Pascal Inderabudhi

jkottke:

A short piece of fiction by Pierce Gleeson about the people behind corporate Twitter accounts.

‘We are not building anything here,’ stated one morose-sounding detergent brand. ‘All those marketing guys pushing Twitter think you can build something on it. Awareness or brand or something. But…

searchengineland:

Beyonce, Blackout, Ravens And M&Ms — What We Searched For During Super Bowl 2013

fastcompany:

Our picks: 2012’s Best Business Books. What would you add to this list?

Alexis Madrigal, The Atlantic

The Web was Social Before the Social Web

Madrigal recently wrote about what he calls dark social. In short: dark social is the social sharing that happens outside of sites like Facebook and Twitter and is therefore hard to measure; for example, sharing links via e-mail and instant messaging. According to data by Chartbeat, across a number of media sites, almost 69% of social referrals were dark, whereas Facebook referrals came in at 20%.

One of the biggest implications he points out is this: 

If what I’m saying is true, then the tradeoffs we make on social networks is not the one that we’re told we’re making. We’re not giving our personal data in exchange for the ability to share links with friends. Massive numbers of people — a larger set than exists on any social network — already do that outside the social networks. Rather, we’re exchanging our personal data in exchange for the ability to publish and archive a record of our sharing. That may be a transaction you want to make, but it might not be the one you’ve been told you made. 

Yesterday, Matt Buchanan wrote something of a reaction to Madrigal’s piece, in which he breaks down just what the components of dark social are, how they might be more accurately defined, and the fact that they’re slowly coming out into the light.

Another point: It indicates how non-homogenous “dark social” likely is. There’s the part of it that’s older and non-urban, coming from non-mobile devices, and then there’s the part coming from younger users, which is more highly mobile. To oversimplify: old people on desktops reading emails, young people on phones.

FJP: Both are interesting reads if you’d like to think about the bigger picture of how you share links, why, and what social sites are really doing for you.

(via futurejournalismproject)

fastcompany:

When faced with the reality of these products, disappointment is inevitable—not just because they’re too little too late (if at all) but for even weirder reasons. We don’t really want the stuff. We’re paying for the sensation of a hypothetical idea, not the experience of a realized product. For the pleasure of desiring it. For the experience of watching it succeed beyond expectations or to fail dramatically. Kickstarter is just another form of entertainment. It’s QVC for the Net set. And just like QVC, the products are usually less appealing than the excitement of learning about them for the first time and getting in early on the sale.

Kickstarter: Crowdfunding Platform Or Reality Show?

Take the new Ford Focus Electric, which is basically an always-connected online driving game (I’d almost call it a “simulator,” if you couldn’t take it on I-95). It’s the first car to use Ford’s new MyFord Mobile system, which adds a solid social gaming layer built on top of the driving experience. Hit various achievements — such as a certain number of oil-free EV miles — and the system rewards you with a badge. The vehicle even has an always-on modem that uses AT&T’s cellular network to ping Ford’s servers with your progress, in order to post your achievements to Twitter or Facebook. “It’s the modern version of somebody hitting a mile marker, like 100,000 miles, on their odometer and taking a picture of it,” says Joe Rork, Ford’s MyFord Mobile product manager.

On the flip side how about negative points for tailgating, rubbernecking, driving slow in the fast lane, and road rage?

R/GA’s own Nick Law, on the first question you must ask yourself when creating digital advertising (via dailybunch)

Apart from the attention geting quote, some other choice advice from the article:

• A fundamental obstacle with which digital marketers struggle is relevancy: how to make a peripheral banner image or ad relevant to the consumer.
• “Rather than focusing on what users think of a brand, brands should create platforms that users want to share with their friends. ‘I don’t want to be friends of a brand,’ Law explained. “I want to be friends with my friends.’”
• Inre: the future of digital marketing: ”the things that rose to the top was work that didn’t even look like advertising.” ”we aren’t totally in the advertising industry anymore—we call ourselves that by proxy since we don’t have a better word for it.”

futurejournalismproject:

PR Daily put together a list of social media facts and figures. Here are some of our favorites.

