Cre8ive Commando » Miscellaneous

A Career as a Social Media Strategist

Adham Dannaway — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 06:03:59 +0000

If you were ever thinking about seriously getting into social media strategy and marketing, now’s the time to do it. Over 80% of businesses use some form of social media but social media strategy is still relatively new with many interesting opportunities out there to use social media to improve businesses and drive profits. The infographic below from Mashable outlines everything you need to know about being a Social Media Strategist.

So what exactly does a Social Media Strategist do? A Social Media Strategist’s role is basically to look after the relationship between a business and its customers online in an effort to improve various business goals. There is a lot more to this role than simply chatting with customers on Twitter and Facebook, let’s look at some of the characteristics of Social Media Strategists.

Social Media Strategists are mainly men (64%) most of which are quite well-educated with a degree in marketing/communication. They are generally quite senior and all of them have a Twitter account with an average of 3000 followers. To succeed in the social media industry you need to be a jack of all trades and a risk taker as it’s all about innovation.

The infographic below has more information and statistics about these points. It will be interesting to see how Social Media Strategists evolve in the future and even more interesting to see how social media is integrated into more traditional businesses.

The Evolution of the Web

Adham Dannaway — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 12:39:05 +0000

The World Wide Web is constantly evolving, we see new website experiences every day and many of these are made possible by constant advancements in the underlying web technologies including: HTML5, CSS3, WebGL and of course the web browsers that run them.

As web developers it’s great to see that the web is advancing, this gives us the chance to use these new technologies to create new web experiences. This interactive infographic is quite interesting as it shows us the evolution of the web over the past 20 years. You can see the interaction between web technologies and browsers and you can even click on different browsers to see how their interface has evolved over the years. I wonder what this diagram will look like over the next 5 years? Any ideas?

Win a Free Poster Print From imageMEDIA.com!

Adham Dannaway — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:22:47 +0000

imageMEDIA is a leading online printing company that specializes in a variety of printing services such as business cards, posters, postcard printing and more. Today they are offering Cre8ive Commando readers a chance to win an awesome high quality rolled poster print that you can use for your portfolio, a client or whatever design you want!

A great prize:

A 24 x 36 inch rolled poster ($70 value) – Printed on a premium Epson printer with full bleed and full color!

Here are the rules:

You may only enter this contest once. Anyone submitting more than once will be disqualified
Please enter a valid email address
You must be of legal age in the jurisdiction that you reside to enter
Free shipping to the US only, shipping costs will apply to winner in another location
You may optionally follow us on Twitter and Facebook

How to enter:

Entering is simple, just leave a comment telling us how you would use the poster print and follow imageMEDIA on Facebook. A winner will be randomly picked two weeks from this date. Good luck!

And the winner is:

Sleeman! Congratulations, you’ll receive an email soon regarding how to claim your prize.

Convert an Image to CSS Automatically

Adham Dannaway — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:49:42 +0000

Have you ever wondered if you could automatically convert an image into HTML and CSS code? It could come in handy when trying to bypass the image filters in email clients. Well, Img to CSS is an interesting little online tool that does just this. It converts an image into HTML/CSS automatically.

It’s actually quite a clever little tool. It basically takes the image file and creates a HTML table of pixels with background colours that match the image file. Row by row it reads the pixels on the image and builds the HTML table, inserting the CSS styles inline.

The basic idea behind Img to CSS is to bypass image filters in email clients to ensure that images don’t get blocked. The HTML/CSS conversion does create quite a lot of code though so I’m not sure how useful it would be when dealing with commercial email templates. It’s definitely clever though and lots of fun to have a play with. Convert your image to CSS today!

WIN 250 FREE Business Cards from Uprinting!

Adham Dannaway — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 13:41:13 +0000

Uprinting has a great offer for Cre8ive Commando readers! One week from today we’ll be giving away 250 business cards to one of our lucky readers, all you have to do to be in the running is leave a comment below.

Every professional in the website world needs a business card for networking and also to help add a bit of credibility to their business. Standard business cards are rectangular with sharp corners but they don’t need to be. Die cut business cards allow you to have custom shapes including: leaf, circle, half-circle side, rounded single-corner and rounded corner. Having a business card in a unique shape will help make your card that little bit more memorable making you and your business stand out from the crowd.

Prize details:

250 pcs Die Cut Business Cards for one winner
2 x 3.5″ Rounded Corners, 2×2″ Rounded Corners, 1.75×3.5″ Rounded Corners, 2×3.5″ Leaf, 2×3.5 Rounded one corner, 2×3.5″ Half Circle Side, 2×3.5″ Oval, 2.5″ Circle
14pt Cardstock Gloss / Matte / High Gloss (UV), or 13pt Cardstock Uncoated,
6 Business Days Turnaround *Free shipping
Shipping outside Us will be shouldered by the winner
die-cut business card templates available for download

Restriction: Limited to *US residents 18 years old and above only.

