Kamis, 22 Juli 2010

Mashable: Latest 25 News Updates - including “Microsoft Will Give a Free Windows Phone 7 Device to Every Employee”

Mashable: Latest 25 News Updates - including “Microsoft Will Give a Free Windows Phone 7 Device to Every Employee”

Link to Mashable!

Microsoft Will Give a Free Windows Phone 7 Device to Every Employee

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 03:25 AM PDT


Even before we hear the first sales estimates, we can safely say that a Windows Phone 7 device will be in the hands of a rather large user base. How do I know that? Well, Microsoft announced it will be giving a free Phone 7 device to every employee – all 90,000+ of them.

Although this gesture will come at quite a cost for Microsoft, I always believe that all companies should try to make evangelists out of their employees, and what better way to do that than to hand them a free, bleeding-edge device to use?

Of course, Microsoft might want to make sure that edge isn’t bleeding too heavily, because not even their own employees will want to use a buggy device. However, from what we’ve heard about Windows Phone 7 lately, it’s definitely usable.

For now, though, judging by their tweets (above), the folks from Microsoft are definitely excited about their new phone. If you’re working at Microsoft and haven’t heard the news, you might want to read this internal email from Microsoft’s Andy Lees, which explains that the “process will vary based on your market, your carrier, and your launch date” and promises “more information closer to launch.”

More About: microsoft, Mobile 2.0, windows phone 7

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Write.fm Makes Sharing Text and Files Amazingly Simple

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 01:30 AM PDT

Pen Cup Image

I love simple solutions to common problems. Write.fm is one of those services that manages to reduce the number of steps to do a task – in this case, sharing simple text messages and files of any kind – to the absolute minimum.

Coming from Anthony Feint, the same developer who brought us the simple, intuitive web-based task manager Task.fm, Write.fm can perhaps best be described as a cross between an URL-shortener, cloud-based notepad and a simple file sharing service. Originally, the service was just for sharing text; file sharing was added recently.

Open it, and you’re greeted with a text input field and an “add file” icon which lets you choose and upload any file from your disk drive. Once you’re done writing the text and adding files, rename your project in the upper left corner of the screen. That name, preceded by “write.fm/” is now the web address of the file.

Other options that come to mind, such as password protection, are nowhere to be seen, but perhaps it’s too much to ask from a project that aims, first and foremost, to be simple and easy to use.

Author of the project claims the “tool was originally built to help the Task.fm team move code snippets around, but after seeing how well it worked, we decided to open it up to the world.” Good idea: we’ve seen many similar projects over the years, but this one takes the cake for simplicity and elegance.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59

Reviews: iStockphoto

More About: cloud, file sharing, notepad, text sharing, Write.fm

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Bearhug Brings a Social Approach to Customer Service Management

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 10:39 PM PDT


This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: Bearhug

Quick Pitch: Bearhug is a customer engagement platform that gives businesses a continuous, customized approach to customer service.

Genius Idea: Bearhug is another take on the web-based customer service/feedback systems that have been successfully implemented by GetSatisfaction and Tender Support, with Bearhug’s emphasis being more on building a collaborative relationship with customers than on just managing support and feedback.

Bearhug launched its private beta last week and has already undergone some changes and added some new features to its core offering.

Bearhug’s dashboard consists of four different feature groups:

  • Pulse – Pulse lets businesses broadcast updates, information associated with outages or maintenance, or other ongoing status info via Twitter, RSS feeds, SMS messages or e-mail.
  • Answers – Answers is where the greater community can ask questions and also offer feedback and answers. Administrators are notified when an answer comes in; they can quickly respond by pointing to an FAQ or assigning the question to another staff member. The overall conversation can be followed via RSS.
  • First Rate – First Rate is where the community can post reviews and give ratings that can then be shared with others in the community. Administrators are alerted when these reviews or ratings are submitted, and they can respond on the fly.
  • Overheard – Overheard is a way for businesses to monitor what is being said about their products or services across other channels and then share those conversations with others in their organization.
  • Thinktank – Thinktank is sort of like Uservoice or the GetSatisfaction “suggestions” feature. It lets customers submit their own suggestions or feature requests. Those suggestions can then be voted on by other community members, and other users can post comments to those suggestions..

    • Check out this video which gives a closer look at how Bearhug works:

    Many small businesses are looking for a solid way to connect with their customers; this space is continuing to evolve and grow. What we like about Bearhug is that the focus is really on connecting the customer and business to have a sustained conversation.

    For those of you involved with brand management, customer relationship management, and similar tasks: What do you think of Bearhug? Is this a product you’d like to try, and what features would you add or take away from the current product?

    Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

    BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

    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: BearHug, PHP, Twitter

    More About: bearhug, customer service, GetSatisfaction, productivity, tender

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10 Terrific New Tumblr Themes

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 09:28 PM PDT


This series is supported by Rackspace, the better way to do hosting. Learn more about Rackspace’s hosting solutions here.

We’re big fans of the micro-blogging service Tumblr. Like other blogging platforms including WordPress.com, Posterous and Blogger, Tumblr is free to use and doesn’t require users to install or manage any software on their own servers.

What really makes Tumblr — and Posterous for that matter — stand apart from the pack is that these platforms are extremely easy to use. Posting an image, a quote, a link or a video is very simple, and the reblog feature is a great way to share cool things your friends post.

While Tumblr isn’t quite as advanced as hosted content management systems like WordPress or Drupal, new features have recently hit the service, including Pages and reader-submitted Q&A and contributions.

Tumblr has also ramped up its theme customization options, adding new features to its theme documentation and even offering its own marketplace for premium Tumblr themes.

Over the past few months, Tumblr theming has really been taken up a notch; you might be amazed at some of the designs you can install on your own Tumblr blog.

