@Sweden Welcomes @Netherlanders to Twitter

@Sweden Welcomes @Netherlanders to Twitter




The latest international Twitter trend? So-called Rotation Curation accounts which represent a given country, and are hosted by a different individual each week. These curators aim to influence the perception of their country abroad.

The @Sweden account gave the idea currency; now the Netherlands has joined the game with the handle @Netherlanders.

The rotation will officially start the week of July 16th, but @Netherlanders is up and tweeting already. Dutch citizens and ex-pats can apply to run the account for a week at Netherlanders.eu.

The current Netherlander, @Elmeraculous, has tweeted via @Netherlanders less than a dozen times at time of writing. His seventh tweet was to ask…
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More About: Twitter


Twitter Expands Sports Presence With Curated Euro 2012 Page

Twitter Expands Sports Presence With Curated Euro 2012 Page




Building off a partnership with NASCAR to corral relevant tweets and photos for the Pocono 400 earlier this month, Twitter on Friday launched a curated destination for the Euro 2012 soccer championship.

The new page — Twitter.com/#Euro2012 — is a home for the “best and most relevant Tweets from commentators, broadcasters, journalists, players, former players and lots more” during the world’s second biggest international soccer tournament, according to a post to the official Twitter blog by Omid Ashtari, the company’s head of sports and entertainment.

The page also provides a group of top follows for soccer fans and collects Euro 2012 photos from around the Twittersphere. Friday’s q…
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More About: sports, Twitter


Why Social Networks Won’t Kill the Blog

Why Social Networks Won’t Kill the Blog




Mashable OP-ED: This post reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily those of Mashable as a publication.

In the last year, users have turned to social sharing platforms like Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram to share bite-sized snacks of content, while relying on blogs to enable longer forms of communication and self-expression. In one sense, it’s become the equivalent of a social media full meal.

But, as if on cue, online Cassandras meet this growth in social sites with various visions of social media death. Are these newer tools Twitter-killers? The “next Facebook?” The sign of end-times for blogs? The short answer is no.

When looking at the data about how these new sharing platforms play, particularly with blogs, it’s more accurate to consider them all to be a blogger’s best…
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More About: BLOGS, contributor, Facebook, features, pinterest, trending, tumblr


Finally, a Solution for Correcting Erroneous Tweets

Finally, a Solution for Correcting Erroneous Tweets




Twitter is celebrated for rapidly distributing breaking news, sometimes reaching vast audiences before that information is reported by the press. But sometimes that information is inaccurate, misspelled or taken offensively — and it can be difficult to correct once it’s saturated the Twittersphere.

So how do you stop a bad tweet from spreading? Simply deleting it often looks suspicious. Deleting it and issuing a correction is better, but even then, tweets can perpetuate in quoted retweets and in screenshots (or, if you’re a member of congress, remain forever on public display.)

In an entry on his agency’s blog, interface designer Oliver Recihenstein proposes an alternative. Give users…
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More About: journalism, Media, Twitter


55+ Events in Social Media and Business

55+ Events in Social Media and Business




Are you ready to gear up for the year’s biggest events in your industry? Keep your eyes on the curated listing of more than 55 events on Mashable’s new Events Board. There are plenty of business conferences and exhibitions in a wide range of topics — plus some special and exclusive events that are sure to educate and entertain. If getting out and mingling with top executives in your field is on your to-do list, you’ll find plenty to do.

Every week we highlight new events that are at the top of our must-go list, and new events are added around the clock. Don’t forget to visit our Events Board for networking opportunities, meetings and expos that will help jumpstart your professional s…
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More About: Events, features, mashable


Mass Relevance Gets Sporty With TaylorMade, MLB

Mass Relevance Gets Sporty With TaylorMade, MLB




Major League Baseball and golf brand TaylorMade both introduced powerful Twitter curation tools this week designed to assemble relevant tweets for baseball fans and golf fans following the US Open.

MLB’s 140 Club tracks and compiles fan and player tweets relevant to the sport’s hottest topics, and provides a feed from the official @MLB account. TaylorMade’s US Open social destination similarly aggregates fans tweets for the tournament that begins Thursday and includes some more explicitly marketing oriented features.

Both tools are the result of collaborations with Mass Relevance, Twitter’s official social curation and integration partner. Mass Relevance CMO Matt Corey tells Mashable
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More About: sports, Twitter


Twitter: New Hashtag Pages Are For Events, Not Brands

Twitter: New Hashtag Pages Are For Events, Not Brands




New Hashtag Pages for Events

Twitter’s first TV commercial aired Sunday, touting a web page that curates conversations including the hashtag #NASCAR. The commercial left many brands wondering what Twitter had in store for them with the new hashtag pages.

