mercredi 28 mars 2012
7 Steps to a Simple Social Media Strategy
Okay, just kidding.
What's not a joke is how important and how overwhelming social media can be for small business. It can provide the leverage to move a company from floundering to flourishing, but it can also take over your life. Figuring out exactly what to do is where it's easy to get lost—which is why you need a strategy.
- What should our profile say?
- What platforms should we use?
- Who's in charge?
- How often should we offer coupons?
- Who's in charge of coming up with stuff to say?
- How often should we post?
1. Identify your target
Don't get lost in the details here; use the demographic research you've already done, or just answer each question as quickly as you can from what you already know or with a minimal amount of research. You need a rough idea, not a book-length collection of research.
- Who are you trying to reach?
- Where are they?
- What are they talking about?
In order to create a message that matters to your customers, you need to talk about what they care about: their problems, their pain points.
- What are your customers' pain points/problems?
- What is your unique selling proposition (USP)?
- How can you communicate your USP most effectively to customer pain points?
- How can you approach social media with a solution to their problems?
Goals can be anything from “build an e-mail list” to “get more sales”; it depends on how your business operates and how you use social media and your website to interact with your customers.
- Why are you using social media?
- What do you hope to gain out of it? (Be specific.)
- What counts as a successful conversion?
- How do those conversions turn into profit?
Creating and offering value is what will make you stand out in social media. Adding to the noise isn't a good strategy; adding value and sharing it with your market is.
- What can you provide via social media that will help/interest/entertain your target?
- What kind of content will you produce?
- What content or curation makes the most sense for getting customers to your goals?
You can't do it all; define your resources in terms of money, time and personnel, then put those resources to work.
- How much time, money, talent and energy can you dedicate to social media?
- Who is in charge?
- What will you outsource?
You still can't do it all, so don't waste your time trying; focus on sticking to your strategy within a few social media spaces. You can always expand later.
- What social media platforms will you use?
- What content will you put on each one? How often?
- When will you produce this content?
- How will you measure its success?
Set a time limit (several months, at the least) and stick to your strategy for that amount of time before you start messing with it.
Keys to success
- Start with a focused approach. Spreading yourself too thin is a sure way to commit social media suicide. Instead, choose one or two platforms, a primary message, and a primary means of communication.
- Stay consistent. Consistency conveys authority and builds trust.
- Follow the etiquette of social media (be polite; respond to people; don't spam; give credit; so on).
- Use apps that will help you streamline your social media sharing.
- Don't rely solely on automation. Engage, respond, talk to people, help them, have conversations.
- Don't let it take over your work time. Instead, designate a daily block of time to do your social media work.
- Set your goals first, then break the goals down into tasks, then assign the tasks to your daily time slots (and/or your employees, and/or your outsourced help).
- Stick with it! Social media takes time, but it's worth your time. Just not all your time. Use a simple strategy like the one you've just created to use social media effectively and still do the rest of your work.
09:50 0
Should You Focus on Facebook or Twitter?
So with time scarce, and with business owners performing multiple roles, something has to give. Should it be Facebook or Twitter? (Sproutsocial, a startup that builds social media management tools for small businesses, suggests as a rule of thumb that Facebook is better for business-to-consumer marketing, while Twitter trumps for business-to-business.)
A new study suggests Facebook engages fans better than Twitter, at least if the biggest brands on the Internet are any guide.
Social media analytics company SocialBakers compared top brands' Facebook and Twitter presences over a month-long period. It concluded that brands such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Playstation and McDonalds were getting better results—sometimes dramatically better results—on Facebook.
Starbucks, for example, which has spent millions on Twitter efforts, gets 80 percent engagement on Facebook but less than 5 percent engagement on the microblogging site.
Of the 10 brands studied, just one—Oreo—got eye-popping numbers on Twitter: Nearly 80 percent engagement. Oreo gets just under 20 percent on Facebook. It and Skittles are the only two of the 10 brands that do better on Twitter than on Facebook. (Check out Oreos' Tweets, which seem heavy on chances to win some free sandwich cookies.)
Coca-Cola and Pringles did equally well with Twitter and with Facebook, though "well" is a relative term; Coca-Cola's engagement rate was about 5 percent, while Pringles's was 10 percent.
The study did not offer analysis of the results, though mediabistro's AllTwitter found them surprising.
Observed Lauren Dugan: "McDonalds and Starbucks, for instance, have been among the beta testers for Twitter’s advertising products, Promoted Products, since they launched. Both brands have spent millions on advertising on Twitter, offering coupons, free coffees and discounts—but their engagement rates are between 1 and 5 percent on Twitter, while they’re seeing between 30 and 80 percent engagement on Facebook."
How to improve your own engagement rates on Facebook? Socialbakers suggests taking advantage of the site's new "Facebook questions" feature, which can be used to ask questions of fans without forcing them to add any applications to answer them (a deterrent).
Socialbakers gives the feature's "viral-ability" a thumbs up, observing: Questions appear not only on your page’s wall as full stories but each time one of your fans answers the question, it appears as a full story on all of their friends feeds. If their friend answers, then it also shows as a full story in their feed and so on. Anyone who sees the poll can also post comments and “follow” the question to be alerted of future comments and outcomes.
09:46 0
Is Print Marketing Obsolete in the Digital Age?
Glossy, detailed marketing pieces have given way to digital presentations on tablets and laptops. Consumer brochures are bowing to company blogs and YouTube how-to videos. Is there still a place in small business for print collateral?
The resounding answer seems to be yes, but it’s limited. And it's shifting in response to digital mediums.
“There are certain industries, serving a specific demographic, that will always appreciate and need a tangible representation of a product, service or company," says Jennifer Fuhrman, marketing executive with Chicago agency Marketcity.