Check out this slideshow for ten of our favorite new Tumblr themes, and please share your own favorites in the comments!


1. Royal Ribbon




Simon Fletcher's Royal Ribbon theme is a really elegant way to display your content. The colors are beautiful and the typography just pops. We love the subtle use of JavaScript animations for post descriptions and for navigating forward and back.

(Free)


2. International




Chambers Judd's International theme is really simple but really, really beautiful. We like the JavaScript tooltip for the Share functionality and the use of whitespace.

The off-grey background is also a great choice.

(Free)


3. Modern1




Jiew Meng's Modern1 theme is just that, modern. The color combination of light blue and red, matched with stenciled icons and a terrific font make this theme really eye catching.

We also love the use of the sidebar for more options and for linking to other sites and networks.

(Free)


4. Neue




Matt Kempster's Neue theme might not have tons of contrast (though you can make those edits on your own), but it uses large icons and typography in a unique way.

We also love the subtle roll-over effects on the post-type icons.

(Free)


5. Rockstar




WooThemes might be best known for its WordPress creations, but the company also has a line of Tumblr themes! While all of the choices are attractive, Rockstar -- which is based on a personal design that one of the founders used on a previous version of his own blog -- has some great jQuery effects and it's also free!

We love the colors, the use of animations and the hover effects on the different elements.

(Free)


6. Headline




Headline is an impressive theme from Airspace Workshop. In fact, without the Tumblr "Follow/Reblog" buttons, you would likely never even know it was a Tumblr theme.

Great use of space, columns and post types, along with lots of great elements and little touches. If you've ever wanted a magazine-style theme for your Tumblr blog, check out Headline!

(Free)


7. Cardstock




Cardstock is a theme from Parker Quinn that is simple yet beautiful. It's perfect for the minimalist lover and it has some great typography.

(Free)


8. Peapod




Peapod is another theme from Parker Quinn and it, again, uses a great font and stunning typography. It's also utilizes some color elements and post type designations that make the theme really stand out, while still remaining elegant and minimalist.

(Free)


9. Solaris




Solaris is a premium theme from Matthew Buchanan and at $9, it's a solid package.

It comes with support for all kinds of options, including recent tweets, Facebook like buttons and even the option for a dark background.

I like Solaris so much that I use it on my own rarely updated Tumblr blog.

($9)


10. Antiquity




Antiquity is a premium theme from Obox Design, that not only gives you two choices of home page style (single column or multi-column), but also includes quick links to your various social networks, has some great JavaScript effects and incorporates colors and fonts that truly stand out.

This is one of my favorite recent entries to the Tumblr premium marketplace, and the Obox guys continue to add new features to their themes all the time.

($9)

Series supported by Rackspace

rackspace

Rackspace is the better way to do hosting. No more worrying about web hosting uptime. No more spending your time, energy and resources trying to stay on top of things like patching, updating, monitoring, backing up data and the like. Learn why.

Reviews: Drupal, Posterous, Tumblr, WordPress, blogger

More About: tumblr, tumblr themes, web design

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Time-Lapse Twitter Visualization Shows America’s Moods [VIDEO]

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 07:32 PM PDT


A group of researchers from Northeastern University and Harvard University have gathered enough data from Twitter to give us all a snapshot of how we Americans feel throughout a typical day or week.

Not only did they analyze the sentiments we collectively expressed in 300 million tweets over three years against a scholarly word list; these researchers also mashed up that data with information from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Google Maps API and more. What they ended up with was a fascinating visualization showing the pulse of our nation, our very moods as they fluctuate over time.

The researchers have put this information into density-preserving cartograms, maps that take the volume of tweets into account when representing the land area. In other words, in areas where there are more tweets, those spots on the map will appear larger than they do in real life.

It will surprise almost no one to learn that findings indicate a general mood slump mid-day and mid-week, when we are most likely to be at work. Our tweets show that we’re happiest in the early morning and late evening; during the week, our mood tends to peak on Sunday morning.

Less predictable, perhaps, is the fact that West Coast tweets were “happier” than tweets from the East Coast. Although West Coast Twitter users expressed emotions in the same cycles as the East Coast users (with a three-hour gap, of course, because of time zone differences), the West Coasters didn’t dip as low in mood as the East Coasters by a significant margin.

For the inforgraphic fans among you, here’s a lovely PDF showing some of the data displayed:

And here’s a cool video showing the American Twitter mood expressions changing over the course of a day:

We’re pretty fascinated by visualizations like these; what other data or topics would you like to see these researchers tackle next? What use do you think we could get out of the current information they’ve generated?

More About: infographic, Map, mood, sentiment, trending, twitter, visualization

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NASA Uses Space Lasers to Map the World’s Forests [PICS]

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 06:43 PM PDT


Typically, we’d associated terms such as “lasers from space” with global destruction. However, the good folks at NASA have used three satellites and LIDAR laser technology to do something much more interesting — and with much more value for residents of Earth.

NASA scientists have used data collected by the ICESat, Terra and Aqua satellites to create a topographical map that shows the height of forests around the world, from the rain forests of the Amazon to the redwood and sequoia forests of Northern California. They say their efforts have produced a collection and visualization of data that is the first of its kind.

LIDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, uses laser pulses to determine the distance between given objects. It was used in this case to capture “vertical slices of surface features,” according to NASA. Over seven years, scientists collected data from 250 million laser pulses. This data on the Earth’s vertical profile was mashed up with other data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), which gathers information about radiation, cloud cover, changes in the oceans and atmosphere and much more.

Data from a fourth satellite could be added to this set later in the decade to make these maps more detailed. The current data set will help scientists study how much carbon our planet’s vegetation stores and how quickly the same carbon cycles back into Earth’s atmosphere.

