April 2009
28 posts
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March 2009
67 posts
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UK Top Chef Twitter Challenge →
The Observer challenges U.K. top chefs to take part in a growing phenomenon of tweeting full recipes in the allotted space of 140 characters or less.
So a simple tomato sauce recipe (by Angela Hartnett, protégé of Gordon Ramsay) would look like:
Heat 4T olvoil. + onion/squashedplumtoms/tompuree/garl/sug/rosemary. Remv rosemary. Heat low30m. + Oil to srv.
Could be a cool challenge for...
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YOU CAN BE A CELEBRITY (on Twitter...kind of)
The social media community was atwitter (word play!) last week with the news that the first family of mediocre talent, the Lohans, had joined Twitter. No, not the Lohan you’re interested in, but her even-less-talented family: Mom of the Year Dina, her Patty-and-Selma-voiced sister Ali, and her brother Cody.
Dina did all sorts of madcap things that any great mom would do…like...
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“It’s 140 characters. It’s so few characters. If you need a ghostwriter for that,...”
– Shaquille O’Neal, a.k.a. THE_REAL_SHAQ, in The New York Times
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Finally: STAR JONES HAS A BLOG!
Star Jones has some extra time on her hands. Time she formerly spent bedazzling her decollatage for appearances on The View and finding garishly printed gowns, reminiscent of couches, to wear to society events.
So what do people with extra time do? They blog! Star has just introduced “Positively Star,” a blog launched on “the occasion of my 47th birthday…to celebrate...
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“I don’t have a devotion to Twitter. I didn’t sell out to Twitter....”
– John Mayer
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The President's First Twitter Post since January →
President Obama has tweeted once again! His first post since January 19. It says:
Question about the economy? Ask President Obama.
And then there’s this link, http://www.whitehouse.gov/OpenForQuestions/ , encouraging you to post a video of yourself asking him a question!
- Rebecca
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WatchAs we all know, Americans have nothing but total, absolute respect for the sanctity of marriage. The Bachelor, Who Wants To Marry a Multi-Millionaire, and Britney Spears are all shining examples of said respect.
America, brace yourself for the greatest celebration of love and marriage yet: Married on MySpace. Up until now, MySpace was just a place for 40-year-old sexual predators. But now, it...
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"Please, Sir, How Do You Retweet?": Twitter to Be... →
As part of a wider push to make online communication and social media a permanent part of the UK’s education system, the British government is proposing that Twitter be taught in elementary schools.
In addition to the usual suspects (math, English and science), kids will be taught blogging, podcasting and how to use Wikipedia. However, there will be an option for teachers to forgo Victorian and...
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WatchOur client Kijiji is currently hosting a Pet Fitness Sweepstakes to help pets get in shape for the summer (did you know that 44 percent of dogs and 57 percent of cats are estimated to be overweight or obese?). If you live in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Atlanta, or Houston, enter a photo of your pet for the chance to win a $1,000 pet supply gift card! Your pet will also be featured on...
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Vespa Feels the Bromance →
Photo credit: LA Times
Vespa just kicked off a MySpace contest for the new Paul Rudd comedy I Love You, Man. Users who become friends of the movie’s MySpace page and comment on what they would do for their BFF are entered in the “I Love You, Man: How Far Would You Go for Your Bro? Comment Contest” for a chance to be awarded the scooter used in the movie. In my opinion, this is a really...
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RT @TheRealAniston: @JohnCMayer, We're Over
Oh Jennifer Aniston, my delicate flower with an excellent nose job. You have been through so many breakups! If you were 25 pounds overweight, lived in Des Moines and worked in data processing, you would certainly own at least three cats and would eat Betty Crocker icing directly out of the tub with your hands, as an emotional response to said break-ups.
But no, you are a mega-celebrity, and...
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Marketers Moving to Social Media →
According to an article from eMarketer about “The ROI on Social Media Marketing” report from the Aberdeen Group, many marketers are finally incorporating social media into their plans. Findings from the study reveal that 63% of the companies surveyed planned to increase their social media marketing budgets this year.
Despite the increase of spending on social media, however, over 50% of...
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7-Eleven Launches 'Brainfreezing' Online Viral... →
Everybody’s favorite late-night convenience store, 7-Eleven, has created a new microsite where users can upload a photo and change their complexion while virtually drinking a Slurpee. The “BrainFreeze Laboratory,” as the site is called, uses Oddcast’s PhotoFace — a technology that transforms a single photo into 3D avatar models.
Let’s not ignore the elephant in...
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Twitterville Falls For Premium Accounts Hoax →
Twitter users were foiled this morning when geek humor site BBspot published a hoax blog post about Twitter’s new “premium account model.” So many people have been waiting for Twitter’s co-founder, Evan Williams, to announce a pay model that the Twitterverse went wild and took the news to heart. These are the same people that read The Onion for political news.
Below, a...