2. Links about sex are shared 90 percent more than any other link.
FJP: Sexy is as sexy is. We’re not surprised by this one.

4. 25 percent of users don’t bother with any kind of privacy control.
FJP: They’re referencing Facebook here. You really should hit up the privacy controls. Especially since FB shifts things about fairly frequently.

10. Twitter handles more search queries per month than Bing and Yahoo combined (24 billion versus 4.1 billion and 9.4 billion respectively).
FJP: People who use Bing say it’s actually pretty good. After initially exploring it, I’ve personally never had a reason to default back to it.

13. Members are on track to make more than 5.3 billion searches on [LinkedIn] in 2012.
14. LinkedIn’s revenue has doubled every quarter for the last two years. 
FJP: That is astounding.

18. The most watched non-commercial video [on YouTube] is “Charlie Bit My Finger Again,” with more than 458 million views.
FJP: Let us repeat — That is astounding.

25. 35 percent of corporate bloggers worked in a journalism, media or professional writing role.
FJP: So, if this journalism thing doesn’t work out we might find a home?

26. Pinterest drives more referral traffic than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined.
FJP: It’s a good model this — Users post visual candy. Others eat it up and click through to the source. Wonder if that was a planned or a happy accident on Pinterest’s part.

30. 97 percent of the fans of Pinterest’s Facebook page are women.
FJP: Looking for other brands that skew so radically to a gender.

36. “Student” is the number one occupation of Google+ users.
FJP: But does “student” actually post, plus 1 and otherwise interact on the platform?

40. More than 42 percent of Google+ users are single.
FJP: So we’re the socially awkward, single set? Maybe I’m just projecting.

45. Justin Bieber is the only person with a perfect Klout score of 100 (says it all, then).
FJP: Yes, yes it does.

49. China is the No. 1 country in the world for smartphone use, with approximately 1 billion users.
FJP: Step one in world domination?

52. One in five couples meet online; three in five gay couples meet online.
FJP: 50% of the FJP is single, and online… just saying.

PR Daily: 52 cool facts and stats about social media (2012 edition).

theatlantic:

Big Dada: How Activists Will Respond to Online Advertising

Through the 1990s, a practice called “culture jamming” grew in popularity and sophistication. It aimed to disrupt consumer culture by transforming corporate advertising with subversive messages. So, as in the example above, a Coca Cola sign has been defaced to note the company’s other imperative aside from love. Another canonical example was current BuzzFeed chief Jonah Peretti’s 2001 attempt to order a pair of Nike’s through the company’s website emblazoned with the word, “sweatshop.” Culture jammers would use the power of brands against themselves. Their most famous organ remains the magazine AdBusters, which is widely credited with helping jumpstart Occupy Wall Street last year. […]

Fast forward to our world in which an increasing amount of advertising runs online. The old logic of culture jamming would say that anticorporate activists should run ad blockers or perhaps something like the (now outdated) Firefox extension, Add-Art, which replaced corporate callouts with curated art.

But the system of advertising has changed in the online world.

Read more.

Culture jamming for the digital age: mass clicks on PPC ads to disrupt data for advertisers.

jkottke:

Tom Vanderbilt says Americans don’t walk as much as they used to; automobile usage has eaten into our perambulation time.

If walking is a casualty of modern life the world over — the historian Joe Moran estimates, for instance, that in the last quarter century in the U.K., the amount of…

Earlier this month Beyonce unveiled her brand-new Tumblr page, and to the delight of bloggers, news outlets, and fans across the web, provided never-before-seen insights into the megastar’s personal life. Praised as a PR coup, and an example of how celebrities can successfully control their digital presence, Beyonce’s Tumblr can teach job hunters in the digital age how to best present themselves online.

