How Digitally Connected Are the U.S. News Top 20 Colleges?


Mashable received exclusive early access to the U.S. News list of top ranking national universities and national liberal arts colleges, released on Tuesday. The rankings take several factors into account, including tuition, acceptance rate, retention rate, class size, SAT scores and graduation rate.

We decided to add another factor for review: social media connectedness. Below you’ll find both top 10 lists of universities and liberal arts colleges alongside an analysis of their social media presences.

Mashable took a look at Twitter feeds encompassing university life, official Facebook pages and YouTube channels, not to mention the follower count for each official university/college account. Take a flip through the galleries to discover how higher education institutions stack up to the growing trends in social media. Also, you can check out U.S. News’ newly launched social tool that allows participants to discover where their Facebook friends went to college.

Feel free to share in the comments below how your college stacks up socially.


Top National Universities



1. (tied) Harvard University




U.S. News university ranking: 1 (tied)

Main Twitter account: @Harvard

Twitter followers: 66,737

Other Twitter accounts: @thecrimson,@HarvardMagazine, @Harvard_Library, @THCSports, @HUDSInfo, @ABCDSocialMedia

Main Facebook page: Harvard

Facebook fans: 698,933

YouTube channel: harvard

YouTube videos/subscribers: 390/ 27,786


1. (tied) Princeton University




U.S. News university ranking: 1 (tied)

Main Twitter account: @Princeton

Twitter followers: 15,572

Other Twitter accounts: @punews, @pace_princeton, @PUArtMuseum, @princetonian, @PUTIGERS, @PrincetonDining, @princetoncareer, @PrincetonPL

Main Facebook page: PrincetonU

Facebook fans: 52,125

YouTube channel: princetonuniversity

YouTube videos/subscribers: 164/ 2,979


3. Yale University




U.S. News university ranking: 3

Main Twitter account: @Yale

Twitter followers: 22,774

Other Twitter accounts: @yaledailynews, @YaleAthletics, @yalelibrary, @Yale_Emergency, @Yale_Athletics

Main Facebook page: YaleUniversity

Facebook fans: 36,825

YouTube channel: YaleUniversity

YouTube videos/subscribers: 650/ 19,986


4. Columbia University




U.S. News university ranking: 4

Main Twitter account: n/a

Other Twitter accounts: @CU_Spectator, @ColumbiaGS, @columbiajourn, @ColumbiaScience, @ColumbiaCCE, @GoColumbiaLions, @ColumbiaCSA

Main Facebook page: ColumbiaNYC

Facebook fans: 12,840

YouTube channel: columbiauniversity

YouTube videos/subscribers: 619/ 4,121


5. (tied) California Polytechnic Institute




U.S. News university ranking: 5 (tied)

Main Twitter account: @Caltech

Twitter followers: 2,570

Other Twitter accounts: @caltechevents, @CaltechMITForum, @CaltechAMT, @CaltechGreen

Main Facebook page: California Institute of Technology

Facebook fans: 7,713

YouTube channel: caltech

YouTube videos/subscribers: 38/ 302


5. (tied) Massachusetts Institute of Technology




U.S. News university ranking: 5 (tied)

Main Twitter account: MITstudents

Twitter followers: 781

Other Twitter accounts: @mitlibraries, @MITNews, @MITscience, @MITMuseum, @MIT_Spectrum, @MIT_TechTV, @MITCampusDining, @MITEECS, @MITgetfit, @MITmedical

Main Facebook page: MITnews

Facebook fans: 55,827

YouTube channel: none. But hosts its own video site called MIT TechTV.


5. (tied) Stanford University




U.S. News university ranking: 5 (tied)

Main Twitter account: @Stanford

Twitter followers: 45,590

Other Twitter accounts: @StanfordDaily, @stanford_humsci, @suathletics, @stanfordrec, @stanfordbuzztap, @StanfordDining, @StanfordCareers

Main Facebook page: Stanford

Facebook fans: 226,322

YouTube channel: StanfordUniversity

YouTube videos/subscribers: 1,383/ 89,041


5. (tied) University of Chicago




U.S. News university ranking: 5 (tied)

Main Twitter account: @UChicago

Twitter followers: 2,600

Other Twitter accounts: @uchicagonews, @UChicagoMag, @ChicagoMaroons, @UCPD, @uofcpsac

Main Facebook page: UChicago

Facebook fans: 47,555

YouTube channel: TheUofChicago

YouTube videos/subscribers: 70/ 511


5. (tied) University of Pennsylvania




U.S. News university ranking: 5 (tied)

Main Twitter account: UofPenn

Twitter followers: 9,013

Other Twitter accounts: @underthebutton, @dailypenn, @PennCurrent, @pennbookstore, @pennathletics, @PennWebTeam

