If you’re seeking a job in social media, we’d like to help out. For starters, Mashable‘s Job Lists section gathers together all of our resource lists, how-tos and expert guides to help you get hired. In particular, you might want to see our articles on How to Leverage Social Media for Career Success and How to Find a Job on Twitter.

But we’d like to help in a more direct way, too. Mashable‘s job boards are a place for socially savvy companies to find people like you. This week and every week, Mashable features its coveted job board listings for a variety of positions in the web, social media space and beyond. Have a look at what’s good and new on our job boards:

Mashable Job Postings

Community Intern at Mashable in New York, NY.

Graphic Design Intern at Mashable in New York, NY.

Editorial Intern at Mashable in New York, NY.

Tech Reporter at Mashable in San Francisco, CA.

Editorial Assistant at Mashable in New York, NY.

Mashable Job Board Listings

Multi-Channel Merchandising Assistant at The National 4-H Council in Chevy Chase, MD.

Social Media Manager at LivingSocial in Washington, D.C.

Interactive Producer/ Daring Truth Seeker at SANBORN MEDIA FACTORY in New York, NY.

Digital Marketing Designer/Editor at xMatters, Inc. in Dublin, CA.

SEO Manager at Leading Online News Destination in Los Angeles, CA.

Senior Web Developer (Ruby on Rails) at Memory Reel in Dallas, TX.

Director, Product Marketing at New Relic in San Francisco, CA.

Jr. Interactive Digital Artist at CP+B in Boulder, CO.

Social Media Officer at Sabin Vaccine Institute in Washington, D.C.

ColdFusion Application Developer at Fusionapps in Secaucus, NJ.

Associate SEO Strategist at Morpheus Media in New York, NY.

Interactive Savvy Graphic Designer/Art Director at Bill Young Productions Inc. in Houston, TX.

Paid Online Innovation Internships with MoveOn Labs at MoveOn.org in Berkeley, CA.

Developer Advocate at Atlassian in San Francisco, CA.

Online Communications Manager – South Asia Region at The World Bank in Washington, D.C.

Email Marketing Manager at Inman News in Alameda, CA.

Content and Community Development Manager at Loehmann’s in Bronx, NY.

Product Manager – Local Business Products at Yelp Inc. in San Francisco, CA.

Associate Digital Producer (emphasis on social media and gaming) at roundhouse in Seattle, WA.

Mashable‘s Job Board has a variety of web 2.0, application development, business development and social networking job opportunities available. Check them out here.

Got a job posting to share with our readers? Post a job to Mashable today ($99 for a 30 day listing) and get it highlighted every week on Mashable.com (in addition to exposure all day every day in the Mashable marketplace).

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, YinYang

More About: COMMUNICATIONS, design, jobs, List, Social Media

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The weekly roundup is back and, as usual, Mashable has been working hard compiling the latest features and news analysis to fuel your social and techie adventures.

Whet your appetite with a list of Google’s top 10 most expensive acquisitions. Move onto an appetizer of MySpace memories. Have a second helping of back to school iOS apps. Finally, satiate your sweet tooth with a history of online activism. And be sure to come back for seconds next week!

Editors’ Picks

• 8 Tips for Small Business Homepage Design
  People do judge books by their covers — and your website’s homepage is the modern bookcover. Here are 8 design tips for your homepage.
• Social Media Marketing By the Numbers [INFOGRAPHIC]
  A market analysis of the top social media platforms and their performance over the years.
• The 10 Most Expensive Google Acquisitions
  In the wake of its Motorola Mobility purchase, discover Google’s top ten priciest acquisitions thus far.
• 6 Creative iPad Uses for Small Retailers
  Read on for some creative implementations of the iPad — we spoke to a nail salon, a cupcake shop, a restaurant and more to learn how they use iPads to improve the customer experience and help their business.
• HOW TO: Build Your Brand on Tumblr
  As Tumblr’s reach continues to grow, more brands are adding the blogging platform to their online marketing mixes. Here’s a guide to help you start tumbling.
• Back to School: 15 Essential iOS Apps for Students
  We’ve rounded up 15 educational iOS apps to keep your academic and extracurricular life on track.

