How many tweets do you send each day?
Whatever your number, I guarantee it will pale in comparison compared to Twitter’s most prolific user, who, at the time of writing, has sent an unbelievable 36,462,864 tweets since first joining the micro-blogging social network on August 5, 2009.
Which, when you break it down, works out to a ridiculous 25,768 tweets per day.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Logically, we know that social media is playing a more integral role in consumer TV-watching than ever before.
Realistically, it’s almost impossible to comprehend the raw numbers. Can it really be true that 40% of American smartphone and tablet users log onto a social network when tuning into the tube?
Apparently so – and HBO’s cult hit Game Of Thrones is a great case study for just how crucial a role social media plays in modern TV.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Facebook page administrators who have enabled the replies feature for comments on their pages now have the choice between viewing those comments via Facebook’s ranked comments (the most engaging comments to the top of comment threads), which moves the most engaging comments to the top of comment threads, or by recent activity, which displays them in chronological order.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
To secure top positions in SERPs, marketers are going to need to do more than get reputable sources to link to their online content. Search Engine Land's Charles Schwartz recently noticed that Google updated the Ranking section of its Webmaster Tools Help page. Now, the guidance suggests user experience is more important to SEO than backlinks - a change that could force brands to bring their SEO campaigns back to the drawing board.
The page now reads, "In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by creating high-quality sites that users will want to use and share," where it once stated, "In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages."
According to Schwartz, this change took place on May 27, 2013, but Google didn't release a formal announcement about the update.
The update doesn't come as a surprise to anyone who has payed attention to Search Engineer Matt Cutts' recent Webmaster Help Channel videos. Cutts warned SEOs against focusing so much on link building that they get tunnel vision and forget who they are actually publishing branded content for - internet users.
"In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by creating high-quality sites that users will want to use and share."
Companies that produce custom content for their websites and social media profiles will be happy to hear about the new guidance because it means their efforts will pay off with better web visibility, clickthrough rates and website conversions. It's important for marketers to remember that Google has its sights trained on user experience even though it uses (increasingly intelligent) algorithms to police the web. The moral of the story: create content for readers, not Googlebots.
Google+ is turning two years old this month. After nearly 24 months of ups and downs, the search-engine-owned social media network looks stronger and brighter than ever before. A new study conducted by SearchMetrics found Google+ will surpass Facebook in social media content shares by February 2016.
To determine projected growth rates, SearchMetrics evaluated social shares between November 2012 and April 2013. During the time period, Facebook shares grew approximately 10 percent, while Google+ saw its engagement increase 19 percent per month. At this rate, SearchMetrics forecasts Google+ to outperform Facebook in the second month of 2016. Theoretically, Google+ will reach 1096 billion shares per month, with Facebook around 849 billion by May 2016.
While shares are on the rise, SearchMetrics cautions marketers not to get ahead of themselves. Google+ might be performing well compared to Facebook, but the search engine's social network still has to boost daily activity on the site before it really overtakes Facebook's spotlight. SearchMetrics counted social shares from users with at least one status update on their profiles, discovering that only 24.39 percent of Google+ members engage on the network on a regular basis. This means Facebook marketing still has dominant reach in terms of sheer volume, but Google+'s unique user base may be slightly more active sharers.
Data may suggest Google+ will overtake the social share market in the next few years, but Facebook owns an important field for brands trying to increase website conversions online. Brafton reported on a comScore study that found 84 percent of online shoppers engage on social media sites before buying, with Facebook being the most popular network. Marketers may see their web content earning more shares on Google+, but their bottom lines are still supported by Facebook.
One day before rival Facebook is rumored to announce a Vine competitor, employees of Twitter's video-sharing service teased several of its new features.
Co-founders Dom Hofmann and Rus Yusupov tweeted out Vine videos on Wednesday that gave an early look at the app's upcoming design changes.
From each six-second clip, viewers can catch glimpses of full-screen videos, private messaging between users and possible curated categories (e.g. cats, science and technology). There also appears to be the ability to save drafts and create multiple Vine posts at one time. Check them all out, below.
More about Videos, Vine, Social Media, and Apps SoftwareBleep boop https://t.co/zuyoAq0h3t
— Rus Yusupov (@rus) June 19, 2013 Read more...
