To keep the momentum going into the weekend, we put together our favorite stories of the week to share with you in this week’s social media roundup:

Super Bowl Breaks Social TV and Broadcast Records
It was another record breaking Super Bowl Sunday this past weekend. With more viewers tuning into NBC, another two million streaming it on their phone or tablet, and more social media mentions tracked than ever before, the game was one to remember for many reasons.

Along with actual contest, the Super Bowl commercials made some noise leading up to the big game. In a less dramatic fashion than normal, there were no surprises, as many advertisers opted to release their commercials to the public days in advance. Whether you watched them all before, during, or after the game, here is a list of The 10 Super Bowl Commercials That Blew up the Biggest in Social Media.

Facebook Set To Introduce Mobile Advertising Within Weeks
Bound to make headlines for the next few months, the anticipation of Facebook’s IPO has everyone talking about how much Facebook is really worth and generating absurd stories of people who are cashing in. One of the more circulated stories was a list of risk factors that could trouble Facebook in the long run. Already less than a week after submitting their papers to go public, Facebook seems to be addressing one of these major risk factors head on. While nothing has been completely confirmed, there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing ads on Facebook’s mobile version in the not so distant future. In the mean time, companies like Coors Light are finding other creative ways to insert ads, running their own Facebook mobile campaigns.

 
How Pinterest is Becoming the Next Big Thing in Social Media for Business
Riding off last week’s news of Pinterest’s rise to being  a top traffic driver for major retailers, it was hard to open up our inbox or look through our newsfeed and avoid news and talk about the burgeoning site. Whether it was about their current business model and how they’re making money, the way it’s changing website design forever, or the countless number of sites that have already implemented Pinterest-similar features, declaring Pinterest as “the next big thing in social media” isn’t crazy. When a site hits 10 million U.S. Monthly uniques faster than any standalone site ever, it’s time to pay attention.

Youths Are Watching, but Less Often on TV
We all knew it was a matter of time. With improvements made to broadband internet, the growth of smartphones, and the rise of tablets, it’s no surprise that people are consuming “television” on something other than their TV sets. So when we see apps like the one that Grammy Awards, along with CBS, has developed, we get excited about the future of streaming video incorporating social media.

Television studios and networks aren’t building these applications just for special events anymore – TBS just announced that they’ll be releasing a Social TV tablet app to be accessed during Conan shows. While television networks are findings ways to reward viewers for watching shows and incorporate hashtags and other social branding efforts into their programs, we should expect to see the gap closing between television and social media.

YouTube CEO: The Future of Content is Niche Channels
YouTube is ready to change the way we watch videos online again. In an effort to help visitors watch videos more passively, YouTube has invested $100 million into Premium Content Channels that will focus on generating content for a specific niche. By hosting streams solely dedicated to a number of different interests, YouTube feels this will give users a better way of finding and watching what they want.

LinkedIn Hits 150 Million Members
In a press release announcing their four quarter earnings, which were higher than expected, LinkedIn revealed that it hit the 150 million member mark. To put it in perspective, Facebook has 845 million active users and Twitter is en route to 500 million total users by the end of March, according to Mediabistro. Admittedly, these social networks are all different and hard to compare. While LinkedIn hasn’t released their active member total, it is adding around 10 new members every 5 seconds. All of these reports are good signs for the company and it’s investors.

Did we miss a bit o’buzz? Let us know here and join in on the conversation! 

For example, did you know that your Google + profile image will be downloaded to all the smartphones that download your contact info? I didn't either.

Dear Google, I like your services, I even drafted this post in Google docs, so I’m into it. Just don’t be that guy.

When Google + launched it’s beta version a few months ago, I decided to research  what kind of licensing rights users were signing away when posting photos on Google +.  In addition to scoping out the shot for personal empowerment as a photographer, I also wondered: as a brand, what kind of copyright considerations should you consider before launching a user generated content (UGC) campaign?

