It is obvious that the now 30 year-old creator hasn’t led an average life. Spending time running a multi-billion dollar company while acquiring a range of other businesses is not the usual pastime of a college drop-out. If you are wondering just how this billionaire stacks up against your average young professional, take a look at this infographic from Mashable and see what sets Zuckerberg apart from the rest.

We are blessed to live in a fast paced world that spreads news at real time speed and is evolving by the second.  In the past, it was essential for television advertisements to air frequently and remain fresh in your mind. Now, it seems that we are more likely to remember an ad that was shown before a YouTube video or on the right side of our Facebook feed.

Is internet advertising taking over and leaving television in the dust?

(Source)

For the first time ever, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), internet advertising revenue report declared that advertising dollars spent on the internet exceeded television advertising. Internet advertising dollars were at a whopping 42.8 billion whereas television advertising made up for 40.1 billion in the U.S.

Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB  says, “The news that interactive has outperformed broadcast television should come as no surprise, it speaks to the power that digital screens have in reaching and engaging audiences. In that same vein, the staggering growth of mobile is clearly a direct response to how smaller digital screens play an integral role in consumers’ lives throughout the day, as well as their critical importance to cross-screen experiences.”

Internet advertising prices are subject to vary, however, Digiday reports what some of the most prominent internet channels are charging:

YouTube homepage takeover = $400,000
To own the large display ad with video on the YouTube homepage, advertisers pay an estimate of $400,000. They usually include a package with other media such as in-stream video ads, display ads, or featured video listings.

technologytell.com

Facebook log-out screen ad = $100,000

businessinsider.com

Twitter promoted trending topic = $120,000

easypurl.info

BuzzFeed sponsored article = $20,000

socialfresh.com

The increase in internet advertising doesn’t come as a shock. The average person is equipped with a device that makes internet viewing easier than ever. We are certain that this trend is going to continue to evolve as the internet continues to grow. It’s time to say “Good-bye” to the tube and “Good day” to the internet. 

Social media has been around for quite some time now, but that certainly doesn’t mean everyone is fully comfortable using it. Check out today’s #FilmFriday and learn some helpful tips from EDPR founder, Cory Stewart, on how to up your social game!

Google yourself: Carefully search through every result that comes up in each different tab (Web, Images, Video, etc) and target what you want to remove from the search. Sometimes a nasty comment you posted on a Youtube video will come back to haunt you as the first result on the video search. If your Google account is linked with your Youtube account, all you have to do is remove the comment. Otherwise, retrieve your login information, sign into that old account and remove the comment.

Facebook: If you don’t want your Facebook page to show up when you’re searched, it’s extremely easy to hide it without deactivating your account. Simply go into your privacy settings, and turn off the feature that asks “Do you want other search engines to link to your timeline?” If you want to be extra sure that it won’t show up, change your username that shows up on the address bar, which is oftentimes set by default as your first and last name.

Old Accounts: Don’t worry about your old Myspace account: they went ahead and did the work for you. With Myspace’s rebranding, all of the accounts that were under the “Classic” Myspace have been erased. Your angsty teenage blog posts are gone forever (which can definitely be a good thing). If you have any other accounts still showing up, try accessing that account by retrieving your login information. Once you’re in the account, you can delete it. If you can’t remember your login information and have no way of retrieving it, simply contact the webmaster or customer service on the site and talk to someone about getting the account deleted.

Bad publicity: If someone posts an unflattering picture of you or writes something that would damage your reputation, you can send them a polite e-mail asking to remove the content. Do not make any legal threats, as that could make the situation worse. If the person or site still refuses to remove the content you can contact Google’s content removal page and submit a request to have a specific search result be removed. Although the content is still there, it won’t show up on Google. The only issue with this, however, is that it could still be visible on other search engines. But if the content is truly awful or gives out your personal information, you’ll go the extra mile to get it removed.

Don’t use your name: For future reference, keep the blogs or accounts that you want private under an alias. If you comment on videos or blogs, make sure that’s anonymous as well. 5 years down the road you could regret that one angry comment about an article you disagreed with.

Sources:

http://www.wikihow.com/Ungoogle-Yourself

http://www.waysto.com/ways-to-ungoogle-yourself/

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Un-Google_Yourself

• Gaining feedback on service, events and menu items.
• Promoting and showing off menu items.
• Sharing specials.
• Recruiting.
• Monitoring reputation.

To find out how PR agencies (like us) can help with your restaurant’s social media strategy and execution, please send us an email, we’d love to hear from you!

Check out the full list below, along with a handy guide on which social networks to use for each tactic

Earlier in the year, we wrote a blog post outlining how to better your restaurant’s publicity: you can find that piece by clicking here.

first direct (a UK-based financial institution) recently released a study that identified some of the social personalities that are prevalent in today’s online world. You have “The Ultras”, those who check social streams dozens of times per day; “The Deniers”, who insist that social doesn’t rule their lives – but would lose their cool without it; “The Dippers”, who go in and out of their social profiles irregularly; “The Lurkers”, pretty self explanatory; among many others.

Check out this entertaining and perhaps revealing look at what’s becoming a bit of a dirty little habit for some in our connected society.

In the PR industry, it’s essential to be organized and on the ball. Our clients expect us to be up-to-date and relevant in a variety of industries; so there are a few apps that we have come to rely on here at the office that help us to bring our ‘A’ game every time.

