It's that time of year again when everyone feels the need to make a list about things that happened over the previous year. Here are some of my favorite end of year lists:

• 2012.Twitter - A summary of 2012 on Twitter. Topics including: Golden Tweets, Pulse of the Planet, Only on Twitter, Trends, New Voices, Your Year on Twitter
• Google's Zeitgeist - 1.2 trillion searches, 146 languages. What did the world search for in 2012?
• Facebook Year in Review 2012 - A look back at the people, moments and things that created the most buzz in 2012 among the billion people around the world on Facebook.
• The 10 Most Overused LinkedIn Profile Buzzwords of 2012 - LinkedIn revealed its annual list of the 10 most-overused buzzwords job hunters use on the social network and "creative" was once again at the top of the list both globally and in the U.S.
• 20 Most Shared Ads of 2012 - Mashable's list of the 20 most shared advertisements

Just in case the world didn't end and life has gone on, here's what you missed this week while preparing for the end:

• Apple Loses Bid for U.S. Ban on Infringing Samsung Phones - Apple's request for a U.S. sales ban on 26 Samsung devices was rejected by a federal judge.
• Deadmau5 Proposes to Kat Von D on Twitter - Sharing a photo of a ring with his followers, Deadmau5 popped the question, tweeting, "I can't wait for Christmas so.... Katherine Von Drachenberg, will you marry me?"
• Google Maps Tops 10 Million iOS Downloads - Judging by the early response, iPhone owners seem very happy to have Google Maps back on their smartphones.
• Instagram Policy Hints at User Photos in Ads - New details on its revised Terms of Use suggest Instagram may start pulling user photos and incorporating them into ads -- without pay.
• Twitter Now Has More Than 200 Million Monthly Active Users - Twitter has passed 200 million monthly active users, the company announced in a tweet Tuesday.
• How Katy Perry Inspired LinkedIn’s Global Redesign - The pop singer is the namesake, and underlying inspiration, for the company’s largest product design undertaking since its launch in 2003.
• Twitter Launches Archive Tool - On Wednesday, the site announced that users will be able to download their entire personal Twitter archive. That includes their tweets and retweets, and there will be tools to let users search them by date, keywords, hashtags or @usernames.
• Google+ Now Lets You Mention Other Users In Your Posts - Now you can add a link to a Google+ profile or page when you want to mention them/it in a post. This works for everything from Blogger to Google+.
• Google Sells Off Part of Motorola - Google is selling Motorola Mobility's TV set-top business for $2.35 billion, lightening the load that the Internet search leader took on earlier this year when it completed the biggest acquisition in its history.

If you've got a social media obsessed friend, here are some perfect gifts for this year:

Here's what you've missed this week:

• Square Now Sells Digital Gift Cards - The mobile-payments startup now offers users the option to buy digital gift cards through its Square Wallet app.
• Twitter To Offer Photo Filters By End Of 2012 - Here’s Twitter’s answer to Instagram’s plans to cut off embedding pictures on Twitter. Twitter, it’s being said, will be rolling out its own photo filters by the end of this year.
• Instagram Finally Introduces Crop and Scaling Tools - You'll no longer need to open up another app to crop and scale your photo; both can now be done in Instagram with a grid guide overlay. It is also reported that its tilt-shift feature has also been improved to provide "vastly more realistic rendering of depth of field."
• Google Maps Return to iPhone with New Mobile App - Google Maps returned late Wednesday with the release of the Google Maps' iPhone app. The release comes three months after Apple replaced Google Maps as the device's built-in navigation system and inserted its own maps into the latest version of the operating system.
• Flickr Updates iPhone App, Adds Filters - An all-new Flickr app was released with bigger picture presentation and the addition of 15 Instagram-like filters to enhance photos within a revised Apple iOS app for the iPhone and iPod touch.

When was the last time you angrily tweeted about a product or service you were unhappy about? Or maybe you took to Facebook? How many of those angry public posts got you a response from the company's customer service reps? Customer service is a huge, changing market right now with the widespread use of social media as a form of user testimonials. On this episode we will be talking about why this is a genius idea, how it fits into a social media strategy, and some best practices in the industry.


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Here's what you've missed this week in the world of social media, tech, and other fun stuff!