According to NASA, we Earthlings are responsible for releasing about 7 billion tons of carbon each year, mostly as carbon dioxide. Of those emissions, 2 billion tons of carbon end up in the ocean and 3 billion tons are later found in the atmosphere. “It's unclear where the last two billion tons of carbon go,’ the NASA site reads, “though scientists suspect forests capture and store much of it as biomass through photosynthesis.”

Figuring out our forests’ biomass starts with calculating tree height around the globe.

These maps can also help with scientists working on problems such as forest fires and species of animals indigenous to specific forests.

Here are some images of these maps so far (click for larger images):

What other uses can you image for NASA’s map of our world’s forests? What other kinds of data would you like to see them add to this set?

[img credit: exlibris]

More About: environment, forest, green, lasers, NASA, space

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After More Downtime, We Ask: Can Twitter Truly Scale?

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 05:37 PM PDT


On Monday, a database hang-up on a long-running query was causing problems for both Twitter.com and the service’s API, which in turn affected Twitter clients outside of the official website.

The site has grown at an incredible rate since its inception, and it’s always struggled to keep up (technically speaking) with user adoption. Ever since its userbase spread beyond the tech elite to more mainstream social media users, the site has been subject to a seemingly unending string of growing pains.

In response to a wave of failures last month during the World Cup, Twitter engineer Jean-Paul Cozzatti posted that the company’s network was improperly configured, leading to downtime and trouble with features.

Cozzatti claimed that the company had doubled the capacity of its internal network, improved its monitoring and rebalanced its traffic to prevent future downtime.

"For much of 2009, Twitter's biggest challenge was coping with our unprecedented growth (a challenge we happily still face),” he wrote. “But as this week's issues show, there is always room for improvement.”

Apparently, the improvements made last month were not enough to keep up with user growth and their demands on the service.

Cozzatti posted again today to address Twitter’s issues Monday, comparing the engineering team’s work on scaling the app to “riding a rocket.” To give you an idea of how fast that rocket is soaring through the social media universe, we reported in April that the service had 105 million users. In his post today, Cozzatti said Twitter now has 124 million registered users.

Scalability and uptime are the team’s top priority; in fact, Cozzatti noted, other projects are being put to the side until these problems can be thoroughly solved. He stated that Twitter’s engineers have made more than 50 performance and optimization tweaks since the site’s World Cup woes, including doubling throughput to the database that stores tweets, improving how the app uses memcache and improving page caching of the front and profile pages, which helps to reduce page load time.

Nevertheless, “There are still times when we run into problems unrelated to Twitter's capacity,” Cozzatti admitted.

Monday’s issues serve as a perfect example. During the database malfunction and restart — which covered a 12-hour period — users were unable to login, sign upor update their profile information and design. “In the end,” wrote Cozzatti, “this affected most of the Twitter ecosystem: our mobile, desktop, and web-based clients, the Twitter support and help system, and Twitter.com.”

While Twitter is getting its own data center this fall and is actively recruiting more engineering talent, the company clearly needs to implement the long-term solutions we’re reading about. To have the cultural cachet of a web service such as Google search, Gmail, Facebook or any of the apps we rely on for day-to-day work and life — and we have the distinct impression that Twitter does, indeed, hope to be part of that cadre — it must first and most importantly achieve an acceptable uptime ratio. All the partnerships, revenue and media buzz in the world can fall a bit flat when the app itself doesn’t work.

That being said, we’re certain Twitter can and will make the needed improvements for scalability, and growing pains are good pains to have.

Are you confident that Twitter can become reliable and stable in the near future? Or do you foresee more significant downtime from this service? What will it take for Twitter to grow as quickly as its users require?

Reviews: Facebook, Gmail, Google, Twitter, World Cup

More About: developers, down, downtime, engineering, scalability, twitter

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Facebook CEO Interviewed on IPO, Lawsuit and More [VIDEO]

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 04:17 PM PDT


In an interview that will air tonight on ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talked frankly about an upcoming IPO, the Facebook movie, a shady lawsuit and much more.

As far as the movie The Social Network is concerned, Zuckerberg seemed to echo Facebook co-founder Dustin Moscovitz’s opinion that the film seems a lot more exciting than the real-life version of Facebook’s history.

“I just think people have a lot of fiction…. The real story of Facebook is just that we’ve worked so hard for all this time,” Zuckerberg said in his interview with Sawyer. “I mean, the real story is actually probably pretty boring, right? …We just sat at our computers for six years and coded.”

Somewhere in that six years of coding, however, it is alleged that Zuckerberg signed a contract that would give ownership of his website to a web designer and former associate at Harvard, one Paul Ceglia.

Although a Facebook lawyer said yesterday the company is “unsure” whether such a contract was ever signed, Zuckerberg told Sawyer unequivocally, “We did not sign a contract that says that [Ceglia has] any right to ownership over Facebook.”

As far as an initial public offering of stock is concerned, Facebook’s IPO is one of the most hotly anticipated by many in the tech world. The company is currently valued at upwards of $20 billion and is expected to generate around $1 billion in revenue in 2010. Zuckerberg told Sawyer that, while he and the rest of the Facebook team are still rather single-mindedly focused on product, “At some point along the path, I think it’ll make sense to have an IPO. But we’re not running the company to do that. We’re running the company to serve more people.”

Of course, Sawyer’s interview also touches on the privacy debacle (“We have made mistakes, for sure,” said Zuckerberg) and the site’s crossing the 500-million-user mark (Zuckerberg said the journey had been “surreal”) as well as several other topics.

Check your local listings to find out when the program will air in your area, and in the meantime, check out these two teaser clips from ABC.



