Pilch & Barnet — Leaders in Destination Marketing

Link Friday: The Don’t-Say-I-Never-Gave-You-Anything Edition

Friday, February 17th, 2012 — Alan

Well, we’re a little past Valentine’s Day, but I’m still giving out gifts. (Spoiler alert: the gift is Link Friday.)

Just what you always wanted, right?

I thought so. Anyway, on to the links…

• Big news in the social media world this week: Facebook Timeline — you either love it or you hate it (I think it’s pretty swell) — is coming to select brand pages later this month. I think it’ll be a cool opportunity for brands to go more visual with their Facebook accounts.
• In other coming attractions, small business advertising is coming to Twitter.
• And one more on the social media front: Here’s an interesting look from Lifehacker on how they award verified accounts (for those celebrity types) on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
• Are you putting together a style guide for your office or your clients? Hubspot has an easy-to-follow template you should look at.
• And one for Friday fun: What’s the best way to get the most out of your vacations? Keep ‘em short and sweet.

Link Friday: The I-totally-didn’t-forget-about-link-friday-until-now edition

Friday, February 10th, 2012 — Alan

A quick hitter this week for you fine folks.

• Want to make your content go viral? Well, as Seinfeld would say, “Good luck with all that.” Truth is, there’s no secret formula for virality, says Gini Dietrich of SpinSucks.
• But that hasn’t stopped people from trying to come up with that exact formula, according to the Atlantic.
• What can you learn from these uber-successful Facebook pages? Lots, actually, says PR Daily.
• For our lovers out there (Valentine’s Day is Tuesday!): The most romantic smooching spots around the globe, per Conde Nast Traveler.

That’s all from P&BHQ today. Have a great weekend!

Link Friday: The Welcome-to-February edition

Friday, February 3rd, 2012 — Alan

We’ve seen lots of disagreements this week among the predictive rodents of the country RE: how much longer winter’s going to last. Punxsutawney Phil says six more weeks of winter, but Jimmy the Groundhog in nearby Sun Prairie and Wynter, the groundhog at the Milwaukee County Zoo, say spring is on its way.

In any event, Link Friday is here whether winter lasts until June or not. On with the show:

• A new study says Facebook addiction is as strong as nicotine addiction. (Pardon me while I step outside for a status update break.)
• Continuing with Facebook, it turns out we get more friend requests, likes and messages than we send out. The world’s largest social media network isn’t exactly filled with givers, I guess.
• Here’s one for the sports fans, what with the Super Bowl coming up this weekend: Sports Illustrated’s Peter King says about 95 percent of the people in his industry are on Twitter, and he follows about 400 accounts.
• This is a couple weeks old, but michigan.org, the state of Michigan’s tourism website, was the most popular state tourism website in the country for the fifth straight year. They do a great job on social media, too, especially Facebook.
• And one just for fun: the world’s 20 most beautiful bookstores.

Happy Super Bowl weekend, everybody!

Link Friday: The It-Felt-Like-It-Should-Have-Been-Friday-on-Thursday edition

Friday, January 27th, 2012 — Alan

Long, busy, productive, successful week over here at P&B. I think I may sleep through the entire weekend.

Anyway, on to the things we liked this week:

• Facebook rolled out its new Timeline look for all users this week. (I’ve had it for a while and like it, but don’t use as many of its features as I should/could.) Brand pages are still waiting for the new format, but PR Daily says Timeline could have a huge impact if it’s rolled out for businesses.
• Sticking with social media, here’s a list of 11 deadly social media “sins” put together by the folks over at ClickZ. (I’d like to say I’ve never done any of these, but I like to be up front with my readers…)
• Kindra put on her hipster glasses and let us know about this super-cool annual report from chic eyewear retailer Warby Parker.
• Ericka (aka E2) shared this infographic — in handy periodic table form — breaking down the do’s and don’ts of SEO (search engine optimization).
• And if you didn’t see it, we did a super-awesome infographic of our own this week.

That’s it from P&BHQ. Until next week!

Link Friday: The one-where-I-include-a-Sam-Cooke-song edition

Friday, January 20th, 2012 — Alan

Welcome back to Link Friday! Here’s what grabbed our attention this week (plus a bonus Sam Cooke video just because):

• The U.S. government this week made some important moves to bolster access to America’s tourist destinations, writes Pauline Frommer. (Yes, of the travel Frommers.)
• Do you like Pinterest but wish it had more mustaches? Then check out Gentlemint, which boasts a “a mint of manly things.” And hey, it’s even endorsed by the American Mustache Institute!
• Facebook’s launch of Open Graph could mean “a new era in social networking,” Shoutlet said earlier this week.
• Speaking of Facebook, it turns out pages shouldn’t post more than once every three hours, according to a recent study.
• Worried about dropping your iPhone in the lake when you’re on vacation? Why not waterproof your phone? (This is awesome.)
• Not really travel or social media related, but Sam Cooke would have turned 81 on Sunday. Everyone should own this album, and here’s the best version of this song ever:

Thanks for reading, everybody. Have a great weekend!