Feedback is happy to announce our 2013 search to fill our summer internship program!

Interns would be working with our research team on international ethnographic research and strategy projects with occasional opportunities for social media implementation depending on skill set.  Past interns have come from various backgrounds including Communication, English, Psychology and Sociology. Because of such diverse backgrounds we try to cater our internships to fit the needs and interests of each student.  We offer paid and for credit internships.

So, if you’re interested in working with us this summer or know someone who would –  submit a resume, cover letter, and any additional work of interest to brittney@feedbackagency.com for consideration. If you have any questions or require more information please visit our website and feel free to bug Brittney.

The Drum –

The London presence will be headed up by Feedback president and CEO Jeff Thompson and executive vice president Dean Browell Ph.D., alongside vice president Anna Lucas.

Mrweb–

The team examines and analyzes online chat across relevant sectors, including clients’ own brands and their competitors, then uses Feedback’s proprietary ‘Human Filter’ service to deliver information and insight.

Promotional Marketing –

The company has partnered with London-based integrated creative agency 23red to offer a full suite of communications services to customers. Both agencies are part of global network Worldwide Partners Inc. In its first two years Feedback has already helped UK and other European agencies win new business and worked with a variety of international clients.

Campaign Live/Brand Republic-

Thompson said: “At Feedback, we believe that social media is an accelerant to traditional media, and should not be an afterthought or seen as a frivolous must-have to keep up with technology. “This approach has delivered enormous success for our clients in the States and we look forward to bringing our strengths and creative solutions to our clients here in Europe.”

We look forward to growing in Europe and keeping our friends up to speed on our progress.

“Dean Browell, executive vice president at social media strategy company Feedback, part of Worldwide Partners Inc, agrees that they are few businesses that would not benefit from being social.

However, he points that businesses themselves should not get too hung up on definitions of social media and social business – as their customers give it a second’s thought.

“Consumers just simply operate online and nearly everything they do contains some social element, peer validation or interactive possibility,” he explains. “The only part of social media that is a fad is actually calling it, ‘social media’.”

This isn’t the first time Dean has been featured across the pond. See what Dean inked in June 2011.

Socializing during business is a lot different today than it was years ago. Like, bigtime.

750 Million & Counting

Sources say that Facebook now has 750 million global users. And let’s not forget that to be included in that metric users actually had to log in to Facebook within the last 30 days. No official announcement has been made as Facebook is likely waiting until they hit the 1 billion mark to release an official statement.

Social Ad Updates

Twitter:

Twitter has confirmed that promoted tweets will soon appear in the timeline and in HootSuite. This has been Twitter’s plan since they launched Promoted Tweets and the change will likely occur sometime over the next two months. Learn more.

LinkedIn:

LinkedIn has started incorporating user networks into ads. As LinkedIn puts it, “Imagine if we can make the advertising that you see on LinkedIn as relevant, timely, and useful by surfacing the wisdom of your network at the appropriate times.” For example, when LinkedIn serves up job postings, you will now see relevant users in your network that you could use as a direct reference. Company followers will also now be included in product/service advertisements. See two examples images below:

Facebook:

Facebook is testing a new type of sponsored story ad called “Comment Ads.” Comment advertisements will allow a brand to ask a promoted question or discuss a topic that any user can comment on.

“Play Music Together.”

Ever want to be a DJ? (Haven’t we all?) I have been testing out Turntable in Beta, a group music streaming service, and I must say it is pretty addicting. You start by selecting an avatar and then you either create or join a room (popular rooms include “Coding Soundtrack” and “Indie While You Work”.) You can play with friends and/or strangers, and while only 5 DJ’s play at a time there can be around 200 listeners per room. You select songs from a wide array of streamed music or upload your own song. But be careful, if the crowd doesn’t like your tune, they can vote it ‘Lame’ and your song will be skipped. On the contrary, if you have excellent DJ skills listeners will vote the song ‘Awesome’ and you will earn points. Points go towards making your avatar bigger and better (think Minnie Mouse to Deadmau5).  While Turntable is still working out a few kinks, it is a pretty awesome virtual dance party that is part Pandora, part social networking. Read more.

-Anna (@alucas9)

Apple Event Announcements

Apple held a press conference at the WWDC Conference this week and made several major announcements:

• iCloud: The biggest announcement made by Apple this week was iCloud, a service that seamlessly syncs personal content (music, documents, contacts, etc.) across a range of connected devices (computer, iPad, iPhone…).  The best thing about this free service is the simplicity. As Jobs explained, “ICloud keeps your important information and content up to date across all your devices–automatically and wirelessly. And because it’s integrated into our apps you don’t even need to think about it. It just works.”

