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| How Social Media Is Changing Consumer Electronics, and CES | |  LAS VEGAS -- CES 2012 is almost over, and so is the nonstop avalanche of cutting-edge products, amazing concept technologies and goofy celebrity appearances. The show is supposed to be a beacon for the industry to predict trends, and if you analyze the haze surrounding the thousands of product unveilings and company announcements, some figures start to emerge from the fog: tablets and slim laptops, smart TVs, fitness gadgets, power efficiency. But for me, the thing that stuck out most at this CES was an exchange I had with another member of the media after Panasonic's whirlwind press conference (with a surprise cameo from Justin Timberlake). My friend emerged from the scrum of press and analysts swarming the stage in the post-event mob, greeted me, and asked, "Did they show any TVs?" I had to think. "Uh...." Then I remembered there was a brief mention. "Yeah, but they spent two minutes on them, tops." To be clear, there were certainly TVs in Panasonic's presentation, but in terms of specifying the models and features -- a staple of CES press conferences of yore -- there was just a blink-and-you'll-miss-it acknowledgement. Panasonic only really talked about the television in the context of larger ideas, like its eco initiatives and SmartViera connected-TV tech. It was a telling omission, and it wasn't the only one. All over CES 2012 I saw a shifting of focus from hyping technological achievements (Double battery life! Better color! More processing power!) to painting a picture of what those devices really offer, or more specifically, what they connect you with. The Myth of Consumption Various companies, particularly Intel, were in a hurry to debunk the so-called myth of consumption. That is, the idea that consumers just want to, well, consume -- that they're mere cattle using today's tech to seek out and passively "graze" on content -- is a fallacy, they say. Today's digital customers want to create, connect and interact as well. While that assertion feels spot-on, the raw technology can still impress. That big OLED TV from LG looks gorgeous. Parrot's Zik headphones are an remarkable piece of design. And those Ultrabooks? Hot. There's no question there was some great gear on display in Las Vegas this week, but I think most would agree that the new technology they bring to the table is evolutionary, not revolutionary. Whether a TV gives you 1 million colors or 4 million, or whether a phone runs at 1.2GHz or 1.5GHz doesn't really matter all that much to consumers. Even the lower specs are good enough for the vast majority of people. The Real Trend From CES 2012 Besides that, to focus on specs and performance is to miss the larger trend, the one that's really important. Consumers increasingly want their experience with tech to be social. A fitness gadget, for example, isn't just about working out -- it's about setting goals, working toward them, sharing your progress with friends and doing it all in a way that makes you feel good about yourself. This new way of thinking is much more than just adding Wi-Fi or integrating Twitter's API into a product. It's a paradigm shift for consumer electronics, and the companies that succeed are the ones who don't focus on simply building the best TV, phone or gadget. It's the ones who focus on the overall experience, on what they're offering that will keep customers coming back, possibly bringing a few friends with them. Take this one random statistic that flies in the face of conventional wisdom: When online streaming and downloading is factored in, consumers are actually watching more TV over the past few years, according to Nielsen. And this is over a time that's seen the rise of social networks, casual games and a host of other distractions that should theoretically be keeping people from getting around to catching up on The Big Bang Theory. Why is this happening? The answer, of course, is that these new services compete for a person's time to a point, but they also complement the TV experience. Chatter on Twitter and Facebook can sometimes get an audience more excited about a show, or a product, than traditional marketing ever could. Would Glee be as big a hit if it weren't for the nonstop social-media buzz around it? Could Dr. Dre's Beats headphones have been as successful with just word of mouth? Building the Social Experience It's not so much a trend as a reality: consumer electronics must go social to stay relevant. That reality was all over CES 2012 in many ways -- the proliferation of wireless technology, the widespread integration with mobile devices, the creation of novel apps. Even the move toward more green technology and power efficiency is a kind of social trend, one where consumers seek to connect to their world by making it better in a small but measurable way. But those trends are just step one. The companies that will be most successful capitalizing on them are the ones who merge all of them into an overall experience: one that's social, open and empowering. I don't know if Sony, Intel or Justin Timberlake will come out on top, but to find out who's winning, just check Twitter. BONUS: The Tablets of CES 2012 |