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Want to Target Female Buyers? Aim for Social Media →
A new study from Rapleaf (you might have heard of them from our “What’s Up Wednesday?” series) shows that women are outpacing men in social media usage. Highlights from the study include:
• Of the 2.6 million Facebook users identified in the study, 63% were female and 36% were male • Of the 11.3 million MySpace users identified, 63% were female, 36% were male • Of the 2.4...
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Sexy People Redux
A few months ago, I shared one of my favorite sites: Sexy People. The basic contention was that it is simple and ridiculous and, thus, a success. I thought we might check back in on what’s going on at Sexy People:
Here is a guarantee: once the Feds figure out what is on that floppy disk, this man is going to have to register as a sex offender.
I feel like this might be what the Von...
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Paris v. Paris
vs.
So, there is a brilliant website that showcases the work of an artist who has created a needle gauge that measures the number of Google searches for “Paris Hilton” vs. “Paris, France” in real time. As of posting, “Paris, France” has a slight advantage.
But this begs the question: Who would win a cage match of Paris v. Paris? Let’s break it...
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Google increases its dominance of U.S. Internet... →
A new study shows that search giant Google accounted for 72.11% of all U.S. online searches conducted in February, an 8% increase over the same period last year, according to online information company Hitwise.
Google’s February performance extended its search dominance over Yahoo (with 17.04% of all U.S. searches, down 17% from a year earlier), MSN Search (5.56%, down by 20%), and Ask.com...
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Taking Baby Steps Toward Twitter Stardom →
I’ve recently been following the social media-related posts of MaineBusiness.com’s Carl V. Natale, aka “Duke of URL.” His latest entry might seem contradictory to what we here at FWD have been saying all along - “IF YOU AREN’T ALREADY ON TWITTER, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!” Especially if you are in business and want to amp up your marketing. But all...
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New WeFollow Twitter Directory →
This weekend at SXSW, Digg founder Kevin Rose launched a new user-generated Twitter directory called WeFollow. To get listed, send a tweet to @wefollow with the message “#yourtag #yourtag #yourtag,” and replace “#yourtag” with the tags you’d like to be listed under (unfortunately, you can only choose three). I chose #PR, #travel and #NewYork, but you can see the full...
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Appeal says juror sent 'tweets' during $12.6M case →
A building materials company and its owner have appealed a $12.6 million verdict against them, alleging that a juror posted messages on Twitter.com during the trial that show he’s biased against them.
The motion seeking a new trial was filed Thursday on behalf of Russell Wright and his company, Stoam Holdings. It claims juror Johnathan Powell sent eight messages — or “tweets”...
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PepsiCo Gets Web 2.0 for South by Southwest →
As the infamous SXSW Interactive conference got underway last week, PepsiCo took advantage of a sponsorship opportunity to bring a Twitter visualizer to attendees.
Tweets from people at the show are running on PepsicoZeitgeist.com, which also includes features like “Party Watch” and “Swarm” — a map of the area showing where the tweets are emanating from. The tweets are...
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Facebook on Oprah this Friday →
This Friday the 13th, Mark Zuckerberg will be appearing The Oprah Winfrey Show as part of her weekly “Oprah Fridays Live” program, to demonstrate the recent changes to the Facebook service. Good luck, Mark!
- Rebecca
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Paltrow to World: "Hold Up, I'm Not That Bad!"
Here is the least surprising statement to be made on this blog, ever: people hate Gwyneth Paltrow. Not in the way that some people hate (unjustly) Rachael Ray, or the way New Yorkers hate the Red Sox (I think that is a sports team, I always thought we hated garish footwear until I Googled it.)
This fact was originally pointed out on FWD Thinking awhile back (note: I wrote that blog post too,...
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Employees: No 'Awesomeness' at Facebook →
One would think that Facebook would be a fabulous place to be employed, complete with water slides, ping-pong tournaments, and lickable candy wallpaper. Not so, according to results from Facebook’s internal employee satisfaction survey, also known as the “awesomeness survey” (yes, that’s what they actually call it). First off, in my humble opinion, anything called the...
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Social Networking More Popular Than Email →
Social networking is more popular than email, according to new statistics from Nielsen Online. Am I surprised? Kind of. I wouldn’t have questioned this information in regards to Millennials, but not for internet users as a whole.
mashable:
New stats from Nielsen Online show that by the end of 2008, social networking had overtaken email in terms of worldwide reach. According to the study,...
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“Facebook’s younger members…appear comfortable with sharing just about...”
– Randall Stross, “When Everyone’s a Friend, Is Anything Private?” in The New York Times
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“Quit buying eyeballs, start earning whole fans.”
– Bud Cadell, Digital Media Isn’t Mass Media for Cheap.
This is definitely my quote of the day. Thanks, Bud! Great advice for all marketers looking to engage their audiences…not just online, but through all channels.
—Josh