Social Media

• Top 10 Twitter Trends This Week [CHART]
  Wondering which topics had Twitter abuzz this past week? Check out the full list of top trends.
• 5 Years of YouTube Politics [INFOGRAPHIC]
  If a politician does anything important, wonderful, stupid or wonderfully stupid on camera — it is likely YouTube has the video.
• A Brief History of Online Activism
  For as long as there’s been online communication, there have been political movements in the making. Here’s a look back at the history of social media activism.
• Who’s Winning the YouTube Town Hall? [INFOGRAPHIC]
  A while back, YouTube launched an online town hall to get the public interested and voting on the issues that matter most, and now the video site has released an infographic showing some of the results.
• MySpace Memories: 14 Stories From the Social Network
  In honor of Myspace’s anniversary, we asked the Mashable community to send in their memories from the social network. Here are our favorites.
• 4 Ways Non-Profits Can Jump Into Google+
  If you and your non-profit have steered clear of Google+ during its “people only” phase, now is a good time to reconsider. Here are four ways to get involved.
• What Shows, Teams and Celebrities Are TV Watchers Following? [INFOGRAPHIC]
  Which TV shows, sports teams and celebrities are capturing the attention of TV watchers? This infographic has the answers.
• How The Onion Surpassed 3 Million Twitter Followers
  The Onion has successfully continued its satire of news media to its Twitter account. Here’s how.
• 3 Tips for Teachers Using Social Media in the Classroom
  Here are some guidelines for using social media effectively in the classroom while maintaining your professional boundaries.
• Content vs. Community: How Online Publishers Can Nurture Both
  The past decade hasn’t fostered thoughtful interaction between publisher content and its consumers. Discover the tools to encourage community engagement within site content.
• Why Blocking Social Media During Civil Unrest Is Never the Right Choice [OPINION]
  Shutting down social media increases risk, while solving so few of the problems of civil unrest. It is the wrong choice during a time of crisis.
• 12 Incredible Internet Activists Changing the World Through Social Media
  Here are 12 people using their online influence to make a big difference.
• HOW TO: Properly Use Badges To Engage Customers
  Badges can be powerful tools in one’s engagement arsenal. By following these four steps, you can avoid the slapdash approach that undermines successful gamification.

• For more social media news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s social media channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

  ---

  Tech & Mobile

  ---

  • 3 New Ways To Create & Consume Media
    These startups are putting a new spin on consuming and creating media.
  • 5 Free iPhone Apps to Send a Photo Postcard
    Don’t be forced to choose from cheesy printed postcards at your vacation destination — use your own iPhone photos with one of these fabulous, free apps that create electronic postcards you can email.
  • 5 News Personalization Tools Bring You Only The Stories You Want
    How can you organize and stay on top of news? Here you’ll find five methods to help aggregate the news that’s important to you.
  • 3 Mobile Apps Poised to Change the Consumer/Brand Relationship
    Technology is rapidly changing the way we interact with the brands we love. These 3 mobile apps are pushing the boundaries even further.
  • Back to School: 42 Digital Resources for Students & Parents
    Take a gander at our roundup of tech tools, apps, social media and parenting tips that will ease you or your kid into another school year.
  • 3 Tips for Building a Web App That Can Scale
    Getting your SaaS company to scale isn’t so hard. All it requires is a little foresight, planning, and these best practices.
  • What to Consider When Developing a High-Traffic, Real-Time Web App
    Here’s a look at the key challenges that face developers of high-volume sites and some suggestions on how to overcome these hurdles.
  • How Musicians Are Engaging Fans With Location Tech
    We’re seeing mobile- and location-based technology making an entree into the music world to the delight of bands and fans alike.
  • Why Your App Must Comply With Child Privacy Regulations
    A leading mobile app developer recently settled with the FTC over allegations that it was collecting personal information from minors in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Here’s why this sort of practice will only cost you in the long run.
  • How Connected Devices and Streaming Video Are Changing the Way We Consume Content
    From TVs to tablets, refrigerators to ovens, connected devices aren’t just a buzzword, they are becoming the standard. Here’s a look at the devices and services poised to revolutionize the media landscape.
  • 17 Web Resources for Improving Your Design Skills
    Whether you’re looking to get a grip on design basics, or you want to sharpen your advanced skills, web resources can help you construct the perfect creative (and flexible) curriculum.

  • For more tech news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s tech channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

    ---

    Business & Marketing

    ---

    • 5 Web Tools to Enhance Your Online Sales Strategy
      Using supplemental cloud applications has helped startups accelerate their sales in more efficient ways. Here are five tools to get you started.
    • 5 Reasons Your Product Documentation Is a Marketing Asset
      As a CMO, there is no more high-margin initiative you can undertake than strategic documentation. Here are five reasons to pay closer attention to this under-appreciated task.
    • HOW TO: Protect Your Business’s Identity On Twitter
      Although a small business can’t be “verified” on Twitter, there are things you can do to protect your identity and be more official.
    • PPC Marketing: 10 Killer Tips for Better ROI
      If the tedious nature and large time commitment required to run a successful — or even unsuccessful — PPC campaign has got you down, check out these 10 tips.
    • 5 Handy Apps for Small Business Finance Management
      Invoicing and expense reports are arguably the least fun part of business — here are five apps that will make it easier to stay on top of your business’ finances.
    • 4 Traits of Better Business Software
      There’s a lot to consider when building enterprise software, but these 4 tenets should always be at the heart of your development process.
    • Beauty Delivered: How Birchbox Is Disrupting the Cosmetics Industry
      Katia Beauchamp and her startup Birchbox are aiming to change the way women discover beauty products online. So far, her business model has delighted brands and customers alike.
    • Why 11 Businesses Launched Online Instead Of With a Storefront
      Ever wonder why some businesses choose to nix the brick and mortar? We spoke to 11 businesspeople about the decision to exist entirely online.
    • 4 Top Customer Service Tips For Small Business
      Businesspeople have discovered how to use new online tools to their advantage when dealing with customers. Here are four tips.
    • 5 Tips for Crowdsourcing Your Next Marketing Campaign
      Crowdsourcing a marketing campaign is a great way to cut costs & get consumers involved. Here are a few tips to do it right.
    • HOW TO: Manage Social Media Accounts for Multiple Clients
      As an agency that manages social clients, understanding how to keep social media accounts streamlined and organized is important for the continued success of your projects.
    • QR Code Marketing: 5 Tips for a Successful Campaign
      As mobile barcodes crack the mainstream, they have enormous potential to present brands with brilliant results. Here are five best practices for your next campaign.