Will you be watching the entirety of tonight’s interview? What are your thoughts on Zuckerberg’s words? Let us know your opinions in the comments.

Reviews: Facebook

More About: abc, facebook, interview, sawyer, zuck, Zuckerberg

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Allure to Give Away $725,000 Worth of Beauty Products via Microsoft Tags

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 03:21 PM PDT


Allure magazine has partnered with Microsoft Tag for its annual Free Stuff issue this August, allowing readers to use their smartphones to participate in $725,000 worth of beauty product giveaways, which are awarded on a first-come, first-win basis.

In years past, readers could log on to Allure’s website to enter the contests and sign up for text alert reminders. This year, however, the promotion is moving to smartphones.

To take part in the contests, which begin August 2, readers can type gettag.mobi into their mobile browsers to download the Microsoft Tag Reader. Using the app, they can scan the Tag in the magazine or on Allure’s Free Stuff page to register. Users can also opt to get text message alerts 15 minutes before each event occurs and then scan the Tag to enter.

For those unfamiliar with Microsoft Tag, the product is Microsoft’s version of the QR code, a 2-D barcode that can be scanned using a QR reader app to pull up images, video and a range of other interactive features. Although there are a number of QR code readers available in smartphone app stores, Microsoft Tag requires its own reader app.

QR codes are currently popular with smartphone users in Japan, and we think they are poised to hit the mainstream in the U.S. following recent campaigns with major U.S. brands like Calvin Klein Jeans, the City of New York and the Detroit Redwings.

Yet Microsoft Tag is making serious headway. The group has partnered with a number of Conde Nast titles, including W and Golf Digest, to get its codes into magazines and its app on users’ smartphones. The Allure campaign is “the largest single deployment of Microsoft Tag in a magazine to date,” Aaron Getz, general manager of Microsoft Tag, said in a release.

Senior Global Media Strategist Anna Kim-Williams elaborated in an e-mail, “We targeted print publications when we launched Tag, understanding the power of turning something static to something interactive. Conde Nast decided to use Microsoft Tag in its Golf Digest editorial in their November issue and placed about a dozen Tags magazine that linked to a golf improvement videos. It was a huge success and continues to remain some of the highest scanned Tags to date. Conde Nast then put Tags in a few more of their other titles and extended it to their advertisers.” Advertisers then began using the Tags across their own channels, Kim-Williams said, and now the group is targeting several other verticals, including retail, real estate, consumer products and museums. Tags are currently free to develop and use.

Whether or not Microsoft Tag will overtake QR codes in the U.S. remains to be seen. Tags do offer some functionality that QR codes don’t, including the ability to dial a phone number, exchange contact information and send text messages. They can also be made smaller than QR codes — an attribute that should become an important selling point as the product moves into the packaged goods space. Microsoft Tag was first introduced at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas in January 2009, and recently came out of beta. Since January, more than one billion Tags have been created by individuals and businesses around the world.

Coming back to Allure, the major advantage of Microsoft Tag in this instance is that participants are no longer tied to their computers at contest entry times. Instead, they can keep a tear-out or printout of the the master Tag in their wallets to scan and enter giveaways on-the-go.

“It gives [readers] a connection to the magazine anywhere there is a phone signal," Allure Editor-in-Chief Linda Wells explained. "What we've done is use Tag to give readers what they want—a fast, easy, and more convenient way to participate in our giveaways."

What do you think of Allure’s decision to use Microsoft Tags over QR codes? Would you be more likely to participate in timed magazine giveaways if you could do so via your smartphone?

Disclosure: Microsoft is a Mashable sponsor.

Reviews: Mashable

More About: allure, conde nast, magazine, MARKETING, media, microsoft, microsoft tag, QR Codes

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HOW TO: Deal with a Cyberstalker

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 02:45 PM PDT


Unless you’re one of those Internet hermits still jammin’ around with a Hotmail address (How’s 1997? Can you bring me back a slap bracelet?), you likely have a few of what you might teasingly call “stalkers.”

How else would you explain the torrent of random acquaintances who, without fail, attack your Facebook wall with a “Happy Birthday” bomb every year?

Most of the time, such attention is just an unmerited boost of your self-rated online likability/interestingness. But depending on the enthusiasm level in the fevered fingers of your unwanted BFF, it can also be, how can we say it … hella off-putting.
Here’s what to do when someone goes from pal to parasite.

Head on over to CNN to read my Netiquette column, which I pen weekly with Stuff Hipsters Hate co-blogger, Andrea Bartz.


Check out the column at CNN.com >>

image courtesy of iStockphoto, shironosov

Reviews: Facebook, iStockphoto

More About: facebook, social media, twitter

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PayPal Now Adding One Million New Accounts Per Month

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 02:26 PM PDT


eBay Inc. has released its second quarter fiscal results, posting gains largely because of PayPal’s accelerating growth.

eBay generated $2.215 in revenue during Q2, an increase of 6% from the $2.098 billion it brought in during the same time period last year. eBay was quick to point out that its revenue growth amounts to 15%, if you exclude the impact of 2009’s Skype sale on its books. eBay earned $412 million in net income, an increase of 26% from the previous year.

However, the breakdown of its business units reveals that eBay is relying more and more on PayPal for its growth. While the eBay marketplace still generates the majority of the company’s revenue — $1.398 billion — its PayPal division brought in revenue of $817 million. More importantly, PayPal’s revenues grew by 22%, while eBay’s marketplaces only increased by 11%. Most of that growth is international; eBay’s auction business only grew by 2% in the U.S.

PayPal has been a bright spot in eBay’s portfolio. While the site is still one of the most visited on the web, it has been steadily losing ground to the likes of Amazon and others. The auction model, wildly popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, has lost some of its luster. PayPal, on the other hand, added a million new accounts per month in Q2. It wouldn’t shock us if PayPal became eBay’s biggest business unit in the next few years.

