Notes and news, insights and inspiration from the autonomous collective mind of GS.

How about that attention-getting headline? Honestly, it’s not a cheap attempt at increasing search traffic. It’s a reference to a recent study by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business that quantified that the urge to check out social media platforms is pretty much as tough to resist as cigarettes and sex.

Wow. Think about that. These behaviors are so appealing that they can become addictions! Social media ubiquity has been achieved when it becomes roughly equivalent to the biological urge that insures the perpetuation of our species, right? Upon reflection, the link becomes clear. According to another study on the topic by the Harvard Department of Psychology, sex, cigarettes, and social media all activate the same pleasure centers in the brain, to varying degrees. It feels so good to talk (post) about ourselves that individuals in the study were even willing to forego small amounts of cash in order to keep talking about themselves. That’s powerful motivation! And the fact that social media is free and readily available means it’s that much more appealing to users.

Consider the impact of this information for brands. Effectively including consumers in engaging and inventive ways within the social space could result in tremendous psychological reach when it comes to brand and purchase consideration. Consumers may feel good using your product or service, but they can feel even better when talking about those experiences. So smart businesses will give them a reason and a forum for doing so.

All right, maybe it’s not science exactly – though an official lab and the scientific method are involved. Apparently, the super smart Google Labs team offers a bevy of semi-secret experimental Gmail enhancements that can make emailing more convenient, efficient, accurate, and/or entertaining.

According to Google, “The idea behind Labs is that any engineer can go to lunch, come up with a cool idea, code it up, and ship it as a Labs feature. To tens of millions of users. No design reviews, no product analysis, and to be honest, not that much testing.”

Pretty cool, huh? The features are constantly being developed and rolled out to the masses! The downside is that the enhancements can be taken down at will if Google decides to can them for some reason; so if you fall in love with one of the beta-phase features, you may end up with a broken heart. Based on the offerings (check out some highlights below), I think it’s worth the risk!

Create a Document – Allows you to create a Google Document from an email conversation.

Google Docs Gadget – Adds a Google Docs display featuring recent and starred docs to your email view.

Undo Send – Offers one last chance to “unsend” a message a few seconds after you hit the Send button.

Recently Used Emoji – Tracks your favorite emoji, and provides a quick and easy way to insert them into messages.

Preview Pane – Generates a mail preview pane next to your list of conversations, making mail reading more efficient.

Sender Time Zone – Adds your sent time and the current local time of individuals you communicate with via email.

Read more about the Labs, including how to enable them (it’s super easy), and then be sure to let us know which features appeal to you!

At GS we’re lucky to have employees with wide and varied personal interests. For example, did you know that we have a beekeeper on staff? Or a major golf aficionado? We do! And sometimes those personal interests intersect beautifully with the work we do at GS, serving to amplify our client offerings in new and exciting ways. Kirill Edelman is a perfect example of the kind of employee with interests that improve our work. He has a passion for apps and has developed several of his own: Super Durak, Overdub, and Artifact, now selling through the Apple App Store. We thought it would be interesting to pick Kirill’s brain and get his input on some of the trials, tribulations, opportunites, and pitfalls associated with app development. Here are the results. If you have any additional questions for Kirill, please leave them in the comments.

What made you get into iPhone app development?

I think the point where I decided to start learning about making apps was Apple’s announcement that they weren’t going to support Flash on their mobile devices. As a seasoned Flash developer I was outraged and headed to AT&T to get an iPhone right away to see what they were all about. I was hooked from there.

For me, the most appealing aspect of app development is the quick production pipeline – you can submit an app and have it in the store within a week, making money. There are some hoops to jump through, but Apple keeps making it more and more accessible and easier to work with.

How did you come up with the idea(s) for your apps?

I find inspiration in frustration: when I want to do something with my phone but can’t find an app for it. For instance, like any other aspiring bathroom singer I also sing in the car. Sometimes original beats or ideas for a melody come to me, and I have no way to capture them apart from recording the sound of my voice with my phone. I couldn’t find an app that would also let me overlay voice “drums” and voice “base” on top of my recording. That’s how the idea for Overdub was born.

