Mashable: Latest 23 News Updates - including “Mobile App Market to Surge to $17.5 Billion by 2012 [STUDY]” |  |
- Mobile App Market to Surge to $17.5 Billion by 2012 [STUDY]
- No Copy And Paste for Windows Phone 7 Devices
- The New IE9: More HTML5, CSS3, and No Windows XP
- Lunchwalla Makes Restaurant Planning Easy
- Web Faceoff: Chatroulette vs. Hot or Not
- Fake Steve Jobs and “Seinfeld” Writer to Satirize Silicon Valley in Online TV Series
- Spotify’s U.S. Launch Date Remains Uncertain
- Xobni Mobile Comes to BlackBerry
- Facebook Upgrades Search Capabilities
- Who’s Actually Using Chatroulette? [STUDY]
- Samsung Announces Plans for iPad Challenger
- The Ultimate March Madness Social Media Guide
- How PR Pros Are Using Social Media for Real Results
- MOG Music Service Goes Mobile for $10 Per Month
- Tiger’s Return to Golf to be Broadcast in 3D
- Letterman Tries to Make Fun of Twitter on Top Ten List [VIDEO]
- Unlocked Nexus One Comes to AT&T and Rogers
- Nexus One Sales Are Lackluster: Here’s Why
- PayPal Transfers Made Simple: Just Bump iPhones
- 4 Ways the Entertainment Industry is Getting More Social
- Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s “Telephone” Gets Indie Pop Cover [VIDEO]
- Facebook and Twitter Making a Major Impact on Purchase Decisions [STATS]
- Spain: Non-Commercial File Sharing Is Legal
- The Making Of Heineken’s Amazing Soccer Swindle [VIDEO]
| Mobile App Market to Surge to $17.5 Billion by 2012 [STUDY] Posted: 17 Mar 2010 04:42 AM PDT  
According to the study, created by Chetan Sharma Consulting, mobile app downloads should jump from 7 billion in 2009 to almost 50 billion in 2012. By this time, the market will be worth 17.5 billion dollars, the study predicts, despite the expected lower price of mobile apps, which should drop from the current average of 2 dollars per app to 1.5 dollars in 2012. GetJar chief executive Ilja Laurs makes another bold prediction, echoing the one we’ve recently heard from a Google executive. “It is easy to see how mobile apps will eclipse the traditional desktop Internet. It makes perfect sense that mobile devices will kill the desktop,” he said. He backs this up with more data from the study, citing that 17% of GetJar users spend more time on internet-linked smartphones than they do on desktops. Be that as it may, the work you do on your desktop is still a lot different than the work you do on your smartphone. The mobile application market definitely has tremendous room to grow, especially with the coming of iPad, which takes the mobile app paradigm and slaps it onto a bigger, tablet device. But let’s wait and see how it performs on the market before we declare desktop dead or irrelevant. Tags: android, app store, apple, Google, iphone, Mobile 2.0, mobile applications, trending
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| No Copy And Paste for Windows Phone 7 Devices Posted: 17 Mar 2010 02:39 AM PDT 
Users gave Apple no rest until it finally included the functionality, and it seems like Microsoft will have to go through the same ordeal on its Windows Phone 7 devices, as Engadget discovered they won’t have copy and paste, either. Even worse, Microsoft claims that most users don’t really need clipboard functionality. Yes, it might even be true, but the power users are louder than the rest, and they’ll definitely see lack of this functionality as a huge minus. Tags: microsoft, smartphones, windows phone 7
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| The New IE9: More HTML5, CSS3, and No Windows XP Posted: 16 Mar 2010 08:50 PM PDT 
The preview is bare-bones: after playing around with it, I can tell you that it doesn’t have much in terms of user interface — or anything else for that matter. This is more of a proof-of-concept than a web browser (there isn’t even an address bar). Still, it provides a good glimpse into what we can expect from IE9: a complete reboot. For one thing, it supports HTML5, the new version of the mark-up language that supports more dynamic web pages, video embedding, and geolocation. That becomes apparent when you test things such as the “HTML5 T-Shirt designer,” which uses HTML5 and XHTML to let you paint your own shirt. It definitely brings Internet Explorer closer to rivals Firefox, Safari, and Chrome in terms of functionality. Microsoft also focused on adhering to web standards. IE9’s Acid3 test — a measure of how well a web browser follows certain web standards — achieves a score of 55/100. Firefox 3.7, for comparison, scores a 97/100, so still not great. Microsoft also shows off its improved compliance with CSS, including rounded corners (if you’ve ever developed for previous version of IE, this is definitely a sore spot). Microsoft also seems intent on being compatible with CSS3, which is currently under development.  In order to bring IE9 into the new era of the web, Microsoft had to sacrifice a few things. The big one: IE9 will notsupport Windows XP. It could prove to be a smart move, as it might help push more people to upgrade to Windows 7. More importantly, it makes IE9 as web-compliant and advanced as possible. Microsoft still has a lot to do to win back web users and developers; its market share continues to erode as other browsers with stronger developer ecosystems and more standard-compliant features. This is a strong start though, and a good sign that Microsoft is taking its web browser rivals very seriously. Tags: chrome, IE9, internet explorer, Internet Explorer 9, microsoft, safari, trending, web browser
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| Lunchwalla Makes Restaurant Planning Easy Posted: 16 Mar 2010 08:01 PM PDT 
Quick Pitch: Social planning website that offers restaurant suggestions, organizes plans and allows friends to vote on where they want to go. Genius Idea: Lunchwalla takes the best Yelp, OpenTable and Evite and mashes it up into one tool for planning group get togethers at restaurants or bars. From there, you can select your participants, choose a selection of restaurants and then have people vote on places they want to eat. This makes planning lunch with co-workers much easier than playing e-mail tag. People can accept or decline invites, which also makes this a good option for non-work related gatherings. Because it integrates with OpenTable at participating restaurants, it’s easy to make reservations at sit-down places. We also really like that Lunchwalla displays coupons for restaurants nearby. That’s slick, and a nice feature that other eatery based services lack. Check out this video that explains how Lunchwalla works: We’d love to see Lunchwalla create an iPhone app or a mobile optimized site that would make sending and creating invitations from the go really, really easy. As it stands, I look forward to trying Lunchwalla with some of my local friends. How do you plan where to eat with friends or coworkers? Let us know! Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines)." Reviews: Gmail, LinkedIn, PHP, Yelp Tags: evite, lunchwalla, opentable, yelp