    • For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

      ---

      Image courtesy of MarcoFolio

      More About: business, List, MARKETING, Mobile 2.0, social media, web

      For more Social Media coverage:

      • Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
      • Become a Fan on Facebook
      • Subscribe to the Social Media channel
      • Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

      
      

      
      

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After last week’s bizarre list of trending topics, the good ship Twitter has righted herself again, focusing squarely on what it was built for: world news and Justin Bieber.

It’s no surprise that the riots in England, both fueled and discussed via social media, took the number one spot. Bieber’s rounds on TV and a new Chris Brown record sent him back into the buzz-o-sphere, landing at number two this week.

And the launch of Facebook’s new mobile messaging app had all of the web in a tizzy, with Twitter being no exception. That news propelled the social network to the number three slot.

See the full list below. Note that hashtag games and memes have been omitted from the data. You can check Twitter trends from the past in our Top Twitter Topics section.

Top Twitter Trends This Week:

Data aggregate courtesy of What the Trend.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, 123render

More About: justin bieber, london riots, Top Twitter Topics, trends, twitter

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Nova Spivack has several ventures in production that focus on the real-time stream, including Bottlenose (for filtering the stream), StreamGlider (a new mobile stream delivery platform), Live Matrix (the schedule of the live web), and The Daily Dot (a new online daily newspaper about what’s trending online).

The social media landscape is changing quickly, but this change won’t be immediate, or for that matter, efficient. And that’s going to be a big problem for all of us.

I believe that Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn are fundamentally different, and thus, should not be in competition. However, I’m not sure the companies themselves see it this way. It’s likely they will continue dedicating resources to competition instead of differentiation.

And while the social media gods fight it out in the clouds above us, what will happen down here on Earth? What about all of us, the little people — the users?

We’re entering a new era of social network chaos, and this, in turn, is going to create new needs and opportunities for startups.

The Sharepocalypse

Welcome to he “Sharepocalypse,” a new era of social network insanity.

In the Sharepocalypse hundreds (if not thousands) of online friends share content with us across various social networks, culminating in massive information overload. Our lives will become more fragmented, we will lose productivity, and we’ll perpetually be playing catch up.

Granted, we’ve heard this song before. But I argue that the movement will reach a fundamentally new level of chaos — and the data from my portfolio of companies bears this out.

The Sharepocalypse causes (and is caused by) social overload — an evolution of information overload. Because the distinctions between each social network are not entirely clear, we feel obligated to maniacally juggle different apps and social networks just to keep up and be heard everywhere.

It would be one thing if all our social messages were part of a single, parsable, filtered stream. But instead, they come from all different directions. The Sharepocalypse is aggravated by social streams that originate in many competing silos. We spend nearly as much time hopping between networks as we do meaningfully digesting and engaging the content within.

Furthermore, the more we engage in cross-posting, the more noisy and redundant each network will become. Social overload begets more social overload. In a room where everyone is shouting to be heard, the mob shouts even louder.

And it’s not just one room full of people shouting — it’s many. Among the social networks of Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and other social outlets, which network is the most appropriate forum for any given post? But wait, it gets worse. Now we have to choose among Circles as well.

Google+ circles are mini virtual sharing networks, and they’re potentially infinite in number. What circle or list or group should you share with? But first, how well organized are your circles? Do they overlap? Are you sure that by only sharing with certain circles you can reach everyone you need to? No.

On top of all the social noise we experience, look forward to new noise from brands. Brands are becoming more lost and confused about how and where to communicate than ever before. Predictably, they will try to reach us redundantly, everywhere, all the time to make sure we see them. Social media consultants, on the other hand, will have a total field day, because ultimately they will benefit most from the chaos.

To make matters worse, it looks like Microsoft may now be on the verge of launching a new kind of social sharing service. And many other companies will follow, I’m sure. Why not every mobile company, for that matter? Why not every big brand? Even celebs may start their own social networks in which fans can share and compare their adorations.

And I’m not talking the micro-networks like Geni and Dogster. We’re moving toward a landscape in which social networks and sharing mechanisms will be built into the DNA of every site and service.

As Mark Zuckerberg has argued, everything that can be social will be social. I agree…and that’s the problem.

Choice Overload

Nobody is going to know where to share or where to look.

How will you know if you missed anything important? Which networks will you visit to get updates from friends, from brands, from publications you follow?

The sad truth is that you can’t get it all in one place.

In fact, choosing with whom to share is going to become harder and will require more thought. Ironically, by trying to solve this problem using “circles” and other gestures, Google+ may just be piling on more disparate channels. Therefore, many people will simply opt to quickly and easily share everything with the public, rather than denote a special group or circle with which to share.

