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Which DSLR Camera Is Right for You?

2012-05-31T19:24:59Z

The Documenting Your Life Series is presented by Western Digital. We believe your life’s most valuable moments should always be close and accessible. My Passport 2 TB portable hard drives let you dream big and carry small.

Whether you use a smartphone or a point-and-shoot as your primary camera, if you’re serious about photography, all paths lead toward a digital SLR (single-lens reflex) model. With their large image sensors, interchangeable lenses and a seemingly endless supply of tweakable features, DSLRs maximize both flexibility and mobility. They look pretty hot, too.

Since the debut of the Nikon D1 in 1999 — the world’s first modern DSLR — the technology has advanced considerably. Once for still pictures only, almost all DSLRs manufactured today record video, too. Camera makers have enhanced autofocus mechanisms with swarms of extra focus points and added high-tech features, such as face detection. Some even have swiveling LCDs for hard-to-get shots.

But those are extras. The reason you get a DSLR is so you can take great pictures. The large image sensors in DSLR cameras capture more light than those in smaller models, and they’re paired with high-performing image sensors.

That lets many DSLRs shoot still photos in RAW format — which records all light data (except for direction, right Lytro?) with no compression. Shooting in RAW results in very large files, but it also ensures photographers get the most accurate pictures possible.

Finally, DLSRs are made to be the center of a photography experience that goes beyond the camera. Almost all have ports and jacks for accessories, and there’s also a “hot shoe” on top, where you can attach powered items, typically an external flash. DSLRs are the gateway to building a photography arsenal, but they’ll also take great pics on their own.

When you desire a new DSLR, the right camera depends mainly on what you’re looking to do with it. Below, we outline some typical use cases and suggest a model for each situation.

The Graduate

You’ve liked the simplicity of point-and-shoots, but their limitations are starting to frustrate you more and more. You need something that performs better in low light and can capture fast motion when needed — with minimal blur. Still, you don’t want to get overwhelmed by features.

Entry-level DSLRs were made with you in mind. Models like the Canon EOS Rebel T3 and Nikon D3100 have all you need to get started. Although they give the full-manual flexibility of any DSLR, they also have many simplified exposure presets. Just switch the dial to, say, landscape photography, and the camera will automatically configure its settings to capture a crisp shot of that mountain range.

Today, even basic DSLR cameras can capture HD video. But if that’s not important to you, you can still find some cheaper older models, such as the Nikon D3000, which shoots stills only. But the ability to switch is a very handy feature, so there’s a good chance it’s well worth the extra coin to get a camera that does both.

The Videographer

Buying a stand-alone video camera almost seems anachronistic today. However, still cameras don’t often make for the best video cameras. Because of differences in optics and image processing, cameras that are primarily used for taking stills often don’t capture high-quality video. Fortunately, DSLRs have tremendous advantages over cameraphones and point-and-shoots in those areas, and can make excellent video cameras — as long as you know what to look for.

The Canon T3i and Nikon D5100 are great choices for budding videographers. Both capture video in full 1080p resolution, and that speedy image processing means they have good “burst” modes. Nikon also offers continuous autofocus while shooting video, keeping your target sharp as it moves (however, this usually results in noise from the servos getting captured).

Looking beyond the usual suspects, Sony’s Alpha DSLRs have impressive video-capturing abilities, sometimes at a better price. The Sony Alpha a57 can capture 1080p video at 60 frames per second — Canon and Nikon cameras in its price range max out at 30. It also has nice bonuses, like a swiveling LCD screen and HDMI output for connecting to a big-screen TV (also available on the D5100).

The Upgrader

If you have an older or lower-end DSLR and are looking to upgrade, there’s lots to choose from. Going to a mid-level camera won’t just improve your photos, but also the overall photography experience. With better image processing and bigger camera bodies, you’ll enjoy faster burst mode rates and longer-lasting batteries, plus those swiveling LCDs become more common.

The Canon EOS 7D is an excellent choice for upgraders, able to capture full HD video and shoot up to eight still photos per second. “Prosumers” will love the 19-point autofocus system and the intelligent viewfinder, which is more graphically dynamic than previous models. If the 7D is a little on the pricey side for you, you might want to check out the 60D, which has many of the same features.

Nikon’s mid-level DSLRs start with the D7000, which has two user-definable exposure settings, letting you instantly configure the camera for your most common environments. There’s a 39-point autofocus system, and it can shoot up to six still pics per second. It also has continuous autofocus when shooting video.

Sony gives you great bang for your buck with its mid-level DSLR. The Alpha a65 captures pics with a massive 24.3 megapixels, and its Burst mode is an impressive 10 frames per second. Like the a57, it can record 1080p video at up to 60 frames per second, and you have full control of shutter speed and aperture while recording. The LCD can swivel, and the viewfinder is a high-resolution OLED screen that can show the results of camera adjustments in real time.

Finally, if you’ve broken more than one DSLR while shooting in extreme situations, the Pentax K-30 (due in July) is made with you in mind. It’s fully weather-sealed, so it’s up to the task of shooting on the beach or a mountaintop, and it can withstand cold temperatures and dust. It shoots 1080p video (30 frames per second) and can capture six stills per second in burst mode.

The Serious Photographer

If you want a taste of what it’s like for pro photographers — or simply want the best of the best — you’ll want a high-end DSLR. These are serious image-capturing devices that pour on the megapixels and customized settings. With so much tweakability, they often do away with some automatic features common on lower-end models (like exposure presets and a built-in flash) entirely.

The Canon EOS 5D Mark II is a great step toward true pro photography. Its full-frame image sensor can take 21-megapixel shots, and if your situation is less than ideal, you can improve your pics with features like an “Auto Lighting Optimizer” and “Peripheral Illumination Correction.” If you have a little more money to burn, there’s also the more recent 5D Mark III, which has better image processing and a few more tricks.

For Nikon, the D300s will get your feet wet with pro features, like in-camera image editing, a 51-point autofocus and nine customizable picture settings. But if its 12.3 megapixels aren’t enough for you, cast your eyes toward the D800, the highest-resolution full-frame DSLR on the market, at 36.3 megapixels. Both capture 1080p video at 30 frames per second.

If you think you’re ready for the extreme high end, you’ll want either the Nikon D4 or Canon EOS-1D X. Both have too many features to summarize well here, but each will satisfy the pro within you. Their bulky camera bodies provide lots of extra power and a convenient handgrip for portrait shots, but that also means they’re not for casual shooting.

What’s Your Shot?

Buying a DSLR is a lot like buying a computer or a car — it’s a commitment to both a product and a company. It’s not to be taken lightly, but if you can match the right model with your goals, it’ll unshackle the shutterbug within you and you’ll soon be taken better pictures than you ever have. We’ve covered just some of the options here — there are lots more to explore, so browse the web, visit your local camera shop and find your perfect model. Once you go DSLR, you’ll never go back. What’s your model? Let us know in the comments.

Series presented by Western Digital

The Documenting Your Life Series is is presented by Western Digital. We believe your life’s most valuable moments should always be close and accessible. My Passport 2 TB portable hard drives let you dream big and carry small.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, by_nicholas

More About: Canon, digital cameras, Documenting Your Life Series, DSLR, features, mashable, Nikon, pentax, sony

The New Hollywood: Developing Entertainment for All Screens [VIDEO]

2012-05-31T19:15:50Z

My guest on this episode of Revolution is Mike Rosenstein, a producer at Red Hour Films. Owned by Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld, Red Hour Films is a production company that produced recent comedy classed, like Zoolander, Dodgeball, Tropic Thunder and others. As digital disrupts the entire entertainment industry, Stiller brought Rosenstein in to also lead the development of the company’s new digital arm, Red Hour Digital, as the director of digital content.

