Here's Why Zuckerberg Needs to Stay as Facebook's CEO
Todd Wasserman just posted an article entitled Should Zuckerberg Resign From CEO Position?, with a poll included. Snapshot in time, here's where results are netting out right now:
- No way. Everyone needs to chill out. 45.35% (2,321 votes)
- Yeah. Sorry, dude, but you're in over your hoodie. 41.91% (2,145 votes)
- Not sure. 12.74% (652 votes)
To take you back to what inspired Todda's story: an LA Times story quoted investors, including Barry Ritholtz of research firm Fusion IQ and, Chris Whalen, senior managing director at Tangent Capital Partners, among others —who feel that Zuckerberg should stay on in a creative capacity, but that Facebook needs an experienced CEO.
The Social 6: Stories You Missed This Past Weekend, 8/20/12
#6: Back To School: 5 Evernote Tips for Students
If you don't use Evernote, go ahead and download it! I'll wait. Even if you're not a student, these Evernote tips from Dave Copeland of ReadWriteWeb can definitely come in handy.
#5: Deets For iOS Keeps Contacts Up To Date Automatically, Lets You Share Files, Photos & More
Deets is a new iOS mobile app (Android coming soon) that doesn't just keep contacts' information up to date automatically -- it's so much more. Sarah Perez provides some great TechCrunch analysis on the app and the business behind it.
#4: Case Study – Nakashima/Katsu-Ya
I love food and I love social media, so you can imagine an article touching on social media marketing for restaurants would be right up my alley. This is an interview with Tim Nakashima (business owner) and Brad Cebulski (agency) and how they work together to drive business value. Wish there were more pics of the food, though!
#3: In India, a Time of Flux Approaches
I'll admit it: I'm not an expert on the Indian economy, much less its startup scene. That being said, this article by Ankush Chibber gives some detailed analysis on the evolution of India's consumer Internet space.
#2: Social Media Transforming Campaign Strategies & Engagement Practices
If you're into cold hard figures and like politics as well, then you'll really enjoy this Examiner piece by Anthony Carranza, which dives into exactly how the Romney and Obama campaigns are leveraging social platforms to support their campaigns for the US presidency.
#1: Celebrity Tweeters: Worth Their Weight in Gold, or a Lot of Hot Air?
Many celebrities tweet endorsements, and there's a debate as to how much these are worth in general. This article in The Next Women touches on some of the factors businesspeople should look at when evaluating how important celebrity tweeters are.
The Social 6: Key Stories of The Last 24 hours, 8/17/12
#6 A $12-Million-A-Month iOS Game? NaturalMotion Has It With CSR Racing
Benchmark Capital-backed NaturalMotion has announced that its high-profile game, CSR Racing, is now surpassing $12 million in monthly revenue. If that’s the case, that would be the most any iOS game has hit to date, and illustrates the potential market opportunity here.
#5 Case Study: Salon Keeps Customers Coming Back With Wacky Rewards
Stephanie Miles tells why salon customers that go to Red 7 Salon keep coming back for more after they receive rewards. Really useful Street Fight article if you run a brick & mortar location.
#4 The Hulu Dilemma: How Private is Your Video Playlist?
While I’m very far from a privacy advocate, in that I personally tend to make things public by default online whenever possible, this article outlines the challenges associated with considering anything private online when it’s stored on a third party’s server. Nancy Scola writes a strong ReadWriteWeb article on how Hulu is dealing with a class action suit relating to privacy, and how your private playlist may be private to your friends, but not to data miners.
#3 HTML5 Gaming Gets Another Contender With Goko's New Platform
Another gaming piece today! HTML5 gaming gets a new cohort of startup contenders. Kim-Mai Cutler delivers a great article on TechCrunch explaining about Goko, a Redwood City-based company that may make it easier for game developers to publish HTML5 games. This looks like a pretty strong platform; I’d recommend keeping an eye on Goko.
#2 Little Black Bag Stows Away $8 Million in Funding for Social Shopping
Another social commerce company, Little Black Bag, has raised $8 million dollars to fund. Tricia Duryee writes for All Things D saying the inspiration came from a Japanese New Year's Day tradition. Yet another sign that social shopping startups are red-hot.
#1 Meet the Guys Who Started Stanford's Facebook in 1999
Jesse Draper posts a video on Mashable from back in the day. Believe it or not, Stanford shut down “The Facebook” in 1999 because of safety precautions. Interesting piece to check out, and wonder if the founders ever think “what if?” I can related: I created smithfacebook.com for my business school, the Robert H. Smith School of Business at University of Maryland, back in 2005/2006 or so – so I can completely empathize and wonder what might have been!
