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| The White House Joins Google+ | | 12:10:14 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Following in the footsteps of President Obama, who joined in November, the White House on Friday launched a Google+ page. The page promises news, behind-the-scenes photos and videos plus opportunities to engage with administration officials via Hangouts. Shortly after going live Friday morning, around 700 people had the page in their Circles. The move is the latest vote of confidence for the Google-owned social network, which has now has 90 million users. Other recent entities to join Google+ of late include Lady Gaga, who got a G+ page earlier this week. At press time, about 53,000 people had Gaga in their Circles. The pop star has more than 46 million fans on Facebook. The White House's Facebook Page, meanwhile, boasts 1.2 million fans. President Obama has 24.6 million fans on Facebook. About 264,000 people have Obama in their Circles on Google+. The White House's embrace of Google+ comes as Election Day is a little more than nine months away. The Obama Administration's use of social media in the current election will be closely watched since Obama won the 2008 Presidential Election in part because of his campaign's savvy use of Facebook and Twitter, among other platforms. The President also held a Town Hall with Twitter last June and another on Facebook in April. Obama's administration has also used the White House as social media hub. The entity launched a successful Twitter campaign aimed at influencing the payroll tax debate in December and was Obama's platform of choice to respond to an anti-SOPA petition this month. Meanwhile, GOP candidates Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich all have Google+ pages, though it appears that the Google-challenged Rick Santorum does not. What do you think? Does the White House's presence add some legitimacy to Google+? Are you using the network more? Let us know in the comments. |
| Facebook Reportedly in Talks to Lure Vevo From YouTube [VIDEO] | |  Facebook is chatting with Vevo -- the music video-streaming giant and top YouTube channel -- to take their relationship to the next level, according to one report. Facebook wants to exclusively host Vevo's content and services. Facebook just integrated with Vevo in September, which now means Facebook users can connect to the Vevo platform and watch videos directly on the Facebook Timeline. CNET reports that this deal will pit Facebook against Google's YouTube. Reports cite "sources with knowledge of the talks," but warn these conversations, although recent, are still very preliminary. This Vevo adoption would be huge for Facebook. As it stands, Vevo is currently the top national entertainment-music web platform. In December 2011, the company projected there are more than 3.7 billion videos views a month globally. It would not only allow Facebook users to listen to music while uploading pictures, commenting on walls and messaging friends, but it would most likely create stiff competition in the web video world. SEE ALSO: Facebook Announces Tight Integration of 60 Apps to Timeline, More on the Way For more about about Vevo's remaining time with YouTube and its deals with record companies, watch the video above. Only time will tell what your Facebook Timeline will look like in the future with these new video capabilities. Do you currently watch Vevo videos on YouTube? Do you think Facebook luring Vevo away from YouTube would lure YouTube consumers away, too? |
| Facebook 'Bug' Turns Random Codes into Profile Names | |  Looking for a way to waste some time this morning on Facebook? Here's a new bug circling around the Internet that you can try out. If you post random numbers into the sequence or as a comment or status update, a name will appear when you press enter. Just watch: Here, I typed in " as a comment: Pressed enter and voila, Anna Redmond appeared: The same technique will work in a status update. Here I inserted ": And the name Rob Bateman showed up: I should clarify, I don't have Facebook friends named Anna Redmond or Rob Bateman, probably explaining why actual tags do not appear for these two presumed Facebook users. I also tried inserting longer strings of numbers and the output when I pressed enter was a number zero, dispelling the possibility that every Facebook user has an abbreviated number sequence associated with their name. I also tested inserting profile ID numbers (the sequence at the end of non-vanity URLs), which resulted in a traditional name tag. We've reached out to Facebook for an explanation, and will update this post if they can sort this one out. Here's the real question: What do you think these short codes mean? Some loopy rumors are saying they give your phone number or area code a name -- that's obviously nonsensical. Let us know what you hypothesize in the comments. BONUS: 10 Cool Facebook Status Tips and Tricks |
