lundi 30 avril 2012
5 Ways Coaches and Experts Can Hurt Your Business
The main problem with experts today is that everyone seems to be one.
Don’t get me wrong. We need experts. The next time my dishwasher breaks, I want an expert to fix it. And sure, if my business needs help with marketing, I want a marketing expert to help me. But you need to separate the good from the bad by watching for the following five warning signs.
1. Hasn’t been there, hasn’t done that
You want a coach or expert who has actually done what you are doing. While a coach may have training in your field, nothing can top hands-on experience. Look for a coach that has direct experience in what you need advice about.
2. Big words, little action
It is easy for an expert to gain credibility by writing. Many experts quickly dominate the blogosphere with sage advice. But the reality is that words mean nothing if you can’t execute. Look for coaches who both write about what they do and do what they write about.
3. Advice, but no specific experience
Ever ask an expert what they think about your product or service and they then tell you why it is a horrible or great idea? I don’t care if you have 100 years of consulting experience. If the expert is not the end consumer of the product or service, his advice is wrong.
The consumer knows what she wants. Listen to her.
Tip: If you want to quickly qualify an expert, ask them what they think about your offering. If they offer advice, without qualifying (or disqualifying) themselves based on their consumer experience, they're likely giving you bad advice.
4. No coach of their own
If a coach doesn’t have his own coach, red flags should fly! It could indicate that the coach you're hiring doesn’t believe in being coached. Or, that the coach feels she has nothing left to learn.
5. Nothing to learn from you
An expert doesn’t know all things. Being an expert means having superior knowledge and hands-on experience in one category. To apply this knowledge on your behalf, the expert must learn about your business. If they aren’t thirsty to know more about your industry or if they don't ask for your direction, you may be getting a one-size-fits-all solution. At the end of the day, that's not a real solution.
When you need an expert in a certain field, be discerning. You want someone who knows what they’re talking about, does what they talk about, is constantly learning and doesn’t try to solve all problems with one easy-fix solution. That expert will give you some great advice.
09:07 0
5 Social Media Activities for Your Next HR Training Session
But a new way of thinking is to encourage smartphones, laptops and tablets. Make them a part of the session, since today’s training participants are multi-taskers. Trainees may want to tweet, post pictures and take notes to add a valuable interactive element to their own learning experience. In this new school of thought, trainers are becoming facilitators. It's a great opportunity to introduce trainees on how to properly engage with social media to add a professional benefit to not only their own employment but also to the company at large.
Adding social media is a terrific means to spark conversation before, during and after a training session. Here are five examples of training sessions that provide employees with a great grasp on how to wield social media for the good of the company.
1. Facebook before you train
Prior to a learning event, a trainer can create a Facebook group for participants. This page can be used to solicit and convey information about the program. In addition, videos can be posted prior to the session to provide background information for participants. You can also post materials using document sharing systems such as Google Docs or SlideShare.
Some of the advantages to using a Facebook group prior to training include: getting participants engaged with the trainer, breaking down any barriers between the group and starting a discussion about the subject prior to meeting. All of these are good ways to engage the group before the formal training session starts.
2. Start networking on LinkedIn
Objective: Recruiters are online, companies are online, job seekers are online and you should be too. A professional profile is a necessary tool in our social media-focused world, so there's no excuse not to have one.
Technology: LinkedIn
Activity: Ask participants to set up a LinkedIn account, then give them tasks. For example, ask them to connect with five people they know, update their profile with their current job, make at least one recommendation and join one group.
Discussion: Talk with new users about the experience. What did they learn about the platform? What tasks were easy and difficult? Where can they see the advantages of using this social networking site in the future?
3. A map of our team
Objective: Great for virtual teams to build a stronger sense of team identity and the individuals on the team.
Technology: A location-based map service like Google Maps or Bing Maps. If your company wants to implement a custom or branded map, OpenStreetMap is a great option.
Activity: Assign each team member a unique marker or pushpin. Team members can place the pushpins on the map anywhere to identify landmarks related to them, including details where appropriate.
Examples of relevant locations are where a person currently works, the location of corporate headquarters or regional offices and the locations of key customers or vendors. You could also include the city or campus where a participant went to college, the farthest place you’ve ever traveled or the location of your first job.
Discussion: Ask the group about how sharing information helps to build teams and how geography plays a role in a person’s work style.
Source: The Big Book of Virtual Team Building Games by Mary Scannell, Michael Abrams and Mike Mulvihill.
4. Customer service role play
Objective: To practice customer service recovery situations.
Technology: Twitter
Activity: Create a Twitter account that simulates angry customers. Then, assign participants the specific roles (customer, sales rep, manager and operations department) and give them an assignment. For example, a customer might complain that his equipment isn’t working. The team should work together to troubleshoot and offer a solution.
Discussion: Ask the group if they were able to solve the problem and how they accomplished the task. This can also be a great activity to discuss clarity in communications.
Source: Social Media for Trainers by Jane Bozarth.
5. Tweet your training
Another consideration is to create a Twitter hashtag for your training session so participants can read through all of the tweets. After the session, the hashtag can be used to post a summary of key points and articles or blogs of interest. Trainers can host Twitter chats or a guest speaker to keep the conversation going as a method of increasing learner retention.
Conclusion
Adding social media to training isn’t creating a distraction; it’s a way to engage people with the tools that most of us are already using in our lives. What better way is there to enhance the learning experience for everyone involved?
09:03 0
8 Professional Tumblr Themes for Your Small Business
When it comes to your small business website, image is everything.
How you present your company on the digital sphere is important, and as we've learned recently, people are searching for the word "Tumblr" more than "blog." The micro-blogging site has become a more serious platform for brands, whether it's to show brand character,
offer a peek behind the scenes, or just to update customers on the
latest from their storefront. But with so many social media sites to
juggle for your business, why add a Tumblr to the mix?Tumblr has carved a niche for itself in embracing a more graphic and design-oriented aesthetic, which is a plus for your company if you're looking to distinguish yourself in a more meaningful way than you can through a generic Facebook Page. You should also keep in mind that there are more than 50 million blogs on Tumblr. That's a lot of people who could be looking at your site.
The best place to start is simply setting up a Tumblr. After that, selecting a theme will help your site stand apart and look more professional. If you don't have the budget for a custom theme, there are plenty of great free ones to choose from in Tumblr's theme garden. Try to choose one that works with your brand and the utility goals of the blog. For example, if you're looking to inform customers about what's happening within the company, you'd be better off with a classic blog format. However, if you're looking for something more visual, a pinboard style theme might be a better option.
