The 10 biggest brands on Facebook: What?s hot and what?s not

Social media is on target to be a $30bn industry (per year) by 2015 and Facebook is growing faster than any site in history. It is the #1 place to have a community for a brand because it touches every single vertical across the enterprise: customer service, sales and public relations.

Let?s take a look at the 10 biggest brands on Facebook, the social content distributors and gamers like Facebook itself, Texas Hold?em Poker (Zynga) and YouTube; pop stars like Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Eminem, Shakira, Linkin Park and Rihanna; and TV shows like Family Guy. Funnily enough, in the time it took to start writing until finishing this piece, Facebook snuck past Texas Hold?em Poker to claim the #1 spot on the chart, and Rihanna danced past Lady Gaga, thanks in part to her new sponsorship with Vita Coca.

And for expert advice, we?ve turned to Lindsay Kaplan, a Social Marketing Expert in New York City; Reema Mitra, an Account Supervisor at EdelmanDigital.com; and Stuart Tracte, a Social Media Strategist at Definition 6.

1. Facebook

Mission: Facebook?s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.

Number of Fans: 50,929,267

Daily Growth: 157,851

Weekly Growth: 2,288,293

No surprise here: Facebook is the #1 most Liked brand on its own social network. But only 7% of nearly 700 million Facebook users are fans of the brand online, totaling 50 million fans.

What?s Hot: Facebook really keeps its followers up-to-date with company news. It uses its page to post announcements for upcoming Facebook Live sessions and any new features on the world?s largest social network. Facebook recently posted an album of ?Father?s Day Stories,? which is a great way for users to feel special being featured on the page.

And like any smart brand, Facebook points its fans to recent press, such as guides to Facebook Groups featured in The New York Times. But it also features other news like when Spotify launched in the United States. By mixing brand related content with unrelated, yet engaging content, Facebook is showing its ?human side? in social media. Of course, Spotify uses Facebook for many of its social features so it?s not completely unrelated.

Facebook?s Resources section is phenomenal. Find out how you can get involved, share your story, join the Facebook translation effort and check out what jobs Facebook is hiring for. There?s also a hefty amount of information for marketers, advertisers and developers.

What?s Not: Facebook needs to work on responding to user comments. Often the brand just posts a question or announcement and then just sits back and lets the 20,000+ comments roll in. There?s no back and forth conversation. It?s just announcement and observation. I bet Facebook could seriously up its 7% customer acquisition on its own platform with a little social media TLC. Facebook should read our 7 tips on how to be a human in social media.

I don?t understand why Facebook has so many Likes. If I want to know information about changes on FB, I?ll visit a source that leaked the info or announced it first. You know, like Twitter. I find the content extremely self-serving and uninteresting,? says Edelman?s Reema Mitra.

2. Texas Hold?em Poker

General Information: Zynga Poker is the #1 poker game in the world. Play with friends and see who?s got the best poker face or come and meet some new buddies. Help out in a poker challenge, or send daily bonus chips to friends. Don?t forget to see if you can place in the Weekly Tournament!

Number of Fans: 48,718,257

Daily Growth: 80,770

Weekly Growth: 594,076

What?s Hot: Zynga?s Texas Hold?em Poker is one brand that doesn?t have to put much effort into its Facebook page. It?s a place where you can play poker with nearly 50 million other people on Facebook. A ?Fan of the Week? feature is coming soon, which is a great way for brands to make users feel special.

?Texas Hold?em Poker?s landing Page is a sexy redhead coyly holding some playing cards. Click through, and you?ll find the Zynga application. It?s as simple as sex and gambling ? the duo has never not been a winning combination?, says Lindsay Kaplan, a Social Marketing Expert in New York City.

What?s Not: Zynga?s Texas Hold?em Poker game is apparently the most addictive game on Facebook, yet it has one of the slowest weekly growth numbers of any other brand on this list. The page makes users jump through hoops. Mitra points out that ?Texas Hold?em?s landing tab redirects to the app which restricts access. This is probably a barrier in participation, except that it?s online poker. People want to play online. Most people would jump through the hoop to play with friends.?

3. Eminem

Likes: Bad Meets Evil, Dr Dre, D12

Number of Fans: 45,595,961

Daily Growth: 218,548

Weekly Growth: 1,961,561

What?s Hot: For big Eminem fans, it?s pretty awesome to be able to scroll through photos of the rapper with his pal?s Royce Da 5?9? & Bruno Mars ?Lighters? on set (below). Fans are also able to upload their own photos to Eminem?s wall, giving them their own 5 seconds of fame.