| 10 Tips for Dating in the Social Media Age | | 9:49:20 AM | Christine Erickson |
|  How many times have you overanalyzed or misinterpreted a love interest's text, let alone a public tweet or comment? And how come he only liked that funny picture I posted on his wall? Why didn't he comment on it? Has he lost interest in me? SEE ALSO: 36 Digital Tools That Make Long-Distance Relationships a Little Easier Real-time and geosocial sites have changed the dating game. While publicizing what you're doing and where you are all the time makes less room for dishonesty, it may also drive some people crazy. Say you asked someone out, and they declined because they made other plans. You're friends on Foursquare, so you know they checked in to a bar just a couple blocks away from you. Suddenly, you went from calmly accepting a decline to wondering why you weren't invited. That's not healthy. If you're victim of this type of logic, shut your laptop right now and go outside or read a book. There are certain guidelines everyone should follow on social media. Relationships are meant to be fun. It's as exciting to get to know someone in real life as it is on the Internet. If you spent all your time online and offline obsessing over someone, you'd run out of things to talk about by the third date. Here are ten things to keep in mind. Have you ever been in a similar situation? Let us know your best social media dating nightmare in the comments. Image courtesy of iStock, Creative Improv |
| New York Times 'Truth Vigilantes' Comment Draws Backlash, Humor on Twitter [PICS] | | Thursday, January 12, 2012 11:32 PM | Kate Freeman |
|  A New York Times column titled, "Should The Times Be a Truth Vigilante?" drew heavy criticism Thursday on Twitter and even spawned a fake account parodying Arthur Brisbane, NYT's public editor who wrote the piece. Brisbane asked if hard news reporters should push sources like politicians and companies if they provide the media with information that seems false. In an op-ed piece, Brisbane says, a reporter can call out a lie. But in a hard news piece, he questioned whether a reporter should just report the facts even if evidence points to those "facts" being false. Brisbane -- who is the fourth public editor for The Times and has an extensive journalism career that began in 1976 -- wrote a follow-up post explaining what he was attempting to articulate in the original piece, but it did nothing to soothe the annoyance of people on Twitter and commenters who were outraged at his "truth vigilante" question. SEE ALSO: Was the AP Wrong to Reprimand Reporters for Publishing News on Twitter First? The question did however provide some Twitter comedy. Check out some funny/clever/poignant tweets about The Times's debacle below. |
| How the Australian Open Is Acing Digital Media | | Thursday, January 12, 2012 10:40 PM | Sam Laird |
|  The 2012 Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament may just be the most digitally connected major sporting event of all time. A Slamtracker already provides real-time updates of qualifying play that began on Wednesday, and fans can relive and share their favorite moments via Facebook and Twitter through a database of classic matches. But the real fun begins when the tournament officially begins next Monday. Tournament officials plan to man the @AustralianOpen Twitter feed 24 hours per day all the way through final matches on Jan. 29 for the event's global audience. There will be a fan leader board that ranks players based on buzz and provides a social counterpoint to on-court results. There will even be a team of selected "Fan-bassadors" who prove themselves by being particular active online and sharing a wealth of tennis knowledge. The Australian Open has always been on the cutting edge of social media use among tennis's major Grand Slam competitions. But it's taking a new step this year by uniting everything under the umbrella of what organizers call a "social media hub" Fan Centre. "We're concentrating more than ever on engaging socially with our fans," Daniel Lattimer, who works on the digital team for the event, told Mashable. "We were the first Grand Slam on Twitter, and engagement has been going up there and on Facebook, so it's important to provide people with that complement to the actual watching of the tennis during the tournament." Australian Open fans won't just be able to engage in dialogue with one another and tournament officials via social media -- they'll also participate in competitions of their own and even have the spotlight turned back on themselves at times. The Fan Centre leader board will continuously rank the top 10 male and female players at the tournament according to who is being mentioned the most on social media and whose content is gaining the most views on the Australian Open site. Fan-bassadors, meanwhile, will be chosen according to who provides the most useful analysis and commentary from different corners of the globe and set up with profiles on the main tournament site featuring an avatar and small bio. The platform presents a great opportunity for fans to gain traffic for their personal blogs and sites via AustralianOpen.com's huge audience. "We're kind of tapping into people's competitiveness as