Who needs a Weatherman? Meet People-powered Weather App

Everything is moving towards what is known as crowd-sourcing (check my previous blog post). New iPhone application Weddar [iTunes link] challenges this notion with a system that gives users the ability to submit reports based on how the weather feels.
Reports are added to the map according to the user’s location, and then visible to other app users in the map view. That’s pretty much all there is to it, though users can also request weather reports by pressing on a place on the map for a second. That action will produce a white cloud on the map and will signal other users to add their reports.
Weddar’s greatest quality is that it’s hyper-local. Because weather reports are tied to a user’s location, they reflect the current feel of an exact locale and offer users more data — as fuzzy as it may be — on the area’s conditions. This means that Weddar can account for microclimates far better than the local TV weatherman.

Is this what future resumes are going to be like?

QR CODE - Content-rich Resume from Victor petit on Vimeo.

Aflac's new "spokesduck"

It has been quite a story in the advertising/marketing world. Aflac has been in a hunt for a news spokesperson for its corporate mascot the Aflac Duck. Here's a video on the newly hired spokesduck.

Does the Internet Harm the Environment?

Normally, we wouldn't even think of putting these together. But like every other thing, there's always an opportunity cost to using anything, even the internet. Here's a link to a very interesting infographic that shows us the effect of internet to the environment: The Internet Is Killing the Planet

Facebook most popular in corporate marketing

 

This recently published report from Marketing Sherpa gives us some idea on how the corporate world is going about in their web 2.0 marketing efforts. As can be seen from the bar graph above Facebook has been the most popular of all web 2.0 websites used as a marketing tool. It is closely followed by Twitter. These numbers were pulled from a survey asking about a 1000 companies on what social-sharing buttons they used in their email marketing campaigns. 

Read more of this article here: Using Social Media as a List Growth Tactic

Web 2.0 Job as a Ninja

Senior Interface Hacker? A Ruby on Rails Developer? How about a PHP Ninja? These are all real job titles and they're hot in demand.

Web 2.0 has changed our lives and also the job market. With the explosion of web 2.0 based companies, it is expected that web 2.0 are on a rapid rise as the corporate world is trying to play catch-up. It can be found in in the article that the global output on information and communications technology will top $3 trillion this year -- with software as the fastest growing category. Maybe Facebooking isn't all bad, there are companies out there that will pay someone a salary to do nothing else but just keep their Facebook pages intact.

Read more about these new jobs in this article: The Jobs of Web 2.0

Evolutions of a Socially Responsible Brand

Transforming a brand into a socially responsible leader doesn’t happen overnight by simply writing new marketing and advertising strategies. It takes effort to identify a vision that your customers will find credible and aligned with their values. The company must learn how to engage its consumers with authenticity and transparency, using social media to create a meaningful dialogue. Finally, it must beat back the forces resisting change, including opponents among shareholders and management fighting to preserve short-term rewards for themselves.

Read more in this article: the seven stages of evolution

The Worst Career Advice: Do What You Love

I had to copy the title word-by-word, it has everything in it: hope, fear, and love. Most of all, together the title says something that's very contrary to popular belief. I thought the article was very interesting and it raises an important point that people's choices and their likes keep developing.
The difference in my view, comes in understanding yourself not just what you love doing at the moment. All of us are prone to always be directed towards particular things we like and if we really understand what kind of things they are, I think we would discover not just a successful career but also a successful life.
Read more: Do What You Are

Forget resumes and cover letters, the competition has taken a leap into the virtual world

I read a  New York Times article recently that talked about how an organization used Twitter to hire its six paid interns. The way they conducted the hiring process was through a competition in Twitter. Based on the results, the finalists were called on for a personal interview some in person and some via Skype. This might seem a little too out of balance in a world of traditional resumes and cover letters, where people adhere to strict rules. Cover letters cannot be more than 1 page, resumes have to be formatted in a certain pattern, etc.

I am not surprised if slowly in the future the whole idea of resumes and cover letters are seen as being archaic. People all around the world have rapidly adopted to the digital age, yet majority of businesses still seem skeptic about the whole idea. While some daring companies like the one mentioned in the NYT article have started taking new steps, it's only a matter of time when things like our digital signatures, our blog posts, our online profile will mean for much more than just social networking.

You can read the full NYT article in this link: Competing for Summer Internships, Using a Twitter Contest

The Decade of Crispin Porter + Bogusky with Burger King

CP+B's controversial Facebook campaign, where people were given a free Whopper if they deleted their 10 friends

We all remember those Burger King commercials. Some were outright bizarre, some hilarious while some made us question Burger King's marketing tactics. All in all, there have been moments of ups and downs but Burger King has managed to stand out for its ads.
Recently Burger King parted ways with CP+B, the advertising agency behind all the BK ads for the last decade, due to bad financial results. This article chronicles some amazing BK ads throughout the last decade. Check the top 15 BK ads/marketing campaign here: 15 Best BK ads by CP+B

How BIG is social media? - for skeptics of social media

How BIG is too big? Many of us already consider social media to be a some sort of a revolution. However there are some who might still think that it's just a time-pass and isn't really significant at all. Well for all the skeptics here's few things to look into:

Click to view in original size

Via: Online Schools

Small agencies making big statements

The controversial campaign by Lean Mean Fighting Machine

They aren't among the top agencies either by revenue or by ranks, but they both share one thing in common: they're small agencies serving big clients. Check out some of the really great work done by these agencies in their websites. Both are known for their digital marketing creativeness. Although, Lean Mean Fighting Machine has been in the news recently when one of their out-of-the-box ideas backfired causing the giant Coca-Cola to pull its Facebook campaign and also making them think about dropping the agency. Read WHY this happened.

