The Social 6: Key Stories of The Last 24 hours, 8/4/12
As you may know, 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 Do You Remember All the Cool Things Your CRM App Can Do?
Christopher Bucholtz, in this E-Commerce Times piece, argues that the average enterprise isn't taking advantage of many of the features that come baked into their CRM implementation. As someone who's advised many companies in getting the most out of their CRM investment, I can attest to the problem. Scheduling features are the biggest opportunity for companies to easily extract more value out of CRM, as Mr. Bucholtz outlines in this piece.
#5 Facebook Photos Get Blurry With This Privacy Plug-In
This fall, you may see a lot of blurred photos on Facebook. McAfee will be making it a little safer to share your photos on the social platform thanks to Social Protection, a new product that will allow users better control over their, and prevents people from downloading those pictures to view anywhere else. This sounds more like McAfee looking for a saleable product than it is solving a real need, but maybe I'm in the minority? Emily Price reports more in this Mashable piece.
#4 Social Media Is Becoming Useful, Finally
Contrary to the headline of this article, it's not a rant about how social media has largely been a productivity waster. Instead, it's a piece about Clipboard, a privately beta-launched at the end of 2011 and available to the public since May, is looking to make social media more productivity for everyone. Gustavo Razzetti has more detail on Clipboard in this Clickz piece, and how it could be a bit of a game-changer.
#3 Google Plus Comes to Blogger, Brings Both Communities Together
Google rolled out a brand new feature in Blogger this past Monday that ties directly into Google Plus. In this Business 2 Community piece, Andrew Glasscock explains all of the benefits the new functionality offers for Blogger users. If you're a Blogger user, this is A) a must-read and B) something you should look more into!
#2 Kanye West Is Advising NYC Startup The Fancy on the Future of Commerce
This week, Kanye West payed a visit to one of my favorite NYC startups. The Fancy - which is is one of his favorites as well. Kanye stopped by to give advice to The Fancy CEO Joe Einhorn, who reportedly "looks up to Kanye the way most tech folks idolize Steve Jobs." Hey, whatever works for you. Key takeaway here: The Fancy is becoming a favorite of quite a few celebrities, not just 'Ye.
#1 A Real Dad Won't Save You if You're 'Taken' [VIDEO]
I think a lot of you were interested in winding down yesterday; that's probably the #1 reason so many of you clicked on this parody of the Movie Taken, the 2008 thriller about an American girl kidnapped by human traffickers in Paris. Pretty fun video of how a dad less capable than Liam Neeson's Taken character would react to his child's abduction.
The Social 6: Key Stories of The Last 24 hours, 8/3/12
As you may know, 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 Image Ad Startup Cortica Raises $7M From Li Ka-Shing's Horizons Ventures And Ynon Kreiz
Cortica announced that they have raised $7 million in funds. The company's image recognition technology helps serve up incredibly relevant ads; just take a look at the example inside this article. TechCrunch blogger, Anthony Ha, says the money comes from Horizons Ventures, the firm owned by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, and from Ynon Kreiz, the former chairman and CEO of the Endemol Group, the world’s largest independent TV production company.
#5 Sign and Send Contracts From Your iPhone For Free With HelloSign
Not quite a social story, but bear with me - this is a pretty big productivity booster! HelloFax, the company that allows you to send and receive digital faxes, has spun off its digital signature service into a new product called HelloSign. Emily Price, writer for Mashable, says documents can be signed and securely returned to their sender from both the web and the company’s new iPhone application. Unlike other services and apps that are already out there, digital signatures using the service are free and unlimited so you can send and receive just a few documents with no cost.
#4 Why Is Great Service So Rare?
Great service is something that every customer wishes to have at all times. Everyone loves a customer-friendly brands like Zappos, and gets weak in the knees when a customer service rep actually treat us to great service. Who couldn't agree with that? But besides the obvious business advantages, outstanding service remains frustratingly mysterious, as contributor Dorie Clark outlines in this Forbes piece.