Feeling a little in over your head? We rounded up eight classic, professional Tumblr themes that will work for your small business:
1. Simple Things
This theme is a basic option for a business owner who wants a simple site, but also desires a more modern look.
2. Natural Elegance
By going with a darker background, text and images stand out, and your site looks sleek and contemporary. This theme is used best when you're taking a graphical approach to your Tumblr.
3. Simplify
The name of this theme says it all: simple. This is a great option for a business owner who is just looking for the very basics.
4. The Atlantic
This theme, stylized after popular news magazine The Atlantic, gives your site a newsy feel that's professional and customizable. It's a good option for businesses with more text-based posts, such as keeping customers up to date on the latest from your company.
5. Art She Said
This theme has a nice italic font that makes text stand out, and its clean, classic look will make your business' site look pretty sharp.
6. c/c/c/ theme
This theme is elegant, classic, with a simple pretty font.
7. Content Focus 1.1
What's great about this theme is the fact that it has more than 60 interchangeable options for its appearance. You can switch fonts, colors and layout to match your company's branding.
8. Brickway
This theme lets you customize colors and the social buttons at the top give it a highly professional accent.
08:56 0
Open Source and the Future of Capitalism
That analogy serves as the title of the book Standing on the Sun by Christopher Meyer and Julia Kirby, which gives a big-picture view on how capitalism is changing and how those changes are impacting businesses. Even though the book seems to focus on large markets and corporations (and reading this text can feel like heavy lifting), there are nonetheless some profound points that small business owners can use to prepare for coming changes.
Here are a few key points from the book.
Open Source Doesn’t Equal Free
If your company is in the software or hardware development game, open source may feel like a drag on your profitability. But according to Meyer and Kirby, although open source software and hardware often follows a "freemium" model, that doesn't mean you can’t make money. There are lots of software companies that have an open source product and then build on it with a more advanced version that customers purchase.
Standing on the Sun, espouses this collaborative, interconnected way of the future by citing numerous international examples of technology being used in unexpected ways. For example, it shows how mobile phones “power” a village by giving merchants access to local and national markets. Another example is the U.S.-based small business Adafruit, a DIY electronics kit maker, which encourages its community (with a cash reward) to hack the Microsoft Kinect system with an open source driver. Microsoft objected at first until it realized this sort of collaboration could benefit its systems, too. You can read the full post here.
Faster Product Development via Makerspaces
Another way the open source movement is benefiting small business is in prototyping. The good news is that you don't have to invest $20,000 in a laser cutter or high-end 3D printer for prototyping. You can join a makerspace, hackerspace, or an open access public workshop like TechShop (although there are only five across the country right now). Many start-up small businesses are leveraging these technologies by purchasing, leasing or joining a community space where they get access to tools and machines.
Square, the credit card processing device for mobile phones, was prototyped in the California TechShop in about two weeks. This is also an example of “reshoring,” where large and small companies bring their manufacturing operations back to the United States from China. Prototyping the Square device overseas would have been both cost- and time-prohibitive for the inventors. Thus we are seeing an evolution toward small urban manufacturing that makes it easier to produce locally. (Check out my OPEN Forum post 13 Ways to Create Products in Real Time, for more on devices that help you create prototypes or even working products.)
Using Hashtags in Your Marketing
Tagging content on your site makes it possible for like-minded individuals to connect and makes tracking social media a bit easier. Not to mention that like open source software, it is free to employ. Meyer and Kirby suggest one or two hashtags in each chapter to spur online conversation. Think about your marketing pieces, your blog posts, your events and how you could add simple hashtags for people to use on Twitter and Facebook.
The world economy, like everything in life, is always in motion and always changing. We don’t always notice it until enough change has taken place. Thanks to Standing on the Sun, we can catch a real glimpse of the future of capitalism and small business.
08:49 0
How One Startup Led to Another
That was back in 2009, and the company now has distribution in more than 1,600 retail locations. But with growth came a few pain points. One of them, says Mobrem, was sales and order processing.
“We had all these sales reps nationwide and they might visit 15 stores in any given day,” he says. “They had to write the order forms for customers, go back home and then get the orders to us through e-mail or fax.”
Consolidating Tech Tools
And like most small businesses, Durable Ideas’ back-office systems included a variety of programs such as QuickBooks, Freshbooks, Salesforce, an online credit card processor and an inventory system—none of which talked to one another efficiently.
“We had all these different systems and we had to take data and input it into each one,” he says. “And this process got really, really annoying.”
Not to mention time consuming, to the point that the company’s inside sales people were spending more time doing paperwork than selling. It was an “ah-ha” moment for Mobrem.
“I thought we could create a centralized hub that integrates with all the back-end systems and integrate it with e-commerce,” Mobrem says. With Durable Ideas’ tech wizard Frank Jones, Mobrem went to work on an iPad app that would do just that. Three and a half months later, they had developed an app that was bare bones but serviceable enough to bring to trade shows, where they used it to take orders. And then something unexpected happened.
“Companies said ‘What the heck are you doing on the iPad?’ and they begged us for the app,” says Mobrem. “And then we got all these phone calls from people wanting to buy our solution, which was not for sale.”
Capitalizing on a Great Idea
Mobrem, fascinated by this unforeseen interest in the app, decided to do more market research. So he attended a few trade shows outside the pet industry, talking about the app to whoever would give him a few minutes. “Every one of them said ‘I need this,'” he says. In the meantime, the app had proven itself at Durable Ideas by dramatically reducing order fulfillment times from up to four days to just a couple of hours. Cash flow also improved by 35 percent, and sales increased 5 to 10 percent.
So in late 2010, Mobrem and Jones left their full time positions at Durable Ideas to start a new company to develop the app, which they named Lettuce. A meeting with venture capitalist Mark Suster of GRP Partners landed the company acceptance into startup accelerator Launchpad LA, in which Suster is a mentor. Private beta users have run approximately $500,000 in orders through the app, and Mobrem plans to make the app available at Apple’s App Store in the near future. When the private beta ends in late May, he’ll begin charging $29 to $119 per month per user.
“Our vision is really in line with the statement ‘Imagine if Apple designed apps for small businesses,’” says Mobrem. “In the long term, we want to be the place where small businesses can go to find great applications to run their whole business.”
08:42 0
samedi 28 avril 2012
Yahoo Escalates Patent War With Facebook
The company also accused Facebook of not having a good-faith belief in the counterclaim it filed almost a month ago.
“Today Yahoo! filed additional claims against Facebook in U.S. District Court related to two additional patents on which Facebook infringes,” Yahoo said in an emailed statement.