1. HootSuite has many functions. It allows you to monitor multiple Twitter feeds for your different clients and you can schedule tweets ahead of time. You can also monitor mentions and you can select certain news feeds to follow (like a competitor) to stay up-to-date with the conversations surrounding your industry.

2. Zite is a useful tool for compiling top news stories in one app. You can choose the industries you would like to hear about, like social media, politics, current events, PR news, etc., so you can stay up-to-date with what’s going on in the world.

3. Google Drive allows you to store all your documents in one place. On the go a lot? This app is definitely a life saver when you need access to a document but are away on business. It’s also incredibly easy to file share with this handy app.

4. Flipboard is useful for putting all of your interests into one place. Similar to Zite, Flipboard chooses the top news stories based on your selected interests. It also displays your Twitter news feed and you can make your own magazines by saving stories and sharing them with selected friends. It’s great for sharing event ideas!

5. Trello a fancy to-do list and notepad for recording ideas. This app is useful for tracking what you need to do during the day, items that need to be picked up and projects completed. A great app for staying organized while on the go!

6. Facebook Pages is useful if you manage multiple pages on Facebook. Here, you can monitor conversation about your client/business and respond to fans. You can upload and edit photos, send private messages and create posts all from your phone!

Now more than ever: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ (among others) are the dominant place for consumers and advocates alike to engage with your brand. It’s so important that these destinations fully reflect your company in a seamless way, and maintain the consistency of your current web and offline materials.

Lucky for us, tentsocial has put together a blueprint that outlines almost all of the specs you’ll need when designing creative for your social-sphere. Have a look below, and be sure to bookmark this post – you never know when you’ll need this helpful infographic again!

The title really says it all. After Facebook’s big announcement (which we’re not going to repeat because it seems like it’s EVERYWHERE!), Justin took to Instagram to share this message with his followers – and the rest of the world.

Will you be using Instagram’s video option, or will you stick to services like Keek or Vine?

So what do hashtags mean for you and your business? Well, there will be the usual #Imustfitinasmanyhashtagsaspossible friends you may have to scroll through, but it will also open up new opportunities for businesses to track their products.

With the new Facebook hashtags, businesses can promote a certain hashtag for fans to use when discussing a product and can follow the conversation in a separate pop-up window. Rest assured, if your privacy settings are share with “friends only” than your hashtags will not be shared in the pop-up window.

According to Facebook’s Greg Lindley, there are more features coming, ”Hashtags are just the first step to help people more easily discover what others are saying about a specific topic and participate in public conversations.”

‘We’ll continue to roll out more features in the coming weeks and months, including trending hashtags and deeper insights, that help people discover more of the world’s conversations.”

It looks like Facebook’s hashtags are going to be similar to the way they are used on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, but with an opportunity to go over the 140 character limit. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement that is the hashtag, but it’s good to be mindful of how many you use and when, whether you are a business or not. A good rule of thumb for businesses are to use the hashtag when it’s relevant and never more than two or three at a time.
Sources;

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2340891/Facebook-introduces-hashtags-following-steps-Twitter-Instagram.html#ixzz2WCofoYnW
http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/facebook-marketing/facebook-hashtags-for-brands/

The following INFOGRAPHIC from Go-Gulf.com shows how companies structure their social media teams &  what they are using their social media for. Here are some of the more startling facts we uncovered:

• The majority of companies are simply piling social media responsibilities on top of their workers regular duties, with teams of >3 people in charge of social media.
• Only 5% of companies are ‘highly satisfied’ with the social media for their company, yet about 3/4 of them are NOT planning on hiring dedicated social media people
• Most companies are using social media to garner brand awareness so they use the # of likes/followers/subscribers/etc to measure how well they are doing, rather than looking at engagement.

Hashtags: defined as those no space phrases starting with ‘#’ that so many people use on Twitter. Hashtags started out as a way for people to track specific phrases and trends on Twitter, but now they seem to have blown up on all social networks as a snarky way to add commentary – serving no other real purpose. Admittedly, we’ve always found it incredibly irritating when hashtags were used on Facebook for no real rhyme or reason. Now, those pesky hashtags on Facebook may have a real purpose.

The powers-that-be at Facebook are toying with the idea of using the hashtags to group conversations on a specific topic, much like what is seen on Twitter. This will help facilitate organizing social comments on television shows, movies and even event specific tags. Sources say that Facebook hashtags are currently in testing phase, but aren’t going to be introduced to the entire user population right away.

So what exactly is Zuckerberg seeking to accomplish by letting people use hashtags in their posts and status updates? Besides allowing ‘trending topics’ and popular conversations to have a common place to be archived; the hope is that Facebook users will spend more time on the site, scroll through chats, and ultimately consume more advertising. It’s no secret that Facebook’s user engagement is dropping, and the social heavyweight is loosing loyal users on a daily basis.

 The Evolution of Facebook

The move to hashtags is all part of the Facebook evolution. Mark Zuckerberg has stated in interviews he wants Facebook to become a “personalized newspaper” for users; similar to Twitter’s end goal. This aligns closely with the introduction of features like the new news feed design, the ability to subscribe to users and the graph search. It’s important to note: Facebook pulled in $4.3 Billion USD last year: 4 times higher than Twitter’s revenue. The gap on the mobile platform is smaller, $249 million this year for Twitter, versus Facebook’s $851 million.