In any case, it is interesting to see how sometimes creativeness, not size, matters when it comes to advertising agencies.
The agencies:
1. strawberryfrog 
2.Lean Mean Fighting Machine

Can marketing keep up with Web 2.0?

When major publications like the Wall Street Journal write about something, it's safe to say that the mentioned topic has had certain impact in the business world. We already know what web 2.0 is and we actively use the tools without giving it a second thought, but what we really fail to see is the impact that web 2.0 is having in everything. We really take the tools for granted given its ease of use and why wouldn't we, they were designed to be as simple and easy as possible. But behind every simple thing there's always vast amount of aspects that bring it all together. With web 2.0, marketing as we know of it has been revolutionized. Marketing in a web 2.0 world is so different that at times it breaks the rules that the marketing world had relied on a few year ago. The big question now is, the public is flocking blogs, social media and other web 2.0 tools but are the marketers left behind?

Read the WSJ article HERE

For Online Job Hunters

Don't think there's enough resources to help you find job. Think again, here's 50 websites to help you jump start the job search. Few listed:
1. Careerbuilder.com
2. Simplyhired.com
3. Recruit.net
4. Jobster.com
5. Jobfox.com
View the complete list HERE

Creative Use of Web 2.0 by Universities and Colleges

The web 2.0 phenomena hasn't just gripped the students but the schools as well. From Tufts University tweeting breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus every day of the week to John Hopkins University tweeting tips on everything from area restaurants to major money-saving deals. These schools have fully adopted web 2.0 and have done so in a creative way. CollegeSurfing has ranked and listed all the best web 2.0 schools. To see the full ranking list, go to the website HERE

Why College Students Should Use Twitter

 A recent study has found that only about 18% college students use Twitter. Unlike many other web 2.0 technology and websites, Twitter has been an exception in that it's early adopters have been people above 30. However, Twitter is here and it is here to stay. So, why should tech-savvy college students join Twitter? Does it have any real advantages? Here are some tips complied from various websites

1. Chat with students and professors in real time so you can ask questions, get information, and find out what you need to know in order to make your college experience successful.
2. Alerts and reminders are available so you don’t forget to go to class, attend a lecture, or take the time to study for exams.
3. You can collaborate on a project – either a formal one or an informal one – through Twitter quite easily, which can help you keep moving forward even when you have other things to do.
4. Continue the discussion or generate a new one. Whether you’re in class or out, understanding professors will encourage you to tweet so that you’re generating ideas all the time and adding to the discussion at hand.
5. Need a reference quickly? Do a keyword search and find what you’re looking for, either from professionals or from other students who are talking about the same kinds of things you’re studying.
6. Talk to other students all over the world. You aren’t the only person studying what you’re studying, in your country or others. If you look around, you’re certain to find a lot of other people who will be interested in dialoging with you.
7. Follow a professional. If you’re interested in a particular industry or profession, find some of the people in those industries or professions and follow them. You can learn a lot that way.
8. Learn about other teachers and classes before you sign up, so that you know what you’ll be getting into. It’s a great way to have a ‘heads-up.’
9. Track packages so you know when books, care packages from home, or other items will show up.
10. Update your blacklist to cut down on time wasted on spam and on users who are just plain annoying. Block them all.
11. Network. Don’t just post random status updates and other things. Get to know people and actually talk to them. Tell them about yourself and learn about them. You can get some great contacts that way.
12. Share links with other Twitter users. This way you’re contributing to the conversation and making sure that you’re staying abreast of what’s happening in your field.

Confused about Using Linkedin?

Here's a helpful slideshow that showcases how Linkedin can be used to improve the online presence for college students

Linked In For College Students

View more presentations from Laura Short.

So..what is Web 2.0?

Everyone understands what Web 2.0 is, but yet, nobody really knows what it exactly is. Does it have any borders as to what we can call web 2.0, is there any particular definition for web 2.0 and if there is, who separates what is and what isn't. Does it differ from people to people, country to country? Does it even matter if what we call as web 2.0?

Here's the definition of web 2.0 straight from the source: O'Reilly Media - told by many to be the first to coin the term web 2.0 in their conference.

Please follow this link to read the exhaustingly detailed definition on Web 2.0 (it's 5 pages). But nobody could ask for a more legitimate information on Web 2.0:
http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html

Google Social Search update makes your friends more relevant, difficult to ignore

Google's been talking up its Social Search function for sometime, but up until now your friends' tweets probably haven't made it to the top of your search results -- unless of course you're besties with TMZ, and you've been searching the Miley Cyrus bong salvia rip again. Thankfully, it looks as if that could change with El Goog's latest update to the socially minded search function, which now mixes updates from your contacts' various online accounts, like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, in with the standard search fare -- pulling them up from their previous position at the bottom of your results. Google's also included a photo and annotation to show the origins of relevant links, and given you the ability to manage how you connect your accounts -- either publicly through your profile or privately through your account. The new functions started rolling out yesterday, which means you could be seeing a whole lot more from those contacts you regretted friending in the first place. Isn't social media a wonderful / disastrous thing?

Google  Aggregated from Engadget

Welcome

Welcome to K2.0hawk blog! It is all about web 2.0 and will feature everything related to this new and exciting advancement in web technology. The goal of this blog is to entertain and educate. Following from today, this blog will be updated twice a week. Thanks for visiting and bookmark this blog for continued updates