#3 Is Social Media Destroying Real-World Relationships? [INFOGRAPHIC]
It's no secret that social media allows us to organize our real-world relationships.It allows you to meet new people outside the digital realm — both of which can be great, life-enhancing things. Sam Laird writes on Mashable asking if social networking could have an adverse effect on our quality of life? After all, 24% of respondents to a recent survey indicated that they had missed out on participating in a major event in person because they were too busy documenting their life online. Pretty useful infographic included in this piece, too.
#2 Rumor: Google Puts A Hold On New Google+ Acquisitions
Frederic Lardinois and Alexia Tsotsis report for TechCrunch that Google may be putting a stop to all acquisitions related to Google+, at least until the end of this year. Google is cautious of both growing the Google+ team right now and providing the product with any more resources until January. It will be interesting to see if Google+ marketing spend goes down in the short-term. Is Google looking to see if Google+ can continue its forward momentum without as much of a concentrated push on their part? Could be. At a certain point, Google+ has to succeed or not on its own merits.
#1 8.7% of Facebook accounts are fake? Still, that leaves 872m bona fide users.
According to Paul Sawers, writer for The Next Web, 8.7% of Facebook accounts are fake, as CNET noted earlier today. That means about 83m users, if we’re using the 955m figure announced by Facebook recently. While this obviously leaves Facebook with a pretty significant number of worldwide adoptees, the amount of accounts purported to be fake is pretty staggering.
The Social 6: Key Stories from The Last 24 hours, 8/2/12
As you may know, 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 5 Ways to Get Email Overload Under Control
Email's still one of the top ways that people are going social on a daily basis, but "email hell" is an issue for many of us. I'll confess, email is a pretty significant weakness of mine - which you may know if you've ever emailed me. Dmitri Leonov of Mashable says the only good news is that you’re not alone and that the average person gets more than one hundred emails per day. This piece has a number of great suggestions to keep email at bay, including but not limited to the super-useful Inbox Zero philosophy.
#5 13 Tumblrs to Satisfy Your Olympic Appetite
Are you a big Olympic follower and are waiting for the next big Olympic event? Well, I'm not. I could just never get into the Olympics the way it seems 95% of my colleagues do. That said, Tumblr has plenty fan-made sites that will keep you entertained and on top of all the latest Olympic developments. Christine Erickson of Mashable uses this piece to highlight some of the best.
#4 Pinterest adds new categories and is rolling out a redesigned repinning process
Pinterest has just added new categories, which could have a pretty big impact in terms of what types of content people curate onto Pinterest. The new categories include Quotes, Tattoos, and Weddings. Given how specific these categories are, we’ll probably see more appear as long as the site continues to grow in popularity. Plus, this piece has more on Pinterest's reported upcoming redesign of its popular repinning feature.
#2 Pinfluencer Gets Around the Pinterest Analytics Problem
More Pinterest news! Pinterest hasn’t been very friendly to people who try to use its site for commercial purposes. Liz Gannes of AllThingsD says the site flags short URLs and strips tracking codes, both of which are standard practice for brands in social media. Pinfluencer sits on top of Pinterest, rather than helping with any kind of tracking into user pinning and repinning activity.
#2 Psst. Facebook Turned On Its App Center Worldwide Overnight [Updated]
Facebook continues to make efforts into furthering its dominance as a social platform. Ingrid Lunden of TechCrunch reports that the company has now made its App Center, the storefront for Facebook desktop and mobile applications, available across most of the world. The App center went global overnight between 7/31 and 8/1, reportedly. It had already been overnight in most of the English-speaking world and a few other key markets - but the global rollout means that Facebook is doubling down on pushing itself as the dominant social platform across all devices and form factors.
