Check it out below!

But what about those commercials? Are they effective for the brands who spend millions on top placements during the top-watched TV event of the year? We came across this detailed INFOGRAPHIC from USA TODAY that shares some of the ROI details from the 2014 game. Check it out below:

The following INFOGRAPHIC from quick sprout has some amazing tips to help you master the art of storytelling, check it out below.

How satisfying would it be to reply with a simple, “Nope, feeling fantastic!”

Popular magazine Redbook has put together a list of things you can do to improve your energy levels throughout the week, making the sluggish Monday start a thing of the past. A few tips that stand out to us are:

• Wake up at the same time everyday.
• Work out before heading in to work.
• Have a healthy snack at 4 p.m.
• Write down your task list for tomorrow before heading to bed.
• Sleep on a half-empty stomach.

Check out all the tips in the INFOGRAPHIC below:

Among other highlights, some stats that stood out to us include:

• The most purchased flower shop pick for Valentine’s Day is mixed flowers.
• Men spend on average $150 each year, compared to women who spend $74
• 58 million pounds of chocolate are bought during the holiday
• 150 million cards and gifts are sent each year

Read more in the INFOGRAPHIC below:

Some jobs of note include:

• The Zoomba Instructor
• The Beachbody Coach (really??)
• The Cloud Services Coach
• The Big Data Architect

Check out the INFOGRAPHIC below for the full list.

HalloweenCostumes.com shows us that 2013′s Halloween brought in some impressive sales. It’s safe to say that in 2014, the frightening amount of spending will continue.

Check out EDPR’s 2014 costume ideas here!

The following infographic provides some helpful tricks to find all that we want out of the World Wide Web.

For example:

• Putting quotation marks around a phrase will search out pages that contain that specific group of words together
• Using ‘define:’ will help you define a word right on the results page
• Google can even help you do math if you can’t find your calculator!

Take a look at the full list below.

Living a sedentary lifestyle seems to be the norm for many North Americans and unfortunately this habit leads to a host of possible health problems. Now, you may be thinking, “My job forces me to sit, it isn’t my fault!” Well after taking peek at this infographic from PMIR Medical, you might just have a change of heart.

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.

Based on the infographic from ContentVerse the environmental and economical benefits of going paperless are clear, so why are some companies so hesitant to make the switch?

Make sure your blog is looking its best! Check out this infographic from WhoIsHostingThis? for a brief breakdown on blogging aesthetics.

Some of the most compelling social media metrics lie in the patterns of user engagement, specifically the differentiating factors between adult and adolescent usage. In PR, we consistently refine our messaging in order to ensure that we hit the right targets as we share newsworthy information. Remember, there’s no sense in sharing information with a demographic that has no interest in receiving it.

With that in mind, check out the below infographic from Next Advisor outlining some of the ways adults differ from teens in the social world. Some interesting takeaways to consider the next time you tweet or post on behalf of yourself or your brand.

Although taking full advantage of Twitter can be difficult, it is important to understand the ins and outs to reap the full benefits for you and your business. In this Infographic below (created by Fuseworkstudios) you will learn how to maximize your tweets with a few simple tips!

Check out this interesting infographic brought to you by Intel!

A recent INFOGRAPHIC from Healthguru has some interesting findings about the issue:

• Stress can cause your heart rate to speed up rapidly, and over time can lead to heart problems and high blood pressure.
• Stomach problems are common in those that experience chronic stress.
• Your immune system can weaken over time with your body under constant stress.
• Muscles are “on alert” to act as your body prepares to fight or flight.

All this said, it’s important to take action when you’re feeling under pressure. Making sure you keep perspective while in stressful situations can certainly help, but here are a few other tips in order to keep your stress in check:

• Laugh! It lowers adrenaline, cortisol and two stress hormones.
• Work out. You’ll release endorphins, and ease your anxiety.
• Eat well. Incorporate more veggies, almonds and other health foods into your diet.
• Breathe. Assess the situation, and ask yourself – will this matter one year from now?