"Staples in print materials include spec sheets, annual reports and business cards, but their design capabilities have shifted and improved drastically.”
Many traditional communication channels, such as newsletters, are dependent on the Internet now. Fuhrman says that all of Marketcity’s clients who send newsletters have digital versions.
“Our clients use e-mail newsletters," she said. "They’re able to direct their newsletter efforts to people who have provided their contact information, as opposed to the shotgun snail-mail approach.”
The cost of sending an e-newsletter is significantly less than the expense of printing and mailing hard copies.
However, Lin Grensing-Prophal, author of Direct Mail in a Digital Age, believes the shift to digital marketing has given print an unintentional advantage.
“Mailboxes aren’t as cluttered, thanks to digital marketing," she said. "But, the Web is getting more cluttered.”
With many small businesses reallocating their marketing dollars to digital campaigns, those using traditional methods may have a greater chance of reaching their target audiences.
Yet, analyzing how effective traditional media is versus digital is difficult. Even the most novice marketers can find metrics for nearly every type of digital campaign. Small businesses can easily monitor their ROI and break it down by categories and channels.
It’s more difficult to assess these variables with traditional print media. You can measure response rates, but it’s impossible to tell how many prospects open or read print media.
Grensing-Prophal believes that digital media is a good way to augment a direct-mail campaign, but it can’t replace it and in many cases, it shouldn’t.
“Digital and traditional now mix well together," said Grensing-Prophal. "QR Codes can help print ads and improve analytics. Small companies used to send large catalogs, which were costly. Now, they can send a simple mailer with a QR Code sending customers to an online catalog.”
Many industries still benefit from direct-mail campaigns, according to Grensing-Prophal. Especially when its information is usually shared between family members and friends. Healthcare is one example. It’s easy to pass on a print newsletter to a friend, but it’s also easy to forward an e-mail. Still, many people still rely on printed reminders for appointments and medication instructions.
Not every small business should shift to digital, according to Grensing-Prophal. Each business must analyze its target audience before reallocating the entire marketing budget.
“You have to know your audience. Evaluate your clients and their specific needs to determine what will work best,” she said. “Don’t jump on the bandwagon just because it’s the latest big thing.”
09:36 0
Tumblr Hits 20 Billion Total Posts
Tumblr has hit a major milestone — 20 billion posts — a huge increase from the 12 billion posts figure it reached in November.
“Forgot to make a big deal of this earlier, but Tumblr crossed the 20-billion-post mark Monday night,” said a tweet from the official Tumblr account, with a link to Tumblr’s About page, which sports a counter showing the total number of Tumblr posts.
Currently, the number sits at more than 20 billion posts, 51 million of which were created today. Tumblr currently has more than 49.7 million total blogs and is due to hit the 50 million milestone any day now.
The rapid rise of Tumblr in the past year has been nothing short of amazing. In June 2011, Tumblr announced it had more blogs than WordPress.com — more than 20 million. It took less than nine months for Tumblr to double that number.
For comparison, WordPress powers more than 72 million blogs, about half of which are hosted on WordPress.com.
The simplicity and ease of use of Tumblr on one hand and similarity to microblogging services such as Twitter on the other, have apparently hit the right spot with a large number of users. One thing Tumblr still lacks is a viable business plan — despite significant funding.
From
the creator: "I decided there is not enough internet space devoted to
pictures of cats trying to fit into anything they can, so I have
graciously decided to take on this challenge."
We thank you.
As far as "collections of contorted cats" go, this is particularly fine one.
You'll get nothing but whiskers and win by following The Kitten Covers.
With images of "girls and cats, cats in soft focus, cats on film and dream cats" you're sure to find something Pin-worthy here.
A GIF-based blog slaving to "make the internet a better place."
“Forgot to make a big deal of this earlier, but Tumblr crossed the 20-billion-post mark Monday night,” said a tweet from the official Tumblr account, with a link to Tumblr’s About page, which sports a counter showing the total number of Tumblr posts.
Currently, the number sits at more than 20 billion posts, 51 million of which were created today. Tumblr currently has more than 49.7 million total blogs and is due to hit the 50 million milestone any day now.
The rapid rise of Tumblr in the past year has been nothing short of amazing. In June 2011, Tumblr announced it had more blogs than WordPress.com — more than 20 million. It took less than nine months for Tumblr to double that number.
For comparison, WordPress powers more than 72 million blogs, about half of which are hosted on WordPress.com.
The simplicity and ease of use of Tumblr on one hand and similarity to microblogging services such as Twitter on the other, have apparently hit the right spot with a large number of users. One thing Tumblr still lacks is a viable business plan — despite significant funding.
25 Outstanding Kitty-Themed Tumblrs [LOTS OF CATS]
We thank you.
4. Dream Cats
5. GIF Cat
"Where literature has whiskers and pointy ears." You'll find plenty of vintage pics of literary types and their feline friends.
"Dedicated
to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal
the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle," Garfield Minus Garfield is surreal and funny.
11. Review of My Cat
This
blog contains reader "reviews" of their cats, rating them on
appearance, sociability, usefulness, huggability and a final, overall
grade.
"You've always pretended they weren't watching you get it on. You've always been wrong."
Even if you don't know who Ron Swanson is, you should get some laughs here.
15. Barely Feral
Barely Feral says it answers the question "what if there was a porn site designed by cats for cats?"
It's an X-rated answer, so adult-only click-throughs, please.
It's an X-rated answer, so adult-only click-throughs, please.
17. Stoned Cats
Drugs are bad. If you're not convinced, check out what they have reduced these poor animals to.
