Someone was selected for Google’s Glass Explorers program despite only using the hashtag as entry.

I feel incredibly special to have been selected to Glass Explorers and be one of the first people to get Google Glass.  Then, I started going through the data that Stanford student Andrej Karpath compiled and I found this tweet with just the #IfIHadGlass hashtag.   No content, nothing to support.

 

This is insanely interesting because Guy Kawasaki, adviser to Motorola (owned by Google), stated he was not selected.  Does this mysterious winner know an insider?  Was there a random element involved?  Weird. Oh well, I can’t wait to do amazing things with my pair.

 

 

Facebook to 1 Billion Users – I predict August 16, 2012

EDITED 8-23  Looks like the date has come and gone…I would have thought FB would have made a big deal.  Nothing.  Oh well…

Facebook had a terrible earnings call yesterday that has sent the stock plummeting.  Today, Mashable had a link that Facebook could reach one billion users in August based on an analyst report on iCrossing.

I’ve been keeping track of how many users are on Facebook for a while and thought I’d throw my data aginst it.  I am a little rusty from my GE Six Sigma days and a little busy to do a full regression.  So, I simply used Microsoft Excel’s Scatter Chart with a simple linear regression to see what it could predict.  I used data from April 2007 on as low growth in the beginning was throwing off the numbers

BOLD PREDICTION – Facebook will reach 1 Billion users on August 16, 2012

 

Linear Regression Equation – y = .5405x – 21299

y – Users In Millions

x – Date

R² = 0.9567

Data is here if you want to do your own thing.

Dec-04	1
Dec-05	5.5
Dec-06	12
Apr-07	20
Oct-07	50
Aug-08	100
Jan-09	150
Feb-09	175
Apr-09	200
Jul-09	250
Sep-09	300
Dec-09	350
Feb-10	450
Jul-10	500
Sept-10	550
Jan-11	600
Feb-11	650
Jun-11	750
Sep-11	800
Feb-12	845
Apr-12	901
Jul-12	955

Social Media Strategy Class Reading List

I recently taught a class at DePaul University on Social Media Strategy to Graduate Students in Public Relations and Advertising.  Below is the reading list I compiled with tech sources, interesting articles, and relevant case studies that helped guide our class discussion.

 

Technology and Social Media Blogs

• Mashable
• ReadWriteWeb
• TechCrunch
• The Next Web
• AllFacebook
• Inside Facebook
• Wired
• Business Insider
• Soshable

Analyst Blogs

• Jeremiah Owayng
• Scott Monty
• Greg Satell 
• Chris Brogan
• Peter Kim
• Brian Solis
• Tim O’Reilly
• Jeff Jarvis
• Aaron Strout

Podcasts

Podcasts have been my “secret weapon” over the years.  All the news covered on the sites above is broken down into detail.  I strongly recommend them

• This Week In Tech
• This Week In Google
• Tech News Today
• The Social Hour
• NPR’s On The Media
• Quick N Dirty
• Brand Fast Trackers

Twitter Lists

• Ben Foster’s Tweets With Value
• Marshall Kirkpatrick’s Social Strategists
• Marshall Kirkpatrick’s Friends of Strategists
• Tim O’Reilly’s Tech News
• Mashable’s Brands
• AdWeek 25
• TechCocktail Chicago
• The Community Roundtable

Specific Articles

Class 1 – The State of the Internet and Public Relations

• Mary Meeker – 10 Questions Internet Execs should Ask and Answer via TechCrunch
• The Cluetrain Manifesto
• Markets Are Conversations – The Cluetrain Manifesto
• The Future of Public Relations

Class 2 – Objectives, Strategies, and Audience Research

42 Tactics for Content – Content Toolkit Playbook by Content Management Institute

This is a good guide written by Joe Pulizzi at Junta 42 containing 42 different tactics (with case studies) on content marketing.  Sure, some of these are obvious…but what is really great about this is that it’s a list of everything in one place that you can easily use and reference.

 

 

Interesting – Nicorette uses Promoted Tweets to Direct to A Facebook Page?

