Super Bowl’s First Social Media Command Center an ‘Enormous Success’


The Super Bowl’s first-ever social media command center was an “enormous success,” according to Taulbee Jackson, who managed the host committee’s interactive communications hub.

A team of strategists, analysts and tech-savvy volunteers spent the past two weeks monitoring the digital fan conversation while working out of a 2,800-square-foot space in downtown Indianapolis just blocks from where Super Bowl XLVI was played Sunday. They chimed in as needed via Twitter, Facebook and other platforms.

“The number of people we were able to reach was through the roof, more than anyone on the committee expected,” Jackson said in an interview the day after the game.

With some 150,000 people expected to flood downtown Indianapolis for Super Bowl festivities, the command center functioned as an innovative way to keep football fans informed and under control.

Jackson says it had a direct reach of about 49,000 people in the Indianapolis area over Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and YouTube. Overall, the command center delivered some 1.8 million online impressions each day for the Indianapolis host committee.

Brad Carlson, the host committee’s vice president of marketing, told Mashable that he is “sure this trend will continue” as social media becomes increasingly widespread. The committee tapped Jackson’s digital marketing agency Raidious to run the operation, which Carlson said became a hot spot for tours by other event and civic organizations.

The team used advanced search tools and analytics to identify fans in need of help by indexing key words and phrases.

On Saturday afternoon, for example, a fan named Morgan Cooper tweeted to no one in particular that she was struggling to find somewhere to park. Less than half an hour later, someone at the command center located Cooper’s post and responded via the host committee’s official account with this message:


@Morgan_Coop Here are a couple of ideas for parking during #SB46 4rd.ca/aaaDPJ

— Indy Super Bowl (@SuperBowl2012) February 5, 2012

The link contained a map of more than 50 parking areas. That ability to directly respond to visitor concerns paid off — over the month preceding the game, fan sentiment about Indianapolis and the Super Bowl averaged a three-to-one positive ratio on social networks.

Excluding search engines, social media was the number-one referral source to the host committee’s homepage, ahead of the websites of the NFL and Indianapolis Star newspaper. The command center averaged more than 3,500 retweets and 2,500 Twitter “favorites” or Facebook “Likes” per day.

Jackson also said that, by monitoring the online fan conversation, his team was actually able to learn about several minor safety issues before even being notified by official organizations.

The two biggest operational surprises were an older and less nightlife-hungry audience than expected, according to Jackson. But the command center’s successes and surprises alike will be a boon to cities and organizations that look to set up similar operations.

“We’re really excited about what we were able to accomplish,” Jackson said. “A big part of our mission was to give this new idea a shot and establish a really good baseline that future committees and events can learn from.”

What other cities and events should establish social media command centers like this? Let us know in the comments.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, LUGO

More About: Facebook, Social Media, Super Bowl, Super Bowl XLVI, Twitter

For more Business coverage:

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/07/super-bowl-social-media-command-center/?utm_so...

A CEO’s Total Shift in Perspective on Recruiting

Note: In case you don’t know Adam, he’s the CEO and Co-founder of Abroad101, one of Boston’s fastest-growing startups and a MassChallenge success story.

Abroad101 LogoAt first, I recruited by spending an hour of my time pitching Abroad101 to a candidate. Then, we’d go straight to an interview. Towards the end of the interview, we’d get to our technical questions, where almost every candidate failed.

Then, I decided to flip the process around: start with a technical phone or video screen, and then go backwards, ending with pitching candidates on Abroad101. But that didn’t work, because the only people who were willing to do a technical screen without any initial conversation weren’t the right fit.

So how did I go from having three good candidates over the course of three months to having dozens of qualified candidates at once in two weeks?

I realized that recruitment is about understanding each individual. Does the person care most about the company’s financial prospects, the team, our challenges, or furthering their career goals, etc?

What I do now has enabled us to solve both problems I encountered before. Now we attract top candidates and then interest them in proving themselves to us so that we can then evaluate them.

Here’s my trick: Invite every qualified candidate to beer or a phone call; take just a few minutes to share our elevator pitch and exponentially growing metrics; spend up to few hours learning about the person on the other side of the table; pitch the opportunity to the candidate in the context of how it fits into his or her goals; do a classic interview, meet and great with the team, go out for drinks, etc.; make decision.