Under Rosenstein’s guidance, Red Hour Digital is investing in content across multiple screens, competing for consumer attention on mobile devices, PC and also TV. The company is developing original digital media properties in a multitude of formats, including live action, animated webisodes and games, and also recently signed a two-year first-look deal with Paramount Digital Entertainment.

As you’ll hear in our interview, the team at Red Hour Digital is exploring possibilities through a “test and learn” culture. By not constraining themselves to a single format, and experimenting across multiple web communities, they’re building monetization models for a new generation of top quality content across multiple screens.

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Windows 8 Release Preview Unleashes the Power of Metro [HANDS ON]

2012-05-31T19:04:25Z

Surprise! Microsoft just released the Windows 8 Release Preview (RP) — the next big step in its seemingly never-ending journey to get on store shelves — bringing new features, improved apps and more polish to the whole experience.

Except it’s totally not a surprise. Ever since a leak of the new version appeared on a Chinese website, unnamed “sources” have come forward to spill the beans that the RP was coming today, and Microsoft itself even reportedly let the cat out of the bag early this morning with a blog post, which it quickly took down. Oops.

Microsoft was also kind enough to once again give Mashable an advance look at the many additions and improvements to Windows 8 and its innovative Metro user interface. Almost all the changes are welcome, though some of the issues we had with the Consumer Preview still haven’t been addressed — although that may just come down to differing philosophies with how the UI should work.

A lightning recap: Microsoft is re-inventing Windows. Windows 8 radically alters the experience with a highly visual interface called Metro. Metro is loaded with rectangular iconography that maintains a consistent look and experience across apps — and it also happens to be ideal for touchscreens, like tablets.

If such massive change sounds scary, you can take heart that the familiar desktop environment is always a click away from Metro. Microsoft is rolling out Windows 8 in stages: The first was last fall’s Developer Preview, then the Consumer Preview in February, and now it’s time for the Release Preview. This will be followed by the full-on “here it is, folks” General Release, expected this fall (no formal date has been announced).

We got to try out the Windows 8 Release Preview on an Ultrabook — the Samsung Series 9, a gorgeously thin and light device, powered by an Intel Core i5 processor (merely second generation, sadly). The laptop environment is likely going to be the main place customers first encounter Windows 8, so it’s a great way to test how this thing is going to work in the “real world.”

Gearing Up

First impressions weren’t so great, since the machine’s touchpad was incapable of clicking on the “Accept” button on the terms of service page that first appears when you switch on the machine. After futzing with keyboard commands for a while, I was able to get past it, and the touchpad had no more problems. Hopefully it was just a bug with our machine.

The touchpad may have been a little buggy because that’s one area that’s much improved. Microsoft has added some new touchpad gestures to Windows 8. You’ll actually have to download the drivers for them separately from the RP download, but they include very useful tools like being able to call up the “charms” menu by sliding in from the right edge — exactly how it works on a tablet. I criticized the Consumer Preview for the keyboard-and-mouse interface not quite working the same way as the touch experience, and this mitigates the problem a little.

The special drivers also add the ever-popular ability to perform two-finger scrolling. The feature is extremely useful, proving popular on MacBooks and many Windows 7 machines. However, the implementation is incomprehensible.

Here’s why: Metro’s entire design aesthetic is based on scrolling horizontally. Why, then, when I scroll up and down, does the screen scroll left to right? This is an insane choice. It puts the experience at odds with the vertically scrolling pages you’ll encounter in Internet Explorer, and it’s totally inconsistent from app to app: To scroll horizontally, you sometimes gesture up/down (People, Photos), side-to-side (the Start screen) or both (Finance).

If there’s a setting that can restore order to this chaos, I didn’t find it. Microsoft really should sort this out before General Release — I can see it being a real turn-off for casual users.

Doing It Live

Live tiles — those constantly changing rectangles on the Start screen — are one of the big improvements in RP. In the Consumer Preview, a scant few were really dynamic; now the majority are, and your Start screen is an ever-morphing array of photos, headlines and notifications. It may sound chaotic, but bringing order to things like this is where Metro excels.

As great as live tiles are, they could be better. Some of the new apps, such as News, Sports and Travel, don’t vary the live-tile content that much — you tend to see the same photos over and over.

Also, when a headline or photo catches your eye, there’s an expectation that when you click on it, you’ll see that content. However, clicking on a live tile will take you back to the app’s last state, regardless of what was showing on the tile. I understand the dilemma about which is more useful, though, so maybe there’s no good solution here.

Did I mention there were new apps? Microsoft used its beautiful Finance app as a template for its News, Sports and Travel apps. They all make great use of the horizontal scroll, and they have nice customizable features, like seeing feeds on specific teams or search terms for news topics.

They could use a little more polish, though. For example, once you set up a few topics to follow in News, there’s no easy way to rearrange them. And consistent refresh buttons would be nice, too.

Appapalooza

Many of the other primary apps have gotten a makeover as well. People (the contacts app) is most improved, with the “What’s new” feed, which shows social-network updates from your contacts, now approaching something useful. It would be even better if it incorporated images (a la Flipboard), but it’s a step in the right direction.

I finally got Flickr to connect with the Metro Photos app, although the pulling-teeth process to do so betrayed an issue: there’s no easy way to simply sign out of Flickr and reconnect. When you try (via the “Options” link), you get kicked into Internet Explorer to a very cluttered and confusing permissions screen. This should be handled within the app, and in a much simpler fashion.

Mail has a bit more polish, rendering HTML emails nicely. Unfortunately the RP only has presets for adding Windows Live and Google accounts — everything else is done through Microsoft Exchange. Lots of people still use Yahoo and AOL (sadly), and those should be added before general release. Also, there’s no combined-inbox view, oddly.

Music has a few more tricks, now able to access content from your Zune Pass (like that wasn’t going to happen) as well as a controller for the lock and start screen: Now when your screen times out, you’ll be able to adjust volume and skip tracks without logging in.

Xbox 360 owners will no doubt love the Xbox Companion, which is more than an app — it’s a way to stream media and control your console from your PC. Whenever you play a Video or Music file, you’ll be able to stream it right to your Xbox. You can even choose to download the title straight to the Xbox, without the need to stream. Best of all: It automatically sets itself up, as long as your PC and Xbox are on the same Wi-Fi network.

Internet Explorer Upgrade

Finally, there’s Internet Explorer 10, which adds a couple of interesting features. First, Microsoft has added a strip of frequently visited and pinned/bookmarked sites that appear when you begin typing in a URL.

Potentially more useful, however, is “Flip Ahead,” which adds an arrow (only visible if your mouse is close by) to the right of the screen. The arrow looks at Bing user activity and page data and actually tries to predict the most likely page you want to go to.

This would be very handy for, say, articles split among multiple pages — that is, if it actually took you to the next page. In my brief test with a few multi-page articles from Slate, it did nothing of the kind, but perhaps it just needs tweaking (and more user data).

Most important, IE10 now has Flash compatibility built in. However, as Microsoft explained to me, this does not mean that every Flash site will render properly. Since IE in Metro uses a customized version of Flash that Microsoft worked directly with Adobe to create, sites need to submit themselves for approval to work with IE10. Microsoft said it’s already taken care of big Flash sites (like YouTube) and more are getting added to the bucket.