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| Web Faceoff: Chatroulette vs. Hot or Not Posted: 16 Mar 2010 06:47 PM PDT 
Both sites are difficult to lump into a single category, and both have been accused of being little more than fads of passing internet fancy. In Chatroulette, being “nexted” is somewhat akin to being “notted” on Hot or Not. Both sites are based on very simple mechanisms at the core, and both embody the general spirit of internet randomness many of us know and love — perhaps to the detriment of our attention spans. Last week, Microsoft’s Project Natal beat Sony’s PlayStation Move for the title of “Mashable Readers’ Favorite Next-Gen Motion Control System.” Who will this week’s winner be? Cast your vote for your favorite in this week’s head-to-head and be sure to tune in later this week to find out! Tags: chatroulette, hot or not, polls, web faceoff
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| Fake Steve Jobs and “Seinfeld” Writer to Satirize Silicon Valley in Online TV Series Posted: 16 Mar 2010 03:58 PM PDT 
Dan Lyons is the author of the satirical blog “The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs,” so he seems a strong match for the Silicon Valley satire genre. Larry Charles is best known as a writer for Seinfeld, Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm. He describes iCON as “nothing less than a modern Citizen Kane” (way to manage expectations!). The show will air on all of EPIX’s distribution channels — the cable TV channel, the streaming video site and the video-on-demand service. Judging from the title of the show and Dan Lyons’s background, it’s easy to guess what this new series will be about. Stay tuned — there’s been no announcement about iCON’s premiere date, but we’ll report it when we hear it. Tags: cable, curb your enthusiasm, dan lyons, entourage, Epix, icon, larry charles, Seinfeld, television, the secret diary of steve jobs, tv, web series
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| Spotify’s U.S. Launch Date Remains Uncertain Posted: 16 Mar 2010 03:36 PM PDT 
However, those of us in the States eager for a crack at the on-demand competitor to Rhapsody, Napster and MOG will just have to keep waiting. Ek dodged questions about the U.S. launch date during the interview with Wired’s Eliot Van Buskirk. He did reveal some new subscriber statistics, with a jump to 320,000 paid members, up about 28% from the 250,000 milestone Spotify passed back in January. Ek also appealed to a diversity of business models to answer the pressing music industry revenue question: “What I want is a special edition or an album for the artists that I really like. I’m more than happy to pay $100 for a set with a good set of notes. Another person might be willing to pay for a live edition with extended tracks. A third person might be willing to pay for live events. The reality of the music industry today is that there isn’t one business model. It’s about how to use downloads, subscriptions and merchandise to make money today.” With competitors like MOG aggressively pushing forward with mobile apps here in the States — which along with Rhapsody’s new iPhone version will support offline listening via downloads to a stored cache — Spotify is comparatively taking its time to pursue the U.S. market. We’re sure the complexities of licensing deals and legal issues are enormous, yet we hope to see the service step up to the plate in the U.S. market much sooner than later. How do you access music online: free streaming service? Paid subscription? Paid a la carte downloads? Let us know what you think of the current playing field of online music services in the comments. Reviews: Rhapsody, Spotify Tags: MOG, music subscription, musicv, rhapsody, spotify, sxsw, sxsw2010, sxswi
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| Xobni Mobile Comes to BlackBerry Posted: 16 Mar 2010 03:00 PM PDT 
Think of Xobni as kind of a cross between something like what Apple’s Spotlight search, Google’s contact tools and a synchronized address book like Plaxo. Xobni Mobile for BlackBerry is designed to make it possible to access all of your most important contact info — irrespective of whether or not a person is in your BlackBerry Address Book — directly from your phone. Outlook users who use Xobni Mobile can also link the tool with a new service that Xobni is launching called Xobni One, which means that from the app — which has been integrated deeply into the core BlackBerry OS — you can get the contact information for every person you’ve ever communicated with in Outlook on your device. So if you’ve ever sent, received or been CC’d alongside another person, you can find and have access to their contact info — without having to have them in your address book. Because you can store lots of social information alongside e-mail info within Xobni’s contact system, that information is also available in the BlackBerry app. The app also offers one-click access to Facebook and LinkedIn profiles and photos. You can also track back through SMS, phone calls and shared appointments with users on your phone, plus send your availability to a group of people that you choose. If you don’t use Outlook — say you use Gmail — you can still use Xobni Mobile on the BlackBerry, but without Xobni One. You won’t get the historical information like Outlook usres do, but it will index the e-mail on your BlackBerry device from the time you install the app, which means that you can still take advantage of the algorithmically optimized stuff that makes Xobni super cool. Check out this overview of Xobni and demo of Xobni Mobile from CES 2010: Xobni Mobile is available today from Xobni.com/mobile and will soon be in the BlackBerry App World. Xobni Mobile as a stand-alone app is $9.99. If you want to use Xobni alongside Xobni One for Outlook, it’s $6.99 plus a recurring fee of $3.99 per month. You can also get a year of Xobni Mobile and Xobni One for $39.90 a year. Xobni Mobile works on the Blackberry Tour, the Curve 8900, the BlackBerry Bold and the Storm and Storm II phones. What’s your favorite contact management tool for the BlackBerry? Reviews: Facebook, Gmail, Google, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Xobni Tags: blackberry, Outlook, xobni, xobni mobile
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| Facebook Upgrades Search Capabilities Posted: 16 Mar 2010 02:21 PM PDT 
