#rob longert

In our class last week, we came up with a powerful theme for our blog, and if you picked up a newspaper, jumped online or turned on the TV, you've seen what's developed coming out of the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention.

For example, as reported by TechCrunch, "First Lady Michelle Obama’s (@MichelleObama) primetime speech peaked at 28,003 Tweets per minute (TPM) at its conclusion — nearly double Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s (@MittRomney) 14,289 peak. One line in her speech this evening — “we’ve got so much more to do” — saw 22,004 TPM.

Or maybe you heard about "#Eastwooding," coming out of the Republican National Convention. According to Mashable, "Clint Eastwood received a lot of online buzz Thursday night after pulling an unusual stunt at the Republican National Convention: talking to a chair with “Invisible Obama” sitting in it... Now, Eastwooding has become a photo challenge. Similar to planking, Internet users are uploading photos of empty chairs with the hashtag #Eastwooding. There are already hundreds of images on Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter."

Even I posted an #Eastwooding image on Instagram last week!

The curators and writers of this blog will take you on a journey through the 2012 election, from the eyes of the college students, through the lens of social media.

"Social media" may feel like a broad stroke topic, but our goal is to provide you, our readers, with a full understanding on technology's impact of this election.

Feel free to ask questions, challenge us and make us (and by us, I mean my awesome students) think deeply, intentionally and proactively.

They're all around us, and yes, I consider myself one. A geek.

But the negative connotation around the term is now long gone. Some of the most successful and famous people in the world identify with "geekologie," so next time you use the word in a condescending way, think twice. That "geek" might just be 6'8'' and 250 pounds (see LeBron James)

Image via the Wall Street Journal's recent article: Fashion Plates of the NBA Make Specs of Themselves

Here are five reasons "geek is chic."

1. Using your iPhone to make believe you are actually a good photographer boosts self-esteem!

Here are some apps to help you feel happy:

Camera+: This app enhances your pics

Fuzel: Know those cool split screen pics? This app has dozens of options in terms of templates for you to geek out as much as you want.

Kicksend: I know you have tons of images on your phone... Why not send a group of pics from the last concert you attended all in one batch?! That is where Kicksend comes in! Send your photos and videos in batches in with this user-friendly app.

2. Geeky glasses happen to be very cool, stylish to say the least, and a great business opportunity. Just ask Warby Parker, or the person wearing the same Warby Parker frames as you at the next party you go to.

3. Geek-lebrities know how to make that paper! Apple, Instagram, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and so on and so forth... all founded by "geeks." I'm not sure they look geeky on their yachts, but that is just me. Not to mention, those guys in the above picture... #ballers

4. Nostalgia and geekdom sells: Everyone who knows me knows how I feel about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a retro comic book, cartoon and movie phenomenon from the 1980s and 1990s. Mirage Studios sold the property to Nickelodeon for $60 million in late '09, after 25 successful years of "Turtle Power." Look at the recent releases of Batman, Captain America, The Avengers, etc... Retro action heroes who once only appealed to kids and "geeks," are now for the masses, and they love them. 

5. Geeks aren't necessarily hipsters: I have nothing against hipsters, and love many of hipsters, but don't get it twisted!

Thanks to our daily emails from WOMMA, we came across this infographic created by Fusework Studios that highlights the findings of a study from Buddy Media, "that analyzed 320 Twitter handles of the world’s biggest brands." 

Here is a link to the full "Strategies for Effective Tweeting: A Statistical Review," report via Buddy Media.

A Twitter infographic by Fusework Studios

We're so excited at M Booth today - our own Director of Digital Strategy Rob Longert won the chance to be today's guest editor of SmartBrief on Social Media, a daily newsletter that curates the top social media news.

As guest editor, Rob got to pick today's social media headlines and offer his own commentary on the news. You can view his picks here.

We also recommend signing up for the newsletter for a great daily dose of social media, which you can do here. 

Check out Rob's picks and let us know what you think!

Instead of 5 golden rings, we have 5 social media measurement tools to share with you today. In this morning's session, we discussed the importance of measurement. Before executing any program, it's best to establish what the plan for measurement will be. Whether it's tracking Tweets and Facebook mentions, measuring likes and retweets or a combination of a couple different metrics it's important to establish these goals upfront. To help collect and compile data, we rely on several different tools. Here are 5 of our favorites:

1. Simply Measured

Simply Measured is a lifesaver when dealing with a large volume of social media mentions that all have to be captured. It doesn't miss a trick, and in addition to being thorough, the tool instantly pulls together some useful charts when you export the data. You can even sync your account with your brand's Facebook page and incorporate Facebook insights into the report.

2. Twitter Counter

This free tool gives you an instant look at Twitter follower growth over different time periods and even predicts what your account's growth will be. Great for an idea of how you're doing, or a quick look at the growth of a competitor's fan base.

3. Tweetstats

A free tool that gives you information about when you are posting on Twitter, who you are interacting with and some of the most commonly used words in your tweets. This provides a good idea of when your brand is active on Twitter, and points out opportunities for it to ramp up its posts.

4. Social Bakers

This tool provides relevant social media stats by brand or location. Want to know how many Twitter users there are in Canada? No problem. Need to know how Starbucks' Facebook fans are growing? You're all set.

5. ViralHeat

If sentiment is a concern, this tool has the answer. ViralHeat will track sentiment associated with key words, and then plot the information on a neat little graph. Best of all, if you are concerned about it mislabeling something as positive or negative, you can see all the raw data and manually assign a sentiment category.

Is measurement a focus for your team? What tools do you rely on?

Our friend Anna Frenkel, marketing manager at Foursquare (we went to high school together!), shared this on Facebook earlier today and it made us chuckle, as most content from Someecards has a tendency to do.

After all, many M Boothers (including me) checked into the Earthquakepocalypse 2011. Did you check in, Tweet or share a bit of info about the NYC Earthquake of 2011 on your social channels? My bet is that you did...I, for one, am guilty as charged for all of the above.

Digital Content Will Outlive Us

Are you a fan of TED Talks? I know a lot of us at M Booth are, and many of us have the apps on our various devices. At this year's TED Global Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, Mashable's Editor-in-Chief Adam Ostrow discussed how our online personas may live on, once we pass away. As Ostrow put it in a post on Mashable today, his talk was about "implications that the social media boom will have on the future of mortality, and what might become possible as technology’s ability to understand and process the hundreds of thousands of pieces of content we’re creating in our lifetimes continues to grow exponentially."

The grieving process is something that isn't easy for any family or group of friends to handle, but if you saw a tweet, blog post or Facebook status update from a person that was deceased, would that help or hurt your grieving process? Either way, Ostrow makes some great points about our content living online for a long time, and compares that to photos, letters or diaries that our parents and grandparents had in the past. 

Digital content has a long shelf-life, so as you know, think before you post, because what you post will define who you are, and who you were.

Our friends from SimplyMeasured, a social media analytics solution that we began using in January, put together a great recap of today's Twitter town hall meeting, with President Obama, and we wanted to pass it along to you.

According to Adam Schoenfeld, one of the masterminds behind the SimplyMeasured platform, "There were over 70,000 tweets during the President’s Twitter town hall today from 11am to 12:10pm PDT. The conversation held steady throughout the event at ~1,000 tweets per minute."

There are some great insights ifrom the SimplyMeasured team on the most popular topics of the town hall meeting, where the conversation was happening geographically, as well as a great visual that shows the growth of the @TownHall Twitter handle over the course of the conversation.

Check out the full post from Adam over on the SimplyMeasured blog.