That said, Twitter is working towards closing this gap. By allowing advertisers to ‘pay to trend’ or have their trend promoted within a user’s timeline, Twitter assists in exposing brands to a wider audience while hashtags remain a unique or compelling way to drive up click rates. We estimate Facebook will replicate this model, allowing people/brands to pay to promote specific hashtags.

So what do you think about Facebook copying the Twitter hashtag model? And who do you think will ultimately win the social media ‘war’ between Twitter and Facebook?

Any restaurant professional knows that empty seats are like idle dollars waiting to be made – and it’s important to operate as efficiently as possible. PR can make those empty seats full in a matter of ‘media hits’ by effectively positioning the restaurant into public view.

How, you ask?

There’s several tactics to making sure the restaurant in question gets favourably placed in the media. Any PR pro worth their salt will work with the GM, the executive chef, and perhaps the concierge to ensure they get a full grasp of the restaurant’s offerings.

PR pros have even been known to conduct ‘secret shopper’ visits to see exactly what the ‘secret sauce’ (media angle) of the restaurant really is – and build on it.

From showcasing the establishment’s chef on a popular breakfast show, to facilitating special promotional events, to getting a respected reviewer into your restaurant –  a PR pro’s skills can make the desirable happen!

What else, you ask?

Well, coverage is great – but it’s important to get the right coverage. PR pros can sift through their extensive contact lists and cater pitches to target the right people and the right outlets for your delicious restaurants to start making delicious profits.

That’s not all though, social media should also be high on your PR person’s list as a fantastic way to generate some organic buzz around the restaurant. Skilled pros will have tactics to create content for the standard Twitter & Facebook, along with Instagram, Pinterest, and even Tumblr!

Remember: innovation is of the utmost importance. If you work with an agency that has a focus on doing things ‘differently’ – you’ll most definitely see the results you desire.

We know the restaurant industry is insanely competitive, and guess what? So are we.

Check out the toddlers Mark Zuckerberg knew before 1999.

After addressing the fact that a Facebook phone was “not the right strategy” in an early interview from 2012, most predicted today’s event would talk about new and improved search features within Facebook’s UI.

The first version of Graph Search focuses on four main areas — people, photos, places, and interests. You’ll be able to type queries (examples listed below) to help access the content you’re truly looking for.

People: “friends who live in my city,” “people from my hometown who like hiking,” “friends of friends who have been to Yosemite National Park,” “software engineers who live in San Francisco and like skiing,” “people who like things I like,” “people who like tennis and live nearby”

Photos: “photos I like,” “photos of my family,” “photos of my friends before 1999,” “photos of my friends taken in New York,” “photos of the Eiffel Tower”

Places: “restaurants in San Francisco,” “cities visited by my family,” “Indian restaurants liked by my friends from India,” “tourist attractions in Italy visited by my friends,” “restaurants in New York liked by chefs,” “countries my friends have visited”

Interests: “music my friends like,” “movies liked by people who like movies I like,” “languages my friends speak,” “strategy games played by friends of my friends,” “movies liked by people who are film directors,” “books read by CEOs”

The Graph Search beta starts today. Go to www.facebook.com/graphsearch to get on the waitlist.

The roll out is going to be slow so Facebook can see how people use Graph Search and make improvements.

(Source)

Some interesting insights:

• 40% socialize more online than they do face-to-face.
• There are more devices connected to the internet than there are people on Earth.
• People spend an average of 6.75 hours month on Facebook.
• Facebook is accessed by 7,000 different devices every day.
• 11 accounts are added every second to Twitter.
• Since 2012, 12 BILLION minutes have been spent using Pinterest on the web.
• Every second 1 new user joins LinkedIn.
• 30% of videos account for 99% of all YouTube views.
• 74% of brand marketers saw an increase in website traffic after investing just 6 hours per week on social.

All this and more in the INFOGRAPHIC below:

Founded in October 2010, Instagram was exclusively available for Apple products (iPhones, iPads & iPods) until April 2012 when it was made available for Android platforms as well. April 2012 also marked the month that Facebook made a $1 Billion bid for the 13-person company. Approved in September 2012, Instagram is now an independently run department under the Facebook umbrella.  Before the expansion onto the Android platform, Instagram already had 30 million registered accounts but in the 6 months that followed that number more than tripled to 100 million active users by September 2012.

Instagram has come under fire recently because of their proposed changes to their terms of service but the terms were revoked almost as quickly as they were announced in favour of a re-write. Nevertheless,

Yesterday (December 26^th) the Instagram Community Team released their “Year in Review.” The team as compiled some of this past year’s most publicized and photographed about events throughout the world for everyone to look at. Click through some of the links below to marvel in what can be captured on your phone’s camera.

-       Pamploma, Spain’s Running of the Bulls

-       Olympic Opening Ceremonies, London

-       Space Shuttle Endeavor, From Texas to California

And if you just can’t get enough, go check out the Instagram Blog.

- 66% of social users made purchases on Black Friday/Cyber Monday as a direct result of social interaction

- Recommendations of social users are 2 times as likely to lead to a holiday gift purchase

- 52% of users are willing to pay more for a brand they trust

- Brands are only responding to half of the posts they receive (jeesh!)

Read all this and more in the festive image below:

Check out this INFOGRAPHIC recently posted on Mashable:

Not every CEO should be online—and few of them are embracing social media, according to a report by CEO.com and Domo.

