Social media indicates Jessica is next 'Idol'

MANILA, Philippines - The American Idol finals night has come and gone. Both finalists delivered performances that had the judges evenly split with the performances. What did Rappler see online?

Online sentiment has returned in favor of Jessica Sanchez.

At least 90 minutes before the finals, Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips were tied in online sentiment. Our final tracker for this year’s American Idol finalists show Jessica continuing to grow and in fact accelerating in Twitter follower growth while Phillip’s follower growth actually slowed down.

Socialmention.com is showing Jessica’s sentiment score growing from before the finals (11:1) to 19:1 after her finals performance. Phillip’s sentiment score slightly declines (from 6:1 to 5:1) over the same time period.

Tracking their Twitter handles, we see an even bigger decline in sentiment for Phillip (from 25:1 down to 11:1) while Jessica’s sentiment score grew (from 16:1 to 19:1). Jessica’s passion score also grew.

Based on the significant increase in positive sentiment, the indicators point to Jessica as this year’s new American Idol. The growth in passion (which is a measure of the frequency of people speaking about Jessica), also favors Jessica.

Sentiment140.com tracks a rise in negatives for both finalists – indicating a polarization of the fan base.

This is natural as people cast their votes for one finalist over the other. While there seems to be a bigger rise in negatives toward Jessica, the change in negatives for their Twitter handles is negligible.

Tracking their real names, there was a big spike in Jessica’s negatives (a 13% increase) but sentiment remained significantly positive for both finalists.

To this end, we believe social media is indicating that Jessica Sanchez will be the next American Idol.

Finally, Zaba Research has also released the result of their predictive engine model. Zaba also predicts that Jessica Sanchez will be the next American Idol.

Should these predictions come true, Jessica will be the first American Idol winner to have been voted off the show and saved by the judges.

A win by Jessica will also break a streak of male winners since David Cook’s win in 2008 all the way to last year’s winner, Scotty McCreery. There have been 6 male American Idol winners and 4 female winners. - Rappler.com

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Mid-East eyes social media

25 October 2011 Last updated at 08:46 GMT By Simon Atkinson Business reporter, BBC News, Dubai WATCH: Egyptian protesters used social networks like Facebook to organise demonstrations

From the bursts of electric violin to the furtive bodyguards accompanying Russian oil oligarchs, you could not accuse the Middle East launch of Godudu.com of being low key.

But whether the site makes as much of an impact as the bright green laser show that seared onto the distinctive sail of the Burj Al Arab hotel, remains to be seen.

Billing itself as the world's first multilingual social network, Godudu hopes to take on the likes of Facebook by offering real-time translation that it says will allow people to communicate beyond language barriers.

Already it translates the likes of news and status updates between English and Russian - the language of its founders - but the event on Dubai's shoreline was to launch its Arabic service.

Surging internet penetration in the region had driven the move, says Alibek Issaev, chairman of its parent company Dudu Communications.

"And the number of users of social media here is also growing very fast," he adds. "This is why we believe it's the perfect time to launch our social network in Arabic countries."

Godudu is billing itself as the world's first multilingual social network Going social

The uprisings seen in places like Egypt, Tunisia and Libya this year played an integral part in the growth in popularity of networks such as Facebook and Twitter - as they were harnessed by the young people to organise and give momentum to the Arab Spring.

In the Middle East and North Africa, the number of Facebook subscribers has doubled in the past year, and there are 20 times as many active users of Twitter according to consultancy firm Value Partners.

And in Egypt alone, Facebook gained five million members in the month leading up to and immediately after the protests that led to the fall of leader Hosni Mubarak.

And while the likes of Godudu are seeing that as a reason to launch a social network here, other companies are keen to take advantage of the platforms.

Almost 60% of firms now say they now have some sort of social media presence, according to a report by Econsultancy, well up on a year ago.

Banner advertising has been the key business for the Middle East's advertising network Ikoo.com - which is opening offices in places such as Morocco and Tunisia, which are among the countries seeing the region's greatest internet penetration growth.

Ikoo's Hussam Khoury says more firms want to integrate social media and advertising

But Ikoo also reports rising interest from firms wanting to incorporate social media into their advertising.

"Because of the Arab Spring what we've seen is brands starting to use social media because they've realised it's actually a personal interaction with the actual consumer," says sales and marketing director Hussam Khoury.

"In particular it's been Egypt where we've seen a massive growth in demand from the brands and the agencies we work with in the region."

'Great opportunity'

That trend was evident at the Gulf region's biggest technology exhibition, Gitex, held in Dubai earlier this month.

While the stands demonstrating the latest gizmos - from smartphones and display screens to the car which the makers claim "can park itself" - for the first time there was a section dedicated to digital marketing - including seminars on using social media to boost your business.

And for some companies trying to break into this region, social media is a crucial part of their marketing strategy,

Music streaming company UrFilez targets emerging markets

Music streaming company UrFilez targets emerging markets, which do not have access to firms doing similar things such as Spotify.

Having already launched in Bahrain, it has now done a deal with a United Arab Emirates mobile phone network - and its boss says social media will be essential if it is to win enough subscribers to be viable.

"Because social media is booming here in the Gulf region, that's a great opportunity for us," says chief executive Hassan Miah.

"The social media audience is our audience. It's those people who love music, and who use it to find out about music, to recommend music.

"It's as big in Saudi as in Dubai, It's happening everywhere, and particularly now."

Early days

But despite this enthusiasm, only about 4% of all advertising Middle East advertising spending goes on digital campaigns - from mobile to online display adverts.

Social media made its mark at the Gulf region's biggest technology event, Gitex

And only quarter of that is specifically for social media, according to Emmanuel Durou of Value Partners Dubai, who thinks it is still early days for the sector.

"It's a new concept and you need new local talent to make it happen, which is something that's currently lacking, whether you're talking about brands or about the agencies," he says.

"And I think in terms of return on investment, that is much more difficult to track than traditional advertising, so for advertisers it's a much more difficult proposition to validate in terms of budgets."

Back at the Godudu launch party, a singer in sequins waits in the wings for an event-closing performance which will, it later transpires, feature a version of Tina Turner's Simply The Best.

But before this finale, at a question-and-answer session with the firm's boss, a woman leaps to her feet.

"I'm a Facebook addict, I check it five times a day so how are you going to get me to give that up and start using you instead?" she asks.

For all the razzmatazz and the confidence about booming markets and growing potential users, it is an exchange which really brings home how tough success in this industry will be.

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Facebook focuses on media sharing

22 September 2011 Last updated at 20:39 GMT Spotify is one of the companies to take advantage of Facebook's enthusiasm for media sharing Facebook has outlined plans to encourage users to share more of the media they consume - including music and movies - with friends.

Its founder Mark Zuckerberg also unveiled a dramatic redesign to the website, replacing user profiles with an audio visual timeline of their life.

The updates were revealed at Facebook's annual F8 developer conference.

A wave of new features in recent weeks have been welcomed by some users and caused annoyance to many others.

Facebook's latest changes point to a desire to keep users engaged through new features, in the midst of rapid innovation from social networking rivals.

The site's application platform has been redesigned to allow users to share what they are consuming on streaming music services such as Spotify, and the movie rental site Netflix.

Continue reading the main story

Knowing you helped a friend discover something new and they liked your taste in music, and that you now have that in common, is awesome”

End Quote Mark Zuckerberg Facebook founder News sites, including the Guardian and Independent newspapers, are also included in the initial roll out.

Depending on privacy settings, users will be able to see what friends are doing - for example, playing a song - then listen-in themselves.

Mr Zuckerberg said he wanted to create, what he called, "real time serendipity".

"Being able to click on someone's music is a great experience, but knowing you helped a friend discover something new and they liked your taste in music, and that you now have that in common is awesome," he added.

Facebook said that users would only be able to do as much on the site as its media partners allowed in each country, so free music sharing through streaming apps would only work where that service was already available outside Facebook.

New look

Alongside the deeper integration of media content, the restyling of Facebook's profile pages is also likely to prove a hot topic among users.

Rory Cellan-Jones examines how Facebook's announcement affects the social networking war

The most radical departure so far from the site's well known profile format will doubtless prove contentious with its sometimes conservative members.

Identities will now be defined through a densely packed vertical timeline of major life events, made up of photos, videos and other items. The level of detail diminishes the further down a reader scrolls.

Profile pages had previously been limited to basic information along with a stream of every single item posted by a user.

The latest offering is significantly different to those of Facebook's biggest social networking rivals, Google+ and Twitter, and more closely resembles the once-popular site Myspace.

"Facebook is positioning itself as not just your social graph online, but your life online," Forrester Research analyst Sean Corcoran told the Associated Press.

Continue reading the main story

Don't be surprised if Facebook is even more woven into its users' lives by the end of this year, and an even more powerful player in the media.”

End Quote "These changes not only help trump rival Google but will open up new opportunities," he said. "But concerns around privacy and immaturity in how to do these things effectively will make it a slow go."

Facebook stressed that all of its new offerings could be controlled by members using its recently simplified privacy controls.

In particular, it stressed that timeline items could be modified within the new "activity log", allowing users to limit who can view certain events from their past.

The updates are expected to start appearing on users' computers in coming weeks.

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Social Media Reach Facebook Tab Design

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

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.”

3. Blake Northcott – Vs. Reality

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How To Make Your Site Go Viral with Social Media

The two best social media sites you can use to drive targeted traffic to your website are Digg and Facebook. Despite both being quite radically different together, they get huge traffic and work in a way that your material can go viral fast. ??Digg lets users follow each other (much like twitter) and post links which are put forward and dugged by registered users and followers of your profile. Generally the more diggs a site gets the more visits your site will get (although you’re likely to get many more visits than diggs).

