marți, 23 iulie 2013

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics


The Voices Behind the 105 Different “The Simpsons” Characters

Posted: 23 Jul 2013 06:58 PM PDT

These 6 actors are responsible for bringing 105 of the memorable "Simpsons" characters to life.






















Awesome "Breaking Bad" Mask

Posted: 23 Jul 2013 06:09 PM PDT

Bryan Cranston aka Walter White at Comic-Con International 2013. See how Walter White turns himself into Bryan Cranston.



















“Star Wars” Vs. “Game Of Thrones”

Posted: 23 Jul 2013 05:22 PM PDT

The battle between "Star Wars" and "Game Of Thrones."





















































Influencing Social Awesomizers with Personalized Content

Influencing Social Awesomizers with Personalized Content


Influencing Social Awesomizers with Personalized Content

Posted: 22 Jul 2013 07:21 PM PDT

Posted by JonMorris

Since the birth of social media, brands have been searching for an effective way to leverage the power of influencers â€" those social "awesomizers" who have a significant following and a powerful voice in their respective industries. Obtaining a mere mention by the right influencer could boost even the most niche business to the forefront of social buzz.

But how do you determine who to target? How do you enchant them and convert them into a brand advocate? Read on to learn about the steps we took at Rise Interactive in developing and integrating personalized content into a digital marketing strategy, and the significant impact it had in elevating Rise's digital presence.

Step 1: Identify your awesomizer

The first thing you need to do is identify your social media awesomizer â€" someone with a significant social following and powerful voice in their industry. Rise Interactive hosts routine digital marketing conferences where we bring together some of the brightest minds in the industry in our Internet Marketing Leadership Series (IMLS). At our first event, Travis Wright, global social media manager at Symantec and self-professed digital disrupter and marketing provocateur, gave a riveting (and hilarious) presentation about the power of social media. An avid Kansas City Chiefs fan, Travis described his experience sparring with the Chiefs through social media.

It all started with the below tweet, which created an unexpected but powerful ripple effect, due in large part to Travis's broad social media following (more than 129,000 Twitter followers when he spoke at IMLS).

Soon after this tweet was sent, @kcchiefs rudely replied to Travis, igniting an explosive and ongoing social media feud. Travis's battle with the Chiefs was eventually picked up by Reddit, Yahoo, Mashable and more. We like to think that this negative press contributed to the Chiefs firing their general manager, Scott Pioli, although we know that it was most likely Kansas City's abysmal 2-14 record.

Travis's story demonstrated the true power of social media and how he harnessed it to his advantage. He had a compelling story and a large group of followers, which allowed him to basically accomplish the impossible.

It got us at Rise thinking; could a brand create noise for itself on social media just as Travis had done? It was time for an experiment.

Key takeaway

Having a direct relationship with a social influencer will definitely help get your foot in the door, but even if you don't have a personal connection with them, you can still court them. Find people in your industry that you respect, that are viewed as influential thought leaders, and that have a large group of followers. Start developing an online relationship with them â€" reach out to them and tell them how much you admired one of their blog posts, or reply to and share their posts. Be sincere and see where things lead. If you are able to establish a solid relationship with an awesomizer, consider pitching them your idea to develop personalized content for them to share with their followers. The worst thing that could happen is they say no. Big deal â€" we've all been rejected before. Reach out to the next influencer, and sooner or later one of them will welcome the attention and say yes.

While having a pre-established relationship is the best case scenario, it's not a requirement. If you mine the data, find the story, and create and share the personalized content, that is definitely enough to start a relationship with an influencer.

Step 2: Develop personalized content

Travis's story was so compelling and rare, and because it could be structured with an easy-to-follow timeline of events, we knew it would make for an awesome infographic. We were excited to test out our experiment â€" if we created personalized content for Travis, would he share it across his large group of followers, and would that help turn him into a brand advocate while also capturing attention for the Rise Interactive brand? Only one way to find out…

We got to work compiling the timeline and getting the facts straight. Our graphic designer started laying out the infographic. It was a time-consuming process â€" reviews, revisions, legal hurdles that we hadn't considered, and more revisions. But it had to be perfect â€" this was a gift to our awesomizer, after all â€" so we labored on until we had our final product. We were proud of what we developed, but would Travis really share it? Would it have any significant impact for Rise?

Key takeaway

First, you need to identify which format your content should take. We chose an infographic because they're a popular format for sharing easy-to-understand content, the timeline nature of Travis's story would be easy to represent graphically, and they're also one of our creative team's specialties. Think about the best vessel for your content, what you're good at, and then let the creative juices flow. Even though it's pandering to your influencer, make sure it's compelling enough to stand alone in case they don't share it. The second takeaway is that you need to invest a lot of time to guarantee a great final product. You're creating personalized content for awesomizers, so it should go without saying that the final product is awesome.