fans as well as their love for the players," said Kim Trangrove, the digital manager for Tennis Australia, the sport's governing body Down Under. Lattimer said that they hope to have selected Fan-bassadors from as many countries as possible by tournament's end to help promote the Australian Open worldwide and spread news through different time zones. Additional digital initiatives of the tournament include live-streamed in-house video coverage, social prediction games, new mobile websites and apps for iPhone and Android. But the slew of social media engagement doesn't just serve the Australian Open -- it serves a more ambitious interest, too. "Our overriding goal is to increase interest in tennis; it always come back to that," Trengrove said. "Ultimately, we want to get people playing the sport too, and our goal is to get 4 million people playing here by 2016." How important to you think digital and social engagement is for sporting events like the Australian Open? Let us know in the comments. |
| 5 Proven Ways to Generate Revenue From Facebook | | Thursday, January 12, 2012 10:22 PM | Brian Carter |
|  Brian Carter is author of The Like Economy: How Businesses Make Money With Facebook and co-author of Facebook Marketing: Leveraging Facebook's Features For Your Marketing Campaigns. He is a keynote speaker, trainer and consultant. Facebook, with its 800+ million users, presents a huge opportunity for business. But the first question people ask is, "Can it really generate money?" If you've read any of the Facebook marketing case studies over the last year, you've seen examples of small business profits and boosts in ecommerce sales via Facebook sharing. If your business is ready to move toward Facebook profits, your next question should be: "What distinguishes profitable and unprofitable Facebook marketing campaigns?" First, consider your revenue model. What steps will get your users to buy? How do you attract their attention in the first place? What does the conversion funnel look like? And how does Facebook fit with the marketing channels that already work for you, like email, text messages and affiliate revenue? There are a number of strategies companies use to do Facebook business effectively. Let's look at five of them. 1. Advertising-Based Ecommerce Marketers can leverage the massive reach and highly customizable targeting of Facebook's ad platform. They can create ads that take clickers straight to an ecommerce site, bypassing fan marketing entirely. The ads-direct-to-websites option is often overlooked, but can be immediately profitable. If you're not 100% sure about committing to the time and creativity required for fan marketing, then test direct-to-site ad traffic first. For example, Vamplets.com, which sells plush vampire baby dolls, achieved a 300% ROI on ecommerce sales in its first month of advertising directly to the ecommerce site, according to a company representative. 2. Fan Marketing Ecommerce Fan marketing is selling to fans by posting from your page into their news feeds. Fans appear to be more responsive when acquired through ads than through contests, content or legacy. Data analysis in 2011 from companies like PageLever revealed that many multimillion-fan brand pages were reaching 7% or fewer of their fans. Some pages have hundreds of thousands of fans who never liked or commented on a post, and have not seen the page's posts for years. Success with fan marketing requires that you be as visible as possible to your fans, and EdgeRank has a time decay factor. New fans may be required in some cases. Some businesses have taken the radical step to start entirely new pages and use Facebook ads to grow a new and more targeted fan base. With their more sophisticated and up-to-date understanding of how to engage fans, they achieve better results than they had with their old page. Some profitable examples include Baseball Roses, Rosehall Kennel, WUSLU and SuperHeroStuff. Baseball Roses sells artificial roses made from real baseballs. Founder of the company, Mark Ellingson, explained that they were unsuccessful with Google AdWords because no one was searching for their innovative product. They achieved a 473% ROI from their spend on fan acquisition via Facebook ads. Rosehall Kennel breeds and sells German Shepherds, and has achieved more than 4,000% ROI on its fan acquisition spend, according to owner Eliot Roberts. What's more, they have seen fewer requests for discounts and a shorter sales cycle. WUSLU is a Woot-like site for home decor. While the company would not release exact profitability numbers, they are excited about their Facebook marketing results and have no plans to stop. SuperHeroStuff.com's founder Ronando Long told me that when the company began to use Facebook in 2011, it was the only new thing they were doing, and their revenues increased 150%. 