This blog shares the "pain" of cats getting in the way of your laptop/iPad/iMac, etc.
20. Celebrity Pussy
As "your premier source for celebrities with cats," Celebrity Pussy
is both a fabulous online image library and we to like imagine, a
constant source of disappointment from, ahem, certain Google users
Lest we forget the important work done by cat scientists during the Sixties.
24. Cats in Ties
There's a joke somewhere about "The Long Tail," but we'll just say this is splendidly niche.
25. The Cat Scan
Finally, our favorite cat-themed Tumblr is the glorious The Cat Scan.
It is probably responsible for a large percentage of cat scratches in recent years as kitty-owners try and persuade their recalcitrant pets to sit still on a humming, flashing box of evil long enough to be scanned.
Those that succeed -- we salute you!
It is probably responsible for a large percentage of cat scratches in recent years as kitty-owners try and persuade their recalcitrant pets to sit still on a humming, flashing box of evil long enough to be scanned.
Those that succeed -- we salute you!
09:20 0
Financial Times Unveils 70-Foot Interactive Wall in Grand Central Terminal
Between now and Thursday, those passing by are invited to interact with a large, touch-sensitive floor mat positioned on the west end of Grand Central, in Vanderbilt Hall. With the help of three “brand ambassadors,” who will be positioned by the exhibit at all times, visitors can move around an FT-branded mat to interact with a series of 3D interactive infographics projected 70 feet high on the hall’s south wall.
The infographics touch on three central topics of the FT‘s coverage: the position of the U.S. relative to the global economy, the spread and growth of mobile technology, and the global recession and recovery, U.S. managing editor Rob Grimshaw said in an interview with Mashable. All three were designed by David McCandless, author of Information Is Beautiful (and this great TED Talk).
The online extension of the campaign resides at ftgraphicworld.com, where visitors can watch videos of the infographics in action and share their reactions through an embedded Facebook comment widget. Visitors can also take advantage of a free, one-week subscription offer from the FT.com.
While were impressed by the infographics and the data housed therein, it seems unfortunate that the FT didn’t develop infographics that could have worked on the website in addition to — or even instead of — the exhibit set up in Grand Central. The decision certainly limited the much wider reception the campaign might have enjoyed online, we think.
Images courtesy of The Financial Times, Mashable.
08:56 0
mardi 27 mars 2012
How to Master Online Marketing
"When done well, online marketing can save failing businesses, create profitable new opportunities, and find talent for both small businesses and nonprofits," says says Geri Stengel, a marketing expert and founder of Ventureneer.com, a firm that provides advice to "socially-responsible" small businesses and nonprofits.
But while many small businesses dabble in the area—by taking out an odd ad here and there or starting a company Facebook account—few are using it effectively, says Stengel.
"Much of the skepticism about online marketing seems to come from a lack of training in using tactics effectively and from not understanding and using metrics in a way that guides good decision-making," she said. "Power-users—those who devote more than 25 hours per week to social media—have done their homework and are confident that their investment of time reaps benefits."
So how can your firm become an effective "power-user" of online marketing tools? Stengel cited these five questions to help guide the way.
Who do you want to reach?
This is important. Are you hoping to hone in on a small local audience or are you hoping to attract customers from farther away? Is your target audience young or old? Male or female? Web saavy or not so much? Different target audiences will be best reached through different methods so its very important to first know your target audience.
What are your goals and objectives?
Do you want to generate new business? Retain current customers? These goals will likely be best served by different tools and methods like knowing you're target audience—figure out this first.
Which platform or medium is best suited to your goals and market?
Once you have determined your goals and target market, now think about the best way to reach them. Social media can be a smart way to target young people or promote customer service, while you would likely be best using e-mail to reach a more elderly audience.
How will you evaluate your campaign for continuous improvement?
Metrics, metrics, metrics. If you don't track your success (or lack thereof), you will have no way to know if your investment is working.
How much do you want to spend?
The cost of online marketing tools vary significantly so this is a big one. While one company may benefit from spending to advertise on a major news website, other companies may want to stick to smaller, cheaper methods.
Hiring people with the know-all for more complicated online marketing tools can also be a big investment.
Most importantly, don't be afraid to start small, taking one type of online marketing at a time, says Stengel.
"Small businesses have been using e-mail longer than other online marketing categories and rate themselves more effective at using it," she said. "It's easier to learn to do e-mail well compared to social media, search engine optimization or social networking advertising."
Photo credit: Ventureneer.com
12:49 0
4 Big Business Secrets for Finding New Customers
1. Go mobile
People everywhere have adopted the mobile phone as their device of choice. There are more than 6 billion mobile connections in the world, compared to under 2 billion PCs. Big companies have seen the light and are scrambling to take advantage of mobile’s potential. Small businesses can do the same.
Consider creating a mobile-friendly website if you haven’t done so. More businesses and consumers are looking for products and services on mobile phones, and websites designed for PCs typically don’t work well on small screens. You may want to develop a mobile app to make interactions with customers and prospects easier. Also investigate mobile barcodes—known as QR codes. People are increasingly using these codes, which can provide an instant link to businesses and their offerings.
2. Research your market
A big company tends to be detached from its customers, so it must go the extra mile to learn what makes them tick. It must continually investigate its market and learn how customers perceive it, how it compares to competitors and how it can expand its products or services.
Small businesses are closer to their customers, so they frequently underestimate the importance of research. It’s easy to take customers for granted and not delve into information that could dramatically improve your offerings or reveal how to find new customers.
Try to take advantage of every personal encounter to gather information, and consider organizing events that can increase that interaction. For example, an auto dealer might host a customer appreciation day several times a year. Also take advantage of social media like Facebook, Twitter and online directories to learn what customers have to say about your business.
