One of the amazing perks of working at Ignite Social Media is our annual Mystery Trip.  Each year our company, along with Brogan & Partners, closes down for a long weekend to unwind and bond as a team on a group vacation. A few months before we depart, the company gets a series of clues as to where we are going and what to pack, but no one truly knows the location until they open their travel packet at the airport. This year, 92 of us traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana for great food, music and even a swamp tour! Below are some of our favorite photos from the trip: At 4AM, both the Michigan and North Carolina offices gathered at their local airports for the big destination reveal. The North Carolina office opening up their travel packets, complete with Mardi Gras beads! Admiring St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square while sightseeing around the French Quarter. Open 24 hours a day, Cafe Du Monde beignets proved to be a popular snack both day and night! Holding a two-year old alligator named Allie on our tour of the Manchac Swamp just outside of New Orleans. Our tour guide feeding some of the larger alligators in the swamp by hand from the boat. The entire group, both Ignite Social Media and Brogan & Partners, together after the swamp tour for a photo op. A big THANK YOU to all of our clients who make it possible and for allowing us to officially shut down for one day each year. Stay tuned for the 2013 Mystery Trip… did I mention we are hiring? Let us know where you think we should go next!

There are a number of social games out there on a variety of platforms – although the most popular seem to be those played on Facebook and smartphones. If you’re reading this, chances are you play at least one of them: Words with Friends, Scramble with Friends, Hanging with Friends, Draw Something, The Sims Social, Gardens of Time, Diamond Dash, Bubble Island…the list goes on. But do you play those games with only friends and family, or have you reached out to business contacts on your quest to challenge new competitors? Do you play only at home or during “free time,” or do you play social games at work? An impressive 47% of employed U.S. Internet users confess to playing social games at work…some – albeit a minority – admit to playing for 5 or more hours. Keeping this in mind, amongst other things, let’s take a look at how social gaming can either help or hurt your business. Social Gaming vs Productivity There’s no doubt that those employees who spent more than half of their eight hour work day gaming are being less than productive as far as their jobs are concerned. In today’s job market, these employees should probably reconsider how they spend their time, or else face the chopping block the next time the company decides to tighten the belt. But taking shorter mental breaks during the day by playing games can actually boost your productivity. So taking your turn at Words With Friends while waiting for a meeting to start or spending your break time in a Draw Something showdown could actually help you get more work done – as long as you aren’t replacing work time with play time. Social Gaming and Meaningful Relationships How well do you really know the people you work with? The people you work for? Your clients? Your vendors? Chances are, you have mostly superficial relationships with most of the people you do business with – although the line gets a little blurry when you connect with these people on social media. Playing social games with your business connections is a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, if you’re too quick at taking your turn in Scramble with Friends while playing against your boss, he or she may wonder why you’re never doing anything more important that would prevent you from playing – like that project with the deadline that’s rapidly approaching. Or if you’re really unlucky, you could be having the best game of your life against one of your clients – who happens to be a terrible loser, and may think too much about that gaming grudge when another vendor approaches them with a competitive offer for the same services you provide. But barring that sort of thing, playing social games can form another layer of depth to the relationships you have with business contacts. Your name becomes familiar to them, which could be handy when a colleague is asked who they think may be right for a new position in their department or an old client has a big project coming up and needs to put out a call for proposals. As a matter of fact, Jane McGonigal spoke at TED about how we should play even more games because we are building trust and improving the social fabric of our relationships with the people we play with. As someone who makes a business of being a wordsmith, I’ve increased my respect for several colleagues who provide a challenge for me in Scramble with Friends, as I’m never quite sure which of us will win at the end of three rounds. If I’m ever asked for recommendations of fellow writers and bloggers, I wouldn’t hesitate to suggest these women for their intelligence, quick thinking, and impressive vocabularies. Who do you play social games with? Do you think your gaming habits have affected your business in any way?