How long did it take for you to get your first app from idea to the App Store?

My first app took a few months to build and had a pretty steep learning curve for me. I brainstormed my user interface on paper and made a lot of mistakes, but apparently the app itself fills a particular niche of amateur musicians, as it became pretty popular with practically no marketing effort on my part. I even made it to the “DJ and Producer Apps” featured list in the App Store.

What was it like when you sold your first app?

I couldn’t believe that someone would actually pay for something I made, but apparently there are a bunch of people out there who find my app useful enough to give me money! Mind blown.

What advice would you give to a new app developer?

Save money on books; there are plenty of free tutorials online.

If an app you’re making isn’t an original idea, you’d better have one hell of a marketing department to promote it.

Users have no interest in reading your instructions. Ideally, your app shouldn’t require much in the way of explanation; people should just “get it” right away.

It’s really hard for a small developer to get an app critiqued on app review sites. If you have some connections, or marketing muscle, use them. If not, use Twitter, make YouTube videos, make Facebook pages, lean on friends and relatives to spread the word, make a Website to go along with your product. The App Store alone doesn’t drive sales very well at all. The basic advice is: Plug your apps every way you can because it doesn’t matter how awesomely fantastic your app is if nobody knows about it.

To get featured in the App Store, implement a new feature from the next release of the iOS. For example: We’ll see a lot of PassKit apps featured when iOS 6 rolls out.

No more fart apps. Please. Make cool, smart, innovative stuff.

Design matters big time.

What are are the challenges of developing for the iPhone?

The nature of the device. An iPhone or iPad tends to introduce some interesting challenges into development. One of the recurring problems I’ve run into is the device’s lack of RAM. Unlike programming for the desktop, or for the Web, you have to be very conservative and careful with how much memory you’re using. iOS will unceremoniously crash your app after a single warning if you use up too much.

Another challenge is collecting crash reports. Typically when your app crashes on someone’s device (and it will crash all the time, trust me on this), you won’t get any error logs or anything to help you debug. Luckily now there are some third party services that help you collect this information.

What advice would you give to companies looking for the right app development agency?

Look for a company with diverse digital talent. Making an app is a bit like making a Website – you'll need designers, application developers, managers, and copywriters. A good-looking Web portfolio will probably translate well into a good-looking app.

I was struck by the stance of Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit and founder of a software company, in a Harvard Business Review article he wrote entitled, “I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar”. In it he shares that his employee screening process includes a mandatory grammar test. If the candidate fails, they aren’t hired – even if they’re otherwise intelligent and well-suited to the role. After reading his position, I have to say that it makes sense. After all, grammar mistakes could signify a lack of attention to detail, or a lack of desire to learn and improve. That might sound harsh, but really, is there any reason that a professional should still be making grade-school mistakes in high-stakes work? There’s no excuse for not understanding when and how to use their/there/they’re or its/it’s. Here are a couple of quotes from the article that really resonated with me:

Good grammar is credibility, especially on the internet. (Words) are a projection of you in your physical absence.

… grammar has nothing to do with job performance, or creativity, or intelligence, right? Wrong. If it takes someone more than 20 years to notice how to properly use “it's”, then that’s not a learning curve I’m comfortable with.

Applicants who don’t think writing is important are likely to think lots of other (important) things also aren’t important. And I guarantee that even if other companies aren’t issuing grammar tests, they pay attention to sloppy mistakes on resumes. After all, sloppy is as sloppy does.

Facebook has rolled out some changes that stands to dramatically improve brand page management.

Here are a few highlights.

1) It's now possible to assign roles and levels of access or responsibility to the individuals with admin permissions on your page.

