Monthly Archives: May 2012

Reading

Quick Course On Effective Website Copywriting | Smashing Magazine

Many dismiss copywriting as something that ad agency people do. Truthfully, all of us need to pay close attention to copywriting if we want to achieve our business objectives.

The goal of a “regular” text is to inform or entertain. The goal of Web copy (and ideally your website in general) is to get people to do something—to sign up, make a purchase, or something similar. Hiring a professional copywriter can be very expensive, which is one of the reasons why this is a valuable skill to have yourself.

via Quick Course On Effective Website Copywriting | Smashing Magazine.

Reading

[Video] The Making of Inspiring Documentaries | Fstoppers

Ken Burns is somewhat of a a legend when it comes to stories and film making. His documentaries cover some fantastic issues within the U.S. and have a fine tension throughout the film which keeps his audience captivated. In this short interview by Redglass Pictures, Ken shares what he feels the key elements of a captivating story are. How do you think his idea of that “extra element” applies to what you shoot or edit?

via [Video] The Making of Inspiring Documentaries | Fstoppers.

Client Related

IBM Study: If You Don’t Have a Social CEO, You’re Going to be Less Competitive – Forbes

The list of the world’s CEOs regularly includes celebrities, billionaires, big egos, risk takers, and failures. What it does not include are social media experts; but that’s about to change. When IBM (NYSE: IBM) conducted its study of 1709 CEOs around the world, they found only 16% of them participating in social media. But their analysis shows that the percentage will likely grow to 57% within 5 years.

Why? because CEOs are beginning to recognize that using email and the phone to get the message out isn’t sufficient anymore.

via IBM Study: If You Don’t Have a Social CEO, You’re Going to be Less Competitive – Forbes.

Facebook

Facebook Still Courting Media Business | Adweek

Over the past year or so, Facebook began intensifying its courtship of the media industry. So far, media definitely finds Facebook attractive but seems afraid of getting hurt. In fact, while it seems clear that while Facebook and the media business are becoming further intertwined, media has so far rebuffed Facebook’s larger ambition—to be the place where media is consumed, talked about and shared for the majority of Web users.

via Facebook Still Courting Media Business | Adweek.

journalism

New York Times columnist David Carr talks media | TPMDC

What’s the most significant journalism trend of 2012 so far?

This isn’t a trend yet. I have one of the new iPads. For both my email and Twitter, I’m able to talk into it and get speech to text (with Dragonfly voice-recognition software). It’s become more and more efficacious, which is great and convenient. If you start to think — one of the only barriers of people publishing is people have to type. What if that goes away? Just a huge explosion. Instead of going on the phone and talking about prom night, we’re either at or near a place where they can speak it in their phone and it’ll appear in text. What if people don’t have to type to get it into there? Does that make what we do more or less valuable? There’s more for us to sift through. But we’re the signal in the noise, and it’ll make us more valuable. I’m fairly democratic in my impulses. I don’t want more crap out there, but I think the fact that I need to type my thoughts means I share less of them.

via New York Times columnist David Carr talks media | TPMDC.

Facebook

Salesforce Ready to Buy Buddy Media For $800 Million [REPORT]

Enterprise software giant Salesforce has agreed to acquire Buddy Media — which helps brands with their Facebook Pages — for more than $800 million, according to one report.

The Buddy Media clientele currently includes such well-known brands as HP, Mattel, L’Oreal, Carnival, and Virgin Mobile and promises on its site to “turn fans and followers into real connections.”

via Salesforce Ready to Buy Buddy Media For $800 Million [REPORT].

stats

Women Are Bigger Fans of Social Media than Men, Survey Says

If social media sites ceased to exist, you would miss them — unless you’re a man living in the U.K., according to a recent survey by British Telecom.More than 2,000 Brits were questioned for a survey commissioned by BT about the social media habits of men and women. The results showed that more than half of the women surveyed 54% use social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, compared to 34% of men.And of those social media users, more women than men reported they would miss those sites if the Internet ceased to exist.

via Women Are Bigger Fans of Social Media than Men, Survey Says.

Infographics

A Carefully Selected List of Recommended Tools on Datavisualization.ch

When I meet with people and talk about our work, I get asked a lot what technology we use to create interactive and dynamic data visualizations. At Interactive Things, we have a set of preferred libraries, applications and services that we use regularly in our work. We will select the most fitting tool for the job depending on the requirements of the project. Sometimes a really simple tool is all you need to create something meaningful. On other occasions, a more multifaceted repertoire is needed. But how does one choose the right thing to use? An endless list of every tool available, does not answer that question and a recommendation from a friend is oftentimes more valuable.

via A Carefully Selected List of Recommended Tools on Datavisualization.ch.

Twitter

Study: Only 36 Percent of Tweets Are “Worth Reading” – 10,000 Words

With all the tweets bombarding our Twitter streams, it’s not uncommon to wonder how many people are actually reading your tweets. The answer, according to one new study, may surprise you.A team of researchers from MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology recently published an article in the Harvard Business Review that found only 36 percent of tweets are deemed “worth reading.”

via Study: Only 36 Percent of Tweets Are “Worth Reading” – 10,000 Words.