Previously, Facebook would auto-suggest existing connections, for example, if you're my friend and started typing "Adam …" in the search box, you'd see a link to my profile. Now, it'll make broader recommendations based on your friend connections and what's popular with the wider Facebook network. If this still doesn't yield what you're looking for, you can go to "see more results," which takes you to Facebook's full search results interface. This isn't the first time Facebook is using data in this type of fashion –- for example, users are already accustomed to seeing suggestions of people to friend based on mutual connections, and ads for Fan Pages will tell you which of your friends are already fans. The idea with search seems to be that pulling suggestions from your extended network, which presumably has lots of like-minded people in it, will get you to what you're looking for faster. At this point, it's tough to say how well it works, since the feature isn't live for everyone and is being rolled out gradually over the next few days. Do you think this approach to search will yield better results? Let us know what you think in the comments. Reviews: Facebook Tags: facebook, Search, trending
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| Who’s Actually Using Chatroulette? [STUDY] Posted: 16 Mar 2010 02:11 PM PDT 
If you’ve used the random video chat site before, you’ve already figured this part out: Chatroulette is dominated by college-aged males. Male users make up 72% of the site’s audience, and people of any gender aged 18-24 account for 45%. Males aged 25-34 and females 18-24 are the second biggest demographic behind males 18-24. Females outside of the 18-24 range are not very likely to use the site, but even males 35-44 make up a chunk of the userbase. Here’s the graph; 100 represents the average Internet user.  Those collegians are behind the site’s insane growth spurt. When comScore tracked Chatroulette in January, it recorded 109,000 unique visitors. When it looked again in February, it found just shy of one million. Lipsman also shared some data on the other Internet activity of Chatroulette users. They were dramatically more likely than average to be interested in instant messaging and chat sites — not surprising given that Chatroulette fits into that category. They were also more interested in visiting gay and lesbian sites than most, and many of them visited career training or educational websites, implying that they are indeed students.  Chatroulette users commonly have an interest in websites that sell tickets or serve up information on video games. Are you noticing a trend here? Why does Chatroulette appeal so much more to college students than it does to other Internet users? If you have a theory, let us know in the comments. Tags: analytics, chat, chatroulette, ComScore, instant messaging, live video, stats, video chat
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| Samsung Announces Plans for iPad Challenger Posted: 16 Mar 2010 01:53 PM PDT 
The key differentiating points for this tablet will address what Samsung feels are two major shortcomings of the iPad: lack of processing power and not enough connectivity options. “I do feel that that slate-type platform has legs but I think the legs need to be far more powerful, for example an Atom-based product which has far greater flexibility, not to mention inputs and outputs,” said Director of Samsung Australia’s IT division Philip Newton at the Samsung Forum in Singapore. “This has more potential than an iPad.” The goal is to build a device powerful enough to become the primary computing machine for many people. The ARM chip that powers Apple’s iPad was deemed not powerful enough to make the tablet form factor truly shine; hence Samsung reports that it is looking at two platforms from Intel to power the unnamed device: Atom or the Moorestown System on a Chip. The slate will be a device “you could take to university and do a PowerPoint presentation on it, for example, or a device that could be taken home or to the office and docked,” Samsung’s Emmanuele Silanesu said . Samsung is no stranger to the “in-between smartphone and laptop” zone, having released the Q1 ultra-mobile PC (pictured above right) back in 2006. Silanesu assures us that the forthcoming new tablet will have a much stronger focus on the consumer market than the Q1, which “was a very niche product for a vertical market… It was limited (in functionality), the price was relatively high, and it wasn’t an attractive device for consumers.” It’s not terribly much to go on yet, but how do you think Samsung’s planned device might stack up against the other crop of iPad alternative hopefuls? Are you interested in some flavor of tablet device, and if so, what features should it have? [via Boy Genius Report] Tags: apple, atom, ipad, moorsetown, Q1, samsung, samsung tablet, Tablet, tablets
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| The Ultimate March Madness Social Media Guide Posted: 16 Mar 2010 01:26 PM PDT 
A recent survey revealed that this year, more Americans than ever are going to be turning to the web and social media for their NCAA fix. Although traditional TV comes out on top, 54% of those quizzed are planning to catch the action live online, 10% via a mobile device, and 18% through various social networks. If you’re one of the many participating online this year, check out these resources. Facebook Fast BreakFacebook is a popular destination for NCAA fans. Not only can you catch up on the latest news, but you can get your fellow basketball-loving buddies involved too — whether it’s for some trash talking, or to celebrate the win of a mutually fave team. The Official NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Facebook Fan Pages will allow you to connect with nearly 10,000 others (4,000 on the Women’s page) on the social networking site.  As well as having info on the NCAA with links to sites of interest, the Pages offer informal commentary from the NCAA teams, fan comments and insight, ticketing info, and comprehensive events data. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a bracket system that’s available within Facebook, then Bracket Challenge by Citizen Sports is a popular option. The free Facebook app will get you making your picks in no time at all, and offers the chance at a $5,000 grand prize. Bracket Challenge also has the option to create pools with your friends. Mobile Madness Citizen Sports also offers a free companion app (to their aforementioned Facebook application) for the iPhone or iPod touch with customizable push notifications for your favorite teams. More mobile options include the 99 cent Pocket Bracket for the iPhone and Android devices that allows you to create unlimited brackets and organize pools from your phone. You can compete against thousands of users on the PocketBracket Network, as well as your friends, family, and coworkers. The Baseline Fan series of apps, available for the iPhone and iPod touch, offer basic team-specific data for 99 cents a pop, while fans of free should take a look at Talk Hoops, another dual-platform app, offering aggregated news in one place. Web-based Winners Facebook and phones certainly aren’t the only places to get your bracket challenge fix. There is a wealth of online options, many offering larges cash prizes, should you be astute enough to pick the