Totem is a multi-faceted service that can be a useful resource for PR agents, reporters and startups alike.  It centralizes pertinent information about a company so that anyone has access to the information they need.  Information like the company’s mission, their latest coverage, logo and press contact.  Totem lets you package the press release with the images, contacts with the company history–everything you need to learn about a given company.  And the beauty of Totem is that it’s self-serve for every aspect of press these days, whether it’s social media-driven or more traditional.

There’s two initial options for Totem users: a free service with all the basics you need, or a premium account with full customization for a one-time fee of $99.  The founders believe that this type of service shouldn’t be reserved only for the well-funded.  They also believe that the current way news-related marketing works is overdue for a revolution.  As one that digs through press pitches on a daily basis, I’m glad to see someone delivering a high measure of convenience not only for myself, but every person involved, from press agent to the company itself.

Totem hopes that your press page will become a living, breathing entity, readily updated and always accessible.  It’s designed almost as a landing page, combining the press release with a company blog to present a rather evergreen resource.  What’s more, certain aspects of Totem’s pages are embeddable, so they can be placed on a company’s website in an integrated manner, separating the “press” resource as needed.

But what Totem is really doing here is building a database of companies and their information, and Totem’s true value will lie in how this database is leveraged moving forward.  Will Totem target publications in need of embeddable company information to build out their own resources?  That’s something Totem’s considering, Dilworth tells me.  But the next step is really analytics, where users will be able to see how their embeddable data is being received and how content is being shared.

The analytics angle isn’t a surprising one, given Dilworth’s own background and clients.  Even from his days at Porter-Novelli, I often found myself chatting with startups with a heady focus on semantic search, natural language and data analysis.  From Twine to Parse.ly, Dilworth specializes in data-centric businesses, and has always been able to convey this, sometimes better than the startup founders he represents.

It’s important to note that Totem is a separate project from Jones-Dilworth, though there’s an obvious interest in launching a program like Totem–scratching one’s own itch, if you will.  Totem’s a much-needed change in a digital movement that’s already contravened printed media and its traditional subscription model, all the while reforming content distribution, and marketing for a tech savvy people.

What Happens When a PR Guy Scratches His Own Itch? Totem Launches Beta Today is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

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Watch ads or check your phone?

The research furthers that a third of Super Bowl users will watch the game “with device in hand.” This will enable mobile users to check their phones 10 times more during the game. Over 80 percent of viewers said they will use their mobile device as much as they did during the same event last year.

Fans are also likely to check their mobile devices for status updates on Facebook or Twitter during commercial breaks. “People have to do something while the teams are in the huddle or during timeouts, so their phones are a good activity,” Zencka said. And to think, a 30-second Super Bowl ad slot comes with a $3.5 million price tag.

“Viewers are sitting in front of the television with a mobile device in their hand and they’ll likely check that ‘second’ screen often,” Velti Executive Krishna Subramanian said in a press release. “There’s no going back now from the fact that the Super Bowl is truly a two-screen experience. Mobile is the second screen that completes the full circle of user engagement – turning advertising into content.”

In retrospect, here are mobile users’ engagements during last year’s Super Bowl (courtesy of iProspect via):

- 61% of Facebook users who identified as Super Bowl fans posted status updates during the game in 2011.

- 28% of users who identified as fans directly chatted or messaged with friends. – On Twitter, the record for most sports-related posts per second was broken six times, culminating at game’s end with 4,064 tweets per second.

- Overall, last year’s Super Bowl generated more than 4.5 million tweets in six hours. – In the United States, Twitter traffic during the game increased by 50% over the previous day.

- 2011 Super Bowl ads have been viewed more than 360 million times online.

- 39% of Super Bowl related searches from mobile devices in the week surrounding last year’s game came on Super Bowl Sunday itself.

- Traffic to Yahoo‘s mobile homepage jumped by as much as 34% over normal during breaks in the action.

- Sports-focused mobile traffic on Yahoo jumped by as much as 387% over normal during commercial breaks.

