Interesting Reads

1. 5 Reasons that Facebook Likes are not the Key to Profitable Marketing from Zuupy Blog
2. How to Make Your Branded Video Go Viral from Adage.com
3. Do you own the gadgets you buy? from BBC Click
4. The Five Best Things in Social Media from the Yahoo Advertising Blog
5. Your Life Torn Open, essay 1: Your Sharing is a Trap from Wired UK

Creative Ways to Advertise Short Shorts

Interesting Reads for The Start-Up Entrepreneur

It's really difficult to set-up your own business so I'll place articles which can help support the start-up entrepreneur.

1. How to Prepare You Family for Entrepreneurship from Inc.com
2. 9 Attitudes of Highly Creative People from Problogger.net
3. 10 Surefire Ways to Live Below Your Potential from MarcandAngel.com

Infographic: The Oscar Buzz

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Taken from Mashable.com

Infographic: What Type of Twitter User are You?

Taken from OnlineMarketingTrends.com

Infographic: Top 10 Countries and Celebrities on Facebook

Stats were taken at the start of February. As mentioned in my previous post Philippines is already at 21M users.

Taken from OnlineMarketingTrends.com.

Inforgraphic: Top 10 Countries on Facebook

This stats were taken at the start of the year, from what I hear Philippines is already at 21M and still growing.

Taken from OnlineMarketingTrends.com

Interesting Reads

1. How Social Media is Positively Impacting Our Culture from Mashable.com
2. How Can Quora Fit Into Your Social Media Toolbox from SocialMediaToday.com
3. What is Your Facebook Welcome Tab Strategy from SocialMediaToday.com
4. 10 Thing NOT To Do on Twitter from FireSidePictures.com
5. 10 Ways Facebook is Destroying Your Life from InternetRevolution.com

Visualized: Android activations mapped geographically, chronologically, breathtakingly (video)

Taken from Pulse.

Data Visualization of the World's Health for the Past 200 Years

Infographic: The Twitter Story

This infographic was posted about 10 months ago (I just came across it today). I think it's still interesting as it shows how Twitter grew and how people use it.

via PenOlson.com

Infographic: How Airlines Use Twitter

via PenOlson.com

Why Consumers Quit Brands on Facebook, Twitter, E-mail

Here's an article on why consumers stop following brands on the social networks. I think it's just really common since brands really have to strike the proper balance between interesting and relevant content and try to limit hard sell posts.

Here's the article from Clickz.com.

Is this the start of the second dotcom bubble?

Here's a very interesting article from the Guardian.co.uk. It's looking at the possibility that another dotcom bubble will happen. Analysts are looking at the similarities that are happening with today's influx of online entrepreneurs with what happened in the late 90s. I am actually leaning that another bubble will happen. I feel that start-ups or even some established companies are over valued. Some companies as stated in the article have gotten millions of dollars of start-up money even just on potential alone.

I believe that those who play their cards right and have actual goods or services to sell will come out the winners. New social media communities would have a hard time competing with the more established ones like Facebook and Twitter. The idea as probably how to work with these platforms and find ways to milk money out of their users.

It won't be as bad as the first bubble but busts will definitely be there.

You can read the article here.

Here's another article written 10 years after the dotcom bubble burst. It says that it is possible that it can happen again.

Link to article.

Interesting Reads

I have to delete some tabs so I'm placing interesting articles I came across this week. These are mostly about entrepreneurship but there are also digital marketing articles and a self-help article on how to become more assertive (I guess this is related to entrepreneurship).

1. Don't Dare Call Yourself an Entrepreneur if You Can't Relate to These 7 Thing from BusinessInsider.com
2. Applying Common Sense to Your Business Strategy from the CrazyEgg Blog
3. Jump-start Your Career by Becoming an Online Influencer from Mashable.com
4. How to Become More Assertive to Seize Opportunities from TinyBuddha.com
5. 10 Mindful Ways to Use Social Media from Tricycle.com
6. Virgin America on Why Facebook and Twitter is More Important than TV from Adage.com

Infographic: The top mobile shopping behaviors across 12 categories

This infographic shows that mobile phones are slowly becoming a platform to surf the web and people are even starting to purchase via their mobile devices (at least in the US). E-commerce is not yet that developed here but this data tells me that the people may soon start surfing more on their mobile. For the Philippines this may be more for the upscale market. It's really becoming more convenient to surf using the mobile. Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare are now currently being used via mobile so it won't be a surprise if people start surfing more via these devices especially if they are stuck in traffic. Having a mobile device whether it be a tablet or a smartphone make commutes more tolerable.

More details about the infographic her at Yahoo's Advertising Blog.

Infographic: The Social Bowl (Super Bowl)

Taken from DirectPartners.com blog.

Infographic: The Hectic Schedule of a Social Media Manager

Taken from the Socialcast Blog.

Infographic: How Small Businesses are Utilizing Social Media

From Mashable.com.

Articles for Entrepreneurs

1. The Entrepreneurs Brain from Freakonomics
2. 10 Online Tools and Tips for Budding Entrepreneurs from Mashable.com
3. World Class Entrepreneurs Meet Their Peers in South Africa from Tonic.com
4. Richard Branson's interview about his new venture - insurance

Infographic: Comprehensive History of Computers

From testking.com, click to get a better view.

How to Overcome Crazy-Talk That Can Kill Social Media

I always try to watch webinars from Awarenessinc.com since they always have interesting things to say. With the vast strategies and uses of technology in this new age of marketing, people would need to keep themselves updated and try to learn as much about this new media as it evolves. Unfortunately these webinars are usually scheduled at 3am local time so it's hard to wake up.

This video lasts almost an hour but if you want to learn some please do watch.



Taken from AwarenessNetworks.com.

Infographic: Social Networking Americans’ Valentine’s Day Plans

Taken from Mashable.com

Interesting Reads I Found Today (Feb. 10, 2011)

1. 40 Ways to Build Trust in Your Social Media from KyleLacy.com
2. 14 Reasons You Need to Start a Company Right Now from BusinessInsider.com
3. Ad News and Views from Around the Web from Yahoo.com
4. Top 10 Internet Millionaires Under 30 from Top-Lists.info

Infographic: Class of 2011: If Social Media Were a High School

Taken from Flowtown.com.

Articles on Small Business

I found several great articles on how social media can help small business. They are all actually linked in one article but it might be good to list the out here. All links are from BusinessInsider.com.

1. 75% of Small Business are Upping Social Media Usage This Year
2. 9 Most Important Sites for Social Media Marketing - some might not be applicable to the local setting here in the Philippines but these are all te platforms that can be used
3. 9 Most Effective Ways to Use Social Media
4. ULTIMATE GUIDE: How to Create a Business Social Media Strategy from Start to Finish - this article leads to more link but it gives and online marketing newbie a good picture on how to implement a campaign

Here's another link which is not from BusinessInsider but might be useful as well: 4 Small Business Mobile Predictions for 2011from OpenForum.com.

Ilusão de ótica - Optical Illusion

Here's a video that shows how good the printer is....

Motorola - Empower the People

This got the best reviews in the 2011 CES. I'm wondering if the market will latch on to this...

Infographic: Facebook vs Twitter

Taken from DigitalSurgeons.com.

Startups are based in faith, and the ones that succeed have no fear.

Taken from StartupQuote.com

To succeed, take some time off

I came across this article from Richard Branson (who is quickly becoming my favorite entrepreneur) and it's very appropriate since I am technically taking some time off from my start-up to do some Filipino Martial Arts training and attend a wedding here in Bacolod (I'm staying here for a week). I actually planned this late last year not expecting my first month of 2011 to be busy. Luckily though the first 3 weeks of the year was quite hectic with it slowing down a bit on the last week of January, just in time for this trip.

This was a great dilemma since I felt I would lose the momentum if I pushed through with this but I really wanted to get that training and I timed it with the wedding to save me the trip. I also really like going here because the pace is really slow and relaxing.

Fortunately for me, it seems that things are still moving and I may have new contracts when I get back. But I actually didn't leave all the work behind since I'm still connected and answering calls and email but it is more time away from work.

So take it from Sir Richard Branson, read this from LiveMint.com - To succeed, take time off