Whether you write for fun or profit, do graphic design, paint, draw, or make music, you know it can be difficult to come up with new and original ideas every time you have to start a new project. Over at Paul Zii’s Tumblr blog, he has a list of 29 great one-line tips to help you stay creative or get inspired if you’re feeling the sting of writer’s block, or your muse hasn’t visited in a while.
Monthly Archives: May 2011
Why Call To Action Matters in Social Media
Before starting a Facebook Fan Page, YouTube Channel or Twitter feed for your business, first answer a quick question:
Why should people follow you, read your updates, add you as a Fan or Friend, or care at all about your existence online?
What’s in it for them?
via Why Call To Action Matters in Social Media – 10,000 Words.
The Next Generation Of Readers: Progressive And Paperless
On May 19, Amazon announced an important milestone that many of us have been expecting: Sales of Kindle eBooks have surpassed both paperback and hardback books combined.
After spending the last few years attending cocktail parties where the only point of view on the traditional publishing industry was that it is dying, I was captivated by the content and discussion last week at the Media Technology Summit, hosted by Landmark Ventures.
I heard the most refreshing statement of the last decade: “We have all been given a gift, and this is the global age of publishing.” What a truly inspirational statement made by one of the top C level executives in the publishing sector! And with Amazon’s news, we can safely say that the publishing industry has gone “digital”…so now what?
via The Next Generation Of Readers: Progressive And Paperless.
Future of Media: Curation, Verification and News as a Process
As part of a “social media summit” this week, the BBC posted an overview of how its user-generated content desk handles reports from the field — verifying and curating them in much the same way that Andy Carvin of NPR has been doing for the past few months during the upheaval in the Middle East. As I’ve written before, there is a growing need for this kind of curation, but there is also the need to start looking at news as a process and not as a pristine, finished product.
via Future of Media: Curation, Verification and News as a Process: Tech News and Analysis «.
11 ways to promote infographics
1. Involve credible sources in the data collection and then encourage those sources to help you promote the resulting graphic.
2. Create a blog post for the infographic and support promotion through the blog’s social channels (Facebook, Twitter, email, social news and bookmarking sites).
3. Segment the infographic into screen shots that can be used in blog posts and shared on image hosting sites like Flickr with links back to the page hosting the full infographic. A week or two after publishing and promoting the infographic, upload the full image and unique description to Flickr with a link back to the original Web page.
4. Schedule tweets of specific data points mentioned in the infographic over time with a link back to the full infographic. Ten data points/statistics = 10 tweets. A similar, but more conservative approach can work with Facebook as well.
5. Submit the infographic to aggregators and directories. Here’s a short list:
- http://dailyinfographic.com/
- http://www.coolinfographics.com/
- http://www.infographicsshowcase.com/
- http://submitinfographics.com/
- http://www.infographicsarchive.com/
- http://www.visual.ly/ (not live yet)
6. Promote the infographic with an article/news release that includes a link to the full infographic and distribute through a news distribution service.
7. Highlight the infographic in an email promotion to your in-house prospect and/or customer list. Include a segment of the graphic and a link for readers to see the full image on your website or blog.
8. Pitch relevant industry bloggers and media on the story behind the data included in the infographic. Focus on relevant, personalized emails and offer previews or pre-release opportunities for more influential sources.
9. Share the infographic with influential users of social news and bookmarking sites: StumbleUpon, Delicious, Reddit, or Digg. You can also enlist a connected social media marketing service to do it for you.
10. Create a screencast video version of the infographic and promote it through YouTube and other video hosting services.
11. Deconstruct the infographic into a PowerPoint and PDF document and share on Slideshare, Scribd, Docstoc or other document hosting services.
Additional tips that can help promotion include: Make sure the file name includes relevant keywords as well as the text on the Web page used to describe the infographic. Social sharing buttons on the page that hosts the infographic should be easy to see and use. Include a text area form element with code that users can copy to embed the infographic (with link back to your site) on their own website or blog.
How to Make Your Social Media Efforts PR-Friendly
The saying goes that any press is good press. While Facebook might disagree right now, in most cases PR can be an effective and inexpensive way to get the word out about your company.
Gone are the days of PR agencies being the only way to get in touch with journalists – these days anyone can find journalists online, build relationships with them and pitch story ideas.
Sure, your company is using social media tools to get the attention of potential consumers. But are you doing enough to attract the attention of the media?
How to Hide Blogs and Press Releases from Google News
The English language edition of Google News aggregates stories from 5,000+ sources and this list includes both traditional news sites as well as blogs. Some of press release distribution websites, PRWeb for example, is also indexed in Google News as as a source.
Would you like to filter out blogs and press releases from Google News and limit yourself to seeing news that’s written by ‘real’ journalists of the mainstream media? Well now you can.
Infographic: A Look At The Size And Shape Of The Geosocial Universe In 2011
Thanks to Jesse Thomas of interactive design agency JESS3, we now have an updated look at the structure of the geosocial universe as it exists in anno domini 2011. It wasn’t so long ago that the International Astronomical Union booted Pluto out of the solar system or that MySpace was overtaking Yahoo! and Google as the most-visited site in the U.S. Well, a few rotations around the sun later, and the overall shape of the geosocial universe has changed dramatically. New stars have been born and others have been scattered out across the cold recesses of Internet space. Today, Myspace is sputtering, Skype is part of the Microsoft solar system, and LinkedIn is being traded publicly. The whacky flux continues.
via Infographic: A Look At The Size And Shape Of The Geosocial Universe In 2011.
The Real Cost of Social Media
With all the hoopla about social media, the real cost is often overlooked. Staff time, developers, and creatives aren’t free. I ran across a great infographic this morning that took a good hard look at the costs and ROI of real world case studies.
What Is Crowdsourcing & How It’s Used [INFOGRAPHIC]
Have you ever wondered what crowdsourcing is, what sites on the Internet take advantage of it and its influence online? Well now all your questions will hopefully be answered with this infographic, designed and produced byOBizMedia.