The report found that only 9 out of 19 Fortune 500 CEOs registered with Twitter were active (a tweet within 100 days of the survey), a mere two CEOs had more than 500 friends on Facebook, and zero Fortune 500 CEOs were on Pinterest.

I have been fortunate to work directly with CEOs who are social offline. They are charismatic, well spoken, and lifelong members of the nonprofit fields that they oversee. However, neither of these CEOs had an online presence worth sharing.

So how do you take an engaging figure and bring them online?

Here are eight tips to help you:

CONFRONT PHOBIAS

CEOs, presidents, and members of senior management can have phobias regarding social media. If you’re lucky, they have private accounts and have a sense of the various forms of communication.

Regardless of their experience, you must further educate them about the benefits and risks of pursuing this form of communication professionally. Find and share accounts of other CEOs. Encourage your senior leaders to follow these conversations and show how they drive support for an organization. It is easier to overcome a phobia when someone else is leading the way.

EXPLAIN THE IMPORTANCE OF PERSONALITY

Teach your senior leaders the importance of adding personality to their online image. They must be comfortable with sharing some emotions or reactions publicly if this is going to work. If they cannot agree to take sides on issues that are relevant to your mission then this may not be the mode of communication for them.

FIND AN OUTLET

Just as you decided which social media resource was appropriate for your organization, there is not a standard platform for CEOs. Discuss goals, time commitments, a support network, approval process, and personal interests with your CEO.

Some CEOs are more suited for the brevity of Twitter, while others require a blog to state their views. If your CEO prefers photos of his work, you might consider Tumblr or an Instagram account like Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh.

TRAIN AND EXPLAIN

Once you’ve agreed upon a social media platform, both of you must commit to training. Set aside time for one-on-one tutorials, behind closed doors to protect any egos. Supply draft posts for review until your CEO—and you—feel comfortable sharing them publicly. Remember that social media training should be a continuous learning experience.

DEVELOP UNIQUE ANGLES

Some CEOs may think they don’t have any updates to share. Impress upon them that this is about providing insight into their character as well as enhancing the organization’s brand. Your CEO has a unique view of your organization and can provide an insight that can assist with a goal of transparency.

SHOW YOUR DIRTY HANDS

Social media is the perfect opportunity to shatter the image of a stuffy CEO stuck behind a desk. I frequently shadowed my CEOs when they ventured from the office—which was often—to photograph them engaging in our missions and gather information for future posts. Above all, the ensuing updates demonstrated the connection between the organization’s leader and the mission our followers supported.

STRESS THE 24/7 NATURE OF SOCIAL

Your CEO should be available to answer questions from the public and participate in dialogues. If you are ghostwriting for your CEO, he or she may need to become accustomed to approving posts that you run by them day or night.

FORGET LEGAL

Unless the legal department reviews all of your posts as part of your social media policy, trust your CEO just as he or she trusts you. Your process should determine the level of review you will need to perform. If you ghostwrite the posts based on discussions then a quick review with your CEO is appropriate.

Brian Adams consults with nonprofits, including Komera Project, regarding communications strategy. I am the former senior director of communications at United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley. A version of this story first appeared on the author’s blog.

There’s nothing more annoying than liking a brand or product’s Facebook page, and finding out that they’re in the habit of posting updates more than 3 times a day. Or worse:

HOSTING CHATS ON FACEBOOK

This was the case earlier this week, when one of my favourite brands decided to host a chat on Facebook with their spokesperson taking the lead. What resulted was approximately 15 status updates from the brand IN MY NEWS FEED over a 2 hour span.  If you’re a Facebook user of any capacity, you know how annoying this can be. Also, the brand in question appeals to an older demographic than what I would fall into. Guess what that means? Generally speaking, an older Facebook user tends to have a lower amount (100-200) friends and likes on the social networking site. This would mean that the majority of their news feeds would be inundated with posts from this brand. What does that lead to?

UNLIKES

Needless to say, there’s definitely an unwritten list of best practices when using Facebook as a brand. Check out this INFOGRAPHIC outlining some of the brand “+” and no-no’s for Facebook conduct:

Have a peek at these crazy statistics for Facebook. It’s insane to really dive into some of the data that’s out there right now. Do you think we’re all obsessed with Facebook? Are we dependent upon it? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Here is a guest post I wrote originally for the Vocab Communications blog. I still tend to get a lot of questions about Social ROI, so I thought it would be a relevant article for all you disrupters to have a look at.

Over the course of my career at one of Canada’s top digital media companies, I’ve learned a massive amount. You see, I started out as a retail wench, waited tables, and even (unsuccessfully) got into acting. Now, working with a large portfolio of brands, and continuously engaging their consumer bases with exciting PR and marketing efforts is what gets me jumping out of bed excited each day.

The past decade has brought us so many advances and opportunities to achieve real return on our PR, marketing and advertising investments. Today, I want to shed a little light on the importance of social.

“What’s the ROI?”

A question a lot of industry professionals throw around when social is brought up. First off, for those who aren’t familiar, ROI is one of the copious amounts of corporate abbreviations meaning “Return On Investment”. There’s three ways (in my opinion) to look at the ROI of social, so lets break them down here:

Brand.

Social has the ability to turn a brand into a friend. The benefit of using social as a way to communicate and develop relationships with advocates and fans alike is something that should be determined priceless. Never before have we had a more honest way to connect with our consumers, and really effectively listen to what they want/need/desire.

