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Sharing Data Around Oscar Winners Reveal It’s No Popularity Contest

February 29th, 2012

If there’s one thing we love sharing about, it’s Oscar. From the glitz and glamour of the red carpet to the onstage theatrics, tears and tradition, viewers are never left wanting for more and the 84th Annual Academy Awards were no exception. This year, a number of new faces were mixed in to the parade of usual suspects on the red carpet, some of whom stole the show later that night. We shared about who they were wearing, what they were wearing – or, weren’t wearing, in the case of Angie’s right leg – what they said, who was predicted to be the favorite, and who ended up taking home the prize.

There were some pleasant surprises among the winners, like the touching silent film, “The Artist,” in the category of Best Picture. And we nodded our heads knowingly as Hollywood sweetheart Meryl Streep swept onstage to accept the statue for Best Actress in a Leading Role. So we were curious about how sharing activity leading up to the Awards reflected the outcomes. Predictably, sharing around most celebrities, films and awards categories spiked the day of Oscars. But based on what we uncovered, it was certainly no popularity contest. Let’s take a closer look.

On the Best Director front, newcomer Michel Hazanavicius of “The Artist” fame may have won over the Academy, but Hollywood titan Martin Scorsese charmed the masses. Scorsese generated nearly three times as much sharing activity as the winning director, who came in next to last, beating out only “Tree of Life” director Terrence Malick.

Of the women up for Best Actress, it was the lesser known Viola Davis of “The Help,” not Ms. Streep, who reigned when it came to sharing activity. It was a close call, as both generated a flurry of online sharing, but Ms. Davis squeaked out on top. The remaining three nominees – Glenn Close, Rooney Mara and Michelle Williams – combined managed to stir up only as much sharing as Ms. Davis or Ms. Streep each did on their own.

On to the dashing men of the Oscars. The one and only George Clooney may not have taken home a trophy, but he wiped the floor with his fellow nominees when it came to online sharing. Perhaps he picked up a few tips from his ex-wrestler girlfriend who looked like a golden trophy herself or maybe it’s just that he can rock an Armani tux like no other – either way, he was the most shared subject of all the nominees on Oscar night, men or women.

See you next year in Hollywood!

by, Tom Spano, Social Media Manager, ShareThis, Inc.

ShareThis, Now for IOS Apps and Mobile Websites

December 5th, 2011

Adding sharing and analytics to your iOS apps and mobile websites is now super easy. ShareThis now offers solutions for your mobile websites and iOS applications. You will continue to get all the great sharing features and in-depth analytics that you already get with ShareThis solutions on the web.

Sharing on your mobile websites couldn’t be easier. If you are already using ShareThis, you are good to go. The mobile widget will automagically show the mobile specific sharing widget. It will work beautifully with touch inputs on your iOS devices and your blackberry scrollers. If you don’t have a ShareThis button on your mobile website and would like to add the ShareThis button, you can get the code here. In addition, we have tailored email sharing to use your native email service.

We also offer an iOS SDK that lets your application share to a majority of the OAuth services including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yahoo! Pulse and native E-mail.

We hope you enjoy this great new feature and we look forward to introducing many more in the near future.

by Sumit Malhotra, Principal Architect, ShareThis, Inc.

Follow ShareThis on Twitter: @ShareThis

Like ShareThis on Facebook: /ShareThis

ShareThis Makes Forbes’ List of America’s Most Promising Companies

November 30th, 2011

Here at ShareThis, we always knew we were working with a pretty exceptional idea, but it’s always nice to get a little reminder. Today, that came in the form of making Forbes’ list of America’s Most Promising Companies. What started off as a simple idea – to offer a service to help consumers share great content — has blossomed over the years into something that helps publishers better understand how their content performs, gives brands deeper insights into the best content with which to match their advertising, and is truly transforming the online content economy. We’re thrilled that the editors at Forbes recognize the value we bring to our customers, see the size of the market we’re tackling and have validated the strength of our management team through today’s recognition.

