5 of the best

Writer Evan Ratliff Tried to Vanish: Here’s What Happened

This is a really amazing story. Have you ever thought about how secure your life is online and how much people can learn about you? It’s a bit of a read but well worth the time!

Twitter: Small Games for Simple Purposes

Some interesting and outside the box thinking on how you can use Twitter.

Ikea invents Facebook tag marketing

I’m not sure if Ikea really invented tagging people in pictures that aren’t them, but this is the first commercial use I have seen of it. What do you think, clever marketing or spammy idea?

Crowdsourcing Business Documents

How do you collaborate with your clients to deliver exactly what they want?

Social Media Needs To Become a Team Sport

I think too often emphasis is placed on one person running or controlling all of a companies social media. Just like you wouldn’t have a call centre with one member of staff maybe it is time to start thinking about the real resources good social media needs.

5 of the rest

Cutthroat Capitalism: The Game

Do you have what it takes to be a pirate in this day and age? Tom made $12m profit as a Somalian pirate on a lunch break…I challenge you to beat it!

What is Google Chrome OS? (Explained by Google)

Personally I am not sold on Chrome OS yet, however I do love the videos Google makes.

5 of the best

3 Social Media Lessons From the Restaurant World

Some good advice for restauranteurs on how to make the most of Social Media.

250,000 strong Facebook group finds owner of lost camera

The power of online social networks. A great example of how powerful a tool Social Media can be. While impressive this could have all been avoided by just putting your address on the memory card

Social Media is not your marketing strategy

Using social media and taking part is a whole new way of running your business and shouldn’t just be defined by your marketing team and advertising budgets.

The 7 Harsh Realities of Social Media Marketing

So much truth! There are no shortcuts in Social Media.

Tweetlevel

A great tool for establishing who the influencers are on twitter…it is also really useful for trying to one up your friends and colleagues.

5 of the rest

Diary: Malcolm Gladwell

This made me giggle

Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem Of Hell

This story has been causing a bit of an online stir over the last few weeks. Some really shady abuse of a social network.

Here’s how the web will look in five years according to Google

Interesting thoughts and if anyone knows what is going down online it’s Google! Just think 5 years ago most of us weren’t using Youtube or Facebook…and twitter didn’t exist! Think how much they have transformed how you use your computer and prepare for that all to get turned upside down again.

Tom likes graffiti, he tells me there should be more stories about graffiti on our blog. I tell him “go find me some then!!” and he did. I hope that was an exciting story for you and gives you some insite into how this blog gets put together…..insite

Baby Badger

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww gimme!

But - and it’s a big but – people are still reluctant to put money into social media outreach because they feel the case for it hasn’t been proved.

We’re lucky enough to have run a social media campaign directly benchmarked against a banner ad campaign to get real results.

What we found out was fascinating…. check it out:

http://www.qubemedia.net/banner-ads-social-media.php

Agree, disagree, interested, not interested… let us know what you think.

Our favourite social media stories from the past week and  5 other random things that may or may not be interesting.

5 of the best

Facebook in challenge to Google

Revealed: why Facebook acquired FriendFeed

Facebook acquires Friendfeed

The big news this week was that Friendfeed was snapped up by Facebook straight from under Google’s nose and we have not one, but two articles about the event.

99 Designs

99 designs is a site for designers to find clients. Competitions are set up with a brief and cash prize and designers then enter their ideas for a logo or design. It is a great way for a designer to build a portfolio, find clients and make some money at the same time. A good example of how the web and social networks can bring people together who may otherwise not have met.

The legend of the Witch lives on

In amongst the possiblity of a “true” Blair Witch project story is an interesting story about an internet marketing campaign. Funny to think how inventive having a fictional website for your movie was, but 10 years ago Blairwitch.com was one of the first. Now entire marketing campaigns have been built around crossing fiction with reality.

5 social media campaign killers

5 reasons your social media campaign might die!

A tinythread

A very simple looking website that allows you to create conversation threads that can be commented on using your twitter account. Will be interesting to see if it takes off.

5 of the rest

Wikispeedia

The rules are simple; get from one wikipedia article to another in as few clicks as possible by using the hyperlinks within the articles. Take on a random challenge or set one for yourself. Can anyone beat my score of 4 for Isle of Man to Natural Disaster.

23 Badly Placed Internet Ads

23 internet ads that probably shouldn’t have appeared on the pages they did.

Hurrah Bah

A weird and slightly surreal selection of images and text. I am not quite sure what to make of it…but I can’t help but read it.

When feminism went nuts

Has our society given up on feminism? What does the current generation think of the treatment of women in the modern day world?

Invisible Hand

Finally we have a Firefox plugin to help you bargain hunters out there! Have been using this for a week or so now and I have been quite impressed. Mainly because unlike a lot of Firefox plugins this one is really unobtrusive.