“As we have stated previously, Yahoo!’s technologies are the foundation of our business that engages over 700 million monthly unique visitors and represent the spirit of innovation upon which Yahoo! is built. We intend to vigorously protect these technologies for our customers and shareholders.”
In the face of the new claims, Facebook was more succinct: “We remain perplexed by Yahoo’s erratic actions,” a Facebook spokesperson said, also in an emailed statement. “We disagree with these latest claims and we will continue to defend ourselves vigorously.”
With the “erratic” dig, Facebook seems to be depicting Yahoo as the tech-company equivalent of a crotchety old man. Considering Yahoo specifically calls out Facebook for using recently acquired patents as the basis of its lawsuit — even though some of the patents in Yahoo’s claim were acquired as well — the image may well stick.
A quick recap: Shortly after appointing former PayPal executive Scott Thompson as CEO, Yahoo warned Facebook that the social network was infringing on its intellectual property — specifically, 10 patents that relate to Internet technologies.
It then went ahead and sued Facebook a few weeks later, becoming something of a tech-industry pariah in the process.
Facebook, rather than try to end the suit with a quick settlement, set out to arm itself for a retaliatory strike. The social network quickly acquired many patents from both IBM and Microsoft. Facebook also countersued Yahoo — saying that it, too, was guilty of patent infringement.
The whole affair would be funny if it wasn’t a symptom of a wider, all-out patent war. In the last year we’ve seen Apple, Google, Microsoft and a host of others sue the pants of each other, and a company that barely does anything can claim to hold a patent on the web itself.
So this latest salvo in the Facebook-Yahoo patent war likely won’t be the last. What’s your take on the ongoing dispute? Sound off in the comments.
10:32 2
How to Maximize Your Facebook Engagement
If you have a Facebook page, you likely know how important it is to get likes and comments. Without those, your EdgeRank
suffers, and your posts are seen by fewer fans in the future. Facebook
has already admitted that the average Facebook page only reaches about
17% of its fans. Since less than 1 to 2% of fans go back to your page,
EdgeRank and newsfeed visibility are critical.
When you get a new fan, you have the opportunity to keep them engaged. If you don’t, they’ll simply stop reading your posts. Here are some of the things you should keep in mind as you determine how best to engage your Facebook customers.
You need to maximize likes and comments to be visible to fans. Part of getting better engagement results is knowing which days of the week your fans are most and least responsive. This is different for every company and industry. Knowing the best day of the week for all Facebook pages won’t help you with your brand. So even if the best overall day is Tuesday, your company’s best day might be Sunday. For example, recent research indicated that the most responsive day for high-fashion brand pages is Wednesday, while the most responsive day for outdoor clothing brand pages is Thursday. Why should brands care? Well, even if you post every day, your greatest focus should go to those days when followers are most responsive. So, if your best day is on the weekend, make sure you have that covered.
It also turns out that the best days of the week to post on Facebook are not always the same days brands create the most posts. Sometimes it’s a Sunday, and maybe no one is working. It appears that the amount a brand posts is not based on their most responsive days, but perhaps just on convenience or coincidence.
When you compare individual companies, you see that the days they do the most posts are not the same days that they get the most likes and comments per post. For example, see the following charts: Here is when Chanel posts the most (average posts per day over 90 days):
Chanel’s fans are most responsive on Saturdays, but it’s their
second-to-least posted on day of the week. Most likely, their social
media person isn’t working that day, and they’re not scheduling posts
for that day. Without realizing it, they’re missing out on a lot of
likes and comments, which of course hurts their Edgerank and lowers
their fan page’s post visibility.
This highlights that you shouldn’t post most when it’s convenient for you, but when your fans are most responsive.
If you want to figure out this data for your page, here are the steps:
If one of your competitors is doing a much better job at getting likes and comments, you might want to follow their lead. It could be, in part, the days of the week they post, and also the type and quality of content.
When you get a new fan, you have the opportunity to keep them engaged. If you don’t, they’ll simply stop reading your posts. Here are some of the things you should keep in mind as you determine how best to engage your Facebook customers.
Which Days are Your Fans Most Responsive?
You need to maximize likes and comments to be visible to fans. Part of getting better engagement results is knowing which days of the week your fans are most and least responsive. This is different for every company and industry. Knowing the best day of the week for all Facebook pages won’t help you with your brand. So even if the best overall day is Tuesday, your company’s best day might be Sunday. For example, recent research indicated that the most responsive day for high-fashion brand pages is Wednesday, while the most responsive day for outdoor clothing brand pages is Thursday. Why should brands care? Well, even if you post every day, your greatest focus should go to those days when followers are most responsive. So, if your best day is on the weekend, make sure you have that covered.
It also turns out that the best days of the week to post on Facebook are not always the same days brands create the most posts. Sometimes it’s a Sunday, and maybe no one is working. It appears that the amount a brand posts is not based on their most responsive days, but perhaps just on convenience or coincidence.
Case Study: Chanel
When you compare individual companies, you see that the days they do the most posts are not the same days that they get the most likes and comments per post. For example, see the following charts: Here is when Chanel posts the most (average posts per day over 90 days):
And here is when their fans are the most responsive (likes + comments per post):
This highlights that you shouldn’t post most when it’s convenient for you, but when your fans are most responsive.
How to Maximize the Most Engaging Days
If you want to figure out this data for your page, here are the steps:
- 1. Go to your Facebook page insights and click on likes.
- 2. Click on export data. Choose post level data, then select at least a two-month range so you have a good sample.
- 3. Save it and open it in Excel.
- 4. There’s not a quick way in Excel to group dates by day of week, but with a bit of manual work, you can find the average lifetime of engaged users per post, per day of the week.
If one of your competitors is doing a much better job at getting likes and comments, you might want to follow their lead. It could be, in part, the days of the week they post, and also the type and quality of content.
10:26 0
5 Tips for Great Content Curation
If you’re a curator looking for some boundaries in what feels like the Wild West, here are five best practices to consider.
1. Be Part of the Content Ecosystem
Be part of the content ecosystem, not just a re-packager of it. Often, people think of themselves as either creators or curators as if these two things are mutually exclusive. What a curator really should do is embrace content as both a maker and an organizer. The most successful curators include sites like The Huffington Post, that embrace the three-legged-stool philosophy of creating some content, inviting visitors to contribute some content, and gathering links and articles from the web. Created, contributed, and collected — the three ‘c’s is a strong content mix that has a measurable impact. Why? Because your visitors don’t want to hunt around the web for related material. Once they find a quality, curated collection, they’ll stay for related offerings.
