Okay, let’s air the dirty laundry right away. We all browse sites we shouldn’t when we’re putting off work. StayFocusd, an extension for the Google Chrome browser, aims to keep us on task.

“StayFocusd is a productivity extension for Google Chrome that helps you stay focused on work by restricting the amount of time you can spend on time-wasting websites. Once your allotted time has been used up, the sites you have blocked will be inaccessible for the rest of the day.

It is highly configurable, allowing you to block or allow entire sites, specific subdomains, specific paths, specific pages, even specific in-page content (videos, games, images, forms, etc).”

It’s the extension you’ll love to hate. I’ve installed it and am looking forward to being more productive than ever. Also, I’m not looking forward to browsing less on sports sites (ESPN, Deadspin), gaming sites (IGN), and many more. But in case my boss is reading, not THAT many.

What sites are your go-tos? Are you man or woman enough to download StayFocusd? If so, click here.

According to Compete, Pinterest traffic has experienced meteoric growth since we last wrote about it in August. At the end of August, they had 1,241, 295 unique visitors. As of January 2012, they had 11,140,641. And most of this growth is recent, so who knows how big the site will become.

It would be safe to say that, as a business marketer, if you haven’t paid any attention to the site, now would be the time. Here are the basics: The site is a “virtual pinboard” that allows users to “Pin” photos to their “Boards” that are organized by categories the user creates. The photos are directly linked to the sites where they originate, so it is, at its most basic, a photo bookmarking site. Users can then browse other people’s boards, “RePin” things they like, and make comments.

So how can you leverage this site for your business?

The site discourages use for “self-promotion”, but this doesn’t mean brands have been unsuccessful using it. It just means the site needs to be used creatively and interactively—in the same way it is used by consumers. Mashable recently asked Pinterest who they believed to be the top brands using their site. Answers ranged from magazines like Real Simple and Better Homes and Gardens to furniture retailer West Elm to Whole Foods.

But what we were most interested in was how they defined their top brands. Their criteria are included in our top 3 tips below. The other 2 tips are just our recommendations for how you might get started with your business on Pinterest.

1. Pin from various sources rather than one specific site. If you get involved on Pinterest, users will be more likely to follow you and repin if you use the site for its purpose—to pin the things you are passionate about. We recommend focusing on your brand rather than your products only. So if you are a hospital, create boards that deal with healthy lifestyles and pin from sources all over the internet—healthy recipes, motivational quotes for exercise or dieting—this establishes your brand as a health thought leader and as something a user would want to follow.

2. Repin from within the site to engage with others. Just like with Facebook or Twitter, you are going to get the most mileage from the site if you use the social media in a social way. Repin theirs, and they may take interest and repin yours.

3. Create at least a few boards and cover a broad range of interests. If you simply go on the site and create a board named after your company, you have wasted your time. Consider all of the things your brand stands for and what categories or words users may be searching. If you are a nonprofit organization, create boards for volunteers in action, inspirational photos, and events you have hosted.

4. Name boards and tag carefully. Don’t just use the main Board names that Pinterest recommends when you sign up. Think of keywords that you target in your other marketing, and name the boards using those same words. Search on Pinterest to see what other boards you will be “competing” with if you name a board a certain way. This will help you find topics you can dominate, as well as other boards you may want to follow and repin from. Tag photos following the same rules.

5. Add the Follow and Pin It Button to your website and blog. Pinterest offers code for a Follow button. This can be used on your website, and wherever else you recommend people follow your social media. You can also add a “Pin It” button on your product pages or on your blog posts, where appropriate. This will allow and encourage Pinterest users to pin your images directly from within your post.

As you can see, it will take some time to learn to use the site properly and to get a feel for what works for your business. But if you can manage to be creative, consider your brand, and put some effort in, it will likely pay off to be an “early adopter.” Don’t have time? Consider Sparking—we can help. If you’re ready, go ahead and get pinning!

What are some of your favorite brands on Pinterest?

Malls and big box stores are getting smarter. But will the public and politicians view it as acceptable or an invasion of privacy?

Privacy is a funny thing. We all say we want it — but we’re also willing to quickly give it up if we believe it’s in our best interest (think national security) or if we don’t really understand how we’re giving it up (think Facebook and Google).

