hurdles to make social media work for them. As early as December 2008, the powerhouse behind what is now known as HowTo.gov -- Bev Godwin, Sheila Campbell, Jeffrey Levy and Joyce Bounds -- have published a manuscript describing the hurdles and perceived barriers for new forms of online engagement. Many of these barriers prevented the rapid and risk-free adoption of social media technologies. Some of the perceived barriers were solved in the meantime. As an example, GSA signed model Terms of Service agreements with many social media providers. A few agencies were willing to jump into the cold water early on and started to experiment with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and so on, until GAO released a report directing government organizations to create social media policies for managing and protecting information they access and disseminate using social media applications. As a result most federal government agencies now have internal social media guidelines in place, which includes pdf documents of publicly available social media policies). Some guidelines only provide a general context for the use of third-party platforms others describe in very detailed fashion including daily schedules, accepted tools, directions for tactics, campaigns, etc. The Army social media handbook is already published in its third iteration. It not only includes guidance for the internal use of government-run social media accounts, but extends suggestions beyond the boundaries of organization to include family members who could potentially reveal sensitive information and thereby harm the Army's missions. Based on conversations with social media directors in the U.S. federal government and an analysis of the available social media guidelines, here's a list of elements for the design of social media guidelines in the public sector: 1. Social media use should support the organizational mission and overall communication strategy. 2. Government agencies need to decide what they regard as appropriate content and what online products they are willing to share with their stakeholders via social media. 3. The workload and decision responsibilities need to be assigned and distributed among a social media ringmaster, content creators and curators, account administrators, and content providers with expert knowledge about issues. 4. Before agencies can select the right tools it is important to understand the (potentially diverse) audience. 5. Access to social media content needs to be made available through alternative mechanisms to avoid exclusiveness. 6. I am a big fan of "hierarchy in the network" and always tell government officials who ask me for advice to clarify what their online netiquette includes, such as a comment policy or appropriate online conduct. EPA provides great guidance using this flow chart. 7. After all these issues are clarified and answered as part of a social media guideline, the tool question can be tackled: Where do an agency's stakeholders prefer to receive their information? On Facebook? Twitter? Via a newsletter? The answer should not be: We need to be on Facebook, because everyone else is. 8. After the tools are selected, guidance on how and who sets up and administers the accounts needs to be designed. 9. Daily routines need to be established. For different social media tactics see Government 2.0 revisited: Social Media Strategies in the Public Sector. 10. One of the most challenging tasks is to measure and interpret the successful use of social media tools on behalf of government. Many agencies use quantitative measures, such as counts of the increasing number of followers or likes. Others use anecdotes highlighting responses from their audience. Other more sophisticated approaches include the use of dashboard solutions by third-party providers. 11. Lastly, a social media strategy needs to include a section on training. Providing the resources, including opportunities to discuss tactics and strategies with peers, is however not only important for those employees who will be managing social media accounts, but also for top managers to understand the culture and changing social interactions with the public, as well as their evolving expectations. Read more in the IBM Center for the Business of Government's special report A manager's guide for designing social media strategy. |
| |  |  | | | TOP STORIES TODAY TOP TOPICS | |
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق