Feb/100
TweetDeck Brings YouTube and Flickr Inside the Client
Category: Technology>Mashable
All right Tweetdeck fans, rev up your engines and prepare to update to Tweetdeck 0.33, which adds a slew of new features, better API management and more in-Tweetdeck media previews.
We could list all the new features in Tweetdeck 0.33, but the company was nice enough to make this little video that shows everything off:
Some of the highlights:
Tweetdeck Can Manage Your Twitter API Usage — This means that the program can delegate how to use your available API calls so that the most important info gets to you as easily as possible. Plus, Tweetdeck now uses OAuth and can request up to 350 API calls an hour, and that is expected to increase soon.
Better Column Management — You can now view Flickr, YouTube and Posterous media within Tweetdeck.
Tweetdeck is free. Don’t forget to check out the Mashable branded version.
Reviews: Flickr, Posterous, TweetDeck, YouTube
Tags: software, tweetdeck, twitter client, web apps
Blog contents are provided by Mashable
Feb/100
The Top 10 Most Watched Web Series, January 2010
Category: Technology>Mashable
Each month, our partner Visible Measures compiles a list of the top ten most popular web video series, and we share those results with you and provide analysis.
In January, the threshold for entry into the list was the highest it’s ever been, but viewership for the top 10 shows dropped 26% as compared to the record-breaking month of December.
If you’ve been keeping track in previous months, you won’t be surprised to see that Fred and Happy Tree Friends have again topped the list. Also notable: CollegeHumor and video game-themed shows collectively took up half the list. There weren’t any new series on the list in January, but a couple that dropped off in the past made a comeback. We also learned that the majority of viewers for the top 10 shows were male.
Here’s the complete chart with video clips included for each series. We provide some deeper analysis below.
The Chart: January 2010
| Rank | Last Month’s Rank | Title | Studio | Genre | True Reach View Count | % Change in Views | Sample Episode | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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*The Visible Measures Top 10 Webisodes Chart focuses on digital studio-driven Web series that appear on Internet video-sharing destinations. Each Web series is measured on a True Reach™ basis, which includes viewership of both studio-syndicated video clips and viewer-driven social video placements. The data are compiled using the Visible Measures Viral Reach Database, a constantly growing repository of analytic data on more than 100 million Internet videos across more than 150 video-sharing destinations.
Note: This chart does not include vloggers, interviews, how-to series, news shows, or product review shows. View-count results are incremental by month.
To notify Visible Measures of an upcoming Web series, or for an end-to-end assessment of your campaign’s overall performance, please contact us directly.
If you’re interested in exploring this data further, go to visiblemeasures.com/mashable.
Consistently On Top: Fred
The teenager with the high-pitched voice has topped the list again, and he managed to do it even though he only put out one new video in January. That new episode garnered 1.7 million views, so the rest of the 24.7 million were all thanks to old content that people are still discovering or re-watching.
You can’t fault Fred completely for dropping from his December high of 34.2 million views; he didn’t have topical holiday content to work with this time. It’s still impressive that a 16-year old actor with a webcam is beating each and every show from web TV networks like Next New Networks and CollegeHumor.
We mentioned earlier that the majority of top 10 show viewers are male; it’s interesting to note that Fred has the highest ratio of female viewers at 45%.
CollegeHumor’s Mark Is Hard to Miss
CollegeHumor is straight up mainstream now thanks to two cable TV deals in the works with MTV, and its online performance is as impressive as ever. It’s the only network with three series on the list — POV, Hardly Working, and Jake & Amir. They’ve all appeared on the list before, and together they racked up just shy of 11 million views.
All three of these CollegeHumor series saw growth since last month; POV didn’t appear on the December chart at all, but now it’s back. Hardly Working is actually working hard; it cranked out several new videos in January and grew 32% as compared to last month. Jack & Amir experienced a modest 6% growth.
The Guild and Red Vs. Blue: The Gamer Niche
Video game-themed programming has always been a significant genre in web TV. Because web series are usually cheaper to produce and viewership expectations are lower than would be the case with over-the-air shows, web series find it advantageous to serve a deep and narrow niche. Gamers are a great audience because there are just enough of them, and because they have their own dedicated ecosystem of social media and blogs to spread the word.
The Guild and Red Vs. Blue aren’t performing as well as they used to, but the gamer audience is still obviously alive and well since these gamer shows take up two of the top 10 spots. Red Vs. Blue just started airing new content, so it returned to the list after a hiatus. Conversely, The Guild is off-season so its numbers have declined.
A greater portion of Red Vs. Blue’s audience is male than any other show on the list. That should be no surprise since the series is based on the science fiction action shooter Halo.