perfect bracket. Of course, the odds of that happening are a whopping 9.2 quintillion to 1. Still, the contests below are all great places to make your picks and each (excluding Applebee’s) come from sites that offer a dearth of tournament news, scores, opinions, and analysis, as well. The 2010 Yahoo! Sports Tourney Pick’em game offers a whopping million dollar prize for a perfect bracket, while having the next highest scoring bracket will nab you $10,000. This gives you the option to join the masses or create a private group with invites that can be sent via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter. If you don’t have a Yahoo! ID or care to create one, there’s also ESPN’s 2010 Tournament Challenge, as well as another chance at a $1 million prize from restaurant chain Applebee’s. Also getting in on the online action is Fox Sports with their bracket challenge, and CBS, which is offering the enticing grand prize of a 2011 Infiniti M for the top bracket champ. The biggest prize this year, though, has to be from AOL’s Fanhouse, with the SoBe Lifewater Zero Inhibitions Bracket Challenge that boasts a $9 million jackpot for anyone with a perfect bracket. (Again, though, good luck with that.) Video Slam Dunk With your bracket picked, you need to find somewhere to watch the action, and while the NCAA’s official YouTube channel offers a good overview of the organization, the better destination for live coverage is the NCAA March Madness on Demand website. Powered by CBS, this website offers free live streaming video of every game in the 2010 championship. That means, the only things you’ll need to watch the entire tournament is your computer and an Internet connection. In addition to the live streams, there will be game highlights for those that need to catch up in a hurry, and full game archives for any poor sucker that missed a must-see match. A “High Quality” player option offers a widescreen view with a better quality feed. If you can’t get yourself in front on a computer in time for tip-off, then the CBS Sports NCAA March Madness On-Demand app for the iPhone and iPod touch is a great option. It’s also perfect for those who don’t want to be tied to their desk or television screen during the tournament.  For $10, this app will give you live streaming video of all 63 games via either Wi-Fi or a cellular connection, from the first round through the finals. The app also offers game previews, a real-time tournament bracket, scores and headlines, and the option to comment and trash talk via Facebook and Twitter. Twitter Tip-OffsAs with any other topic you could possibly name, Twitter offers a great way to keep up with what’s happening in the world of NCAA basketball, and there are a few Twitter accounts you should follow if you want to stay in the hoop… sorry — loop. The main NCAA Twitter account offers all sorts of official news from the world of college sports. But if you’re only after hoop-specific NCAA news, the basketball account is where it’s at.  Elsewhere, you can grab news snippets from the Twitter home of the “ubiquitous college basketblog” Rush the Court. If you like getting your basketball news from sources who can add a bit of commentary to the game, then there’s a ton of sports journos tweeting who can offer just that. Tweeple that cover the NCAA basketball championship for various media outlets include 12 New York Times reporters and editors at The Quad, and a team of Sports Illustrated writers and photographers as well. ESPN fans can follow longtime college basketball analyst Dick Vitale, senior writer and college basketball reporter Andy Katz, college hoops reporter Dana O’Neil, and Jimmy Dykes, who works for ESPN and also offers analysis on ABC. CBS meanwhile comes in with Seth Davis, as well as columnist Gary Parrish, who should offer you some good insight into the Big Dance. ConclusionIf we’ve overlooked a service you use, be sure to shout it out in the comments. Or, if you have an idea for an even better way to use social media to keep up-to-date with the March Madness, then Coke Zero wants to hear from you as part of their clever, basketball-themed social media promotion. The fizzy drink company is currently asking for ideas to improve the NCAA fan experience. A winning idea could net you $10,000 and tickets to the 2011 Final Four. So get your thinking caps on! More sports resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=185191 Reviews: Android, Facebook, Twitter, iPhone, iStockphoto Tags: basketball, facebook, iphone apps, List, Lists, march madness, NCAA, sports, twitter
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| How PR Pros Are Using Social Media for Real Results Posted: 16 Mar 2010 12:58 PM PDT 
As one PR professional, Jeremy Pepper, told us,
We’re going to take a look at how PR professionals are using social media to achieve real results when dealing with business-to-business relationships, when representing companies that already have a well-known brand, and in politics. We’ll also look into some of the tools of the trade that PR pros are using to measure the success of their endeavors. The Role of Social Media in Business-to-Business PRPepper considers social media an important part of the public relations toolkit. When I asked him what social media has to offer PR professionals, he said, “Social media is a great tool for public relations people, especially if you align it to both PR goals and figure out what the ROI is for the client or the company.” As we’ve pointed out when discussing measuring social media ROI, having a goal in mind or a main focus can be very important when using social media for any reason.  Pepper offered some insight into how he uses social media with Palisade Systems, a business-to-business data loss prevention company. For Palisade, the main goal is to increase the company’s name recognition. Because data loss prevention deals with sensitive data and often regulatory compliance (for things like HIPPA/HITECH, FERPA and others), having strong name recognition is important, as a known name can often be equated with trust. Pepper explained how he goes about reaching his client’s core audience, in this case small and medium-sized enterprises.
While I expected Twitter to have limited use in a B2B PR strategy, it turns out it can actually be pretty powerful. By following security experts and industry analysts, Palisade can take part in the conversations happening in the space. Pepper can also track keywords on Twitter and then communicate with CIOs and IT people who are asking questions about DLP and he can then send them case studies or reach out to start a new kind of relationship. As Pepper said, “It lets the people know that there is another solution besides the large corporations, and lets us have conversations with the analysts beyond the calls.” Blogging, for instance, is one way the company can share stories beyond just what goes into a press release.
