360DigitalInfluence

They say pictures are worth a thousand words, but you only get 140 characters to Tweet it to the world. Just months after a $40 million TweetDeck acquistion, in-the-know tech site, All Things D confirms that Twitter is looking to further expand their offerings and create their own photo-sharing service. Twitter reps are not commenting on the reports, but the social media kings are buzzing with crystal-ball predictions of what the empire’s latest brainchild will look like.

I wanted to add my two cents to the conversation. Currently, users who want to share photos in their tweets have to post them on secondary sights and include links to their photos within tweets. That’s all too time consuming. Let’s cut to the chase. We need those 140 characters to tell everyone just how cute Baby Ali is and include a picture. We can’t just go wasting those precious characters with link space. So, in the spirit of all things twit-tastic, below are my top three photo-sharing sites and what I am looking for in Twitter’s revamp in 140 characters or less.

Twitpic – Share media in real-time. Iphone, email, website platforms using in-site API. CON: Links too lengthy, need more room for text. #nicetry

Yfrog – Served by ImageShack and optimized for mobile viewing. No frills, fast and easy to use. CON: Too many platform bugs make it less reliable. #almostthere

Instagram – Enhances pics with various effects and has seamless social integration on FB, TW, Flickr, Foursquare and Tumblr. CON: Only available for iphones. #Ihaveandroid

What I’m really hoping for in a Twitter platform as an in-house photo-sharing device as clean, quirky, and creative as the namesake’s currently successful products. A hybrid Yfrog, Twitpic, and Instagram will suffice, but I am hoping Twitter will take this opportunity and will go one step further in order to bring us something not even the social media world could have predicted. What are you looking for in the new Twitter photo-sharing service? All Things D reports plans for the platform’s unveiling at the D9 conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., this week. Stay tuned!

With personalized Internet radio and music platforms becoming more prominent, integrating  social networks have become a key component to online music discovery. Aside from learning  that Robert Scoble and I have similar tastes in music (The Rolling Stones, OutKast, and Madonna  to name a few),  I’ve also deduced that Facebook has the capacity to play a crucial role in users’ online music discovery process.

Courtesy of Musicskins.com

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As my colleague Priya noted in the beginning of May, Facebook has been planning to make changes  that would block the disabling of the wall on Facebook Pages. While many companies in the consumer space won’t even notice a chance, this has already caused quite a stir in the pharma space.

On May 17th, Facebook officially notified companies of the impending changes. Their rationale is that these “policy changes support consistency for the Facebook Pages product and encourage an authentic dialogue between people and businesses on Facebook.”

What does this mean for the healthcare industry?

The immediate effect is that new company and unbranded Pages cannot disable the wall. Pages that currently have commenting disabled will no longer have this entitlement after August 15th.

Under the current guidance, Facebook is still allowing the wall to be disabled for Pages solely dedicated to a prescription drug, however there is no indication Facebook will not change this once the policy is finalized.

What are our options?

As Facebook finalizes the policy they are already enacting, we need to evaluate how to best leverage this platform for clients in regulated industries. With more than 600 million registered users, Facebook remains an effective way to reach key audiences. However there are ways to engage with consumers on Facebook outside of creating a Page. This includes working with third-party groups and organizations to support interaction on their Pages, leveraging targeted Facebook advertising to bring visitors off Facebook to branded sites, or working with internal legal/regulatory specialists to determine ways to participate using these new rules.

In the end, some hope/speculate that this policy will help shape outstanding guidance to help allow Pharma — and other regulated industries — to participate in these already ongoing conversations in a way to more transparently communicate with stakeholders.

F-commerce was a hot topic at WOMMA’s School of WOM last week – while success is still largely unproven, some see it as a clear way to start tying social media efforts back to sales – the Holy Grail for any brand that’s shifting its budget over to Facebook.

For those new to the topic, f-commerce can refer to sales taking place on Facebook (using a credit card or other form of currency like Facebook Credits), sales taking place on a brand website using Facebook open graph/social plug-ins, and sales taking place at brick-and-mortar locations using Facebook Deals or open graph functionality.

1-800-Flowers set up shop on Facebook in the summer of 2009. Almost two years later, while a whole host of brands have jumped on board, f-commerce is still far from having reached a critical mass. So, what’s stopping consumers (and brands) from diving headfirst into f-commerce?

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We’re pleased to announce we will be previewing groundbreaking new quantitative data on social media impact at the ARF’s Audience Measurement (AM) 6.0 conference in a special emerging hot topics general session on June 13.

