“Chris Wallace, chief operating officer and founding partner of the SuperGroup, an interactive agency in Atlanta, said he liked the campaign, since it created “a strong connection between the individual consumer and the brand.” But he suggested that Cosmopolitan “should have pushed the campaign further. The cover is so iconic. They missed an opportunity to make a realistic cover with you on it, showing you with the Cosmo logo.”

Read the full article on The New York Times website.

* Twitter now has 105,779,710 registered users.
* New users are signing up at the rate of 300,000 per day.
* 180 million unique visitors come to the site every month.
* 75% of Twitter traffic comes from outside Twitter.com (via third party applications.)
* Twitter gets a total of 3 billion requests a day via its API.
* Twitter users are, in total, tweeting an average of 55 million tweets a day.
* Twitter’s search engine receives around 600 million search queries per day.
* Of Twitter’s active users, 37% use their phone to tweet.
* Over half of all tweets (60%) come from third party applications.
* Twitter itself has grown: in the past year alone, it has grown from 25 to 175 employees.

As the browser wars heat up, and more people get online via mobile devices, there’s been an accelerated effort to modernize the web. HTML4 was finalized in 1999, and a lot has changed in eleven years.

According to Internet World Stats, global internet usage is up 399.3% from 2000-2009, and 1,162.0% for Chinese speaking users, and 2,297.7% for Arabic speaking users. As more people get online, and nations begin to make high speed access a legal right, it is more important than ever that HTML, the primary language of the internet, becomes more structured.

HTML5, which is not even finalized yet, already has major support from the latest versions of Safari, Firefox, and Chrome, with Internet Explorer 9 catching up upon its release. So what is it?

In one word, it is more contextual. It introduced a handful of new tags so developers and end users alike can have a more consistent experience by agreeing on new standards. Some of the useful new tags include:

• section
• article
• aside
• header
• footer
• nav
• figure

In addition to improved context, there are vast improvements to support imagery and multimedia natively, instead of relying on browser plugins such as Flash. These include new video and audio tags, which are already supported on mobile devices such as the iPhone, and the capability of the browser to render vector graphics. Along with HTML5, CSS has improved in a similar fashion, allowing the browser to natively render animations without Javascript, handle embedded fonts, and draw rounded corners, drop shadows and gradients.

The one-two punch of the improved contextual capabilities in HTML5, and the presentation updates in CSS3 are going to provide us with a smarter, more useful, more beautiful web than we have today.

According to the study , ”Forty-two percent of Americans describe themselves as sexually ‘adventurous….’”  I soon found another study by the AARP that reported, “Phone sex with a spouse or intimate partner and the exchange of erotic notes and e-mails is popular among the 45-to-49 age group.”  Great!  So it seems like a lot of us are less sexually inhibited than we were a few years ago, but there’s got to be something else driving the online behavior from the above Zarrella quote.

I soon found another study, this time from Michigan State.   In a nutshell, the study delved into the online habits of law enforcement officers.  The following behavior was observed: “as (the officers) anonymity increased, (their) informational disinhibition increased.”  In other words, their scruples got fewer as their sense of invisibility became greater.

So the missing link seems to be the perceived anonymity of the internet in general.  Even though the web is the most public form of media in human history, most people still feel like no one will ever find out what sites they’ve been visiting.  So if you combine an increased willingness and desire to view content of a sexual nature with the fact that no one thinks that they’ll get caught online, you can get a pretty powerful Sirens’ Song leading potential consumers to your content.

So given these morning reading “truths,” back to the original question – does sex in social media actually work?  Consider, if you will, a perhaps sexually adventurous social media project that we recently produced in partnership with Ketchum Atlanta for their client,  7-Eleven.

The project was called, “Wake up with a hot Brazilian!,” and can be found at - www.the711club.com.  The purpose of the execution was to drive trial and awareness of 7-Eleven’s new gourmet Brazilian coffee.

Set in a chic, fictitious club on Copa Beach, visitors are challenged to skillfully navigate a complex social scene in order to score a hot Brazilian companion for the evening.  After the user has successfully conquered their prey, the final scene of the game fades to reveal a hot, steaming cup of 7-Eleven’s gourmet Brazilian coffee sitting on your night stand the next morning. The user then receives a coupon to try a free cup for themselves.

…and the results?  As we were delighted to find out, the coupon redemption from the711club.com was the highest of any promotion 7-Eleven has done in recent history.  So it turns out that social media sex might just might sell better than good old fashion sex after all!  Who knew? (We did.)

With social media being THE buzz phrase of the hour (much like Web 2.0 a few years back), many companies and agencies are scrambling to incorporate social media strategies in order to avoid looking out of touch or behind-the-times. To many, as is often the case, it would be an unforgivable sin to admit that they may not fully understand an emerging approach or technology, and that they might need specialized help in order to effectively leverage those techniques. This of course leads to widespread confusion, proliferation of false or misleading information, and worst of all, poorly thought out executions. Today, I would say that roughly 80% of all social media programs are committing one or more of these top ten social media worst practices:

#10: Not establishing a voice.

Social media is about socializing, which requires two way interaction between individuals. The problem is, a company is not an individual; so how does one go about socializing with a corporation or brand? I know corporations are afforded the same constitutional protections that individuals are, but its still a little unnerving to receive a tweet from @Viacom or @FritoLay. Who exactly is speaking? Some companies (like Viacom) address the issue by simply not speaking to individuals directly, but instead speaking to the internet in general (That’s also a big no-no. See #3), while others (like FritoLay) respond directly as some vague corporate spirit – perhaps its Chester Cheetah.

When communicating with connections through social media, its always important to establish who’s speaking, and why people should listen. There’s a reason that the biggest success stories in social media are celebrities – they understand that its all about personality.

#9: Using social media to advertise.

I always say that Social Media has more in common with public relations than it does marketing or advertising. Similarly, posting an update about a product’s new and improved formula is equivalent to creating a press release announcing your CEO’s new baby. In short: Nobody cares. Remember, your content is only consumed voluntarily, so it has to be valuable and important enough to pay attention to. Otherwise, your social media outreach has become spam – also known as a waste of money.

#8: Thinking one-dimensionally.

It never ceases to amaze me how frequently people forget that the power of social media isn’t that its simply a new channel to reach people by, but that your content can be delivered by other people on your behalf, which is much more likely to have a profound impact. Again, similar to PR, you don’t target writers or journalists as if they were your customer – you help them see your brand’s messaging as news in the hope that they’ll share that news with their audience. Such is social media. Remember that communicating with your network is great, but the end goal should always be to convince THEM to communicate YOUR messaging to THEIR network.

#7: Not focusing efforts.

So, you’ve gotten several hundred people to add #FruityPebbles to their tweets because you’ve enticed them with a sweepstakes offer. So what? What now? Why are you spending time and effort on social media outreach? What’s the point? And no, “because we have to” isn’t a good answer. Social Media is only effective if its utilized with a specific goal or goals in mind. Are you trying to acquire new customers? Drive sales from existing customers? Improve brand reputation? Streamline customer service? Each reason has a different tactic in order to achieve success, and a different metric to gauge success by.

#6: Driving traffic to the wrong place.

After reading a well written and insightful article in the Wall Street Journal, you decide to share the link via social networking. Now you’ve shown your connections how “in-the-know” you are, and now they’ll beat a path to your door seeking your wealth of expertise, right?

Wrong. You haven’t actually done anything except send a potential/existing customer to someone else’s website. Always drive traffic to your OWN website. Don’t just share what someone else said – share what you have to say ABOUT what someone else said. Not only will this establish you as more than just a “link sharer” with no insights of your own, but by adding your own two cents you’ll often get attention from the original source of information you’re commenting on. Two birds with one stone. The one potential exception would be re-tweets, with the goal of “sucking up” to the original poster.

#5: Executives or employees designated to share random thoughts.

Social Media is a cacophony. Genuinely important updates (like the information pouring out of Iran) is muddled with frivolous, useless junk (”@TwilightFan1997: OMG You are so crazzzzzy!”). In short, don’t create more of the latter. I assure you that no one cares that your CFO is at the San Antonio airport with a flight delay. Better to only update once every few days with something remarkable than to constantly post yawn-inducing drivel.

#4: Forgetting about SEO.

Just a reminder: people are still most likely to discover your content or messaging through plain old fashioned google searches. That includes the content you’re posting to social media. So always remember to have a focused SEO effort with specifically targeted keywords and phrases, and treat your social media outreach as an extension of that effort. However, keep in mind that posting links to your own site via comments or posts will NOT improve your search rankings.

#3: Not engaging with others.

Sometimes referred to “one-way” messaging or “old-fashioned” marketing. To put it simply, you can’t just talk AT people while ignoring what they have to say. If you want them to listen to you, you must first listen to them. If you want twitter followers, then follow others. If you want people to comment on your posts, comment on theirs. If you want a blog writer to comment on your company or promotion, write a blog about them. If you want people to watch the videos you’ve posted to YouTube, subscribe to other users’ channels – or better yet, post a video response to one of their videos.

#2: Ignoring the power of User Generated Content (UGC).

Many of our clients come to us and say “We have XYZ content that we’ve produced. How can we get people to share it virally through social media?” But a better question to ask is: “How can we get our target audience to produce content FOR us, and allow them to share it via social media?” Not only does this reduce costs by not having to self-produce amazing content, it also guarantees that people will share the content that they had a hand in producing. Never forget that social media is ultimately a self-centered endeavor; shared content is primarily a reflection of the person posting it.

#1: Having nothing worthwhile to say.

This is the cardinal, unforgivable sin of social media. You cannot simply re-tweet other people’s comments, post company announcements, and answer the question “what are you doing?” You have to spend 1/3 of your time growing your network, 1/3 engaging with that network on a one-to-one basis, and 1/3 of the time sharing content with that network that they will find genuinely relevant, personal, and/or useful. Such content is a tall order, and that’s where an effective digital promotion comes in. Remember: Social Media is only a mechanism to share ideas – the ideas you share are still the engine that drives success.

What are your thoughts?

Did I forget anything? Do you disagree with any on my list? Please comment and share your own views on how you think social media can go terribly wrong.

In this month’s Macworld, Dan Moren enlightens us with the truth. Disc refers to any optical media such as a CDs and DVDs that are read by a laser. Disk refers to magnetic media, such as your computer’s hard drive.

Now go out and impress at least three of your nerd friends!

Unfortunately, this morning, CLEAR members received the following email:

At 11:00 p.m. PST today, Clear will cease operations. Clear’s parent company, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. has been unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations.

To say that this was unexpected news is an understatement – just days before, CLEAR was running Fathers’ Day promos and encouraging their customers to renew their memberships. I even read one account that said a customer who’d received this notification had to tell the CLEAR employees at JFK airport that they were out of a job – apparently, they hadn’t gotten the memo.

Here at TSG, we’re pretty ticked off. Not just because a valuable service is no longer available, but because the situation is CLEARly fraud. More importantly, according to the small print, the personal data collected by this company can be “shared” with other entities. Ouch. We were duped along with 250,000 others. My crystal ball foretells: Lawsuits.

If you’re feeling the pain too, my advice is to dispute the charges with your credit card company. And if you happen to personally know one of the executives responsible for this, give’m a swift kick in the ass on behalf of all of us here at TSG.