From an external app on his Facebook page, you can check out ?Bad Meets Evil,? his new album and watch Vevo powered music videos. One of his videos, ?I?m Not Afraid?, has a whopping 266 million views. Eminem also plays nice by posting videos by other artists and Liking other artists on Facebook like Dr. Dre and D12. It?s not exactly the same as Coca Cola liking Pepsi, but it still shows he?s supportive of the community he?s a part of.


What?s Not: Enough with the over-gamification. This one doesn?t even make sense: To promote his new album, there?s a Bad Meets Evil ?Welcome to Hell? Facebook Game? Hint: Eminem is not portrayed as a chatbot. Eminem?s page however, provides a lack of context or personality.

Mitra weighs in, ?This page is ?strictly facts? aka links of music, videos and collabs. Eminem?s page does nothing for community management in comparison. As a social media manager, I will always err on the side of creating engagement with updates vs. pushing content.?

4. YouTube

Wall: What bare-knuckled, Akron-based blues-rock band took their name from an answering machine message left by a schizophrenic artist?

a) Blues Traveler
b) The White Stripes
c) The Black Keys
d) Widespread Panic
e) The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Number of Fans: 43,867,379

Daily Growth: 247,393

Weekly Growth: 2,694,216

What?s Hot: Serious props to whoever manages YouTube?s Facebook account. I really dig the engagement as it?s actually valuable content. For example, YouTube posted a link to an infographic on its blog showing how YouTube users responded to videos from Democrats and Republicans on the YouTube Town Hall, then asked, ?Let us know in the comments whether you think Washington is doing a good job.? Surprisingly, only 108 people have commented since yesterday afternoon. YouTube posts photos of its internal events, such as its latest YouTube NextUp Creator Camp 2011 and the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011.

This past June, YouTube released its documentary length film, ?Life in a Day,? which received a massive wave of praise worldwide. [See our review here: YouTube?s Life in a Day movie is a stunner] To celebrate (and continue to promote the movie), it?s letting users create their very own Life in a Day movie poster by adding photos from Facebook and then prompting you to share those posters with your friends. Finally, YouTube?s ?Top Video? section is great for discovering trending videos and new content broken down by category like Pets, Film, Animation and Music.

What?s Not: YouTube?s Discussion section (pictured above) needs a lot of work. First, should there even be a discussion section at all? It?s just driving commentary away from the videos themselves and from YouTube?s Wall where its more visible and likely to stick. Also, aesthetically, it?s horribly uninviting.

5. Rihanna

About: LOUD!

Number of Fans: 43,862,689

Daily Growth: 208,707

Weekly Growth: 1,983,380

What?s Hot: Rihanna flew past Lady Gaga in recent weeks, likely due to her massive marketing deal with VitaCoco water and her sexy mermaid hair-do. For this partnership, Rihanna?s team is picking a Tropical Fan of the Week on her page who then receives free cases of the drink. The team also posts quotes from Rihanna on the Facebook wall such as,

??I think honesty is the ultimate liberation in life. People want to shy away from the truth and keep sweeping it under the rug. But after a while, you pick up the rug and there?s just way too much dirt, so you might as well just be up front about it.?

-Rihanna

I dig that the first thing you?re presented with on Rihanna?s page is the ability to play her new music videos in a really beautiful, purple customized YouTube player. You can easily buy and share songs from within her page, as well as browse her upcoming tour dates.

What?s Not: The fact that I just Liked her Facebook page and the song stopped. That?s not hot. Other observations: according to Kaplan, Rihanna has one of the sleeker-looking Pages in the top 10. But on closer inspection, she says, the Page lacks some aesthetic optimization. ?Rihanna is absolutely gorgeous ? it?s surprising that the Page?s photo doesn?t make use of the full 540×180 pixel specs.?

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2011/08/20/the-10-biggest-brands-on-facebook-whats-hot-and-whats-not/

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Political Memo: Twang and Job Title Might Be the Same, but Perry and Bush Keep Their Distance

The observation is made frequently, and with remarkable consistency: Mr. Perry sure reminds people of another governor from that state.

?You close your eyes and you say, ?Wow, I?ve heard this movie before,? ? said Matthew Dowd, a former strategist to Mr. Bush.

As Mr. Perry worked the room at the Bedford Village Inn after speaking Wednesday at a Politics and Eggs breakfast in New Hampshire, Andrew Smith, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire, said, ?You close your eyes and you can just hear George W. Bush.?

