This visualisation could be better, I want to zoom in and out, explore countries and cities… but it does get the point across. Facebook is very well connected.

Personally I have a love hate relationship with the platform… but that’s inevitable with something that I joined almost four years ago, friended everyone in the first few months and then couldn’t be bothered to filter.

Well done Zuckerberg – world domination is yours – just keep opening up the platform and you’ll be fine !

Created by Stink Digital for Philips new 21:9 cinema TV, commissioned by Tribal DDB Amsterdam. Must be watched, full screen and in HQ. First found on BoingBoing.

They did it. The Internet Symphony is complete. Nice work by my mate Tom Uglow at Google in the UK – who’s at Carnegie Hall NYC right now. See my original post on the project here.

Via @art_s discovered Twitter Stream Graphs (screengrab), Twit Arcs and Twitter Spectrum. All provide data visualizations for twitter profiles and keywords – tools created by @JeffClark.

Tate Tracks by Fallon London. My favourite art space, the Tate Modern, reaching a new audience through the intersection of art and music. Gold. Remember observing this from afar.

Mentos intern campaign. With a media budget of $0 see how BBH New York created an idea and execution that became more than the media ever could have been… (be good to know if the original media budget was merged into the build?) archive website here.

Again, credit to CASEMOVIES for doing the hard yards on finding these.

64,000+ photos highlight cities and countries on a moving globe over 24hrs. Best watched full screen. First found on FlowingData and the clips author is here.

Who has an A3+ printer so I can actually read it without scrolling back and forth and up and down? Not that I’m complaining – thanks for the hard work and genius IA – keep up the good work.

Since joining Twitter I’ve posted 696 times as @benhamin. It would seem that Fridays at 10am I have the most to say and 3pm I’m consistently blurting out 140 characters to who will ever listen.

It’s probably better to look at some serious Twitterers, rather than my poor excuse, so I felt that the lads from Bannerblog might be a good start. Top AU blog and all that.

Ashley aka 100ftzombie. 2,751 tweets so far. 10am Saturday is a hotspot, but Ash does most of his tweeting between 9 – 11pm. Work is for work and then the tweets coming flying out at night.

Ashadi Hopper. 1,170 tweets to date. Pretty consistent overall – but 10am is a strong time – after reading the news perhaps?

Who else, Gavin over at Servant of Chaos has tweeted a staggering 7,422+ times. Monday’s 11 – 3pm – what’s happening Gav?

Hoorah for Tom, another inspirational share to add to my collection of ‘digital educational’ videos (now topping 14).

“When Microsoft decides to imagine the future, it never fails to impress.”

Shame they struggle with the present.

Last year I started teaching the ADMA Digital Certificate in Marketing thanks to an introduction from Mike at Profero.

14 Tuesday nights later, great guest speakers, the marking of 28 exams and presentations – I’m doing it all again.

As you can imagine keeping the course up-to-date is a challenge in its own right. So we’re currently reviewing and updating the content. Seeing as I have an audience of digerati [and my Mum] I felt that you might be able to help. We try to use ‘rich media’ wherever possible, videos, online demo’s, case-studies etc.

To follow is a collection of videos that help explain the opportunity of digital. We’ve shown some before and there’s others that I’ll definitely consider for this semester – but I want to make sure I’m not missing some gems? – all help much appreciated!

ps. any prospective guest speakers out there (search, mobile, usability, email, creative, analytics, databases, social etc.) ? raise your hand!

1. Googlezon, Epic 2015
I believe this dates back to 2004. A view of the future that’s already ahead of time.

2. Did you know?
Jen Wilson sent this round yesterday. Great summation of our insignificance in the emerging world and the significance of embracing new ways now. Certainly gets you pumped for action.

3. The break up
Its and old one, but a classic. Spells out the fact that the consumer has changed.

4. Inspiration, anyone? (the sequel to ‘The Break Up’)
If you work in an ad agency – surely you can relate to this. BIGGER LOGO

5. A short history of marketing
Only recently found this. From the early days of advertising to the sensory overload of today. This animation spells out exactly why marketing has to change.

6. The machine is us/ing
Probably the best explanation of Web 2.0 there is.

7. An anthropological introduction to YouTube
Its almost an hour long but worth the time if you have it.

8. The marketing of Radiohead
Ian Tait put this together. I like it because it shows how he reconsiders Radiohead [who's music he didn't like] based on the way they approached the launch of In Rainbows and the subsequent marketing of the band since they’ve left their record label.

I found them on flickr, there’s currently 78 visual thinking diagrams

… and David, thanks for the hard work and the fact that you share the way you think.

1. Jump aboard the social media train!!

2. Brilliant articulation of the digital media landscape

3. But I’m an expert!

4. Stairway to [brand] heaven

5. Big ideas vs. micro strategies

6. Please no one

7. Day in the life

8. Spin that wheel

9. Touch my points

10. Could be me, apart from the leather wrist band and night vision contacts

1. A new approach – since everyone claims to ‘do’ social, look for those seeking to develop new models for approaching it, not those seeking to map on their existing models.

That’s for sure. If your business model is designed to deliver project based work, bums on seats for set periods of time, then its difficult to build-in a social marketing capability. Not impossible of course. But you’ll need to look at different ways to finance that team, no-longer can the designer with an interest in blogging be tasked to ‘seed’ or stimulate dialogue around content, products or whatever. I think we can all see the pitfalls of that one… especially when work ramps up and they need to be the designer they’re paid to be. There’s also the intrinsic problem of campaigns concluding and the social engagement element (say the MySpace page, blog, Twitter feed) fundamentally letting its audience down – they just stop!

Social marketing is resource heavy, so resources have to be designed around it and the business model too. Think management consultant, publisher, journalist, strategist, understanding of [digital / physical] social etiquette, technologist and passion.

