For social media marketers as well as social media ethusiast. Check out this beautiful infographic displaying all the graphic image dimensions for the Facebook Timeline, Twitter Profiles, Google+ Pages, YouTube Branded Pages, Linkedin Profiles and Pinterest Boards. What a great resource.
Have you spruced up your social media pages?
Drop a word on our facebook or twitter and let us know so we can take a look! Perhaps we’ll highlight some of the most creative ones we find in a future post.
Social media nerds and marketers! Some fun superbowl twitter statistics only someone like you would enjoy.
There were 20.9 million superbowl related tweets on superbowl sunday and a whopping 6.1 million of those tweets were about the ads rather than the game. GoDaddy’s ad led the way with 290,000 tweets, nearly 6x more than audi, but also had the distinction of having only 14% of those tweets being positive. Tide had the best responses with 86% positive sentiment. Godaddy was at 14%.
Would you consider godaddy’s ad “successful” considering the most of the high buzz was negative? Or is any press good press as the old adage would say?
Taco Bell’s “Viva Young” ad scored the highest in terms of positive sentiment tweets and increasing followers.
Check out the Superbowl Social Statistics infographic below and let us know which ad you expected to generate the most buzz!
5 Rules for Designing from the men behind Apple’s biggest design decisions
In 2012, the newest ipad sold at a rate of 694 ipads per minute during the 1st 72 hours.
Can you imagine creating a product that people would purchase at such an amazing rate?
If you sold 694 of whatever you invented TOTAL, that would be a feat in itself, but per MINUTE? Amazing. But the answer is not as simple as copying Apple’s designs. They are able to do what they do because of deeply embedded philosophies of design pushed down by the design leaders of Apple, Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive.
Apple is able to do this because of their famous ability to create products that are not only aesthetically pleasing but easy to use. Below is a fun video talking about 5 rules of design derived from the philosophies of the leaders of Apple.
“For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic the quality has to be carried all the way through” – Steve Jobs
RULE #1 – Don’t Skimp on Anything
Don’t skimp on sections of design just because they aren’t in the customers main line of sight
– High quality design is all encompassing
RULE #2 – Everyone must understand the Product
Every employee in the company must truly understand what the product they are building is, how it works, and how it will benefit customers or society in order to get the design just right.
“It is so important to be light on your feet, inquisitive and interested in being wrong” – Jonathan Ive
RULE #3 – Motivated by Failure & Optimistic about Change
Good design is produced by people who are motivated by failures and optimistic about change.
– Focus and simplicity – Steve Jobs Mantra
RULE #4 – Simple, Beautiful over Bells & Whistles
It’s harder to design something that is simply beautiful than it is to just stuff a product full of bells and whistles. But the marketplace is looking for clean, flawless, and operational design.
Our products are tools and we don’t want design to get in the way – Jonathan Ive
RULE #5 – Quality Product over Flash
Product design isn’t meant to stick out like a sore thumb, but rather a high quality product, people come to recognize as an extension of themselves.
What do you like best about apple’s product designs? Looks? Ease of use? Quality?
How do attract a steady stream of new users on my site?
How do I go about creating the kind of content that will attract users?
How do I use podcasts and videos to attract users?
Whether you are a big business owner, a start-up or an owner of blog you are trying to get off the ground, consider Content Marketing. As a personal owner of the site Clean Cut Media and a lover small business marketing tactics, I wanted to share a bit about Content Marketing.
This article below will help explain what content marketing is and how it could be a great strategy to grow your user base. It will also give a little preview of a new content marketing summit that is conveniently all-online and very cheap to attend. Let’s dig in.
Good Content will attract the users you want:
Today, businesses of all sizes are using content marketing to slay the competition, attract large followings of loyal customers and explode their business’ growth.
But when tiny Magnolia Hi-Fi started using content, the Internet wasn’t even around. Did that stop them? Heck no!
Magnolia used content marketing to grow from a small audio store to an $87 million brand.
Back then, they had just transitioned from a neighborhood greeting card and photography store to an audio specialty store. Competition was fierce and they didn’t even have a marketing plan. So they hired a salesman (who knew a lot about educating prospects with great information) to develop a solid profitable marketing plan.
The plan was to give prospective buyers something to focus on other than price – content.
They created a series of stereo buyer’s guides, which offered educational content that answered prospects’ questions about buying audio equipment. These were distributed as newspaper inserts (remember there was no Internet at the time!).