Impressions.

I’m going to stick to Facebook and Twitter for now: Pinterest, Google+ and others to be elaborated on in upcoming posts.

In the twitter world, each tweet has an impression value. These values are calculated in a variety of different ways depending on the company, and what metrics matter to them. At the moment, there is not one standardized way of measuring the value of a tweet. Best practice with clients is to make sure you get a good understanding of their expectations, and use social measurement tools that will deliver them with the data they find valuable. I would recommend checking out http://hashtracking.org, and http://tweetreach.com as a couple free services.

Facebook is a somewhat simpler beast. Their analytics tools are fantastic, and you’re able to really dive into the data. Just make sure again that you find out what matters most to clients, and deliver that information. Also, keep in mind that vanity metrics like ‘virality’ are not what makes a campaign successful. In the interest of being transparent, very few campaigns go ‘viral’- and that should never be the MAIN goal. It’s important to communicate your content, and engage with the consumers and influencers that really matter to your client.

Dollars.

This metric proves to be the most difficult, and (of course) the most desirable method of social tracking. Many companies are fixated on making money with social, yet no one has come up with a seamless way to make this possible. Sure, you can share trackable links on your networks – and hope that people convert into online purchasers: but is that an effective way to keep social networking social? This can sometimes be a challenging concept to convey to clients, and there’s nothing wrong with proving its validity through testing. Social definitely has potential to increase sales, but it’s arguable that social is effective in sales growth in the same way word of mouth is, and always has been. And let’s be honest: have we really ever been able to track the oldest and most effective form of marketing? Well, that’s another debate.

In the PR world, we constantly have to be on top of the trends and ahead of the game. The face of ROI in social will be ever changing: much like the networks themselves. Using these 3 areas as a barometer will help you identify just how much you’ve been able to deliver to your clients, and where you can help them grow.

Ever since Facebook bought Instagram back in April, it seems is though everyone and their mother is uploading filter friendly photos to the popular social network. I recently found a great INFOGRAPHIC (below) that details some of the impressive stats that Instagram has been able to achieve.

Some of the highlights are:

• Instagram gains one new user every second
• One billion photos have been taken with the app
• There are roughly 58 photos uploaded each second

Fast Company (one of the only magazines I still buy a paper copy of) recently asked social industry leaders what they thought were the fundamental rules of social media. I loved how they presented the information found (pictured below), and these 5 really resonated with me:

#5. As monetization attempts to go up, consumer experience goes down. In my experience, it’s really important that social remains social. Not only does turning followers into dollar signs always backfire, but long-term relationships aren’t sustainable if you’re always looking for a buck.

#12. Not everything will work, and that’s fine. Embracing failure is such an important part of social. Be sure to test out your efforts on a small-scale before launching social campaigns – it’s ok to make mistakes if you’re learning what the consumer wants.

#14. EVERYONE’S an influencer. Whether a person has one follower, or one million followers – they’re still influencing someone. Remember that social is a public arena – and everyone can see everything.

#15. If fans distribute your content without permission, offer to help. This should be a no brainer, as a large part of this community is all about sharing content. It’s obviously preferable that your content is the stuff that’s being shared, and that turns into traffic, new fans, and new followers!

#35 Think past vanity metrics like followers. This can not be stressed enough. Quality over quantity – followers can be bought, but smarts and great content are the valuable metrics.

Image Via Fast Company

1.    You look resistant to change.

No one wants to hire someone who isn’t willing to embrace disruption. Adaptability is key in any workforce, and those who aren’t willing to change directions on a dime aren’t seen as assets.

2.    You seem unable to handle new tasks.

Is it really that difficult to use the new timeline? No. Voicing your gripes in an online format implies that you aren’t capable of working with new platforms or programs. Again, pretty undesirable.

3.    If you complain about this, what else are you going to complain about?

Something relatively small like this scenario is hardly a pressing matter. When you outwardly cry about Timeline, your employer will be lead to believe you’re apt to complain publically if something goes wrong at work. Again, the check mark can be ticked in the undesirable category.

4.    It’s just Facebook.

If you don’t like it, get rid of it. No one is making you use it, so fix your problem in one easy click of a button.

Hopefully this post helps you think through those potential posts ridden with complaints. Remember, even with the highest privacy settings – HR departments have ways of accessing your profiles. Be smart about your social.

And for those of you who do end up deleting Facebook because of Timeline: see you in a couple of days.

I  thrive on jumping from task to task and coming back to things throughout the day. The important thing is to always ensure that each project gets completed to the 100% mark. How about you, would you say you’re an expert multitasker?

Check out some other eye-opening facts in this INFOGRAPHIC:

The first two speakers hit the stage after lunch!

Gini and Geoff spoke a lot about measurement and use of data to discover the true value of our digital efforts. It was amazing to see how many people were not aware of Google Analytics. Gini did a fantastic job stressing it’s importance, and rightfully so – Google Analytics is necessity online.

Next up, Tim Burrows from the Toronto Police. Tim really stole the show with great laughs, and candid conversation. It’s safe to say that Tim definitely improved all of the attendee’s perception of the Toronto Police force.

Scene stealer, Tim Burrows

Next came a quick briefing on The Remix Project – a fantastic initiative helping youth in Toronto to flourish in a variety of artistic positions while providing coaching and mentoring.