More tips and insights in the INFOGRAPHIC below:

• meet with a potential client
• present during a pitch
• encourage a colleague to speak up
• take charge of a team
• socialize with a client
• disagree without making enemies
• nail an interview
• deal with an angry colleague
• ask your boss for a raise

All this said, there are some negatives to consuming the energy-fuelled beverage; such as changes in sleep pattern, raised blood pressure, weight gain and loss of nutritional absorption. But it doesn’t stop there: many of the coffee bean crops are heavily dosed with pesticides.

With everything in life, it’s important to have balance. With a well rounded approach to consuming Canada’s favourite caffeinated drink, you too could reap some of the health benefits it has to offer.

Check out all these facts and more in the INFOGRAPHIC below courtesy of The Biz Navigator.

(Source)

Here are all five as identified by fast business Canada:

• Map Out Your Day
• Eat Breakfast
• Get Some Exercise
• Visualize Your Day
• Attempt Your Worst Tasks First

Check out all five in detail below:

(Source)

Our favourites?

• Work more ….like, a lot more!
• Avoid the crowds and avoid the herd. (ie. you won’t find innovation by doing what everyone else is doing)
• Learn to sell, and sell WELL!
• Never (EVER) be too proud.

Check out all eight in the image below:

What does this mean for you and your business? It means that now more than ever, YOU have the ability to control your communications by developing content that will attract your desired demographic – ultimately driving sales, conversions and brand loyalty.

The below infographic from WebBizIdeas outlines 17 of the top content suggestions to help escalate your traffic, and build more meaningful content for your audience. Take a look:

Are there any other types of content that you think should be included in this list? Share them below in the comments!

Some interesting stats:

• There were 12.8 BILLION Google searches in June 2013.
• Google owned 66 .7% of the US search market in June 2013.
• There are 10 million Google Drive users, and 425 million Gmail accounts.
• 343 million people actively use Google+ (surprising, no?).
• 6 billion hours of videos are watched each month on YouTube
• 100 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube each minute.

Check out the infographic below from wishpond.

• Apple has had over 50 BILLION app downloads since it’s opening date of July 10, 2008 and has 850,000+ apps available.
• Google play is close behind with over 48 BILLION downloads since October 23, 2008 with 800,000+ apps available.
• Apple is ranked the #1 App Store (not so surprising), with Microsoft following close behind at #3 due to their ranking system.
• A staggering 33% of all apps developed are games, with others landing much lower on the scale: widget apps (8%), entertainment apps (7%) and social apps (5%).
• Facebook Messenger has 700 million users (this doesn’t include their regular app users).
• Skype is way behind with only 10 million users.
• Canalys.com predicts that app sales will rise from $7.3B in 2011 to $36.7B  by 2015. Yes, the B means BILLION.
• Neilsen states that the most popular apps used are Facebook, Google Maps and The Weather Channel.
• The percentage of free downloads is predicted to rise from 90% in 2013 to 93% in 2016.

Have a look at the rest of the stats for yourself:

Did you know:

• Reducing sleep by 90 minutes in one night can reduce alertness by 32%.
• Sleep disorders can result in high blood pressure, heart failure, stroke and obesity.
• Drowsy driving accounts for 100,000 automobile crashes each year in the States.
• Being awake for 24 hours is like having 0.10% blood alcohol level.
• Adults need a minimum of 7-8 hours of sleep per day.

All these facts and more in the INFOGRAPHIC below:

Image source: www.health-science-degree.com

• Everyone wants multimedia – press releases with multimedia get 77% more responses compared to text-only formats. 
• Blogs with videos are linked to 3x more than text-only posts
• No one reads – 79% of people just scan web articles (you can include us in the 79%!)
• It’s estimated that people see 5000 marketing messages per day
• Every 60 seconds, 168 million emails are sent!

All these and more in the image below.

Afterwards, the troubled cruise line seemed to be on the mend – only to be hit with issues regarding 2 more of their vessels. This brought on a new wave of negativity from the media and frustrated customers- luckily though, as you can see in the infographic below, the second wave of negativity didn’t reach the same impression value as the original incident.

Overall the coverage of Carnival Cruise Lines’ oops moments reached an audience of 3.9 billion people. This is thanks to receiving coverage on global reaching news outlets including CNN, MSN News and Yahoo! News.

• 68.5% of PR pros are female.
• 31.8% have 20+ years experience under their belt.
• 54.4% say they are in PR because they love the work.
• Top three news sources include print, twitter and blogs.
• 67.2% prefer coffee over other energy boosters.
• 54% bring a bagged lunch to work
• 56% prefer chocolate
• 46% use iPhones with 42% (still) using Blackberry.

Check out all these and more by clicking on the image below!

• Be sure to tweet links to interesting content
• Ask! “Please Retweet” has a 51% success rate.
• Stop talking about YOU. Only 1.5% of tweets contain self-reference
• Instructional and entertainment based content get the most attention

All these and more in the image below:

Clearly, the two biggest cogs in the social media machine are blogging and contingencies. Good blog content gets noticed and shared. It’s also one of the biggest drivers of traffic to your company’s site. When it comes to contingencies, this includes unscheduled posts (such as Oreo’s Superbowl ad) as well as damage control/emergencies. The more pre-planning you can do, the less overall impact these events will have on your company and strategies.

Finally, don’t forget about engagement. It’s always good to have fabulous content but you need to get out into the social media-verse and share it, discuss it, and build relationships with like minded individuals. The great thing about social media is that it makes our world smaller and more connected; you just have to commit yourself to building those relationships. 

Check out the infographic below for more helpful tips to budget your time.

(Image Source)

• Wi-Fi trumps all. Really now, could you imagine staying in a hotel that didn’t have internet access? That’s a nightmare waiting to happen.
• Guests want a high end coffee machine in the room. This makes some sense: if you fork out the money for a gorgeous room, the last thing you want to do is leave it to find a good cup of joe.
• Complimentary bottled water was a simple amenity that most guests would like to see.
• Wine tasting and happy hour is a fan favourite (you don’t say!)
• Interestingly enough, a lot of people snatch a magazine or book from their hotel room. We just want to ask those people: do you really need ANOTHER copy of the bible?

Check out all these stats and more in the INFOGRAPHIC below:

• Envelope Design: matters most to the subscribers. Infographic shares best practices pertaining to the FROM NAME, TO FIELD and SUBJECT LINES. Subscribers decide to read or delete an Email within 3 seconds.
• Pre-Header and Header: Snippet Text should be well aligned with the subject line as few clients show preview text, pulled out from the first few lines of email content.
• Johnson Box top is ideally 400X300 Pixels, with the height of the header set at around 150 Pixel.
• Mobile Optimized Emails has to be restricted to single column template, using techniques like responsive and scalable coding standards as 42% of all email is now opened via mobile and 43% of mobile email users check email 4+ times per day.. Mobile emails should have tappable calls to action of minimum size 44 x 44 pixels and Mobile Email width of 320 to 480 Pixels.
• Images in the email: Images in the email: Images with an Alt text should be used as in case an email does not display correctly, 69.7% will delete it immediately. Try to avoid background images layered with text. Many of the email clients (Outlook, one of them) don’t support background images.
• Guidelines: Avoiding the use of Flash or Ajax functionality.

(Image Source)

Data Collection

The original idea for an infographic often comes from a question someone poses or a pile of information they have collected. After the original source of information/data for a potential infographic is identified, it is time to start branching out to other sources. The idea is to create the complete picture and landscape of the given situation so that there are no holes in the data. If a hole exists in the data, it is only going to frustrate everyone and waste time when it has to be filled in the future.

Formulating the Outline

The purpose of an infographic is to convey a story to the people who come across it. A bunch of seemingly unconnected facts and figures aren’t going to appeal to someone in the way the statistics behind one particular, central topic are. For example, we posted an infographic a couple months ago about the Grammys winners if awards were given out based on online/social media presence; there was a lot of information but it was all on one topic. The worst thing that could happen is having all the boring data translate to a boring infographic.

Here’s a tip: make sure you know the information & data backwards and forwards by the time you go and create the infographic, this will make it easier to flush out a story.

Trouble Shoot

So you know what you want the infographic to say but is it feasible given the data you’ve collected? The last thing you want to do is mislead people looking at the finished product by intentionally leaving out data because it doesn’t support the story. What you do want to do is present the data picture in its entirety and let the viewers and readers interpret it. You want their response to be, “I know what they are trying to say, and this is what I’m gathering from this infographic.”

Finding the “Hero”

You have figured out the story you want to tell with your data and if it is feasible or not, now to figure out which specific piece of information to make your ‘hero’ piece of data. The ‘hero’ piece of data is that one statistic or figure that will get people excited about the story. It will be the focal point that the other chosen data will revolve around to help communicate the narrative to the audience.

Building the Graphic

After the hierarchy for the data is determined, the visual representation of the infographic begins to take shape. There are many popular formats for displaying data, including the traditional graphs and charts. If the data merits it, you can choose to display the data using diagrams, flowcharts or maps. The deciding factor of how the data should be displayed in the final project all depends on the data itself and the story to be conveyed. To make the most of the visual appeal of the infographic, be sure to consider the colours and typography used.

A Thorough Going Over

So the design of the infographic is complete and all the data is displayed, you’re done right? Wait, slow down a little, there is one more step before your informative masterpiece can be unleashed to the masses: editing & revisions. Just like any good report, press release or company project, an infographic needs to be pored over by those who created it, and those who didn’t! The infographic should be made to fit in with any existing branding or identity; why would a company create an infographic that goes against part/all of their core message? Additionally, you want to ensure the data is presented in a way that is easy to read and understand for those that are unfamiliar with it. That is why you want those outside the creative circle who developed it to look it over.

Release the Beast

Finally, the time has come to unleash your infographic onto the public at large! Most infographics are released and shared online in some fashion, they may end up in a print publication as well. The advantage to this is that the audience of your work will be much larger and reach those both within your target audience and beyond. It is also easier to garner and compile feedback to the infographic in an online setting, often in a much timelier manner than print. Feedback after publishing can generate discussion & illuminate a different dimension to the data presented.

But once the infographic is published, don’t forget about it. You spent all this time and effort to create it in the first place, why let that go to waste if new data is released? Make sure you keep tabs on the important information and sources to update and revise the infographic as required. It’s easier to update than to create a whole to project!

So there you have it, a detailed, step-by-step guide to creating effective, appealing infographics to engage your audience. Now get busy creating!

But before we show you that, we thought we’d give you a look at how our very own EDPR logo transformed during the creative stages. Check out the various versions below:

And now, the INFOGRAPHIC you’ve been waiting for (Source):

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.

• The expandable banner ad is the most popular format.
• iOS is still in the lead, but Android is closing in quickly.
• Video and direct response are the most popular, and widely used ad features.
• Consider context when creating your ad, as each vertical has an additional standout feature.
• Social media makes your ads MUCH more effective (obviously).
• Users love to share branded content — we’re skeptical about this one…

See all these insights and more in the INFOGRAPHIC below:

Today’s (brief) post/INFOGRAPHIC is outlining some of the best apps geared to help you run your business from the palm of your hand (via SalesForce).

Here are some key points:

• Make sure you’re spelling things correctly (duh); no text speak or missed punctuation. Use your own voice, with a professional delivery.
• Hashtags are your friend, use them to draw in non-followers to your content.
• If you’re adding a link, SHORTEN IT! A shortened link (like a bit.ly) takes up less space, leaving more room for the MESSAGE.
• Always leave around 20 characters blank so people who RT can add to the tweet!
• Make people WANT to share your tweets, make them engaging and include a call to action.