Mr. Bush and Mr. Perry have more than a few surface-level similarities: the cowboy boots, the swagger, the same way of hunching up their necks when they give a ?heh-heh? chuckle. They share an I?m-the-Decider confidence and a down-home way of speakin? that?s heavy on the dropped g?s. (On the campaign trail last week, Mr. Perry frequently warned against "over-taxin?, over-regulatin? and over-litigatin.? ?).

Mr. Perry, however, is hardly a natural heir to the Texas Bush legacy or the much-maligned reputation that Mr. Bush left among both Republicans and Democrats. The blue-blooded Bush clan?s dislike of the gun-slinging, coyote-shooting son of tenant farmers runs deep ? from the first President George Bush on down to the family?s political Svengali, Karl Rove, to state-level operatives ? and Mr. Perry further offended Bush-world when, in recent years, he publicly criticized President George W. Bush on a number of issues, and questioned his fiscal conservatism.

Yet the Texas likenesses could still be an issue for Mr. Perry, particularly to the degree he tries to appeal to the more moderate electorate found in some Northern battleground states like New Hampshire, which gave Senator John McCain a victory in the 2000 Republican presidential primary.

To the degree that conservatives make a psychic or political link between Mr. Perry and Mr. Bush, could also undercut Mr. Perry?s otherwise solid appeal to members of the Tea Party movement, many of whom feel that Mr. Bush betrayed their principles by becoming a big-government conservative.

?I don?t think it?s a problem he?s a Texas governor,? said Mr. Dowd, who broke with Mr. Bush over the war in Iraq. ?I think the concern is that he sounds and has similar ways that he talks and gestures that remind you quickly of George W. Bush. I think his people know that that?s probably the biggest hurdle they?re going to have to overcome.?

For better or worse, Mr. Smith said, the way Mr. Perry almost effortlessly channels Mr. Bush is uncanny.

?The one person you?re going to recognize when you watch Rick Perry talk is George W. Bush,? he said. ?I think for people who remember George Bush very well and his speeches, Rick Perry will sound very familiar to them ? not what he says necessarily, but how he says it.?

Mr. Perry is well aware of the potential pitfalls of being seen as Bush Redux, and he has already worked hard ? to the point of alienating the Bush contingent ? to differentiate himself.

He previously distanced himself from Mr. Bush on education, government spending and immigration, and the longstanding animosity between the two camps tumbled into public view yet again this week, when members of the Bush crowd offered an almost unified critique of Mr. Perry?s controversial statements about the Federal Reserve. Earlier, when Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison ran against Mr. Perry in the Republican primary for governor in 2010, many in the Bush camp ? the first President Bush and his wife, Barbara, former Vice President Dick Cheney and Karen P. Hughes, a trusted Bush adviser ? backed her failed bid.

Ray Sullivan, a spokesman for the Perry campaign, said Mr. Perry and Mr. Bush had ?spoken in recent weeks and months,? but he did not think the two had talked since Mr. Perry?s announcement last Saturday.

Mr. Bush was a Republican governor with a Democratic legislature, and he was forced to compromise and work across the aisle. When he ran for president, he liked to call himself a uniter and not a divider, and a compassionate conservative. Mr. Perry has not needed to work much across partisan lines, and appears to relish being provocative and confrontational.

There are class differences, as well. Mr. Bush battled the perception that he was a country club Republican who was riding his father?s coattails and name recognition into politics, with his cowboy boots and Texas accent, offset by years away at elite Northern schools, viewed as an act.

Mr. Perry?s supporters suggest that he represents a more authentic version of the down-home Texan Mr. Bush only claimed to be.

?I am Rick Perry, he?s George Bush,? Mr. Perry told reporters at the Iowa State Fair. ?Our records are quite different.?

Coyly contrasting their backgrounds, he added: ?I went to Texas A&M. He went to Yale.?

But there is a side of Mr. Bush that Mr. Perry very much resembles. At his Politics and Eggs speech, Mr. Perry noted that the ?live free or die? state was sure ?remindful of a little place down in Texas called the Alamo,? using a real word ? ?remindful? ? that sounded an awful lot like one of the malapropisms that sometimes peppered Mr. Bush?s remarks.

It might be a political caricature, but it might also be here to stay.

?So it will get into the pop culture that Rick Perry might be the second coming of George W. Bush that way, and whether it?s fair or not doesn?t really matter,? Mr. Smith said. ?He?s going to have to do something to distinguish himself from Bush.?

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=b4982dbe23d1fc99bb3e7707f971db83

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Political Memo: Twang and Job Title Might Be the Same, but Perry and Bush Keep Their Distance

The observation is made frequently, and with remarkable consistency: Mr. Perry sure reminds people of another governor from that state.

