Saturday Distraction: The Internet in Real Time

Today I’m learning about StumbleUpon and Reddit, two social networks with which I really have had only passing contact in the past: StumbleUpon is on my list because it drives a good deal of traffic to a website with which I’m involved, and Reddit because it’s a favorite of my teen-aged son. In the spirit of StumbleUpon, though, that’s not really what this post is about. I actually want to share with you something else that I discovered in passing during my quest – in fact, something I stumbled upon with StumbleUpon. It’s a whackin’ cool infographic and video “The Internet in Real-Time”:

Take a look, and you’ll find a real-time aggregation of activity on many of the world’s largest websites. These include social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and – yes – StumbleUpon and Reddit, plus Google, Amazon, Netflix and other Internet giants. Wonder just how quickly videos are being added to or watched on YouTube? Here’s your answer. What does search volume on Google look like compared with ad revenue? Look no further. Interested in Twitter posts, Pinterest pins, or Yelp reviews? Wonder no more.

It’s an absolutely mesmerizing display of data, updating constantly. It’s a rabbit hole to go down, a looking glass to fall into; give yourself a little time to just be dazzled and let your mind wander. Who knows what thought processes it might inspire?

In that way, it’s a bit like StumbleUpon itself – a place to let yourself get distracted, set your mind wandering off on a tangent, and maybe learn something in the process.

Now it’s back to StumbleUpon for me. Happy Saturday!

How should you measure social media success?

Here’s a hint: How should you measure the success of anything else your organization is doing?

TapeMeasuresWatermkBeth Kanter wrote an encouraging post on her blog recently, saying she believes nonprofit associations are starting to get smart about social media measurement, looking to analyze its impact rather than just chart fan/follower growth. Speaking at the recent Social Media 4 Nonprofits conference in San Francisco, she said, “I didn’t get asked ‘What are the best tools to measure followers on Twitter?’  Instead, I got asked questions about measuring the longer-term impact of social media – how do we know that our use of social media has influenced a conversion to an action or behavior change or donation?  How do we measure and track engagement to results?” Continue reading

Get the right image sizes and character counts for social media

TwitterQuick challenge: Do you know …

  • What are the image dimensions for cover photos on LinkedIn pages? How about Facebook, YouTube and Google+ photo dimensions?
  • How many characters can a  LinkedIn post contain without getting truncated and cut off in followers’ news feeds?
  • Does your Facebook profile photo (that’s the little one that displays as your icon in news feeds) display at the same size that you upload it?
  • Photos you share on Facebook can display at any of three sizes in the news feed. What are they? Continue reading