The Social 6: Key Stories of The Last 24 hours, 8/16/12
Without any further ado, here's a roundup of what I shared, and what you guys found interesting, over the last 24 hours:
#6 AfterCollege Relaunched, Looks To Build A LinkedIn For College Students And Recent Grads
AfterCollege is now looking to be, in essence, the “young LinkedIn.” There’s more to it, of course, and Rip Empson writes a great article on TechCrunch outlining what the new AfterCollege looks like.
#5 Campaigns' calls for voter videos going unanswered
Both major presidential candidates are seeking homemade videos created by voters, but surprisingly, there is very little user-generated content being submitted. Callum Borchers wrties a great piece for The Boston Globe explaining what’s going on.
#4 6 Paid-Owned-Earned Ideas in Retail from eTail's Social Day
Allison Tepley writes for AddThis’ blog, sharing insights from eTail’s Social Commerce & Engagement Summit, and which themes and topics were front and center.
#3 Google Plus Starts Offering Vanity URLs
Google+ is stepping up its game by offering vanity URLs at long last! Sanjeez Ramachandran delievers a piece with a great explanation. Unfortunately, they’re only for verified accounts right now, but it’s a good, necessary step for the social platform.
#2 Barnes & Noble Tosses Nook to the Discount Pile
B&N is cutting the retail price of their Nooks, looking to be possibly the most inexpensive option on the tablet market. If this works, I’m all for it: the healthier the Nook can be, the more likely we are to have Barnes & Noble stick around.
#1 Pinterest Nudges Users Off the Couch and Into the World With New Android and iPad Apps & There’s more: Pinterest is launching for the Kindle Fire later this week
This is a tie between two articles that both touch on how Pinterest is becoming so much more than a browser-based experience. With this week’s releases, it’s pretty clear that Pinterest is looking to do whatever it takes to put its platform in front of as many people and as many devices as possible. I’d say they’re doing a good job of becoming more ubiquitous.
The Social 6: Key Stories of The Last 24 hours, 8/15/12
#6 Done Deal: 10 Weeks Later, Salesforce.com Owns Buddy Media
Peter Kafka delivers a great article for AllThingsD sharing that Salesforce.com now officially owns Buddy Media. The deal was said to have closed at $750 million. All in all, a pretty quick acquisition as these deals tend to go. Congrats to my friends at Buddy Media for officially being part of the Salesforce family.
#5 Facebook's Instagram Deal Moves One Step Closer: UK's Office Of Fair Trading Gives IT The All-Clear
Speaking of slower acquisitions, Facebook’s Instagram deal is one step closer to being a reality: Ingrid Lunden of TechCrunch explains some of the anti-competitive concerns surrounding the deal. Personally, I can see why any consolidation of social platforms should be closely reviewed.
#4 Mobile Apps Could Be Affected by New COPPA Privacy Rules for Kids
Brian Proffitt writes a great article on ReadWriteWeb explaining why the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act are considering new changes.
#3 How the Second Screen Scored in the Summer Olympics
Mobile media became a huge deal during this years Olympics. John Paul Titlow writes an interesting for ReadWriteWeb telling why, and is a great way of telling what the future holds for mobile event consumption.
#2 Ultimatum to stores: sign pledge not to sell 'trampy' kids clothes or be boycotted
Nick Ralston posts a video and an article on Life & Style about whether or not to sell kids clothes that may be a bit revealing. Inappropriate clothing for children has raised as an issue against Target Australia (*very* loosely affiliated with Target USA), and a grassroots attempt is being made to respond to the store’s decisions.
#1 Dell CEO's Daughter Booted From Twitter for Security Reasons
How annoying would it be for you to spend $2.7 Million to keep your family safe, only to find that the biggest security concern was your own daughter? Even though it was innocuous, Alexa Dell, CEO Michael Dell’s daughter, posted a photo going to Fiji, which could lead to people following her. Zoe Fox writes for Mashable and gives more details to the situation, which sheds some light on the concerns associated with geo-location sharing.
The Social 6: Key Stories of The Last 24 hours, 8/14/12
#6 Now In 20 Cities, Startup Grind Aims To Inspire The Next Generation Of Global Entrepreneurs
Rip Empson writes for TechCrunch profiling Startup Grind, an event-based community for entrepreneurs.
#5 How Maker Camp uses Google+ to give teens a behind-the-scenes look at tech and science
Now here’s a pretty cool initiative: a new summer camp is in the making and the markers are Google and Make Magazine! This new online camp is targeted at 13 to 18 year olds that want to learn more about science and technology. Anna Heim writes for The Next Web explaining more about this new online initiative.