Windows 8: Almost Fully Formed

With the Release Preview, Windows 8 enters its final stretch toward release, ready or not. There’s clearly lots of polish here, and Microsoft has good reason to be proud. One great example: In addition to the many features I’ve outlined here, the RP adds the ability for Wi-Fi passwords to travel with your Windows Live ID. That means if you ever borrow your friend’s Windows tablet or switch machines, you won’t have to input the network passwords for your home router, local coffee shop, etc. It’s a nice convenience that I hope is stolen by Android and iOS quickly.

Nonetheless, I’m still bothered by some of the basic interface issues (like the inconsistent scrolling). Windows isn’t just the OS for work machines — about 90% of the world’s computers run it. That means this thing has to be idiot-proof, or users will hurry to exit Metro for the traditional desktop.

That would be a shame, since there’s a lot to love in Metro; it just needs a perfectionist’s touch. There’s still time. Windows 8 may be close to the finish line, but whether or not it scores a win probably depends more on what happens in the next few months than even Microsoft thinks.

More About: internet explorer, Metro, microsoft, trending, Windows, Windows 8

60+ Events in Business, Advertising and Social Media

2012-05-31T18:28:42Z

Do you want to optimize your knowledge and network in your industry? Then make sure to check out the collection of more than 60 events on Mashable’s new Events Board. Our listings represent the best digitally-focused business conferences and exhibitions in the next few months — these valuable events, held all over the world and even online, have dynamic and entertaining agendas to inspire you.

We post new listings frequently, and every week we highlight five new events that are worth their ticket price. Don’t forget to visit our Events Board for the freshest networking opportunities, meetings and expos that will expand your mind and give you great new ideas for your own professional journey.

Business

FailCon

Date: 10/22/2012
Location: San Francisco

The fourth-annual FailCon is all about business and startup failures. The day-long conference explores the consequences (and benefits) of failing in all realms of business, from startups to marketing. Speakers will explain their own professional failures and how attendees can best learn from them. Early bird tickets are available now, and sessions will also be held this year in France, Brazil and Sydney, Australia.

GROW 2012

Date: 8/22/2012 – 8/23/2012
Location: Vancouver, Canada

Founders of ModCloth, 99designs and Zendesk will speak at Dealmaker Media’s annual business conference, GROW 2012. The three-day event is split into three different segments: Wednesday’s GROWtalks event is a bootcamp for entrepreneurs, while the formal GROW Conference on Thursday focuses on established companies and trends, and Friday’s GROW Outdoor Adventure is full of activities, such as hiking, biking and kayaking.

iStrategy Melbourne

Date: 11/13/2012 – 11/14/2012
Location: Melbourne, Australia

The final conference in iStrategy’s massive worldwide business conference tour and the fourth session of the global conference series in Australia, iStrategy Melbourne will feature local experts in social media, display advertising, SEO and ecommerce among other topics. The multi-tracked conference includes strategy sessions, master classes and interactive workshops as well as plenty of networking sessions. Buy tickets now and get 40% off your ticket price.

Dev & Design

DESIGN East & ESC Boston 2012

Date: 9/17/2012 – 9/20/2012
Location: Boston

DESIGN East is an educational event dedicated to engineering, complete with five specialized summits, an expo floor and theater sessions. Hosted by UBM Electronics, the comprehensive event’s biggest summit is ESC Boston, which covers design and development challenges in electronic engineering fields. Enter the code “MASH30″ to get 30% off the ticket price between June 24 and July 12.

Social Media

Social Media Optimizations Summit

Date: 9/8/2012 – 9/9/2012
Location: Las Vegas

The Social Media Optimizations Summit is a two-day educational event that focuses on implementing and streamlining social media operations for enterprises. Attendees can customize their workshop “curriculum” for full-day, half-day or two-hour workshops on social media. This intensive educational series covers optimization for Facebook and other digital outreach strategies. The full agenda and ticket sales are scheduled to open soon.

Want to promote your upcoming event on Mashable’s Events Board? Click here.

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Downsize Me: NYC Mayor Proposes Sugary Drink Ban

2012-05-31T18:18:44Z

In an effort to combat rising obesity, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a far-reaching ban on the sale of large sodas and other “sugary drinks” on May 30. At the All Things Digital conference today in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Mayor Bloomberg addressed the proposed ban via a remote feed.

Mayor Bloomberg highlighted several public health acts that were at first unpopular but are now embraced, such as those against public smoking and grading restaurants.

The new ban would not apply to grocery or convenience stores, but will affect businesses such as restaurants, movie theaters, and street carts.

According to Bloomberg, smoking kills seven thousand New Yorkers per year, but that rate is dropping. In comparison, there are five thousand obesity related deaths per year in NYC, a total which is rising and will soon surpass smoking deaths. New York City was a pioneer in banning smoking in public places, beginning a trend that the rest of the United States soon followed.

When the news broke last night, Twitter users from New York City and beyond reacted with an expected level of witty candor.

[View the story "NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg Proposes Ban On Large Sugary Drinks" on Storify]

NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg Proposes Ban On Large Sugary Drinks

Our favorite reactions across Twitter, compiled by Stephanie Haberman (@StephLauren).

Storified by Mashable · Thu, May 31 2012 12:22:43

Why Bloomberg is attempting to ban large sugary drinks:

Prohibiting the sale of 16 oz.+ sugary drinks will help fight #obesity & save lives in NYC: http://bit.ly/JTq4UiMike Bloomberg

How people on Twitter have responded:

The Prisoner, New York City edition: "I am not a number! I am a free man! And I’m drinking a Big Gulp!"John Hayward

BIG APPLE, TINY COKEsouthpaw

These colors don’t run. http://twitpic.com/9r5m61Andrew Kaczynski

I stand with the Mayor on soda restrictions. We all share the cost of an unhealthy city. Also ban bicycles because cyclists are a-holesDr. Mantis Toboggan

Bloomberg can ban sugary drinks but he’ll never take my Diet Coke. (really, he could, my grip is weak bc of osteoporosis from the aspartame)Alison Leiby

Yo soy want to ban el soda, el grande Starbuckos, y el grape drink. Por que no me gusto el obesity. Que no fatties!Miguel Bloombito

Soda ban means Kobayashi can eat 70 hot dogs in 10 min – but he breaks the law once if he washes them down with a lg soda instead of a med.Michael Biette

Even if you disagree with Bloomberg’s giant soda ban, he’s trying to do something about obesity epidemic. Good for him.Lisa Bloom

Heck, they gave up banning ALCOHOL 80 years ago. Now NYC is gonna ban large soda’s. Glad to see we’ve progressed.Brady Cremeens

I will give my money 2 any establishment that violates this. RT @nytimes: Bloomberg Plans a Ban on Large Sugared Drinks http://nyti.ms/LHRWt1Andy Levy

Take that, Mr. Mayor? $KO $PEP down but holding up better than rest of market despite NYC/Bloomberg talk of banning big-sized soda. $DPS up.Paul R. La Monica

Bloomberg smiled for photos as the axes went into the crates of cola. "Dr. Pepper," he said sternly. "Your medical license is revoked."Jon Lovett

@bigjohnrc I mean. We could talk about the fiscal cli— hey look a ban on soda! #importantissuesChris W

Too bad everyone who wants large sodas is too obese to organize a march.Andrew Kaczynski

Why do they have to ban soda? Why can’t they ban something nobody cares about, like "Don’t Walk" signs? #NYCTrivWorks

Kinda hope Bloomberg DOES ban sodas over 16 oz so I can get a good bootleg business going. #entrepreneursFTWLeah

Is the proposed ban a good idea? Let us know in the poll below, or explain further in the comments.