To refine permissions for your page admin(s):

• Open your page's admin panel
• Click 'Edit Page' in the top nav
• From the left column menu, select 'Admin Roles'
• Click 'Manager' below the name to assign permissions (see chart above)
• Click 'Save Changes' (you'll need your personal Facebook password to complete this step)

2) You can now identify the face(s) behind your brand page by featuring "Page Owners" that will appear in your page's 'About' section:

• Open your page's admin panel
• Click 'Edit Page'
• Select 'Featured' in the left column
• Click 'Add Featured Page Owners'
• Select admins to feature

3) Posts can now be created ahead of time and scheduled for release - from 15 minutes to 6 months in advance from your Page's sharing tool:

• Choose the type of post you want to add to your page (Status, Photo/Video, Event/Milestone)
• Click the clock icon  in the lower-left corner of the sharing tool
• Choose the future year, month, day, hour and minute when you'd like your post to appear
• Click 'Schedule'

Interestingly, you can also select a date in the past, meaning you never have to forget another friend's birthday!

For more information on these and other admin options, check out the Facebook Help pages.

We’re always thrilled to be asked to work on the interesting projects that come to us from long-time client Harley-Davidson, but when a project is also an opportunity to pay tribute to a man of legendary status who has inspired legions and changed lives – even lives right here at GS – the project becomes something even bigger.

The Willie G. Davidson microsite was such a project.

Willie’s name is synonymous with the Motor Company, and as his role shifted and his incredible career in Styling ended, Harley-Davidson wanted to give riders around the globe a chance to express their appreciation to Willie G. directly. That’s where we came in. We were called on to create a microsite that would accept and display UGC and messages to Willie. The team worked efficiently and in a close, iterative fashion with the client, and created a site that allows users to engage with Willie G. in a truly special way. Messages from near and far have been coming in – and by far we’re talking locales like Bahrain, Brazil, Australia, Thailand, and more – with expressions of appreciation that are truly memorable.

We’ve had opportunity to add thank-you messages of our own, but really, for us, the whole project was one big thank you to the man and the client who has played such a large role in GS’s success.

It's been an eventful week at GS, in part due to a visit from the FOX 6 Real Milwaukee team. They hung out with us for a few hours on Wednesday to get an introduction to our agency from none other than Official Tour Guide and Partner, Jeff Prochnow. During their time on site, they received an introduction to the Chinooks brand we recently developed and the Chinooks mascot - he may not have an official name yet, but around GS we just call him Aaron. (Great job, Konkol! If you weren't a top-notch technology Director, we might think you had missed your calling.) Needless to say, it was a pretty good time. Thanks Real Milwaukee! You're welcome here any time.

If your Facebook profile hasn't yet morphed into the all new Facebook Timeline, it will soon. And unlike the myriad changes Facebook has surprised users with in the past, this is a change I think you're going to like. Here’s a brief introduction to the feature.

What is it and what does it do? Facebook Timeline turns your profile page into a visual biography capturing your digital and (if you want it to) portions of your real life via a graphic temporal timeline that begins with your birth. It captures status updates, images, and video you upload or are tagged in, and friendships made, along with job history, relationship status(es), life events, media consumed, and other information that you've added to your profile over time.

Is it secret? Is it safe? (Meaning, is it private?) Yes and no. Timeline is as private as the rest of the content you place on Facebook, meaning you have control over who sees what via the manual privacy settings you see in the drop-down menu that appears beneath each new status update you post. Additionally, you can remove items from your Timeline entirely with a quick click or adjust your settings via the nifty new "Activity Log" that comes with Timeline.

Is it gonna piss me off? On the contrary. I actually think that Facebook has devised something that’s both useful and gratifying to the egos of its users. It's fun to be able to go back and see how your Facebook life has evolved over time. It feels a bit like a virtual scrapbook.

To start playing “This is Your Life” (on Facebook), you can visit www.facebook.com/about/timeline and click the “Get Timeline” button on the bottom right. Word on the street is that Facebook will be adding a notice to the top of your existing profile page beginning tomorrow.

Have you converted to Timeline yet? What are your impressions?

