The SXSW PanelPicker 2012 public voting is now open. We’re excited to announce that our own Melani Gordon (@melgordon or @taphunter) was asked to be on an interactive panel. Here’s a small excerpt:

Since the end of prohibition, the craft beer industry has been impacted by a limiting distribution system. This system has made it challenging for fans of craft beer to get their favorite brews depending on the region they live in.  Laws have remained unchanged, shipping via the mail is almost impossible (and illegal), but the demand for craft beer is growing exponentially. How can mobile applications, location based services and social networks disrupt this “old boy” system to improve it?

We’d be speaking alongside some social media icons, including our pals Untappd and Great Divide Brewery. If you’ve got a few extra minutes, throw us a vote! Public voting counts for 30% of the overall decision.

At lunchtime August 9, 2011, Apple was trading at  $367 per share, giving the company a valuation of more than $341 billion, briefly surpassing what Exxon Mobil was worth at that time. The independent valuations of the two companies have since been leapfrogging one another in a  hectic week on Wall Street.

Which company will be holding the golden ring at the end on Wall Street remains to be seen, but the eventual outcome seems inevitable.  According to Reuters,  Apple has seen 80 percent annual growth in sales amid slipping oil prices and a U.S. environmental plan that is focused on reducing the use of fossil fuels and dependence on foreign oil resources dramatically over the next 20 years.  Apple has been gaining ground fast on Exxon Mobil since reporting record iPhone and iPad sales over the last two months. At that time, Apple was worth just $4 billion less than the oil giant. When Apple passed Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable technology company 15 months ago, it represented a valuation of $222 billion. According to tech columnist Robert Cyran however, that is not an accurate valuation. “If you put Apple on the same PE (projected earnings) multiple it traded on in 2006, it would be worth almost $900 billion.” Additionally, Apple sells more per quarter than it did in the entire fiscal year of 2007. Could this mean an Apple worth $1 trillion some day? With the emerging Apple  technology leaning toward the expansive growth in areas like social media marketing and mobile device applications, it certainly seems possible.

According to eMarketer data compiled in January 2011, the U.S. virtual goods market is expected to generate $653 million in revenue this year, up 28% from 2010.  Virtual goods, in case you’re not a shut-in, are digital representations of goods for which one pays actual, real money. An example would be a digital sweater for your avatars girlfriend in an online virtual community. …$653 million. Or, a powerful, digital sword or weapon upgrade for  your character in a virtual game online…did I mention $653 million? This ‘fake-goods-for-real-money’ market has spawned a moniker for games known as “Freemiums”, or, free online gaming communities, with premium upgrades available for everything from nicer houses to luxury cars and digital bling. The upgrades of course, cost real money. $653 MILLION.  The popularity of social gaming and social network marketing has catalyzed tremendous growth in virtual goods monetization. Game developers, virtual worlds and social network providers are driving this economy, which is projected to grow substantially in the next several years.   Keep your eyes open for the virtual sweatshops.

• $792 million projected earnings in 2012
• Virtual goods totaled  $7.3 billion worldwide in 2010
• Between 2007-2010, 70% of all Virtual Goods were sold in Asia.
• In 2010, Swedish gaming company Mindark sold a virtual space station for $330,000 USD…… Sucker!

- A.R. Templeton

Circles; In the immortal words of Offspring we often want to “keep ‘em separated”, that is, groups of friends, co-workers, ex-fiancé’s and the like. Google+ lets you separate posts into groups where they will only be shared with certain recipients. This feature  goes one step further than Facebook, by ensuring that the pic of you doing a keg-stand isn’t re-posted to your boss accidentally by auto-blocking anyone you haven’t specified as a recipient. It also has posting fail-safes that are more deliberate than those on Facebook.

Hangouts: Hangouts are video-lounges where you can invite individuals or whole ‘Circles’ to join you for a debate on the merits of pet-neutering, or just a little one-on-one flirting, a la Skype.

Sparks: What makes sparks fly in your life? This feature allows you to follow a huge variety of topics ranging from the mundane to the bizarre, and even allows you to create your own category for direct content discovery. Into fly-fishing? Spark it, and you’ll be kept up on the latest in fishing from waders to wall-eyed pike.