Main Facebook page: UnivPennsylvania

Facebook fans: 24,057

YouTube channel: UnivPennsylvania

YouTube videos/subscribers: 233/ 1,999


10. Duke University




U.S. News university ranking: 10

Main Twitter account: @DukeNews

Twitter followers: 4,333

Other Twitter accounts: @Duke_SA, @dukestudents, @DukeOSAF, @DukeLibrarian, @dukeondemand, @DukeCampusFarm, @dukechronicle, @DUMBand, @DukeWellness, @Duke_Athletics, @DukePerformances

Main Facebook page: DukeUniv

Facebook fans: 88,191

YouTube channel: Duke

YouTube videos/subscribers: 219/1,386


Top National Liberal Arts Colleges



1. Williams College




U.S. News college ranking: 1

Main Twitter account: @williamscollege

Twitter followers: 2,675

Other Twitter accounts: @EphSports

Main Facebook page: williamscollege

Facebook fans: 6,523

YouTube channel: williamscollege

YouTube videos/subscribers: 193/ 267


2. Amherst College




U.S. News college ranking: 2

Main Twitter account: @AmherstCollege

Twitter followers: 2,104

Other Twitter accounts: @wamhamherst, @AmherstBaseball, @theateranddance, @CollegianStaff, @AmherstSports

Main Facebook page: amherstcollege

Facebook fans: 4,800

YouTube channel: AmherstCollege

YouTube videos/subscribers: 132/ 242


3. Swarthmore College




U.S. News college ranking: 3

Main Twitter account: @swarthmore

Twitter followers: 1,069

Other Twitter accounts: @swatgazette, @swarthmorestuco, @SwatAthletics

Main Facebook page: Swarthmore-College

Facebook fans: 3,030

YouTube channel: SwarthmoreCollegePA

YouTube videos/subscribers: 153/ 103


4. Pomona College




U.S. News college ranking: 4

Main Twitter account: @pomonacollege

Twitter followers: 1,564

Other Twitter accounts: @PomonaArtMuseum, @PomonaCDO

Main Facebook page: pomonacollege

Facebook fans: 4,136

YouTube channel: PomonaCollege

YouTube videos/subscribers: 71/ 55


5. Middlebury College




U.S. News college ranking: 5

Main Twitter account: @Middlebury

Twitter followers: 2,789

Other Twitter accounts: @middblog, @middcampus, @MiddAthletics, @middartmuseum

Main Facebook page: middleburycollege

Facebook fans: 7,859

YouTube channel: middcommunications

YouTube videos/subscribers: 78/ 782


6. (tied) Bowdoin College




U.S. News college ranking: 6 (tied)

Main Twitter account: @bowdoincollege

Twitter followers: 1,092

Other Twitter accounts: @bowdoinnews, @bowdoinorient, @GoUBears, @BowdoinMuseum, @BowdoinCstore

Main Facebook page: Bowdoin

Facebook fans: 7,558

YouTube channel: Bowdoin1794

YouTube videos/subscribers: 57/ 52


6. (tied) Carleton College




U.S. News college ranking: 6 (tied)

Main Twitter account: @CarletonCollege

Twitter followers: 1,581

Other Twitter accounts: @CarletonNews, @CarletonKnights, @TheWellnessCntr, @BamcoCarleton, @CC_theCave

Main Facebook page: CarletonCollege

Facebook fans: 5,846

YouTube channel: carletoncollege

YouTube videos/subscribers: 19/ 37


6. (tied) Wellesley College




U.S. News college ranking: 6 (tied)

Main Twitter account: @WellesleyNews

Twitter followers: 1,900

Other Twitter accounts: @Wellesleymag, @WellesleyBlue, @MyCWS

Main Facebook page: WellesleyCollege

Facebook fans: 7,528

YouTube channel: WellesleyCollegeTV

YouTube videos/subscribers: 25/ 56


9. Claremont McKenna College




U.S. News college ranking: 9

Main Twitter account: n/a

Other Twitter accounts: @cmcforum, @CMCnews

Main Facebook page: ClaremontMcKennaCollege

Facebook fans: 1,928

YouTube channel: claremontmckenna

YouTube videos/subscribers: 22/ 55


10. Haverford College




U.S. News college ranking: 10

Main Twitter account: @haverfordedu

Twitter followers: 641

Other Twitter accounts: @AskHaverford, @FordsSports, @haverfordhhc, @hcblacksquirrel

Main Facebook page: haverfordcollege

Facebook fans: 578

YouTube channel: haverfordcollege

YouTube videos/subscribers: 44/25

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, atreides64

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Why Mainstream Social Networks Complicate Our Identities [OPINION]


This post reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily those of Mashable as a publication.

Jamie Beckland is a digital and social media strategist at Janrain where he helps Fortune 1000 companies integrate social media technologies into their websites to improve user acquisition and engagement. He has built online communities since 2004. He tweets as @Beckland.

People are naturally social creatures. That’s what makes social media such a powerful concept. Social media channels allow human beings to sort themselves into groups and factions seamlessly, and maintain intimate relationships at greater distances than ever before.

