Tagged: websites

May 04

Product Review: RentCompass

by Bethaney Wallace

Everyone knows that renting is a pain. It’s hard to find the right sized house or building, the best neighborhoods, and who’s to tell the friendly landlords from the ones who will fix the leaking sink with duct tape?

But thanks to a new kind of app, renting just got a whole lot easier. Known as RentCompass, the app allows users search, locate, and pin down rentals throughout Canada. But what makes the app unique is that its integrated through social media. Connect to a Facebook account to get instant feedback from others. Thinking of checking out a rental in northern New Brunswick? Perhaps a few (or even several) Facebook friends can offer advice as to which neighborhoods are preferable.Screen shot 2012 05 04 at 9.31.12 AM Product Review: RentCompass

How Does it Hold Up?

Unlike website aggregators who compile listings, RentCompass shows what’s available in real time. When listings go off the market, they are no longer listed on RentCompass, saving users the hassle of attempting to track down an apartment that has already been snatched up.

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Posted in Featured

Apr 30

New Website Launch: Crappy Kid Art

Screen shot 2012 04 30 at 11.03.06 AM 300x217 New Website Launch: Crappy Kid Artby Bethaney Wallace

The Social Robot is proud to announce its brand new sister site, Crappy Kid Art (crappykidart.com). Built with the premise of celebrating, yes, crappy art, CKA will host an outlet for bad artists everywhere. Although the word “kid” is in the title, we hold no age limits to those with no talent … ourselves included.

Each day, we will examine the ugly creations that adults were once forced to compliment us on. Remember giving your grandparents self-portraits? Even though it was a smudged mess, in no way resembling yourself, and they still said thank you?

Perhaps you created animals by Elmer’s gluing leaves to construction paper. Your parents accepted it graciously and with pride. “Look what an artist we have!” they swooned. It would be years before you learned their praise and thankfulness was a complete sham.

But, now on the other end of kid art, the side where you’re aware kids are messy, impatient, and take no pride in their work, it’s time to celebrate this transformation. Whatever your former forte – paintings, pencil drawings, coloring book failures – we want to see it. And paper isn’t the limit. In fact, David Sedaris, author and regular contributor on This American Life, once gave his mother a homemade ashtray covered in glitter and sloppy painting. It is a piece that, should a picture exist, would receive prime placement on CKA.

Screen shot 2012 04 30 at 10.40.11 AM 300x99 New Website Launch: Crappy Kid ArtWe also encourage the submission of current child’s creations. When you receive a handmade calendar for your birthday (even though you bought your child a nice, expensive gift for theirs), share it with CKA and give yourself the gift of entertainment.

So long as the art is crappy, whether in print, clay, or permanent marker on the hallways, it’s fair game. (This isn’t a place for show offs or award winners; if there’s no coloring outside the lines, no random limb placements, and no physics-defying factors, post it on your own blog.)

Please join us as we ponder these pieces of “art” and celebrate the former crappy artist in everyone. Subscribe to http://crappykidart.com and start receiving email alerts today.

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Posted in Et cetera, Featured

Feb 07

Finding Unique Items Through the Internet

by Bethaney Wallace

A few weeks ago I was in need of a very specific type of charger. My MP3 player had gone dead, and quite frankly, I wasn’t willing to spend more cash on a replacement cord than the actual player was worth. Nor did I feel good about backtracking my steps for the past week to find where it’d ended up – somewhere the charger cord, all my loner socks, four pairs of sunglasses, and Lady Gaga’s collection of cardigans are all happily misplaced. I like to think it’s the same place old keys and couch change gather as well.

But rather than the aforementioned cord selections, I decided to choose secret option number three: buying one on the net. Three days and $4 later, I was once again holding a fully charged music-playing device.

“Oh I’ve got that,” says the Internet

Just years ago, the preferred method for finding out-of-the-ordinary items was either in-person, or through the newspaper’s ad space. Pawnshops and secondhand stores brought in all sorts of weird crap, and purchasing it meant being the first to see and pay for said item.

