Now that we’ve recently launched our M BoothFacebook page (please “like” us, by the way!), we’ve been trying to add all sorts of fun features to it, to keep M Boothers and friends posted on what we’re up to. So far, this includes everything from information on open positions, to photos from our parties and softball games, to posts from our two blogs (this one and Better4You).
Unfortunately, it was tough to find an easy way to import both of our blogs’ RSS feeds to the page. Facebook recommends doing it through its Notes application, but you can only import one blog and it wasn’t updating regularly for us. There are other applications that allow you to add a “Blog” tab to your page but again, it only allows one blog feed to be imported. We really didn’t want to have to manually put up a link every time someone blogged, but we were having trouble finding another option.
Luckily, Rob happens to follow a 13-year-old technology wunderkind named Jack DeFuria, who mentioned a free tool called dlvr.it on Twitter the other day. Rob asked me to check it out and I promptly fell in love (with dlvr.it, not Rob…or Jack). Not only will dlvr.it import multiple blog feeds to your Facebook page (and Twitter, LinkedIn or Google Buzz too, if you so desire), it also provides analytics on how many people are clicking through on each post. Now each of our M Boother-penned blog posts seamlessly shows up on our Facebook page within minutes. Problem solved!
I’m not a big picture-taker anyway, but I usually feel like dealing with my digital camera is a hassle. While I can take a photo on my BlackBerry and e-mail it or upload it to the web instantly, the quality isn’t as great as it could be. But before I can share a photo from my point-and-shoot camera, I have to get home, hook it up to my laptop with the USB cord, upload the photos to my computer, and then upload them to Facebook, Tumblr or wherever else. I’ve often wondered why we can’t just cut out the middleman already and send our photos directly from the camera to the web.
Luckily, Kodak has released a new little camera that does just that. The EasyShare M590 is a whopping 14 megapixels (for the sake of comparison, my BlackBerry’s camera is 3.2 MP and my years-old digicam is about 6) and is the world’s thinnest 5X optical zoom digital camera, which means it will fit nicely in my purse. But the best part is that you can instantly e-mail your pics and video or upload them to YouTube, Facebook or Flickr instantly.
The fact that it comes in a lovely shade of purple (my favorite color) and retails for just $199.95 means I’ll probably be buying this little gadget as a Labor Day present to myself! I know Labor Day isn’t traditionally a gift-giving holiday, but the fact that the labels on my current camera’s buttons are entirely worn off means it’s probably time to upgrade.
Sometimes it’s hard to fathom that I lived the first eight years of my life without the internet and the first 12 or so without the internet at home. I hardly remember what life was like without it. So it’s pretty shocking that a new Pew study found 21% of Americans say they still don’t use the internet, 16 years after my first encounter with Prodigy in my 3rd grade classroom.
I was trying to think if I know a single person who doesn’t go online these days and I’m drawing a total blank. Even my 60-year-old dad, who doesn’t have an e-mail address and refuses to ever turn on his cell phone, knows how to hunt and peck his way to Google to search for the latest house/boat/car he’s daydreaming about buying.
Over 2/3 (69%) of those who don’t use the internet are senior citizens and possibly don’t see the value since they’ve already lived for so many decades without the web. However, it saddens me that other non-users live in rural areas, have a low income or lack a high school education. I truly believe that the internet is a portal to the rest of the world and can be of huge value to people’s lives, especially if they’re geographically isolated. Heck, in Finland, high-speed internet access is a legal right! The FCC’s Broadband Opportunities for Rural America program aims to remedy this imbalance. Hopefully soon, everyone who wants to use the internet will have the chance.
M Booth’s very own Digisquad and our social media mentoring program were featured in the August issue of PRWeek!
M Booth & Associates created a group called “Digisquad.” It meets weekly about social media and includes at least one employee from every practice area. Account supervisors and SAEs within Digisquad are part of the agency’s social media mentoring program, in which the junior staffers show SVPs how to use social networking for personal use.
“We took a personal approach to social media because SVPs are already very smart strategists,” says Josh Rosenberg, SVP and director of FirstWord Digital at M Booth. “They just need to experience the value of communicating this way.”
You know how after going on a shopping spree, you take the items out of the bag at home to show your roommate (or friend or mom) all your great finds? Well, teens these days do the same thing, but for thousands of people on YouTube. As Andrew posted about back in March, “haul” videos are one of the hottest current trends for mallrats with webcams.
Some smart fashion brands targeting teens, like M Booth client J.C. Penney, are now engaging top “haulers” by providing them with gift cards and free transportation and lodging to shop near JCP HQ in Texas. Leveraging a viral trend that already exists is a great way for brands to show they have their fingers on the pulse of their target consumers. Oh, and I’m totally making a haul video of my own after our next office sample sale.
Last night, I attended my first NY Tech Meetup since February — I can’t believe it’s been that long, but things have been crazy. I brought along our new FWD member, Rob, who had never been to NYTM before! This was the first one I’d been to at NYU’s Skirball Center, which brought back college flashbacks for me, even though I don’t think I’d been in there since freshman orientation, when I watched a very entertaining hypnotist turn people into chickens.
