5 of the best and 5 of the rest is here to save you from impending doom. If those swines strike me down I apoligise now for the lack of blog updates.

5 of the best

What the F**k is social media?

A fantastic slide show presentation that nicely sums up the answer to an age old question.

Mint turns personal finance into a game

Mint has added game-like elements to its savings accounts. Users are rewarded with points when they make good financial decisions. These points have no real meaning other than making you feel better about how you bank. I doubt they will introduce a highscore table allowing us to mock our less financially savvy friends, would sure be a fun facebook application though.

The power of social media for customer service

Using social media for your customer service and support is very in vogue at the moment and rightly so! Here’s a good example of how to do it right and why it is so useful.

25 Must Read Social Media Marketing Tips

Social media marketing tips from social media marketing experts.

The interview: Yorkshire Dales Food Blog

How rural and online can work so well together.

5 of the rest

Google Maps Typography

Now I know my ABC’s next time won’t you sing with me.

Typolution

A mesmorising animation short. Great concept.

King says no to Sonic name change News

We all have dreams and aspirations when we are children. I wanted to be an astronaught. Some kids just want to be blue hedgehogs!

The Beautiful and The Canned

A great local (Brighton) blog!

Man set house on fire while trying to kill a spider with a lighter

Sometimes all you need is a headline. I am from Portsmouth and can confirm this happens fairly regulary. I once tried to kill a fly with a meat cleaver, destroyed my sofa in the process but that fly won’t be coming back again.

Swine of the rest

Like all of you we have been gripped by the hysteria of what some are calling Black Death 2.0, swine flu. We have locked the doors, barricaded the windows and are sticking to tinned foods until the whole pandemic has wiped out the planet. It will be just like Mad Max or maybe 28 days later, but with pigs. So here are some of our favourite things from our coughing four legged friends.

Two Scottish People Feeling A Bit Run Down

A very well put together news article.

Who Will Be The First Arsehole To Wear A Facemask?

More insightful thoroughly researched journalism. What would we do without the daily mash.

This is how it all began

Excuse the bad language.

Google maps mashup tracks swine flu

If you need to know how close you are to death check out this google map mashup.

The sun is out and we are counting down the hours until home time so we can go and play in the park with our friends. This can mean only one thing: It’s Twiday, the time of the week where we round up our favourite Tweets from the last 7 days and put them into one conveniently sized blog post for your viewing pleasure. Have any of your tweets made the cut?

@mrtomasz

glennw: I R THINK GUVERNMENT STOOPID TOO..WHERZ MY MONEY! FIX IT TONY BLAIRZ!

nonlinearmind: Shouldn’t the wikipedia entry for Earth contain every other wikipedia entry about people/events on Earth?

@glennw

MelKirk: RT: @mashable This interview with the Twitter co-founders is hilarious! – http://bit.ly/iT0Ex Brilliant read!

dylancuthbert: got quite excited yesterday talking about how amazing Fallout3 is once you get past the first 2 hours of play… a remarkable game

@nijay

Kerb: I love this guy but you have to wonder how long it will be before he dies in a mysterious accident.. http://bit.ly/sVhXU

I think 5 of the rest and 5 of the best needs a jingle. Any suggestions?

5 of the best

Knowem

This little tool allows you to check the availability of a user name across 120 social networks. Great for picking a new user name or finding squatters. Personally I have been using it to remember what networks I have actually signed up for!

The wrong people are promoting Social Media

Social media is by the people and for the people. I don’t completely agree with the sentiment that marketing and social media are mutually exclusive (I probably wouldn’t be in a job if I did) but it is always important to remember your audience is more important than you.

Death of the Microsite

Should businesses stop spending thousands of pounds on microsites when they can get the same effect for a fraction of the cost by making Facebook pages?

Sprite – Green Eyed World

I started watching this with an open mind, it is always nice to see big brands entering into the social media space. All that said it is such a shame when a big brand puts something out there promoted as “reality” when in actual reality it is a cringe worthy series of scripted events. Shame. (Ok so it’s not really one of the ‘best’ things I’ve seen this week but still worth seeing for how not to do it)

Boag World Podcast

This weeks podcast has a really interesting interview with Mel Kirk (@melkirk) on Social Media.

5 of the rest

The 10 most ingenious travel offers

The sun is out so it is time to think about holidays!

The most intense website intro ever!

This is for anyone who thinks the church is old and outdated. They clearly have stepped into the 21st century, potentially even the 22nd.

