Retro photo apps are all the rage. And for good reason. Fact: People love sharing pictures online. There are over 200 million photos uploaded to Facebook per day, which means there are more than 6 billion uploads per month.

Much to the chagrin of digital camera makers, smartphones are becoming more and more ubiquitous and are pretty much all you need to capture special moments or events as they happen. Thus, the old point n’ shoot cameras are increasingly being left behind to gather dust in the closet.

42% of Americans are using smartphones, and 49% of those users are accessing platforms such as Twitter and Facebook while on the move. Given our collective love of photo sharing and the increased use of smartphones to share all aspects of our lives, phone manufacturers and photo app developers have had to step up to the plate and provide quality products for our shutterbug population who are itching to instantly share their photos.

You all know that I love me some Instagram. It’s reliable, allows me to snap a picture, apply a cool filter of my choosing, and easily share my now hip and sometimes even retro-looking photos with my social networks. The popularity of this app is hard to debate as they recently hit 10 million users, and are focused on providing a great, free app to their users. The caveat to Instagram is that it’s only available as an iPhone app, and they don’t currently plan on expanding their app offering to other mobile platforms anytime soon. In my opinion, the fact that they have tallied up 10 million users on a single platform speaks volumes about the quality and ease of use of the app.

Instagram may be the hot ticket right now, but I recently came across competitor Streamzoo who might just give them a run for their money. Why? Well it’s doing a few things that Instagram is not. And that could be key.

Streamzoo’s app is available as an Android and iPhone app as well as a Web app. This broad platform support greatly increases their prospective user base. Even better – they encourage you to use hashtags when posting photos so your photos are organized into streams.

The use of hashtags also allows users to receive realtime feed updates, see what’s trending or connect with people in their stream with similar interests. It seems like Streamzoo is a little more focused on creating opportunities where a seemingly random photo can create a sense of community between users with similar interests. Hmmm, that might just be pretty wicked cool – and something that Instagram’s not quite doing.

As far as the actual apps themselves, Streamzoo and Instagram are well matched. With the release of their 2.0 update, Instagram actually added quite a few bells and whistles it was previously lacking. From a purely picture taking standpoint – both offer a wonderful range of tools that photographers of all skill levels can use to make a snapshot from their life on the move into something pretty cool.

So what about you, how do you use photos apps like Instagram and/or Streamzoo? Are you there just for the filters and editing tools? Or do you the like the idea of connecting with people with similar interests through the photos you are sharing socially?

Perhaps most importantly, what photo app are you using and why? Tell me about one I’ve yet discovered (please oh please)!

Photo credit: Mark

Coolest Retro Photo App: Instagram or Streamzoo is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

This is a guest post by one of my favorite, and smartest of friends, and a well-known online security expert, Christopher Burgess (@burgessct)

My Customer Service Nightmare at the Hands of Newport News/Spiegel 

There comes a time in every consumer’s lifetime when a retailer may try and take advantage of the relationship and deliver less or nothing in exchange for the consumer’s hard-earned money. Such was the case with my spouse and Newport News/Spiegel online and direct marketing clothiers.

In our situation, my wife purchased and returned items from Newport News in February 2011. Yet, as of June 2011 the refund she was due had not yet been received. But amazingly every time she spoke with a customer service representative (CSR) she was told something like this: “Ma’am, we assure you, your name is at the top of the list. We are experiencing a computer glitch, you will have your money in five days, we asked that you wait two billing cycles. We don’t know what is going on, call us back on Monday,” etc.

As consumers, you should be aware that for unscrupulous retailers, all of these platitudes are nothing more than holding statements, crafted by the retailer and designed to get the customer off the phone and to buy time.

In our scenario – my bride demonstrated extraordinary patience and trust over the course of a four month period – which is not uncommon for many consumers.

In exasperation, and because my wife was able to get no resolution to this situation, I thought it might make sense to test the power of social media. Accordingly, I posted a note on Newport News Facebook page and an @mention to their Twitter account. Amazingly, they removed the comment from the Facebook page, but not before others had made comments that they too were encountering similar issues.

The Twitter notes went without notice or response.

It quickly became clear that these are examples of two brands – Newport News and Spiegel – who are using their social network presences to broadcast but not engage with their customers. Not surprising – it happens all the time. However, what’s disturbing is that in the event someone has a negative experience with these retailers and posts a complaint, it’s immediately purged rather than dealt with in a straightforward, upstanding or honest manner.

The retailer’s action to delete versus engage actually had a far more detrimental effect than if they had engaged and resolved. But it not only serves as an excellent example of how not to handle customer service in social networks, it gives me fodder for a blog post about customer service.

