Social Media Marketing By The Numbers

Ever wonder how much was being spent on social media marketing? Or maybe which social sites the money was going to? Check out the Social Media Marketing by the Numbers infographic to answer these questions and more.

Top 10 Most Popular Foursquare Badges

Foursquare is a popular location-based social network that keeps track of users' whereabouts. People "check-in" at various locations, letting their friends know where they are and allowing them to find you or recommend places to go nearby. People can check-in at cafes, bars, restaurants, parks, offices, etc.

When users check-in using Foursquare, they can unlock interesting badges based on the places and frequency of their visits. You can unlock the "Gym Rat" badge if you hit the gym 3+ times per week, the "Explorer" badge if you checked into 25 different venues, or even the "Crunked" badge if you stop by 4+ places in one night!

Foursquare Grader measures your "Foursquare mojo" by analyzing your usage and giving you a grade and rank based on your comparison to other Foursquare users. The Top 10 Badges are presented above using Foursquare Grader data.



Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/5792/Top-10-Most-Popular-Foursquare-Badges-Infographic.aspx#ixzz1XW2Rax1P

History of Birth

This infographic is titled “Hard Pill to Swallow,” and when you look at the data it presents, it really is. It’s about prescription drugs and birth defects. It contains historical information on all the things people have taken that they thought would help them, and only ended up hurting their child, as well as historical information on the things the government has tried to do to prevent birth defects caused by prescription drugs.

This one is a little harder to break down by category, so we’ll just give you the highlights and you can examine the infographic at will.

The Timeline

In 1938, President Roosevelt signed the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which enforced a pre-market review of the safety of any new drug. We’re told, all the way at the end of the infographic, that during the 30′s some lemon-lime soft drinks had lithium in them, and they were marked as hangover cures. Unfortunately, we learn in another sidebar of the infographic that lithium is known to cause birth defects. So is alcohol, for that matter. One of the factoids presented back at the top of the infographic tells us that, despite federal regulatory efforts, drug companies still found a way to introduce harmful products.

In the 1940′s, a drug started being prescribed for pregnant women. It’s name was Diethylstilbestorl and it was in use for over thirty years. The FDA ended up withdrawing the drug because it was found to cause tumors in pregnant women. In the 1951 a new drug called Tirmethadione was developed as an anti-convulsant. It turned out to cause facial deformities and a fetal death rate of a whopping 87%.

In the 50′s and 60′s, a drug called Thalidomide was used almost worldwide. It caused birth defects in the form of physical deformities in 10,000 children in 46 countries. The drug was not FDA approved, yet the drugs were distributed because of clinical testing programs.

In 1962 it was discovered that an active ingredient in Depakote, used for seizures and bipolar disorder, was linked to cases of autism and spina bifida.

And the list goes on an on through the decades to modern day. See the image for more information about druges that have caused birth defects. In 2011, the FDA discovered that the drug Topamax, a migraine-preventative, caused an increased risk of cleft lip and cleft palate.

More Information

We’re informed that the FDA classifies a drug that can cause fetal injury as a Category X drug. We’re also told that 2 out of 3 women take prescription meds when they are pregnant. How many, I wonder, are Category X drugs? The top cause of infant deaths are birth defects. I wonder how many of those birth defects are caused by prescription medications? We’re told that 40% of women of child-bearing age that use Category X drugs and contraceptives don’t take their contraceptive regularly, thus risking pregnancy that could result in a birth defect.

This is obviously still a big problem, one that should be taken seriously.

Information: B

The questions I asked in the body of the review would be nice to know, and there is a typo in the mix (it’s up to you to find it if you care), but there is a lot of information given and it’s very valuable, even though it is very scary.

Design: B+

The infographic is easy to read and the timeline is well-designed, though the information to the left of the timeline seems to have no rhyme nor reason. It could have been arranged more effectively.

The American Debt Crisis

his infographic addresses something that impacts all of us in the U.S. – the debt crisis. The infographic was very informative – with some staggering numbers that makes one wish to either bury one’s head in the sand, or to start some sort of massive, worldwide bake sale. Let’s get on with the data.

Debt

The United States currently owes $14.5 trillion and it’s rising daily. I guess some people see the word “trillion” and it might as well be “bazillion” or “katrillion” Unless one is a Douglas Adams fan, and in that case “Trillion” reminds them of something else, only maybe spelled differently. Either way, it is a very large number that sort of boggles the mind so the graphic breaks it down by if you borrowed a dollar per second how long it would take you to borrow $1 trillion. Then, just multiply that by 14.5 and you get a rough idea of how much money this country owes. It’s as much as all the other governments in the world put together.

Whom Do We Owe?

In a word, everybody. Check out the picture for a breakdown.

Can We Fix it?

The infographic talks about how much each employee in the country would need to make in order to pay off the national debt. It doesn’t look like it’s happening any time soon. The average household makes about $46,000, while each employee would need to make $90,000. And what does that mean, anyway? I guess taxes.

One confusing thing is that, at the bottom, there is this picture of Africa and we’re told that $14.5 billion dollars would feed East Africa for 4,000 years. Since the national debt is $14.5 trillion, did they mean trillion, or billion? We get the idea either way, but I think a little clarification would have been good there. Maybe it’s just me being nitpicky.