3. Facebook Ads and Email Many companies already have email dialed in. They know how much the average email subscriber is worth to their company, and they have an email marketing process that's profitable. For these companies, whether they initiate fan marketing or not, it makes sense to use Facebook ads to acquire even more subscribers, as long as those subscribers are qualified. Facebook advertising can be targeted according to 16 different criteria, including age, gender, interests, location, relationship status, connection to pages you admin, workplace, education level, majors in college and more. Add to that some ad copy that calls out the people you want to target, and you can ensure these new subscribers are qualified. By sending contest-based email campaigns integrated with social networking, one Fortune 500 company achieved a 400% increase in email open rate, click rates of 14%, and one-fifth of their email subscribers also became fans, according to Steve Gaither, president of JB Chicago, the marketing agency that worked with the company. 4. Facebook Ads and Text Messaging Businesses haven't rushed to adopt SMS marketing, but 24% of mobile marketers have found their campaign ROI met or exceeded their expectations, and 4% of all mobile users have responded to a coupon for a product or service. One local store (from a popular fast food franchise I'm not allowed to name) boosted revenue with this approach. It posted information about free text message coupons to its Facebook fans. Fans who opted in received an SMS coupon every day for 30 days. The result was $65,000 additional store revenue. 5. Generating Traffic to Your Ad-Supported Site If you're a publisher or blogger, content is your stock in trade, and advertising is usually your bread and butter. Why not create a Facebook page for your site, grow that fan base, then post a link to every new article? This boosts traffic to your website. Since your advertising revenue is tied to pageviews, more traffic from new readers and repeat traffic from fans mean more advertising revenues for your website. Proud Single Moms, which created a Facebook page, grew about 98,000 fans via Facebook ads for less than $5,000, according to the site's creator. Since the website uses AdSense ads, they chose to blog on topics that not only were interesting to moms, but which also had Google keywords generating high click fees. You can use a combination of the Facebook advertising platform and AdWords' Keyword Tool to find interesting and profitable topics. Then they posted links to their blog posts on Facebook each day. Proud Single Moms was on track to break even on its initial ad investment within six months, and was privately sold to another party. Which Revenue Model Should You Choose? If one of these models isn't an obvious match for your business, I'd recommend you first test direct Facebook ads to whatever is already working for your business. Do you have products or services that already sell well? Use Facebook ads to send more traffic to them. Fans can also be affordably acquired through Facebook ads, but make sure you understand the amount of time and creativity required for fan marketing before you start. Companies that jump into fan marketing without that understanding and a good plan usually post in a way that doesn't lead to much interaction. Then, EdgeRank reduces the reach and value of your Facebook page. Overall, the ROI of your efforts becomes low or negative. But when you get the right fans from Facebook ads and engage them with interesting content, profits often follow. |
| Charting the CES Chatter, Thursday Edition [INFOGRAPHIC] | | Thursday, January 12, 2012 9:35 PM | Sam Laird |
|  Motorola, Twitter and OLED display technology ruled on Wednesday at CES 2012. Microsoft still has the largest share of overall tweets tagged #CES, but its grip on the conversation slipped again on the expo week's third day. And Mashable became Wednesday's most-tweeted news site for the CES scoop. This is our latest glimpse into what has techies talking this week in Las Vegas, provided again by Simply Measured analytics. The statistics offer a quantified analysis of who and what is grabbing electronic attention at one of the world's most important trade shows. Here we offer Simply Measured's findings for Wednesday's buzz, as well as which brands have been dominating the conversation all week. Click here for our rundown of Tuesday's stats, and here for our recap of Monday. How Did Wednesday's Overall Twitter Chatter Compare to Last Year? On Wednesday, #CES-tagged tweets showed roughly the same general trend as on the event's second day in 2011: rising popularity in the morning before a trail-off as the afternoon wore on. But people maintained their Twitter tenacity at a higher rate in 2012 than in 2011, with the gap between tweets from the two years much wider in the late morning and afternoon than earlier in the day. Why is this? We're not sure. Twitter use has grown significantly over the past year, so maybe while there are more users at CES 2012 better parties have led to harder mornings? (Note on graphics: CES officially runs Tuesday through Friday, so Monday is referred to as "Day 0," Tuesday is referred to as "Day 1," and Wednesday is referred to as "Day 2.") What Were Wednesday's Hottest Brands? Motorola took the day, consistently gaining more mentions than other bands and enjoying a huge spike likely related to the news that Intel had agreed to a multi-year deal for Intel-based Motorola phones and tablets. Interestingly, however, Intel didn't get the same boost in buzz. Aside from Motorola, Samsung performed solidly throughout the day, while