How many of us post links after 3pm on a Friday?! Pah. Just don’t bother. Would you be is listening?

Although, with some of our big brand BtoB clients, weekends work better?! So do test your market.

“Want your link to get the most traction on Twitter? Post it on a Monday between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. ET.

Link shortening and tracking service bit.ly has released new data on the best and worst times to share links on popular social networks, from Facebook and Twitter to blogging site Tumblr.

The company revealed that posting links to Twitter between the hours of 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. ET (or 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. PT) will give you the highest click rank, especially on days earlier in the week. Meanwhile, sending a tweet with a link after 8:00 p.m. should be avoided — as should posting links after 3:00 p.m. on Fridays.

The half-life of a link posted to Twitter is about 2.8 hours, according to bit.ly.

However, Facebook’s optimal posting times are slightly different than Twitter. Links sent between 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. get the most traction, with Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. being the best time to post on Facebook all week.

Links posted after 8:00 p.m. and before 8:00 a.m. on Facebook also don’t get the most clicks. Similar to Twitter, bit.ly recommends not posting the links you want to go viral during the weekend.

“While traffic starts to increase around 9:00 a.m., one would be wise to wait to post until 11am,” bit.ly said in a blog post on its site. “Traffic from Facebook fades after 4:00 p.m.”

Meanwhile, Tumblr has a much different usage pattern than Facebook and Twitter. It’s suggested to wait until at least 4:00 p.m. ET. to post important content, and posts that go up after 7:00 p.m. get the most clicks during a 24-hour period.

It’s also suggested that Friday evenings are a key time to post on Tumblr — a time bit.ly recommends avoiding on Facebook and Twitter.

Bit.ly traffic from Tumblr peaks between 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, with similar traffic on Sunday, according to the study.

“It’s easy to see that just like your neighborhood restaurants, each social network has its own culture and behavior patterns,” bit.ly noted in the blog post. “By understanding the simple characteristics of each social network, you can publish your content at exactly the right time for it to reach the maximum number of people.”

Do you notice a difference in engagement when posting at different times? Let us know in the comments what works best for you.”

Every 60 seconds in social media, two million videos are viewed on YouTube, 700,000 messages are delivered by way of Facebook, 175,000 tweets are fired off into the ether, and 2,000Foursquare check-ins tell the world where we are.

If the volume of all this social media activity doesn’t astound you, perhaps a visual representation of the data will put things into prospective.

Social Jumpstart, a social media resource for small business, has created an infographic, shared exclusively with VentureBeat, to add color to the wealth of publicly available data on the hottest social networks and applications of our day.

We already knew that the web is in a tizzy over Pinterest, that Twitter is the talk of the town (and television networks), and that Facebook is the belle of the Internet ball. But when considered together, one thing seems clear: social media has taken over the world. Whether we’re using our 1,440 minutes each day wisely, however, is a question probably best left unanswered.

c/o Jennifer Van Grove from Venture Beat

The Muppets are back! On Nov. 23, Walt Disney Pictures is bringing its next live-action Muppet film, aptly-named The Muppets, to movie theatres across the country.

The film release is the culmination of a multi-pronged marketing campaign that has embraced the social and digital spheres, and in the process, helped reinvigorate the Muppet brand.

It’s rare to see such solid execution on so many digital and social channels and for that reason, we wanted to take a deeper look at the various aspects of Disney’s and The Muppets Studios’ efforts.

Going Viral to Revive Interest in a Brand

Over the last two years, The Muppet Studios has embarked on a proactive social and viral campaign. It all started with an epic cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, and was followed by more songs, iPhone apps and responses to episodes of Internet backlash with just the right amount of aplomb and visual humor.

In retrospect, the timing of these viral video endeavors was perfect. It coincided with the original announcement that a new Muppet film would be coming to theaters.

Getting the Right People Involved

The key to a successful project, especially when it involves a storied and beloved brand, is having the right people on board.

Jason Segel co-wrote the script for the film alongside his Forgetting Sarah Marshall director Nicholas Stoller. If you’ve seen Marshall, you know why this is important. Both men are bonafide Muppet fanatics and already had a working relationship with the Jim Henson Company.

