51 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed

Hello and welcome back to Mashable‘s weekly roundup of tool and resources for your daily life. This week we have some cool stories on how to start marketing on SCVNGR, social media campaign case studies, top announcements from both E3 and Apple’s developer conference as well as a gallery of Google’s best animated doodles.

Looking for even more social media resources? This guide appears every weekend, and you can check out all the lists-gone-by here any time.

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Editors’ Picks

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• Sarah Palin Email Archive Going Online — Here’s How To Find It
  The state of Alaska released 24,199 pages of email correspondence from former Gov. Sarah Palin’s time in office. The printouts are now being digitized.
• Hands-On: Twitter’s New Photo-Sharing Service
  Twitter is launching a new photo-sharing service. What does it look like and can it topple Facebook?
• 7 Services That Apple Just Challenged or Changed
  Here’s our rundown of which apps and services are likely feeling a bit threatened following WWDC 2011.
• 9 Beautiful One-Page Websites for Design Inspiration
  One-page sites are a great way to have a strong impact with minimal content. Check out these 9 stellar examples.
• Nintendo Wii U: First Impressions [PHOTOS]
  Nintendo stole the show at E3 with the unveiling of its Nintendo Wii U console, but does it have enough to beat the competition?
• HOW TO: Optimize Text Ads for Search
  Text ads aren’t sexy. They look bland, aren’t colorful and often read like they’re being shouted by annoying salespeople. Here are some tips for making them better.
• 6 New & Innovative Social Media Campaigns to Learn From
  From utilizing online video in an inventive way to creating a unique presence on Facebook, these six social media campaigns are some of the best we’ve seen lately.

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Social Media

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• 9 Things Weinergate Tells Us About Twitter
  New York Rep. Anthony Weiner is embroiled in a scandal involving a picture sent from his Twitter account to a Seattle college student.
• How Top Redditors Compete for Karma [INFOGRAPHIC]
  Top Redditors spend upwards of 8 hours each day submitting links and commenting on content. Here’s how the top few stack up.
• Social Media-Using Guys Are Lovin’ The Fast Food [INFOGRAPHIC]
  In a survey filled with statistics both obvious and surprising, we find out about the junk food preferences of certain social media users.
• HOW TO: Parent a Digital Native [COMIC]
  Worried your kids are getting too much inappropriate computer time? Here’s a pro tip.
• This Week in Politics & Digital: Weinergate, Palin & Romney
  This week we dealt with Weinergate, Mitt Romney’s presidential bid and Sarah Palin’s bus tour extravaganza. See how social media helped make them happen.
• Global Internet Traffic Expected to Quadruple by 2015 [INFOGRAPHIC]
  What does the explosion of connected devices mean for worldwide Internet traffic? And which devices and regions will see the most growth? Our infographic breaks it down.
• HOW TO: Share & Embed Your Favorite Comic Books on Any Site
  Graphicly.com is giving comic book fans a new suite of tools for sharing and talking about their favorite comics online.
• Top 10 Animated Google Doodles [VIDEOS]
  Blown away by the interactive Google doodle for guitarist/inventor Les Paul’s birthday? So are we, and it’s left us hungry for more.
• Why Business Collaboration Is Necessary in a Socially Sustainable World
  When competitors collaborate, the benefits can extend beyond the bottom line and into a more sustainable environment and community.
• Congress Members Produce 30% Fewer Tweets After Weinergate [INFOGRAPHIC]
  It appears Congress members’ tweets have gone down roughly 30% after Rep. Anthony Weiner’s lewd photo surfaced on Twitter.
• 7 Les Paul Google Doodle Tunes From Mashable Readers
  Mashable readers rocked out with Thursday’s Les Paul Google doodle. Here are their best tunes.
• The Case Against Having a Social Media Department [INFOGRAPHIC]
  Should you have a social media department? This infographic might change your mind.
• It Was All Just a Huge Misunderstanding [COMIC]
  If you thought your mobile reception was bad, imagine what it must have been like in 1933.

