Digital Diva

An entire insomnia flow chart, click picture to get the whole series.

(via ilovecharts & nytimes.com)

The biggest lie ever: “I have read and agree to the terms of use.”.  So true.

So You Need A Typeface?

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.

Albert Einstein

The makeup of the Internet…from Search and Portals to Media and News.

Twitter announced it’s got a plan for advertisements. You can breathe a sigh of relief…the plan is downright boring, just as it should be.

Advertisements will begin in search, with keywords being bid on and a single advertisement appearing with frequency dependent on its performance. Then the ads will be extended to 3rd party applications like TweetDeck and others. It’s unclear who will use it, Tweetie got bought by Twitter last week and Twitterific has its own ads, but other apps will come and go, hopefully given the option (not the requirement) to show Twitter ads to their users. Finally, ads will begin to appear on Twitter.com

Forrester Research: The Marketing Funnel is Dead

Yesterday’s blog photo explained. The Swampies will get this  ;-)

iBookend - for those that can’t think of a use for the iPad ;-)

via vi-rosenrot

Amusing Facebook eCards  (via viasoc)

Oh dear…how embarassing! I missed the ‘h’ off in one of the links to recommend me in the directory. Thanks everyone on Twitter for pointing it out…and yes, rookie mistake!

Here is the correct link, I’ll still love you all forever if you could recommend me!

http://www.tumblr.com/directory/recommend/tech/thedigitaldiva

A recent independent study by Retrevo Gadgetology asked 1,000 users the “when, where and what” regarding social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. 

Here are some highlights:

Do you check/update Facebook and Twitter after you go to bed?

Yes, anytime I wake up during the night

• Under 25: 19%
• Over 25:  11%

Yes, sometimes when I wake up during the night

• Under 25: 27%
• Over 25:  20%

Yes, as soon as I wake up in the morning

• Under 25:  32%
• Over 25:  21%

Will Twitter and Facebook take over the morning news show?

Maybe not anytime soon, but 16% of those under age 25 and 15% of those over 25 turn to their social sites for their morning news. If this trend continues, the morning news as we know it today could see some major changes.

Are iPhone users more addicted to social media sites?

iPhone users were extremely active on social sites at all hours of the day.  The study does not give solid reasons for this, but speculates, “We don’t know if it’s the device making it so easy to do social media things or the personality of an iPhone owner, but iPhone owners stand out in this study as more involved with social media; they use Facebook and Twitter more often and in more places.”

Here are some other stats worth checking out:

• 56%: Social media users check Facebook at least once a day.

• 12%: Social media users check Facebook every couple of hours.

• 40%:  Respondents who said they didn’t mind being interrupted for a message.

• 32%:  Respondents who said using the sites was not off limits while eating a meal.

• 7%: Respondents who said they’d check out a message during an intimate moment.

You can check out the full article at:

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/study-highlights-growing-social-media-addiction/

More ‘old’ computers…love this. A HP Laptop running windows XP and Linux. It starts by winding the key.

“It’s hard to grasp the breathtaking scale of the epic war between Microsoft, Google and Apple. Billions upon billions of dollars. Entire industries at stake.”

via thedeafdivide and ilovecharts

Hi all - Hope you are all enjoying my posts   :-)

I would really appreciate it if you could recommend me in Tumblr’s Tech Directory. 

Thanks in advance!

Ash and Lightning above an Icelandic Volcano. I thought this photo was breathtaking.

The Eyjafjallajökull volcano in southern Iceland began erupting on March 20, with a second eruption starting under the center of small glacier on April 14. Neither eruption was unusually powerful. The second eruption, however, melted a large amount of glacial ice which then cooled and fragmented lava into gritty glass particles that were carried up with the rising volcanic plume.

Pictured above two days ago, lightning bolts illuminate ash pouring out of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

(Credit & Copyright: Marco Fulle - Stromboli Online)

Full Article: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100419.html

Dropped Food: do you eat it?

I shot the serif.

The Pentatonic Scale - World Science Festival

Juliet Capulet is in a relationship and it’s complicated.

Infographic: Demographic Of The 7 Most Popular Social Media Sites (via geekmich)

The original Social Media Response guide.

If you work with social media at all, you probably will already have seen this. But here it is, just in case.

(via nowsourcing.com)

Spying on how we read by Music Machinery (via champagnecandy):

One feature of the Kindle software is called Whispersync.  It keeps track of where you are in a book so that if you switch devices (from an iPhone to a Kindle or an iPad or desktop), you can pick up exactly where you left off.  Kindle also stores any bookmarks, notes, highlights, or similar markings you make in the cloud so they can be shared across devices.   Whispersync is a useful feature for readers, but it is also a goldmine of data for Amazon.

Some charts I’d like to see:

Most Abandoned - the books and/or authors that are most frequently left unfinished.  What book is the most abandoned book of all time? (My money is on ‘A Brief History of Time’) A related metric – for any particular book where is it most frequently abandoned?

Pageturner – the top books ordered by average number of words read per reading session.  Does the average Harry Potter fan read more of the book in one sitting than the average Twilight fan?

Burning the midnight oil – books that keep people up late at night.

Read Speed – which books/authors/genres have the lowest word-per-minute average reading rate?   Do readers of Glenn Beck read faster or slower than readers of Jon Stewart?

Most Re-read – which books are read over and over again?  A related metric – which are the most re-read passages?  Is it when Frodo claims the ring,  or when Bella almost gets hit by a car?

Valuable reference – which books are not read in order, but are visited very frequently? (I’ve not read my Python in a nutshell book from cover to cover, but I visit it almost every day).

Biggest Slogs – the books that take the longest to read.

Trophy Books – books that are most frequently purchased, but never actually read.