Long story short, you shouldn’t post any photos you don’t ever want to see on the front page of some other website, as Google + grabs worldwide rights in perpetuity to use and sub-license your photos. As an artist, I find it alarming that Google would be so brazen to just grab the IP of everyone who participates in their show. By doing so, Google is basically creating a huge royalty-free database of sub-licensable images that they can do whatever they want with, whenever and however they want, forever.

For context and comparison’s sake, I’ve outlined and explained a few licensing agreements from some major social networks:

Facebook:

“You grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (“IP License”). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.”

Tumblr:
“Subscriber shall own all Subscriber Content that Subscriber contributes to the Site, but hereby grants and agrees to grant Tumblr a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable right and license (with the right to sublicense), to use, copy, cache, publish, display, distribute, modify, create derivative works and store such Subscriber Content and to allow others to do so (“Content License”) in order to provide the Services”

Google +:
“By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.”

However, there is a grey area because they also say:
“11.1 …This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.”

What it means: Facebook can use your photos as long as you have them posted up, but they cannot sell or license them to third parties or do whatever they want with them in perpetuity. With Google + and Tumblr, however, they own the rights of your photos whether you still have your images up or not.

Mark Zuckerburg posted a response to the outcry over the terms of service, where he explained: “Our philosophy is that people own their information and control who they share it with. When a person shares information on Facebook, they first need to grant Facebook a license to use that information so that we can show it to the other people they’ve asked us to share it with. Without this license, we couldn’t help people share that information.”

What does this mean for brands?

From a brand perspective, this licensing is something to consider and pay attention to. If you are running a campaign culling UGC and user involvement, remember that unless you have specific fine print, you don’t have rights to the content either. If your users are active on social media sites, it’s safe to say that they’ve accepted the fact that they have given up their licensing rights to Facebook, but keep in mind that there might be the slight off chance that someone will learn about the fine print for the first time and get annoyed.

Take a look at one example of a brand that addressed this issue. Beer brand Stella Artois worked in additional language that ensures they can use UGC images and content freely in the future without penalization. This is smart on their behalf, but as a user, would you want to sign this?

“By submitting Content to this site, you: … (b) grant Anheuser-Busch an unlimited, perpetual, royalty-free, sub-licensable, transferable and irrevocable license to use, modify, or adapt the Content for any purpose whatsoever, including but not limited to incorporating the submission into content copyrighted by Anheuser-Busch, whether or not such Anheuser-Busch content is commercial in nature…”

Personally, I think if more people read the fine print, there’d be less photos being shared on popular social networks and UGC campaigns.  Let’s face it though – in the grand scheme of things, social networks command our attention and focus. If you aim to impress friends and garner user involvement and UGC, post away! As an artist and photographer, if your goal is to promote your own fine art photography with the intention of later selling those photos, be forewarned that those images could very well be used, regardless of your consent, feelings, and creative ownership.  Keep in mind that once you upload an image, granting any of these social networks non-exclusive use, you can no longer license that same image for exclusive use with anyone else.

While there is certainly a benefit in getting your photography out there and shared through social media, just remember: uploader, beware!

Good.  That should have happened because analytics are important!  Below, some tips to making more out of your “new” Facebook Insights:

Get Past Total Likes

It’s easy to take metrics like People Talking About This (PTAT), Engaged Users, etc. and divide them into total Page Likes as a barometer for fan engagement levels. PTAT and Total Likes are prominently displayed next to one another on your page.  But this overstates your fan engagement, and Facebook wants you to start seeing the forest for the trees.  When grabbing reach metrics, make sure you’re looking at fans, friends of fans, and in some cases the unique visitor traffic to your page (if measuring stats at the page level.)  Engagements and stories are being created by more than just your fans, and should be measured that way.  Total Likes is important, and is just one of several metrics to use when measuring your Facebook audience.

Measure Engagement And Viral Engagement

The level of engagement with your content is the lynchpin to getting more exposure in the news feed and what better way to see that than understanding how many people interact with your content when they see it?  To get Engagement, divide Engaged Users by your Total Reach.  This will give you a % of all the unique users who potentially SAW your content that also clicked on that content in some way.

People Talking About This, a type of engagement, measures a unique user performing an action that creates a story in the engaged user’s news feed (ex – “Jane Doe just commented on Acme Brand’s post.”) Measure PTAT the same way as Engaged Users, dividing by Total Reach, to get % Viral Engagement (or “Virality” as Facebook displays it on the Insights dashboard.) Viral engagement is the more desired type of engagement in most instances, as it spreads your message through the social graph more quickly.

These metrics are helpful in understanding how well your message is resonating with the people you’re reaching.  Aim to keep engagement levels up as your fan base grows, and continue to increase the virality of your engagements by focusing on those actions that create stories, which in turn increases the distribution of your message.

Use People Talking About This For Competitive Analysis

Since PTAT is a public-facing metric, you can now take this number, divide by total Likes (I know I just advised not doing this above, but we don’t have much choice when doing competitive analysis), and trend this percentage over time for your brand and your competitors.  If you’re between 2-4% you’re on the right track (this may be higher for pages with less fans and lower for pages with more fans).  Keep an eye on this to gauge how well your message is resonating as compared to your competitors and similar brands with comparable fan levels.

Pay Attention To The Post Level

Post level metrics are the purest Insights Facebook offers for accurately measuring post content performance.  Try categorizing your post types by subject in advance, then group your posts’ performance by subject to better understand what content topics and execution tactics boost kpi’s like Engaged Users and Virality at the post level.  For example, you’re a wine brand targeting Millenials.  You may post about the properties of the wine, the brand values of the wine, lifestyle attributes of your target customers like the kind of music or food they may like, etc.  Group these posts into their respective topics, and revise your content strategy by learning how these topics generally perform by comparison.

Ultimately you’ll want to measure whatever metrics align with your objectives.  Maybe you’re looking to drive traffic to a product web site, and you want to measure reach with click through rates on sales or product announcements, or maybe your concern is awareness in which Impressions might hold more weight.  Don’t be afraid to experiment with metrics just like you would with your creative tactics.  Just remember that Facebook can, and will, manipulate and change their data and metrics whenever they want and however they want, so be sure to export and store your data regularly to avoid losing anything important.

How have you adapted to the new Insights from Facebook?

Facebook’s Comment Box Plugin goes Mobile
Facebook rolled out the mobile equivalent of its comments box plugin, which makes it easier for media sites to engage browsers across the web and for users to leave behind scathing epithets which are now connected to a face. The plugin will automatically appear on the mobile version of websites that have already implemented the Comment Box. For technical details on how to incorporate Comments Box on your site, visit here.

Watch the Throne: Twitter (and the Internet) Welcomes Blue Ivy
After months of speculation, figure watching, and uterus vigils, mogul couple Jay Z and Beyonce welcomed destined and slightly-pressured-to-be-gifted daughter Blue Ivy, alongside countless other well wishers on the Internet. Social analytics firm Simply Measured graciously provided Mashable a graph of “Beyonce’s Baby Hype,” confirming that around 11:15pm on Saturday, Jan 7^th, tweets per minute peaked at 2,379. That’s a lot of “watch the crown” jokes.

Tweet @MichelleObama
First Lady Michelle Obama has joined the many on Twitter in time to support the President’s campaign now that elections are drawing near. Like most accounts, hers will be run primarily by campaign staff, but all personal tweets will be signed with a “mo.’ At the time of copy, the First Lady’s account already had 250,509 followers, but this will soon change.

Google: We Never Indexed “@” to Begin With
Google and Twitter’s increasingly public spat about recent decisions and changes to  search results –  Google’s “Google Plus Your World” –  is just getting started. After Twitter’s Alex Macgillivray pointed out specific examples of Google’s  skewed search feature which highlighted the exclusion of Twitter related terms  -  more harmful than good –   Google has officially went on record to say that “@” was never indexed to begin with, and the engine would have never recognized a handle formatted in such a way to begin with. While Twitter’s concerns are certainly valid, the termination of its agreement with Google regarding appearing in real time results may have played a factor into this.

London Olympics Volunteers Prohibited from Social Media
Volunteers at the 2012 London Olympics will find themselves being asked to put down their phones now that the organizing committee has released its social media policy, effective for all 70,000 plus volunteers. While volunteers are allowed to retweet and relay official news, releases, and statements, they will be prohibited from posting VIP or backstage pictures, disclose any breaking news pertaining to athletes – or discuss athletes for that matter – or get involved in detailed discussions about the games. While it’s a lot of preemptive damage and image control, we can’t help but wonder what the penalties of slip-ups will be?

Marvel Times the Avengers movie with Facebook Game
In suspiciously convenient timing, Disney has revealed that the very first Disney branded Facebook game will be a combat RPG game titled Marvel: Avenger’s Alliance. Although no one has confirmed yet that the game release is intended to time with the Avenger’s movie, the tie in is certainly helpful as some of the superhero cast is part of the Avengers team. A release date has yet to be announced, but will launch in first quarter.

Facebook Begins News Feed Ads
We reported not too long ago that Facebook had plans for rolling out featured ads directly within user’s newsfeeds, saying that they were expected to start January. The difference is however, that instead of being called “Sponsored Stories” as many originally thought, newsfeed ads will be going by moniker “Featured” instead. Add this with Facebook’s new “Listen With” feature (which aims to ultimately bring you back to Facebook chat), and you’ve got yourself a feed full of potential annoyances.

MySpace Keeps On, Carries On
MySpace still lives. The now ancient social media platform has managed to weather many a storm, ignore the cruel japes of the Internet, and retain 12 minutes of user’s time and attention span. What’s truly mind boggling however, is how it’s still a bigger platform than Tumblr and Google + (could it be from user accounts that were never deleted?). Maybe the second life is due to Justin Timberlake’s attempts to revive MySpace’s relevancy with a TV service.  Cue the “I’m bringing MySpace back” parodies.

Did we miss anything? Let us know and join in on the buzz here! 

Is Timeline an Advertising front?
Facebook is a free platform for users. That much is set in stone and crystal clear. While the public roll out of Timeline took a long time coming, it seemed a natural step in Facebook’s evolution as a platform. A former CTO is now charging that the feature isn’t entirely benevolent and without strings, but a front for advertisers to cull consumer info:

“What most users don’t know is that the new features being introduced are all centered around increasing the value of Facebook to advertisers, to the point where Facebook representatives have been selling the idea that Timeline is actually about re-conceptualizing users around their consumer preferences, or as they put it, “brands are now an essential part of people’s identities.”

While Timeline does lay out posts in a rough chronological order, the writer charges that when it comes to what’s on display to a social circle, metrics including direct payments to Facebook influence ranking and placement, which is crucial to graph rank, a metric and non-published algorithm for placement that determines what appears on your profile (basically what lumped all those posts on your newsfeed about “Christmas” together).

With sponsored stories and call to actions submissions rolling out as well, it doesn’t seem to be a big secret that Facebook is tapping into user activity to recommend and push brands and advertisements. At the moment Facebook has not offered a comment.

Twitter Beats Out Facebook for Media Coverage
When it came to news coverage in 2011, Twitter ruled the roost with 50% of media attention with Facebook trailing closely behind at 45%. In a study released by HighBeam Research, Twitter consistently captured the most media coverage each month, with the exception of February and April, when Facebook took the lead due to the release of new page layouts and deals, respectively. Twitter’s constant media attention throughout 2011 is to be expected as various protests, uprisings, and social change conversation took place on, and was organized most notably by Twitter.

Fab on the Rise with 100,000 orders a Month
E-commerce site Fab has had a busy year. The platform originally started out as a gay social network startup, but switched gears to become a design-oriented shopping hub. Founder Jason Goldberg created a fabulous timeline to showcase just how quickly and rapidly the company’s grown throughout the year. Most impressive was how Fab’s order growth went from 20,000 in July to 100,000 in November, with orders continuing to grow throughout December due to the holiday. With a growing consumer base, it’s possible Fab might become “the Amazon of design.”

Facebook Officially Releases Desktop Messenger for Windows
Facebook has officially released a desktop messenger client for Windows that’ll allow users to access Facebook chat without having to log into Facebook. The client also includes tickers and notifications that ultimately goad one back onto Facebook. Although the client is not available for Macs at the moment, Instant Messaging platforms AIM and Live Messenger might have to step smart. You can download the messenger here.

Google Testing Adwords 
In an attempt to go beyond traditional text ads, it seems  Google is toying around with its Adwords offerings with Google Email Subscription Ads that’ll allow  companies to buy ads that automatically fill in a call to action (specifically, subscribe) slot with a user’s Gmail address already filled in. You can check out the screenshots of said experiment at the link.

40% of Facebook Users Use Mobile Apps 
According to data released by Enders Analysis , monthly active users of Facebook’s mobile apps recently passed the 300 million mark, which roughly equates to about 40% of Facebook’s 800 million active users. What remains unknown however, is how many Facebook users access the platform solely through their mobile devices.

Startup Trends of 2011
Startups can be such fickle things, but what started in 2011 could very well dominate the trend lists of 2012. We took a moment to take note of six notable startup trends and especially liked the last one. We’d like to hear what trends and predictions you’ve made note of, so leave them in the comments ! You can also read our own predictions for social platforms in 2012 !

Did we miss a bit o’buzz? Let us know and join in on the conversation here!

Twitter is defining itself
Twitter is an incredible platform for real-time conversation and information sharing, but what will ultimately become of Twitter remains to be seen. Last year’s Twitter predictions ran the gamut from an acquisition, to copying Facebook with a Like button equivalent, to not innovating at all.

Twitter did innovate to be sure, the latest redesign shows that, by continuing to define its position as an information sharing and discovery platform.

This may lead to more people ‘getting’ Twitter and improving active user % thus giving brands broader access to customers.  And as Facebook and Google turn their gazes at one another, Twitter seems positioned to have a very good run in 2012.

Facebook will get even more user-focused
Facebook was going to hit 1 billion users and go public, nail ecommerce, become a search engine, launch a distributed ad network and more.

Facebook will get to a billion users soon for sure, and it seems Mark Zuckerberg is focused on making that happen. As Google+ continues to gain traction and lure brands with its SEO promises, expect Facebook to respond with innovative opportunities for brands to engage with customers.  Though this won’t be ecommerce, at least not until Facebook Credits goes mainstream.

Foursquare is fantastic, but location usage isn’t
2011 industry predictions were not all that rosy for location-based services (LBS), predicting many would consolidate or get acquired, and for the most part were right on this (Gowalla met this fate).

Foursquare  recently hit 15 million users and have innovated continuously with updates, features, and new partnerships. However, Forrester just released a sobering report stating only 5% of online adults use location apps at least once a month.  It seems the space just hasn’t yet hit its stride as a scalable marketing channel.  LBS apps will continue to evolve and expand their features leveraging sales and recommendations as key drivers in an attempt to increase utility and draw more users.  With smartphone adoption on the rise and reaching nearly 50% in the US by next year, 2012 will be the year location does or doesn’t hit the big time.

Very few thought Google would get it right
There was little confidence in Google’s social media efforts, having been disappointed by Buzz, Wave, and rumblings of in-fighting causing launch delays about its much talked about social product.

Google+ did finally launch, and while some people immediately dubbed it a failure, the social network’s outcome remains to be seen. Google+ is latching on to Gmail, YouTube, and likely other Google products soon to integrate its features into Google culture, which few if any of us are immune to. If it succeeds, Google+ becomes a utility vs simply a Facebook alternative, and that’s going to help give it legs in the race to capture the ‘Interest Graph’.

Were you wise or lucky enough to nail a 2011 prediction?  What’s got you excited about 2012?