Brand’s mobile focus gains BI

With this much focus on mobile during the event, brands may as well target the hefty mobile usage and social presence of fans through engaging marketing campaigns and viral videos on YouTube. Twitter and Facebook are getting more and more traction as conversation hubs over the last few years’ major live events. These, on top of the exploding tablet and smartphone usage, will need some heavy thinking from marketers as the figures are becoming harder and harder to ignore. They need to have some strategy to take advantage of this Super Bowl’s mobile craze.

“With millions of people using their mobile phones today for brand interaction in addition to traditional communication, the Super Bowl offers companies a significant opportunity to socialize their marketing campaigns,” said Mark Reino, CEO of Merit Mile Communications. “What’s more, companies that leverage cloud marketing for precision targeting, automation that keeps costs low and enhanced ROI metrics will be the clear winners during the Super Bowl.”

The real value of mobile connections is the direct access to consumers and the potential for business intelligence that follows as a result.  Mobile is the segue between the intangibility of a television broadcast and the physical access of a handset.  Mobile devices are individualized and can establish a long-lasting connection between a brand and a consumer.  We’re seeing this concept evolve within mobile ad standards, with Millennial Media’s latest product update for targeting consumers that have already demonstrated interest in a brand.

Mobile also adds an edge of urgency with the perk of web access.  This immediacy is what brands are picking up on, making the “on-demand” trend a two-way street for content marketers and end users.

“The power of mobile is that it’s immediate–a merchant has the ability to make an announcement with regards to the Super Bowl, or even a time-sensitive discount during half time, and hook them with their loyalty program, incentivising customers to come back,” says Adam Weizer, CEO of Servistree.

“What’s starting to gain traction is the realization that mobile is immediate.  The people that really get this is the younger generation.  I believe email marketing will fade out and mobile will take precedence as people become more familiar with how to use text on their mobile devices.”

Should you actually decide to interact with Super Bowl 2012 on your mobile device, here are some top apps to follow the big game online.

Contributors: Kristina Farrah

Social Mobile’s True Value for Super Bowl 2012? Business Intelligence is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

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With rumors of an IPO coming as early as this week, Facebook is, for once, making headlines for something other than mandatory profile updates and privacy concerns.  While there’s fear an IPO could ruin Facebook’s “startup” appeal and slow down innovation, an initial public offering could raise enough capital for Facebook to more aggressively grow its verticals.  Two areas of importance for Facebook moving forward include mobile and social television.  It’s part of a larger “connected device” trend that’s delivering content through more channels, and as this space expands, Facebook will need to monetize the social aspects of these channels as well.

Facebook Mobile

Facebook’s mobile strategy has been pretty limited to apps so far, favoring iOS in terms of launch schedules and feature updates.  And Facebook’s actual apps center around social interaction and accessing account information, doing little to extend their platform’s ecosystem for Facebook apps, particularly games.  This is where Facebook will really need to build out its ecosystem if it hopes to gain ground in the mobile sector, where Google, Apple and even Microsoft are already ahead.

Looking at the latest rumors, Facebook’s plans for mobile include a handset of its own.  This isn’t likely the way to win in the mobile arena–there’s enough devices on the market, and plenty of competing operating systems.  Even Android is diversifying across niche devices like the Kindle Fire, which has a stripped down version of Google’s mobile OS, adding to the fragmentation woes that plague developers, retailers, carriers and consumers alike.

What Facebook needs is a solid mobile extension of its own platform, that will enable better points of integration for the companies building apps for Facebook’s site and/or mobile marketplaces.  Sure, you can tap Facebook contacts for a round of Words with Friends, but this is still a segmented initiative on the part of the game publisher. Unifying a web and mobile presence will be a key software development for Facebook moving forward.

We’re already seeing the necessity of this with Zynga, which is making its appeal to mobile gamers and forced to leave Facebook behind in the process.  Increasing gamers on tablets and smartphones in today’s market means diversifying away from the very platform that brought Zynga to the point of success to launch its own IPO, especially with Facebook imposing a 30 percent tax on revenue made on its website.  In order to retain the value of its ecosystem, Facebook will have to support the mobile transition for its developer community, and possibly better incorporate its offerings with the mobile market mainstays, like Android and iOS.

