Fifty & Five

This Week at Fifty & Five 5.17.13

Peter — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:26:05 +0000

This week brought us the annual Google I/O conference which was packed with new announcements from Google in terms of what is coming soon. Keep an eye out for Google Play Music All Access. There is a rumor that has been confirmed. Yahoo has agreed to purchase Tumblr for $1.1Billion ($1,100,000,000). Follow us on Twitter to get updates on this record setting purchase in real time. We ran across a very interesting infographic that describes how men and women use social media. The big winners look to be Pinterest and Youtube. Coming soon to your Twitter feed: Sports highlights courtesy of an agreement with ESPN and Twitter. Old Spice is at again with another creative ad that was launched on Youtube this week. Take a look and let us know what you think. Do you watch any shows from TNT and TBS? If so, you are in luck. These two networks will be the first to live stream their content 24/7. Start date is scheduled for some time this summer. Finally, for our viral video of the week we have another gem for you. As part of a gas tank prank, The Tonight Show captured some karaoke video gold this week. Take a look!

This Week at Fifty & Five 5.10.13

Peter — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:29:39 +0000

Did you know that 6 billion hours of videos are watched every month on Youtube? This is approximately a 100% growth since May of 2012. Another striking fact is that Youtube reaches more US adults ages 18-34 than any cable network. Now would be a good time to dive into Youtube as a legitimate advertising platform. Continuing with the Youtube trend, they recently announced a new Trends Map that shows you what videos are popular in different areas of the US. Last week, one of our clients (Westside Rentals), launched a contest in collaboration with a prominent blogger. Take a look at the detailed blog entry and excellent exposure we were able to acquire for our client. This is the true definition of “Blogger Outreach”. We continue to focus on the growth of Vine and our predictions are coming true. In April, Vine grew by almost 200% making it one of the fastest growing websites in America. Pinterest junkies, take a peek at the most popular brand boards on Pinterest. Do you agree? We will say that Better Homes & Gardens is doing great work on that platform. For our viral video of the week, we head to Cleveland, Ohio and the initial interview with Charles Ramsey, who helped to rescue three young girls who had been kidnapped for over ten years. This interview clip will end up being one of the most viral pieces of content for 2013. Oh and look at McDonald’s response. Classic!

Here are five other gems you may have missed from the past week in social media:

This Week at Fifty & Five 5.3.13

Peter — Fri, 03 May 2013 18:03:45 +0000

We hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable Cinco de Mayo. Linkedin has made a very nice update to the platform and now allows you to add photos, Powerpoints, videos and comments from others. A well know visionary by the name of Warren Buffet has joined Twitter. Let’s keep an eye on what 140 character gems he leaves us with. It looks like chat app messaging services such as WhatsApp and iMessage have overtaken SMS as the market leader. The team at Fifty & Five is helping the Game Show Network gear up for the season finale of the American Bible Challenge. This past Thursday we were on set live tweeting and able to get over two million social media impressions in one day! We are also excited to support Chris Powell, and the launch of his book Choose More, Lose More for Life. Follow Chris on Twitter as he travels around the country changing lives. The 17th Annual Webby awards (Digital Media’s awards show that is synonymous with the Grammy’s) were announced last week. Read through the award winners as there were some incredible campaigns honored. Our CEO, Lucas Vandenberg, spoke at the Manhattan Beach Women in Business conference this past week. We are very proud of Lucas and will share videos and pictures in an upcoming newsletter. For the viral video of the week take a look at how Lowes uses Vine to share home improvement tips. Always stay creative!!

Here are four articles that are trending this week:

This Week at Fifty & Five 4.25.13

Peter — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:33:44 +0000

Don’t look now but as the month of April comes to a close, the days are staying lighter longer and the country is warming up as Spring is in full effect. Curious about what brands engage the best on Twitter? Check out this article which highlights the top 25 brands. Not to be outdone, one of our clients, Mezzacorona Wines, is ranked as the #2 wine brand globally in social media influence by Vintank. Former US President Bill Clinton joined Twitter this week and quickly immersed himself into the “Twitterverse”. Continuing with the “presidential” theme, the White House has now joined Tumblr. Keep an eye out for funny GIF’s. Fullerton, California residents, have you heard about the new Boardwalk Burgers & Fries that officially opened last week? Take a look at this awesome press coverage our social media team was able to acquire. Google Glass is coming and it has the potential to drastically change the way people interact with each other in public places. Read this user’s review and prepare for the change that is coming. For all of our hotel friends who are curious about the benefits of blogger outreach, a popular luxury blogger reviewed one of our hotel clients in downtown Los Angeles. The exposure from this article continues to pay itself forward. This week our viral video focuses on the quick action a bride (and reporter) took during a recent 6.6 magnitude earthquake. Yes, that is her in her wedding dress and veil.