Website analytical tools have long been able to track visitors as they click through menus, products and pages. Full disclosure: tracking website visitor and social media behavior are some of the things at which we excel. Based on click-through data, we’re able to find how visitors move through a site and what they’re interested in based on the patterns of breadcrumbs they leave. This information is important. It makes better websites, better user experiences and, of course, helps increase sales.

But if you have a brick-and-mortar store you’ve had to rely on surveys, eye-witness accounts and inventory and purchase data. That is until now. Companies like Beemedia, RetailNext and Path Intelligence have invented technologies to learn about shopper behavior in real-world pedestrian environments.

Anonymous data collected from the paths people walk through their environment can provide a wealth usable information — just as it does online. For example, tracking how people respond to sale signs and banners during an event (ie. how effective they are at causing a shopper to visit a particular display or area) can help create more effective advertising and promotional tools. It can help tell a manager where to deploy sales associates, what products to highlight and which to remove. It can even help reduce inventory shrinkage (products lost through deterioration, obsolescence, pilferage, theft, and/or waste.)

The technology to track pedestrian behavior works in different ways. Beemedia offers free wi-fi — and uses the signals they receive to anonymously triangulate wireless devices. RetailNext uses advanced software to monitor existing in-store security camera video, as they do for Family Dollar. Path Intelligence’s FootPath technology uses anonymous cell phone signals. This past holiday season several malls began testing Path Intelligence’s FootPath technology, but after being installed only one day, the experiments were suspended following privacy concerns from Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Real-life retail tracking is coming — and the necessary results it will provide will not only translate into profits for stores but also better shopping experiences for visitors.

You don’t have enough fingers and toes to count all of the social media that is out there today. Everyone wants a piece of the Facebook/YouTube/Twitter pie, but few ever come close to carving out a niche. There’s a reason for that. It’s because they don’t try and create a niche. They attempt to create a social media platform that is almost identical to Facebook with a few “unique” features. The problem is, Facebook is already there and doesn’t even have to lift a finger to render them obsolete.

However, some small social media or sharing platforms do end up making a nice little name for themselves. One of these platforms is Elfster. It’s name alone gives you an idea that it is centered around the holidays. Basically Elfster gives you a way to organize a Secret Santa gift exchange online.

The interface is simple, attractive and clean; just the way it should be. Elfster is perfect for the office holiday party. You create your Secret Santa group name, set the exchange date, spending limit, and give it a little description. Then you can start inviting friends, family, and co-workers.

On your own Elfster profile, you can create a Wishlist. And if you’re like me and never know what you want, there is a “Trending Gifts” section. Below is a quick video from Elfster explaining how everything works.

Is your hard-to-shop-for family member iPhone obsessed? If so, skip the gift cards and wow them with some of these interesting iPhone accessories.

1. The gadget: The Dot from Kogeto
What does it do?: Attach it to the iPhone 4, lay your phone on a flat surface, and take video that gives a 360 degree view of the room. Upload your video online.
Practical uses: Place it on your holiday dinner table to share your experience with relatives who are away. Give long distance tours of your home. Take it to the Grand Canyon and finally capture what the views are truly like.
Cost: $79 on Amazon

2. The gadget: Griffin Helo TC RC Helicopter for iPad/iPod touch/iPhone
What does it do?: It’s a helicopter that uses your iPhone (or iPad or iPod Touch) as the remote control.
Practical uses: Spend an afternoon flying the helicopter around your living room. Chase your dog with it. Buy two, and race them.
Cost: $49.99 from Target

3. The gadget: iPhone Photo Cube Printer
What does it do?: Dock your phone on the 7″ x 4″ x 6″ cube and it prints a 4 x 6 of your selected photo, while simultaneously charging your phone.
Practical uses: Is your computer and printer all the way down the hall, but you need a picture print right now, without the hastle of hooking your phone up to the computer to transfer it or emailing it to yourself? Enter the cube printer. Let’s face it—iPhone users are used to getting what they want when they want it.
Cost: $159.99 from the Sharper Image or (currently out of stock) $99.95 from Adorama