Facebook already has a budding relationship with Microsoft, one of its high profile investors, which has already integrated Facbook’s social graph into its search results and facilitated deals like Skype’s video calls on the network.  As Microsoft continues to layer up its own platform, tying efforts with Windows 8, Windows Phone and Xbox, Facebook could make room for an easier transition on this front.

Facebook on TV

Facebook is a term associated with nearly all things social, whether online or off.  The worldwide network has set national revolutions in motion, held firm as a platform for religious and political debate and enabled a new sense of globalization as far as culture and access are concerned.  So when we think of TV’s future as being a social one, it’s hard to avert a discussion about Facebook as well.  But even more than mobile, Facebook’s absent from the social TV trend in many regards, though it presents a grand opportunity for extended channel distribution as well.

You don’t have to look further than the first month of 2012 to realize the growing importance of socializing the tube.  The Super Bowl is rank with advertisers seeking ways beyond Facebook Pages and tweets to engage viewers, reeling in participation from General Motors, Coca Cola and Shazam.  These brands in particular are leveraging mobile devices to send viewers directly to a website where they can gain more information about a product, unlock free content and qualify for prizes.  With approximately 60 percent of all Super Bowl viewers expected to be within arm’s reach of a smartphone or tablet, mobility is becoming an important avenue for television to become more interactive and social.

The first week of 2012 also brought a slew of connected device expectations from TV set makers like Sony and LG.  Not only are they building out their own integrated system, but many are looking to Google TV as a platform to extend the newest social TV trends.  At CES this year we saw the future of TV, and it’s a highly social one, with in-screen chats, recommendations, sharing functions and rewards systems.  And Google’s much further ahead on this initiative than Facebook, given its Android platform and default social interactions that are cataloged every time you use a Google-powered app or service.  Apple, too, has demonstrated initiative in this space, though its personal media cloud approach is lacking social capabilities.

Leave it to apps, and even cable providers to fill in the missing gaps here.  Even Comcast’s jumping on this bandwagon, testing a social TV experience dubbed Xcalibur in Georgia.  It involves a recommendation engine and “friend trends” powered by Facebook.  Companies like GetGlue have also run with the social TV trend, building insight around marketing trends while rewarding viewers all the while.

Facebook’s ads = social monetization

Beyond merely powering existing gaming and TV efforts, Facebook will namely benefit from these extended channels by finding a way to loop things back into its own ecosystem.  Facebook’s true value lies in its ability to access users and their preferences, creating hoards of useful marketing data alongside an audience that can be monetized in a series of socially oriented ways.  It’s true that marketing has become very social, but above all, accessibility matters.  Facebook’s building a presence in the mobile and TV space, but it hasn’t reached a major point of influence for its own monetization or ad distribution.

There’s a new age dawning for socially driven marketing, and TV is a great way to attract the biggest budgets in media to the socially situated.  Social content management provider thismoment recognizes the convergence of connected devices and the future of marketing, a challenge that their new CMO John Bara will take head on.  Thismoment is building the technology for big ad shops, simplifying the transition for brands like Coca Cola, and bridging gaps for the likes of Google.  This all effectively leverages thismoment’s Digital Engagement Channel, a platform where brands and agencies can create, distribute and optimize branded and UGC content across Facebook, YouTube and beyond.

Facebook’s IPO will create jobs for the company, no doubt.  And those jobs will likely further Facebook’s goals around mobile and TV verticals as part of a larger scale approach to new media marketing.  Social is one of many considerations encompassed in new media marketing, and Facebook will have to find away to continuously ad value to its social platform amidst the growing network of associated platforms currently overlapping its space.

Facebook IPO: Bubble or Bargain? Success Hinges on Mobile, TV is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

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[Thanks, Daisy.]

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President Obama will participate in a live video chat and answer questions related to his upcoming State of the Union speech.  Google announced today that Obama will participate in 45-minute live video chat on the social networking site Google+. The conversation will take place on January 30th. Obama speaks to Congress and the nation the following Tuesday.

This latest development is part of a White House effort to test new social networking tools, and the latest evidence of the growing intersection of social media and politics.  It’s one the Obama camp is very familiar with, having leveraged social media to the max during his campaign in 2008.

The social networking site will implore questions over the video sharing site YouTube via its YouTube Channel. The president will answer some video-submitted questions, and will also chat directly with a group of the questioners. The stream will later appear on the White House’s Google Plus page.

Announcing the new venture social presidential Kori Schulman, director of the White House’s Office of Digital Strategy posted on the official blog:

“Starting today, we’re excited to announce that you can follow the White House on Google+. On day one, President Obama made clear that this Administration is committed to public engagement and participation. That’s why we launched the we the People petitioning tool and why you can find the White House on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other places around the web. These are just some of the ways that we aim to engage with Americans on the issues that matter the most — and now, we’re pleased to add Google+ to this list.”

The news is not extraordinary in itself, considering the Obama administration has made ​​the Web and social interaction a strength since its establishment. Obama already has a presence across Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social sites.

YouTube Soars with 4 Billion View per Day

As the importance of social media rises, so does Google’s dedication to the widespread medium. Google Plus continues to accelerate its growth and already suppresses 62 million users. And one of Google’s other channels reports significant growth as well. YouTube is gathering over 4 billion page views per day.

The site is now registering 60 hours of video uploaded every minute compared, to 48 hours of video in May. One of the reasons is due to the recently revamped design of YouTube’s site.  They’ve also broadened visibility on more devices like smart televisions, and streaming media set-top boxes (Roku, Apple TV, etc.), not to mention mobile.

President Obama himself is very active on YouTube, from his run for office to answering questions submitted on YouTube, and recently just concluded Town Hall meeting.

Google has also hosted Hangouts with other political figures, including Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, which shows social media sites have been steadily boosting their presence in electoral politics.

The White House Comes to Google Plus as YouTube Video Uploads Soar is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

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Following a banner year for 2011, Google is set to makes its mighty presence felt as they launch google.com/elections—a hub where citizens can study, watch, get to know and participate in the digital campaigns and voting on election day itself, slated for the 6^th of November this year.  The pilot program for this website begins with the Iowa caucuses, which take place today. According to the official Google blog:

“The site enables voters, journalists and campaigns to quickly sort through election info by popularity, race or issues. People can also check out the Trends Dashboard to take the web’s real-time political pulse by comparing candidates’ YouTube video views, search traffic and Google News mentions. Campaign staffers, advocates and everyday citizens can utilize our tools and features to reach, engage and inspire voters.”

Social hubs for politicos 

Late in the third quarter of 2011, Twitter launched political advertising. There were also big events when President Obama answers questions from citizens via this micro blogging site. This year, the team-up of SupaStar and Socialbaker will engage in Facebook analytics to extract the social side of the Presidential Election. The political push within the world’s largest social networking site is going to be a very fascinating rollercoaster ride for candidates and citizens alike.

CEO of Co-Founder of SupaStar Interactive, Paul Chang, expresses his excitement over the partnership and how they will deliver for the 2012 elections, saying,

“Socialbakers is demonstrating the amazing potential of Facebook analytics to assess the viability of presidential candidates. We’re excited to present this information to the public in a visually engaging way with our customizable SupaStars.”

Predictive social media is a very interesting segment of elections, and relies heavily on recent big data analytics trends that weren’t available during the 2008 election. Although “likes” and “shares” are not tantamount to official votes, these social media markers are indicative of a nation’s ethos, and only drives media coverage for a given candidate.   Social media has suddenly become inseparable with communication and marketing. The span of influence for sites like Facebook and Twitter has transcended to politics and other factions of the state and government. These social hubs are avenues which election hopefuls are expected to take full advantage this year and in years to come.

US Elections Meet the Web, Google Monitors Digital Campaigns is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

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According to Allen, he’s been having a team from Elance run “hundreds of queries” based on various surnames and compiled the resulting data into models that show that not only is G+ growing at a current rate of 625,000 daily but that rate has been accelerating ever since Google put the social media project online.

