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David McCandless & Stefanie Posavec

David McCandless & Stefanie Posavec

Hogwarts' Guide to Life Social media: the best and worst of 2009 | Blog Social media growth continued to accelerate this year, with more brands integrating social channels into their marketing campaigns. There are some amazing examples of truly innovative, forward-thinking brands that have effectively used social media to connect with their customers, build engagement and create buzz. However, with just as many companies jumping on the proverbial bandwagon (in an arguably over-hyped space), it’s clear that some brands still “just do not get it". Here we look back at some of the best (and worst) examples of social media in 2009. Before we look at the examples themselves, it’s important to keep in mind some social media ground rules. Although these social media basics may seem like common sense, as companies continue to experiment, it’s inevitable that they will make mistakes. Let’s start on a positive note… Why it works: Informative, adds value and builds engagement with a brand that advocates feel passionate about. 2) Compare the Meerkat 3) Zappos on Twitter

7 Pieces of Good News Nobody Is Reporting We recently pointed out that the news media has a filtering process that only lets the bad stuff through. When they do break up the monotony with something lighthearted, it's always something pointless and inconsequential, like that thing last week with the monkey that learned to fly a helicopter. But there actually is good news out there -- on some of the big issues of the day, no less. For instance, did you know ... The Gulf of Mexico Is Almost at Its Pre-Spill Health Levels The Deepwater Spill was bad, obviously. The Good News The Gulf is recovering way faster than anyone thought it would. Via Bossip.comAaaaah yeah. And the better news is that what could have happened with the Gulf oil spill didn't. Now, before anyone has a finger equivalent of a heart attack while pounding out comments below, we're not saying the Gulf of Mexico is in fantastic shape. First, let's recap: the spill occurred on April 20, 2010. Via PBS.org"STILL #1! Getty"I wuv you!" "Be boop skish be dooooo." Via NASA

The Right Way For Media Companies to Create Social Swimming in the roiling sea of online journalism, increasing numbers of newsrooms have decided to take up the challenge of articulating editorial policies for social media. Over the past year, news organizations from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times to the BBC have issued protocols for staff on Facebook, Twitter, and personal blogs and websites. Recently, the Washington Post came under fire for formulating “restrictive” guidelines, after managing editor Raju Narisetti expressed on his Twitter page strong views about war spending and term limits for politicians. Reading the guidelines and the opinions of their critics is instructive. Guidelines Have a Place in Journalism The first step is to understand the place of guideline writing in journalism ethics. The guidelines should be applications of general ethical principles. It’s about something bigger. It’s about how social media should be used to contribute to responsible, democratic journalism. Taking the Right Approach 1. 2. 3.

The Bureau of Communication - Fill-in-the-blank Correspondence Apple Ads’ New Target: Windows 7 (See the Videos!) | K Here are the three new Apple (AAPL) commercials trying to take a smack at the launch of Windows 7 (MSFT), the new operating system software from Microsoft. The “Get a Mac” advertising features the PC and Mac guys, as usual, but are quite a bit meaner than usual. The first, titled “Broken Promises,” is a series of flashbacks to promises made about earlier Windows versions, complete with flip sunglasses. The second, “Teeter Tottering,” has a Windows user switching over to Mac instead of upgrading from Windows XP. “I could stick with what I know, but what I know is pain and frustration,” she says. Ouch! The third commercial, called “PC News,” has the PC guy as a television anchor, talking to a reporter at the Windows 7 launch, to disastrous results. Here are the new videos (and you can see all the Apple ads here):

Faith and Science (I wrote this post for YA for Obama and am crossposting it here.) I don’t talk about it very often, but I’m a religious person. In fact, before I became a writer, I wanted to be a minister. There is a certain branch of Christianity that has so effectively hijacked the word “Christian” that I feel uncomfortable sometimes using it to describe myself. But I am a Christian. So I’m going to write this blog post as a Christian. First, there is the question of loving thy neighbor as yourself, which Jesus states clearly and irrevocably is the second most important law for his followers, behind only the love of God. Making health insurance available to all isn’t going to be easy, and it isn’t going to run smoothly, and it will require sacrifice by all Americans. Secondly, the world in which we live. Finally, science.

The LinkedIn Blog Blog Archive LinkedIn for iPhone v1.5: Get Editor’s note: This blog post is authored by Andrew He, a Stanford student currently completing his Master of Sciences degree in Computer Science. Andrew is a two-time LinkedIn intern, and spent the summer of 2009 focused on the LinkedIn mobile platform. I suppose this blog post could have been entitled: “What I did on my summer vacation.” Truth be told, I’m just thrilled to see LinkedIn for iPhone v1.5 in the iTunes app store. There’s nothing more gratifying as a developer than to see your work go live. This past summer, I was able to dedicate myself to enhancing the LinkedIn mobile platform. LinkedIn for iPhone v1.5 adds a large number of caching and performance improvements to the original LinkedIn application. The Inbox offers quick and easy access to three key features: Invitations, Messages & Sent Items. The application also lets you send invitations, either by entering their email address, or by going to their profile and clicking the invitation button.

Younger Americans’ Reading and Library Habits Released: October 23, 2012 By Kathryn Zickuhr, Lee Rainie, Kristen Purcell, Mary Madden and Joanna Brenner Summary of findings More than eight in ten Americans between the ages of 16 and 29 read a book in the past year, and six in ten used their local public library. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project has taken a special look at readers between the ages of 16 and 29 because interest in them is especially high in the library world and the publishing world. The main findings in this report, including all statistics and quantitative data, are from a nationally-representative phone survey of 2,986 people ages 16 and older that was administered from November 16-December 21, 2011. Among the main findings: 83% of Americans between the ages of 16 and 29 read a book in the past year. Among those in this under-30 age group, three distinct clusters emerge: high schoolers (ages 16 and 17), college-aged young adults (ages 18-24), and early-career adults (ages 25-29): Library use

MySpace Says Twitter Is Closer Competitor Than Facebook MySpace’s recent reorientation to emphasize entertainment over friends makes it more similar to Twitter than Facebook, said News Corp Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. “Twitter is about asymmetrical relationships,” said Miller, while Facebook users have mostly symmetrical friend relationships. “MySpace is in between.

20 Hilarious Social Media Comic Strips | Penn Olson We know how much you love our weekend post on “20 Hilarious Twitter Comic Strips“. We thank you for reading and sharing them. So here’s another weekend and we thought you might like another 20 social media comic strips to last you through the week! 1. You’re MySpace & I’m Facebook 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 140 Edition Now tell us, which is your favorite? Image via: inkygirl, chris-pirillo, phcomics, darrenkrape, pink-sheep YouTube Subscribes You to Activity Feeds When you subscribe to a YouTube channel, you're no longer notified only when someone uploads new videos. Now YouTube subscribes you to "all videos uploaded, rated, favorited, and commented on" by a certain YouTube user. You can change the default option by clicking on "edit subscription", selecting "Only videos uploaded by ..." and "Default to this for all future subscriptions", but not many people will find those options. This feature has been added last month, but I only found about it today. YouTube's help center has more information: "A YouTube subscription means subscribing to a user's videos and their public activity (their favorites, their ratings, etc). By subscribing to a user, you'll receive updates and stay informed when something new occurs." YouTube's options page lets you disable your activity feed.

5 Reasons Google Wave is Not Ready I was fortunate enough to receive an invitation into Google Wave shortly after the initial 100,000 invititations went out last month. Initially, I was a bit overwhelmed and did not really know where to begin or what to do. Bwana was kind enough to engage in a real-time wave with me, and show me around a bit. Lack of Access Control Google Wave does not have any sort of access control for managing waves and wave participants: Anyone can be added to a wave by a participant in the wave.Any wave participant can add a bot to the wave (because bots are simply treated as participants).It is not possible to remove participants (except for bots) from a wave.Anyone can modify any part of the wave. Here is what I think Google Wave needs to implement to resolve the access control issues: Without access control, things can quickly get out of hand if you are trying to work on a collaborative project that is only intended for certain people. Image Credit: Brandon Lowery Poor Contact Management

TweetMixx Launches Branded Twitter Channels TweetMixx, the newly launched service from social voting site Mixx that allows you to find relevant links on Twitter, is venturing into new territory today with the launch of TweetMixx Channels. The service basically lets brands, celebs and companies consolidate their Twitter traffic and mentions on one page. TweetMixx Channels features branded, customizable pages, with the brand’s current Twitter feed, tweets and updates from fans, and links relevant to content about the brand, company or topic posted automatically. The tool also serves as a tracking and monitoring tool for mentions and conversations about a brand taking place on Twitter. Companies can create a customizable branded page with a vanity URL and can designate an “Insiders” tab within the channel which has a list of Twittering employees or users associated with a company. As we’ve said in the past, TweetMixx faces competition from TweetMeme, a popular engine for Twitter link discovery.

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