You Must Not Know ‘Bout Me…

Employers today have unprecedented access to potential job candidates’ lives. A major part of the hiring process involves judging whether you will be a good fit with the company for which you interview, and this extends beyond the qualifications listed on your resume. In the same way candidates research companies online, recruiters are Googling names, checking out Linkedin and Facebook profiles, and seeing what you Tweet or leave in comments sections.

So how do we as job hunters manage and exploit this exposure online? The same way #1 worldwide superstar, Beyonce does - by taking back and controlling her privacy.

Beyonce selectively chooses the images and content she publishes within her social network. In doing so she is able to showcase her passions, interests, and character on her own terms in a platform she controls. 

In the same way, a job candidate can control his or her appearance online by shaping the images and content he or she shares in a manner that shines the best light on their personality, interests, and work ethic. 

Here are ways job hunters can Beyoncify their online presence:

Let ‘Em See Your Halo

Be selective in what you share. Your friends and colleagues may know that you’re an intelligent hard-worker who knows when to work and when to party, but there is little to no context or distinction online.  

Beyonce supplements her public persona digitally by posting images and videos on her Tumblr that speak to her personal, intimate side. She softens the diva powerhouse she presents on-stage with pictures of herself in a more intimate setting: without makeup, hanging out with her sister, and cuddling with husband Jay-Z.

(via Beyonce Tumblr)

While job hunting, think about how you want to be perceived to potential employers. As great as it is to show friends your video of your 2 minute keg-stand, there are more valuable aspects of your personality you should share. Beyonce could show us pictures of her various magazine shoots, private jet flights, etc.,  but instead chooses to exhibit the personal life that the public does not see. 

It’s a given that you should purge your social profiles’ public settings of certain inappropriate images and content, but you should also take the opportunity to highlight your passions and interests. Take a cue from Beyonce and show employer’s what you do outside of work and the things you are passionate about: volunteer opportunities, hobbies, things you are reading/writing/building/coding.

I Swear It Is Deja Vu

Be consistent and authentic across your social profiles. Different social platforms have different environments and cultures in terms of communication, purpose, and use. Your Twitter network may have a #hashtag joke chain going, your Linkedin a discussion on local marketing, your Pinterest filled with BBQ recipes. The key is to show your best self on  each network where your name is attached. It is ideal to be true to your opinions and tastes while being vigilant of how that appears in the eyes of potential employers. 

Although new to the social web, Beyonce stays consistent with her public image while adding an element of authenticity when shedding light on her personal life. The images she chooses to share on Tumblr (a platform suited for easily shared pictures and videos) reflect her values and personal voice. The images originate either from her own perspective or are candids taken of her. She makes sure that her Tumblr page exhibits how she lives, but from a different perspective.

Across the social networks where job hunters are active, it is important to retain the same, original voice. As a rule of thumb, in wherever social network your name is attached, make sure to stay consistent when sharing your opinions and tastes.

This isn’t to say that you can’t share the Double Rainbow Guy video on Twitter, while limiting your discussions on Linkedin to only things business related. But if you are looking to break into a new industry or company, you should show some shared interest in what they specialize. 

As mentioned before, different social networks have separate purposes, and are used as such. However, by adding consistency throughout social profiles you can show a potential employer looking for more information about you that you have a strong interest in their industry. For example, you could pin a clever viral marketing ad on Pinterest to show your marketing interest, in addition to the apparel and recipes you already have on there. Another example: in addition to the cat pictures and Hunger Games gifs, add some articles from NYTimes that speak to your shared interests on Tumblr.

Make Them Put a Ring on It

Continue to add and show your value in your social profiles. Social platforms are for the majority designed as tools for communication. You use them to keep in touch with friends, family, colleagues, etc., and share your life and perspective. When job hunting, they can and should also be used as tools that show your value. You know that employers are searching for information about you online, so give them information that shows how you can help them.

The value in Beyonce’s Tumblr comes from her sharing a piece of her life that nobody but her has access. Her public presence apart from her concert tours, music videos, and select interviews are so private (see her Twitter account), or manufactured, that the glimpse that her Tumblr provides is highly valued. 

