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Erin Wasson at Ralph Lauren SS05

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Look what came in today y’all. #ΛΧΑ #Sunglasses #CollegeGlasses

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This is amaze on #tumblr , think of what we could do?

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The #CSELSE Business Competition

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Digital Shoreditch 2013 (@DigiShoreditch)

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TechTalkFest (@TechTalkFest)

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Dear Will.I.Am

Dear Will.I.Am,

After purchasing your new I am + camera, I have a few complaints and many words of advice as well as a pinch of praise for your noble attempt at creating a piece of innovative technology. 1) The camera is rockstar flashy and maintains the hypnotic, astronomical, beat bumping, creative image that encompasses the Will.I.Am machine. That being said, the leather strap seems like something that was pulled straight out of a Chinese hide manufacturing factory. Whilst I understand the look you were going for with the saddlewood leather, I believe the camera would have benefited from a chain strap, something with much more WILLpower and lets face it...bling.

2) After purchasing the camera, I was disappointed to learn that I cannot take pictures with its unique lenses and interesting filters WITHOUT signing into the foto.sosho app. This is devastating considering I do not have service on my iphone and therefore cannot use the camera unless signed into WiFi, which is not always promising at a club, bar, or in any outdoor scenario.

3) With the hottest new photo apps being SnapChat and Instagram, it would be promising to have these synchronised with the foto.shoso software. Also, do you believe that the foto.sosho community is going to become essentially the next Instagram?

Finally, after watching you speak at the Opening Keynote Innovators Talk at CES, I am more encouraged than ever before to continue researching and testing new technologies like yours. Your static and comedic discussion kept the audience on their toes and your social impressions in the field of technology even impressed my reluctant father who "screamed and shouted" the entire time I dragged him to the Las Vegas convention center to see you speak. Thank you for inspiring change in our youth through knowledge in the field of technology.

I look forward to the above improvements on your camera.

Best,

The Social Lizard

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Made in Chelsea is MADE for Foursquare

Who doesn't like watching London’s upper class socialites prance around the streets of Chelsea and Mayfair in Chanel high heels, floor length dip-dyed hair extensions, and fancy handbags? Made in Chelsea or (MIC) is a British Television sensation! It's like MTV's The Hills and Laguna Beach:The Real OC, but on loads and loads of snobbery steroids. 

Airing on E4 in the UK and Style in the USA, the show does a fairly good job in the #SocialTV arena. The @MadeinChelsea Twitter handle boasts over 210,000 followers. Furthermore, after each new episode they hold live Twitter talks with a unique character from the show using the hashtag, #ASKMIC.  

The MIC website, http://www.e4.com/chelsea is also incredibly engaging. Not only can you discover the music that aired during the show, but MIC has partnered with StyleStalker to offer style advice from each episode. That being said, the purpose of this article is to point out one particular area of social media that the media team behind Made in Chelsea has not utilized. That is...Foursquare. 

With approximately 4 million users, Foursquare has proven itself as a legitimate brand development tool when strategically optimized. People love eating at posh places and pretending to be famous. It's all part of our self-absorbed, self-promoting nature as social beings. The advent of social media has simply put such self-obsession on overdrive. The screen of our smartphone has become like a compact mirror, the tap of its screen a real-time simulation of your personal advatar in the virtual world. 

Besides Victoria Beckham of course, the Made in Chelsea stars are the ultimate "posh people eating at posh places" in London. During showtime, the name of the each scene location briefly pops up on the screen, but this does absolutely nothing for the MIC brand strategy. That being said, here is my recommendation for Made in Chelsea #SocialTV strategy. 