Should Large Sugary Drinks Be Banned?

More About: All Things D, Bloomberg, trending

Kathie Lee Mistakenly Asks Martin Short About Deceased Wife

2012-05-31T18:06:19Z

Perhaps every journalist’s worst nightmare, Kathie Lee Gifford made a very public error during the fourth hour of the Today show on Wednesday.

Guest star Martin Short appeared on the show to promote the film Madagascar 3. Midway through the conversation with co-anchors Gifford and Hoda Kotb, Gifford asks about Short’s wife, who died of ovarian cancer in 2010.

Short handles the questions calmly, even when Gifford makes an unknowing joke about how the couple are still in love.

Gifford is no stranger to on-air, cringe-worthy moments. In 2011, a segment that led to a crying autistic boy prompted Howard Stern to accuse her of child abuse.

Despite Gifford’s recent gaff on television, she has already sent a sincere apology on Twitter.

I send my sincerest apologies to @MartinShort and his family. He handled situation w/enormous grace and kindness and I’m so grateful.

— Kathie Lee Gifford (@KathieLGifford) May 30, 2012

More About: kathie lee, martin short, today show, trending, viral, viral videos

Why Successful Startups Engage Their Peers

2012-05-31T17:53:17Z

In the last episode of TechStars, we watched while a pair of startups dealt with the consequences of their decisions — both business and personal.

In this episode, we’ll see why good things happen when you mix in a dose of humility with your confidence and drive.

SEE ALSO: Watch the Full Season of TechStars on Mashable

A successful startup needs a strong vision and the passion to execute in the face of adversity, but that doesn’t mean it should ignore the advice of peers. For one startup at TechStars, it has been a struggle all season to accept that it will need help from others, during the path to success. When it finally clicks and the startup team gives its peers and mentors a seat at the table, positive things start to happen.

Check out the latest episode above, and be sure to leave your thoughts on the topic in the comments below.

More Recent Episodes of TechStars:

Getting into a top startup accelerator program can mean the difference between a company making it big and getting lost in the ether. Mashable is going behind the scenes of that experience by bringing the show TechStars to our community.

We’ve made the entire series available on-demand, and chopped it up into short segments ideal for Internet viewing. Over the course of the next couple of months, we’ll also be sharing each episode as part of a Mashable post, giving our community a chance to discuss the themes of each show in our comments section. You can read more about TechStars on Mashable here.

More About: entrepreneurship, Startups, techstarstv, Video

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Billionaire Tycoon One-Ups Rapper Drake’s Money Tweet

2012-05-31T17:20:52Z

An amusing Twitter exchange between rap star Drake and T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire chairman of BP Capital, has been catching significant attention Thursday — to the tune of more than 24,000 retweets as of 12:15 p.m. ET.

The 25-year-old rapper, who ranks number five for social buzz on Mashable‘s mRank Leaderboard for musicians and bands, sent a tweet Wednesday to his 7.4 million followers: “The first million is the hardest.”

Pickens, the 330th richest man in the U.S., responded hours later, manually retweeting Drake and adding “The first billion is a helluva lot harder.” Forbes pins Pickens’s net worth at $1.4 billion.

The first billion is a helluva lot harder RT @Drake: The first million is the hardest.

— T. Boone Pickens (@boonepickens) May 31, 2012

More than 8,200 Twitter accounts retweeted the witty response. Drake’s tweet attracted 15,000-plus retweets.

Drake fired back, saying Pickens “stunted on me heavy.” Stunting means to show off one’s worth or power.

@boonepickens just stunted on me heavy.

— Drizzy (@Drake) May 31, 2012

Drake‘s reply netted more than 1,000 retweets. Pickens, who has 46,640 followers, does not follow Drake.

How People Reacted to the Twitter Exchange

But selling of the soul is easy, boys RT @boonepickens The first billion is a helluva lot harder RT @Drake:The first million is the hardest.

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) May 31, 2012

Wow. OWNED by an O.G. RT @boonepickens: The first billion is a helluva lot harder RT @Drake: The first million is the hardest.

— Brian Strong (@briangstrong) May 31, 2012

Greatest. Tweet. Ever. RT @boonepickens: The first billion is a helluva lot harder RT @Drake: The first million is the hardest.

— Peter Burns (@PeterBurnsRadio) May 31, 2012

Image courtesy eaststream, Flickr, and David Shankbone, Wikimedia Commons.

More About: celebrities, Entertainment, humor, Social Media, trending, Twitter, viral

Hipstamatic Founders Launch Monthly iPad Magazine

2012-05-31T17:10:49Z

Before Lucas Buick cofounded Synthetic, the company that created popular iPhone app Hipstamatic, he was employed as a graphic designer at a trade magazine — a post, he says, he ultimately decided to leave in pursuit of more creative freedom. On Thursday, Buick is reentering the magazine business on his own terms, launching a free monthly iPad magazine called Snap.

The title, edited by longtime music blogger and Synthetic social media manager Katie Carroll, is compromised of eight sections and three feature stories based on a monthly theme. The content is largely focused on art, culture, music and fashion. Two of the eight sections are devoted to travel, another purely to profiles of “elite” photographers. One section, called “Climax,” is designed to spark conversations about more polarizing topics, including sex, religion and politics.

All but two of the photos in the issue were shot using Hipstamatic, and most of the photos in the future will also be shot that way, Molli Sullivan, Hipstamatic’s director of communications, tells me. “We’re really just trying to elevate the conversation around photography, educate users on how to best use Hipstamatic and inspire the world to take more photos,” she says.

The first issue, “Make Beautiful,” looks at movements and individuals enacting positive change in the world. Inside, readers will find interviews with photojournalist Ben Lowy; Amit Gupta, founder of photography how-to newsletter and online shop PhotoJoJo; Eric Victorino, lead singer of The Limousines; and a mix of guerilla street artists, among others.

Synthetic cofounder Lucas Buick introduces the issue.

Click here to view this gallery.

Beyond some call-outs for Hipstamatic’s own app, there are no advertisements in the issue and no immediate plans to include third-party ads in future issues.

In addition to Snap, Synthetic also launched its first “global art project” for Hipstamatic users Thursday under the same theme as the first issue, “Make Beautiful.” Users are encouraged to share beautiful photos on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #MakeBeautiful, which will then be indexed on a live photo feed. A library of Make Beautiful wallpapers as well as the original Illustrator files are available for download; Synthetic is encouraging users to “remix” the latter to develop their own creations.

Snap is available for download here.

More About: hipstamatic, ipad app, magazine, snap, synthetic

Animated YouTube Series Launches Low-Budget Kickstarter for Full-Length Film

2012-05-31T16:58:22Z

Note: This video contains language that’s NSFW

Animation studio Six Point Harness launched an ambitious Kickstarter campaign on Thursday for a film version of its hit YouTube series “Dick Figures.”

The YouTube series — which features two dysfunctional stick figures, “Red” and Blue” — is part of the Mondo Media family and has more than 115 million views. Six Point Harness is relying on those fans to decide the film’s length, intending to produce a feature-length film at most.

“Our audience has been begging for this, so it was only natural that we would reach out directly to our fans on YouTube to help us fund the growth of Dick Figures,” says Brendan Burch, CEO of Six Point Harness Studios.

The campaign for Dick Figures: The Movie will remain open for 47 days with an initial target goal of $250,000 for a half-hour special. If the funding surpasses to $500,000, the film will be an hour long, and for $700,000 the team will produce a full-length feature film.