My wife’s patience finally snapped, and she engaged the Washington Attorney General’s office to file a formal compliant against Newport News. The AG’s office contacted her, verified that the compliant had validity and sent paperwork to Newport News asking that they refund the funds. Even they were ignored.

Not to be deterred, she simultaneously filed a complaint with the FTC Consumer Complaint division. The FTC acknowledged receipt, but we quickly learned that there has to be a cacophony of complaints for either entity to actually take action. If this kind of thing happens to you at the hands of any vendor, I recommend filing a complaint against them, as each voice most definitely adds to the noise of the choir.

My tenacious wife waited another week and then called the credit card fraud department and filed a complaint. They noted her time to request a charge-back had passed, but they would gladly review her material and try. She forwarded the shipping/billing statements, copies of the email promises, call notes (dates, times, CSR’s name) and within one week they credited her credit card statement with 100% of the funds in question. They followed up with their own written documentation – case closed – 1 July.

Bottom line – if you are purchasing from either Newport News or its sister organization, Spiegel, allow me to help you through the morass so that you don’t get left waiting for your refund or worse, left holding the bag.

• Pay by credit card.
• If you return an item – track the package, ensure a signature upon receipt, memorialize all your conversations and emails – document, document, document.
• If you have not received your money by day 29 of the purchase, contact your credit card company and ask that they execute a charge back against the vendor. They will immediately credit your account and debit the vendor (with fees).

Most importantly, don’t fall prey to their delay tactics! Whether it’s Spiegel, Newport News or any other retailer, if they ask something like this: “Please allow us up to 15 days to receive and process your returned merchandise. Allow 2 credit card statements for your refund to appear,” be forewarned. There’s the gotcha – your credit card company asks that you challenge vendor’s charge within 30 days – waiting two billing cycles often can make it impossible for you to dispute a charge on your credit card – and that’s just what retailers like this are counting on.

As always, knowledge is your most powerful asset. And, when it comes to these particular merchants, remember Caveat Emptor – give them a wide berth.

Christopher Burgess is a senior security advisor to the chief security officer of a Fortune 100 company, who previously served as a senior national security executive for more than 30 years. Christopher addresses threats to intellectual property, security aspects of social media, security strategy, security education and awareness and prevention of industrial espionage. You can follow him on his blog BurgessCT

Photo credit: The Guardian

Customer Service Lesson: Caviat Emptier Newport News/Spiegel is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Coming from a family of jokesters, it was pretty much a given that I would ultimately learn to develop a thick skin (well, frankly, I was forced to do so). It was also imperative that I learn the art of quick repartee as a form of self-preservation much like other children learn to walk. For this, I thank my mother, Shelly Kramer, who apparently popped out of the womb lipping off about something.

Being a general smart ass about most things – sarcasm can and has gotten me into trouble.On more occasions than I can count. But oh how I love it so.

In fact, many friends have probably seen at least one text, Tweet, etc. from me with </sarcasm> in there so they know that I’m just kidding, and not just being a jerk.

As such, I was overjoyed to read that some fabulous interns for BBH are lobbying for the creation of  Sartalics, a bona fide sarcasm font. Hallelujah!!!

This campaign proposes that Sartalics, a reverse italics font, be created so that when Tweeting, updating your Facebook profile or emailing you can use Sartalics to indicate to those thin-skinned among us that you’re being snarky – not mean.

In the long run, this will save so many follow-up calls/emails to say, “Hey I was just kidding, you know that right?” In fact, it might just save a friendship or two. Sarcasm is a very hard tone to convey, so how’s it possible that a sarcasm font has yet to be created?

In all seriousness, with more than 110 million tweets  and an excess of 294 billion emails flying around in a given day worldwide, it only makes sense that we continue to adapt the communication tools we use on a daily basis to ensure our messages are properly interpreted.

Are you, like me, a sarcasm lover? If so, here’s how you can help the cause – visit Sartalics.com and sign the digital petition. As people continue to sign the petition, they will hit up the big dogs from Microsoft, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, YouTube, Apple and Tumblr to encourage them to create Sartalics. Below is a cool tutorial the BBH Barn interns created to promote their campaign:

As a cause near and dear to my heart, this is my personal plea to help a sister out and help Sartalics become a reality. And yes, it’s all about me. This will be a great leap forward in my continual quest to quit annoying people with my oft misunderstood but quite adorable (just ask @danieleagee) quick wit.

Sarcasm Lovers Rejoice: Sarcasm Font Has Arrived is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

So when we stumbled upon “The State of the Internet” infographic, we dove right in—and we think you should, too.

