Twitter’s Take on the 2012 Golden Globes [INFOGRAPHIC]


The 69th Golden Globe Awards were a relatively mild affair — even with Ricky Gervais as host — but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t still a ton of activity surrounding the awards on social media.

Twitter was the most dominant social network for the Golden Globes with a peak of 6,162 Tweets per second. As Mashable’s Brian Hernandez notes, that would easily put the ceremony on the list of top tweets per second.

What moments really connected with Twitter users? Networked Insights ran some analysis and came up with some overall trends.

According to Networked Insights:

  • 62% of the conversation was about the winners
  • 48% of the conversation was about the Red Carpet
  • 12% was about upsets — that is, unexpected winners
  • 9% was about Gervais

Gervais’s monologue was well received, but nearly 32% of the tweets about the comedian were about how he wasn’t making enough jokes or on-screen enough, according to Networked Insights.

Meanwhile, TweetReach worked with mhCarter Consulting and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to track and analyze tweets. It came up with this infographic:

Zooey Deschanel had the most re-tweeted post of the night when she flaunted her Prada dress and specially painted fingernails.

According to TweetReach, the second biggest spike of the night came with discussion of Tina Fey’s photobomb of Amy Poehler. We know that was our favorite moment.

Despite a lack of breakout moments, television ratings for the 2012 Golden Globe Awards were virtually the same as in 2011.

But networks such as Twitter added to the fun this year. Social media was definitely one of the reasons I continued to engage and watch the ceremony, even after it became apparent that Gervais was going to be kept away from the microphone as much as possible.

Did you stay tuned-in because of the online discussion? What moments were the most discussed in your social streams? Let us know in the comments.

Photo courtesy of @RickyGervais

More About: award shows, golden globes, Ricky Gervais, Twitter

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from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/01/16/golden-globes-2012-twitte/?utm_source=feedburn...

Must See HDTV (January 16th - 22nd)

After a CES related hiatus, we're back, and just in time for the premieres of a few of our favorite shows. Since we've been busy watching demo reels instead of what's on, feel free to let us know if we missed anything important during our Las Vegas trip (is anyone watching The Firm? Is it good?)Look below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames.

Alcatraz
The latest show from J.J. Abrams (Lost, Fringe) finds a San Francisco where some of the most dangerous inmates of the infamous prison are suddenly reappearing on the streets. We'd explain the plot further, but given its creator there's probably no point. Given his track record, it's certainly worth given a look, even if only because Jorge Garcia (Hurley from Lost) is in it. The series premiere airs tonight, check out a quick preview trailer embedded after the break.
(January 16th, Fox, 8PM)

Archer
In case you somehow haven't caught on by now, we love Archer. While he's a terribly incompetent spy, Sterling Archer still somehow always completes his mission and in entertaining fashion. Season three is finally getting under way this week, if you've followed our advice you already have the S1 & S2 Blu-ray discs filed away and are ready to go.
(January 19th, FX, 10PM)

Justified
US Marshal Raylan Givens returns this week in season three of Justified, and with the return of his old friend Boyd Crowder to a criminal lifestyle, we're sure it will be an explosive one in Harlan County. After the events of last season, an all new lineup of interesting figures is set to try and take control of criminal enterprises in this tiny corner of the mountains, which will inevitably lead to two things: intricate, flowery dialogue, and people getting shot.
(January 17th, FX, 10PM)

Continue reading Must See HDTV (January 16th - 22nd)

Must See HDTV (January 16th - 22nd) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/16/must-see-hdtv-january-16th-22nd/

How Nations Can Be United With Social Media


The United Nations is a huge organization: 193 member states and six major organs. As you can imagine, running the UN’s social media networks is no walk in the park. But the international organization is incredibly active on social media, using it as a tool to spread knowledge and information about its mission, goals and accomplishments.

So how does the UN, a very complex organization, manage such an active online presence?

We sat down with Nancy Groves, social media manager at UN headquarters in New York, to find out. Groves is part of the Secretariat, the UN body charged with carrying out the day-to-day work of the organization. She maintains an active presence on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Tumblr and other networks.

“We’re very involved in social media,” says Groves, whose previous job was working as a UN librarian. “There’s not much understanding of how the United Nations works out there, and we’re using social media to get our message out.”

“We’re very involved in social media,” says Groves, whose previous job was working as a UN librarian. “There’s not much understanding of how the United Nations works out there, and we’re using social media to get our message out.”

Educating people about the UN’s work, a mystery to many, is a top priority. Groves’s team often posts information and videos about the United Nations’s humanitarian work and other positive efforts to keep followers feeling good about the UN.