#4 Answer Underground Aims To Be A Mobile-Focused Quora For Education, Hits The iPad This Week
Did you know there are 3.7 billion web searches every month for education-related topics? I sure didn’t. Sallie Severns, formerly of Answers.com, founded and created Answer Underground, to help fill this information niche. Answers Underground is a mobile-focused learning utility created to help students share information and get answers quickly. Rip Empson shares more details in this TechCrunch piece.
#3 Kim Dotcom promises that disruptive new music service, Megabox, will launch this year
Writing for The Next Web, Jon Russell says Dotcom's new venture, Megabox, will allow artist to sell music to direct users, and is said to launch before the end of the year.
#2 Case Study: Twitter and Mindy Kailing
An article on Pocket Stop’s Basement Blog about Mindy Kaling, , and how her new show on Fox, The Mindy Project, might not have gotten off the ground without the strength of her voice on Twitter. This is a great lesson for any sole proprietor or personality: having a strong “social voice” clearly can pay huge financial dividends.
#1 Google makes another huge move in travel with rumored acquisition of Frommer's
Fresh off of acquiring Zagat a few months back, Google is now acquiring Frommer's brand of travel guides! Brad McCarty writes for The Next Web outlines the move, which should improve Google’s travel-planning searches.
The Social 6: The Weekend Recap, 8/13/12
You know the drill by now: here’s a countdown of the top six most important articles I’ve shared in the last day. I curate this top six based on number of retweets, clicks, favorites, and mentions, so you guys are a large part of what ends up listed here :)
#6 5 Tips to Take Food Photos Good Enough to Eat
I think most people can agree, seeing great pics of food can make you hungry. Samantha Murphy delivers a great piece on Mashable giving you tips on how to take great food photos using your smartphone.
#5 5 Reasons Why Your Social Media Training Will Fail
There are things to always keep in mind so your social media training does not fail. This Business 2 Community piece by Kate Rose gives 5 reasons why training fails, and some tips for making sure this doesn’t happen to you.
The Summer Olympics had plenty of viewers and pundits going social, turning to social media and traditional media to criticize Olympians in real-time. Even if you’re not remotely involved in the Olympics, this is a great piece to read to get an understanding of the problems with media scrutiny in 2012 and how to best deal with it.
#3 Funded! Dalton Caldwell’s Twitter alternative App.net reaches $500,000 funding goal
App.net , a “real-time social feed without the ads,” reached its funding goal ahead of time. The approach Dalton Caldwell and his team have taken is commendable: reaching out to users and developers first, with the goal of putting them ahead of advertisers. There’s an alpha available at https://alpha.app.net/global/ if you want to check it out. Great project and worth rooting for.
#2 Paul Ryan Is Gabe From 'The Office'
The most newsworthy story this weekend undoubtedly had to be Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate. While there's tons of serious analysis out there, Amanda Wills takes a different approach, and posts a great slideshow illustrating the similarities between Gabe and Paul Ryan. Nice to see that Gabe Lewis is (in a way) finally getting what he's always wanted - a shot at the bigtime. Personally, I've noticed some similarities between Gabe and VP nominee Paul Ryan, so it's nice to see I'm not the only one.
#1 Viewpoint: 11 Reasons a 23-Year-Old Shouldn't Run Your Social Media
Wow. This story sure elicited plenty of feedback and retweets from you guys. I think the provocative title may have helped.
Technology is changing at a rapid pace, sure; however that doesn't mean you must hire a 23 year-old to manage your social media. Hollis Thomases writes for TIME Business and offers some great guidance. Don't be misled by the title of this article; the analysis inside is a serious, thoughtful approach to how a brand should be handling its social strategy.
Related articles
The Social 6: Key Stories of The Last 24 hours, 8/10/12
#6 Facebook turns to its army of users to report phising attacks using new public email address
Facebook's success unfortunately makes it a target for phishers and scammers. Matt Brian writes a great article on TheNextWeb explaining how Facebook is turning to its users to cut down on Facebook-related phishing. Solid move for the company to get the rise in phishing under control.
#5 Are RIM and Samsung Ready to Do the Deed?
Richard Adhikari writes a nice article on Ecommerce with details about how Samsung and RIM might be getting in bed together, either through a licensing agreement or flat-out acquisition. In my mind, RIM’s value isn’t going to go up anytime soon, and a deal would be a step in the right direction for the struggling firm.