3. Go digital
Industry researchers continue to predict dramatic increases in spending on online marketing—via e-mail, desktop computers, laptops, smartphones, tablets and other devices. Online ad spending in the United States is expected to grow 23 percent to nearly $40 billion in 2012, according to research firm eMarketer. Big businesses have found that online marketing allows them to offer easy purchasing through e-commerce, forge deeper customer relationships and reach consumers and businesses all over the globe.
To help ensure you make the most of online marketing, take a closer look at your company’s website. Can users search for your products and understand your services easily? If you engage in e-commerce, is the buying process smooth and intuitive? Do you regularly refresh the site with new information and special offers?
Also, are you taking advantage of interactive tools to establish a dialogue with prospects and customers? For example, are you using banner and search engine advertising to get the word out, and are you using e-mail to promote marketing offers? Finally, are you making your company and its products or services easy to find by posting business listings on online directories?
4. Plan and track
Planning and tracking may sound antithetical to innovative marketing, but it is key to hitting the mark and closing sales. You’ve probably heard the saying attributed to merchandising king John Wanamaker: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted—I just don’t know which half.” Well, now you can. Analytics tools allow you to track responses to your online marketing, and fortunately many of them are free or relatively inexpensive.
You can help get the best results from your online advertising by tracking the click-through rate. Test different ads and adjust your efforts to focus on what works best. Also look at performance data for your website, mobile messaging and social media activities. Metrics to examine include:
- Who’s visiting and what they do
- Who’s buying and what they buy
- Who clicked on an invitation or offer
- How much time they spend on your site
- What they say about your products or services
Alice Bredin is an internationally renowned small business expert. She is founder and president of Bredin Inc., a marketing consultancy that helps Fortune 500 firms develop profitable, long-term relationships with small and medium businesses. She has advised millions of business owners over the last 20 years through her books, syndicated newspaper column, radio commentary and forums.
Photo credit: iStock
12:27 0
Facebook on New Timeline Apps: ‘We’re Going To See the Next Pinterest’
Facebook’s Open Graph has made it possible for developers of all
sizes to tap into Facebook’s Timeline and post when their members listen
to songs, browse for images, or read stories. Facebook’s Malorie Lucich
told Social Times, “It’s a huge opportunity for startups. I think we’re
going to see the next Pinterest come up through these kinds of
integrations.”
People “gravitate to the types of activities they enjoy in the real world,” said Lucich, like fitness, fashion, and food. The key is to base the app on some kind of action, like listening, watching, reading, or reaching a goal. If your site is about wine tasting, for example, users can post when they’ve tried a new wine.
In the end, all of the activity ends up in one box on each user’s profile page, giving members a look at what they’ve achieved throughout the year, whether they’ve logged every mile they’ve run or clipped every news article they’ve read. “It looks really beautiful on all the maps,” Lucich said.
For a startup company, the Timeline presents an opportunity to reach Facebook’s millions of users. Spotify recruited 4 million new users to its digital music service by streaming users’ playlists on Facebook. When Pinterest had its beta testers post images they liked on Pinterest to their Facebook Timelines, the site’s daily active Facebook user base grew by 60 percent.
In the last three months, Facebook has approved 3,000 Timeline apps that help people share their interests. A recent wave of 60 new apps expanded the offerings with videos from VEVO and fashion from Pose, among others. But even companies that weren’t lifestyle-related found a way to get on board.
RockMelt created a social reading feature to introduce new users to its Web browser and iPhone app. Launched in 2010, the startup puts a social spin on popular browsers like Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox. RockMelt has Facebook notifications, instant messaging, and updates from sites like Twitter and Tumblr built into the browser for easy access.
When making the decision to use the Open Graph, RockMelt CEO Eric Vishria told Social Times that “Facebook was a natural fit” for the socially-enabled browser. None of the other browsers had tried it yet, he added, “so we’re unique in that regard.”
With the Timeline app, users can turn on “social reading” to share the articles they read online with their friends on Facebook. The article appears on the timeline with the note, “recently read on RockMelt.”
News articles fall under the category of “safe content,” Vishria explained, which are things that people can share with their friends online without making things awkward. RockMelt connects to 150 “white-listed” sites, like CNN, that have safe content. “We want to make sure it’s a good experience,” he said.
RockMelt found that people were more likely to read an article that came from a friend. Using the Facepile plugin, which shows the Facebook profile pictures of friends who have also read an article through RockMelt, has led to an increase in click-through rates of about 20 percent.
People “gravitate to the types of activities they enjoy in the real world,” said Lucich, like fitness, fashion, and food. The key is to base the app on some kind of action, like listening, watching, reading, or reaching a goal. If your site is about wine tasting, for example, users can post when they’ve tried a new wine.
In the end, all of the activity ends up in one box on each user’s profile page, giving members a look at what they’ve achieved throughout the year, whether they’ve logged every mile they’ve run or clipped every news article they’ve read. “It looks really beautiful on all the maps,” Lucich said.
For a startup company, the Timeline presents an opportunity to reach Facebook’s millions of users. Spotify recruited 4 million new users to its digital music service by streaming users’ playlists on Facebook. When Pinterest had its beta testers post images they liked on Pinterest to their Facebook Timelines, the site’s daily active Facebook user base grew by 60 percent.
In the last three months, Facebook has approved 3,000 Timeline apps that help people share their interests. A recent wave of 60 new apps expanded the offerings with videos from VEVO and fashion from Pose, among others. But even companies that weren’t lifestyle-related found a way to get on board.