More About: ebay, paypal

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Netflix Users Watching More Movies and TV Shows Online

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 02:02 PM PDT


Netflix subscribers are continuing to consume more and more of their video content online, with 61% of them watching at least 15 minutes of streaming video during the company's second quarter.

That's nearly double the number of subscribers doing so last year (37%) and a decent bump from the company's first quarter, where 55% watched at least 15 minutes using the Watch Instantly service.

Of course, you'd expect this kind of growth given the moves Netflix is making to add Watch Instantly to consumer electronics, ranging from Xbox 360 to Playstation 3 to Roku. Just a couple weeks ago, stats revealed that the company's website traffic jumped 46% year-over-year thanks in no small part to its shifting strategy.

We expect this trend of video consumption moving to the Internet to only continue over the next few years and for Netflix to be a major player as it migrates from the DVDs-by-mail model to an online service that competes with the likes of Hulu Plus.

On the whole, Netflix continues to grow at an impressive clip. The company also revealed today that it has hit 15 million subscribers, with revenue growing 27% year-over-year to $519.8 million during the second quarter.

Reviews: Internet

More About: netflix, ONLINE VIDEO, stats

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My Facebook Story: An Inside Look at Facebook’s First Privacy Fiasco

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 01:09 PM PDT


On September 5, 2006, I used Facebook’s own platform to rock its foundations and create a revolt that would make international headlines. Since Facebook has asked its users to share their stories in celebration of passing the 500 million user mark, I thought that I would share mine here.

It was the start of my junior year at Northwestern University. Classes hadn’t started yet, but I was on campus several weeks early for my training as a residential and community assistant. The dorms were empty, except for the athletes and the other community assistants (CAs).

I woke up that Tuesday in my sparse and still-undecorated dorm room. The first thing I did — as many young people still do — was to check Facebook. Back then, it was very primitive; you had your profile, your friends profiles, wall posts and private messaging. You had to actively visit friends’ profiles to learn anything new about them.

That all changed on September 5, 2006. On that day, Facebook launched the News Feed, which provided a passive stream of news and updates about friends.

When I first saw News Feed, I didn’t like it. In fact, I hated it, so I decided to let people know. After instant messaging with some friends who felt the same way, I decided to create a Facebook group called “Students Against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook).” In fact, the group still exists and I’m still its admin.

I quickly whipped together an image in Photoshop, wrote up some text, IMed the link to some friends, asked them to share the group and rushed out the door for my community assistant training. I could never have anticipated what that group would become.

Students Against Facebook News Feed Goes Viral

I didn’t have access to a computer until lunchtime that day, but I already knew the group was gaining steam. I was eager to log on and see for myself what was happening.

In less than six hours, the group had amassed 13,000 members. In other words, it had gone viral and the irony was that it was thanks to Facebook’s new News Feed. I periodically checked Facebook after that as membership continued to swell. My fellow community assistants were asking about what was going on, with most of them supporting my position. Later that night, several of us were actually standing in front of my laptop, constantly clicking “refresh.”

At almost exactly 2:00 a.m. CT, the group reached 100,000 members. That’s when I finally called it a night.

For the next few days, the protest continued to gain momentum. Media outlets started e-mailing and calling me, filling up my inbox and disrupting my CA training (Time was the first to contact me). The group now had more than 250,000 members and I was getting hundreds of messages, friend requests and wall posts. It was all rather overwhelming.

During the course of that week, I continued to post updates on Students Against Facebook News Feed, linking to the media coverage and refining our message. We didn’t ask Facebook to remove News Feed — instead, we wanted the company to add far stronger privacy features so that we didn’t have to automatically share our break-ups or new photos if we didn’t want to.

Facebook Makes Its Move

Thursday, September 7, was the culmination of the Facebook News Feed fiacso. That day, the group broke 750,000 members — nearly 10% of Facebook’s entire userbase (it had 9.3 million members at the time). The Today Show asked me to come on the air the next day to talk about Facebook and privacy. All the while, I was completing my training as a CA during a beautiful Chicago summer.

Then Facebook made its move. Mark Zuckerberg published a very frank open letter early Friday morning. Here’s how it started:

“We really messed this one up. When we launched News Feed and Mini-Feed we were trying to provide you with a stream of information about your social world. Instead, we did a bad job of explaining what the new features were and an even worse job of giving you control of them. I’d like to try to correct those errors now.”

It was a very honest letter. He apologized for not building in proper privacy controls and said that the team was coding “nonstop” to implement better ones — something that they delivered on just a few days later.

The letter was exactly what I wanted and it quickly put the entire protest to a screeching halt. I soon declared victory on “Students Against Facebook News Feed” and declared that the group’s purpose was fulfilled. The group’s growth immediately stopped, media inquiries quickly disappeared and I never ended up on The Today Show, as the story was now dead.

The Power of Facebook

A week after I launched Students Against Facebook News Feed, I received a direct e-mail from Mark Zuckerberg. In fact, I still have the e-mail thread. While I won’t share our exchanges, Zuckerberg essentially wanted to get my take on the events of the past week and my suggestions for what the company should do for releasing new products going forward. I was thrilled by the gesture. Even now, Zuckerberg likes to bring up our little history.

I ended up with a little notoriety on campuses nationwide, at least for a while. The occasional student newspaper would ask for an interview, and I ended up with more than 2,000 friend requests and just as many Facebook messages. Still, it was just one incident in Facebook’s history; the social network continued to expand, I went on to graduate from Northwestern and the world continued to spin.

