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willy-wonka-big-data-meme 2012 was a big year for big data. According to Gartner Research, big data drove $28 billion of global IT spending in 2012 and is forecast to drive $34 billion in 2013. The definition of “big data” encompasses many concepts, but for this post we will be focusing on how it relates to user information shared across social media channels and how that information is analyzed and acted upon by brands. (more...)

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[typography font="Lobster" size="26"][dropcap]T[/dropcap][/typography]     he Monday #SoMash is here with the following social media stories from last week, including killer Facebook brand pages, an answer to your question about whether you should use Pinterest for your business, UNC's social media movement, Google Analytics new social media marketing tool and MTV's new "Artists" platform. 4 Brands with Killer Facebook Pages Since the rollout of the Facebook Timeline for pages two weeks ago, brands have been experimenting with the new format. Below is a sampling of brands that are using the Timeline in creative and innovative ways.

Fanta created a game using the Timeline's cover photo. New visitors see missing characters in the image and are sent on a scavenger hunt throughout the Timeline to find them. Each character requires a certain amount of Likes to be found and once found, more Likes are necessary to bring the character back to the present. Fanta displays the amount of Likes needed to bring back a character once it's been found, but so far, only one has made it back.

Verizon's 30 Tablets in 30 Days photo contest invites fans to submit their best city or landscape photos taken with their Verizon phone or tablet. Individuals are then entered to win a tablet and the winner's photo will be featured as the cover photo on Verizon's page. Verizon has found a creative way to build fan engagement and mix it with product promotion.

 

Timeline emphasizes the importance of storytelling. It gives brands the opportunity to highlight important moments and share experiences with fans. Some companies are using "Milestones" to mark the launch of a new product. Captain Morgan, however, has chronicled the fictional captain's life on the high seas. While it may not offer an real results in terms of sale, it helps humanize the brand.

Whie ABF U-Pack Moving may not have the most exciting Timeline, it does utilizes its features in a practical way. The cover photo is inviting and informative and takes advantage of the icons on the navigation bar. This makes it easier for customers to find important information. Should Your Business Be On Pinterest?
With all of the buzz surrounding Pintrest, you may be wondering if the site is right for your business. Well lucky for you, a new infographic-style flowchart can help you answer this question. Only five options lead to exploring Pinterest, which shows that Pinterest isn't for every business. But is it right for yours? Find out below.
  NCAA Tournament Spawns Social Media Movement
When UNC point guard Kendall Marshall was diagnosed with a broken wrist last Sunday, many people thought that was the end of UNC's quest for a national title. Despite the doubts, Marshall had a successful surgery. After his dad texted a message of hopes, one unnamed UNC student started a movement.
The PassFir5t movement encouraged fans to write the number 5 on your right wrist -- Marshall's jersey number and the wrist he injured. A Facebook page and Twitter account later and hundreds of fans started posting pictures of their tributes to their point guard. Kendall Marshall noticed and tweeted his message of thanks.
Three days into the movement, over 600 pictures were sent. As of last night, the Twitter account had over 2,900 followers and its Facebook page had over 3,100 Likes.
Google Analytics announced new features last week to help answer the age old social media question, "What's the ROI on social marketing?"  Unlike most social analytics products, Google's new reports will not just stop at "listening" (counting retweets, mentions, reach, analyzing sentiment, etc.).  Instead, the reports will help you understand how your social marketing contributes to your bottom line. You start by inputting a goal such as purchases made, registered users or clicks on a page.  Google will then compute how many of the visits to your site are coming from social networks (and which ones) and let you know how many of those visits converted with that goal.  The new tool will also examine the impact that social networks have on the "upper funnel," or the cases where there is not a direct conversion, but may contribute indirectly.  For instance, Google will keep track of someone who visits your site through a link on Twitter and then returns a week later to buy something.
From there, Google has the ability to assign a dollar value to both "last interaction" and "assisted" conversions helping you determine whether the social marketing campaign you are investing in is actually paying off.  Look for the new Google Analytics features to roll out in the coming weeks.
MTV Launches New "Artists" Platform MTV is launching Artists.MTV for both mainstream and indie artists to interact with their fans online.  Much like MySpace, artists can upload music, videos, photos and sync their social media accounts to the new fan pages.  Music's biggest stars will already have pages made for them that they can claim.  Van Toffler, Viacom's Music Group president said,
There is infinite choice out there, but with this artist platform, we want to provide a meaningful road map for consumers to weed through the chaos, and discover the musical gems that should break through.
The fan pages will increase MTV's current database of 10,000 artist pages by adding emerging and lesser-known musicians.  On May 1, the site will open up a private beta for artists expanding the website to over 1 million pages.  Each month MTV plans on featuring one artist in different shows on MTV, VH1 and other spinoffs in a showcase called "Full Frontal." Musicians will be able to promote themselves on their pages and open up new revenue streams with music downloads, merchandising, ticket sales and a tip jar.
Other social media articles from last week that you may enjoy:

