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Dec 31 2011

YouTube in 2011: How Its Busy Year Affects You

Much has changed for YouTube since it launched in 2005. But in 2011, we saw Google’s video-sharing service undergo more tweaks, spit out more new features and reach more major milestones than in previous years.

Let’s rewind and reminisce as I highlight key moments in YouTube‘s eventful year that involved a major facelift, eye-popping traffic trends, a barrage of new features, acquisitions and partnerships as well as significant success for advertisers and musicians. Which of these moments has affected your personal experience the most?

YouTube’s New Look

Another year, another redesign. In its ongoing effort to make the site as seamless and uncluttered as possible, YouTube released a much-anticipated new look for its homepage on Dec. 1 and a revamped video manager days later.

The redesign emphasizes “channels.” Google now gives the feature significant real estate on the left side of the homepage, including a prominent “add channels” button at the top of the page. Google also added four new channel templates, two of which were designed specifically with networks and bloggers in mind.

Year after year, it’s fascinating to watch YouTube evolve from its empty interface from February 2005 to the online beast it continues to become. To refresh your memory about this year’s changes, watch the video below or read the YouTube user manual.

What Is YouTube’s Traffic Like?

YouTube has plenty to brag about as far as traffic trends. Here are a few it touts:

48 hours of video are uploaded every minute, resulting in nearly 8 years of content uploaded every day.
More than 3 billion videos are viewed per day.
Users upload the equivalent of 240,000 full-length films every week.
More video is uploaded to YouTube in one month than the three major U.S. networks created in 60 years.
70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the U.S.
YouTube is localized in 25 countries across 43 languages.
YouTube’s demographic is broad: mostly consisting of 18- to 54-year-olds.
YouTube has 800 million unique users visit each month.

YouTube reached 1 trillion video views in 2011 (compared to 700 billion playbacks in 2010) with help from these 10 most-watched videos.

1. "Friday" by Rebecca Black

Click here to view this gallery.

Fresh Features Enhance YouTube

YouTube rolled out a slew of new features that affected your user experience. Here’s a sampling.

Slam: YouTube’s last feature release of 2011 is YouTube Slam, an interactive video-discovery tool that randomly spits out two videos at time for one-on-one battles.

Google+ Hangouts: YouTube quietly added a Google+ icon under each video’s “Share” button in August that allows you to launch a Google+ hangout and watch that video with friends.
Search Options: YouTube revealed Filter & Explore in April. The added search options let users easily discover videos in several ways (see example below).

Analytics: In November, YouTube unleashed Analytics, which gives users detailed stats about their videos. The tool replaces YouTube’s previous stats service, Insights, and provides in-depth reports by content, date and geography.
Politics Channel: Ahead of the 2012 U.S. presidential race, YouTube lifted the curtain of its Politics Channel. The page features popular videos (campaign ads, speeches, parodies, historical clips) and an ever-updating graphic comparison (see below) of how the candidates are doing as far as video views and subscriptions.

SEE ALSO: 5 Years of YouTube Politics [INFOGRAPHIC]

Video Editing: YouTube gave video creators a handy feature to cheer about in September with the release of a simple video editing service. The tool lets you edit uploaded YouTube clips without changing the IDs, which means you can retain view counts and comments even if you want to go back and change things up.
Copyright Offenders Training: More of a campaign than a new feature, “YouTube Copyright School” came out in April to educate copyright offenders about their mistakes. Infringers could remove a copyright offense from their personal YouTube record by watching this clip.

Merch Store: Launched in October, the Merch Store gives musicians an outlet to sell their music, concert tickets and branded merchandise within their YouTube channels.
Live-Streaming Content: In April, YouTube dished out a page dedicated to live-streaming content. The page shows what videos are live at the moment, will be live within 24 hours and will be starting within 7 days. It also houses recently broadcasted clips you may have missed.

Creative Commons Content: Video creators got an influx of B-roll choices in June when YouTube gave them access to more than 10,00 Creative Commons videos from sources such as Al Jazeera, C-SPAN, PublicResource.org and Voice of America. Content can be edited and used within any user’s own video.
More Movie Rentals: YouTube’s movie rental service continued to grow this year. For example, it brought in 3,000 more titles in May alone.