But not all the UN’s content makes you feel warm and snuggly inside. Groves posts about peacekeeping efforts, natural disasters and other emergency situations. And Groves definitely feels a “sense of urgency” when sharing info about disaster relief. The UN’s social media team was very active in connecting victims and relief centers during the recent tsunami and earthquake in Japan, for example. Groves says that Twitter is very important for the UN in times of crisis, because tweets are easily shared and can go viral quickly.

“We have to cover a broad range of work,” says Groves. “Famine, genocide, et cetera. We want to get the tone right.”

Groves’s team gets a lot of questions from followers. There’s a lot of UN haters out there, too, and Groves deals with them, well, diplomatically.

“We try to respond to every question that can be answered,” says Groves. “We do answer any criticism with statistics pages and informative links.”

The process of posting material online can sometimes lag for two reasons.

First, the UN works in six official languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) and every post has to be translated into all of them for inclusion’s sake. Groves often experiments with platforms popular amongst a particular language group, too. She sees her best numbers on Weibo, a Chinese site with over 300 million users, which is similar to a cross between Facebook and Twitter.

Second, all posts have to go through the UN’s political review process. But Groves has a few tricks up her sleeve.

“Info can be a little slow to get out because of the translation and political review process,” says Groves. “For that reason, we’re often using pre-approved content. There’s been one time when we didn’t get approval, but people who do social tend to already have sound judgement. More than one person reads everything,” says Groves.

That content could come from a more formal press release or a video that’s already gone through the UN’s formal review process. Groves has to be ever-mindful about language and wording, lest she inadvertently cause an international social incident. Her peer-editing process helps make sure that doesn’t happen.

“The ‘Be a Human Rights Defender’ campaign was an excellent way to spread knowledge about rights that a lot of people aren’t aware they have.”

The UN’s most successful social effort has been the “Be a Human Rights Defender” campaign, created to celebrate Human Rights Day. Groves’s team pushed out 30 different articles on human rights, each centered around one article in the Declaration of Human Rights. People that shared the articles were titled “Human Rights Defenders.” Groves said it was an excellent way to spread knowledge about rights that a lot of people aren’t aware they have.

And what about coordinating the social media efforts of the UN’s 17 specialized agencies, 62 Information Centers and 15 peacekeeping operations worldwide? After all, Groves is only part of the Secretariat, one of many UN bodies.

“We’ve got an informal working group of UN social media agents,” says Groves. “We try to have meetings based in New York at least once a month. It’s a positive trend for the UN as a whole, because it brings together all these different agencies and we can see how our work is inter-related. I know pretty much everyone doing social media at all the different agencies.”

Groves’s team is continuing to seek out new ways to use social media to spread their message. Groves says she’s even looking at Pinterest, the hot new image-heavy site popular amongst the Fashion and DIY community. She’s also gearing up for a major conference on sustainable development happening this summer in Rio, Brazil. For that, she’s making sure she has access to Portugese translators and a presence on the social media services that Brazilians love to use.

Do you follow the United Nations on social media? If so, what do you think of their digital efforts? Let us know in the comments below.

More About: Social Media, United Nations

from Mashable http://mashable.com/2012/01/14/united-nations/

Boxee explains dropping PC and Mac clients at CES

We found Boxee at CES' ShowStoppers event this year, and when we cornered them to complain about dropping official PC and Mac support late in 2011, they were appropriately apologetic. Boxee's Liz Dellheim said that yes, they're sorry that they've abandoned that part of the company, and says that with just 20 people in their employ, and customers not connecting their PCs up to televisions that much anyway, Boxee just couldn't justify that support any longer. Instead, the company will focus on providing software for televisions and set-top devices, which Dellheim said offer "a more complete Boxee experience" than having to run inside the OS of a PC or Mac.

That, and Boxee really wants to bring live TV to their service. Licensing that content for a standard PC client would be much harder than a more limited TV service, so Boxee decided to focus in on making the best set-top service they could, rather than being forced to support individual users.

So if you were a big fan of Boxee on your Mac, that's probably the end of that. The client is still available on the website, but the company isn't supporting the official release. Fortunately, as we described in the original post, there are quite a few alternatives to look out for.

There is one piece of Boxee software that will be running on an official Apple product: Dellheim confirmed that the Boxee Remote app for iPhone hasn't been forgotten, and while no big updates are planned, the company will continue to include that bit of the Boxee ecosystem in future plans. It's good to know that Boxee hasn't completely abandoned us Apple fans, but yes, for now, the company prefers to build for its own hardware, not our computers.

Boxee explains dropping PC and Mac clients at CES originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog http://www.tuaw.com/2012/01/14/boxee-explains-dropping-pc-and-mac-clients-at-...

Charting the CES Chatter, Friday Edition [INFOGRAPHIC]

What were the hottest brands, trends and topics on Thursday’s penultimate day of CES 2012?

