Collective Bias Blog

Meet Our New Account Services Interns!

Mailena — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:59:35 +0000

Erin Piepenbrok is a senior at the University of Arkansas double majoring in Economics and Marketing. During her time at the University of Arkansas, she has maintained the Honors College Fellowship and has studied abroad in India and Japan. During Summer 2012, Erin spent her time in Chicago serving as Marketing and Public Relations Intern for Riders for Health, her favorite philanthropy.

Erin grew up and continues to live in Fayetteville, AR, where you can find her with her two French Bulldogs, Winston and Bella. When she’s not busy, Erin loves to travel, cook, and watch MotoGP.

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/erin-piepenbrok/41/589/109

Twitter: @erinpeep

Tyler Taggart is a graduate of the University of Arkansas with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication. During his senior year, he volunteered as a DJ and wrote music reviews for KXUA, the college radio station at the UofA.

Born and raised in Northwest Arkansas, Tyler enjoys live music., movies (especially matinees), camping, road trips, and the way music sounds on a vinyl record player.

Tyler is very excited to be spending his summer as an Account Services Intern at Collective Bias!

www.linkedin.com/pub/tyler-taggart/3b/677/233/

Twitter handle: @TyTaggart

Susie Dagastino is a senior at the University of Arkansas who studies Advertising and Public Relations with a minor in Communications. She is a political science expert, a master at selfies, and a Harry Potter enthusiast. Although logic and timing doesn’t support her claims, Susie believes that she is Michael Jackson reincarnate. Taking after renown Dunder Mifflin manager, Michael Scott, Susie works too hard, cares too much, and sometimes, she can be too invested in her job.

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/susie-dagastino/67/b85/229

Twitter: @SusieGDagastino

Sam Freeze is a junior at the University of Arkansas majoring in Economics with a double minor in Spanish and Marketing. In Spring of 2014, Sam will be studying abroad in Chile to study Spanish and South American Economics.

Sam grew up overseas in the Netherlands and England before coming back to the states in 2005. He is the youngest of five children, and has two wonderful nephews. In addition to being “Uncle Sam”, he may be pursuing further awesomeness in the name department by getting his PHD to become “Dr. Freeze.”

Sam enjoys reading, hanging with his family, playing basketball, and trivia competitions.

Linked in: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=260466892&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile

Twitter: @CBsamfreeze

Patrick Grace recently graduated from the University of Arkansas with a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and a focus in Entrepreneurship. While finishing his senior year, he interned at Tyson Foods aiding in the management of the companies trade budget.

He hails from Little Rock, Arkansas and loves the Razorbacks, hunting, camping, his black lab Abby and anything that involves oceans, lakes, rivers, or snow covered mountains.

Before he joined the CB Team, he backpacked Europe for three week, spent a summer in Thailand, another in Destin, Florida and two years living in Pacific Grove, California. He is excited for the new adventure with the team at Collective Bias.

Twitter handle: @pattyhgrace

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/patrick-grace/53/203/141

Brett Sosnik recently graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelors of Arts in Economics. He is a native New Jerseyan but now also a Michigan Man. Brett is a sports fanatic and a social media & technology junkie. His addiction to Twitter has even lead friends to bestow upon him the nickname #Soz. Brett will be joining our New York team as an Account Services intern!

LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/in/brettsosnik

Twitter: @BrettSoz

A Social Fabric Member ~ Kirsty Taylor-Gallop

kristinwheeler — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:24:36 +0000

Kirsty is a wife, blogger, wannabe photographer and Mama. She writes a blog with her wife called My Two Mums; they write about their lives and adventures with their 8 month old son who they lovingly refer to as Monkey. They are currently a featured family in a pushchair campaign for Mamas and Papas and are also finalist in the UK Mad Blog Awards.

What has been your favorite campaign with Social Fabric?

My first and only campaign so far was buying items to make an Easter hamper for my son. It was his first Easter, so it was super special thinking of things to buy him. I really loved the experience and it made us think about each item and why to add it.

What do you enjoy most about the Social Fabric Community?

I like the forums and opportunities to discover new blogs I wouldn’t have found.

Please share a link from a campaign you have participated in so we can all go check it out!

http://mytwomums.com/easter-basket/

Any fun or interesting facts about yourself or your blog that you would like to share with the world?