Looking for creative content that is also free can be taxing. And when overused, Creative Commons becomes a bore of stock photos and MIDI jingles. Especially when it comes to fair use music, sometimes you just want something more refined and less 8-bit.
In comes Moby, who announced Monday the relaunch of mobygratis.com, a fair use site stuffed to the brim with over 150 tracks from Moby's own discography. Geared toward independent filmmakers, the entire collection is available to license free for non-commercial use, through a simple application processOriginally launched in 2007, the updated site includes music from Moby's last two albums Wait For Me and Destroyed, as well as remixes from both. Read more...
More about Content, Open Source, Features, Fair Use, and Media
Video content is quickly becoming a staple in brands' web marketing strategies as they realize their target audiences watch streaming clips more often. In May 2013, online content videos attracted 182 million Americans, or just under 85 percent of all internet users, according to comScore's latest Video Metrics data. Viewers consumed approximately 41 billion videos that latest 5.6 minutes on average.
This indicates more people went online to watch streaming content in May 2013 than in April 2013, when comScore's Video Metrix data revealed that 181.9 million Americans tuned into video content. Over the course of two months, the average video length of 5.6 minutes stayed the same.
Brands are wise to remember online consumption habits as video content becomes more of a content marketing staple and less of an optional advantage. Specifically, videos must be kept short and sweet to hold viewers' attention. Brafton previously covered Conviva's Viewer Experience Report, which explained that abandonment rates are higher when videos take longer to load.
While comScore's data suggests consumers are watching long-form videos (giving marketers a little more time to deliver brand messages), businesses must keep load times short. Publishing clips that stutter or buffer too often pushes viewers away, so they won't reach their lead generation and conversion potential.
The title of Charlie Sheen's FX series "Anger Management" is becoming increasingly ironic.
On Tuesday, Lionsgate Television confirmed rumors that Selma Blair is leaving the show after a feud with co-star Sheen: “We are confirming that Selma Blair will not be returning to 'Anger Management' and we wish her the very best.”
The drama began when Blair — who played Sheen's colleague and sometime love interest — reportedly bad-talked Sheen's work ethic.
When Sheen, who is star and executive producer on the series, got wind of Blair questioning him, he was adamant that she leave the show, or he would quit.
The actor unsurprisingly got his way and The Hollywood Reporter writes that he sent Blair "a strongly worded text in which he dismissed her from the series and called her a 'c---.'"
Blair has only addressed the drama via Twitter, writing simply:
I thank you for support and love.
— Selma Blair (@SelmaBlair) June 19, 2013
In the meantime, "Anger Management" will continue filming its 90-episode order without the actress and will replace her with a new female series regular.
The series, which often calls for Sheen to memorize more than 40 pages of dialogue per script, still has 60 episodes left to produce.
And Sheen better bring it, because, according to TMZ, "he's set to make between $75 and $200 million if he completes the 100 episode order for 'Anger Management' ... depending on how it does in syndication."
This isn't the first time Sheen has clashed on-set.
He was infamously fired from “Two and a Half Men” after an argument with showrunner Chuck Lorre in 2011.
SEE ALSO: Ron Burgundy is back in the first trailer for "Anchorman 2"
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You apparently can have too much of a good thing.
Ed Carter only wanted to raise $21,000 through Kickstarter to finance a deluxe edition of "Glory to Rome," a board game produced by his company, Cambridge Games Factory. He ended up raising more than $73,000, with pledges from more than 1,600 people.
After that, things started to go downhill for Carter. His Kickstarter campaign had promised supporters they would receive free shipping on their games if they agreed to pick up the games from specific retailers. Carter hoped to develop business relations with these retailers as well as provide an incentive for his supporters. However, shipping the game to 1,600 people isn't exactly cheap, especially when you've received a significant number of orders from Brazil and Australia. Read more...
More about Startup, Business, Kickstarter, Startups, and Conversations
Go back 10 years, and who had even heard of Internet memes?
These books — and their covers — certainly hadn't. Though they were around way before memes really took off online, they uncannily remind us of some of the web fads we know and love today
SEE ALSO: Ermahgerd! The 12 Best Memes of 2012
We're not saying that these book covers predicted the future or anything, but we're also not saying that they didn't. Maybe they were just waiting for the right (Internet) moment.