Ads Find Major Success on YouTube

YouTube monetizes more than 3 billion video views per week through pre-roll, promoted videos and other tactics. But YouTube is not the only one benefiting from its success. Countless advertisers have reaped public affection and revenue with on YouTube with videos and partnerships. All but six of AdAge‘s Top 100 advertisers have completed campaigns on YouTube and the Google Display Network.

SEE ALSO: The History of Advertising on YouTube [INFOGRAPHIC]

In fact, commercials are among the most successful videos on YouTube (see gallery below). It comes as no surprise that more advertisers are planning to spend ad money on YouTube.

SEE ALSO: The Songs Behind Your Favorite Commercials [VIDEOS]

1. "The Force: Volkswagen Commercial" (Volkswagen)

The infamous Star Wars ad for Volkwagen's 2012 Passsat was featured during the Super Bowl this year, and it became an instant viral hit. It's no surprise the video has the most views in 2011 -- it also held the highest number of shares.

Click here to view this gallery.

Acquisitions and Partnerships Abound

YouTube made several important acquisitions and expanded its partnerships in 2011.

Key acquisitions: Delicious (social bookmarking), RightsFlow (music copyright), Green Parrot (video quality), Next New Networks (original programming) and fflick (social comments aggregation).

More than 20,000 partners from 22 countries now are involved YouTube Partner Program. YouTube says hundreds of its partners make more than $100,000 a year. Additionally, partners making over $1,000 a month is up 300% since 2010.

Notable Partnerships: Disney (original video series), Mozilla Firefox and Nvidia (3D videos), Picnik (video editing), Storyful (Egypt project), HP (comedy show), MovieClips (20,000 film snippets), Topsping, Songkick, Amazon and iTunes (Merch Store), Newseum (journalists memorial), celebrities and vloggers.

YouTube Bodes Well for Musicians

It was a banner year on YouTube for " target="_blank">celebrity musicians as well as cover song artists looking to strike it rich like YouTube-grown Justin Bieber has.

SEE ALSO: Mashable’s Cover Song Face-Off

For example, Coldplay live-streamed a concert and Tom Waits conducted a private listening party.

On YouTube’s end, the site relaunched its music page and unveiled a weekly Top 100 YouTube music videos chart.

1. "On The Floor" by Jennifer Lopez ft. Pitbull

Click here to view this gallery.

YouTube’s Social Prowess Grows

Aside from adding an option to spark a Google+ hangout from within YouTube, YouTube grew leaps and bounds in the social sphere.

Nearly 17 million people have connected a YouTube account to at least one social service such as Facebook and Twitter.
150 years of YouTube video are watched every day on Facebook.
Every minute more than 500 tweets contain YouTube links.
An auto-shared tweet results in six new YouTube sessions on average.
More than 12 million people are connected and auto-sharing to at least one social network.
Millions of subscriptions happen each day, and millions of videos are favorited each day.
More than 50% of videos on YouTube have been rated or include comments from the community.
100 million people take a social action on YouTube (likes, shares, comments, etc.) every week.

More About: Business, Entertainment, features, Google, YouTube

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Categories: Google, business, entertainment, features, youtube

Dec 31 2011

Facebook Timeline Is Basically Your Digital Resume

By Gerrit Hall

Gerrit Hall is CEO and co-founder of RezScore, a free web application that reads, analyzes and grades resumes instantly to help job seekers write the best resume possible. Connect with Gerrit and RezScore on Facebook and Twitter.

For those of you who don’t know (have you been living under a rock?), Facebook is slowly debuting the Timeline to its 800+ million users. Currently, this update is available for those who opt in, but it’s rolling out to replace the Facebook profile we’ve all come to know, love, and obsessively study.

As much as jobs folks like me like to think Facebook users automatically think about their careers when Zuckerberg rolls out a new feature, I’ll admit that it’s not the case. So, I’m here to say the new Timeline profile format has made Facebook more job-search friendly than ever. After all, it’s a resume. That’s right. When you stop and look at it, Facebook’s Timeline is effectively a resume. From the giant cover image at the top to the chronological organization down the line, your Facebook profile is a resume for your life, not just your career.

What Does This Mean?

In recent years, it’s pretty common knowledge that an increasing number of employers are turning to the likes of Google and social media to learn more about applicants and current employees. Once Timeline goes 100% live, expect this number to explode.

Until now, the Facebook profile has provided a current slice of a user’s life. If you want to get into the nitty-gritty details or look a week, month, or year into the past, it takes some searching and clicking. With Timeline, employers can learn more about users by searching specific time frames and seeing how the details mesh together.