Reviews: video
Tags: monthly top webisodes, video, visible measures, Web TV, web video
Blog contents are provided by Mashable
Feb/100
Google is Working on Speech-to-Speech Translation for Android
Category: Technology>Mashable
In Douglas Adams’s humorous sci-fi novel series Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy a special kind of fish is mentioned — the Babel Fish. When inserted into the ear, it translates any spoken language into whichever language the listener understands. It is a very nifty device, and now Google seeks to create something similar.
According to Times Online, Google is developing a speech-to-speech automated translator for Android phones. It’s essentially a combination of two of Google’s existing technologies; its online universal translator service, Google Translate, and its voice recognition system.
Google plans to make its Babel Fish a lot like a human translator; the software would analyze chunks of speech, and translate them in their entirety rather than translating word for word. Franz Och, Google’s head of translation services, claims the technology could go live in a couple of years. “Clearly, for it to work smoothly, you need a combination of high-accuracy machine translation and high-accuracy voice recognition, and that’s what we’re working on. If you look at the progress in machine translation and corresponding advances in voice recognition, there has been huge progress recently,” he says.
Anyone who’s used Google Translate knows that translations aren’t (and probably never will be) perfect, but they’re very helpful when you can’t understand a word of some foreign language. However, Google’s voice recognition also has issues of its own, and I fear that these two combined would produce a very high amount of errors. The Times also mentions the issue of different accents, a problem that Google plans to solve by making the software gradually learn the speaking habits of the phone’s owner.
Despite the big issues Google has to overcome to make this technology useful, if anyone can pull it off, Google can. The idea of being able to call someone who doesn’t speak your language, and have the conversation translated almost instantly, well, that’s one of those inventions that made Google the company it is today.
Reviews: Google
Tags: Google, machine translation, translation
Blog contents are provided by Mashable
Feb/100
The Rise of Tablets, and Why You Should Care
Category: Technology>Mashable
Even before Apple announced the iPad last week, the Internet was going tablet-crazy. After speculation, literally years in the making, finally came to a crescendo, the public reaction has been decidedly mixed. Discussions about what’s missing and why the announcement was a disappointment have been covered from nearly every angle.
However, whether Apple’s iPad ultimately succeeds or fails, it is yet another sign of an emerging device class. With Google, Microsoft, and others investing in researching tablet-style computers, this is a trend that will not begin or end with the iPad.
The Tablet Redefined: A Media Pad
The concept of tablet computing is hardly a new idea. Although prototypes of tablet or pen-input based computers go back to the late 1970s, the first big industry push for pen computing came in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The GO operating system and later PenWindows were lauded as the next big innovation. Pen computing never took off. Undaunted, manufacturers decided to try again, and almost ten years ago, Microsoft introduced its Microsoft Tablet PC platform. Again, the concept never gained traction.
What’s different about this new wave of tablet devices is that the intended use cases for the device have evolved into something completely different. These new tablets are not being presented as a replacement for the existing computer but for an ancillary type of platform. The new tablets are also not being primarily targeted at business users, but at home users instead. The usage cases are more tightly defined as well. The new tablet devices are about accessing and consuming web content.
Plus, unlike tablets of decades past, these new devices come on the heels of similar devices with similar usage cases: Smartphones.
A New Device Class
When you think about what this new wave of tablet computers offers — easy access to the Internet, a way to watch video, portability without being a smartphone — you might think, “hey, that’s a netbook.” And you would be right. However, the netbook, despite its early aspirations, has never been able to define itself as a separate class of device.
The problem with netbooks is that the form factor is too similar to that of a traditional laptop. In fact, as time has gone on, the line between a netbook and a CULV notebook has blurred to the point that the two categories have almost become one. Plus, because the physical appearance of a netbook is so similar to that of a traditional laptop computer, the expectations of the overall experience are often higher than the devices can adequately offer.
Steve Jobs commented during the iPad launch that people buy netbooks because they want cheap laptops. This is by and large completely true. What this wave of tablet computers is doing is repackaging the intended purpose of a netbook into a form factor that doesn’t confuse its abilities.
But Do We Really Need Another Gadget?
The fact that tablets and smartphones seem so similar on its face have many people questioning the need for this new device category. It’s true, in the beginning, tablets will become a secondary product. I don’t think that any tablet maker is going to advertise their solution as a complete replacement for a main computer. Instead, this is for people who want to have something larger than a smartphone, yet more portable than a regular laptop, to use to access content.
Touch-input is key here. Yes, the ability to use add-on accessories is important, but touch is one of those features that instantly makes a product easy to use and also limits the need to carry add-ons like a stylus or other input device.
Consumers might not need a tablet device or media pad any more than they need to have multiple TiVos or Blu-ray players, but many will want them and buy them anyway.
Don’t Count Out Students
Beyond just entertainment, tablet computers have one huge, huge area of potential: Education, specifically college textbooks. Already textbook publishers are lining up to support the iPad. I have long believed that whatever eBook platform could conquer textbooks would end up winning the battle of this generation of technology. Why? Because this is an area ripe for innovation.
