In the wake of the Boston Bombings there was an overwhelming sense of Boston Pride with a strong seeded desire for justice.  The need for Justice was contagious- for every person killed, every person injured, every person running, and for every person of Boston. People flocked to Reddit to bring these suspects to Justice. As vague descriptions of potential suspects and thousands of images made their way to the web countless wannabe vigilantes took to Reddit to take the place of the law enforcement and find the Boston Marathon Suspects on their own. Not surprisingly, they were not successful.

These sleuths did more harm to the investigation than good. They scoured images, circled people who raised even a hint of suspicion falsely accused innocent young people of committing this heinous crime. Most notably they targeted a 17 year old track star and a missing Brown University Student. As the bombings came to be labeled terrorist attacks more and more images were pulled, and they pinpointed innocent bystanders with darker skin and called out even the smallest action they deemed suspicious. The internet always trolls the authorities and media for the ways in which they handles issues of racial profiling, and here we see crowds of people doing just the same.

As a born and bred Massachusetts native, I found myself glued to every news article, twitter feed and hashtag that I could find with coverage of this attack. I wanted information. By day two I found myself sharing news from what I thought were reputable sources, and quickly disclaiming them with “but who knows if that’s true or not”. The outpour of information, both true and false, left the public with little faith in the facts and little faith in the news sources that delivered it to them.

Law enforcement officials are officials for a reason. Just as we are trained in our specific field, so too are law enforcement. When your average Joe starts playing cop, needless to say, things go awry quickly and not without consequence.

With the internet, and more specifically, social media, people do not have to sit back and simply pray for those who were injured, or donate to the Red Cross, as they would have if this happened in 1993 as opposed to 2013. Now, with sites like Reddit, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, people are able to be part of the solution, or so they think. The powers of social media aren’t going anywhere, but when social media inhibits the ways in which authorities can do their job, should something be done about it? Everyone wants to help, they have an innate desire to belong, to participate and be part of the solution, but at what cost? At what point do people on social media need to understand their role and stop before they get in over their heads or a witchhunt ensues?

Ultimately, all that these wannabe vigilantes gave us was a heap of misinformation and a wavering trust in our previously reliable news sources. With Twitter, Reddit, and other social media outlets nudging their way into our lives more and more each day, the lines between crowdsourced vigilantism and authorized investigations were blurred.

Facebook announced late last Thursday that they have entered into an agreement to buy mobile tool kit developer Parse. This is a bold move for the ‘book because they are now offering paid tools for businesses to create their own native iOS and Android apps. Obviously this gives Facebook more of an upstream look at what developers are building and allows them to refine their mobile offerings using what they’ve learned. The big money maker here is the pay-per-install ad package being pushed by Facebook, so jumping into the dev cycle of their clients-to-be is a shrewd decision and one that will likely build strong inroads into the mobile dev community. It’s much easier to get your ad code into an app while it’s already cracked open then it is to tack on after the thing is already baked. This will be an interesting story to follow.

Just how young is “too young” to interact with technology? Do we ever think about the implications of the younger techies such as toddlers?  Are twenty somethings lacking interpersonal communication skills due to the early integration of tech into our lives? Look around – there are baby tech toys everywhere that advertise increased motor coordination and challenging young brains. The Fisher Price Apptivity Case is just one illustration of the pervasiveness of technology in modern child rearing. The case provides something that’s drool-proof and spit-up resistant, will protect your iPhone from scratches and scrapes, and allows your toddler to practice his or her motor skills with apps on your phone.

The The American Academy of Pediatrics clearly states its opinion on kids and screens: “television and other entertainment media should be avoided for infants and children under age 2. A child’s brain develops rapidly during these first years, and young children learn best by interacting with people, not screens.” So how do we navigate this tech-obsessed world while still allowing children to develop to their full advantage? Do some educational apps have merit? Do we hand a kid an iPhone as a “shhhhh” tool when he or she is having a full-blown meltdown in the grocery store?

Don’t get me wrong – I think technology is advancing the ways we can make salient educational information more accessible to more people. Sesame Street’s YouTube Channel is a phenomenal example of making educational programs more readily  available. Where we may get tripped up is in substituting screen time for human interaction – it’s just not the same. Spending some quality time with a screen won’t teach our kids how to navigate interpersonal communication. Kids are spending more time than ever in front of screens and just about half of all children in the US have access to a mobile device, thanks to a study by Common Sense Media. Let’s find a happy balance between the the two extremes and make sure time in front of a screen is balanced by time to be a kid.

