The power of suggestion is alive and well on the Internet. A new survey offers some level of legitimate proof that “likes” on social media platforms such as Facebook do, in fact, encourage more “likes.” The same can’t be said for “dislikes.”

It appears haters just do not have the same digital clout as positive people. And that’s probably a good thing. We all know some people like to rant online when in a foul mood. Others just have terrible attitudes every day of their lives—and the Internet has been their dumping grounds for far too long. It appears the public is well aware of this, and that has to make us feel good about being in public relations. We’ve known all along that deep inside the public is all about good mojo. Read more

The woman at left is beautiful. She’s also an engineer. And as LinkedIn recently learned the hard way, those two things are not, in fact, mutually exclusive.

Toptal, a small developer networking platform, had featured this image in its ads for engineers, which appeared on LinkedIn. After “many LinkedIn members complained” about the image, the tech giant pulled the ads, telling Toptal that the promos could be run again once the picture in question had been replaced by “different images, related to the product.”

In other words, LinkedIn assumed an inherent disconnect between the image of a beautiful woman and a tech career like engineering.

Outraged by LinkedIn’s decision, CEO of Toptal, Taso Du Val (who I am proud to call a former classmate), wrote a scathing blog post, titled: “In Defense of Female Engineers.” In the original post, Du Val wrote, in part:

“Today was a disappointing day at Toptal. We saw extreme sexism within the tech community, from an industry leader and advertising partner that we work with quite extensively: LinkedIn…Are they seriously siding with people who complained to LinkedIn that our female software engineers are offensive?…these (and others) are our real engineers that we have signed contracts with. And even if they were only stock photography, who cares? The point is, they’re perfectly fine and represent normal professional people. Our male versions are no different. They’re male engineers, smiling, some with glasses, some without; the whole idea LinkedIn had was just ridiculous.

The fact of the matter is: members of the tech community (LinkedIn users) saw it as impossible that our female engineers could actually be engineers, and a leader of the tech community (LinkedIn) agreed with them. Unfortunately we’re banned from showing anything except 100%, all male software advertisements from now on and so, that’s what you’ll be getting. I’m disappointed both on a personal and professional level. I expect better.” Read more

We all work in social media, so this may strike some as an odd question, but we’ll ask it anyway: don’t you just hate promoted tweets?

If you answered “No, I love them; they provide essential information on goods and services that I may or may not purchase,” then you must work in marketing. If you answered, “They are kind of annoying, aren’t they,” then you’re…everybody else.

Twitter has obviously become a key promotional platform in the past couple of years, but it wasn’t always this way—and some longtime users aren’t too happy about it. In fact, as The Wall Street Journal puts it, these young ruffians are all about “subvert[ing] the corporate vibe.” Twitter spokesman Jim Prosser called it “the eternal battle people have over hipsterdom.”

Really?

We never joined the “weird Twitter” club (sue us), which for the most part is all about making strange jokes rather than assaulting brands. But we do know that some comedy professionals use promo tweets as a platform for jokes, because duh:

Shut up nerd. RT @Staples: Back to school season is right around the corner!

— rob delaney (@robdelaney) August 4, 2013

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Sharing the color of your panties with the Twitterverse will make you feel liberated, independent, sassy and sexy! At least that’s what Hanes‘ new Undercover Color campaign would like you to think.

After selecting my hue from the color wheel provided on the campaign’s website, UndercoverColor.com, I am brought to a page that applauds my selection. “You’re wearing red underwear. Bold Move,” it says. “Are you brave enough to tell the world?”

I’m not so sure “brave” is the right word. It should realistically read something like: Are you vain/silly/bored enough to believe the world cares what color your panties are, and would be impressed by your oh-so-brazen and sassy over-share? Nonetheless, in the name of research, I press on.

I am then prompted to select a pre-composed tweet by clicking on tiles, each of which boasts a picture of something red, including a rose, a pair of red pumps, a melting cherry popsicle, and a tile made completely of red glitter. One of the tiles features text that reads, “Super Awkward.” Obviously, I click on that one first. It flips over to expose the corresponding pre-composed tweet, which reads, “I’ve got a scarlet secret,” which, to me, kind of sounds like the tweeter has a seriously inflamed rash. But it did say it would be awkward, so I assume the rest of the tweets must be better.

Wrong. Read more

In case you’re one of the sad, deprived few who missed SyFy‘s latest motion picture masterpiece, Sharknado, you may be wondering, “What exactly is a Sharknado?” Allow me to enlighten you: Despite the potentially misleading name, it is neither a shark that behaves like a tornado, nor a tornado that behaves like a shark, but is, in fact, a tornado that forms over the ocean, sucking countless man-eating fish into its swirling vortex and dropping them willy-nilly upon the streets of unsuspecting Los Angeles.