The Qubites favrouite tweets from the past week

(Also do you like the awesome logo I made? Looks like something from “My first lesson in Microsoft Paint”…it will do for now I guess, if you can make me a better one please do! As you can see my design skills leave a lot to be desired. So help your good friend Glenn out and email him a better Twiday Logo)

@glennw‘s favourites

@willmcinnes: First time in a long time: I wrote a blog post on Feedback, Culture, Web stuff and the Individual. http://bit.ly/uCPkq

@ja2ke: Trailer for new Coen Bros film “A Serious Man” is pretty much the best http://is.gd/1UDpP

@warchildUK: Contrary to popular belief, none of our staff in Congo have even heard of Um-Bongo, let alone drink it.

@mrtomasz‘s favourites

@glennw Holy sh*t the pier is on fire! http://tinyurl.com/kkle5l

@maxwellinever Woop woop, it’s the sound of the police (community support officers) #classichiphopupdated

@abigvictory My OCD daughter forgot to set the DVR for the show about OCD and now she’s freaking out about freaking out about missing the show.

@monawalsh‘s favourites

(from various) For all Brightonians – there’s going to be a flypast today: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/... – #Brighton http://bit.ly/CfPTo

@qubemedia: Back in my day we didn’t have any of this internet thing (5 of the best) http://bit.ly/ElXYP

@nijay‘s favourites

@rapella: We iz dead. http://twitpic.com/c0j3o yo @Sweena

@leapfrogg: New blog post: How 24 Year Old Girls Consume Media http://bit.ly/bqemr

My absolute favourite #twago twicpic for the photo map so far…RT: @twago @joecoyne Found near the palace pier http://twitpic.com/c01qu

@thedailymash: NEW CRACKDOWN ON ORANGE PEOPLE http://bit.ly/JjoVY

@fionajane‘s favourites

@joecoyne need to chill? this is beautiful http://bit.ly/2m7JlV Nice way to end my day

@seelpod‘s favourites

@twhume perfect storm of worried, tired, f*cked off and feeling out of touch.

@special_noodles just got on the bus behind a woman who was mooing to herself #twago

After seeing the recent hack on twitter had been nothing more than a patient man with an understanding of the internet, I got to thinking about my own security.

It was fairly common practice to hack a friends email account when I was at school and you don’t need any complicated tools, usually just knowledge of their mothers maiden name or birthplace was enough to get past the “secret question”. How difficult is it to find that information in this day and age?

I am not as addicted to Linkedin and Facebook as some people (Twitter is my vice) but if you can see my profile you can glimmer potentially useful information. If you can find a photo of me with one of my grandparents or see if my mother has a brother you could quite easily work out her maiden name.

So without much effort you could know my mother’s maiden name, my DoB and my email address as well as the city I live in.

For most people a combination of those things could be enough to answer a “secret question” and obtain or change a password.

In today’s age of always online and always open plenty of young people are recording everything they do online. In a few years time it probably won’t be much of a stretch for me to find out your “first pet’s name” or “mother’s birthplace”. Going more extreme than that I could probably build a portfolio about you, what music you like, who your friends are, where you live and when you are not at home.

Scaremongering aside it is important to think about your online security and what you keep online. If you have children, don’t now go and demand they delete any sensitive information or ban them from talking about their lives on Facebook. Instead educate them on why elements of privacy are important. There are simple steps that will not encroach on their usage of social networks.

Simple things like making sure “secret questions” are genuinely secret and that privacy settings are set so that only genuine friends can see private information. Don’t just add anyone who sends a friend request, message them back first and ask who they are.

Don’t feel you need to close the shutters on social networks, they are all about being social and sharing. Young people of today lead very open lives online and just need to be aware of what they are putting online and who can see it. The best way to calm any fears of safety of young people on line is to start using the networks they are using, gain an actual understanding of how the privacy settings work and how they communicate.

Glenn is a 22 year old social media-ite and a very recent “young person”

5 of the best

Yes, Your Social Media Strategy Needs Design

Duct tape and bubble gum will only go so far. You need to approach your Social Media from a design point of view.

Three Instantly Effective Social Media Ideas

Here a three ideas that you could use to get started in social media. There are also some great examples of them in practice.

Social media: myth versus reality

Debunking some popular myths about Social Media. I don’t agree with all of the “myths” such as “Social media is about conversations,” but on the whole it is an interesting read.

Social web literacy and brands

iCrossing deliver a really good presentation on social media literacy! Have a read and a flick through.

What Social Media Can and Can’t Do for You

What can social media do for you?

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100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About

“Back in my day we had….” is a popular phrase of grand parents, so take a glimpse at what you will be ending the sentence with when you come of age.

iPhone App Tests Sobriety By Asking Users to “Walk the Line”

Can you walk the line? Here is an iPhone app to test when you are too drunk. If I was too drunk to walk in a straight line I doubt I would be able to find the app. Still, could be fun.

Drunk Yoga

Even the homeless of the world find time for relaxing exercise, what’s your excuse!?