College students spend hundreds of dollars on textbooks every semester — textbooks that are heavy, that are sometimes out of date as soon as they are published, and that don’t fit well with the existing digital lifestyle of today’s students. Even without subsidizing the initial device price, I know that students would flock to using a tablet computer if they could get all of their textbooks, have the ability to make notations, get online updates and see supplementary information all in a device that weighs under a pound and can fit easily in a backpack.
The convenience factor alone makes it a killer device. Mark my words, whoever is able to get textbook publishers and universities on-board en masse first will ultimately win the eBook market.
The great thing about tablet computers is that they aren’t just eBook readers. They can offer additional content experiences as well.
What Do You Think?
Tablet computers are coming. By the end of the year, a variety of tablet devices will be on the market. Do you want one? How do you see it fitting in with your existing lifestyle. Let us know!
More iPad resources from Mashable:
- 9 Upcoming Tablet Alternatives to the Apple iPad
– Will Apple’s iPad Change Mobile Gaming?
– 4 Reasons the Kindle is Dead, 4 Reasons It’s Not
– Why Apple Could Have Etched “iPad” Into Some Rocks and Sold Millions
Images courtesy of iStockphoto, 4×6, abalcazar
Reviews: Blu, Google, iStockphoto
Tags: analysis, apple, Apple Tablet, chrome, computers, google tablet, ipad, Tablet, tech
Blog contents are provided by Mashable
Feb/100
The 10 Oddest Apple-Themed Products [PICS]
Category: Technology>Mashable
Apple fandom has inspired a generation of designers to create products that complement, contrast or clash with design guru Jonathan Ive’s cleverly thought out consumer electronics.
We’ve pulled together a list of Apple-themed products — both real and conceptual –- that ooze wit, and celebrate those that nod to the fun side of life in their product designs.
If we’ve missed anything, do let us know your favorite fun Apple-themed object in the comments below.
1. 500XL Giant Earbud Speakers
Apple’s iconic white earbuds have become a symbol of the iPod, despite the fact that many real music connoisseurs will swap them for a better pair. These speakers then, shaped like gigantic (500 times the size) earphones are a witty audio accessory for your desk.
Cost: $60
2. AirMail Manila Envelope
When Steve Jobs unveiled the MacBook Air on stage at Macworld ‘08 by pulling it out of a manila envelope, the crowd gasped at its slimness. Two Apple geeks saw an opening and created the AirMail sleeve for the slimline laptop, ensuring all Air owners could re-live the moment again and again –- as well as receive knowing nods from other fans when out and about.
Cost: $34 plus shipping
3. iClooly iPhone Stand
The iClooly stand makes your iPhone or iPod touch look just like a mini-me for your iMac. Described as “the perfect little buddy for your iMac,” the iClooly is made out of aluminum and features a 90-degree pivot joint to hold your favorite gadget in landscape or portrait mode. It also offers tilt functionality, and a speaker cable cut-out. So cute!
Cost: $39
4. iMac Aquariums
The kind of Mac-themed innovation we love, Jake Harms takes old, unloved iMacs and converts them into cozy homes for our fishy friends. Holding 3.5 gallons of water, a converted Mac-quarium is a great way to celebrate the iconic, semi-see-through design of the G3 iMac, long after its computing powers have been eclipsed by more modern machines.
Cost: $199, plus shipping
5. iShelf
Li Jianye’s brilliant storage unit may not be able to display your entire CD collection, but it does offer a fantastic real-world representation of iTunes Cover Flow functionality. Someone should really make this.
Concept only
6. iTables
These coffee tables from Italian design house Mirko Ginepro are shaped as huge iPods with glass for the screen and hollow innards, meaning you could, theoretically, use them to store your CD collection — a sort of Gulliver-scale physical format version of the original digital music device.
Cost: Varies (custom made)
7. Notepods
Originally designed for iPhone developers to get a to-scale, real-life canvas to sketch their app ideas and designs on, the Aussie creators behind the Notepods also suggest they are ideal for “jotting down the phone number of a hot geek,” so good luck with that. At the very least, they might make for a good conversation starter.
Cost: $17.95
8. RetroPod
Described by the inventor as a “retro-kitsch ‘love it/hate it’ thing,” the RetroPod took a big, heavy, yellow Sony Walkman from the 80s and turned it into an iPod case, either to repel muggers or show off some ironic retro-chic. Unfortunately, Sony shut the outfit down with some threatening legal letters, but they can’t stop us from remembering such a witty idea.
Concept only
9. Snow White MacBook Sticker
A fairy tale figure with a penchant for apples, and a high-tech laptop make for a pleasing contrast. The vinyl graphic cleverly puts the poisoned apple right into Snow White’s hands, adding a little knowing whimsy to any MacBook. The alternative apple-lover would be Eve of course, but the laws of decency might not allow that.