Social Media Drives AuthenticityPolitical figures have really embraced social media — the White House has an official presence on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, plus its own blog-powered website, for example — and more and more local and national representatives from all over the world are taking to the web to connect with their constituents. Claire McCaskill, the junior U.S. Senator from Missouri, is one politician that has embraced social media in a big way. On Twitter, @clairecmc has nearly 37,000 followers — making her the second-most popular person in Congress, according to Tweetcongress.org. The Senator also has a YouTube channel and a Tumblr blog that she uses to share information with her constituents and to respond to questions.  Anamarie Rebori, a spokesperson for Senator McCaskill, told us that the senator actively uses social media. “While it definitely has changed the way she gets the word out, McCaskill has said that if anything, she is glad she has the opportunity to bring a more personal touch to her communications and get outside the Washington bubble,” Rebori said. Especially for politicians, authenticity is an important part of PR. According to Rebori, McCaskill has been able to utilize social media to communicate authentically. “People seem to respond best to an authentic touch over Twitter, and that's something that Senator McCaskill has been able to convey in her use of social media,” Rebori said. “It's really her typing each of those tweets, and people can tell." Senator McCaskill makes a point of reading every tweet that is addressed her way — and she also makes a point to respond to others on Twitter, either via @replies or direct messages. However, as the Senator explained in her Tumblr blog, she doesn’t follow anyone. That’s not because of lack of engagement, it’s because it’s the best way the senator can allocate her resources. Furthermore, the senator has developed a hashtag for Missourians to use so that she can connect with as many of them as possible. If you’re a Missouri resident and you use #MO in a tweet, chances are it will get the senator’s attention. There are huge possibilities from a PR perspective for politicians who use social media, as Senator McCaskill’s success shows. Building Brand LoyaltyPepper also works with computer bag and accessory provider Targus. Because the company is already well-known in its space, the goals for public relations are different than with other brands. "Working with a very well-liked brand, it's both hard and easy to get conversations going,” Pepper said, who explained that responding to negative feedback is rarely an issue because Targus gets very little. Instead, the approach for Pepper has been figuring out ways to develop brand loyalty and turn customers into fans. One method that has yielded results for Targus is utilizing its Twitter account for giveaways and promotions and monitoring Twitter conversations to target bag-buying consumers.  In one situation, Pepper followed a conversation between a user who had a bag from a rival company. Pepper tweeted the user a coupon code for 25% off, which ended up being more than what the company that made his old bag had offered him and resulted in the user writing about his experience. That's the type of thing that can create long-time customers and also get users observing or reading about the situation to consider Targus for their next product. Using social media has provided Pepper with a simple way to build brand loyalty without having to invest significant time and resources. Tools of the TradeJosh Jones-Dilworth, the founder and CEO of the PR and marketing consulting firm Jones-Dilworth, Inc. (and a Mashable guest author) has a lot of expertise in blogging and social media. As such, Jones-Dilworth has developed his own system for measuring the effectiveness of different social media approaches as they relate to PR. Jones-Dilworth explained that while it’s fairly easy to measure conversations and engagement on an empirical level, putting that analytical data into context so that it can be evaluated as cause and effect is considerably more difficult.
We absolutely agree that this is both a big challenge when evaluating the successfulness of social media in any context — PR or otherwise — and that it is going to be a large area of growth in the future.  For the future, Jones-Dilworth sees visualizations and modeling as two key components to watch for.
However, just because he doesn’t have all the tools at his disposal now doesn’t mean that Jones-Dilworth is operating in the dark. Here is Jones-Dilworth’s list of the tools that he uses for tracking social media results in his work as a PR pro:
He also points to these tools that he enjoys playing with: Until we reach the stage where drawing contextual correlations between social media actions and results can be more easily measured (or at least, more easily distilled), it is vital to have concrete goals before starting a social media strategy in PR and to also have some sort of baseline. Common ThreadsPR professionals are using social media in a lot of ways to either supplement or add on to existing PR strategies. The most successful PR pros focus on creating active relationships and truly engaging with their customers (or constituents) to have a real conversation. It isn’t about just putting a PR pitch on Twitter or Facebook, it’s about using the platforms in ways that help clients to connect. Are you a PR professional? How do you use social media to get real results in your job? Let us know in the comments! Series supported by Gist  Gist helps you build stronger professional relationships by bringing together information from across the web for all your contacts and their companies giving you the right information at the right moment to get a first meeting, deliver an amazing pitch, or just find a better way to make a connection. Gist does all the work for you, assembling a dynamic collection of all your contacts and their companies from your email inbox, your social networks, or even your CRM system automatically building and updating their profiles as new content is published – by them or about them. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, sodafish Reviews: Facebook, Google Analytics, Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube, bit.ly, iStockphoto Tags: claire mccaskill, jeremy pepper, josh jones-dilworth, palisade dlp, politics, pr, PUBLIC RELATIONS, real results, targus
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| MOG Music Service Goes Mobile for $10 Per Month Posted: 16 Mar 2010 12:57 PM PDT 
The mobile service will launch in the early second quarter of this year for a $10 per month fee, which also includes on-demand desktop streaming. Back in December, the MP3 blog network launched its all-you-can-eat music-streaming service, offering on-demand listening to its seven million song library from a web browser for $5 per month. The mobile version of the All Access service takes all that music with you on the go, and includes the ability to download tracks to a “local cache” on your device for listening when you don’t have a cell signal and are out of Wi-Fi range. An “HQ Audio” option allows users to opt for a higher audio quality download in exchange for the tradeoff of larger file sizes. Founder and CEO of MOG David Hyman said of the announcement, “The whole point of putting music in the cloud is to be able to get to it whenever you want it, from anywhere — and mobile was always an end goal for us.” MOG, which just raised a new round of funding to the tune of $9.5 million, is backed by Universal Music Group and Sony Music. Its $10/month mobile service undercuts competitor Rhapsody’s $15/month fee, though it remains to be seen how its pricing will stack up against the “coming any day now” U.S. version of hugely popular European streaming site Spotify. The music subscription model itself remains largely unproven here in the States, with many consumers balking at the idea of losing access to downloaded tracks if they choose to stop subscribing. What do you think of music subscription services versus the pay-per-track or per-album model? Do you think $10 per month is a fair price for access to a music buffet on the go? Reviews: Rhapsody, Spotify Tags: android, iphone, Mobile 2.0, MOG, music, music subscription, rhapsody, subscription
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| Tiger’s Return to Golf to be Broadcast in 3D Posted: 16 Mar 2010 12:44 PM PDT 
If you want to see him play, you’ll be able to do so in a new way: Comcast will stream live video of the Masters in addition to its traditional cable broadcast of the event, and both will be available in 3D. You’ll need a 3D-enabled television or computer to experience it, but if you’ve got the hardware, tune on April 7 – 11 to see Tiger and the other golfers show off their skills. Comcast plans to stream about two hours of live footage each day. While the 3D web stream will be powered by Comcast, the official Masters website will host it. It’s not clear whether or not the 3D streams will be limited to Comcast customers. Tiger’s return to golf has been anticipated ever since his multiple extramarital affairs went public and dominated the news and Twitter’s trending topics for days. Woods has already proven that he can draw a lot of viewers to a live stream — his post-affair press conference attracted 683,000 viewers on Ustream. We’ll see in a few weeks if his golfing prowess — and the intense consumer appeal of 3D — can pull in big numbers, too. [img credit: Keith Allison] Reviews: Twitter Tags: 3D, comcast, Golf, live video, masters, masters-2010, sports, streaming video, tiger woods, video
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| Letterman Tries to Make Fun of Twitter on Top Ten List [VIDEO] Posted: 16 Mar 2010 12:00 PM PDT 
As folks who actually do spend waaaaay too much time on Twitter (and Facebook, and Foursquare, and various and sundry video humor sites, and just basically hiding from the nourishing rays of the sun…), we’ve annotated his list below.