Most animated full-length features require a production budget north of the millions. According to Burch, the team originally wanted $600,000, but Kickstarter was concerned about how low they set the budget. In fact, this may be one of the lowest production budgets for an animated full-length feature film.

“Our no frills, no fees, pure cost budget is around $680,000,” says Burch.

According to Burch, given that the film is successfully funded, distribution will likely reach YouTube’s rental program, among several other digital platforms that cater to the show’s hyper-connected audience — ranging from 13 to 24 years old.

SEE ALSO: How Entrepreneurs Are Using Kickstarter to Fund Their Dreams

“Our audience has grown up online and they are super savvy online, so most of our distribution plan would be digital,” says Burch, who also notes that they are not ruling out a theatrical release.

YouTube recently implemented support on crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, making for a powerful partnership. Sites like Kickstarter and YouTube have become a vital way for filmmakers to gain recognition and fundraising.

“Now our viewers are one click away from investing in Dick Figures and helping us take this property to the next level,” added Burch.

The film has been in discussion for some time. Burch says that the creators Ed Skudder and Zack Keller have been offered film deals in the past, but they were turned down because of creative control and business issues.

“We just wanted to make sure that we weren’t ever going to compromise what our fans are going to expect from us,” says Burch.

The fans have subconsciously been taken into serious consideration throughout the entire planning process — from deciding on production methods, to distribution, and even contributing to the plot.

The video shown above serves as a teaser for the film, which is currently an outline, not yet a full script. As a YouTube series, “Dick Figures” incorporates fan reactions into each episode.

However as a film, Burch says that four seasons of unanswered questions from fans will be revealed.

More About: kickstarter, mondo media, YouTube

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Best-Selling Book Turns Into Mobile Game for Women in Developing Countries

2012-05-31T16:20:29Z

Half The Sky, the best-selling book written by Pulitzer Prize winning couple Nick Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, is turning into a revolutionary gaming concept, targeting women in the developing world. Three mobile games, to be released in June for feature phones, teach women important entrepreneurial, health and business skills by playing casual games.

It should come as no surprise that Kristof, who’s well-known for embracing digital and social media as the New York Times‘s first blogger, has pushed his book down this innovative path. In 2009, before the book was released, he reached out to Games for Change, after keynoting their annual event, asking them to develop a social gaming concept to accompany the book.

Kristof saw how social games about the conflict in Darfur had reached more people than his New York Times columns and wanted to tap that potential for Half the Sky.

That turned into a Facebook game, which will be released later in 2012 to coincide with the release of the PBS documentary of Half the Sky.

Gaming for good has become a fairly popular theme in the innovation space, though Half the Sky has bridged into some less trodden territory, by creating a game targeting non-smartphone users in the developing world. While people at Games for Change were working on the Half the Sky Facebook games, they thought why not cater to their desired audience.

“We saw that there is an emerging market in developing world, so why not go and make change that will reach the people most effected by the issues,” Asi Burak, Games for Change co-president, told Mashable. “This is an amazing opportunity for people who don’t have a computer, for whom mobile phones are their only tool. Why not create a cool, colorful game to introduce them to the issues?”

The three games, developed with funding from USAID, were created through partnerships with local non-profits. The games will go in multiple app stores, beginning in Kenya, Tanzania and India, and will be free to download.

Worm Attack, the first game, is created around the issue of intestinal worms effecting school attendance. The game teaches women about de-worming and will be used in school curriculum by non-profit partner Deworm the World.

The second game, Nine Minutes, teaches girls about the pregnancy cycle and maternal health. Cedpa, the non-profit partner, curated the games content and will use it to educate pregnant women in health clinics.

The third game, created for the Indian market with non-profit Breakthrough, is a “chose your own adventure” style experience called The Patels. The game presents you with several different points of family conflict, such as education options, marriage and gender equality.

“What we’re doing with mobile games is pretty pioneering, it’s very early on and we’re figuring out a model that will be adaptable, we hope, in the future,” Burak says.

The Half the Sky Movement

Speaking holistically, The Half the Sky Movement, which fully launched in May, is about empowering women around the world through the inspiration of other women’s stories of becoming economic drivers and societal healers. In addition to Facebook and mobile gaming, the PBS documentary and the book, the movement is using social media to spread its message to a broader audience.

In this digitally connected age, Half the Sky is able to move beyond the perceived abilities of a book and turn into a multi-faceted digital campaign. Do you think we’ll see more human rights movements stem from books? Share your predictions in the comments.

Interested in technology’s role in sustainable development? Join Mashable and partners in Brazil for Rio+Social. If you can’t make it to South America, you can join in the discussions on Facebook and Twitter. Click on the image below to learn more.

More About: developing countires, social gaming, Social Good, Social Media

At Last! Facebook Allows Pages to Schedule Posts, Assign Admin Roles

2012-05-31T16:00:00Z

Big changes are afoot at Facebook. Yesterday, we announced the rollout of Promoted Posts on Facebook that allow marketers to extend the reach of their page content. Today, two new changes that marketers have been requesting for what seems like forever are finally rolled out: the ability to schedule posts, and the ability to assign roles to page admins.

Hooray!

First, let's take a look at the different admin roles and what permissions they'll have.

Creating Facebook Page Admins

Here's a matrix Facebook released in its Help Center that explains the 5 different roles a page admin can have, and what responsibilities those roles entail:

So a page manager is the ruler of the Facebook realm, and can do everything from create ads to moderate comments to promote and demote other page administrators. But not everyone should have that level of responsibility (or ability). You can limit some administrators to just content creation, some to just moderators, and some to simply analyzing your page Insights.

Why might you do this? Think of it this way -- ever had that boss that wakes up in the middle of the night curious about how your Facebook page is performing, takes a look at your Facebook page Insights, freaks out at some numbers he doesn't quite understand, and then starts posting updates every 15 minutes to "improve engagement?" That's the guy you'll demote to the 'Insight Analyst' role. Hey, that's a pretty sexy name if you ask me!

Or perhaps you have a new social media intern who hasn't quite mastered your social media strategy or brand voice, but you want to get her immersed in your social media presence so she can, you know, learn it. Maybe her role as a page administrator is 'Moderator' so she can do some social media monitoring, but doesn't start messing with the page's apps and status updates.

Sounds pretty handy, eh? To set these permissions on your own page, go to the top right corner of your screen and hit 'Manage,' then select 'Settings' in the drop-down. That will take you to this screen:

Under 'Admin Roles,' simply select the page administrator whose permissions you'd like to change, and select the role for which they're best suited. Voila! You've now edited the roles and permissions of your Facebook page administrators. And, bonus -- there is no limit to the number of admins a page can have!

Scheduling Facebook Posts

And now, for the other half of this exciting news ... the ability to schedule posts! Until now, you've probably made use of a third-party app (still a viable solution!) to schedule your Facebook posts in advance, or you've simply gotten used to logging in to your Facebook account every couple hours to post your next update. But now, you have options; take a look at how easy it is to schedule your posts right in Facebook:

To schedule your post, simply go to your page's sharing tool like you usually do, and select the type of post you want to add to your page. Once you've crafted your update, click the little blue clock icon in the lower left corner of the sharing tool, and select the year, month, day, hour, and minute at which you'd like your post to appear in the future. Then click 'Schedule'!

