Where is Yahoo turning its attention to now? AllThingsD reports that Marissa Mayer iseyeing Tumblr with hopes to land some sort of deal, be it an acquisition or a percentage stake.
How “Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal” became a viral Vine video
The series of hilarious Vines is as clearly labeled as it is random: We see six-second clips of Gosling doing his thing in various roles as a slowly encroaching spoonful of cereal tries, unsuccessfully, to make its way into his mouth. Watch.
In an attempt to open up a new revenue stream for shareholders the social network is bringing videos to the newsfeed.
Can you recognize these online brands just based on the color of their sharing buttons? Answers, and some science behind color and branding.
Now available on Instagram: People-tagging
![Using Social Media To Make Offline Products More Meaningful
We may have pushed the digital image to its shareable limit, but there is still something nice about that framed desk photo (or album, or personalized tennis shoes).
With Google Street View, Yelp, Foursquare and a host of other location-aware technologies, we have successfully uploaded the world onto the Internet. It’s not enough, though, to have achieved augmented reality—the hyped tech trend that developers and entrepreneurs enthused over back in 2009. Now, as we stream the human experience 24-7, through our mobile devices and social services like Facebook and Instagram, the process is being, yet again, flipped on its head.
First, Some Cultural Context
Today’s human experience has been uploaded as a hazy, sutro-filtered snapshot, a carefully curated bite-sized moment to be easily digested and then swiped away by ever-hungry thumbs…While easily consumed, none of this is meaningful or exists in our very real world.
Bringing the Feed Offline
What today’s social retailers are getting right is that the most compelling content to consumers these days is the media created by the consumers themselves. Like a photo booth or Splash Mountain snapshot, the product is compelling because it captures a story and memory.
Yes, people’s lives are now instantaneous and attractive—and as people can better document their real-world experiences, they’re finding new ways to bring their lives, now shared in Facebook and edited in Instagram, back off the news feed and into their surroundings. Services like Blurb turns your Facebook photos into photo books.
Two fundamental components that drive companies around this model:
- These online social interactions are inherent in modern relationships and people have, through technology, become much more creative.
- If companies allow their customers to feel empowered in both aspects, the product could be as compelling and as viral as the media that personalizes it.
Beyond the Wall
While our interactions have become increasingly casual, we’re no less sincere in our relationships and interactions.
But up until now, brands and companies have been aiming to bring in revenue by drumming up conversations and interactions around these events instead of developing products directly from these conversations.
The ultimate goal for these and future companies is to turn these social feeds into a product and revenue source. This is the most meaningful content on the web today, and the race is on.
—Kealan Lennon is the CEO of Cleverbug. Find him on Twitter at @kealanlennon.
[Image: Flickr user Kris Krug]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/e1478dc157d34cd7013eec566aba669a/tumblr_mm4isaAWD91qzt7h7o1_500.jpg)
Using Social Media To Make Offline Products More Meaningful
We may have pushed the digital image to its shareable limit, but there is still something nice about that framed desk photo (or album, or personalized tennis shoes).
With Google Street View, Yelp, Foursquare and a host of other location-aware technologies, we have successfully uploaded the world onto the Internet. It’s not enough, though, to have achieved augmented reality—the hyped tech trend that developers and entrepreneurs enthused over back in 2009. Now, as we stream the human experience 24-7, through our mobile devices and social services like Facebook and Instagram, the process is being, yet again, flipped on its head.
First, Some Cultural Context
Today’s human experience has been uploaded as a hazy, sutro-filtered snapshot, a carefully curated bite-sized moment to be easily digested and then swiped away by ever-hungry thumbs…While easily consumed, none of this is meaningful or exists in our very real world.
Bringing the Feed Offline
What today’s social retailers are getting right is that the most compelling content to consumers these days is the media created by the consumers themselves. Like a photo booth or Splash Mountain snapshot, the product is compelling because it captures a story and memory.
