The 2013 @Rock_Hall induction ceremony was a star-studded event celebrating this year’s inductees, Albert King, Randy Newman, Lou Adler, Quincy Jones, Public Enemy, Donna Summer, Heart and crowd favorite Rush.  Artists become eligible for entry to the Hall 25 years after the release of their first album, typically only voted on by members however this year they actually allowed the public to cast its vote (http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/vote-for-the-2013-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-inductees-20121004).

As always, @PaulShaffer did a stellar job putting together an all-star house band. To open the night, @TomPetty, Jackson Browne @SongsofJBrowne and @John_Fogerty jammed the @RandyNewman hit “I love L.A.” And Don Henley gave a good intro to induct Newman, who was a cool curmudgeon about getting into the fraternity.

Lou Adler, owner of the famous Roxy Theatre @TheRoxy has had a long and influential career in music, producing such acts as Sam Cooke, the Mamas & the Papas and Carole King. He also produced the first Monterey Pop Festival, where artists like Jimi Hendrix and The Who got early US notoriety. Adler is an avid @Lakers fan, so his buddy Jack Nicholson was there to support the cause. @CheechandChong gave a proper stoner introduction, and @Carole­­King sang “So Far Away”—she’s still got it!

Another fantastic act was @GaryClarkJr and John Mayer performing “Born Under a Bad Sign.” @JohnMayer gave a great tribute to induct blues guitar legend Albert King, whose daughter and granddaughter accepted on his behalf.

@KellyRowland delivered a tribute fit for the late disco queen, Donna Summer (@TheDonnaSummer) along with a touching speech given by Summer’s husband.

All followed by an impressive performance by Jennifer Hudson @IAMJHUD, who rocked the crowd out to “Bad Girls” and “Save The Last Dance.”

@QuincyDJones, who is now 80 and has almost as many Grammy nominations, as he has years, 79 showed his age a bit but was still hip and quick witted when he shared his personal influences and discussed how music shaped his life. @Oprah introduced him, and @Usher killed with a great rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Rock with You.”

@SpikeLee and @HarryBelafonte presented the award to @PublicEnemyFTP. Harry looked great and seemly heckled Quincy for grabbing a pole for walking assistance as Harry himself walked with a cane. Flava Flav rambled for way too long, making little to no sense, while @MrChuckD waited patiently for his turn to share his thoughts. A great jam session of “Fight the Power” and “Bring the Noise” brought the house down!

Heart @OfficialHeart was inducted by fellow Seattle rocker @ChrisCornell. They played “Barracuda” with Jerry Cantrell of @AliceinChains and Mike McCready from @PearlJam.

The main event was indeed the long overdue induction of Rush @RushTheBand, who received great intro praise from @FooFighters, Dave Grohl and Hawkins. The trio then played amazing versions of “Tom Sawyer” and “The Spirit of Radio”.

Dave Grohl, Tom Morello, John Fogerty, Gary Clark Jr., Heart, Chris Cornell, Rush, Chuck D and Public Enemy among others were all rockin the Clapton version of “Crossroads” to complete the night.

It was a great night overall in L.A. Those of you who haven’t been to the actual @Rock_Hall in Cleveland should check it out – it’s worth it for the cool I.M. Pei-designed building alone. The ceremony event will air on @HBO May 18, 2013.

My first experience with @TedxHollywood was a great one. Ken Hertz, partner of Hertz & Lichtenstein Media Law put together an impressive event with his own Rolodex. The theme of entertaining and connecting with audiences was on point and broken into a few segments: everyone is a media company; succeeding outside the system; storytelling that drives change; sci-fi comes to life. The event had about 400 attendees, including media, music and film artists, technologists, established business innovators, start ups, lawyers, dealmakers and curious geeks.

Some of my highlights and favorite quotes of the day –

@AngelaAhrendts, the CEO of Burberry, talked passionately about human energy and how it transforms companies and communities. She is also a fellow Hoosier (@IndianaMBB, great season, tough loss last night).

@Mojism, Moj Mahdara
 of Made With Elastic, gave a cool preso on the Like Us generation being all about the content, curation and commerce. She feels we are headed toward transactional entertainment and contextual commerce!

@KenHertz had a few great lines as the MC; my fav was “people think that not getting caught in a lie is the moral equivalent of telling the truth”.