People couldn’t stop buzzing about Motorola for the second consecutive day. OLED display technology and tablet devices are still popular, but ultrabook laptops faded in the conversation as audio and gaming technology surged. And people shared more CES-related video than ever.

All this comes to us via Twitter this week in Las Vegas, provided by Simply Measured analytics. Click here for our report from Thursday, here for our report from Wednesday and here for our report from Tuesday. Check back this weekend for a comprehensive breakdown of CES Twitter buzz as a whole.


How Did Thursday’s Twitter Chatter Compare to Last Year?


As on the previous two days, overall Twitter talk tagged #CES showed the same general trend in 2012 as 2011, but with people tweeting at a higher rate this year. On Thursday both years, the Twitter action started slow in the wee hours before ramping up to peak in the late morning and then gradually ebb as the afternoon wore on.

(Note on graphics: CES officially runs Tuesday through Friday, so Monday is referred to as “Day 0,” Tuesday is referred to as “Day 1,” Wednesday is referred to as “Day 2″ and Thursday is referred to as “Day 3.”)



Thursday’s Biggest Brands


Motorola dominated the #CES-tagged conversation on Thursday, and peaked quite early in the day. The company has been very successful in creating buzz this year, largely on the heels of its announcement that it has agreed on a multi-year deal to create a series of Intel-based phones and tablets. No one came close to matching Motorola on Thursday, although Samsung did see a modest jump around late morning.


The Hottest Trends


Audio technology enjoyed a big Thursday, becoming the most mentioned tech trend for its first time this week. OLED display technology has remained steady all week, although Thursday represented its least noteworthy day so far. Meanwhile, slim ultrabook laptops have faded in relation to tablet devices over the course of CES 2012. Could this portend ultrabooks’ ability to compete against tablets?


Thursday’s Most Popular Domains


People shared more video than ever on Thursday, with YouTube becoming the top-tweeted domain name for the first time this week. As usual, the list of most-tweeted domains was heavily dominated by tech news and social sharing sites. Twitter has remained strong all week and hovered near the top of the chart again on Thursday, while Facebook had another slow day following a solid start to the week.


Who Are the Overall Brand Leaders?


Microsoft and Motorola are now tied for the largest share of #CES-tagged tweets, but are traveling on opposite trajectories. Microsoft grabbed a whopping 12% of the conversation on Monday, when CEO Steve Ballmer gave a highly anticipated keynote address, but has trended downward since. Motorola started slow but has increased in percentage each day.

But Microsoft has gotten more value per tweet, as people who mention the Seattle company have an average of 6,605 followers. That doesn’t measure up to Google, though; its mentioners average more than 13,000 followers each.

But enough from us. What does this data tell you? Let us know in the comments.

More About: CES, CES 2012, infographics, Twitter

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from Mashable http://mashable.com/2012/01/13/charting-the-ces-chatter-friday-edition-infogr...

Why Companies Need to Iterate Based on User Feedback


Ryan Martens is the founder and CTO of Rally Software, which provides agile application lifecycle management solutions and services to software developers. Rally is Ryan’s fourth software startup. Follow him on Twitter @RallyOn.

Unfortunately, Twitter and Facebook have become real-time streams of rotten tomato throwing.

Just ask Bank of America, which encountered wrath from its Facebook customers when it decided to tack on monthly debit card fees. Or Virgin America, when its site crash and subsequent system failure ignited a blaze of ticked-off fliers.

We all know the drill: You’re supposed to listen to your customers in social media, engage them authentically, and act like the human you are, not the company you represent. But I’m here to add that engaging with customers after they start using your product isn’t enough. You simply can’t wait until customers start getting mad and yelling at you online to change your product or strategy. At that point, it’s too late. 

Given the ability to reach customers and prospects via social networks, it’s now easier than ever to embrace customers in your product development process. Changing this process may not save you from the inevitable system failures, but it will help you avoid the slip-up phases typically associated with releasing new products or services. 

Users rule the world now; therefore, businesses must be more responsive by using agile and lean practices. Here are three simple steps to guarantee the development of desirable products and services.


1. Find Your Earlyvangelists


Today’s smart company asks lots of questions up front. The brand involves its customers in the product development process from the very beginning. Often called the “customer development model,” the premise is described by Steven Blank in The Four Steps to the Epiphany

Blank describes earlyvangelists as “a special breed of customers willing to take a risk on your startup’s products or service because they can actually envision its potential to solve a critical and immediate problem.”


2. Build a Minimum Viable Product


Start with bare bones. Put together a product that has the minimum bells and whistles, focusing on the must-have features only. Let your customers try it out and see what they like. Let them tell you what is missing. Let them tell you what is extraneous. Then build what really satisfies that problem, and stop there

When you solve a problem for earlyvangelists, you build a supportive customer base that will promote the product to other visionary customers.  You may now consider whether this product is desirable for an even larger market. 