2. Follow a Schedule
Audiences expect some regularity, and they’ll reward you for it. It doesn’t need to be a schedule that you can’t keep up with. If you want to curate three new links a day, and write one big post a week, that’s a schedule. Make sure to post at the same time each week. This is so readers know when to expect new material from you. Consistency and regularity will also bring you new users, and help you grow a loyal base of members who appreciate your work. A good example of someone who gets why a schedule makes a difference is Jason Hirschhorn via his MediaReDEF newsletter. He never misses a publish date.
3. Embrace Multiple Platforms
It used to be that your audience came to you. Not anymore. Today content consumers get their information on the platform of their choosing. That means you should consider posting short bursts on Tumblr, images on Pinterest, video on YouTube, and community conversations on Facebook. And don’t leave out established sites and publishers. If your audience hangs out on a blog, you may want to offer that publication some guest posts or even a regular column. Essentially, you have to bring your content contributions to wherever your readers may be.
4. Engage and Participate
Having a voice as a curator means more than creating and curating your own work. Make sure you’re giving back by reading others and commenting on their posts. A re-tweet is one of the easiest ways to help build relationships with fellow bloggers and curators. And your followers will appreciate that you’ve pointed them to good content. One word here, I never hit an RT without clicking through to read what I’m recommending. You can also lose followers if you don’t put in the effort to recommend material that you really think merits their attention.
5. Share. Don’t Steal.
Take the time to give attribution, link backs, and credit. The sharing economy works because we’re each sharing our audiences, and providing the value of our endorsements. If you pick up someone’s work and put it on your blog, or mention a fact without crediting the source, you’re not building shared credibility. You’re just abusing someone else’s effort. The important thing to realize is that we’re increasingly living in a world of information overload. So when people choose to listen to you it’s because you’re able to separate signal from noise. You provide a clear, contextually relevant voice within the topic or topics that you create and curate.
10:16 0
Women Are More Likely Than Men to Have a Blog, Facebook Profile [STUDY]
In a report released Friday, Nielsen found that women, overall, are significantly more likely to engage with social media than men. Per Nielsen’s Internet-usage index, women are 8% more likely than the average online adult to build or update a personal blog — while men are 9% less likely to do so. Similarly, women are 18% more likely than the baseline American to follow a brand on Facebook or other social media sites … while men are 21% less likely. Have created at least one social networking profile? Women: 6% more likely to have done that. Men: 7% less likely. Used the Internet to purchase a product featured on TV? The ladies: 12% more likely. The dudes: 14% less likely.
These are striking discrepancies — particularly because they’re not just about purchasing trends. (It’s long been documented — and Nielsen reiterates it in this report — that women are the more active gender when it comes to digital brands and online purchasing. Just as they tend to dominate with traditional brands and analog purchasing.) The Nielsen findings suggest an intriguing generality, though, to women’s digital affinities: The ladies aren’t just more likely to buy stuff online; they’re more likely to be online in the first place. They’re more likely to blog. They’re more likely to be on Facebook or Twitter. They’re more likely, in general, to represent themselves as digital personas.
That’s fascinating, in particular, because it’s part of a clear trend. A June 2010 comScore study found that women, globally, spend more time online than men (24.8 hours a month for women, as compared to 22.9 hours for men.) A September 2011 report from Rebtel, the mobile VOIP provider, found that 68% of women who use the web to stay in touch with friends, family and acquaintances do so using social media, while only 54% of men do the same. And a February 2012 report from the firm Porter Novelli found a similar breakdown: In a survey of U.K. women, 65% said they used social media at least once a week, while only 51% of men said the same. (The same survey, however, found results that contradict one element of today’s Nielsen findings: Men, it concluded, were more likely than women to write their own blogs, read others’ blogs, and comment on others’ blogs.) And a February Pew survey determined that “women use Facebook more than men,” with women averaging 11 updates a week — compared to 6 updates for their male counterparts.
Those are striking findings, and worth many, many follow-up studies. They’re also a good reason for optimism when it comes to the web as an agent of social change.
10:06 0
mardi 10 avril 2012
Samsung Preparing Itself for Production of Flexible Displays?
That’s not to say that some of the prototypes we’ve seen haven’t been very impressive, but it seemed like the manufacturers involved may still be struggling to figure out a way to integrate these kind of systems with smartphones that feels actually useful, and not just like a gimmick.
Samsung may be preparing itself to make just such a leap and actually release a flexible display, or at least that’s the impression given by the company filing for trademark protection for the name of its latest flexible display tech.
Samsung will apparently call its OLED-based flexible screen YOUM, which gets itself a logo in addition to trademark protection. It’s not clear yet if that’s supposed to be an acronym, but Samsung has been using the name in all-caps.
YOUM basically takes a standard OLED design, and replaces both the glass substrate and encapsulation layers with flexible polymer sheets. As a result, the screens should be especially durable and even a bit lighter than existing components. Samsung goes so far as to call it unbreakable; we’ll withhold judgment on that one until we get our hands on a YOUM device ourselves; they could start showing-up as soon as sometime next year.
16:48 0
Does Instagram Owe Kodak a Billion Dollar Thanks?
Today, the obsession continues but largely without Kodak, which is now mired in bankruptcy. In its place is, I guess, Instagram, the $1 billion-dollar baby.
I still haven’t decided if I’m happy that Facebook bought the digital photography app and social network. I am an Instagram user, although I was not an early adopter. I think I first noticed it when I saw some shared images on Twitter that reminded me of old Instamatic photos.
That was clearly the appeal of Instagram: the ability to take everyday digital images from your iPhone’s camera (now Android, too!) or photo library and apply a filter that made the picture look like it was taken by a camera that Kodak (or Polaroid, for you Land Camera fans) made more than 50 years ago.
Hipsters everywhere instantly adopted Instagram as their own. Every Instagramed photo was somehow more authentic, like the act of adding a filter made the image hand-made. That’s not what really happens, of course. Instagram’s filters, although there are a bunch of them, do not change from image to image. That jagged edge on the “Kelvin” filter will look the same on one photo after another. But the effect is still quite good. These pictures look like you developed them yourself.
That’s particularly rich, of course, since most people using Instagram today probably don’t even know what I’m talking about. Certainly, most Instagram users have never developed their own negatives or printed their own pictures. (Yes, I have, but that’s another, very long story.)
Still there’s a thread of connection between what Eastman did — delivering photography from the pros to the every man by inventing roll film and a camera that could shoot with it — and what Instagram has done: taken something that took time and expertise (photo filter application), and given average consumers the ability to make beautiful (some might say artistic) photos and share them to, potentially, millions with the press of a virtual button.