| Artists and Digital: Why Social Media Is the New Gallery | |  The Digital Marketing Series is supported by HubSpot, an inbound marketing software company based in Cambridge, MA, that makes a full platform of marketing software, including better B2B lead nurturing. The starving artist is such a cliche, and fortunately, it might become a thing of the past. Using social media tools and platforms, visual artists have new ways to market their work and connect with buyers far and wide. And because these websites are free to use, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram are quickly becoming as important to an artist as the paintbrush and palette. Mashable spoke with a few artists who are using social media to promote their work and who have made a sale or two by connecting with buyers online. There are also some tips for those of you looking to get it on the action. Success Stories "I'd go as far to say that I wouldn't be doing what I am today had it not been for social media," says animator Paul Heard, who jumped on the social bandwagon early. "Ever since I came across MySpace around 2004, I have been inspired by the possibilities such platforms can offer struggling artists like myself. Suddenly indie artists had a platform to showcase what they could do and connect directly with their audiences." And then MySpace was drowned out by Facebook. For Heard, this was "incredibly exciting" -- he set up groups through which he'd promote and sell his artwork. One such group, for his "Artwork for Ale" project, was a forum where Heard would accept any commission for a unique painting, so long as it covered the cost of a beer. He received a few commissions, ranging from a few pounds to a couple hundred pounds. But the painting was time-consuming, so he began to explore a new video platform: YouTube. He uploaded some animations to the website so that he could just send a link around as his portfolio. What was a spur of the moment decision ended up being a game-changer -- one of Heard's stop-frame animations was featured on the YouTube homepage, nabbing 100,000 views in a few days. Inspired by success, Heard started devoting more time to the site, steadily gaining pageviews and fans. Heard's work has now been featured on the YouTube homepage on three occasions, they've amassed more than 2 million views, and he's been able to collaborate with hundreds of artists and paint on live TV as a result of his YouTube fame. And that's not even Heard's coolest memory. At one point in 2009, Heard's hard drive was full during a freelance project, so he tweeted, asking if someone had a spare hard drive that they'd trade for a painting. No one responded, and as a last-ditch effort, he tweeted to British celebrity @StephenFry with a link to the video above, asking if he would be up for a trade. "I knew he was a huge tech lover but didn't expect to hear anything back," says Heard. "However, to my surprise the next morning he had replied saying we could do a deal, and asked what kind of hard-drive I needed." They met up the next week to exchange items, and Fry offered up a brand-new Apple 2T drive. "Though, what was worth more to me, was the time he took talking about art and technology, offering his encouragement and advice to me as an independent artist," he recalls. Without social media, Heard wouldn't have had a chance to connect with Fry, let alone have such a high-profile celebrity tweet with him in front of millions of followers. Heard says his exposure on these social platforms has "led to the vast majority of work" that he's undertaken in recent years; he directs videos and animation, works at a startup social network for artists, and participates as a community artist, for which he hosts workshops and produces creative projects for people with disabilities and special needs. He also has a few projects linked to the London Olympic Games, including commissions for the Houses of Parliament and a gig as creative producer for an "interactive audio adventure" at the Sparks Will Fly Festival. Perhaps none of this would have happened, were it not for the growth of social media. /caption] Designer Mike Kus also feels a bit indebted to social media. "For my design work, Twitter is an essential tool," he says. "Whenever I finish a project I tweet about it, which drives traffic to my work. I nearly always get requests for new work after doing this, so I'd be at a loss without it!" Kus has been featured in Mashable once before, as one of the most-followed Instagram users, which of course snowballed into more followers. And while Kus doesn't even consider himself a photographer, he's amassed quite a following and has been hired by some of Britain's top fashion labels, such as Burberry and Ted Baker, to shoot their Fashion Week shows via Instagram. All this, from a man who says, "Taking pictures on my phone is just a hobby of mine. It's not something I've done professionally at all." While Kus is aware that social media is useful -- clearly, it's landed him a few gigs and paychecks -- he admits that he's not great at it. "I don't leverage it as much as I should," he says. "I always have plans to leverage it but never seem to have the time to focus on it." Think Outside the Box As evidenced by Heard and Kus, it helps to be active on social media. But you can go beyond just posting a picture or a video. Artist Andre Woolery uses a "mixtape" format, seen here. His 'Bruised Thumbs" mixtape is a collection of portraits made out of 50,000 thumbtacks that depict Jay-Z, Jimi Hendrix, President Obama and Kanye West. "It is packaged as a 'mixtape' because they are typically accessible, raw output from an underground artist," he says. Instead of posting a still image on a website that can be zoomed in on, Woolery actually curates the viewer's consumption of his work. "The mixtape experience leverages parallax web scrolling to take the viewer