HP had a couple of modest bumps in the evening and around midday. What Tech Trends Had People Talking? For the third consecutive day, more people discussed OLED display technology than any other tech-world trend. But tablet devices finally passed ultrabook laptops in popularity; ultrabooks were second and tablets third on both Monday and Tuesday. Gaming technology made a big jump on Wednesday as well, edging out tablets for second place on the day. What Were Wednesday's Most Popular Domains? As usual, news and social sharing sites dominated the list of most-tweeted domain names on the #CES hashtag. But a couple of new leaders emerged, with mashable.com replacing ces.cnet.com as Wednesday's go-to news site and twitter.com taking over for the first time as the most-tweeted overall domain. For other sharing sites, youtube.com held firm near the head of the pack, while facebook.com interestingly took a precipitous drop in mentions from nearly 1,500 on Tuesday to just over 300 on Wednesday. Who Are the Overall Brand Leaders? Microsoft has still grabbed the largest total share of #CES-tagged tweets, holding steady at 6% of the total count for the second consecutive day. But the Seattle tech giant's daily share of tweets has decreased consistently since it corralled a whopping 12% on Monday behind Ballmer's big speech to kick off the company's final CES appearance. Among the top 10 overall, Google still gets the most value per tweet, as people who mention it have the most followers on average. But enough from us. What does all this data tell you about who is making a mark at CES and why? Let us know in the comments. |
| Google: Sorry, Twitter, We Don't Index the @ Symbol | | Thursday, January 12, 2012 8:54 PM | Sarah Kessler |
|  If you haven't noticed that Google+ pages are increasingly becoming a part of Google search results, you may have noticed Google and Twitter's increasingly public spat about it. Twitter argues that by promoting Google+ in search results, Google isn't providing the most relevant social results. Meanwhile, Google has implied it would promote more pages from Twitter if it had adequate permission to do so. Twitter general council Alex Macgillivray then tweeted an example of why he thought Google's new results were inefficient: Google search results for the search term "@WWE" -- yes, with the "@" symbol -- that did not include the organization's Twitter page. Now Google has confirmed to Mashable that it has never indexed the "@" symbol. In other words, the search engine has never recognized a Twitter handle when it was formatted that way. So while a search for "WWE Twitter" still returns the organization's Twitter feed before its Google+ page, "@WWE" returns the same results as "WWE" -- in this case, with Google+ results first. Somehow a search for "+WWE" succeeds in returning a Google+ profile. But really, Google? The company with a car that drives itself? In more than five years of people searching for Twitter handles, you never got around to adding the @ symbol to your index? Even without the @ sign being indexed, however, the concern over the results for "@WWE" are valid: About 24,900 people have +1ed or added WWE to their circles on Google+ - but 792,642 people follow WWE on Twitter. In this case, and many others, the Twitter page is a more relevant social result than the Google+ page. Twitter ranks higher than Google+ for the WWE in Yahoo, AOL and Bing results. On the other hand, Twitter and Facebook haven't necessarily made it easy for the search engine to feature them in results. Facebook denies Google's crawlers access to its private pages, for one obvious reason -- they're private. Twitter includes "nofollow" links on its pages that stop Google's crawlers from understanding where links in tweets point to. As Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan has pointed out, Google has indexed at least 3 billion pages. But Twitter users create 200 million Tweets every day that would be hard to index without access to the network's firehose -- access to which Google lost with expiration of an agreement last July. In the end, exactly how Google search results came to be dominated by Google+ pages -- either as a result of having little access to other social networks or by intentionally ignoring them -- isn't that important. The important question is whether or not this domination is good for consumers. An issue which, if a complaint from privacy watchdog EPIC is effective, could be settled by the FTC. |
| 4 Short-Form Blogging Networks Perfect for Customer Engagement | | Thursday, January 12, 2012 8:05 PM | Anne Buehner |