When Twitter announced their Promoted Suite product late last year, it was easy to see how brands could use this to inject a trend into the conversation.  Using a Promoted Trend on the day the DVD release of Inception to promote the BluRay version was a great example.

I saw Nicorette using this Promoted Trend (#QuittingSucks) on January 4, 2011.  But the message that went along with it directed users to their Facebook Community?  Paying for advertising on Twitter to direct to Facebook?  This was interesting…a Promoted Tweet isn’t cheap, $80K according to this article.

Also interesting is that the link doesn’t really take you to a support community, it’s taking you to a splash screen ad with information and a coupon.

Highly recommended video satire of Social Media Experts by @bajillionhits . Or maybe it’s not satire and he knows his strat.

Facebook Advertising for Men of Social Media 2011 Calendar Spot

I was on Facebook today and saw this ad for Tim McDonald who REALLY wants to win a spot in the 2011 Men of Social Media calendar

At first I thought this was funny…but probably a worthwhile advertising investment in one’s personal brand.  And, with all the poseurs, you gotta love social media people who can execute what they preach.

However, if you’re like me and don’t want the digital elite decorating your office, I strongly suggest this alternative calendar.  The 2011 Goats In Trees Calendar

Digital Experience and Presence: Keys to Launching Successful Social Media Career

A reader at Culpwrit: Guiding the career in public relations asked our office director Ron Culp the following question:

I am interested in eventually transitioning to an agency role, specifically in digital PR or digital media planning.  Do you have any suggestions for what my next steps should be?

Ron asked for my input which I gladly provided.  Here are the highlights, please visit Ron’s site for the full text of my  career advice for digital PR.

Creating a Digital Presence

• Have a portfolio of digital work you can point to on the interne t
• Start your own blog, doesn’t matter what.  Just do something
• Ask friends/family if you can do any projects for them

Learn By Doing

• This lesson taught me so much about google search engine optimization for images
• Having this experience helps tell interesting stories in interviews
• Positions you to counsel clients well because you’ll have the experience they are counting on

Stay Up To Date on Current Trends

• Subscribe to Mashable, Read Write Web, TechCrunch, Wired
• Seek out Case Studies – These can be just as important as breaking tech

What is an Internet Meme? Perfect explanation for curious clients

How Many Users on Facebook?

How many Facebook users are there?  This Facebook Growth chart shows the growth of Facebook users from 2004 to 2012 based on a variety of data including Facebook.

I was looking all over the internet for a chart that showed the number of Facebook users there are and couldn’t find one.  I figured I’d just create one and share it so that other people wouldn’t have to go through the search that I did.

Number of Facebook Users

Here’s the user data from Facebook and other sources if you want to do your own thing

Dec-04	1
Dec-05	5.5
Dec-06	12
Apr-07	20
Oct-07	50
Aug-08	100
Jan-09	150
Feb-09	175
Apr-09	200
Jul-09	250
Sep-09	300
Dec-09	350
Feb-10	450
Jul-10	500
Sept-10	550
Jan-11	600
Feb-11	650
Jun-11	750
Sep-11	800
Feb-12	845
Apr-12	901
Jul-12	955
Oct-12	1000
Jan-13	1060

Great Posts on Social Media Strategy

• Social Media Strategy Execution – A How To Guide
• Portfolio Approach to Social Media Strategy
• Adding PEOPLE as the 5th P in your Marketing Mix
  

Updates to Facebook User Growth Data

• 2004-2010 – Facebook Timeline reports their data
• 9/22/2010 – Business Week reports 550 million Facebook users
• 1/14/2011 – Aaron Lee reports 600 million Facebook users
• 2/17/2011 – Business Insider reports 650 million Facebook users
• 6/23/2011 – TechCrunch reports 750 million Facebook users
• 9/22/2011 – Mashable reports 800 million Facebook users
• 2/1/2012 – Bloomberg reports 845 million Facebook users
• 4/23/2012 – TechCrunch reports 901 million Facebook users
• 7/26/2012 – Mashable reports 955 million Facebook users
• 10/4/2012 – Mark Zuckerberg reports 1 Billion Facebook Users
• 1/30/2013 – CNN reports 1.06 Billion Facebook Users

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