?You close your eyes and you say, ?Wow, I?ve heard this movie before,? ? said Matthew Dowd, a former strategist to Mr. Bush.

As Mr. Perry worked the room at the Bedford Village Inn after speaking Wednesday at a Politics and Eggs breakfast in New Hampshire, Andrew Smith, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire, said, ?You close your eyes and you can just hear George W. Bush.?

Mr. Bush and Mr. Perry have more than a few surface-level similarities: the cowboy boots, the swagger, the same way of hunching up their necks when they give a ?heh-heh? chuckle. They share an I?m-the-Decider confidence and a down-home way of speakin? that?s heavy on the dropped g?s. (On the campaign trail last week, Mr. Perry frequently warned against "over-taxin?, over-regulatin? and over-litigatin.? ?).

Mr. Perry, however, is hardly a natural heir to the Texas Bush legacy or the much-maligned reputation that Mr. Bush left among both Republicans and Democrats. The blue-blooded Bush clan?s dislike of the gun-slinging, coyote-shooting son of tenant farmers runs deep ? from the first President George Bush on down to the family?s political Svengali, Karl Rove, to state-level operatives ? and Mr. Perry further offended Bush-world when, in recent years, he publicly criticized President George W. Bush on a number of issues, and questioned his fiscal conservatism.

Yet the Texas likenesses could still be an issue for Mr. Perry, particularly to the degree he tries to appeal to the more moderate electorate found in some Northern battleground states like New Hampshire, which gave Senator John McCain a victory in the 2000 Republican presidential primary.

To the degree that conservatives make a psychic or political link between Mr. Perry and Mr. Bush, could also undercut Mr. Perry?s otherwise solid appeal to members of the Tea Party movement, many of whom feel that Mr. Bush betrayed their principles by becoming a big-government conservative.

?I don?t think it?s a problem he?s a Texas governor,? said Mr. Dowd, who broke with Mr. Bush over the war in Iraq. ?I think the concern is that he sounds and has similar ways that he talks and gestures that remind you quickly of George W. Bush. I think his people know that that?s probably the biggest hurdle they?re going to have to overcome.?

For better or worse, Mr. Smith said, the way Mr. Perry almost effortlessly channels Mr. Bush is uncanny.

?The one person you?re going to recognize when you watch Rick Perry talk is George W. Bush,? he said. ?I think for people who remember George Bush very well and his speeches, Rick Perry will sound very familiar to them ? not what he says necessarily, but how he says it.?

Mr. Perry is well aware of the potential pitfalls of being seen as Bush Redux, and he has already worked hard ? to the point of alienating the Bush contingent ? to differentiate himself.

He previously distanced himself from Mr. Bush on education, government spending and immigration, and the longstanding animosity between the two camps tumbled into public view yet again this week, when members of the Bush crowd offered an almost unified critique of Mr. Perry?s controversial statements about the Federal Reserve. Earlier, when Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison ran against Mr. Perry in the Republican primary for governor in 2010, many in the Bush camp ? the first President Bush and his wife, Barbara, former Vice President Dick Cheney and Karen P. Hughes, a trusted Bush adviser ? backed her failed bid.

Ray Sullivan, a spokesman for the Perry campaign, said Mr. Perry and Mr. Bush had ?spoken in recent weeks and months,? but he did not think the two had talked since Mr. Perry?s announcement last Saturday.

Mr. Bush was a Republican governor with a Democratic legislature, and he was forced to compromise and work across the aisle. When he ran for president, he liked to call himself a uniter and not a divider, and a compassionate conservative. Mr. Perry has not needed to work much across partisan lines, and appears to relish being provocative and confrontational.

There are class differences, as well. Mr. Bush battled the perception that he was a country club Republican who was riding his father?s coattails and name recognition into politics, with his cowboy boots and Texas accent, offset by years away at elite Northern schools, viewed as an act.

Mr. Perry?s supporters suggest that he represents a more authentic version of the down-home Texan Mr. Bush only claimed to be.

?I am Rick Perry, he?s George Bush,? Mr. Perry told reporters at the Iowa State Fair. ?Our records are quite different.?

Coyly contrasting their backgrounds, he added: ?I went to Texas A&M. He went to Yale.?

But there is a side of Mr. Bush that Mr. Perry very much resembles. At his Politics and Eggs speech, Mr. Perry noted that the ?live free or die? state was sure ?remindful of a little place down in Texas called the Alamo,? using a real word ? ?remindful? ? that sounded an awful lot like one of the malapropisms that sometimes peppered Mr. Bush?s remarks.

It might be a political caricature, but it might also be here to stay.