As Facebook users grow familiar with recent News Feed changes, it has been noticed that only a portion of all possible content generated by the brands “liked” and individuals befriended there displays in our News Feed. Facebook has decided that we would quickly be overwhelmed if forced to dig through each and every update from all the people and companies in our digital life, so it uses some fancy and semi-secret math to determine which content would be most meaningful to us and that’s what it shows us. For brands, this can be problematic because on the surface it appears that Facebook is using EdgeRank to make it harder to reach fans. That’s true. And false.

The formula used to determine which content will appear for which user quantifies the quality of each piece of content (edges) added to the platform by assessing three factors: affinity, weight, and recency. Though that might sound intimidating at first to mathphobes like me, the approach is pretty logical. Here’s how each quality is assesssed.

Affinity: The scoring of your proximity to the user in question. If the user frequently interacts with a specific brand or friend page, that brand’s or friend’s content is more likely to appear in the user’s News Feed.

Weight: The valuation of content types. Though there’s no definitive sequence for this part of the formula because individual user preferences are a component, there are content types consistently given higher starting weight by Facebook, including video, photos, and links.

Recency: This one’s easy: The older the content, the lower the rank.

For those looking to maintain a thriving brand presence on Facebook, it’s clear that thoughtful consideration of the needs of end users is more important than ever when it comes to content. Increased relevance with customers is the number one, and, indeed, only way to increase EdgeRank. Considering each of the three factors that contribute to the EdgeRank algorithm, this can be accomplished in the following ways:

Improving Brand Affinity: The more interested users are in your content (as demonstrated by interactions with the same) the more likely it is that your content will appear on users’ walls. Encourage frequent user visits to your page by participating on Facebook meaningfully and consistently. Post content that will have strong appeal. Encourage interaction by asking questions, inviting stories, starting debates, lead with What/Why/How when crafting page comments.

Impacting Edge Weight: Include a variety of elements in your posts – photos one day, video the next, then a helpful link to check out – and be mindful of analytics indicating what type of post seems most relevant to your users. Develop a content and asset strategy, and plan in advance to offer compelling content in different appealing mediums.

Focusing on Recency: Pay attention to when your users are most likely to interact with your posts. There are tools that can assess this for you (I’ve recently been enjoying the free services found at Crowdbooster), or you can access research on the topic, or just build your awareness of the tendencies of your audience through an activity analysis of your own page.

As it turns out, brands and mathphobes have nothing to fear. Acquiring strong EdgeRank requires no more than being a mindful brand considerate of the end users’ needs and open to two-way communication - also known as what brands should have been doing on Facebook all along.

Kudos to GS hometown client PDS on landing Malcolm Gladwell as the keynoter for its annual technology conference. Gladwell is a long-time staff writer for The New Yorker and renowned public speaker. He’s famous for inverting the paradigm – taking the received knowledge about a subject and flipping it on its head to reveal new and startling insights. PDS does much the same thing for its clients, urging them not to manage their IT resources better but to “get out of IT,” period. Clearly, great minds think alike.

While the majority of the world may still be largely unaware of the shiny new social media option that hit recently, the web is abuzz with technophiles busy dissecting and discussing Google+; the pros, the cons, and everything in between. I've been spending a bit of time there myself and am impressed with how intuitive the experience is and of course, how well integrated it is with other Google services. At this early stage, there's a lot to wade through, but here are my first impressions on a couple features.

Circles - Here Google has done a nice job capturing the best of its competitors - You can 'Follow' individuals in whom you are interested without the need for friending a la Facebook, but you can also have more reciprocal relationships with those in your social circle by including them in a “Friend” or 'Family' circle. On the other hand, while excluding those you don't want to share info with (circles of bosses and mothers-in-law, perhaps) is very easy here, being social now involves manual effort, as you must include those you do want to include in a post. On another note, don't worry about how you label your circles or which you add people to because that information is not shared. You can safely create a 'Frienemy' circle to be used for deserving individuals with no fear of repercussion.

Sparks - This feature allows you to define your interests in order to view a somewhat customized news feed. It could be cool but it needs work as the content funneled is currently not as relevant or robust as it could be, perhaps because of the limited use of the platform in its beta phase.