Rachel Shechtman of @ThisIsStory described retail media according to her 3 key pillars of content, commerce and community. Her Manhattan store sells stuff from start-ups, likened to a smb online community but in a physical store. Smart thinking about experience per square foot as a metric, not the traditional revenue per square foot. The heat-mapping analytics she uses shows companies what’s hot or not and allows for a/b testing prior to a product launch, the coolest thing I have seen in awhile.

Jared Gutstadt @JingleJared 
of @JinglePunks was a hit with his tenacity to not give up on any and all things related to getting indie music licensed. His real inspiration with wwwad (What Would Weird Al Do) was humor and worked well for him. Impressive story about how he got through to the CEO of Yahoo re. elevator music and got a deal done!

Dick Glover 
from @FunnyorDie wins with the 3 prong approach of keeping the cost of great content creation and marketing low and not being like Kevin Costner.

@KinaGrannis
 an impressive musician with a great story about how she won a creative contest during the Super Bowl, got a deal with Interscope and then preferred making it happen without the man but with the fans.

Doug Carmean of @IntelLabs delved into how sci-fi comes to life and the age-old question of whether machines can love, based on some old-school mathematicians and their pioneering artificial intelligence experiments http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/loebner-prize.html  http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/

Nadeem Kassam of
 @BioBeatsLive connects algorithm w biorhythms to create devices that adapt to your current state of being, aka Adaptive Media. Technology can alert you of things you feel. For example, a device that would change the music you’re listening to if your significant other walks into the bedroom, based on the shift in your mood/feelings.

Mike Hawley
, a digital pioneer and doer of things at a scientific level (such as inventing an improved stitching machine that inkjets various colors so the user doesn’t have to change the thread, known as dye on the fly) thinks in a cool-ass way (from object oriented cooking inspiration to Minority Report screen/search tech development). He lived with Steve Jobs in LA at a copper titans compound during their early days of computer innovation.

I had to leave toward the end of the day so did not get to see the last few presentations. Bravo to an inspirational exchange of great ideas by true thought leaders. Looking forward to the next Tedx Hollywood. Thanks @tedtalks @kenhertz and all sponsors.

Thanks for the RT… Appreciate the mention! These reciprocal gestures and signs of gratitude are still well received but their ability to inspire online conversations is dwindling.

Recently, we began giving out Klout points also known as +K to influencers we either wanted to thank or acknowledge. The response has been overwhelming. Strong influencers who never before engaged with us are now sending 140 character thank you notes spilling over with affection. Even more so, the conversations have continued and meaningful relationships have formed.

Klout is an online tool that measures a persons’ or business’ social media influence through a point system of 1 to 100, 100 being the highest. +K is a hot commodity because it is just that… a tangible asset that bumps up the recipient’s Klout score and positively affects the giver’s influence level. So how does it work?

1.   Log into your Klout account. If you are not already on Klout, you can create an account here http://klout.com/home

2.  To give a +K, type in the Twitter handle of a person that influences you in the upper right and click on the user’s Klout profile

3.  Scroll down to their topics. Find the topic you think they are most influential about and next to that topic you’ll see the Give +K symbol. Click on it. (see image below)

4.  Once you “Give +K”, a pop up window will appear for you to easily share the transaction on Twitter or Facebook. Klout automatically enters the recipient’s twitter handle in the prompted tweet so you can efficiently notify them of your appreciation and good will. (see image below)

5.  Monitor your mentions and notifications for the forthcoming thank you messages, engage further and solidify the relationship.

6.  Users receive 10 +K’s to use everyday. This means each day you can give 1 +K to 10 different users or one user’s different topics. Giving +K heightens your chance of receiving +K’s from others. There is no limit to the amount of +K’s you can receive.

A little Klout goes a long way! These actions will serve you well by boosting your online engagement levels, adding value to your community and increasing your Klout score! It’s a win-win all around!

Feel like putting it to the test? You can try it out and show us a little Klout love by clicking here

1. You won’t be able to pick which pants you’re going to wear without a little help from your friends…and strangers.

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, blogs, Yelp…social media is full of ways to comment, interact, and rate content from your friends, community, and even businesses and individuals.