The fact is, when people have to ponder a choice, they often opt for the easier alternative: don’t choose at all. This is classic choice overload theory. Many studies have shown that choice overload leads people to make fewer choices. People become stressed when they have to choose from too many options at once.

It’s a perfect storm: A massive expansion of networks on which to share and track information, but all the while, its users have less and less energy to make choices. The result will be a lot more confusion and noise.

Soon we will long for the days when we were unplugged, cut off from the global brain, and able to, at least once in a while, enjoy that rare feeling of being up-to-speed.

A New Category: Social Assistance

The Sharepocalypse will generate an expanse of new problems. However, this will generate a new opportunity for social assistance — a new category of software and services — and therefore, a ripe environment for startups.

Social assistance will be the next frontier spawned from social networking, and we’re all going to need it. We’ll require help managing our online relationships, tying our streams together, sifting through the noise, keeping up with what matters personally, finding who and what we need, and remaining productive.

Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Microsoft will all struggle to deliver acceptable signal-to-noise ratios to their users. But they will be focused on solving this problem within their silos, rather than across all platforms. I call this approach “vertical social assistance” because it focuses on assisting people only within particular networks. Because each service is biased toward its own social graph and content, it’s unlikely that any of them will help solve the horizontal overload. Understandably, it’s not in their interest to enable users to make better use of competing services.

This world of fragmented messaging systems is akin the early days of email in the 1980s, when users of one network were unable to communicate with another. It was a mess. Eventually, email gateways were created to link these disparate networks. But the problem wasn’t fully solved until everyone adopted a single set of standards, and all the email networks connected into one common fabric.

Unfortunately, the unification of email networks and standards immediately killed of a lot of the smaller email networks and client makers. But through simplification, the world became less complex and more connected.

The question is, will something like this ever happen for social media? Will we see the social networks connect into a common fabric anytime soon? Right now, the major social networks own the content — it’s captive on their platforms. If that were to change, and you could read any social media message anywhere, they would have to compete on features alone — and that’s another can of worms.

What I call “horizontal social assistance” is the opportunity to access and use social media messages in a unified way. This approach is different from the vertical social assistance approach because it would span across all networks. The users of social networks need this capability in the same way they needed email unification. However, until all the social networks agree on standard profiles, messages, contacts, groups and streams, it’s not going to happen. And to be frank, such an agreement is highly unlikely in the near future.

But it could happen if some neutral party takes the initiative.

In the meantime, many other social assistance resources will emerge that target a range of different needs and opportunities, including:

• Social Relationship Management (SRM): : Services that help people create, organize and manage sets of social network relationships — for example, sets of people to follow and/or share with on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc.
• Social Awareness: Services that help people keep up with their social networks, especially among a user’s friends.
• Social Curation: Services that help people organize and make sense of their streams and messages.
• Social Personalization: Services that help people sift through the network noise for information most relevant to their particular needs and interests.
• Social Analytics: Services that help to measure online social behavior and trends, optimize engagement, monitor activity and communicate more appropriately.
• Social Automation: Services that help to automate activity in social networks, like automatically updating your status, helping to increase your influence, suggesting what to share, matchmaking, alerting, and using bots to intelligently interact with and assist users.

Because social assistance will become so necessary, both vertical and horizontal social assistance could mean interesting opportunities for startups. Ventures that provide vertical social assistance for particular networks, like Google+ and Facebook are going to be early build versus buy acquisition targets. These are rapid innovation opportunities for individual developers or small teams.

Ventures that attempt to solve the harder problem of horizontal social assistance will have a chance at building longer-term independent value. Some may become strong stand-alone ventures, or larger exits, but they will also be more technologically challenging, requiring larger teams and more capital.

One thing is certain: The Sharepocalypse is here and, as a result, social assistance will soon be the cutting-edge of social media innovation.

Images courtesy of iStockphoto, Kileman, and Flickr, World Bank Photo Collection, zipckr

More About: facebook, Google Plus, information, Overload, social analytics, social media, social networking, twitter

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For those of you who are tired of seeing Justin Bieber top these charts, take heart. Not only did he not make it this week, but pioneer geneticist Gregor Mendel did. Sort of.

Mendel was honored with a Google Doodle last week that propelled Google to a top trend on Twitter, which got people talking about Mendel. Otherwise, another surprise was Twitter itself, which had a strong showing thanks to some outages. Of course, we all know that one of the things people like to discuss most on Twitter is, well, Twitter.

Elsewhere, there were some mainstays, such as soccer/football, which made another number one showing, and Harry Potter, which got a boost from its final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. Harry’s magic beat out Mendel’s science in the end, but maybe we can blame those Twitter outages for that.

You can check Twitter trends from the past in our Top Twitter Topics section.

Top Twitter Trends This Week:

�

Data aggregate courtesy of What the Trend.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, 123render

More About: List, Lists, social media, Top Twitter Topics, twitter, Twitter Lists

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Already using Google+? Follow Mashable News for the latest about the platform’s new features, tips and tricks as well as our top social media and technology updates.

Ever since it’s launch on June 28, the tech community has been rushing to join Google+ — and Mashable staffers are no exception.