On the other hand, there would be no Instagram without Eastman and Kodak. Even the Instagram logo is similar to a classic Kodak Instamatic camera—though I don’t know that Instagram has ever paid a dime to Kodak.
The Eastman museum displayed a lot of Kodak’s early cameras and related photography equipment, but no Instamatic that I could find. Although the camera arrived nearly 30 years after Eastman’s death, it helped solidify Kodak’s position in the “photography-for-everyone” pantheon. Clearly, the easy-to-use, low cost, and very portable camera influenced the Instagram team.
As I looked at the remarkable innovation and sometimes quirky (a camera gun?) applications of photographic technology at the Eastman House, I couldn’t help but be a little depressed. Eastman’s genius launched two industries: photography and movies. He had become one of the richest men in the world and believed money could move mountains — or at least homes.
He once had his own mansion split in half and had the two sections moved apart by 10 feet so he could enlarge the conservatory. The work cost $775,000 in the early 1900s. Today’s Kodak would no doubt have other, more pressing needs for the that money.
As Kodak works its way out of Chapter 11, it’s obvious that the company held onto traditional photography as the centerpiece of its business for, perhaps, a little too long. Yes, it was one of the first to introduce a digital camera, but Kodak and its customers seemed to believe traditional film photography would never die.
Too bad Kodak couldn’t have seen as far ahead as Eastman once was. Maybe it could’ve come up with the idea of Instagram and today Facebook would be buying it, instead. That’s a fantasy. The reality, though, is that Facebook and Instagram probably do owe Kodak something — maybe a debt of gratitude. Without Kodak, there would be no Instagram and I bet Facebook would be a much duller place, too.
1860 Folding Camera and George Eastman on right
Errtee Button Camera 1912
This device could
take photos, develop them and then spit out wearable photo pins that
cost passerby 5 cents. A major feat for 1912.
Kodak EOS-1n
An early pro-level digital camera that saved images to a hard drive.
16:37 0
Following Apple’s and Google’s Lead, Amazon Enables In-App Purchases
The move gives the developers an opportunity to earn more money through in-app upgrades, expansions, subscriptions (essential to publishers) and virtual good purchases. It also makes Amazon’s Appstore more competitive with Apple’s and Google’s app stores, both of which have enabled in-app purchasing since spring 2009 and spring 2011, respectively.
Like Apple and Google, Amazon will keep 30% of all revenue generated through in-app purchases.
Developers and publishers including Disney, Gameloft, G5 Entertainment, Conde Nast and Dow Jones were given early access to Amazon’s in-app purchasing API, and will begin offering in-app purchases Tuesday. In a statement, Larissa McCleary, director of marketing at G5 Entertainment, noted that enabling in-app purchases upped conversion rates and revenue in all of the games G5 offers in the Amazon Appstore.
In-app purchases are becoming an increasingly important source of revenue for developers. According to a study conducted by IHS, in-app purchases generated $970 million in revenue in 2011, accounting for 39% of all smartphone app revenue that year. Those figures are only expected to grow, bringing in $5.6 billion — 64% of all smartphone app revenue — in 2015.
Amazon released the above video to introduce developers to its new, in-app purchasing service.
16:27 0
Intel Releases Rugged Education Tablet for the Developing World
The Intel studybook is built to be both a rigorous education tool and a sturdy playmate. It comes loaded with Intel’s Learning Series software, including an interactive ereader and LabCam applications. The rugged water and dust-proof design is constructed from a single piece of plastic, with shock absorbers surrounding the screen. It’s also drop tested from 70 centimeters, the height of a child’s desk, onto concrete.
“Students today live in a virtual world and this device can give a valid scientific experience for students in emerging economies, ” says Wayne Grant, director of research and planning for Intel’s Education Market Platforms Group, as he throws the tablet across the table to demonstrate its robustness. “Representations of knowledge are changing. Tools are now based in tablet environments.”
The tablet has a 7-inch screen, 1060 x 600 pixel resolution, and can run either Windows 7 or Android Honeycomb software. Some additional features include front and rear-facing cameras, a microphone, multi-touch LCD screen, light sensor support and mobile learning environment. It runs on an Intel Atom Z650 processor.
“The tablet is not prescriptive,” Grant says, “Here’s the tool, go discover the world.”
More than 7 million children in more than 2,000 classrooms in 36 countries around the world currently use Intel classmate PCs.
“An Intel studybook offers students limitless opportunities to enhance their learning experience,” says Kapil Wadhera, general manager of Intel’s Education Market Platform Group. “Expanding the Intel Learning Series portfolio of affordable, purpose-built educational devices brings us closer to our vision of enabling more students and teachers to participate in high quality education.”
To improve the classroom environment, the Intel Learning Series also added Teacher PC criteria for Ultrabook and Notebook systems. The criteria is created with the goal of keeping teachers up to speed with the new tools.
A recent study showed that One Laptop Per Child, another rugged classroom PC innovator, did not increase language and math test scores in the classrooms where laptops were used. This gap, the study found, is due to insufficient teacher training with the new technologies.
16:02 0
Microsoft and Nokia Begin Massive Marketing Push Behind Lumia 900
On the heels of putting on a free Nicki Minaj concert in Times Square on Friday, the big marketing push behind the Lumia 900 smartphone went into high gear this week in New York City.
To draw attention to the Nokia Lumia 900 — the first U.S. Windows Phone to boast a high-speed LTE network connection — Microsoft set up an event in Madison Square Park on Monday to give people a chance to check out the new device. The Lumia 900 (which costs $100 with a two-year contract) debuted on Easter Sunday and is yesterday was listed as the number one smartphone on Amazon.
Nokia and Windows aim to differentiate the device in the marketplace by highlighting its LTE network connection, which is far faster than the iPhone’s speed capabilities. New Yorkers who participated in a two-minute demo of the new Lumia 900 device or HTC Titan II device, which also runs on the LTE network, were given a ticket to win “time-saver” prizes.
Those randomly awarded special tickets could tap on an enlarged Lumia 900 touchscreen and win prizes that save them time, from a gift certificate for a local dog walker or having a member of the event staff wait in line for them at popular burger joint Shake Shack, located behind the event space.
“Since the LTE network is so fast, the event focuses on how the Lumia 900 saves you time with its fast speeds,” an event coordinator told Mashable. “It’s been a big success so far.”
An event employee with a microphone also told people in the park that the device runs “much faster than the iPhone” and that it’s the best phone on the market. Although the device launched on Sunday, it was reportedly difficult to purchase the Lumia 900 as nearly all 39 AT&T stores located near Times Square were either closed for Easter Sunday, according to the New York Times.