RockMelt created a social reading feature to introduce new users to its Web browser and iPhone app. Launched in 2010, the startup puts a social spin on popular browsers like Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox. RockMelt has Facebook notifications, instant messaging, and updates from sites like Twitter and Tumblr built into the browser for easy access.
When making the decision to use the Open Graph, RockMelt CEO Eric Vishria told Social Times that “Facebook was a natural fit” for the socially-enabled browser. None of the other browsers had tried it yet, he added, “so we’re unique in that regard.”
With the Timeline app, users can turn on “social reading” to share the articles they read online with their friends on Facebook. The article appears on the timeline with the note, “recently read on RockMelt.”
News articles fall under the category of “safe content,” Vishria explained, which are things that people can share with their friends online without making things awkward. RockMelt connects to 150 “white-listed” sites, like CNN, that have safe content. “We want to make sure it’s a good experience,” he said.
RockMelt found that people were more likely to read an article that came from a friend. Using the Facepile plugin, which shows the Facebook profile pictures of friends who have also read an article through RockMelt, has led to an increase in click-through rates of about 20 percent.
Users add an average of 14 new articles per
day, most of which involve humor or breaking news. And once RockMelt’s
users enable social reading, 75 percent of them choose to leave it on
while they continue to browse the Internet. The most prolific social
readers are between the ages of 18 and 34.
Facebook’s Timeline has also led to a 5
percent increase in new user growth for the browser. To date, 2 million
people have tried RockMelt and 100,000 of them now use it on a daily
basis. Said Vishria of the Facebook Timeline, “It’s a powerful thing.”
11:23 0
How Is Social Media Evidence Used In Divorce Cases? [Infographic]
A new trend is emerging within the realm of family law—lawyers are
turning to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to help
them with their cases. An exclusive infographic provided by California Divorce Attorneys takes a deeper look at this trend.The infographic, ‘How Family Law Attorneys Use Social Media Evidence In Court Cases,’ not only explores how social media is used in litigation (and specifically divorce cases), but also explores a number of cases in which social media was key.
The infographic reports that, “Since 2010 social media has been a key
part of nearly 700 cases.” It is used to determine a person’s state of
mind, evidence of communication between individuals, evidence of time
and place (i.e. check-ins), and evidence of actions.
Check out the full infographic below and let us know what you think.
Does it make you want to go into Facebook, Twitter and other social
media services and delete anything that may be incriminating?
11:07 0
Viralheat Adds Social Media Publishing With Version 2.0,
One of the biggest changes in version 2.0 is a new feature that Viralheat is calling engagement, and which basically means you can post comments to Facebook and Twitter directly from the service. Posting to social networks may not sound like a big deal, but CEO Raj Kaddam says it makes life a lot easier for customers.
Instead of using one tool (such as, well, Viralheat) for monitoring social media mentions and sentiment, then jumping to a different application (such as CoTweet) to actually publish content, Viralheat allows you to do both in one place. Wherever you are in the service, there’s a button at the top right that lets you post to social networks. When you’re reading through Facebook and Twitter comments, you can hover over them to get more details about the commenter, then click to respond directly.
Viralheat 2.0 also refreshes the product’s user interface to one what Kaddam says is “more of an inbox-type layout.” One of the big goals, he says, was to make it easy to access all of Viralheat’s reports with fewer clicks. And the upgrade also incorporates Facebook Insights, giving companies more information about the conversations on the Facebook Pages, and more data from Twitter.
The company’s investors include Mayfield Fund. You can see a demo of the new version below.
10:30 0
Sony Shakes Things Up Under New CEO, Reorganizes For The Post-PC Era
Sony just announced a new corporate organization that shows drastic change is underway. Under this strategy, dubbed One Sony, separate Sony divisions will share management, hopefully streamlining decisions and creating a more unified end-user experience that better utilizes Sony’s content offering. Sony under Stringer was an unwieldy multi-headed beast. Hirai is clearly trying to tighten the reins. It just might work and it has to work.
Prior to Stringer, Sony was led by Nobuyuki Idei who started feeding the hungry Sony machine. Under his watch Sony established Sony BMG Music Entertainment and purchased Hollywood’s Metro-Goldwyn Mayer studio in 2005. He entered into the joint mobile-phone venture with Ericsson. He was also the Sony exec that green-lighted the loveable, but still a bit strange, Aibo robotic dog.
Stringer was left with a bit of mess when he took over in the summer of 2005. At that time Sony was far from being just a consumer electronic company and majorly involved in nearly ever aspect of media creation and distribution. Now, in 2012, Sony’s once-mainstay TV division is drowning in red ink, the company just dissolved its partnership with Ericsson, and there is little, if any, compelling reason for a consumer to use one of Sony’s many media distribution platforms over Netflix, iTunes or Amazon.
Sony is simply not built for the current consumer electronics game. We’re entering into the age of digital appliances, a post-PC era if you will, and 15 years ago Sony would have been the top player. But now, in 2012, Apple and Samsung are the big kids on the playground; Sony is hiding under the slide doing his homework.
The PlayStation happens to be the one bright spot in Sony’s recent history. Sony’s incoming CEO, Kazuo, led that division for the last 5 years. There is hope, Sony fans.
Under the One Sony structure, Sony sees digital imaging, gaming and mobile devices to be the three cornerstones of its electronic business. Hirai himself will be in charge of Sony’s troubled HDTV division. The company will still pursue the medical technology field but what was separate medical-related divisions within Sony will be consolidated into one unit. Perhaps most promising though, Sony is appointing Kunimasas Suzuki, currently Executive Deputy President of Consumer Products. & Services Group, to be the officer in charge of unifying Sony products and creating a better user experience across the company’s entire product and network service line — something the company desperately needs. He is also in charge of Sony’s mobile business, showing that Hirai understands that going forward user experiences start in the mobile sector.
Sony of old is long gone. Sony will never be the same nimble company again. However, with the proper structure and leadership Sony might once again regain its swagger. Sony was once the shining example of user experience and hardware design done right. Sony needs to find its soul. If any company can properly battle Apple in the arena of consumer electronics, it’s Sony. After all, it’s Sony that Apple and Steve Jobs were aiming to dethrone 15 years ago.
09:18 0
vendredi 23 mars 2012
LinkedIn Chairman Sells Small Stake of Facebook Stock
Hoffman was part of the seed funding round in 2004, and has held on to the stock since then. An estimate of his stake is 0.5% of the company, and seeing as he’s holding on to the majority of his shares we can estimate his sale to be up to 0.24% of Facebook – a hefty amount. Reid is also the largest shareholder of LinkedIn (LNKD) with $1.9 billion of stock given its current price of $99 giving it a market capitalization of 9.8B.
Facebook’s IPO looks to be about $5B worth of stock, and at about 5% of the company, which gives them the $100B valuation. For more news about the IPO, check out AllFacebook.
16:48 0
Employee Passwords Are None of Your Business, Says Facebook
Facebook Friday issued a warning to employers that requesting passwords is an invasion of privacy that opens companies to legal liabilities.
The world's largest social network also is threatening legal action. Wrote Erin Egan, Facebook's chief privacy officer, in a lengthy post: "We'll take action to protect the privacy and security of our users, whether by engaging policymakers or, where appropriate, by initiating legal action, including by shutting down applications that abuse their privileges."
The company says it has seen a "distressing increase" of reports of employers attempting to access user accounts, Facebook's Egan wrote. "The most alarming of these practices is the reported incidences of employers asking prospective or actual employees to reveal their passwords," she said.
A user should never be forced to cough up private information just to get a job—"and as the friend of a user, you shouldn’t have to worry that your private information or communications will be revealed to someone you don’t know and didn’t intend to share with just because that user is looking for a job," Egan wrote.
The company has changed its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, making requests to share or solicit a Facebook log-in a violation of the rules.
The American Civil Liberties Union this week used the reports to urge support for its "Demand your dotRights campaign."
ACLU attorney Catherine Crump called the password solicitation an "invasion of privacy."
"You’d be appalled if your employer insisted on opening up your postal mail to see if there was anything of interest inside," she said. "It’s equally out of bounds for an employer to go on a fishing expedition through a person’s private social media account."
The ACLU of Maryland currently is fighting for a social media privacy bill in the state, where the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services asks applicants to "voluntarily" provide access to their social media accounts during interviews.
16:42 0
lundi 19 mars 2012
Why Apple Is Giving Cash Back to Shareholders
There are several reasons Apple is giving dividends, but the primary one is that investors feel they have a right to some of Apple’s $100 billion. “People expect a return on their investment,” says Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. “If you can’t do anything with the money, then you should give it back.”
Elson says that Apple is not the only company to deal with this issue. At some point, every successful public company will get pressure to give money back. (Before the recession, Exxon Mobil, Dell and Pfizer, among others, got the same kind of pressure from investors to give back their cash or find a way to invest it.) In Apple’s case, closing in on $100 billion seems to have triggered a call to launch a dividend for investors, but there’s usually no benchmark for such decisions. “It’s all up to the judgment of the board,” says Elson.
Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, says $100 billion is way more than Apple needs, so it doesn’t make sense to keep all that money on hand. He points out that even after the company pays out its $45 billion in dividends, Apple will still have more than $50 billion in cash plus whatever it puts aside in the future. “They’ll always have cash for even big acquisitions if it enhances their position,” says Bajarin, who expects Apple to start buying more companies.
During the call with analysts Monday morning, Apple CEO Tim Cook repeatedly stressed that the dividend would also attract new investors. With a share price of $600, drawing new shareholders doesn’t seem like an issue, but Bajarin notes that there’s a type of investor that is primarily concerned with dividends. “Most of the guys buying [Apple stock] today are buying on a holding basis,” says Bajarin, who notes that such investors believe Apple is a good long-term buy. “But there are a lot of people who buy stock only on a monthly basis.”
Another point Bajarin emphasized is that some 65% of of Apple’s cash is based outside the U.S. Merely bringing that money — now housed in foreign banks — back to the U.S. would force Apple to lose cash in taxes and other fees. “Apple’s not the only one,” he says. “No corporation wants to bring money back to the U.S.”
Known for its dramatic product introductions, Apple’s Monday morning announcement will probably seem ho-hum for non-investors. But, based on Apple’s stock performance Monday morning, the company has at least prompted a squib of excitement among its intended audience: At press time, the company’s stock was up about $6 or 1% at the iDividend news.
The New iPad Details Hit Apple.com
The new 9.7-inch iPad
has 2048 x 1536-pixel retina display, 5-megapixel camera (with the same
optics sensor from the iPhone 4S) and 1080p video recording. It is
available March 16 in black and white, powered by A5X chip (with
quad-core graphics) and supports 4G LTE networks. It's 9.4 millimeters
thick and 1.4 pounds.Wi-Fi only iPads cost $499 for 16 GB, $599 32 GB and $699 for 64 GB, while 4G versions cost $629 for 16 GB, $729 32 GB and $829 for 64 GB. Pre-orders start today, and the devices will be in stores March 16 in these 10 countries: U.S., UK, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.
