Thoughtpick: A unique perspective of the Web and social media...
A unique perspective of the Web and social media...

February 8, 2010

Why Are All My Friends Suddenly Hot? Doppelgänger Week

Viral mass actions are apparently the newest trend on Facebook.

Last month, it was posting bra colors. This month, it’s Doppelgänger Week. Who knows what it will be next month? Hitting on the first person who sends you a message?

I guess that remains to be seen, for now, Facebook’s Doppelgänger Week, where you change your profile picture to someone famous (actor, musician, athlete, etc). If you don’t look like anyone in particular, you can use the Facebook application “Face Double” that will scavenge its system for your long-lost celebrity double. Otherwise you can ask the Doppelgänger Week Fanpage for twin suggestions. Hmmm…

Use the Chance to Place Yourself in Trends

As these “mass actions” are becoming more popular on Facebook, application developers and relevant corporations should be keeping their eyes open.

If they find the right “mass action” at the right time, rewards could be generous. For example, MyHeritage made good use of Doppelgänger Week and created a page that helps people find their Doppelgänger celeb. Thousands have used it, which means that MyHeritage has not only provided a useful tool that people are actually looking for, they also placed themselves in the center of a very popular trend.

Jumping on the Bandwagon

Although my Facebook feed is littered with hotties and celebrities, it did not really occur to me to participate in Doppelgänger Week, mostly because it’s not often that I’m told I look like a particular celebrity.

For research purposes though, I decided to give the tools a shot to see why this trend became so popular. MyHeritage’s Celebrity Look-alike Tool is what I used for this experiment.

My doppelganger: Chester Bennington

My doppelganger: Chester Bennington

I guess I’m not participating in the week, because I’m a little pissed off that this Chester Bennington person kept popping up, with several picture attempts. I don’t think I look like a guy. Or maybe he looks like a girl. Or maybe it’s just the glasses.

By the way, another mass action taking place is month is Urban Dictionary Week, where you look up your name on Urban Dictionary and then shove the meaning into your status.

Did you participate in Facebook Doppelganger week? If you did, who’s your celebrity lookalike? :)

February 6, 2010

Learn Social Media by Example: Vistaprint Gives Back Campaign

Campaign Name: The Vistaprint Giveback Giveaway
URL: Vistaprint giveback giveaway
SM Channels used: Facebook, Twitter
Prize: Lots of prizes listed on their website
Target Audience: Current customers
Date: Jan/2010
Campaign Duration: 1 month

The Vistaprint Giveback Giveaway by Overdrive Interactive. Vistaprint is a one stop shop for small businesses marketing and printing needs. They offer services ranging from printing marketing materials to providing marketing services such as copy-writing and design.

The company touts serving more than 8 million people per year and provides its services in 20 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan.

[read full article >>]

February 5, 2010

Learn Social Media by Example: “Give Me My Chuck” Campaign

Stat Box
Brand Name: The series “Chuck”
SM Channels Used: Twitter, Facebook & blogs
Appeal: Emotional appeal + subway sandwiches for US residents
Target Audience: Worldwide Bloggers, microbloggers, Facebook users, social networking users and show fans all hoping to “Save Chuck”
Date: April, 2009
Campaign Duration: A few weeks

Events, whether they are a local tweetup, a championship game or the world’s largest conference, can be notoriously difficult to plan, promote, and execute. But the end result can be amazing, and that is why we plan them in the first place“. Mashable’s Ben Parr

In one of my most retweeted posts, 10 Social Media Campaigns that Rock! Learn How to do the Same!, I listed the top most successful social media created through the different social media channels available online.

One of the most campaigns that I enjoyed was: The “Give Me My Chuck” Campaign. read below to find out why.

[read full article >>]

Top 10 Addictive Facebook Games Which Can Drive You Nuts!

Why is it drug addicts and computer aficionados are both called users?” Clifford Stoll

In this post, I will attempt to answer Mr. Clifford’s question by bringing to you the top ten Facebook addictive games which will turn you from a “balanced” human being into an addicted gamer; always waiting for his or her next game fix! (You can indulge in the 5 most addictive Twitter games by clicking here)

Therefore, my advice to you is as follows: If you work, go to school, have a family, have friends, or even have a life at all, I urge you not to play more than one of the following games in the same day. Trust me, the results are amazingly terrifying! :)

1. Sushi Panic

Whether you are a sushi lover or not, this sushi-based tetris-like game is guaranteed to keep you at the edge of your seat, especially when those sushi pieces start rushing by in the speed of light! The game is simple: group similar sushi pieces together as they pass by on the conveyor for score and to prevent the jam which would end up in a sad game over… leaving the poor sushi behind!

Sushi Panic

Sushi Panic

Visit GooBox :)

[read full article >>]

February 4, 2010

Too Many Social Networks … Too Little Time

It is a tough time to be an internet socialite these days. There are just way too many networks to keep up with and just not enough time to follow all those conversations that are going on all of them. Therefore, it was inevitable that someone would step up and introduce a website that help to make the socialite life a lot easier and allow them to streamline their social media profiles into one place.

We will be looking at 2 such tools which do this in two completely different ways and they have been picking up steam this past year and will probably hit the main stream, with 2 different target audiences.

Gizapage: Social Media Hub

Vanity is definitely in these days. People can get their vanity Urls on Facebook and vanity phone numbers from Google, and now Gizapage steps into the vanity game.

Gizapage

Gizapage

[read full article >>]

Filed under: App Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — M. Bamieh @ 4:41 pm

February 3, 2010

Learn Social Media by Example: The Ford Fiesta Campaign Analyzed

Social media is what we love to talk about at Thoughtpick. In a effort to allow you to better understand and grasp the right use of social media for your upcoming campaigns, we are dedicating this regular section for you tailored to analyze old, new and current campaigns in terms of audience, success, lesson learned and more so you could learn about social media by example!

Campaign Stat Box

Brand: Ford Fiesta (Automaker Industry)
Campaign Website: http://www.fiestamovement.com/
Channels Used: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Blogs
Appeal: Win a car.
Target Audience: 18-30 age group in the US
Date of Campaign: 2009/2010

In Tough Economic Times: Can You Sell a Car Through Social Media?

After a gut-wrenching year for American automakers, Ford wanted to change its fortune with the all-new 2011 Fiesta.

After all, this Fiesta is not a very American car. Small, compact and fuel-efficient, the Fiesta is more tastefully European than insensibly American.

But it is not the functional design that has raised the numbers for Fiesta, it’s actually their fantastic social media campaign. The Ford marketing team spent a lot of effort in making sure it got buzz on the Web.

The Idea: Drive Your Car Through…

What they did was simple: they invited a 100 “social agents” to try the Fiesta for six month, and share their experience with the world. They had them promote the car through different social media sites, including Twitter, YouTube and blogs.

[read full article >>]

February 2, 2010

Internet Freedom: A Hoax or a Reality?

We hold in our hands, the most precious gift of all: Freedom. The freedom to express our art. Our love. The freedom to be who we want to be. We are not going to give that freedom away and no one shall take it from us! Diane Frolov & Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, Cicely, 1992

Touching quote right? I am sure most of you would agree. However, are we really holding our “precious” freedom in our hands? Are we appreciating it as we should? Are we conscious of how our actions might negatively influence the health and sanity of our freedom? I think not!

More Access: Less Freedom!

During another daily round on Mixx, I found the following cartoon:

Internet Freedom?

Internet Freedom?

It made me think about the heavy weight the future of our freedom carries upon its shoulder due to this “much freer access of information”. It also reminded me of my clean up trip on Facebook a couple of days ago and of how I had to remove around 300 so-called friends and place around 200 others on my limited profile! [read full article >>]

10 Tips on How to Get Your Writing Groove Back!

Following my muse has worked out pretty well so far. I can’t see any reason to change the formula now”. Chris Van Allsburg

I have always been a great fan of the word “muse”. It has been the driving force behind each and every piece I write, whether on my personal blog or for Thoughtpick. Regardless what the topic might be, I have always found my muse there; leading me towards a certain writing style or approach.

To Blog or Not to Blog!

To Blog or Not to Blog!

However, the muse is a little moody, conniving fox! It can run away from you and leave you dry of ideas; you can’t think of anything new or creative to write!

That’s okay if you are writing for your personal blog but really negative when you are a writer for a certain blog or even if your own blog is business related! Imagine being a writer for Mashable for example, yet having nothing to write about!

Therefore, and strictly from experience, I decided to share with you the top ten tips of getting your writing groove back!

1. Get Away!

And I mean that in every way possible! Don’t try to force yourself into writing; nothing good will come out of it! Just stay away! Put your laptop off and go out for a walk or watch a movie; anything which is as far away as possible for the topics you are supposed to write about!

[read full article >>]

February 1, 2010

Social Media’s Hunt for Haiti Survivors!

Many disasters occur worldwide and yet, with our minds shut off from the world outside of us, we don’t even see them or even hear about them! Two earth quakes hit Haiti. The whole world was watching; not oblivious to what is going on this time.

Social media brings everyone together in support of Haiti and even further, in the hunt for survivors!

[read full article >>]

Quarky headlines of 2010… so far

It always brings a smile to everyone to read those amusing, and sometimes weird, occurrences in the world of social media. It seems that 2010 has started out strong, so far, with a lot of news really bringing a smile, or a smirk, to many. Sadly, given our information saturation, we sometimes miss the chance to actually read a bit more about them or even skim through the headlines and quickly miss the chance to enjoy them.

So here at Thoughpick we collected the headlines that we thought were amusing and warranted to be visited, or revisited by people:

“No Kicking Penguins”

No Kicking Penguins In Antractica

No Kicking Penguins In Antarctica

Colby is a seven year old that started a craze that reached all the way to Antarctica. When his mother just happened to kick an inflatable penguin across the hall, this kid felt offended and expressed himself by painting a picture of a women kicking a penguins with a crossed circle on top of it; making his position clear. This was so cute that it caught on among the family until one of them decided to post it to Reddit where it was celebrate and gave birth to a fund-raising effort for Autism. So visit www.nokickingpenguins.org and support Colby’s mission by buying a T-shirt. Next campaign seems to be “No Kicking Flamingos”

[read full article >>]

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