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Happy Presidents' Day! Monday’s #SoMash is back with the following stories for you: NBC Universal to measure Olympics second screen consumption, Facebook's Timeline for brands coming soon, Penguin uses Twitter for unique book club experience, and Roush Fenway Racing joins Google+.

NBC Universal to Measure Various Platform Consumption

During the 2012 London Olympic Games this summer, NBC Universal will be measuring every piece of information it can from users watching on all devices.  The network has sought out Google and ComScore to analyze viewership patterns via TV, mobile devices, personal computers and tablets.According to Joan FitzGerald, VP-television and cross media at ComScore, examples of analysis include: measuring whether viewers are watching the Olympics on TV or on other devices and how they use multiple devices simultaneously to get information and video.  Social networks will also be tracked to see how viewers are sharing content.NBC Universal has set up an Olympics "lab" in the past for Beijing in 2008 and Vancouver in 2010.  However, London will be different due to the advancement of smartphones and tablets.  The data collected will be valuable for TV outlets looking to navigate the uncharted waters of second-screen consumption.  Alan Wurtzel, president-research and media development for NBC Universal, said,
Advertisers absolutely want to begin to reach consumers across all these platforms, and we need, as an industry, to understand how these consumers are behaving.
Will you be watching the Olympics on a second screen this summer?
On February 15, Facebook execs announced their plan to add the Timeline to Pages at the end of the month. No one is quite sure what this will mean for brand pages or third-party platforms , but suffice it to say, that the change will affect everyone.Facebook's platform, which is open to creations from third-party platforms, have allow businesses to create custom tab applications that encourage fans to interact with each other and the brand page. These apps have also allowed brands to run contests, promotions, and even e-commerce right from their Facebook page.Jim Belosic, co-founder of Pancake Laboratories (creator of ShortStack), urges brands and third-party platforms not to give in to the hype over the change, saying
"Businesses spend lots of money on Facebook ads to drive traffic to their custom tabs...it’s in Facebook’s best interest to expand upon current capabilities, not limit the things everyone loves and relies on. Facebook has gone through numerous overhauls in the past, and businesses and third-party platforms have stayed ahead of the game and adjusted."
According to new data gathered by RJMetrics, Pinterest retains a high percentage of new users who go on to use the site at high rates and stay active on the site long after they've joined. In other words, they've become addicted to pinning. The data also shows that Pinterest retains and engages users two to three times more efficiently than Twitter did at the same time in its history.In terms of the method of pinning, 80 percent of all pins are re-pins, meaning that an overwhelming majority of content shared on the site is recycled and shared between users. In contrast, just 1.4 percent of tweets were retweets at a similar time in Twitter's history. RJMetrics founder and CEO Robert Moore explains this phenomenon, saying
"Pinterest is conducive to sharing. There's a very low barrier to sharing [pins] with everyone who is following you."
As for the content of all these pins, they come from more than 100,000 different sources, representing a wide variety of content. Etsy is the most popular domain with just over 3 percent of all pins, with Google and Flick following behind.
Based on this data, marketers can see that Pinterest has some real potential for growth.