through numerous details about each piece including description, inspiration, the creation process and other tidbits," says Woolery. The mixtape can be distributed through the numerous social channels he uses, including a website, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Etsy, Instagram and Flickr. Turn the Social Media Into Art The Creators Project is a globetrotting art installation that's a collaboration between Intel, Vice and the numerous artists whose work is represented. You may have heard about it during last year's Coachella music festival, when Chris Milk created a stunning visual with glowing beach balls during the Arcade Fire set. The project uses social media to blast event information, but also to distribute videos and pictures of the exhibits, to live-tweet the events and to enhance the experience for the the art consumers. Realizing that attendees would be tweeting and Instagramming pictures of the Creators Project exhibits, the team decided to activate an Instagram hack -- all Instagram photos tagged with #creators would project onto a screen (see above), which accomplished three things: it assigned a hashtag to the event, it encouraged people to tweet and post pictures and it was an awesome exhibit in and of itself. A rep from Vice says the overall count for tweets with the #creators hashtag exceeded 4,000 at the Brooklyn exhibit alone, with an overall Twitter reach in the millions. And that was only in one city. The Instagram hack plus videos and signage throughout the exhibit with #creators on them served as a "call to action encouraging attendees to use the hashtag throughout the event," says the Vice rep. And it worked. "#Creators was truly an organic Twitter topic during the event weekend." Given that the Creators Project took over the entire DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn, Foursquare also came in handy. Each music and art exhibit has a personalized venue set up with the art's title, and every location is set up to award badges. The ease of checking in and sharing with friends is instrumental in spreading awareness of the project, which helps to increase foot traffic at the exhibits. A Few Tips From the Pros For artists like Kus, who may not be able to find the time to build up and maintain a social media presence, there's good news: It's actually not that hard or time-consuming. Alyson Stanfield, the "Art Biz Coach," offers tips for artists who are looking to utilize social platforms. She says it takes just 15 minutes a day, and offers insights on what to do on Facebook and Twitter. Her biggest piece of advice is that the important thing to remember is that work comes first -- social media is great, but it's a waste of time if you have no art to market. "Don't use social media during your peak productivity time," says Stanfield. "Studio first, then business, then social time." Woolery devotes even more time, spending up to 10 hours a week working on social media, much of which can be done during dead time or while he's on the go. "With different apps on my phone, it's relatively easy to push photos and videos to fans," he says. "For artists, I thinkcrucial, because people connect with your work but also want to connect with you as a person ... they are going on a journey with you." Try not to think of your art and your personal life as disparate entities -- have your Twitter and Facebook feeds be a blend of your own personality and your art, which makes it easier for people to get to know you, and makes the act of social networking feel more natural. Use your artwork as your avatar on social media platforms and be active -- you never know whose interest you may pique with a tiny thumbnail of your work. "I've heard from two of my clients who were discovered by galleries because they left a comment on my Facebook Page," says Stanfield. Lastly, have fun. "If you're not having fun, you're doing something wrong and probably won't be effective," Stanfield says. Series supported by HubSpot better B2B lead nurturing. |
| Brazilian Nightclub Lets You Party Like a Facebook User [VIDEO] | |  The physical and virtual worlds collided in the Amazon jungle this week -- where a nightclub opened sporting the Facebook name and logo. "The Facebook concept is about sharing ideas, adventures, friendships, parties and photos with your friends," the club's 30-year-old founder Humbert Camacho told the UK Guardian. "So what we wanted to do was to build a nightclub with this concept, where people could come and share things with their friends, spend a cool night, sharing pictures, experiences and have fun." Facebook recently overtook Google's Orkut as the most popular social networking site in Brazil, so Camacho's timing seems ripe. The Facebook nightclub is located in the town of Epitaciolândia, near the Bolivian border in the Brazilian Amazon. Camacho said in the Guardian article that expectations in town "are huge" for the club, and that people who aren't able to join the party at the physical Facebook will be will still be able to enjoy it vicariously through the original, virtual version. "We are going to have our own official Facebook page so people coming to the nightclub can share pictures in real time," he said. "People who can't make it will be able to sit at home and see what the party is like." Camacho also operates another club, called Insomnia, just over the border in Bolivia. He told the Guardian that giving his Brazilian venture a different title was an easy choice, because "we were looking for a name that was trendy, that people would talk about. We thought: 'Facebook: everyone talks about Facebook.' It's about having fun, poking and sharing." A Facebook spokesperson told the Guardian that the company has no official comment. What do you think of the Facebook nightclub? Let us know in the comments. |
