The Social 6: 8/29/12 News Roundup
By all you know the drill: I share the stories y'all found most interesting over the last 24 hours. So if you disagree with the picks, you'll just have to comment/retweet/favorite things more tomorrow ;)
#6: Social media plays a huge role in product discovery for beauty consumers
This Andrew McDougall piece outlines how social media marketing is on the rise among larger beauty conglomerates such as P&G and L'Oreal.
#5: My Personal Social Story: Why Social Media Platforms Are Fads
April Rudin of The Rudin Group shares her story, which isn't really an anti-social media rant as you might think. Instead, April shows how "social" has always been present in her life, and where she thinks "social" will be going in the near future.
#4: Despite its falling out w/Twitter, Flipboard added 15M users over the past 8 months
While there hasn't been as much buzz around Flipboard lately, it's interesting to see how the adoption of their news aggregation apps haven't slowed down one bit - in fact, they're growing at a 300% clip.
#3: How to stop "social media shiny object syndrome"
Jason Keath of SocialFresh delivers a great piece (as always) summarizing a recent SocialFresh webinar, and outlines 8 steps to take to properly analyze social media shiny objects.
#2: SumAll Social Metrics Tracks Social Activity Against Web Traffic & Revenue
TechCrunch shares how SumAll, a data visualization firm, has launched SumAll Social Metrics, which can help a company track all of its social activity against KPIs such as web traffic and revenue. Another example of how the conversation is changing from how to get your company to engage, to how your company can monetize that engagement.
#1: How to be yourself on social media...without freaking out your boss
This Forbes piece by Dorie Clark (a writer you need to be following) on how to walk the fine line between representing yourself well online, and embarrassing your company. Dorie's tips are great ways any employee can start thinking about their own approach to social media.
The Social 6: Stories You Missed This Past Weekend, 8/27/12
Social Media 101: Getting Started On The Top Social Networks - Business 2 Community
Reading this Business to Community piece made me feel like I was reading one of the earlier chapters of my upcoming book Going Social (shameless plug). Really nice set of tips if you're just starting out.
How Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope developed a winning social media campaign
I don't normally share Jewish news despite growing up as a Modern Orthodox Jew, but this crosses over into my love for leveraging social platforms to create value. This Clodagh McGowan (great name) on Brooklyn Ink gives great insight as to how the congregation used grassroots support to create a powerful campaign.
Big investors rethinking social media
This San Francisco Chronicle piece outlines how the stock market's treatment of Facebook, Zynga and Groupon has led many Silicon Valley insiders to rethink their investments in social platforms. I believe this to be ultimately a good thing, as investors will really be thinking about what companies are working on initiatives that can be monetized in the near future, versus companies that brag about how many users they have without a clear path towards building impressive revenue numbers.
How Instagram's New Geotagging Feature Can Be Used by Brands
While the title is somewhat misleading in that Instagram has had geotagging for awhile (its Photo Map is truly the new innovation), this article by Allie Snelius outlines some of the opportunities now available to brands.
She's 14, Going on 140 Characters
This New York Times piece really elicited a ton of clicks. It profiles Maude Apatow and her intense Twitter following of 67,000+. Pretty nice profile; I personally loved seeing how her famous director/producer father, Judd, uses Twitter to engage with her.
Barry Diller's InterActive Corp acquires About.com for $300M
Pretty big business move, as Barry Diller’s massive but surprisingly under-the-radar Internet conglomerate InterActiveCorp (IAC) has purchased About.com for $300 million in cash, according to reporting from the New York Times and Mashable.
The Social 6: 8/24/12 News Roundup
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: Nicholas Sparks Beat Box Office Predictions After Social Media Campaign
While this is old news in that The Lucky One came out earlier in the year, Jason Boog of Galleycat shows how author Nicholas Sparks used social media to spark (sorry, I tried to avoid it!) increased word of mouth and box office receipts.
News Corp.'s Jonathan Miller, who has led its digital efforts for a year years, is stepping down. This is just one of many executive moves since the company announced it would be splitting its traditional publishing business from the company's other properties. Miller's departure is just another sign that News Corp. is going through a pretty significant overhaul.
#4: Facebook Has 44% Fake Followers; Twitter Has 33%
The @facebook account on Twitter's following is 44% fake, and @twitter's number is at 33%. That's according to the new online tool provided by StatusPeople, a social media management company out of London, that looks at a Twitter account's following and estimates its number of fake, inactive, and authentic followers. I've tried this tool, and while I can't (yet) attest to their entire methodology, it's certainly a good place to start. From some of the accounts I've tested already using their tool, it appears that it's at the very least a good tool to get a directional sense of whether or not you have an inactive/fake follower problem.
#3: Mayor Bloomberg & NYC launches digital toolkit for small businesses
Mashable, Google, Tumblr, Weebly have partnered with the City of New York to provide small businesses a digital education program to, essentially, start kicking butt and taking names with respect to their digital aptitude. Rachel Sterne, NYC's Chief Digital Officer, will be teaching the Digital Toolkit's first course on September 20th. All in all, a really cool initiative to give small businesses some of the tools they need to compete effectively.
#2: 7 Ways YouTube Can Grow Its Platform
Is YouTube still one of the top social platforms, and the web brand most associated with video? Absolutely. However, it's important to continuously innovate and address its challenges to stay ahead. In my second piece for Mashable, I outlined ways that YouTube can accomplish just that, some of which are already in the process of being addressed (good for them!).
#1: 3 of 4 CMOs Say Social Media Impacts Sales
This Forbes piece shares results of a Bazaarvoice survey asking 100 members of the CMO Club how they feel about social media. While it's a pretty small sample size, over half of the CMO respondents represent brands with over $1 billion in annual revenue, so it's very interesting -- and important -- to note their results on how social media affects sales.
The Social 6: News You Missed Yesterday, 8/23/12 Edition
#6: How the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur Branded Himself Too Well - New York Times (blog)
Mike Michalowicz branded himself “The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur” back in 2008, yet now he's trying to rebrand himself -- and social media is pushing back! Very interesting story detailing #1 how to brand yourself, and #2 how to think about social media may play a part in making it difficult to rebrand if you're successful at #1.
#5: It's Not Too Soon to Think About Crowdfunding - New York Times (blog)
Another NY Times blog piece that resonated with many of you. Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, offers up some tips for social entrepreneurs looking to turn to crowdfunding.
#4: How Social Media plays a role in the B2B sales process
Kevin Jorgensen offers up a very useful Business 2 Community piece for understanding how social media fits into the B2B sales cycle.
#3: Progressive’s social media fail may be warning
Haven't heard about Progressive's recent social media crisis? The insurance giant had to deal with a social media firestorm in the past week after a consumer, Matt Fisher, used Tumblr to voice complaints about how Progressive treated his family poorly when the family tried to collect on his deceased sister’s Progressive policy.
#2: Thanks to Verizon's vacation blackout window, we know when iPhone 5 is launching
It's always fun trying to figure out when the latest Apple releases are hitting stores, and with the iPhone 5 it's no exception. Read this piece to get a sense of when you'll be able to purchase your iPhone 5 at Verizon.
#1: YouTube will be offering mobile ads
YouTube will at long last be actually offering up mobile ads, giving Google another revenue stream, and helping to lead the way in monetizing mobile. This is going to be huge. Mark my words.