To begin branding itself on Foursquare, Made in Chelsea can create "lists" of the where the stars trade gossip over high tea and pop champagne bottles at glitzy parties. It can write "tips" for the "Best Spot to Break Up with your Boyfriend" or "Best Place to Bitch Out your Best Friend."  With every check-in, list, and tip Made In Chelsea will ultimately build a more unique and intimate connection with it's audience. This is because unlike Yelp, the tips and lists on Foursquare are provided by people you actually know, have actually spoken too, or...actually watched on TV. Foursquare will allow Made in Chelsea a greater opportunity to directly communicate with followers of the show and solidify the particular image and personality of "The London Socialite" amongst other competitive TV series, like The Only Way is Essex.

Finally, the brilliance behind Foursquare is its social gaming component. Having certain cast members participate in the Foursquare experience will incentivize more followers to like the Made In Chelsea Page. As it becomes more and more influence on the location based application, such a presence will compel more viewers to watch the show as they too want to hop of the bandwagon of discovering "posh people eating at posh places."

This is the SocialLizard, with a really really good Foursquare idea!

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Black Friday Shopping Apps

The holiday season is upon us which means two things: BLACK FRIDAY and Cyber Monday! Woo or Boohoo?

The Atlantic Wire recently reported an interesting study conducted by Winthrop University that shoppers ENJOY the fist clenching, elbow knocking shopping competition that illuminates Black Friday. Resercher Jane Boyd Thomas explains, "For the person who’s been doing this for decades, this is as much of their Thanksgiving tradition as having turkey." 

It is fascinating to see the extent to which our society has evolved into bargain frenzied, coupon coveting, shopping maniacs. Delighted by the appeal of fending off competition for the next generation Furby or Black Ops game is now routenized and engrained in society. The addrenale surge and buyer insanity is a normalized experience, something Black Friday shoppers have unconsciously adopted in our consumerist culture as social beings.

That being said, if you are like me and simply cannot tolerate the heard of impetuous buyers and painstakingly long check out lines the length of Felix Baumgarter's space jump (23 miles), OR, you are fighting off a massive Turkey hangover and prefer to wear your pajamas all day and sequester indigestion, then follow my app smart advice to gratify your Black Friday purchasing power.

Savvy smartphone users or technological degenerates of the likes will benefit from these mobile shopping apps.

Apple Black Friday:

Apple has created an app that will allow customers to see what items are on sale immediately on Black Friday with the option to buy.

Download it here:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/black-friday-app/id329071486?mt=8

Amazon Black Friday Deals Week:

Starting from today, Amazon will discount thousands of products via a series of extra special Lightning Deals for a week-long spell known as Black Friday Deals Week.

ShopKick

This Friday only, ShopKick will host its 4th annual not-Black Friday event (clever).

Receive 200 kicks just for visiting participating partner locations: Target, Macy's, Toys R Us, Crate & Barrel, Old Navy, American Eagle Outfitters, aerie, and west elm. (Kicks can be traded in for coupons or gift cards.)

JCrew

JCrew shopping, especially when it's on sale. Enter TURKEY at checkout and you'll get 25 percent off and free shipping on any order of $150 or more.

The following Apps won't allow you to purchase a new pair of Uggs while you soak in the bathtub, but they are quite practicle/use emerging technology.

Black Friday Survival Guide App

This app lets shoppers view leaked and verified Black Friday ads in real time! (Brilliant, simply brilliant) In sheer fear of someone seeing you in your Christmas Pajamas and Thanksgiving day make-up, accelerate past innocuous

Find my Car

This Wall Street Journal acclaimed App is pretty self explanitory. DONT be that person walking around the crowded mall parking lots aimlessly clicking their vehicles emergency alarm in futile attempts to locate it.

                          Flex your thumbs, its shopping time!

This is the SocialLizard inventing a Shopping Cart with In-Store GPS and Navigation. 

"Now, turn left on Isle 5. Caution, there is shopping cart traffic on Isle 4. Please reverse."

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GIF's. The next big thing in the future of Digital Media? I am going to go with the answer: Yes. When I attended the London Transmedia Festival, the Executive of Digital Media at Tumblr spoke about how the company live "GIF"-ed the Presidential Debates. This is legendary. Brilliance! Wonder when GIF-ing will be added to Webster Dictionary. 