You can schedule a post up to 6 months in advance in 15-minute intervals. If you choose a date in the past, however, the post will appear immediately on your page's timeline. And no time zone calculations are needed, either -- Facebook will automatically correspond to the time zone you're in! Pretty easy, huh?

Facebook has made no mention of a timeline for when these two features will be rolled out to all pages, so just be on the lookout.

Are you excited for these new Facebook features? Are you promoting or demoting and page administrators? (Don't worry -- we won't tell).

Image credit: DafneCholet

8% of Online Adults Use Twitter Every Day [STUDY]

2012-05-31T16:48:10Z

Most Americans don’t use Twitter. But about half who do use it every day.

Of 2,253 U.S. online adults surveyed in a recent Pew study, 15% said they use Twitter. Among the same population, 8% said they use the service on a typical day day.

Growth in daily Twitter usage, by Pew’s measure, has grown 300% since November 2010 — outpacing growth in general Twitter usage, which increased 87.5% during the same time period.

Men and women are almost equally likely to say they used the service, but young adults, African Americans, and urban residents have high rates of Twitter usage relative to their peers.

Twitter says that it has 140 million users, making its community about 45% the size of the U.S. population. Usage of the network still doesn’t come close to Facebook, however, which claims 901 million active users.

Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, sodafish

More About: Pew, Twitter

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Klout Squad: What’s Your Most Used Social Network?

2012-05-31T16:43:37Z

The Klout Squad is an invite-only group of individuals who are passionate about social media, technology and Klout. The Klout Squad brings a unique perspective of views from Mom bloggers to social media gurus. Read their expertise on specific issues and questions. Click on their images to check out their Klout profiles.

What is your most used social network and why?

SpaceX Dragon Successfully Returns to Earth [VIDEO]

2012-05-31T16:36:40Z

Video courtesy NASA, apologies for the low quality. We will update this post with a better quality video when one becomes available.

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft successfully returned to Earth Thursday, becoming the first privately-owned spacecraft to complete a mission to the International Space Station.

The pilotless Dragon left the ISS after a nine-day mission loaded with 1,455 pounds of cargo on early Thursday morning. After separating from the space station, Dragon fired a series of engine burns to slow itself down enough to drop from orbit. The craft encountered temperatures of up to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit on the most intense part of the fall.

Dragon also fired a series of thruster bursts to keep itself on target for a splashdown a few hundred miles from southern California. At 45,000 feet above the Earth, the craft deployed two small parachutes that stabilized its flight path. Once those parachutes were fully deployed, three main brightly colored chutes were released, each with a diameter of 116 feet. Dragon’s altitude loss then slowed to about 17 feet per second, allowing it a comfortable aquatic arrival.

While Dragon descended from the heavens, a NASA aircraft watched via infrared camera and a pre-positioned group of ships owned by SpaceX sat ready to recover the 19-foot-long spacecraft. The craft touched down in the cloud-covered Pacific Ocean at 11:42 a.m. ET.

The ships’ crewmembers initially had trouble locating the spacecraft because of the heavy cloud coverage in the area, but the orange-and-white main parachutes caught their attention. SpaceX dive teams then disconnected the main parachutes. They will next tow the craft to the barge, which will use a heavy-lifting crane to take it on board.

Dragon’s final destination will be a SpaceX test facility in MacGregor, Texas — after some sensitive cargo is first given to NASA.

In the future, Dragon will abandon the water landing technique and instead settle down on a launching pad with the assistance of directional thrusters.

Dragon launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on May 22 after a series of delays. It docked with the ISS on May 25, becoming the first privately-owned spacecraft to do so. The spacecraft brought experimental equipment and other cargo to the ISS.

The Dragon’s successful mission marks the first of a series of cargo-hauling flights for which NASA granted SpaceX a $1.6 billion, four-year contract. NASA’s plan is to allow private space companies such as SpaceX to handle resupply shipments to the ISS, freeing up its own resources to focus on missions to Mars or near-Earth asteroids. SpaceX also has plans to eventually ferry astronauts to the space station and back.

SpaceX was founded in 2002 by PayPal founder Elon Musk. Below, watch Dragon separate from the ISS:

More About: NASA, space, SpaceX, Startups, Tech, trending, US

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Google to Overhaul Shopping Service, Introduce Purely Commercial Model

2012-05-31T16:00:26Z

Google is planning a major overhaul of its shopping feature in which it will shift to a purely commercial model built on Product Listing ads.

The shift, to be completed this fall, is designed to “make it easier to research purchases, compare different products, their features and prices, and then connect directly with merchants to make their purchase,” according to a blog post from the company.

Google is calling the new experience Google Shopping. Confusingly, a tab called Google Shopping already exists, but when you click on it, it leads to Product Search. Product Search is a mix of paid and unpaid placements. Google Shopping will consist of all paid placements, which is based on bids that retailers send via a constant feed. (However, search results for products will also include purely organic results below the top and right side of the page.) The change will give consumers better search results, says Sameer Samat, vp-product management at Google. It may also add to Google’s revenue stream.

As an example of the changes in store, Google provided the following image for Product Search as it currently appears:

Here is how Google Shopping will look this fall:

As illustrated, the major change is the product ads vs. “product universal,” Google’s term for organic results that it had highlighted the same way.

Another change is for more specific queries. In this case, while the searches above were for “tents,” the following is for “marmot limelight 2p.”

In addition to those changes, Google is rolling out Google Trusted Stores, a program it quietly introduced in April that takes into account reviews, shipping times and other factors to give Google’s seal of approval to merchants. While that program may help level the playing field with eBay, the overall changes to Google Shopping appear to be a bigger threat to Amazon.

In December, The Wall Street Journal reported that Google was in talks with major retailers about a new service that would add cheap 24-hour shipping to Product Search. Google would oversee the shipping feature, which would show whether stores have a product in stock and can deliver it within a day. The program might involve the United Parcel Service and local courier services, according to the WSJ.

Samat declined to comment on that report.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, kyoshino

More About: amazon, ebay, Google, shopping

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Parents and Grads: Here’s the Social Media Conversation You Need to Have

2012-05-31T15:35:41Z

More and more recruiters and employers are using social networks to screen job candidates. There are plenty of stories about companies rejecting applicants based on their social media profiles.

If you’re the parent of a recent college grad, you may have read these stories and thought of trying to have a chat about reputation with your kid. But what would you say? How would you put it in the language of social media? Here are some tips you can share about getting ready for the job market. Grads, listen up.

Investigate Yourself

Take inventory of what can be found online about you. As job search site Monster suggests, just Google yourself and see what comes back. (It’s a basic tip, but one that a surprising number of Facebook-oriented twentysomethings simply forget to do.)
Speaking of Facebook, be honest — is your profile filled with pictures from dorm parties from freshman year and other things you wouldn’t want a future employer to see? Time to master those Facebook privacy settings you always meant to check out.
Peruse your profile and mark items as private, or untag yourself in pictures you don’t want to be seen in.
Remove others’ ability to tag you in photos. In fact, you can review posts and photos you’re tagged in before they get posted to your Timeline by selecting that option in your privacy settings.
Sign up for Google Alerts so you know when something new has been posted about you online.
Quit Facebook groups that would look bad to an employer. Sorry, Thirsty Thursday Drinking Buddies. And watch what you post moving forward. Sport and games are fine; colorful opinions that might be read the wrong way are another.

Bury the Bad

One way to get rid of the things you’re not so proud of is to create new, positive content that appears in search results. Sign up for Google+, LinkedIn if you’re not already and create a professional profile.

Here’s a great guide to getting started. Sites such as BrandYourself will also help you do this.

Create Positive Profiles

Used correctly, Facebook is an amazing tool for any job seeker.

We asked Miriam Salpeter, author of “Social Networking for Career Success” for her tips on building a positive online reputation. Here’s what she offered:

Allow “everyone” to view your Work and Education, About You, and your contact info. This makes it easier for people to find you if they are looking on Facebook.
Find, visit, and “like” Facebook fan pages for any company that interests you. Interact there. The companies you want to work for are building “careers” pages, too. Join their communities. Ask good questions.
Use Facebook updates to show what you know. You likely don’t have a whole lot of work experience, but research your field online and share links to articles in your status updates. Start sharing ideas. Your contacts will begin to think of you as a go-to resource on that topic, and will think of you if they learn about jobs.

SEE ALSO: Facebook Privacy: 10 Settings Every User Needs to Know

Investigate Facebook Applications

Finally, try these Facebook applications. BranchOut, BeKnown, Jibe.com, SimplyHired.com’s Facebook tool, and Glassdoor.com’s In The Door connect you with potential opportunities.

These tools tell you who you’re trying to impress, basically. They reveal who in your Facebook network is connected to companies you’d like to work for.

Then there’s JackalopeJobs, a platform that allows you to login with your favorite social network and see if you have contacts there.

And of course, there’s LinkedIn, which every grad in today’s job market should consider joining. Yes, it’s no Facebook when it comes to fun, but it is more effective (and far more widely used) when it comes to business introductions.

So, parents: along with the sigh of relief you get when you see your college student receiving that diploma, remember that you can still open a few doors for them. Even if it means joining up and making a few LinkedIn introductions yourself.

Have you talked to your kids about how they use social media? Got advice for recent grads? Let us know in the comments.

Images courtesy of Flickr, NazarethCollege; iStockphoto, fazon1, mkurtbas

More About: Facebook, job search, linkedin, online reputation, social networking, trending

Pubslush Is Like Kickstarter for Authors

2012-05-31T15:25:29Z

Name: Pubslush

Big Idea: Pubslush is injecting Kickstarter-esque crowdfunding into the publishing process.

Why It’s Working: Traditional publishing has a lot of overhead costs and bureaucracy that make it hard for potentially popular books to get published; with it’s pledging model, Pubslush guarantees an audience before putting ink to paper. Plus, one book is donated for each one that’s purchased.

Too often, good manuscripts end up in the slush pile — in fact, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter was slushed by 12 publishers when she first shopped it around. To help talented authors overcome the challenges of the traditional publishing model, Jesse Potash founded Pubslush.

Potash describes it as “the publishing lovechild of American Idol and TOMS Shoes” — it’s a social publishing platform for aspiring novelists. Authors — with or without agents — can upload a 10-page excerpt, a summary and a “pitch.” Users can then “support” a book, and once it has 1,000 supporters, Pubslush will publish the book. For each book sold, one book is donated to one of the 100 million kids worldwide who don’t have access to books.

The point of Pubslush isn’t to publish all the slush, but to publish what people are interesting in reading and what may have been shunned by the gatekeepers at prominent bookstores.

“No one cares what the Barnes & Noble book buyer thinks,” say Potash. “Social media has opened up this new platform for everyone in the industry.”

Not only does Potash’s startup reimagine the talent discovery process, but it also puts more revenue in the author’s pocket. With less overhead than a traditional publisher, Pubslush has the flexibility to offer higher royalties to writers, making it a more appealing avenue for publishing.

Potash’s long term vision is for Pubslush to be a “global book club with a cause.” Check out our interview with him above, and tell us if you’d “support” works on Pubslush.

Series presented by GE

The World at Work is powered by GE. GE Works focuses on the people who make the things that move, power, build and help to cure the world.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, AnthiaCumming

More About: entrepreneurship, features, mashable, publishing, Social Good, Startups, World at Work

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Cookoo Smart Watch Gains Fast Support on Kickstarter [VIDEO]

2012-05-31T15:10:47Z

Will history repeat itself for another smartphone-connected watch on Kickstarter? A smartphone watch called Cookoo is currently getting a huge initial boost from Kickstarter supporters.

Even though it’s doing well, it’s not matching the impressive performance of a similar but more complicated product, the Pebble watch, which raised more than $10.2 million on May 18 and became one of the most successful projects backed on the crowd funding platform.

So far, the Cookoo watches are hot. Since its recent debut, the Cookoo project has raised $117,096 out of its $150,000 initial goal with 37 days left on Kickstarter.

Cookoo, like Pebble, similarly connects to iPhone and Android devices to alert users about calls, emails and messages from Facebook or Twitter. The developers said: “The Cookoo watch will notify you when something happens on your phone in real time — even if you can’t hear, see, or reach it.”

SEE ALSO: How Kickstarter Is Saving Hardware Innovation

The Cookoo app feeds the watch updates from your phone. Keys on the watch then light up to alert users to alarms, reminders, updates on social networks, texts, emails or missed calls. It also signals if your phone is connected or when it’s time to charge your phone. Keys — instead of pop-up messages as seen on Pebble — signals new phone activity.

Do you think Cookoo has what it takes to shatter Pebble’s Kickstarter records? Tell us in the comments.

More About: kickstarter, pebble

27 Ways to Slice & Dice Your Email List for Better Segmentation

2012-05-31T13:00:00Z

We've already made the case for list segmentation in email marketing, and we sure hope you've bought in. Still in need of a little refresher on the merits of email list segmentation? How about the fact that, according to eMarketer, 39% of email marketers that practice list segmentation see better open rates; 28% see lower opt-out and unsubscribe rates; and 24% see better email deliverability, increased sales leads, and greater revenue. You know your ol' pal revenue -- he's the whole reason you're doing email marketing in the first place, right?

Alright, now that you're undoubtedly on board with list segmentation, you're probably asking yourself how you should slice and dice your own list. Well, the bad news is that it totally depends on the nature of your business and the goals associated with your email marketing and lead nurturing -- so I can't give you a one-size-fits-all answer. The good news, however, is that there are tons of creative ways you can segment your email list that empower you to run innovative and effective campaigns! All you need to do is collect the right information. So to get your creative juices flowing, take a look at this ultimate list of ways you could segment your email lists!

27 Smart Ways to Segment Your Email List

The whole point of segmentation is providing more relevant content to your email recipients. To do that, you'll have to take the time to craft targeted campaigns (our marketing team uses a combination of HubSpot's segmentation/email tools and our CRM system, Salesforce) that take into account not just list segments, but also lead data, and trigger events that help customize your email campaigns further.

So while your jaws are agape at all the amazing ways you can segment your email marketing lists, keep in mind that while some of these recommendations will work wonderfully on their own, many of them are at their absolute best when crossed with other segments, triggers, and lead intelligence data. Alright, without further ado, here are 27 ways you can segment your email lists!

1) Geography

Knowing where your contacts live can be seriously powerful information. If you're a brick-and-mortar business, you wouldn't want to send in-store offers to out-of-towners, right? Or let's say you're a national franchise -- you better be segmenting by zip code to ensure you're not infringing on someone else's territory, or worse, marketing to a location that your organization doesn't even service yet.

2) Age

People of all ages have access to the internet these days, which means you could be emailing a college student, a retiree; heck, even a little kid. You may find knowing the general age range of the people on your list helpful to remove those not in your target audience (AARP might not want my name on their list ... yet), or to adjust the messaging of your email communications.