Most efficient language – the average time to read books by language.  Do native Italians read ‘Il nome della rosa‘ faster than native English speakers can read ‘The name of the rose‘?

Entertainment value – the books with the lowest overall cost per hour of reading (including all re-reads)

Post-It Mosaic of the Day (via thedailywhat)

In a world where everything is getting more and more super-shiny and advanced, I would quite like this…  (via vi-rosenrot)

LOVE this infographic!

Infographic: Still think social media is just a trend?

Infographic showing the current level of ‘browser noise’

Ha!

Kristian Bjornard: “Venn Diagrams … A Diagram”

Social media has exploded in recent years in its use to gauge customers’ likes and dislikes and to identify consumer buying trends. Users have migrated from trusting traditional media for reviews, ratings, and recommendations to trusting what their peers have to say in social media.

In a recent Trust Barometer survey, it was revealed that consumers are losing trust in each other when it comes to providing credible information about products or companies.

Only about 25% of people now trust their peers and friends online for information.

“Social networking used to be innocent, peer to peer conversation and now it’s turned into a marketing playground in which almost everything — blog space, tweets and, in some cases, opinion — is for sale,”

The full article at SearchEngineLand.com is here.

“Your Stupid Farm” t-shirt by TweetTees.

Farmville now has a ‘population’ of over 80 million. There is a great blog post about Farmville and social gaming on Swamp’s blog.

Maybe I would have found it easier to learn piano with this keyboard?

I got to grade 5, but it was a hard slog…I’m much better at wind instruments (trumpet, clarinet etc.) than instruments like piano or guitar - maybe it’s using both hands to do two things…aren’t women meant to be better at multitasking? ;-)

Amusing April’s Fool video from Nike (thanks Sarah T)

ctrl + z ……I’m sorry.

(via watsonyourface)

My kind of beach. Just need less people and I’d be happy.

(via vi-rosenrot)

I ran with Ellie Goulding today. It almost killed me (I had a slight cold that has now turned into a monster)…but was worth it. She’s a lovely lady.

Some very thoughtful friends bought me Generation A by Douglas Coupland for Christmas. I read it on holiday and loved it.

(btw, I’m quite enjoy the Good Reads website, where I say what books I’ve read or am reading and it suggests others. It’s like a slightly better Amazon for reviews)

Andrew Brown is now reading my copy and is loving it too. He reminded me about The Earth Sandwich. The idea is that you partner up with someone that is located at the exact opposite side of the world. You place a slice of bread and so does the other person - there you have it, an Earth Sandwich!

Has anyone ever made one?

Taddy Hall (former chief strategy officer for the Advertising Research Foundation) posted an article in AdAge - 10 Essential Rules for Brands in Social Media.

I liked his 10 rules, so I thought I’d shorten and re-blog:

1. The 1% Rule
A small fraction of site visitors are responsible for a substantial portion of traffic. On average, the percentage of influential users (a visitor who’s subsequent sharing actions result in at least one additional site visitor) on a given site is 0.6% and rarely above 4%. However, these influencers regularly generate 20%-50% of total site traffic and an even higher share of conversion. Identify and engage these super-influentials.

2. 2-4X
When it comes to conversion, visitors driven to a site by influencers are to to four times more likely to convert compared to visitors from other sources, such as display advertisements or paid search. That means your landing pages for people coming from shared links and social sites should reflect these visitors’ interests and offer enticing deals that will encourage them not only to convert but to share the deals with others.

3. New Media = New Pipes
In today’s socially driven internet, it matters far more what consumers do with your content than what you do with your content. What they say about your brand means more than what you say about your brand. Content spread from consumer to consumer through word-of-mouth is far more powerful at driving brand preference and purchase intent than content distributed by the brand itself.

4. The Jamie Oliver Rule
Throw your own party; don’t just cater someone else’s! If you base your social campaigns in venues you don’t control — such as Facebook or YouTube — you may get great “attendance,” but data show it’s hard to convert and retain these party-goers. If your goals are anything beyond building brand awareness, it’s better to have a house of your own where friends can find you — such as your own branded social site, contest site, or customer forum.

5. The Power of “Weak Links”
You are far more likely to find your next job through a friend-of-a-friend than through an intimate contact. These “weak links” matter in the “real world,” and they matter even more online. A critical implication for marketers is the need to track the extended social graphs of their content if they are going to be able to understand and activate the dynamics of influence.

6. Feed the Fire
Consumers love to share relevant, engaging, useful, and entertaining content with their friends. Make it easy for them to find your content and make it easy for them to share your content. Ninety percent of internet pages have fewer than 10 links pointing to them — making them effectively unfindable.

7. Don’t forget the ‘old ways’ 
Research consistently demonstrates that e-mail and IM remain popular ways to share content. So don’t throw out your old e-mail marketing methods just because Facebook and Twitter are the newest communication platforms du jour.

8. Don’t rely on advertising 
Success in social media happens when brands infuse their content with social dimensions (Facebook Connect, most notably), not when they simply stick their ads and content in social forums. Your brands and content need to have social attributes — content worth sharing, brands worth talking about, sites that encourage consumer participation and dialog.

9. PR Pitfalls
Blogger outreach and content seeding may be popular ways to get your message into the social world, but data show that more than 90% of seeding has no material impact. Up to 5% gets some response, but less than 2% of seeding drives valuable traffic. In other words, if you can’t track efficacy of these efforts, don’t bother.

10. Customer Service
Social marketing programs succeed when they provide a service to the consumer. Focus on providing useful content and offers to your target audience and they will spread your messages for you.

This cute looking infographic shows the Path to 10 Billion Tweets (from mashable.com). Click on the image for the full-size version.

Stats include the number of visitors, the demographic makesup and more.