Check out the Letterman vid below and let us know in the comments: What are the real top 10 signs you spend too much time on Twitter? Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter Tags: david letterman, television, twitter, video
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| Unlocked Nexus One Comes to AT&T and Rogers Posted: 16 Mar 2010 11:04 AM PDT 
Earlier today, we discussed the lackluster sales of Google’s Nexus One smartphone. One of the reasons we think sales are below expectations is that the phone was previously only available on one 3G carrier in the U.S. and Canada. While Google is still only selling the phone unsubsidized through T-Mobile, consumers now have two options when buying an unlocked handset. Both versions sell for $529. Additionally, the Nexus One can now be shipped to Canada from the Google web store.  This is a nice step and certainly offers up more carrier choices for the Nexus One, but it still isn’t an ideal solution. For instance, if you live in the United States, you are still going to be locked to one provider for all intents and purposes. If you want to use the phone on a 3G network, you’re still going to have to choose a version of the phone that will be incompatible with other carriers. Yes, you can now choose to buy an unlocked device that will work with AT&T, but that same device will not work on T-Mobile, at least not in 3G. Likewise, the T-Mobile 3G unlocked phones will not work on AT&T’s network in anything other than EDGE. European countries — where there isn’t an ongoing game of chicken taking place over not only wireless technology, but what frequency each operator uses — can continue to use either device on most networks, including support for 3G. Our frustration with the lack of dual-band support for both North American 3G UMTS frequencies aside, this is still great news for anyone who wanted a Nexus One device, but needed to use it on a 3G network other than T-Mobile. Does having the Nexus One available for AT&T make you more willing to consider buying the phone? Let us know!  Reviews: Google Tags: att, nexus one, T-Mobile
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| Nexus One Sales Are Lackluster: Here’s Why Posted: 16 Mar 2010 10:24 AM PDT 
Flurry actually used 74 days as a barometer, because that was how long it took for the original iPhone to sell one million units back in 2007. Motorola’s DROID sold 1.05 million units by day 74, and that’s to say nothing of future iPhone releases, which all crossed the one-million-sold mark even more quickly.  Flurry lays out some good arguments for why Nexus One sales have lagged behind DROID sales (and we really do think that DROID is the more accurate barometer, rather than using the 2007 iPhone benchmarks), but we think it’s really all about one thing: Carrier. Problem 1: T-MobileAlthough the Nexus One is available unlocked (for a higher price), it is still largely tied to a single carrier in the United States (and in Canada). That carrier, T-Mobile, has the smallest 3G coverage area of the major wireless telecos. That’s a big problem when you are talking about a phone that really needs to be connected to 3G or Wi-Fi to show off its best features. Conversely, Verizon has a huge subscription base, the most consistent 3G network and is running a very aggressive ad campaign promoting the DROID. AT&T may be the bane of many iPhone users’ existence (although it is slowly improving), but the coverage options still trump T-Mobile, even with 3G out of the equation. Fortunately, Google has just made unlocked Nexus One phones available for AT&T and Rogers 3G networks. Unfortunately, this is still a separate version from the T-Mobile Nexus One, which means that if you wanted to switch carriers in the United States or Canada and keep 3G, you’re still SOL. Once the Nexus One hits Verizon, we expect sales to really start to increase. Problem 2: Buying/Getting SupportWhen Google officially released the Nexus One, I commented that it wasn’t really about the phone, it was about Google’s new phone marketplace. Seventy-four days later, this phone marketplace has a lot of problems that still haven’t been completely resolved. First, customers complained about an additional (and excessive) early termination fee that Google charged for users who terminated their contract in the first 120 days of ownership. This fee was in addition to T-Mobile’s fee and as expected, consumers went ballistic. Google has since lowered the ETF to $150, but that still means you’re paying two early termination fees if you cancel in the first four months of use. Then, there’s the ongoing issue of getting support for the Nexus One. Google has since improved support options, but you still need to potentially deal with three different people: the manufacturer, the wireless company and then Google. That’s problematic and it is something that doesn’t happen for other phones, even on the same carrier. When I had problems with my BlackBerry, I called and was served by a T-Mobile person — sometimes I had to jump through hoops to talk to a RIM specialist, but I didn’t have to call RIM directly. Plus, I do think that perhaps Google underestimated how many people like to, I don’t know, physically touch a phone before buying it. Now, I’m not one of those people (Hey, I pre-ordered the iPad sight-unseen), but many users are — and not having any store presence is problematic, if only because it decreases visibility. Bottom LineThe Nexus One is clearly not the big hit that many expected it to be — and even on Verizon, it might never be a hit. However, the fact that DROID numbers are so strong shows that this isn’t a platform problem, it’s an execution problem. It will be interesting to see Google’s next attempt. What do you think of Nexus One sales? Are you surprised that they are as low as they are? Let us know! Reviews: Google, iPhone Tags: droid, flurry, nexus one, phone sales
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| PayPal Transfers Made Simple: Just Bump iPhones Posted: 16 Mar 2010 09:41 AM PDT 
PayPal licensed the tech developed by Bump Technologies, which also powers that iPhone app that friends people on Facebook when you shake your phone. With this app, you can either enter the e-mail address of your friend’s account or bump your phones together to download the necessary info. Then you enter the amount and send. Your friend can also request money by bumping his or her phone against yours. Other new features in PayPal’s updated app include a tip calculator, the ability to transfer money from your PayPal account to your bank account and the option to request money from contacts bill or invoice-style. The app is available now, and it’s free. Tags: App, apple app store, iphone, iPod Touch, paypal