I have completed the London to Brighton bike ride 3 times and hope to one day complete the London Marathon. I love setting challenges and as I get older the challenges are getting more adventurous.

If you were sent to a deserted island with one other person, who would it be and what 3 things would you bring with you?

If I were sent to an island it would have to be with my wife and I would take my camera, my iPad and a mobile dongle, so that I could document our adventures and upload them to our blog.

Kirsty’s Links ~ Check her out, follow her, give her some Social Fabric love!

Blog ~ http://mytwomums.com

Facebook ~ http://www.facebook.com/mytwomums

Twitter ~ http://twitter.com/mytwomums

Amy Callahan Named 2013 “40 Under 40″ Honoree

Mailena — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:19:34 +0000

We are very proud to announce that our very own Amy Callahan, Cofounder and COO, has been named a 2013 “40 Under 40″ honoree by Arkansas Business. There were over 500 nominations so to be selected is truly outstanding!

Each year, Arkansas Business honors 40 intriguing business and political leaders under 40 years. These are rising stars nominated by readers and chosen by the editors of Arkansas Business.

Amy will be featured in a special 20th year edition of Arkansas Business, a retrospective coffee table-style issue that will also list brief updates on all the past 19 classes as well. The issue will be published on June 17th.

This is a great honor for Amy and thanks to her it’s also tremendous recognition for our company. Please congratulate her when you see her next or tweet her at @AmyfromCB.

Congratulations, Amy!

Photo-A-Day Challenge

kristinwheeler — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 20:55:36 +0000

Recently in Social Fabric, we have started a Photo-A-Day Challenge! Not sure what that is? The members of Social Fabric have fun each day sharing a photo on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter based on the topic for that day! Each month has its own list of topics, one topic for each day, the topics are given to participants at the beginning of the month in graphic format. When photos are shared on social media, these photos should include #LuvSoFab, #cbias and the hashtag for that day’s topic (i.e. if the topic is fruit, then also add #fruit). It’s a lot of fun to participate!

Even if you are not a member of Social Fabric you can participate. It’s a fun challenge for all! If you are not a member of Social Fabric and would like to apply, please APPLY to SoFab! We are especially searching for male bloggers, millennial bloggers (ages 18-33), beauty bloggers and fashion bloggers! Make sure you let us know if you meet one of these qualifications in the referral question of your application using the following codes:

Male bloggers = PADMales
Millennial bloggers = PADMillennial
Beauty bloggers = PADBeauty
Fashion bloggers = PADFashion
All other bloggers = PADreferral

Now for the topics for this month! Check out the image below, and HAVE FUN! We can’t wait to see your photos!

A Social Fabric Member ~ Karen Coutu

kristinwheeler — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:15:29 +0000

Karen is a wife to a wonderful man, and a mother to three beautiful children. She has been blogging for over four years. Her primary blog, 3 Garnets & 2 Sapphires, started off as a personal blog, but has evolved quite a bit since its conception. In addition to being a professional blogger, she also handles social media and blogger relations for a small clothing company. To sum it up, she works far too many hours and needs to find a way to balance working at home with everything else in her life.

What has been your favorite campaign with Social Fabric?

I would have to say my favorite campaign has been the Fall Cookie’s Kids shop. I just love to shop, especially for fashion items. I am also a recovering Polyvore addict, so I loved having an excuse to hop on there to create a new fashion set.

What do you enjoy most about the Social Fabric Community?

What I enjoy most about the Social Fabric Community are the Shoppertunities that push me to be creative, whether it is with fashion, a craft, or a recipe.

Please share a link from a campaign you have participated in so we can all go check it out!

http://www.3garnets2sapphires.com/2012/09/shop-n-share-kids-fall-fashion.html

Any fun or interesting facts about yourself or your blog that you would like to share with the world?

I am a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan and am currently slowly working my way through all the novels that have been written based on the television series.

If you were sent to a deserted island with one other person, who would it be and what 3 things would you bring with you?

If I could only have one person with me onto a deserted island, I would choose my husband because he is my best friend. I would likely bring art supplies, a game (either Chess or Scrabble), and a photo of our family because those are all things both my husband and I would enjoy having with us.

Karen’s Links ~ Check her out, follow her, give her some Social Fabric love!

