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Internet Fat Cats: Memes and Marketing

By Molly Daly

I’d wager to guess that almost every Facebook user has seen a meme in their day. There’s a decent chance that those memes feature cats. The Internet has had a long lasting love affair with felines and many cite the ancient Egyptians as unknowing inspiration to future generations.

The concept of Internet memes has spread from culture sites such as Reddit and 4Chan and worming its way into the mainstream and life as we know it. For “meme management” pioneer Ben Lashes, it’s a way of life. After success with perhaps one of the oldest cat memes, Keyboard Cat, Lashes left his job as a music distributor and started managing memes full time. Keyboard Cat has made several television appearances, and his likeness was even used in a Pistachios commercial, with over 2.5 million YouTube views on the ad alone.

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Photo courtesy of YouTube.com

Lashes manages other popular memes such as Nyan Cat, and Grumpy Cat, among others. There’s a bit of a feline pattern here, but that’s no surprise to a Redditor or a cat lover. (Or in my case, both.) Therefore, I am pleasantly surprised by the recent leaps Internet cats have made towards television and film.

grumpy cat

Photo courtesy of GrumpyCats.com

Grumpy Cat, who was boosted to extreme popularity thanks to Reddit, has hailed many accolades. Voted Meme of the Year at the 2013 Webby Awards, she now has over 1 million Facebook likes under her dwarfish belt, was a star at SXSW – and just scored a movie deal. I can only hope the proposed Garfield-style family film lands on its feet.

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Photo courtesy of LilBub.com

 

Another figure in the feline field is Lil Bub, who won big at the Tribeca Film Festival with her documentary on cats and the Internet, titled Lil Bub and Friendz. If this blog post caught your cat fancy, I definitely recommend checking out the trailer.

There’s no question that the popularity of Internet memes affects marketers in a big way. So how can brands catch the breaking memes before they become too mainstream? “Become a nerd about memes,” says Ben Lashes, in an interview with Big Think. “Watch culture websites like the stock market.” For me in particular, this advice is not hard to follow.

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Keep It Glassy

By: Lexi Severini

In case you haven’t turned on a computer this week, we will brief you on what has dominated Mashable, Read Write Web and many other social news sources. Google Glass is taking over. Okay, we’re exaggerating. While it could be argued that the introduction of this futuristic device into society has the potential to change human interaction altogether, we’ll save that heavy discussion for a later date. As the curious bifocals make their way into the public’s hands (or onto their faces to be quite literal) the community has taken to the World Wide Web to share their experiences with this avant-garde, wearable interface. Here are some of our favorites so far:

Screen Shot 2013-05-17 at 1.57.11 PM Have a beer with an (Australian) Irishman.

Screen Shot 2013-05-17 at 2.43.20 PM See the world through the eyes of a 2 year old.

Screen Shot 2013-05-17 at 2.47.17 PMDocument everyday interactions and special moments.

Entertaining to say the least, incredibly innovative and revolutionary to say the most. All of this commotion then begs the question, if you had Google Glass for a day, what would you do?

SXSW: A Simplified Guide to Finding Your Way to the Best Stuff

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By: Lexi Severini

Everywhere’s founding members Tamara Knechtel and Danica Kombol are 2 of the roughly 300,000 prospective attendees at this year’s SXSW convention in Austin and we’re all collectively envious of them.

If you happen to be a part of that oh-so lucky pool of people who have already, or will be descending upon Bat City in the next few weeks, consider this list your guide to new and sought-after SXSW social apps! I also threw in a couple of apps that will help you navigate the scene itself!

Apps to check out while you’re there:

  • Screen Shot 2013-03-08 at 3.58.22 PMHighlight: This start-up got a lot of attention last year, and it’s back for round two! Call it an app for the “socially adventurous” among us! This app lets you meet people based on similar interests who are in close proximity to you. According to their website’s description, “…as you go about your day, Highlight runs quietly in the background, surfacing information about the people around you.” This one might be creepily intuitive but these days, who doesn’t want to know about everyone and everything around them? And the goal of SXSW is to connect, so check it out and let us know what you think!
  • Screen Shot 2013-03-08 at 3.22.23 PMGauss: a.k.a. “The People Magnet,” Gauss utilizes information that already exists in your Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare profiles to assess the types of people it thinks you might be interested in meeting. By maintaining a list of things you would like to do, the app will notify you of people it thinks you should connect with. The good news is no one can see your info, and you get to choose if and when to connect with other users.
  • Screen Shot 2013-03-08 at 3.22.59 PMPearescope: Danica is what we call a “connector.” She somehow miraculously keeps a rolodex in her head of how and where she knows people from. This comes in handy for business moves etc., but if you don’t have that natural talent, this app is for you. Curious about or interested in a friend of a friend? Pearescope allows you to meet people by introducing you to other mutual friends. You’ll even be able to see who’s met whom and through which friend that you both have in common. An ideal way to capitalize on those 6 degrees of separation. Think LinkedIn, but in a socially intuitive app.

 

Apps to use while you’re there:

  • Screen Shot 2013-03-08 at 4.00.57 PMMashable SXSW Trendspotter- This website (with analytics by Topsy) will provide you with an up-to-the-hour look at the topics that are trending at SXSW based on categories like Music, Interactive, Brands, etc.
  • Screen Shot 2013-03-08 at 3.59.26 PMSXSW Go – This is a succinct mobile app created to help the busiest of SXSW-goers to stay organized and keep in the know. This app allows you to schedule your day, browse event media, find venues, and search for events/exhibitors. What’s especially great? It’s available on iPhone, iPad and Android.

 

SXSW can be overwhelming, but if you have the right arsenal you will survive. What other apps help you get around?

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Social Media, Access Granted: The Transformation of Traditional Media

We’re proud of our social media internship at Everywhere. Every semester, two to three interns are chosen to work in our offices and gain experience in our arena. We ask each intern to submit a blog post as part of their training. The following blog post was penned by GSU student, Alair Hallman.

 

Each week Facebook users share more than 3.5 billion pieces of content (Digital Buzz blog). Who could have predicted the relevance of social media in today’s society? Arguably not Zuckerberg, Anderson and Dorsey, all celebrated social media innovators in their own rights. Social media has infiltrated every home and, in a sense, infected every human being. Step into a major board meeting, how many heads are down? Step inside a classroom, how many faces do you see glowing with the dim blue light shine from each student’s device of choice?

From journalism to television shows, social media has transformed how people tune into different fields of media.

Rather than tune into a favorite news radio or television station, consumers get the news instantly on their smart phones or laptops in real time — and can even contribute to the news cycle as citizen journalists.

In an article titled “Starting a Revolution,” Twitter co-founder Biz Stone states, “Twitter purposefully allows everyone access, because information — both good and bad — should be allowed to flow freely [….] This idea that the open exchange of information can have a positive global impact is being proven over and over again around the world nearly on a daily basis.” (NPR 2011)

Twitter and other social media has transformed newsgathering and reporting, drastically changing the way in which telecommunication professionals and their audience operate. There are numerous examples of how social media has impacted news reporting. One fairly recent example includes the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. ABC News’ Olivia Katrandjian reports, “As has become the norm of such protests, this movement has been fueled by social media fire, with supporters taking to Twitter under the hashtag #occupywallstreet. The major hacking group Anonymous has also thrown in its support, live streaming the day’s events,” (ABC News).

The tweet that broke Osama bin Laden’s death also serves as an epic example of Twitter transforming breaking news — from Sohaib Athar, a.k.a. @ReallyVirtual inadvertently live-tweeting the raid in which bin Laden was killed to Keith Urban (@keithurban), chief of staff for former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whose tweet arguably broke the news of bin Laden’s death.

Social media has also greatly impacted television content. Programs have drastically changed to engage viewers, from GetGlue check-ins and badges to including tweets, hashtags, Facebook mentions. Just this past year, HBO launched the beginnings of a socially-driven experience to watching their programs, backed by project champion and the director of marketing and social media at HBO, Sabrina Caluori. HBO Connect, appropriately titled, aims for a more integrated connection with viewers through “Pulse, Feeds, Conversations, Visualizes, and Connections,” (Mashable).

I even caught an episode of the beloved animated series The Simpsons where Marge inspires Bart and Lisa to become foodies and start a food blog. I was tickled by this particular example — a show I grew up watching has become so current on their content, particularly when compared to those episodes debuting in 1989.

Does social media strengthen or strain relationships, particularly with the media? Let’s put this in perspective… What’s the next best thing to seeing Ann Curry’s smiling face NBC’s Today Show? How about getting the behind-the-scenes, inside scoop in her own voice and the ability to interact with her off-camera on Twitter @anncurry?

One study examining relationships between the audience and TV newscasters found that of those surveyed, more than half agreed that the newscasters are almost like friends you see every day (Dominick, Joseph, The Dynamics of Mass Communication, 2011). Not only do you have people who are genuinely interested in the news, but you also have a new audience who follow specifically because of the para-social relationships with news providers. This is true not only with legitimate news outlets, such as CNN, but also with bloggers, celebrities and anyone else providing newsworthy information.

Social media has expanded the way we interact with each other by breaking boundaries to create relationships. According to recent research, roughly two-thirds of social-media users say their major reason for using social media is to stay in touch with current friends and family members, while half say connecting with old friends they’ve lost touch with is a major reason behind their use (PEW Research via Digital Buzz Blog). Even if we never come to a solid conclusion on social media’s effect on relationships, one thing still remains — social media is everywhere. More than that, it’s changing every day.

Tweeting to #BeatCancer: 200,000+ Tweets So Far

By Pete Cashmore on Mashable

Twitter has been virtually taken over this weekend by a great cause: #BeatCancer gets brands to donate 1 cent for every tweet containing that hashtag. It’s been a huge success so far, with 200,000+ tweets being posted since the launch yesterday.

The campaign aims to break a Guinness World Record for the most social mentions, although it’s unclear where that record currently stands.

As we wrote yesterday:

The concept is rather simple. For every tweet, Facebook status update, or blog post containing the #beatcancer hashtag, eBay/PayPal and MillerCoors will be donating 1 cent to cancer research. With a captive audience of social media addicts, the hope is that the campaign will go viral and raise significant money for several charities.

More details are available on the beatcancereverywhere.com website, along with badges that you can embed on your blog to further expand the reach of the campaign.

Of course such campaigns could lose their effectiveness if overused – it’s also against Twitter’s Terms of Service to add unrelated hashtags to Tweets, since this is a common tactic of spammers wishing to turn up in Twitter search results. Nonetheless, as a one-off charity campaign, #BeatCancer appears to be an inspired idea that’s raising thousands of dollars for charity.

To read the article on Mashable, click here.Mashable

Social Media Campaign to Beat Cancer Eyes Record in Guinness Book

By Adam Ostrow in Mashable

Over the past few months, there’s been a tremendous amount of activity in utilizing social media for charitable causes. Perhaps the most notable recent example is Drew Carey’s bid of $1 million for the Twitter name @drew, with all of the proceeds being donated to cancer research.

Today, using the collection of hundreds of bloggers currently converged at Blog World Expo as an impetus, a social media fundraising effort is underway looking to set a Guinness Book World Record “for the distribution of the largest mass message through social media” in a 24 hour period.

The concept is rather simple. For every tweet, Facebook (Facebook) status update, or blog post containing the #beatcancer hashtag, eBay/PayPal and MillerCoors will be donating 1 cent to cancer research. With a captive audience of social media addicts, the hope is that the campaign will go viral and raise significant money for several charities.

More details are available on the beatcancereverywhere.com website, along with badges that you can embed on your blog to further expand the reach of the campaign. The site is also tracking total mentions, so you can see how the campaign is progressing throughout the day.

To read the story on Mashable, click here.