But the guides were quarterly and Magnolia needed to nurture their audience by keeping the story alive throughout the year. So they invested in weekly distribution channels and different content formats. As resources grew, they scaled content velocity to achieve broader distribution and broadcast frequency.
Within 18 months, the small, out-of-the-way store was joined by a huge store in Seattle’s high-traffic University District, followed by two more stores and finally expanding to Washington, Oregon and California.
In 2000, the father-son business sold to Best Buy for $87 million! Today, there are over 350 Magnolia Home Theater Locations in Best Buy stores throughout the U.S.
Here’s a question for you. You have all the advantages of the Internet, right? What’s stopping you from growing your business?
Content marketing is simply creating and sharing information that solves buyers’ problems or makes their lives easier. The result is that you build a platform that draws in ideal customers, increases your exposure and achieves sales growth for your business.
Content Marketing Statistics
Want to know how successful B2B marketers are using content marketing?
91% of B2B marketers are now using content marketing
79% use content marketing for brand awareness, 74% for customer acquisition and 71% for lead generation
On average, B2B marketers are spending 33% of their marketing budgets on content marketing, which is up from 26% last year
54% plan to increase their content marketing spending in 2013
Large companies use an average of 18 content marketing tactics while small companies use an average of 11 tactics
These numbers demonstrate the huge investment marketers are making in content marketing.
Don’t you think you should invest a little to learn more about content marketing this coming year?
Are you interested in learning how to create awesome blogs, podcasts, video, webinars and other forms of content to keep customers focused on your brand?
Social Media Examiner’s Content Success Summit 2013
One of the biggest challenges marketers face is not knowing if their tactics are effective (according to Content Marketing Institute).
In response to this challenge, Social Media Examiner is bringing together 22 of the world’s leading content marketing experts to present at the first-annual online Content Success Summit 2013.
It’s an online conference spread over an entire month to meet your busy schedule.
This conference is designed to help you build your own platform, marketyour products and grow your business.
“Content is what makes social work, and it is at the core of all that we do here at Social Media Examiner,” says Michael Stelzner, CEO and founder of Social Media Examiner. “We have one of the largest business blogs in the world and a successful podcast. This summit is about teaching people how to do exactly what Social Media Examiner has always been doing.”
Why a Content Marketing Summit Conference?
Content Success Summit is the first virtual conference created to help marketers figure out exactly how to build their platform. By attending this conference you will:
See how successful content producers operate and how you can achieve similar results
Learn how to grow a loyal following via blogging, video, podcasting, email marketing and webinars
Discover how to sell your products and services using content
Gain a leg up on your competitors, helping you stand out
Pick up new content marketing strategies that will bring you more exposure
Designed to accommodate your schedule, the conference will be conveniently spread over a four-week period starting February 5, 2013.
You will receive recordings and transcripts of all live sessions. And because it is fully online, you can attend right from your home or office, thus eliminating long-distance travel expenses and hotel bills.
Content Marketing Presenters
I know, I know. Most of you are thinking, who in the world are these people! HA! They are awesome marketing professionals. Just trust me.
Our first Content Success Summit features the most experienced leaders in the industry. Many of them have written a book about content marketing or are founders of successful businesses fueled by content. Among them are:
Joe Pulizzi – founder of Content Marketing Institute and co-author of Get Content Get Customers
Ann Handley – chief content officer of MarketingProfs and co-author of Content Rules
Michael Hyatt – chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers and author of Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World
Michael Stelzner – founder of Social Media Examiner and author of Launch
Amy Porterfield – co-author ofFacebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies
David Siteman Garland – founder of Rise to the Top and author of Smarter, Faster, Cheaper
Gini Dietrich – co-author of Marketing in the Round
Heidi Cohen – president of Riverside Marketing Strategies
Pat Flynn – founder of Smart Passive Income
Marcus Sheridan – founder of the popular blog, The Sales Lion
Mark Schaefer – author of Return on Influence
And many others!
Is This Content Conference Right for You?
Perhaps you’ve been focusing a lot on social media, but not much on content marketing. You’re wondering if you could learn something new that might be a game-changer for your business. Ask yourself the following:
Do I have a content marketing plan for 2013?
Are there some content tactics that I’m not aware of that could be useful for my business?
Could I use some advice to build my platform, market my products and grow my business using content?