• iOS5: iOS5, Apple’s advanced mobile operating system, will be available in the fall with new features. In this version Apple built Twitter into the operating system, created a chat for iOS devices called iMessages, and more.

• Lion: Apple announced 250 new features for the next version of Mac OS X Lion, Apple’s advanced desktop operating system. See a full list of features here. Lion will be available in July for around $30.00.

Facebook Recoginition

Facebook always seems to be under scrutiny for privacy issues. Their latest update is no different. And this time European Union privacy investigators are looking into it. The issue is surrounding Facebook’s Facial Recognition feature, which uses software to identify users in photos to make it easier to tag friends. Facebook upset more than a few people when they made this feature default rather than letting users opt in.

“Happening Now”
Facebook is testing a new “Happening Now” feature on the news feed. The feature, which is currently only available for select users, provides real-time updates about friends. The “Happening Now” feed is located to the right-hand side of the news feed. Real-time updates include friend events, recommended Pages, ads, and pokes. As the Mashable article stated, “the resemblance to the Twitter feed is unmistakable.”

Mashable photo documenting Facebook's new "Happening Now" feature

-Anna (@alucas9)

Facebook Streaming Movies:

Warner Bros. is testing out streaming movies on Facebook with “The Dark Knight”. The movie rental costs users $3.00 (Facebook will receive 30% of revenues) and can be watched for 48 hours after purchase.  If the test goes well, we are likely to see more video streaming options on Facebook.

Foursquare v3.0:

Foursquare’s latest app version, v3.0, has some innovative new features. They have done away with the “tips” tab and replaced it with an “explore” tab. The explore tab will look at your information (where you’ve checked in, who you’re connected with, your favorite places to check in) and what you’re looking for (nightlife, sushi, etc.) to show you what Foursquare thinks you’ll like nearby. You will also be able to see how many of your friends have been to a recommended place, and what reviews have been posted about it.

The iPad 2 Available Today:

The iPad 2 has arrived. You can order it online now, and purchase it in store starting at 5pm local time. They will be sold at the Apple Store, AT&T, Best Buy, Target, Verizon Wireless, Walmart and select Apple Authorized Resellers. Starting early today, people were lined up at Apple Stores all over the country in hopes of being some of the first to get the latest tech gadget.

Image from CultofMac.com

SXSW Interactive:

South by SouthWest’s interactive portion was kicked off today in Austin, Texas. Five days of networking events, presentations, announcements and exhibits, all centered around emerging technology. For those of us who can’t be there, we can follow along with the hashtag #SXSW or visit our favorite social media news websites (such as http://techcrunch.com/sxsw/) for updates.

Japan & Social Media:

When a tsunami and an 8.8 magnitude earthquake tragically hit Japan this morning, many took to social media. Some families relied on social media to get in touch with their loved ones, and Google even launched a Japan earthquake person finder to help victims and families locate each other.

There has been an overwhelming amount of support spread though social media channels:

-Anna (@alucas9)

This community has grown over the years, and what has come out of it are real-life friendships, serious relationships, business partnerships, and all the negative and positive things that develop from human interaction.

Yet every time I look at what has made this community grow and glue together (or tear apart in places, as any community will do) has been the concept of feedback, and I don’t use that term simply because that’s the name of this company. You can trace this mini society back to a site called Favrd. Now defunct, Favrd essentially turned Twitter’s “favorites” starring feature into a button that said “That’s funny.” If a tweet made you laugh, you starred it. Favrd collected these stars, then ranked the funniest tweets of the day onto a leaderboard (the site was eventually gamed by a few bad apples and taken down by the creator after all sorts of drama, but that’s a different story). But it was addicting: You wanted to know which jokes worked, which ones didn’t, and who liked it. And then you got to know the people who liked your jokes.

Point, please? A successful online community – one where people congeal together, interact, learn and share – must have such a “liking” feature, or some form of feedback that will keep people coming back again and again. It’s a concept that those of us in the public relations and mass communications industries should take to heart. In fact, you can probably track the beginnings of Facebook’s meteoric rise to 500 million to the February 2009 introduction of the “Like” feature. That was really the first time, aside from typing comments, that the site really allowed its users to give instantaneous feedback.

Of course, this concept of “liking” isn’t new, and it’s not found in the latest social media darlings. Stock traders give feedback and get their comments ranked on Nasdaq.com’s social networking service. Think feedback methods in fantasy football, online role-playing games, Digg, Reddit, or even simple message boards. Think about it: Feedback keeps people coming back to a website or mobile service again and again.

The key is creating a place where people can be effectively rewarded.

For an online community to work, and to keep people coming back to it, it must be able to offer feedback. All the successful websites today feed on the human psyche: The one thing anyone wants is to be accepted, to be loved, liked, hearted, starred, whatever term you choose. In a successful community, online or otherwise, this must be a constant.