Created by: Online Schools

For those of us who spend our days connected to the Internet, whether we’re blogging, emailing, tweeting, Facebooking or simply observing, it’s easy to spend time in our various online niches and overlook just how massive the Internet really is.

And that’s why this infographic is such an amazing resource. It’s interactive, too, which makes it even more entertaining. Some of the things we were surprised to learn include:

*Internet enemies include North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Burma, where Internet access is limited or even removed in various circumstances. This is a great lesson in perspective, as it’s easy to take our Internet connection for granted.

*Interested in streaming video and other high-speed Internet applications? Head to South Korea, which boasts the world’s best broadband quality.

*There are 152 million blogs on the Internet. Wow.

*Among the fastest-rising Google searches for 2010? None other than that baby-faced crooner himself, Justin Bieber.

Now go forth and explore! And while you’re at it, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the infographic, as well as the most surprising piece of information you discovered while reading it.

The State Of The Internet Infographic Is A Must-See is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Instagram has been an absolute hit with mobile users. Launched in October 2010, Instagram quickly added 1 million users in a mere two months after their app launched. Now nine months into their existence, Instagram has 5 million users that have uploaded nearly 100 million photos. To put it in perspective – it took Flickr two years to reach 100 million uploads. Wowza.

If you are one of the devoted already using–and loving–this app, we found a cool new API that you might just dig. Screenstagram, developed by The Barbarian Group, is an awesome API that pulls in your and your friends’ images from your Instagram feed and creates a screensaver for your computer.

Installation is a breeze – here is how it works:

1. Pop over to The Barbarian Group’s site to download the installation tool.

2. Once the download is complete, a Screenstagram Icon will appear on your desktop. The installation tool will actually launch on its own just double click the embedded file to start the installation process.

3. Once complete, your screen saver settings window will pop-up. Scroll to the bottom of the screen saver list options until you see ‘Other‘ – the Screenstagram API will appear here.

4. Click ‘Options‘ button and you will be prompted to enter your Instagram credentials. Here you can select if you want your photos or you and your friends photos to appear, and if you want usernames to appear embedded on each picture. After you make your selections you are done. No, seriously hit ‘Done’ and the process is complete.

If you are more a visual person, here is a video that demonstrates the installation process:

Screenstagram Installation & Demo from Barbarian Group on Vimeo.

Something to note – right now this API is only available for Mac users that are running Snow Leopard or above. Kind of a bummer, but it sounds like they are working on refining this API so it is more widely available.

Photo/Video Credit: The Barbarian Group

A Wicked Cool Way to Use Your Instagram Stream is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Anyway, Rapportive is great because it only takes a minute to install. Once installed, it pulls contact information from the Rapleaf database and, voila, the advertisements that typically appear are gone. Instead they are replaced with bio information and links to social media outlets that sender maintains profiles with. You can also create and store personal notes directly on their profile that appears as well. Note – if the sender doesn’t use that particular email address for their social media properties, Rapportive won’t be able to provide any bio information in the sidebar.

Here is what the plugin looks like in action:

Between my Twitter feeds, Google Reader and the various other aggregation tools I use, people tend to get lost in the shuffle. That’s what I love about this tool. While I’m checking email I have access to their Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook feeds right there in my sidebar. So if it’s a new connection I can easily access that person’s social information and see what he/she is all about – or if it’s that crazy Shelly Kramer, I see what the Chief Geek of V3 is up to and whether I should pester her about something.

My only concern with the tool is that it doesn’t require your Gmail password to access your contact’s information through your inbox, meaning it has access to your emails and some of your personal information could be vulnerable. Rapportive is working to get a privacy policy in place, though, so I hope this won’t be an issue in the long run.

Are you using this tool? If so, how do you like it? How do you feel about it having access to your emails? Any other great plugins that do something similar I should now about? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Rapportive: A Plugin That Makes Your Life Easier is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Wow, thanks Jonathan! But as a fellow Huffington Post blogger, I have to tell you:

I think this is a lame move and that you’re a weenie for doing it. (Forgive me, I have teenage children – we talk like this on a regular basis).

In case you haven’t heard, Tasini is a former Huffington Post blogger who filed a lawsuit and is seeking class-action status on behalf of HuffPo bloggers, claiming at least $105 million should now be given to the bloggers. According to Jonathan:

“The Huffington Post is nothing without the bloggers who created the content.” As previously noted, I strongly disagree. In fact, I disagree so strongly, I thought I’d write a letter.

My Letter to Jonathan Tasini

Dear Jonathan,

I’ve been blogging for Huffington Post for a couple of years and, unless my experience was drastically different from yours, no one put a gun to my head and forced me to blog. Did Arianna Huffington or one of her evil minions cast a spell on YOU to make you write 216 blog posts against your will?