?So it will get into the pop culture that Rick Perry might be the second coming of George W. Bush that way, and whether it?s fair or not doesn?t really matter,? Mr. Smith said. ?He?s going to have to do something to distinguish himself from Bush.?

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=b4982dbe23d1fc99bb3e7707f971db83

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Bright new ideas from Seedcamp

The Guardian brought SeedCamp to my attention the other day, which is like a European KickStarter for entrepreneurs. Lord Sir Alan Sugar would be proud.

The idea is that small startup companies with big ideas can pitch to SeedCamp and get the funding they need to develop or launch their product or service. Or, In SeedCamp?s own words, ?Seedcamp is an early-stage micro seed investment fund and mentoring programme? For the winning companies of any event where we choose to make an investment, Seedcamp?s standard investment is: ?50,000 for 8-10% per cent of the company.?

What caught my eye the most were some of the Guardian?s top 20 picks, which look genuinely fun, useful or some combination thereof. Here are my picks of their picks:

Crowd is in private beta, but is a photo sharing service where users can share images in real-time, allowing people to experience other locations via geo-tagged image taken there.

EnergyBob is just a placeholder URL for the company that aims to make energy metering smarter. The EnergyBob server ?talks to Google's Latitude's API to determine when you're on your way home, and when the heating needs to come on? for example. The appliance is set to cost ?99 for installation and ?9 a month thereafter.

CityMapper is a service that connects the various and many ways to travel around London into one map-driven interface. CityMapper integrates everything from the Tube and buses to the Boris bikes and just walking into one application; it also tells you how much you?ll pay for your journey, or how many calories you?ll burn off. You can use the service now.

Myows stands for ?My Original Works? and is a way to share and distribute your creative work while maintaining control over it. Users store their copyrighted material (which can be images, video, music, artwork or whatever) with Myows, which allows the copyright holder to prove ownership, manage their rights and chase copyright infringements. ?[i] Myows is already storing 18,000 registered works and has solved 72 infringement cases.[i]?

opensignalmaps is a simple idea: overlay the strength of mobile reception on a map. You can select your operator and what level of network you?re looking for (ie, just 3G reception). You can use the service now, and it might come in handy for holidays in remote locations.

Travelstormer might come in handy if you?re arranging a trip with friends, as it helps organise a bunch of people?s travel needs. Once you?ve ?brainstormed? the best plan, you crowdsource travel tips from other Travelstormer users before finalising your plans.

There are more interesting ideas in the Guardian's SeedCamp story and on the SeedCamp site itself.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/uGG-KVfOgl0/

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Bright new ideas from Seedcamp

The Guardian brought SeedCamp to my attention the other day, which is like a European KickStarter for entrepreneurs. Lord Sir Alan Sugar would be proud.

The idea is that small startup companies with big ideas can pitch to SeedCamp and get the funding they need to develop or launch their product or service. Or, In SeedCamp?s own words, ?Seedcamp is an early-stage micro seed investment fund and mentoring programme? For the winning companies of any event where we choose to make an investment, Seedcamp?s standard investment is: ?50,000 for 8-10% per cent of the company.?

What caught my eye the most were some of the Guardian?s top 20 picks, which look genuinely fun, useful or some combination thereof. Here are my picks of their picks:

Crowd is in private beta, but is a photo sharing service where users can share images in real-time, allowing people to experience other locations via geo-tagged image taken there.

EnergyBob is just a placeholder URL for the company that aims to make energy metering smarter. The EnergyBob server ?talks to Google's Latitude's API to determine when you're on your way home, and when the heating needs to come on? for example. The appliance is set to cost ?99 for installation and ?9 a month thereafter.

CityMapper is a service that connects the various and many ways to travel around London into one map-driven interface. CityMapper integrates everything from the Tube and buses to the Boris bikes and just walking into one application; it also tells you how much you?ll pay for your journey, or how many calories you?ll burn off. You can use the service now.

Myows stands for ?My Original Works? and is a way to share and distribute your creative work while maintaining control over it. Users store their copyrighted material (which can be images, video, music, artwork or whatever) with Myows, which allows the copyright holder to prove ownership, manage their rights and chase copyright infringements. ?[i] Myows is already storing 18,000 registered works and has solved 72 infringement cases.[i]?

opensignalmaps is a simple idea: overlay the strength of mobile reception on a map. You can select your operator and what level of network you?re looking for (ie, just 3G reception). You can use the service now, and it might come in handy for holidays in remote locations.

Travelstormer might come in handy if you?re arranging a trip with friends, as it helps organise a bunch of people?s travel needs. Once you?ve ?brainstormed? the best plan, you crowdsource travel tips from other Travelstormer users before finalising your plans.

