I am so getting this Envelope Template for Ella who has been talking about wanting to write letters recently. Creates envelopes that measure: 4.5 inches W x 6.4 inches W; template measures 7.8 inches W x 11 inches H W x 0.1 inches thickness. It is an International Standard Size, Format: C6 and suitable for content format: A6 (or A4 folded in half twice).

E-mail has invaded every aspect of our lives. We don’t need a survey to tell us as much, but new research from Xobni and Harris Interactive confirms that we’re not alone in dealing with e-mail overload.

2,200 adults 18 and older in the U.S. and U.K were surveyed on their e-mail habits and attitudes. Most respondents — 72% in the U.S, 68% in the U.K. — indicated that they check e-mail during their time off. A large percentage of Americans also check e-mail in bed (19%), and while on vacation or during days off (50%).

When queried about their outside-the-workplace e-mail activities, nearly half (46%) of the American respondents indicated that they do so to ease their workload. Thirty-seven percent are afraid they’ll miss something important (guilty as charged), and 27% check work e-mail when off the job because it is expected of them. Another 26% keep up with e-mail while on vacation because they simply can’t handle the volume otherwise.

When comparing e-mail behaviors by gender, there are some subtle differences in habits. Men, for instance, are more likely to check e-mail in bed — 21% of men claim do so, while 16% of women admit to the practice. Of course, this bed-checking trend also skews toward 18- to 34-year-olds, who are twice as likely (31%) than 35- to 54-year-olds (15%) to do so.

The real-time nature of the web and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook are likely contributing to our always-on attention spans, and hence, contributing to the e-mail overload problem. We can only hope tools such as Rapportive, Gmail Priority Inbox and Xobni’s add-ons will help our cause.

Image courtesy of revrev, Flickr

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Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Twitter

More About: email, stats, xobni

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Beer battered zucchini and mushrooms

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One of the frequent questions I am asked is:

“What’s the use in a Facebook page? I created one, invited all my friends and it now has 300+ users but I see no traffic at all!”

My answer is obvious: commitment. You can’t expect your Facebook page to drive traffic and followers to your site unless you spend time daily making your page worth it. And the most important thing is to update it regularly and consistently.

Without updates and the interaction they foster, your Facebook page is just a brochure. The general advice (that works) is as follows:

1. Create a page update editorial (just like with your blog): make it a rule to post updates throughout the day. Also, plan the set time daily when you  visit to moderate and answer users’ comments and submissions. Automating and scheduling some of the Page wall updates will help a lot (below I will share a few ways to plan and schedule Facebook page updates).
2. Vary the content types you send to your page wall by posting links, videos and photos.  Moreover, play with various content styles: questions, polls, mini-contests and calls-to-action.
3. Spur and encourage discussion: always comment on what your fans post to your page wall.

Automate Posting to Wall from Your Blog Feed

The best way to share your blog updates on your Facebook page is still to do it manually, of course, for the simple reason that you can add an engaging notice to go with link: ask a question, invite comments or add a call to action.

However, by automating things we have more control over our timing: we are able to schedule updates even when we are away from the computer and cannot update our page “likers” manually. So in many cases automated updates are still the way to go.

There are many applications that import blog updates right to the page wall – one of the most useful ones is “Deliver it”. It offers a nice interface that allows you to choose which page you would like to post blog updates to:

Note: Another popular way to pull your blog RSS feed into your Facebook page is to use the “Networked Blog” application.

Post Smart Twitter Updates to Your Page Wall Automatically

“Smart Twitter for Pages” is a Facebook application that automatically updates your selected page with Tweets skipping all replies, hashtags or Retweets:

The application also has a nice dashboard that allows you to see all your pages, whether or not they have a matching Twitter account, and which exact updates have gone live through the application:

Note: If you’ve been researching the topic long enough, you might have seen many social media blogs recommending “Selective Tweets” app to post selected Twitter updates to a Facebook page. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to set the application to work with my pages, neither did many more people – so I guess those who recommend it never really tried using it for pages.

Schedule Wall Updates: Leverage Hootsuite

Hootsuite is the feature-rich social media marketing tool that (among many other options) can update and schedule updates to your Facebook page.

To add your Pages to HootSuite, go to Settings, select Social Networks, then click Add Social Network. You will notice an option indented underneath Facebook that says Pages. Click on this option, and you’ll go through the same steps you might have previously used to authenticate private Facebook profiles.

