Feed: "Social Media" via Carlos Lorenzo in Google Reader - AggScore: 50.6

Have companies like Pinterest found Facebook's Achilles heel?social-media « WordPress.com Tag Feed

It’s the last day of Social Media Week here in NYC and I keep thinking back to some valuable insight I gained from this great keynote presentation given by John Winsor, innovator and CEO of the crowd-sourcing agency, Victors & Spoils. He made some excellent points about how brands need to have more relevant, collaborative experiences with their fans through, what he called, “micro-social networks”. This got me thinking…what are the signs of an evolving user-perception on social connectedness?  And, how does the social landscape continue to evolve?

It’s difficult to imagine someone ever going toe-to-toe with and snapping up visitors from the likes of social giants Facebook and Google. But, a few emerging innovators are determined to disrupt the social networking arena and they’re generating quite a bit of buzz in the process. Sites like Clipboard and Pinterest, among others, have made their presence known to users looking to change things up, while investors and big businesses are conjuring up ways to get in on all of the hype that’s circulating.

For those who aren’t aware, Pinterest, and its rival, Clipboard, are social networking platforms similar to Facebook, but they’re different in the sense that they offer an interesting playing-card-like thumbnail view for users to create online scrapbooks. The experience is similar to navigating an e-commerce site with the slight difference of the omnipresent in-your-face comments and an ever-changing wall of images that’s certain to trigger any signs of ADD.

As retailers look for ways to buy into its popularity, Pinterest still needs to find a sustainable business model that will generate some revenue, as well as deal with some of the privacy issues they face with shared user information.

Given all of the hurdles, it may sound futile.  But the company attracted more than 11 million unique visitors last month and is currently valued at around $200 million, according to an article in WSJ. With that kind of rapid growth, it isn’t difficult to think of ways for them to churn a profit.  Pinterest co-founder, Ben Silbermann, isn’t concerned about the details of profitability right now; a plan that harkens back to the early years of Facebook.

Whatever the strategy is, it seems to be working.  Last month, they launched their own timeline tool that hooks into Facebook’s timeline API to synchronize user statuses.  Since then, the number of Facebook users navigating over to Pinterest has grown an estimated 60% a day, according to this Venture Beat article.

So what’s all of the noise you’re hearing?  Perhaps it’s a sign that people are ready for change.  Or, just maybe, people have become acclimated to the constant stream of information and are craving more.  I’m speculating, of course. But, one of the moderately cool features that Pinterest has to offer is “pin”ning stuff with more relevant details to share.  I find that this could be more valuable to people, especially consumers who tend to base their buying decisions on reviews rather than simple “Likes”, which don’t carry any real intrinsic value.

What’s more, a large number of small businesses seem to be benefiting and finding huge spikes in online traffic to their sites.  Much of this could be attributed to users who are posting and, perhaps, inadvertently promoting small mom-and-pop shops through the images they post to their Pinterest walls, but, it’s still too early to tell.

So, what is happening to the social media landscape if Pinterest, Clipboard or any others plan to rival social giants like Facebook? Don’t know.  But, one thing that is certain.  Like human evolution, online social networks are changing and ultimately it’s not the social web anymore. The web is social.

The Top Vizzes of Q3 2011 | Tableau Publicsocial-media « WordPress.com Tag Feed

Fantasy sports reigned supreme in Q3 2011, taking the top six spots on the top 100. CBSSports and Grantland battled in the trenches like two giant linemen for the top spot. In the end, Jamey Eisenberg of CBSSports emerged from the pile victorious with his fantasy football draft preparation tool.

via The Top Vizzes of Q3 2011 | Tableau Public.

One Viz below that I hope will interest you as well:

2011 Worldwide Earthquakes:  175 Severe Cases, 143 Painful Days and 43 Mourned Countries

Relationships vs. Rhetoric in Public Relationssocial-media « WordPress.com Tag Feed

One of the more interesting classes I have taken in my pursuit of a master’s degree in public relations has been a look at the theoretical underpinnings of the industry.