| 5 Apps to Help Manage Your Twitter Account | | Thursday, January 19, 2012 7:22 PM | Elijah Daniel |
|  Elijah Daniel is an up-and-coming writer and comedian. He aims to make people smile via his Twitter and YouTube accounts. As a Twitter enthusiast, it's always nice to find useful apps that help to manage my account. Check out five of the best apps I use regularly by clicking through the gallery above. |
| Larry Page: Google+ Now Has 90 Million Users | | Thursday, January 19, 2012 5:18 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Google+, Google's fledgling social network, now has 90 million users according to CEO Larry Page. Page disclosed the number in a press release issued for Google's fourth quarter. "I am super excited about the growth of Android, Gmail, and Google+, which now has 90 million users globally - well over double what I announced just three months ago," Page says. "By building a meaningful relationship with our users through Google+ we will create amazing experiences across our services. I'm very excited about what we can do in 2012 - there are tremendous opportunities to help users and grow our business." Google's last official estimate for Google+'s user base was 40 million, in October. In December, Paul Allen, a Google+ watcher, claimed the network had 62 million users. In early January, Experian Hitwise predicted that Google+ would hit 400 million users by the end of 2012. Google didn't disclose the source of its latest figures. In a call with analysts Thursday afternoon, Page also declined to predict how many Google+ users there would be at the end of 2012. The Google co-founder and CEO also engaged in some sleight of hand in his comments, according to some observers -- stating that Google+ users are "very engaged with our products -- over 60% of them engage daily, and over 80% weekly." That could just mean 60% of Google+ users check their Gmail or go to a Google Map once a day. Page didn't specify. (Check out the entirety of his remarks, which Page posted on Google+, here.) Google+, which was introduced in June 2011, has exhibited impressive growth. However, Facebook, may hit 1 billion users by August, according to one analyst. Google+ is also reported to be getting closer scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission after the company introduced "Search plus Your World," an initiative that combines Google+ data with Google searches. Meanwhile, the Google+ numbers weren't the only impressive figures the company announced Thursday. Google also had its first $10 billion quarter, with $10.58 billion in revenues, and announced that 250 million Android devices are on the market, which is up 50 million from the last quarter. |
| David Beckham Does First Google+ Hangout at Googleplex [VIDEO] | | Thursday, January 19, 2012 4:48 PM | Chris Taylor |
|  Fresh from signing a new two-year contract with the LA Galaxy, global soccer star and underwear model David Beckham flew to Silicon Valley early Thursday morning for an interview and Hangout at Google HQ. The Hangout was the first on Beckham's Google+ profile, which has just shy of 465,000 followers. (By contrast, Beckham's official Facebook page boasts more than 15 million Likes; Beckham does not appear to have an official Twitter presence.) During the half-hour Hangout, Beckham spoke with fans as far afield as Ghana, London and Madrid. That was his first Hangout, but Beckham vowed during an hour-long interview at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif., that it would not be his last. "I'm nervous," he admitted, "but I'm looking forward to doing more of them." The interview, in front of an adoring crowd of hundreds at Google HQ (and hundreds more at Google offices around the world), touched on subjects such as Beckham's charity work for UNICEF and his forthcoming "bodywear" collection with H&M -- which will be officially launched with a second-quarter Super Bowl ad later this month. Mashable had a front-row seat for the event, which is one of the more prominent featuring a celebrity at the Googleplex. Here's the full interview: Does the increasing collaboration between Google and celebrities of Beckham's caliber make sense? Will his presence help boost Google+? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. |
| Twitter Gobbles Up Summify | | Thursday, January 19, 2012 3:51 PM | Samantha Murphy |