There are more interesting ideas in the Guardian's SeedCamp story and on the SeedCamp site itself.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/uGG-KVfOgl0/

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The Evolution of Motorola?s Wireless Technology

1930 First Motorola brand car radio (reproduction), model 5T71

With this week's announcement of Google's plan to buy Motorola Mobility, we took a look at the significant technology milestones in the company?s history. Motorola, founded in 1928 as the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation, was pivotal in advancing communications from business to space and government. Achievements included everything from releasing the world?s first commercial handheld cellular phone to introducing one of the first commercially successful car radios in 1930, reproduced above.

This radio was the first product to carry the Motorola brand. It was designed to be mass-produced, affordable, and easily installed. The components, as shown in this reproduction, included (left to right) radio receiver, tuning control, and speaker.

Credit: Motorola Archives

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The TV That Watches You

Many people surf the Web while they watch television. Soon­­­ the websites they visit could adapt in real time to the shows being watched?automatically presenting information relevant to the show, or even tuning their ads in response to what's on screen.

A new type of Internet-connected television, due out before the end of the year, has built-in software and hardware that send data about what is on-screen to an Internet server that can identify the content. Web pages being viewed using the same Internet connection as the TV set can then tap into that information. The system can identify any content onscreen, whatever the source, whether live TV, DVDs or movie files playing from a computer.

Flingo, the San Francisco-based startup that developed the technology, known as Sync Apps, says the new set is already being mass-produced by one of the top five television brands in the U.S. and will retail for less than $500.

"Any mobile app or Web page being used in front of your TV can ask our servers what is on right now," says David Harrison, cofounder and CTO of Flingo. "For example, you could go to Google or IMDB and the page would already know what's on the screen. Retailers like Amazon or Walmart might want to show you things to buy related to a show, like DVDs, or what people are wearing in it." Social sites such as Facebook or Twitter can use the service to connect viewers to a TV show's official page or stream. When a user flips channels, or a show ends, the Webpage being viewed knows about it and can instantly update to the new viewing.

Flingo has made available a public API (application programming interface), so developers can build mobile and Web apps that use the television's inside knowledge. The TV will also display pop-ups on-screen, offering further Web-retrieved information about a show, or links to apps on the set itself.

All of this occurs with the permission of the television's owner, says Harrison. The first time the TV is switched on, it asks users if they would like to opt in to the data-sharing service. If they say yes, it prompts them to accept a terms-of-service agreement. Individual sites and apps must ask for, and be granted, permission to access the data the TV makes available.

Ashwin Navin, Flingo's CEO and other cofounder, says he expects people to opt in because the service offers an automatic way to do what people are already doing manually. "People are doing the work to search for information to go with their viewing," he says. "We'll have all that information right there."

The data generated by a television with Sync Apps is also valuable to advertisers. Already, online ads can be targeted based on the content of a Web page and the viewer's browsing history. Navin says that his company will enable sites to match ads to a person's TV-viewing history too, at least on sites that have received permission to use the television's data.

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Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=c433f83d84c57787cf18961d605e40ca

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The TV That Watches You

Many people surf the Web while they watch television. Soon­­­ the websites they visit could adapt in real time to the shows being watched?automatically presenting information relevant to the show, or even tuning their ads in response to what's on screen.

A new type of Internet-connected television, due out before the end of the year, has built-in software and hardware that send data about what is on-screen to an Internet server that can identify the content. Web pages being viewed using the same Internet connection as the TV set can then tap into that information. The system can identify any content onscreen, whatever the source, whether live TV, DVDs or movie files playing from a computer.

Flingo, the San Francisco-based startup that developed the technology, known as Sync Apps, says the new set is already being mass-produced by one of the top five television brands in the U.S. and will retail for less than $500.

"Any mobile app or Web page being used in front of your TV can ask our servers what is on right now," says David Harrison, cofounder and CTO of Flingo. "For example, you could go to Google or IMDB and the page would already know what's on the screen. Retailers like Amazon or Walmart might want to show you things to buy related to a show, like DVDs, or what people are wearing in it." Social sites such as Facebook or Twitter can use the service to connect viewers to a TV show's official page or stream. When a user flips channels, or a show ends, the Webpage being viewed knows about it and can instantly update to the new viewing.

Flingo has made available a public API (application programming interface), so developers can build mobile and Web apps that use the television's inside knowledge. The TV will also display pop-ups on-screen, offering further Web-retrieved information about a show, or links to apps on the set itself.