4. The gadget: Smartak Audio Wireless Waterproof Shower Speaker
What does it do?: Dock your phone on the transmitter, and dangle the speaker on the shower head. Works from 150 feet away, so your phone is safe from steam.
Practical uses: Turn up the sound and rock along with your favorite singers to save family members from your off key a cappella.
Cost: $69.99 on Amazon

5. The gadget: The iPhone Seat Buddy
What does it do?: Allows you to hang your iphone safely from the back of a front car seat.
Practical uses: I am including this mainly because of the hilarious description on Sharper Image that makes it sound like watching a movie on your iPhone is the most trying, taxing experience your body has ever had. But for a practical use, this allows your toddler to watch a movie from their carseat without the expense of a DVD player.
Cost: $19.99 on Sharper Image

6. The gadget: Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Apptivity Case
What does it do?: Turns your iphone into a teether. Slide your iPhone in the teething toy, and your baby or toddler can no longer dribble and drool on the phone when playing with his or her favorite baby apps.
Practical uses: You know your baby can’t get enough of your iPhone, but you are tired of your little drool monster leaving smudges and smears. You will appreciate the time your baby can spend entertained by the apps, and your iPhone will thank you!
Cost: $14.99 on Amazon

7. The gadget: Memorex SingStand Home Karaoke System
What does it do?: Set your phone in the mic stand and amplify your voice as you sing along to music on your iPhone.
Practical uses: Host a Karaoke party. Get serious about training for your X Factor audition. Entertain your date when you invite them in after dinner. (Maybe wait a until after a month of dating before you try that one.)
Cost: $64.99 on Amazon

And you thought they couldn’t love their iPhone any more than they already do. Happy shopping!

I’ve never been one for luxurious items but just the thought of owning a rich, mahogany desk would be awesome. Then I saw a couple of desks that fed my inner-geek appetite and mahogany quickly felt a little too ancient. Microsoft and EXOPC are introducing desks that are comparable to those seen in recent Sci-Fi movies. Giant touchscreen tabletops turn your desk into the computer.

The Microsoft and Samsung collaboration is known as the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface and can be pre-ordered for just under $9,000. Hopefully Santa is feeling extra generous this year. You can check out the SUR40 here.

The competing touchscreen desk is made by EXOPC and is known as EXOdesk. This desk is being released in 2012 and is on the more affordable side at $1299.

I only have two questions regarding these desks of the future:

1. Are they going to be able to compete with what I can only imagine will be called the Apple iDesk?
2. Can they withstand the gallons of coffee that is sure to be spilled on them?

Google likes to have a dog in every fight and the music player competition is no different. There is currently a Google Music Beta which allows you to upload 20,000 songs from your personal collection. They’ve also implemented a lot of features to make sure your music is available to you everywhere. There rumored music download service is also on the verge of being released.

Stiff competition from powerhouses like iTunes, Pandora, and Amazon will make it hard for Google Music to make their mark. Google also must compete with the up-and-comer Spotify, which has integrated itself well with Facebook and has quickly become a Demi & Cooper favorite.

The video below explains what Google Music is all about.

My interest was piqued last week when at least 4 separate friends on Facebook posted that Pinterest was sucking their life away—because they loved it so much. After exploring this trendy new website a bit, I can see why it has certainly captured hours of time from people across the country. The site allows people to create “virtual pinboards”, “collecting” things from around the web that inspire them. (The images in this post are ones I would pin or repin to my Kid Inspired board.)

You can just lurk around the site without getting involved, as there is plenty to see. Just checking out the homepage, you’ll certainly find a picture that interests you. If you click the category or the pinboard title, you’ll be brought to even more interesting and inspiring related pictures. About 15 minutes of my time was sucked away when an image of a kid’s Halloween costume caused me to type in the search looking for ideas for my son, which brought up thousands of creative ideas to use, adapt, or build on.

If you decide to join the community, you can create your own pinboards of things you find as you are casually browsing the web. You can add a “Pin It” button that lets you pin items directly from the source where you find them. And you can follow people, or people’s specific boards that interest you. Apparently the community is exclusive—I’m still waiting for my invitation, which makes me want to start pinning that much more.