Initially, we envisioned a set of tools that would make it easy for consumers to share the best content on the Web. Kind of like the notion of survival of the fittest, our tool would help proliferate engaging content, allowing readers to separate the wheat from the chaff. Now, we’re at the next phase of our business: sharing matters, and publishers should be rewarded for creating engaging, highly share-able content. And this idea also brings immense value to the brands that are working to match their message with the right content all over the Web. Engaged readers mean an engaged audience of consumers receptive to a brand’s message.

The importance of sharing is catching on throughout the online ecosystem of publishers, advertisers and consumers, and we couldn’t be happier. It’s a true honor to have made this prestigious list and we see it as a nod that others agree that our ideas will change the world. Thanks to Forbes for recognizing this in us.

by, Kristen Fergason, CMO, ShareThis, Inc.

Follow Kristen on Twitter: @sharekris

Follow ShareThis on Twitter: @ShareThis

Announcing a transformative social quality methodology, from ShareThis

November 17th, 2011

Today is an exciting day for the team at ShareThis. We’re announcing a new methodology that will change the way web content is valued – for the better. This new standard, what we’re referring to as a Social Quality Index (or SQI for short), is the first measure of Web-wide sharing activity that focuses on the social quality of sites, helping publishers evaluate how content is performing, and establishing a benchmark for that performance. For advertisers, this means there is now a way to consider a content’s value when buying media across publisher sites.

We’re excited about this announcement because we believe that it draws the focus of social media back to where it originated – the content that people want to share, and the people who want to share it. We’re also excited to have Starcom MediaVest Group collaborating on it with us.

To learn more about the SQI, you can read about it in our press release, or on our website here. Also, we’ve anticipated that there will be a few questions for our Publisher network, and have provided some of them with answers below.

Thanks for your continued support of ShareThis!

Kristen Fergason, CMO + the ShareThis Team

Why is ShareThis creating a network-wide index?

At ShareThis, we have known for years that the act of sharing content provides powerful insights for both publishers and advertisers. We also have witnessed how content continues to be under-valued as part of the current digital media buying equation. Without a way to benchmark content’s value, over-dependence from media buyers on traffic and reach would only continue to grow stronger. We decided that this was a serious challenge for our publisher network, and one worth understanding better. So, we posed the problem to our team of renowned scientists, and they found a solution — an index of social quality, or SQI to keep it simple.

What does this mean for the ShareThis Publisher Network?
Your content has a value, and you should be rewarded for that value. Our goal for the index is to help you drive better business decisions that result in greater returns, via audience engagement and earned media from it, and also advertising spends. As part of the ShareThis Publisher Network, you are better able to gauge how sociable both your content and audience are, and therefore make better decisions that help you achieve your business goals.

How exactly is the index calculated?
The ShareThis standard derives a raw social traffic score by taking a combined measure of a site’s outbound share and inbound clickback traffic, and comparing it to total page views. The resulting figure can then be benchmarked against the broader measure of social quality spanning the more than 1 million domains that make up the ShareThis network. This new measurement brings the value of sharing into consideration, adding more dimension to media buying models that rely more heavily on traffic and audience size. The measure:

-Favors rich content and audience interaction over broad reach

-Identifies users with higher purchase intent

-Identifies audiences who are more likely to disseminate content widely

How can I take advantage of the new index?
Publishers already on the ShareThis Network don’t need to do anything at this time. In early 2012, more information about your web site’s social quality rank and how you can leverage it for your own business decisions around editorial and advertising will be available through your analytics dashboard. We will notify you as soon as it is released.

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Archive for the ‘Industry Trends’ Category

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Archive for the ‘Industry Trends’ Category

Vote for “Sh*t New Yorkers Share” at Internet Week NY!

Sharing Data Around Oscar Winners Reveal It’s No Popularity Contest

ShareThis, Now for IOS Apps and Mobile Websites

ShareThis Makes Forbes’ List of America’s Most Promising Companies

Announcing a transformative social quality methodology, from ShareThis