Pinterest has a reputation for being popular with the ladies. I suppose there’s a reason for that; Forbes reported that 97% of Pinterest users are women, and that 47% of women who use social media have made purchases based on Pinterest recommendations. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t men on Pinterest. They may make up only 3% of the population, but men make up a minority worth paying attention to. Many of them are far more popular than most of us women. Is it the novelty of having a man in a “woman’s world?” (That’s tongue in cheek, folks. Not trying to be sexist here.) No, these fellas have more going for them than simple testosterone. Their pinboards are something to behold. 20 Men to Follow on Pinterest Drew Hawkins Drew has over 150,000 followers…and remember that a person doesn’t count as a follower if they decide to unfollow even one of your boards. Drew helps curate the Board of Man (over 323,000 followers) which is a group pinboard described as “An effort to add a few extra y chromosomes to Pinterest. Etsy promos and recipes be darned.” He gets his geek on with boards dedicated to Star Wars, Indiana Jones, the undead, and Back to the Future. Also look for a manly Sean Connery board and…cute puppies? Mike Street A blogger and social media strategist, Mike has an eclectic collection of pinboards. My personal favorites are Food Porn, Awesome Black Women, I Love Japan, and Cocktails R Us, but you can also find Mike’s take on the usual Pinterest fare of recipes, funny pics, and social media tips. Thomas Murphy Over 800,000 followers can’t be wrong! From furniture to Art, Nautical to Autos, Thomas shows off photos in classic style. His beautiful collection of black and white photographs boasts 1.7 million followers, and it probably won’t be long before it hits the 2 million mark. Although he only has 12 boards at the current time, it’s clear that Thomas has found that quality definitely beats quantity. George Takei Whether you know him as Mr. Sulu from Star Trek or from the countless memes and graphics he has helped spread on Facebook and Twitter nowadays, George Takei has gotten himself in the Pinterest trenches, as well. As I write this, he hasn’t yet reached 15,000 followers, but that will change once his Twitter and Facebook fans find him here. He’s got boards for Sci Fi, Nerds, Parenting, Cats and Dogs, Equality, and even A Feminine Perspective. Kyle Newton Over 14,000 pinners follow this design student, and Kyle’s cover images are all quite stunning. There is, of course, a design board, which has attracted over 31,000 followers. You also won’t want to overlook beautiful people, typography, Men’s Shoes & Socks, or architecture & interior design. Reg Saddler You may know him better as @zaibatsu, for he seems to attract a following wherever he goes. In additional to the obligatory infographic  and social media boards, Reg has some real gems under cool photos, Travel, #BroPin, and MustFollow Pinterest People Networking! His educational board has some really interesting things on it, too. I could waste so much time just on that one… Olivier Blanchard Social media author Olivier Blanchard has some of most sophisticated pinboards you’ll see – The Sartorialism, The Board of Respect, and The Craft: Favorite Actors look the classiest on the cover. Tattoo enthusiasts will enjoy Ink, and there’s some female eye candy under In the Land of Eros. For the curious, that last one is mostly NSFW even though it’s tastefully done. Those in the industry can also find the Guide to SXSWi 2012 collaborative board here. Philip Kading You can tell that Philip spent time deciding how to order his pinboards, because his page has a very clean look to it. From Bikes to Garden, Celebrity to Home Office, Run On to Water Feature – I find myself wondering why he doesn’t have more followers already. Brad Baard The names of Brad’s pinboards are most striking to me, and some of the subjects are some I haven’t seen anywhere else. For a bit of whimsy, be sure to check out Carnival, Bollemakiesie, Delirium, Flamingo, Glorious Monochrome, Pattern Recognition, and Waterfalling. With over 10,000 pins, you could get lost for hours, so plan accordingly. Hansol Kim Classic actors and actresses headline Hansol’s top pinboards, but you can find a lot more than pretty faces among his 20,000+ pins. Over 587,000 followers have flocked to Hansol’s boards, which include topics such as Home, Fashion, Let’s Dance, Alice n fairyland, Doors and Windows, Ukelele, and Ceramics and Glass. Mike D How did Mike end up with nearly 1.3 million followers? With 17 carefully curated boards. He’s got Badgography, Illustrative, Cartography, Sustenance, Inside, Outside, K9, and even Father’s Day. Some of his boards are followed by almost 3 million people…are you one of them? Leandro Toledo Leandro says he’s “keen on witty humor.” His boards look a lot like some others I follow, which means they are certainly good for a laugh. Over 600,000 others agree. Get your Meme, Sarcasm, Funny, and Keep Calm on. Chris Ouellette I find Chris to be an underrated pinner. At The Ballet is simply beautiful, and Jeepers Creepers provides stark contrast. Also worth a look: Mouseketeer, Paper Art, Maquillage, and “If You Want to View Paradise…” Eric Grant Eric is another little-known pinner, but he curates some boards you won’t see anywhere else – like Urban Planning & Design, Design History & Thought, and Augmented Reality. He also has some useful things pinned to Email Newsletters, Hot UI, Best Practices, Mobile Design, and Data Visualizations. Jeremy Pruitt You may know