Project Game Room

March 6, 2013 | written by emily | Design

Does redesigning a game room count as a hackathon project? I don’t know, but I couldn’t have chosen a better time to join the team! 4 days in a new UX designer, I found myself knee-deep in IKEA furniture and orange paint with fellow A-teamers Jeff, Jim, Foo and Elizabeth. While our super talented developers coded, we began a 24 hour quest to create a fun, comfortable space for meeting, gaming and interviewing.

In addition to this project’s cool factor, the updated decor will contribute to company morale and demonstrate to future employees how awesome it is to be a part of the AddThis family.

Here’s what the room looked like before:

We didn’t win the hackathon competition, but our project placed 4th in the popular vote. Here’s what we came up with:

If this looks like fun to you, check out our careers page. We’re always looking for talent and great minds to join the party!

Follow Button Social Profiles

February 27, 2013 | written by Greg Franko | Engineering, Features & Tips, What's New

Today, we are happy to offer the new Find Profiles feature to help you with creating AddThis Follow buttons.

The Find Profiles feature helps you find all of your Twitter and Facebook profiles (usernames and pages), and then allows you to select which profile(s) to use for your follow buttons.

This feature currently works with both Facebook and Twitter, and will be integrated with more social networks in future releases.

It is important to note that you do not need to create an AddThis account to use the Find Profiles feature. But, if you do already have an AddThis account (and have linked your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts), then sign into your AddThis account for your follow buttons to automatically use your social profiles.

Create your AddThis follow buttons today!

Named to OnMedia Top 100 Private Companies

February 26, 2013 | written by susan | Features & Tips

We are once again humbled to be named among an incredible set of peers in the 2013 OnMedia 100 that highlights the top private companies “leaping forward with new technology developments” and “transforming the digital media paradigm.” We’re laser focused on consumer engagement and thrilled to be innovating alongside the likes of Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, Uber, AppNexus, Turn and the other impressive companies listed.

As always, thank you for your continued partnership and feedback. You keep us innovating and constantly moving!

Recapping a Golden Night at the Oscars

February 26, 2013 | written by Greg Cypes | Features & Tips

The 2013 Academy Awards will be remembered for Jennifer Lawrence, the number of men with beards, Life of Pi, the relative brevity of the show (3 hours and 35 minutes, well short of the 2002 record of 4 hours of 23 minutes), and Seth MacFarlane’s relatively benign monologue and hosting.

Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper kicked off the night, generating the most Red Carpet buzz with their outfits and bling.

By Monday morning, Anne Hathaway was generating the most social activity for her Red Carpet performance.

The most talked about moment of the evening occurred right after Seth MacFarlane’s opening monologue. Twitter lead the way for social media during the show with 33% of all sharing. The morning after buzz shifted to Facebook.

As for Oscars advertising, Royal Caribbean and Grey Poupon saw the greatest brand lift during the show. The cruise ship company launched a new ship with Kristen Chenoweth’s help and Grey Poupon brought back their “pardon me…” tag line from the 90s.

Great show, great brands, great data!

Learning about cognitive science at the NoVA UX meetup

February 14, 2013 | written by Jim Lane | Design, What's New

For our February NoVA UX meetup, John Whalen (PhD Cognitive Science Johns Hopkins and Founder, Brilliant Experience consultancy) shared his insights and experience about cognitive science with the group. Using videos and interactive examples, he shared learnings about how we perceive, remember, and make decisions, and how those concepts can be applied to user experience design.

NOVA UX Meetup, AddThis (Feb. 2013)

He began by talking about memory, perception, and the systems of our brain that control them. Since our attention is easily distracted and much of what we think we see is actually constructed by our brains, as designers we can use techniques such as visual cues and story-telling to guide viewers through interfaces more effectively.

Next, John walked through how we make decisions based on what we perceive and remember – and how easily those memories can be lost. He gave an example of a checkout process that offered a discount code at the beginning, which was forgotten and inaccessible by the end when payment was expected – not a good experience indeed. He then walked through strategies that designers can use to enhance interfaces that help the viewer make decisions such as registrations or purchases, such as:

asking for smaller commitments to build up to bigger ones
providing social proof – others who bought this bought that too
giving perceived control to the viewer – “build” your dream car

For more details, check out John’s slides and join us for upcoming meetups about designing for behavioral change, e-commerce, and usability testing.

No Power Outage? Twitter Still Takes the Grammys

February 12, 2013 | written by susan | Features & Tips

Did you watch the Grammys this weekend? From debut performances to Hunger Games like costuming, the program was as much a string of concerts as awards show. As usual, we took a look at what was happening across the web during the show. Humor me while I geek out for a moment, because this is super interesting. First, some overall social trends:

Twitter drove the most Grammy related activity during the show, much like post-power-outtage Super Bowl. Tweeting was 20% more popular than commenting on Facebook and drove 2X more social referrals than the other social services combined.
Check out the velocity of social mentions related to “Grammys” below. In general, social mentions taper off as the show goes on potentially in favor of more specific commentary.
The most shared moments during the show were Chris Brown’s Snub of Frank Ocean, Ellen Degeneres’ reaction to Katy Perry’s dress and Justin Timberlake’s performance. (Note: these moments were the most shared, not necessarily these particular links)

This word cloud shows the most popular terms used in social mentions during the Grammys. So, the more emphasized the word the more popular it was in social commentary, searches, clicks, etc. Not surprising that people were buzzing about who was nominations, fashion and performances. Look a little closer and it’s interesting to note that despite not being part of the show Miley Cyrus and Britney Spears are mentioned. Despite winning a non-televised award, people were all about Rihanna. And, Lena Dunham’s appearance – merely attending with her Grammy winning boyfriend after cleaning up at her own awards shows – didn’t go unnoticed.

We’re fortunate at AddThis to have unique insight into what’s happening on the web during events like these. I love to see what I’ve missed by comparing my own ideas to what was keeping the web buzzing. Hope you enjoyed the show!

Super Bowl Recap

February 7, 2013 | written by Greg Cypes | Features & Tips

Now that the victory parade has wrapped up, it’s time to recap this year’s Super Bowl. This year’s game definitely will be remembered for the power outage, the big lead the Ravens built, the great comeback that fell just short for the 49ers and, of course, the ads.

The Power Outage
The 34 minutes the Superdome in New Orleans was dark created huge buzz as everyone’s eyes moved away from the game and on to their 2nd screen devices. Brands took advantage of that moment and leveraged Twitter to promote their messages (e.g. Oreo “dunking in the dark”). Users leveraged Twitter, too – engagement increased 34% during the power outage.

The Game
Buzz during the game was dominated early by the Ravens as they jumped out to a lead. The 49ers stormed back after the power outage but fell short of the comeback. Social mentions of the two teams during the game reflect that momentum swing.

The Ads
Coke and Gildan were the big winners in their respective categories for immediate social buzz after their ads aired, but it was Budweiser and Calvin Klein that sustained the highest brand lift from the game. Calvin Klein has also maintained the highest brand lift since the game. Mentions dropped only 35% since Sunday where mentions of Gildan have dropped 87%.

Summary
Based on social mentions, our interests were piqued by content related the following terms during Super Bowll XLVII.

Getting Excited for Super Sunday?

February 1, 2013 | written by Greg Cypes | Data Trends

It is that time again for America’s favorite sporting event, the Super Bowl. The ads, the halftime show, and of course the game all come together for a 4+ hour event that is celebrated with friends, family and food.

As we did last year we took a look at our data to see which brands are getting the most pre-game buzz and to see if the same data can help determine who is going to win the game.

Many brands have already released teasers to their Super Bowl ads and we took a look at two particular brand verticals to see if one brand is outperforming the others.

Mercedes Benz ad which stars Kate Upton has helped Mercedes jump out to an early lead among many contenders.

Budweiser which had a very popular pregame ad last year is again leading the pack with their ‘Lucky Chair’ teaser

Unlike last year’s game where the majority of Americans wanted to see the Giants win, this year the country is more divided at least geographically.

We are split right down the middle, but the geography only tells a small part of the story. The 49ers are generating 20% more buzz than the Ravens in the US, which if last year was any indicator, predicts a San Francisco victory.

As for the food we are going to consume on game day, it looks we are looking for low cal recipes by Guy Fieri on Pinterest and shopping for food at Costco.

I hope everyone enjoys the game and festivities. Come back on Monday to check out the advertising winners and losers and other in game social reactions.

Introducing Individual Share Counts

January 30, 2013 | written by Greg Franko | Features & Tips, What's New

Today, we’re happy to offer new buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Delicious, VK, Linkedin, and Odnoklassniki, with individual share counts.

These new surfaces demonstrate the popularity of your content on the top social networks. We retrieve share counts directly from each service’s API; data is cached and loaded asynchronously for optimal page load performance.

We’ll be integrating additional service counts in future releases (and we’d love to know which services you think we should add next).

Toolbox Support and Icon Sizes
Both horizontal and vertical toolboxes are supported, with 16×16, 20×20, and 32×32 pixel icons.

Horizontal Toolbox Examples:

If you already use AddThis, you can start using the individual share counters horizontal toolbox with this HTML snippet:

<!-- Horizontal toolbox -->
<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style addthis_32x32_style">
  <a class="addthis_counter_facebook"></a>
  <a class="addthis_counter_twitter"></a>
  <a class="addthis_counter_pinterest_share"></a>
  <a class="addthis_counter_reddit"></a>
  <a class="addthis_counter_linkedin"></a>
</div>

Vertical Toolbox Examples:

If you already use AddThis, you can start using the individual share counters vertical toolbox with this HTML snippet:

<!-- Vertical toolbox -->
<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_floating_style addthis_32x32_style">
  <a class="addthis_counter_facebook"></a>
  <a class="addthis_counter_twitter"></a>
  <a class="addthis_counter_pinterest_share"></a>
  <a class="addthis_counter_reddit"></a>
  <a class="addthis_counter_linkedin"></a>
</div>

In both cases, if you’re not using AddThis already, you’ll also need to include our JavaScript file:

<!-- AddThis code -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js”></script>

You can get these counters without registering, but if you’re not already an AddThis user and you’d like to receive analytics about how your content is being shared, you’ll need to create an account. It just takes a minute to set up!

Read our full documentation for more information.

Got questions or comments? Know which services you would like us to add next? We’d love to know what you think!

AMD + AddThis: A Case Study in Platform Pairing

January 25, 2013 | written by susan | Features & Tips

We have been building infrastructure around real-time analysis of big data sets since 2006. Back when “big data” wasn’t a thing. Now, we process up to 300 terabytes of data per month. This is an unprecedented amount of incoming data that we process in real-time so it can be made useful and actionable for all of you.

Processing all of that data in real-time daily and optimizing for the fastest possible delivery of content and service puts extreme pressure on the hardware that supports it. Check out this case study put together with AMD about how we work together to ensure massive processing capabilities even in the face of record setting social sharing events like the 2012 Olympics – which passed last year’s Super Bowl as the most social sporting event by 106% with 4.95 million shares!