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| 4 Ways the Entertainment Industry is Getting More Social Posted: 16 Mar 2010 09:28 AM PDT 
Now that most social networks are supporting functionality on third party sites — via Facebook Connect, Sign in with Twitter, Yahoo! Open Strategy, MySpaceID, and other similar technologies — entertainment companies are experimenting with a variety of approaches. While movie promotions on Facebook, top sports moments on YouTube, and MySpace music pages remain key fixtures, many entertainment companies are also now actively focused on how to apply social strategies to their own sites to deepen relationships with fans and become more relevant. Here are four ways on-site social features are benefiting both fans and the entertainment industry today. 1. Making TV Participatory TV has historically been a "lean back" form of entertainment -– just sit back on your couch and let your eyes and ears take it in. Reality TV shows like American Idol broke new ground by making TV participatory -– fans can take action and influence the outcomes — and social technologies are now helping to make TV a "lean forward" experience. In the most recent season of Dancing with the Stars, ABC made the voting process social. Fans could sign-in to abc.com with a Facebook or Twitter account to cast a vote for their favorite couple, and then donate their status to help support that pair. For example: "Vote to keep Louie Vito and Chelsea Hightower dancing on ABC!" In the realm of real-time engagement, another example comes from MTV, which enabled live chat for previously aired episodes of the popular show 16 and Pregnant on MTV.com, where viewers could discuss the often controversial content with other fans. Benefit for fans: Viewers are empowered to not only vote, but get out the vote among friends. Voting with a Facebook or Twitter identity makes voting a personal, rather than anonymous, experience. For 16 and Pregnant, teens have a live forum for sharing thoughts and experiences. Benefit for TV networks: Fans are highly engaged with the show online, and the shows gain significant exposure on social networks from donated status updates. Traffic is generated back to the show online and off. Offering users a choice of networks for participation appears to boost engagement. For example, data from Gigya shows that for a single episode of 16 and Pregnant, tens of thousands of messages were sent by chat users to their social networks with the following distribution: 40% to Yahoo, 29% MySpace, 24% Facebook, and 7% Twitter. 2. Bringing Live Sporting Events to Life Online In the real world, sports fans experience events together, whether live at the stadium, with buddies at a sports bar, or with family in front of a new 50" LCD TV. Recognizing this, sports media are trying to make online viewership a bit more like the real world. A slew of sports media added live social chat to their event webcasts this year, enabling fans to participate online alongside the event using their Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or Yahoo identity. TNT used it for the NBA Eastern Conference finals and NASCAR Race Buddy series, CBS for its College Football series, NBA.com for ongoing games, and the PGA for the summer tour events including the PGA Championship. Fan messages about the game were syndicated to the social networks as news items in the feed. Even Roddy White of the Atlanta Falcons has gotten into the act on his own website. Benefit for fans: Live social media integration provides an opportunity to chat about stats, players, and highlights, and to virtually high-five other fans or friends –- almost as if they were watching together in person. Benefit for sports media: Fans participating with real identities adds authenticity to the socializing. Interactivity means fans are highly engaged, generating more page views, and messages shared to the social networks drive more traffic back to the online event, creating a virtuous cycle. 3. Giving Music Lovers an Outlet for Self-Expression MySpace proved years ago the power of grass roots social efforts to take an artist from obscurity to household name, with Sara Bareilles one of the poster children for resisting the traditional label model. Now music companies large and small are putting social channels to work, and taking a number of new approaches in the last year. MuchMusic, a music channel on Canadian cable TV, incorporated celebrity tweets and live chat into their MuchMusic awards, bringing fans "backstage" to a behind the scenes interview room. Similarly, MTV incorporated live social chat into its webcast of the "Hope for Haiti" telethon with the aim of further engaging viewers for a special cause. Reverbnation, a music marketing platform that helps individual artists manage promotion, fan relationships, and other aspects of the business, built a feature enabling fans to register on the site using their social network identity, then build and share their favorite playlists into the feed on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Rather than help the artists build a presence on the social networks and send fans away, Reverbnation has integrated their own site directly with those key platforms to make themselves a one stop shop for the social music ecosystem. Benefit for fans: Social integration creates an outlet for communicating with other fans, and sharing passion for artists and music –- whether in the form of a comment or their own playlist creation. Benefit for music sites and artists: Integration provides greater exposure for artists and tracks as well as increased page views for the site. 4. Driving Word-of-Mouth for Movies Word of mouth is everything in the movie industry. Buzz puts fans in seats, and is the benchmark by which the industry gauges traction for marketing efforts. It's no surprise that studios are experimenting more with social media far beyond basic trailer promotion. The movie Paranormal Activity broke new ground by using grass roots efforts and word-of-mouth to build buzz and gain a wider distribution for the film. They also took advantage of social media promotion, enabling fans to invite their friends from social networks to join them at the same time that they purchased movie tickets. Twentieth-Century Fox, together with MTV, got fans directly involved to promote Avatar. They put on a first-ever live interview with James Cameron and the Avatar cast, answering questions from fans, who in turn shared their reactions in a real-time chat via Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Yahoo. Benefit for fans: Movie goers receive greater access to their favorite films and celebrities. Benefit for movie studios: The campaigns generate new and widespread buzz before and during the theatrical release. ConclusionWhen fans connect to a company using a social network identity, they are establishing the basis for a longer-term relationship. The data shared by these connections will allow companies to better segment and serve their fans. For example, in addition to awareness-generating efforts for individual films, a movie studio could gain greater insight into the specific demographics of those that are responding early to a release and adjust efforts accordingly. They could also more easily continue the dialog by remarketing to users around sequels or films in the same genre. Whichever path entertainment companies choose, integrating social technologies on their own sites to deepen relationships with fans is a blockbuster opportunity. More social media resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, MarsBars Reviews: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, iStockphoto, movie Tags: business, facebook, facebook connect, MARKETING, myspace, myspaceid, social media marketing, twitter, Yahoo