But as anthropologist Herbert Spencer describes in his theory of the social organism, society is a system of interrelated parts that operate interdependently. Social media users understand that concept intuitively, and segment their relationships accordingly.

For instance, you are not the same person at work as you are among friends on a Friday night. The things you talk about, the vocabulary you use and the friendships you maintain in different contexts are the products of years of learning how to interpret relationships cues. From flirting to non-verbal communication, the way we present ourselves to others is constantly shifting based on whom we are talking to, and why.

The current social media environment has evolved to reflect this reality. It is made up of a number of independent social channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, etc.) that allow users to create and maintain separate and distinct parts of their identity with different social circles. For example, your friends are on Facebook, but you find business colleagues on LinkedIn.

This disconnect creates complications for anyone attempting to use social data to connect with customers or prospects. Where do you find the most appropriate audience? Do marketers need to maintain an ever-increasing number of individual social channels? How can we create a system that is scalable?


How Google+ Makes Social Networking More Confusing


The Google+ approach aims to simplify managing relationships, but ultimately fails because it works against people’s natural behavioral patterns. This is why Google+ faces an uphill challenge to adoption. Google+ allows users to define their own “circles” of contacts, like “High School Classmates,” “Family” or “Classic Car Fans.” The platform seeks to merge distinct interaction groups together into a unified experience. Users spend time creating the circles they want to share with, a tactic that helps push information into your contacts’ streams.

But the system breaks down once you try to consume content from a variety of different sources in your own stream. Suddenly, college roommates are mixed in with professional contacts, or people you’ve never actually met. This requires additional cognitive effort of the user to filter content by relationship, rendering the experience frustrating and confusing.


Social Networks Come With Baggage


Initial response to circles was positive, but was driven more by the temporal desire to refresh and bucket one’s relationships. Since Facebook’s popularity surge in 2008, people haven’t really been asked to categorize their friends in a social network. And naturally, in the course of three years, a user’s interpersonal relationships have likely evolved. Maybe you moved, and no longer see your old neighbor anymore, or your relationship has changed.

People grow, reinvent themselves, move to new cities and find new interests. Hanging on to your baggage from five years ago is actually a huge hindrance, and the psychic energy to maintain those old selves is more than we can cognitively manage. Therefore, we gravitate toward manageable and flexible social networks that change along with us.


Multiple, Smaller Social Networks Are Inevitable


In fact, since people are already comfortable managing multiple versions of their personas, it’s more likely that we will create increasingly narrow identities across multiple services, rather than defining ourselves on one platform. Fred Wilson writes about the nine identities he maintains on a regular basis, with full knowledge that this is just a smattering of the total personas he has created online. There’s much value in having distinct identities for different purposes — entire businesses like About.me are built on maintaining them.

Marketers must learn to identify and adapt to these different identities. They inform the potential social media interactions between a customer and a brand. For instance, messaging and status updates for one product should be tackled very differently, depending on the social channel. For example, the Droid Users group on LinkedIn may be interested in a device’s productivity benefits, while the Droid Facebook Fans may be more inclined toward gaming apps.

Additional narrowly cast identities, in fact, become the key to understanding the psychographics of users. An individual who explores a sailing forum, and is also an expert in the TiVo community, seeks a unique perspective that no large umbrella social network can fully provide. For social marketing to succeed, it needs to study the myriad of contexts and networks in which people identify themselves.


How To Create Marketing Value in a Multi-Node Social Landscape


Unfortunately, the large social networks are too busy competing with each other to tackle the challenge of various user identities, of an evolving view of consumers aggregated across multiple identity platforms. Instead, social networks run toward their defined identities: Facebook for friends, LinkedIn for business, etc. They do not represent interests or values in any significant way.

The challenge for marketers, then, is to create this structure themselves. Businesses must dissect the various selves that people choose to represent them in any given interaction (or transaction). By tying together multiple identities, marketers now have the power to create a more nuanced, unified understanding of their customers than ever before.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mammamaart

More About: business, MARKETING, Social Media

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HOW TO: Manage Social Media Accounts for Multiple Clients


Brian Honigman is a social media account manager at LunaMetrics, a Google Analytics certified partner that also specializes in social media, search engine optimization and PPC. You can follow him on Twitter @LunaMetrics or @Brian_Honigman, and read his blog at BrianHonigman.com.

Most brands have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare and many other social platforms, not to mention multiple profiles within each service for different store locations, branches, audiences or product lines. As an agency that manages social clients, understanding how to keep these social accounts streamlined and organized is important for the continued success of your projects.

Here are a few tips for keeping the social workflow under control.


Delegate from the Beginning


Your first concern when trying to keep your different accounts organized should be leadership. Without a dedicated project manager delegating to other employees, many details can get “lost in the sauce.”