2. Technology – everyone claims to have unique talent, to be ‘leading’, to have great clients, and real expertise. Technology, fortunately, can’t be faked, demonstrates genuine investment and expertise, and really can be proprietary and unique. So, which agency has developed/is developing their own technology to support their new approach?

We’re investing significantly in tech; both 3rd party apps and proprietary built. But the big thing is being able to use them well. For example clients and agencies have had access to Google Analytics (or similar), but many fail to fully leverage what the data is communicating… and it’s often post activity rather than optimising ongoing. Social monitoring and management tools are popping up everywhere and it’s hard to evaluate when the industry moves so fast… personally I think you need a mix of services. House tools for management and dashboard control, then outsourced for monitoring – as this area requires constant innovation and benefits a dedicated tech team that solely focus on developing the service.

3. Measurement – the true value of real engagement by brands in social media is really hard to measure. I’ll be dropping my bank as soon as I don’t need them anymore because of the way it treated me when I was a student – good social media strategy will have a similarly long-lasting effect. Nonetheless, some agencies are having a very credible stab at it. Just steer clear of the ones who claim it’s that simple.

Hear hear. Social marketing is not simple. But if you’ve got a great product, amazing customer service and you can do no wrong – its a lot easier. Know any companies like that?

The amount of queries we have for ‘seeding’ is embarrassing. “We’ve got an Ad… can you put it on some blogs, get people talking”… it’s a f%$*!g TVC, why does anyone want to talk about that? Its designed to interrupt not inspire dialogue!

We’re learning. Everyday. There isn’t a tried and tested route… but we’re inspired by the challenge and the chance to help brands and clients embrace the opportunity of listening to their audiences – rather than broadcasting at them.

4. Existing credentials – being good at something, in my view, is a transferable skill. Muhammad Ali liked to say that if he’d been a dustman (I’m translating of course), he’d have been the best dustman in the world. I believe him. So, is the agency now claiming to be brilliant at social media brilliant at what it already does?

Not sure about this. Sure passion, enthusiasm and a willing to learn will provide a bedrock for re-invention and new skills. But I feel that you’d need to have been on this ride for sometime.

I didn’t know that I was learning ‘social marketing’ skills by participating in IRC channels, forums and a group blog back in 1998. All I was doing was chatting with my mates, meeting like-minded people and expressing the things that inspired me. But along that way I learnt, first-hand, about SEO, trackbacks, Google adwords, statistics, online etiquette etc. Of course it helped that I’d chosen a career in new media – but that said – I learnt from doing it, not talking about it.

I’d recommend that brands looking for an agency with ‘social marketing’ capabilities – first look for evidence of social channels being used by its employees (particularly senior ones) – I think its important.

5. Case studies – trade journalists will tell you that finding people to talk about social media is not a problem. Finding people that have real projects to talk about is a good deal more difficult. What has the agency really done in this area?

We’ve got some. It’s early days, but the portfolio is building, work we want to talk about and some that we don’t. Forgive us – we’re a startup.

My reason is that when I posted a Tweet on the fact that I was enjoying series one, within 24hrs Betty Draper started following me – soon after Ken Cosgrove and my intrigue got the better of me.

I especially like the fact that the Mad Men characters remain in character on Twitter and truly interact with those that engage them. What’s an even smarter move is the fact that characters talk to one another and give another layer to the shows plot.

One thing to remember is that when screenwriters develop characters for TV or film there is always a solid backstory. They’ll know the school the character went to, trauma they’ve had in their lives, successes etc. But it usually doesn’t get explored in the final show or film. What’s great about using Twitter in this context is that we get to explore that backstory (in part) and go deeper into the relationships and happenings around the show getting to know the characters more.

What’s fascinating is the fact that the real characters have also inspired clones and fan profiles on Twitter. The Betty Draper that followed me was a clone not the real one (who started following me 48hrs later). People have literally got into character – mimicking what a 60′s house wife or ad executive would be like.

Whilst exploring I found this comprehensive spreadsheet which counts the number of followers for Mad Men characters, character clones and fan profiles on Twitter (many thanks to @RobinG2 for taking the time).

Adding up the accumulated ‘followers’ you get to a figure of 57,619. Now I know their not unique, and no doubt fans of the show will follow multiple characters – but that’s one hell of a ‘social footprint’. People that love the show enough to follow a character, create a character clone or set up a fan profile is significant.

Below is a grab from @RobinG2 spreadsheet showing the evolution of followers over the course of the show. Click to enlarge.

Poke are responsible [again]. They keep turning out great work for Orange and this looks like another online masterpiece.

What I’ve gleaned from a brief play is, its a balloon race across the internet! What does this actually mean though?

Well it seems that you participate in two ways;
1. As a site owner, embeding code (see floating Racoon bottom left of this page) to track passing balloons (aka site visitors)
2. A balloon owner, whom by visiting participating sites (like this one, and Faris’) can increase their balloon miles. I’d imagine that a media buy on major sites will feature banners that track ‘balloon miles’ too, so you can crank up your mileage.

Why participate? The balloon that flies the furthest wins an £18,000 holiday to Ibiza for themselves and 7 mates – plus other stuff, probably phones. Plus the fact that the idea is brilliant and you simply want to see how far you can go – wouldn’t you?

I’m facinated to see how this is actually going to rollout… page to page, site to site. Below is the personal widget you get once you get your balloon. This can be installed on everything from a social profile on Facebook, to your very own blog. I chose a Racoon, ultimately this is a far cooler animal than a dolphin, camel (or the other one). But I guess my ‘balloon miles’ will be recorded here for all to see… fingers crossed.

Get yourself a balloon and lets race!