So, it stands to reason that the same formula would be refined down to the juicy part of rating and commenting.  You probably also know about Thumb, the interactive site that sends an endless stream of user-contributed questions and pics, allowing the community to vote “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” on everything from what you ate for breakfast to cars and life philosophies.  Here’s one of my entries asking if my unicorn tumblers are cool or tacky:

Don’t worry, I’ll still be using my magnificent and highly classy cups regardless of how the vote turned out.

This kind of interaction has already been utilized for brands to connect with their intended audiences and ask their opinions on products and services as demonstrated by Wayin.  Look for similar services to pop up with more specialized versions in the new year that help companies get feedback using even more interactive techniques.

2.You’ll be able to make smarter choices about everything…even friends!

Planning every detail of your trips with ease has already been give the personal touch with services like AirBNB which connects people who want to rent out their rooms to travelers looking for a deal.  Online dating services (like OkCupid) let you make profiles and meet potential love interests based on your profile compatibility.  Now you can mix the two and choose your airline seatmate by seeing how compatible they are with you based on their social network profiles.  SeatID provides the service where you can make an educated guess as to who you’re about to sit next to for the next few hours up in the sky.   You can possibly make a friend, a love connection, business acquaintance, or even just find a quiet person who won’t disturb you as you sleep in your seat.   Look out for more companies like this that are creating better ways to plan your social circles, even in the real, non-cyber world, for more efficient networking and friend-making.

3. Generosity will become more of a public, group activity.

We’re going to end on a high note because this category of social media is just one example of how online ingenuity can be used to bring people together in a positive way.  Most of us have already been directed to sites like KickstarterandIndiegogo  to contribute money to projects that vary from movies, apps and inventions, to business start-ups and even spiritual movements. Now, new app, CountMeIn, allows Facebook and Twitter users to find gifts out of their personal price range and invite friends and family to chip in money to help purchase the item.  This community driven mode of gift-giving is a great example of creative ways to get around lean economic times while still giving people the opportunity to be generous within the constraints of their own budgets.

Similarly, the good vibes continue with Chipin which allows you to raise money for whatever you like, deposited directly into your pay pal.   Here’s a heartwarming fundraiser for a poor dog’s surgery:

Want to give to charity and shop at the same time?  Look for more emerging companies like the new SocialGoodNetwork, which is a hipper and more community minded network of charities and retailers that allows you to shop and have a percentage of your purchase go to the charity of your choosing from the long list provided.  These charities vary from local to overseas and cover a wide range of altruistic activities.

Don’t be shy to weigh in on what you think will be the flow of the future!  And happy 2013!

The web and social media have changed the face of the holidays. They can make busy, challenging times easier, but they also make them a lot less personal and a lot more shopping-centric.

As the creator of a site called “Hellish Holidays” (www.hellishholidays.com), this uber-commercialization doesn’t surprise me. While not a curmudgeon on most subjects, when it comes to the holidays I’m a fatalist. Mostly it’s a combination of stresses related to family, finances, traffic and gift-giving. Plus do we really need to hear about Rudolph and roasting chestnuts yet again?

In the olden days, you’d buy some cards, write a year-end wrap-up letter, maybe copy a photo of the family, address and mail to people you hadn’t heard from for almost 12 months. You’d seek out gifts you thought your friends and family would like. You did all this pretty by yourself, making lists, writing cards, going to the post office.
Today, we celebrate the holidays in public. The Christmas card list has been replaced by the list of Facebook friends, the card with an online version or a wall post, and the photo with year-round sites like Instagram or Flickr. The holiday letter is unnecessary since your Twitter feed offers plenty of ongoing detail about your activities and life changes.

Gift-giving takes place through online wish lists and apps. You’ll never have to put any thought into a gift that represents your personal feelings for gift recipients – just get them what they ask for. No muss, no fuss, no surprise! Handmade gifts? Since Grandma is too busy playing Words with Friends, they’ll have to come from Etsy. Oh, and if you missed Cyber Monday, there’s probably a daily deal, or you can use your smartphone to compare prices.

You’ll never again have to wonder if there is anything you can do with your leftover ribbon or the wrapping paper from opened gifts. Just check out Pinterest. Feel like a good cry? Find the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life” on YouTube.

The web has replaced the joy of discovery –my nephew would love that toy! – with the chore of a to do list. Whatever unique family traditions you had, a quick search on Google will reveal they came from a Woman’s Day magazine circa 1973 – and are shared by millions of others.