All of this occurs with the permission of the television's owner, says Harrison. The first time the TV is switched on, it asks users if they would like to opt in to the data-sharing service. If they say yes, it prompts them to accept a terms-of-service agreement. Individual sites and apps must ask for, and be granted, permission to access the data the TV makes available.

Ashwin Navin, Flingo's CEO and other cofounder, says he expects people to opt in because the service offers an automatic way to do what people are already doing manually. "People are doing the work to search for information to go with their viewing," he says. "We'll have all that information right there."

The data generated by a television with Sync Apps is also valuable to advertisers. Already, online ads can be targeted based on the content of a Web page and the viewer's browsing history. Navin says that his company will enable sites to match ads to a person's TV-viewing history too, at least on sites that have received permission to use the television's data.

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Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=c433f83d84c57787cf18961d605e40ca

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Blog - Eggs 'n' Seeds

The 10 biggest brands on Facebook: What?s hot and what?s not

Social media is on target to be a $30bn industry (per year) by 2015 and Facebook is growing faster than any site in history. It is the #1 place to have a community for a brand because it touches every single vertical across the enterprise: customer service, sales and public relations.

Let?s take a look at the 10 biggest brands on Facebook, the social content distributors and gamers like Facebook itself, Texas Hold?em Poker (Zynga) and YouTube; pop stars like Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Eminem, Shakira, Linkin Park and Rihanna; and TV shows like Family Guy. Funnily enough, in the time it took to start writing until finishing this piece, Facebook snuck past Texas Hold?em Poker to claim the #1 spot on the chart, and Rihanna danced past Lady Gaga, thanks in part to her new sponsorship with Vita Coca.

And for expert advice, we?ve turned to Lindsay Kaplan, a Social Marketing Expert in New York City; Reema Mitra, an Account Supervisor at Edelman Digital; and Stuart Tracte, a Social Media Strategist at Definition 6.

1. Facebook

Mission: Facebook?s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.

Number of Fans: 50,929,267

Daily Growth: 157,851

Weekly Growth: 2,288,293

No surprise here: Facebook is the #1 most Liked brand on its own social network. But only 7% of nearly 700 million Facebook users are fans of the brand online, totaling 50 million fans.

What?s Hot: Facebook really keeps its followers up-to-date with company news. It uses its page to post announcements for upcoming Facebook Live sessions and any new features on the world?s largest social network. Facebook recently posted an album of ?Father?s Day Stories,? which is a great way for users to feel special being featured on the page.

And like any smart brand, Facebook points its fans to recent press, such as guides to Facebook Groups featured in The New York Times. But it also features other news like when Spotify launched in the United States. By mixing brand related content with unrelated, yet engaging content, Facebook is showing its ?human side? in social media. Of course, Spotify uses Facebook for many of its social features so it?s not completely unrelated.

Facebook?s Resources section is phenomenal. Find out how you can get involved, share your story, join the Facebook translation effort and check out what jobs Facebook is hiring for. There?s also a hefty amount of information for marketers, advertisers and developers.

What?s Not: Facebook needs to work on responding to user comments. Often the brand just posts a question or announcement and then just sits back and lets the 20,000+ comments roll in. There?s no back and forth conversation. It?s just announcement and observation. I bet Facebook could seriously up its 7% customer acquisition on its own platform with a little social media TLC. Facebook should read our 7 tips on how to be a human in social media.

I don?t understand why Facebook has so many Likes. If I want to know information about changes on FB, I?ll visit a source that leaked the info or announced it first. You know, like Twitter. I find the content extremely self-serving and uninteresting,? says Edelman?s Reema Mitra.

2. Texas Hold?em Poker

General Information: Zynga Poker is the #1 poker game in the world. Play with friends and see who?s got the best poker face or come and meet some new buddies. Help out in a poker challenge, or send daily bonus chips to friends. Don?t forget to see if you can place in the Weekly Tournament!

Number of Fans: 48,718,257

Daily Growth: 80,770

Weekly Growth: 594,076

What?s Hot: Zynga?s Texas Hold?em Poker is one brand that doesn?t have to put much effort into its Facebook page. It?s a place where you can play poker with nearly 50 million other people on Facebook. A ?Fan of the Week? feature is coming soon, which is a great way for brands to make users feel special.

?Texas Hold?em Poker?s landing Page is a sexy redhead coyly holding some playing cards. Click through, and you?ll find the Zynga application. It?s as simple as sex and gambling ? the duo has never not been a winning combination?, says Lindsay Kaplan, a Social Marketing Expert in New York City.