Ultimately, Facebook is going to become the go-to site for more curious employers and clients. Personalized and manicured Timelines are simply going to be more attractive.

How Can I Use This To My Advantage?

Don’t spaz. Fortunately, the Timeline makes presentation easy for those of use who aren’t as Facebook-savvy as we’d like. Privacy settings will remain the same, posts will fall into place, and you’ll find that mixed media fits into a pretty snazzy arrangement.

?Check the locks. It’s true that no privacy settings are going to be changed. However, those dorky status updates you wrote in 2006 are going to be a whole lot more accessible on your Timeline. Facebook gives you seven days to review the new format before your Timeline goes live, so do your due diligence now.

Pick your crowd. Along with overall privacy settings, your Timeline is going to work a whole lot better if you refine your audiences. Organize your business contacts into a list so that they’re the only ones who can see your industry-specific content. Personalizing your profile to fit the crowd will make your Timeline look so much better.

Customize. One of the most striking differences you’ll find in the Facebook Timeline would have to be the cover photo. It’s smack dab at the top of your profile, so make it nice. Pick something that works for everyone who could possibly see your profile. You already know that picture from the New Year’s party isn’t going to work.

Prioritize. If you’re an active user, then all your content isn’t going to fit on your Timeline. While Facebook automatically guesses what content is important enough to be expanded, it could definitely use your input. Expand the information you think is important so that it can be seen by the right people.

Do you think the Timeline is similar to a resume? How else can it be used in the job search? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Social Media Job Listings

Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!

Social Media Specialist at WRNN TV in Port Chester, New York
Marketing Assistant/Manager at Studio V Design in Chicago
Front End Web Developer, Mobile Creative Solutions at Google in Mountain View, California

More About: contributor, Facebook, job search series, resume, timeline

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Categories: contributor, facebook, job search series, resume, timeline

Dec 31 2011

Google Nails 2011: Portrait of a Banner Year

By Christine Erickson

It has proven to be a monumental banner year for Google. It’s hard to believe that one year ago, things such as Google+ and the now all-familiar +1 button were nonexistent. The company has come far from being just a search engine. For some, it is an office suite, email service, music player, social network, and much, much more. We’re not exaggerating when we write “Google Nails 2011.”

This year, Google underwent some major changes, both internally and externally. Some old faces returned, such as current CEO Larry Page, and some interfaces went away, as we saw when the new Gmail appeared. The company acquired dozens of startups, made some significant environmentally-friendly investments and faced a couple of antitrust issues.

SEE ALSO: Happy Birthday Google: Making Sense of the Web for 13 Years

We’ve looked at how you’ve used Google products in 2011, so now it’s time to see what the company has done for itself. Wondering how to become the top web brand? See how Google did it right here.

January

Google’s first acquisition of 2011 was eBook Technologies, a company that focused on hardware and software distribution of e-books and e-readers. In the same month, Google also acquired SayNow, a telephony startup.

It was announced in January that Larry Page, Google’s first CEO from 1998 to 2001, would replace Eric Schmidt as head of the company, effective April 4. Schmidt would then take on the role of executive chairman.

In 2010, Google attempted to buy Groupon, but was rejected. Instead, the search giant launched its own service, Google Offers.

February

Google’s Android 3.0, or Honeycomb, was first unveiled in January, then became available to developers in February. Also launched was the Android Market via a standard web browser.

To compete with recommendation engines and ratings/reviews systems, Google Hotpot went worldwide in February, appearing in Google’s web search results. Google also released Chrome 9 Stable, which included many Chrome beta features, such as Chrome Instant, WebGL support and the Chrome Web Store.

The search giant integrated information from Twitter, Flickr and Quora into results. A tweaked algorithm, targeted content farms that produce massive amounts of useless content.

A major Gmail glitch in February left 150,000 users with disabled accounts, but the company quickly restored all lost data.

March

Google took one of its first big steps into the social scene with the integration of “+1″ into search results.

Google’s acquisitions in March included small ones, such as Zynamics, and larger buyouts like BeatThatQuote for $61.5 million.

There were overhauls, such as Google’s Street View and Blogger.

The first pilot Chrome OS device, a laptop, stopped shipping units, to make room for the next phase, Chrome 11.