This month’s shindig was hosted by Dina Kaplan, who did a great job of engaging the audience and keeping things running smoothly. I was also pleasantly surprised by all the girl power on stage tonight. I was especially excited that the event featured a brief keynote by Clay Shirky (who wore his Three Wolf Moon T-shirt again!), because I really enjoyed the interview with him in the June issue of Wired and I’m looking forward to reading his new book. It was a great presentation and I only wish it could have been a bit longer!
In terms of the app demos, I was most intrigued by Foodspotting, which is sort of like FourSquare, but allows you to share photos of the food at the restaurants. I love the idea, since my family always makes fun of me for taking pictures of my food, but I don’t have an iPhone, so I hope they develop a BlackBerry app, too. I also wonder how they’ll deal with chefs who prohibitphotography in their restaurants.
I feel like this month’s demos were less exciting than usual, probably because I had heard of most of them before — Jetsetter, HowAboutWe and Hot Potato have already been around for a while and gotten a ton of buzz. The audience seemed most blown away by ComiXology, where you can download online versions of comic books. They even have Archies!
A recent study surveyed over 500 moms about what they like and don’t like about brands that tweet, and the results are great to keep in mind when thinking about Twitter best practices. As all effective social media communicators know, brands that are on Twitter must use the platform as a way to add value to followers rather than simply pushing out brand messaging.
For many moms, this value can take the form of interesting links, sales or coupons, updates on new products and even tweets that just make them laugh. In social media as in life, humor can be an extremely effective method of attracting and engaging people. Brands shouldn’t be afraid to get a little clever. In fact, a cheeky tweet from @JetBlue to a customer last year became a huge viral hit around the Internet and even got a mention in The New York Times.
Although most of the messaging about mobile devices these days is about convenience on the go, it turns out that 60% of mobile Web usage actually takes place right at home.
Come on, who doesn’t reach for their cell phone first thing in the morning? According to the study, 30% of smartphone users start their day with mobile Internet. My BlackBerry is my alarm clock, so I kind of have to use my mobile at home (to hit the snooze button, of course). Then I check my Weather.com app so I know what to wear, and if I’m procrastinating about getting out of bed, I might check my e-mail and Twitter, too.
Sometimes I use my phone to access the Internet at home just because I want to avoid opening my laptop. Once I do that, I usually get sucked in and before I know it, an hour has gone by.
Confused about Facebook’s newest privacy settings? Join the club. The New York Times created a handy infographic of all 50 settings and 170 options. No wonder my poor mom, a recent Facebook convert, is having trouble figuring it all out.
In addition, this cool interactive graphic from web developer Matt McKeon shows how Facebook’s default privacy settings have become more public over time.
It’s really interesting to see brands figuring out how they can best leverage the newest buzzworthy social media tool, and in this case it’s Foursquare. This partnership with the History Channel, to promote the new miniseries America: The Story of Us, is one of the best I’ve seen. When you check in to specific spots, Foursquare will tell you a fun historical fact about the very place you’re standing and award you a special History Channel badge. Great for history buffs and trivia nerds alike, plus it will likely inspire users to check out the miniseries for even more fun facts.
I’m also a big fan of the way the Financial Times is leveraging the platform, by giving limited-time free subscriptions to the online version of the newspaper to Foursquare users that are “mayors” of certain spots. That’s one way to break through the paywall!
There’s a huge, 10-story billboard outside our offices, on the side of a building at the corner of 23rd Street and Park Avenue, that’s repainted by hand every month or so to feature an ad for a new movie. The current ad, for Sex and the City 2, features a larger-than-life Carrie Bradshaw, looking very Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.
Several of us have wondered how exactly these painters can execute a work that gigantic. Luckily, Stella Artois has produced a short documentary called Up There, interviewing these artists and revealing some of their secrets.
I’m an AP Stylebook devotee — I read it cover to cover when I was studying journalism at NYU, which is probably not something I should tell people — but some of its rules are just archaic and absurd. For instance, I’ve always taken issue with the one about spelling website as “Web site.” Luckily, the AP Stylebook gods have finally gotten with the times and officially acknowledged that “website” is just fine. Geeky grammar nerds, rejoice!
As a side note, geeky grammar nerds with a sense of humor should be sure to follow @FakeAPStylebook on Twitter. Just make sure you don’t incorporate those rules into your next press release.
There are currently around 116 million American Facebook users, while the population of the U.S. is about 309 million — that means over 1/3 of U.S. citizens have a Facebook profile. So how does the U.S. Facebook population compare to the country’s population at large? Mashable developed some gorgeous infographics to show you.
Heineken pulled off a viral stunt in Italy recently that’s been making the Internet rounds. On the night of the biggest soccer match of the season, the company staged a classical music concert and enlisted hundreds of bosses, professors and girlfriends (come si dice “whipped” in italiano?) to force thousands of men to attend. Luckily, the soccer fans were in for a pleasant surprise…
“ Speaking as the last stegosaurus, I hope that we dinosaurs [journalists] continue to stagger along. We need to try to evolve, and so that’s one reason why I shoot videos for the New York Times website, why I blog, why I Twitter, why I Facebook, why I have a YouTube channel.
Nicholas Kristof in Time Out New York