|  Twitter has acquired startup company Summify, a social aggregation service that collects news stories that are being shared on your social networks and puts them into a daily summary. Summify - which launched by two Romanian entrepreneurs - took to its blog page on Thursday to announce the news. Before the company moves from Vancouver to San Francisco to work out of the Twitter office, it's putting the stops on new account registrations and will remove some of its key features. It's currently unknown how Twitter will integrate Summify's business strategy with its own. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. "Our long-term vision at Summify has always been to connect people with the most relevant news for them, in the most time efficient manner," Summify said via its blog. "As hundreds of millions of people worldwide are signing up and consuming Twitter, we realized it's the best platform to execute our vision at a truly global scale. Since Twitter shared this vision with us, joining the company made perfect sense." SEE ALSO: Overwhelmed By News? Summify Picks The Top 5 Articles You Should Read Although Summify will be removing its profile and influence pages effectively immediately, it will keep private summaries intact. However, public summaries will also be getting the boot. "We are offering a more streamlined service as we transition our efforts to working at Twitter," the company noted on its blog. Twitter wouldn't elaborate how exactly Summify's integration would impact the social networking site. However, Twitter rep Carolyn Penner told Mashable that it "will help people connect and engage with relevant, timely news." In March 2011, the company picked up steam when it launched its e-mail summary product, which was dedicated to delivering the top five news stories to users based on what their friends shared and liked. "We've been blown away by the response ever since," Summify said via the blog post. "Many of our users tell us we found a magical solution to a truly unsolved problem." Summify noted it will keep its e-mail summary model for a few more weeks. Are you sad to see Summify go? How do you think Twitter will integrate its services into the site? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. |
| Mustaches Prevail on Gentlemint, the Pinterest Site for 'Manly Men' | | Thursday, January 19, 2012 3:25 PM | Kate Freeman |
|  What's more manly than a mustache? Not much, if you ask co-founders Glen Stansberry and Brian McKinney, co-founders of the recently launched Gentlemint.com -- a Pinterest-inspired site for "manly men." "We wanted to add an old-school, 'gentlemanly' feel," Stansberry says of the 'stache logo. "Kind of like a Teddy Roosevelt persona....Pre-hipster." A monocled man with a 'stache serves as the logo for the site, which went public this week and is currently "invite-only." But it's easy to get access to the site -- just click on "request an invite" to get an invitation sent to your email and then you're in. Gentlemint's love of mustaches -- plus users' evident enthusiasm for lip hair (the picture above is a mustache tie-clip someone posted) -- adds a bit of kookiness to the site. A rave review from the American Mustache Institute (yes, that's a real thing) displayed at the top of the site proclaims that Gentlemint is, "...one of the more manly websites on the planet." "When we were designing the site we just kept having fun with the idea of the manly mustache and elements like that, so we went with it," Stansberry says. "It's supposed to be fun, silly, useful and entertaining - something that appeals to everyone." If you're the type to post cute kitten videos, take note: Gentlemint is having none of that girlishness. The manly site is similar to Pinterest but without the pictures of high heels, glittery manicures and wedding dresses. Users post content, such as photos with a short blurb, and other users can comment and click on the moustache logo that also serves as a "like" button. Gentlemint connects to Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. Sift through pages of entertaining pictures and articles to vote on your favorites. Posts with more support get pushed toward the sites's first page. The two co-founders currently work day jobs together at a web software company in Kansas. Initially, they wanted to challenge themselves to build a website in one day. They worked for 12 hours and -- boom! -- Gentlemint was created. Since then, they've fine tuned and added more features. Stansberry says they hope to eventually have an app for iOS and Android devices. The site is a veritable playground for men. Posts include instructions on the proper way to kick-in a door (don't jump), rundowns on unique products including rum soap and a meat-mallet four-finger ring, and a discussion of "interesting Big Lebowski art." Don't worry, though -- while Gentlemint is a definite boys' club, it does play nice with girls. There's no gender-check when you join to the site. Women can sign-up but if you post, say, a picture of a wedding ring, it might not make it to the first page or be on the site for long. "We really want to focus Gentlemint on the type of content that is interesting to us," Stansberry says. "Anyone can pretty much post anything they want, but we want the focus of the site to be the type of content we built Gentlemint for." Studies have shown that women are more active social media consumers than men, except on Google +. But some publications are hoping to tap-into the male readership market. Cosmopolitan magazine launched a men-only version for iPads in August 2011. Although Gentlemint doesn't yet appear to be the type of site where men can read about manscaping and hot bedroom moves, their content is eclectic and entertaining. "It really has less to do with being a male or female, or kittens or bacon, and more to do with encouraging users to add stuff around that theme," Stansberry says. What do you think about Gentlemint? Sound off in the comments. Photo courtesy of Gentlemint |
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