What a year! We kicked off our popular Pulse series in 2011 with several basic ideas in mind. We wanted to cover fun topics that people could enjoy and share. We wanted to establish credible-but-relaxed criteria for selecting the top results. We wanted to use a combination of organic search results, data metrics leveraging the Sysomos MAP social media monitoring and analysis tool, and even anecdotal stories as our bases of choice. Lastly, we used a touch of editorial prerogative to highlight examples of important social media behaviors and best practice principles worth featuring on a weekly basis. We’re taking a look back at some of our favorites from the series to celebrate its success. Maybe you’ll pick up something you missed before. Maybe you’ll remember your favorites and share them in the comments below. At 126,000+ combined views on Slideshare.net alone, we’re pretty happy with the results, so see what you think …

1. Best of 2011
Top 10 Pulse
Spotlights of the Year

2. BEST OF 2011
Top 10 Pulse Spotlights of the Year
What a year! We kicked off our popular Pulse series in 2011 with several basic ideas
in mind. We wanted to cover fun topics that people could enjoy and share. We
wanted to establish credible-but-relaxed criteria for selecting the top results. We
wanted to use a combination of organic search results, data metrics leveraging the
Sysomos MAP social media monitoring and analysis tool, and even anecdotal
stories as our bases of choice. Lastly, we used a touch of editorial prerogative to
highlight examples of important social media behaviors and best practice principles
worth featuring on a weekly basis.
We’re taking a look back at some of our favorites from the series to celebrate its
success. Maybe you’ll pick up something you missed before. Maybe you’ll
remember your favorites and share them in the comments below. At 126,000+
combined views on Slideshare.net alone, we’re pretty happy with the results, so see
what you think …

3. 1. Show Me the Money
Overall Most-Viewed Winner
Hard economic times call for a focused
approach to career building. You showed
us that location and salary are big draws
for PR pros. Our Show Me the Money - 10
Best Places for Top Paying PR Jobs
offering received over 35,000 views!
Apparently, you are all on the lookout for
the best home base possible for your PR
careers.
New York City is by far the hands down
repeat winner when we take a glance
across many of our Pulses. This bustling
metropolis is a world-class hotspot, full of
opportunity and financial reward. We are
hoping someone out there will send us a
postcard from Times Square soon.
BEST OF 2011
Top 10 Pulse Spotlights of the Year

4. 2. Social Media Influencers
Is All Publicity Good Publicity?
We opened a social media can of worms
with this one. Lots of people read and
shared it, coming in with 26,000+ views
last week alone. We got tons of kudos for
serving up some unconventional, and
perhaps unexpected, choices. That’s the
good news.
The bad news? We caught some heat for
not being more data-driven in our
choices. We inspired response videos,
blog posts, and snarky Twitter repartees.
We caught so much heat, in fact, that the
writer (our own Vicki Flaugher) published
a pushback commentary. We caught
your attention and got you talking. We
count that as a win.
BEST OF 2011
Top 10 Pulse Spotlights of the Year

5. 3. Top Social Media Meccas
Worldwide Connections Matter
We have been fascinated with which
subjects intrigued you the most. This third
place most-viewed Pulse, at 19,000+
views and counting, touched on the places
in the world where the social media
connection is wide, deep, and prevalent.
We traveled in the US, to Indonesia,
France, India, Canada, the UK, Korea, and
Brazil. The world tour was well received.
Washington, D.C. came in on several of
our Pulse lists, but really shined for this
topic. On every front we looked at—
Facebook and Twitter users per capita,
overall Twitter usage, traffic generated by
community networks, and more—the
Beltway City came out the winner. If you
want to get connected, get there.
BEST OF 2011
Top 10 Pulse Spotlights of the Year

6. 4. The New Breed
Bloggers with Chutzpah!
PR blogs were the featured star in this
Pulse and we found some great examples
of professional work. 5,000+ views of this
offering got some fresh eyeballs on those
sites and we’re glad to help. Sharing the
spotlight is one of our favorite things to do.
One of the interesting things about this
Pulse is that the views were greatly
assisted by one of the featured blogs.
Media Culpa, a media/PR blog out of
Sweden, led the way by embedding the
Slideshare into their site, garnering 1,000+
views alone. They pulled in more views
than the same post on site! Kudos to them
for leveraging the mention. That’s chutzpah
and we like it!
BEST OF 2011
Top 10 Pulse Spotlights of the Year