+1: Sounds like you’ve been added to a list at a hot nightclub, right? Alas no. This is similar to the ‘Like’ button on Facebook, and automatically stores the content you’re viewing on your profile; all the easier to transfer the topic to your ‘sparks’ later on.

Is Google+ that much different than Facebook? Not to the casual observer. But, remember that all of this programming is ultimately designed to generate ad revenue from increasingly streamlined targets and the best way to do that is to let your client do it for you. The way that Google+ divides (it’s users), allows their sponsors to conquer. That is, the user categorizes his or herself by customizing their profile, likes and dislikes, and that makes it easier to pinpoint and maximize the specific demographic for an ad campaign or service using social network members as brand recruiters. Is your company using social media to maximize the effectiveness of your ads and the reach of your brand?

LinkedIn employees watch site hit 100M mark

Professional Social Media site LinkedIn leapfrogged MySpace last week to take the number two slot in the industry under the number one behemoth Facebook (160 million users). After a splashy public offerings debut in March the site hit 100 million users, the holy grail number for emerging social media sites. According to LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner the recent snowball in members can be attributed to a number of factors including the unemployment rate. Many Facebook users network on Facebook, but LinkedIn has been marketed as the premier social media site to find a job, to recruit talent, to source new deals, or even start a business. LinkedIn has been branded as a site where these goals aren’t eclipsed or overshadowed by posts of holiday pictures and invitations to high school reunions. On Linkedin, in other words, it’s ‘business time’. Currently in use in over 200 countries, half of all users are outside the U.S.. LinkedIn is currently garnering a million new users a week at a rate of more than one per second.

How do you use LinkedIn? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

• The average Facebook user has 130 friends.
• More than 25 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) are shared each month.
• Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application.
• More than 150 million people engage with Facebook on external websites every month.
• Two-thirds of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites have integrated with Facebook.
• There are more than 100 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
• People that access Facebook via mobile are twice as active than non-mobile users (think about that when designing your Facebook page).
• The average Facebook user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events.
• People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook.
• There are more than 1 million entrepreneurs and developers from 180 countries on Facebook.

Google announced last week that voice-activated searches and quicker search time technology will increase ease and efficiency for PC users on their search engine.   Google’s big announcement on June 17 comes amid a slew of ambitious product-debuts this summer as the “Big 5” (Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft and AOL) battle for supremacy in the expanding online consumption market.  Google first introduced the technology in mobile devices over a year ago, a nod to the fact that quick-searches for bars and restaurants spike at night and on the weekend, and mobile searches overall have increased 500 percent in the last two years.

Utalkmarketing.com reported that The PC version of the voice-activated search requires the use of Google Chrome and a separate microphone plugged into the PC. It would not be unusual for manufacturers to follow the Internet leviathan’s lead however, and make built-in microphones standard in future PC models.  Two additional features the company unveiled at the San Francisco conference are ‘Instant Pages’, which will potentially  knock 2 to 5 seconds off the loading times of web pages and enhanced image recognition (EIR), with which users can search the Internet  by dragging images into a box.

As demonstrated by Google’s new tech, the nature of the beast is ‘more, easier, faster’. Companies need to maximize their presence to consumers via social media and internet outlets as consumers become increasingly enmeshed in our digital society.  As such, it hardly seems necessary to have the futuristic jet-packs promised to us by The Jetsons anymore as shopping,  searching and personal interaction no longer require leaving the house much less flying around strapped to a missile. Nowadays, the mountain comes to us. Search engines and social media outlets are now the leading means of marketing products to the public, and now consumers simply need to tell their PC what they want in order to find it. The future is here and it resembles ‘I Dream of Genie’, more than ‘The Jetsons’; if you want something simply ask for it and it appears. The only difference is the genie requires a valid credit card.

At worst this technology is another building block in America’s move toward immobility, at best it will engender a new era of green advertising and marketing as monolithic billboards and tacky neon signs go the way of the dinosaur.  For certain it means that the best way to reach consumers is through their internet connection. The question is this; as advertising and marketing ascend into the technosphere ™, is your company maximizing or missing your opportunity? And when they’re searching, who’s saying your company’s name?

This study, done by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies, found that 60% of fans on Facebook and 79% of Twitter followers (out of 1,500 consumers) are more inclined to recommend a brand since they became a fan/follower.