Publisher Penguin Takes to Twitter for Unique Book Club Experience

One of the hot trendsfor 2012 is the idea of Second Screen apps for television. Well, Penguin Books is taking that idea and applying it to the traditional book club.The Twitter book club kicked off in February with its first title, "The Weird Sisters." The publisher suggests its followers to tweet their thoughts about the book using the hashtag #readpenguin, without revealing any spoilers. At the end of the month, Penguin will hold a Twitter chat with the book's author, Eleanor Brown,who will talk to fans about what they thought and answer any questions.
Penguin is blending the traditional and the digital with their new Twitter book club.
"As brands look for new ways to engage its customers, it’s nice to see Penguin marry the old-school notion of a book club with the new-school tradition of tweeting your thoughts as they come to you."

Roush Fenway Racing Joins Google+

Roush Fenway Racing recently joined Google+ to create a richer more engaging experience for its fans.  Each of the team's drivers and the brand itself have their own Google+ page.  The purpose of the new pages are to connect with fans outside the days of the race with behind-the-scene team activities.  John Bauersfeld, vice president of business development for Roush Fenway Racing said,
There is so much that goes into being a successful race team. And now, in this digital age, we have the ability to share directly with our fans all of the hard work and team dedication that you never get a chance to see outside the oval.
Fans are looking for more ways to engage their teams now more than ever and Tim Moore, CEO of CrushIQ, said,
The Google+ platform is powerful for sharing digital content and we are seeing it deliver a new level of interaction for brands and companies to effectively engage with fans, consumers and influencers.
Amongst the updates on the new pages, fans will see live team updates, behind the scenes info such as team meetings, practices, the garage, travel, extracurricular activities and race preparations.  Roush Fenway plans to use Google+ Hangouts with its drivers and team members to connect to fans live face-to-face.  Lookout for the team to kickoff a Hangout this Wednesday live from Daytona Beach.
Other social media articles from last week that you may enjoy:

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There's no worse case of the Monday's than after a short holiday work week, but never fear, Monday's SoMash is here to lift your spirits and kick start your awesomeness. We've got the following stories for you: the Super Bowl's social media command center, Nike's new FuelBand and Facebook added 60 new apps.

Super Bowl Social Media Command Center

Super Bowl XLVI will debut its first-ever social media command center this year.  The Big Game's host committee turned to Raidious, a digital marketing agency, to monitor fan conversation starting today through the game on February 5th.  Raidious' CEO Taulbee Jackson said,
Social media is just how people interact now.  We felt it was critical to have some horsepower behind the aspect of the Super Bowl here, versus what you might have seen from other Super Bowls.
More than 20 people will monitor Facebook, Twitter and other platforms 15 hours every day leading up to the Super Bowl.  The social media team will answer all the fans questions ranging from directions to area attractions and will be on call in case of a disaster. In addition to answering questions, advanced search tools and analytics will be used to search keywords and phrases to help the team identify fans in need of help.  For example, if someone tweets that parking sucks, the team will be able to pick up the phrase and assist them. The strengths and weaknesses of the command center will be studied by Ball State University's Center for Media Design.  According to the director of the Insight & Research Unit at the center,
...the ubiquity of social media and the absolute necessity for companies, organizations and communities to use these tools to improve their relations with their customer, audiences and citizens.

Nike FuelBand

Nike released a much anticipated new product last week, the Nike+ FuelBand.  The company had kept consumers in the dark about the product launch, announcing the release date on January 19th and promoting the hashtag #makeitcount. The Nike+ FuelBand is a wrist band that tracks your activity levels or what the company calls NikeFuel.  Tracking through oxygen kinetics allows everything from intense sporting activity to sitting on the couch watching TV is measured.  The band will give you the chance to keep track of all your stats and compete against others.  Check out the video below to learn more about the Nike+ FuelBand. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtfJAyjkkGs

Facebook Introducing 60+ New Apps for Timeline

Last week Facebook announced it will be supporting over 60 new apps including Foodily, Ticketmaster and Pinterest.  You'll start seeing statuses from your friend's latest run, what they're cooking and what they're reading pop up in your news feed soon. Cal Sjorgreen, Facebook’s director of platform said,
Soon, there will be apps for all types of interests, as more apps will launch over time. Whether you love snowboarding, gardening, hiking, or knitting, or something else, there will be an app for you.