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| Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s “Telephone” Gets Indie Pop Cover [VIDEO] Posted: 16 Mar 2010 09:18 AM PDT 
You might remember Pomplamoose (a.k.a. musicians Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn) for their similarly stripped-down, hipstered-up version of “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It),” which came out back in September and has since racked up more than 3.5 million views. Well, Conte and Dawn’s newest track hit YouTube just yesterday, and it’s already been watched more than 100,000 times. And even as the resident Lady Gaga detractor over here at Mash, I gotta say, it’s pretty catchy. (I especially enjoy the subtle dig at the original’s blatant product placement.) Check it, and then head on over to the comments to unleash your over-brimming emotions: Reviews: YouTube Tags: beyonce, Lady Gaga, music, telephone, viral video, youtube
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| Facebook and Twitter Making a Major Impact on Purchase Decisions [STATS] Posted: 16 Mar 2010 09:07 AM PDT  A new study shows that those who are fans or followers of a brand on Facebook or Twitter, respectively, are significantly more likely to buy products and services or recommend the brand to a friend. Specifically, the study by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies found that consumers are 67% more likely to buy from the brands they follow on Twitter, and 51% more likely to buy from a brand they follow on Facebook. Moreover, they're 79% more likely to recommend their Twitter follows to a friend, and 60% more likely to do the same on Facebook:  Of course, those findings might be a bit overstated — many people actively seek out the brands they're already fans of and follow or fan them on Twitter and Facebook. But there's still much to be said for the mindshare that engaging those existing brand enthusiasts on social media sites creates, in turn keeping them active. Plus, the study also found that many consumers across a wide variety of demographics have negative perceptions of brands that aren't using social media. Overall, the study is another sign that social media is becoming a competitive advantage for those that are participating, and an increasingly major weakness for those that aren't. [via eMarketer] Reviews: Facebook, Twitter Tags: facebook, statistics, trending, twitter
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| Spain: Non-Commercial File Sharing Is Legal Posted: 16 Mar 2010 07:53 AM PDT 
Is it OK to borrow an audio CD I just bought? Is it OK to play it to some friends at a party? Can I convert it into MP3 files or make a copy? Is it fine if I put it in a shared folder of a P2P application such as eMule? At the other end of the spectrum, you’ve got creators of P2P apps, owners of link sites (sites that generally don’t actually host any content, they just link to content that resides elsewhere) and torrent trackers. Sometimes, you’ll hear that all of the above are illegal. Often, extreme examples such as “listening a CD with a friend” will be laughed at (well of course you can do that) but when it comes to creating a simple backup copy, it’ll be called a gray zone or even declared illegal. Very rarely you’ll hear a court decide that linking to copyrighted material is OK, but this is exactly how Spanish judge Raul N. García Orejudo ruled in a case of Spanish music collector society SGAE (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores) vs. Jesus Guerra, owner of link site www.elrincondejesus.com. Do judge Raul’s arguments make sense? You bet they do. First, he denied SGAE’s request to shut down Guerra’s site in June, saying that "P2P networks, as a mere transmission of data between Internet users, do not violate, in principle, any right protected by Intellectual Property Law." Now, he decided that “offering an index of links and/or linking to copyright material is not the same as distribution.” His decision was largely based on the fact that Guerra doesn’t make any direct or indirect profits off the site. Without going into the moral side of the story, it’s obvious that there’s not a very big difference between a site like www.elrincondejesus.com and Google. And if you start going that road, you end up with weird legal precedents, such as the recent decision by an Italian court, which found Google Italy execs guilty over an offensive video Google had failed to remove from its index. There’s no doubt that SGAE will appeal the decision. But this ruling once again shows that not everything is as black and white in the world of file-sharing as the recording industry would have you believe. Reviews: Google Tags: file sharing, link sites, p2p, Spain
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| The Making Of Heineken’s Amazing Soccer Swindle [VIDEO] Posted: 16 Mar 2010 06:02 AM PDT 
So when Heineken staged a fake classical music concert at the same time as a crucial Real Madrid vs. AC Milan game on October 21, there was no chance that any real soccer fan would be there…except if their girlfriends, professors and bosses convinced them (by any means necessary) to attend. What happens next is sheer hilarity, and a nice example of a high-budget guerrilla marketing campaign from Heineken. Suffice to say that more than 1,100 soccer fans got swindled, 1.5 million people saw their reactions on live TV, and Heineken received five million visitors to the site devoted to the event — and a great deal of news coverage for their troubles. As far as what happens in the video itself, we won’t spoil it for you; see it below and enjoy. Tags: Heineken, trending, viral video, web marketing
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Lithuanian-based 
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Today Microsoft released the 
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