51% of fans on Facebook and 67% of Twitter followers are more inclined to purchase the brands that they are a fan or a follower of.

Vice president at Chadwick Martin Bailey Josh Mendelsohn says that, “While social media is not the silver bullet that some pundits claim it to be, it is an extremely important and relatively low cost touch point that has a direct impact on sales and positive word of mouth…”

This study also showed that people think of the brands that are not on Facebook or Twitter as being outdated.
When the consumers were asked “What does it say about a brand if they are not involved with sites like Facebook or Twitter?” they said the following:

- It is expected that a business have a strong digital presence, or you doubt the relevance of that business. (Female, age 50-54)

- The company is either uninterested in targeting social media’s demographic, or they don’t know how much more exposure they can get with this method. (Male, age 35-39)

- The company must not be in tune with the new ways to interact with consumers. (Female, age 18-24)

Give us your thoughts on this: Do you agree with the consumers from this study? Has Facebook or Twitter improved your company? If so, how?

1. Use the new “Use Facebook as a Page” function -
   

   Here's how to "Use Facebook as a Page"

   Facebook didn’t make a big deal about this, but you now have the ability to use Facebook as a page. It makes a big difference when you can go to another fan page and post a comment as your brand rather than using your individual account. To try it out, first make sure you’re the admin of a Facebook page, then click Account and select “Use Facebook as a Page.”

2. Remind your fans that you are a human being - This sounds silly enough, but sometimes we can get so caught up in our brands and organizations that we forget that PEOPLE run the company. Don’t be afraid to post items that aren’t directly related to your product or service. Wish your fans a great day, ask an intriguing question, or share some funny stories from the office. Your customers are human, remind them that so are you.
3. Geotarget your status updates – Facebook gives you the option to post status updates and links to specific cities. This feature can be invaluable to post more relevant posts for people that are actually in the city your brand targets. Before you press “Share,” click the drop-down menu and enter in the city and state of the fans you’d like to see the post.
4. Use Facebook Insight – Facebook provides in-depth analytics of how fans and non-fans interact with your page. Track the trends to see what works specifically for your brand.
5. Ask your fans questions – This goes back to remembering that your fans are PEOPLE. Ask them a question that’s related to your organization. Maybe post a picture of a side-by-side of two of your products and ask your fans which they prefer. People love giving their opinion. Give them a way to let their voice be heard.

Just when you thought the web was packed to the gills with Web 2.0 apps, Quora comes along. According to their website Quora is, “is a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it. The most important thing is to have each question page become the best possible resource for someone who wants to know about the question.” Essentially, Quora aims to be the de-facto go-to for anyone with a question too complicated for a simple Internet search. You can ask any question you want ranging from “Where can you legally play poker online?” to “What is the proper way of measuring specific gravity when home brewing beer?”

We think Quora has the potential to stand out from other websites for a few reasons:

1.   Quora fulfills a need – How many times have you wondered how to do something specific and maybe too specific for a simple Google search? Quora has REAL answers to questions from REAL people and the answers are based on how other REAL users rank the responses. Internet search simply does not have this power.

2.   Quora organizes questions effectively – You may be thinking that Quora sounds an awful lot like Facebook’s (little used) “Questions” function. Quora takes it a step further, however: Quora allows for constant editing of responses and allows users to organize questions into topics to improve the process of finding a question.

3.   Quora is completely collaborative and continually improving – From Quora’s website, “Almost any public space on Quora can be edited by anyone who knows how to improve it. This includes the text of questions and the details around them, what topics are attached to which questions, and the summaries of answers.” In addition, Quora will only get better with time. The more users contributing and answering questions, the more knowledge Quora will accumulate.

Sure, there is potential for problems. Twitter has become a breeding ground for spammers and Quora’s openness can be a cause for a similar concern. However, unlike Twitter, Quora gives users the ability to curate the website entirely. For example, if someone answers a question with spam or an incorrect response, that answer will undoubtedly be voted down and not be seen as legitimate. While the concepts behind Quora are not earth-shattering or completely inventive, it’s organization and collaborative tools give it the potential to break through and be the next dominant social website. Watch out web!

What do you think? Does Quora have what it takes to break through? Have you ever had a difficult time finding  an answer on the web to a question you’ve had?