For more social media news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s social media channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

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Tech & Mobile

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• 5 Gadgets We’re Playing With This Week
  This week Mashable staffers got their hands dirty with the Samsung Q10 camcorder, Joby GorillaMobile for iPhone 4, Logitech Keyboard Case by ZAGG for iPad 2, Etymotic hf3 Earbuds and the MiLi Power Projector 2 pico projector.
• 6 New Apps For Getting More Out of Foursquare
  We’ve collected six of our favorite Foursquare applications, each making our place and checkin data come alive.
• Exclusive Review: Two Elegant iPhone 4 Cases Have Carbon Fiber Backs [PICS]
  In our exclusive review, Element Case proves that you don’t have to spend a ton of money to have a carbon fiber case for your iPhone 4.
• 4 Fresh Apps For Your Weekend Enjoyment
  Looking for something to do this weekend? Try out these great new apps!
• How To Embed Practically Anything On Your Blog or Website
  If you want the hands-down, easiest way to embed practically anything on your blog or website, have we got a tool for you!
• 10 Chic Charging Stations [PICS]
  We’ve found 10 classy charging stations for your consideration in a range of styles and at a variety of price points.
• 10 Great Android Multiplayer Games
  Looking for Android-powered fun with friends? Try a few of these multiplayer games for the Android platform.
• Texts, Tweets & To Dos: What’s New in iOS 5
  The latest version of the iOS has finally been announced, and it has a bundle of new features — more than 200, by Apple’s count.
• HANDS-ON: iTunes in the Cloud [PICS]
  Here’s a blow-by-blow tour of iTunes in the Cloud.
• PlayStation Vita: First Impressions [PHOTOS]
  We got a chance to look at Sony’s new portable gaming system. Head in and find out what we thought.
• 10 Eco-Friendly Accessories for a Greener Office [PICS]
  From clever bins to reusable cutlery to designer paper clips, these objects will add some environmentally-friendly credentials to your office, and hopefully inspire your colleagues to go green too.
• Why Apps, Not Apple, Are Killing BlackBerry
  Apple’s version of BBM might have taken the glitz out of BlackBerry’s key feature, but the company was in decline long before that.
• How Mobile Phones Are Saving Lives in the Developing World
  Your old cell phone is a piece of junk, right? Wrong. Two startups are creating cellphone technology that can save lives in developing countries.
• The Top 6 Xbox Announcements at E3 [PHOTOS]
  We’ve combed through all of Microsoft’s announcements this week and boiled them down to the top five announcements you need to know about.
• Kinect Star Wars: First Impressions [PICS]
  Star Wars is finally coming to the Xbox Kinect. Will it live up to gamers’ lofty expectations?
• 9 Well-Designed User Registration Pages To Learn From
  A good registration page can mean the difference between window shoppers and signups. Here are some forms that make it compelling to hit the submit button.
• Top 3 Gaming Trends From E3 2011
  Here’s what we’ve learned about the gaming industry from this year’s E3 conference.

For more tech news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s tech channel on Twitter and become a fan onFacebook.