Blog ~ http://www.3garnets2sapphires.com/

Facebook ~ https://www.facebook.com/3Garnets2Sapphires

Twitter ~ https://twitter.com/_Karen

Change is Good

John Andrews — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 16:39:12 +0000

In the business world, change brings enormous opportunities for value creation as old business models give new and more efficient ways of doing things, and unless companies are really good at managing change (or have a butt-kicking change agent, ahem IBM), they tend to get displaced.

Behold the media industry and a full on, Godzilla Tokyo style beat down change era. Media companies are actively driving change and using piles of cash to do it. However, it seems to me that the investments are still being deployed against the prevailing business model; you know, get a bunch of eyeballs and show them ads. That worked well when you could control the channel but now, consumers really don’t consume media that way. They choose the media they want, when they want it, how they want it and switch channels incessantly.

Instagram and Tumblr have huge amounts of eyeballs but neither have anything like an identifiable revenue model and it’s likely that anything resembling an ad will be roundly rejected. Ads in the new media world aren’t really ads at all, they are content that the user WANTS to consume because it’s interesting, funny, helpful, etc. The content itself is the ad and like all content, crap tends to be ignored or worse, ridiculed. Even with accepted social platforms like Facebook, there is doubt among marketers about the advertising effectiveness.

I suppose you are looking for a point. Here it is, ready? There are a bunch of new media companies (one that I work for included) that have robust, growing, viable revenue models producing content-based social advertising with measurable results! Many have business models that are focused on dislocating specific types of inefficient traditional media (big pot of money) vs. taking share from other forms of digital (smaller pot of money). This is where marketers need help as most of their investments are STILL deployed in print and broadcast and they welcome investments that help them engage with consumers, not advertise to them.

App Review Series: Flickr

kristinwheeler — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 13:12:36 +0000

App Review Series: This series is written by members of Social Fabric to educate other members about new apps, how to use them, and their opinions about the apps. These are not sponsored posts, but written by members who volunteered to do a review.

As a blogger taking wonderful pictures is a must. Even though I have a good camera for this purpose, I am often not at home or just need a quick picture that I don’t have time to get my camera. I recently was asked to review Flickr, a Free App from Yahoo that allows you to share your photos with anyone, anywhere! Instantly share with your Flickr groups, Facebook, Twitter, tumblr or email contacts. You pick.

So what does Flickr have that makes it an easy tool for bloggers or just photo enthusiasts?

As you can see it is pretty easy to change the look of a photo and store it on your album.

- Capture and create stunning photos: Take photos with the app’s easy-to-use camera and make them your own with all new filters, editing features, and geo-tagging.
- Discover the world through photos: The most interesting images in the world live on Flickr. Rediscover the world and be inspired by the Flickr community of photo hobbyists.
- Experience high-quality, high-resolution photos: Flickr maintains the original quality of your photos so they look as crisp and stunning as the moment you snapped the photo. Your photos always look better on Flickr!

Requirements for the Flickr APP: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

My 11-year-old daughter is home from school and loves playing with technology, especially photo site, so I allowed her to fool around with it a little bit and take some pictures with me on my iPad mini. It is simple to start-up; just simply upload the app from iTunes and then create your login information. Simple right!

What she learned:

You can add all sorts of stickers easily to a picture you take from Flicker or you can upload previously shot photos.

You can also add fun frames to photos. This photo was taken a while ago and she just enhanced it.

She had so much fun editing photos I had to pull my iPad back from her.

You can easily send it to your Facebook or Twitter account as well.

✓ Custom filters enhance your photos plus photo correction, retouching and many other tools

✓ Access your Flickr photos on any device – phone, tablet, computer and Apple TV!

✓ Connect with others around shared interests. Whether it’s food, travel, or anything else – Flickr has more than 1.6M groups, so there’s bound to be a Group that interests you!

✓ New justified layout photo display makes your personal photostream look amazing

✓ See recent photo activities from your friends and family. Make comments or mark them as favorites.

✓ Flexible, personal privacy options to make your photos as public or private as you want

PROs:

FREE
Custom filters enhance your photos plus photo correction, retouching and many other tools
Access your Flickr photos on any device – phone, tablet, computer and Apple TV!
Connect with others around shared interests. Whether it’s food, travel, or anything else – Flickr has more than 1.6M groups, so there’s bound to be a Group that interests you!
New justified layout photo display makes your personal photo stream look amazing
See recent photo activities from your friends and family. Make comments or mark them as favorites.
Flexible, personal privacy options to make your photos as public or private as you want.