Step 1.
Sign up to Digg.com

Step 2.
Start commenting on diggs – I’ve found this to be the easiest and quickest way to gather followers.

Step 3.
Follow others – by following other people (particularly popular diggers) you’ll not only gain more followers but also have improved chances of getting other people to digg your content. By following other people your news feed will change to show their new content (and vice-versa).

Step 4.
Once you’ve gathered a solid group of followers you should submit your link (Shown top left right of the Digg logo) you should try and post with an intriguing headline.

You really need to contribute to the digg community if you are to get repeat traffic from the website as this way more people will see your link and promote it.

Once you’ve submitted your link its simply a waiting game to see how much traffic you get! Try experimenting with different types of content to see what works best. I’ve also found Digg an excellent way to get pages indexed into Google (usually within 12 hours).

Now we more onto Facebook there are numerous ways to get traffic to your site via Facebook however if you’re not careful most will be limited untargeted traffic.

The best methods are creating a fan page of your website/blog (only worth doing if your website/blog is already getting at least 200 visits a day with a good portion being returning visitors) or by creating a fan page/group at your websites theme i.e. if your site is about cat food you could make a fan page on a certain breed of cats.

Step 1.
Visit Facebook.com (no need to sign in or register yet) and click “Create a Page for a celebrity, band or business.” (Shown highlighted below)

Step 2.
Select “Cause or community” – name your community and click “Get started”

Step 4.
Log into your Facebook account (or create one at this point).

Step 5.
Now you’ll need to add an image (try to make it very relevant) write some content on the wall, invite your friends (only select those who are interested in your fan clubs theme) and finally “Like” the group yourself) this will show the group on your news feed which will encourage your friends to like the page too which in turn will then show up their friends newsfeeds and so on (as you can see this is really is viral friendly!)

Now when you combine the above together along with other social media sites you really are boosting the chances of your site to go viral, just remember you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink i.e. if you post boring content don’t expect the world to fall in love with it!

Share This

You should also consider adding a “share this button” to your website. You can grab the code from: sharethis.com. This gives you a small widget to add anywhere you like on your page which enables people to quickly post your link to Facebook, Twitter, Digg (and many more social media sites) potentially increasing your traffic.

Share this offers multiple looks. The most popular is:?

Simply visit sharethis.com and click “Get the code” (shown in yellow below) add the html code (I find this better since it’s more customisable than downloading the WordPress plug-in) either to the bottom of your posts/pages or in your sidebar.

Sam White has just released a free report teaching you how to drive quality targeted traffic to your website download it at: Drive Huge Traffic To Your Website – Free Traffic Blueprint

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How to avoid accidental social media disasters

Do you have an active social media life? If the answer is a ‘Yes’ you need to be reading this post.

Post the ‘Weinergate’ incident, when an accidental tweet with an obscene photo that should have been made via direct message to an on-line girlfriend went public on Rep. Weiner’s timeline forcing his resignation, it is time to list out ways to avoid such social media disasters.

Armed with Android smartphones and numerous social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter is by itself a challenging situation. So you have your personal Twitter and Facebook account, and your companies’/clients’ both on a computer and sometimes even on your smartphone. Juggling these daily is daunting to say the least.

The other aspect is your own social life and how you conduct yourself in social circles, what pictures you post on Twitter and Facebook and so on. Ask around and you’re sure to know quite a number of people who have suffered the ‘Freudian slip’ or in this case the ‘Freudian click’ sending the wrong message to an ex-flame/spouse. You end up dealing with not just the horror of such a predicament but also the sinking feeling that it could have been easily avoided.

Here’s how you can avoid accidental social media disasters:

1. Always have multiple browsers for handling personal and professional social media accounts. This is by far is the simplest way to sort things out in your head before you post both professional and personal status messages. So, having IE, Chrome, Safari and Firefox for different purposes is adding order to the chaos.

2. Applications like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Seesmic and others all provide quick social media posts from multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts. So, using a particular application for professional use and another for personal is the way to go.

3. Direct messages on Twitter or Facebook messages may seem private, but never forget that nothing on the internet is really private.

4. Be funny but remember the virtual world is full of real people and this includes your friends, family, professional acquaintances, co-workers and other plain nosey people. And there are a few things that should not be shared on Facebook and Twitter.

5. If you are a politician or celebrity, the personal and the professional blur – the social media world may have a lot of bots but there are real people out there, so behave as you would in the real world.

6. After writing out a post or attaching a photo make sure to read it again and checking that its leaving from the right account before hitting ‘send’.

7. Posting from smartphones both in a professional and personal capacity is not good idea. Period. Unless you have two smartphones, which again is just a disaster waiting to happen.

So well accidents happen online all the time and some people pay a heavy price as online reputation is there for all to see and every action you take in the virtual world leaves a trail for someone to dig it all up again. Hiring online reputation management consultants is another way to deal with this.

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