But when any of these teams were last at the big dance, social media was nowhere to be found…it just didn’t exist. Now the non-stop flow of photos, tweets, taunting, scandal, and general nonsense is almost nauseating. ESPN posted an inforgraphic about who to follow on Twitter; Hootsuite has a dashboard where you can track what quarterback has the most tweets, day-by-day; and at last check, social media mega-blog “Mashable” has 144 recent stories tagged “Super Bowl”. It can all be a bit overwhelming.

Don’t get me wrong, the enjoyment of these global events is enhanced by social media. I love being able to connect with fellow sports fans and chat about game. My favourite fan to connect with is the one who is actually there. Enter the Twitter account from the New Orleans Host Committee. If you are looking for one social media touch point for the big game, this is it. The @nolasuperbowl account is entirely focused on fan (user) experience, and they sure are responsive. Powered by a team of over 100 volunteers they field questions, suggest places to eat, share interesting stories about the game, promote their activities (#NFLexperience), and share photos from the festivities.

A few examples:

Check this out #SB47 RT @kthomasms: Super Bowl logos throughout the years. Awesome! lat.ms/XjsVf4 #football #superbowl—
NOLA Super Bowl 2013 (@nolasuperbowl) January 30, 2013

RT @ActuallyNPH: Lunch in NOLA. Restaurant: Lüke. Happy hour. 50¢ oysters. Boom. http://t.co/KIovR5TO—
NOLA Super Bowl 2013 (@nolasuperbowl) January 30, 2013

Wow, that's a huge pot of jambalaya! RT @jennifer_young: Getting ready to feed the #SuperBowl media @zatarains #sb47 http://t.co/BrslmOcc—
NOLA Super Bowl 2013 (@nolasuperbowl) January 29, 2013

Check out some great #NOLA artists starting tomorrow at @Verizon Super Bowl Boulevard at Woldenberg Park! #SB47 ow.ly/hh7O7—
NOLA Super Bowl 2013 (@nolasuperbowl) January 30, 2013

Divided loyalties! #SB47 RT @frezno_state a guy near the Superdome with a combination Jim Harbaugh/John Harbaugh jersey http://t.co/HAJZZ2aH—
NOLA Super Bowl 2013 (@nolasuperbowl) January 29, 2013

Looking for pizza, fine dining, coffee, or desserts? Use this FREE app to help find what is closest to you! #SB47 ow.ly/hgY4Z—
NOLA Super Bowl 2013 (@nolasuperbowl) January 30, 2013

.@LanceMoore16 signing autographs for kids at the NFL Experience http://t.co/2vjOdjbC #SB47 #Saints via/ @Saints @thatchickgabby—
NOLA Super Bowl 2013 (@nolasuperbowl) January 30, 2013

Want to avoid traffic? Get around town on your bike! @bikeeasy will valet your bike when you check out bike share! http://t.co/Qvls0iv7—
NOLA Super Bowl 2013 (@nolasuperbowl) January 30, 2013

We're still impressed! RT @darrenrovell: Love how the Superdome looks at night. More stadiums need to look like this http://t.co/6UyemMBS…—
NOLA Super Bowl 2013 (@nolasuperbowl) January 30, 2013

Will they win again? #SB47 MT @SportsCenter: 18 years ago today, the @49ers won their 5th Super Bowl Championship. http://t.co/AkFoYcPP—
NOLA Super Bowl 2013 (@nolasuperbowl) January 29, 2013

I’ll definitely be watching the @nolasuperbowl along with the game this weekend with a big thanks to all the volunteers that make it happen. The video below provides a decent idea about what it’s like to be inside the command centre during Super Bowl Week. It’s a recap from last year’s Super Bowl in Indianapolis, but it does a good job explaining what they are looking for, how they find it, and how the team of social media volunteers go about responding.

Well, I guess there’s only one thing left to say: #Go49ers #QuestForSix

UPDATE (01.31.13): As a further comment to their responsiveness, after I initially shared this post on Twitter, the @nolasuperbowl account was quick to RT. In fact, they were the first to do so.

https://twitter.com/nolasuperbowl/status/297014024141426688

Other findings, however, were much more intriguing: notably, the continued growth in the amount of users interacting with their social networking accounts using mobile web and mobile applications. People are slowly straying away from their PCs as the Nielson report shows that the use of both mobile web and mobile apps nearly doubled when compared to the 2011 figures:

I’ve written about the continued growth of the “second-screen” before, and the numbers from this report seem to support that trend. Personally, I always watch TV with my laptop or smartphone, and it looks like this behaviour is becoming more common-place. The Nielson report found that 41% of tablet owners and 38% of smartphone owners use their device daily while watching TV, and they are using this internet access to add to their TV watching experience. For example, viewers use their devices to look up product information after they’ve seen an advertisement, search for coupons or deals, look up information related to the program being watched, and (of course) use social media while watching the show. Twitter emerged as the social network of choice when interacting with TV shows – About 1/3 of active Twitter users tweet about the TV show they are watching.