Finally, yet another scene stealer hit the stage to close out the conference – Film Friday’s Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary’s insights and outlooks on business and social media were so enlightening and refreshing.

He made one statement that I thought was incredibly bold, yet compelling:

Gary’s site has tons of videos and keynotes that are worth watching, check it out here. 

FInally, 2 of my favourite pics from the day:

Me and speaker/online buddy Amber Mac

Cool vintage taxi parked outside of The Fairmont Royal York during the conference.

Hope you enjoyed the brief rundown, and I’ll definitely recommend that you attend this conference next year. It was worth it’s weight in gold due to it’s fantastic speakers, content, and level of engagement.

All in all, a ton of fun – and just what the name Social Mix should entail.

Do you have any personal recommendations for tweeting or posting? Share them with me!

My poor first born. 

 

A lot of people have written about annoying social media habits, but evidently not enough.

In case you’re still unsure about what to post to Facebook, consult this list:

1. Disturbing photos: Pictures of starving babies, burned dogs, and people with horrible disfigurements are in poor taste, and very upsetting to some people. We know a good cause is usually involved, but use some discretion.

2. Hard sales: Not everyone is in the market for expensive makeup or real estate. Share something the whole class can enjoy.

3. Guilt trips: Posting things like, “Make this your status for an hour or else you were not raised right or don’t care about babies with cancer” just makes people feel bad. This modern version of a chain letter doesn’t help the cause.

4. Games: This is like forcing people to play charades when they hate parlor games. Ask people first if they like games, and whether they will mind the hacks, spams and viruses that come with some of them.

5. Urban myths: Before you post that eating pomegranate seeds will cause your kneecaps to burst, run it through Snopes.

6. Religion: Don’t assume everyone shares your faith. There are places people can go for fellowship and like-minded praise and worship: actual buildings and private Facebook groups.

7. Confessions: Too much information is, well, too much. If you wouldn’t tell your spouse, mother, or shrink something, why would you tell me?

8. Profanity: A well-placed expletive for real outrage or disappointment is justifiable. A post with 10 F-bombs about a funny YouTube video shows a lack of vocabulary.

9. Fire alarms: You should thoroughly vet “Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!” posts about foods that will give you cancer or a Neti-Pot worm that will eat your brain before you post them. (See the Snopes reference above.)

10. Crypticisms: “I’m so mad!” doesn’t give us a lot of information to go on, or any way to help.

11. Information without links: It’s fine to tell us about a cool website, but include the link, OK? Also, don’t use a link with 417 characters. Use a shortened one, please.

12. Wrong tech advice: If you run a tech-support company, we’d love to have your advice on the best anti-virus software or the right way to partition a hard drive.

In short, behave online like you would at a social event. No one suspended the rules of polite society for Internet interaction.

What’s your least favorite type of Facebook post?

Kim Phillips is the founder of Lucid Marketing and author of the Lucid at Random blog. A version of this article originally appeared on 12 Most. Find the original article posted on PR Daily here. 

Mom says it best. 

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been the person in my family that grandma (who is now on Facebook), grandpa, mom, dad and even brother have gone to when they have questions about digital. Perhaps this comes from a long history of toying with my Dad’s business computer growing up – and being personally responsible for its many crashes. I learned a lot through trial and error, and always seemed to pick up knowledge with each computer crash. I honestly can’t imagine what it would have been like to grow up with no PC in the home. Technology is ingrained in my generation’s identity, and because of this: it’s apparent that there’s a perceived divide between my generation, and the ones before me.

The question is: Is this perceived divide a reality? Working in a digital environment, I’m constantly surrounded by people who are technologically savvy. Yes, there are moments when my elder coworkers aren’t always aware of some of the current technology advances – but the door swings both ways. I’m part of a generation that has a need for speed – and a knack for multi-tasking, but we’re taught patience and quality by those who have come before us. I don’t think that there is a divide: but a fantastic opportunity for personal growth and development. We’re all human – and can leverage all skill sets with effective communication and understanding. The divide becomes more of an asset – as we now have an opportunity to learn from each other. There’s a great article posted by the Financial Post that I saw today, and I want to share with you the highlights of identifying how to embrace Gen Y.

Bend Most entrepreneurs are proud to change as their customers evolve; now they must shift gears as their workforce changes. If you don’t meet Gen Y at least halfway, you’ll miss out on the best and brightest of a generation.

GenY is impressed only by competence They don’t care about titles or traditional authority. “They want leaders who are inspiring, genuine and authentic,” Montalbano says. “They need to understand the ‘why’ in everything they do.”

Learn to collaborate, not dictate Employers tend to create a central strategy and then push it down through the organization. Gen Y-ers crave structure, but they want a say in creating it. “Get them involved in the business of the business,” Graff advises. Instead of telling employees what to do, break them into teams to develop their own solutions.

Help Gen Y succeed Gen X may be individualists, but Gen Y want to succeed within the organization. Encourage ambition, Graff and Montalbano say, by offering regular coaching and mentoring, training and cross-training, and formal succession plans. In Gen X, Montalbano says, “We all wanted mentoring and coaching, but we didn’t get it. Gen Y says that’s not acceptable: ‘I need to know exactly where I stand so I can move to the next level’. ”

Live your values For Boomers, it was all about the work. For Gen Y, it’s the meaning of their work. Who are they helping? What values does their employer represent, beyond making money? “With Gen Y, the reward is meaningful work,” Montalbano says. “They will work hard, they will work 24/7, if what they are doing is meaningful.”