Facebook to Host Ads in Newsfeeds
Those semi-discrete “Sponsored Story” ads on the right of your screen are about to get more facetime. As of January, Facebook will start featuring “Sponsored Story” ads directly in newsfeeds, aiming to increase visibility, especially for mobile users, although mobile advertising won’t be rolling out until March. Not only will these ads feature directly on one’s newsfeed, Sponsored Stories will be the same size as other updates and posts. In the meantime, you can read the “Facebook Wants You to Know How it Makes Money” disclaimer on the top of your user page. Other changes that are quietly being tested and rolled out: Suggested Events, which pulls in data from previous check-ins, your friends’ events, and pages you’ve liked to suggest you get out there more.

You Can No Has Cheezburger: Go Daddy and SOPA
Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh (of the I Can Has Cheezburger, FAIL blog fame) has thrown down the gauntlet at Go Daddy, the web’s largest hosting and domain registration provider for its support of SOPA. The CEO  tweeted challenging Go Daddy to recant its support of the controversial bill, or the Cheezburger franchise would be moving its 1,000 domains elsewhere. While Go Daddy has not issued any statements, Huh followed up with another tweet directing people to ask Google to pressure GD, which is a third-party registrar.  You can check out the complete list of companies who support SOPA here.

UPDATE: Go Daddy has since announced that it has withdrawn support of SOPA, with CEO Warren Adelman issuing a public statement reading:

“Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation – but we can clearly do better. It’s very important that all Internet stakeholders work together on this. Getting it right is worth the wait. Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it.”

Facebook is #1 Search Term (Again)
Much to the dismay of Google + , it appears that “Facebook” and its variations remain the number one search term in the U.S. for the third year in a row, accounting for 3.1 percent of all searches, which is a 46 percent increase from 2010. This is not the be all end all list of all lists however, as Google and Yahoo released their own “most searched” lists.

Pinterest Piques Interest with 11 Million Weekly Visitors and a 4000% Traffic Increase
Social sharing platform Pinterest is booming. The image dominated, invite-only site started in March 2010 and has since been rapidly growing. Traffic has increased 40x in six months, accounting for 11 million visits within a week (ending December 17th). Further user demographics reveal a 58% female userbase and 59% userbase between the ages of 25-44. As Pinterest is solidly invite-only, if you want to scope out the platform for 2012, you had best request an invite, or finagle one from a friend.

Twitter, Journalism, and Social Change
The International Journal of Communication has released a report analyzing the flow of information and communication as seen in earlier uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia this year. In both Egypt and Tunisia, 70% of the accounts tweeting news were linked to individuals, as opposed to 30% of organizations, despite the larger number of followers and higher frequency of tweets. Individual bloggers, journalists, and activists were responsible for generating 43% of tweets regarding Egypt and 44% in Tunisia, as opposed to the 7% generated by media outlets. To download and analyze the full content of the report, you can check it out here.

Digg Digs into Facebook’s Open Graph
Like other news outlets, social sharing platform Digg has tapped into Facebook’s open graph to make the sharing of links instantaneous and seamless. In addition to the integration, Digg will launch a newsbar that sits atop its pages that allow users to turn off Facebook sharing or individually monitor the stories they want to publish on their Facebook newsfeeds. If you’re still a bit unsure of how to navigate the Facebook’s Timeline, you had better read up on this.

Memorable Tweets of 2011
From social change to social faux pas, Twitter usually manages to snag the moment just as it happens. Just 21 tweets can’t quite sum up 2011, but they certainly are very memorable as we took a look back on some PR slipups, major news events, and deaths. Notably missing from the list are reaction Tweets about the death of Kim Jong Il, so we’re adding this list to the blurb.

Did we miss a bit o’buzz? Let us know and join in on the conversation here!

Solution Type – Digital Promotions, Social Marketing for nutritional supplement brand MuscleTech

Objective:
Counter declining brand sentiment and support the launch of a new line of products by developing and activating the MuscleTech audience in social media, engaging with targeted communities and influencers to educate and deliver key product and brand messaging where it would be heard.