• The New Mashable - The new Mashable. It's more social, mobile, and visual - and now it's available to everyone.
• Facebook Governance Vote - Facebook is now letting users vote on the changes to its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and Data Use Policy. (The proposed changes to these documents are what set off those viral hoax statuses last week.) So, read up and vote. Here's your chance.
• The 10 Most Overused LinkedIn Profile Buzzwords of 2012 - LinkedIn revealed its annual list of the 10 most-overused buzzwords job hunters use on the social network.
• Twitter Denies Accounts Can Be Hijacked Via Text Message - A researcher publicly posted about a possible hole in Twitter's security this week; a way hackers could take control of a user's account via SMS text message.
• Apple Launches iTunes Store in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan & Nine Additional Countries in Asia - Apple expands its global reach this week.
• Instagram to Twitter: We are never ever getting back together - Photos from Instagram are no longer displaying correctly on Twitter.

I came across this quote and I thought it was really powerful... then I realized that there are generations alive right now that will have never been able to experience developing film from negatives. Crazy!

It’s safe to say that everyone is now fully immersed in the holiday shopping season. Did you participate in online Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping? How does social shopping really dictate our online purchases?

Click here for show notes.

Here's the 411 this week:

• Don't Fall for the Fake Facebook Privacy Notice - If you're like me then all your gulible friends are falling for this FB privacy crap... again!
• Gmail Users Now Can Send 10GB Files - Google announced Tuesday that it will be integrating Google Drive into Gmail, a move that will make it possible to send files up to a massive 10GB in size over email.

Just in time for the holiday season, Zynga has released a real life Words With Friends board game. A physical board game.

Isn't the real life version of Words With Friends the classic and long-existing game Scrabble?

According to Hasbro's website:

The hot social word game just got more social! For the first time ever, you can play WORDS WITH FRIENDS in person with your favorite wordies. Use the tiles to build words on the gameboard and rack up the points while you challenge your friends in person.

For the first time ever? Like I said, isn't this just Scrabble?

I love social media (and social gaming) but let's not let WWF think it was in any way, shape, or form, original  But your friends and family Scrabble--the ORIGINAL--this holiday season!

Everyone has that one "friend" on the internet that is overly open. Your feed is always flooded with their daily thoughts, pictures, and live updating on their every waking moment. Has social media made people share too much? Are we a society that is moving towards being too social?


Click here for show notes!

I'm sorry I've been a little all over the place lately and a little absent from writing. But I have really exciting news that might smooth everything over...


Well not yet, technically, but I'm well on my way. To chronicle the adventure that is homeownership, I have started a blog to talk about it and ask/get advice. Ultimately, I'm trying to create a resource for young, single women (like myself) to use as a guide to buying and owning their own home. There's no reason to wait to be in a serious relationship or get married. The time is now! It's a buyers market! And there is nothing more empowering than taking charge of your life and make something for yourself!

So please join me in this insane journey:

As the holiday season commences and Black Friday game plans are being put together, present budgeting can be a valuable tool.

How many times do find something you want to buy but you stand there thinking about what else you've already bought for this person? How many times do you realize you've really overspent on a particular person? How many times have you forgotten about presents you purchased and lose them somewhere in your house and never give them to a person? So much valuable time and money wasted!

Last year I downloaded Christmas Gifts List Free for my iPhone and it was the perfect solutions for all of my shopping, planning, and budgeting needs for the season!

Once you've downloaded the app, start off by adding people to your list of present recievers and setting a budget for that individual.

Once you've done that, go into that person(s) section and start adding items and their cost to your shopping guide.

Once you've purchased an item for that person, check it off in the list and the app will recalculate how much you have spent and what is left of your budget for that person.

On the apps homescreen, it keeps a running tally of all the people you are shopping for this season and how much you are spending/have spent on each and everyone one of them. Once you've finished shopping for a person just place a check mark next to their name.

Apparently last year I really under-budgeted!

You can even have a secure log in password for the app to keep your pesky loved ones from snooping around and ruining the surprise!
Christmas Gifts List Free can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store for iPhones, iPods, and iPads.




DISCLAIMER: All the screencaps shown here are based on last year's Christmas shopping plus a little creative altering as examples. To those people shown here, don't get all excited... I hardly done any shopping!

Here's what happened in the world this week:

• Facebook Testing "Page Only" News Feed View - FB has been testing the special News Feed view over the last few weeks and plans to start rolling it out to all users on Wednesday. It’s a ‘Pages only’ view of your news feed makes it even easier for people to keep up with the Pages they care about most.
• Facebook’s New Job Board Puts LinkedIn on Notice - Watch out, LinkedIn. Facebook launched a new Social Jobs app on Wednesday in partnership with the Department of Labor and several leading career websites.
• Gmail Now Lets You Search for Emails by Size and More - Gmail has unveiled new ways to make searching for messages “faster and easier,” the service announced Wednesday.
• Pinterest Launches Business Pages - Now your business or brand can have an official business profile on Pinterest. Get pinning, people!
• Facebook Rolls Out Share Button on Mobile Site - All I have to say is, FINALLY! I'm thinking this is definitely going to increase the amount of mobile social sharing even more!

And some fun stuff from some fellow bloggers:

• A Seller Speaks: The Secrets Of Buying Fake Twitter Followers By Lauren Dugan
• How Disney Creates Magic through Social Media by Harrison Kratz

Finally, the day all of us digital marketers have been waiting for... business accounts for Pinterest!

In the beginning of this guide, Pinterest is quoted as saying this about business pages,

"Thousands of businesses have become a part of our community, giving great ideas, content, and inspiration to people on Pinterest. Whether it’s Anthropologie sharing awesome clothes, Whole Foods sharing tasty recipes, the Smithsonian sharing fascinating collections, or Amazon making products easy to pin, many of us have been inspired on Pinterest by businesses."

... and I couldn't agree more. I've said it before (and a million other times) visual media is the future of social media and brands need to take all the steps to ensure they are keeping up with trends like Pinterest.

If you're interested in taking your business to the next level of social media marketing, I recommend this step-by-step guide to Pinterest for Businesses by HubSpot. It's a free online download!

More from HubSpot:

• 55 Brands Rocking Social Media with Visual Content

Although broadcasted live on Election Day 2012, this episode of Social Media Meltdown did not cover election news and updates. Instead we had an even better idea! We analyzed some of the social media strategies in this year’s political race and gave some pointers on how social media can and should be used by political movers and shakers.


Click Here for Show Notes

Top news this week in social media and tech (and other fun stuff I care about):

• Apple Sells 3 Million iPad Minis During Debut Weekend - Apple said it sold 3 million units of its iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad during the debut weekend, a sign that the new devices can help the company withstand accelerating competition in the tablet market.
• Instagram Launches Web Profiles - Instagram announced this week the launch of web profiles, full-fledged Instagram profile pages you can access from a web browser--however they maintain a clear focus on mobile.
• New Twitter policy lets users see tweets pulled down for copyright - Twitter has changed the way it responds to DMCA copyright notices. Rather than removing tweets, it is “withdrawing” them instead. This helps show when and why tweets go missing, and also brings new transparency to the DMCA process.
• Facebook App Updates Includes Photo Filters - Facebook users with the updated iOS app can now add Instagram-style filters to pictures uploaded via their mobile device.

Here's what you missed this last week while you were in a Halloween candy induced coma or were without power thanks to Sandy:

Back on October 26 I attended the TedxDetroit event at the Gem Theater in beautiful downtown Detroit.

I can't even put into words how amazing of an opportunity it was to be in the same room with such inspiring people who truly care about the city of Detroit and want to make it a better place.

Here's my super-quick, super-Instagram recap:

All checked in! Reppin' Social Media Meltdown!	Nothing says "Good Morning" like a drum line at 9am!
First up is @SherylConnelly, global Consumer Trends and Futuring at Ford Motor Company.	Amanda Uhle from @826michigan Robot Supply!
Live performance by Absofacto	"You are awesome. Start fucking acting like it" - Doug Van Slembrouck
Tom Nardone, Mower Gang	Detroit's Mower Gang
Artist Daniel Cascardo	The finished collaborative art piece

Lunch is served!	Beautiful view from the Gem
TedxDetroit Field Trip to the GAR	TedxDetroit Field Trip to the GAR

TedxDetroit Field Trip to the GAR

TedxDetroit Field Trip to the GAR

Earlier today I was searching for live information coming out of NYC about Sandy. The first place I checked was Instagram because if I was there I would be gramming up a storm.

After searching IG for #newyork my feed became flooded with regram after regram of this picture:


Then it was all over Facebook along with an image of soldiers guarding the Tomb of the Unnamed Soldier in the rain paired with a caption stating they were enduring Sandy's wrath as their duty to stand guard.

I was instantly skeptical that these were real, however I scoured the internet trying to find the truth.

Then I came across a BuzzFeed article that confirmed my suspicions that these pictures was fake and outlined 10 other Sandy picture lines.

Don't fall for these people's photoshop trickery!



USA Today's Mark Smith, Senior of Social Media Marketing, offers up this advice for picking out a fake:

(from his Facebook) A tip on photo-sleuthing for you as we see more and more Photoshopped Sandy images. You can take an image file and drop it into the search bar of Google Images. Just drag and drop. Google then searches the web for similar images, tracking down everywhere online it's been published before. This is what the search for the viral photo of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (which was actually taken in September) looks like.

Here's my advice:

• Don't get caught up in the hype with these types of things
• Think about the likely hood of what you're seeing
• Do some research to validate
• There's a 90% chance that what you're seeing is fake