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Business & Marketing

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• 7 Unique Eco-Friendly Company Transportation Alternatives
  Sperm bikes, electric cars and biodiesels, oh my! These seven companies operate with some of the most innovative green company transportation options.
• 4 Facebook Marketing Tips for Entertainment Bra
  Because the most effective Facebook marketing programs often combine compelling content with personality, entertainment brands are uniquely positioned to succeed on this platform.
• Who Owns the Advertising Space in an Augmented Reality World?
  Ownership of ad space in the physical world (billboards, signs etc.) is clearly defined. But what about the digital layers of augmented reality?
• 4 Social Video Lessons Brands Can Learn From Hollywood
  It’s summer blockbuster season, and Hollywood has created some truly innovative and effective video campaigns. What can brand marketers learn from these content kings?
• 6 Easy Ways To Reward Your Twitter Followers
  Consumers follow their favorite businesses on Twitter to get an inside look at the business — here are six ways to reward them for their loyalty.
• Why Augmented Reality Is Poised To Change Marketing
  The future envisioned in films like “Minority Report” is already here, and marketers are already jumping into the tech. Here’s a look at the promise.
• 5 Content Marketing Strategies for Small Business
  Here are some tips to improve the effectiveness of your blogs posts, videos and tweets
• HOW TO: Maximize Your Brand’s Relevance With Facebook Post Targeting
  Facebook marketers know the value of personalizing information. Here are 4 strategies for better targeting on Facebook.
• How Small Businesses Are Using Mobile [INFOGRAPHIC]
  SMBs say they can’t survive without mobile technology. Here’s how they’re using mobile for day-to-day operations around the U.S..
• HOW TO: Start Marketing on SCVNGR
  Mashable spoke with Chris Mahl, SCVNGR’s SVP of marketing, to get some tips and best practices for starting a marketing campaign on the location-based gaming platform.
• Why Brands Need a Digital Customer Experience Strategy To Stay Competitive
  A few years ago, having a digital customer experience strategy meant having a website. In today’s world, successfully delivering a cohesive experience across multiple devices and platforms requires a thoughtful approach.
• How Agencies Are Spending Online Media Budgets [INFOGRAPHIC]
  The share of money going to Internet advertising is rising steeply, and the options for those dollars are multiplying just as quickly.
• 9 Lessons From Successful Brands on Twitter
  Twitter is a crucial part of any social communication plan. Here are nine companies that know their stuff, along with lessons you can put to use.
• 5 Ways To Raise Funds for Your Startup
  It’s often easier to come up with a big idea than it is to fund it. Here are 5 common ways entrepreneurs go about putting money behind their projects.

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

Mixcloud brings its ‘YouTube-for-radio’ to iPhone

Mixcloud, the ‘YouTube of radio’ (see our recent TechCrunchTV interview), has finally brought its offering to the iPhone in the form of a native app.

The Mixcloud iPhone app gives on-the-go access to the London startup’s library of on-demand radio – DJ mixes, radio shows and podcasts, along with 100s of thousands of other “Cloudcasts” that have been uploaded to the service. The is app currently in Beta and thus is being offered for free.

As for the future business model around mobile, Mixcloud appears to be weighing up its options and wants to learn how users use the app first: “we’d like to get a wide range of beta users on board and understand the different usage habits before committing to a particular approach”, says co-founder Mat Clayton.

Features of the app include: What’s Hot (based on community aggregated listening data), Categories, History and Favourites, User Profiles and Search. Additionally, there’s support for AirTunes and background streaming.

Courtesy of Techcrunch 2011

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

Dropbox Users Save 1 Million Files Every 5 Minutes

Four-year-old file storage startup Dropbox has experienced explosive growth in the past year, jumping from 5 million users to more than 25 million users.

And together, these users are now saving more than 300 million files each day and 1 million files every five minutes. In total, Dropbox users have saved more than 100 billion files, CEO and co-founder Drew Houston said.

Houston, speaking at the Startup Lessons Learned conference in San Francisco on Monday afternoon, shared the massive figures in a presentation detailing how his startup has managed to scale under such enormous demand.

In the past year, Dropbox has added 35 employees to meet demand, growing from a 20-person team to a 55-person company. Roughly 50% of the startup’s team is comprised of engineers, Houston said.

Part of Dropbox’s ability to scale successfully, said Houston, is the startup’s focus on hiring fewer, better engineers and creating an office environment that its employees want to work in. The startup does not force mandatory office hours, nor does it instruct team members on how or where to work, Houston shared.

Another key, stated the CEO, is to set and reset company goals on a quarterly and annual basis in order to minimize overhead and reduce waste.

But when boiling it down to just the basics, Houston’s advice to founders is to, “Build the right thing, and build things right.” If forced to choose just one, founders should build the right thing, he says.

Courtesy of Mashable

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

LinkedIn Prices IPO at $45 Per Share

LinkedIn has priced its shares at $45 each ahead of Thursday’s initial public offering, the high end of an already significantly increased range for the company’s stock.