Of course the web, mobile and social media do accomplish the admirable goal of making life easier. But when it comes to the holidays, stress and running around are part of the tradition.

Facebook engagement is created through likes, shares, and comments. Here are seven ways to create highly engaging posts for your brand.

1.    Photos

A picture is the simplest way to catch someone’s attention. Bright, clear, inspiring pictures are always well received and shared. For more on how photos can increase your Facebook engagement, check out our blog entry A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Likes.

2.    Show The Human Side Of Your Business

Likes do not equal loyalty – in other words, just because people like your Facebook fan page does not mean they are your friends. Friends engage with friends, so engage! Find out who they are and what they like by asking fun “daily life” questions that encourage simple answers.

• -What are you doing this weekend?
• -Did you see any great concerts over the summer?
• -Superman or Spiderman?
• -Which do you like better – blueberry pie or apple pie?

3.    Comment and Share Posts

Select, comment on and share interesting posts by other fan pages. When you make a witty comment on another’s post you are engaging them and their fans.

Try to get the comment in early. When something is posted, it is fresh. People will read the first few comments below a post, but if there are hundreds of comments they could miss yours.

Commenting on posts creates awareness of your page on another Facebook page with a relevant audience. Always check back a few minutes later to see if anyone commented on or liked your comment.

Sharing posts is a great way to encourage other fan pages to reciprocate and share one or more of your posts.

4.    Thank and Reward Your Fans

Fans love to be recognized and appreciated. When you show them you care, you begin to build stronger rapport and fan loyalty. Here are a few suggestions:

• -Post a picture with accompanying text such as “Thank You!” or “Our fans are the best!”
• -Spotlight a Fan of the Month
• -Use third-party apps such as Bamboo (www.bambooengine.com), which rewards fans for spreading the word about your brand.

5.    Host Fun Contests and Giveaways

Contests bring in more fans to engage and excite your current fan base. It’s best to run both small weekly giveaways and larger, more involved monthly contests.  A couple of suggestions:

• -Host a fan-based photo contest or caption contest with a small prize. Fans love the game even more than the prize and also like sharing their photos. Create a fan photo album from the entries and tell your fans to tag themselves in the photos. This will then show up on their wall.
• -Check out Appforma (http://www.appforma.com) for amazing, easy-to-set-up contest apps.

 6.    Sponsored Posts

Due to Facebook’s newly imposed EdgeRank system, sponsored posts, aka promoted posts, are more essential than ever. EdgeRank is described as “an algorithm that decides which stories appear in each user’s newsfeed. The algorithm hides boring stories, so if your story doesn’t score well, no one will see it.”  Posting highly engaging content is one way to work the algorithm, but the only way to ensure your post will hit all your fans‘ timelines is to promote it. To learn more about sponsored / promoted posts click here.

7.    Evaluate Content Performance

Review your Facebook-provided page insights and evaluate what content is best-received by your audience. You can find your posts’ reach, number of engaged users, how many people are talking and virality under the Overview section in your Facebook Insights.  Continue to do more of what is working and take it a step further.

Trying to figure out the best posts to gain the most reaction can feel challenging at times.  But don’t fret! The classic saying “a picture is worth 1000 words” also holds true on Facebook.

Of course, we’ve all seen blurry, confusing and groan-inducing pictures, so it’s obvious that not every picture has viral value. Here are few guidelines to help you post the best, most engaging pictures on Facebook:

Be Creative

Use an editing program such as Photoshop or Illustrator to create original, thought-provoking images. Combining images, juxtaposing photos and text…there are lots of ways to go.

A few things to keep in mind:

1. Make sure your pictures are large, in focus and visually stimulating
2. Sized and center pictures properly, with a nice border and overall design. Amateurish graphics are judged harshly!
3. Don’t forget to add your company’s watermark. If the image goes viral, you will want your name and logo going with it.

Trigger Emotion

When you enlist emotion in fans, they will share your post. Make them laugh, get nostalgic, feel inspired. Combine images with words. Ask a question, offer a motivating quote, or make a witty comment.