Here are five other gems you may have missed from the past week in social media:

This Week at Fifty & Five 4.19.13

Peter — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:02:06 +0000

What a week. Our thoughts are with all affected by the Boston Marathon bombing and its continuing saga. Social media was spotlighted once again for providing real-time accounts of the tragedy. Twitter has announced a new #Music app that integrates with Rdio, Spotify and iTunes. Continuing with the theme of music, industry legend Quincy Jones has created a piano learning startup called Playground Sessions. A quick description of the startup is a “musical Rosetta Stone”. Did you miss the 2013 MTV Movie Awards? Check out this review in GIF form. Very funny. Flipboard continues to make strides and grow in popularity. Take a look at these different ways you can use Flipboard to promote your own content. Besides winning two out of the past three World Series, the San Francisco Giants are also #1 in fan engagement across all social media platforms. Keep an eye on their social accounts. They continue to come up with creative ways to engage with their fans. For our viral video of this week, we will let you look at this video and say no more.

Here are five other gems you may have missed from the past week in social media:

This Week at Fifty & Five 4.12.13

Peter — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:43:47 +0000

This week brought us the launch of Facebook Home, the purchase of the popular Pulse app by Linkedin and the launch of over 500,000 new magazines and 3 million new users for Flipboard. Popular location based check-in app Foursquare just raised over $41 million in funding and updated their iOS app to focus more on search capabilities. The MTV Movie Awards air on Sunday and they show will be very social. They will have live voting via Instagram and an award for the best GIF as well. All of the awards will be interactive during the show so tune in live if you can. If you are able to make it out to the desert in California for Coachella this year, don’t fret as Youtube will be live streaming the majority of the shows. Austin, one of our favorite cities in the state of Texas, will be the second recipient (Kansas City was the first) of the Google Fiber service around mid-2014. What a great boost to the economy in Austin.

Here are five other gems you may have missed from the past week in social media:

Happy Weekend!

This Week at Fifty & Five 4.5.13

Peter — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 21:29:37 +0000

We saw the social media world turn red this week on Facebook and Twitter in support of marriage equality.Flipboard, the popular magazine styled app, made a major shift in how they allow users to share content. You can now curate your own articles and publish your own virtual magazine. This is a welcome addition as Google Reader is going away in the next few months. IFTTT has ten ways for their service to help you manage your business more effectively. Worried about your Klout score? Now you are allowed to add your Instagram account and see if your score increases. Did you know that Facebook has over 250 million people playing games on the network each month? Whew, that number is up from 235 million last August. RUMOR ALERT: The iPhone 5S is rumored to be launched on June 20th, eight months after the launch of the iPhone 5. This will be the fastest addition to the iPhone family. Amazon has just announced that they have purchased popular book sharing site Goodreads. It looks like Amazon is continuing it’s takeover of all things book related. Our CEO, Lucas Vandenberg spoke at the Eye For Transport International conference in Long Beach, California. Stay tuned for more pictures and video of the speech. For our viral video of the week, check out this video in which we imagine homeless people using Square to accept “donations”. Pretty funny.

Here are five other gems you may have missed from the past week in social media:

Happy weekend!!

This Week at Fifty & Five 3.29.13

Peter — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:33:53 +0000

Here are five other gems you may have missed from the past week in social media:

Happy weekend!!

This Week @ Fifty & Five 3.22.13

Peter — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 21:31:17 +0000

Spring 2013 has arrived as we all prepare to warm up and end the annual “hibernation”. March Madness is in full swing. How are your brackets looking? Beyonce debuted her new song this week on her Tumblr page. Gone are the days of dropping off new release tapes at individual radio stations. Continuing with our sports theme, our favorite app, IFTTT, has launched a new ESPN based channel to keep you informed of all news from your favorite teams and sports. Pinterest has made a change to a fresh new look. There are rumors that HBO will be making their HBO GO channel available to non-cable subscribers. Cord-cutters get ready to rejoice if this happens. We hope the newly released Roku 3 carries this channel. For our viral video this week, take a look at this news anchor proposes to “herself”.

Here are five other gems you may have missed from the past week in social media:

Happy weekend!!

This Week @ Fifty & Five 3.15.13

Peter — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:41:17 +0000

March Madness is coming!! Get your brackets ready and also be sure to inform your boss of an extended late morning meeting you have next Thursday and Friday which will cause you to be out of the office. Any Veronica Mars fans out there? Well, it certainly looks like their Kickstarter campaign will be successful as it is now over $3.4 Million dollars have been raised to create the movie. One lucky person has already paid for the right to have a speaking part in the movie. It’s amazing what $10,000 can buy you nowadays. Were you one of the many people who watch the season finale of “The Bachelor” on Monday night? If so, I am sure you noticed the real-time super-imposing of tweets during the episode. This small addition was deemed successful, so expect to see it again in the future. This is one good reason to watch the show live. Numerous journalist, bloggers and techies are mourning the loss of “Google Reader”. This service from Google will be discontinued as of July 1, 2013. It’s time to find a new way to keep up with blogs and news sources on an hourly basis. Are #hashtags coming to Facebook? All signs point to YES! The new Samsung Galaxy S4 phone was revealed on Thursday night. Are you planning on purchasing one on release day?

Here are five other gems you may have missed from the past week in social media:

Happy weekend!!