CONS:

One more app and social media site to work with (come on bloggers you know what I am talking about)
Just be careful as to what you want Flickr to have access to. Make sure you check the public/private for each photo/album.
I had to set it up with a yahoo account which I did not have, so just one more login to remember

I will continue to use this app for photos for my blog and the kids will have a place to enhance their own photos.

Bio: Maria is a SAHM of 3 and pet owner of 2, working part-time tutoring and blogging. She loves spending time in the kitchen, garden and crafting with her kids as well as discovering family friendly products to make life at home easier! You can find her at Close to Home.

Catch her on social media:

Blog – http://www.stayingclosetohome.com

Twitter – @stayclosetohome

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/stayingclosetohome

The Content “IS” the Ad

Ted Rubin — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 15:31:09 +0000

There’s a lot of angst in marketing land right now. With Google’s Panda and Penguin changes and social algorithms that favor engagement, it may look as though SEO is dead, or that traditional ads will soon be going the way of the dodo. What’s a marketer to think? Are we supposed to throw out everything we learned about marketing and advertising to date and learn to ride a new horse? How the heck are we supposed to get in front of customers now?

Well, things ARE changing. Traditional advertising isn’t yet extinct, but there is simply too much noise out there, and people are sick of it. They’re shutting out the blast advertising that has crept into every aspect of their lives and centering in on the things they truly care about—friends, family, and social connections. You need to take a step back and study this shift in order to take advantage of it.

For brands, that doesn’t mean you can simply move your blast advertising campaigns into social channels. You actually have to make real conversation with real people and help them get what they want. That means knowing your prospects well enough to understand what they want. It also means creating content that’s helpful, entertaining, educational, or all of the above—content that helps them make a decision when they’re ready to buy; content they’re willing to share with friends.

Does that mean advertising is dead? Not entirely. Smart brands have noticed that we’re moving to a “connection economy,” and they are producing ongoing content that meets the new search “relevancy” standards. They’ve studied their audiences, listened to their social conversations, and have developed plans to use that content in their social profiles to emotionally connect to their audiences and encourage conversation. When it resonates, it gets shared and receives comments and likes, which makes that brand more visible in search.

What it all boils down to is that in the new world of content marketing, the Content “IS” the Marketing. Sharing, conversation, and emotionally connected content will be the ads of the future. Instead of thinking in terms of “Convince and Convert,” start thinking in terms of “Converse and Convert.” Helpful content gives your customers reasons to stay engaged—not just react—and also increases brand advocacy.

So start thinking like a publisher because the more relevant, helpful content you create, the better you can drive engagement. And as my ROR formula illustrates… Content drives Engagement, Engagement drives Advocacy, and Advocacy correlates directly to Increased Sales.

A Social Fabric Member ~ Jen Walshaw

kristinwheeler — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 13:51:39 +0000

Jen is a mum of two boys just 15 months apart who is originally from the NE of England and returned there whilst pregnant with her second child from an extended stay in Berkshire. She left the corporate world behind and became a SAHM and also looked after her Mum who was unwell. She started blogging as a way to keep a record of day to day life in The Mad House (never quiet, but not always interesting) after a double mastectomy.

What has been your favorite campaign with Social Fabric?

I have only done one campaign at the moment, but I love anything that brings family together and allows them to connect.

What do you enjoy most about the Social Fabric Community?

I like connecting with people and establishing relationships. I do not want to be best friends with people, but I do value others opinions and thoughts. I feel that by being part of something like this, I am also part of a like-minded community. I know that I always value other peoples opinions of products and places and always check online before committing my own money to anything. I also like being an online influencer, being able to try things out and be an early adopter.

Please share a link from a campaign you have participated in so we can all go check it out!

http://www.muminthemadhouse.com/2013/04/09/redefining-me-time/

Any fun or interesting facts about yourself or your blog that you would like to share with the world?

Oh, I am so not interesting. I wouldn’t want people to think that you have to be interesting to blog. I write about the everyday mundane things in life. I am really an introvert in RL. But online am happy to share things I wouldn’t elsewhere. I am fiercely loyal and never thought I would have children.

If you were sent to a deserted island with one other person, who would it be and what 3 things would you bring with you?