Finally, Microsoft, for the first time ever, filed an antitrust complaint against Google for using its search engine unfairly to promote its products.

April

Google co-founder Larry Page officially replaced Eric Schmidt as CEO, raising questions about changes within the company. Following his new position, Page formally promoted six executives to senior vice president positions in an attempt to break the company into distinct product areas.

Approximately 6,000 of Nortel’s patents were purchased for $900 million — the portfolio included wireless, 4G, semiconductor and data networking IP. Google also purchased $100 million worth of original programs for YouTube, highlighting “channels” of topics such as arts and sports. A new and improved version of Google Analytics also rolled out to all users.

Investments from the search giant included Oklahoma Data Center and a Mojave Desert solar energy plant.

Hotpot folded into Google Places, Google Video announced its shut down (which quickly turned into a way to migrate all videos to YouTube), and Street View stopped taking pics in Germany. Google’s search engine competitor Bing also grabbed our attention this month.

Google Offers went live, and Chrome 11 was released for download.

May

Google was off to a strong start in May, when it topped the list for Harris Interactive’s “Most Reputable Company in the U.S.” Chrome’s commercials went viral, Google Image Search developed a feature that lets you search by subject, and the company began building a new and bigger, environmentally-friendly office.

At its Google I/O developer conference, the company made major announcements, including the introduction of Android’s newest OS, Ice Cream Sandwich, the reveal of Google Music, and Google Movies for Android.

Facebook admitted it authorized an effort to raise concerns about Google’s privacy practices, yet the company continued to roll out a Social Search feature to 19 languages.

To join the personal finance market, Google launched Google Advisor, and soon after, Google Wallet, which was immediately under fire from PayPal.

June

In June, Google became the first company ever to hit 1 billion monthly unique visitors. Notably, the company’s +1 button went global and the social network Google+ was introduced to the world.

Social engagement data startup PostRank announced it had been acquired from Google, as well as Admeld, a yield optimization firm.

Improvements in June include Chrome 12 stable’s release, a revamp of its mobile interface and the inclusion of voice search in the desktop version. Google’s Chromebooks also arrived for purchase in stores.

The Federal Trade Commission prepared the most comprehensive antitrust investigation of the company’s business practices yet, requesting information from Google, as well as other companies in relation with it.

July

Google-Plus-Icons

With the debut of Google+ came a surge of interested users and 1 billion shares per day. Google, as a whole, began a complete rebranding.

The company continued attempts into the e-reader market with the first device using the Google eBooks platform, the iriver Story HD.

Google Labs was shut down to focus more on Google’s products, and Google Toolbar for Firefox retired as well.

August

After a successful first month of existence, Google+ continued to renovate by adding games, but also it started to integrate with other Google services, as we began to see Google+ posts appear in Google search results. Also revived was Google Realtime Search.

The company acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, and we got a sneak peek at what was to come for Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich OS.

Beta users of Google Music began to see steps toward a music market with the launch of Magnifier.

September

The search giant celebrated its 13th birthday in September as the world’s most valuable brand. After a few months in beta, Google+ became open to everyone.

2011

Google's gone old school this year with a retro-styled birthday party snapshot.

Click here to view this gallery.

The Google +1 button, Google Wallet and Google+ Hangouts all arrived on mobile web. Google+’s overall arrival meant a shutdown for social search and question-and-answer service Aardvark.

News-reading tool Fast Flip was discontinued, and local reviews giant Zagat was acquired. The company also quietly launched travel tool Flight Search.

October

Google +1 buttons continued to catch on, as we saw displayed on ads in the company’s Display Network. Google also integrated real-time search and hashtags into Google+.

Google+ began to see some negative reviews, a sustained downward trend, and a Google engineer became famous for his rant, a slip-up criticizing the company’s social platform. The heads of the company, however, appeared to get the message.

To focus on the social network, Google Buzz was shut down. Google Reader got a revamp, which quickly received backlash from users.

Google and Samsung officially launched the Ice Cream Sandwich OS, as well as the Galaxy Nexus smartphone.

November

After buzz about Google+ had finally appeared to simmer, Gmail was next up to the plate with a complete makeover. The changes gave Gmail users more control, however not everyone received immediate access to it. Just hours after its launch, the iOS app was removed from the iTunes app store to fix a problem.