Normally we don’t think of what we do as having a basis in theory. You can’t just pick up a theory and hold it toward the light. It’s an abstract concept. But it is helpful to ponder some of the competing ideas that try to explain what public relations is, why people and organizations engage in it, and why it works (or doesn’t work).

In that class, we spent a great deal of time discussing whether “relationships” are at the heart of public relations, or whether “rhetoric” is the basis of all that we do.

I was reminded of that discussion by a recent article by John Trader in PR Daily, which listed the “5 key traits of a successful PR professional.”

The article outlined the following must-have traits for anyone wanting to “make it” in public relations:

• Thick skin;
• Resiliency;
• Attention to detail;
• Creativity; and
• Relationship building.

In my experience, all five of these traits really are “must-haves,” but the final item intrigued me. There it was, plain as day: support for “relationships” as the bedrock of PR success. But reading deeper in the article, Trader described “relationship building” as the ability to “bridge communication chasms through quality conversations.”

That’s the point at which my PR professors would say “A-ha! And what are quality conversations made of? Rhetoric. The ability to communicate with others in such way as to persuade them of the rightness of your position, while being open to being persuaded if their arguments have greater merit.”

That is what a “quality conversation” is. Anything else is just a monologue.

As public relations practitioners continue to learn how to use social media to create and improve relationships with their publics, using the tools of effective rhetoric, it might be safe to say that instead of being in conflict with each other, relationships and rhetoric are actually the two sides of the same coin.

SAM ASH or GUITAR CENTER?!!! PLEASE GiVE YOUR OPINIONS ON COMMENT POSTSsocial-media « WordPress.com Tag Feed

Speaking Of Scumbag Companies, SAM ASH Has Made Around dollarsignr42,000 From Me & A.J Over The Last Decade & He Bought A Pioneer CDJ Last Week For dollarsignr975 After They Gave Him 10% Because The Guy Says AJ Is His Friend, But Obviously Everyone Is His FN Friend Because I Get 10% Off Everytime I Go There & With The Pathetic Business Pra ctices, I Started Going To Guitar Center & When I Called Them Yesterday To See How Much The Traktor Pro Duo Was, He Quoted Same Price As SAM ASH:dollarsignr600 & He Also Said He Would Take 15% Off. Not Too Shabby Considering Our “Friend” was gracious enough to hook it up with 10%~ Greed Is An Awful Trait. So, We Had To Drive Another 2 Hours For The 2ND Day In A Row. We Just Pulled Up, So Wish Us Luck.

Justin Timberlake, Egyptian mummies and dinosaurs.social-media « WordPress.com Tag Feed

#SMWsmac: The Hottest Social Media Tips [Nathan Latka]social-media « WordPress.com Tag Feed

The Top Vizzes of Q4 2011 | Tableau Publicsocial-media « WordPress.com Tag Feed

by Ross Perez – Feb. 9th 2012

The last bit of 2011 was a flurry of viz activity! David Jacoby from Grantland grabbed the top viewed spot with his very popular Reality TV Fantasy Scorecard. Take a look at the other vizzes in the Top 100 from last quarter, including the interactivity king, CBS Sports Fantasy Football Defense Selector below.

via The Top Vizzes of Q4 2011 | Tableau Public.

One Viz below that I hope will interest you as well:

2011 Worldwide Earthquakes:  175 Severe Cases, 143 Painful Days and 43 Mourned Countries

Twitter in the Classroomsocial-media « WordPress.com Tag Feed

There are so many ways that teachers can use Twitter in the classroom (and outside the classroom, too!) Teachers can Tweet reminders about assignments and provide links to interesting articles or websites.

Educause’s “7 Things You Should Know About Twitter” points to the value of Twitter as an active learning too to foster interaction about a given topic. This is a great video highlighting one teacher’s “Twitter Experiment.”

Watch history teacher Enrique Legaspi explain how Twitter has revolutionized his class discussions and helped him know more about his shy students, and modify his instruction to meet their needs.

Haitin krocle: 1 minute payday loans are perfect resolution for expenditures that crop up without notice. You can apply with us and get hassle free financial assist in spite of credit issues right away. http://www.1minutebadcreditloans.com/1-minute-payday-loans.htmlFriendFeed - social-media

Social Media: Haitin krocle 1 minute payday loans are perfect resolution for expenditures that crop up without notice. You can apply with us and get hassle free financial assist in spite of credit issues right away. http://www.1minutebadcreditloans.com/1-minut... 2 hours ago - Comment - Like

AMEX Continues to Support SMB Marketing Effortssocial-media « WordPress.com Tag Feed

If you’re a follower of this blog, you know that I really love the fact that American Express(AMEX) has so creatively embraced the SMB market-place with a myriad of direct and social media marketing support programs.  Over the past couple of years, AMEX has sponsored “Small Business Saturday” which falls on the day after Black Friday and two days before Cyber Monday.  Small Business Saturday has really caught on and this past year’s metrics were exponentially better than the first year’s effort in 2010.  Recently, AMEX also offered a contest for SMB’s to win a trip to Facebook HQ for a bootcamp and free advertising opportunities on Facebook.

Well, today ClickZ reports that AMEX has a new partnership with Twitter and as part of this will offer the first 100 SMB’s who sign up on their Open Forum SMB site $100 in Twitter Self-Service Ads.  Nice!  

The idea behind this is to help get SMB’s comfortable on Twitter, just as they have gotten so on Facebook.  The point of the whole thing is to help SMB’s more successfully market themselves.  AMEX does good things for the SMB’s — and creates loyal customers of them while doing so.  You know I love a win-win scenario.

And AMEX is really investing a lot in this program.  According to the article:

The current commitment by Amex and Twitter – $1 million worth of free ads – seemingly dwarfs last year’s Facebook contest.  At the same time, educating SMBs about the possible value of Twitter marketing will once again be key to Amex’s effort. The New York-based credit card firm will lean on its Open Forum microsite to provide how-to information on buying Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts, which will be the ad units sold on Twitter’s self-serve platform next month.

Kudos to American Express for continuing to expand their investment in this fast-growing business sector.  As it has been widely reported,  SMB’s are helping to fuel our country’s economic recovery.  So by making them more successful from a marketing perspective will help fuel that recovery more quickly — a good thing for all of us.

Have a great President’s Day Weekend!

GroupTweet lets multiple users contribute from the same Twitter accountsocial-media « WordPress.com Tag Feed

Here’s a cool service, called GroupTweet

• You set up a Twitter account to act as the “group account”
• Contributors include a hashtag in their tweets or @Mention the group account
• The group account then retweets each of the contributors’ messages
• You don’t have to share the login information for the group account
• You can show or hide the contributors’ names
• You can moderate the account

Twitter in the Classroomsocial-media « WordPress.com Tag Feed

There are so many ways that teachers can use Twitter in the classroom (and outside the classroom, too!) Teachers can Tweet reminders about assignments and provide links to interesting articles or websites.

Educause’s “7 Things You Should Know About Twitter” points to the value of Twitter as an active learning too to foster interaction about a given topic. This is a great video highlighting one teacher’s “Twitter Experiment.”

Watch history teacher Enrique Legaspi explain how Twitter has revolutionized his class discussions and helped him know more about his shy students, and modify his instruction to meet their needs.

New CRKT President's Day Social Media Promotion Launched Today!social-media « WordPress.com Tag Feed

...And Facebook Insurance Fraud Too... :-Psocial-media « WordPress.com Tag Feed

Should’ve known better than to check The Consumerist after the last entry….  :-D

The Consumerist – Florida Police Bust Garages For Illegal Tows, Insurance Fraud After Owners Seen Flashing Cash On Facebook

#SMWsmac: The Hottest Social Media Tips [Nathan Latka]social-media « WordPress.com Tag Feed