We want to know your favorite ways to kill time. Here are some of ours. When we surf the internet we can’t get enough of BuzzFeed articles that make us giggle, not to mention cat videos or the classics like Scarlet Takes a Tumble from youtube. Watching highlights from our favorite TV Shows: New Girl, Game of Thrones, How I Met Your Mother or Downton Abbey. Social Media gets us every time and Pinterest was obviously made for procrastinating. We can try to stop falling victim to Time Killers, but the reality is that we need a break from time to time.

I want to assume this started as a harmless share based on her dissatisfaction over the comment, but then it escalated quickly.  The question is, did it have to?

In our hyperconnected world, ideas spread quickly.  We’ve seen it overthrow governments and be used for massive social good.  But, we have seen a less productive trend of trolling, bullying, and downright juvenile behavior. It’s much easier to hide behind a twitter handle or blog and flame somebody than it is to actually confront them to their faces.  If Adria had turned around and simply spoken her mind then and there, the group would have been having beers together and PlayHaven would be a new SendGrid customer. She didn’t. Jobs were lost, websites (businesses) attacked and, it all has seemingly ended in tears.

Effective immediately, @adriarichards has been terminated from @sendgrid. For more details, please see ow.ly/jhW0y

— SendGrid (@SendGrid) March 21, 2013

Taking a stance against a comment personally is one thing, but drawing your company into the mess is another. Do not assume that your company will follow in your thought process and completely support you. They have a responsibility to other employees, customers, and investors.

This situation is unfortunate but is worth the discussion it has sparked. The frequency in which events like this happen will continue to rise, as more and more people become comfortable with the numerous channels of communication.

But remember, anything that is posted on the Web these days carries with it consequences. Nothing shared is private or 100% deletable, so be cautious. In the end one post can make or break your reputation.

Now, we know Tiger has had some PR fiascoes in the past so maybe this is his way of beating the press to the punch and just getting the news out there.

For a man so focused on privacy and keeping his life out of the public eye, this is one strategy that seems to defy logic.

But, we live and breath Facebook marketing and branding so can’t help but say bravo here.  Control the message, make it instantly public knowledge, showcase cute/cheesy engagement style photos to stay on brand and drive the message home.  Well done team Tiger.

Will this be the first in a string of many press release style posts from celebs aimed at shifting control to them rather than the media, or just a one-off that we will all forget about tomorrow?

But that’s just the point! Don’t overdo your brand’s holiday fueled social media efforts, since that can have the potential to leave a bad taste in people’s mouths like the inevitable “one-too-many-drinks” upchuck. Mint, anyone? Hammering home too many of the same social points can have the same effect as knocking back too many beverages: you start to get confused with what happened, say or do silly things as a result, and eventually go on a Facebook/Twitter/Instagram bender complete with all the things you’ve said and consumed. Have some goals before you go into the holiday so you can push perfect content to achieve an appropriate holiday buzz.
Be wary of the hype that leads into holidays. You wouldn’t want to go to the same pub crawl as every single other person in your city – things would get too crowded and repetitive! Make sure you do the same with the content you push to your brand followers. It should be relevant, but a bit different, maybe quirky…just like you. It’s a fine line, but someone needs to walk it. Don’t fall prey to the mass mentality that seems to prevail during holidays. More than ever, you gotta do you!

So let’s use this holiday as a metaphor – you know, those things you learned about in high school while reading The Odyssey – and give this thing a go. Don’t let your social media get out of hand – know your limits! Just because something seems like a good idea at the time doesn’t necessarily mean it is. Let the pot of gold at the end of your proverbial rainbow be your collection of happy, engaged, not-over-saturated-with-holiday-content fans who haven’t chucked your social efforts to the banished “hidden” section of the News Feed because of banal holiday posts. Make sure your contributions to the social media world are well thought-out, relevant, and fun!

Heed these tips and shamrock on, social media mavens. Shamrock on.

If you wanted to publish your promotion OFF of Facebook, you had to link from Twitter, banner ads, your blog, or website baaaaack to Facebook so they could engage with your awesome North Social promotion. (A little odd to run a promotion on Twitter that requires a Facebook user account).

Adding to all this complexity is the fact that Facebook apps are not available on the native Facebook mobile interface (and networks like Twitter are two-thirds mobile) and now you’ve got a giant pain in the you know what. This is not cool.

You can now create a promotion with North Social and then publish that promotion EVERYWHERE.

Want to learn how? Keep reading…

There are two really cool new features that enable this to work, and I’m unaware of any other software company on earth that can deliver the same functionality.