You agreed to blog for free. For one of the most influential and most successful websites on the Internet. You are NOT a victim and you do not deserve a zillion dollars for your 216 blog posts.

The last time I checked, America was a free country. You could have chosen not to write for the Huffington Post but, for some odd reason, it was cool beans as you zoomed through those 216 posts.

As a fellow writer, I don’t have an issue with the non-payment because the Huffington Post has a huge audience.  The website is an awesome media platform. And because of the great community of bloggers at HuffPo, I get to work with writers like Nora Ephron , who edits HuffPost Divorce, where some of my blog posts are published. I don’t know about you, but I don’t bump into world class authors and Academy Award nominated writers every day, so I consider it a perk. A big one.

Here’s a news flash: I didn’t write 216 blog posts. I agreed to work for free at Huffington Post and, in return, they gave me access to one of the largest online audiences in the world. I am still blogging for HuffPo and I’m not mad about it. I’m an adult and I take responsibility for my choices. And the exposure – and the audience – that HuffPo has and does give me has been invaluable.

And so, Jonathan, imma say it again, I think this is a lame move and that you’re a weenie for doing it. I learned a long time ago that life was not fair. I also learned that all choices have consequences. You must’ve missed that memo, but I’m here to tell you—get over it! Quit griping about it and go start your own publication. Go to therapy. Do whatever you need, but please, GROW UP.

Regards,

Michelle

Photo: DavidandGoliathTees

Huffington Post Lawsuit: Why The Decision to Sue is Lame is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Paola Antonelli, Curator for Architecture and Design at the MoMA, did a TEDTalk in late 2007 previewing the exhibition “Design and the Elastic Mind,” focused on designs that impact the way we think, and this TEDTalk was published in early 2008.

Antonelli’s passion for design as art is infectious and the presentation compelling.

As she mentioned, the marriage between design and science is producing some beautiful things and now, some three years later, it’s interesting to see that theories of tagging (like we do on a daily basis with blog posts, videos and other digital content we produce), has become a way of not only tracking the information we create, but also sharing it with others.

Antonelli spoke then about contemporary design becoming more and more collective, evidenced by mashups and networking and multiple people working on interfaces so that things are created or tasks accomplished together. As she predicted, collective design is a more and more the way of not only the future, but really the way of the present. Collective design is very much happening now. I know that when it comes to the work we do for clients, collective design and collaboration throughout every part of the process – whether it’s a web design project or a marketing campaign – are integral to the results we’re able to generate for our clients. So, yes, most definitely, collective design is a part of everyday life – at least as we know it.

Participation of the buyer (or the consumer) in the process – whether it’s manufacturing, marketing – think crowdsourced ad campaigns and/or consumer-generated Super Bowl ads and customer service are prevalent today – and will only continue to be more so.

Antonelli was once a practicing architect and stepped back from practicing so that she could focus on teaching, writing about design, and curating gallery exhibitions. She has received many accolades, including being named as one of the top 100 most powerful people in the world of art, and she is very much a force the art and design world.

In late 2010, The Economist interviewed Antonelli and the topic of conversation was Design in 2036. Her thoughts seem, at least to me, to be wonderfully spot-on.

There are still people who believe that design is just about making things, people and places pretty. In truth, design has spread like gas to almost all facets of human activity, from science and education to politics and policymaking. For a simple reason: one of design’s most fundamental tasks is to help people deal with change.

Designers stand between revolutions and everyday life. When the internet happened, they created interfaces with buttons and hyperlinks that enabled us all to use it. Designers make disruptive innovations manageable and approachable, so that they can be embraced and assimilated into life. And they never forget functionality and elegance.

In 25 years designers will be at the nexus of things. They will not be divvied up according to their reductive speciality (graphic, product, furniture, so 20th-century!). On the contrary, like physics, design will be loosely separated between theoretical and applied.

Antonelli’s TED presentation was terrific – even three years later, and actually very forward-thinking. And I figured that if I enjoyed it, you might, too.

Image Credit: The Economist

Collective Design is The Future is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

My daughter, Katherine shared this with me this morning, knowing full well it would make my day. She was right.

This sage advice, from AnnaGrace’s 5 year old sister, is something I fervently believe all women would do well to strive to pass along to their female children.

“I care if I do something that’s special. I don’t want to marry someone if I don’t have a job first.”

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a flag-waving, bra burning statement about women’s rights – although I’m certainly an advocate. It’s more a message to women – and a message about empowerment, self-confidence and believing in yourself.

