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Arc 3 Communications’ Monthly Top News Reads in Digital, Social and Public Affairs – February 2014

February 6, 2014 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Digital and social media are transforming how government institutions, political campaigns and trade associations communicate to key audiences. Below is a roundup of the more interesting stories that we have read over the last month:

Digital and Social Media

Mashable reports on 9 ways that social media will change in 2014. New ways include the rise of graphic software and the use of visual content to support social media platforms such as Pinterest and Tumblr.

In the Guardian, Scott Monty, who heads global digital communications for the Ford Motor Company, explores the question of whether or not marketers can learn digital restraint. Monty advocates for a less is more strategy for marketers.

Social Media Today offers six social media mistakes to avoid in 2014, which include many recommendations for digital restraint. These include avoiding tweeting too often, using too many hashtags and joining too many social media websites.

Gov 2.0 and Public Affairs

Huffington Post reports on 15 photos from the U.S. Department of Interior Instagram account that will make you want to travel the country. The Department of Interior account has over 200k followers and includes scenic photos from the public lands, national parks and wildlife refuges that it manages.

Associations Now offers advice on how to handle the good, the bad, and the ugly of online comments on a trade association’s website, social media or blog.

The New York Times reports on the Twitter conversation surrounding the President’s State of the Union address and how the White House’s bully pulpit has lost its strength due to other voices shaping the conversation.

Campaigns and Elections

ABC News interviews Adam Sharp, Head of Government and Non-Profits at Twitter, regarding how Twitter will continue to shape political discourse, campaign advertising and election 2014.

Social Media Today explores 5 ways in which social media will change political campaigns in 2014. One of these ways includes the greater use of visual and video content on campaign social media networks.

In Huffington Post, Milind Deora, India’s Minister for Communications, explores the impact of social media on electoral politics in light of the upcoming elections. Deora points to social media’s effectiveness in raising issues, but questions how it may be affecting the quality of political discourse and disrupting the social order.

These were some of Arc 3’s most interesting reads in digital and social and public affairs in early 2014. What were your favorite stories? Let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

Storify and the Power of Content Curation

October 2, 2012 By Patrick L. Burns 1 Comment

Storify is a powerful tool for content curation. In today’s digital age of social media and mobile devices, everyone is now a content producer as the 24 hour news cycle yearns for instant reporting of news events. Storify is a platform upon which individuals can aggregate tweets, posts, photographs, videos and links from social media including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+, Reddit and Flicker to create powerful stories on any subject matter. Storify creates a new layer above the social networks that helps users create a coherent story that is interactive and dynamic.

Started in 2009 in San Fransico, Ca. by founders Burt Herman and Xaxier Damman, Storify currently has well over a million and half individual users. News media outlets from the Wall Street Journal to ABC News have reporters and editors that are using Storify to curate content from the social web. Presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama also utilize Storify in their campaign efforts. Team Romney has created 145 stories while President Obama’s campaign has created 78 stories on Storify. The Romney campaign was able to obtain over 38,000 views of a Storify story regarding a bus tour that coincided with Romney’s announcement of Paul Ryan as his pick for Vice President. President Obama’s campaign used Storify to highlight First Lady Michelle Obama’s trip to the Olympics in London to draw attention to her visit.

Our founder and President of Arc 3 Communications, Patrick Burns recently used Storify to curate content from social media to tell the story of his experience as a Delegate from Ga. to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. Patrick was able to use Storify’s bookmarklet to drag and drop status updates, photos and videos from Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, YouTube and Instagram to bring together the social media elements that best illustrated his experience as a Delegate in Tampa. Storify not only allowed for the collection of elements from social media, but also allowed for the writing of a headline, introduction and text inside his story. As one who utilized social media and pitched traditional media at the convention, Storify was an excellent vehicle to assist Patrick in pulling together all the elements of his trip and better communicate his experience. Upon completion of his story, Storify also allowed Patrick to share his story with his social networks, and notify all the people quoted in his story such as comedian, Dennis Miller; RNC Chairman, Reince Preibus; Mitt Romney; Chris “The Fix” Cillizza of the Washington Post, Erik Erickson of Red State.com and Timothy Carney of the Washington Examiner. Storify’s platform also allows readers to interact with the social media elements of Patrick’s story and share it with their followers.

Below is a link to Patrick’s story in Storify regarding his experience as a Delegate as told via the many social media networks that were prevalent at the RNC Convention.

http://storify.com/PatrickLBurns/arc-3-founder-serves-as-delegate-to-republican-nat

What is your Klout Score? How Your Social Media Influence Matters

September 12, 2012 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

What is your Klout Score? Your Klout score is a two digit score that measures your social media influence. If you have a Twitter account in which you are doing public updates you have a Klout score. You can supplement your score by adding Google Plus, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Tumblr, Instagram, Blogger, WordPress, LastFM or Flickr to your Klout account. While Google has an algorithm that measures page rank, Klout has developed an algorithm to measure social media influence. Google has an algorithim that ranks the relevancy of every webpage, while Klout is working to measure the influence of every person online. Klout scores are calculated using variables that can include number of followers, frequency of updates, the Klout scores of your friends and followers and the number of likes, retweets, and shares that your updates receive. Interacting with someone who has a high Klout score also helps to increase your score.

