The Social Gnome’s Hoard

Welcome to the Social Gnome’s Hoard, a collection of this week’s most interesting finds from the Social Gnome’s internet travels.

Week of July 19, 2012 (“Get to know our customers” Day. Find out something new about those who keep you in business.)

Clipped from: www.usatoday.com (share this clip)

This could be a game changer for this year’s election. USA Today reports that the state of Washington will be the first state to allow voters to register via Facebook. If ever there was a way to make registering to vote more accessible to the general public, this is the way to do it. Facebook users will be able to register to vote through an app on the secretary of state’s Facebook page, and they’ll even be able to share the app on their timeline for friends to see. This is going to be the new ‘I voted’ sticker for the digital age. Kudos to the state of Washington for taking the initiative on this and force feeding democracy on those too busy to register to vote because they’re clicking ‘Like’ on the latest meme.

Clipped from: lifehacker.com (share this clip)

I. Love. Lists. I use lists for everything. I use Evernote to organize lists of blog ideas. I use the notepad function on my iPhone to make lists of movies to see or places around Austin to check out. When I saw this headline on Twitter, I got uber excited. Lifehacker provides the Five Best To-Do List Managers apps. I will be checking these out myself to see which works the best for me, but the prospect of using some the listed features to organize my many to-dos has me tingling with delight. What? I like lists…

Clipped from: www.convinceandconvert.com (share this clip)

Jay Baer offers up a really interesting post discussing the difference between Social Media Influencers and Brand Advocates. He makes some very interesting points both in how each can be useful in their own way, and how very different they can be from each other. For those of you who prefer a more visual approach, the post includes a great infographic. For those of you who have a little bit of a nerdy streak, there’s even a dig at Aquaman. Who doesn’t love a good dig at Aquaman? I’d also like to take this moment to thank Jay for introducing me to Curate.Us, which allows me to quickly clip visual snippets from sources and place them in my blog posts as you see here. It’s such a useful tool.

Clipped from: www.stumbleupon.com (share this clip)

As long as Stumbleupon.com continues to find me crazy weird things like this, things I would have never found on my own, I will continue to let it eat up valuable resources from my time. (It is a great way to stay occupied on the bus ride home from work though.) Since I found this on Stumbleupon, and there really aren’t any other links or info on the page, I can’t tell you much about who made it or where it came from. You may find yourself fiddling around with it regardless. Who doesn’t love taking 15 seconds to drag the mouse and create unique melodies? I submit that there are very few people on that list.

Clipped from: www.stumbleupon.com (share this clip)

Here’s an really interesting dynamic chart following the changes in how we consume music over that last 30 years. It’s really interesting to simply watch the trends from one technology to the next. I’d love to see the jump in just the two years after the chart stops. Once again, I found this on Stumbleupon, so I don’t know who exactly created it or where they are pulling their data from, but it appears relatively accurate, or at least it makes sense. From the web address, it appears to be coming from digitalmusicnews.com.

Clipped from: pushingsocial.com (share this clip)

Lastly, Stanford of Pushing Social shares an interesting analogy with regards to why you may not be getting the interaction you want or hope for in your blog. It seems a pretty simple concept that he discusses, but one that still so few seem to grasp in this digital world of “look at me, look at me!” Stanford always writes great stuff and is quickly becoming one of my favorite go-to people for blogging advice. Pushing Social is worth following for bloggers of any caliber to find quick, to-the-point advice that you can put to use. This one is a quick read, and worth checking to make sure you’re not THAT guy that he points out in the post.

Clipped from: content.usatoday.com (share this clip)

Last minute addition to wrench your heart a bit. Thursday night, at the midnight premiere of the Dark Knight Rises, a man in a gas mask wearing all black decided to throw tear gas and open fire into the crowd. At the time of writing this, 12 are dead and many more wounded, some of them being children. I simply don’t understand it. 24-year old James Holmes has not given a motive yet, but that doesn’t matter. People were excited about a movie and he ruined their lives. Unbelievable.

So there you are. Another weeks’ worth of noteworthy, interesting or just funny content to keep you in the know. Did I miss anything great that you came across? What do you think about the ability to register to vote on Facebook? Would you like to see more social integration into important parts of our society as we know it? Are you a list-maker yourself, and do you already use any of the apps Lifehacker spotlights? Weigh in below with your comments.

Now go get your social on!

Follow this blog on your mobile device with Google Currents! Go to the app store and download Google Currents for your iPhone or Android and subscribe to Robzie Social HERE!

The Social Gnome’s Hoard

Welcome to the Social Gnome’s Hoard, a collection of this week’s most interesting finds from the Social Gnome’s internet travels.

Week of July 2, 2012 (Did you know July is National Cell Phone Courtesy month? Also, the best month of the year!)

Clipped from: bits.blogs.nytimes.com (share this clip)

Last week I had an article about Google+ coming to Flipboard, and this week it’s all about the New York Times. I’m very happy to see Flipboard getting the attention it deserves. It’s a really slick app with a great interface, and I was concerned about its well-being when I wrote my post about Google Currents and the threat it posed. This deal with the NY Times should really drive more traffic to Flipboard, and get those who potentially never used the app to check it out and fall in love with it, as many of us have. Flipboard is available for iOS devices, Kindle, and Android devices.

Clipped from: techcrunch.com (share this clip)

Gojee, an up and coming recipe sharing platform, looks to be getting funded up to attract some of the food-loving Pinterest crowd. Any Pinterest user will tell you that that their feed is full of boards from kitchen queens, culinary kings, expert foodies and wish lists of the less experienced (mine is simply titled Food I Want In My Face). Gojee is described as the “Twitter for food” and could potentially couple well with the multitude of recipe sharing buzz that Pinterest has created in the last year or so.

Clipped from: www.entrepreneur.com (share this clip)

The plight of the small business owner is a constant struggle to stay relevant and visible in the shadow of the big guys. Although a strong online presence helps, sometimes it can feel like a hopeless battle, especially trying to keep up with all the changes that Google is doing. Here is a great article from Entrepreneur.com discussing some things to do to try to make yourself visible in Google’s eyes (and therefore everyone else’s).

Clipped from: techland.time.com (share this clip)

In what will likely be a pretty important decision, a court judge ruled that Tweets are public (same as if they were shouted out in the street) and therefore should not be accompanied with any expectation of privacy. The court has ordered Twitter to turn over months worth of tweets by an Occupy Wall Street protester in order to prove that he was aware of the police orders that he was blatantly disregarding. Check out the whole article.

Clipped from: www.entrepreneur.com (share this clip)

Finally, summertime is now in full swing. The fireworks really make it feel official (along with the sweltering heat, depending on where you are in the country or the world). Entrepreneur columnist Teri Evans provides some summer reading picks from multimillionaire entrepreneurs. There’s a few I’ve already heard of (and a couple standby classics), as well as a couple I might have to add to my list.

So there you are. Another weeks’ worth of noteworthy, interesting or just funny content to keep you in the know. Did I miss anything great that you came across? How do YOU feel about the ruling on privacy of tweets on Twitter? Do you use Flipboard, and if not, will you use it to keep up on New York Times articles? Weigh in below with your comments.

Now go get your social on!

Follow this blog on your mobile device with Google Currents! Go to the app store and download Google Currents for your iPhone or Android and subscribe to Robzie Social HERE!

The Social Gnome’s Hoard

Welcome to the Social Gnome’s Hoard, a collection of this week’s most interesting finds from the Social Gnome’s internet travels.

Week of June 20, 2012 (American Eagle Day, so do your country proud):

Usage and demographics info for Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest

Clipped from: socialtimes.com (share this clip)

For those of you who love those infographs, Social Times has put together some interesting demographic information on who is using the various social networks. Some of the data may come as no surprise if you follow this kind of data, but some of the data is still pretty staggering. I especially like the section that outlines how much a user is supposedly worth to the networks. I’ll take my check now, Mr. Zuckerberg.

Clipped from: www.copyblogger.com (share this clip)

As a blogger, I’m always looking for something to inspire me, something to keep me furiously clicking away at the keys and trying to get that next blog post out (and on time, to boot). Copyblogger provides some words of wisdom, as usual. This time, in an easily printable format that you can put right above your desk. No more excuses. Print it. Live it. Do it. Be a better writer. Just as easily said as done, right?

30 Best Content Curation Resources for Marketers and Business Pros — Clipped from: http://www.b2bmarketinginsider.com (share this clip)

Speaking of blogging tips, if you’re having a tough time figuring out what exactly it is that you want to write about, here is a list of 30 Curation Sources from B2B Marketing Insider to help you get started. Some are big news reporting names you’re already familiar with, but there are a few gems in here that I was unfamiliar with, but am definitely checking out. The article provides links and links to Twitter profiles for all 30, so you can jump right in and follow these sources to keep your content fresh and interesting.

Animated GIFs hilariously explaining sentiments of social media workers

Clipped from: whatshouldwecallsocialmedia.tumblr.com (share this clip)

Anyone who works in social media, or works digitally with clients, will appreciate the humor in this Tumblr blog “What Should We Call Social Media.” If you haven’t checked it out yet, it is a must. Using animated GIFs, this blog expresses exactly what you and I are feeling when clients or their customers do things that drive us up a wall. It also approaches other great themes like “When Klout tells me it believes I’m influential in something I’ve literally NEVER talked about.” It’s a fantastic Tumblr, but be careful it doesn’t drain your day away. You’ve got clients to think about.

Google announces opening API to integrate with Flipboard

Clipped from: redOrbit (share this clip)

Great news to all of you Flipboard lovers (like me!). Google+ announced this week that it would finally be opening up its API to allow your Google+ stream to be viewable from your Flipboard dashboard. It was already possible to view your Google+ stream on Google Currents, which was one pull for me, but I’ve been wildly awaiting this announcement. This hopefully means we’ll see many more availabilities opening up (like Hootsuite and maybe Buffer!). Google previous closed-off nature with their API was one thing hurting them in the battle against Facebook. This could be a pretty major turning point for Google+ usage and integration.

Music recommendation and player platform. Also allows purchasing of music

Clipped from: bandofthedayapp.com (share this clip)

And finally, for all you music lovers out there, this FREE app is a must-have. Band of the Day is an app for iPad and iPhone that provides a new band or artist recommendation for every day of the year. You can even go back a handful of weeks to see what you may have missed. The app allows you to preview numerous (if not all) songs by the band or artist, reviews, bios, videos and links to purchase the songs as well. It does obviously require an internet or WiFi connection. The user interface is really slick and moves smoothly through all the various screens. There may be a few artists you’re already pretty familiar with, but unless you’re a major indie music aficionado, you’re likely to find tons of music you’ve never heard before. I highly recommend this app, especially on the iPad, to anyone who thirsts for more music in their life.

So there you are. Another weeks’ worth of noteworthy, interesting or just funny content to keep you in the know. Did I miss anything great that you came across? Do you know of any other great music recommending apps out there? Do you use Flipboard, Google Currents, or some other dashboard for all your news gathering? Weigh in below with your comments.

Now go get your social on!

Follow this blog on your mobile device with Google Currents! Go to the app store and download Google Currents for your iPhone or Android and subscribe to Robzie Social HERE!

The Social Gnome’s Hoard – 4 New Reasons to Monitor Online Reviews

This week we’re discussing the recently increased importance of monitoring and maintaining your presence on review sites, particularly Yelp and Google Places (now called Google+ Local).

June 13, 2012:

The slow, painful decline from red to yellow

Siri uses Yelp to search locally – When your potential customers hit that button on their iPhone and tell Siri asks what she can help them with, Siri then asks her friend Yelp for the highest rated results in that category in your geographic area. This is applicable whether you’re a restaurant, doctor, lawyer, plumber, auto repair shop, anything. You need to make sure you’re looking as clean as you can on Yelp, or Siri may not recommend you. Yes, you are now catering your hard work on your company’s image to a digital assistant. Get used to it and move forward, because this stuff is only getting more complicated.

Google+ Local Austin recommendation — I agree, Mandola’s is delicious.

Google loves Google+ – Google has integrated it’s search even more fully into its social network, last week unveiling Google+ Local. Companies’ reviews on Zagat and Google Places are now merged, using the Zagat scoring system, out of 30 points, and allowing rating of multiple facets of a business. Companies can no longer have an abandoned Google Places page. They will now have to create a Google+ business page, or spruce up their Google Places page now that it has ported over and become a Google+ business page. This gives you some great options, visually, but a more social search for customer equals a more complicated job for businesses.

Screenshot from Apple.com — Apple.com explains iOS6 features

Apple just rocked your world – The unveiling of new iOS6 features from Apple announced the dropping of Google Maps and the addition of Apple Maps. Once again, Apple is lending preference to Yelp to assist users in navigating the best spots in the very slick looking, and exceedingly functional, Apple maps. Local restaurants, take note that Apple in also utilizing Open Table to allow users to make reservations with Siri. Let the confusion begin.

Visual.Ly infographic on food critiquing — Visual.Ly shows you how much we’re all critics

Everybody’s a critic – Visual.Ly makes a great infographic that culminates our innate needs to have our opinions heard. From quick shout outs, epic tales of a dinner gone wrong, or outright rude chastising of a business owner for not caring enough, we love to have our opinions heard. Although there are numerous platforms out there that cater to this desire to be heard, Yelp furthers the addiction even more by rewarding those who share their opinions the most (awarding them a coveted Elite status) and Google just made it super easy for Google+ users to share their experiences very, very publicly.

UPDATE As an addendum, Bing is also pushing the local search functionality. Guess what resource Bing will be utilizing for finding local businesses. Yelp. Bing has been making major strides in order to compete with Google and the social nature of Google+ Local. It seems Bing is bringing Yelp along with it.
The push to make the local experience completely interactive has grown so exponentially in the last couple of years, it’s difficult to imagine where we’ll be in a couple more. Social search has grown by leaps and bounds in a very short amount of time. One thing is clear, the phrase “Evolve or die” could not be written any clearer. Local business owners simply can not ignore the growing need to be involved in the social digital sphere. Word of mouth is still king, but that king sits on the throne made of Yelp and Google+ Local.

I recommend you give at least a moment’s look at Main Street Hub. We handle your online reviews for you. We make sure your customers are heard, acknowledged, appeased and thanked. The time is now. Take your reviews by the horns and lead them in a direction that helps your business grow in this ever changing climate of fickle customers who have been handed megaphones to share their experiences. Tell Main Street Hub that Rob Z sent you. Thanks for reading.

Now go get your social on!

Follow this blog on your mobile device with Google Currents! Go to the app store and download Google Currents for your iPhone or Android and subscribe to Robzie Social HERE!

The Social Gnome’s Hoard

Welcome to the Social Gnome’s Hoard, a collection of this week’s most interesting finds from the Social Gnome’s internet travels.

Week of June 7, 2012:

Pushing_Social2 — Image courtesy of PushingSocial.com

Stanford at Pushing Social offers up some Essential Tools for the Savvy Blogger in a recent post. He even breaks it into three sections: Research, Writing, and Promotion. I’m happy to see that Buffer made his list for the Research and Curation portion. I’m a huge fan of Buffer (if you haven’t been using this amazing curation tool – which integrates seamlessly with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for the web – then be sure to check it out here). I’m surprised to see that Evernote didn’t make his list for Planning, the tools that did are top notch.

You guys, this has got to be one of the coolest things I’ve found on Stumbleupon.com. Seaquence.org has put together this digital music maker of sorts and, as the site puts it, “Adopting a biological metaphor, you can create and combine musical lifeforms resulting in an organic, dynamic composition.” The interface is really easy to use and you can add multiple “organisms” to add depth and variation. You can also donate to the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts from their homepage. If you search for Seaquence on YouTube, you’ll even find some video clips that people have put together showing off their run at making biological music. It’s cool. Check it out. If you make any videos yourself, let me know and I’ll share them with my readers!

I’ll be honest, I use Klout because I love free stuff. Whereas so far I’ve gained early access to a couple up and coming social networks like Learni.st and LoveIt, I actually received my first physical Klout perk in the mail last week. I mean, it wasn’t a new car or a digital device to test drive, but I was still excited about free goodies in the mail. I got my Lipton Tea & Honey samples (Pineapple Mango) in a huge envelope. They gave me quite a few. The stuff is pretty good, but a lot sweeter than I typically go for. Also, 8oz of water is not enough. I filled an entire drinking glass and it was still flavorful. Not bad. It’s good on a hot Austin day, but too sweet to drink tons of it. (Disclaimer: I was given a free product or sample because I’m a Klout influencer. I am under no obligation to received the sample or talk about this company. I get no additional benefits for talking about the product or company.)

Kid_iPad — Photo by Marcus Kwan
(aperturismo on Flickr)

Facebook is throwing around the idea of dropping or removing the minimum age restriction for usage. Currently, the minimum age is 13, according to Facebook’s terms. Of course, some parents have helped their uber-social tween get Facebook accounts anyway, but there are some interesting ideas being tossed out there. One of the big concerns, according to the Washington Post, is the collection of data from and targeted advertising to children. Another idea being considered is having parents’ accounts have an administrator-like control over a child’s account. This, of course, could be a point of contention as a child turns into a teen, but could be a genius move for Facebook. Not only would it allow millions of kids to create accounts, but it would thereby force any parents of those kids to have an account, use it more often to monitor their child’s usage, and interact with Facebook more than they may have previously. We’ll see where the dart finally lands on this issue, but it will be interesting nonetheless.

Promote your blog with Social Media — Image from SocialMediaExaminer.com

Some of these tips from Social Media Examiner, if you’re even a slightly experienced blogger, may be common sense. However, this post offers up some really great tips and ideas for using the various outlets at your disposal for promoting your blog. In my case, I share a link to my blog posts on my Google+ profile all the time, but it never occurred to me to paste the entire text into the status update (since Google’s character limit is ridiculously huge0. Not only does this mean people can read your post without leaving Google+, it also is better for SEO!

And finally, this music video by a band called Driver Friendly was shared with me by my friend and coworker Calli. She’s a great local music guru for me and she actually used to listen to these guys when they were first getting their start. I have to credit them for making a great music video, a tribute to Tom Hanks movies is a pretty unique theme. It was even Tweeted by Tom Hanks himself, which is amazing for a small band. Check out their nicely produced video and check them out on Spotify or iTunes if you like their music.

So there you are. Another weeks’ worth of noteworthy, interesting or just funny content to keep you in the know. Did I miss anything great that you came across? Can you name all the Tom Hanks movies in the music video? Let me know with your comments.

Now go get your social on!

Follow this blog on your mobile device with Google Currents! Go to the app store and download Google Currents for your iPhone or Android and subscribe to Robzie Social HERE!

People Doing Great Things

Welcome to the Social Gnome’s Hoard, a collection of this week’s most interesting finds from the Social Gnome’s internet travels.

Normally on Fridays, I do my Found Tweet Friday post. Today, however, I wanted to do a special edition of the Social Gnome’s Hoard (since the holiday just completely screwed up my schedule for the week!). I want to call attention to some people that I think deserve some recognition, because I think they’re doing some great stuff in their respective segments. So make sure you check out the people below and give them some kudos for the heart and soul they’re putting into their work.

Week of June 1, 2012:

Apostrophe Now is an editing & proofreading freelance project recently started by my good friend Lindsey Markel. She’s extremely smart, funny, a creative fiction writer, blogger and eclectic spirit. She has also done copy editing work for a major education technology company (I’m not sure if I’m allowed to name drop, so I’ll err on the side of caution) as well as done some great publicity work for the non-profit Celebration Company at The Station Theatre in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois (a place I used to call home). She’s now offering her copy editing skills to those wanting to clean up their resume as they go out into this tough job market. Every little bit helps out there. Check out her page for some expert advice and an edge that may help you get noticed.

Eye Social ASL (American Sign Language) challenge from Anne Reuss — Click here to see if you’re up to the challenge!

I happened across Anne Reuss and her blog eyeSocial by chance, and we began talking about a post she wrote on the bond between siblings. It was a great dialogue that we had and I decided to keep up on what she was doing. Then I discovered this portion of her blog, and I realized she was doing even greater things than I thought. Anne has set forth a challenge. You see, she is deaf, but works in social media. With the constant influx of startups and new businesses, she found that she was constantly having to spell out in ASL (American Sign Language) the names of all these businesses. So she challenged owners of startups and other social media experts to come up with signs in ASL for these businesses. This unique proposition has caught the attention and participation of many people already. Are you up to the challenge?

Social_Penguin_Blog — Check out what Mike and Dave the penguin are up to!

The Social Penguin is one of my favorite blogs to follow, and I’ve even guest posted there a few times. Mike McGrail is very active in the world of social media and has some amazing insights. The link above takes you to a great post providing 5 tips on how to drive traffic to your blog (and couldn’t we all use more traffic to our blogs?). He has also been my go-to guy for what great apps I absolutely need to have. As a matter of fact, he just turned people on to a handful of great apps in one of his most recent posts My 6 Essential Apps for Life. It will change your life, or at least the way your organize it digitally.

shelter-co-17 — Check out more images like this!

I can’t say I have an eye for capturing beauty. Occasionally, I can fumble an Instagram picture with just the right perspectives, but it’s a rare occurrence. Nicole at wave parade, however, has that eye uniquely focused on making blog posts that are simply put: visually stunning. Often one of few words, she lets the images she puts together tell the story for her, and you’ll still be able to get it. I met Nicole through social media elite Starr Hall, who I’ve also guest blogged for a couple times. Nicole has a similar enthusiasm, and I think she’s going to be one worth watching, wherever she goes.

There you have it. Some people and blogs you may have never heard of, but are certainly worth your time, should you be interested in their content. Who are people that you admire or that you think are doing important and wonderful things? Chime in below! Next week, I’ll be back to a normal schedule, I promise. Until then.

Now go get your social on!

The Social Gnome’s Hoard

Welcome to the Social Gnome’s Hoard, a collection of this week’s most interesting finds from the Social Gnome’s internet travels.

Week of May 23, 2012:

Today we’ll start with some great blogging tips that I’ve come across from blogging masterminds across the web.

Christopher S Penn, Awaken Your Superhero — Photo from ChristopherSPenn.com

In his blog post “Closing techniques are for content creators, too” Christopher S. Penn discusses methods for closing your blog post and encouraging engagement. Simply stating “Comment below” or “What are your thoughts” are not enough to get real engagement. You will see my slyly changing my tune thanks to this brilliant marketer.

A simple plan for writing one powerful piece of content per week — Photo clipped from Copyblogger.com

Another great piece of blogging advice that I cam across this week was courtesy of Pamela Wilson’s article on Copyblogger titled “A Simple Plan for Writing One Powerful Piece of Online Content per Week.” If you’re pressed for time and can’t come up with something brilliant every day like, say, Mitch Joel, then this article offers some insight on how to come up with something worthwhile on a weekly basis. Definitely worth a read if you blog but are short on time.

Six Sinister Blog Time Wasters from Pushing Social — Photo from PushingSocial.com

Speaking of those who are pressed for time, Stanford at Pushing Social provides a list of “Six Sinister Blog Time Wasters” to help you in streamlining your blogging process. Some of them are so delightfully simple, you’ll wonder why you weren’t doing them already. Probably because you were too busy worrying about other things on you to-do list. Worthwhile tips for bloggers of any skill level.

Hubspot delivers a blog post about the most recent change to Google’s search engine: Incorporating what it calls the Knowledge Graph. This upgrade is meant to make Google search more human-like. It will be looking at your search terms not as a string of characters, but actually in relation to what the words mean and what they are related to. It is concurrently creepy and brilliant, but should provide better results as well as better suggestions.

BuzzFeed Ways to use items — Image from Buzzfeed.com

On a non-business note, Buzzfeed had a great post on “35 Lifechanging ways to use everyday objects.” Some of these you’ve likely heard of before, but there were a few in here that even surprised me. Did you know that eating marshmallows can help soothe a sore throat? Could there BE a better remedy? I submit that there can NOT.

Is Google+ engagement equivalent to a ghost town? — Photo from FastCompany.com

Ladies and gentlemen, there is a lot of hate out there for Google+. It is tough to be a raving proponent of it when they are articles like this. Fast Company likens Google+ engagement to a ghost town in the article by Austin Carr “New Google+ Study Revelas Minimal Social Activity, Weak User Engagement.” Now, I love Google+. Sure, I’m not as directly connected to it as I am with Facebook and Twitter, but I really don’t understand these statistics. Maybe I just follow really active users, but let me tell you: when I have my Social Media Contacts circle selected for my feed, it’s all I can do to keep up with the stream. Videos and blog posts and articles and funny pictures galore. If there’s no engagement, I’m not seeing it. I’ve been known, on more than one occasion, to mute posts because I get tired of getting updates on all the responses. I simply think that Google+ is where all the cool kids are hanging out, and the others just don’t get it. Yeah, I said it.

Your Favorite Martian song Douchebag — Image from YouTube.com – YourFavoriteMartian

Finally, on a little more of a personal note. I would like to dedicate this video, by the hilariously sarcastic and satirical Your Favorite Martian, to some of my neighbors. Those cat-calling tools who shout at every woman that passes by their nasty apartment, begging them to “Come in and party” with them. This song and video, “Douchebag,” goes out to you. You’ve certainly earned it. (Warning, if you watch any of the other videos by Your Favorite Martian, some of them may be offensive to people. You’ve been informed.)

Have you seen the Google Doodle for today, May 23? It’s an interactive synthesizer in honor of Robert Moog’s 78th birthday. He is the inventor of the Moog synthesizer and is responsible, inadvertently, for things like techno, dub-step, and Flock of Seagulls (though I don’t think we can thank him for the accompanying hairstyles). Play with it. It’s really cool and allows you to record. Let the synthesizer geniuses go crazy! https://www.google.com/

So there you are. Another weeks’ worth of noteworthy, interesting or just funny content to keep you in the know. Did I miss anything great that you came across? Were you surprised by any of the 35 uses of everyday objects? Let me know with your comments.

Now go get your social on!

Follow this blog on your mobile device with Google Currents! Go to the app store and download Google Currents for your iPhone or Android and subscribe to Robzie Social HERE!

The Social Gnome’s Hoard

Welcome to the Social Gnome’s Hoard, a collection of this week’s most interesting finds from the Social Gnome’s internet travels.

Week of May 7, 2012:

If you’re not already aware, there are two excellent tools for sharing great content: Curate.us and Repost.us. Curate.us allows you to clip an article or webpage and share the image in a blog, email, etc. (like what you see to the right here.) Repost.us allows you to embed an entire article, like you would a video, into an email or blog. These are fantastic tools, especially if you know a bit about HTML. Another special thanks to Jay Baer for using this tool in his daily One Social Thing emails newsletter, which is how I found out about these tools.

crowdfunding-nets-millions-for-game-developers1 — Image credit: Entrepreneur.com

An interesting article from Entrepreneur.com’s blog talking about the use of crowd funding to finance video games. Those seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in backing are finding that they’re getting well into the millions in some cases. The article warns that this should still be considered the exception, rather than the rule. I’m interested in seeing how well these games do financially once they actually hit the market and they’ve promised copies to all the backers – the very ones who would have been their market in the first place. Will solely realizing the game be enough, or will the meager profits steer creators away from promising free merchandise for backing?

Chicago start-up Belly — Photo credit: TechCrunch.com

TechCrunch featured an article spotlighting recent investment into Chicago startup Belly, who is trying reinvent the customer loyalty aspect of social business “through gamification, digital check-ins and a <sic> iPad setup for businesses.” It sounds like it would at least get rid of those pesky customer loyalty keychain cards everyone hates. Although, “scanning” or “swiping your Belly” just doesn’t have a great ring to it. It sounds kinda weird, actually. Nonetheless, this is a start up to keep an eye on.

I have a guest post on The Social Penguin Blog this week discussing 4 Important Aspects of Handling Online Reviews. If you have customers that review you online, this is something you really need to take a look at.

If you haven’t read my previous post this week on Google Currents vs. Flipboard, check it out. I’ve made myself a Producer on Google Currents as well. You can go here (https://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAow7ZynAQ/robzie_social) to subscribe via Currents if you have the app. I do recommend downloading and using it if you read articles and publications on your mobile device (iOS or Android). It’s pretty slick. Also…I need to get to 200 subscribers so that I can actually be found via search. When you first submit your content, people can only subscribe with the link provided. Help mmeeeeeeeee. 😀

Oatmeal State of the Web — Credit: TheOatmeal.com

And finally, I leave you with a laugh. As usual, The Oatmeal gets it right, and makes it hilarious, with their State of the Web, Spring 2012. This captures some of the highlights of what we’ve seen in recent internet and social media news. Things such as Facebook’s purchase of Instagram, a jab at Google+, and constant gamification.

If we haven’t already, let’s connect on Facebook and LinkedIn. I’m always looking to grow my network. If anything, I share interesting and funny things.

So there you are. Another weeks’ worth of noteworthy, interesting or just funny content to keep you in the know.

Now go get your social on!

The Social Gnome’s Hoard

Welcome to the Social Gnome’s Hoard, a collection of this week’s most interesting finds from the Social Gnome’s internet travels.

Week of April 23, 2012:

I was presented a very interesting article by @captain_jake on whether Facebook (and subsequent other social networks) are making us lonely. Although the article brought up many interesting points, there were still questions about its generalizations.Then a full fledged rebuttal article came out, also make interesting points. A good read on both accounts to get you thinking about what all this “social” is doing to our real relationships. If you have time for a great video, Sherry Turkle gave a TED talk about the same topic, Connected, but alone? “The illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. ” Wow.