Mashable learned Monday that although this project was a partnership between NASCAR and Twitter, NASCAR had no editorial insight on what appeared on the page, meaning the new hashtag pages are for events, not brands.

Twitter explained in an email that the hashtag event page, launched for Sunday’s 2012 Pocono 400 NASCAR race, was aimed at detailing the race experience and not the NASCAR brand.

The social network employed algorithms and human curation to s…
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More About: Advertising, brands, Business, hashtags, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter


The Beginner’s Guide to Tumblr

The Beginner’s Guide to Tumblr




Tumblr is a micro-blogging platform that churns out more than 64 million posts daily. There are 57.5 million blogs on Tumblr, which might seem intimidating to anyone not already using it.

Tumblr could be useful to you for many reasons, depending on what you’re looking to get out of it, for example, inspiration, scrapbooking, communication or a portfolio.

The site is a mix of bloggers, brands and tastemakers. But to keep it simple, there are essentially two types of bloggers on Tumblr: those who create original content and those who curate, or re-blog posts.

Depending on how you want to utilize the platform, this guide will help you move from a Tumblr novice to power blogger.


1. Getting Started


Tumblr registration is simple: You only need an email address, password and username. However, considering there are 57.5 million blogs on Tumblr, it’s possible that you won’t get your first choice of username.

With Tumblr, you can change your URL later, so if you absolutely hate it down the road, that can be fixed — but keep in mind that change will affect SEO.

Be sure to upload a default image, too, to complete your profile.


2. What Do I Do With This?


Once you have an account, there are a number of following options, depending on how you want to utilize the site.

Some use Tumblr to write and create original content, for example, to document lifestyle, travels, milestones or to showcase work.

Tumblr hosts some hilarious parody and nostalgia blogs that cater to specific persons, places or things.

If you’re not creating your own content, Tumblr is also great for curating. Many users browse the web for the best and most interesting things they can find. It’s up to you to decide what that is: hilarious videos, inspiring quotes, breathtaking photos? Whether you like animals, fashion, art, music, film or just a random assortment of interesting finds, decide what you want to blog about before going further.

Here are a few examples of what others are doing on Tumblr:


3. Customizing


1. Quadro

From the font to the layout, the Quadro theme is a close tie with the Pinterest pinboard.

Click here to view this gallery.

Aside from suiting your blog to your personality, one of the most fun things about Tumblr is the ability to customize themes. Tumblr themes offer the ability to customize the look, feel and functionality of your blog.

Try to avoid the default theme, simply because there are hundreds more to choose from, and many talented designers have put a lot of effort into them.

Some themes are free, but if you really want your blog to stand out, consider paying for a premium theme that offers more personalized options.

Once you’ve selected a theme, you can customize further by editing HTML, changing colors or font type, adding a background image or adding pages.

Here are a few of our favorite themes:

12 Free Tumblr Themes to Class Up Your Blog

8 Professional Tumblr Themes for Your Small Business

Mashable Picks: Our 11 Favorite Tumblr Themes

9 Free Tumblr Themes That Look Like Pinterest


4. The Dashboard


Tumblr’s dashboard is really user-friendly, no matter the format of content you want to post.

If you’re not ready to publish a post, or want to come back to it later, you can either save as a draft or schedule it in the queue. Both options are on the right side of the dashboard.

At the top of the dashboard, next you your profile picture, you’ll see a series of colorful icons labeled by format: text, photo, video, etc. Depending on what you’re trying to share, the options in each individual post box are really easy to figure out.

For added convenience, you can place the Tumblr bookmarklet at the top of your web browser. There are a number of other useful tips here.

The tabs at the top of the dashboard allow you to filter between views: either just your posts or those from people you follow. (We’ll talk more about your followers later.) If you want to see your posts in the back-end, click on your tab. To view it as your chosen theme, click on your profile picture.

Each post in the dashboard has a series of buttons at the top-right, which let you engage with others by re-blogging and liking their posts. (This is where the distinction between original content creator vs. curator is most prominent.) Most original content bloggers don’t re-blog very often because they are publishing to a certain style or subject.

However, the more followers you have, the more quickly their posts move on your dashboard — remember, there are millions of posts each day. If you want to keep all of your favorite posts in one place, the little heart at the right corner of each post is your friend. You can then click the heart tab on the far-right to access all of the things you’ve liked in one place.


5. Navigation


By now, you should be set up and ready to “tumble.” But half the fun is discovering what other people are posting, especially if you’re using the platform to curate, or re-blog. So, how do you find other interesting people and blogs?

Tumblr has a series of tags, which you can view in Explore, that separate individual posts by different interests — for example art, humor, music, fashion, television, etc.

A select group of people manage each tag and hand-pick posts best-suited for the category.

Additionally, Spotlight is a Tumblr feature that showcases various noteworthy blogs within each tag.

