word. daily. (march 2, 2010)

One Million Giraffes: The Challenge: collect 1,000,000 pictures of hand drawn/made giraffes by 2011. The Challenger: Some guy from Norway trying to prove to his friend wrong. The Stakes: Um, we’re not sure. Why?: Again, not sure. At time of print, 601,905 giraffes have been uploaded to the site and with 306 days left, it looks like his goal might be reached. Oh, the powers of the internet.

Tweet Receipts! NYC computer programming aficionado (read: nerd), Matt Richardson (full disclosure: a friend of the agency…sorry about calling you a nerd, Matt) posted pictures of his most current project, entitled “Tweet Receipts,” on Flickr.  The concept is simple, the machine is set up to check Twitter once every minute for messages containing Richardson’s screen name.  Whenever it finds one, it prints it out using the tiny receipt printer so he’s sure not to miss it.

Lick a celebrity: Okay, that title is a little misleading. But, it’s kind of true because our Australian friends have created Auspops – a popsicle maker where celebrity portraits are etched onto the holders. When you’re done eating the frozen treat you’re left with an etching of the famous figure.  But, don’t get excited about licking Aussies like Nicole Kidman or Hugh Jackman just yet, the inaugural batch of etchings includes the likes of Dame Edna.

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—Andrew

Fashion Feed Frenzy

I have never experienced a Fashion Week through social media like I have this season. I think it’s a huge sign of the extent to which the fashion industry has increased its embrace, or at least acceptance, of the medium in such a short span of time. My Google Reader is bursting at the seams, my Twitter feed is off the charts and I seem to know everyone’s opinion about each show before I’ve even had the chance to form my own. I can’t figure out whether I love the crossfire of information or if it’s just too overwhelming. Did I love the simple lines and soft beiges of the Marc Jacobs collection, or did I just read that somewhere? How does social media change the way we think for ourselves?

-Kristin

BUZZ…Google Buzz

During yesterday’s snow day, it felt like my Twitter feed was taken over by Google Buzz mentions and discussions.

Jeremiah Owyang from Altimeter Group does a fantastic job of breaking down Google Buzz vs. Facebook vs. MySpace vs. Twitter in his post this morning. His matrix is a well-thought-out comparison.

—Josh

Twitter Adds Local Trending Topics

When I logged into Twitter tonight, I was surprised by a little pop-up window telling me about Twitter’s new location-based trending topics feature and asking me to set my location. Right now, the feature is only available in five countries and 15 cities, but apparently Twitter is working on expanding that list.

So now I can see what people in New York City are twittering about, although it mostly just tells you what people are currently watching on television. Which I guess is sort of helpful for someone like me, who doesn’t have a TV? For instance, I know that most New Yorkers right now are watching a rerun of the Jersey Shore reunion on MTV, the Lifetime TV movie The Pregnancy Pact, Diary of a Mad Black Woman on BET, Kristin Kreuk making her TV comeback on Chuck, or someone named James Roday on WWE Raw. Who needs Nielsen when you’ve got Twitter?

However, I think the most interesting thing I learned is that there are a lot of NYC-area high-schoolers on Twitter who are apparently taking the Regents exams tomorrow. Sharpen those No. 2 pencils, kiddies!

—Alyssa

Don’t Knock the Hustle…

Today, Gawker’s Ryan Tate posted a story entitled “Three Annoying Habits of the Laziest Journalists on Twitter.” In a nutshell, Gawker hates journalists who (1) Tweet a “barrage of rushed, repetitive questions,” (2) Make their “heartless pursuit of the story totally obvious” and (3) rhyme gratuitously on Twitter. Being the unapologetical bunch they are, they’ve named names. Most horrifyingly…USA Today’s Barbara De Lollis.

Is this not why there’s an “unfollow” button? If people are so annoyed by these journalists’ tweets, why are they following them? I’m sure many PR professionals will agree that Barb and her cohorts make it easier to track what they’re writing about, thus enabling us to send appropriate information. Other professions are using Twitter to communicate directly to their trade audiences and gather feedback and research more quickly, so why can’t journalists?

Sure, Barb could be more engaging and interactive with her followers and show some more personality in her tweets - that’d probably make her queries more appealing to her readers and would probably generate more responses from them. But hey, from a professional standpoint, her tweets serve their purpose to the PR community. So, to answer Tate’s question “Do any of De Lollis’ followers actually answer…?” Yes, we do!

As for the rhyming lady, well unless her followers are all in kindergarten, that’s just not cool.

-Andréa S.

2010 - The Year of Profile Burnout?

I recently attended Jaunted’s “Travel Gets Social: The New World of Travel Media” event at the 92Y Tribeca. If you didn’t hear about it (*cough* then get out from under your rock *cough*) the panel line-up included The New York Times‘ Matt Gross (a.k.a. the Frugal Traveler), Virgin America’s Manager of Online and Digital Marketing Bowen Payson, New Media Director for Roger Smith Hotel Adam Wallace and Jaunted/HotelChatter/VegasChatter founder Mark G. Johnson.

Jaunted already did us the favor of recapping the evening’s topics of discussion (as you’ll see, the panelists provided commentary on their social media experiences past and present (from Friendster to Facebook) and raved about the greatness of up-and-comer Foursquare). Many people in the room seemed to already know about Foursquare but had never taken the time to sign up and explore it thoroughly (frankly, because free time is scarce for everyone these days). Which brings me to my point. Jaunted somehow neglected to note an important question that arose that night:

Are we approaching “profile burnout”? Will 2010 be the year that people streamline their social media presences? (FYI - I vote yes.)

In this, the first decade of the new millennium, we have been forced to “evolve or die,” that is, subscribe to every social media network deemed “on trend” or risk sinking into the world of the unknown. The allure of these outlets are powerful (anyone else need a Twitter exorcism? Because I sure do!), yet managing them all effectively is terribly time-consuming. Too often, user accounts become neglected (think of all those who have Twitter accounts with 0 followers and 2 tweets, but are highly active on Facebook). There is simply not enough time for the average person, company or brand to effectively establish a presence across more than a couple of social media outlets within a given time-frame.

One panelist at Jaunted’s event suggested that 2010 might be the year that we begin to streamline our social media presence. That is, identify those outlets that are most relevant for our personal or business/brand message and do away with the others. Personally, I can’t remember my MySpace login details and don’t intend to try to. With all the advances Facebook has made over the last few years, particularly video-sharing and fan pages, I find MySpace to be quite pointless (anyone who wants to argue otherwise is welcome to do so). I’d like to give this Foursquare thing a try though, if my twaddiction will allow.

So, what do you think, reader? Do you plan to edit your collection of social media profiles in 2010? What are your social media resolutions for the New Year?

Discuss…

-Andréa S.