Credit: Apple.com
Apple.com Touts New iPad Features
"Pick
up the new iPad and suddenly, it’s clear. You’re actually touching your
photos, reading a book, playing the piano. Nothing comes between you
and what you love. To make that hands-on experience even better, we made
the fundamental elements of iPad better — the display, the camera, the
wireless connection. All of which makes the new, third-generation iPad
capable of so much more than you ever imagined."Credit: Apple.com
09:15 0
4 Things Apple Should Have Done With Its Billions
The Cupertino company’s decision was an obvious one — its $97 billion cash hoard was becoming a burden, and a combination of a dividend and a stock buyback program is a simple way to keep shareholders happy.
However, Apple was in a unique position: it had zero debt and an unheard of amount of cash, which gave it an unprecedented freedom of choice.
With the world coming out of one of the worst recessions in recent history, and Apple being on the forefront of a smartphone/post-PC revolution, one can’t help but wonder whether there were other — braver, perhaps — ways in which the world’s most valuable company could have spent that money.
Green Energy
Apple has invested in green energy before — its new data center in Maiden, N.C., for example, will have the largest end user–owned, onsite solar array in the U.S. Also, Apple’s new “Spaceship” campus will be one of the most environmentally friendly buildings of its kind.
However, while Apple was only investing in green energy for its own purposes (all that positive PR doesn’t hurt, either), Google has gone a step further, making green energy its business.
In 2011, Google invested an astounding $880 million in a variety of renewable energy projects — an amount that sounds trivial compared to the approximately $2.5 billion Apple will spend only on its first quarterly dividend in July 2012.
Philanthropy
Steve Jobs was often criticized for not being particularly philanthropic. Though he was a multi-billionaire, Jobs rarely donated money, and he stopped all philanthropic efforts in Apple as well when he returned to the company in 1997.
Tim Cook has had (he still does) a unique chance to completely turn this stance around. Of course, donating a large sum of money to a philanthropic foundation would probably be frowned upon by shareholders, but there are many ways to donate to a good cause: giving away smartphones and tablets to children in poor countries, or helping them get better Internet access, for example. Such efforts might benefit a multinational giant like Apple in the years to come.
iPads for Schools and Universities
Apple recently announced a big play into the textbook business. For this business to thrive, kids in schools and universities need to have iPads, and the simplest possible solution is to just give them away.
Equipping every kid in the U.S. with an iPad is no cheap task. As of late 2011, there were more than 49.4 million students attending public elementary and secondary schools, and 19.7 million students were attending U.S. colleges and universities.
If you count the cost of iPad at $499 (it costs Apple less to make it, but we’ll use the retail price for simplicity’s sake), it would cost approximately $35 billion to give an iPad to every student in every classroom in America. It would be a very bold move, but also one that would revolutionize the U.S. education system, with Apple sitting firmly at the forefront.
And if you think such a move would be mere squandering of Apple’s cash, just think how much money Apple would get when all those kids start buying iPad apps.
A Major Acquisition
Forty-five billion dollars can buy you a lot of things. When we talk about companies as big as Apple, I’m not a fan of major mergers and acquisitions, because it’s really hard to integrate the visions of two different IT companies (remember Sony Ericsson and Benq-Siemens?) into one.
As far as acquiring smaller companies — Tim Cook pointed this out in today’s announcement — Apple still has more than enough cash to buy pretty much whatever company it fancies.
However, with so much money on its hands, Apple could even afford to buy its way into a completely different industry. The aforementioned green energy comes to mind, but there are other options, as well. With today’s electric cars becoming more and more intertwined with the IT industry, an iCar becomes closer to reality. So why not buy your way into the auto-industry?
08:38 0
dimanche 18 mars 2012
DIY SEO Startup BrandYourself Has Nearly 6,000 Sign-Ups
The company started out as a way for people to control the impression they made online, both through search results and on social networks. It even recommended articles that you could read and share in your chosen subject area. Co-founder and CEO Patrick Ambron says his team eventually realized that the approach was “too much,” and that “the one BIG thing people loved about us was helping them improve their search results.”
So the new version of BrandYourself pares away all the other features, focusing exclusively on your personal search results. In both cases, BrandYourself pitches itself as a more affordable, DIY alternative to a service like Reputation.com. Instead of hiring someone to improve your results and paying them thousands of dollars, you can just log in to the BrandYourself dashboard, submit the links that you want to show up more prominently in your results, and get recommendations on how to improve their placement (for example, it recommended that I connect my personal website to a BrandYourself profile page, and also include my name in the text of the website). BrandYourself also tracks whenever the rankings change. You can get free recommendations on three links — after that you have to pay for premium membership, with pricing that starts at $9.99 per month.
Ambron says the new version of BrandYourself launched on March 8, and that 5,870 people have signed up since then. And of those sign-ups, 154 of them became paying members.
Oh, and this isn’t a business win, but it’s nice recognition: BrandYourself won the Best Bootstrapped Startup award at the South by Southwest Startup Accelerator earlier this week.
11:30 1
Wife of Army Sergeant Accused of Killing 16 Afghan Civilians Ran a Blog
Details about Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who was recently jailed, transferred from Afghanistan to a holding cell in Kuwait and then to the brig at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., were kept under a tight lid for nearly a week after the incident. His wife’s blog, however, remained open to the public until early Sunday morning, reports The New York Times.
The blog reveals intimate details about Sgt. Bales and his family. When he was passed up for a promotion in March of last year, his wife wrote about being upset with the decision made “after all of the work Bob has done and all the sacrifices he has made for his love of his country, family and friends.”
But Bales’ wife mostly wrote about the basic day-to-day struggles of life as an Army mom.
She wished the Army would let her husband pick his next assignment, hoping for locations such as Germany (“best adventure!”) or Hawaii (“nuff said.”) She talked about surprise phone calls from her husband — one to discuss baby names when she was pregnant and Bales was abroad. In other entries, she talked about wanting her husband back home in Washington state.