The Klout Score algorithm was created by it’s founder, Joe Fernandez in 2008. Klout’s algorithm was little changed until October of 2011, when the algorithm was tweaked, most likely to more greatly account for Facebook as tool of influence. This caused a considerable uproar among technologists, who heavily dependent on Twitter, saw a dip in their scores. Many technologists clamored that Klout simply no longer mattered and was meaningless.

However, with the most recent change in the Klout algorithm last month, technologists are giving Klout a second look and liking what they see. Prominent tech blogger, Michael Arrington (formerly of TechCrunch) liked what Klout was doing so much that he proceeded to invest in the company. The new Klout algorithm takes into account more real world influence — through a combination of bringing in 12 times more data points everyday, and taking into account things like Wikipedia pages and weighting LinkedIn profile data higher.

The new Klout profile page for an individual also is a timeline of recent social media interactions — specific Tweets, status updates and Instagram photos that have resonated with people. It’s no longer just about how many Retweets an individual gets, but who Retweeted them, and how they did it. Did they add their own commentary? Was it a “via”? Or a straight RT? Some 400 factors play into the new score. It’s less a number, and more a social resume on one page. The new version of Klout is focusing not just on the number of measurement of influence but also shows which clever tweets or posts by an individual resonated the most with their followers.

Does your Klout score and the social media influence that it represents truly matter? The answer is indisputabley yes. Klout scores are entering into our everday lives, especially for those who travel and conduct business on the road. Airlines, hotels and retailers are starting to evaluate ways in which they can use Klout scores to identify brand evangelists of whom they wish to keep happy. Individuals with higher Klout scores will get aisle seats on airplanes, more spacious hotel rooms, and special discounts at big name retail stores. The enterprise software giant Salesforce.com has a service that lets companies monitor the Klout scores of customers. Those with higher Klout scores will get more attention and quicker service from customer service representatives determined to keep them from tweeting or posting negative comments to their many followers. Klout has nearly 2 billion API (application programming interface) calls per day from some 8,000 partners – frequently from customer call centers who want to know exactly who are the customers that are calling in.

Some of the most influential brand customers with Klout scores of 50 or higher are eligible for perks and gifts ranging from free smart phones to all expense paid trips to weekend test drives of automobiles. Klout has done 400 “Perks” programs that have given some 750,000 influencers special deals with no quid pro quo– only a hope that they’ll say something nice about a brand. Brand rewards for Klout scores are a reflection in the social media age of the special treatment that brands have given out for years to high profile names, the press, and individuals who have spent lots of money on the brand. Klout has democratized influence.

Beyond the perks, Klout is rating and showing people’s online influence on various topics so that others can learn from them. In addition it rewards individuals for their social media efforts by helping them to feel listened to on certain topics. In this way, Klout’s ranking system is working to build a better online community. In today’s social media age, those that push out interesting content are the new influencers, and after several attempts, Joe Fernandez and Klout appear to be on their way to develop a rating system for measuring social media influence that is accurate and matters.

President of Arc 3 Communications Selected as a Delegate to the Republican National Convention

May 4, 2012 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Our founder and President, Patrick Burns was recently selected to be a Delegate from the Sixth Congressional District of Ga. to the upcoming Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. The Republican National Convention will meet from August 27th to 30th at the Tampa Bay Times Forum where delegates will ratify the party platform and nominate a candidate for President and Vice President. The presumptive GOP nominee is former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney with the candidate for Vice President not yet chosen. Patrick is one of three delegates to the Republican National Convention from his home county of Cobb and one of three from his Congressional District. The Georgia Delegation to the Republican National Convention will be staying at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay. Patrick’s selection as a delegate was recently mentioned in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Marietta Daily Journal.

The Democratic National Convention will be held from September 3rd to 6th in Charlotte, NC. The first three days will be at the Time Warner Cable Arena with the final day being at the Bank of America Stadium. The delegates at the Democratic National Convention will also ratify the party platform and nominate a candidate for President and Vice President. The presumptive nominees for President and Vice President are Barack Obama and Joseph Biden respectfully.

Patrick is honored to have his 24 years of involvement in politics and campaigns recognized by the opportunity to be a National Delegate. Patrick served as an Alternate Delegate to the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City which nominated President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Patrick is looking forward to seeing old friends; attending the convention speeches and platform meetings; and voting to nominate the GOP Presidential ticket. Patrick will also be spending time on bloggers row and live tweeting from the convention floor.

Among the many exciting things at the convention, Patrick will also have the opportunity to check-in on his mobile device on the convention floor and earn a Republican National Convention badge on Foursquare issued by Time Magazine. Time has also issued a Democratic National Convention badge for Foursquare users who check-in on the convention floor in Charlotte.

Patrick has promised to provide updates to the Marietta Daily Journal and other local media about the many happenings at the convention. Congratulations on your selection Patrick!

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