As reported earlier in the week, that values LinkedIn at more than $4 billion and means the company will be adding more than $350 million to its coffers following the offering. It will also make LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman a near-billionaire, with his stake valued at $855 millionat the $45 per share price.

While the pricing represents an aggressive valuation by most standards, the majority of Mashable readers — 59% at press time — seem to think LinkedIn is still a “buy” (be sure to vote in our poll).

LinkedIn’s shares will be traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “LNKD.”

Courtesy of Mashable

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

Website Building Tool Jimdo Is Taking Off, Adding Cool Features, Making Money

Jimdo, a service that lets anyone create a good-looking website without too much effort, is on a roll. The tool has now been used to build over 4 million websites, and 200,000 more Jimdo-powered sites get published every month.

Last year, the German startup behind the service rolled out a feature that let anyone create anonline store, quickly and easily. Fast forward 15 months and 40,000 online stores have been built using the service, generating more than 7.5 million euros in sales.

Today, the company is debuting a mobile-friendly view for optimized display on iPhone, Android handsets and other smartphones, which works for all Jimdo websites. In addition, all 40,000 online stores will have a mobile store with mobile checkout. Click a Google Map in the mobile view, and the native Google Maps app will open on your phone.

Jimdo has more in store: next week, the company will announce Dropbox integration, enhancing the website building application with a digital file center in the cloud.

The startup currently boasts offices in Hamburg, San Francisco, Shanghai, and through cooperation with KDDI Webcommunications, also in Tokyo. There are about 70 people working for Jimdo today, and co-founder Christian Springub just relocated to the United States to more efficiently attack the North American market.

Furthermore, Jimdo is a profitable business today, although they declined to share absolute revenue numbers. Either way, their momentum is noteworthy, especially when you consider how much capital was raised by rivals Wix ($58.5 million) and Yola ($25 million).

Jimdo, in contrast, was built on only 500,000 euros (roughly $715,000). When United Internet invested in the company, more capital was available, but the management team actually moved tobuy back the shares back in 2009.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch


http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

Unfazed by Facebook, Google Rolls Out Social Search Globally

Google will roll out its somewhat controversial Social Search feature to 19 more languages next week, the company has announced on its official blog.

Launched back in October 2009, Social Search is a feature that combines regular search results with publicly available data created by your friends’ social media activities.

Your “friends” are quite loosely defined and include people in your Google Talk friends list, your Google Contacts, people you’re following on Buzz and Google Reader, and other networks you’ve linked from your Google profile or Google Account. Google can also find your friends on public networks such as Twitter and Facebook and gather the data from their public connections as well.

The feature was recently the subject of controversy, as Facebook hired a PR company to push negative stories about Social Search in the press. Facebook claims that Google’s practices raise “serious privacy concerns”, and it’s unhappy with the fact that Google can use Facebook data for its service without Facebook’s permission.

For the most part, Google has stayed silent about the issue, although it’s noticeable that in its latest blog postabout Social Search Twitter is mentioned three times while Facebook is nowhere to be seen.

Social Search should be available in 19 languages next week, with more languages on the way. Check out a video overview of the feature below.

Courtesy of Mashable.com 

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

Gary Vaynerchuck - 99.5% of all social media experts are clowns!

Wine enthusiast, author, founder, blogger, investor and serial entrepreneur (did I leave anything out?) Gary Vaynerchuk dropped by our TechCrunch TV studio in New York City with a bottle of red to discuss his new book, The Thank You Economy with TechCrunch Co-editor, Erick Schonfeld. “Context is the new battleground for business” says Vaynerchuk when asked to give the Twitter version summary of book.

In essence, businesses need to better understand how to use social media and how to apply an authentic human touch while doing so. Vaynerchuk thinks current efforts are abysmal. “”99.5 percent of the people that walk around and say they are a social media expert or guru are clowns,” he says, continuing with “we are going to live through a devastating social media bubble.”

In part II of this interview below, Vaynerchuk discusses the origins Winelibrary.tv, what Ze Frankhad to do with it, how he became Internet famous, and where he invests his money.