Personal side bet: If you know of any company that can do what we’re doing: native mobile, Facebook Fan Page app, smart link to sniff device type, blog and website embeddable, desktop user re-direct, instant email response to entrants, floating url, customized entry forms, easily customized designs, and white-label all starting for under $100 to run a week long sweepstakes or coupon blitz. Please let me know by sending an email to alex [at] northsocial dot com and I’ll buy you a beer if you can prove it. (must be 21)  Note: rendering a desktop design in a tiny little phone screen is not “native” mobile, it’s a flippin joke and nearly impossible to use, so don’t waste your breath trying to explain to me that other FB app providers have a mobile “solution” when what they actually have is a mobile disaster. Cheers!

First, there is the smart link technology.

Under the publish tab you’ll see a cool blue “smart link” which is what you are supposed to grab and use as “the” ideal click path for your fans.  (Note: We are aware that this link is a bit long and will be adding a link shortener soon, but for now just use whatever link shortener you prefer and make it a little more presentable). The smart link will sniff what browser the user is on and will deliver an optimized experience for desktop, tablet, or mobile.

This instantly takes the “what platform are they on” question and puts it to bed. Goodnight. Doesn’t matter if you are on a phone or a laptop, it will auto serve the right experience.

This is pretty cool stuff, but we’re not done.

This is what the publish section looks like in your admin panel.

This is where you grab the smart link. (See the giant image below)

You can use this smart link (shorten it if you want to) and publish it across Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Email, banner ads, and any other place where your prospective customers might click.

Second, There is the Desktop User Re-Direct.

The second part of this magical “publish anywhere” equation is the ability to send desktop users to three different places where they can engage with your promotion. (Note: desktop is not mobile or tablet)

Yep, this new feature allows you to direct desktop clicks to where you want them to go.

1) Facebook Fan Page

2) Your website or blog where the promotion is embedded  OR

3) A “Stand Alone App ” page where the promotion lives all by itself (so you don’t need a fan page or website)

This is what it looks like when you send desktop users to your Fan Page on Facebook. This is how North Social apps have traditionally shown promotions (inside the Facebook chrome).

Based on what your promotional goals are, and where you plan on engaging the most users, you can select the optimal destination for your desktop clicks.

It is flexible and totally up to you, just select one of the three options and go. (note: if you select url, you’ll need to type or paste the url where you are embedding your promotion. Or you can send them to some other website if you want your promotion to be on “mobile only”.

Want to take that promotion and run it on your website or blog? NO PROBLEM.

Just grab the iFrame embed code (which is also in the same “publish” section of your admin panel) and past it right into your website, blog, tumblr, whatever.  (Note: You might need to install a plug-in to support iFrames depending on what CMS you are using for your blog or site)

This is what the embed on your blog link will look like when you send desktop users to your site. (This is a WordPress powered blog example only)

If you don’t want to send users to Facebook, and you don’t have a website or blog where you can easily publish an embedded promotion.

You are NOT out of luck.

The third option for the re-direct is the magical floating app. (Note: this is not actual magic.)

When you select this as the destination for desktop users, they will be taken to a floating url which hosts your promotion inside a sleek little box.

This is GREAT if you don’t want to set up a website, or bother desktop users with Facebook. This is a super flexible way to quickly run promotions that don’t touch ANY social network at all. (think landing page, squeeze page, or other fun marketing use for sending users to an easy to set up and modify interactive experience).

The floating url will look like this below.

If you are still reading this all the way to the bottom, I want to say thanks.

Our team here at North Social works really hard to try and build the best possible solution for brands, agencies, and social media managers.

We invest our heart and soul into what we do, and we listen to our customers as much as possible and are always working hard to improve. We’re pretty happy about where we’re going with this entire platform of tools and we hope that you’re having fun as the social/mobile market continues to evolve.

Cheers! -Alex

According to an infographic from BabyBump, a higher percentage of moms (93%) spent time shopping on their phones in 2012 in search of deals on products for their kids (ages ranging from toddlers to pre-teens). We’re not just talking diapers, but also back-to-school and some cool new duds for the tween set. Additionally, 58% of moms rely on recommendations on social platforms from other moms regarding products and service. If that doesn’t tell you to harness social sharing, then I don’t know what does.

Imagine increasing your in-store foot traffic and attracting new mom customers by activating a mobile coupon which is redeemable in-store. North Social’s mobile apps use a smartlink to make your promotion accessible across all social outlets: Twitter, your website, ads, and whatever else you can dream up. No longer are you limited to just Facebook! Can I get an amen?