This cool sight has a really awesome platform for clicking through entertaining GIFs. The GIF's encompass the whole screen, making you feel as though you are more in the moment, experiencing the 3 seconds of emotive exhilaration. 

Click to control gif: http://gifctrl.com/81

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Luke, Mickey is now thy follower

When something as huge ($4.05 billion HUGE) as the merger of LucasFilm and Disney occurs, leave it to Twitter to produce fantastic hashtags like #DisneyStarWars. The amalgamation of Disney/StarWars Movie Titles and Jedi rhetoric are a mecca for retweeting and favoriting. Beauty and the Ewoke anyone? R2-D2's of the Caribbean? Mr. Sebulas Wild Ride? 

Not surprisingly, both the Disney and Star Wars franchise have also inspired several thematic twitter handles. One favorite, the wizened green Muppet, @Yolo_Yoda who claims "#OOYL Only Once You Live. Follow me you must and OLL (Out Loud Laugh) you will." Although Yoda might be one of the most powerful Jedi's in all of galactic, he still might not be tall enough to ride on any Disney rides.

@Hansolo, wookies best friend with 24, 261 twitter followers and counting is quite punny with some credibly hilarity. Although one might expect Han Solo to be hesitant about "The Force" of such a heavy acquisition, he made the official Twitter announcement, "I, for one, welcome our new mouse overlords." Does this make Leia a Disney Princess now?

According to Mashable.com, "This is Disney’s third major brand and studio acquisition in the last ten years. In 2006, the company acquired Pixar for $7.4 billion. In 2009, Disney acquired Marvel for $4 billion." 

George Lucas is a saint, a manufacturer of original storytelling as is Disney. Although many Tweeters are hesitant about the outcomes of this merger, it might be just the move the two industries needed to rebrand storytelling in the new age of digital media.

Only question that remains...Think Disney can get Yoda out of his contract with Vodafone?

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TV. Trending since 1935.

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Never.No Blog, @NeverNo, #NeverNo

Today, when scrolling through #SocialTV on Twitter, I came across the article, "Social TV Advertising And Monetization Elements" by Never.No. 

The questions of how to monotinize Social Television is the proverbial elephant in the room for Social TV entrepreneurs. Backchannel conversations generated on social media platforms will create deeper engagement, audience loyalty, brand building and community building. But, how do you put a dollar sign on such content creation?

THIS is the million dollar question! What do you think?

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@Jeff_Daniels and Sloveig Zizek

Snuggled under a massive brown mink coat and sporting a grey toned beard that even NBA star James Harden (@JHarden13) would applaud, Jeff Daniels (@Jeff_Daniels) kills it again, literally and metaphorically, in the SyFi time-travel thriller Looper (@LooperMovie).

Daniels plays the character of Mob Boss, Abe, who is from the future but runs the Looper gang operation in the past. He is simply brilliant, bringing his Will MacAvoy witticism and signature "you're a blundering fool" stare to the big screen. Yes, you know the look, head cocked to the side, those blistering blue eyes starring down at you - like an intrepid Blue Steel.

It’s really remarkable how much Daniels resembles Slovenian Marxist philosopher, Slavoj Zizek. His animated hand movements, slurring tongue and food speckled beard are spot on - Bravo! However, it is essential to point out that Looper's costume designers do neglect to dramatize the oceans of grease that slosh around in Zizek's hair follicles. The man is notoriously greasy. KFC Fried Chicken greasy. More Grease!

I'm assuming that the Looper costume designers were simply too busy morphing Joseph Gordon- Levitt (@hitRECordJoe) into a younger Bruce Willis to have cared about such minute details. The mutation is unbelievable. You don't even recognize the ever so awesome Joseph Gordon - Levitt. 

Slavoj Zizek does not have an official twitter account to tag next to his name in this article. However, when you do Twitter search the famous thinker, a twitter parody does exist. It’s name is: @ZizekOnNFL. 