Services Provided:                                      
Contests and Sweepstakes
Blogger/Influencer  Outreach
Facebook Advertising
Social Media Monitoring
Social Media Audit
Internal Policies and Education
Profile Management
Facebook Applications
Product Sampling/Fulfillment

Activation:
Formalized the social media program for Iovate prior to the program’s launch including conducting a social media audit, developing the communication workflow, engagement guidelines, and more.  Utilized a cross-platform content strategy (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube, Knowledge Base) to consistently deliver interesting and relevant content and brand messaging with MuscleTech’s audience.  Improved customer interaction across major social networks by engaging with people talking about MuscleTech, its products, and the sport of bodybuilding. Earned new customers and brand followers by applying audience development tactics across platforms, developing sweepstakes, exclusive offers and content supported by targeted Facebook advertising. Educated customers about new products through interactive Facebook tabs and a Support Center with answers to commonly asked questions, and empowered them to share and recommend content and products through targeted trial sampling programs.

Shocked? Don’t be, because I still get my daily fill of timely news, information, and gossip. Only now, I rely exclusively on my “social lens” – the filtered/curated content that is passed along to me from my social connections.  It was only a few years ago when we relied on sites like Technorati to discover blogs and sift through information. Now, the proliferation of various social channels has created a virtual “firehouse of information“, curated by my social circles.

Depending on the subject matter, I then decide whether or not a story is worth checking out based on the “lens” I am viewing it through (how influential I feel a given connection is on the topic), and  if an item is newsworthy enough then other connections will also be sharing it throughout the day so I’m not prone to miss out on something. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+ will even highlight which stories have been most shared by my connections.

The same way people will accumulate a pile of unread back issues of The New Yorker, I don’t have the time nor the patience to read through every article on every blog or news outlet, so this filtered approach also saves me a lot of time.

A study by Yahoo Research found that 50% of URLs consumed originate from only 20K “elite” users on Twitter. Most of these accounts are either major media outlets or notable personalities. So, in essence, my connections act to filter out the noise and direct me to the most relevant/newsworthy content. To accomplish that 5 years ago, I would have had to run my RSS feeds through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to pay other humans (strangers) attempt to decide which items might be most appealing to me!

Don’t get me wrong, there is still tremendous value in RSS, but mainly “under the hood” in terms of data exchange with other platforms/applications. And yes, there are still a few blogs I visit regularly, but it’s more of a one-shot, Sunday morning ritual where I’ll sit down with my coffee and read back through the past week’s content, cover to cover.

How did you come across this post? Do you subscribe to Social Media Playground’s RSS feed, or did you follow a link posted through your “social lens”?

Photo credit: OakleyOriginals

BlueFly

Bluefly’s unique layout combines design elements from both the welcome tab and avatar. I particularly love the way it draws your eye from the avatar on the left to the like button on the right.  It’s stylish, it’s fun and it completely mirrors the company’s branding.

Champion

This is bold and definitely “in your face” design. Champion is using the oft seen technique of displaying the call to action OVER the content, giving potential fans a sneak peek at content and enticing them further to “like” the page.

Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson’s call to action is the tried and true method of displaying the current number of fans. While this isn’t anything new,  Sony Ericsson’s is the best one I’ve seen so far. I particularly like that the call to action with fan counter is supported by the locked message below it.

Reebok

Bold. Bright. Impossible to miss or ignore. Reebok gets an A+ for assertiveness!

Target

Another strong, bold design – similar to Reebok’s but less assertive. However, this still works really well for Target. I’m also a big fan of the cute tagline “If you like Target, throw your thumb in the air.” Nice touch!

Nutella

While not as bold as other designs in this  post, I have to give Nutella props for creativity and great aesthetics. Super fun and perfect for their branding, this call to action prompt is perfect for Nutella.

Carnival Cruises

What Carnival does well here is incorporating great visual tricks. Notice how your eye – no matter where you look – is drawn up to the ”like” button. While some of the colors are a little recessive and could use some punch, overall this is an effective and creative call to action.

What are your favorite examples of effective “like us” design? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Share them below in the comments or email me at margot@beaffinitive.com.