To create buzz for the launch, Nokia hired Nicki Minaj to put on a free live show in the middle of Times Square on Friday. She performed several songs on a Nokia-branded stage, surrounded by billboards that also promoted the new device. In addition to shout outs about Nokia and the Lumia 900, Minaj also filmed a remix of her song hit “Starships” that has already been watched more than 300,000 times on YouTube. Minaj also promoted her new album “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.”
In addition, Nokia launched last week a nationwide marketing campaign called smartphonbetatest that lead up to the launch. The strategy implied that other smartphones were only in beta before the launch of the Lumia 900. However, the site appeared to suffer from poor planning — it counted down to zero several times before launch day, only to have more hours added to the clock each time.
To draw attention to the Nokia Lumia 900 — the first U.S. Windows Phone to boast a high-speed LTE network connection — Microsoft set up an event in Madison Square Park on Monday to give people a chance to check out the new device. The Lumia 900 (which costs $100 with a two-year contract) debuted on Easter Sunday and is yesterday was listed as the number one smartphone on Amazon.
Nokia and Windows aim to differentiate the device in the marketplace by highlighting its LTE network connection, which is far faster than the iPhone’s speed capabilities. New Yorkers who participated in a two-minute demo of the new Lumia 900 device or HTC Titan II device, which also runs on the LTE network, were given a ticket to win “time-saver” prizes.
Those randomly awarded special tickets could tap on an enlarged Lumia 900 touchscreen and win prizes that save them time, from a gift certificate for a local dog walker or having a member of the event staff wait in line for them at popular burger joint Shake Shack, located behind the event space.
“Since the LTE network is so fast, the event focuses on how the Lumia 900 saves you time with its fast speeds,” an event coordinator told Mashable. “It’s been a big success so far.”
An event employee with a microphone also told people in the park that the device runs “much faster than the iPhone” and that it’s the best phone on the market. Although the device launched on Sunday, it was reportedly difficult to purchase the Lumia 900 as nearly all 39 AT&T stores located near Times Square were either closed for Easter Sunday, according to the New York Times.
To create buzz for the launch, Nokia hired Nicki Minaj to put on a free live show in the middle of Times Square on Friday. She performed several songs on a Nokia-branded stage, surrounded by billboards that also promoted the new device. In addition to shout outs about Nokia and the Lumia 900, Minaj also filmed a remix of her song hit “Starships” that has already been watched more than 300,000 times on YouTube. Minaj also promoted her new album “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.”
In addition, Nokia launched last week a nationwide marketing campaign called smartphonbetatest that lead up to the launch. The strategy implied that other smartphones were only in beta before the launch of the Lumia 900. However, the site appeared to suffer from poor planning — it counted down to zero several times before launch day, only to have more hours added to the clock each time.
Hands on the Lumia 900
Microsoft set up an event in Madison Square Park on Monday to give people a chance to test the new Lumia 900 smartphone.
Lumia 900 Marketing Event in New York City
The phone --
manufactured by Nokia and powered by Windows software -- aims to
differentiate the itself by highlighting its ultra-fast LTE network
connection.
Window's HTC Titan II Smartphone
Testing the HTC Titan II device, which also runs on the LTE network.
15:48 0
Would You Watch An Angry Birds Web Series?
Rovio has announced that they will be launching a 52-episode, weekly Angry Birds web series this fall. Nick Dorra, head of animation at Rovio, said at the MIPTV conference in Cannes, “Angry Birds is not just about the gameplay, and will be in the future less and less about the slingshot, actually, and more and more about the characters.” Dorra says, “We’re going to roll it out on all possible devices. We’re looking at building a video app for that, and we’re also looking at partnerships and so on… We want to be on all screens.”
Though still primarily known for their mobile game, Angry Birds is far from new to the online video scene. The Rovio Entertainment YouTube channel has over 452 million views thanks to popular Angry Birds videos. Some of the most popular Angry Birds videos include a sweet cinematic trailer, a short about Mighty Eagle, and a holiday video called ‘Season’s Greedings!’
The tens of millions of views on these videos indicate that the Angry Birds series, when it launches this fall, will be a huge success. Will you watch? Or will you be too busy with slingshots on your mobile?
10:43 0
LinkedIn Introduces Targeted Updates and Follower Statistics
LinkedIn’s 150m+ users worldwide are a marketers dream.
Professionals with lots of money and desperate me-too job seekers. A
marketer with the ability to craft intelligent relevant messaging would
be able to do good business on the network. But fortunately for
everyone, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner is not necessarily keen on spamming
the fragile LinkedIn ecosystem with ads. But that doesn’t mean he’s not
building better ways for brands to connect with people who are
interested.
The new services give marketers access to targeting and analytics for advertising campaigns for LinkedIn company pages. This is an attempt help brands that want to connect with interested users: a brand can now target and analyze whether they are attracting users of certain demographics to their brand pages. LinkedIn can target “hyper-focused” follower lists based on industry, seniority, job function and other features. And they can then deliver specific content to those users. An image of the process of targeting is given below.
After this content is sent out to those users, brands can look at their analytics dashboard which can track engagement metrics such as likes, shares, comments and more. LinkedIn has provided some more data about the new follower ecosystem, as they’re calling it, below. Check it out and let us know if you agree that this is an effective way for brands to engage on LI.
Additional Information about LinkedIn’s Follower Ecosystem:
Additional Research about LinkedIn Members and the Value of LinkedIn’s Follower Ecosystem:
o Two out of three LinkedIn followers (64%) would follow companies “indefinitely.”
o LinkedIn followers are in 2x more LinkedIn groups than the average member.
The new services give marketers access to targeting and analytics for advertising campaigns for LinkedIn company pages. This is an attempt help brands that want to connect with interested users: a brand can now target and analyze whether they are attracting users of certain demographics to their brand pages. LinkedIn can target “hyper-focused” follower lists based on industry, seniority, job function and other features. And they can then deliver specific content to those users. An image of the process of targeting is given below.
After this content is sent out to those users, brands can look at their analytics dashboard which can track engagement metrics such as likes, shares, comments and more. LinkedIn has provided some more data about the new follower ecosystem, as they’re calling it, below. Check it out and let us know if you agree that this is an effective way for brands to engage on LI.
Additional Information about LinkedIn’s Follower Ecosystem:
- LinkedIn’s Unique Follower Ecosystem: LinkedIn’s follower ecosystem has been designed to enable marketers to: identify and acquire the right followers; more effectively engage and communicate with followers on a regular basis via relevant content; and analyze and optimize the impact of their follower relationships.