The results are pretty compelling:

July 13 – 10 million

August 1 – 20.5 million

September 1 – 24.7 million

October 1 – 38 million (Larry Page announced “more than 40m users” on Oct 13th)

November 1 – 43 million

December 1 – 50 million

December 27 – 62 million

Allen notes that if the signups rate remains the same, he predicts that Google+ will reach 100 million users on Feb 25^th and 200 million users on August 3^rd of next year. This means that G+ could walk out of 2012 with 293 million users.

However, this expects that the rate does not increase over that time and Allen argues that Google+ is snowballing. Google’s product is still extremely simplistic—especially compared to the almost overloaded with items Facebook—that they still have a lot of devices and outlets they haven’t yet entirely integrated into. As they spread themselves into more devices, Android phones, tablets, and mobile that they will reach an even larger audience and draw more people in.

“As more users sign up, the value of the network will increase for everyone. The network effect will become powerful,” Allen explains. “It won’t be long before new users start encountering family and friends as well as the thriving tech and media sharing community that embraced Google+ early on.”

In fact, enterprise marketing is already piling on board in order to take advantage of the level of community arriving in Google+. As the numbers of consumers on this social network swell, advertisers and marketers will continue to put more effort into drawing them in.

Right now, the G+ is an oncoming competitor to Facebook and since this about numbers, we should talk numbers. Facebook has over 800 million users and 50% of those log in daily; the average user also has 130 friends. Even if Google+ exceeds 250 million at the end of next year, they’ll still have another few hundred million users to go in order to rival the total value that Facebook represents. While G+ has a current mighty showing—almost good enough to be the social network of 2011—it’s unlikely to unseat the sheer momentum of Facebook.

What we’re probably going to see from Google+ is a branching away from the comment-and-app based approach of Facebook and more likely an all-in-one-social-media center. Already, Google is hooked up directly to YouTube; it provides personalized search results, a profile, a hookup with Gmail, and Gtalk. Altogether, these different services all come together alongside Circles (as a tight sharing mechanism) as a way for groups to clique together and use rich media to communicate.

As we see more people get on board with Google+ the use of YouTube and Circles with mobile devices will drive the use of G+ as an organ of viral communication. Even recently YouTube and Blogger connected with the G+ profile and now people can see their G+ Circles +1s on YT adding another sphere of influence for users to see what their community is up to.

Allen ends his predictions by making a bold statement about where he sees this acceleration going: “I predict that 2012 is going to be a breakout year for Google+ and that it will end next year with more than 400 million users.”

Google+ Surpasses 62 Million Users as Growth Continues to Accelerate is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

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[Thanks, Daisy!]

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Stretching to about 40 million worldwide members, Viadeo partners with Sanoma Independent Media, a leading glossy publisher in Russia.  This pact is set to take advantage of the 51 million internet users in the country.  Russia’s online market is one of the fastest growing in the world, and is ranked first in the continent, according to the Overview of the European Internet Usage in September 2011 by comScore.

Dan Serfaty, founder and CEO of Viadeo, feels this partnership will place Russia on the map of social geography. “Our new office and this joint venture with Sanoma Independent Media open up the door to Russia and its huge growth potential for the professional social network industry. Looking at our multi-local strategy, —focused on the emerging countries—, Russia was the missing part. With this partnership, our BRIC puzzle is complete.”

Their new partner is equally delighted by the deal. In fact, the CEO of Sanoma Independent Media shares excitement, saying,

“We are very happy to partner with Viadeo. Within the next few years, Russia will become the single biggest media market in Europe and Sanoma Independent Media is looking for new and innovative services, for our readers to boost our audience. This alliance aligns with our digital growth strategy perfectly to obtain leading positions in segments such as professionals that are sizeable and close to the core of our local operations.”

The social networking craze has stretched beyond the United States and United Kingdom. It has moved Far East, invading China and spread across parts of Europe including Russia. Viadeo, before setting up an office in Russia, has already marked a satellite office in the United States, looking to rival LinkedIn. The competition between the two heats up as Viadeo acquired Dutch startup, Soocial. It was reported that Viadeo’s IPO will debut this year, but, the company chose to concentrate on emerging markets and postpones its plans in trading publicly.

