The Curator News Feed: March 8, 2013
Looking for some fun facts to share with friends over happy hour this weekend? Check out our latest news roundup for some ideas, including what U.S. states are the happiest, what the SXSW turnout looks this year, how Facebook is changing its News Feed to be like a personalized newspaper and more! Happy Friday!
The 10 Happiest States in the U.S., Fast Company. According to Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, each time I've moved (Missouri to New York to Washington), I've improved my happiness. To achieve the highest tier of happiness, I'd have to move to Montana, Utah, Colorado, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, or Hawaii. At first I thought this survey was a little far fetched, but Hawaii and I could get along. – Maria
New York City Reinvent Payphones Challenge the Responsive City, Creativity-Online. When was the last time you used a payphone? Can’t remember? You’re not the only one. With practically everyone owning a cell phone nowadays the once technologically advanced payphone has practically become obsolete. In fact, New York City currently has 11,412 payphones scattered throughout the city that go unused and are taking up valuable sidewalk real estate. Should the city remove all payphones or can they find a way to make them useful again? Enter the Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge – the city invited students, urban planners, designers, technologists and creators to build physical and virtual prototypes imagining the payphone of the future. Judges picked the top six designs and are calling on the people of NYC to vote for their favorite, via the City of New York Facebook page. I love this campaign for so many reasons, but mainly because it is utilizing a creative approach to turn something unused and antiquated into an opportunity for the community to connect and improve their city, both online and off. Check out the City of New York’s Facebook page to see the top entries and vote on your favorite! – Megan
Syfy Bets $105m on a TV Series and Video Game, Adweek. Very cool concept, both because I’m a sci-fi geek and also because of the myriad avenues of business this will go down and the zillion ways to promote this and promote it well. I love the idea of tying in a TV show where plots end up in the video game and then wins in the video game show up in the show. Amazing stuff. Big question is whether or not it’ll pay off. – Dan
Facebook's Revamped News Feed Aspires To Be A Personalized Newspaper, AllFacebook. If you manage a brand on Facebook, read this post and pay attention to the news feed changes carefully — there's a lot more going on than people realize. The biggest change, and the one the Curator team is keeping its eyes on, is that Lists are about to become much more prominent. Lists debuted a few years ago and are essentially to Facebook what Circles are to Google+ -- you organize your friends by topic (family, coworkers, Mariners fans, etc.) and then get a customized news feed for each one of those lists. It's a potential issue for branded pages because people have to choose to place pages into their Lists — but sponsored posts will still appear in all feeds and lists, regardless of whether the page has been added or not. In other words, if Lists catch on, it will become much more difficult for a branded page's posts to organically go viral. Facebook has taken steps in the past to make sponsored posts more enticing, and this appears to be one more step in that direction. Keep a close watch on your engagement analytics as the new news feed rolls out. – Paul
Never Sacrifice Values for Growth, INC. I'm often asked what my goal is for Curator's ultimate size. Are you shooting to be 100 people, 25? The truth is I never think about Curator in terms of size — I think about us in terms of culture and ideas. There is no question big brands need to work with agencies that have enough size and process to manage a national or international campaign. My desire is for Curator to be the premier lifestyle brand agency in the country, which I measure on the quality of brands we represent and the innovation and results of our campaigns. So continued growth is good. However, when people ask about our growth path I always say if we ever outgrow our culture, we're too big. Building an incredible culture is my number one priority and it has been since day one. This article emphasizes the reasons why. – Scott
SXSW By the Numbers, Mashable. A fun infographic about this year’s SXSW turnout. No surprise, but it looks like the majority of these festivalgoers are there for the party! – Chelsey
Cats Can Be Jerks, YouTube. Because it’s Friday and everyone loves a good cat video! – Ann Marie