555 KUBIK | facade projection

So this is what a house dreaming looks like!

How 31 Year Olds Consume Media

A funny tongue in cheek response to Morgans Stanleys recent report on how 15 year olds use media. Also check out how 24 year old girls consume media from our friends at Leapfrogg.

As an ex smoker myself, I was just commenting the other day how fast I thought the shift in my own behaviour (and that of others around me) had been.  That now, when someone lights up – or asks to light up – there is an undertone of social disgust and exclusion.   I don’t know when this shift happened but it quite obviously did – without any monetary incentive or monetary penalty levied.

Results Fast Please!

As a social media agency the objectives behind most campaigns – even those not specifically about social change – is to have some influence on people’s attitudes and behaviours so the question about how to achieve that often leads into a conversation about incentives.   Clients (and people in general) always want results fast so it’s all too easy to take the monetary route to either encourage participation in a community or encourage a direct shift in behaviour.    But we need to remind ourselves why we are using social media or social marketing techniques in the first place. We bought into the fact that communication is more effective when delivered within a social context – that social influence has greater impact than both corporate/government or monetary influence.

Backfiring

The guys at Freakanomics proved just that when they wrote about an economic experiment undertaken with tardy parents. To try and stop parents from picking up their kids late from school they proposed a fine of $3 per child.  The result? Late pick up went up! Parents thought they were paying for the privilege, they had turned the whole thing into a market transaction instead of a social one and it had royally backfired.

Talking about backfiring, I was amused to read a post today on Mumsnet related to the Dundee Smoking story where mums said they would start smoking and then prove they have quit just to get the extra £50 a month!  Insight direct from the public at large about the holes in this social change initiative – are the government listening to this buzz online?

Figuring out what makes them tick

I wouldn’t count out monetary incentives at all; relevant prizes are always nice to reward participation as long as they are used sparingly and alongside other social incentives.   Feverbee did a neat post about the many options to incentivise social communities online but the key really, as always, is to start with insight into the people you are trying to influence. Understanding their needs, values, motivations and social norms will help you put together an incentive strategy that delivers your desired objective.

The poll asks whether or not gipsies should be allowed to jump the NHS waiting list. Whether or not they should or even if the poll is politically correct is not really what I’m interested in though.

What I am interested in is how viral the poll has gone and how quickly it has achieved it. People have been sending the link around the interweb to skew the results and show the Daily Mail up. As I’m writing this, there have been 190+ retweets of it in the past 20 minutes, and it is currently number 5 on trending topics. Social Media is such a powerful tool that when people get up in arms about something, big things can happen, such as giving the impression that Daily Mail readers are perhaps more liberal minded than most may think.

I hope another paper prints a story tomorrow about how Daily Mail readers think gipsies should go straight to the front of NHS waiting list. Yay social media.

5 of the best

Twitter Fall

Lay back and watch the tweets just roll in. A very visual way to check out a trending topic or any other Twitter search term you wish.

Joke review boosts T-shirt sales

This was going to be in 5 of the rest but I thought it was far too important to be associated with that drivel. A social media campaign, started by users, that increased sales by 2,300%, surely that is every businesses dream? Not so for some people it seems “We appreciate humour as much as the next company, but we don’t approve of some of the remarks.” That said I think they are probably a little happy deep down.

Negative ads may not be nice, but they work

Now this isn’t very social! It seems that businesses are doing well from knocking their rivals. Time to put it to the test; did you know @mrtomasz is a boring rambling fool and that @glennw is much more interesting! You do now.

Helvetica-tized

Ever thought about recreating your favourite social media logos in Heltavica. Well some lovely chap has gone to the trouble so you dont have to!

Spam Is Back, With a (Social Networking) Vengeance

Guess who’s back, back again, spam is back, tell a friend. If you haven’t noticed yet spam has been invading our social networking spaces as well as our inbox. I look forward to plenty more followers called @O4CGX2

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RUBBERDUCKZILLA!

I’ve posted a couple of augmented reality tools before but this is be far the best! Make sure you print out the magic symbol (there is a very helpful instructional video if you click “How to play”)

Unemployed Gray

Our good friend @graemebenstead is settling into the life of unemployment with style. Check out the video, oh and tell your friends, see if we can just get him a couple more views.

Tweenbots

This little robot is so cute! An art student decided to find out if she could get a robot from one side of the park to the other, with the help of strangers. The little cardboard chap could only go forwards so strangers would have to help point him in the right direction to make his goal.

Office Supplies Challenge: Liquid Fuel Rocket

Dont try this at home! (or at work) so tempting though!

A close-knit community: Meet the ladies who’ve spent years stitching their entire Kent village

I cant believe I was so quick to dismiss the Daily Mail. They have almost won me back over with this great piece of investigative journalism. By almost won me over, I mean I will still never read the paper and will vilify it in public, but I will tell people they once did a great story on knitting.