#1 Google Buying Social Media Startup Wildfire
Here's a small piece I shared about Google's acquisition of Wildfire from Time's Techland section. Wildfire, one of the leading social media marketing companies, is now joining the Google empire - just like Salesforce purchased Buddy Media and Oracle acquired Vitrue. Not only does this show how the bigger players are looking to add social media marketing for business to their repertoire, but it also shows a concerted effort for these companies to have some ability to "keep tabs" on Facebook, by acquiring firms that leverage Facebook as their primary marketing channel.
The Social 6: Key Stories from The Last 24 hours, 8/1/12
As you may know, 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 Twitter Launches Clickable Stock Symbols, StockTwits' Howard Lindzon Says "Hey, We Already Do That!"
Twitter quietly rolled out another new feature. This may seem simple and straightforward at first but could actually have big issues. Rip Epson of TechCrunch reports on how Twitter via its very own Twitter account announced users can now click on stock (or “ticker”) symbols in any tweet to view search results for those stocks and companies - and what kind of impact this will have.
#5 [Review] Eloqua's Grande Guide to Community Management
Eloqua has published another on of their Guides! This one revolved around Community Management. Robyn Tippins of ReadWriteWeb says she was able to get a copy on Thursday and wanted to share her review now that it’s available. The writers of ebook is written by great people who are loved in the community management and content strategy sphere, Brett Petersel (Co-Founder of The Community Manager) and Jesse Noyes (Managing Editor at Eloqua) wrote the bulk of the document with contributions from Nate McGee, Alan Belniak and Lauren Harper.
#4 Bizzabo adds a social and mobile twist to business events, raises $1.5m
Robin Wauter of TNW says Bizzabo, the Israeli maker of a smartphone app that helps professionals network with peers at conferences and tradeshows, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding. The money comes from a group of investors and investment firms, including Jeff Pulver, former 888 Holdings CEO Gigi Levy, among others.
#3 Who's That Girl? Chick-fil-A's Social Media Blunder
By now, the Chick-fil-A PR disaster has made huge headlines, and put the chain in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. As you may know, Jim Henson’s company recently severed their ties with Chick-fil-A due to their stance on gay marriage, and the fast food giant blundered their response, to put it mildly. This a great example on why your business needs to tread carefully when it comes to sensitive topics. Good read!
#2 Goodbye, Gmail Video Chat. Hello Google+ Hangouts
Gmail has had video chat since 2008. But its time for something newer and better so wave your last goodbyes to your buddy list. Chris Taylor of Mashable reports that Google will be be replacing Gmail video chat with Google+ Hangouts. The differences between the two is the old video chat was based on peer-to-peer technology. Now hangouts, utilize will the power of Google’s network to deliver higher reliability and enhanced quality.
#1 Ah, so that's Twitter's strategy: A "clickable" world
Does Twitter have a secret strategy to become more of a "starting point" for all your digital browsing activity? Now that “Cashtags” (clickable stock symbols) are becoming a clickable part of Twitter became popular, it's interesting to see where Twitter might take this strategy. Drew Olanoff of TNW thinks this could include making bits and pieces of data clickable, leading you to a full stream of context around a topic or item.
The Social 6: Key Stories from This Past Weekend, 7/30/12
As you may know, I’m a voracious reader and tend to share a good deal of news 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 :).
The Social 6: Key Stories from The Last 24 hours, 7/27/12
As you may know, I’m a voracious reader and tend to share a good deal of news 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 This Guy Modeled His Impressive Resume After Google Analytics
The #1 advice I give people is that their resume needs to stand out. The second key piece of advice is that is has to be tailored to whatever market you're going after. Online marketing manager Simone Fortunini created a great example of a resume that's modeled perfectly after Google Analytics, and really stands out from the crowd. Nicely reported by Vivian Giang of Business Insider Careers.