Since then, I’ve had time to reflect. If you’ve read any of my op-ed pieces on Mashable, you know that my opinion of Facebook News Feed and privacy have dramatically changed. I said as much two years ago in an interview with The New York Times and in one of my first articles on Mashable.

I’m still in awe of just how important Facebook was to my life back then and to the lives of all 9.3 million college students using it at the time. If the protest demonstrated anything, it was that the social network already had a special place in our lives.

Now that 500 million people use Facebook on a regular basis — more than the entire population of the U.S., Mexico and Canada combined. Now we have millions of examples of Facebook bringing families together and tearing couples apart. Facebook knows this, which is why it launched the Facebook Stories campaign in the first place.

This is my Facebook story. What’s yours?

Reviews: Facebook, Mashable

More About: Ben Parr, facebook, Facebook news feed, mashable

For more Social Media coverage:

Skype’s iPhone App Can Now Run in the Background

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 01:00 PM PDT


Skype for iPhone has been upgraded to include support for the multitasking capabilities of iOS4. The update means that users can now accept Skype calls and instant messages while running other applications, as well as switch to other tasks while using Skype.

The Skype for iPhone [iTunes link] experience is now essentially on par with — if not better than — the native calling experience on the iPhone.

The application was previously enhanced to support calls over 3G. Now calls made over 3G or Wi-Fi will no longer be restricted to users who have the Skype application running in the foreground.

As with all iOS4-compatible apps, users will need to run Skype in the background to take advantage of multitasking and allow for incoming calls.

Skype for iPhone also includes the enhanced graphics supported by the iPhone 4’s Retina Display. In addition, Skype revealed that it no longer plans to charge for calls made over 3G. As such, the entire Skype experience appears to be much improved, and makes possible the previously demonstrated capabilities of the new operating system and hardware.

[img credit: Skype]

Reviews: Skype, Skype for iPhone

More About: iOS 4, iphone, Mobile 2.0, Skype

For more Mobile coverage:

How Coca-Cola Created Its “Happiness Machine” [INTERVIEW]

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 12:38 PM PDT

coke machine image

Meaghan Edelstein has gained national media attention through her blog, I Kicked Cancer’s Ass, which she started to document her battle with end stage cancer. She is an attorney, the founder of the non-profit organization Spirit Jump, and also writes from her personal blog.

Most big brands don't share the secrets behind how they create hugely successful web videos. For the first time ever, Coke executives and leaders at Definition 6, the agency responsible for the award-winning "Happiness Machine" video, reveal the secret ingredients that made it such a success.

Global Senior Brand Manager for Coca-Cola, AJ Brustein, Definition 6 Director of Interactive Strategy, Paul McClay and Definition 6 Creative Director Paul Iannacchino take us through the making of Coke's "Happiness Machine."

Coming up with a Brilliant Idea

Q: What was Coke's goal? What was Coke looking for when they decided to create a web video?

Brustein: Coke’s original goal was to beef up its digital activation platform.The plan was to release seven different pieces of content, iPhone and social media applications, wallpaper screen savers and a video that we hoped would go viral. "The Happiness Machine" web video started out as just a piece of digital content, a dose of happiness.

Q: How did your team come up with the "Happiness Machine" concept?

Iannacchino: The process started with a large brainstorming session. Three ideas turned into a pitch that was taken back to Coke and “The Happiness Machine” was selected. Over the course of sixty days we used story boards to refine the piece. We had a strong core idea, but needed to develop the story. Our device was the Coke machine. Location, we needed to be entrenched in Coke's demographic. Finally we had to ask ourselves, how is the narrative going to play out? How will we get people to approach the machine? How will we make it appear as normal as possible? And, how do we get escalation?

McClay: We came up with the idea over Falafel sandwiches on a sunny deck. It was a fun collaboration. The brainstorming and ideation began with a well-defined framework of constraints and set of objectives provided by Coke. Otherwise we were given free reign. We wanted to provide a message that would resonate with the target audience.

3 Tips for coming up with a Brilliant Idea

  • A good story takes time to develop. Take the time to brainstorm your idea and let it develop into something people will relate to and want to share, Iannacchino said.
  • Look at videos online to see what's successful and what isn't. Most often the most successful web videos have something that provokes a reaction, Brustein said.
  • The brainstorming process has to be fun, light hearted and uncontrolled. You never really know when a good idea is going to come up. Often the best ideas end up being the small snippets that came up throughout the process, McClay said.

What to Do with Your Brilliant Idea

coke image

Q: After Coke approved the “Happiness Machine,” what was the next step? How did the idea shape into a real experience?

Brustein: Coke's goal was to create an organic experience. Other than the janitor loading the machine, nothing was scripted. If the video had been scripted, it wouldn't have had the same effect. The girl mouthing "Oh My God," students helping each other lift the huge sub, hugging the Coke machine — these true moments are what gave the video life.

Q: How did you create an organic reaction?

Iannacchino: Coke wanted the machine to be magical but didn't want to reveal the secret behind the magic. To accomplish this we had to show it was a normal Coke machine. The janitor unlocked the machine leaving the door wide open while he loaded bottles of Coke inside. This created a misdirect for the audience, leaving everyone to believe the machine was authentic. Setting up the scene this way helped create an organic reaction which relayed the magic of the brand.

Q: People may think the success of this video was due to Coke giving away free stuff to college students. Do you believe this is true?

Iannacchino: We would argue that it was the element of surprise, not that somebody got animal balloons or two Cokes instead of one. What Coke really gave away was a sense of happiness which created an emotional connection with the brand. Students involved in this video were caught up in their everyday lives, and this little moment touched them. We used free stuff to surprise people but what we gave away was happiness and a smile. The key is engagement, whether you were there or just watching, free stuff was just the catalyst.

