Winning Mark Blog
Bit.ly is going pro
The industry standard for shortening URLs, bit.ly, is now offering a service for Web publishers who want to push branded shortened URLs on Twitter and other sites. If you shared a link from The New York Times, The Onion, The Huffington Post or a number of other online news sources on Twitter recently, you might have notice that the links are now branded.
For example, a New York Times link will begin with “nyti.ms.” The Onion’s begins with “onion.com.” A major benefit to the branded URLs is the credibility and familiarity they come with. Bit.ly is the industry standard for URL shortening, and currently shortens about three-quarters of URLs posted to Twitter.
Read more about bitly.Pro here. Read more about the Times’ roll out of these URLs here.
Posted by Annie Hundley on March 9, 2010 in Featured, Social Media
Protect Your Privacy on Facebook
If you are a) on Facebook and b) a busy person it’s likely that the social networking site’s new privacy settings rolled out last month weren’t your top priority. If you just agreed to the simplest option of selecting Facebook’s recommended privacy settings, you probably unwittingly made a lot of private information available to strangers.
Facebook’s default is to make things like your status updates, photos and more available to everyone – those on Facebook and anyone just Googling your name. It is easy to go back and adjust your privacy settings to make your activity on Facebook available only to your friends, or friends of friends. The New York Times has written an easy-to-follow guide to adjusting three important privacy settings.
It will be worth it to spend five minutes to protect your privacy, writes the Times. “While you may think these sorts of items aren’t worth your time now, the next time you lose out on a job because the HR manager viewed your questionable Facebook photos or saw something inappropriate a friend posted on your wall, you may have second thoughts. But why wait until something bad happens before you address the issue?”
Posted by Annie Hundley on January 28, 2010 in Facebook, Featured
Darfur, Larger than Life
The September G20 summit was a high-profile opportunity to get a message out to dignitaries attending the global economic summit from around the world. The Save Darfur Coalition was able to do just that with media designed and produced by Winning Mark. The graphic design seen on billboards, posters and flyers made a striking visual statement around the Pittsburg during the event. The visual impact even reached those who didn't attend the summit by using the designs on the Web. The Save Darfur Coalition is working to end genocide in Darfur. Activists gathered in Pittsburg to bring that message to thousands of G20 attendees, toting Winning Mark signs. Click here to see more images of the event.
Posted by Annie Hundley on January 25, 2010 in Display Advertising, Issue Advocacy
Google Maps Meets Pizza Delivery
When Google launched the My Maps feature in 2007, they allowed anybody with a Google account and a little bit of patience to share their creation with the world. Organizations from Save the Elephants to the U.S. NOAA have used Google Maps to educate and communicate. Portland, Oregon based Hot Lips Pizza uses My Maps a little differently: to show their delivery areas on a public map overlay.
View HOTLIPS Pizza delivery in a larger map
Posted by Jeremy Sher on December 31, 2009 in Featured, Web
Email Client Report from Campaign Monitor
Among all the ways to communicate a message – print advertising, direct mail, social media, blogs – one of the most relevant and personal approaches is still e-mail. Winning Mark creates outbound e-mails for clients that are customized to the receiver’s e-mail. Surprisingly, only about 5 percent of e-mail is handled by the much-buzzed-about Gmail, according to a report from Campaign Monitor. The lion’s share of e-mail is run through Outlook, Yahoo! and Hotmail. Outlook – the biggest of these – continues to grow in popularity, but the popularity of others is exploding. While Outlook’s market share grew by 6 percent, the iPod touch 3.0’s e-mail market share expanded by 8,908 percent. By using Campaign Monitor, Winning Mark is able to craft e-mails that look customized, no matter where someone checks their e-mail.
Posted by Annie Hundley on December 1, 2009 in Web