I would like to be on an island with my man. We have been married 18 years, ten years before Maxi came along and sometimes I miss our time together without the children. Lose leaf tea. I am a tea monster and need good quality tea to keep me sane. Tea is my vice and I love it from a tea pot! A pen and Paper (that counts as one right?) I need to write. I need to get out what is in my head and writing allows me to process my thoughts. Sunscreen – I am very pale and burn, so would need sunscreen!

Jen’s Links ~ Check her out, follow her, give her some Social Fabric love!

Blog ~ http://www.muminthemadhouse.com

Facebook ~ http://www.facebook.com/muminthemadhouse

Twitter ~ http://twitter.com/mum_themadhouse

App Review Series: tumblr

kristinwheeler — Thu, 30 May 2013 21:00:19 +0000

Welcome to the new tumblr app. If you’re new to tumblr, it is a microblogging social media website sweeping the internet by storm. If you’re anything like me you’re thinking “really… another social media thingamajig for me to keep up with?” Well, the answer is, yes. Anybody who’s anybody is using tumblr. I’m now on the bandwagon and here’s why you should be too.

Tumblr is a blogging platform that allows users to post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio to their tumblelog. Think twitter with more options. You can post directly from your device or repost thinks you like from them web. Users can follow friends, companies, celebrities, or other users they find interesting. The service emphasizes ease of use. You can even customize your tumblog, personalizing everything from fonts and colors to complete themes. Basically, if you like twitter, you’ll love tumblr.

The first thing you’ll need to do to start using the new tumblr app is; go to the app store and download it. Don’t worry, it’s free. If you already have an account you can simply sign in. If you don’t, you just have to sign up for an account. Yes, like any other social media site, you have to have an account to view. Don’t worry, you’ve already handed over all of your personal information to a hand full of other sites, what’s one more.

Tumblr will ask to access your Facebook account, but don’t worry. It’s only to connect you with friends that already have tumblr. This is nice because it allows you to view and follow their posts and allows them to find you.

Once your in, you can browse all the tumblr accounts you please. You can search names, topics, interests, or you can pick from a list of genres such as sports, art, fashion, etc. Make sure to follow the ones you like. This way, whenever they create new posts you’ll be the first to know. Well, you and all of their other followers. I am following #Art, #Science, #Poetry and more!

Next, you should familiarize yourself with the 7 posting formats. You can post via text, photo, video, audio, quote, link, or chat.

These formats are pretty self explanatory so I’ll spare you the details. Posting is key to gaining followers of your own. Here I picked the little yellow button~opting for a quote! It seemed like the right fit. Don’t forget to add labels to each and every post, so your post can be easily searched for my other Tumblr’s.

If you already have a real blog you can use it to promote your most recent posts. Or, you can tell the world what flavor coffee you’re drinking this morning. The content is entirely up to you. A little tip; the key to internet stardom is to keep your content interesting and relevant. (Nobody really cares what flavor coffee you’re drinking.) After you have posted~ tumblr makes it easy to amplify your post.

I opted to send a quick tweet- It is already programmed in the tweet box! Just hit send……

Now you can start customizing. The customize page is split into multiple sections. There is info, theme, appearance, pages, services, community, and advanced. Feel free to play around with these settings to find the ones you like. don’t be intimidated, tumblr is very easy to use, each option has a detailed explanation of its use to avoid any confusion. I haven’t quite finished my overall look yet, but I am busy sharing my blog posts via tumblr!

Overall I would suggest this app if you’re a seasoned blogger looking to broaden your reader base or a newbie just looking to plugin to the latest social media craze. The new tumblr app makes it easy and quick to amplify your work.

Now just post, post, post, read, follow, and enjoy.

Melissa Brouillette {L} and Tiffany Ellman {R} met in college a long time ago and have been practically inseparable ever since. They’re both homeschooling and attached parenting Mama’s with Special Needs children.

Melissa and Tiffany believe that every family is unique and no one really falls into a ‘niche’ and they write Home Grown Families to reflect the ‘quirky’ in every family. While it is primarily a parenting/family blog, it focuses heavily on travel and product reviews, too.

Melissa is a traveling nurse and feels blessed with the opportunity to show her children so much of the world. She has 4 children and a very handy husband. Tiffany is a stay at home single Mama to 3 girls and is obsessed with Marvel Superheros.

You can follow Melissa on her site: http://www.homegrownfamilies.netFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/homegrownfamiliesTwitter: https://twitter.com/momtosprouts