McClay: Giving away free stuff wasn't what resonated with the audience at the end of the day. After doing testing we found it was the students' expressions of happiness and the way they reacted that people enjoyed. You can film people being given free stuff all day long and it will fall flat on the audience. The way people react is what matters.

3 Tips for Executing your Idea

  • Simplicity and starting with a great idea is the key. You have to get it out of your head that if you make it they will watch it, Iannacchino said.
  • Brainstorm. Once your team feels strongly about an idea, challenge one another to make it better. You can always improve the idea up until the day you shoot, Iannacchino added.
  • Where you have a wide dispersed team it's important for everyone to be looped in, briefed and approving things through the entire process so there is always forward momentum with positive energy, McClay said.

Putting it all Together

coke hands image

Q: How did you put it all together?

Iannacchino: The first thirty days we ramped up into production. The web video was set to launch January 1, 2010 and we began shooting in early December. We took a working Coke vending machine and re-built it to do the things we wanted it to. There wasn’t a big budget for this project — mostly sweat equity.

Q: How did you pick the location?

Iannacchino: Location was key. We had to find a space that was entrenched in Coke's demographic. We knew we wanted a college campus but it couldn't be just any campus. The college we picked had to be Coke affiliated, on board with our idea with heavy foot traffic by students and have a space that would allow for the important element of secrecy.

St. John's University ended up being the perfect location. We built a secret room in their cafeteria over a weekend so it looked like construction to the students. Because we did it this way no one asked any questions.

Q: What were some of the challenges you faced?

Iannacchino: Going back and tweaking the story, finding the perfect location, and building of the actual “Happiness Machine.” Lots of things didn't work but that was okay. Imagine a eight by fifteen foot room for two days, with five cameras, planning for the worst and hoping for the best!

SECRET: The sub — we only had one, so there was one shot to get it right. The giant sub ended up being the item that punctuated the story.

2 Tips for Putting it All Together

  • Technology and digital space, as well as equipment, are cheap and accessible. Use this to your advantage, Iannacchino said.
  • Be invested in your idea. Plan and prepare to execute your video well, Iannacchino added.

Getting It to Go Viral

coke happiness image

Q: How much did Coke spend to promote the video?

Brustein: Coke spent zero on promoting “The Happiness Machine.” One status update was posted on Coke's Facebook Page, one tweet and that was it. Within a day the video was picked up by bloggers and it spread from there. Of course we could have bought views but the experiment succeeded without any promotion.

Q: What was the process to get the video to go viral?

Iannacchino: We uploaded the web video to Coke's YouTube channel on day one. The video then moved through the advertising trades before it picked up steam with consumers. In the first five days there were seven hundred thousand visits and in the first week one million. It hit the top of the viral video chart that week.

Q: Why do you think “The Happiness Machine” video went viral?

McClay: Something being viral wasn't the strategy, but instead it was a possible outcome. The strategy was to produce great creative content that resonated and wasn't a hard hitting commercial. We wanted it to have pass-along value and never intended to seed it with paid dollars. It was all about the exercise of producing creative video for online distribution. We aimed for something the audience would use and enjoy.

Q: How can other brands increase web video distribution?

McClay: Several tactical things need to be accomplished in order to get distribution. Getting bloggers to post about your video, tweets and Facebook mentions are just a few ways. But the big spikes happen when the video hits the homepage of YouTube or Yahoo.

Getting featured comes down to whether your video is creative, which is dependent upon the perception of the decision makers. The number of views is also critical. If you can create pass-along value it will increase your views. People like to share humor. When something makes me laugh, I think my friend will laugh too.

2 Tips for Getting a Video to Go Viral

  • Spreadable video is important; put the same effort into your creative ideation as you would a television commercial and you will produce some amazing content. Don’t think small because the aspect ratio is, Iannacchino said. Push creative boundaries.
  • If your strategy is to go viral from the outset, then it’s likely to fail, McClay said.

Conclusion

The key ingredients, as always, are imagination and hard work. Both Coke and Definition 6 put an enormous amount of creativity, time and energy into “The Happiness Machine." "One thing to take a way is that it wasn't a fluke,” Iannacchino said. “A lot of work went into it."

More Business Resources from Mashable

- How Social Media Has Prepared Us for Collaborative Business
- HOW TO: Evaluate Your Social Media Plan
- Why Your Next Business Card May Be Virtual
- HOW TO: Improve B2B Sales Productivity with Social Media
- HOW TO: Use Social Media for Lead Generation

Reviews: Facebook, YouTube

More About: ad, ad campaign, advertising, AJ Brustein, coca cola, Coke, happiness machine, interview, MARKETING, Paul Iannacchino, Paul McClay, trending, video, viral marketing, viral video, web video, youtube

For more Business coverage:

Mashable’s 5th Anniversary Giveaway: Win a Logitech Squeezebox Touch

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 11:21 AM PDT


Next Tuesday, we’re celebrating our fifth birthday. If you RSVP to attend a meetup in your local community to celebrate on July 27, you’ll have a chance to win one of five Logitech Squeezebox Touches, a portable Wi-Fi music device.

It all started with Social Media Day, and now we’re continuing the social movement with the first Mashable Monthly Meetup. Attend or organize your own meetups that enable your local social community to connect, learn and network. You can sign up to attend one of the 170+ meetups, or organize your own to help celebrate our birthday.

If you want a shot at winning the Logitech Touch:

1. Simply click the “Like” button below for our Facebook Page;
2. Sign-up to attend a local Meetup to help celebrate our birthday;
3. And answer the question in the comments: When and why did you start reading Mashable? And let us know where you’ll be attending so that we can confirm your RSVP.

Please use your real identity so that we may contact you via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook. We’d also love to hear how you plan on celebrating at the meetup and if you’re doing anything else special on the day.

