Uba Kontrovasie

links for 2010-03-10

2010-03-11T04:05:59Z

9 Tools to measure your Twitter Influence & Reach !

More tools and more data. Some of these may seem gimmicky but they're inspiring me to utilise the data that I have in more creative ways.

(tags: socialmedia statistics twittertools microblogging monitoring twitter, metrics analytics tools twitter)

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links for 2010-03-09

2010-03-10T04:05:57Z

Google 'trialling TV search service' | Media | guardian.co.uk

An old boss of mine used to say: "Watch! One day we'll be buying TV spots via Google". With announcements like this I'm sure we're not too far away from his prediction becoming true, but what I question is the need for more set top box(es).

The lines betweens TV's and computers are blurring: you can now hop on the web via your TV and watch TV on your laptop. HD capacities are also increasing, and these shifts in both technology and user behavior mean that we will no longer require isolated devices, but we will require more integrated software that helps us to view web content and traditional TV side by side.

Most people criticize me for being a Mac fanboy, but I think server versions of the Mac Mini will become centre pieces in households and they will be the gateways to digital TV and the internet.

Early versions of Windows Media Centre were premature, but I'm hoping to see a revival in more evolved iterations.

(tags: google media search television tv video web)
ASOS Follows Fashion – fashionable thoughts from our favourite tweeters

Nice little landscape evaluation hub that ASOS use. I simple idea that helps non-geeks understand the voices.

(tags: tools social)

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links for 2010-03-04

2010-03-05T04:05:12Z

Social Media Analytics: Twitter: Quantitative & Qualitative Metrics | Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Excellent round up of tools to analyse infleunce and activity on Twitter. To many people analysing Twitter seems like a tedious activity, that verges on glorifying and over-egging something that is simple and small in scale. In all honesty I shared the same thoughts—and then clients started to ask us questions about the influence and reach of people on Twitter.

I've analysed lots of tools; some of the free tools are great and I'm combining lots of data. I'll keep you posted!

(tags: twitter analytics socialmedia metrics measurement social media)
Tutorial on Excel Macros (VBA)

Data. It's beautiful isn't it? I've been toying with a number social analytics tools recently and they measure everything from conversations through to website traffic and engagement.

I haven't played with huge data sets in ages but I'm starting to again. The difference now is my focus towards visualizing data, in order to produce more compelling insights.

(tags: tutorials windows microsoft reference excel formulas functions macros macro coding)

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links for 2010-03-01

2010-03-02T04:05:53Z

Glow: Location-Based "Feelings" for iPhone

Location based, realtime, sentiment analysis.

(tags: iphone)
Facebook Drives 3X Traffic to Broadcast Than Google News

I read this after reading the link building article and I think this is where the focus for the press should lie: better integration of their content with social networks and online communities. It makes sense and it delivers value to the right audiences.

(tags: journalism facebook facebook, traffic)
Can Brightkite Beat Foursquare & Gowalla With a Universal Check-in?

I hope so. It's my favourite.

(tags: location social)
Official Google Blog: Google welcomes Picnik

Interesting to see Google moving towards providing more cloud based services. This market is key for them as it will ensure that they can extend their text based advertising model to web applications: an area of the technology sector that will continue to grow exponentially as iPads and wireless computing becomes increasingly ubiquitous.

(tags: web2.0 google photography pictures cloud image)
Can selling links save newspapers? | Media | guardian.co.uk

Oh dear. Please die link building. Just die already. I'm not sure who's trying to prove what here? IMHO both the SEO's and the press are struggling to generate profits, but going black hat is surely not the best way forward. If newspapers are going to sell links, shouldn't they be thinking about their own text ad model? A vibrant media type model—or better still a PPC platform that operates across multiple networks.

Google are getting smarter at detecting authoritative content sources and their algorithm will continue to evolve. Whilst back-links will continue to be algorithm bread and butter for now, other factors such as content syndication and engagement rates will come into play.

Sorry boys, it will never just all be about anchor text.

(tags: SEO linkbuilding)
Social Media Today | Twitter Influence Graders: Behind the Green Curtain

(tags: tools twitter resources measurement twittertools)
How Does Twitter Grader Calculate Twitter Rankings?

