Here at Mashwork we have been hearing constant buzz around Netflix’s release of the entire season of House of Cards on February 1st, 2013.  We wanted to fully understand what this “all in one” release meant for conversation over time and how the buzz generated by this show compared to other top TV shows.

We looked at House of Cards, and six other major network TV programs across Twitter to figure out what this strategic move by Netflix really meant for other regularly scheduled TV programs.

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The conference was organized around the theme: “Digital Media’s Future: Implications for the Global PR Industry.”

The IPREX Global Leadership Conference (GLC), is made up of 75+ PR firms from around the world and meets several times a year to share best practices and business strategies.  At the conference, Jared spoke alongside people from Facebook, Buzzfeed, Muck Rack, Movement Strategy, BlitzMetrics, and Social Chorus.

Jared spoke about “The ‘Modern’ Market Research: How Social Analytics and Measurement can be used to capture a new-age of Insights for communications programs.”  He discussed the day-to-day questions that Mashwork answers while providing our clients with highly customized, meaningful, and contextualized social listening.  He also conversed with Matt Makovksy, a senior executive at Makovsky, about the future of social analytics and market research.  Jared articulated the importance of digital and social and how it is changing the way agencies do business.

Check out videos of what Jared had to say here!
Discussion about modern market research

Post-Interview Discussion

Three years, 1,096 days, or 26,304 hours ago, a young man named Jared Feldman had a dream in the living room of his Manhattan apartment.  His dream was to create a social media intelligence company, to be named Mashwork.

Since that moment of epiphany 1,578,240 minutes ago, Mashwork has been on an incredible journey.

Mashwork has made sense of what is happening on social media for over 70 brands and agencies, producing reports and infographics that have rocked the industry, and made social listening a must-have for social-savvy marketers and tastemakers across New York City and the world.

In its three years of existence, Mashwork has grown to 14 passionate employees.  It has gone from Jared’s livingroom, to the 8th floor of a midtown Manhattan office.

While Mashwork has gone through many changes, the important things have remained the same:
Mashwork works as hard as ever to create unique and insightful reports for each and every one of our clients. 

Please join us in celebrating this exciting milestone for our company.  Mashwork is proud of how far we have come and excited for our future!

Our tournament will kick off New York Social Media Week and will be hosted at The Lounge at WeWork Soho.

CNN called last year’s tournament ”the most appealing of all” events featured.  This year, we are re-creating this success to serve a greater purpose.

Hurricane Sandy was one of the most Tweeted about events last year.  In the spirit of social media – which connects people through conversation and collaboration – Mashwork hopes to use this year’s tournament to aid those still struggling by donating all of the event’s proceeds to the Red Cross’ Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund.

It’s gearing up to be an eventful night with sponsors like Caseable, Uber, and Seamless.  “America’s Hottest DJ” and official DJ to rapper Busta Rhymes, DJ Scratchator, will be providing entertainment and keeping the energy high.

Get your game face on. To be considered for the beer pong bracket, sign up now! If you are selected as one of the 8 official teams, we will email you.  If you are not selected, don’t fret, we will still have tons of open tables and flip cup games going on! We have some AWESOME prizes for the winner including some swag bags full of prizes and a $100 gift card to Seamless!

Here’s what you need to know:

When: Tuesday, February 19th, from 8PM till midnight

Where: The Lounge at WeWork

154 Grand (on Lafayette)

New York, NY 10013

Cover is FREE. Suggested donation of $3/person to play pong and $20 for teams to enter the tournament (2-person team max!)

Prizes: The tournament winners this year will receive a swag bag from our generous sponsors!

All proceeds will be used to aid those victims of Hurricane Sandy. 

RSVP here: Social Media Week Beer Pong Tournament Hosted by Mashwork

We are still solidifying the list of sponsors. Interested? Please contact us at Annie@mashwork.com.

Today marks the one year anniversary of the protest against SOPA and PIPA.  Around this time last year, all of the Internet was abuzz with conversation surrounding these cryptic, and yet very ominous, acronyms.  SOPA, shorthand for Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA, Protect IP Act, were legislations that threatened online freedom as well as what has now grown to be New York’s tech innovation economy.  Forbes Magazine ranked the protests against SOPA among the top events of 2012, alongside President Obama’s re-election and the devastation wrought by hurricane Sandy.

