The only thing that sets you apart is your story. – 4th Avenue Media

T-Mobile brings us this spoof on last year’s viral video sensation, “JK Wedding Dance.”

Looks as though they capitalized on all the hype surrounding the royal wedding after landing the top spot on this week’s Viral Chart with over 8.5 million views.

What are your thoughts on T-Mobile’s latest publicity stunt? Your reaction to this morning’s royal nuptials? And most importantly… your thoughts on Kate’s dress?

This awesome, promotional video from the Tempest Freerunning Academy shot up to #3 on this week’s Viral Chart. Kind of reminds me of Lucas in our office after a few too many donuts… Sign me up!

Also, be sure to check out the rest of the week’s Top 10 most popular online videos at AdAge.com.

By Jay Nelson

The emergence of social media has led to the development of many third-party solutions that assist in the use of these resources. Here are three easy-to-use tools that will help to enhance your Twitter experience.

TweetDeck is a desktop application that allows users to view and update Twitter feeds and other social network messages in a unique columned user interface. Twitter users are often overwhelmed by the massive number of tweets that are frequently posted. TweetDeck serves to minimize the clutter by splitting a user’s main Twitter feed into separate columns, allowing for better organization and visibility of tweets.

Each column can be assigned to display content from different groups of people or from a particular account that is regularly followed. Search columns can also be set up, creating a real-time dashboard that automatically updates every time a specific term is mentioned. Search terms can include people, brands, hashtags users are interested in, or even the users themselves. TweetDeck contains many other tools for managing social media and is also available for iPhone, iPad, Android, and most recently, the Chrome web browser.

CoTweet is a web-based solution that helps users manage and track conversations on Twitter. CoTweet makes it easy to view conversation trends and notifies users of mentions. One of the site’s most useful tools is the ability to schedule tweets to be posted at a later time. Numerous updates can be set for future days and times, which is especially advantageous when posting content during an event or throughout a marketing campaign.

Lastly, Bitly is a simple URL shortening website that makes it easier to post links on blogs and social media sites. As many know, Twitter posts are limited to 140 characters, so a condensed link is extremely important in allowing for additional text to be displayed.

Check out the links below to begin using these tools and add to the ease of use, effectiveness, and overall enhancement of your Twitter experience. Enjoy!

http://www.tweetdeck.com/

http://cotweet.com/

http://bit.ly/

By Jay Nelson

Advertising and promotions continue to evolve as companies take advantage of the latest technologies and methodologies employed by Facebook and Google. Social and targeted marketing have increasingly replaced mass marketing in an effort to appeal to individual interests and preferences. This ability to generate personalized campaigns stems from access to information about users and their online behavior.

Imagine the potential of Facebook’s newest marketing platform, ads in real time, which delivers ads based on user wall posts and status updates mere seconds after they are published. For example, users who update their status with comments about being hungry for pizza could receive an instant banner ad or a coupon from Pizza Hut, Domino’s, or the local neighborhood pizza joint. Combine this with information about who the person is or where they live, and you have the opportunity to provide the perfect resources to fulfill that individual customer’s needs.

Google is also in the process of testing a new ad system in their Gmail service that learns about users’ interests based on their email habits. The system analyzes content in emails then displays advertisements based off of frequently discussed topics. For instance, suppose you regularly email with your friends about cooking. Gmail will detect this common theme and start showing you more ads related to cooking products or local cooking classes. Through this process, Google can learn more about a user’s interests and will be able to provide the most relevant and effective ads to individual consumers.

Personalized marketing and “intent-based” advertising are the next frontier in online marketing and open up a whole new world of possibilities for businesses of all sizes, both on a national scale as well as in the local marketplace.

http://adage.com/article/digital/ads-real-time-facebook-s-holy-grail/149603/

http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/29/gmail-to-roll-out-ads-that-learn-from-your-inbox/