So there you go, all the tips required to make your tweets A+ share-able material.

A version of this post by Gerry Moran appears here

Sysomos took a moment to create a quick INFOGRAPHIC outlining some of the highlights from the entertainment industry’s biggest night, and here’s some of their findings:

• There were 403,862 total red carpet tweets
• Jennifer Lawrence was voted best dressed female
• Anne Hathaway was voted worst (we have to agree)
• #Oscars was the hottest hashtag with over 800,000 tweets
• Women tweeted over double the amount of Oscar content of men during the evening

Check out the full INFOGRAPHIC below:

• Telephone Information Services: whether it’s calling 411 or the movie theatre, the Internet has made it pretty unnecessary to call anyone on the phone for information. A simple Google search could unearth your info in seconds.
• Payphones: Sorry Adam Levine, that payphone is no longer in service thanks to this little invention called the cellular phone; perhaps someone can buy you one?
• Old School Mediums: Be it VHS tapes recording TV, a Walkman, a dictionary or the Yellow Pages, it seems that no one is using these portable, yet bulky items anymore. When was the last time you saw someone carting around Encyclopaedia Britannica anyway? Surprisingly, vinyl records are as popular as ever.

Check out all these and more in the INFOGRAPHIC below:

2013 will be the year of content

Content marketing remains top priority for both companies and agencies alike, followed closely by conversion rate optimization. In fact, 52% of marketers say the ability to target and personalize content is fundamental to their online strategy.

Boldly, 84% of marketers say their work will be more measurable in 2013 – no doubt due to more emphasis put in the digital areas (and shrinking budgets).

Mobile remains a close focus

However, marketers say they need to understand more on how users research and purchase products. Have a look at the INFOGRAPHIC below for all these stats and more (points if you can correctly identify the number of spelling errors within Adobe’s image).

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:

- 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:

A quick rundown on some key points from the INFOGRAPHIC:

• 23.63% of all email opens occur within the 1st hour of delivery
• Within an hour, your email has a 9.52% chance of being opened
• Emails sent in the afternoon have more chance of being noticed, opened and clicked
• Top click hours are between 8-9am, and 3-8pm
• Be mindful of time zone, and when your email will reach it’s recipient

“Every year millions of litres of milk are trucked into Western Australia (WA) from over east. At a time when WA dairy farmers are struggling to survive. Not a lot of people realise this is happening because much of that imported milk comes in as yoghurt.

Brownes are saying “enough” and making next Saturday November 3rd the official Use Buy Date for all yoghurts imported into WA. From that day on, we invite you to buy locally-made yoghurt instead. It’s fresher for your family and better for all those families who own and run WA dairy farms.” via Brownes.

Job well done Brownes, job well done.

Check out this INFOGRAPHIC recently posted on Mashable:

Yes, it’s the oldest tactic in the book, but it still works. Think about it: we are alerted by social streams regularly, view banner ads on both desktop and mobile – but we also receive and check email all day (and night) long.

Recently a colleague sent over this INFOGRAPHIC that explains just how effective email marketing still is. Check it out below:

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.

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

This post is for you sassy pant folks who think you may be too good for twitter, or that it’s a narcissistic time waster. As it turns out, the DATA shows that breakfast is not the first option on the twitter menu – it’s actually the last. Diffbot (http://www.diffbot.com) recently just released some pretty interesting analytics based on tweets from July 10^th-July 11^th, 2012, and here’s the digest.

Status Updates Come Last

36% of tweets are images being shared

16% are articles – yes, NEWS! (well, mostly)

9% is a tie for video and page sharing

8% is product hawking

In last place comes status updates, and shared error pages at 7%

Image via Diffbot.com

Pretty outstanding stuff, no? Diffbot gets into more granular details about this content, and you can check that out here.