In the software world, agile and lean software development methodologies leverage fast feedback from customers. Google’s product cycle is a pretty classic example of this customer-focused approach. Gmail Labs was designed to tighten the feedback loop between users and developers, so that it could learn quickly what people liked and disliked. It took out the extra step of having to go to a customer support forum or email a representative, and let users communicate directly with developers. This experiment greatly increased the frequency and quality of feedback, which in turn, allowed Google to rapidly improve Gmail and its suite of apps. 

Eric Ries’s book, The Lean Startup goes into these concepts in great detail, explaining how applying a combination of agile customer development methods and lean social media engagement can create a true collection of thinking and acting tools for today’s complex world. 


3. Release, Iterate and Repeat 


Once you have a desirable initial product, you can begin to test extension and offers into other markets and user segments. Using tools like KISS Metrics, you can now easily track the conversion metrics based on different offers to different segments before you build. This type of market feedback allows you to bring back “validated learnings” to the product team.  It lets you co-develop your market in the most capital-efficient and viral way possible.  

This is where the value of agile development kicks in. The short growth cycles that adapt to both positive and negative feedback let you steer your product into the segments without wasting precious development cycles. 

Surprisingly, many companies aren’t really embracing customer development yet. Maybe because they’re still afraid of what lies beyond company walls. If you have not figured out how to energize or support your customer base in 21st century social networks, then you might be very cautious with customer development.

So knock those walls down and begin truly embracing customers and prospects early in your development process. It’s clear that users rule, but they need you to make projects affordable and scalable first. Otherwise, be prepared for a social media rotten tomato storm.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Mableen

More About: contributor, development, features, Social Media, Startups, user feedback

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from Mashable http://mashable.com/2012/01/13/user-feedback/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_mediu...

Ask Engadget: Is there a Roku DVR?

We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is from Jaime, trying to escape the tyranny of Windows Media Center with a DVR-enabled Roku. If you're looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

I gave up cable TV last year, making do with a (not very user-friendly) HTPC running Windows 7 Media Center. I watch free over-the-air HD and Netflix, but WMC is buggy and crashes a lot. Is there a Roku-style streaming player that has a built-in TV tuner and DVR functionality in addition to Netflix, Hulu and other services? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Our first thought was to hook up a Roku with Nowhere DVR and Elgato's EyeTV, but perhaps there's a device that's even simpler to set up that wedges both functions into a single unit without any sort of tweaking required. If you know the inside-skinny, rock on over to the comments and holler.

Ask Engadget: Is there a Roku DVR? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/14/ask-engadget-is-there-a-roku-dvr/

TiVo users watch less Live TV than everyone else

If you're a TiVo user it might shock you to learn that the vast majority of TV today is still consumed live in the US. TiVo's latest study shows that its users who have broadband connected DVRs only watch live TV 27% of the time. This just reaffirms what is obvious to some, that if people have an enjoyable way to access on-demand (streaming and recorded) content, they'll prefer it to live TV. These types of numbers do make one wonder whether the cable and satellite DVRs on the market are bad intentionally, or if its just because those companies are incapable. Either way, the mix of streaming options with recorded TV is a powerful one and the perfect stop gap while we all wait for the future to get here.

Continue reading TiVo users watch less Live TV than everyone else

TiVo users watch less Live TV than everyone else originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/14/tivo-users-watch-less-live-tv-than-everyon...

Nanocoating Waterproofs Any Gadget

An anonymous reader writes "Water has always been the bane of electronics, however American company Liquipel just announced that they have developed a way to completely waterproof any device against the elements. Using a revolutionary process, Liquipel applies a hydrophobic nanocoating to phones, computers, and other devices that completely waterproofs them and protects them against accidental exposure to liquids."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

from Slashdot http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/12/01/13/011233/nanocoating-waterproofs-any-...

The Coming Tech Battle Over 'Smart TVs'

An anonymous reader writes "One persistent theme from this year's CES is that television manufacturers are racing to establish the concept of 'Smart TVs,' sets that integrate modern browsing features, control through voice or motion, application support, and even upgradability. This article suggests the living room will be the location of the newest tech war. Quoting: 'To compete, the companies will have to offer carefully curated, high-quality applications and be open to supporting mobile devices such as tablets. Other media companies have already started: Comcast, for example, announced that it's going to allow OnDemand streaming not only to Samsung Smart TV's but also to the iPad. The TV makers are hoping that the multitude of additional features will be enough to trigger turnover like the industry saw after the introduction of flat-panel screens, Bloomberg noted. It's a big market, if the television makers can figure out how to crack it.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

from Slashdot http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/01/12/1418233/the-coming-tech-battle-over-s...