The data will help marketers and senior executives better understand the business impact of social media, alone and in combination with other types of comunications (such as TV, outdoor and online ads). The study data will provide a look at the attitudes and purchase impact of social media within the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) category, using data collected with our study partner ChatThreads’ Touchpoints consumer brand interaction data collection and reporting system.

According to the ARF, AM 6.0 is the world’s largest audience measurement conference.  The event will feature new announcements and data from executives at Google and Facebook.  Here’s a link to the event info.  We hope you can join us.

Earlier this week, the AP Stylebook announced its second round of updates for social media entries, plus a number of food guidelines for all you foodies out there. Personally, I welcome the second round of social media entries as I find myself constantly contemplating how to accurately write “Tweet” or “tweet.” For the record, proper AP style is lowercase “tweet.” And for those of you who are still spelling website as two words, the AP changed it to all lowercase, one word last year. 

With social media increasingly being incorporated into how we write, blog and talk, I wanted to share some of the updates. In addition to some older social media entries, the 2011 AP Stylebook now has entries related to the following social media activities:
• Location-based services
• Recently released consumer electronics
• Blogging platforms
• Twitter

While many of you may have outdated hard copy books, you can also purchase an online subscription to the AP Stylebook, which allows you to search for terms and provides email updates with the latest entries. Of course, you can also download an app for iPhone and BlackBerry smartphones with Stylebook Mobile.

Although it was a few weeks ago, my mind is still buzzing with learnings from the 2011 Digital CMO Summit, which I had the opportunity to attend in New Orleans with John Bell. This unique event was not only filled with hands on learning and compelling content, but brought together some of the most innovative brands for a two day summit. More to come on that in my next post.  While I was at the summit, I had the opportunity to meet some truly inspiring and interesting people - who not only breathe social - but know how to apply it to a entrepreneurial spirit to fuel really smart ideas among the vibrant New Orleans community. Meet Chris Schultz, President of Voodoo Ventures. We briefly sat down with Chris who shared his passion for creativity and the importance of entrepreneurship in New Orleans, especially Post-Katrina.

Chris is a co-founder of Launch Pad, a collaborative workspace in downtown New Orleans that is home to more than 60 startups in the Big Easy.  He created Launch Pad Ignition, the first seed accelerator on the gulf coast, and part of the Techstars Network and the Startup America initiative.  The list goes on: He also co-founded TribeCon, a conference about leveraging online communities to create offline change and mentors young entrepreneurs in the community in addition to building his own companies. You can see part of his interview with us in the video below:

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While attending the BlogWell DC Conference last week, I listened in on the Discovery Channel panel and learned of their real-time engagement strategies through social media and social TVs, which includes incorporating GetGlue as a way to enhance the TV experiences of their audiences. At the start of their presentation, they shared an amazing statistic: 86% of mobile users use their phone while watching TV.

The first thing that comes to mind when using GetGlue is that it’s a lot like FourSquare, but for entertainment. You can check in when watching TV programs or movies, listening to music, reading a book, playing video games and even when thinking about a celebrity or topic. Other similarities:

• “Gurus” are similar to “Mayors”
• “Stickers” are similar to “Badges” (but you actually get stickers mailed to you)
• Users receive points for their check-ins

Those familiar with FourSquare will feel right at home. In fact, you can connect your FourSquare account to GetGlue, along with Facebook and Twitter. Each check-in to Get Glue is then posted on your other platforms, along with any stickers you may have earned.

So is the attraction to GetGlue in the stickers? Definitely not.

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A picture is worth a thousand words, right? What about a Facebook picture?

How much do you think a Facebook user’s photo that a brand is tagged in is worth? While a quantifiable value is not currently measurable, positive photos that fan pages are tagged in are valuable to the brand as they provide a strong word-of-mouth recommendation (without the words, of course).

Brands will see themselves and their products tagged in more and more photos on their Facebook fan page now since Facebook announced last week that users have the ability to tag fan pages in their photos on Facebook in the same way they can tag their friends. This new functionality creates even more of a deeper connection between the user and the brand. It makes the brand more of a friend than just a brand.

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Fresh off the conference floor from this year’s School of WOM, it’s difficult not to feel conflicted as a digital communications professional. However, I’ve come to realize the true value of most conferences isn’t in the “Ah-ha!” moments, but rather the reflection. I don’t ever want to walk away from a gathering like WOMMA’s yearly event with notebook full of answers. If I did, I could have easily learned those lessons in a book or a blog post. A valuable conference in this industry is one that spurs discourse, rumination, and plenty of brow-furrowing.

What concepts stirred the pot during the 2.5-day event? Find out after the jump.

Crayola provided crayons so we could show off our artistic abilities (or lack thereof)

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