-Jeff (@jephkelley)

The Best Of…
The best tech, music and more from 2010

Best, Worst, and Surprise Tech of 2010:

Mashable came out with a list of the best win, flop, and surprise tech of 2010. The winner for 2010 was the iPad. The iPad proved to be a huge success; Apple sold over 8.5 million in 2010. Mashable chose Google Buzz as the biggest flop of 2010, and Groupon as the biggest surprise of 2010. Google Buzz, essentially a mesh of gmail and the status update, never took off. The deal a day service Groupon, on the other hand, is so popular it is now worth a reported $6 billion dollars (Oh, and did I mention, Google tried to buy Groupon…).

Best (i)Tunes of 2010:

What is the top music of 2010? According to iTunes, the top singles include Train, “Hey, Soul Sister,” Katy Perry, “California Gurls” (feat. Snoop Dogg), Eminem, “Love the Way You Lie” (feat. Rihanna), and Lady Antebellum, “Need You Now”. Best selling albums of 2010 included Eminem, Recovery, Lady Gaga, The Fame, Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More, and Jack Johnson, To the Sea. See full list here: http://bit.ly/haj6vf

More Best of Tech:

Other tech items that make my list include Microsoft Kinect, which is a controller free game console.1 million Kinect’s were sold in the first month. Also, the iPhone 4 turned out to be a huge hit in 2010, with HD photo capabilities, Facetime, and a multitouch display. What were your favorite technology items of 2010?

The Night Of…
Ensuring a fun-filled and connected New Years Eve.

Time Square Countdown:

Access Time Square from anywhere. The official time square ball holiday app counts down and shows footage of the ball drop. So for those who can’t make it to NYC for NYE, at least you don’t have to miss the show.

If you’re in Time Square on NYE and are the mayor of the Time Square Visitor Center by noon on NYE, you win 2 tickets to the official New Year’s Eve VIP Party. Details here.

SCVNGR+AE=4Charity:

If you are in Time Square for New Years Eve, you might like to know that SCVNGR is teaming up with America Eagle this New Years Eve. For every SCVNGR task you complete, SCVNGR/AE will donate $10 to Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Skal!:

IKEA has created the app, Skal!, which is a fun NYE toasting app. You pick your glass style and watch it fill with champagne. Clink glasses with the iPhone next to you and your contact information will be shared, and a snapshot photo will be taken of the cheers for you or your friend to post on Facebook or Twitter.

For the Kids:

Have kids? Jeff Kelley (@JephKelley) found this great website where you can set the time you want an animated ball to drop – be it 8pm, 9pm, 10pm, or 11pm. It even does the count down. So, change the clocks, put this website up, and the kids will think they’re staying up for the fun.

More To Come…
Looking forward to 2011

Is iPad 2 coming soon? When will Facebook update company pages (we’ve seen a sneak peek of what they’ll likely look like)? Will Verizon carry the iPhone in 2011? What new technology will we be introduced to at CES? With the ever-changing landscape of social media, I can’t wait to see what’s to come in 2011. Thanks for tuning into my picks of the week this year… exciting changes to come for my pick’s as well!  Happy New Year’s!

-Anna (@alucas9)

Log in to MySpace with Facebook:

MySpace and Facebook held a joint press conference on Thursday, where they announced that you can now log in to MySpace with Facebook. Being called “Mashup with Facebook,” your Facebook likes and interests will be automatically pulled into your MySpace account, making it easier to connect with entertainers. MySpace is also planning to integrate Facebook’s like button on their social network.

The Beatles Hit iTunes:

If you’re a Beatles fan, you may be excited to hear that Apple announced this week that you can finally purchase Beatles songs and albums on iTunes. Songs cost 1.29 a pop. Visit iTunes to purchase.

Twitter Analytics:

Twitter is testing an analytics tool, which is rumored to debut by the end of 2010. As Mashable reports,

“With Twitter Analytics, users will be able to see a plethora of data about their account; for example, information about which tweets are most successful, which tweets caused people to unfollow, and who the most influential users are that reply and retweet their messages.”

Cool!

Boutiques.com:

Google has introduced a new way to shop this week, debuting boutiques.com. This is a personalized shopping experience, which uses computer vision and machine learning technology to analyze your taste and match to clothing you can purchase. As of now, it is only available for women’s clothing, and is only available in the U.S. and in Canada.

Facebook’s Messaging System:

There are over 4 billion Facebook messages sent each day, which is one of the reasons that this week, Facebook announced a new messaging system. The new messaging system offers seamless messaging, cross-platform conversation history and the social inbox. This is not email according to Zuckerberg, who explained, “Messages is not email. There are no subject lines, no cc, no bcc, and you can send a message by hitting the Enter key.” The system will be rolled out slowly in the next few months.