As of today, Intel has nearly eight million Facebook fans. Its Twitter followers have reached over 173K. While dynamic content is at the heart of a strong social media following like this, Intel's large and highly engaged audience is thanks to more than brand and fan activity alone. Chatter is also boosted online thanks to various customizable executions that are inherently social and easily sharable.

This week Intel launched its "What About Me?" personalized infographic execution. Participants can log onto the dedicated webpage and connect with Twitter, YouTube and/or Facebook. A personalized infographic illustrating information like when they use the networks, people they communicate with and popular posts are then displayed in an easily sharable way.

Intel also created a similar experience called "Museum of Me" in 2011. Participants can connect their Facebook accounts within an app on the brand's website to view a short movie that includes text and photos pulled from the viewer's account. The custom video is also easily sharable to Facebook friends.

Executions like these are beneficial to brands for a number of reasons. Primarily, these efforts are a way to connect the brand with fans at a deeper and more meaningful level. This, in turn, promotes sharing of branded content organically on social networks. Additionally, increased website traffic is generated by housing these experiences on the brand-owned website. And finally, launching applications like these are a great way to get reputable bloggers talking, too.

Companies looking to beef up online conversations and/or drive website traffic should give fans a way to create branded content that is intriguing, customized and easily sharable. If done well, the result will leave a lasting impact.

I used to play the piano in high school. All the cool Asians were doing it at the time, so I thought I would follow suit. After the basic scales and playing "Hot Cross Buns" for the 50^th time, I started to play the intermediate stuff with trills and weird syncopated eighth notes and rests that just came out of the blue. Out of frustration, I used to imagine scrolling my sheet music through a magical player that would play itself while my fingers silently danced across the piano keys. Of course, that could never happen--until today.

Cut to 2012 and the company Uniform is working on Paper Apps. We see technology dip into our reality with artwork or location-based reminders that may or may not make us into cyborgs (see Sloane’s post), but this new project returns back to the nostalgia of printed music in a new way. Paper is embedded with electrical circuits that when fed into a player will play the sweet tunes of the musician who has printed on it. Nifty, right?

I can see musicians passing out slips of beautifully designed postcards with their latest singles at cafes, music festivals, or even really cool hipster parties. It’ll be a tangible piece of art that will also serve another purpose--holding music. A wonderful multitasker, Paper Apps can become a fun addition to a band’s marketing plan, allowing them to slip personal messages, single tracks, timely tracks, and contests (Willy Wonka style!).

Unfortunately, the logistics of these plans will have to wait because the idea and the work are there, but they are currently working on the ability of making this accessible to your everyday music lover. Like the problem with QR codes, you have to make sure people have the equipment and the know-how of following through with Paper Apps. Unlike QR codes, Paper Apps will look significantly better than random maps of black and white squares.