Step 3: Syndicate content

It was the moment of truth. We posted the infographic to Rise Interactive's blog.Then I personally shared the infographic with Travis on Twitter; we didn't tweet this out first ourselves. Exclusivity was part of our strategy; we wanted Travis to be the first to see the infographic and allow him to share it first.

We waited in anticipation. Travis responded to my tweet, thanking us for creating the infographic. He then created a separate tweet and shared it with his Twitter followers, all 129,000 of them.

He then proceeded to embed the full infographic on his blog, along with links to Rise Interactive's blog.

He also tweeted about his new blog post.

Our experiment was a success â€" Travis was sharing our infographic. Travis found benefit in our efforts as well. We weren't just building an infographic; we were starting to build a brand advocate.

On top of Travis's efforts, our SEO team focused on link building to generate more attention and authority for the infographic by securing links back to Rise's blog.

Key takeaway

Provide your influencer with exclusivity in viewing and sharing your personalized content. Allowing them to create the first surge of the sharing wave will help reinforce that they are an extremely valuable, important part in the process. But don't rely on them for everything â€" have a two-pronged approach and invest in link building efforts to compliment the awesomizer's reach.

Step 4: Measure results

The last step is to measure the results of all of your efforts. Only the data can tell you how much of a success the experiment was.

Overall, Rise Interactive's blog received approximately 50 links and 12 total linking root domains.* Extra Mustard, one of Sports Illustrated's sister sites, linked to the infographic because of its sports theme, which was a big win because of the high traffic that the site receives. The first week of the infographic being live on our blog, the Rise website received approximately 15,500 referral visits; 98 percent of those visits were new visitors.

Aside from the spike in website traffic to Rise's website, we converted Travis Wright into a brand advocate. He loved the infographic we created for him, and happily shared it among his vast social network. It was truly a win-win scenario for both Travis Wright and Rise Interactive.

*It's important to note how we arrived at these numbers: We looked at multiple different sources (Moz, GWT, BWT, and Majestic) and de-duplicated link data from each source to arrive at a final number of links and linking root domains.

Key takeaway

Make sure that you have analytics in place to track the success of your initiative. While it was a great accomplishment that Travis shared the infographic with his social followers, we needed to have more objective ways to measure success. Only data can truly show you how successful any digital marketing investment really is, so make sure you have an analytically driven, data focused reporting strategy in place to define what success really looks like.

Conclusion

Ultimately, there are two significant takeaways we can gather from all of this. The first is that in our experience, developing personalized content for social awesomizers is an effective way to enchant influencers, convert them into brand advocates and elevate a brand's digital presence. The second is that involving multiple channels and uniting them with one common goal can lead to some innovative strategies and awesome results. Rise's creative, SEO, social, and event marketing teams all worked together on this project and accomplished more than any single channel could have accomplished alone.


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Our Favorite Photos from June

Here's What's Happening Here at the White House
 
 
 
 
 
 
  Featured 

Our Favorite Photos from June

Every month, White House photographers pick some of their favorite pictures to share with you. This month, we've put together a behind-the-scenes look at the President's trips to Europe and Africa, his visit with the 2012 WNBA champion Indiana Fever, and a photo of the President and First Dog, Bo.

Check out some of our favorite photos from June 2013.

Check out the June 2013 photo gallery.

President Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron tour Enniskillen Primary School in Northern Ireland. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

 
 
  Top Stories

You're Going to Want to Watch This Speech

Tomorrow, almost five years after the financial crisis fueled a devastating recession, the President will return to Knox College to kick off a series of speeches that will lay out his vision for rebuilding an economy that puts the middle class and those fighting to join it front and center.

READ MORE

In New Delhi, Vice President Biden Tours Gandhi Smriti

Vice President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden arrived in New Delhi today, the first stop on a six-day trip to India and Singapore.

READ MORE

Weekly Address: Confirming Rich Cordray to Lead the CFPB

In his weekly address, President Obama discusses the Senate’s confirmation of Rich Cordray as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

READ MORE

 
 
  Today's Schedule

All times are Eastern Time (ET)

12:30 AM: The Vice President meets with Vice President Hamid Ansari

4:30 AM: The Vice President meets with Sushma Swaraj of the Bharatiya Janata Party

6:45 AM: The Vice President meets with Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh

8:00 AM: The Vice President meets with President Pranab Mukherjee

9:45 AM: The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing

10:00 AM: The the Vice President attends a dinner hosted by Vice President Ansari

10:45 AM: The President meets with members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus

11:45 AM: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney WATCH LIVE

2:00 PM: The Vice President and Dr. Biden arrive in Mumbai

2:10 PM: The President honors the 2013 NCAA Men’s Basketball Champions the Louisville Cardinals WATCH LIVE

 

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Seth's Blog : Change the culture, change the world

 

Change the culture, change the world

Plenty of marketing, particularly the marketing of social-change groups, focuses on educating people and getting them to make different (and better) decisions.