The girl on this cover really captures the flowing energy and spirit of Joanna Rohrback's patented equine-inspired exercise. The only difference? She has an actual horse. Give it a few decades, and you've got Prancercise! Read more...
More about Books, Humor, Internet Memes, Memes, and Vintage
NASA released a 360-degree interactive panorama of Mars from Curiosity rover's point of view
The image is actually a compilation of 900 photos — all of which Curiosity took while she was parked in an area called Rocknest in October and November of last year. Stitched together, the mosaic makes you feel like you're standing on the Red Planet with the rover. The full-resolution version is 1.3 billion pixels. To put that in perspective, a standard 5" x 7" photo is about 1,500 pixels wide and 2,100 pixels high
There are two versions of Curiosity's panorama. The first, embedded below, has been white-balanced to show how the scene would look under Earth's lighting conditions. In other words, this is how the human eye would translate the terrain in what we perceive as a "normal" environment. Read more...
More about Nasa, Mars, Curiosity, Us World, and Us
On July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800 crashed just south of Long Island, claiming all 230 lives aboard the Boeing 747. A four-year National Transportation Safety Board investigation determined a fuel tank explosion was to blame for the incident
Even before NTSB investigators arrived at the scene, however, conspiracy theories began to float: Was it a terrorist armed with a shoulder-fired missile? Did somebody have a bomb on board? Or did the military accidentally shoot down the airplane?
The NTSB's final explanation satisfied few of those who had already made up their mind. Indeed, filmmakers behind a new documentary say they have new evidence from NTSB insiders and others of a cover-up. As that film is set to open next month, it's important to remember those with "alternative" theories about Flight 800 long ago found a place where they could swap ideas and share their aviation expertise or first-hand accounts: the Internet Read more...
More about Aviation, Us World, and Us
NBC
A study led by an associate management professor at Michigan State University sought to answer the Question of Our Time: are people mean to the less attractive?
The study is simple. Very simple. 114 workers at one workplace somewhere in the "southeast" were surveyed to find how often they felt picked on or victimized by their coworkers. Those 114 workers were photographed. Then a group of unrelated people, who had never met the workers before, ranked their attractiveness.
As it turned out, the results of Hot or Not: Science-ish Edition confirmed that those workers deemed less attractive also rated their treatment at the hands of their coworkers most harshly. Age, gender, and length of employment were "taken into account," according to the release from Michigan State University, and found to not be a factor. "Frankly, it's an ugly finding," punned Brent Scott, the lead investigator on the study, before asserting that the workplace "can be just like high school in many ways."
The last component of the study surveyed friends or romantic partners of the workers and had them rate their worker-friend or partner in terms of friendliness. Surprise, surprise, it found that friendly people aren't treated as poorly. "Our findings revealed that both personality and appearance matter," Scott said.
The study has some major holes in it; it relies on questionable data and a very small sample size, based on only one office. Is a person an accurate source of information about his or her own treatment by others? Is a spouse a reliable source of information about the friendliness of his or her spouse? And is "ranking hotness" really a useful, accurate, or sensible thing to include in a scientific study?
Also, the conclusion, according to the release, is: "Knowing the potential targets of hurtful behavior could help managers monitor susceptible employees to prevent them from becoming victims." Managers, keep an eye on your least attractive employees? Yeah, great tip.
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I’ve seen a lot of spacey photos in my time. Enough so that I catch myself occasionally making a jaded sigh, saying “Oh neat, another shot of a spacecraft in front of the moon. Been there, done that.“
Then I punch myself in the arm and tell myself to shut up because these are pictures of SPACE.
That’s what happened with Maximilian Teodorescu’s shot of the International Space Station against the face of the moon. At first I was minorly impressed, because it’s a very small thing traveling very fast, in front of a larger thing that is even farther away. But people take pictures of the ISS all the time. Big deal.
Then I realized that this one was taken during the day. At that point I lost my schnoodles. I’m betting a few of you will too.