It’s working great, but we still need one more Ruby on Rails Engineer to join our team. Anyone interested or know someone ($1,500 referral fee)? Visit for more details: bit.ly/abroad101ruby

from BostInno http://bostinno.com/channels/a-ceos-total-shift-in-perspective-on-recruiting/

The World Watches Syria’s Uprising on YouTube


Syria has undoubtedly been swept up in the Arab Spring, popular uprisings against dictatorial rulers that have spread throughout the Middle East since early last year. The country, ruled by Bashar al-Assad since 2000, has also been the site of the most brutal crackdowns against protesters. With foreign press barred from entering the country, Syrians and the rest of the world have been watching video from a single source: YouTube.

Early uprisings against Assad’s rule began in January of last year. The following March, an anti-Assad protest in a southern city was met with a violent suppression from government forces. Within hours, graphic video of the event was posted on YouTube. Since then, protests have occurred across Syria as the opposition coalesces into a more formal fighting force.

Meanwhile, Syrians who witness confrontations between government forces and protesters are uploading new videos every day.

On Saturday, Russia and China vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have called for Assad to step down. Earlier in the day, U.S. President Barack Obama personally urged Assad to step aside.

“Assad has no right to lead Syria, and has lost all legitimacy with his people and the international community,” said Obama.

Undeterred by calls to relinquish power, Assad’s government conducted a siege of the port city of Homs Monday, leaving approximately 29 civilians dead according to the AFP. Following the violence, the U.S. State Department announced the closing of its embassy in Syria’s capital.

As Syria teeters on the precipice of civil war, the world watches online. With foreign press agencies unable to send reporters or cameras, outsiders have been relying on video (along with telephone calls) recorded by Syrians on small camcorders and mobile devices and later uploaded to the web. These videos cannot be verified and they often include titles and descriptions with bias for their side of the conflict. But it’s difficult to ignore the raw visceral power of the footage.

Can these YouTube videos fill the media’s watchdog role in armed conflicts that are closed to the press? Clay Shirky, distinguished writer in residence at NYU Journalism, said that citizen journalism is a global trend not limited to autocratic societies experiencing tumult. He explained:

“There are three advantages to citizen video over what is produced by trained press. The first is that the first people on the scene of an event are usually citizens, so it is better for speed. The second is that there are more citizens than press, so it is better for coverage. The third is that it is harder to control citizens than press, so it is better for free speech.”

Shirky’s third point sticks out in reference to Syria. The video being uploaded by Syrians isn’t being subjected to any kind of government censorship. Shirky was, however, quick to point out that citizen journalism has limitations.

“The losses are image and sound quality, lack of access to military or political newsmakers, and lack of provenance (so policing fraud becomes more problematic),” he said.

The squashing of free speech and free press doesn’t only apply to autocratic regimes either.

“Reflect on the fact that the press was rendered toothless in covering the clearing out of the #OWS camp at Zuccotti, while the citizens were irreplaceable. In fact, one of my students who went down to cover the event brought his press pass, and realized that when he showed it, he got less access to the event, so he hid it and plunged into the crowd,” Shirky said.

We’ve included a gallery of footage from Syria throughout the uprising.

Do you think YouTube videos provide an acceptable replacement for press in Syria? Let us know in the comments below.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT We’ve left the descriptions intact, so that readers may better understand the intentions of the uploaders.


Syrian Revolution Damascus 15 March 2011


Syrian revolution rallies in Damascus on 15th March 2011

Click here to view this gallery.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, visual7

More About: Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, Syria, YouTube

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/07/syria-youtube/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_mediu...

Get the Most Out of Your iPhone's Notification Center, from Beginner to Jailbreaker [Ios 5]

The Notification Center feature on iPhone's is a powerful tool to keep track of everything happening in your life, but it's not transparent how to use it to its full extent. We'll guide you through the basics of getting started with Notification Center and show you how to make it more useful with a few tweaks. More »


from Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/5882947/get-the-most-out-of-ios-5s-notification-center-...

How One Pioneering Investor Kick-Starts Early Stage Companies [VIDEO]

When Jeff Clavier founded SoftTech VC there weren’t too many investors doing small, seed-stage investments in next generation web companies. Many traditional venture capitalists just didn’t find the new breed of capital efficient web startups very intriguing. A small group of investors, including Clavier, thought otherwise, and began to invest their own money as angels. They’ve been wildly successful in doing so, and today Clavier’s SoftTech VC firm has investments and holdings in some of the web’s most successful startups, including Bit.ly, Get Satisfaction, Ustream, Twitter, Groupon and Facebook.

Clavier just closed SoftTech VC’s mammoth third fund — a whopping $55 million, which is more than three times larger than the firm’s successful second fund. The new fund will allow Clavier and company to invest in 60 to 65 new companies with an initial investment averaging $400,000.