Cost: From around $15
10. TwelveSouth BookBook
So you’ve got a MacBook right? Well the BookBook hardback leather case for MacBooks and MacBook Pros makes your Apple laptop look just like that, providing not only protection, but a cunning disguise for your pricey portable.
Cost: $79.99
More Apple resources from Mashable:
- Mac Gift Guide: 10 Buying Ideas for Apple Fans
– 5 Mac Apps to Boost Your Productivity
– HOW TO: Create a Mac Theme for Windows 7
– Top 10 iPhone Apps as Judged by Mashable Readers
– 10 iPhone Apps to Avoid Work Disasters
– 20 Creative Apps For Your iPhone
Tags: apple, design, iMac, iphone, iphone accessory, ipod, List, Lists, mac, shopping list
Blog contents are provided by Mashable
Feb/100
Google Maps Suggests New Places You Might Like
Category: Technology>Mashable
Google keeps adding new features to Google Maps and Google Earth. The latest: As of today you can type in a restaurant or other place you like in Google Maps and receive recommendations of nearby places you might like just as much or more.
Sure, it’s not quite as radical as something like the rumored store interior pics in Google Street View, but it’s always good to see more robust location services. Yelp offers something vaguely similar with a “people who viewed this also viewed” box, but Google’s algorithm is probably more sophisticated.
Google has beaten location-focused services like Foursquare to the punch with this. That’s too bad, because we imagine Foursquare could in theory use your check-in history to provide much better suggestions just like Netflix suggests films based on which movies you’ve already rented or streamed and how you’ve rated them. It’s not surprising that Google did it first, though; Google has a lot more experience using algorithms to determine what you’re looking for than Yelp or Foursquare do.
Google wasn’t very clear about how its algorithm works in its blog post on the subject. You’ll just have to try it for yourself to see if the results are helpful to you, but your mileage may vary.
We viewed the place page for the Indie Cafe sushi and Asian fusion restaurant on the far north side of Chicago and received a bunch of — you guessed it — sushi and Asian fusion restaurant suggestions in adjacent neighborhoods. But when we looked up Big City Swing dance studio in the same city, the results were a bit less precise. Some were great, like the Lincoln Tap Room and Tango Chicago. Others made a lot less sense, like a barber shop and other unrelated venues in a distant suburb almost an hour’s drive away.
Try it out and let us know what you think: How does it work? Do you think it’s helpful enough that you’ll be using it regularly?
Reviews: Foursquare, Google, Yelp
Tags: foursquare, Google, google earth, Google Maps, location services, yelp
Blog contents are provided by Mashable
Feb/100
Sneak Peek: Monster’s Super Bowl Social Media Blitz
Category: Technology>Mashable
Super Bowl Sunday is just a few days away and advertisers are gearing up to show off their new campaigns. While Pepsi and Focus on the Family might be getting the most pre-game buzz for their advertising strategies (or lack thereof), plenty of other companies are also working hard on campaigns that cross multiple platforms. One company is veteran Super Bowl advertiser, Monster.com. I had the chance to talk to Monster about their upcoming campaign and its ties to social media.
The Super Bowl is a really interesting event because it is one of the only occasions where advertising breaks are almost as anticipated as the next play. Try to change the channel during a commercial break at a Super Bowl party and see what happens (warning: don’t do this if you are at my house — I will hurt you). Consumers are actively engaged in the commercials, which is one reason advertisers are willing to pay such high prices for ad time.
For a company like Monster.com, which focuses on helping people find jobs, the Super Bowl is also an opportunity to get the word out about how its business has evolved. I spoke with Ted Gilvar, the Executive VP and Global Marketing Officer for Monster about the theme of the company’s Super Bowl ad and how it is also going to integrate itself with social media.
Starting Viral
Earlier this week, Monster launched the website Fiddle a Friend. Right now if you go to the site, all you’ll see is a video of a fiddle-playing beaver, currently stationed in a subway, hoping to attract attention. This beaver (who has his own Twitter account) will be the star in Monster’s Super Bowl ad.
By starting with an ambiguous landing page and engaging in social media, Monster hopes to attract attention, interest and anticipation to their ad.
The Ad
The premise of the ad is that Monster can help you find your dream job. Monster was nice enough to offer us a few seconds of their actual spot, so you can check out this sneak peek:
The Site
After the Super Bowl ad runs on Sunday, FiddleaFriend.com will become a microsite where users can send their own customized greeting cards, starring the beaver, to their friends on Facebook and Twitter. And like JibJab’s Elf Yourself campaign, these can be customized with your own photos.
The Message
Monster has undergone lots of changes over the last few years. In addition to yesterday’s announcement of the HotJobs acquisition, the company has invested in new technologies and systems that make Monster not only a better job search tool, but also offer users and companies a better way to connect and plan.