If you answered ‘Yes’ to any of these questions, then sign up and learn from the leading content marketing authorities in the industry.
Content Marketing Seminars & Workshops Samples:
How to Create Social Videos that drive Traffic & Leads
5 Tips for Creating Epic Content that Breaks through the Noise
Turning your Passions into Profits: How to Create Quality Courses that Sell
How to Grow a Loyal Audience of Listeners
How to Create Compelling Content with Expert Interviews
How to Start and Grow a Successful Podcast Show
13 Insider Tips to Get Your Blog on Track to Succeed
Want to Save Money?
If you reserve your spot right now, you will save 50% ($300). Click here for details. Also there is a 100% Money Back Guarantee so there is no risk. Awesome. Very important.
Click on the Image Above to Get the Details. 100% Money Back Guarantee so no risk.
Over to You. Are you interested in learning how to create a content platform that will successfully grow your business? Please share your thoughts and comments in the box below.
UPDATE: HA! forgot to mention. Use this CONTENT MARKETING SUMMIT LINK and get $300 off. $297 for the entire summit! All that raving and no link!
Over 1 billion users on Facebook – making it the 3rd largest in the world. China, India, Facebook than the US.
Over 50% of the world’s population is under 30-years-old
Each day 20% of Google searches have never been searched before
In 10 years over 40% of the Fortune 500 will no longer be here
Social Media is the #1 activity on the Web, though still not allowed in China.
1 in 5 couples meet online; 3 in 5 gay couples meet online
1 in 5 divorces are blamed on Facebook
Ford Explorer launch on Facebook generated more traffic than a Super Bowl Ad
Generation Y & Z consider email passe: Some universities have stopped distributing email accounts due to use of social media
Kindergarden is learning on iPads
69 percent of parents said they are currently “friends” with their children on a social media site
92% of children under the age of 2 have a Digital Shadow (online presence/video/profile)
Every second 2 new members join Linkedin
That’s is like the entire enrollment number of the Ivy League School joining every day.
Social Gamers will purchase 6 billion in virtual goods by 2013. Compare to movie goers who only by 2.5 billion in real goods
YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world (After Google)
Every minute 72 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube
If Wikipedia were made into a book it would be 2.25 million pages long
97% of Pinterest Facebook Fans are Women
53% of people on Twitter recommend products in their Tweets
90% of people trust online recommendations from people they know
Only 14% trust traditional TV advertisements
New Yorkers received tweets about an east coast earthquake 30 seconds before they felt it
93% of marketers use social media for business
Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of Germany, Turkey, South Africa, Canada, Argentina, United Kingdom, Egypt
“We don’t have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it.” – Erik Qualman
“We will non longer search for products and services, they will find us via social media.” – Erik Qualman
“Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.” – Erik Qualman
“The ROI of social media is that your business will still exist in 5 years.” – Erik Qualman
Blurring the lines between Work & Home – Mobile Style
BYOD: Bring your own device. More and more, professionals are using mobile devices and blurring the lines between work and home. With the booming popularity of iPhones, iPads, and the use of laptops in corporate settings, one study showed that the average American worker works nearly seven hours a week outside the office. 80% of professionals do some sort of work past the end of the workday. This involves anything from answering phone calls and answering emails. 60% of those who work after workhours said it helps them to stay organized and nearly half said they feel like they have no choice.
One way in this impacts our private lives is that it makes it more difficult for us to “switch off”. 31% of Americans say they have a hard time switching gears from work to home. 50% respond toemails in bed, 69% said they have to check email before going to bed, and 40% send work-related emails as late as ten at night. Then 68% of us start each morning by checking our emails. 50% check before getting out of bed.
Having Trouble Sleeping? Blame the iPad!… Maybe
A recent study by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lighting Research Center, studied the impact of backlit devices such as the iPhone and iPad at on our production of Melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland that helps induce drowsiness and lower body temperature, both important to help us to fall sleep. The research shows that two ours of tablet use before bed can suppress melatonin production up to 22%. In English, that means tablet use is making it harder for us to fall asleep as it affects our ability to naturally get drowsy. It is also associated with increased risk for diabetes and obesity and some mental health disorders. The study was only done on 13 people so take it with a grain of salt, but it does bring up the question:
Do you use your iphone, ipad or other mobile devices before going to bed?