After Disney decided to greenlight the project, two members of Flight of the Conchords — James Bobin and Bret McKenzie — signed on to direct and handle music supervising duties. Amy Adams also signed on to star in the film alongside Segel, Kermit, Miss Piggy and the rest.

As a huge fan of The Muppets, I know my interest in the film was greatly enhanced by the fact that Segel was so involved with the script and the storyline. There is a sense of trust that the brand, characters and situations will be handled properly.

Using Social Effectively

Over the last eight months, Walt Disney Pictures has done a lot to virally and socially promote The Muppetsacross social channels.

In fact, we would go as far as to say that the campaign for The Muppets is one of the most socially savvy we have seen from any studio for a major release window. Let’s take a look at some of the ways social and digital have come together to promote the film, connect fans and spread the word.

Facebook

The official Muppets Facebook page has more than 1.1 million fans and individual characters like Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo and Animal have their own fan pages and campaigns. The Facebook pages have been well-utilized to spread informational and video content.

Disney also created The Muppets Fan-A-Thon on Facebook to entice fans to “Like” various characters, pages and videos in a bid to unlock advance screenings. Cheekily asking for “1 bazillion likes,” the campaign has yielded over 2 million likes since it started.

Twitter

The official Muppets Studio Twitter account is manned by Statler & Waldorf, the best hecklers this side of the universe. The account has nearly 70,000 followers and sends out gems like this:

Mobile Apps

Disney acquired the game maker Tapulous back in 2010, so it makes sense that Tap Tap Muppets would hit iOS. Mobile video app Viddy also has special pack that lets users insert characters from The Muppets into their videos.

Google+

The Muppets was one of the first brands to join Google+ and its Google+ page is a great example of how brands can effectively leverage the platform.

Stars from The Muppets — including Jason Segel — even appeared in a Google+ Hangout. You can see the highlights in this YouTube clip:

YouTube

YouTube has had a huge role to play in promoting the film and the brand itself.

Not only have Disney and Muppets Studios used YouTube to great effect in creating viral music videos, they also created movie trailer parodies spoofing other blockbuster films like The Hangover Part II and The Green Lantern.

Most recently, YouTube was used to release a new video preview of The Muppets Soundtrack, using commenters from negative YouTube users to pepper the soundtrack preview. We love it.

The Box Office Test

Early reviews for The Muppets are overwhelmingly positive, and the film is tracking to be a big success at the box office. Still, we’ll have to wait until the 23rd to see if all the social campaigning and digital interaction have paid off.

I’m going to see The Muppets over the holiday weekend. What about you?

Article written by: Christina Warren11 Via: Mashable

South Africans have embraced social media as a core pillar of internet activity, along with email, news and banking.

MXit and Facebook lead the way in user numbers, while Twitter has seen the most dramatic growth in social networking in the past year and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) is the fastest growing network in the second half of 2011. These are among the key findings of a new study released yesterday by Fuseware and World Wide Worx, entitled South African Social Media Landscape 2011.

“The question of how many South Africans use each of the major social networks comes up so often, it became a priority for us to pin down the numbers,” said Michal Wronski, MD of information analysts Fuseware and co-author of the report. “The data was collected through a combination of Fuseware’s analysis of social network databases, information provided directly by social networks and World Wide Worx’s consumer market research.”

An analysis of Fuseware’s extensive database of Twitter usage, in conjunction with World Wide Worx’s consumer market research, shows that there were 1.1 million Twitter users in South Africa in mid-2011. This is a twentyfold increase in a little more than a year.

“This trend is only going to increase in the future as South Africans have easy access to social network on phones,” Wronski said. “Over 80% of the total online population is using Twitter.

“Although South Africa doesn’t have a high mobile penetration rate in comparison with Western countries, the social media penetration in regard to the online population is very high.”

World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck said the media’s obsession with Twitter was helping it grow. “Most radio and TV personalities with large audiences are engaged in intensive campaigns to drive their listeners and viewers to both Twitter and Facebook.

“The former, coming off a low base, is therefore seeing the greatest growth.”

As in the global environment, not all Twitter users are active users, with only 40% tweeting, but probably as many simply watching, following and using it as a breaking news service.

MXit remains the most popular social network in South Africa, with about 10 million active users. Its demographic mix runs counter to the popular media image of MXit as a teen-dominated environment. No less than 76% of the male user base of MXit and 73% of female users are aged 18 or over.

A surprising finding emerged from analysis of Facebook data. Of about 4.2 million Facebook users in South Africa by August 2011, only 3.2 million had visited the site in the year-to-date.

“This is partly a factor of many users moving on once the novelty of the site had worn off, as well as a result of the fickle nature of the youth market,” Wronski said.

“Once BBM picked up significant traction in private schools, for example, many teenagers who had previously flocked to Facebook, opted for BBM’s greater immediacy.”

While LinkedIn, aimed at professional users, also reached the 1.1 million mark, it came off a far higher base – but still saw 83% growth of South African users from 2010 to 2011. Of these, 112000 or 10% are business owners.

Consumer research analysed in the report revealed that future intention of usage of most social networks is strongly related to age. The younger the user, the greater the intention of usage.

“This is only one of many micro-trends shaping social networking,” Goldstuck said. “MXit, Facebook and BBM statistics illustrate, for example, that as social networks become more mainstream, their penetration within all age ranges deepens.

“This, in turn, will result in the continual flattening of the age curve as social networks mature.”

Article via: worldwideworx.com

Via: sixfiguremomsclub.com

It’s no secret that President Obama’s 2008 campaign success was due in large part to the overwhelming support of voters age 29 and younger (66%).

By all accounts, winning a second term will be almost impossible without that demographic’s continued support. On the other hand, securing the youth vote will be challenging. As a voting bloc they are historically unpredictable, and their approval of the president has dropped 13 points since June. To counter his waning popularity, the president’s campaign, Organizing for America (OFA), will need to deploy a social media strategy that combines innovative outreach techniques with a focus on youth turnout.

SEE ALSO: 5 Ways QR Codes Could Shake Up the 2012 Election

Before addressing the “must-haves” for the president’s digital strategy, it’s important to understand said demographic, both as a consumer and as a voter. Not surprisingly, this audience dominates the online and social networking space. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 83% of Internet users ages 18-29 use social networking sites. The percentage drops off significantly as the age range increases (only 51% of those between the ages of 50 and 64).

Second, according to the most recent census, voters ages 24 and younger made up 10% of voters in 2008, and were the only age bloc that increased its participation since 2004.

Finally, a staggering number of people age 20-29 do not have jobs. The Census Bureau found that in 2010, one in three were unemployed. As a result, this demographic presents an enormous challenge as well as an opportunity for OFA. The president must connect with this group and make his case for why they should support him as strongly as they did three years ago.

Via: dibussi.com

After Obama’s 2008 victory, OFA received widespread praise for its social media strategy. This admiration was deserved, mainly because OFA implemented a tool that was foreign to almost everyone else in professional politics. David Axelrod, top strategist for the 2012 campaign and former senior advisor to the president, acknowledged that “so much of our support [in 2008] came from younger, more wired people.”

But now the element of surprise is gone. Consider the differences between the social media landscape in 2008 and today.

• In 2008, Facebook had 100 million users; today it has 800 million.
• In 2008, Twitter had 8 employees; today it has more than 400.
• In 2008, YouTube averaged 13 hours of video uploaded every minute; today it averages 48 hours.
• Foursquare did not yet exist.

Most importantly, today almost every politician uses social media in some capacity. That means the bar is set higher for creatively integrating social media into a campaign. Thirteen months out from the next election, the president has more than 23.6 million “Likes” on his Facebook page, another 10.7 million Twitter followers, and videos from his YouTube page have garnered nearly 165 million views.

However, it’s not enough to simply record a video message or tweet about an event. Younger voters want to interact and be part of the conversation.

The Obama campaign will need to approach social media as a gateway to open a two-way dialogue, not a vehicle for pushing out traditional campaign talking points. “Social media has gone from a publishing platform to a really interactive space,” said Andrew Foxwell, manager of marketing and new media at iConstituent, in a recent interview with the Associated Press. “You have to interact. That’s the added value of social media.” While the Obama campaign has partnered with Facebook and LinkedIn to host interactive events, its strategy will need to become more fluid and consistent as the president enters “campaign mode.”

Consistency is not the only barometer for success. Connecting with younger voters necessitates more than a typical blast from one of Obama’s top deputies. Instead, OFA might try sponsoring a debate-watching party for which participants check in via Foursquare. While watch parties are not a unique concept, younger voters more likely get involved if courted via social media.

Another option could be a video series, titled “Voting For My Future,” in which supporters record 30-second YouTube clips that explain why they plan to vote for the president. The most-viewed videos would be featured in a television ad paid for by OFA.

These two-way conversations are critical for attracting young voters because their likelihood to vote is so erratic. Voter turnout among those aged 18-29 fell by 60% from 2008 to 2010, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE). While turnout in presidential elections is typically higher, the president will face the significant challenge of getting younger, unenthusiastic and often jobless voters to the polls.

“Since 2004, young voters have been one of the strongest Democratic constituencies,” explained CIRCLE director Peter Levine, who told The Nation that “Democrats need to engage them better than they did in 2010.” Interacting with younger voters through social media will have to be a cornerstone of the president’s tactics.

If younger voters stay home on Election Day, much like they did in 2010, the president’s odds for re-election will be very slim. To draw this segment of voters to the polls, President Obama will need to speak not just to them, but with them. The campaign’s social media strategy will need to be strong — one that young, tech-hungry voters view as worthy of their attention, and most importantly, their vote.

Watch the video

Via: http://www.mbaonline.com/planet-text/

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

- Steve Jobs

On the metro, on cereal boxes, beer cans and stuck randomly into email signatures, sidewalks and walls. Almost like a plague, there has been a recent epidemic of pointless QR codes.

Just to put in perspective of how this ‘stick a QR code on it’ trend is growing, I have found the following stats from an infographic titled: The Rise of QR Codes

• QR code uptake has increased 4589% from early 2010 to early 2011
• 56% of QR codes appear on product packaging
• The majority of users expect to receive a coupon or deal from scanning a QR code
• 11 out of 50 Fortune companies are incorporating QR codes into their marketing strategy
• 68% of QR codes are scanned via an iPhone

So this all looks wonderful. Yes we SHOULD stick QR codes everywhere with numbers like these…. right?

Well, hold your horses.

Econsultancy recently published the results from a survey showing that most of (64%) consumers don’t know what QR codes are for. Out of this 36%, only 11% have actually used them.

It gets worse…

Out of the 11% that have gone to the effort of scanning a QR codes, under half found them very useful, 33% said they could be useful or some ocations and 20% didnt think they offered any advantages.

These sort of results are seen across other surveys. Comscore recently found that only 6.2 percent of the total mobile audience in the US had scanned a QR code on their mobile device.

Is it a lost cause?

Well no. At least I don’t think so.

If you consider what you are asking a user to do for a moment. Lets face it , it is rather cumbersome.

You need to download a QR reader app (oh so many to choose from….), scan it (does it map on ok, are my hands steady enough), go to the destination URL/Read the text/Login to Facebook/Download the coupon/fill in your details.

All in all, it is still a rather clunky process.

What’s in it for me?

People are pretty selfish beings (me included).

Once someone goes through the rigmarole of scanning a QR code, the destination needs to be worthwhile.

Consider why you are adding a QR code to your campaigns, try adding value to our lives rather than disappointment .  Make sure the site you are sending people is mobile optimized, make sure the QR code works.

Even though it is titled ‘Quick Response’, QR codes take careful planning, rewards ,context and consideration of the users journey.

I am not saying that I hate QR codes, rather I am saying that they could be useful, if used well.

I am just asking marketers to consider what they are doing before ‘sticking a QR code on it’ once again.