|  Anne Buehner is the associate social media strategist at Red Door Interactive, a strategic partner dedicated to ensuring businesses acquire, convert, retain and engage their customers wherever they are. Email her at abuehner@reddoor.biz. Toasting the new year is not what it used to be. Which comes first - a kiss from your loved one or uploading a photo of the ball drop to Instagram? This type of midnight social media madness provides a great snapshot into the lives of the consumers who may buy your product or service in 2012. It's time to take direct aim at your audience, or at least try to satisfy their appetite for moment-to-moment content. With 2011 in the rearview mirror, you're likely forecasting a fresh social media/instablogging strategy for the new year. You've probably heard that a brand relationship needs to mirror a personal one, but which self-publishing platforms can really accomplish this esprit de corps? One of the easiest ways for brands to leverage warm and fuzzy feelings is to play in the same social spaces as your friends and family would. However, it can be difficult to decide which platform is the right fit for your brand - in addition to the standards Facebook and Twitter, of course. Which sites help brands keep up in the real-time content race? Which sites really drive engagement? Here are a few I see as emerging leaders. 1. Tumblr Brands use Tumblr to create a community and to build a following fast with its quick and easy setup, seamless tagging and sharing capabilities. Existing brands also use the short-form blog to breathe life into content through a host of mixed-media that includes photos, links and video. However, you don't want to shoot from the hip with Tumblr -- it requires a content strategy, branded "look and feel" and management approval to re-blog other images. You'll want to use Google Analytics to track traffic since Tumblr does not offer a reporting platform. Tumblr also does not have the best reputation when it comes to collaborating with brands on advertising opportunities. Anthropologie recently launched a Tumblr blog called Etymologie. The posts are inspired by reader-submitted words and the content is more lifestyle-driven, rather than promotional. Ace Hotel uses a Tumblr called Everything Will Be Okay, with a philanthropic focus and subtle "get a room" reference to its hotels. The Tumblr platform isn't just suited for big timers; it can work for a small companies looking to find fans in a target audience of 34-years-old and younger. 2. Pinterest Brands use Pinterest to build brand personality and inspire trends and influencers through instant social sharing. Pins are typically centered around major life events such as weddings and holidays. Users create theme-based collections through the site's virtual pinboards. Dialogue is generated through the simple act of Pinning, Repinning, Liking and commenting on images taken on a smartphone or from the web. Pinterest presents a helpful tool for brand direction by analyzing what is frequently Pinned and why. With over 400,000 visitors per month - and rapidly growing - Pinterest is a huge referral source for brands. Real Simple recently reported that Pinterest drove more traffic to its website than Facebook in the month of October. Smaller brands should take note of Cabot Cheese, which uses Pinterest to curate photos of food that can be made with its cheese -- other boards include fun photos of cows, farms and Vermont. While the site's list of etiquette states "avoid self-promotion," aka soft sell, it does not include stipulations around contests. Lands' End took advantage of this in December with the engagement contest Lands' End Canvas Pin It to Win It. The promotion encouraged users to browse its modern clothing line and make Boards for a chance to win apparel. 3. Instagram Brands use Instagram to showcase products, services, events or just a behind-the-scenes look through a feed of photos, instead of a slew of text. The photo sharing application for iPhone uses dazzling image filters, and features cross-posting to other social networks including Twitter, Facebook profiles, Flickr, Foursquare, Tumblr and Posterous. The goal is to attract new fans with Instagram's search and keyword function, and to draw engagement through likes, comments, @replies and #hashtags. Instagram provides relatively seamless integration with dozens of third-party applications, including Statigram, which offers analytics. Brands with an existing following can thrive on Instagram. In 2011, more than 150 million images were uploaded to the platform in less than a year by more than 8 million users. Popular t-shirt company Threadless is a great insta-success story, recently passing 70,000 followers, some of whom submit their own designs. One big drawback: Instagram is still not available for Android, and the application doesn't integrate with Facebook brand pages. What it does do is make your pictures look good - really good. For me, Instagram feels like a safe space, where I can sift through gorgeous real-time photo updates from friends, family and my favorite shoe company, all in one place. 