Google also showed a bit of character, as discovered in the “Do a Barrel Roll” Easter egg. Although this is not the first hidden Google trick, it definitely received a noteworthy amount of talk.

Brand pages for Google+ were finally unveiled, including businesses and brands in the social network. The +1 button continued growing, appearing now in image searches.

Also in November, Google introduced Google Music, a complete suite of music services, including the much-anticipated Music Store.

December

Google began December with the introduction of activity recommendation engine Schemer, news aggregator Currents and improvements to Google+ such as face detection. The company also received a patent for its driverless car technology.

On the mobile sphere, the much-anticipated Galaxy Nexus was finally released for sale and the Android Market surpassed 10 billion downloads.

Google ended 2011 with more than 150 million users each month according to a Nielsen study, making it the top digital U.S. web company.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ilbusca

More About: features, gmail, Google, google analytics, trending, Year End 2011

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Categories: Google, Year End 2011, features, gmail, google analytics, trending

Dec 14 2011

Top Tech Companies To Work For in 2012: Facebook Beats Google, Apple

By Zoe Fox

Facebook is Glassdoor’s top technology company to work for in 2012, finishing third on the employment information site’s Employees’ Choice Awards.

The fourth annual list highlights the top 50 workplaces according to company employees’ survey responses on Glassdoor. The 20-question survey asked employees about career opportunities, communication, compensation and benefits, feedback, work and social life balance, among other things. Employees of some 65,000 companies responded to the survey, Glassdoor CEO and founder Robert Hohman says.

It’s no surprise Facebook employees are happy with their employer — they have three meals provided daily, an annual game day, great medical and retirement benefits, on-site lectures, laundry and even leather repair.

SEE ALSO: The Perks of Working at Google, Facebook, Twitter and More [INFOGRAPHIC]

“Working at Facebook means that you are working in a very deeply entrepreneurial environment and culture and that you come to Facebook with a love for building things,” says Lori Gohler, Facebook VP of HR and recruiting. “It’s very much results focused, impact focused. We really want to create an environment where people have a lot of room for creativity and innovation in their thinking.”

Other tech giants in the top 10 include Google at number five and Apple at number 10. So if you have you have your heart set on working for Apple, keep in mind that discount grocer Trader Joe’s employees are more content with their jobs — the company finished ninth on the list.

Other tech companies of note on the list include Intel at 32 and Groupon at 40.

Which tech company is your dream employer? Let us know your choice in the comments.

More About: apple, Facebook, glassdoor, Google

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Categories: Google, apple, facebook, glassdoor

Dec 14 2011

Only 3 Days Left to Vote in the Mashable Awards

By Alex Fitzpatrick

The voting period for the 2011 Mashable Awards, a celebration of the most outstanding digital presences and projects, is quickly drawing to a close. You only have three days left to vote for your favorites of the web!

This marks the fifth consecutive year we’ve been celebrating the best of the best in social media, tech, business and entertainment. After our initial open nomination process, the Mashable team determined seven finalists for each category from the submissions with the most nominations. Each of the finalists are now in fierce competition for the award in their respective categories.

Ready to vote? All you need is a Facebook or Twitter account. Visit our awards page, sign in with one of those services, and cast your ballot. You can vote once per category per day, which means you can send us 28 of your picks each day until the process closes at 11:59 p.m. E.T. on Friday, Dec. 16.

We’ll tally the votes then announce the winners on Dec. 19. All of our Mashable Awards winners will be honored at MashBash CES Jan. 11, 2012, during the 2012 International CES convention at 1OAK, the hot new nightclub at the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas.

All our finalists are listed below.

Click here to vote!

Social Media

Best Social Network

This category honors the readers’ choice for the best social network.

Facebook
Twitter
Badoo
Diaspora*
Google+
Tumblr
Livejournal

Up-and-Coming Social Media Service

This category honors the readers’ choice for the social media service that is currently experiencing major growth but has not yet received massive mainstream attention. Services nominated for this category are not necessarily full-fledged social networks but must include social media as a core feature.

Crowdtap
Empire Avenue
Banjo
Trakt
Chime.in
Summify
Paper.li

Must-Follow Actor or Actress on Social Media

This category honors the readers’ choice for the actor or actress who best uses Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Tumblr or other mainstream social networking sites.