Monster’s new 6Sense search technology has greatly improved search results for users that uses a more semantic approach that also builds on Monster’s experience in helping people find and post jobs. In tests of the new technology, we found the results to be vastly improved over the previous iteration of Monster’s search.
And better results means more qualified applicants applying to jobs, which is helpful to companies that no longer have to sift through applications that really don’t meet the job requirements.
Additionally, Monster has expanded its service offerings for job seekers, both in planning tools for switching careers, or connecting with other people who are in the same field. These innovations are important to Monster, because with the advent of job-boards and even sites like Craigslist, Monster needs to set itself apart from the competition.
The goal of the Super Bowl and ancillary campaign is to both entertain and call attention to these new features.
What do you think about how companies are using social media in conjunction with high profile ads for events like the Super Bowl? Let us know!
Tags: monster, monster.com, Super Bowl, Super Bowl ads
Blog contents are provided by Mashable
Feb/100
Sirius XM Radio Now Broadcasts to Your BlackBerry
Category: Technology>Mashable
The online streaming version of Sirius XM satellite radio is now available on many of the newer BlackBerry smartphones. Sirius XM just announced that a free app is up for download at its website, though the service isn’t free.
Sirius XM is trying to win ground by streaming its programming online both via the web and mobile devices. An iPhone app launched last year. Now BlackBerry users get to try out the 120 channels of exclusive programming, which includes talk shows from CNN, Fox News, Playboy and Oprah. There’s also an abundance of sports coverage and commercial-free music.
Unfortunately, licensing issues prevent Sirius XM from giving BlackBerry owners its star talk show host — Howard Stern.
Sirius XM is offering a seven-day free trial to BlackBerry owners, but once that trial is over they’ll have to spend $13 per month to keep listening. Supported handsets include the Storm 9530, Storm2 9550, Bold 9000, Bold 9700, Tour 9630, Curve 9800, Curve 8520 and Curve 8530.
Tags: blackberry, Hardware, music, research in motion, Sirius, sirius xm, xm
Blog contents are provided by Mashable
Feb/100
iPhone Apps Get Web Previews
Category: Technology>Mashable
Back in November, Apple quietly rolled out iTunes Preview, which created a web-based page for iTunes albums and song tracks. Earlier this year, the company added song samples to iTunes Preview, further fueling speculation of a web-based iTunes client. Today, the company is completing the circuit, so to speak, and putting iPhone App Store Previews on the web, too.
In the past, when visiting a direct link for an iPhone application, like this link for Draw, users had to endure a page that is little more than a redirect to the link embedded in the iTunes desktop application. Now, that’s generally fine — most home computers do have iTunes installed (and certainly all Macs do), but if you’re on a computer that doesn’t have iTunes, you’re out of luck. That’s why we always indicate iTunes links in our posts, so that readers know — hey, this will try to open iTunes, be aware.
Now, when you hit those direct links, iTunes will still want to load the page (assuming it is installed), but you’re also going to get to see all of the app information, screenshots and review information on a regular web page.
Take a look:
You can still choose to view an app in iTunes, and you’ll need to use iTunes, either on your phone or your Mac or PC, to make a purchase.
Still, it’s yet another indicator that an iTunes.com or similar solution is in the works. We wouldn’t be surprised if this had an iPad component to it as well. Regardless of the reasons, we’re just glad that Apple is making it easier to access iTunes content outside of iTunes.
What do you think Apple is planning on doing with iTunes? Would you like to see a web-based version of the popular music player? Let us know!
[via Lifehacker and TechCrunch]
Tags: app store, itunes, itunes preview, music, software
Blog contents are provided by Mashable
Feb/100
Prop 8 Trial Re-enactments Circumvent Supreme Court’s YouTube Ban [VIDEO]
Category: Technology>Mashable
Enterprising filmmakers have found a way to circumvent a United States Supreme Court ruling blocking video coverage of Proposition 8 on YouTube.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that John Ireland and John Ainsworth are using court transcripts, information from bloggers and professional actors to mastermind a re-enactment of trial proceedings for a YouTube-viewing audience. The pair strongly believe that their video portrayal of the trial will give Americans “a chance to judge for themselves, based on the evidence that was presented.”
Both filmmakers are working on a shoestring budget, but they were still able to attract and secure SAG talent despite being unable to compensate actors for their time. They have reportedly cast “attractive” parties to portray both sides. In fact, Gregory Itzin — who’s appeared in everything from Twilight to 24 — plays the role of defense witness, David Blankenhorn.
According to the Chronicle, Ainsworth and Ireland are committed to presenting an unbiased version of trial events, pulling directly from official transcripts and even seeking guidance from legal experts David Cruz and Linda Hirschman.