The development is not only a testament of the growing fanaticism of citizens of Russia and China towards social networking, it is also a proof that recruitment spending is being redirected from the usual agencies and job boards to professional social networking, and on a global scale.

Viadeo Goes to Russia, Ready to Rumble with LinkedIn is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

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Liz Miller, Vice President of Marketing Programs for the CMO Council user engagement and response to a particular customer experience can manipulate marketing strategies within an organization: “The social brand explosion has created a wave of loyalty among social consumers who are eager to show their support and share their experiences with others online, but this loyalty comes at a cost—from savings to games—that consumers see as their social currency. Social can garner significant influence and pull for marketers who can bridge this gap in expectation and execution.”

A CMO Council study shows that consumers tend to be highly engaged and loyal to pages or brands they “like” or “follow.”  The research also revealed the three factors that could augment user engagement by means of social media: better customer experiences, more depth in engagement, and more value for brands. Over 52% of the marketers polled say that they have spanned a greater sphere of influence ever since they became present in social networks.

Lithium’s Chief Marketing Officer, Katy Keim defines how depth of user engagement practices can change the course of the stiff competition between social platforms: “There is a clear digital divide between marketers and what consumers expect from their brands. We are leaving the experimentation phase of social and these survey results clearly illustrate what consumers want. Brands who provide their social customers with engaging online experiences, meaningful interactions with one another, and rewards for doing so will clearly gain a decisive competitive advantage in 2012.”

Friending Facebook, Friending Marketing Success

I am guilty of checking for updates on my online social life in Facebook and Twitter, even before I hammer that boisterous alarm clock in the morning.  I love inviting friends to a Tetris Battle, checking the latest gossip through Facebook’s vine and the status updates from my favorite magazine pages, like People.com or Marie Claire.  Another thing I find myself doing daily is browsing through the latest daily deals to see what I can get for my money. There’s several aspects of gamification keeping me glued to Facebook for the majority of my waking hours.

Yahoo

Integrating with extremely popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter is one of the wisest methods to promote and increase user engagement. Even a search engine giant like Yahoo has bulked up its display ads by making recent read articles from its news pages visible to your Facebook friends—an effective way to draw more readers.

Springpad

Another company that believes in the power of Facebook is Springpad. An application boosting digital memory and making information available when needed, Springpad has signed up more than 2 million users, thanks to their integration of “likes” and “check-ins.”  Engagement towards discovery and recommendations recorded a 150% increase in just 6 months.

FriendCaster

Coming soon is a photo editing app in Facebook. This tool is expected to further along the trend for interactive photo albums in social networks. Additional features from FriendCaster include the new photo comment bar that allows users to check comments and likes even faster, the introduction of new themes instead of the usual blue Facebook, and improvements to the user interface.

Google: a two-way street

When you put together the world’s largest social network and the most sought-after smartphone OS, success becomes an understatement. The updated Facebook for Android version includes the redecorated mobile interface, social channels for discovery, Requests, Bookmarks, News Feed and Search.  Facebook’s getting serious about its Android strategy, and in light of the network’s own goals for a smartphone, the wave of the future is certainly held by the mobile sphere.

Google is refilling its YouTube station with upgrades to boost user engagement as well. Their latest project involves one of their most revenue-generating arms, its video site Youtube’s redesigning. The new look has that social element reminiscent of “news feed” we normally see in social networks—an edge that could now give Netflix a serious competition. The refurbishment’s main goal is to personalize user experience and customize channel subscription.

The cross pollination of social media and businesses addresses a good portion of an organization’s advertising goals, and they only continue to grow around social graphs and behavior analytics.  Once a market is captured, deepening customer or user engagement is next—to build loyalty and fanaticism aflame.  This is where data comes in, to get a feel of the current trends. Again, it is important to take note that a marketer has to connect the dots between engagement and sustainability, and the faster this analysis can perform, the faster a marketer can evolve their strategies.

The Big Data Behind User Engagement: Get Smart (Fast!) is a post from: SiliconANGLE We're now available on the Kindle! Subscribe today.

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