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
Ashley Tisdale
David Boreanaz
Alyssa Milano
Sophia Bush
Misha Collins
Maite Perroni

Must-Follow Musician or Band on Social Media

This category honors the readers’ choice for the musician or band that best uses Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Tumblr or other mainstream social networking sites.

Super Junior
Girls’ Generation
Adam Lambert
Ricky Martin
Kris Allen
Snoop Dogg
Lady Gaga

Must-Follow Athlete on Social Media

This category honors the readers’ choice for the athlete who best uses Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Tumblr or other mainstream social networking sites.

Rafael Nadal
Yuna Kim
CM Punk
Johnny Weir
Shannon McIntosh
Zack Ryder
John Cena

Must-Follow Media Personality on Social Media

This category honors the readers’ choice for the journalist, author or TV news anchor who best uses Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Tumblr or other mainstream social networking sites.

Andy Cohen
Anderson Cooper
Ellen DeGeneres
Jimmy Fallon
Rachel Maddow
Salman Rushdie
Brian Stelter

Must-Follow Business Personality on Social Media

This category honors the readers’ choice for the business personality or executive who best uses Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Tumblr or other mainstream social networking sites.

Dave Kerpen
John Heald
Clara Shih
Sonny Ganguly
Avi Savar
Bill Gates
Kathy Ireland

Must-Follow Non-Profit on Social Media

This category honors the readers’ choice for the non-profit organization that most deserves to be followed on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr or other mainstream social networking sites.

The Trevor Project
Teach for America
HRC
GLAAD
Joyful Heart Foundation
One Campaign
Fuck Cancer

Must-Follow Politician on Social Media

This category honors the readers’ choice for the politician who best uses Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Tumblr or other mainstream social networking sites.

Barack Obama
Cory Booker
Ron Paul
Buddy Roemer
Bernie Sanders
Herman Cain
Narendra Modi

Tech

Best Smartphone

This category honors the readers’ choice for the best current-generation smartphone model.

iPhone 4S
Samsung Galaxy SII
HTC Thunderbolt
HTC Sensation
Samsung Galaxy Nexus Prime
BlackBerry Bold 9900
Motorola Droid Razr

Best Mobile Game

This category honors the readers’ choice for the best game designed for play on either a smartphone or tablet.

Super Junior Shake
Angry Birds
Parallel Kingdom
The Adventures of Timmy: Run Kitty Run
Cut the Rope
Pocket Legends
Cows vs Aliens

Most Useful Mobile App

This category honors the readers’ choice for the most useful app designed for use on either a smartphone or tablet.

IMO Instant Messenger
Zocdoc
eBuddy Xms
Trapster
Waze
Mobile Inspector
Wunderlist

Most Innovative Mobile App

This category honors the readers’ choice for the most innovative app designed for use on either a smartphone or tablet.

TagWhat
Mobile Inspector
Shopkick
Zaarly
Vlingo
#Gravity Social Client for Symbian
Gigwalk

Most Useful Tablet-Based App

This category honors the readers’ choice for the best app designed for use on a tablet.

IMO Instant Messenger
Trulia
Slideshark
Quickoffice
Tripadvisor
Houzz
Flipboard

Best New Gadget

This category honors the readers’ choice for the best electronic gadget launched in 2011.

iPad 2
Nintendo 3DS
Sonos Play:3
Kindle Fire
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
Sifteo
Logitech Fold Up Keyboard

Business

Viral Campaign of the Year

This category honors the readers’ choice for their favorite viral advertising campaign launched in 2011.

Eventful.com/AlanJackson
Coca-Cola Where Will Happiness Strike Next
NoH8 Campaign
Occupy Wall Street
Old Spice
Kraft macaroni & cheese Twitter campaign
Diesel Facebook/QR Code campaign

Most Innovative Use of Social Media for Marketing

This category honors the readers’ choice for the most innovative social media marketing campaign launched in 2011.

Orabrush
Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange
Tower Heist – Heist It Back
RadioShack #Kindofabigdeal
Dominos Pizza
Diesel
Coke

Must-Follow Brand on Social Media

This category honors the readers’ choice for the brand that best uses Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr or other mainstream social networking sites.

WWE
The Young Turks
Cirque Du Soleil
Sega
Carnival Cruise Lines
DKNY
CharityBuzz

Best Branded Mobile App

This category honors the readers’ choice for the best mobile app created specifically by a brand for consumer use on either a smartphone or tablet.