You can expect new trial re-enactment scenes to be posted online to marriagetrial.com every two to three days, and we’ve embedded the day one trial videos below. Ireland and Ainsworth plan to complete their video coverage by the end of February.
You may recall that the Chief U.S. District Judge Waugh Walker initially ruled in favor of YouTube trial coverage, but the Supreme Court overruled that design as the trial — which puts the constitutionality of Proposition 8 and the definition of marriage under the microscope — was getting underway. The proceedings have currently halted and closing arguments are slated for next month.
Tags: legal, prop 8, Proposition 8, social media, web video, youtube
Blog contents are provided by Mashable
Feb/100
5 Social Media Tips for Better Corporate Social Responsibility
Category: Technology>Mashable
Ann Charles is Founder and CEO of BRANDfog, an NYC-based company offering Social Media Branding and Corporate Social Responsibility Strategies for C-Suite Executives.
In December, I read a story about social scientists who believe that humans have evolved to become more compassionate and collaborative in our quest to survive. This was called “Survival of the Kindest.” The theory states that sympathy is our strongest human instinct, and helping others is critical to the survival of the whole species. These days, corporations are starting to have the same realization.
Thanks to a social media culture that reveres transparency and demands accountability, companies today are seen through the critical lens of the Triple Bottom Line: People, planet and profit. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) states that businesses should act as stewards of society, the environment, and the economy. The social media spotlight brings accolades and new business for companies that give back, while brands behaving badly are pilloried in online communities like Twitter and Facebook, followed by the mainstream press.
Creating a CSR strategy has become a primary challenge for CEOs. Fortunately, social media can be an invaluable resource for companies willing to commit to becoming better corporate citizens.
Here are 5 steps to develop a CSR culture using social media.
1. Commit & Lead
A CSR strategy begins with a long-term vision and commitment from the top of the executive food chain. The CEO’s vision should be shared through social media channels so supporters can engage with the brand, provide feedback, and become evangelists.
Jeff Swartz, CEO of Timberland is the embodiment of CSR leadership. As the CEO of his family’s business since 1998, Swartz has been a long time activist for social and environmental issues. Swartz leverages Twitter and other social channels to engage communities and rally support for social justice on many fronts.
2. Listen & Learn
It’s important to assess the needs of the communities where you do business to determine which social issues to address. Employees that live and work in the community know the areas of greatest need. Many companies provide assistance to neighborhood programs like school breakfasts, books for libraries, or food banks, and reap the community rewards. The work humanizes the brand while strengthening the community.
For more CSR ideas, search Twitter hashtags #CSR, #sustainability, and read Business Ethics, the Magazine of Corporate Responsibility. You can also follow CSR news on Twitter, leading CSR blogger David Connor and Social Giving pioneer John Wood from Room to Read.
3. Innovate
Some companies leverage social media to encourage spontaneous and innovative ways to help others. Last month, Meg Garlinghouse, Senior Director of Yahoo For Good wrapped up a successful campaign called Random Acts of Kindness.
Users and Yahoo employees were asked to update their status with stories about helping others, which were then shared across the Yahoo network. The CSR campaign received over 300,000 status updates and global participation from 11 countries. Other companies showed their support for CSR by giving employees the time to participate in volunteerism. Patrick Vogt, Chairman and CEO of digital marketing technology company Datran Media, provided 3 additional days to employees specifically for volunteerism this year, for example.
4. Communicate
Talk about what you are doing with CSR. CEOs can use social channels to tweet, blog and post updates about CSR initiatives. Make it a key topic at board meetings, employee meetings, press briefings, and trumpet it through all marketing channels. It’s critical to communicate CSR positions on your website to encourage brand enthusiasts to get involved. As Tim Sanders stated in Saving the World at Work, studies show that when you witness or hear about an act of compassion, you are more likely to emulate it.
The CEO of Alcatel-Lucent, Ben Verwaayen, communicates his vision for CSR on his website. “It is vital for all companies to act in a socially responsible manner and to be good corporate citizens. This involves more than ethical behavior; it means that all employees must become involved and demonstrate the company’s concern for society.”
5. Invest
As it turns out, doing good is good for business, and more companies are realizing the benefits of Socially Responsible Investments (SRIs).
According to the Social Investment Forum (SIF), a trade association advancing the practice of socially responsible investments, about two thirds of socially responsible mutual funds in the U.S. outperformed industry benchmarks during the 2009 economic downturn, most by significant margins.
Conclusion
Social scientists believe that we are wired to be kind. It would seem that they are right, especially in light of the recent outpouring of generosity to Haiti. In today’s world, admiration is bestowed upon companies that look beyond short-term financial goals to engage in long-term commitments for the betterment of society.
As John D. Rockefeller once said, “Think of giving not as a duty, but as a privilege.”