Immediately after the sales team closes a deal, one project manager should be the main decision maker and point-of-contact. High-level social strategy decisions should be the responsibility of that person, while they delegate implementation and welcome strategic suggestions from the team.

Hypothetically, your agency has American Express as its social client. It would be vital to keep the content and engagement consistent throughout each of the client’s profiles and social accounts. Leaders on the project may choose to delegate a geographic territory, such the profiles associated with American Express’ Asian market, to a specific team. Delegated work flow based on the market or platform helps to lower the chances of cross-pollination and inconsistency across the client’s accounts. The disbursement of responsibilities among different employees will help identify problems quickly and avoid confusion.


Organization is Vital


Keep the client’s administrative details, usernames, passwords, assets, graphics, essential links, etc. in a unique location for all project contributors to quickly and easily access. Dropbox, Google Docs and Basecamp are helpful tools for this type of online collaboration, helping to keep your entire team on the same page.

Organize a concise editorial content schedule for each client’s social accounts. Remember to account for overall strategy and unexpected announcements as well. Plan no more than a month’s worth of content ahead of time. In fact, two weeks worth of advanced planning is ideal. Designate when and on what platform content will be tweeted, shared, posted and viewed – timing is crucial to prevent mistakes. However, planning too far ahead of time can hinder post relevance and newsworthiness. It’s a delicate balance, but necessary when managing multiple clients across their numerous accounts.


Management Tools


Dedicated leadership and organization can only go so far when helping manage a client, especially one with a robust social media following. Social management requires additional tools to keep track of brand mentions, ensure continued engagement, and connect branded accounts with brand advocates. Here are three useful tools to consider:

Monitoring Brand Mentions

The size of your agency and its resources will help determine which of the many social media monitoring tools fits bests. Enterprise level agencies might try Sysomos, a tool that determines brand discussion and engagement by keyword. Associate particular clients to keywords, and then monitor the resulting groups. This way you can focus on tracking the activity and buzz around certain key phrases.

Google Alerts is another tool well-suited for all sized firms – especially because it’s free. Google Alerts logs new content based on infinite keyword variations. The service sends alerts to your account whenever your specific key phrases are mentioned on the web. Alerts gather insights from bloggers, forums, public social profiles and other websites. They can be especially helpful when that content relates to your clients. Register separate email accounts for each client’s alerts. For instance, set clientXalerts@gmail.com for one client and clientYalerts@gmail.com for another – the designation will help keep your alert system organized.

Keeping Track of Engagement

Being responsible for dozens of social media accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers can appear overwhelming, especially when you attempt to engage with every wall post, comment and retweet. A social media management tool like HootSuite can help ensure that your team doesn’t miss a single chance for fan engagement. For example, if a Facebook wall post or a tweet needs a response, managers can assign a particular team member to answer that content. Once the team member engages with that post, a “replied” notification appears in the HootSuite interface.


Connecting Brand Advocates with your Brand


Twitter’s Advanced Search is a wonderful way to search the Twitter universe for brand mentions, even if a user hasn’t specifically @mentioned your client. Let’s use the Bacardi brand as an example. Most of the first-page results for “Bacardi” aren’t linked to their account, but the brand is still mentioned in many other tweets. Reach out to these newly discovered brand advocates, and follow interested customers for future conversations. Go out of your way to find and organize brand mouthpieces across your various accounts, and engage them to foster activity around your clients’ accounts.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, scanrail.

More About: brand management, business, MARKETING, social media

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PGA Championship 2011: How To Follow Every Stroke Online


The 2011 PGA Championship begins Thursday morning at the Atlanta Athletic Club in Georgia. To allow you to keep track of the proceedings at home, work or on the go, we’ve rounded up a variety of resources for following the season’s last major golf tournament.

The first featured marquee threesome, which includes Tiger Woods, Davis Love III and Padraig Harrington, is scheduled to tee off at 8:45 a.m. ET Thursday. Coverage will continue through Sunday at 7 p.m.

SEE ALSO: 8 Mobile Apps for Golf Season

Share some of your favorite PGA web resources in the comments below.


1. PGA.com Live Online




Beginning August 11, PGA.com will air live coverage of the events.

The first featured Marquee group composed of Woods, Love III and Harrington will tee off at 8:45 a.m. ET Thursday. McIlroy, Clarke and Schwartzel's threesome will tee off at 1:45 p.m. ET Thursday.

The PGA.com coverage will include a 360-degree camera that will span the panorama of the course. And the Video Highlight Hub allows viewers to customize their experience by searching and filtering by player, round or hole.


2. TNT & CBS Broadcasts




TNT and CBS Sports will broadcast the tournament from August 11 through August 14.


3. PGA.com Snap




While watching the championship events on PGA.com or TNT, viewers can "snap" coverage and share their own instant highlights on Facebook and Twitter. Turner Sports and the PGA partnered with SnappyTV to provide this service.

Note: The image of Bugs Bunny above is a preview.