We as job hunters should find a way to show our value to employers. Recruiters are looking for qualified and well fitting candidates to join their organizations. So one way to show value is to make it easy for them to see how you would be a good fit and to show your qualifications. You can accomplish this by sharing content that their team is interested in or working on. You can show your qualifications by posting a project you are working on or have accomplished. 

In the digital age, we increasingly give up our privacy in order to access and exploit the networks that keep us connected (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Tumblr, etc.). It’s the cultural price we pay to stay close to our family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances (and stalk exes and strangers). However, job hunters should manage the exposure received from social networks to leverage their online presence to potential employers.

Beyonce’s Tumblr grants visitors access into her personal life on her own terms, sharing the details she controls, while remaining true to what she stands for. While we all aren’t able to be the best performer in the world, we can take a page out of her book and put our best selves out there online.

fastcompany:

Being smart, energetic, and creative won’t save you from procrastination, but knowing the whys and hows of it can be a big help. Here are four things you might not know about your worst habit. Read more->

Do work!

fastcompany:

How to SuperBetter your life with Epic Wins the way Jane McGonigal does.

From Nike+ to The Email Game, McGonigal is at the forefront of a movement intent on making it fun to reach everyday goals. Grab yourself a power-up and listen in.

Watch more->

nytsxsw:

What’s the story this year? The weather? Long-form journalism? Gamification? Jay-Z’s fonts? Who knows, but everyone shares at least one takeaway. As at past SXSW Interactive festivals, relentless person-to-person marketing is the ambient noise humming behind every panel, party and taco truck. We’ve seen the walking USB chargers and the bottomless free energy drinks available at so many downtown corners. Big brands with big marketing budgets live in these spaces - FedEx, Monster and Red Bull. During the weekend rains, agents dispatched by Kraft handed out umbrellas. The price? Allow them to use your phone to take a picture of you holding the umbrella. Then you upload that photo to Twitter with the hashtag #keepyournoodledry. But many smaller players have unleashed pairs of young mercenaries armed with matching loud T-shirts, stacks of flyers and a gimmick upon Austin. They roam the streets with coupons and bottle openers, or invitations to “be a beta tester.” This low-tech, face-to-face and possibly inefficient strategy is prevalent at an event celebrating the wondrous utopia of connected media. It’s slow going and often requires two foot soldiers to attract the momentary focus of just one individual target. If the overburdened network ever went down, though, these kids would be there to spread the message. — Andrew Kueneman

fastcompany:

Meet Sasha Senderoff, who feels the intern hiring process is broken, particularly in creative industries like film, TV, music, and fashion. Step one: ditch the paper resume.

How Intern Sushi Wants To Skewer The Resume

shortformblog:

Out come the haters: The Pinterest backlash intensifies

Some people can only handle so much Ryan Gosling. The sudden rise of Pinterest, which surged in popularity around the first of the year (as this chart illustrates perfectly), seems to have caught some off guard, with many questioning the phenomenon much the same way Twitter initially got criticized for being about nothing. But with the site already the subject of copyright questions (in one case making a lawyer and Pinterest fan totally freak out), it was only a matter of time before the deep-thought hand-wringing began. A couple of notable samples we’ve seen recently:

• one MacLean’s writer Lisan Jutras criticizes it for being strongly feminine, but only on the surface: “This domain is sort of like a girls-only clubhouse, but it’s not about expressing innermost desires, just surface desires—for hair, shoes, nail art, a boyfriend that exists in soft-focus black-and-white.”
• two Thought Catalog narrows down the appeal of the service in a single damning line: “It’s the first Nora Ephron movie that you have to log into, and yep, you guessed it, there’s a wait list to join.” Their problem is stated plainly in the headline: “Pinterest: The depths we will go to not read.”