So the next time someone says they’re not interested in reading about breakfast – remind them: we don’t tweet about our OWN breakfast, we share articles about someone else’s.

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:

Reviews have become an important part of our culture – whether we like it or not. It’s almost funny how a complete stranger has the ability to change our perception of a business before we even experience it. Check out the INFOGRAPHIC below, it details some of the surprising (and not so surprising) facts about online reviews.

Have you ever written a review about a local (or large scale) business? What kind of factors do you look for when reading and trusting an online review? Share in the comments.

Check out this inforgraphic that’s meant to guide you through the decision-making process the next time you plan to hit ‘send’.

Do you think we send out too many useless emails? Share in the comments!

Writers note: There are some workplaces and jobs where these may not be viewed as an appropriate format. However, if this is how you’d consider your personal brand to be represented on paper, perhaps the job isn’t for you.

THE RESUMES

Paolo shows amazing visuals to demonstrate his extensive knowledge and expertise. It’s good to have the traditional bits of a resume merged with image. Plus, his website rocks.. click image to visit.

Karina May demonstrates her work as a content editor. She used VISUAL.LY, a free inforgraphic service.

Michelle Magoffin’s resume has a LOT of content, but also a great amount of personality. She also offers the opportunity to scan the QR code on the image to access a traditional CV. Click on the image to see a larger size.

Hopefully these inspire you to shake up your resume a little bit to become a more competitive player in your job hunt. Do you have any other examples of great resumes? Share links in the comments.

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

I’ve been a PC user my entire life. From the time when the very basic IBM was brought into my home at 7 years old, I’ve always been faithful to my first love. However, the time has come to upgrade and update (this happens every 2-3 years) – and I’ve decided I’m divorcing Windows.

Meet my mistress.

There’s no way of telling if I’ve fallen victim to Apple’s incredible marketing tactics – or if I’m simply rationalizing my purchases with irrational desire. The fact is: I want a pretty macbook pro, and I know that it’s going to make my life beautiful.

In my long periods of comparison, and endless forums – I landed on this little infographic that was compiled from survey data. Have a look and tell me: are you a Mac OR a PC user? Have you ever made the switch?

What are your thoughts about the millennial generation? Is there a big divide between this generation and the last?

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

Do you own an e-reader? How often do you use it? If not, do you plan on buying one? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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

And finally, I found yet another INFOGRAPHIC that I’m obsessed with. It claims that there are 2 types of mindsets in which a person can adopt into their lifestyle. Personally, I think that people can mix and match the two mindset attributes, and it’s not always so black and white. That said, it’s still very interesting – and a good check-in guide to make sure you’re fully ‘embracing disruption’.

As always, I love hearing your feedback. Be sure to tell me your thoughts on this INFOGRAPHIC!

Enter the TWITTER PARTY (Twarty for short). A revolutionary new way to engage with consumers and brand advocates alike, while effectively spreading a message across millions of viewers. I currently handle the marketing efforts for a Toronto start-up called Shopcatch. Shopcatch works with retailers to provide promotional strategies that will enhance consumer experience while driving transactions. Recently I had the pleasure of taking on H&M Canada as a client: they were looking to create some exposure for their amazing CONSCIOUS collection. I thought this would be a great opportunity to provide them with a customized twitter party, and really dive into their massive consumer base. Although this was not my first time hosting a ‘twarty’ – I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with my results.

I’ll let the INFOGRAPHIC do the talking:

As you can see, the potential for exposure is PHENOMENAL. But it doesn’t stop at retail. There’s plenty of brands, events, restaurants, openings, galleries and more that could benefit from the kind of attention a TWARTY can grab them.

If you’re interested in what a TWARTY can do for your business, or would like more info, feel free to reach out! I always love discussing initiatives, and helping brands/companies achieve maximum potential within the socialsphere.

How about you, have you ever participated in a twitter party? Tell me about it in the comments below – and be sure to include your twitter handle so I can follow you!