4. PGA Championship iPhone app




According to Turner Media, the PGA Championship is the first major tournament to allow mobile devices on the course. Even if you haven't scored on-site championship real estate, get into the game via the free iPhone app, which offers live coverage and push notifications when a favorite player birdies, etc.

The site and its live player are also optimized for iPad.


5. PGA.com Mobile Web




PGA.com's mobile site offers nearly everything you'd find in its full browser version, including real-time scoring, player locator, spectator alerts, Twitter ticker and the aforementioned Snap feature.


6. SIRIUS-XM Radio




Hear the latest tour coverage and highlights on SIRIUS-XM.


7. PGA Tour Official Twitter




Follow the PGA Tour's official Twitter feed, which will not only provide championship updates, but also posts expert analysis, sweepstakes and player stats.


8. PGA Tour Official Facebook




On the PGA Tour's super interactive Facebook Page, you can find polls, video interviews, contests and player profiles.

More About: pga championship, social media, sports, web

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45 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed


At this point of the week, you know the features roundup is headed your way! The only difference this time around is that our tech features involve things like beer and Shark Week!

Okay, now that we’ve gotten your attention, tune in for the latest in social media obervations, startup tips and geeky gadgetry galore. Pack your brain with fascinating facts about the history of mobile phones. Satisfy your curiosity by discovering where those darn-cute Google Doodles come from. And tap into the best LinkedIn apps for sales teams. It’s your world — we just write for it.


Editors’ Picks



Social Media


Book Marketing: How 4 Authors Are Finding Success With Social Media


Andy Meek is a senior business reporter for The Memphis Daily News. You can follow him on Twitter @AndyMeekTN.

The book industry is in upheaval. The recent news that Borders will liquidate and shutter all of its 399 stores is the latest sign of print’s unstable market.

In many ways, tech advancements have forced the industry’s deterioration. While print struggles to catch a foothold, tech-savvy authors are managing to bridge the gap. Therefore, I’d like to introduce four tech-savvy authors whose statuses range from rookie to bestseller. Thanks to social media, they’re writing their own rules about branding and fan engagement.


1. John Green – The Fault in Our Stars




Author: John Green

Twitter: @realjohngreen

Facebook: John Green

Website/Blog: JohnGreenBooks.com

John Green’s latest book, The Fault in Our Stars, is riding high on the charts. It recently landed the number-one spots on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. But here’s the thing – his story won’t be published until 2012.

Green promoted the book to his 1.1 million Twitter followers, according to The Wall Street Journal:

On (a) Tuesday afternoon, he posted the title of his new book on Twitter, Tumblr and the community forum YourPants.org. An hour later, he upped the stakes by promising to sign all pre-orders and the entire first-print run, while also launching a YouTube live show. Mr. Green discussed his plans for signing the book and also read a section to give viewers a sense of what The Fault in Our Stars would be about.

On the same day of the WSJ article, Green responded by tweeting, “I am genuinely uninterested in marketing, but I am VERY interested in being part of awesome communities.”

Publisher @penguinusa also tweeted the news: “did you hear? @realjohngreen’s new #ya novel THE FAULT IN OUR STARS is #1. One catch, he’s still writing!”

To which Green could not resist shooting back: “@penguinusa HAHAHAHAHA Don’t make fun of me corporate overlord or I will refused to finish it! ;)”


2. Laura Hillenbrand – Unbroken




Author: Laura Hillenbrand

Twitter: @laurahillenbran

Facebook: Laura Hillenbrand

Website/Blog: LauraHillenbrandBooks.com

Earlier this year New York Times bestseller Laura Hillenbrand – the author of Seabiscuit – participated in a new media experiment to promote her new book Unbroken, which follows a WWII pilot who was shot down, only to survive a Japanese prison camp.

NPR produced what it described as a “book club-meets-social media experiment” across its Facebook, Twitter and web presences -- places where Unbroken was widely discussed. On the NPR Books Facebook Page Hillenbrand also contributed to the discussion.

By achieving direct access to the author, readers like Robin Politowicz became inspired to write back:

Laura,

Was there a moment in your research that just stopped you in your tracks? A particular incident or injustice or cruel twist of fate (of which there were so many) that gave you pause? Wonderful book – listened to the audio version on a long vacation drive, and had to think of errands to run once we got home so that we could finish listening :-)

–Robin Politowicz

Dear Robin,

Good question! There were so many breathtaking moments in Louie's story. I think the one that was most striking to me was the one when he was on the raft, and the Japanese bomber began strafing him and his raftmates. This was incredible enough, but in seeking cover under the raft, Louie ended up having to fight off sharks, striking them in their noses while the bullets showered down. I can't imagine that there's been another man in history who has been simultaneously fired upon and attacked by sharks. That he survived it continues to amaze me.