(via Overthinking It)
via thekidshouldseethis:
From PBS Digital Studios’s UnderH2O team, go on a Blackwater Drift Dive:
The vast, unexplored ocean is filled with wonderful and mysterious creatures. This week, we journey far offshore for a midnight drift dive with over 1,000 feet of water between us and the seafloor. The animals here are bizarre and beautiful, and little is known about their biology.
Related viewing: The Deep Sea, The Secret Life of Plankton, The Plankton Chronicles: Sea Urchin, and Green Bomber Worms.
If you didn’t know that what you are looking at is real, you wouldn’t believe it was real. Welcome to alien Earth, the undiscovered deep. It’s even weirder at night!
Great new channel from PBS Digital Studios (who also produce my show, full disclosure).
This is the clearest lake in the world. And a very fine lake it is. Klaus Thymann captured this and other stunning photos of New Zealand’s Blue Lake, 95% as clear as distilled water. Its source is filtered by mountain rocks and it’s above the treeline, so it misses out on most runoff.
Via The Guardian
George Lawrence was a commercial photographer with a knack for engineering and business. Born in Illinois in February of 1868, his career reached its zenith in the early 1900s when he took to the skies, creating incredible aerial panoramas using an invention of his called the ‘Captive Airship.’
Lawrence first attempts at aerial photography involved going up in hydrogen-filled balloons. But all of that changed in 1901 when the basket he was sitting in separated from the gas bag and sent Lawrence plummeting 200 feet to the ground. He was saved by a network of telephone and telegraph wires, but he knew then that he would have to find a better way.
That’s when he came up with the idea for his ‘Captive Airship’: a massive kite train system that would allow him to take the same stunning aerial panoramas from the safety of the ground.
The Captive Airship consisted of 17 Conyne kites strung together on a piano wire cable. The system of kites would then suspend a 50-pound panoramic camera of Lawrence’s own construction via a three-pronged stabilizing rig. The final product, when up in the air, looked something like the diagram above.
The stabilizing system consisted of three, equally spaced 15-foot booms that radiated out from the cradle holding the camera. Each boom was equipped with a lead weight and a 120-foot length of silk cord at the end. Those cords were then tied together directly below the camera with an additional 3lbd weight.
To actually take a picture, the camera’s spring operated shutter had to be triggered remotely from the ground by shooting current from a battery up to the camera, activating a solenoid. What resulted were 18 x 48-inch negatives that were taken from heights ranging from 400 to 2,000 feet.
Here’s a sample of the kind of photography Lawrence and his Captive Airship were able to capture. Interestingly, Lawrence’s panoramic camera would always catch a glimpse of at least one of the stabilizing booms because of its large field of view. So even in the early 1900s, Lawrence often had to spend time “in post” removing them via retouching.
These prints made Lawrence a pretty penny in his heyday. The photograph at the top is one of his most famous, capturing San Francisco from 2,000 feet above the bay after the devastating earthquake of 1906.
Each of the resulting prints sold for $125, racking up a $15,000 profit for Lawrence. That might not seem like much at first glance, but that’s equivalent to over $380,000 by today’s standards — and all from one photo.
Lawrence ultimately turned away from photography and towards a successful career in aviation design in 1910 after some embarrassing personal issues. He passed away in 1938, at the age of 70, leaving behind a series of brilliant photographic inventions and a collection of stunning panoramas.
(via Coudal)
Want to make some business cards for your photography business that stand out from among traditional cards? Try making some in the style of 35mm film slides. Last week we shared photographer Lars Swanson’s beautiful slide cards, and this week we have a step-by-step look at how you can make something similar.
The cards featured in this post were created by Slovenia-based freelance photographer Jernej Lasič, who decided last year that he wanted to create a set of DIY business cards that would be simple, inexpensive, and different.
Luckily for Lasič, he had a whole bunch of old 35mm slides sitting around from the days in which schools would use slide projectors to teach students. After pulling them out from his closet and dusting them off, Lasič decided he would repurpose the slides for his business.
The first step was having his contact information printed in the right size on semi-transparent film. He found some suitable sheets and printed onto them using a laser printer:
He then cut them out into squares that are the size and shape of 35mm slide film squares:
The next step was to simply replace the old 35mm film squares in the slides with his new contact info squares:
You’ll need to peel apart the old slides to get to the original film squares, and you can use some superglue to put the slides back together. The glue and the semi-transparent sheets are the main costs in this project, so you should be able to do everything for around $10-$20.