You can add the apps to your timeline and choose who can see your updates.  See the video below to view how the apps will be integrated into Facebook. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3b94kFBah8

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Welcome back from the holiday weekend.  Here's what we've got for you in this week's edition of the Social Mashup: Google+ launches brand pages, LinkedIn group statistics, 'Where Is The Cool' rivals Pinterest but for men, and QR code haircut sponsorships.

Google+ Launches Brand Pages

If you didn't hear that Google+ has launched pages for brands last week you might live under a rock. This is the biggest news to hit Google+ in a while and brought it back into the limelight. When Google+ first launched, brands began building profiles which Google+ was not very fond of and put the company into motion to churn out business pages sooner. Google+ pages appear much similar to profiles, with the main difference a small square icon that designates it as a Page rather than a Profile. Users can begin adding brands like the Dallas Cowboys, Angry Birds, Pepsi, and CNN to their circles, browse their photos and read up on their posted information. The brand's follower count is increased when fans add them to their circles. For you social media marketers out there don't expect to run a promotion on your new Google+ Page. Google+'s policies detail that Page admins are not allowed to "run contests, sweepstakes, offers, coupons or other such promotions." Are you excited to finally see brand pages on the map? Is your company on Google+?

LinkedIn Releases Dashboards for Group Statistics

LinkedIn has been unveiling new features left and right lately that are making the site more visual and navigable while helping to build your network. The latest revealing is the Group Statistics dashboard which gives group admins a look at the size, growth and demographics of their groups. The dashboard churns out relevant info into any easy to consume infographic-like display. While just a summary is shown on the dashboard, the statistics can be broken down into the following three areas "Demographics", "Growth" and "Activity." Anita Lillie, LinkedIn Data Visualization Designer noted,
We’ve designed each infographic view to highlight the most important signals you’ll need to help you understand your group better.

Under "Growth" admins can see the number of new members to the group within the last week as well as a graph of week-over-week growth. The "Activity" section shows how many members have changed jobs or received a promotion and how many discussions have taken place. The "Demographics" tab displays the number of members, comments in the past week, location of members as well as their job function and seniority level. Are you one of the 1 million group admins that will see this new feature? What benefits do you see in it?

Pinterest for Men?

Pinterest, as you might have heard, is the ever popular female driven website where users can "pin" their favorite content to share with others. Jack Archer has created a slimmed down website geared towards men, Where Is The Cool (WITC). The site features photos of anything that might peak a guy's interest including penthouse apartments, rugged actors, stylish fashion, musical artists, vacation spots and of course women. Unlike Pinterest, WITC is the lazy man's version. There's no pinning here, just pages upon pages of photos to flip through. Each photo can be enlarged with just one click, then shared through social media or viewed on the original site it was pulled from. The website is based on simplicity and good design. Archer originally pushed to bring GQ to the iPad, but it didn't work out. Now Archer stands behind the scenes of WITC, scouring the internet for the site's content and going through user submissions. WITC currently has over a million page views a month and more than 27,000 subscribers on Tumblr.

QR Code Haircut?

Yes, you heard that correctly. There's a new form of sponsorship in town. Bromley FC players shaved QR codes into their heads as part of quite a unique sponsorship with Betfair, an online gaming and betting site. The QR codes are believed to be the first time they have been cut into someone's hair. Fans who scan the QR code will be taken to Betfair's mobile site where fans can bet on the game. Daniel Johnson, a celebrity stylist, was hired to cut the very intricate designs into the players' heads. Johnson said that he's gotten some strange requests from soccer players before, "but this was in a different league. The QR cuts certainly put my skills to the test." Each QR code took about an hour of labor. The manager of the English soccer club said,
This is a great tie up for the club, a little unconventional, but great nonetheless. The lads were shocked when I asked them to take part but they know what this could mean for the club and they're looking forward to showing them off in our biggest game of the season on Saturday.
What are your thoughts on this? New trend or just some crazy marketing stunt?

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