We’re learning how to use the newest social network right along with you, and would love to interact with you there. We’ll be posting Mashable stories, tidbits about what we’re working on and asking for feedback about the platform.

Here’s a list of individual Mashable employees using Google+ that you can add to your circles. You can also follow Mashable News. We look forward to engaging with you there!

+Ada Ospina – NYC Office Manager

+Adam Hirsch – COO

+Adam Ostrow – Editor in Chief

+Amy-Mae Elliott – Features Writer

+Andrew Reedman – U.S. Director of Sales

+Ben Parr – Editor at Large

+Brenna Ehrlich – Associate Editor of Media & Entertainment

+Brian Anthony Hernandez – Copy Editor

+Brian Dresher Director of Business Development

+Brie Manakul – Ad Ops Manager

+Charlie White – Senior Editor

+Chelsea Stark – Community Intern

+Christina Warren – Mobile and Development & Design Reporter

+Connie Preti – Community Intern

+Emily Banks – Assistant News Editor

+Erica Swallow – Partner Content Associate Editor

+Frederick Townes – CTO

+Jennifer Van Grove – Startups Reporter

+Josh Catone – Features Editor

+Karen Hartline – Events Director

+Kate Hayden – Events Assistant

+Lauren Drell – Partner Content Assistant Editor

+Lauren Indvik – Marketing & Media Associate Editor

+Louis Dorman – Art Director

+Matt Silverman – Associate Features Editor

+Meghan Peters – Community Manager

+Pete Cashmore – Founder and CEO

+Robyn Peterson – Senior VP of Product

+Sana Ahmed – Executive Assistant

+Sarah Kessler – Startups Reporter

+Sharon Feder – Publisher

+Stacy Green – Communications Director

+Stefanie Rennert – HR Manager

+Stephanie Buck – Editorial Intern

+Stephanie Haberman – Community Assistant

+Tamar Weinberg – Community and Global Advertising

+Tanya Salah – West Coast Sales Director

+Todd Olmstead – Community Intern

+Todd Wasserman – Business and Marketing Editor

+Zachary Sniderman – Social Good Assistant Editor

+Zoe Fox – Social Good Intern

More About: Google, Google Circles, staff

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Whew! This week was awash with news. So, we transformed that news into advice, tips and how-to’s that you can reference for years to come.

Take Facebook’s video chat launch — we’ll guide you in setting it up. Or the space shuttle launch — we provide the Twitter accounts for dozens of astronauts and space experts. And Google+ has been on the minds of millions — we present its pros and cons. Mashable not only releases breaking news, we help you learn how to apply it to your business, your interests and your personal life.

If spare time for reading didn’t exactly factor into your busy week, here’s a roundup of resources that appeared on Mashable.

Editors’ Picks

• Top 10 TrueHDR iPhone Photos
  We showcase 10 fantastic TrueHDR iPhone photographs in this gorgeous gallery.
• 5 Tips for Creating More Efficient Social Media Processes
  Find out how your business can save time, money and other valuable resources by creating more efficient social media processes.
• 11 Startups That Found Success By Changing Direction
  Sometimes the best thing your company can do is something else.
• 15 Keyboard Shortcuts to Enhance Your PC Productivity
  If you’re aiming to speed up your workflow and impress your colleagues at the same time, check out these little keyboard gems.
• How the Private Space Race Has Taken Off
  Private manned spaceflight is set to revolutionize aerospace and give future generations the ability to visit the stars on the cheap.
• Space Exploration: 9 Private Sector Companies Ready to Take Off
  After Atlantis launched on Friday, NASA’s shuttle program will end. But thanks to private sector companies, space exploration is far from over.
• HOW TO: Measure the ROI of a Content Marketing Strategy
  Measuring the ROI on content is difficult, especially if you’re not judging success by ad revenue. Here are three steps to effectively measure your content strategy.