You can read more about some of the tags and their editors here:


6. Connecting With People


Tumblr is not just for self-engagment. There are a number of ways to connect with people you know and reach out to new people.

First of all, by authorizing Gmail, Twitter and Facebook, you can see which of your friends are already using the platform.

If you’d like to reach out to someone privately, see the envelope icon at the top-right, where you can send a message. The feature offers different styles of paper-themed backgrounds and fonts, which makes each message seem more personal.

Some users have also enabled the “Ask Me Anything” feature. Keep in mind the user can post any question on his site, but you can always opt to ask anonymously.


7. Mobile


Once you’ve successfully navigated the basics of Tumblr, take your blogging on-the-go with the platform’s free mobile app — available for iOS and Android.

The mobile app’s features are pretty similar to the website, except that the dashboard appears slightly more minimal. Otherwise, all of the things explained above are available on mobile — you can still post all the same formats of multimedia, and even customize your blog.


Tumblr is as vast as it’s never-ending dashboard — there’s a lot more to the site, but this overview should give you a good head start.

What tips do you have for someone testing out Tumblr for the first time? Share your advice in the comments.

Image courtesy of Tumblr, silas216

More About: blogging, features, microblog, Social Media, trending, tumblr, tumblr themes

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10 Funniest Tweets of the Week

10 Funniest Tweets of the Week

1. @JDShapiro

Click here to view this gallery.

Molly McAleer, writer for 2 Broke Girls and HelloGiggles co-founder, curates this week’s Twitter comedy, and she’s taking a less-traditional approach.

“My favorite Tweets this week are — for the most part — nontraditional,” says McAleer. “You’d never hear them in a stand-up act or see them printed on a bumper sticker, but they’re hilarious to me just the same.”

McAleer is a Twitter veteran, having joined the site in 2006. Back then, she says, it was a small community of her “favorite Internet-types, uber dorks and a bunch of random folks from Godknowswhere.” Before hashtags, retweeting and “@” replies, it was a random directory of users you stumbled upon without interaction.

“People would quite literally answer Twitter’s prompt question of ‘What’s going on?’ with things like, ‘Driving home from work and passing a candy factory. The highway smells like Butterfingers,’” says McAleer. “I found that to be very charming.”

But Twitter has evolved into something else completely now. Social media has altered traditional journalism. One of the most profound examples of the shift within news organizations on Twitter came after the Iran election, and since then, Twitter’s become the primary source for breaking news and celebrity deaths.

It’s also a great source of entertainment, especially for comedians.

“Over the last couple of years, Twitter (or at least my feed) has become a place to read and share jokes and quips,” says McAleer. “While I enjoy humor as much as the next person, this has been my least favorite era of Twitter. I find it to be the least interesting.”

What McAleer does like about Twitter, and the Internet altogether, is that she has control over what she wants to see and can ignore the rest. Her favorite people on Twitter are the ones who make her laugh without trying.

“I mean, save trying for your paycheck or your family or something legitimate, right? Let’s maybe just bask in the ordinary, the silly, the unique ways that people naturally share their voice,” says McAleer. “Do I sound like a hater? I don’t mean to be a hater.”

Looking for more funny tweets? You can check out last week’s roundup here.

More About: comedy, humor, trending, tweets, Twitter, viral

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Pinterest Rolls Out Curated Newsletter for Users

Pinterest Rolls Out Curated Newsletter for Users




Users on Pinterest usually have to seek interesting content for themselves, but a new feature quietly rolled out Saturday drives them to even more personalized content.

Pinterest has become a hot social pinboard that drives more traffic than most major social networks — meaning there is more content on the site than ever. That’s why many users are sure to appreciate Pinterest’s new weekly email newsletter, making it easier to find even more great pins and helping them keep tabs on how their own pins are doing.

Mimicking the website’s pinboard style, each pin or board in the email is linked to the website, but users are unable to re-pin or like a post directly from the newsletter. The newsletter lists a few popular boards, pins from friends that might be of interest and a useful feature for brands especially: your most popular pins of the week.

SEE ALSO: Eyes On Pinterest: How People Look at Your Boards

Pinterest also includes its own favorite post in the newsletter, which this week was a lip-dub marriage proposal that went viral on YouTube.

Though Pinterest is stepping up its curation game, startups are seizing the opportunity to make Pinterest a more enjoyable experience for users. Earlier this month, a site launched that notifies users via email when their pinned items go on sale. The recent startup Pinerly offers basic analytics about pin performance and scheduling pins.

There’s also WP Pinner, which is a plug-in that lets WordPress users share, track and schedule material on Pinterest.

What features would you like to see added to Pinterest’s email newsletter? Share your thoughts in the comments.

More About: content curation, email, newsletters, pinterest, Social Media, trending

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