» A couple quick thoughts of our own: It’s possible that the success of Pinterest may reach a little bit of a plateau at some point because of the shape it’s already taken. It’s growing quickly, but the best social networks are formless in terms of the content. Anything goes on Tumblr for the most part, for example; same with Twitter and Facebook. With Pinterest, the culture has kind of limited what can work there, at least for now. It feels like, even if it hasn’t been spelled out, the parameters have been partially defined. And for businesses, minus a few obvious verticals (say, you sell clothes or artwork) Pinterest is not necessary or even desirable for building a strong brand. It could be, though, if it was repositioned slightly. These are some of the things the site will struggle with as it tries to grow. if we were them, we’d figure out ways to encourage shapelessness, so as not to scare new users off.

Follow ShortFormBlog

today:

Facebook launches brand Timelines on TODAY

Most Facebook users have been switched over to the Timeline at this point, so it should be no surprise that brands — such as companies, TV shows or bands — are now finally able to convert their fan pages into Timelines as well. Facebook made this news official in an exclusive announcement on the TODAY Show on Wednesday.

First!

buzzfeed:

laughterkey:

ilovecharts:

People Who Use Pinterest

I don’t want to start using Pinterest. Stop trying to make me use it, Internet!

Dorsey, does this make more sense? 

Did you know that BuzzFeed, a site whose staff is entirely made up of women planning their weddings, is on Pinterest?

I was just talking to my boss about Pinterest, and we found the same to be true. What do you think? Any value out there for businesses/men to have a presence there?

thedailywhat:

Crowdsourcing Project of the Day: Bartkira, Where The Simpsons and Akira Meet

Animator James Harvey has launched The Bartkira Project, a crowdsourced fan art project dedicated to infusing America’s longest-running sitcom The Simpsons and Japan’s classic cyberpunk anime film Akira. According to io9, Harvey became inspired to start the project after checking out a few of mashup sketches illustrated by fellow artist Ryan Humphrey via his Tumblr blog. Wanna join in? Be sure to read Harvey’s instructional post before you start and remember, the submission deadline is May 24th!

eyywaju:

holdin it down.

bohemea:

Mad Men Season 6 Premiere, March 20th 2013

Game of Thrones Season 3 premiere March 18th 2013 in L.A.

andyhutchins:

Oh.

graphicalanomaly:

withapencilinhand:

The awakening of Bartkira

This is magical

Season III Promos  |  Game of Thrones
↳ Daenerys Targaryen

suicideblonde:

Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke - Entertainment Weekly, March 22nd, 2013

FIRE AND ICE!  FIRE AND ICE!  My OTP lookin’ so purdy together

mercycorps:

From Feature Shoot:

Shot over a period of 18 months, Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti’s project Toy Stories compiles photos of children from around the world with their prized possesions—their toys. Galimberti explores the universality of being a kid amidst the diversity of the countless corners of the world; saying, “at their age, they are pretty all much the same; they just want to play.”

See more photos.

fuckyeahlakers:

Kobe Bryant’s Clutch Shots Against the Raptors

1. Down 5, a contested 3 with 1:41 left.

2. Down 4, a fadeaway corner 3 with 29.3 seconds left.

3. Down 3, a contest 3 with 5.5 seconds left.

4. Tied at 115, drives past two defenders and dunks with 10.6 left in OT.

nbaoffseason:

This photo from Melo’s twitter means that he either bought the $30,000 Game of Thrones “Iron Throne” replica and sits on it in his home while pondering (which is AWESOME), or he goes to nerdy conventions just to get his photo taken on the Iron Throne. Either way, Carmelo Anthony is a Game of Thrones fan and we approve.

Playoffs are coming

bohemea:

wicnet:

GAME OF THRONES SEASON THREE TRAILER!

FEEEEEELS!

gotemcoach:

THE OSCAR ROBERTSONS: The award for biggest disappointment goes to…L.A. Misérables 

They all hate each other.  Life sucks.  When does this end?

[poster reference]

I dreamed a dream in time gone by

When hope was high

And life worth living….

gotemcoach:

ICYMI:  Kevin Hart on All-Star Game Halftime Show

Any time I see current or former NBA players grabbing each other in laughter, I just love it and need to share.

#GotEmCoach