But most actions aren't decisions at all.

In Reykjavik, shopkeepers keep their doors closed (it's cold!) and if they were aware that in Telluride most stores keep their doors propped open (even in the winter) they'd think it was nuts.

In Japan, the typical household saves three to five times as much of their income as a household in the US. This is not an active decision, it's a cultural component.

The list goes on and on. A practioner of Jainism doesn't have a daily discussion about being a vegetarian, and a female graduate of Johns Hopkins is likely pre-sold on the role of women in the workplace.

If you ask someone about a cultural practice, the answer almost always boils down to, "that's what people like me do."

Powerful organizations and great brands got there by aligning with and accelerating tectonic cultural shifts, not by tweaking sales one at a time.

There are two lessons here. The first is that the easiest thing to do is merely amplify what a culture is already embracing. The second is that real change is cultural change, and you must go about it with the intent to change the culture, not to merely make the easy change, the easy sale.

       

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luni, 22 iulie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


How to Lie Without Saying a Thing

Posted: 22 Jul 2013 12:33 PM PDT

There are rare exceptions, but the general way to tell when a politician is lying is if his lips are moving.

Another way to tell is if the politician's lips aren't moving.

Chancellor Merkel and finance Minister Schäuble have said Germany will not agree to a transfer union. But what about mountains of unrepaid southern European debt held by public creditors?

By now, both Merkel and Schäuble know that debt cannot and will not be paid back. They also both know that German taxpayers will soon be on the hook.

But as a matter of political expediency, Schäuble keeps quiet on mounting cost to Germany of Europe's woes.
When Mr Schäuble visited Athens last week, the leftist Greek newspaper Avgi welcomed him with the abrasive headline: "Hail Schäuble! We who are about to die salute you."

Aware of the acrid political atmosphere in Athens, Mr Schäuble came bearing gifts: €100m in state-backed loans for small and medium-sized Greek businesses. But what Greece really needs, to kindle a flame of hope in its future, is another restructuring of its foreign debt.

Conventional wisdom holds that it would be suicidal for Mr Schäuble, or any German politician, to speak this unpalatable truth to voters before Germany's September 22 national election. Unlike the Greek debt haircut of March 2012, which clipped private sector lenders, any future restructuring would shear the locks of official creditors, including Germany, which now hold over 90 per cent of Greece's debt.

So far, the bailouts of Greece, Ireland, Portugal, the Spanish financial sector and Cyprus have cost German taxpayers much in loans and guarantees, but not one cent in hard, unrecoverable cash. Indeed, the €110bn EU-International Monetary Fund rescue of Greece in May 2010 was as much about protecting German banks, which had lent recklessly across southern Europe, as it was about restoring Greece's financial health.

A second Greek debt restructuring would not shock German taxpayers and destabilise the political scene, although legal hurdles might need to be jumped at the nation's constitutional court.

More dangerous, for its impact on German political and public opinion, would be the dropping of a different penny: the growing possibility that debt write-offs, or extra financial aid, will have to be made available not just to Greece but to Portugal and Cyprus. Spain's banks are not wholly out of the woods, either.

As for Cyprus, the duration and intensity of its economic and social collapse are unmeasurable.

The question, then, that threatens to dominate German public debate is: "Greece, Portugal, Cyprus . . . Where will we Germans draw the line?" The only certainty is that no answer will come before September 22.

Certainties

  1. Chancellor Merkel and finance Minister Schäuble will continue to lie, before, during, and after the election.
  2. German taxpayers will be on the hook for bailouts in Greece, Cyprus, Spain, and Portugal. 
  3. The entire mess will unravel soon.

The major uncertainty is the trigger country is not yet known. It could be Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy, or even Germany (the latter if Germans come to their senses and vote for AfD in a huge way).

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

1984 EU Style: EU Launches "Independent" News Agency Because 172 EU Spokespersons "Do a Lousy Job"

Posted: 22 Jul 2013 10:06 AM PDT

If you are a bureaucrat who does not like the way news is reported, the 1984-style thing to do is launch your own "independent" news agency to make sure someone reports the news the way you want the news reported.

The EU did just that in an attempt to 'filter' the news to its own liking.
The European Commission is launching its own "independent" news service, complete with editors, web designers and "experts in journalism/journalists." In its call for tenders, the Commission laments that "reporting on EU affairs is often scarce, irregular, lacks a broader European perspective and citizens do not have any specialized platform where they can find and share quality content on EU affairs."