#4 Where Apple's Boy Genius Went Wrong
During the Olympic coverage, Apple aired three ads that they thought could have helped sales, but they’ve been reportedly pulled from the air pretty quickly. Chris Maxcer delivers a great E-Commerce Times article explaining why the ads were pulled, and how an advertising powerhouse like Apple went wrong.
#3 Chick-fil-A: Stop Trying to Control the Conversation
Another strong E-Commerce Times piece! Christopher J. Bucholtz outlines where Chick-fil-A went wrong in its support of gay marriage. If you’re following my writing or my tweets, you know I think Chick-fil-A is 100000% within its rights to support its brand values, but the shifty way they managed the fiasco from a PR perspective is what really got to me – and many others.
#2 If a Google Employee Dies, Spouse Gets Half Pay for 10 Years
I wrote my upcoming book Going Social based on not just being sociable with your customers, but being good to them in general. When you think about it, some of your most important customers – or constituents – are your employees. This piece outlines how amazingly good Google is to its employees. It’s not just free food and fitness classes anymore: the death benefits extended to employees are pretty impressive. Samantha Murphy of Mashable goes into good detail in this piece.
#1 Pinterest Drops Invites, Now Open to Everyone
This past Wednesday, Pinterest announced they have removed their invite-only strategy towards increasing membership, and are now open to anyone with a pulse. Yet another sign Pinterest is looking to go mainstream in a major way. It will be interesting to see how adoption rates go up – or not – as a result of this move.
The Social 6: Key Stories of The Last 24 hours, 8/9/12
As you guys may be aware, I’m a pretty voracious reader and generally share a bunch of news & reviews via my social platforms. Here’s a countdown of the top six most important articles I’ve shared in the last day. I curate this top six based on number of retweets, clicks, favorites, and mentions, so you guys are a large part of what ends up listed here :).
#6 Backed By $900K From Keith Rabois And Angels, Breakthrough Is Your New Online Shrink
Did you know that one in four Americans suffer from a diagnosable mental illness? To go along with that, only one-third of those people are treated! Its no secret that the poor are a few of many that can't afford treatment. Rip Empson writes for TechCrunch about Breakthrough, launched out of TechCrunch50, and how it offers a way for users to privately connect with mental health professionals via email, phone or HIPAA-compliant video chat.
#5 Y Combinator-Backed Canopy Labs Unveils A Self-Serve Approach To Customer Modeling
Canopy Labs, one of the startups in Y-Combinator’s current class, is aiming to help mid-sized businesses organize their sales leads and focus on high-value customers. Anthony Ha delivers a TechCrunch article outlining Canopy’s value proposition, and how an “actionable and quick” solution is better than a custom solution built in-house.
#4 Boutine Lets Women Build Their Own Virtual Boutiques
A new website called Boutine allows women to browse and create new looks by mix-and-matching items. Similar to Polyvore in many ways, the website aims to be the place where you actually purchase the items you mix. Founder Pramod Dabir, was inspired to try his hand at a fashion startup after years of working in investment banking thanks to a little inspiration from his then fiancee, now wife. Yet another fashion-focused startup, but this one looks like it has the business model to stick around if it gains any traction.
Apple put a 24-hour ban on users changing their Apple ID password via phone, after at least one hacker used some phone trickery to get access to users’ accounts.
#2 Google to Include Gmail Results in Search Results
Yesterday, I reported that Google is looking to include Gmail results inside regular web search queries, and explored what this could mean for the future of search. Read the piece to see how to sign up for the private beta.
#1 Square Partners With Starbucks, Raises $25M For Series D; Howard Schultz Joins The Board
While Square started largely at a grassroots level, here’s one more indicator that it’s heading for the bigtime. Beginning this fall, Square will be the exclusive debit and credit card transaction partner for Starbucks across the U.S. Plus, pay with Square users will be able to the nearest Starbucks by accessing the Square Directory from their iPhone or Android phone. This is a huge coup for Square in becoming a mainstream transaction handler.
[BREAKING] Google to Include Gmail Results in Search Results
Want to get Gmail search results whenever you run a Google query? Looks like that's what the future of search may look like.
Google is running a field trial to see how this goes. To sign up for the trial, go to http://g.co/searchtrial. The experiment is limited to just 1 million users and not available for Google Apps accounts, so not all of you will be able to participate.
Side note: as a Google Apps user, it's unfortunate that Google continues to, in a way, treat paying customers (i.e. Google Apps users) worse than non-paying customers (Gmail users).
Key takeaway from this story? The future of search entails personalized search, and no more generic search results. And, that's a good thing. However, it remains to be seen how this increased relevancy can be directly monetized.