Hangouts - As the name suggests, Hangouts are a place to, well, hang out. Invite your circles to use their webcams and host a video chat. Keep them private and share with only select individuals or circles, or make your little club a public hangout.

In a nutshell, I see some real potential in Google+. They've done a nice job capitalizing on existing platforms by finding ways to improve them. The real question about the future of social, however, has less to do with which platform is superior and more to do with where the herd feeds. I'm not sure it will be easy to convince 750 million (gulp) active users to change their habits and start over on a new platform, but I guess we'll see. In the meantime, catch up with me on Google+. Or Twitter. Or Facebook. Or LinkedIn.

If you want to read more, the folks at Huffington Post have put together a nice guide for getting started on Google+ and Hubspot is offering up some handy Google+ shortcuts.

Ever wonder what day or time to tweet or post on Facebook in order to reach the largest audience? And what about optimal frequency for connecting without annoying? The smarties at Adverblog can tell you when and how often to be social for best results. Some of their findings are quite surprising. Read all about it in the Adverblog post on the topic entitled Science of Social Media Timing, or check out their infographic below.

A couple of weeks ago, 7-Eleven made a bit of a Social Media misstep when attempting to inject humor into a Facebook post. Here’s a screen of the actual status update:

Funny? Not so much. Tacky and insensitive, but not funny. That’s not the point of this post, however. Regardless of whether or not you find the questionable comment amusing, it leads to a larger issue: What’s the relationship between humor and a brand? Is it safe or advisable to employ humor in any way when speaking or writing on behalf of your company?

In spite of my response to the 7-Eleven post, I think the answer is a qualified “yes.” Injecting humor is a great way to increase brand appeal, capture attention, and engage your audience – as long as it's used correctly. I do think there are a couple of things to consider before hauling out a bunch of blonde jokes, though, so if you’re looking to post a comment that aims for a chuckle, you might want to think about these tips first.

Before the funny:

Listen for Jiminy. If there’s a little voice in your head advising to think twice about whether to use the joke at all, you should listen. You know the voice: It's similar to the one that warns you to delete the blistering email before you hit “Send.” And if you let it, that little voice will save you a lot of trouble. If the voice is talking, then you have a niggling doubt about whether the joke is going to play well with certain members of your audience, and that is worth noting. In the example above, I’m fairly certain that the inner Jiminy suggested to the post author that the joke might be seen as insensitive, but if you ignore the cricket, he can't help you.

Remember your brand. The trick is this. What you personally find funny may not be representative of your company’s brand. No matter how amusing, if it’s not consistent with the voice or style of the company, it may work against what has taken years to establish. Not worth it. 7-Eleven has no relationship to mental health issues so it's hard to imagine why it was deemed appropriate to lob in on the topic at all. Stick to the Slurpees is my advice. It's truer to the brand.

If your joke passes the test and can add a laugh while remaining reasonably tasteful and on brand, then you have a chance to laugh with your audience – not at them. That’s the difference.

True confession: I love blogging about our new hires because they give fantastically entertaining answers to the questionnaire they’re asked to fill out. Reading their responses is a great way to start a Tuesday. You should try it. In recent months – or in some cases weeks – we’ve been fortunate to have several uber-fabulous individuals join our team, namely user experience guru Jim Broennimann, super-strategist Laura Netz, and project management ninja Alicia Osier. Please allow them to introduce themselves …

Jim Broennimann – Experience Architect

Where did you go to school? Rosenow Elementary – still a believer in all I need to know I learned in kindergarten.

Where did you work before GS? I’ve worked at a handful of places before GS and learned from each – one in particular was Midwest Airlines.

What will you do at GS? Create experiences for customers with brands they or I interact with, and in some cases love. And I will ride the spin bikes.

What do you do when you’re not at GS? Spend time with my wife and kids, cross-country ski in the winter, and bicycle race in the summer. Oh, and I spend a lot of time thinking about writing.

Special talents or party tricks: I have the ability to take over the music at any party.

Any phobias/deep fears? Rabbits biting me in the hands.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Philosopher.