The cool things about using Hootsuite for updating your Facebook Fan pages are:

1. You can schedule your updates to make sure you post regularly (and stick to your editorial even though you may be away or offline)
2. You can update several pages simultaneously (or from the same dashboard)
3. You can choose the page thumbnail to go with the shared link and edit the pre-filled snippet:

Post to Your Facebook Page Wall from Your Browser

All the social media and bookmarking tools you are aware of are most likely to have a “Share on Facebook” option; the Facebook official toolbar does have it as well. However, none of them can send the update directly to your Facebook page (they are good only for updating your profile, not your page).

Luckily we have the Hootsuite FireFox addon. It installs a nice little button in your browser toolbar: whenever you feel like sharing anything online, click the button and it will grab the URL of the page, let you choose the page you want to share it to, and generate the snippet, page title and thumbnail. Obviously, you can schedule the update – which means you can schedule your Facebook page updates right from your browser!

Post and Schedule Page Wall Updates through Email

You can enable posting to your page wall via email by going to: Edit Page -> Mobile (click “Edit”) – be sure to keep this email address private:

Being able to update your fan page from email is great when you are away and can only use mobile phone. Note that the email subject will be used as your updated status if your email contains no photo or video – so if you want to send a link, include it in the email subject:

Note that this way you’ll end up with the update containing the “bald” link: no thumbnail or snippet – but this is still a great way to share news with your page users when you are away from the computer.

Besides, this method is perfect for sending photos and videos taken with your mobile while on a trip, conference, etc (imagine how easily you can “live stream” any industry event to your Facebook page using this method):

Moreover, with services like Letter Me Later you can schedule your Facebook page updates via email. Isn’t that great?

Give your Fans Exposure: Tag and Credit Members on the Page Wall

The fact that you know and appreciate every single one of your page “likers” will quickly increase your brand credibility and page engagement. It is easy: just make it a rule to share your fans’ links (that you received from Twitter or their blogs) and tag the users in the update:

Collect and Share Social Testimonials: Facebook Notes

While the built-in importing feature of Facebook is somewhat buggy ( for example, when you use it to automatically import your blog posts, there will be no links back to the original link source), you can still take advantage of it: use Facebook Notes RSS Import feature to collect and share your Twitter testimonials.

The first step will be to collect the positive feedback around Twitter related to your brand and “favorite” (i.e. star) those Tweets. Then, import them to Facebook:

Navigate: “Edit Page”, scroll down to the “Notes” application and click “Edit”. You will notice a tiny link on the right – “Edit import settings.” Click on it:

Provide your Twitter favorites RSS feed there:

You are done! From now on your page notes collect and share the positive reviews of your brand you find and favorite on Twitter. How sweet is that?

Do you have useful tips on how to update your Facebook page wall to achieve active interaction with your “likers”? Please share them in the comments!

Speaking of regularly updated Facebook pages, why don’t you join us at our BlueGlass Facebook page: we promise to regularly provide you with high-quality, relevant content!

Here is a great Infographic that maps out most of Google acquisitions since they started buying companies back in 2001. Interestingly, Google CEO Eric Schmidt mentioned earlier this year that they were back on the hunt and ramping up acquisitions to just over one per week. For any company, that is a ridiculously tough thing to do, [...]Related Digital Buzz Posts:

1. Infographic: Rise Of Social Media Ad Spending
2. Infographic: The Geosocial Universe
3. Infographic: The 2010 Social Networking Map

Raspberry coconut cupcake with a rose: one of many cupcakes from a weekend wedding

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The federation of milk producers in Quebec, Canada created a giant milk carton on top of a bus shelter. Two busstops were selected, one at Montreal and the other one at Quebec. Fake milk was dripping on the side of the bus shelter, which had a image of a glass of milk on it.



Company: Le Lait
Agency: Nolin BBDO
Country: Canada

No related posts.

Check out this massive light-up billboard ad for Foursquare and American Eagle Outfitters, shot in Times Square (via Mashable).

That's something most tech startups don't get, especially for free.

But isn't American Eagle -- the store whose billboard that is -- supposed to be in the Shopkick camp? (A sort-of-rival mobile app.)

Looks like big retailers aren't going to be loyal to any one of the mobile shopping/check-in apps, and will experiment to see what works best for them.

Makes sense, especially if they have no equity stake in the apps/companies they're supporting.

Update: Foursquare bizdev exec Tristan Walker tells us that American Eagle has already been running nationwide Foursquare specials for a month an a half. So it's definitely up for trying multiple mobile commerce/shopping app strategies.