Jeremy from THINKMULE; if not, his THINKMULE boards may jog your memory. His Typography board has an astonishing 2,500 pins with nearly 5,000 followers. Aside from his design boards, he has a collection that includes Clint Eastwood, Beer, Hollow Bones, Cabin, and Wood Shop. Matthew Carlson As a designer, Matthew says he’s into digital storytelling, and his colorful pinboards could tell a lot of stories to his 38,000 followers. Take a gander at Posterized, Toy Box, Product Lust, Birdy, Beasty, Fishy, Buggy, Faces, Places, Winespotting, and much more. Aaron De Simone Aaron is another designer with a colorful collection of boards – and he is followed by over 200,000 people. Once you get past fashion, food, and style, check out dinner party, autolust, wedding photography, and patterns + textures. Daniel Bear Hunley Daniel is a Southern gentleman who happens to have over 1.2 million followers. He’s got your Gastro and Spirits, Ferocious Animals and Man Garden, Kidz and T-Shirts… A little something for everyone on Daniel’s corner of Pinterest. Michael Wurm Closing in on a million followers, Michael owns a bed & breakfast in Pennsylvania. You may notice a trend in the names of his pinboards: i cook, i garden, i quilt, i get drunk, i am wicked, i wrap presents, and i combine colors. “i” am a big fan. Mike McDowell Mike is better known as mudpuppy. He works with clay, and his Contemporary Ceramics board boasts more than 1.6 million followers. He’s also got Minerals, Beautiful Baskets, Plant Life, Textile, and Community Glass. Thoughts? Who are some of the men I’ve missed? You? Your colleague? Your nephew? Link ‘em up below, and maybe we can take a look at them in a follow-up piece.

On February 29th, Facebook introduced Timeline for Brands, allowing brands to have a nifty cover photo but also eliminating their ability to have a default landing tab (something I would still very much like back). By March 30, all brands had to switch over to Timeline. Since I’ve been tracking the 50 largest branded Facebook fan pages for more than two years, and since I’ve done previous analysis on how they perform relative to which have the most active fans, how often they post, the impressions they generate and their value, even if certain brands attract more outgoing fans than others, I wanted to analyze how engagement has changed post-Timeline. There have been several other studies looking at this already. Some say it has had no impact and that engagement was down for everyone. Others say it lead to a 46% increase in engagement.  Others point out that since most engagement takes place in the news feed, engagement should not materially change. Tracking the Biggest Brand Pages Thanks to an exclusive arrangement we have with Expion, a rather unique social media management software that allows you to track data from any page you want, I was able to pull data on every public post made by the Top 50 Branded Facebook Pages for two weeks both prior to Timeline (2/16 to 2/29) and after (4/1 to 4/14). We excluded posts in March, as brands changed to Timeline at different times throughout the month. All in all, we analyzed 871 posts before and 725 posts afterwards, or 1,596 posts overall.  These posts attracted a total of 410,379 comments and 6,634,632 likes, so there was a fair amount of data for our brilliant analysts to comb through and this certainly would not have been possible without Expion. Here’s what we found: The Average Post Gets 30 Fewer Comments February, Average Comments per Post: 271.06 April, Average Comments per Post: 240.39 % Change: 11.31% Fewer Comments per Post Absolute Change: 30.66 Fewer Comments per Post The Average Post Gets 437 More Likes February, Average Likes per Post: 3,958.44 April, Average Likes per Post: 4,395.63 % Change: +11.04% More Likes per Post Absolute Change: 437.18 More Likes per Post Total Comments + Likes Increase Generally speaking, Facebook Comments are worth more than Likes in terms of helping your page grow, because they have higher Edge Weight, a component of Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm, so the decrease in comments is troubling. Having said that, if you combine Likes and Comments, the total volume of interaction of these pages increased nearly 10%. February, Average Comments+Likes/Post: 4,229.50 April, Average Comments+Likes/Post: 4,636.02 % Change: 9.61% More Likes+Comments per Post Absolute Change: 406.52 More Likes+Comments per Post What’s It All Mean? Good question. There’s lots of data here, on the very largest brand pages on Facebook (by my definition at least). But my good friend Tom Webster would remind me that correlation does not prove causality. In other words, we know that Timeline was added and we know that Comments declined. What we cannot show, however, is that Timeline caused Comments to decline. In fact, Facebook is routinely tweaking their algorithm and I’d expect changes there to have much more impact than Timeline. As the Magic Bean blog wrote, “There are too many factors affecting engagement; including fan growth, paid activity, competitions, and – well, simply ‘good content’” to be really sure. Whatever has changed, it doesn’t doom you or set you up for success. We see that 19 of the 50 pages increased their average Comments per post and 30 of the 50 pages increased their average Likes per post. So, while Timeline may dramatically reduce your tab impressions (a separate topic), I don’t see anything in the data to suggest that it will definitely help you or definitely hurt you in your work building a brand’s presence on Facebook. What are you seeing?

We’re growing again. Since three of us opened our doors in 2007, we’ve grown to roughly 75 employees, but we still need more to meet growing demand from our clients new and old. Are you looking for a chance to really enjoy your job? To work in social media marketing in a place that values (and expects) everyone’s contribution? To work on some of the world’s best brands as your clients? To never have the same day at work twice? If so, we may be looking for you. (If you’re not looking, but know someone who is, please forward this along to them.) Wide Array of Talent Needed We are recruiting for a number of positions, including: Web Developers Strategists Analysts Project Managers Community Managers Promotions Specialists Account Managers Copywriters Wireframers HR Professionals Financial analysts Operations experts How To Apply Just go over to Ignite Social Media’s Job Openings page and apply through the Resumator widget that you see embedded there, just so we can keep track and route them properly. Thanks so much for your interest. I hope we’re working together soon. In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about us, feel free to take a look at the new video we released this week explaining how we work.

The bar to make it on the Top 50 Branded Facebook Fan Pages list this month is only getting higher, as the 50th brand on the list (Sprite) has an impressive 8.3m fans. Facebook continues to be the giant of pages, coming in at over 64.5m fans and adding 1.5m fans in April alone. The rich getting richer. At the same time, Converse made an interesting move, apparently shutting down the Converse All Stars page, despite the face that it had over 23.3m fans. Perhaps as part of a transition plan, Converse did manage to add 5 million fans to their main page, shooting them up 23% and helping them move to the #7 spot overall. Fastest Growing Branded Facebook Pages Converse switcheroo on the All Stars page helped them lead the pack. Here are the 5 biggest movers: Converse, up 23% to #7; Target, up 13% to #32; Walmart, up 8% to #21 Burberry, up 6% to #25 Hello Kitty, grows 6% and breaks into the Top 50 at #50. Biggest Losers Other than the disappearance of Converse All Stars (-100%), no brand dropped too dramatically on the list. Windows Live Messenger fell two spots to #25, while Red Bull, Oreo, Subway, Dr. Pepper, Victoria’s Secret Pink, Disney Pixar, Blackberry, Starburst, H&M, Walt Disney World, Reese’s and Taco Bell all dropped 1 spot on the list. Top 50 Branded Facebook Fan Pages Please note that each page name in the chart below is clickable, so feel free to visit the pages to see how they are managed. Current Rank (04/26/2012)   Rank by Fan Count (03/28/2012) Change in Rank  Fans As of 03/28/2012   Fans As of 04/26/2012  % increase 1 Facebook 1 0 64,544,641 65,693,444 2% 2 YouTube 2 0 55,876,445 56,699,507 1% 3 Coca-Cola 3 0 40,910,559 41,548,351 2% 4 Disney 4 0 34,793,501 35,167,287 1% 5 MTV 5 0 32,983,202 33,670,595 2% 6 Starbucks 6 0 29,459,579 29,783,247 1% 7 Converse 9 2 24,015,249 29,632,795 23% 8 Red Bull 7 -1 27,636,517 27,949,627 1% 9 Oreo 8 -1 25,590,292 26,139,039 2% 10 Playstation 10 0 22,135,038 22,499,529 2% 11 Skittles 11 0 21,462,083 21,755,286 1% 12 iTunes 12 0 21,220,716 21,465,569 1% 13 Pringles 13 0 18,676,499 19,152,582 3% 14 McDonalds 14 0 18,351,559 18,991,830 3% 15 Victoria’s Secret 15 0 18,150,548 18,418,191 1% 16 Xbox 16 0 16,629,869 17,018,196 2% 17 Monster Energy 19 2 15,206,306 15,666,983 3% 18 Ferrero Rocher 18 0 15,343,376 15,517,924 1% 19 Live Messenger 17 -2 15,407,745 15,455,302 0% 20 Nutella 20 0 14,513,757 15,207,859 5% 21 Walmart 21 0 14,006,888 15,104,425 8% 22 adidas Originals 22 0 13,558,429 13,886,998 2% 23 Disneyland 23 0 13,507,206 13,713,315 2% 24 Zara 24 0 13,070,961 13,225,860 1% Current Rank (04/26/2012)   Rank by Fan Count (03/28/2012) Change in Rank  Fans As of 03/28/2012   Fans As of 04/26/2012  % increase 25 Burberry 26 1 11,833,178 12,551,701 6% 26 Subway 25 -1 11,944,423 12,546,659 5% 27 Google Chrome 29 2 11,597,996 11,832,557 2% 28 Dr. Pepper 27 -1 11,701,778 11,829,698 1% 29 Victoria’s Secret Pink 28 -1 11,655,364 11,755,979 1% 30 Nike Football 30 0 11,226,918 11,740,607 5% 31 Levi’s 31 0 11,225,775 11,530,736 3% 32 Target 36 4 10,118,871 11,440,000 13% 33 Disney Pixar 32 -1 10,985,578 11,100,546 1% 34 Blackberry 33 -1 10,935,000 11,088,319 1% 35 Starburst 34 -1 10,763,462 10,919,125 1% 36 H&M 35 -1 10,561,117 10,787,567 2% 37 National Geographic 38 1 9,966,725 10,258,821 3% 38 Walt Disney World 37 -1 9,971,838 10,257,278 3% 39 BMW 39 0 9,502,297 9,755,603 3% 40 Lacoste 40 0 9,259,584 9,479,646 2% 41 Google 41 0 9,140,364 9,351,242 2% 42 Yahoo 43 1 9,061,218 9,225,701 2% 43 Reese’s 42 -1 9,113,831 9,199,088 1% 44 Starbucks Frappuccino 44 0 9,036,530 9,193,778 2% 45 Nike 45 0 8,587,453 8,902,092 4% 46 Mozilla Firefox 46 0 8,482,129 8,874,184 5% 47 DC Shoes 48 1 8,330,191 8,566,165 3% 48 Taco Bell 47 -1 8,479,573 8,556,433 1% 49 Sprite 49 0 8,316,882 8,441,852 2% 50 Hello Kitty 55 5 7,683,454 8,151,031 6% Methodology As always, you can read the methodology on our main page for this series. However, we are in the midst of automating this process to speed it and to better ensure data integrity. Finishing touches are being put on that now and the May list will be done with the new system.

There are literally millions of blogs in the world. According to Pingdom, there were 70 million blogs on WordPress and 39 million blogs on Tumblr at the end of 2011. That’s not even counting self-hosted blogs and blogs on other platforms. With so many blogs out there competing for the attention of your readers, how do you make your blog stand out in their minds? If you don’t want them to slip out the back, Jack, you may need to make a new plan, Stan. Because yes, there must be [at least] 50 ways to leave an impression on your blog readers. (My apologies to Paul Simon.) 50 Ways to Make Your Blog Different Have a designer create a memorable logo for your header graphic. Declutter your blog. Visual overload can drive readers away. Choose a vibrant color scheme – just make sure it doesn’t hurt the eyes. Embrace an identity that is NSFW. Answer the questions everyone else is asking. Customize your social media buttons to fit your theme. Create a tagline no one will forget. Write memorable blog post headlines that are more than just keyword optimized titles. Don’t be afraid to try new formats for your posts, like audio and video. See what sticks. Maintain a discussion forum for your blog community. Let your personality shine! No one else can write just like you. Find spectacular images to go with each post, not just “safe” stock photos. Humor is a great tool. Make your readers laugh! Respond to your commenters and let them know you value their thoughts. Put something personal into your posts – anecdotes can drive a point home. Create interactive content, like polls that will get your readers talking. Find an angle to approach your topic that you haven’t seen before in your niche. Link out to other blogs and resources. Those you link to may pay it forward! Ask your readers what they would like to see you write about. Make it easy for readers to close those layer ads that load first. Go with a fluid theme with rounded corners instead of the standard boxy straight lines everywhere. Take a controversial topic and write up both sides of the debate. Take your own photos – so you’re not using the same stock images as everyone else. Re-purpose your old how-to posts by turning them into videos. Use a visually stunning background image. Score the Big Interview with an industry superstar. Make it easy for your readers to subscribe to your content – so they’ll come back for more! Include a lot of negative space in your design. Create the content that makes you the go-to resource in your niche. Incorporate subtle shadow effects into your design. Rotate your header images. Use unique (but legible) fonts throughout your site design. Change up the standard blog layout with something unexpected. Spotlight guest posts from other bloggers in your niche. Replace your stuffy about page with a sexier bio. Highlight up-and-coming blogs that your readers may not know about yet. Customize the design elements in your premium blog theme. Don’t neglect your favicon. Avoid using CAPTCHA for your commenters; this puts people off of commenting. Adjust the number of characters per line in your posts for greater readability. Make your navigation tabs pop. Stay away from fonts like Arial, that everyone uses, or Times New Roman and Comic Sans, which no one likes. Don’t have pop-up ads or subscription boxes. Make sure your URL structure tells people what they’re in for before they click. Provide different options for following your blog: newsletter, RSS feed, Facebook, etc. Skip the Top 10 lists. Pick a different number. (Like 50?) Make light text on a dark background work for you. Shake things up with a caption contest or another way to have fun with your readers. Check for broken links on a regular basis to ensure value for your readers. Always remain authentic and true to yourself. So what do you think? Can you still be different in this sea of blogs? You don’t need to be coy, Roy. Let me know.

For our next Facebook Fan Page Example, we’ll be taking a closer look at the Reese’s page, where more than 9.1 million fans go to show their appreciation for the brand’s beloved peanut butter cups. Although Reese’s has a well-developed timeline and interesting wall posts, their page lacks interactive applications that could increase their fan base and engagement rates. Reese’s Landing Tab: Wall Visitors to the fan page first land on the Reese’s wall. The brand does a good job of putting up frequent, engaging posts that solicit fan feedback and praise for the company’s products. Posts include voting-style polls, questions comparing different Reese’s products and announcements for new events and promotions. However, the brand needs to focus on actually drawing visitors into these promotional events. For example, when users click on the cover photo that features a Reese’s slogan and the cast of the new Avengers movie, they are taken to a photo window that doesn’t add any context; there isn’t a tab or application that explains the correlation between the brand and the movie, either. Users have to separately visit the Reese’s brand website to learn about the Hershey’s Saves the Day promotion surrounding the movie’s release. From a user experience perspective, this type of disconnect is likely to cause visitors to lose interest in the campaign. Reese’s NCAA March Madness Reese’s has both a tab and a wall post about their NCAA March Madness promotion, which offers the chance to win a trip to the 2013 NCAA Men’s Final Four and Reese’s candy for life. This content raises awareness of the giveaway and facilitates conversation about it, but the tab falls flat in terms of originality – It consists of a large static image with a few embedded links. It would be nice to see Reese’s create a dynamic application that invites fans to participate in an interactive experience. Reese’s Events Other than the standard Videos, Rules and Notes tabs, the only tab left to explore is Events. There are four events listed that link to pages for promotions that occurred last year or before then. Unfortunately, the tab doesn’t offer anything of current interest to users, such as ongoing and upcoming events. Reese’s could benefit from keeping this tab up to date by adding posts for the NCAA March Madness and Hershey’s Saves the Day promotions. Reese’s Timeline The H.B. Reese Candy Company and Hershey’s are two brands with a lot of history, and Reese’s well-developed timeline represents it well. Fans love Reese’s because they grew up eating their peanut butter cups, so it follows that the brand’s history would be of interest to their fan base. Companies that have been around for decades should take advantage of Facebook’s timeline feature by using it to create those feelings of nostalgia and brand loyalty that often contribute to the popularity of long-standing products such as Reese’s. Reese’s Fan Engagement While Reese’s fan engagement rate has been fairly low, they are headed in the right direction. Posts linking out to peanut butter cup recipes faired the best as a category, while a sentimental engagement effort provoked the most fan feedback. Compared with competitor brand, Skittles, Reese’s approach to fan engagement is currently more successful. This may be attributable to the history of the Reese’s brand, as well as their style of writing posts. Skittles tends to post short, fun comments, whereas Reese’s often asks questions and introduces polls to encourage fan feedback. The Reese’s fan page has a healthy number of followers and content that makes users want to get in the conversation. If the brand wants to continue to increase fans and engagement rates, they are going to have to make an effort to develop original, interactive apps that get fans more involved with the brand. Let us know what you think about the Reese’s Facebook page in the comments below.

This past weekend, a team of 5 Ignite Social Media employees joined over 90 other teams to pull a plane for the Special Olympics North Carolina (SONC). It was a fantastic fundraising event that helped raise awareness and money for a great cause. The SONC helps children and adults with intellectual disabilities receive year-round sports training and athletic competition. This helps develop their physical fitness, courage and confidence, gaining friendships and camaraderie through their experience. And thanks to the volunteers and donations from individuals, businesses, foundations and civic groups, the athletes never have to pay participate. This is how we practiced before the real thing. To get an idea of what is involved in a Plane Pull®, imagine a tug of war with 5 eager participants on one side and a 30,000lb plane on the other. While it sounds pretty incredible, it is doable! The challenge lies in pulling it a distance of 25ft and hopefully faster than the other teams. There are different divisions for corporate, all-female, and law enforcement (which we were thankful given the size of their team). After the first round, the top-20 fastest teams compete for the top spots in their division, and ultimately trophies and a year’s worth of bragging rights. The event is definitely a fun outing for the whole family. They have outdoor games for kids (and adults), music and food all while the teams vie for the best times. While the Plane Pull® is fun, it’s really meant to raise money for the SONC. There are prizes for the top fundraising individual, team and even a t-shirt design contest. Ignite didn’t take home a trophy this year for best time, but, we all feel like winners after doing our part to help this great organization. I highly recommend anyone interested in participating next year to read more about it on the SONC site and get a team together. See you next year on the tarmac!

YouTube Partner Program Gets Public Release; Lets Users Monetize Content To help build up more original content on the site, YouTube’s Partner Program has now opened to the public. Prior to this announcement, the program was only available to some creators who had created videos obtaining a few million views. Now, anyone from the approved list of countries can get involved. The only requirement is to have one piece of suitable content that can be monetized. One of the service’s goals is to improve the quality of each YouTuber’s work by holding different training sessions and services such as creator clubs and production features alongside partner promotion. Cat Haven Rescues Dozens After Social Media Campaign Dozens of cats and kittens were abandoned on land owned by the Public Transport Authority in Joondalup, Australia. Over the past few weeks, the Cat Haven was flatly refused access to the land to rescue them, according to the animal welfare agency. The frustrated agency then took to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and urged its followers to contact the PTA and the City of Joondalup via phone and email on Friday evening. Cat Haven spokesman David Settelmaier said that within two hours they had won the support of the PTA and were allowed to inspect the site. Maryland Becomes First State to Ban Employers From Asking for Social Media Passwords The Maryland General Assembly recently passed legislation prohibiting employers in the state from asking current and prospective employees for their user names and passwords to websites such as Facebook and Twitter. If Gov. Martin O’Malley signs the bill, it would make Maryland the first state in the nation to set such a restriction into law. Other states considering similar legislation include Illinois and California. As Tax Deadline Looms, IRS Using Social Media to Help Last-Minute Filers The IRS has made tax information available on social media tools for all of those last-minute filers. “So far this tax season, more than 1 million taxpayers have viewed the IRS’s popular YouTube video tax tips, about 500,000 have downloaded the IRS phone app and more than 188,000 have viewed the IRS widgets,” said IRS spokesman Michael Devine. The IRS offers video tax tips on a variety of topics in English, Spanish, and American Sign Language on YouTube, has more than 24,000 followers on Twitter, and has Podcasts available on iTunes.