Social Media

• Google+: The Pros & Cons
  Here are some pros and cons of Google+ from the social network’s early users.
• Top 10 Twitter Trends This Week [CHART]
  Wondering which topics had Twitter abuzz this past week? Check out the full list of top trends.
• 3 New Apps For Self Improvement
  Since Americans had some extra time last weekend for the Fourth of July, we highlighted three startups with products that could help you improve your finances, dating conundrums or skills.
• Mashable Picks: Our 11 Favorite Tumblr Themes
  Browsing for a beautiful new blog? These 10 Tumblr themes come highly recommended by Mashable staff.
• The History of America, As Told by Facebook [PIC]
  In honor of Independence Day, The New York Times published an op-art depicting America’s would-be Facebook profile, entitled “Like It or Unfriend It?”
• HOW TO: Import Your Facebook Contacts on Google+
  A new Google Chrome extension makes extracting Facebook contacts a lot easier, helping new Google+ users more easily reconstruct their respective social graphs.
• 10 Accessories to Cheer Up Your Office Break Room [PICS]
  If your company staff room’s highlights are a handful of tattered magazines, a tired vending machine and a half-dead plant, then take a look at these creative ideas.
• The Connected States of America [INFOGRAPHIC]
  The Connected States of America shows that social interactions do not always coincide with administrative borders.
• HOW TO: Get Your Own Google+ Vanity URL
  Gplus.to lets you create a vanity URL for your Google+ Profile.
• HOW TO: Launch Facebook Skype Video Chat [PICS]
  Our first look, with images, at Facebook’s Skype-powered video chat.
• The 20 Most-Shared Video Ads This Month
  Angry Birds get real and a video with a real bird turns out to be fake in June’s 20 Most-Shared Video Ads of the Month.
• 10 Top Google+ Users Weigh In on the Web’s Newest Social Network
  We’ve scoured the profiles, Twitter feeds and blogs of the top Google+ users. You might be surprised to hear their reviews of the recent social networking phenomenon.
• 4 Fresh Ways To Share Video on Twitter
  When words or pictures won’t suffice on Twitter, rev up your tweets by sharing videos via these four sharing services.
• Which TV Shows Were the Most Social in June? [INFOGRAPHIC]
  Trendrr put together an infographic detailing the most social TV shows on broadcast and cable in June 2011.
• 4 Ways Colleges Can Take Their Social Media Presence to the Next Level
  Most schools have a social presence, but what strategies can they use to take it from good to great?
• Space Tweets: 23 Must-Follow Twitter Accounts for Astronomy Lovers
  Twitter provides a wealth of astronomy information. Here are 23 ways to space out your Twitter feed.

• For more social media news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s social media channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

  ---

  Tech & Mobile

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  • Texting Teens: Typing Replaces Talking [INFOGRAPHIC]
    Has texting taken over as the primary form of communication for today’s teens?
  • 7 Great JavaScript Resources
    As a JavaScript developer, you’ll need to keep up with the latest news and learn new skills. We’ve put together a list of our favorite JavaScript resources to help save you time and energy.
  • 10 Fascinating Facts About Phone Numbers
    You probably dial a few of them every day, but do you ever stop and think about what’s behind a phone number? When the first numbers were introduced? How you ended up with the area code you did?
  • The Future of Mobile Payments [INFOGRAPHIC]
    We know that mobile payments are redefining commerce, but will our phones soon replace our wallets?

  • For more tech news and resources, follow Mashable’s tech channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

    ---

    Business & Marketing

    ---

    • HOW TO: Leverage Location for Better Ad Campaigns
      While local advertising may not be new, the question is, how do brands win in this new world of location media?
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We’ve got the answers to these quandaries and more in our collection of 10 fascinating facts that you might not know about the common phone number.

Take a look through the gallery and let us know which facts you found interesting (as well as any gems we may not have included) in the comments below.

1. How Phone Numbers Were Invented

In the early days of phone service, you'd call the operator and ask to be patched through to a particular line. This system was first questioned in 1879 by Alexander Graham Bell's friend, Dr. Moses Greeley Parker of Lowell, MA. The town was suffering from an epidemic of measles and the doctor quite sensibly suggested that if the town's phone operators fell ill, replacement operators would struggle to run the system. Numbers instead of names was seen as a better solution which, as you all know, is the system we still use today.

2. The First U.S. Area Codes

Conceived in the late Forties, area codes were not established until the introduction of New Jersey's 201 area code in 1951. The area codes we use today are an evolution of the original "North American Numbering Plan."

Initially there were under 90 codes. Codes were dished out based on population. The areas with the largest populations received codes that were quick to dial on a rotary phone. New York was given 212, Los Angeles 213 and Chicago 312 while more rural areas like Texas and Kansas got 915 and 913.

3. All About Emergency Numbers

Emergency numbers differ from country to country. While 911 was eventually adopted as the standard number in the United States and Canada, in Europe you'll need to dial 112, although 999 also works in the UK, where there's been an emergency number system since the 1930s.

In contrast, 911 was not official until the late '60s, when it was first known as "nine-eleven," and then later changed to "nine-one-one" to avoid confusion with people wasting precious time looking for the "11" button.

Prior to the one-number system, you'd call the operator to summon the correct emergency service, although in the States some fire departments could be reached by dialling "3-4-7-3" — which spells "FIRE."

4. The Most Expensive Phone Number

The most expensive number sold was cell phone number 666-6666, auctioned off for charity in Qatar. It sold for a dizzy $2.7 million, far and away surpassing the previous record holder. The Chinese number 8888-8888 sold for $280,000.

5. Woz Owned 888-8888

Legend has it that Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak (who was really into repeating digits, hence pricing the Apple I at $666.66) once owned the phone number 888-8888.

The only problem with such a cool number was that it earned over a hundred prank calls a day. Although not malicious in nature, being dialed repeatedly by mischievous children must have taken its toll.

6. Fictional Numbers Are Set Aside For Films

The "Klondike" or "KL" phone exchange was first used to generate fictional phone numbers in American TV and films. This later evolved to the current "555" prefix, some of which have been set aside purely for fictional purposes. In the UK, 01632 is the fictional area code recommended by Ofcom, although it does also provide non-working suggestions for major cities, as well as fictional cell, freephone and premium rate numbers.

7. However, Some Films Ignore the Convention

Some have bucked the 555 trend. Universal Studios owns (212) 664-7665, which has appeared in The Adjustment Bureau, Definitely Maybe and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. If you call the number, it just rings and rings. Fight Club uses the 288 area code, which is not yet in use, and Bruce Almighty caused controversy for using a real phone number supposedly belonging to God. After complaints, the original "776-2323" was changed to the more traditional 555-0123 in the DVD release.

8. Famous Phone Numbers in Music

Phone numbers famously appear in songs as well, perhaps the most memorable being Glenn Miller's Pennsylvania 6-5000. Today the number still exists as (212) 736-5000 ("73" replaces the "PE" of the old number) and will get you through to the Hotel Pennsylvania of the song title. The hotel happily claims that it's the "New York phone number in longest continuous use."

Other numbers to have appeared in song (much to the annoyance of folks who own that number in various area codes) include Tommy Tutone's 867-5309/Jenny. More recently, Alicia Keys mentioned that 489-4608 was her number in the song Diary, after which excited fans attempted to call her.

9. How to Find Your Personalized Phonewords

Thanks to services like PhoneSpell, you can find out if any of your phone numbers offer interesting "phonewords." Enter your digits and the site will generate a list of interesting combinations. If you've lucked out, it may provide a better way to remember your number in future.

10. Finally, a Neat Phone Number Magic Trick

There's a neat phone number-related trick you can impress your friends with, thanks to the magic of math.

Take a seven-digit phone number, for example, 941-7990. Multiply the first three digits by 80. Add one. Multiply by 250. Add the last four digits of the original phone number. Add the last four digits again. Subtract 250 and divide by two.

Cool, huh?

Images courtesy of Billy Brown, Nate Steiner, raindog808, Collin Allen, Chris Dlugosz, Saxon, Orin Zebest, flattop341, reibai, Clare Bell, Kevin Spencer

More About: facts, List, Lists, Mobile 2.0, phone numbers

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We all love Tumblr for its ease of use and unique social blogging features. But we really love Tumblr because the right theme can turn your humble cat musings into sophisticated works of web literature. Just click that “install” button and, “Look Ma, I’m a web designer!” (Our judges would have also accepted, “Mmm, I loves me some gradients.”)

Tumblr’s theme garden grows bigger by the day thanks to the contributions of some premier developers. Whether you’re looking to pimp your existing blog or arrive on the Tumblr scene in style, we thought it helpful to highlight a few of the themes we find beautiful, compelling and feature-rich.

See below for staff-picked Mashable favorites, and let us know which theme(s) you’re using in the comments.

1. Savory

Josh Catone: One of the things that makes Savory so nice is that it clearly defines different Tumblr post types while still cohesively tying them together. It also has a massive amount of customization options and built in support for Disqus and Typekit.

Preview it: here.

Install it: here.

Price: $49

2. Field Notes

Lauren Rubin: Field Notes FTW. Not only do I love the products, I love how they've kept the branding consistent in the digital space.

Preview it: here.

Install it: here.

Price: Free

3. Plaid

Brenna Ehrlich: The theme that started my hipster media empire.

Preview it: here.

Install it: here.

Price: Free

4. Brutal Simplicity

Christina Warren: Brutal Simplicity, as the name implies is simple. It's also elegant and easy to customize.

Preview it: here.

Install it: here.

Price: Free

5. Chunky

Lauren Drell: I love Chunky, which I use for my typo blog (#nerdalert). For a lot of Tumblrs, you have to keep scroooooolling down to see older posts. For my purposes (flaunting people's careless spelling on signage), Chunky provides a collage aesthetic that makes the images super easy to consume — barely any scrolling necessary! Plus, I love bright colors, and this theme is "slabby, colorful, fun."

Preview it: here.

Install it: here.

Price: Free

6. Solaris

Matt Silverman: Few Tumblr themes make good use of white space while keeping posts organized. Solaris is modern, super clean, and instantly digestable. Well worth nine bucks.

Preview it: here.

Install it: here.

Price: $9

7. Effector

Christina Warren: Lots of options, color styles and built-in social tools make Effector a great theme to use and tweak.

Preview it: here.

Install it: here.

Price: Free

8. Chalkdust

Stephanie Buck: I've always wanted to paint my apartment walls with that chalkboard paint. The "Chalkdust" Tumblr theme allows me to virtually paint – without inciting the wrath of my landlord.

Preview it: here.

Install it: here.

Price: Free

9. Rubber Cement

Stacy Green: I love the Rubber Cement theme from SleepoverSF, because thats what I use — in purple of course.

Preview it: here.

Install it: here.

Price: Free

10. Storybook

Christina Warren: This illustrated Tumblr theme is just beautiful to look at.

Preview it: here.

Install it: here.

Price: $49

11. Blank Slate

Christina Warren: Blank Slate indeed! I love the fixed sidebar and the textured background.

Preview it: here.

Install it: here.

Price: $49

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Jamie Beckland is a Digital and Social Media Strategist at Janrain where he helps Fortune 1000 companies integrate social media technologies into their websites to improve user acquisition and engagement. He has built online communities since 2004. He tweets as @Beckland.