7. 5. Top Tweeting Brands
Twitter Winners Cross Industries
Variety is the spice of life. Sure, we
could lean on “nothing but numbers” to
serve up the same old list of top Twitter
brands. The usual suspects with the
most followers represent a pretty easy
data pull, but that’s not that interesting if
you ask us. Instead, we like providing
examples across industries to inspire
you.
The NBA, Whole Foods Market, and
Mashable were more obvious choices.
But we also featured Cisco (a B2B
brand), Lennar (home builder), and
Solazyme (who makes fuel from bio
sugars). These brands are leveraging
Twitter off the beaten path, and that’s
noteworthy. At 3200+ Pulse views so far,
seems like you like a bit of variety, too!
BEST OF 2011
Top 10 Pulse Spotlights of the Year

8. 6. Global PR Agencies
Facebook Friends Forever
We traveled all around to the world to find
our favorite Facebook pages owned by
global PR agencies. These agencies best
demonstrated great social media verve,
flair, and competency. In a land of giants,
these were the ones who shined. So far,
3,200+ of you have joined us on our
journey.
We started with the Holmes Global 250
report and looked at not only the
numbers but also what made these
agencies unique, how they engaged, and
their ability to actively amplify their
brands on social. A particularly solid
example was Edelman. Time and time
again, much of their social is exemplary.
Check them out!
BEST OF 2011
Top 10 Pulse Spotlights of the Year

9. 7. Coolest Agency Lobbies
Crowdsourced Creative Spaces
This Pulse was especially fun. We polled
agencies and asked them to send in
photos of their reception areas. They
described what was interesting or unique
about the space to give us some
background. Little did we know what
gorgeous spaces we’d get to see!
Some highlights included antique carousel
horses in China, a dedicated barista bar in
Canada, a refurbished 1930’s automobile
dealership in Roanoke, Virginia, and a
spiral slide that customers used to
celebrate a deal close in Rochester, New
York. To hear employees celebrate their
workplaces was an inspiring experience.
To have almost 3,000 of you tagging along
was even more special.
BEST OF 2011
Top 10 Pulse Spotlights of the Year

10. 8. Show Me the Money II
Marketers Get Their Turn
We felt that marketers deserved a look at
top money cities, too. We included the best
cities by salary for SEO specialists,
executive positions, mobile marketing jobs
and more. If you are a marketer and want
to know where to move to for the best
salary and advancement opportunity, this
Pulse is a must-read.
This Pulse included some surprise twists,
but also quite a few of the usual suspects
—Washington, D.C., New York City,
Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles. We
like to toss in left-field alternatives, but
sometimes it pays to follow the path to the
tried and true. It looks like 2,700+ of you
agreed!
BEST OF 2011
Top 10 Pulse Spotlights of the Year

11. 9. Holiday Wish List
Hi-Tech Stocking Stuffers
This list is still fresh, but 2,000+ of you
are already showing yourselves to be
digital gadget lovers. That’s how many of
you dropped by to get the inside scoop
for gifting within this Pulse so far.
The gifts included items to help you live
an easier, better life as a marketer, not so
much to help you serve your clients
better. We featured a GPS golf course
watch. We presented a supermodel
demonstrating the durability of an
external hard drive. We even offered a
surprise non-digital item called IdeaPaint
that can turn any wall into a dry erase
board. Creativity and fun prevailed and
we hope you got at least one of these
items in your stocking.
BEST OF 2011
Top 10 Pulse Spotlights of the Year

12. 10. Reputation Is Everything
Brand Ambassadors to the Rescue!
The 10 Companies with Stellar
Employee Brand Ambassadors Pulse
sought to find the proverbial “X factor”
for brands. Which companies were truly
engaging on social media? Which were
reaching across all social media
channels to enrich their image and
satisfy their fans? We wanted to know
and 2,000 of you did, too.
The most controversial of the picks was
likely Goldman Sachs. Reviled by many
for their participation in the 2008
government banking industry bailout,
Goldman’s employees—homegrown
internal brand ambassadors—really
stepped up to help refurbish this
company’s reputation. We think that
level of loyalty demands note.
BEST OF 2011
Top 10 Pulse Spotlights of the Year

13. BEST OF 2011
Top 10 Pulse Spotlights of the Year
We Don’t Mean to Brag ...
2011 was certainly a good year for The Pulse. What started as a simple content
collaboration between commPRO.biz and Marketwire+Sysomos has become regular
reading option for thousands of PR and marketing professionals.
The Pulse numbers and engagement keep growing. For that, we would like to thank
you. We value and NEED your participation and attention. We could not have had
the year we did without you ... and we look forward to an even more engaging 2012
with you at our side. If you have a topic you’d like us to cover, please note it in the
comments below and we will do what we can. Happy New Year to you and yours -
thank you again!
To read all the Pulses and other SlideShare.net presentations, click here.

14. BEST OF 2011
Top 10 Pulse Spotlights of the Year
Next on “The Pulse”:
SCORE! Top 10 Athletes on Twitter and Social Media
THE PULSE:
Delivering shareable and shareworthy content with a twist
so integrated marketing and communications professionals can work smarter, succeed and enjoy.
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