‘Jailbird’ ruffles feathers in Colombia

Whoever devised this should be let out of jail just as a reward for being so creative. (Glenn’s comments do not reflect those of Qube Media who believe in prison sentences being served to the full degree and then some!)

100 Unintentionally Hilarious Spam Subject Lines

I think LOL, LMAO or ROFL describe this aptly. Has had me giggling to myself all day.

Snakes on a plane

It’s real, now get these mother flipping snakes off this mother flipping plane!

Last year, Qube took part in the Brighton Internship Programme. We were incredibly lucky with both our candidates and employed both Tom and Glenn. We will be taking part again this year…

If anyone is interested, we highly recommend it. Qube is quoted in the Argus newspaper today, discussing the programme – check it out for more details.

There has been a lot of hoo-ha about change recently. First of all there was a big fuss about Barack Obama and his campaign to become President, which everyone liked a lot. Then a few weeks back Facebook went and changed their interface, which not everyone was so keen on.

Change is an odd thing, and taking Facebook as an example, is also quite interesting from a social media point of view. People don’t tend to like things to be different, especially if they don’t get a say in how that something is going to be different, even more so if it is a change that will affect how they organise their social lives. Facebook invited people to share their opinions on the new interface design, but only after the change had been implemented rather than asking for their input before.

The problem with always asking, is that whilst people tend to be more accepting to change that has come about because of their input, people do not always come up with intelligent input. This is not to say that people are not intelligent, just that they do not always know what they want until you provide them with it.

Glenn came up with an excellent example of this using a mobile phone. If someone had told you that they were making a portable telephone (think before mobiles here) and asked you what features you would like on it, would you ever have suggested that the ability to send text messages to people was a good idea? Would it even have come up in a consumer focus group? Probably not, but now consumers have got so used to the idea, that releasing a phone that doesn’t have the capacity to send a text message seems absurd. These things come about as a part of a product’s evolution, and some of the best ideas are complete accidents or have their foundations in what may seem at first to be ludicrous ideas. The more people involved in the decision making process, the more likely the accident or silly idea is to happen.

It is important to think about this lesson when we talk about using social media as a way to bring consumers in on the decision making process. Facebook got away with changing the product and asking questions later, but Facebook are so big and such an integral part of people’s lives that they will most likely continue to use it regardless of the way it looks. When doing it your brand and your products and your customers, it is best to involve them along the way, give them a little prompting and actively involve everyone as part of a community. Maybe it will allow you to speed up your evolution a little bit.

I hope you all had lovely Easter weekends and are excited that today is Wednesday! Yes your favourite day of the week because today is Qube’s 5 of the best and 5 of the rest. Ta-da!

5 of the best

Ask 37signals: How does 37signals use its own products on a day-to-day basis?

Plenty of companies make software and web tools but how many of them actually use the product themselves? We’re big fans of 37signals here, so it is interesting to see how they are using their own product.

Five simple tips for building, managing and monetising online communities

Our very own Andrew Seel recently held a very succesful breakfast briefing at E-consultancy. Not to blow our own trumpet too much but it went very well.

FAVRD

Another Twitter app (you’re not sick of these yet right?). This one shows you what the most favourited tweets are!

Educating Youth to Design Solutions for Social Issues

Involving today’s youth (tomorrows future some might say) in solutions for social issues. A really great campaign and message.

Amazon Follies

Amazon caused a bloggersphere storm last week when it removed “Adult” materials from its site. This seemed to entail removing all books with homosexual themes. They have since backtracked claiming this was a glitch. Whatever it was it has been a PR nightmare for Amazon.

5 of the rest

Anti-terror billboard

New government anti-terror billboards are popping up around the country. If you think you can do a better job why not put your own message and slogan in.

EBay plans Skype public listing

It always seemed odd for an online auction company to spend billions of pounds on a VOIP company. Seems eBay have finally agreed and are putting Skype up for sale. Anyone got some spare cash? I will go halves with you.

EC starts legal action over Phorm

Phorm is a lovely little programme that intercepts everything you do online and uses it to deliver ads at you. Arguably its not much different to a lot of what Google does, however Phorm does not offer the same sort of opt in/out option that others provide. It’s caused a lot of controversy recently and now the European Commission is getting involved

Bearded dragons found in bin bag

Not a nice story for animal lovers but one of the weirdest stories I have read all week.

This is why you’re fat

I think the title says it all.

On a lovely sunny day in Brighton I present to you Qube’s 5 of the best and 5 of the rest for this week!