The site may just be a passing trend, like Facebook’s Flare and others that have lost their glory after a while. Or it may have staying power. It seems like a useful, clean tool for anyone planning an event, like a wedding, kid’s birthday party, or anything else you think about for a long time before implementing. It’s easier and less messy than ripping pages out of a magazine throughout the year that you will never get around to filing.

It also could be useful for anyone who is creative for a living—interior designers, web designers, print designers. I am probably going to get in trouble for posting this, since I know several of the creatives at the office, if they haven’t started pinning already, will be pulled into this time-suck and lose hours of their weekend pinning away.

It also may have interesting brand use, if done correctly. Nordstrom already seems to have the hang of it, with 2,688 followers. They have created boards based on fall fashion, dresses, colors, purses. If a brand can stick with the idea of the site—things that people are passionate about—they could find easy success.

This doesn’t even have to mean you pin only images of your products—a hospital could pin inspiring health pictures, and another board of newborn pictures with permission from the parents. A homebuilder could post artsy pictures of the design of their model homes along with other inspiring design ideas. A rule exists that you can’t be self-promotional, so most brands would have to mix their own pictures with other pictures that inspire, but that makes it easier and more fun, still positioning your brand as a thought leader.

So, when you have a few hours on your hands, go ahead and check it out. I apologize in advance for all the time I’ve just effectively eliminated from your Angry Birds playing time!

Apple has announced that its content-syncing service iCloud is now live. iCloud is designed like a mobile hard drive on your web browser that automatically syncs data on mobile devices and tablets with data on your home or office computer. The service is especially useful for those preparing presentations and projects while on the go.

The new beta is available to anyone with an Apple ID, and includes Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Find My iPhone, and iWork applications. Apple’s cloud music services are not presently available. While the iCloud is similar to MobileMe in concept, the addition of iWork (the Apple equivalent to Microsoft Office) should prove to be extremely useful.

The interface is fairly homogeneous to MobileMe and retains the simplistic Apple template. iCloud will be competing with Amazon’s much cheaper Cloud Drive which allows 20 GB for $20 and is more musically focused.

iCloud is free for the first 5 GB of storage. Most will opt for the free service considering that they will not be storing music on iCloud. The free beta should prove to be popular among iPhone, iPad, and Apple computer enthusiasts looking to become more organized.

Time will tell, but I think cloud computing is going to be the eventual replacement for flash drives. It’s an exciting concept that whatever you are working on can be easily accessed again for reference on another device. The bad news is, the excuse of “I left my paper on marketing research analysis at home” will no longer be acceptable when my professor tells me to pull it up on my iPhone’s cloud connection.  E-mailing documents to myself is starting to get a little old, too.  As with any beta, though, the best improvements are yet to come for Apple’s iCloud.

The information in this post came from an external article on Mashable.

Here at Demi & Cooper we’ve been using QR codes in our campaigns for quite some time, but there’s still a bit of mystery attached to them. Marketing and advertising firms have jumped at the chance to utilize these codes for their work, but many fail to be successful. Here are six tips for creating a quick response code that will appeal to customers and gain traffic more efficiently.

1. Make it Readable - A QR code should be at least 3/4 inch squared for a print advertisement. Make sure to test the code for readability with your own devices before mass production.
2. Make it Mobile - According to Mashable.com 99.9% of QR codes are scanned by a mobile device. If the landing page is not a mobile site, you are wasting your consumers time as well as your own.
3. Choose Placement Wisely – Make sure that wherever your QR code is going to be seen is located near a mobile hot spot with Wi-Fi or your code will be rendered useless.
4. Give Instructions - It may seem silly, but telling your target audience to scan the code and how will help rule out any technical difficulties. Telling them what they are going to gain from scanning the code will also give added value to the customer.  
5. Make it Unique - If the code is going to take the consumer to a landing page they have seen before or can easily google, don’t bother. The best codes offer something unique to the consumer such as a coupon, time-sensitive or secret information, high definition content, free stuff and more.
6. Utilize Analytics – Be sure to link the landing page of your QR code to a reporting program such as Google Analytics, so you can decipher why a conversion was or was not made after the code has been scanned.