#5 Zynga's Mark Pincus blames engagement decline on Facebook
Harrison Weber of TNW talks about Zynga's CEO, Mark Pincus, blames Facebook in part for the loss of users due to the changes to Facebook's platform. In my opinion, Zynga still has plenty of long-term potential, in that they've developed a strong gaming platform. However, they're just too dependent on Facebook. A strategy to become less dependent on Facebook would bode well for their long-term growth.
#4 Chick-Fil-A's Facebook Page becomes Ground Zero
Yesterday, I shared more news about Chick-Fil-A's PR troubles. I event went so far as to create abbyfarle.com to comment on the snafus. The PR problems continue for the fast food giant: a huge protest to "Eat Less Chikn'" has begun, and the company is finding it hard to control their message. Amora Mcdaniel of Upstart (part of Bizjournals.com) shares more about the controversy that the company is facing.
#3 Forget About.me, Vizify is your new online profile of choice [Invites]
Vizify, the new way to show a broad overview of data culled across every service that a user is on. You can see the official Jeremy Goldman Vizify here, as a testament to how impressive a visualization tool it is. Not only does Brad McCarty of TNW give you more information on the site, but he shows you how to navigate it!
#2 Greek Athlete Kicked Off Olympic Team For Tweet
Another day; another downfall brought to you, in part, by Twitter. The top microblogging platform got Voula Papachristou, Greece's triple-jump champion, in deep trouble after a very offensive tweet. She's now prevented from competing in the London Olympic Games. Billy Gallagher of TechCrunch details the situation in this piece.
#1 McKinsey Says Social Media Could Add $1.3 Trillion to the Economy
While we may be in a social bubble in many ways, McLinsey Global Institute, the research division of the business consulting powerhouse, released a study called "unleashing value and productivity through social technologies." Quentin Hardy of The New York Times summarizes nicely and explains more about the study's findings.
The Social 6: Key Stories from The Last 24 hours, 7/25/12
As you may know, I’m a voracious reader and tend to share a good deal of news 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 The Rise of Digital Pollution
Lacoste's Senior Director of Ecommerce and Digital Strategy, Erik Lautier, posted on his Facebook page decrying how much digital pollution surrounds us all these days. In this piece, Erik discusses the rise of digital pollution, and starts to hint at what could be done to address it. Great read from a very smart guy.
#5 YC-Backed Chute Nabs $2.7M From Salesforce and More To Become The Twilio For Media Content
Chute has decided to take a different approach on photo-sharing or photo-syncing. They plan to expand beyond the photo field as well. Rip Empson of TechCrunch explains nicely how this works.
#4 YouTube Fights Comment Trolls By Discouraging Pseudonyms
It's no secret that YouTube videos contain some harsh critiques originating from people using pseudonyms. Often, these "comment trolls" just try to stir up unnecessary drama, rather than add any value to the conversation.. Writer Fruzsina Eordogh of ReadWriteWeb explains how YouTube is working to discourage pseudonyms - something I'm personally very in favor of. If you're going to say something spiteful, you should be willing to do it with your name attached.
#3 It's a platform, not a feature: Google+ Hangouts could bring YouTube-Level disruption
Google+ Hangouts are gaining traction in a lot of circles (no pun intended, G+ users!). It will be interesting to see if people will gravitate to Hangouts, leading them to become the new Skype or Oovoo - or if consumers will reject Google "controlling" most of their online experiences. Drew Olanoff of TNW gives a good description of Hangouts and their potential to disrupt.
#2 Fancy That: Pinterest Rival The Fancy Passes 1M Design-Savvy Influencers
The Fancy, a new social commerce site, is letting its users become affiliates, getting commissions when their friends purchase products. They're positioning this as something of a game-changer, even though sites like Amazon have offered commissions for ages now. BrandChannel gives some great statistics on The Fancy & discusses their future in this piece - worth a read!
