Every time a social network makes a change to their layout, design firms around the world groan about how they now have to redo a ton of different artwork. Social media is big business and companies will pay big bucks to look just right on their pages and profiles. Google had a change of their own recently on Google+, including one major change to profile and page layouts that made the cover photo extremely large. This added a new wrinkle to the mix because now pages had different through which they had to operate. The whole cover image isn’t immediately visible when people visit the page, so there are…

In an ideal world, marketing content through social media would be an extended process because we would all have the time to do it the right way. We could focus on positioning it, nurturing it, and timing everything out exactly like it should be timed. Unfortunately, this isn’t a perfect world and we have to maximize our results while minimizing the time and effort to achieve them. There are plenty of shortcuts that make promoting content on social media faster and easier and there are plenty of techniques used to make the promotions more effective. The real key is to find the right mix of the two to…

This is a topic that has been covered so many times that one might wonder how it keeps popping up. The reality (from a content perspective) is that Facebook posting best practices is the gift that keeps on giving. It’s frustrating to businesses and annoying to bloggers, but at the end of the day there’s one simple truth: whatever worked yesterday may not work today but may work again tomorrow. That’s Facebook. It’s social media in general from a business perspective. There are three dynamics at work and they rarely do more than lightly influence the other two: Facebook and other social media sites…

One of the most important lessons you can learn in Facebook marketing for your business is that you can have a much greater impact on your performance online through Facebook by focusing on what’s happening in the real world. Facebook is virtual, but that doesn’t mean it has to focus on the virtual world. Make it real. If your business is out there doing things in the real world, you have plenty of potential Facebook content to post on your page (as well as you other social media pages and profiles). Do you participate in charities and local events? Do you sponsor a little league team? Do you have a monthly…

Netflix has wanted to go social for a long time. They have been held back by an antiquated law that was rightfully removed late last year. Now, people will be able to share their movie and television show loves on social media. That’s great, and the video for that is below. Here, we’ll talk more about the warrantless email tapping that was attached to the bill. Here’s an excerpt: Now, as always, law enforcement does not need to supply a warrant to read your emails. They don’t need probably cause. They don’t even need to suspect that you have committed a crime. They only need to have “reasonable…

There are a lot of ways that Hollywood has changed the way we use the internet. On one side, the internet is an incredible well of knowledge and innovation, a place of creativity, inspiration, and easy communication. There is no question that the internet has, for better or for worse, morphed the way we view ourselves and our place in society. Consequentially, it has also changed entertainment, marketing, and networking. Alongside the innovations of the internet and of new technology are the innovators who use these tools and give them purpose. There is no point in having this technology if no…

When it comes to advertising today, things have changed. In some ways it’s due to social media. Searching for “I Love Zappos” yields 2,000,000 results. Searching for “I Love Dow Chemical Company” yields 3, according to Bob Garfield and Doug Levy at the SXSW panel titled “Cant’ Buy Me Likes”. Thanks to their presentation, this number is sure to go way up as people discuss it (such as this blog). By contrast, searching for “I Love Satan” yields 293,000. It’s not a good thing to be loved less than the prince of darkness. What has happened? Why is it that billion dollar ad branding campaigns get usurped…

The technology that Microsoft has been envisioning for the future is astounding, realistic, and will give us the opportunity to be more productive. That much is true. What’s not true is that they say these technologies will help bring families together. Judging by the recent history of technological advances, that’s the exact opposite effect of the technologies they describe in their video, “Microsoft’s New Envisioning Center: Live, Work, Play.” Take smartphones, for example. They are technological wonders that allow multiple methods of communication from face-to-face video interaction…

The opinions that we express in the real world are often not congruent with what we post on Twitter according to a report from Pew Research. Just because something is loved or hated on Twitter doesn’t mean that the real world feels the same way. Sometimes, the Twitter reality is opposite of real world reality. In politics, social media is left leaning, but both sides come out strong when there are complaints to be Tweeted. According to Pew: At times the Twitter conversation is more liberal than survey responses, while at other times it is more conservative. Often it is the overall negativity that…

To say that the internet has completely revolutionized the way we communicate with each other would be a serious understatement. People around the world can stay connected in real time through mediums such as Skype and Facebook, and information can be found instantaneously on almost any subject imaginable. No wonder we have so many self proclaimed “experts” out there. Politics has even found its place online. Many protest groups now choose to use Facebook as a means to organize public demonstrations. The Arab Spring protest may be one of the best examples of the Facebook organized demonstration….