This time last year, thousands from the New York tech scene, organized under New York Tech Meetup and Aaron Swartz of Demand Progress, took to the streets to make their voices heard.  While on Twitter, conversation peaked at over 1,676,153 tweets, a figurative uprising when plotted on a scatter plot.  Millions of calls and emails sent to Congress, and thousands of website blackouts finally culminated in the bills being stopped.

Today, we remember how internet users let Congress know that, as David Segal of Demand Progress said best, “we are real, we exist in three dimensions, not just online.”  Today, we remember heroes like Aaron Swartz of Demand Progress, whose online petition educated and incited action.  Most of all today, we celebrate our freedom to create, innovate, and contribute to the economy.  Happy #InternetFreedomDay!

Share what you love about the Internet on www.internetfreedomday.net!

“Instagram, its Affiliates, or Service Providers may transfer information that we collect about you, including personal information across borders and from your country or jurisdiction to other countries or jurisdictions around the world.”

This past Tuesday Instagram released their new Terms and Conditions of Service agreement given their recent Facebook acquisition. These new terms and conditions created a storm of frustrations, anger, account deletion, and backlash across Twitter.

Yesterday, Instagram backtracked and announced that they would revert back to the previous terms of service – specifically about how photos could be used within advertisements.

There are however, other parts of the terms of service that will remain unchanged. While Instagram listened and responded to the biggest worries from their users, the damage may have already been done.

We looked at conversation and sentiment surrounding Instagram during 2012 to find out if it was too late.

A Story of Love and Hate

Throughout 2012, there were 30,391,899 relevant posts about Instagram with 761 billion possible impressions.

In our analysis, we found that for the most part the positive and negative conversation around Instagram has been very consistent. People love to love it, but they also love to rant about it.

We saw four overwhelming large spikes in negative conversation over the past year. While positive conversation stayed relatively constant on these days, negative conversation hit all time highs.

• December 17th – Instagram’s updated terms and services agreement.

Tuesday’s conversation about Instagram was 71% negative and only 16% positive, reflecting a high amount of backlash that prompted Instagram to shortly thereafter announce their plans to adjust their terms of service. Users were not afraid to voice their frustrations and plans to jump the Instagram ship. They were most outraged over Instagram’s claim that they would be able to sell users’ photos without their permission. For example:

“Instagram is on the news if the new updates sells my pictures I’m deleting it”

“So Instagram’s terms of use have changed, it now says they can sell your photos, no matter what they are, to anyone, without telling you.”

• April 3rd – Android version of Instagram released.

While Android users were thrilled, the iPhone community felt quite the opposite. iPhone users liked the exclusivity of the app and were angry that it is now being “polluted” by Android. 64% of conversation on this day was negative, mostly from the iPhone community. Users (specifically iPhone owners) mocked Android users and commented on their lack of polish and class. They are worried about what the social network would turn into once Android users joined in. For example:

“i cant believe #Instagram is for andriod now its gonna be alot of cheap pictures on my the site now smh”

“I hate that android users can have Instagram now . . smh”

• April 9th – Instagram and Facebook acquisition announced

75% of conversation on this day was negative, the highest amount of negativity surrounding Instagram in 2012. People still love Instagram, but express their worry over the $1B deal and what Facebook is going to do with Instagram going forward. Users commented on how “uncool” Facebook has become over time and they express their worry over the same thing happening to Instagram. They also are worried about the privacy concerns they have with Facebook transferring over to Instagram. For example:

“Just closed my instagram account. I will now Kodak photo Share where they only sell my info to bankruptcy attorneys $$”

“There is so much I don’t like about fb – and I’m really loving @instagram. I hope fb doesn’t screw it up!”

• June 30th – The Amazon Web Services outage took Instagram down with it.   

There were thousands of negative tweets related to this outage. 67% of conversation was negative on this day, yet positive conversation saw a large surge when Instagram was finally back up and running. Users expressed anger and frustration, while others mocked those that were upset. Tweets covered everything from extreme withdrawal to the amount in which people are too obsessed and attached to their Instagram apps. For example:

“The true value of a social network can be measured by the tweets and screams when it goes down. #Instagram, your time has come.”

“Seriously… Instagram needs to hurry up and get fixed because I’m having  withdrawals right now”

What’s next for 2013?