More business resources from Mashable:
- The Maturation of Social Media ROI
– The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration
– HOW TO: Use Social Media to Connect with Other Entrepreneurs
– HOW TO: Implement a Social Media Business Strategy
– 9 Great Document Collaboration Tools for Teams
– HOW TO: Choose a News Reader for Keeping Tabs on Your Industry
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, cjp
[Image Credit: **CRT**]
Reviews: Facebook, Twitter, iStockphoto
Tags: business, corporate social responsibility, List, Lists, small business, social good, socialgood, twitter
Blog contents are provided by Mashable
Feb/100
YouTube Makes $10,709.16 From Movie Rental Trial Run
Category: Technology>Mashable
Last month YouTube made its first foray into movie rentals — five films from the Sundance Film Festival — and according to The New York Times, the total revenue from those five films amounted to only $10,709.16.
The films were available for 10 days, and YouTube said it collectively got 2,864 views at $3.99 apiece. Nearly half those views were for one film; The Cove received 1,103 views. By contrast, six million Netflix subscribers stream movies online, and millions of iTunes users have bought or rented movies through that service. Of course, Netflix and iTunes each offer a lot more than five movies.
It’s understandable that obscure, art house independent films would not make a large impact, but we expected more from films that were plugged on both the official YouTube blog and several other tech, web and film blogs.
YouTube has been talking with major TV studios and other independent filmmakers, pitching a deal that would let them decide how much they want to charge someone to view their films. Once there are some bigger films available, we’ll have a better idea of how successful YouTube’s rental ambitions will be.
To be fair, YouTube doesn’t think the Sundance test drive was a failure. YouTube rep Chris Dale was quoted in The New York Times as saying, “It definitely exceeded our expectations given all the barriers.”
Reviews: YouTube, iTunes
Tags: Film, Google, News, sundance, video, youtube
Blog contents are provided by Mashable
Feb/100
Shock Artistry: Lady Gaga’s Social Factors of Fame
Category: Technology>Mashable
Alex Mann is the director of Trendrr, a business intelligence platform for social and digital media. You can read more by Alex on his blog and follow him on Twitter.
Ten years ago, even the most shocking entertainer’s rise to stardom was missing the accelerating momentum of social media. While fame’s appeal lies within its ambiguity, we do know it accelerates with rapid conversation.
Lady Gaga has played a hand in manipulating fame to her advantage, emerging this year as arguably the hottest pop star on the planet. She’s done this by developing the image of a shock artist — wearing futuristic attire, sculpted hair styles and glittery makeup to complete her socially disruptive persona that ultimately drives the popularity and consumption of her music. Today, Lady Gaga isn’t just popular; she’s rapidly accelerating in popularity.
Lady Gaga By the Numbers
On Twitter, the phrase “Lady Gaga” has averaged over ten thousand mentions per day over the past three months, soaring in frequency past other 2010 Grammy performers. Does the buzz translate into commercial success? Do people actually listen to Gaga’s music, or is she merely a spectacle?
As it turns out, Lady Gaga’s Twitter buzz isn’t just noise — it’s backed up by consumption data. Take, for instance, her number of listeners on Last.fm. They continue to rise, with an accelerating upward trajectory beginning last fall when she appeared on Saturday Night Live with Madonna.
As the graph above shows, Lady Gaga’s rise in popularity has been meteoric even in the last month when she surpassed John Mayer in listeners. While Lady Gaga’s wardrobe stunts and persona stir conversation, the data suggests that people are actually listening to her music, as well.
The same holds true for MySpace listeners. As the data suggests, she maintains a strong position against other pop icons such as Jay-Z, and Rihanna.
Lady Gaga wins again versus another global star, Beyonce, who peaked in November coinciding with the Kanye West / Taylor Swift VMA incident. While it’s obvious that both stars are frequent press items, the key insight gained from comparing the slopes of the trend lines indicates the accelerating social momentum Gaga has built over the past six months.
What All This Tells Us
With consumption of Lady Gaga’s music skyrocketing on social sites where users do not pay to listen, one key fact is clear; she remains a strong performer where it counts: music sales.
A final question worth considering: if there was an absence of free channels to hear Gaga, would her album sales be higher? Or, does the social media universe only perpetuate and support her existing successful career? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Tags: charts, graphs, Lady Gaga, music, social media, Trendrr, trends
Blog contents are provided by Mashable
Jan/100
iPhone OS 3.2 Hints at Camera Support in a Future iPad
Category: Technology>Mashable
One of the glaring things missing from the Apple iPad is a camera. Interestingly, though, a source confirmed to Engadget that the iPhone OS 3.2 — the operating system running on the iPad — has several different software hooks that include at least some basic support for video calling.
That strongly suggests Apple may include a camera in the next version of the iPad. Some code that supports toggling a video call between full screen and a smaller screen area also hints at the probability of being able to video chat and do other tasks at the same time. It’s not all that much to go on, but it does suggest that multi-tasking may be coming along down the road for the iPad, and perhaps the iPhone as well.