Best advice you’ve ever gotten? It’s from a poem from Edna St. Vincent Millay: My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends – It gives a lovely light!

What will/should your tombstone says? If it’s up to me, I’d be cremated and spread on the Greenbush Ski Trail.

Describe yourself in three words: Bluish, orange, mindful.

Who inspires you and why?“Whats” inspire me, like people in situations, stories, music, the Great Lakes, and trees.

Laura Netz – Creative Strategist/Writer

Where did you go to school? Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Where did you work before GS? VSA Partners in Chicago.

What will you do at GS? Problem solving, big pictures, deciphering millenials, magnetism, and momentum.

What do you do when you are not at GS? Try to stop thinking about work (often unsuccessfully), niece and nephew ruining, dog walkin’.

Special talents or party tricks: I can stick a beer bottle to the wall – which will ruin the wall – and get the cork out of a bottle of wine using just a napkin – which will ruin the wine, the napkin, and the cork. I guess my party tricks haven't evolved much since my punk house days.

Any phobias/deep fears? Rabbits biting my hands.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? CIA agent, astronaut, television writer.

Best advice you’ve ever gotten? Only two things a girl will ever need to know: 1. Never grow a wishbone where you backbone ought to be. 2. Make your own luck.

What will/should your tombstone say? See, I told you I was dying.

Describe yourself in three words: First-world problems.

Who inspires you and why? Cole Porter, Dock Ellis, and Maybelle Carter for smarmy wit, resilience in the face of adversity, and matriarchal aplomb, respectively.  

Alicia Osier – Project Manager

Where did you go to school? Philadelphia University, UW-LaCrosse, UW-Milwaukee (graduated from that one).

Where did you work before GS? Momentum Worldwide and Fullhouse Interactive.

What will you do at GS? Project management like you’ve never seen  ;)

What do you do when you’re not at GS? Run, run, run … and eat, eat, eat. Training for a marathon and like to do road races on the weekends, too. Also, from so many years in the service industry I'm pretty passionate about food, wine, and beer!

Special talents or party tricks: I’m extremely good at rock, paper, scissors. One time I won a double elimination tournament (not joking).

Any phobias/deep fears? FEET! I don’t want them to touch me or people to touch mine. Gross.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Um, I was pretty sure whatever it was I would have an apartment in a big city and wear skirt suits. Weird, cuz that's my fear now. I can remember wanting to be a veterinarian too, but then my older sister told me I would have to murder puppies, so that killed that (no pun intended).

Best advice you’ve ever gotten? Soooo cheesy, but – everything happens for a reason.

What will/should your tombstone say? Yikes, I don’t know! I hope something about being a good person.

Describe yourself in three words: Short, loud, sarcastic.

Who inspires you and why? My mother. She’s the most selfless, kind, noble person I know. Talk about regretting being such a bad teenager!  :)

Foursquare has gone to the dogs - at least that's the case in Germany. Leave it the clever marketing folks to find a way to combine checking in with target marketing. Here's what's happening with GranataPet dog food. While out walking, dogs and their owners happen across the company's smart billboards and are able check in via Foursquare (Fursquare?). This effort is rewarded with the automated dispensing of a dog food sample. Dog is happy and owner is working for GranataPet, as their check-in activity displays to their friends via Foursquare and Facebook. Holy operant conditioning! Color me impressed with this effective use of location-based technologies. Check out the video below for more details. Do you think this idea will work?

My favorite source for online news, Mashable, surprised me with an article this morning indicating that the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary includes some unusual new additions (a.k.a. edition additions). Among them are favored interweb acronyms and symbols like OMG, <3, and LOL. They join the ranks of TMI, BFF, and IMHO which were apparently added in earlier updates.

