Cocktail Hour: February 3, 2012

Without a doubt, two websites have dominated the news this week: Facebook and Pinterest. Facebook filed for its IPO this week, asking $5 billion. Personally, I’m sure I could’ve made $5 billion from all the time I’ve spent on Facebook since joining in 2005... What sort of changes will this bring? Will you be buying stock?

Secondly, Pinterest is suddenly on everyone’s mind. This is especially evident now that the network is driving more referral traffic than Google+. While it’s still in its infancy for business purposes, this gives us proof that making time for the network can be beneficial.

Here are some of the other great reads from this week:

Here’s What Everybody Hates About Your Tweets (Business Insider): Be honest. How many people or brands on your feed can you just not tolerate? A new study entitled “Who Gives a Tweet?” presents the results of a yearlong analysis of what people like reading on Twitter. Tweets are not meant to be incredibly basic like they were in the beginning. The findings and tips can be beneficial to building both our personal brands and a brand presence for our agencies and/or clients. Just please...don’t update in the bathroom.

Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts Declares Death of Marketing, Future of Movements (Billboard): Things are always changing. Now, it’s the entire industry. Instead of marketing at people, Kevin Roberts says we need to create movements to inspire and interact. Do you think marketing (and some associated jargon that goes with it) is destined to die completely in favor of more fervent, passionate mini-movements? How can we get there?

The Brainstorming Process is B.S. But Can We Rework It? (Fast Company Design): “Two heads are better than one” but “too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the soup.” Our collaborative brainstorming process is flawed sometimes, but no one has quite perfected how to make it as effective as possible. Is it possible? Perhaps if we take a look at the reasons why we aren’t always coming up with our best ideas while brainstorming, we can find what works best.

Nickelback Responds to Their Haters on Twitter (Buzzfeed): An inadvertent lesson in personal branding from the music industry’s biggest punchline. On one hand, it must be horrible for the members of Nickelback to see the, um, less than stellar reactions of listeners to its music. On the other, it’s amazing (and hilarious) to see the sense of humor that Nickelback used to effectively “respond to the haters.” No matter what you think about them, this use of humor, personalized response and positive spin definitely makes you think twice.

Reigning in the Information Deluge (Mindjet): Chances are, you’re doing at least three other things while reading this. There’s always A LOT going on, and a ton of information we have to process. Unfortunately, this constant stream of information may be harming more than hurting. Because we are concerned with taking in as much as possible, we are feeling the effects of missing details, decreased productivity and just generally feeling overwhelmed. How do you cope with this information overload?

What great things did you see this week? What great things are you hoping to see during the Super Bowl?