The resulting business cards can be viewed in ordinary light, when held up to the sky, and when placed in front of light:
You can also store them in old 35mm film slide cases, or stick them into your projector if you’d like (use fully transparent sheets if you’d like for them to project well, of course):
Image credits: Photographs by Jernej Lasič and used with permission
On November 5, 1951, a 31 kiloton atomic bomb was dropped in the Nevada Test Site from a B-45 Tornado bomber. A camera in the air was documenting the test, and captured the video above showing what a large nuclear explosion looks like when looking down at it from above. Notice how the camera begins to shake when the shockwave of the blast reaches it.
The detonation was part of Operation Buster-Jangle, a series of seven atomic bomb tests conducted by the US in Nevada in late 1951. “Easy” is the name of the test seen in the video above.
All the tests were well documented by photographers on the ground:
Here are some of the images that resulted:
You can find out more about the Buster-Jangle tests on Wikipedia and over at the Nuclear Weapons Archive.
If you found these shots interesting, be sure to check out our post back in February with photos from the world’s first underwater nuclear explosion.
Image credits: Photographs by the United States Government
Lytro has today taken their light field camera to the next step with the release of a new application for iOS, eliminating the need for users to connect the device to a PC or Mac computer to sync and manipulate photos.
The application for iOS, aptly named Lytro Mobile, allows users to sync images and share them now, simplifying the process for on-the-go users. How does it work, you ask? No, you won’t have to tether your phone to the camera.
Instead, Lytro has put out a firmware update that activates the dormant WiFi radio in the guts of the camera’s body. With the update, users will be able to swipe to the WiFi logo on the camera’s menu, which will display a username and password to connect your device to. From there, the user is able to sync photos, manipulate them, and yes, share them.
As a little bonus, the application is also capable of generating animated GIFs of your pictures, because GIFs are awesome. Effects include “refocus” (which shows off the camera’s ability to change depth of field) and “perspective shift” (which does what the name suggests).
The app is available free of charge in the iTunes App Store.
Up until now, the use of multibillion-dollar orbiting satellites has been extremely limited to space agencies and companies that, well, require satellites. But here’s a radical idea that could change the future of man-made satellites as we know them.
It’s a Kickstarter project called ARKYD, and it’s intended to be the first publicly accessible space telescope ever.
The project is the brainchild of a company called Planetary Resources, who also aims to build technology that will help humans mine asteroids.
Assuming ARKYD becomes a thing, it can be used by the public as a camera in space, so to speak. That is to say that whoever is allotted time with the satellite can point it where they wish and be all scientist-like. No doubt, this thing will be in high demand.
As part of the pledge rewards, this project is allowing anyone who contributes $25 or greater to get a picture of themselves taken with the earth in the background (!). A digital space selfie. There’s apparently a display on this space vehicle, along with an arm with a camera attached to the end. You upload the most appealing photo of yourself, it shows up on ARKYD’s display, and the arm camera takes a picture.
Gimmicky, you say? This is obviously the future. It’s a cute piece of engineering, too, given its small size.
As of this writing, the project is a bit under $50,000 short of its $1,000,000 goal (Planetary Resources says they have additional backing, which is why the they’ve set the goal so low). It expires at the end of the month.
Learn more about this project through its Kickstarter page here.
A young woman was fatally stabbed last night after photographing homeless men holding offensive signs while begging in Hollywood.
The Los Angeles Times reports that 23-year-old Christina Calderon of Lynwood, California was walking with her friend at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue at 8pm last night when they noticed the three men begging for money with signs laden with obscenities.
After pulling out her cell phone and snapping a photograph of the transients, the men began demanding money in exchange for the photos. When the two women refused to hand over money, they were attacked, and Calderon was stabbed in the torso. She was taken to a local hospital, where she later died of her injuries during surgery.
The place where the attack took place is an area that’s bustling with tourists. Attractions there include Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Capturing images of homelessness is quite a fad in the world of photography, but this story is a stark reminder that one must exercise discretion and caution when taking pictures of random strangers on the street.