Now I'm not trying to hate on the folks at Oxford, where they call themselves, 'the definitive record of the English language', but it seems to me that popular symbols and acronyms, while appropriate for a lexicon with a broader focus than a dictionary, are not suitable here. After all, Oxford itself says,  "The Oxford English Dictionary ... is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world." Please note the operative word - words. Now, I am aware that dictionaries contain other wackronyms (That means words that are actually acronyms - but don't go looking in the dictionary for it, cause you won't find it - at least not this year.) like scuba and awol, but those words have longed been used to represent ideas as opposed to acronyms. The same may happen with LOL over time, but the current induction seems a bit premature. Why OMG but not MILF? Where do we stop and when is it appropriate to say that acronyms have become more than the sum of their parts?

Maybe I'm splitting hairs. Maybe I need my morning coffee in order to read news in a less biased fashion, but at this point, the practice of adding acronyms like OMG to a dictionary kinda makes me say WTF. How about you?

Remember when we used phones to talk to each other? It seems those days are gone. The increase in smartphone users has led to a decrease in calls to Mom. The good news is that we're definitely texting Mom, and we may also be playing Words with Friends together.

The results of a recent study of smartphone users by analytics firm Zokem found that messaging is king, with app usage very close behind. I suspect apps will overtake messaging for usage in the months to come. Interestingly enough, Web browsing is falling way behind. Actually using your smartphone to place a call ranks a distant third among categories defined.

Do you think browsers will catch up as web technologies evolve or will the optimized user experience offered by apps continue to make them more popular among users?

It's official. We're obsessed. But don't take it from me. Just look at the infographic from SocialHype and OnlineSchools.org below for proof. We’re drinking the Facebook kool-aid in almost incomprehensible quantities - or at least a good 70% are. Fess up, are you one of the chronic Facebookers checking your Wall before your feet hit the floor every morning? If you are, cheers! I raise my glass of kool-aid and my mobile device in solidarity.

In this digital age, drunk dialing has gone full frontal. It's now possible to humiliate yourself in full view of friends, relatives, and others (bosses?!) with late night Twitter and Facebook posts that you WILL regret in the morning.

Just in time for the holidays, thankfully, a plug-in has arrived to save us from ourselves. With the "Social Media Sobriety Test" from Webroot, you can eliminate TMI temptation by blocking social sites during certain predetermined hours. Log-in attempts will be met with the online equivalent of field sobriety tests like this one: Keying the alphabet in reverse.

Which, trust me, is far more difficult than it sounds. Even sober. Install it now.

Ever wonder what motivates fan activity on Facebook? Interestingly enough, it seems consumers fan their favorite brands in order to share their support with friends about as frequently as they fan to acquire discounts and freebies. Facebook "fanning" is almost as much about narcissism as it is greediness! Cool! Full study details regarding consumer fan activity can be found in this Social Media Examiner article on the topic.

Please tell me I am not the last person online to discover Press This: a simple yet ingenious bookmarklet that lets you clip bits of text, image, and video goodness from the interwebz and drop them directly into a WordPress post, via your browser. It's easy to see how this mini app would make it easier than ever to keep track of inspiring materials from across the web that you can either post immediately or save within your WordPress dashboard to flesh out at a later date. Do you use it? Are there other tools you'd recommend for blog efficiency? Educate me in the Comments.

Showtime was honored with a record-breaking seven wins at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards on August 29, 2010 - more original series wins than any other cable network. GS is proud to have Showtime as a client and wishes them continued success. And not just because we are addicted to The Tudors, Nurse Jackie, and Weeds. Visit the Showtime site for full details on their exciting win.

This week, The Man Your Man Could Smell Like, a.k.a. the Old Spice Man, became the first Social Media superhero. He accomplished this by taking the social web by storm as the star of a viral campaign that churned out clever, cheeky video responses to individuals who had tweeted, blogged, or otherwise referenced the man or the brand. A total of 184 of them over the course of two days. Wow. Game-changing.

With no interference or waiting for approval from the C-levels at Procter and Gamble, Widen + Kennedy, the agency behind the brand, worked with incredible speed; teaming writers, creatives, techies, and marketers in a closed-door session that made it possible for actor Isaiah Mustafa to speak directly to everyone from average Joes and his own daughter to celebrities and the internet elite via video. Though the dust has yet to settle, you can guess at the result: views in the multi-millions, a ridiculous number of new fans and followers, and an orgy of internet love for The Man who equals The Brand.