–Laura


3. Blake Northcott – Vs. Reality




Author: Blake Northcott

Twitter: @ComicBookGrrl

Facebook: Vs. Reality

Website/Blog: BlakeNorthcott.com

If you’re a new writer who’s looking ahead to a seemingly daunting publishing task, take a tip from Toronto writer Blake Northcott.

She recently self-published Vs. Reality, a work she’s calling a “comic book-inspired urban fantasy novel.” The Kindle version is now available through Amazon.com.

During the nine months spent writing her comic and movie blog, she amassed a 16,000-strong Twitter following, and collected more than 1,700 personal Facebook friends. Furthermore, in the space of one week earlier this month, her re-launched blog got 4,500 page views.

To put the numbers in perspective, her Twitter tribe is roughly the same size as that of publisher Image Comics. And a few days ago, Goodreads.com notified Northcott that she is the tenth most-followed Canadian on the site.

Northcott’s social media presence includes what she describes as an “instant feedback mechanism that tells me people are listening.”

“People are so passionate about books, comics and movies,” says Northcott. “When you connect with them on their level, and they know you’re legitimate, they respect you a lot more. Social media facilitates the ‘secret handshake’ where you get into the club, and people know you’re one of them.”


4. Duane Swierczynski – Fun and Games




Author: Duane Swierczynski

Twitter: @swierczy

Facebook: Duane Swierczynski

Website/Blog: Secret Dead Blog

If Quentin Tarantino ever decided to put down his camera and pick up a novelist’s pen, the result might read like the action-packed work of Duane Swierczynski. He writes hard-boiled thrillers that have the inventiveness, colorful characters and crackling dialogue of comic books.

His latest book, Fun and Games, was released a few weeks ago. To coincide with the release, Swierczynski devised a promotional contest that met with great fan approval.

To boost his pre-order numbers, Swierczynski invited fans to send him a confirmation once they had pre-ordered the book. In return, he randomly picked winners to which he sent personally chosen prizes - for example, signed copies of his five previous novels, a copy of Rockstar Games' recent title L.A. Noire, and even the right to name a minor character in the third book of his current trilogy. Additionally, he sent everyone who pre-ordered his book an offbeat postcard he picked up from the road, complete with a handwritten note of thanks.

“I was just talking to a friend the same age as me [late 30s] about how much harder it was to find like-minded people back in the early '90s,” says Swierczynski. “Sure, there was 'zine culture, but other than that, you couldn't help but feel kind of all alone in the universe ... Social media makes it so much easier, and so many people I've met online have turned out to be good friends in real life. So [social media] is not really a ‘strategy’ – it's a matter of craving that hive-mind experience. And as part of that hive-mind, you should give as much as you take.”

Image courtesy of Flickr, matthileo.

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Top 25 Most-Shared Mashable Stories in July

icons image

Google+ continued its dominance on our monthly most-shared stories list — securing seven spots — but news items about the comeback of 1990s Nickelodeon shows and Facebook’s Skype-powered video chat also battled their way into the spotlight.

Several stories about QR codes and animals attracted heavy attention in July. And Microsoft’s Bill Gates wants to reinvent the toilet? Yup.

Based on figures from Mashable Follow‘s M Share button, the following 25 stories got the most love, with all of them garnering about 275,000 combined shares on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon and Google Buzz. To keep track of the most-shared stories at anytime, log into Mashable Follow and click on “Top Stories” next to the Mashable logo. You’ll have the option to view the top stories of the day, week, month or year.

Thanks for reading and sharing our content. We look forward to seeing which stories you share in August.

SEE ALSO: Top 25 Most-Shared Stories in: June | May

Which stories will you remember the most as the year progresses? Let us know in the comments.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, flyparade

More About: facebook, features, Google, Google Plus, linkedin, Mobile 2.0, News, Opinion, pop culture, QR Codes, security, social good, social media, twitter

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Sharepocalypse Now: Why Social Media Overload Means New Opportunities for Startups


Nova Spivack has several ventures in production that focus on the real-time stream, including Bottlenose (for filtering the stream), StreamGlider (a new mobile stream delivery platform), Live Matrix (the schedule of the live web), and The Daily Dot (a new online daily newspaper about what’s trending online).

The social media landscape is changing quickly, but this change won’t be immediate, or for that matter, efficient. And that’s going to be a big problem for all of us.

I believe that Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn are fundamentally different, and thus, should not be in competition. However, I’m not sure the companies themselves see it this way. It’s likely they will continue dedicating resources to competition instead of differentiation.

And while the social media gods fight it out in the clouds above us, what will happen down here on Earth? What about all of us, the little people — the users?

We’re entering a new era of social network chaos, and this, in turn, is going to create new needs and opportunities for startups.


The Sharepocalypse


Welcome to he “Sharepocalypse,” a new era of social network insanity.

In the Sharepocalypse hundreds (if not thousands) of online friends share content with us across various social networks, culminating in massive information overload. Our lives will become more fragmented, we will lose productivity, and we’ll perpetually be playing catch up.