How to enter:

Simply leave a comment below to be in the draw. We’ll randomly select the lucky winner next week on August 11th and notify you by email. Thanks to Uprinting for this great offer and good luck to everyone!

Disclaimer: This business card printing giveaway is sponsored by UPrinting, no monetary compensation was given for hosting. For more information about online printing services, please visit UPrinting,com.

And the winner is:

Queen of the Click! Congratulations, you will soon be emailed with more details on how to claim your prize!

Social Media Helps Students Get Better Grades!

Adham Dannaway — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:19:35 +0000

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are growing in popularity among younger generations. Instead of doing their homework they’re usually browsing Facebook or tweeting with their friends. Is this trend a good thing for youngsters or not?

A recent study shows us that social media is actually having a positive effect on students as it’s helping them to improve their grades. Some students are actually using social media to form study groups and share information. These students who use social media are achieving much higher grades than those who don’t.

Using social media sites in the classroom can encourage discussion and promote active learning among students. So next time you see your little one browsing Facebook, you’ll feel re-assured that they’re actually studying with friends and not just chatting about what movie they’re going to watch on the weekend.

Via:MastersinEducation.org

Are you a Mac Person or a PC Person?

Adham Dannaway — Sun, 01 May 2011 14:40:26 +0000

There’s always been a battle between Mac and PC. PC users have always dominated the market but things are starting to change. Mac users are growing fast and there is definitely a certain type of person that is attracted to Mac computers. The guys from Hunch have put together this great infographic which outlines some of the characteristics and differences between Mac and PC users.

We’ve all seen the stereotypical Mac and PC guys from the Apple Mac commercials a while back, but this infographic gives us some actual statistics about Mac and PC people’s personalities, fashion sense and differences.

It turns out that Mac people are generally younger than PC people and they tend to live in the city and not the suburbs. PC people have a more casual fashion sense as opposed to the more chic/designer fashion sense of Mac users. Apparently Mac people don’t eat meat either, with 80% of Mac users being more likely to be vegetarians than PC users. Mac users are still the minority but I can definitely see things changing in the future.

I’m even finding myself using a Mac these days. What about you, are you a Mac or PC?

Evolution of the Geek

Adham Dannaway — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:00:27 +0000

In the past the word “geek” was a derogatory term given to people who were obsessed with a particular area of interest. Geeks were social outcasts that wore glasses and suspenders and they weren’t the most popular of people. Over time I don’t really think that geeks have evolved much, we’re still obsessed with our particular area of interest, but for some reason people’s perception of geeks has evolved into a positive one. No longer seen in a negative way, geeks are now perceived to be passionate, cool people with a specialized set of skills. The below infographic, created by Flowtown, outlines the evolution of the geek over the years. As you can see, there are many different types of geeks, which one are you?

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Should I Work for Free – Decision Tree Flowchart

Adham Dannaway — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 04:33:24 +0000

Should I work for Free is a Decision Tree Flowchart for Designers and Creatives. Created by Jessica Hische, this clever flowchart helps you decide whether you should or shouldn’t take on that design job you were just asked to do. Although the flowchart takes a humorous approach, some of the advice given is actually quite valid. Give it a try and use it to decide whether you should design that logo for your friend or not.

Looking at the decision flowchart it is pretty clear that you shouldn’t be giving away your valuable design skills and time for free in most circumstances. Unless it’s for a good cause or a family member you should probably charge some money for your design services. I actually don’t agree with some of the points on the graph as I think that as a young designer you may need to do some commercial work for free just to build up your portfolio and experience. You might also meet some great people who will help you get your foot in the door in the future. What’s your experience with working for free?

Obsessed with Facebook Infographic

Adham Dannaway — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 12:01:01 +0000

Facebook has been around for over 5 years now and during that time we have collected some pretty interesting statistics about who uses it and how it is used. As of 2011 there are over 500 million active Facebook users, which basically means that every man and his dog is using it (I actually know of a few dogs that use Facebook regularly). Online Schools has put together this great infographic which clearly shows just how obsessed we all are with Facebook.

I found it interesting that “facebook, “facebook login” and “facebook.com” were among the top 5 most searched terms in the US in 2010. Did these people forget Facebook’s website address? Another interesting and disturbing fact I discovered is that more than half of us talk to people online more often than we do in real life. Why spend time and effort trying to organise a time to meet up with your friends when you can send them a message online with a click of a mouse?

Looking at these statistics it’s clear that Facebook has become more of a way of life than a website. It will be interesting to see how it grows and develops in the years to come. I’d like to write more in this article but I’m being overcome by a strong urge to check my Facebook. Sorry guys, hope you understand!