The revitalization of this classic brand, previously thought of as somewhat crusty and geriatric, is astonishing. The viral campaign mold has been broken and the new mold is shaped like Mustafa's stellar abs. What's next for competing brands - or for brands looking to play on this field in general - is anyone's guess, but the bar just moved up. A lot. To answer the question I posed in the title of this post, that smell is success. And as it turns out, it smells a lot like Old Spice.

Read more about the process involved in the creation of these videos in a great post by ReadWriteWeb.

Our talented (if we don’t say so ourselves) GS team has grown to accommodate our growing client base. We’ve made some great additions recently and thought we’d introduce them to you.

Eric Dyken, a.k.a. Generic Eric, comes to us with three years development experience for Harley-Davidson. That makes him an ideal addition to our Front End Development team, as his primary account at GS will be H-D. When he’s not up to his ears in code, Eric likes to play video games (go figure), DJ, and express his artistic side. As if all that isn’t enough, he also has double-jointed thumbs, which is almost like being bionic for a developer.

Pete Capp joins the Front End Development team from Fullhouse. When he’s not maintaining and/or creating amazing Web pages, he can be found backpacking, running, biking, or engaging in other similarly outdoorsy activities. Pete’s years as an amateur paintball sniper have honed his reflexes and hand-eye coordination in a way we’re certain will prove invaluable in his development work. He cannot moonwalk.

It used to be so simple. You used all your communication channels to expose customers to a meticulously researched, consistently reinforced brand message that defined who your company was, what it did, and how. The customers accepted your carefully crafted message and understood your corporate identity. You had complete control, and we all lived brandedly ever after.

Then came social media. And with it, an enormous shift in control. Your brand is now undeniably owned by your audience: your customers, your vendors, the people you work with, and anyone else who has an impression of you. Your brand is other people's perception of what it's like to do business with you, work with you, or be with you. Suddenly there are no secrets. The audience knows as much or more than the companies themselves about their own products and services. And whether the news is good or bad, they’re telling everyone.

Companies need to recognize that people are discussing their brands with or without their permission. If you aren’t participating in the social landscape, then you’re effectively releasing control over your marketing message. Maybe you're hesitant to engage on social media channels because you’re afraid someone will criticize you? Guess what; they’re doing it anyway. You know what's scarier? Having no ability to influence the perceptions they’re shaping because you’re not a part of the conversation.

Here's my advice: If you want to be afraid of something, fear doing nothing. Social media is not a fad. It's no longer a novelty. It's business - YOUR business. Get over the analysis paralysis and get started with a well-reasoned strategy, a commitment to participate, and a willingness to listen and respond. Instead of standing frozen in fear, leverage the new opportunities social media presents, like its unprecedented access to powerful audience information and insight. Get online and engage so you can continue to build, protect, and represent your brand.

When Mashable paints a picture, the rest of us should take notice. Case in point: its recent comparison of Facebook demographics with overall U.S. demographics. The results show the impact of this particular social media channel in full color.

With more than one hundred million users participating, activities conducted on Facebook matter more than ever and can have an impact that travels the globe. How are you leveraging opportunities there?

Forrester has a great tool that allows you to quickly determine how your target audience participates in social media channels, which can help tailor your approach to better reach them.

The categories are taken from Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff's book “Groundswell” and are as follows:

Creators
These top-of-the-food-chain participants are the ones who drive social content by uploading blogs, podcasts, video, and more.

Critics
This group responds to the content others produce by commenting on it, rating it, or editing it.

Collectors
As the name suggests, those who participate as collectors gather information via RSS and/or tagging.

Joiners
These people are looking for networking opportunities presented by the likes of Facebook and Linkedin.

Spectators
Passive participants like spectators are the ones reading, watching, and generally digesting content, though they’re not actively contributing to it.

Inactives
This group defines those who are neither watching nor participating in social channels.

Find the social technographics profile for your customer or client base now!