What?s Not: Zynga?s Texas Hold?em Poker game is apparently the most addictive game on Facebook, yet it has one of the slowest weekly growth numbers of any other brand on this list. The page makes users jump through hoops. Mitra points out that ?Texas Hold?em?s landing tab redirects to the app which restricts access. This is probably a barrier in participation, except that it?s online poker. People want to play online. Most people would jump through the hoop to play with friends.?

3. Eminem

Likes: Bad Meets Evil, Dr Dre, D12

Number of Fans: 45,595,961

Daily Growth: 218,548

Weekly Growth: 1,961,561

What?s Hot: For big Eminem fans, it?s pretty awesome to be able to scroll through photos of the rapper with his pal?s Royce Da 5?9? & Bruno Mars ?Lighters? on set (below). Fans are also able to upload their own photos to Eminem?s wall, giving them their own 5 seconds of fame.

From an external app on his Facebook page, you can check out ?Bad Meets Evil,? his new album and watch Vevo powered music videos. One of his videos, ?I?m Not Afraid?, has a whopping 266 million views. Eminem also plays nice by posting videos by other artists and Liking other artists on Facebook like Dr. Dre and D12. It?s not exactly the same as Coca Cola liking Pepsi, but it still shows he?s supportive of the community he?s a part of.


What?s Not: Enough with the over-gamification. This one doesn?t even make sense: To promote his new album, there?s a Bad Meets Evil ?Welcome to Hell? Facebook Game? Hint: Eminem is not portrayed as a chatbot. Eminem?s page however, provides a lack of context or personality.

Mitra weighs in, ?This page is ?strictly facts? aka links of music, videos and collabs. Eminem?s page does nothing for community management in comparison. As a social media manager, I will always err on the side of creating engagement with updates vs. pushing content.?

4. YouTube

Wall: What bare-knuckled, Akron-based blues-rock band took their name from an answering machine message left by a schizophrenic artist?

a) Blues Traveler
b) The White Stripes
c) The Black Keys
d) Widespread Panic
e) The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Number of Fans: 43,867,379

Daily Growth: 247,393

Weekly Growth: 2,694,216

What?s Hot: Serious props to whoever manages YouTube?s Facebook account. I really dig the engagement as it?s actually valuable content. For example, YouTube posted a link to an infographic on its blog showing how YouTube users responded to videos from Democrats and Republicans on the YouTube Town Hall, then asked, ?Let us know in the comments whether you think Washington is doing a good job.? Surprisingly, only 108 people have commented since yesterday afternoon. YouTube posts photos of its internal events, such as its latest YouTube NextUp Creator Camp 2011 and the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011.

This past June, YouTube released its documentary length film, ?Life in a Day,? which received a massive wave of praise worldwide. [See our review here: YouTube?s Life in a Day movie is a stunner] To celebrate (and continue to promote the movie), it?s letting users create their very own Life in a Day movie poster by adding photos from Facebook and then prompting you to share those posters with your friends. Finally, YouTube?s ?Top Video? section is great for discovering trending videos and new content broken down by category like Pets, Film, Animation and Music.

What?s Not: YouTube?s Discussion section (pictured above) needs a lot of work. First, should there even be a discussion section at all? It?s just driving commentary away from the videos themselves and from YouTube?s Wall where its more visible and likely to stick. Also, aesthetically, it?s horribly uninviting.

5. Rihanna

About: LOUD!

Number of Fans: 43,862,689

Daily Growth: 208,707

Weekly Growth: 1,983,380

What?s Hot: Rihanna flew past Lady Gaga in recent weeks, likely due to her massive marketing deal with VitaCoco water and her sexy mermaid hair-do. For this partnership, Rihanna?s team is picking a Tropical Fan of the Week on her page who then receives free cases of the drink. The team also posts quotes from Rihanna on the Facebook wall such as,

??I think honesty is the ultimate liberation in life. People want to shy away from the truth and keep sweeping it under the rug. But after a while, you pick up the rug and there?s just way too much dirt, so you might as well just be up front about it.?

-Rihanna

I dig that the first thing you?re presented with on Rihanna?s page is the ability to play her new music videos in a really beautiful, purple customized YouTube player. You can easily buy and share songs from within her page, as well as browse her upcoming tour dates.

What?s Not: The fact that I just Liked her Facebook page and the song stopped. That?s not hot. Other observations: according to Kaplan, Rihanna has one of the sleeker-looking Pages in the top 10. But on closer inspection, she says, the Page lacks some aesthetic optimization. ?Rihanna is absolutely gorgeous ? it?s surprising that the Page?s photo doesn?t make use of the full 540×180 pixel specs.?

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2011/08/20/the-10-biggest-brands-on-facebook-whats-hot-and-whats-not/

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