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Apple and the Big Three of Social Media Marketing

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Quick, what are your guesses of the top three social media sites used by corporations for marketing purposes? Is is MySpace? How about Facebook? Is YouTube used?

My limited, unofficial research brought me across these sites:

Here’s the gallery of screen shots from these sites:

From these various sites, the most popular that are surfacing are Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. This trio is becoming the big three of social media marketing used by companies to engage and interact with their customers.

But is there room for one more?  The inclusion of iTunes (and the App Store) in the above samples is very interesting and could hint at Apple’s next move.  No, I’m not suggesting that Apple enter the social media space to challenge the current contenders.  That’s not Apple’s way.  Historically, Apple only enters the fray when the company feels it can dominate the space or effectively change the game.

This is where Apple could make a definite impact, providing users with the preeminent means of engaging with social media.  No, Apple should not make their own version of Facebook (sorry MobileMe), but instead get people connected to Facebook.  As in mobile or desktop access to Facebook using an iPhone, iPod, or a Mac, as in publishing pictures to Facebook using iPhoto, as in sharing musical tastes with Facebook using iTunes, as in sharing movies on Facebook using iMovie, as in feeding other content to Facebook via integration with an iPhone app.  Same with YouTube, iMovie ’08 included exporting to YouTube, the recent iPhone 3GS supports mobile movie uploads to YouTube, and now Snow Leopard’s QuickTime X can export to YouTube straight from the OS.  You see a trend here?

By approaching the social media space not as a service, but as a connector to these services, Apple can change the game and really ingrain itself in the social media landscape.  That is Apple’s way.

Peanut Butter, Bacon, Cookies?!

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pb-bacon-cookiesBacon is the ultimate flavor right? It’s even good enough to make into a cookie! And serve them for dinner as Pulp reader Jessica did this past weekend.

Described as “pretty good! Sweet and savory. And they’re gluten-free.” Seems like something you have to try at least once.

Childhood Toys

Some toys from childhood that I dug up.

Star Destroyer from Star Wars. Die cast metal, don’t make’em like that anymore.

Star Destroyer

Twiki from Buck Rogers. He even has Dr. Theopolis with him.

Twiki

About to Pass 200,000 Visits

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Been a long time, but according to my Sitemeter stats, Pulpconnection should be passing the 200,000 visit mark sometime today.

Sorry, no contest or giveaway (not yet anyways) to celebrate this milestone, just sincere thanks for reading and sticking around these past 4 years.

Seen at Price Busters

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A stop at Price Busters brings these gems. Yes, the Kailua location reopened across the street from its original location.

Price Busters Kailua

Snickers Fudge (that tastes about the same as regular Snickers)

Snickers Fudge

Jumbo remote control. This was seriously large.

Jumbo Remote Control

Pill box that was just as large as the remote control. Fits in your pocket?! I don’t think so.

Pill Box

Coconut M&Ms are still available.

Coconut M&Ms

Vampire Diaries Is a Knockoff

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There’s yet another vampire inspired series coming to television. Starting Thursday, September 10, the Vampire Diaries is coming to the CW.

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES

Checking out the previews, good looking humans and vampires interact, there’s unattainable love, and danger ensues. Where have I heard that before? There’s obviously some Twilight (did you recognize that outside gazebo lighting scene?), some Buffy, and some Angel.

What a complete knockoff! I’m so there!!

YOURLS Is Mine

Finally! My own URL shortener based on YOURLS is working. While the URL shortener market is already full, why not make a custom vanity URL shortener just for fun? That’s the reason for pulp.ly! Just for fun.

Took some (unneeded) effort to launch pulp.ly, but it was a learning experience. Thanks to @mirthlab for the recommendation and thanks to @ryankanno for the tech translation and guidance.

Here’s a rundown of some of the issues I encountered in case you want to set up YOURLS.

Be sure you can read the instructions.

Don’t necessarily use the latest version of the software. I installed version 1.3RC, instead of the stable 1.2. There was no htaccess file included in 1.3 which caused problems. I thought it was this issue, but it simply was not having an htaccess file that looks like this. Update: as Ozh himself points out, there is an included .htaccess file, but Mac OS X users don’t see (and hence copy) this hidden file.  Use something like TinkerTool or xMod.

Once the YOURLS installation was working, integrating it with its companion WordPress plugin took some guessing. I guessed wrong and specified a remote YOURLS installation. Changing the installation type to local did the trick.

So if everything is indeed working right, this post should be shortened with a pulp.ly link then tweeted.

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