“I only want the days to go by fast when it comes to Bob coming back home,” wrote Bales’s wife.
Bales’s wife gave birth to their daughter Quincy while her husband was in Kuwait. She received a call from Bales soon after delivery — and that story became a blog post.
“It was Bob calling from the airport in Kuwait!!” she wrote. “It was so good to hear his voice. I told him how the birth went and he got to hear Quincy squeaking in the background.”
In the last post on the blog, Bales’s wife wrote that she wanted the site to be a kind of “time capsule” for her family.
“I am hoping to blog about it and look back in a year,” she wrote, “to see how far we have come from right now.”
Recently revealed details of Sgt. Bales’s life suggest that he may have struggled with financial payments and repeated run-ins with the law. U.S. officials are expected to charge Bales “within a week.” The killings sparked violent protests of U.S. and NATO’s presence across Afghanistan and came immediately after a separate controversy involving the improper burning of copies of the Quran by NATO troops.
11:07 0
New Ways to Fund Your Startup [VIDEO]
MSNBC's Your Business:
Where's the Money?
It's not easy to go to the bank and get a loan these days.
If you're looking to secure some funding for your startup, there are
some options you may not have considered. Venture attorney Jennifer Hill
has tips for new ways to find money.
08:06 0
samedi 17 mars 2012
New Facebook App Suite Turns Brand Pages Into Crowdsourcing Hubs
Name: Napkin LabsThe Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Quick Pitch: Napkin Labs makes interactive marketing tools for Facebook.
Genius Idea: A suite of customized apps that make brand pages interactive.
Brands are set on getting customers to Like their Facebook pages. But then what?
Napkin Labs launched a new suite of Facebook apps this week that it hopes will help answer this question.
The company offers four different apps. “Brainstorm” is a basic crowdsourcing platform that lets brands ask their community a question. “Photoboard” collects and displays community-sourced images. “Pipeline” turns Facebook pages into open forums. And “Superfans” shows who participates the most in campaigns, then rewards them. Most of the tools come with analytics and moderation features.
“I think a lot of brands are starting to realized their Facebook pages can go beyond ‘great, you like us now,’ and actually shape the future of the brand,” Napkin Labs CEO Riley Gibson tells Mashable.
Napkin Labs adapted some functionality of the new Facebook apps from its previous product, which created a separate online “lab space” for brands to collaborate with their customers on products, design and anything else. The separate space had game features — such as a points system and rewards for participation — but it was still asking customers to visit someplace new on the web. Convincing such migration is no easy feat, so it’s not surprising Napkin Labs eventually decided to instead build on existing brand pages.
As Gibson puts it, “We realized the ecosystem within Facebook was perfect.”
Napkin Labs recently demonstrated how its Facebook apps will work with a custom app it made for Domino’s Facebook page called “Think Oven.” Users could submit their designs to the page in the hopes of winning one of $200 rewards.
The startup says pages experience a 29% increase in Likes after running a Facebook contest. But brands will have to decide for themselves how much that’s worth. This is not your average Facebook app installation. Napkin Labs works with clients to customize the pages, and thus its campaigns start at $1,000.
Would you pay that much to customize your brand page, or are there better ways to engage the community that don’t involve expensive customized tools? Let us know in the comments.
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
19:22 0
How Booze Goes Social for Saint Patrick’s Day
Thanks to digital and social media, these beverage companies have devised innovative ways to make consumers feel a part of the party without even setting foot out the door.
Using livestream, social media and interactive tactics, these brands are able to turn the Irish holiday into one big global party — in fact, some are going as far as attempting to achieve a Guinness World Record for it.
Whether it’s for VIP vacation prizes or simply more likes on Facebook — here are the big and small digital things brands are doing in marketing for St. Patrick’s Day.
Jameson
Looking for party decoration or drink recipes? Jameson has made a St. Patrick’s Day Guide with a party pdf that includes cocktail ideas, party banners and even a guide to Irish slang.
If whiskey tasting’s your thing, Jameson regrets to inform you it has yet to discover a way to make that virtually possible. However, there is a video that gives a good introduction to the Irish whiskey. You can even download a comparative tasting mat to use as you watch along.
Guinness
Guinness is gearing up for St. Patrick’s Day with hopes to achieve the Guinness World Record for “Largest St. Patrick’s Day Celebration.” This year, the company is launching a global online campaign to officially make it the “Friendliest Day of the Year.”
“Every year, St Patrick’s Day is celebrated by millions of people all around the world as a special occasion imbued with the spirit of true Irish friendliness – it has become the perfect opportunity to get together with friends, raise a pint of Guinness and enjoy one of the greatest days of the year,” says Guinness’s master brewer Fergal Murray.
After signing the campaign, Guinness has an animated interactive infographic filled with facts about its beer and St. Patrick’s Day. For example, did you know every year 13,000,000 pints of Guinness are poured on St. Patrick’s Day? That’s enough to fill 60 percent of the Empire State Building.
Each factoid on the infographic is sharable to your social networks: Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and email.
There’s also a Guinness Storehouse app, available for Android and iOS, that lets you tour the storehouse from your phone and browse the Dublin skyline. Additional features include an extensive timeline about the company’s history and recipes.
Baileys
For users in need of a little Irish spirit on their Facebook profile, Baileys Irish Cream has an app for that. You can jazz up your profile picture with a “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” logo from an app on the Baileys Facebook Page.
Whether you want a hot drink, cold drink or dessert, the Baileys website has plenty of recipes when you’re ready for a St. Patrick’s Day nightcap.
Is St. Patrick’s Day a big seller for your company? Let us know in the comments how you’re celebrating.
19:11 0
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