Another finding in this report that is close to my heart is that 47% of social media users engage companies to get customer service from brands with which they do business. About 30% of them (including myself) even prefer getting customer care using social media. This drives home the point that as each year passes, it becomes more and more imperative for companies to take a pro-active role in managing their reputation online.

Plenty more findings are available in this report, and it’s well worth the read, so be sure to check it out.  Special thanks to colleague @DanPihlainen for originally sharing this document.

We have two Hashtag Fails of the week this week. First, we chat about Lindsey Stone’s tasteless Facebook photo that got her in hot water with her boss. We also look at slow performing websites and how much it costs businesses annually when their sites take longer than three seconds to load.

And finally, our YouTube (anti)Hero this week is Nicole Westbrook. Her video “It’s Thanksgiving” has become the third most disliked YouTube video of all time, and it was only released on November 7, 2012.

If you liked the show, feel free to subscribe to this blog or our RSS feed to make sure you’re always up-to-date with Talknowledgy. We’ll be back in a little while!

If it’s a big deal in real life, it’s a big deal online. Just take a look at the #BlackFriday hashtag. It is filled with tweets of excitement and plenty of businesses trying to get the word out about their great deals. And the tweets keep mounting up. When I took the screenshot below from hashtags.org on November 21, 2012, it clearly showed the sheer amount of Black Friday related tweets going through the roof.

Twitter will be a great source of information this weekend, but the one social network I’m most interested in for Black Friday is Foursquare. Will a Black Friday badge be available? Who will be the most popular retailers? Who’s offering discounts and sales to people who check-in at their store? I couldn’t find many answers online, or through my own Foursquare app (perhaps because I’m in Canada). To be quite honest, the lack of Foursquare specials in my city has led me to stray away from that social network altogether.

But Foursquare has been very popular in the past. Check out the infographic below released by Foursquare that outlines last year’s activity on the network. It shows that Black Friday is the day that sees the greatest number of check-ins at retail outlets. It also suggests that people start arriving at their shopping destinations around midnight of the day before to either stake out their spot in line or to participate in Black Friday Midnight Madness events.

I would like to ask my American readers if they can add some first-person accounts from the Black Friday social media front. Will you be looking for deals using apps or social media sites? Is Foursquare part of your game plan? What hashtags do you find the most value in? If you are a business owner or retailer, will you be offering any incentives to your social media audience? Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!

This week’s “Creepy or Awesome?!” is centred on the recent Twitter outrage when big man Pau Gasol from the NBA Lakers missed the last shot of the game handing the historic club yet another early season loss.

Our YouTube Hero this week is Ron Swanson’s pro-Movember video encouraging men to keep growing their “mos” and raise money for men’s health. It also has some guest appearances from cast members from “The Office”.

Finally, a military sex scandal gets our #Hashtag Fail of the Week. That’s right, the sloppy use of email clients may have lead to the infidelity bust in the David Petraeus scandal.

If you liked the show, feel free to subscribe to this blog or our RSS feed to make sure you’re always up-to-date with Talknowledgy.

In our second segment, NBC allows you to buy stuff you see in television shows using a smart phone app – Creepy or awesome? We also take a look at the decidedly not awesome comments made by the CEO of Instagram this week.

In our third segment, Obama is so happy about his win he’s singing about it. It’s our “YouTube Hero of the Week!”

And finally, in seg four we dish out the pain with fails going to Donald Trump, Microsoft, and Shopper’s Drug Mart. Tune in and find out why!

If you liked the show, feel free to subscribe to this blog or our RSS feed to make sure you’re always up-to-date with Talknowledgy.

Plenty to chat about in the world of news this week. We kick off the show by discussing the social media and tech implications of  Hurricane Sandy, the most popular Halloween candy on social media, and the launch of Movember.

In our “Creepy of Awesome?!” section we look at a new Facebook rumor – Users may be able to place classified ads to display to their friends on the social media giant. The main difference between this new feature, and the existing marketplace function, is you now have to pay to have your ad seen.