Design: B-

It’s ugly, but so is the debt crisis. I don’t like the colors used, or the layout of the thing.

Information: A

F, actually, to the information itself, but an A to the folks who compiled the data.

10 Ways to Stop Wasting Water

When it comes to getting clean water at home, most of us turn on the tap and don't give it a second thought. But for nearly one billion people, finding clean water is a daily struggle. Lack of access in their homes or their community can cause a multitude of health, economic, and quality of life problems. For those of us fortunate enough to have clean water access, it's more important than ever to help conserve this important resource.

It's estimated that a family of four can survive on 3 gallons of water a day but in America, a household of four uses up to 400 gallons of water a day. Check out this infographic to learn about the top culprits for water waste and how fixes both small and large can significantly shrink your water footprint at home.

To read more about how Levi's is helping raise awareness for water access, click here and learn how you can help nonprofits bring water to all.

The Successes and Failures of the Fight Against AIDS

Thirty years after we first learned of AIDS, the world has made huge advances in its fight against the disease. Public knowledge is up and deaths are down, but we've still got a long, long way to go.

Information graphics

Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These graphics present complex information quickly and clearly, such as in signs, maps, journalism, technical writing, and education. With an information graphic, computer scientists, mathematicians, and statisticians develop and communicate concepts using a single symbol to process information.

Today information graphics surround us in the media, in published works both pedestrian and scientific, in road signs and manuals. They illustrate information that would be unwieldy in text form, and act as a visual shorthand for everyday concepts such as stop and go.
In newspapers, infographics are commonly used to show the weather, as well as maps and site plans for newsworthy events, and graphs for statistical data. Some books are almost entirely made up of information graphics, such as David Macaulay's The Way Things Work. Although they are used heavily in children's books, they are also common in scientific literature, where they illustrate physical systems, especially ones that cannot be photographed (such as cutaway diagrams, astronomical diagrams, and images of microscopic or sub-microscopic systems).
Modern maps, especially route maps for transit systems, use infographic techniques to integrate a variety of information, such as the conceptual layout of the transit network, transfer points, and local landmarks.
Traffic signs and other public signs rely heavily on information graphics, such as stylized human figures (the ubiquitous stick figure), icons and emblems to represent concepts such as yield, caution, and the direction of traffic. Public places such as transit terminals usually have some sort of integrated "signage system" with standardized icons and stylized maps.
Technical manuals make extensive use of diagrams and also common icons to highlight warnings, dangers, and standards certifications.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_graphics

The Overworked American

America's economy has grown 60 percent in the past two decades. Workers' salaries have not kept pace. We could all use a nice long summer vacation—too bad the U.S. doesn't guarantee it.

Are Facebook Users More Trusting?

New research from Pew shows that people who use social networking sites are more likely to make connections with others. Do you buy it?

How Small and Midsize Businesses Are Key to Growing the Economy

It's easy to get caught up in the exciting new ideas behind start-ups, and big businesses attract attention because their size makes their impact impossible to ignore. But it might surprise you to know that the businesses that fall between those two categories—especially younger companies who are transitioning from start-up to major enterprise—play a key role in the economy.

Data on small-and-medium size businesses show that they drive economic growth and job expansion as they grow, and as they challenge larger competitors, they rely on innovation and technology to gain an advantage. Understanding the challenges that these firms face will be important rebuilding our economy after three years of recession and high unemployment.

We'll be looking within this universe to find the finalists for our new business index, the GOOD Company Project, based on the criteria for creativity, innovation and sustainability that we'll develop here at over the next few months. Stay tuned.

Tracking iPad Price

Here is a great info-graphic based around the iPad sales rush since the iPad 2 came out.

Consumers comparison shopping for many things – but not their mortgage

Consumers may like to find the best deals out there, but they don’t always approach their mortgages with the same zeal. In fact, people are more diligent about shopping around for a home computer than for a home loan quote, according to a new LendingTree survey conducted online by Harris Interactive. The survey, released today, found that consumers research an average of 3.1 computer models, compared to an average of 2.4 loan quotes. Amazingly, 39 percent of those who said they were at least “somewhat involved” with shopping for their mortgage said they received only one loan quote. Other interesting facts: 10 percent of people said they spent the same amount of time mortgage shopping as brushing their teeth, and 11 percent likened mortgage shopping to the amount of time it takes to walk a dog.

Angry Birds Compared to Your Sex Life

I am sure most of you have played Angry birds, the most famous games on any mobile operating system, Be it Android, iPhone or even your new HP TouchPad. If you haven’t tried it you can now play it on Google+ Games or your chrome browser.

Incase you don’t know, here is a brief description of the game from wikipedia, “In the game, players use a slingshot to launch birds at pigs stationed on or within various structures, with the intent of destroying all the pigs on the playfield. As players advance through the game, new birds appear, some with special abilities that can be activated by the player. Rovio Mobile has supported Angry Birds with numerous free updates that add additional game content, and the company has even released stand-alone holiday and promotional versions of the game.”
Now just for a minute forget about playing the game and think how each bird is compared with your sex life. Folks at C-Section Comics has done exactly that. They have compared each bird starting from Boomerang bird to Mighty eagle with your sex life. According to the Infographic, Boomerang bird is like your first time sex and white bird is old age.
Checkout the Infographic below for more birds, but remember next time when having sex with your partner don’t think about these Angry birds.