- LinkedIn’s Follow Company Button: LinkedIn Targeted Updates and Follower Statistics’ launch follows on the heels of the introduction of the LinkedIn Follow Company button – the first phase of LinkedIn’s follower ecosystem strategy – in February. It facilitates engagement through a button added to businesses’ Web pages and other marketing materials.
Additional Research about LinkedIn Members and the Value of LinkedIn’s Follower Ecosystem:
- Members expect companies to have a presence and engage on LinkedIn:
- Members are “following” companies and want to maintain these relationships:
o Two out of three LinkedIn followers (64%) would follow companies “indefinitely.”
- Followers are active on LinkedIn:
o LinkedIn followers are in 2x more LinkedIn groups than the average member.
- Engaging followers on LinkedIn significantly impacts brand metrics:
- Members are motivated to follow companies on LinkedIn in contrast to other social platforms:
10:39 0
Today: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Hosts a Google+ Hangout
The event will be moderated by Google’s David Drummond, and like previous Hangouts will likely consist of the moderator and the other selected participants having their turns to ask the guest pre-screened questions.
You can connect with the UN on Google+ here and ask a question, although it seems like the people who will be in the Hangout have already been chosen.
The Hangout will be streamed at youtube.com/unitednations. Check out a video highlighting the event below.
10:35 0
Everyone’s Curious About Instagram; Android App Hits 5 Million Downloads
As reported first by The Next Web, by studiously watching the Google Play page for the Instagram app, the app has now jumped into the category of “5,000,000 – 10,000,000″ installs where it was previously in the “1,000,000 – 5,000,000″ install range. I’ve picked up the application myself, and while I still think it’s a close call with Camera ZOOM FX, Instagram’s ability to auto upload and share with others is pretty slick.
Are you using Instagram for Android?
10:32 1
lundi 2 avril 2012
Dude, Where’s My iPhone — Ashton Kutcher to Play Apple CEO Steve Jobs
Last seen replacing Charlie Sheen on CBS’ “Two and a Half Men,” Ashton Kutcher is best known for comedic roles like his stoner character on “That 70′s Show” and his pranks on the reality show “Punk’d.” While the actor has worked on serious films like “Bobby” (Emilio Estevez’s historical drama about the assassination of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy), the staying power of “Dude, Where’s My Car?” is pretty hard to deny.
What Kutcher has going for him that many actors do not is a second life as an Internet celebrity and a demonstrable interest in technology. With more than 10 million Twitter followers and a Klout score of 78, the actor is currently ranked third on the Washington Post’s list of “Most Innovative Celebrities in Digital Media.” Katalyst Media, the production company he co-founded with Jason Goldberg, signed a deal with AOL to produce videos for distribution on AOL.com and AIM in 2006. Since then, Kutcher has also invested in numerous technology-based companies like Airbnb, Path, and Fab.
The actor probably has much glossier hair than Steve Jobs ever did, but he also knows what it’s like to be an artist with a business to run. If the film is anything like Walter Isaacson’s authorized account of the founder’s life, the plot will be more realistic than just about everything that happened in “The Social Network” and will hopefully include a dramatic moment when Kutcher-as-Jobs gets into it with Google’s Eric Schmidt over the Android.
Directed by Joshua Michael Stern (“Swing Vote”) and adapted for the screen by Matt Whiteley, “Jobs” will start production in May.
[Update: “Jobs” is not affiliated with Isascson’s book. Sony is working on its own film adaptation.)
19:48 0
Groupon Stock Drops 12% As Customer Refunds Increase
Groupon is a social buying service that allows users to buy specific items at discount as long as a large number of people participate in a given deal. For example, a massage parlour can offer 30% off their regular price, as long as 100 people purchase the deal. This incentivizes users to invite their friends to participate in the deal, and if the 100 number is hit, the deal is activated.
The problem is that a lot of businesses have not prepared themselves for the influx of customers, and the poor service has sometimes led to users demanding refunds. Another anecdotal reason for the refunds is that the deals are often so enticing that people begin to hoard massive numbers of deals, but then realize they probably won’t need to cash in on 6 massages in the next few months. Read more about the refund issue here.
As we can see in the chart, the stock began to rebound after a big hit in November during the IPO, and had reached heights above 20. As reported in MarketWatch, Justin Post of Bank of America/Merrill Lynch had recommended a buy on the stock, but the company has not performed as well as hoped.
“Groupon has been our most disappointing call in 2012 as we thought 4Q margin upside, a rebound in 4Q take rates, and data suggesting an improving competitive landscape would improve sentiment on the stock,” wrote Justin Post of Bank of America/Merrill Lynch in a note to clients on Monday.This is a far cry from when Google was attempting to buy the company at a valuation of $6B, although today’s price does have its market capitalization at $8B… but that number is falling fast.
19:45 0
Foursquare Shuts Down Location API for “Girls Around Me” App
The app was first discovered by John Brownlee over at Cult of Mac and has since gone viral. John tells the interesting story of showing this app to friends to set their “skin crawling”, and explains how the most worrying thing about the app is how it uses public information — nothing the app is doing is technically forbidden. It raises a few questions for platform creators — questions that other services Tumblr have been facing recently: Do you draw moral and ethical boundaries on the content on your site?
It seems like the answer is yes for extreme cases like these. There’s no reason to let this application continue to provide potentially dangerous information to people, and Foursquare took the opportunity to emphasize this by shutting down GAM’s access to the Foursquare location API. This was followed by Apple taking the application down from the App Store.
19:38 0
Why You Should Consider Hiring Recent Grads
So either you’ll need to hire because a current employee leaves for greener pastures, or you’ll want to hire because you’ve got more business than you can handle. Still, you’re leery of the expense involved. What’s a small business owner to do?
Consider hiring a new college grad. If you typically don’t think of recent graduates as a source of employees for your business, it’s time to think again. A survey late last year by the National Association of Colleges and Universities found employers were planning to hire 9.5 percent more graduates from the class of 2012 than from the class of 2011.
A similar study by the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University reports hiring of new college graduates will increase by 7 percent, and described employers as more optimistic about the college labor market than they have been since the pre-recession days of 2007.
The NACU survey reports that most college hires will be driven by attrition—that is, replacing employees who leave existing positions. In other words, new grads aren’t just for entry-level jobs anymore. In today’s economy, businesses are increasingly relying on recent grads to fill slots that might previously have been filled by more experienced employees. The result can be big cost savings: Although amounts vary depending on industry, the CERI report says salaries for recent college graduates average $36,000.
What are some reasons you might want to consider hiring a recent grad to fill an empty position or add to your team?