Our “YouTube Hero” this week is Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving. He reprises his role as Uncle Drew in a Pepsi Max commercial posted to YouTube this past Tuesday. The first video he did, posted May 2012, received 16 million views. Adding to the interest, Irving himself, wrote and directed both commercials.

Uncle Drew: Episode 2

And we couldn’t go a full show without touching on the US Presidential Election, so here’s our Bonus YouTube Hero this week, courtesy of The Simpsons:

Our “Hashtag Fail of the Week” is near and dear to Phil’s heart. Disney announces a new Star Wars trilogy. What do you think super-nerd Phil has to say about that? Tune in to find out!

If you liked the show, feel free to subscribe to this blog or our RSS feed to make sure you’re always up-to-date with Talknowledgy.

Freddie Mercury flips-his-lid for Movember.

I’m in! This year I will be growing a Movember moustache. I’ve watched the fun, fundraising, and facial ugliness over the past couple years, and now I want to be a part of it. From the outside, I found it to be a very social thing. MoBros and MoSistas spent the entire month encouraging each other to grow and donate to a great cause…and much of the interaction happens on social media (more on that below).

If you’re new to Movember, here’s how they describe it on their website:

“On Movember 1st, guys register at Movember.com with a clean-shaven face. For the rest of the month, these selfless and generous men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery. Supported by the women in their lives, Mo Sistas, Movember Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts.

Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November. Through their actions and words, they raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health.

It’s been a popular event here at Algonquin College.  Last year, our Radio Broadcasting students led the charge to raise awareness and  a few bucks. They did a great job. Their action, among other things, inspired me to get involved this year. I’ve decided to Captain a team of my own. That being said, I am actively seeking donations for my Movember team: Donate Here. The invitation is also open to join my team: Join Here. We’re totally inclusive, so ALL team members are welcome.

But the most important element of Movember is the work being done for men’s health. We all do it for our own reasons. Perhaps somebody in your life has been affected by prostate cancer. Perhaps you are trying to encourage men to take a more active role in their health and longevity. Perhaps you just like being part of a moustache-growing team dedicated to raising money and awareness. There isn’t a bad reason to join a Movember team.

Now back to looking at Movember through the social media lens. At the end of the 2011 Movember campaign, Radian6 took a look at all the social media conversations focused on Movember. Here’s what they found out:

Because it’s for a such a good cause, I’ll ask one more time…Please support my Fraken’stache this Movember – Donate Here! Thanks for the support!

Have you ever needed to run out of the theatre to go to the restroom or grab another bag of popcorn? Well, there’s an app for that. This week’s “Creepy or Awesome?!” features an app that tells you when the best time to leave the movie. What do you think?

Phil also checks in with Fiaaz Walji RE: phishing, and we talk about the 25 worst internet passwords. Spoiler Alert: “password” is #1.

Our “Hashtag Fail of the Week” features bald Bieber fans…is it a hoax? Finally our YouTube Hero pits Gangnam Style: Halloween Edition vs the theatrical trailer for Iron Man 3.

 ————————— VS —————————

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1. Paul Ryan Beefcake

Just put on your worst-looking gym clothes and a backwards red baseball hat and you’re set. If you really want it to be authentic, you could buy this t-shirt, these shorts, and this hat . Be prepared to express some pretty offensive and condescending ideas about gender equality, women’s rights, taxes, and the middle class if you’re going to go as the beefcake.

2. McKayla is NOT impressed

This one was one of the most popular memes to come out of the London Summer games. The first item you should get for this costume is the silver medal - very important since this is what caused the expression in the first place. If you have about $500 kicking around you could by the official team jacket she was wearing, but a grey shell suit or hoodie would do. Don’t forget the scowl.

3. Overly Attached Girlfriend

The look in her eye always creeps me out when I see this meme. All you need for this one is a teal t-shirt from Target and you’re ready to go. You might also want to pick up a standard brunette wig to finish off the look. Be sure to work on your wide-eyed stare and creepy things to say about how possessive you are… knowing her personalized lyrics to Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend” wouldn’t hurt either.

4. PSY (Gangnam Style)

This one is great. It comes with a little dance and everything…you would be the hit of the party! I don’t even need to explain what to buy for this one because there are already websites devoted to Gangnam Style costumes…check out www.psycostumes.com to build yours.

5. Ridiculously photogenic guy

This one is ridiculously easy. Purple shirt, black running shorts, stubble, smile, and you’re done. If you really want to get advanced, you can print out a pic of Zeddie Little, glue it to a piece of cardboard, and you have a mask, like this.

What’s your favourite meme of 2012, and will you be dressing as it for Halloween?