Watch our interview with Clavier to find out what he looks for in new investments, why VCs do whatever it takes to help their portfolio companies succeed and why there is no pride in venture capital.

This Venture Studio Classic was originally released on May 16, 2011, after the launch of SoftTech VC Fund III, but prior to it closing.

Follow Venture Studio, in association with Mashable. The show is hosted by Dave Lerner, a 3x entrepreneur and angel investor. To join Venture Studio’s Facebook page, click here.


More Recent Episodes of Venture Studio:


More About: investing, mashable video, Startups, Venture, venture capital, venture studio, Video

For more Business coverage:

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/07/jeff-clavier-video/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_...

Black SMS Encrypts and Decrypts Your Text Messages [Video]

iOS: Anyone can pick up your phone and read your text messages. It's also not that difficult for someone to install spy software. If you want to keep your messages private, Black SMS is an app that provides a very simple method for doing so. You simply type in the message, set a password, and send it over to iMessage. The recipient can then use their copy of Black SMS to decrypt the message using the password you set by simply pasting the message into the app and entering the password. (Watch the video above for a demonstration.) More »


from Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/5883085/black-sms-encrypts-and-decrypts-your-text-messages

20 TV Shows With the Most Social Media Buzz This Week [CHART]

It should come as no surprise which television event topped the charts in terms of social chatter. If you guessed The Voice, you’re fired. That’s right, the 2012 Super Bowl earned a record 111.3 million American viewers this time around. Not surprisingly, that led to 17 million social media activities, according to Trendrr’s latest social TV research.

Even though it seems as many people cared about Madonna as they did football, social media users turned out by the millions to tweet each New York Giants interception and New England Patriot blitz. And we know from watching the streams that M.I.A.’s middle finger caused quite the social stir as well.

SEE ALSO: Super Bowl 2012 Commercials: Watch Them All Here

And if you weren’t that concerned about the Super Bowl this year, not to worry. The Voice still made the cut…barely.

The data below is compliments of our friends at Trendrr, who measure specific TV show activity (mentions, likes, checkins) across Twitter, Facebook, GetGlue and Miso. To see daily rankings, check out Trendrr.TV.


Image courtesy of iStockphoto, narvikk

More About: features, Social Media, social tv, social tv charts, Trendrr, TV

For more Entertainment coverage:

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/social-tv-chart-2-6/?utm_source=feedburner&utm...

Brand or Celeb? Social Media Shows Who Super Bowl Ads Helped Most


Social media analytics provided to Mashable show which endorsers — and endorsees — won biggest on Super Bowl Sunday.

Getting a celebrity to shill products during the game’s valuable advertising time can do wonders to imprint a brand in consumer consciousness. But that plan can also backfire, with the celebrities themselves overshadowing the products they promote.

Overall, David Beckham dominated Super Bowl XLVI. More than 85,000 tweets mentioned him over the course of the game, according to Simply Measured. But the Beckham-in-his-undies ad helped clothing retailer H&M, too.

According to Networked Insights, the soccer player gained four times as much of the conversation on Twitter and Facebook as H&M. But his presence still pushed the brand into the eighth slot of most talked about companies on the two social networks during Super Bowl Sunday.

John Stamos also gained four times more of the conversation than the brand he endorsed, Dannon yogurt. But unlike H&M, Dannon wasn’t able to parlay that into a significant share of the online discussion, finishing outside the top 10 according to Networked Insights.

Supermodel Adriana Lima did especially well for herself when she appeared in ads for Kia and Teleflora during the game. Lima gained about 7% of the celebrity ad conversation, according to Networked Insights, and the reaction on Facebook and Twitter was overwhelmingly positive.

But her buzz did not translate into major boosts in sentiment for either of the companies she endorsed. According to NetBase, Kia’s rate of positive mentions increased by just 0.1% on Super Bowl Sunday compared to normal, and there was actually a relative dip of 1.2% in positive mentions for Teleflora.

Interestingly, the three brands that grabbed the largest share of the advertising conversation were Doritos, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser and Bud Light counted as one, according to Networked Insights. None of those companies hired major celebrities, but all did feature animals in one ad or another.

Do you think it’s worth it for brands to shell out big bucks for major celebrities in their Super Bowl ads? Or are there better ways to make a splash? Let us know in the comments.