Yes, people’s lives are now instantaneous and attractive—and as people can better document their real-world experiences, they’re finding new ways to bring their lives, now shared in Facebook and edited in Instagram, back off the news feed and into their surroundings. Services like Blurb turns your Facebook photos into photo books.
Two fundamental components that drive companies around this model:
- These online social interactions are inherent in modern relationships and people have, through technology, become much more creative.
- If companies allow their customers to feel empowered in both aspects, the product could be as compelling and as viral as the media that personalizes it.
Beyond the Wall
While our interactions have become increasingly casual, we’re no less sincere in our relationships and interactions.
But up until now, brands and companies have been aiming to bring in revenue by drumming up conversations and interactions around these events instead of developing products directly from these conversations.
The ultimate goal for these and future companies is to turn these social feeds into a product and revenue source. This is the most meaningful content on the web today, and the race is on.
—Kealan Lennon is the CEO of Cleverbug. Find him on Twitter at @kealanlennon.
[Image: Flickr user Kris Krug]
![4 Ways Your Company Can Deal With Disaster In A Social, Mobile World
The recent plant explosion in West, Texas and the explosions aboard two fuel barges on the Mobile River in Alabama foreground the question of how well companies are conveying information to nearby neighborhoods and businesses.
Relying on local authorities and news media can’t be the only options anymore—not in a world where information is so easily communicated across multiple channels in rapid fashion. And especially not when danger could be eminent, such as additional explosions or air quality issues.
According to the Pew Research Center’s State of the News Media 2012 Report, between 30 and 50 percent of nearly every demographic uses mobile phones and tablets to read news including on Facebook and Twitter.
Responsible, cutting edge companies will be the ones that not only convey information in a timely statement to the media but also utilize their homepage as well as company social media accounts.
Crisis communication expert George Smalley of Bridge Builder Communications says, “A company’s reliance on local authorities to serve as spokespeople during an industrial accident only works up to a point. In cases of off-site impacts, neighbors and other stakeholders expect to get information directly from the company, and not just via the news media. If a company doesn’t communicate using social media during a crisis, it risks damaging its credibility and reputation.”
So what are some of the must-dos a company should add to their crisis communication plan?
•Keep a “dark” crisis page for your website. This is a page that is not live anywhere on your website but can be immediately turned on in the event of a crisis. It should include an information phone number for the company, local emergency numbers, and links to the company’s social media accounts for updates.
•Start Twitter and Facebook updates immediately. Include links to the previously “dark” web page you have turned on as well as any other pertinent information. The faster you can do this, the faster your neighbors will help you spread the word.
•Text as many employees as possible at once. Do this with updated information including the links above. They in turn will help spread important information to their friends and family.
•Get your official company statement out as soon as you can. Do it right away, even if the company only has a few details on the crisis. If anything, the company can assure nearby businesses and neighborhoods that safety precautions are underway, an investigation will start as soon as possible, and can include the above links and phone numbers. Link this statement to the above website and social media accounts.
Read more here.
[Image: Flickr user Luis Argerich]
How else can your company prepare for a disaster in this social/mobile age?](http://25.media.tumblr.com/9dabf86f8014b0639002026b92af3a79/tumblr_mm2h4u01Ea1qzt7h7o1_500.jpg)
4 Ways Your Company Can Deal With Disaster In A Social, Mobile World
The recent plant explosion in West, Texas and the explosions aboard two fuel barges on the Mobile River in Alabama foreground the question of how well companies are conveying information to nearby neighborhoods and businesses.
Relying on local authorities and news media can’t be the only options anymore—not in a world where information is so easily communicated across multiple channels in rapid fashion. And especially not when danger could be eminent, such as additional explosions or air quality issues.
According to the Pew Research Center’s State of the News Media 2012 Report, between 30 and 50 percent of nearly every demographic uses mobile phones and tablets to read news including on Facebook and Twitter.