What would you think of the possibility to get some Ivy League education without ever leaving your home or studying for the SATs? Well, The Faculty Project will allow you to do just that. This article from a couple months ago tells how professors from prestigious universities will be able to upload lecture notes, which will be downloadable free of charge to anyone with an internet connection. The internet. Providing quality information. Who knew?

For a good laugh, here is a list of The 21 Worst Things In the World, courtesy of Buzzfeed. I can’t help but agree with some of them, especially the demon spawn of Satan that is #14. Why? Why does something like that exist? In our homes?

Wildcat! Wildcat! is an up and coming band that a friend of mine, @rudyc, turned me on to. They currently have two songs up on Soundcloud. I really look forward to hearing more from them. If they can get an album together this year, they certainly have the type of sound that is doing well right now with bands like Foster the People and The Naked and Famous. They also have a great video on YouTube for Mr. Quiche. Just weird enough.

Klout announced that it will be starting something called Brand Squads, which will recognize top influencers for brands, rather than just industries and topics. Many people immediately dismissed it, asking whether brands should even care. I know Klout score doesn’t amount to a whole lot to many people, but I like this idea of focusing on the influencers. This has the potential to really recognize brand advocacy, and although Klout score doesn’t mean much in the marketing metrics world, this could be huge for companies really trying to drive a force of support for their brand. As of now, only Red Bull is doing this (I’m not exactly their target market, so I think I’ll hang around, leaning up against the wall until something more relevant comes my way.) This has potential to get people excited about Klout. It also has the potential to completely flop if Klout doesn’t get more brands moving wit this initiative.

And finally, I have a blog post up on Starr Hall’s website (she is a columnist for Entrepreneur.com, national speaker on social media, author and restaurant owner. In other words, she’s amazing.) I talk about a feature on LinkedIn called Projects. I don’t see many people using it, but it is a fantastic way to create connections with other LinkedIn users while showing off things you’ve worked on.

So there you are. Another weeks’ worth of noteworthy, interesting or just funny content to keep you in the know.

Now go get your social on!

The Social Gnome’s Hoard

Welcome to the Social Gnome’s Hoard, a collection of this week’s most interesting finds from the Social Gnome’s internet travels.

Week of April 16, 2012:

—The genius behind Likeable, Dave Kerpen, offers up a video of the Top 11 Professionals to follow on Twitter. You may be surprised at who’s on the list. via Mashable (video)

—Since I wrote a review of the mobile app Path a couple of weeks ago, I’m really interested in the amount of buzz that it’s getting now that Facebook paid $1 billion for Instagram. There are many back and forth points being made on if Path has enough interest and user base to be the next big buyout. Here are a couple interesting articles on Path’s current situation. Via Social Times and GigaOm

—If you haven’t taken 11 minutes out of your day and watched Caine’s Arcade, do it. Now. You don’t have to thank me, but you will probably want to, because you’ll feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I’m not gonna lie. I kinda teared up. I had to hold it together since I was at work…

—Pressure is mounting in opposition to CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act). The Electronic Frontier Foundation posted a collection of tweets with the hashtags #CISPA and #CongressTMI. Some are serious, some are hilarious.

—We all know that link building is important to SEO, but some links can actually do HARM to your site’s rankings. Seomoz provides some great insight, as usual.

—A friend, Jake, showed me this little gem. Sure you’ve got Facebook friends, but what about Enemies? EnemyGraph is a Facebook app that allows you to basically do the opposite of friending people, and connect with those who share your hatred. Strange, but you know you’re intrigued.

—How about an iPhone app that can ‘sense’ when you’ve hit full sleep mode, and makes sounds to influence your dreaming patterns? Yes, between this and holographic Tupac, we have in fact achieved the future everyone thought was only science fiction. The Social Penguin Blog explores the app developed by Professor Richard Wiseman.

—For one of the funniest and greatest guerrilla marketing stunts you’ve ever seen, watch this video. Thanks to Chris Brogan for sharing this via Google+.

—Finally, Facebook is apparently competing with the potential reanimation of MySpace by offering a “listen button” on musician pages. It is interesting that they use whatever music playing app you already have set up with Facebook. Good tie-in for app creators. I wonder if podcasters will start hosting their podcasts on Facebook as well? Techcrunch provides the article.

So there you are! Some good reading material for today. See what’s in store next week in the Hoard from the Social Gnome’s internet travels.

Now go get your social on!

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