Has your favorite NFL team has ever been disenfranchised by the inadequate referees that the NFL lockout and Americas faltering economy has produced? Well, if so, then press the follow button NOW. @ZizekOnNFL is the hottest new football philosopher on the web. Way better than listening to Mark Cuban babble off on ESPN’s First Take...again.

This is the SocialLizard, pondering when @ZizekOnNFL will be making a cameo appearance on Aaron Sorkins, The Newsroom. 

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A Rising Twitter Star That Didn't Make the Cut

  There’s a special niche of Tweebs that aren’t cool enough to have popular twitter accounts of their own. But, they are clever enough to create a nifty twitter spoof accounts of a special celebrity appendage (@AngiesRightLeg), sweater (@AzealiasSweater), or ScottDisick (@scottdisickcane)(Yes, he gets his own category!). Their aptitude for satire and witticism powers gargantuous cackles of laughter worldwide, some accounts boasting over 30,000 followers.

  After chopping, buzzing, and dying her hair, the once sweet face of Disney’s, Hannah Montana, @MileyRayCyrus has undergone quite a transformation. Her edgy, short cut is idiosyncratic to the badass, “Can’t Be Tamed,” rock star persona that Miley has hinted at, but never fully attained. What do you think of the new cut? I mean please, “She’s just being Miley.” This morning on Good Morning America, Liam Hensworth told America that he thinks his fiancé hair looks “great” (and..that’s all he said).

(Miley's Face after seeing the product of her new hair cut.)

In Disney’s notoriously tacky adolescent feature film, High School Musical 2, Miley Cyrus makes a cameo appearance. Miley’s fans are paying close attention because even though High School Musical 2 #HSM2 generated 26,478 unique comments on Social Guide Intelligence, she was still the forefront of conversation. @SoVeryAward’s was the audience member with the most twitter followers (332,934). The twitter handles tweet, “ That awkward moment when Miley Cyrus pops up in High School Musical 2 for like one second” was retweeted 217 times. @SoVeryAwkward, stop trying to make @Mileys_Bun jealous.

  This is the Social Lizard with mixed feelings about Miley Cyrus’s personality conquest.   

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Show Some Skin...FTW: The Olympic Bikini Controversy

Conversation has blown up on Twitter claiming that the skimpy uniforms sported by International Beach Volleyball sports stars are….inappropriate. The women aren’t leaving much to the imagination pouncing around on the sand like…that. You don’t see the men showing off their rock hard abs and California summer tans in gasp…a bikini!

  The sportswear debate goes further than just an argument over discrepancy. This year, female athletes are objectified by their uniforms, the sports they participate in, and their body image. Articles entitled, “Who is the Hottest Female in the Summer Games?” have been hitting the newsstands and online media journals faster than Romney’s latest bash on Obama.

  But, who cares? Aren’t the Olympics about the sweat and the tears, the true grit of athleticism, the finesse of determined competitors striving to claim a solid piece of golden hardware for their countries trophy case? 

  The London 2012 Olympics marks the first Olympic Games where every country, including Saudi Arabia, a kingdom that notoriously discriminates against females, has sent at least one woman athlete to compete. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) worked hard to achieve this colossal achievement, reaching out to Muslim nations and putting them under scrutiny if they failed to support female competitors.  

  Heralded as the “Year of the Women,” those who scrutinize Olympians for their uniforms rather than their athleticism should be sent to the guillotine. On Wednesday, August 10, Social Guide Intelligence recorded that @MistyMayTreanor and @Kerrileewalsh were mentioned 10,565 times and 9,387 times respectively. The conversation surrounding their legendary streak as the best women’s beach volleyball team for the past three years was not solely focused on how toned Kerri Walsh’s fingers looked as she was blocking the Chinese powerhouse, Zhang Xi.

  This is the Social Lizard, happy to report that the hastag #threepeat was used 3,267 times and the #OlympicBabes is NOT trending.