Fantastic post from Techcrunch! 

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

Flickr: iPad 2 Camera Has Only 23 Active Daily Users

According to Flickr’s camera usage statistics, the iPad 2′s camera is used by very few people — only 23 active daily users. And so far, 12,811 photos have been taken and uploaded to Flickr with the device. By comparison, the iPhone 4 has 4,402 daily active users; more than a million photos have been taken with the device. We don’t have exact numbers of iPad 2 sales, but the tablet has been on the market since March 11. According to Apple, strong sales have resulted in a record-setting quarter, with analysts estimating that about half a million devices sold in during the iPad 2′s first weekend on the market. The iPad 2′s camera has been one of the most criticized aspects of the device: At 0.7 megapixels, it’s only good for the most basic tasks. Still, with millions of iPad 2s in customers’ hands, one would expect that more people would be using the device. But the significantly low number of daily active users on Flickr shows that is not the case. iPad 2 owners: Do you use the device’s camera? When was the last time you uploaded a photo taken on the iPad to a site such as Flickr or Facebook? Please, share your opinions in the comments. http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

UK Companies Ban Facebook (But its still growing!)

A recent survey of UK companies has found that nearly half have banned access to Facebook, with others discouraging their employees from using social media.

The study, by Lewis PR for client HCL Technologies, showed that 48% of companies had banned staff from accessing Facebook from company workstations.

Additionally, 63% of staff were discouraged from using networks.

Main reasons include that Facebook and social media were considered to be too distracting from normal work.

Additionally, reasons were given to protecting business and personal reputations, not least from derogatory comments.

Lewis recommends instead that companies seek to implement guidelines showing what is acceptable for employees to post, not least in ensuring that if the company is going to be talked about online, better these be positive ones from employees themselves.

According to Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies, “Facebook is such a popular application that is so widely used for personal and business uses, it makes no business sense to ban it. If companies do not address this they could be at the mercy of corporate suicide.”

Lewis PR’s Eb Adeyeri said, “if your marketing and PR efforts don’t have any social aspects to them chances are you’re being left behind. At the very least those who work in [PR and marketing] departments should be given access as a priority.”

Interesting article from TechWatch  but.... isn't this just motivating more people to be using Facebook on their mobile devices whilst at work?  What do you think?

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

Microsoft Buys Skype For $8.5 Bil

In its largest acquisition ever and the tech world's most massive deal in years, Microsoft Corp. is buying Internet communications company Skype Global for a stunning $8.5 billion.

"The combination will extend Skype's world-class brand and the reach of its networked platform, while enhancing Microsoft's existing portfolio of real-time communications products and services," the companies said in a statement.

Previously, Microsoft's biggest buy was $6 billion for online advertising firm aQuantive in 2007.

Skype's software allows users to talk for free online using messaging, voice and video and can also connect them to a land line or mobile phone for a fee. Users will now be able to connect to Microsoft offerings such as Lync, Outlook and Xbox Live, while Skype will support devices such as Xbox and Kinect, the companies said. 

Skype is owned by an investment group led by Silver Lake, which bought the real-time voice and video company from its previous owner, eBay, in 2009 for slightly more than $2 billion. It was founded in 2003 and now has 170 million connected users who chatted for 207 billion minutes last year. 

The company will become a new division of Microsoft and will be led by its current chief executive, Tony Bates. 

News of the all-cash deal sent Microsoft shares down less than a percent to $25.72 in early morning trading. But Ben Horowitz, general partner of Menlo Park-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz -- an owner of Skype along with Silver Lake -- said the purchase is a "smart move."

The combination, he said, will give Skype and Microsoft the competitive heft to combat Google and the Facetime video chat function from the Apple iPhone.

"Many observers believed that as the world inevitably transitioned to mobile and Web, Skype would be left in the dust," Horowitz wrote in a blog post. "In retrospect, it was easy for people to underestimate the quality of the Skype engineering team and the power of Skype's network effect."

The boards of both companies have approved the deal, which is now subject to regulatory approval. The companies said they hope to finalize the deal this year.

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business