Marketers have built a temple that needs to be torn down. Demographics have defined the target consumer for more than half a century — poorly. Now, with emerging interest graphs from social networks, behavioral data from search outlets and lifecycle forecasting, we have much better ways of targeting potential customers.

The rise of mass-produced consumer goods also brought the rise of mass-market advertising. In the 1950s and 1960s, the goal of television was to aggregate the most possible eyeballs for advertisers. In order to convince consumers that an advertising message was relevant to them, consumers had to buy the idea that they were just like everyone else.

Marketers created that buy-in by bucketing people into generations. When you lump 78 million people into one group called “Baby Boomers,” it’s much easier to sell them stuff, especially when consumers accepted their generational classification.

But now, that entire system has broken down. The year that someone was born will not tell you how likely he is to buy your product.

Fragmentation is now the norm because the pace of change is accelerating. Generations have been getting smaller because there are fewer unifying characteristics of young people today than ever before:

With the recent rise of the social web, people self-select into groups so small, so fragmented, and so temporal, that no overarching top-down approach could be successful at driving marketing performance.

Marketers have responded by adding more demographic information to the mix, but even that is a losing battle. I worked with one client who was introducing a technology product, and had identified a target market of “connected consumers.” Connected consumers were 34-55, had a household income over $120k, and read technology publications regularly. This target market represented 14 million consumers.

They were targeting 14 million consumers to sell 50,000 units — that means they were hoping for 3.5 sales for every 1,000 people with whom they connected through their marketing.

What if, instead, you could get 500 sales from every 1,000 people you marketed to?

It’s possible through psychographic profiling. Psychographics look at the mental model of the consumer in the context of a customer lifecycle. Amazon.com has long been a leader in this space, through innovations like “recommended products” and “users like me also bought.” Its algorithms have learned to predict its users, and what they are interested in. And now, there are a number of tools that any business can use to leverage psychographics.

Here’s how a psychographic profile might look different from a traditional marketing profile target for a childcare provider:

Psychographics provide much more useful information about users. There are multiple data sources making this possible today. Social profile data, behavioral data and customer lifecycle data can now finally be leveraged to contact people who are ready to buy.

Social Profile Data

Profile data from social networks consist of all the fields users grant permission for brands to use on their behalf. Most things that users track on social networks can be leveraged to create a closer relationship with a customer. Fields like relationship status, alma mater, interests and occupation can all be managed through social profile data management tools.

Social profile data is the critical cornerstone of psychographic insights. The level of nuance and insight provided by social data, when compared to standard demographics, is the difference between performing surgery with a scalpel or a butter knife. Previously unimaginable questions are now routine:

• Are customers who kayak more likely to buy water shoes than those who canoe?
• Who is more likely to spend over $100 on an order: Seattle Seahawks fans or Seattle Mariners fans?
• Are your customers more likely to purchase when they move across the state or across the country?

In addition, companies such as GraphEffect are measuring purchase intent by doing semantic analysis on Facebook status updates. This type of qualitative analysis can move users into specific marketing funnels from their very first online experience with your brand.

Behavioral Data

Retargeting advertising messages is gaining popularity among marketers, but its very success has jeopardized its effectiveness. Ads that follow users around the web have been implemented — usually poorly. Every ad network quickly incorporated the ability to place cookies in users’ browsers, and display specific ads to them any time they visit a site that’s part of their networks.

The next generation of ad targeting will focus more on telling the customer a story over time, based on specific behavior triggers. That means ad networks and clickstream data aggregators will work together to trigger when a customer moves forward in a mental model toward a purchase event.

Site content and product recommendations will also be informed by clickstream analysis. Companies such as RichRelevance, Certona, Baynote and Monetate all offer the ability to personalize information to specific visitors based on their behavior. Leveraging those alongside a payload of social profile data can turbocharge those services from the first moment a new user visits a site.

Customer Lifecycle Data

Social profile data can also be used to predict customer lifecycle. Imagine knowing not only if a customer has children, but the exact ages of those children. In addition, key indicator purchases, like buying diapers for the first time, indicate a customer entering a new lifecycle. Other key indicators, like shipping address changes, first purchases of furniture, or first purchases of substantially higher-value goods can all indicate the start of a new customer mentality and behavior pattern.

These patterns are predictable, so you know the future behavior of high school seniors by looking at the current behavior of college freshmen. By using demographics alone, all high school graduates would be marketed to identically. Using psychographics, we know who is likely to be interested in specific product or content recommendations at a specific time — such as when they actually start their first day of college.

This vision is starting to gain traction among serious marketers. At the 2009 Internet Strategy Forum, Xerox’s VP of Interactive Marketing, Duane Schulz, said that a 1% clickthrough rate was a huge failure — even though it is 10 times the industry average. In his mind, a successful campaign would never waste 99% of its impressions. Using psychographic data, you don’t have to waste any impressions.

We have seen a similar upheaval in marketing before. In the 1960s, marketers who embraced the power of television, broad-based insights into psychology and demographic data created world-class brands and billions of dollars in value. At that time, if you didn’t advertise on TV, you lost. Today’s new tools offer a similar choice: Build a deep understanding of your customer, or risk irrelevance.

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More About: advertising, business, data, demographics, MARKETING, social media

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