See Also: Here's How Shopkick Works -- That New "Foursquare For Shopping" iPhone App

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Foursquare 2.0 In Beta Testing Today, Wider Launch A Few Weeks Away
• Best Foursquare Promotion Yet: FREE BURRITOS
• Here's How Shopkick Works -- That New "Foursquare For Shopping" iPhone App

“Unlimited choice” can “produce genuine suffering,” argues Barry Schwartz in The Paradox of Choice. His research basically sums up what your mother has been telling you for years: You don’t even know what you want.

Thankfully, the Internet does know what you want — or at least its algorithmic recommendation services are trying to figure it out. Pandora is great for music, but these seven sites will help narrow down that agonizingly long list of choices in a variety of areas using your own past preferences.

Read on and let us know in the comments which, if any, worked best for you.

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1. BuzzVoice

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While Robots might not be able to run the news, they can certainly read the news. BuzzVoice is the first step in making reading obsolete.

Users select sources from the web that they wish they had time to read. Their personalized players — which can be streamed on the web, on an MP3 player, through an iPhone or on an iPad — select articles from those sources’ RSS feeds and read them out loud. It’s like NPR, but tailored to your interests and without any hint of human inflection.

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2. Jinni

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At some point before Netflix, you could wander into your locally owned video store and ask something like, “I’m kind of in the mood for something romantic but light-hearted, maybe something with Vince Vaughn?” The helpful video store owner would reply, “Perhaps you would enjoy Swingers.”

Now you can ask Jinni. The site classifies movies using factors like mood, place, time period, and plot. It calls this selection process its “movie genome project.” Users search and browse by these factors and the site gives recommendations based on their preferences as they use it.

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3. BookLamp

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Want a shorter War and Peace? If BookLamp progresses as planned, you’ll be able to search for a book that has similar stylistic elements — perspective, dialog, description level, pacing and density — to Tolstoy’s classic, but that can be read during a four hour layover.

As of now, the site is still calling itself a “technology demonstration,” and hasn’t analyzed the writing style of enough books to be useful as a recommendation service. If you sign up, however, you can request a favorite book or author to be added to the database (although there are no promise that it will actually be added).

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4. cookthink

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If you are craving Chinese food, prefer chicken, and are in the mood for something filling, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to articulate your recipe search as “Stir-Fried Chicken, Bok Choy and Chiles With Basil” without some help. Cookthink helps users answer the perpetual question, “What should I make for dinner?” by allowing them to search recipes from food bloggers, cookbook authors, and newspapers by any combination of ingredient, dish, cuisine or mood. They call it “the recipe mapping project.”

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5. Worio

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Worio (or “Web Of Research -io”) supplements users’ favorite search engines with an enhanced discovery search. Normal search results from the selected engine appear on the left pane and results that use the keywords from the principle search as well as the user’s search history suggest related items that might be of interest on the right pane. The site operates by looking at the tags associated with webpages the user searches for. There are also options to create a library of tagged content, download a Facebook application, or look at friends’ libraries.

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6. Bee.tv

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Channel surfing used to be a lazy activity. Now, with choices on television, web video, digital download platforms and even your mobile phone, it can be a lot of work. Bee.tv is like a channel surfing assistant.

The site recommends TV shows and movies based upon the devices you are using, your preferences, and your likes and dislikes. It allows you to filter results based on rating, genre, HD and whether the content is free as well as to browse TV listings.

The site is currently still in Beta and requires an invitation code, but a free app is available on the iTunes store.

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7. Apollo News

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Time Inc. launched an experimental personalized magazine in print and online last year, but that was before the iPad hit the market. Apollo news is a similar idea. It’s an iPad app that serves as a personalized newspaper.

Users select preferences to build their customized periodical. The app’s algorithms populate content that the user will like by considering factors such as how much time she spends on certain articles and at certain sources’ sites, which articles they indicate they like or dislike, which articles they mention on social media, and similar people’s tastes.

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More Tech Resources from Mashable:

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- 5 Great Ways to Find Music That Suits Your Mood
- 7 Unique Sites for Discovering New Music
- 7 Ways to Find Amazing New Android Apps
- HOW TO: Find Good Food Online
- HOW TO: Find and Add Facebook Apps

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mattjeacock

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Reviews: Facebook, Internet, Jinni, Pandora, iPhone, iStockphoto

More About: Algorithmic recommendation services, Apollo, bee.tv, BookLamp, books, BuzzVoice, choices, cooking, cookthink, Food, jinni, Movies, pandora, recipes, Recommendation Services, Recommendations, trending, worio

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