Tag: Tumblr

Never Stop Learning: 10 Masterclasses You Can’t Miss

Posted on by Nicky Yates

Gandhi said, “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

And we think it’s a good rule for life and business. Which is why we started bringing hands-on, practical classes to Social Media Week. This year, we’re giving you even more opportunities to leave SMW14 with practical skills that will advance your career or bolster your personal goals. These are ten you can’t miss next week:

  1. Navigating Internet Subcultures: Reddit, Tumblr, Snapchat, and Twitter
    If you want to get in, you got to be friends with the band. And the band so to speak of the Internet are the subcultures of Reddit, Tumblr, Snapchat, and Twitter. These subcultures can be some of the best sources of inspiration for real-time social media posts — but you need to understand them first. In this Masterclass, you’ll get the unwritten and incredibly nuanced rules of these communities and gain a playbook on how to use these sites as sources for real-time marketing.
  2. Build an Effective Email Newsletter (From Scratch!) with Basic HTML & CSS: Turn Likes into Sales
    Ok, we all know that email is one of the most effective ways to reach your audience (and we’ve been using and abusing that these past few weeks…), so that means knowing how to create campaigns and newsletters that people will open is critical to your marketing. So, we have two options on Tuesday and Friday for you in this Masterclass designed for beginners to learn how to create an e-mail newsletter from scratch.
  3. The Power of Hashtags: Case Studies and Mechanics for Both Users and Brands
    Oh, the hashtag… We love it in all its glory. But do you know how to really use it? In this Masterclass, Tagboard CEO Josh Decker will provide the do’s and don’ts from both the user and brand perspective, including case studies from some of the world’s biggest brands and professional sports teams.
  4. Building Wearables: A Hands-On Intro to Open-Source Interaction Platforms
    Put your phone down, it’s the year the wearable computing. And we’re teaching you how to be ahead of the curve. You’ll have two opportunities on Wednesday and Friday to create a basic wireless soft fashion cuff using an Adafruit Gemma.
  5. Data-Driven Channel, Content, and Campaign Intel, Presented by Unmetric
    Data, data, data. Decisions should be based on data to determine what content works best, and you’ll have two opportunities to learn how to use it. Unmetric is showing you the three C’s of social media intelligence and how social media marketers can use them to gain a competitive advantage on both Wednesday and Thursday.
  6. Your Spine Online, Rejuvenate and Reconnect with Breathe Repeat
    It’s not all work at SMW. Happy workers are more productive workers, and your health plays into that. So, that’s we’re bringing in Breathe Repeat to educate us all about our backbones and how being virtually connected can affect the natural flow of their own circuitry.
  7. Lean Marketing: “Think Like a Brand. Act Like a Startup.”
    Lean marketing is enabling brands, corporations and startups to accelerate speed to market, increase conversion rates, and improve customer engagement. It’s all about your ROI. In this Masterclass, General Assembly will share insights from this approach and how your brand can implement it.
  8. Making Longform Videos That People Will Watch
    Video is still king. But it’s not just shortform. Brands like VICE are seeing great success with more in-depth stories and longform content. In this Masterclass, Motherboard’s team will look at all aspects of video production, including finding story ideas, shooting, and editing.
  9. Winning The Participation Economy: Understanding Global Conversations and Developing a Social Strategy
    2014 brings us two global events that marketers can really capitalize on to create global conversations. How can brands stand out? Marketers of all sizes are welcome as Big Fuel shares the evolution of social media marketing and how it is changing once again in the context of global conversations. At the end of this Masterclass, you’ll have developed a sample social strategy.
  10. Programming For Non-Programmers
    Web development can no longer be relegated to an elite few. If you’re running a tech start-up, it’s essential that you know the fundamentals. Ultimately, knowing how to “talk to the talk” will help you communicate better with developers, and in this Masterclass, we’ll tackle development principles to get you on the right path and the differences between front and back-end development.

Masterclasses are a special offering for our attendees with a Campus or Insider Pass only and are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. So, get your pass here now before sales end on Friday and join us, Nokia, and MKG for what will be our best SMW14 yet.

5 Minutes with Ogilvy’s John Bell

Posted on by Lindsey Taylor Wood

As you’ve probably heard by now, advertising vanguard Ogilvy & Mather has joined us again this year as an NYC Supporting Sponsor. Last year, they announced Social@Ogilvy at our event, and we hear they have a few more tricks up their sleeve this year too. Social@Ogilvy’s Global Managing Director, John Bell, sat down with us to talk about the past, present and future of social, and Ogilvy’s participation in SMW13.

1. What is Ogilvy’s greatest success with social media to date?
Social@Ogilvy has built a global team across 35+ countries, delivering award-winning integrated social media solutions for brands. Building such a strong team that “gets” how to apply social to real business solutions is our best accomplishment. Helping Ford, IBM, Nestlé and other great brands put social at the center of what they do has been terrifically rewarding.

2. What do you think is the most exciting thing happening in the emerging technology and/or new media space right now?
When you look at all the interesting phenomena, like SnapChat and the established players, like Facebook, and the merging next-gen platforms like Tumblr, but I get most excited by Kickstarter. It’s taken the crowd-funding model and made it real and reliable, and is now enabling all sorts of entrepreneurs and artists to source funding. I helped my friend at Padua Playwrights take a show to Berlin this month. Truly satisfying to be a part.

3. What are you looking forward to most at SMWNYC 2013?
We have some great sessions at Ogilvy in NYC, Paris, DC and more. I am looking forward to our NYC sessions with David Karp from Tumblr. I have a lot of interest in the platform, as they are just starting to monetize it and have incredible creative work all over it. That same day, we are doing something unusual and downright unwise. We will be creating and debuting a strategy to use Google+ for Caterpillar. Only, we will be doing it live before the SMW2013 audience. Risky but fun.

4. Tell us about your goals for SMW. As one NYC’s City Supporting Sponsors and a host of several events, as well as a Master Class, what do you hope attendees will take away from these experiences?
We want to share our own passion for applying social to business problems. SMW2013 is a weird, connected, global event, where we can create remarkable experiences — at the Chocolate Factory (Ogilvy HQ in NYC), in Paris, DC and more — and we can also participate all week long online, to drive a focused conversation. Okay, we will see how focused it is, but it will be great, that much I know.

5. What is the most creative way you’ve seen social media used?
Well, I am not sure I expected to say this, but our guys did some really neat brand advertising via Tumblr for the Lincoln Motor Company. I mean, I just think social has fundamentally changed how brands bother with pure brand work to the point where there are always dual motives for engaging users online. The Lincoln work included a great collaboration with these artists who create Cinemagraphs — really rich photography, with a story or moment captured there. We’ll see if this is the next wave of using social for brand purposes.

6. This year, our global theme is “Open & Connected: Principles for a Collaborative World.” How does Ogilvy embody or support this idea?
We have a global network of 550 people who are connecting every day via our Social@Ogilvy wiki, through G+, a new video meeting platform called Fuze, not to mention Facebook and IM. We know our best work comes from collaboration, and now that means doing so 1,000 miles away or more. We’ll see how others apply connectivity and collaboration during this week.

7. Last year, Ogilvy launched Social@Ogilvy during SMW NYC. With the first year anniversary approaching, how has this gathering of experts around the globe impacted Ogilvy’s work? What changes are you seeing in Public Relations from social media?
Social@Ogilvy officially launched at SMW 2012. But we had been in business since 2005. We have grown our network and solutions over the past 7+ years. This past year just took us to a much higher level. More client engagements across 3, 5, 20 markets. More serious business problems. More accountability with measurable programs. And more awards.  Our team is cross-discipline. We work on marketing programs, customer care programs, PR programs, shopper programs and, yes, even pure-play social programs. This is our POV, that the best social is integrated with other disciplines. And I believe that each of these disciplines will see even more radical change through this next year or two of social growth.

You Don’t Have to Be a Sinner to Be Social Media Savvy

Posted on by differencesmag

This post is a series of blogs contributed by SMW NYC media partner Differences Magazine. To learn more about Differences Magazine and to see the original post by Jessica Bender, please click here. You can watch the SMW NYC event on livestream here. 

Being a social butterfly takes a lot of energy; along with constantly juggling your Facebook and Tumblr feeds, you have to make sure to be smart about what you’re doing on your beloved social networks. Add another thing to your list of things to be concerned about – you might be a social media sinner, and you might not even know it.

If you’re desperate to run to confession to have your soul detoxed, don’t freak out too much. According to a survey conducted by marketing-communications brand JWT, 71 percent of people over the age of 18 have committed at least one social media sin. On top of that, the average person is guilty of doing two sins out of seven.

So, let’s get to the bottom of this. What, exactly, are the seven social media sins? Answer: they are much like the seven deadly sins we’re all very familiar with. The rundown of the scorching sins are:

1. Greed of social media attention

2. Gluttonous towards consumption of online and social content

3. Lust and desire – think of spending too much time sexting with your boy/girlfriend of the week or watching too much Internet porn

4. Social media enabling you to be a lazy bum

5. Acting angry or lashing out towards people on your social network

6. Social media arrogance

7. Jealousy towards what other people in your network are doing

The topic of teens’ sins on social networks came up heavily during the How and Why We Share: The Seven Deadly Sins of Social Media panel on February 16th at JWT Headquarters. Editor-in-Chief of Seventeen Magazine, Ann Shoket, knows first-hand about teens’ online behavior, since she and her team interact with teenage girls all the time. “[It’s great] that girls have a voice and can make a mark,” Shoket comments. “[However}, teens have to be incredibly smart about their own PR and making their own image.” If they’re not, teens are going to abuse their power of free speech and spew obscenities and TMI facts that their followers don’t want to hear.

Another problem that teens may face thanks to their social media use is acting shallow about practically anything they encounter. “Liking something has become such a shallow act,” said JWT Digital Strategist Jinal Shah. “Blogging’s better because it pushes people to think and get into a conversation.” More importantly than that, it enables readers of blog posts to construct new and original thoughts upon reading a piece of stellar writing. That’s definitely something that most teeny-boppers have a hard time doing on Twitter, with the very-limited character space and all.

It’s evident what the Big Baddie of Social Media is, though; the utterly despicable act of trolling and cyber bullying (or, as Shoket prefers to call it, “digital drama”). It feels like every day a new story comes out about teens being tortured by their peers or complete strangers on the Internet.

The perfect example of Internet trolling at its worst (at least in my eyes) was the sad situation involving Florida tween Jessi Slaughter. If you don’t know about this, let me clue you in. 11 year-old Jessi liked to post semi-inappropriate videos and self-portraits on MySpace and YouTube. This would usually go unnoticed and ignored by everybody except her friends. Unfortunately, a poster from the infamously trollish 4chan picked up on one of her videos and posted it all over the site. The Team of Trolls couldn’t help but harass her from all sides, from calling her names via email and IM to sending her death threats via text. Long story short, the trauma of the online harassment landed her in several mental institutions.

Cyber bullying may be hard to defeat, but it’s not immortal. For instance, Seventeen launched a social media campaign called Delete Digital Drama last summer to fight back against it using Facebook and Twitter badges to start the conversation. With a growing community of teens against this harsh form of bullying, it should be harder to get away with harassing people on each other’s Facebook walls.

Now that you’ve been enlightened of your possible online wrongdoings, it’s now up to you to check yourself before you go off being a social media menace. You’ll feel a heck of a lot better not being a troublemaking troll or a jealous lazy bum.

Get to know us and get yourself a paper writing service friend who will be completing papers for you cheap and fast!

The Conscientious Teen’s Guide to Using the Internet for Good

Posted on by differencesmag

This post is a series of blogs contributed by SMW NYC media partner Differences Magazine. To learn more about Differences Magazine and to see the original post by Jessica Bender, please click here. 

There’s no doubt about it; the typical American teenager is obsessed with the Internet. According to a 2011 study conducted by the Pew Research Center, the vast majority of teenagers ages 12 to 17 (a whopping 95 percent) are now online. Most teens are addicted to watching epic feats of kitten talents on YouTube or reading up on old-school Nickelodeon cartoons on Wikipedia, but a lot don’t know that they can use their Internet skills to do good.

With the exponential growth of teenage social responsibility and activism over the past few years, the apathetic teen is slowly becoming extinct. Heck, you even have a better shot of getting into the college of your dreams if you even volunteer (according to a survey conducted by teen-centric non-profit DoSomething.org)! Want to get in on the do-gooder action? We know the best places for you to get inspired and get started on your quest to become a young social activist.

If you’re attached to your cell phone…you can get inspiration on ways to volunteer to your mobile! DoSomething.org sends out weekly volunteering ideas once a week to over 35,000 teens, so you have the power to make a difference right in your text inbox! Sign up by texting “DoSomething” to 30644 or registering your cell number here.

For the YouTube addicts…make your voice heard with your webcam. When it comes to important social issues, an audience will always exist. While you’re recording, make sure to keep it short, simple, and fun! Check out crowd-source initiatives like the It Gets Better Project and We Stop Hate to get you started on your quest to become a socially responsibly YouTube sensation.

It’s okay if you overshare on your social networks…if you’re sharing the right content. Instead of updating your statuses with tales of unrequited love, try to share stories and content on Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn about issues you truly care about. Your followers will thank you for the breath of fresh air on their feeds.

Glued to your Tumblr dashboard? There’s tons of non-profits and charities that post and reblog mega-cool content revolving around social good and making a difference. Their inspiration and feel-good posts will also probably make your heart grow a few sizes bigger, so it’s probably a good idea to follow what they’re doing. Some of my fave non-profits that are invading Tumblr include The Trevor Project, To Write Love on Her Arms, She’s the First, and UNICEF.

Can’t stop Tweeting? Use your Twitter account as a platform to promote issues and causes you’re passionate about in 140 characters or less. Three things to keep in mind while being a thoughtful Tweetheart:

1. Hashtag keywords when Tweeting so your Tweets show up easier in searches.

2. When Tweeting an article you want to share, make sure to refer back to the source’s Twitter handle. They’ll appreciate you taking notice of their content and might follow you back as a result.

3. Don’t Tweet or retweet too much – that’ll drive your followers absolutely crazy.

That being said, there’s a plethora of organizations and social good sites just aching for more followers. Mashable and GOOD have lists of organizations for you to follow and worship.

Tumblbeasts: 14; Lisa: 0

Posted on by Lisa Chau

I started blogging around 2004. Frankly, I didn’t think much about my choice of platform. Most of the blogs I followed were hosted by Blogger, so I registered there as well. Then Dartblog started offering students a blog presence. If you can’t already tell, I bleed green. Of course, I signed up for a Dartmouth-affiliated page. Shortly thereafter, more & more of my friends started LiveJournaling. Thus, I was “forced” to join LJ if wanted access to posts locked from public viewing and commenting.

That’s how these social networking sites gain new users. Make people register for accounts even if they only want to view content. Insidious!

Speaking of insidious… Well, hello there, Facebook. Do I really need to elaborate? I think we all know what happened. They know way more about the last 5 years of my life than my family knows about my entire life. (Granted, I chose to put all those details into their database.) Looking back, I’ve left a scattered legacy of abandoned false-starts & experiments on Blogger, Friendster, Orkut, Twitter, LiveJournal, Flickr… Just to name a several. I had multiple accounts on a few because wiping the slate completely clean was simply more efficient than editing an unruly mass of existing content. All part of the learning process that has led up to the internet as it exists today.

Which is to say, social media has matured, but it still has a ways to go. Every time Facebook makes a major change in its appearance, interface or “Terms of Service,” I liken it to a teenager trying on another identity. It’s getting a little old, though, and I’m surprised a younger upstart hasn’t disrupted the Zuckerberg monopoly.

Yet.

In any case, I decided late last year to take everything I’ve gleaned from my virtual journey and funnel it into a persona standardized across multiple platforms, connected via my personal launching page. You’ll see I left Blogger to try Tumblr. I didn’t think much about my choice of platform. This time, however, I was sorely disappointed.

* * *

Despite the deplorable color scheme of Blogger, it always worked. The interface was intuitive. Features most people would need or want were built-in. My self-taught HTML skills were handy on occasion, but not necessary. Kind of like buying a Subaru Outback for winter in New Hampshire. It’s not a stylish car, but everyone drives one because it does what you need it to do. Function over form.

Every so often, I am startled by my naïve expectation that new, hyped products on the market are supposed to be an improvement over its established predecessors. Isn’t that what is accounting for their popularity? No.

I learned that lesson the hard way. I let myself be lured by the Siren song of Tumblr. I could barely finish reading their “30 Reasons to Love Tumblr” list.

Email address / Password / Choice of URL

Start posting!

Easy!

Car salesmen wish it were that easy to sell lemons. And that’s what I got. A pretty, hollow lemon.

First, I had to dust off my HTML coding knowledge to customize my template. There are a lot of pre-fabricated choices, but many are very similar with slight variations. Then, because Tumblr doesn’t support native commenting, I had to install Disqus. Then I had to add anti-spam measures. Then Google Analytics…

When can I start blogging?  This is tedious! I expected a fully loaded car—erm—blogging platform.

Too many hours later, my blog looked close enough to presentable. I was ready to take it out for a spin on the [information] super highway, but…

WHY DIDN’T ANYONE WARN ME ABOUT THE TUMBLBEASTS???

Tumblbeasts are to Tumblr as the Fail Whale is to Twitter. The Tumblbeasts are enough for me to consider moving on to WordPress; however, if you are undeterred by them, I have other reasons to leave:

  • No auto save.
  • No one-click button to save drafts. (I’ve had to re-type several long posts.)
  • The bullet function does not work past one level. Indenting doesn’t work, either.
  • Dragging and dropping to rearrange the order of queued posts is inefficient, especially if you have several long posts.
  • Is there some way to compact the view of individual entries?
  • The dashboard feed takes too long to load, even if you’re on a dedicated Ethernet line.
  • A navigational button bar should follow user scrolling.
  • The feed page: It’s ugly and only utilizes a third of my page.
  • Tags that users have already created should be listed for easy reuse.
  • Where’s my tag cloud?
  • Grouping. I want to read my philosophy feed separate from my fashion feed separate from my social media feed.

The only reason I’ll consider giving Tumblr a little more time to convince me to stay is that it seems to be building critical mass. Fast. And in Web 2.0, you need to be where everyone else is.

Lisa Chau has been involved with Web 2.0 since graduate school at Dartmouth College, where she completed an independent study on blogging. She was subsequently highlighted as a woman blogger in Wellesley Magazine, published by her alma mater. Since 2009, Lisa has worked as an Assistant Director at the Tuck School of Business. In 2012, she launched GothamGreen212 to pursue social media strategy projects. View her online portfolio or follow her on Twitter.