5 of the best

Zappos Map

Those lovely shoe people at Zappos have made this fascinating little map. It’s a mash up of their real time sales and a Google map so you can see what shoes are being bought where! I find it quite hypnotic.

New FriendFeed: Simpler, Faster, Better (Maybe Too Fast)

FriendFeed are arguably at the forefront of the status update scene, with some people joking it is Facebook’s R&D deperatment (which you will see if you read the article). This new real time update looks interesting, enough to persuade me I should actually try Friend feed out.

ASOS tests online shopping community

ASOS is going all social adding forums and blogs for their staff. In the future they are looking to add an Amazon Marketplace style err….Marketplace.

Pirate Moves – Promoting Without being that guy

Interesting article on Social Media. The moral of the story is, “Bring something to the picnic”

Just for Fun

Great video. Actually a decent campaign from the government, good show!

5 of the rest

Celebrities Eating

Everyone appreciates a blog with pictures of celebrities eating. Especially check out what Jlo is eating…oh dear

5 bad words you never say in sale copy

From the title this probably sounds like it should be in 5 of the best. I just appreciate someone who gives me copy writing tips with spelling mistakes, broken english and silly advice. I appreciate English is probably not his first language but the word “Invest” has never enticed me to open an email, unless it’s from a Nigerian General obviously.

Layer Tennis

Interesting concept whereby Artists get togethor and “volley” back and fourth artwork whilst someone commentates. Slightly surreal but I really loved a recent Layer Tennis match from Rex and Cookie

Special Guerrilla / Outdoor marketing

A must see for anyone who likes cool and quirky advertising

Sex offender registry

I am just really not sure what to make of this!

It’s Friday and that can mean only one thing; it’s time for our weekly round up of our favourite Tweets from the week. Unfortunately, this week everyone has decided to go on holiday, so the cupboard where we keep all the favourite tweets of the week is looking decidedly bare. So much so in fact, that the only tweets we have are the ones I put in there. Nevertheless I shall share them with you anyway. Spare a thought for me sat here chained to my desk while everyone else is kicking back in foreign climes. Happy Twiday everyone.

@mrtomasz

@kaimac:

What do you call a donkey with three legs? Wonky.

@special_noodles:

i will not cry, i will not cry, i will not cry, i will not cry, i will not cry, i will not cry.

@notactuallyme:

I have a lot of work to do today. After I catch up on Twitter, Tumblr, email, blogs, etc & watch a few West Wing eps, I may even do some.

It’s the time of the week you all wait with baited breath for. 5 of the best 5 of the rest is finally here. We round up the 5 best social media stories, and 5 other stories that we find funny or interesting and collate them here for your viewing pleasure. This week, as a special April Fools Day treat, you will also get our pick of the 5 funniest April Fools gags we found on the web.

5 of the best

Impossible is Nothing

Small but ambitious Swedish agency Volontaire have charged their 3 interns with the menial task of winning the adidas global account within 3 weeks. The pitch is on Friday, fingers crossed I guess.

Social Media Students

Birmingham School of Media is now offering an MA course in social media studies. Those who can do, those who can’t…

Digitally Challenged

Interesting Econsultancy blog on big digital agencies (or lack of them) using twitter as a communication channel.

Don’t Talk to Strangers

Omegle is a strange “new” “social media” platform where you chat with a stranger. Seems a lot like a chat room to me.

Social Networks Side by Side

A side by side comparison of social networks, and what they all do and don’t offer.

5 of the rest

Ryanair Care

In case you needed any, here are a few more reasons never to fly with PR kings and all round good people Ryanair.

It’s all Fun and Games

A nice round up of all the happenings and best bits at this year’s Games developer conference.

Hi, do you err, Poken?

Not exactly sure how useful this service is, but the little USB Poken people are cute so in it goes.

Fruity stuff

Probably some of the coolest packaging we have ever seen. Fruit juice packaged in fruit.

Fashion Over Function

What is more important to consumers? Superior technology or superior aesthetic?

And because you were so good, here is your treat. Happy April everyone.

5 in jest

The Daily Fail Whale

The Guardian are soon to be transferring all of their news services to 140 Character social media platform Twitter.

Pizza Face

Pizza Hut now offer highly realistic images of your photographs on take-away pizzas.

Enviro-Card

Moo.com are now offering a green alternative to printing business cards. Simply recycle other people’s.

Gmail Autopilot

Googlemail have just released a beta version of their auto reply system that mimics replies based on what they think you would have sent.

Oi Ukraine!

Ukrain have been granted special permission to sing the 6 1/2 minute version of their national anthem at tonight’s World Cup Qualifier