Another smart strategy to use with this group of motivated mamas is to offer additional savings for users who sign up for email newsletters, etc. Thanks to our mobile apps’ compatibility with our social CRM software North Contact, you can send confirmation emails complete with extra incentives.

Missing out on mobile opportunities means that you’re missing out on the vast majority of internet users. People are accessing social sites via mobile devices when they’re; waiting in line, at appointments, and whenever human conversation generally lags. So what are you waiting for? Give some of your most active followers something to talk about by serving up a mom-friendly mobile promotion!

We set up a demo so you can see how you could inspire prospective mamas in-store and online. Just visit www.winthreads.com on your mobile handset or click this big blue button.

While serving up a nice desktop promotional experience is applaudable, we at North Social are not ones to cling to our past successes. We demand more. Our customers demand more. Their mobile-phone carrying consumers expect more.

Listen, mobile is no longer a “nice-to-have” support medium. It has quickly become THE medium. Over two-thirds of Facebook and Twitter traffic is already coming from mobile devices (let me guess, you’re probably reading this post on your smartphone). This fundamental shift demands a new innovative approach. Without your brand promotions being accessible from any device (smartphone, tablet, or PC), you’re failing to reach 60-70% of just your social media users.

Not having a smart mobile strategy for your brand is no longer an option. It’s paramount. If you fail to pivot towards the mobile wave of opportunity now, your consumers will happily rush off to spend quality time with your more mobile-friendly competitor. This is not a bold prediction. This is the harsh reality. In fact, it’s why our team of cape-wearing developers have spent every waking hour in the last half of 2012 to build the world’s only app platform to work seamlessly across mobile, tablet, and desktop.

That means brand marketers should begin carving out budget and devoting even more resources to reach and engage the on-the-go consumer. Quit bucketing marketing spend by medium or device. It’s time to divvy up those dollars based on consumer behavior. Throw last year’s plan out the window, it’s time to adapt and evolve to this new marketing climate. Because if you don’t, like the Woolly Mammoth, your brand will soon become extinct.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change” – Charles Darwin

Okay, if you’re still not convinced mobile is the NOW and FUTURE (or need to feed even more rationale to your Razr phone carrying boss), here are 9 Reasons Why Marketers Must Adopt A More Mobile Mindset in 2013.

1. The Stats Don’t Lie

To see how big of an opportunity the mobile market is, we must take a deeper look at the actual numbers:
• There are 7 billion people on Earth. 5.1 billion own a cell phone. 4.2 billion own a toothbrush. (Mobile Marketing Association Asia, 2011)
• 91% of all smartphone users have their phone within arm’s reach 24/7 – (Morgan Stanley, 2012)
• 60% of Facebook’s 1 Billion users access Facebook on their phones. These people are twice as active on Facebook as non-mobile users (Facebook, 2012)
• Mobile marketing will account for 15.2% of global online ad spend by 2016. (Berg Insight, 2012)

2. More Access = More Engagement

The mobile phone is by far the the dominant way consumers access websites, Facebook, and Twitter. Don’t believe the hype? The average American spends 94 minutes per day utilizing mobile apps vs. 72 minutes of web-based consumption? It’s just a matter of time until mobile surpasses television as the King access point of ALL media. Take that Howard Stern.

3. Social Is Mobile

I previously mentioned that 60% of Facebook’s traffic is mobile and increasing rapidly. But up until now, the only way to reach your Facebook fans on their phones (with an optimized experience) was via the news feed.

Then there’s Twitter, whose sizable user base is almost entirely mobile. Wouldn’t it be great if you could launch the same user experience across social, mobile, and PCs? (strong hint: with North Social web apps desktop users will get the same Facebook app experience they already love. While mobile users will get a promotional experience tailored to their phone or tablet).

4. Mobile Advertising Has Matured

By now you all know that brand promotions don’t just go viral on their own – online or off. Before you’re able to brag to about your ROI on your next campaign, you must first put some wind at your promotion’s back by generating some meaningful and measurable awareness. The good news? The mobile ad market has grown out of puberty, and is starting to flex its new muscles. Brand marketers now have a large inventory of more mature tools at their disposal to hyper target and connect their messages to their on-the-go consumer. Facebook has gone all in. They grew their mobile ad revenue from a flat zero in 2011 to nearly $340 million in 2012, and are projected to pull in around $850 million for mobile ads in 2013.