Do you feel it helps you sleep or only delays you going to bed?
Do you feel the urge to check email or facebook before you go to bed? When you wake up?
Microsoft just release it’s first television ad for the Surface tablet. It is called “The Surface Movement” where the characters spontaneously enter into a dance routine focused around their unique attachable cover keyboards. The Surface tablet itself wasn’t prominently featured, but the coordination involved in the dance routine is impressive and those keyboards had drawn a lot of interest because it simply made a lot of sense to integrate it into the cover.
Microsoft has always had this perception of being an “old” company that doesn’t really change or try new things. However with this new Surface tablet, they have taken a big step towards trying something completely new, with a new interface, a creative keyboard and now this light-hearted ad.
It’s back to school time. Many schools will be starting this week or the next. It’s the time to think about new classes, new teachers, perhaps new friends, but also a time to think about the many issues in present youth culture.
One of the biggest is cyberbullying. According to a new study, 1 in 4 kids claim to be targets of cyberbullying, nearly 2 of 3 teens have witnessed cruel behavior online, but only 10% of parents are aware that their own teens are one of the recipients. Most of these attacks happen on Facebook where a whopping 92.6% of teens say cruel behavior takes place. It also happens through other mediums such as Twitter 23.8%, MySpace (17.7%), and Instant Messenger 15.2%.
Is Standing up to Bullies Online Safe?
But what is interesting is how teens stand up to bullies more often online. 40% tells them to stop, nearly 21% ended up telling an adult, while 65.8% responded to the attacker. In the small security of not being physically present, teens respond more frequently.
However, beware, 35% of students also end up responding in person and 4.5% of the teens end up in physical fights. 15% avoided school altogether due to an online incident. Worse, 6.3% of people join in the attack.
It is important that parents are aware of what is going on in the online space because it can have dramatic impact on teens especially during the difficult and emotional years of youth. If your child is is often emotionally down or wants to avoid school, you should be aware that cyberbulling is not a simple issues to be ignored. If that doesn’t move you, know that teens who are cyberbullied are 3.5x MORE likely to attempt suicide! Now that is a scary reality.
Check out the infographic below, and let us know your thoughts. Any of the statistics surprise you?
I found this iPhone Promo video, hilarious, but in the same time a bit sad as it pokes fun at our media-centric culture. Although some of the lines were meant to be hyperbole, the truth in the commentary rings so true.
Don’t want to spoil it so watch it then read the rest of the post!
“People only use iphones to take photos of their food, they are sad and alone so they use pictures of their food to create the illusion of a fulfilling life…”
Ouch.
Yet isn’t that what a lot of people do on facebook? Not neccessarily with food, but with all sorts of pictures & updates?
“…these pictures look so good that no one would never imagine you lie awake at night wondering why you can’t feel happiness”
Double ouch.
“… it’s photos are sure to garner all the likes, hearts, pluses, pins, stars, reposts, reblogs, reretumbles, retweets, that you’ve used to replace the human connections in your life…”
Wow. Painfully true.
Watch and share your thoughts? True? False? Poignant?
The Colorado Theater Massacre is such a tragic story. I am incredibly saddened by what happened and much prayers go out to the families and loved ones involved.
The alleged shooter is 24 year old James Holmes, who faces 142 criminal counts for shooting at a packed midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises. For whatever reason, motive still uncertain, he proceeded to open fire into the crowds leaving 12 dead and 58 injured.
In most circumstances as people try to make sense of this kind of senseless killing, our first instinct is to want to blame something or someone. Blame parents, blame media, blame society, blame gun-control or blame the individual who perpetrated it all. As usual, there are a lot of questions and lot of accusations, though surprisingly the outcry doesn’t seem to be as loud this time around.
Traditionally media is one of the biggest targets in the blame game. Considering this was at a movie theater, it seemed inevitable that a lot of blame would be casts on media’s influence on the young mind. However whether it is the immediate responsiveness of Warner Brothers, or perhaps of how ridiculously senseless the deed was – there seems to a lot less finger pointing over this event. Still the film industry is being very cautious and has properly shown sensitivity to what has happened by immediately taking action.
Warner Brothers Acts Quickly to Colorado
Warner Brothers, the studio who released “The Dark Knight Rises”, quickly removed the trailer for its upcoming film “Gangster Squad” which has been a trailer proceeding “The Dark Knight Rises.” This trailer features a climactic scene in which mob gangsters open fire into a movie theater. Good move. Warner Brothers also quickly removed the trailer from YouTube and other video sharing sites. It is also said that the studio plans to reshoot parts of the movie in dealing with this matter. The studio hasn’t been clear on how they plan to reedit the movie but it will be interesting to see to what extent they would go in response to this tragedy. Will they cut an important scene all together or make minor edits? Perhaps just tone it down? Either way it will cost Warner Brothers a pretty penny. They also stand to potentially lose money by pushing out the release date from September 7th to January 11th as well have already lost money canceling premieres several key global cities out of respect for the victims.
Warner Brothers also announced it was making a “substantial” undisclosed donation to the victims.
Hollywood is to Blame? Or Not?
Quotes from Hollywood:
“I think it’s a tragedy and to blame the movie business is incorrect and inappropriate…” – Geffen, Co-founder of DreamWorks
“I think it’s just an opportunistic scenario… I leave it to people who sit in rooms with diagrams and charts to try to correlate cause and effect. And I think hindsight is 20-20 and we’re not anywhere near hindsight. This is still fresh paint on the canvas of our culture and it remains to be seen. There’s a lot of healing to go on.” – Diane Lane, Actress
“If you are not raising your kids to have balance in life, that is one place we have to look at.” – Will.i.am, Recording Artist
In response to whether television companies should cut down on violence: “We think about the images particularly that children see, and as we look at the programming that we design for our schedule — obviously, the programming that we produce is educational — but we think a lot about the images that particularly the most impressionable, and I would say that children are at the top of that list, are confronted with.” – Paula Kerger, PBS President
So Who do We Blame? What Do We Really Know?
I would hope that no one would argue that media has a huge influence on the way we, especially as children, view the world, view people, and the norms of society. Cursing, violence, how to treat other people, self-image, view of women, that life is all about one’s own happiness, that power is respected, that being cool or good looking is what matter, that living rich with comforts will bring happiness, that romantic love is the answer to all things – and so on.
I would imagine, it had some various affects on how this shooter viewed the world and the value of human life – but does that mean media is the only thing to blame for such a tragedy? No of course not. There are so many factors involved, that I wouldn’t even assume to know all that went into it. Perhaps parenting, perhaps influence of bad friends, perhaps he had a tragic past, didn’t have a father figure, grew up in a broken home, I do not know. The only thing I know is that it’s a scary thing that he became a person capable of such things. That as a baby he was no different than you and me – but there was something in him that thru circumstances and influences allowed him to do what he did. That is a scary thought and should really humble us to really be careful about what kind of things we allow ourselves (and our children) to be exposed to and the kind of things we listen to.
Can We Live Without Smartphones? Statistics Says You Will Panic
QUESTION: How much time you spend a day staring at your smartphone? How many of you have an iPhone but really don’t need it? Honestly.
Is it the first thing you grab for when you wake up in the morning?
The last thing you look at before you go to bed?
54% of people say they do all of the above.
A study sponsored by Lookout, says that we often put more time in our phones than in real personal relationships. in fact the way we think, behave and the emotions we feel is more and more developing into a new “mobile mindset”.
“The findings establish that our attachment to smartphones is driving a new mobile mindset. Our behaviors, emotions and social interactions are impacted by smartphones to the extent that they now play an important role in our value systems.” – Alicia DiVittorio, Lookout
Smartphone Dependency Statistics
We are obsessed with staying connected on our phones.
60% of respondents say they don’t go an hour without checking their phones.
63% of women and 73% of men between ages 18 to 34 don’t go an hour without checking their phones.
Rules of etiquette are also changing or being challenged.
Nearly a third of respondents say they check their phones while sharing a meal
Nearly a quarter of respondents say they engage in risky behavior such as checking their phone while driving.
10% check their phones during religious services
The Study also suggest we are also emotionally attached to our devices
Nearly three-quarters of respondents felt “panicked” when they misplace their phones.
14% said they felt “desperate”
7% said they felt “sick”
Only 6% said they felt “relieved”
How Are You with Smartphones?
So let’s discuss.
How much time you spend a day staring at your smartphone?
Is it the first thing you grab for when you wake up in the morning?
The last thing you look at before you go to bed?
Do you see us getting more and more dependent on Smartphones?
Can you imagine creating a product that people would purchase at such an amazing rate? 