Connect Personally

When you make people feel personally connected to your brand, they will become valuable advocates for you. Posting pictures of your staff and/or customers gives fans a peek backstage. Some suggestions:

1. Take pictures of your staff in their work environment, at holiday events, tradeshows, announce their birthdays, etc.
2. Post pictures of your customers. (Always get permission first.)
3. Encourage your staff and customers to visit your brand’s Facebook page and tag themselves.  When they do, their Facebook friends will see it, become curious and visit your Page.

Get A Little Wacky

Pictures unrelated to a company’s main business, such as a crazy animal photos, are very effective–the  good ones are shared widely. Remember, Facebook is about being social. Yes, some are looking for to be informed but most simply just want to check out for a moment and be entertained.  So offer them a piece of delightful inspiration every once in a while or something that will make them bust out laughing… like Spangles, the Cross Eyed Cat and his crazy costumes!

Having looked at many potential partners in the space, we’ve continually been working with YTM for almost two years because they’re a safe and reputable partner, battle-tested with the world’s largest brands, entertainment studios and agencies. The company has evolved to become a full service, technology-driven agency focused on helping brands unlock YouTube.

Brands know they need to have a presence on the second largest search engine in the world (first for those under 18), but not only is it unfamiliar territory, there are real risks and plenty of shady practices. Working with vendors that utilize bots and click farms can get you brand’s channel shut down. Finding a safe and reputable partner is key.

The YTM process is straightforward and consistently successful. They leverage display advertising, placing your video front and center on their extensive publisher base of top-tier web sites that collectively receive daily traffic in the hundreds of millions. Their proprietary embed code then ensures that these views, generated outside of YouTube, also count as views on YouTube. Because YouTube only counts a view after someone has watched at least 25% of the video, YTM is constantly optimizing the delivery of the ads/videos to interested, relevant and targeted audiences.

Click here for more information.

The network appears as “Free WiFi” or “NYC Free Public WiFi” on wireless devices and the signal spans up to a 200-foot radius. A password is not required, however once opening your browser you will be prompted to agree to the terms and conditions before being able to surf the internet.  Currently there are six booths in Manhattan, two in Brooklyn and one in Queens. You can find a foursquare map of the WiFi-equipped booths here. (https://foursquare.com/nycgov/list/nyc-public-wifi-hotspots)

Turning these large pieces of outdated metal into high-speed Internet oases did not replace the pay phones’ original functionality, just made them more relevant for today.  This is especially great news for the NYC metro traveler, who is now starting to gain underground connectivity at many subway stations. Furthermore, it is not costing the city or it’s public a dime. NYC’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications along with Van Wagner and Titan, the advertising companies providing the booths’ ad campaign have worked together to absorb all installation, management and customer service costs.  In a statement, the city promised, “no personal information will be gathered and no advertising will be presented as part of the pilot program.”

NYC residents and visitors will enjoy more and more hotspots as the program continues over the next few months making NYC not only one of the greatest cities in the world but the most connected.

The New SoundCloud

January of this year SoundCloud announced a new high of 10 million+ users. At the time, MediaNeedle had been working an Electronic Dance Music (EDM) project (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_dance_music ) and we were impressed by the number of blogs, Facebook pages, tweets and other places where SoundCloud kept showing up. Listening to music while scrutinizing web content is hard to resist and SoundCloud helped us satisfy this need. In May they warned us of new developments. These have gone live as of mid July with a “simpler, faster more social SoundCloud” summarized nicely at: http://next.soundcloud.com/

Almost in synch with this announcement, another “thin mint of geek” was fed to us by CDBaby. Yep, you guessed right, they have partnered with SoundCloud. This clearly brings to CDBaby some much needed social media functionality. Hard not to forget the day that CDBaby was surrendered to Disc Makers and our fear that CDBaby would lose its edge. Now with SoundCloud’s social media functionality fused to CDBaby’s massive indie database, we couldn’t offer a louder applause. See: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/7/prweb9710579.htm CDBaby who offers a myriad of resources for the indie musician combined with the forward-thinking SoundCloud really have come up with a smart pairing.

These recent developments suggest that there’s a lot of room for this game to continue to play itself out and should continue to be fun to watch. Musician or not, jump in and listen or even participate!

* Bonus fun – Play with the waveform graphic at the top of http://next.soundcloud.com/  and see how it navigates the page’s content and the voice over, description of features to come.