By our count, the Commission employs 122 Already spokespersons, press officers and media secretaries to talk up its policies, and another 50-odd staffers in its Directorate General for Communications. That department's € 103.7 million annual budget covers funding for the Presseurop clipping service, Euranet Euronews TV and Radio broadcasts. The EU Also Boasts its own YouTube channel, several newsletters and even a bookstore, que Publishes everything from posters to children's literature.

But Europeans still lack "critical understanding of EU affairs," says the Commission, que is why it needs its own agency to "filter, select, and explain the news to the U.S. Citizens, and to do it with quality journalism standards."

The successful bidder will receive an annual budget of up to €3.2 million and offer third-party and original content "with a balanced and neutral point of view."
Translation

The successful bidder agrees to publish only the propaganda the EU sees fit.

Bear in mind, the European commission's latest opinion poll finds That 57% of European citizens "distrust" EU Institutions, while only 30% have a "positive" impression.

Supposedly, having its own news propaganda agency will help those stats.

Instead, I propose the move will create more distrust. How can it not?

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

World's Dumbest Idea

Posted: 22 Jul 2013 12:53 AM PDT

The title of this post stems from an article on Forbes by Steve Denning who writes about "radical management, leadership, and innovation"

Denning says Milton Friedman is the The Origin Of 'The World's Dumbest Idea'.
No popular idea ever has a single origin. But the idea that the sole purpose of a firm is to make money for its shareholders got going in a major way with an article by Milton Friedman in the New York Times on September 13, 1970.
emphasis mine

For starters, the actual title of Friedman's article is "The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits".

Denning substituted the word "sole" for "social". I did a search of the article and the word "sole" was not to be found.

Regardless if it is the "social" or "sole" responsibility, it is preposterous to propose anything other than "The primary goal of a for-profit corporation is to make money for shareholders".

To state otherwise may not be the "world's dumbest idea" but it sure is inane.

Via email exchange, my friend Pater Tenebrarum at the Acting Man Blog stated "I don't often agree with Friedmann, but on this point I do agree with him. A company's profits are the outward sign that it has successfully served consumers. If not the profit/loss system, by what system should it be determined?"

"These screeds all want to replace the plans of consumers and producers with
THEIR plan. In the end it always comes down to even more government control over our lives. We know how that has worked out so far."

Precisely.

Ironies Abound

The first irony in Denning's ramblings is precisely the fact that corporations frequently do not put shareholders' interests first, but they should.

Instead, corporations frequently put the interests of the CEO and top executives first. One look at the astronomical pay and stock options of executives proves the point.

Another problem is corporations frequently buy favors from government to gain unfair advantages over their competition. The second irony is GE, a company Denning praises, is one of the worst offenders you can find.

Denning concludes "Shareholder value is obsolete. What we are seeing is a paradigm shift in management, in the strict sense laid down by Thomas Kuhn: a different mental model of how the world works."

No Paradigm Shift

Denning praises Apple as an example of a paradigm shift. I contend that Apple succeeds precisely because it puts shareholder interest first, the rest follows.

For high-tech companies like Apple and Google, that means (as Denning states) "a different way of treating people: a shift from a world in which people are manipulated as things (resources, eyeballs, demand) to a world in which people are interacted with as human beings."

High Tech vs. Manufacturing 

What applies to certain high-tech companies does not apply to the vast majority of manufacturing and retail sales businesses.

Consider a typical drive-up fast-food restaurant. Does it matter if a human passes you a sandwich instead of a robot?

If the robot was attractive, friendly and lowered the cost of the sandwich, nearly everyone would choose the robot.

And I can point to far more examples of robots replacing humans than Denning can of corporations treating employees a "different way".

Shareholders Best Served by Robots

The unfortunate fact is shareholders are frequently best served by getting rid of employees and replacing them with robots. The second unfortunate fact is Bernanke exacerbates the problem by holding interest rates so low that it's easy for corporations to make a software or hardware robotic decision.

The idea of a "paradigm shift" is in Denning's head. Making money for shareholders is the goal. How companies achieve that goal varies from company to company.

Denning cherry picks the examples that suit his misguided model.

Robots Don't Complain About Being Mistreated

There is no new paradigm, and there won't be one. Making money is the reason companies exist. In some high-tech instances, corporations may treat employees nicer, but in most situations, the profit motive means replacing humans with robots that have no feelings whatsoever about being mistreated.

Corporations won't mistreat robots (or people they don't employ). And that is the biggest irony of all in Denning's new paradigm theory that treating people better, not profit, is how the corporate model works.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com