Encourage collective work Millennials are loyal — but not to their employer. Raised on preschool, team sports and multiplayer online games, Gen Y are loyal to their groups. “Their peers are the most important part of their job,” Graff says. “They’ve been brought up with others; working by themselves is near death.” Involve more employees in the hiring process, he says: When peers pick their co-workers, an organization becomes “stickier.”

Focus on balance Boomers worked all-out to get ahead; Gen X introduced the concept of work-life balance. Gen Y makes it mandatory. “They are not living to work, they are working to live,” Graff says. Adds Montalbano: “They will not negotiate their extracurricular activities for work.”

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2012/07/02/gen-yers-require-care-and-nuturing/

Reality is: I’ll always be excited to work with the generations before me, and those below. Collaboration is one of the key factors to success, and success is something achieved by every generation in one form or another.  Plus, it’s kind of amazing that my Grandma is on Facebook. What are your thoughts? Do you think that there is a divide between generations?

Can you think of any brands that may not have chosen their colour so wisely?

For those of you who don’t know about Foursquare, it’s a location based mobile application and website that allows people to check in at various venues. A pet food company decided to utilize foursquare in an ingenious way, and made a little video to explain their campaign.

At the moment, there’s plenty of great rewards to be had all over Canada on foursquare – and they’re not just for your pets. Definitely download this application if you haven’t already, and start rewarding yourself on your everyday travels!

Do you use foursquare? Have you ever received something for using it? Let me know in the comments below.

No need to panic yet….

What to do next:

 1. Locate the photo that you’re tagged in on Facebook and enlarge it.

You’ll see this option on the upper right hand side to ‘Remove’. The fact is: this will only remove the tag from your timeline, not the tag as a whole.

2. Hover over the image until the toolbar appears underneath it, and click ‘Options’.

Upon clicking, you’ll see there’s an option to ‘Remove Tag’. After clicking it, you’ll get a little menu that asks you what you want to do with this picture. Here’s where you can take revenge on your friend and claim harassment, or simply remove the tag. Hope this helps you take control of the tags you can’t bear to live with on Facebook, and tell me what you think about this system in the comments. Should it be less hidden/easier?

Until we meet again, evil photo.

Oh! And remember: if a photo is really bad, call up your friend – and get them to delete it. It could come back to haunt you.

As I mentioned yesterday, I have the pleasure of speaking about Foursquare and Pinterest tomorrow for Torstar Digital’s University program! I’m taking this opportunity to provide you all with a sneak peek at the slides I’ll be presenting with. Have a look, and enjoy the case study videos! Tomorrow, I’ll have a video of the presentation for you to enjoy and learn with! Thanks for checking in, and let me know  if you have any questions about the deck below!

Also, keep your eyes peeled over the next 24 hours for a guest blog post from my dear friend, @shopwithrobin! She’ll be providing some great insights on interview attire!

Download the FourPin+ presentation here.

On Wednesday, I’m teaching a seminar on Pinterest for Torstar Digital’s University program. Because of this, I’ve revisited marketing tactics for the innovative, image based social pinboard, and I thought I’d share with you some key ways that you can use Pinterest effectively for your business, your brand, or even yourself!

“Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.” (source: About Pinterest)

A picture represents each unique pin. Popular subjects include recipes, memorable blog posts, craft projects and more. Once a post is pinned, others can see the pin and follow a link to the original source. The ideal scenario is that your pictures (ie. pins) will be re-pinned and shared by others!

First off, a quick video that shows some of the key info about this buzz-worthy network!

Isn’t it crazy that Pinterest generates more referral traffic than Google+, Youtube and LinkedIn combined?! Here’s a few first steps that you can take to get a piece of the Pinterest action:

Make Your Site Image-Friendly

Whether you’re blogging, or just enhancing your current website – make sure to have lots of images that are able to be re-pinned! Why? This will ultimately bring you more referral traffic (not to mention make your site a prettier place to visit) while people are looking through the infinite images on Pinterest. A big shout out to some of you readers who have already started pinning my images – THANK YOU!

Get The Browser Add-On

When using firefox, google chrome, or even explorer – you can download a simple add on that allows you to easily right click on images and share them on your pinterest boards, etc. Find more information on where to download these add-ons here.

Place Your Pins On Your Site!

This one seems like a no-brainer. I’m using pinterest for the business I market for (Shopcatch), and am in the process of building out Embrace Disruption’s pinterest page (stay tuned). There’s plenty of widgets out there that you can place on your sites/blogs/profiles that will help you drive up your follower number, and also your traffic numbers by displaying snapshots of photos you’ve recently pinned.

***UPDATE!! You can now FOLLOW EMBRACE DISRUPTION on PINTEREST by clicking HERE.

Get Your Comment Skills ON

Another really important piece to the Pinterest puzzle is engaging. As with any kind of relationship, it’s a give and take! Make sure to comment on others’ pins – and really do the job of listening and viewing other people’s content. This may take some time, but is a guaranteed way to get people ‘pinterested’ in you!

If you’ve still got questions – don’t fret! After my presentation on Wednesday, I’ll post the slides for you to look through for more info. Also, there’s some real crossover in terms of promotional strategy that you can employ from the Twitter Engagement post yesterday.

What are your thoughts? Are you shocked by any of this info? Is there anything you didn’t know?