So why no camera in version one? It’s anyone’s guess, but maybe Apple decided to hold off on supporting video conferencing over 3G until either AT&T improved its network to better support the relatively high data bandwidth video calls require, or until they were able to reach an agreement with another cell carrier. Perhaps they wanted to come in as cheaply as possible and leave some room to grow in version two.
In any case, there’s good reason to hope for camera and video chat support in the next iteration of the iPad. Check out the Engadget post for some other details revealed from the iPhone OS 3.2 Software Development Kit, and let us know what you think: would the iPad be more attractive to you with a camera on board?
Tags: apple, camera, ipad, iphone, iphone OS 3.2, Skype, video chat
Blog contents are provided by Mashable
Jan/100
How the PGA Can Use Social Media to Rebuild Its Brand
Category: Technology>Mashable
Jalen Rose is a former 13-year NBA star and current ESPN basketball analyst but may be best known for being a member of the famous University of Michigan Fab Five.
Let me start off by saying I don’t play golf, but I do watch and I am a big fan of the sport. Over the past decade, I’ve watched as Tiger Woods has become the face of golf around the world. He is unbelievably important to the game, and that has to change.
Having been in the NBA for 13 years I know the meaning of a sport as a business. Sometimes, superstars in the game become synonymous with their sports. Just like in basketball we had Michael Jordan, in boxing we had Mike Tyson, in tennis we had Pete Sampras, in golf we have Tiger Woods. However, those other sports went on and flourished after those stars retired. What the PGA needs to understand and implement is the notion that they cannot hinge the business of golf onto just one player — it’s not practical. Golf existed before Tiger, and it will exist after he leaves.
The PGA Needs to Move Post-Tiger
Tiger’s unfortunate actions late last year that led to his indefinite hiatus from golf have certainly forced the PGA’s hand in looking for ways to move the brand beyond Tiger. But regardless, expanding the brand image beyond a single player is smart business sense that will strengthen the league in the long run. Now that I’m an analyst and sitting on the other side, I really do see how important it is to grow the sport as a whole.
One way the PGA can move beyond Tiger is to utilize social media.
Using Social Media to Build Community
What the PGA needs to do is move forward and embrace social media to the max. Currently the PGA has a Facebook Page with over 30,000 fans and a Twitter account with a little more than 19,000 followers. I have more Twitter followers than the PGA, an entire professional sports league. That, my friends, needs to change. There are many more people than that watching the sport. Golf is a worldwide game, so they need to address this globally, not just domestically. Players like Bubba Watson, Stewart Cink, and John Daly are just a few of the players that have embraced social media and really started growing their fan base and interacting with them.
[Editor's Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly linked to the PGA Twitter and Facebook accounts, rather than the account for the PGA Tour.]
There is a great opportunity here for the PGA to take advantage of technology that is really made for the fans and followers. Golf is a sport that has a great loyal viewership and dedicated fan base. The PGA needs to tap into that core audience and deliver. Here are a couple ideas:
– Engage the fans on Facebook, Twitter, and Ustream. The PGA needs to talk with the fans who are posting on their wall. They need to interact with people talking about golf on Twitter, and even have golfers give live lessons on Ustream! It’s time for the PGA to build a culture where golfers and golf fans come to the PGA’s social media accounts when they want to talk or find out more about the sport.
– Create content and promotions that allow the fans to reach out to the pros. For example, have players create personalized videos about various topics (the best shot I ever hit, my favorite course to play, etc.). Even better, set up golf clinics around the U.S. where social media fans who play the game can get a chance to meet and interact with professional golfers.
The Game Needs Tiger, But That Can Change
The other day, Phil Mickelson admitted to the press that the game of golf needs Tiger. I think that what the game of golf really needs to do is promote the other “Tigers” who are out there. When Michael Jordan retired from the NBA, the game still went on. And the NBA did not pin a single successor, but many successors that have taken basketball and the NBA to new heights.
Here is a chance for the PGA to take it to the next level. Every player in the game of golf has a story to tell, and the game has a story of its own. The PGA can use social media to tell those stories. Yes, the game misses Tiger, but the business must go on until he returns to a (hopefully) new and improved PGA that truly engages and interacts with its fans through social media.
And yes, my colleagues get on my case about not playing — I will get into it soon.
More sports resources from Mashable:
– When Social Media Gets Athletes in Trouble
– 5 Predictions for Athletes on Social Media in 2010
– 5 Social Media Lessons the NBA Can Teach Businesses
– 5 Reasons Every Sports Fan Should Be On Social Media
– 5 Athletes Who Would Have Been Social Media Mavens
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, RichVintage
Tags: fab five, Golf, jalen rose, pga, social media, sports, tiger woods
Blog contents are provided by Mashable
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