They’re hungry. Facing big college loans to pay off, and well aware of the competitive market, students are often willing to take lower-paying jobs than grads of past years were willing to settle for. Seeing many of their friends stay unemployed or underemployed for months (or years) is a big motivator.
They can afford to work for less. The growing trend toward students going back home to live with mom and dad after college (or never leaving home in the first place) means many recent grads don’t need as much income to pay their bills.
They’re more experienced. Getting into college is more competitive than ever. And once they’re there, it costs more than ever, too. Today’s recent grads have often been working, at least part-time, since they were in high school, so they have a strong work ethic and know what it takes.
They’re career-focused. Being in college during the recession and seeing parents and family members laid off forced today’s students to be more practical than many in years past. Many students have held internships in their fields of study, gaining valuable experience that will serve them in their first real jobs.
They can hit the ground running. New grads bring experience with social media, tech tools and the Internet that can help your business grow and your older employees learn. Take advantage of their natural know-how in these arenas.
19:24 0
How to Get Your Business Involved in a Charity
"It’s a great way to retain and recruit quality personnel," says Pete Parker, managing director at NPcatalyst, a Reno consulting firm that helps business and nonprofit interactions. "If you let me volunteer a couple of hours a month or week and carry the company name, that makes me proud to be a part of the company."
Here are some suggestions for businesses that want to start giving back.
Think local
Look around in your town, city or region to see which charities need help. Think about small charities, nonprofits and local chapters of larger organizations.
James Coburn, owner of Harbor Consulting IT Services, has set a goal of donating 20 percent of his company's profits each year. Much of that goes to local organizations.
"It started out with local charities like animal shelters, and now we’re pretty involved with a cancer program," says Coburn. "Always remember where you came from."
Do your research
It's vital to research charitable and nonprofit organizations to make sure they're reliable, responsible, open and honest. Nonprofit consultants like NPcatalyst can help you filter out the better ones. You can also research organizations through sites like CharityNavigator and GuideStar.
Consider what matters to you
Find nonprofits that speak to you in some way. This might mean choosing nonprofit organizations related in some way to the mission and expertise of your business. Or, choose groups that speak to your own concerns, or the interests of your employees.
“If you’re going to do it and are able to do it, find something that means something to you," emphasizes Coburn.
Give employees free choice
Some businesses give employees the chance to donate time or money to nonprofits. When employees are allowed to choose which charities to contribute to, employee satisfaction with the charitable-giving program is greater. Employees like having a personal investment in the process.
Keep records
Remember to track all charitable projects for tax and other purposes. Record what money and time is given, as well as when, how and to whom the company donates. If you don't have the resources to do this record-keeping in-house, hire an outside firm or consultant to handle this part of charitable giving for you.
Getting help with the administrative side of charitable work and donations will give you and your employees more time to devote to the charitable work itself.
Gang up
When groups of employees get involved in charitable giving, they build teams. Consider giving time for the whole office, or designated teams, to volunteer at a local event or charity. This practice brings more help to the organization and increases the team spirit of your employees.
One of Parker's clients is a bank that encourages groups of seven to 10 people to work on a project together. It might be clearing trails or packaging food at a food bank.
"The benefit there is employee bonding, and there are a lot of benefits that come out of that," says Parker. "And it’s free—you don’t have to pay for a ropes course."
Though small businesses might not think they have the resources to devote to charitable activities, often they have more resources than they realize. It's a matter of setting aside time or money and understanding how charitable involvement can benefit the business's bottom line as well as the community.
19:18 0
How One Entrepreneur Is Profiting From March Madness
The former newspaper editor and publishing exec has built a business consulting and teaching how to create social media strategies. March is madness for him. His company, KSRyan Group, partners with Turner Sports Interactive to manage social media features for March Madness Live, the video app that lets fans watch the NCAA tournament on their computers and mobile devices. Viewers can see Ryan’s work, a torrent of fans’ comments on each matchup, flowing alongside game video.
"These are fans interacting with fans," says Ryan, 48, who lives and works in New Hyde Park, N.Y. "It’s analogous to a viewing party or the bar stool conversation people have while you’re watching the game. You want to talk about what you’re seeing…It allows viewers to participate in ways they hadn’t before."
It’s an incredible gig for someone who’s been working on his own for just two years. He started out as a newspaper reporter and editor before joining Barnesandnoble.com in 2000 as a vice president and web editor. "When I left The New York Times in early ‘97, it was somewhat of a risky move," Ryan says. “I remember people saying, ‘why would you want to leave The Times?’ But the fast pace, always moving Internet schedule, was very similar to what I lived with in my journalism days.’’
He learned about marketing and online content, working on ways authors and readers could interact. He created online book clubs at the moment when people were starting to blog. He plunged into social media, building the book conglomerate’s presence among Facebook and Twitter users.
Ryan began to think about how he could marshal this new technology in his own business that would let him spend more time with his wife and three children. He realized that social media is just another way to tell stories and that he could help a business “build a narrative for customers.’’
Ryan consults and trains, getting businesses to understand and build a social media strategy. “A lot of companies are still trying to figure out what they should do on a Facebook page,’’ he says. “If you’re not paying attention to what that conversation is, then you’re at risk of allowing brand damage to be done without you knowing about it.’’
March Madness work is Ryan’s most intensive part of the job. He helped define the social product features for the March Madness Live app, organized the social arena features on Facebook, worked with vendors and managed the kit and caboodle throughout the tournament.
Ryan’s work with customers through social media had trained him well to judge when someone’s comments were helpful and when they were made just to get noticed, says Michael Adamson, Turner interactive vice president for new products.
For the fan chatter, Ryan and his March Madness colleagues set up Twitter feeds for each of the 68 college teams that played, filtering out swear words and insensitive or inaccurate remarks.
Monitoring is important, he says. "Social media is a no-holds-barred kind of enterprise and people will push the envelope with what they can say," Ryan says.
Take for example the NCAA’s decision to suspend Syracuse starter Fab Melo for academic reasons. “The Twittersphere just blew up,’’ Adamson says. Turner and NCAA relied on Ryan’s journalism training to filter through the posts. "We wanted to make sure we were filtering out the ‘you sons of b--ches’’’ and included what most fans were writing: “Holy Cow! I need to change my bracket!”
A 1985 graduate of Syracuse University, Ryan says the Orange men’s loss on March 24 to Ohio State didn’t crush him. “They’re going to break your heart at some point,’’ he says. “Now it’s easier to focus on the work.’’
The folks at Turner hope the conversation will be “absolutely crazy,’’ Adamson says. “I hope [Ryan] gets slammed. That means there are interesting stories and the fans are talking.’’
19:07 0
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