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tumblr Emerges From the Tumble Weeds.

A few years back a colleague asked me what I thought the next big social network/micro blogging site would be and I half jokingly replied Tumblr. At the time my comment was dismissed with the belief that Tumblr was just another social site in an ocean of social media outlets. My colleague was somewhat justified in dismissing me. Tumblr had been around since 2007 and wasn’t really gaining much ground in the world of micro blogging. Then something changed, and Tumblr caught the eye of Yahoo.

Through out Yahoo!’s history they have been known for buying some really great, and some not so great startups, and letting some of them wither and die. What Yahoo! plans for Tumblr is unknown. Right now they are functioning as an autonomous group, and simply displaying Yahoo! ads within the space. One thing is certain, Tumblr is on the rise and the numbers don’t lie. 

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The Social Media Life Cycle.

The image below from the Social Media Center provides an insight into the process of converting content and conversations – via transactions – into recommendations. The graphic shows that the real power is found in earned media. With 92 percent of trust recommendations coming from friends and relatives. In addition to that 92 percent, another 70 percent of social media content viewers trust online reviews by other consumers according to Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising Report 2012. If you do anything with social media in the world of marketing and advertising, the image below is worth taking a look at.

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Case Study, the “Dumb Ways To Die” campaign.

Earlier this year I posted the “Dumb Ways to Die” video along with additional information on the integrated campaign that was created around it. It is no surprise that the campaign won so many awards at the Cannes Lions 2013 Festival of Creativity. This video was the third most popular viral video of all time. Below is the full case study on just how successful the overall campaign was, and how what started as a local campaign for train safety in Australia, went world wide over night.

Meet the New Google+.

Almost two years ago Google+ launched with great fanfare as a Facebook killer. It was going to be the hottest thing in social media. Two years and three redesigns later it is still struggling to find a place in the crowded social-media sphere.

I like Google+ but I never use it. I use it less than Facebook, which is saying something because the only thing I post to Facebook comes from this blog via Twitter. I really want to love Google+, but the fact that there are no built in hooks to allow posts from other social networks kind of limits my use of it. I want a dedicated way to have what I post on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Hipstamatic, Flickr, Tumblr and every other network show up in Google+ seamlessly. Without a third party browser extension, and without me having to copy and paste what I posted elsewhere in my Google+ feed.

Anyway, my micro rant is over. Below is a video showing the new layout for the redesigned Google+. Perhaps if Google is smart, they’ll listen to a growing number of people like myself, and open up the gate to their walled garden so it plays nice with the rest of the social world.