While Instagram has recovered from the negative spikes throughout 2012, this most recent dialogue surrounding Terms and Conditions and its implications for photo privacy may cause irrevocable damage. Over half of all conversation about Instagram in 2012 was negative.

It is also important to note that not only are users in an uproar over the new terms of service, they are also annoyed by the Twitter and Instagram rivalry.

Instagram recently blocked Twitter from showing its photos in the Tweet stream in order to bring more traffic to Instagram’s site and app. But, by creating a difficult experience, Instagram users are beginning to move to Twitter’s new photo-editing tools which allows its users to do most of the same things that Instagram does.

There are however, those that are so fed up with both that they have been keeping an eye on other photo sharing services as alternatives, particularly Yahoo’s new Flickr update.

We’ll see what’s next!

Store shelves across the country reflect the urge in securing not just Twinkies, but Wonderbread, and other Hostess brands.

In the last week, social media has been abuzz with the news of the liquidation of Hostess, famed company behind brands like DingDongs, Snowballs, and Twinkies. The liquidation comes in light of the company filing for bankruptcy, which is the second time since 2007. While many take to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other sites to document the fall of yet another piece of Americana, some efforts have been made to save what is best described as the “American donut” – Twinkies. The likes of such efforts thus far have been a petition for the “Naturalization of Twinkies” and Mexican bakery company, Grupo Bimbo, expressing interest in buying the iconic brand. Whatever the future may hold for Twinkies, here are some lessons that we have taken away from the impending demise of America’s sweet spot.

Keep With The Times

Whether you indulged in Twinkies, or not, one cannot deny how the brand provided a “go to” confectionary fix to satiate any sweet tooth. Unfortunately, as Americans’ waistbands expanded, the focus in the last decade has shifted toward healthier alternatives. This led to many brands – General Mills, Lays, and more – eliminating saturated fats (opting to bake, rather than fry), and limiting their usage of artificial sugars and coloring. McDonald’s probably did the best job in rebranding itself to stay in line with the times. Perhaps the single most brand attacked in the award-winning 2006 documentary “Fast Food Nation” for the obesity epidemic that persists in America, McDonald’s has since made strides in providing healthier options on its Dollar Menu for people to choose from. Aside from still offering a toy, even Happy Meals are healthier, giving children the option of enjoying apple slices instead of French fries, and milk rather than soda. It is because of this that more than a decade after “Fast Food Nation,” that McDonald’s reports even more growth. According to The Daily Beast, “everyday 65 million people eat at McDonald’s restaurants somewhere in the world, more than ever before.” Somehow Twinkies missed the health memo, keeping the same nutritional value (or lack of) since its inception in the 1930’s; which consists of 150 calories, 45 of which from fat, 5 grams of fat, 2 grams from saturated fat, and a whopping 14 grams of sugar, none of which includes dietary fiber.

Be Clear In Your Approach to Social Media

O Magazine Editor, Gayle King, expresses her hardship in finding one last Twinkie to enjoy.

While we applaud Hostess for getting on board with social media, creating a Twitter account back in summer 2010, their approach could have been tweaked a bit to better track insights, interests, and conversations. With iconic brands like Twinkies, Zingers, and DingDongs, one would think that those brands have enough power for their namesake to stand alone on social sites like Twitter and Facebook. Rather than allowing these brands to live under the umbrella of @Hostess_Snacks, Hostess opted to group the conversations together under their company social media account, only offering the occasional retweet and mention of news about their other brands. Of course, Twinkies took up the majority of the conversation. However, if Hostess did a better job in aggregating content, letting their company Twitter serve as a RSS feed of sorts for their various other brands, then this would have not only introduced supporters to all of the Hostess brand family; but, also would make for better control of the conversation. We love Twinkies, but they shouldn’t have all of the shine. In short, plan, plan, plan ahead before jumping into social media. Any plan can be tweaked, reworked, and bettered to communicate the vision that you want your brand to achieve online.

Take Part In the Conversation/ Fun Others Have With Your Brand

Our favorite Twitter post related to the Hostess closure.

Some of the most memorable conversations about Twinkies are how they served as fodder for jokes in popular culture. From jokes about their shelf life to queries into how they actually did get the cream in the center, Twinkies are iconic and somewhat urban legends. However, for all of the pranks played on Twinkies (our favorite is Cake Spy’s 2008 article “50 Ways to Kill A Twinkie”), Hostess hardly took part in capitalizing on the fun. Can you imagine how incredible an Instagram campaign would have been for this? We can.

