Most Viral Brands Of 2010
The wonderful people over at Rubber Republic have used their Viral Ad Network to graphically represent the viral success of the best campaigns so far this year. Lovely stuff.
Head on over to Rubber Republic and check it out.
Apple Launch ‘Social Music Discovery’ Network Ping
Music + Facebook + Twitter = Ping
Well, that’s more or less how Apple CEO Steve Jobs described his new music-focused social network, Ping, at its launch last week.
Due to the continued success of iTunes, creating a social network integrated with the software clearly has potential to significantly alter the current landscape.
Users are able to follow friends and artists (à la Facebook) but will also find it easier to purchase the music they’re following (er… as long as it’s on iTunes, obviously). Whether this will benefit independent acts (as MySpace has proved rather good at) remains to be seen.
However, as well as reports of a lax attitude to spam, only offering Ping through iTunes rather than the web proper could potentially stunt growth. Or even stop it dead.
And with Google Music reportedly upon us before Christmas, things are about to get exciting. Or competitive. Or heated. Or perhaps just a two-minute distraction from Facebook…
Read on over at Mashable.
Pic thanks to WWWery.
Blogging Tips for SEO
SEO is fast becoming the new ‘subediting’: If you’re writing online you have to consider not only your readers/users but Google.
Frankly it’s a bit boring, but here are things you must consider if you’re blogging. Here are Mashable’s top tips:
1. Always include search terms in your title
2. Link important words to earlier blog posts
3. Tagging is all-important
4. Use Google Insights to find the best search terms.
We’d also add that:
1. Google is a clever beast and if you try and over egg your custard and be too clever with your links and tag words, your blog will be penalised. It’s got to seem natural.
2. And bearing in mind point 1, use relevant terms in your posts and tags that relate to you subject matter.
Yep, gone are the days that you can merrily type onto a blank screen. 
Arcade Fire and Google Chrome
The second of the two interesting music campaigns this week comes via Arcade Fire, Google Chrome and artist Chris Milk.
The project is called ‘The Wilderness Downtown’ and makes use of Google Maps and Google Street View to incorporate images of the viewer’s hometown into the video. Essentially the video is made ‘bespoke’ for you. Nice.
Perfectly viral on one hand, tricky on the other as there’s a barrier to entry if you want the full effect which involves signing up for Google Chrome.
Check it out over at thewildernessdowntown.com
Hurts and Spotify
The first of two interesting campaigns coming out of the music industry this week.
Electro duo Hurts are promoting their début album on Spotify with a choose your own adventure audiobook.
Anna Friel narrates the story and users play the first spoken word track and at the end a short code for the next chapter is given. Users type this into the search bar in Spotify to play it.
As the narrative unfolds, users are given multiple options and can choose which direction the story goes in.
It’s not as complicated as it sounds, honest. If you’d like to check it out, here’s your link.
Meanwhile a shout out to WOTYOUGOT who was at the band’s showcase this week – here’s what you missed.