All too often, women define themselves by the men they date, starting as early as high school.  It’s not unusual for women to make our decisions based on what’s important to men and build our lives around them. Sometimes, we get in such a hurry to marry and live the bullshit “happily ever after” that we’re taught exists, from the very earliest moments of life, that we forget to stop and think about what really makes us happy. What we might want to do with our lives, over and above potentially having a life partner and raising a family.

In my world, the path I’ve tried to set my daughters on is pretty focused. I hope I’ve taught them (and continue to teach the little ones) that life isn’t about someone else fending for you and being responsible for your happiness and success. That getting an education and going out into the world and getting a job and endeavoring to figure out what exactly it is that you’re not only suited for, but passionate about is key. And it is, and should be, as much a part of life’s journey as going to school every day is when you’re a kid.

For the record, to my way of thinking, having a job isn’t about having money, it’s about experiencing life and finding passion. About having skills and using them, and thinking about what it is that makes you happy, fulfilled and purposeful. It’s about spending your days doing something you love – even if it takes you awhile to figure out exactly what that is.

I have a number of girlfriends who went to college, did well and graduated with no real sense of purpose, direction or passion about any kind of career path. Many of them, whether they admitted it or not, went to college and majored in Finding a Husband 101. And many of them were successful.

In many instances, many of those women went on to marry well and live lives of affluence, fueled mostly by the career successes of their husbands. They have beautiful homes and perfectly mannered children. They drive nice cars and have every material possession they could ever want. And yet they often yearn for more.

As is all too common, at some point, each of those women that I know have found themselves adrift. Wondering about purpose, yearning to do something and to feel connected to some kind of career. Some of those women find themselves divorced or widowed and without any skills or ability to support themselves and totally and stranded in life – completely dependent on others.

This video resonated with me so much, as Katherine knew it would, for a variety of different reasons. But most importantly, because she knows that I really feel passionately about what this little girl is saying.

Being a wife and mom is wonderful. And there’s no rule that being a great wife and mom and having a career are mutually exclusive – no matter who tells you differently. But empowering yourself, and your daughters, from the earliest of ages, to understand how important it is to value yourself, learn skills, have a career path and resolve to do whatever it takes to do what you’re passion about – that’s what matters. Men will come – or they’ll go – but only you will look out for you. That’s just good, common sense. And getting a job is just part of that equation.

In fact, I might even go so far as to call it the best Life Insurance Policy you could ever have. What say you?

5 Year Old’s Advice to Women: Get A Job! is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

The iSafe Backpack

This post is not about marketing, strategy, social media or any of the other business related things that we usually write about. Instead, it’s about child safety. We think that’s important, too.

This headline in today’s Chicago Business was interesting enough that I stopped what I was doing and went to read the article. Doggone interwebs. They did it again.

I’ve raised one crop of children and am working on my second. Like every parent on the planet, I think about their safety on a regular basis. In fact, I think about the safety of my big girls almost as much as I think about the safety of the little ones. And since I’m a tech-savvy, gadget-loving consumer, this alarm-embedded backpack got my attention. As much for the big ‘kids’ as for the little ones.

Not only is this iSafe Bags’ alarm-embedded backpack something I might buy, I think it’s something that might save some lives. That really says something about society today, doesn’t it? Invented by a Chicagoan, hence the feature in Chicago Business, it’s worth a look:

I lost my second daughter in a mall once – it was the longest ten minutes of my life. It was back in the days of Johnny Gosch and his disappearance, and a time when America was beginning to realize that child abductions occur on a regular basis, and we were all more than a little paranoid about it. When I found her, sitting in the back of the store, on the bottom shelf of a display case, chin deep in stuffed animals I … well, you can imagine what I was feeling. And I never forgot the terror of those moments.

Today more than ever, with the stories of Elizabeth Smart, Natalee Holloway and Kyron Horman to haunt us, the safety of children is paramount.

I remember an incident that happened just a few months ago – in October of 2010. There was a 12 year-old Delaware girl who thwarted a would-be abductor when she was standing outside her school waiting for a ride. As the man pulled up beside her in a van and ordered her to get in, the quick thinking preteen grabbed her iPod touch and told the man she’d called 9-1-1. He then sped away. And naturally, was never seen again.

Makes you sick, doesn’t it? All the more reason to talk to your kids about strangers and the dangers they represent, and perhaps even arm them with tech tools that might well save their lives. I realize that not every parent wants to buy their kid a cell phone, but what a great story to share – the one about the savvy teen – during conversations about safety with your own kids.

Me, I’m still thinking about that backpack.

Child Safety? Enter the Alarm-Embedded Backpack is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency