Social Media Showcase (3 September 2010)

Steven Kryger on September 3rd in Social Media with no comments yet :(

A weekly wrap-up of interesting articles, resources and developments in the world of social media.

1. How to hail a London cabbie using Twitter. Why would you hail a cab when you could tweet one? Social media finds a pratical application in cab reservations with @tweetalondoncab. Or is sending a DM for a cab ride more complex than it needs to be? Next time you’re in London try it out and let us  know, perhaps we’ll have Tweet a Sydney Cab soon.

2. Finding a new buddy through social networks. Need a travel friend or perhaps you want to find someone with similar goals? Chances are there is a site out there to help you. Try comotive, an Australian site that allows you to find people with shared goals and keep each other motivated.  GlobeTrooper is designed to help you find a travel buddy whereever you’re from and whereever you happen to be going.

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Keeping social media contests simple

Steven Kryger on August 17th in Social Media with no comments yet :(

If you want an iPad, I wouldn’t bother buying one – they’re the flavour of the month in social media giveaway-land! Check out: ‘Who can form the longest list of places to win a free iPad?‘.

This morning I noticed a campaign that Ministry of Sound is running to win an iPad:

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Official Twitter ReTweet Button – Installed

Phillip Ohren on August 16th in Social Media with no comments yet :(

Recently, Twitter released their official ReTweet button. Which allows users to share links directly from the page they are on. When you click on the Tweet Button, a Tweet box will appear — pre-populated with a shortened link that points to the item that you’re sharing.

Included with the new button is automatic integration of the Twitters new URL shortening service http://t.co which shaves 2 characters off bit.ly.

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Social Media Showcase (13 August 2010)

Steven Kryger on August 13th in Social Media with no comments yet :(

A weekly wrap-up of interesting articles, resources and developments in the world of social media.

  1. TigerTweet.Me. In this Year of the Tiger, this tool provides you with a fun way of trimming excess Twitter followers – by feeding them to the tiger! The site is also available in Japanese, if that’s your thing.
  2. Steer clear of your ex-boyfriend. Avoidr is a service that uses Foursquare “to keep your friends close, and your enemies at the bar down the street”. Another interesting use of geo-location services. Read more on Mashable.
  3. HP and measuring Twitter influence. Cnet reports on a study by HP that discovered that “influence is better measured by those whose tweets spread far and wide–something that is not so correlated as one might think to the number of followers that a particular person has.”
  4. Hootsuite Freemium. Hootsuite is my favourite platform for scheduling and monitoring social media accounts. This week, Hootsuite announced it will launching new paid services, as well as maintaining the free service that has made Hootsuite so popular. Take a look at the pricing plans.  Hootsuite users – will the new prices turn you away? If so, which service will you turn to?
  5. Mentos Rainbow: Spider. An ad that will appeal to the much maligned spider-fearers amongst us:

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Twitter’s recommending who we should follow

Steven Kryger on August 6th in Social Media with 1 lonely comment

I just noticed today that Twitter is providing me with recommendations when I follow someone:

It’s also providing recommendations on user profiles:

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Social Media Showcase (6 August 2010)

Steven Kryger on August 6th in Social Media with no comments yet :(

A weekly wrap-up of interesting articles, resources and developments in the world of social media.

  1. Perth granny influencing election result. This is why I love social media – the little man (or in this case, a 66 year-old grandmother) gets a big voice. According to BuzzElection, Lesley is the second-most influential election tweeter.
  2. Bye bye Google Wave. When I received my much sought after invitation to test out Google Wave, underwhelmed would be an understatement. Google has now announced that it hasn’t seen the adoption it would’ve liked, and is ceasing development. When you’re as big as Google, I guess you can afford for some ventures to fail, but it does make me wonder how their rumoured ‘Facebook-killer’ will go. Read more at The Guardian and Switched On Media.
  3. #FlyFwdGiveBack. Virgin America ran a 24 hour sale on Twitter using the hashtag #flyfdwgiveback. $5 of each booking went to donorschoose.org. Great idea, the only problem for Virgin America was keeping their site from crashing. Read more on TechCrunch.
  4. Free book for Twitter followers. Venture capitalist, founder of Alltop and social media guru, Guy Kawasaki is offering his first book free, to his Twitter followers. I was impressed with the nifty ‘verify you’re following’ tool that checked I was following Guy before giving me the book. Have you seen this done for any other promotions?
  5. 50 Viral Images The Web Shared In 2010. A collection of inspiring, moving, funny, challenging and beautiful infographics, photos and screenshots. Chances are, you’ve seen some already!

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Social Media Showcase (30 July 2010)

Steven Kryger on July 30th in Social Media with 1 lonely comment

A weekly wrap-up of interesting articles, resources and developments in the world of social media.

  1. The ChipIn Millionaire. An Australian has laid down the challenge – “Can I make a million dollars just through word of mouth, the kindness of strangers and sitting around talking about how much I’d like to have it? I’d like to think so.” So far the ChipIn Millionaire has raised $21.26 – he’s off to a slow start!
  2. Twitter as a time capsule. On September 28, 2009, Masterchef winner Adam Liaw tweeted: “Seriously considering flying to Sydney to audition for Masterchef.” I’m sure he’s very glad he did! Is it just me, or is Adam’s Twitter profile pic a bit freaky?!
  3. Masterchef as told by tweets. On a related note (and I’m allowing two Masterchef posts in this post-final week!), the Sydney Morning Herald wrote this week about the emerging trend of tweeting while watching television – about the show you’re watching. This adds a whole new dimension to television watching, and has transformed my experience watching ABC1′s Q&A as I engage with other viewers from around the country in real-time.
  4. Geosay. Type in your location, and Geosay will let you know what others are saying in that location. It draws content from Twitter, FourSquare and Geosay itself, but it seems to be quite Foursquare-heavy at the moment (via Hannah Law). Speaking of Foursquare, did you notice that even Barbie’s getting in on the action?!
  5. Ford Explorer revealed on Facebook. Ford launched their re-invented Explorer on Facebook this week, including videos from Ford engineers (below) in the lead-up to the ‘reveal’. According to Mashable, Ford reached their goal of attracting 30,000 fans to their Facebook page before the launch, but this seems to have translated into only a modest number of views of their YouTube videos (via Kevin Lo).

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Social Media Showcase (16 July 2010)

Steven Kryger on July 16th in Social Media with no comments yet :(

A weekly wrap-up of interesting articles, resources and developments in the world of social media.

  1. You’re talking tosh. For a company that makes potato chips, Pringles sure knows how to engage an audience! They’ve created a Facebook overshare button where you can “tell your mates when their status updates are dull or too much information”. They’re also encouraging their fans to create an over-sharers video, which reminds me of The Oatmeal’s ‘How to suck at Facebook‘ comic. Read more about Pringle’s campaign.
  2. Durex Baby. The condom manufacturer discovered that guys are more fearful of creating babies than getting sexually transmitted diseases. So they developed an app (well, not really, but it’s a good idea!) where two iPhones can rub against each other and produce a baby. Yikes! Check out the video about Durex Baby.
  3. Ready to roll. This YouTube video is an advertisment for Cadbury’s roll packs. It was mildly cute the first time, but has very limited long-term appeal. How many times can you watch a hampster run?! To be fair to Cadbury though, it’s always going to be difficult for them to beat the ‘drumming gorilla’ advertisement!
  4. #crustgate. Many lessons were learnt in March this year about how not to use social media when Nestle responded to Greenpeace’s ‘Have a break?’ campaign. No doubt, more lessons will be learnt from Crust Pizza when they tweeted a link to a video about women drivers and it back-fired. Read more about #crustgate on Mumbrella.
  5. Does your man smell like an Old Spice man? These short videos are guaranteed to produce a chuckle – there’s 87 in total, and part of the genius and appeal is that some of the videos are responding to individual tweets. The variety of channels used to promote the campaign has been extensive, including controversial site 4chan. Read more about the campaign on ReadWriteWeb.

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Spammers still thriving on Twitter

Steven Kryger on July 14th in Social Media with 1 lonely comment

When email came out, spammers weren’t far behind – we’re now used to receiving updates with hot deals to buy viagra, invest a dollar and make a million and invitations from the Nigerian royal family. Thanks to Gmail, spam is becoming more and more a concern of the past.

When blogging took off and comments were enabled, blogs were flooded with spam comments gushing praise like ‘I found this information usefull.’ from ‘Flirting Tips for Girls’. Thanks to Akismet, spam comments on blogs are often filtered out and never see the light of day.

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Social Media Showcase (9 July 2010)

Steven Kryger on July 9th in Social Media with no comments yet :(

A weekly wrap-up of interesting articles, resources and developments in the world of social media.

  1. Trade your dinosaur with a Dell. AdNews reports that Dell is ramping up its social media activity, centering on a Facebook page where users can upload a photo of their prehistoric laptop, with an accompanying story. (h/t Hannah Law)
  2. Earn cash for check-ins with WeReward. Gowalla, Foursquare – check-in apps are popping up all over the place. WeReward adds an extra dimension – offering cash rewards for check-ins, purchases, and completing tasks (e.g. taking a photo). Currently only available in the U.S. – could it work in Australia? Learn more about how it works for users and businesses.
  3. The Influencer Project. Described as a project to ‘find out how influential you are’, users sign-up and are provided with a custom URL that they then share with as many people as they can, and encourage them to click on. The more clicks, the more influential (so the story goes). Laurel Papworth has written a great piece on why this is a dumb idea, and how easily it can be misused.
  4. How Google works. An infographic, depicting the complex processes behind a Google search (h/t Chris Redshaw). Speaking of infographics, last week Mashable shared ‘10 beautiful social media infographics‘.
  5. Top World Cup Players on Facebook, Day by Day. Choose a day of the week, and this application will display each player in a different size, according to the percent of all Facebook status updates, wall posts, comments, shares, and likes containing the player’s name. Good idea, however, they’ve added an extra step to sharing this website on Twitter which probably isn’t necessary.

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