In the end, we learned that no brand can survive the digital age without adapting to the times, planning a direct approach to tackling social media, and having fun with the online chatter. All in all, Hostess we will miss the good times. And if we’re banking on Twinkies being able to survive a nuclear holocaust, then hey, Twinkies we expect more good times to come.

Actor Woody Harrelson enjoying a Twinkie in “Zombieland.”

On Twitter and Facebook in the past eight months, there were over 1,700 individuals who came out and admitted their secret: they don’t read any website or web services terms of service prior to signing up.

Why is this you ask?

Well, complaints included the agreement being too long for starters, while others just flat out didn’t care — they just wanted access to a site or service.

But really, should you care about what you’re potentially agreeing to?

In an ideal world, yes. However, the fact of the matter is that if you want to be on Facebook with your friends, you’ll agree to their terms, as there’s no way for you to negotiate your own terms of service.

So what is being done to simplify the Terms of Service agreement?

One company, 500px, decided it was a good idea to pair the legalese with an every day language explanation on the side of each paragraph. A nice touch, but is it enough?

Another idea has been Terms of Service; Didn’t Read (TOS;DR), which launched in June 2012 with the goal to fix the biggest lie on the web: “I have read and agree to the terms.”

TOS;DR is turning into an excellent resource for those curious about what you are actually agreeing to by signing up and using popular websites. The crowd sourced project outlines and ranks (Class A [best] through Class E [worst]), popular websites and web services’ terms of service agreements providing useful information to users.

For example, according to TOS;DR TwitPic has the worst rank (Class E) when it comes to their terms of service agreement. While they have several “infractions,” some of the most notable include the fact that TwitPic takes credit for your user generated content, that they can use your own content for their own gain, and that when you delete an image from your TwitPic account it isn’t really deleted from their servers.

In TwitPic’s case, this type of information could be valuable for people who are concerned with protecting their content, such as photographers. It will be interesting to see how other social sites such as Pinterest, Tumblr, etc. rank in comparison to each other and if the ranks will affect what types of people use each service.

It’s also worth noting that because the project is still relatively new, not every website or web service is accounted for. Additionally, sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google are listed and have certain elements of their terms of service agreements explained, but are not ranked due to not being sufficiently reviewed at this time.

Below you can find the full TOS;DR ranking system and how each rank is classified.

What about you?  Do you read a website’s terms of service agreement prior to signing up?

If you want some additional perspective on the increased interest in the mission, on August 3 the @MarsCuriosity account Tweeted that it was in “good health” and would be landing in three days. That Tweet was ReTweeted 1,689 times and favorited 180 times. While the Tweet from @MarsCuriosity sharing the first picture after landing garnered 30,933 ReTweets and 6,993 favorites.

One of the most popular aspects of the Mars rover landing was the fact it was live streamed on the Internet, with the Ustream channel dedicated to the Curiosity rover racking up almost 7 million views.

A live stream from Mars, you ask? Yes, and there was only a 14 minute delay for data that had to travel 154.2 million miles. Pretty impressive. Of course, this small fact gave way to over 50,000 Tweets from people berating NBC’s Olympic coverage, which had already been a hot topic of conversation.

Tweets such as the ones below called out NBC for delaying coverage of Olympic events for hours in an effort to get more viewers during prime time.

NBC has a 6 hour delay for events 3000 miles away.NASA has a 15 minute delay for an event 150,000,000 miles away.

— Matt Nunogawa (@amattn) August 6, 2012

Mars Curiosity Rover landing will have a 14 minute delay over 154.2 million miles. What’s NBC’s excuse? nasa.gov/multimedia/nas… #NASAwin

— Andrew Turner (@ajturner) August 6, 2012

We also analyzed conversation surrounding the #FundNASA hashtag, after reading about it going viral on TechCrunch. However, despite TechCrunch’s report, there were only 2,769 tweets that included the #FundNASA hashtag on Twitter indicating to us that the hashtag was not nearly as popular as claimed.

Our very own Creative Director was up in the early hours of the morning to watch the Mars landing, here is a photo from his “mission control.”

Did you watch the Mars landing? If so, how did you watch it?