I’ve started using this tool to compliment some of the paid for tools that I use to conduct social research and social measurement. There are many tools available that provide more granular analysis, but I like the simplicity of this tool and the way numbers from it can be plugged into some kind of matrix that helps clients to understand the influence and reach of people on Twitter.

As I said I’m using it to compliment more robust data, and most of the free analysis tools should be used in this way.

(tags: twitter twittertools)

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links for 2010-02-28

2010-03-01T04:03:33Z

Comments on the social graph: FACEBOOK FAN PAGES: THE FUTURE OF CRM

Tony writes a great thought piece on the correct use of Facebook fan pages and how they are potentially the future of CRM. I haven't really got much to add to his piece, but it's got me thinking: Many brands are using Facebook pages as hubs where they can engage fans with "cool stuff". Taking Tony's points account, if the role of Facebook in marketing is more about CRM, are many brands misusing it by treating it as platform to create engagement?

(tags: facebook)

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Immersive images

2010-02-17T23:25:33Z

Roger Ballen talks about photobooks from Jim Casper on Vimeo.

Roger Ballen is old-school and in this video he makes some great points about the role books play in learning. I agree with him because paper adds a certain depth to photos that just cannot be recreated on the screen.

I’m greedily building a beautiful photography library, but I’m not just stopping at photo books: I’m also collecting my favourite fiction.
People who know me well would say why? Why are you not buying a kindle or an iPad? Truth be told, I just don’t think either of them are immersive enough.

Similar ramblings:

links for 2010-02-14

2010-02-15T04:04:20Z

A day on Chatroulette, the web's weirdest new outpost | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Fascinating. Whilst I will not be using it anytime soon I think the concept is interesting: voyeurism meets spontaneous social networking.

A friend of mine once said that walking alone into a bar, in an unfamiliar town, is an exercise that can teach you reams about your own social skills; striking conversations with strangers is a natural gift for some people—and not so much for others.

Chat rooms and social networks have, in many ways, given introverts the ability to build relationships online, without face-to-face interaction. I often think: do these insular environments prohibit the development of social skills? Most psychologists would agree that they do.

A concept such as Chatroulette, if vetted and controlled, could be used as a personal development tool for people who suffer from various forms of social anxiety.

(tags: socialnetworking voyeurism pyschology streaming video)

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links for 2010-02-13

2010-02-14T04:03:47Z

Six Spaces of social media « TEST

Nice way to section it all off.

(tags: social socialmedia web space)

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links for 2010-02-11

2010-02-12T04:04:50Z

Will School Libraries Go Book-less? – Education – GOOD

Due to the launch of the iPad news like this will soon be common place. Digital natives will soon use ebooks with the same ease that we use normal books. People are habitual creates and we become comfortable with what were used to, in our case its books and we find reading off screens ergonomically challenging.

Children who grow up with screens will not share our discomforts and they will be the generations that fuel the mass adoption of Kindles and iPads.

(tags: kindle ipad teaching)

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links for 2010-02-07

2010-02-08T04:04:39Z

BingTweets

An OK tool I guess. The only problem I have with it, and so many other like it, is that it's solely based on Twitter.

When will we be able to see a tool that provides trends insights across all types of media?

(tags: research microblogging mashup twittertools microsoft searchengines searchengine community socialmedia media search)
YouTube – Microsoft LookingGlass Video Demo – AdWeek NY 2009

This one nearly passed me by, but I have to say it does look very promising.

The UI is well designed and it seems to provide a nice layer of analytics.
The tools market is getting slightly cluttered now and every week I’m told about another piece of technology that’s going to change my world. If anybody is going to do something differently, or better, it’s going to be either Microsoft or Google.

A few years ago Google turned the Analytics market inside out when it released Google Analytics for free. Are we about to see the same thing happen to the monitoring tools market? Most probably so, and this is a GOOD thing!

The sooner we have clients toying with their own data, the sooner they will become comfortable with proactively engaging.

(tags: analytics socialsoftware)