BONUS GALLERY: Watch Every Super Bowl XLVI Ad Here



Phone Innovators: Official 2012 Best Buy Game Day Commercial


Watch as phone innovation meets phone-buying innovation, at Best Buy. Choose Phone Freedom and get any phone, any carrier, and all of their plans, with lots of unbiased advice. Reserve a $50 gift card at http://www.bestbuy.com/phonefreedom now for your next upgrade.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Advertising, Facebook, Super Bowl XLVI, Twitter

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/brand-or-celeb-social-media-shows-who-super-bo...

Twitter’s Ad Scrimmage Lets You Relive Super Bowl Commercials


There’s usually one commercial during the Super Bowl that outshines the others for its creativity and laughter-inducing antics — and gets watched over and over. Twitter’s Ad Scrimmage wants to be the website where you do that, as well as vote for your favorite. But move fast; it won’t be around forever.

The idea behind Ad Scrimmage is to get people talking about the companies and brands behind the ads (which shelled-out beaucoup bucks for these coveted spots) and extend the ad value and entertainment all week.

Here’s what Twitter says about Ad Scrimmage on its advertising blog:

“The Twitter Ad Scrimmage extends the life of a Super Bowl commercial by amplifying and moving Monday water cooler discussions to immediately after the game when momentum for conversations around those commercials is at its highest … Commercials will also have a unique hashtag to encourage conversations on Twitter.”

The commercials are organized into four quarters, depending on when each aired. There is a corresponding hashtag for each commercial to encourage discussion. If there are any commercials you missed, or just can’t get enough of, check out the site now — it’s only live for seven days.

SEE ALSO: Super Bowl 2012 Commercials: Watch Them All Here

Have you tweeted about Super Bowl commercials? Did you use one of the hastags created with the commercial? Will Scrimmage work? Let us know in the comments.

More About: ads, funny commercials, hashtags, Marketing, Super Bowl 2012, Twitter


from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/twitter-ad-scrimmage-super-bowl/?utm_source=fe...

Super Bowl Breaks Social TV and Broadcast Records


Super Bowl XLVI was not only a big hit with broadcast viewers, it also excelled in the social TV space.

Hollywood news site Deadline reports that 111.3 million Americans tuned in to watch the New York Giants defeat the New England Patriots. That puts Super Bowl XLVI just ahead of last year’s record breaking broadcast, making the 2012 Super Bowl the most-watched U.S. TV broadcast ever.

Of course, the Super Bowl didn’t just do well in TV ratings. It dominated the social conversations on Twitter, Facebook and social checkin services like GetGlue.

According to social TV analytics firm Bluefin Labs, Super Bowl XLVI was the biggest social TV event on record, surpassing the 2011 MTV VMAs in terms of social media comments.

Bluefin’s data shows that the Super Bowl generated 12.2 million social media comments, up 600% from 2011′s 1.8 million comments. However, we should note that Bluefin’s reporting data in 2011 was not as robust as it is now, which may account for the disparity in numbers.

According to Alex Iskold, founder and CEO of GetGlue, more than 150,000 users checked-in to the Super Bowl on GetGlue, three-times more than any previous event.


Halftime Show Soars


Although the game itself generated tons of social comments, the halftime show was also hugely social. Not only was Madonna the most searched term on Google, the halftime show generated 862,000 social comments according to Bluefin.

To put that figure in perspective, Bluefin estimates that the 2011 Academy Awards generated 966,000 comments. Additionally, if counted as its own program, the Madonna’s halftime show would rank fourth in terms of social TV entertainment events, ahead of the 2011 BET Awards.


The Ads


It was a big year for Super Bowl ads, with lots of companies choosing to preview or premiere their ads online before the big game.

Honda’s CR-V ad featuring Ferris Bueller himself (Matthew Broderick) was the most-buzzed about ad according to Zeta. The Honda spot also took the the title of “best ad” in Hulu’s Adzone 2012.

Other popular spots included Volkswagen’s “The Bark Side” teaser and “The Dog Strikes Back.”

When it comes to social media commentary, Bluefin ranks H&M’s “Bodywear for H&M” featuring David Beckahm as the ad with the most social media comments.

It was followed by Chrysler’s outstanding, “Halftime in America” spot featuring Clint Eastwood. Bluefin ranked the Chrysler spot as number one among sports fans.

Did you find yourself more socially engaged while watching the Super Bowl this year? Let us know in the comments.

More About: Bluefin Labs, hulu, ratings, social tv, Super Bowl, Super Bowl ads


from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/super-bowl-xlvi-social-tv-stats/?utm_source=fe...