3) Gender

Just as you'd speak to a retiree and a college student differently, you might adjust your messaging and offers based on gender, too. If you have a wide product offering that extends across genders, consider segmenting your list in this manner -- and beefing up the segmentation with other demographic and psychographic details, as well.

4) Persona

Speaking of demographics and psychographics, you should have buyer personas that include information of this nature, as well as more detailed explanations of what makes these folks tick and why your solution provides value for them. If you don't have buyer personas created already, reference this guide to create your own -- and then segment your list based on them! Because each persona has different needs and value propositions, they're all going to require different email content for the best click-through and conversion rates.

5) Organization Type

Do you sell to other businesses? Are they franchises? Non-profit organizations? Ecommerce companies? Enterprise organizations? Small businesses? They all have different needs, and as such, their email content should be different -- so segment your list accordingly!

6) Industry

If you're selling to other businesses, you may encounter leads and contacts across many different industries. I'm not sure who's doing Dunder Mifflin's email marketing, but you can bet Jim and Stanley are working restaurants chains one minute, and law firms the next. Knowing your lead's industry will allow you to add another level of personalization to your email marketing.

7) Job Function

As a B2B marketer, your email list could contain a whole melee of different job functions -- office personnel, salespeople, marketers, consultants, developers, customer service, accountants ... the list goes in. Considering the breadth of job roles within any given organization, doesn't it make sense to segment your list accordingly?

8) Seniority Level

There are different job roles, and there are different levels of seniority. Perhaps your contact said they work in marketing, but is she the VP of marketing, or a marketing coordinator? Those two contacts will differ in years of experience, salary level, pain points, decision-making potential, and a whole host of other differences that make segmentation critical for effective email marketing campaigns.

9) Past Purchases

If a segment of your list has purchased from you before, use that information to send them emails catered to that which interests them. Then make your bottom line bigger by identifying upsell opportunities with additional services or complementary products they'd enjoy based on their past purchases.

10) Purchase Interests

You can infer someone's purchase proclivities from past buying behavior, or you can just ... ask. I've highlighted two companies who do this in creative ways -- such as with surveys -- in a recent blog post about awesome email marketing to help them create better targeted emails.

11) Buying Frequency

Segment your email list based on how often someone purchases. Not only can you try to increase shopping frequency for some, but you can also reward frequent shoppers with an invitation to your loyalty program to make your brand even stickier!

12) Purchase Cycle

Do certain customers come to you on a weekly, monthly, yearly, quarterly, etc. basis? Or perhaps they only need you at a certain time of year -- a pool cleaner might see upticks in spring and fall, for example. Segment your list based on customers' purchase cycle so you can be there right at their point of need.

13) Content Topic

Here are HubSpot, we notice that some of our leads and contacts are far more interested in certain content topics than others. There's one segment that's extremely interested in sales and marketing alignment, while another is far more interested in Pinterest marketing. So it only makes sense that we segment our list based on the topics our contacts have showed interest in! Take a look at what content gets people clicking, and segment your list based on that.

14) Content Format

You may find that specific content formats are more appealing to certain segments of your database -- some like blogs, others prefer ebooks, some may only show up when you put on a webinar. If you know how certain segments of your list prefer to consume content, you can deliver the offer content in your emails by their preferred format.

15) Interest Level

Just because someone converts on a content offer, doesn't mean they actually liked it. Segment your list based on how interested leads are in your content. For example, we might email a segment of webinar attendees that stayed engaged for 45 minutes or more with a middle-of-the-funnel offer to help move them along in the sales cycle, while those that dropped off before 10 minutes might receive another top-of-the-funnel offer -- or even a feedback survey to gauge what specifically lost their interest.

16) Education Level

While you could segment your list based on how many degrees they hold, I'm talking about how educated a lead or contact is regarding your brand and the subject matter you discuss. For example, here at HubSpot we tag our blog and offer content as introductory, intermediate, or advanced. If you segment your list based on the level of understanding they have on the topics you write about, you can tailor your lead nurturing content to speak at the right level.

17) Change in Content Engagement Level

Have you noticed an increase or decrease in the amount of time leads are spending with your content? This is an indication of their interest in your company, and should be used to either reawaken waning interest, or move leads along through the sales cycle while they're at their height of engagement with your content.

18) Change in Buying Behavior

Similar to a change in content engagement, a change in buying behavior can indicate a lead is becoming more or less interested in your company. Leads that decrease purchasing frequency, for example, might need a little extra love -- and thus, a dedicated lead nurturing campaign.

19) Stage in the Sales Cycle

I've mentioned it a little bit here and there, but the stage a lead is at in the sales cycle should determine which email segment they fall in. At the very least, set up separate lead nurturing tracks for those at the top of your sales funnel, in the middle of your sales funnel, and at the bottom of the sales funnel.

20) Email Type

There's a lot you can tell by someone's email address. Not only can you design your emails for different email clients if you're really into sophisticated email design, but you can also tell what other free services they have access to with their email accounts. For example, you might send an email out to everyone with a Gmail address asking them to add your blog to their Google Reader.

21) Satisfaction Index

Many businesses use satisfation indexes to determine how happy their customer base is -- Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a very popular one. If you're measuring satisfaction numerically, consider sending an email segmented based on your customers' level of happiness with your organization. Those with a high NPS score, for example, might provide opportunities to gather reviews, referrals, or even upsells. Those with lower scores, however, may get emails that give them access to educational materials that will make them happier and more successful customers.

22) Customers Who Refer

Consider creating a list segment full of those customers who repeatedly refer new business your way. These are your biggest brand advocates, and should receive emails targeted towards loyalty programs, refer-a-friend discounts, even possibly trials for new products or services you're releasing to get honest feedback before widespread rollouts.

23) Customers Who Haven't Reviewed

You should always be trying to get more positive reviews of your business, so why not create a list segment that targets those customers who haven't written a review yet? You could combine this list segment with, say, those that are also social media fans and have a high NPS score. Think about it ... you know they follow you on Twitter and their NPS score indicates they love you. That's just begging for an online review email campaign!

24) In-Store vs. Webstore Visitors

If you have both a brick-and-mortar location as well as a website, segment your list based on where your customers like to shop. You can give invites to in-store events to those customers that give you foot traffic, while those that only visit your webstore might receive offers that should only be redeemed online.

25) Shopping Cart Abandonment

Marketing Experiments found that over 50% of shopping carts are abandoned prior to purchase. Yikes. If you run an ecommerce webstore, you absolutely must have an abandoned shopping cart email program, and you should be segmenting your contacts based on this behavior.

26) Form Abandonment

Not an ecommerce company? You still have abandoners on your site -- form abandoners! If someone starts filling out some forms on your website and then loses interest, gets busy, has a lousy internet connection, gets eaten by a dinosaur ... you know, whatever ... segment out those leads for nurturing aimed at bringing them back to your website to complete the form. The offer was interesting enough at one point in time to pique their interest, so why not try to recover some of those form abandoners?

27) Usage

Whatever it is you offer, there are some customers who you could consider power "users." These are the ones that totally get how to navigate your website, use every feature in your software, and make the most of their relationships with your service providers. Then there are the rest of us. Segment out the power users and the strugglers, frequent users, and infrequent users; then send email content that teaches them how to be more successful with your product or service. The more successful they are, the more likely they are to stick around!

I hope this list has given you ideas for ways to segment your own lists, and most importantly, sparked some creative email campaigns you can run as a result of this new segmentation.

So what about you -- what other ways can you think of to segment your email lists? Which of these segmentation ideas could you combine with others for really epic results?

Image credit: Beta-J