4. Tout Brands use Tout to create real-time, 15-second video status updates captured from Apple and Android smartphones, and then distributed through social networks. Instant video sharing is on the rise as more and more consumers use smartphones. Tout offers integration across multiple platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, and does include analytics. It's essentially video Twitter. Brands that want to utilize creative ways to showcase new products or services, make announcements, give a behind-the-scenes look, or "tout out" to show appreciation for fans or staff may want to experiment with this platform. You might remember when Shaquille O'Neal famously announced his retirement from basketball via Tout. Similar to Instagram, brands without a decent following shouldn't start with Tout first, but add it on to their existing social strategy. Tout is still in its toddler stage, asking for suggestions from its community to help drive the product road map for the platform. Perhaps you can help navigate how Tout would best suit your brand. I also think Tout requires client management, and doesn't really work in the B2B space. You can't share Tout directly from your smartphone to YouTube, only to Twitter, Facebook and email. You can cut YouTube videos down and then upload your favorite 15-seconds to Tout. No matter what platform you choose, if you're providing springboards for spontaneity around your brand, you generate a more transparent, empowering and compelling message for the audience - one that can help build and strengthen communities at a rapid pace with the snap of a camera, Pin or click. Understanding and developing a strategy around these tools gives your brand control over the real-time moments that today's connected generation craves. After the midnight toast, it's time to Pin, Tumble and Tout. Image courtesy of Flickr, libraryman |
| Privacy Watchdog Complains to FTC: Google's Social Search is Unfair | | Thursday, January 12, 2012 6:59 PM | Sarah Kessler |
|  Twitter isn't the only party that thinks merging Google+ with Google search results is an abuse of its monopoly power in search. Privacy watchdog EPIC filed a complaint with the FTC on Thursday, saying that Google is using its search engine to create an unfair advantage for its social network. The report says Google is highlighting results from Google+ at the expense of pages that might be more relevant. "For example," EPIC executive director Marc Rotenberg wrote in a letter to the FTC, "the right-hand display of notable business and Google+ users replaces highly-visible advertising space, even for consumers who have no Google+ accounts and are not logged in to Google." The letter cites research by Harvard Business School professor Benjamin Edelman, who has found more than a dozen Google services receiving favored placement in Google search results. "Some have developed into solid products with loyal users," Edelman wrote in a blog post. "Others are far weaker. But each enjoys a level of favored placement in Google search results that other services can only dream of." (UPDATE: As a commenter pointed out, Edelman has done consulting work for Google-competitor Microsoft.) When Google announced changes to its search engine on Tuesday, Twitter issued a statement calling them "bad for people." Twitter general counsel Alex Macgillivray tweeted an example of a page he felt demonstrated the new system's inefficiency. The page showed Google search results for the search term "@WWE" that didn't even include the organization's Twitter page. These results were different than those returned since November, because they included a list of Google+ pages related to @WWE in a right-hand column. Because Google doesn't index the "@" symbol, they are the same results that "WWE" would return. About 24,900 people have +1ed or added WWE to their circles on Google+ -- but 792,642 people follow WWE on Twitter. Macgillivray's point: that the WWE's Twitter page is a more relevant social source than its Google page and should be represented as such in Google's search results. Twitter ranks higher than Google+ for the WWE in Yahoo, AOL and Bing results. |
| Use an Alias, Leave Better Comments [STUDY] | | Thursday, January 12, 2012 5:06 PM | Lauren Indvik |
|  Commenters who use pseudonyms tend to offer better comments, a study Disqus suggests. The study, drawn from commenting platform Disqus's 60 million-plus user base and nearly half a billion comments, finds that pseudonymous users -- that is, those who use an alias on Disqus rather than identify themselves via Facebook, or log in anonymously -- tend to leave both a greater quantity and quality of comments. Quality was determined by the frequency with which comments were liked, flagged, marked as spam, deleted and responded to. On average, commenters using an alias contributed 4.7 times more often than commenters identified by Facebook, and 6.5 times more often than anonymous commenters. Pseudonymous comments also tend to elicit positive reactions (61%) -- i.e. likes and/or responses -- compared to Facebook-identified users (51%). Not surprisingly, anonymous commenters tend to be the worst. Of the comments analyzed in the study, only 34% were deemed "positive," while 55% were deemed neutral and another 11% marked negative. It's necessary to approach the findings with some reservations, however. Some of Disqus's data is presented in a way to promote its own system over Facebook's third-party commenting plugin, which has quickly gained traction among some 400,000 third-party publishers to date. At the end of its infographic on the study, for instance, Disqus points out that pseudonymous commenters account for 61% of all comments, without noting the percentage of such commenters versus those using their (presumably true) Facebook identities. That said, there's plenty of evidence to support Disqus's findings -- Reddit's and Gawker's comments sections being prime examples. |
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