Robbie Williams App
Super 8
Domino’s Pizza USA
KRAFT iFood Assistant
Titan HTSE
GEICO BroStache
Glee by Smule

Best Social Good Cause Campaign

This category honors the readers’ choice for the best use of digital or social media in a non-profit, philanthropic, cause-focused or corporate social responsibility campaign.

Be a STAR Alliance
Joplin Tornado Info
Feed it Forward by Restaurant.com
Your Man Reminder
The Trevor Project
AT&T Texting While Driving
It Gets Better

Digital Company of the Year

Editor’s Note: Originally, we had defined this category “the top traditional (non-digital) company that has excelled in the digital space in 2011.” After considering the nature of the nominations, we broadened the category to include traditional, non-digital companies as well as agencies that are heavily utilizing digital in their operations.

Progressive Insurance
WWE
Dominos Pizza
engage121
Likeable Media
Possible Worldwide
Big Fuel

Breakout Startup of the Year

This category honors the readers’ choice for the top startup company in the digital space that has experienced impressive growth or mainstream attention in 2011.

Manilla
Punchtab
GetGlue
Twilio
Taskrabbit
Zaarly
Codecademy

Entertainment

Game of the Year

This category honors the readers’ choice for the best game that has a social component launched in 2011.

WWE ‘12
Zombie Lane
FIFA Soccer 12
Battlefield 3
Uncharted 3
Batman Arkham City
Modern Warfare 3

Viral Video of the Year

This category honors the readers’ choice for the best or most-memorable viral web video launched in 2011.

“eHarmony Video Bio” starring Debbie
“Friday” starring Rebecca Black
“Nyan Cat” starring Nyan Cat
“Mr. Simple” starring Super Junior
“Super Bass” starring Sophia Grace Brownlee
“Talking Twin Babies” starring Ren and Sam
“Webcam 101 for Seniors” starring Bruce and Esther Huffman

Best Music Service or App

This category honors the readers’ choice for the best online music service or app.

Tracksfor.com
Fit Radio
Rhapsody
Spotify
Pandora
Grooveshark
Rdio

Best Online Video Streaming Service or App

This category honors the readers’ choice for the best service or app for consuming streaming of commercial media and entertainment.

YouTube
Boxee
NHL Gamecenter Live
Netflix
Hulu
Vevo
HBO Go

Most Social TV Show

This category honors the readers’ choice for the best broadcast or cable television show that utilizes social media in an innovative, memorable or integral way.

WWE Raw
Pretty Little Liars
MTV Roadies
Attack of the Show
Supernatural
Bones
The Glee Project

Best Social Movie Campaign

This category honors the readers’ choice for the best digital media campaign for a major or independent motion picture launched in 2011.

The Muppets
Harry Potter And the Deathly Hallows
Red State
The Big Lebowski Facebook Release / Milyoni
Rise & Shine: The Jay Demerit Story
Senna
The Inside Experience

The 2011 Mashable Awards Are Presented by Buddy Media

Buddy Media is the social enterprise software of choice for eight of the world’s top ten global advertisers, empowering them to build and maintain relationships with their consumers in a connections-based world. The Buddy Media social marketing suite helps brands build powerful connections globally with its scalable, secure architecture and data-driven customer insights from initial point of contact through point of purchase.

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Categories: mashable awards, mashable awards 2011

Dec 14 2011

Only 3 Days Left to Vote in the Mashable Awards

By Alex Fitzpatrick

The voting period for the 2011 Mashable Awards, a celebration of the most outstanding digital presences and projects, is quickly drawing to a close. You only have three days left to vote for your favorites of the web!

This marks the fifth consecutive year we’ve been celebrating the best of the best in social media, tech, business and entertainment. After our initial open nomination process, the Mashable team determined seven finalists for each category from the submissions with the most nominations. Each of the finalists are now in fierce competition for the award in their respective categories.

Ready to vote? All you need is a Facebook or Twitter account. Visit our awards page, sign in with one of those services, and cast your ballot. You can vote once per category per day, which means you can send us 28 of your picks each day until the process closes at 11:59 p.m. E.T. on Friday, Dec. 16.

We’ll tally the votes then announce the winners on Dec. 19. All of our Mashable Awards winners will be honored at MashBash CES Jan. 11, 2012, during the 2012 International CES convention at 1OAK, the hot new nightclub at the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas.

All our finalists are listed below.

Click here to vote!