Granted, we’ve heard this song before. But I argue that the movement will reach a fundamentally new level of chaos — and the data from my portfolio of companies bears this out.

The Sharepocalypse causes (and is caused by) social overload — an evolution of information overload. Because the distinctions between each social network are not entirely clear, we feel obligated to maniacally juggle different apps and social networks just to keep up and be heard everywhere.

It would be one thing if all our social messages were part of a single, parsable, filtered stream. But instead, they come from all different directions. The Sharepocalypse is aggravated by social streams that originate in many competing silos. We spend nearly as much time hopping between networks as we do meaningfully digesting and engaging the content within.

Furthermore, the more we engage in cross-posting, the more noisy and redundant each network will become. Social overload begets more social overload. In a room where everyone is shouting to be heard, the mob shouts even louder.

And it’s not just one room full of people shouting — it’s many. Among the social networks of Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and other social outlets, which network is the most appropriate forum for any given post? But wait, it gets worse. Now we have to choose among Circles as well.

Google+ circles are mini virtual sharing networks, and they’re potentially infinite in number. What circle or list or group should you share with? But first, how well organized are your circles? Do they overlap? Are you sure that by only sharing with certain circles you can reach everyone you need to? No.

On top of all the social noise we experience, look forward to new noise from brands. Brands are becoming more lost and confused about how and where to communicate than ever before. Predictably, they will try to reach us redundantly, everywhere, all the time to make sure we see them. Social media consultants, on the other hand, will have a total field day, because ultimately they will benefit most from the chaos.

To make matters worse, it looks like Microsoft may now be on the verge of launching a new kind of social sharing service. And many other companies will follow, I’m sure. Why not every mobile company, for that matter? Why not every big brand? Even celebs may start their own social networks in which fans can share and compare their adorations.

And I’m not talking the micro-networks like Geni and Dogster. We’re moving toward a landscape in which social networks and sharing mechanisms will be built into the DNA of every site and service.

As Mark Zuckerberg has argued, everything that can be social will be social. I agree…and that’s the problem.


Choice Overload


Nobody is going to know where to share or where to look.

How will you know if you missed anything important? Which networks will you visit to get updates from friends, from brands, from publications you follow?

The sad truth is that you can’t get it all in one place.

In fact, choosing with whom to share is going to become harder and will require more thought. Ironically, by trying to solve this problem using “circles” and other gestures, Google+ may just be piling on more disparate channels. Therefore, many people will simply opt to quickly and easily share everything with the public, rather than denote a special group or circle with which to share.

The fact is, when people have to ponder a choice, they often opt for the easier alternative: don’t choose at all. This is classic choice overload theory. Many studies have shown that choice overload leads people to make fewer choices. People become stressed when they have to choose from too many options at once.

It’s a perfect storm: A massive expansion of networks on which to share and track information, but all the while, its users have less and less energy to make choices. The result will be a lot more confusion and noise.

Soon we will long for the days when we were unplugged, cut off from the global brain, and able to, at least once in a while, enjoy that rare feeling of being up-to-speed.


A New Category: Social Assistance


The Sharepocalypse will generate an expanse of new problems. However, this will generate a new opportunity for social assistance — a new category of software and services — and therefore, a ripe environment for startups.

Social assistance will be the next frontier spawned from social networking, and we’re all going to need it. We’ll require help managing our online relationships, tying our streams together, sifting through the noise, keeping up with what matters personally, finding who and what we need, and remaining productive.

Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Microsoft will all struggle to deliver acceptable signal-to-noise ratios to their users. But they will be focused on solving this problem within their silos, rather than across all platforms. I call this approach “vertical social assistance” because it focuses on assisting people only within particular networks. Because each service is biased toward its own social graph and content, it’s unlikely that any of them will help solve the horizontal overload. Understandably, it’s not in their interest to enable users to make better use of competing services.

This world of fragmented messaging systems is akin the early days of email in the 1980s, when users of one network were unable to communicate with another. It was a mess. Eventually, email gateways were created to link these disparate networks. But the problem wasn’t fully solved until everyone adopted a single set of standards, and all the email networks connected into one common fabric.

Unfortunately, the unification of email networks and standards immediately killed of a lot of the smaller email networks and client makers. But through simplification, the world became less complex and more connected.

The question is, will something like this ever happen for social media? Will we see the social networks connect into a common fabric anytime soon? Right now, the major social networks own the content — it’s captive on their platforms. If that were to change, and you could read any social media message anywhere, they would have to compete on features alone — and that’s another can of worms.

What I call “horizontal social assistance” is the opportunity to access and use social media messages in a unified way. This approach is different from the vertical social assistance approach because it would span across all networks. The users of social networks need this capability in the same way they needed email unification. However, until all the social networks agree on standard profiles, messages, contacts, groups and streams, it’s not going to happen. And to be frank, such an agreement is highly unlikely in the near future.

But it could happen if some neutral party takes the initiative.