Upon viewing the film with friends, the first thing I did — once I had come down from an unprecedented fit of gleeful laughter, which began during the opening sequence and persisted through what is perhaps the greatest ending of any movie ever — was to share my transcendent experience with my social media friends and followers. And I was far from alone.

On the night it first aired (July 11), the campy action film generated 318,232 tweets during broadcast, and peaked at 5,000 tweets per minute, making it the most-tweeted TV program of the night. Helping to fan the wildfire was the participation of big-name Twitter-users like Wil Wheaton, who tweeted a Vine counting down to the premiere to his 2.4 million followers, and then proceeded to live-tweet the movie. Read more

In case you never watched Dudley Do-Right as a kid, we’ll let you in on a little secret: things are different in Canada. For instance, McDonald’s Ontario recently added the McLobster to its menu. Let that one sink in for a minute.

Why do we mention our great white neighbor to the north? Because Canada has given us Jim Carrey, Rick Moranis, at least one member of Arcade Fire, and this week’s best case study in proactive social media PR!

This isn’t just social media community managers tweeting “We’re sorry for your experience, customer X. Please email us at LikeWeCare@yahoo.com for more info!” McDC promises to answer any consumer’s question—as long as he or she connects on Twitter or Facebook first. Crafty!

So how does this project work?

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Chipotle‘s official Twitter feed, @ChipotleTweets, appeared to have been hacked when it started sending out strange, seemingly random messages this past Sunday, like:

Hi sweetie, can you please pick up some lime, salt, and onions? twitter

— Chipotle (@ChipotleTweets) July 21, 2013

Mittens13 password leave

— Chipotle (@ChipotleTweets) July 21, 2013

Later in the day, the company claimed there had been a “problem” with its Twitter account, and apologized to its followers for the confusion: Read more

Recent research suggests that 80% of reach from marketing campaigns now comes from amplification through advocacy. This means that whether or not satisfied customers are inspired to take that extra step and share their positive feelings about a brand can truly make or break a marketing effort.

In other words, brands that don’t generate substantial advocacy may end up paying more to market less efficiently than those that successfully make advocacy a priority.

This is at the heart of a new study conducted by Social@Ogilvy, which analyzed 7 million brand social mentions across 4 countries (Brazil, China, UK, US) and 22 brands to analyze the key drivers of advocacy. Partnering with Social@Ogilvy for the study were CIC, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and Visible Technologies.

What the study found is that despite the enormous potential value, “brands are failing at driving satisfied customers to share in social media,” said Irfan Kamal, global head of Data+Analytics and Products at Social@Ogilvy. “Our study suggests that the vast majority of satisfied customers are not publicly advocating for brands on social platforms. Brands have not provided the technology, incentives or content that both inspire and enable customers to speak out positively. To help close the gap, brands must help facilitate advocacy volume, reward passion and amplify reach.” Read more

When I logged into my social media accounts early this morning, all seemed generally quiet — Facebook was filled with the cat videos and snarky memes that mid-week duldrums often produce, and nothing really jumped out at me on Twitter. However, In the time it took me to drive home from my in-laws’ (roughly two hours), those same social media accounts had exploded with angry posts, shared articles, and multiple invitations to join boycotts. The source of the ire? The latest cover of Rolling Stone.

The cover responsible for the sudden and fierce firestorm features a self-taken portrait of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and promises that the accompanying story will explain “how a popular, promising student was failed by his family, fell into radical Islam, and became a monster.”

Though the same picture has been featured in other publications, including on the front page of The New York Times this past spring, the outrage seems to stem from the fact that it appears on a cover generally reserved for music’s brightest stars and the Hollywood elite who have officially “made it big.” By featuring Tsarnaev on its cover, many feel that Rolling Stone is glamorizing him. Read more

Let’s play the hypothetical game: Say you’re a government agency that many see as a necessary evil, but you still get singled out as an example of everything wrong with our system. It’s tough to be popular when your job involves insisting that everyone remove their shoes, belts, wallets, ice picks, meat cleavers, spear guns, brass knuckles, gasoline canisters, and any other vaguely metallic objects before entering a full-body scanner with an NC-17 rating.

What do you do to improve your public profile? Start an Instagram account to show the world what you’re doing right—because who reads things anymore?

Our point: here are some fun weapons that the Transportation Security Administration confiscated and featured on its brand new picture page. Oh hey, it’s a loaded pistol small enough to fit in your toiletry bag!

Next comes another tiny, poorly hidden handgun:

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