Words of Wisdom from Steve Jobs

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on August 25th, 2011 at 09:36 AM | Comment!

He may have stepped down as CEO, but Steve Jobs will always be the man behind the Mac.

This little gem is just a sample of his depth:
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Social Media meets Social Responsibility

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on June 14th, 2011 at 04:32 AM | Comment!

One of our great clients, The Fresh Gourmet Company, combined a drive for Facebook friends on their company’s page with participation in a great cause. A few months back, they offered to pledge a dollar for every new “liker” with the money going towards the Salad Bars to Schools campaign. Not only did they donate the $2,500 for the salad bar, they attracted nearly 3,000 new friends in a month. Friends who valued nutrition in schools, and helped shape the culture of the Facebook page by their periodic posting and interest in good nutrition.

A win-win for all!

Is Twitter the SM Avis?

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on June 1st, 2011 at 06:56 AM | (111) Comments

Trying their best to close in on Facebook in terms of user numbers, Twitter is now in bed with adgrok. So to tweet.

Twitter acquired adgrok today, along with two-thirds of the founding partners. (The third guy defected to rival, Facebook.) With this new partnership, we shall soon see a plethora of new apps and advertising optys churned out of by the growing Social Media entity. Since, according to a market research report, Twitter advertising revenue this year will reach 150 million, (as compared with Facebook‘s $4 billion), Twitter obviously has some catching up to do. Speculation is that a lot of the development will be in photo upload apps, since a picture is worth, uh, 140 characters, but the first big fix had to do with adding a Follow Button that allows your blog/website readers to follow without rerouting them off the web page. (Yes, it’s on BPC’s list o’ things to do, asap.)

Want more deets? Check out:
The rumor
The confirmation
The plan

Summer’s Here

Posted by Laura McCulloch on May 31st, 2011 at 07:48 AM | (44) Comments

Memorial Day weekend has come and gone so now we turn the page to summer. Kinda. I know it’s not really summer until June 21at 10:16 P.M. PDT, but it always feels like it to me after Memorial Day. Here’s my favorite Summer Song. What’s yours?

Summer’s here
I’m for that
Got my rubber sandals
Got my straw hat
Got my cold beer
I’m just glad that it’s here

Summer’s here
That suits me fine
It may rain today
But I don’t mind
It’s my favorite time of the year
And I’m glad that it’s here

Old man wintertime
He goes so slow
It’s ten degrees below, you know
You can take your ice and snow
And let my balmy breezes blow

Yeah, the water is cold but I’ve been in
Baby, lose the laundry and jump on in
I mean all God’s children got skin
And it’s summer again

Old man wintertime
He goes so slow
It’s ten degrees below, you know
You can take your ice and snow
And let my balmy breezes blow

Summer’s here
I’m for that
Got my rubber sandals
Got my straw hat
Drinking cold beer
Man I’m just that I’m here
It’s my favorite time of the year
And I’m glad that it’s here, yeah

Spotlight on Tumblr Spotlight

Posted by Laura McCulloch on May 26th, 2011 at 07:17 AM | (23) Comments

Check out Tumblr’s new Spotlight, the latest way to discover interesting blogs on the Tumblr platform in the categories of your choosing. Here are just a few of my favs!

life
fresh air
i can read
i love charts
writers and kitties
vanity fair
mother jones

QR Codes

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on May 25th, 2011 at 04:11 PM | (109) Comments

If you haven’t heard of them yet, you’re about to. QR (or, Quick Response) codes have been all the rage in Japan for a while now, and they are the latest must have in layering your visibility.

You can find QR codes storing addresses and URLs in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards, or almost any object about which users might need information. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader application can scan the image of the QR code to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the phone’s browser. This act of linking from physical world objects is termed hardlinking or object hyperlinking.

One important application is for Indie booksellers—a way to compete with, say, Amazon, and have the advantage of a hard-copy model. Here’s how it works: booksellers include QR codes on their shelves that link to individual eBooks in their catalogs. Shoppers can browse the hardcopies in the store and use their cell phone to buy the book on the corresponding website.

So, how do you get a QR codes? Here are some free tools Kaywa, GoQR.me, or QR Stuff.

Linking in the Light

Posted by Laura McCulloch on May 24th, 2011 at 09:30 AM | (55) Comments

You guys all know the old adage about winking in the dark. You know…doing business without advertising is like winking in the dark. You know you’re doing it but nobody else does. We can update this axiom for the new millennium by adding social media to the mix. It’s got to be done. And we’re doing it. Again. Today. BridgePoint Creative is now LinkedIn. Since LinkedIn went public last week, we figured we should too! Take a look at our BPC Company page, or connect with Laura and Suzy on LinkedIn. And be prepared for incoming as we reach out to connect with YOU!

Email by the numbers

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on May 22nd, 2011 at 07:51 PM | (10) Comments

25 years ago, according to a recent Fast Company article, the very first automated email list management software was developed by Eric Thomas. That software, Listserv, is still in use today, but the climate of electronic communications is vastly changed.

Here are the numbers referenced in the article:

Worldwide email accounts

1989 | 1.8 million
1996 | 100 million
2010 | 3 billion

In 2010, email use by Seniors increased by 28%  &  decreased 59% in Teens

The average businessperson sends 33 emails each day.

89% of all sent emails are spam, the majority of which are pharmaceutical promotions.

In 1985, 90% of all emails were business related. Today, just 8% are business related.

In 2010, there were…
107 trillion emails sent
170 billion pieces of mail sent
36 billion photos shared on Facebook
25 billion tweets posted

The Facebook evolution (in users):
2004 | 1 million
2010 | 600 million

The AOL decline:
2004 | 23 million
2010 | 4 million