In the meantime, many other social assistance resources will emerge that target a range of different needs and opportunities, including:

  • Social Relationship Management (SRM): : Services that help people create, organize and manage sets of social network relationships — for example, sets of people to follow and/or share with on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc.
  • Social Awareness: Services that help people keep up with their social networks, especially among a user’s friends.
  • Social Curation: Services that help people organize and make sense of their streams and messages.
  • Social Personalization: Services that help people sift through the network noise for information most relevant to their particular needs and interests.
  • Social Analytics: Services that help to measure online social behavior and trends, optimize engagement, monitor activity and communicate more appropriately.
  • Social Automation: Services that help to automate activity in social networks, like automatically updating your status, helping to increase your influence, suggesting what to share, matchmaking, alerting, and using bots to intelligently interact with and assist users.

Because social assistance will become so necessary, both vertical and horizontal social assistance could mean interesting opportunities for startups. Ventures that provide vertical social assistance for particular networks, like Google+ and Facebook are going to be early build versus buy acquisition targets. These are rapid innovation opportunities for individual developers or small teams.

Ventures that attempt to solve the harder problem of horizontal social assistance will have a chance at building longer-term independent value. Some may become strong stand-alone ventures, or larger exits, but they will also be more technologically challenging, requiring larger teams and more capital.

One thing is certain: The Sharepocalypse is here and, as a result, social assistance will soon be the cutting-edge of social media innovation.

Images courtesy of iStockphoto, Kileman, and Flickr, World Bank Photo Collection, zipckr

More About: facebook, Google Plus, information, Overload, social analytics, social media, social networking, twitter

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38 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed


Aaaaand…we’re back! The list might seem intimidating, but this week’s roundup of top Mashable features will ultimately save you loads of time otherwise spent scouring the web for tech resources.

We’ve compiled the past week’s features, how-tos and insights into a handy little package — and it’s just for you. Presenting everything from geeky galleries to thoughtful think pieces, this handy guide is here to help.


Editors’ Picks



Social Media


For more social media news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s social media channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.


Tech & Mobile


For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.


Business & Marketing


For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.


 

Image courtesy of Flickr, webtreats.

More About: business, List, Lists, MARKETING, Mobile 2.0, social media, tech, technology

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The Future of Social Customer Relationship Management


Killian Schaffer is VP/Strategy Director, CRM for Cramer-Krasselt/Chicago. You can follow him on Twitter @kschaffs.

Currently there’s a lot of buzz around social customer relationship management (CRM). Social media platforms and technologies like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare are transforming how companies market their products and engage audiences. But when you’re also concerned about delivering results to your clients, you’ll do well to study the evolution from traditional CRM to sCRM.

Like different forms of intelligence – abstract, practical, emotional – customer data reveals different value traits that help to assess each individual. Then we can develop programs to extract revenue from that data.

While “transactional” value has been a mainstay for decades, the web and its social media platforms have introduced new “relationship” and “influence” measures. The more comprehensive data complements CRM’s traditional indicators:

  • Transactional: Determines a consumer’s monetary value based on purchase recency, frequency and dollar amount. Database marketers have relied on these attributes for decades.
  • Relationship: Predicated on information sharing activity, the type and depth of information shared by consumers is directly related to their value to the brand.
  • Influence: Evaluates the consumer’s social potential as an “earned media partner” based on their publishing frequency and social graph responsiveness.

The seamless integration of what we call the “Value TRInity” — transaction, relationship and influence — will be the future of CRM.

Some marketers are already combining aspects of the Value Trinity. Quirky outdoor outfitter Moosejaw not only encourages its customers and fans to interact with the company via Facebook and Twitter, but they’ve also created communications programs and established a rewards program that ties an individual’s transactional activity to his social web activity.

Some travel and hospitality players are ahead of the curve as well. Several hotels have been inviting guests or offering upgrades on rooms based on their high Klout scores, and therefore their increased ability to influence others. Similarly, PR agencies have been forging relationships with key influencers via blogger outreach programs.

These programs can no longer be practiced in silos — firms need to integrate social media, PR, customer service and loyalty programs in order to benefit from the Value TRInity.

Earlier this year, American Airlines launched a Facebook page and quickly grew its audience from 2,600 likes to over 200,000 in fewer than three days. Moreover, the AA Mystery Miles promotion secured visitors’ AAdvantage numbers, enabling it to evaluate participants’ transaction, relationship and influence measures.

As the practice of CRM evolves alongside the social web, it’s critical that we not only think in terms of measurable data, but also about the integration of social behavior to provide a true and accurate reflection of valuable customers. Success will be defined not by chasing influencers, high-volume buyers or friends-of-friends, but by leveraging the Value TRInity to forge enduring, mutually beneficial relationships with your brand’s true friends.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, turkkol

More About: crm, custmer relations, customer lifetime value, data, facebook, klout, Revenue, social media, twitter

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