Responsible, cutting edge companies will be the ones that not only convey information in a timely statement to the media but also utilize their homepage as well as company social media accounts.
Crisis communication expert George Smalley of Bridge Builder Communications says, “A company’s reliance on local authorities to serve as spokespeople during an industrial accident only works up to a point. In cases of off-site impacts, neighbors and other stakeholders expect to get information directly from the company, and not just via the news media. If a company doesn’t communicate using social media during a crisis, it risks damaging its credibility and reputation.”
So what are some of the must-dos a company should add to their crisis communication plan?
•Keep a “dark” crisis page for your website. This is a page that is not live anywhere on your website but can be immediately turned on in the event of a crisis. It should include an information phone number for the company, local emergency numbers, and links to the company’s social media accounts for updates.
•Start Twitter and Facebook updates immediately. Include links to the previously “dark” web page you have turned on as well as any other pertinent information. The faster you can do this, the faster your neighbors will help you spread the word.
•Text as many employees as possible at once. Do this with updated information including the links above. They in turn will help spread important information to their friends and family.
•Get your official company statement out as soon as you can. Do it right away, even if the company only has a few details on the crisis. If anything, the company can assure nearby businesses and neighborhoods that safety precautions are underway, an investigation will start as soon as possible, and can include the above links and phone numbers. Link this statement to the above website and social media accounts.
[Image: Flickr user Luis Argerich]
How else can your company prepare for a disaster in this social/mobile age?
The White House Now Has Tumblr…
The White House, Tumbling Things
“We see some great things here at the White House every day, and sharing that stuff with you is one of the best parts of our jobs. That’s why we’re launching a Tumblr. We’ll post things like the best quotes from President Obama, or video of young scientists visiting the White House for the science fair, or photos of adorable moments with Bo. We’ve got some wonky charts, too. Because to us, those are actually kind of exciting.”
“[Viral investments] can be very good for the first people to hop on, but the people in the end just get destroyed.”
Twitter’s music page at music.twitter.com is very nearly live, and the expectation is that it will launch today.
Would you use a music service provided by Twitter? Is this a smart move for the social media giant?
Tracking Our Readers’ (Backhanded) Compliments
Our newest section Co.Lab’s is tracking reader feedback across social media platforms so that it can tailor its content to your needs…
And hit them up:
By tweeting @fastcolabs or talking to them on App.net, Tumblr, Facebook or Google+.
The Rise Of The Superconnector
I call them superconnectors because they link others in a more meaningful way than algorithms currently can, and they can’t survive unless they’re excellent at it.
Superconnectors follow a certain pattern: Helping others increases net productivity and success for both helper and helped.
Historically, there have always been people who can simply unlock doors; usually these are hard-to-reach folks like senators, celebrities, industry bigshots. Today’s entrepreneurial superconnectors are people mere mortals can access; their job is to show someone the right door and introduce the person with the key to it. And, fortunately for most of us, more of them are popping up all the time.
“You look at entrepreneurs and deals, and for me, very few of them came from a cold call,” Bethea explains. “I think there have always been connectors secretly weaving relationships together throughout the years, but now it’s getting brought into the light because it’s accelerating rapidly from social networking.”
Has a ‘superconnector’ helped you along the way?
THE WEIRD THING ABOUT FACEBOOK: STATUS UPDATES ARE THE MOST MEMORABLE WRITING YOU DO
According to a new study, we are one and a half times more likely to remember them than any other form of written language. In fact, we remember the random online blathering of friends and family two and a half times more consistently than we remember faces.
Facebook posts, as well as Twitter posts, are so memorable because they are what Mickes calls “mind ready”: unedited and unfiltered. They’re off-the-cuff remarks and thoughts. These words, which flow quickly and easily from your friend’s mind onto his Facebook page, are then absorbed by you with similar ease.
Will this affect how you use social media to brand yourself?
Learn how this brand used live video and hidden cameras to drive a social media campaign:
(Source: fastcocreate.com)