Even harder was proving one’s point during a disagreement. Facts had to be looked up in encyclopedias, arrest reports were archived in libraries, and “check this out” was merely “you’ll never guess what I saw.”

image 300x225 Finding Unique Items Through the InternetBut now unique shopping and random fact searching is at a whole new level. For example, this one-of-a-kind Hot Wheel could only be found online. Custom made from an old Charlie Brown-themed model, it was hand painted, skillfully put into place by a Hot Wheels aficionado, and now contains something the original covered wagons never would have dreamed of – a souped-up engine.

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Posted in advertising, Marketing, Search Engines

Jan 09

Traveling Dress Inspires Blog Posts

by Bethaney Wallace

A few years back, the phenomenon of traveling clothes became popular – at least in theory of not in practice. While I didn’t make a habit out of mailing my favorite clothes to share with proportionally compatible friends, there was plenty of hype about the Traveling Pants, the magical Sisterhood ones that never seemed to wear out or need a washing.

Screen shot 2012 01 09 at 4.21.02 PM Traveling Dress Inspires Blog Posts

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Posted in Blogging, social media

Nov 07

Using Twitter as a Press Release Outlet

3213679186 4678fd1bfc 202x300 Using Twitter as a Press Release Outletby Bethaney Wallace

Earlier this year, after logging into my Twitter account, I learned that Bin Laden had been killed. It was the highest-trending topic of the week. Just days ago I learned, yet again through Twitter, that Kim Kardashian was getting divorced. (Another No. 1 trend.) Both pieces of information were taking with a grain of salt, but they got my attention – enough so that I did some internet research for proof. And as any Washington, D.C. citizen would say, both were true facts. Twitter has outgrown its initial purpose of “What are you doing?” and grown into a much larger pair of shoes: acting as the future of the press release.

Have strangers’ hasty tweets also lead me to question whether or not Justin Bieber was starring in the debut season of Teen Dad? Or whether or not Katy Perry’s account was ran by an anti-marketing communist? Absolutely; it comes with the nature of the site. It’s not only news breaking nuggets that have been made via twitter, it’s in-the-moment statements as well. It’s also why Twitter has more than 175 million users. (How many of those users would sign up for a press release-only site? I’m guessing not many.) But despite any alleged content, Twitter has the ability to release and spread information faster than any other market.

Last week on Halloween, Jessica Simpson told the world she is expecting by tweeting a picture of herself as a very pregnant mummy. Of course, the internet isn’t the only way to spread the news. There’s still the old fashioned interview, whether it be on a talk show, in a magazine, or over the air waves – Jenna Fischer announced she was having a baby boy on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. And if you’re Beyonce, you announce a pregnancy by showing up to the VMAs while clutching your baby-filled belly for the cameras.

Will the future be press release-less?

For those of you in the sharing information field, you know what a watching-water-boil process receiving a press release can be. Press releases are meant to spread info on a wide basis. And because it comes from the source the news is about, you only hear what they want you to hear and when they want you to hear it. In my days as a college paper’s news editor, I would spend hours checking email for any new messages. There may have been a robbery on campus, or a wreck 20 feet away from the building I was working in, but until there was a press release, I couldn’t share a word. Police officers and dispatchers alike are trained to give the same “You’ll have to wait for the sergeant’s statement.”

However, with the ease of information sharing, it’s only a matter of time before celebrities aren’t the only one using Twitter for their press release needs; the rest of the world will be doing it as well. Whether hard-hitting or mundane, the use of online announcements allow for more internet hits, traffic, and user interaction. And because Twitter is one of the only social media sites to verify high-profile accounts, as far as the internet goes, it just may be the most reliable source of instant information.

This photo courtesy of Flickr.

 

 

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Posted in advertising, Business, Marketing, social media

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