(via Los Angeles Times via POTB)
Image credit: IMGP0028.JPG by fredcamino
This is really weird: The FBI revealed it had arrested an upstate NY General Electric mechanic Glendon Scott Crawford for allegedly trying to sell a mobile radiation weapon to Jewish groups... and then the KKK. His acquaintance, Eric Feight, whom he knew from GE and who allegedly helped design the electric controls for the device, was also arrested. Oh, and Crawford may also be a member of the KKK, too. [ more › ]
Consumer brands spent the early years of the social boom using campaigns to collect likes, create conversation, and distribute coupons. Meanwhile, B2B marketers sat on the sidelines waiting for social campaign technology to deliver against their more sophisticated needs.
In the B2B space, having people follow you is not enough. You have to go beyond likes and simple conversations. For B2B marketers, the promise of social is user data, and first generation social campaign technologies just...
Finnegan’s Irish Pub and Grill in Stockton, Calif., turned to a novel solution to combat an epidemic of bar fights: Only Facebook friends are admitted into the establishment after 9 p.m.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Within the past 12 months, we’ve seen no shortage of disasters that range from Hurricane Sandy, the mass shooting in Aurora and most recently the Boston Marathon bombings. For some brands, it may appear that the marketing window of opportunity has opened; if so, my advice to you is, shut that window and board it up… immediately.
Brands that refuse to shut the window and proceed to capitalize on these emotional events as a springboard for marketing ploys have quickly joined the ranks of ‘worst social media disasters of the year’. Just ask American Apparel (20% Off Sale during Hurricane Sandy using code “SANDYSALE”), Gap (promoting shoppers to shop at Gap.com to ‘stay safe’ and checking into Foursquare at “Frankenstorm Apocalypse — Hurricane Sandy”) and American Rifleman, whose scheduled tweet (“Good morning, shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend plans?”) was published as the mass shooting in Aurora was developing.
These may seem like common sense tips, but as we’ve seen time and time again, social media common sense, isn’t very common. It’s easy to think in terms of a marketer without taking off the blinders. Basing your decisions on emotion and adrenaline under the premise of seizing the opportunity, can sometimes be a recipe for disaster.
In the end, it’s up your Brand to determine where you fall on the spectrum. Keep it genuine, empathize and take your foot off the marketing gas-pedal during times of tragedy. Be human.
I know the human dating game can seem rough at times, but the fact of the matter is, we have it pretty good. Don’t believe me? Consider if you will the sorry state of Dolomedes tenebrosus, the dark fishing spider. A recent study of the spiders, common around the American midwest, found that males of the species get a grand total of one shot at breeding — immediately after copulation, their work on this Earth done, the creatures promptly curl up and die.
The discovery that male dark fishing spiders are essentially single-use seed packets was made after researchers from the University of Nebraska gathered specimens of the arachnids from parks around the state and used them to play the world’s most terrifying version of The Dating Game.* In each of 25 observed matings, the male spider delivered sperm into the female before almost immediately going limp and dying. The study, published this week in the journal Biology Letters, also found that the spider’s pedipalp, which it uses to deliver sperm, remained frightfully swollen following mating, unlike the pedipalps of males in other species, which shrink back down. Not that the spiders probably mind, being dead and all, but it does seem to add a little unnecessary insult to a pretty serious injury.
While there are a number of species in which females help their mates along to their final reward following a roll in the hay, female dark fishing spiders don’t seem to play any role in the deaths of their partners. Rather than being assaulted or having their head torn off and consumed like many species of mantis, the spiders seem to have simply wrapped up the worldly business, peacefully curling up and moving on to the great beyond, grotesquely engorged genitalia and all.
While dying after sex may seem strange to us, the phenomenon dovetails pretty well with what we know about evolution in sexually dimorphic species — animals in which one gender is much larger than the other. Since small animals — like the male dark fishing spider, which is outweighed by its female counterpart by about a 14 to 1 ratio — have a better chance of living long enough to mate, they’re lucky just to find one viable partner. That means monogamy is common in these animals, though the dark fishing spider does seem to be taking the principle to an extreme.
*Except for, y’know the actual The Dating Game
(via Science Mag, image courtesy of Steven K. Schwartz)
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