So whether you’re looking to drive more brand awareness, consideration, sales, or consumer loyalty, you should be trying out a number of the available tools to optimize user engagement from mobile ad clicks. Get to it. Test > Measure > Modify. Practice won’t make perfect, but it will help you stay ahead of your competition and in front of your key consumers.

5. Frictionless Entry

The most successful promotions are usually the ones that have the least friction to enter. You never want to jump through too many hoops in order to participate in a brand experience. I know what you’re thinking, what about the QR code? First off, this technology was originally created for industrial purposes as a way to keep track of inventory NOT for giving consumer’s access to a website. Any brand marketer that believes QR codes are the answer to quick and effortless entry into a consumer experience need to have their head examined. They may look good in concept or a sexy pitch deck to a client, but the user experience is not inviting to say the least.

Let me break it down. Before scanning their first QR code (friction point #1), one has to download a scanning app manually (try to browse the app store and not get distracted) and then figure out how to use it (friction point #2). Then the consumer has has to wait for their camera to ready itself to take a photo (friction point #3), they then have to get the right distance away and shoot a well lit, in focus photo of the code (friction point #4), Then, each time there’s a QR code to scan, they have to be sure they’re using the correct scanning app for the right QR code (friction point #5). Yes, QR codes are a giant pain in the ass.

The goal is to get prospective consumers to spend time with your brand, not the actual technology that is powering your brand promotion. Consumers are about convenience, so make participation easy for them. Here’s a brilliantly basic thought; how about asking your short-on-time and patience consumers to just type in a straightforward URL on their phone or tablet? (ahem: North Social’s new device-agnostic web apps enable your consumers to enter sweepstakes or photo contests without ever having to power on their PC, connect to their favorite social network, or download and use a complicated app…).

6. Instant Reward and Follow Through

Smart mobile apps allow you to collect customer data and hit your customers back with instant response emails that include coupons, links, and more. Sure, there are a small (and shrinking) pool of brands that ask consumers to save proofs of purchase from their favorite cereal brand and mail them in to claim their $1.00 off coupon, but it’s clearly time to adjust. Sure people still like to save money. Who doesn’t? But the distribution and redemption game has changed. Because consumer behavior has changed. Fact: mobile coupons are now redeemed 10 times more than traditional coupons (my apologies to Cap’n Crunch). But the more challenging brands continue to make it for consumers to access the content they want, the sooner they will jump ship and find another more accommodating brand to support.

7. Mobile Puts The “R” in Retail

For brands that have an offline presence, mobile is the perfect companion to an in-store promotional campaign. The goal has always been to connect with customers when they are contemplating a purchase. Now with mobile optimized apps, you can enable instant digital coupons and rewards right at the point of sale. Tag your in-store marketing communications (table tents, coasters, signage, danglers, decals) with a mobile-friendly URL and you’ve now elevated your consumer’s in-store buying experience. Tip: if you’re a clothing brand, you should think about putting up some POS with a motivating mobile call to action in the dressing room to push them one step closer to your desired destination, the checkout counter.

8. Real-Time Consumer Feedback

Successful brands are constantly asking their consumers exactly what they want and what they can do better as a business. The problem, to fully get large numbers of consumer to participate in such initiatives you must 1) properly incent them; and 2) make it convenient for them to provide quick feedback (blasting their in-box only works so well). Well, a mobile survey is a lot more convenient and can help you quickly gain valuable insights to: a) understand your target; b) get product feedback; c) measure customer awareness; and d) learn more about customer buying habits. Whether you’re a hotel, airline, or restaurant, printing a mobile-optimized URL on a piece of POS and asking your consumer to give you instant feedback in order to receive a discount on their next purchase will outperform a traditional survey sent via email every time.

9. It’s Called A Smartphone For A Reason

The mobile phone is essentially the brain of your customer. Outside of communication, they use mobile phones for virtually everything from entertainment to education to exercise to yes, researching potential purchases.

Did you know that 71% of mobile consumers do research on their smartphones after being served a captivating television or mobile ad?  What about B2B? Well, more than 59% of B2B purchase decision makers and influencers turn to their smartphones to gather intel when purchasing products or services.

If you’re freaking out that you’re late to the mobile party, don’t worry. The North Social team has your back. We’ve created new web apps to help you better reach and instantly reward your target consumers no matter where they are or what device they happen to be using. Yep, your next brand promotion can now be as smart as your phone.

To learn even more about how to get your consumers to flex their thumbs, please visit www.thumbprize.com or sign up for a demo below.