1. Search Their Username: Generally speaking, a truly engaged twitter user will have many mentions and retweets throughout the day. A simple and easy way to see if people are talking with them is to either search up their username in twitter’s search field – or use a simple tool like Twinitor. Remember, it’s not always the number of followers a person has, it’s WHO and HOW they’re engaging with them.

2. Look At Their Follower Count Ratio: This can be a very telling sign that someone is using a ‘bot’ to gain followers. If someone has 12,000 followers and they’re following 13,000: you can easily deduct that they simply followed a ton of tweeps to gain the ever-so-precious follow back.

3. Klout or Kred: These 2 sites are built to assist in measuring people’s online influence. Although they’re not the be-all end-all in scoring, they can (along with these other tips) gain you a more well-rounded perspective.

4. Look At Their Followers: Don’t be lazy. If you spend a few minutes going through the follower list of the person in question, you’ll get a pretty good idea as to what kind of influence they have (and what kind of people they’re influencing)

5. Fully Connect: When involving influencers and bloggers, it should be more than a couple of minutes of decision-making. In essence, these people will end up being extensions of yourself or your brand. One wrong selection could have a rather nasty effect – so make sure you’re googling, reading past blog posts, and even connecting with them personally before the moment of involvement.

Have some other tips, or want to recommend some fab bloggers or influencers? Sign off in the comments!

This app is one that I think EVERY iPhone user would adore on their device. The concept is simple: Smart Sync lets you connect through your Facebook account, and grabs all your friends photos/status updates – and syncs them with their contact info. It’s a seamless way to always have their latest photo and recent social comments show up whenever they’re calling you – and saves you the work of having to put in any of their photos manually.

It’s completely free, and easy to use. I’ve found that with your friend’s status uploaded on-screen preconversation, it makes for an easy conversation starter. Particularly if you haven’t connected with this individual for awhile. Have a look, and let me know what you think!

Download SmartSync here.

I’m here to tell you right now – that a simple cut and paste job into your status will NOT automatically re-instate your rights, or any other objective you have in your head. This paragraph is not legally binding and frankly, the fact that Facebook has gone public is completely unrelated to the privacy of your content.

The fact is: social networks are not made for private storage. What this means for you? That regardless of privacy settings, personal preferences and the like: you should treat every photo, sentence and your shared content as though your grandmother/mother/employer/future employer CAN and WILL see everything.

In light of this, here’s a few things you can do to clean up any questionable stuff you may have lying around in your past:

1. Delete Questionable Photos: If you’re emotionally attached to them, save them somewhere. Regardless of the privacy settings- there are several ways these can be accessed (including by that person who just interviewed you for your dream job).

2. Censor Yourself: Obviously these networks are all made for you to express yourself, but keep in mind that it’s possible that everything you say online can be publicly retrieved. Keep your controversial conversations to ‘in-person’ – it could be the difference between scoring a potential job, client or even a relationship.

3. Download Your Facebook History: This is easy to do by going to your general settings menu (see picture). Sometimes we forget just exactly what we have listed online, and this is a resource to really go back and decipher what should be edited or deleted.

4. Everyone and Everything Is A Brand: Everything you say, everything you do, and everything you endorse is a reflection of yourself online. Put thought into the future when posting in the present – you never know what tomorrow brings.

Do you have additional tips or suggestions to avoid unnecessary disruption? Share them in the comments!

1. Embrace Your Contacts: By now, we’ve all accumulated quite large contact lists from using our Hotmail accounts, Gmail accounts, yahoo accounts, Facebook friends, and twitter followers (you get the idea). Some people forget that all these addresses lay dormant in your hands (both old and current accounts). Take advantage of the resources you have, and compile every and all emails you have together in an excel spreadsheet. Use this list (segment accordingly), and blast out to your contacts. Whether you’re hawking a product, event or yourself – someone’s bound to listen: and what do you have to lose?

2. Embrace Your Shame: BROADCAST yourself in conversations! Alright, it can be hard going up to people and talking about yourself – and many find it to be an impossible task. It’s true, if you enter conversations and simply talk about YOU, the interest will dwindle quickly. The reality is: if you employ strong conversational tactics, and show a genuine interest in who you’re talking to (no matter who they are – aside from sociopaths) – they’ll tend to reciprocate and listen to what you have to say. You never know: your next lead could generate from a bout of mindless chatter.

3. Embrace Your Loved Ones: No one promotes you, or your products better than the people who love you. Generally the rule of ‘ask and you shall receive’ applies with close friends and family. Just be prepared to reciprocate when the time comes.

4. Embrace Facebook Groups: So, if you don’t have access to all your Facebook contact’s emails.. you can create a group! Groups are different from pages, because you select the members yourself. They’re automatically added and receive any messaging you distribute. Writer’s caution: You’re treading a fine line – don’t get annoying on your friends/acquaintances, keep the message short and sweet.

5. Embrace Events: Go out! See and be seen. Often when you live life to the fullest, things start happening. If you’re a homebody, push yourself to make a change – remember that you’re only as strong as your drive. Don’t know where to start? Google events in your area- or pick up local papers and look in the listings (and don’t forget Facebook!). Talk to people, and remember to be an engaging conversationalist. Keep it easy on the cocktails though – nothing good can come out of too many.

And there you have it: 5 easy ways to start spreading the news TODAY! Have you got some other suggestions? Share them in the comments below!