#1 This Movie Recruited Instagram Users To Make Its Posters
Talk about a buzzworthy use of a social platform: two Montreal-based filmmakers enlisted advertising agency TAXI to get the group "Instagramers Montreal" to collaborate and take images that would be used to publicize their new film, J’Espère Que Tu Vas Bien. The photos selected for the 87 (yes, really!) movie posters are made up of pictures taken as part of a Insta-Walk that Instagramers Montreal organized. Perfect fit for the film in my opinion, since the movie is an 87-minute, and follows the same route the Instagramers Montreal group took. Nice reporting her by Laura Stampler at Business Insider.
The Social 6: Key Stories from The Last 24 hours, 7/21/12
As you may know, I’m a voracious reader and tend to share a good deal of news 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 YC-Backed PhotoSharing Service PicPlum Gets A Revamp; Mobile App & API Are Next
PicPlum, which debuted last summer, is going through a major upgrade! The photo-sharing and printing start up is overhauling its user experience in a big way. Good reporting by Sarah Perez of TC.
#5 Securing Federal Employees' Mobile Devices: Big Opportunities, Big Challenges
Hacking into phones - remotely or virtually - is something that most of us have to worry about these days, and federal workers are no exception. However, their data can often be more sensitive than those of everyday citizens. This Ecommerce Times piece delves into the issue in greater detail.
#4 33Across Picks Up $13.1M To Grow Its Big Data Social Graph, No Facebook Strings Attached
33across is a social targeting company which operated a social graph that covers users globally. The company claims to have a most robust than Facebook. How big of a reason is that for their getting funded? Great article by Ingrid Lunden of TC.
#3 US companies raised $8.1 billion through 863 VC deals in Q2 2012: Report
U.S.-based companies raised $8.1 billion through 863 venture capital deals. Sounds like a lot, maybe, but it's a 3 percent drop from last year. Through the first half of the year, VC investment added up to $15 billion, a 7 percent decrease in capital. 5 percent less deals were done from the same time period a year ago.
#2 Without Social Media, 18% Of Teens Would 'Stop Communicating'
It's no secret that going social using social digital platforms has taken over the lives of most people around the world. But a recent AWeber survey indicates teens feel they would stop communicating altogether if Facebook would go down! Overly dramatic, perhaps, but very interesting to see how important social platforms have become for today's teens. Emily Price of Mashable goes into better detail.
#1 Facebook User Satisfaction Falls, While Google Plus Takes Off
Is Facebook starting to become a thing of the past? Well....no. Hardly. But, research is indicating that users are no longer as satisfied as they used to be. Are other social sites taking advantage of this downfall? Well, if you read the title of the article....maybe! It will be interesting to see if Google+ can gain any traction, based on the findings of this report. Cadie Thompson of CNBC goes into better detail.
Why Google+ Hangouts Office Hours are a Great Idea
Google has started to host office hours in Google+ hangouts, making it incredibly easy to meet with folks on the Google Webmaster Central team. I'll test this shortly, but my first thoughts are that this is a great way to get webmaster-centric questions answered and provide feedback to Google staffers about how the company is doing.
These office hours will be held a few times weekly and announced a few days ahead of time. Each session will typically last an hour, and will cover any topics related to Google search, such as developing sitemaps, Google Webmaster Tools, dealing with duplicate content, and more. You just need, you guessed it, a Google+ account to play. A webcam and headset will help too, obviously.
Here are some of Google's next Office Hours:
- Thursday, 15 March, at 10am Zürich time, English office hours with John
- Thursday, 15 March, at 2pm Seattle time, English office hours with Jonathan
- Friday, 16 March, at 2pm Zürich time, German office hours with John
- Friday, 23 March, at 2pm Zürich time, German office hours with John
You can find the rest of the Office Hours listed here.
Thanks to Lee Odden, my Google+ chum, for helping me to notice this. Ultimately, I think this is a great example of Google leveraging Hangouts in a positive way. After all, the big G isn't known for support and most people don't think there are enough reasons to use Google+ Hangouts; this essentially kills two birds with one stone. And isn't that what business should be about?