We’ll pick and announce the winner July 27th, the day of our fifth anniversary..

About the Logitech Squeezebox Touch

“With SqueezeboxTouch your stereo isn’t just a music system. It’s the center of your music system. From the hottest online music services to free internet radio from every corner of the globe, limitless music choices are just a touch away. Even your entire digital music collection is right at your fingertips. You’re free to listen to anything you can think of, all through your home stereo. You can easily select and play music from up close using the intuitive color touch menus—and view album art and photos. You can play songs from your personal library, tune in to thousands of Internet radio stations, or connect to online services such as Pandora® and Rhapsody®. You can access music and pictures stored on flash drives and memory cards.”

Reviews: Facebook, Internet, Mashable, Pandora, Rhapsody, Twitter

More About: 5th anniversary, Events, facebook, giveaway, logitech, mashable, meetup

For more Social Media coverage:

Inside Street Food’s Social Media Revolution [VIDEO]

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 10:30 AM PDT

The hot dog cart on the corner still remains a fixture of New York’s culinary landscape. But a new wave of street vendors aren’t content to stand still and hope customers find them. Equipped with mobile kitchens and mobile broadband, they roam the urban landscape, luring the crowds to them via social media.

Do you follow any food carts on Twitter? Do you “Like” any food trucks on Facebook?

Has social media whetted your appetite for street food? Let us know about your favorite social street eats in the comments!

More Food Resources From Mashable:

- HOW TO: Find Good Food Online
- Why Food Bloggers Are Here to Stay
- 10 Fun iPhone Apps for Beer Lovers
- 3 Social Media Lessons From the Restaurant World
- 5 Must-Have iPhone Apps for Wine Lovers

Reviews: Facebook, Twitter

More About: business, facebook, Food, foursquare, Mobile 2.0, social media, street vendors, twitter

For more Social Media coverage:

Ford to Unveil 2011 Explorer on Facebook

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 10:05 AM PDT


Ford Motor Company is breaking with tradition in a big way. The company has been leaving digital breadcrumbs on the Ford Explorer Facebook Page, and in just a few days they’ll take to the web — instead of an auto show — for an all-day Facebook event to unveil the redesigned 2011 Ford Explorer.

On July 26, Ford, along with Mike Rowe of the Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs series, will use Facebook to reveal the 2011 Ford Explorer. The online event will coincide with a big offline reveal in several cities across the nation, but this marks the first time a major car company will forgo the auto show for a web unveiling.

Scott Monty, Ford’s head of social media, tells us that this is a very “comprehensive online play” that extends beyond just Facebook and involves several other web-centric elements that the company cannot reveal just yet. Monty speaks enthusiastically when he says that, “This is a really really different Explorer, and we wanted to reveal it in a really really different way.”

On reveal day, you can expect to see a number of videos introducing online users to the new vehicle. Monty disclosed that some of the videos will serve as virtual walk-arounds designed to mimic the experience a person would have at an auto show.

In case you haven’t been following the Explorer build-up, some of the vehicle’s specs have already been released to the public. We know that it will be one of the first to include the much-discussed MyFord Touch technology, as well as a bevy of driver safety features and an optional EcoBoost engine for 30% better fuel economy.

To heighten the anticipation, Ford has put out a few teaser videos and photos on Facebook. The Ford Explorer Facebook Page is also drumming up interest in the reveal with the promise of a free car. If the Page can garner 30,000 “likes” — the tally is already nearing 28,000 — the company will give away one 2011 Ford Explorer to a Facebook fan.

Ford continues to push the boundaries of social media innovation. The company has been widely regarded as an early adopter brand for years, especially when it comes to the Ford Fiesta Movement and Monty’s own very visible profile on the web. The online reveal of the 2011 Ford Explorer further demonstrates just how much the automaker believes in the power of social media.

Reviews: Facebook

More About: 2011 ford explorer, facebook, ford, MARKETING

For more Social Media coverage:

It’s Official: Facebook Passes 500 Million Users

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 09:32 AM PDT


As widely expected, Facebook has announced that it has passed the 500 million member mark.

In a blog post, CEO Mark Zuckerberg writes that, “I could have never imagined all of the ways people would use Facebook when we were getting started 6 years ago. I want to thank you for being part of making Facebook what it is today and for spreading it around the world.”

Zuckerberg has also announced the launch of Facebook Stories, showcasing interesting ways that people have used the social network around the world. News of the feature leaked over the weekend.

Later today, Zuckerberg is expected to make a rare television appearance on ABC’s World News, where he’ll be interviewed by Diane Sawyer. Presumably, the interview will focus on what the 500 million milestone means for the company, but we also expect a number of questions about recent privacy gaffes and other controversial subjects, including the soon to be released movie based on Facebook’s beginnings. [Update: Check out this post for highlights and video from the interview]

The question a lot of people also want to know is how big Zuckerberg thinks Facebook can get. Is one billion users possible? With revenue approaching $1 billion and extensive efforts underway in mobile that can help Facebook extend its reach in the developing world, it certainly can’t be ruled out.

Update: Someone sent us this photo, apparently of Zuckerberg being interviewed by Sawyer right now inside Facebook HQ:

Reviews: Facebook, news

More About: facebook, mark zuckerberg, trending

For more Social Media coverage:

Paul Frank and Element Tap Loopt for Location-Based Incentive Programs

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 09:11 AM PDT


Location-based social network Loopt has just added two new rewards to its Loopt Star app, this time from brands Paul Frank and Element.

Loopt Star, which is basically like a digital loyalty card for your iPhone, lets you earn discounts or other rewards when you check in to certain shops. The program is slightly different from some of the other incentive programs that other location networks use because the retailer or business has more granular control over when discounts can be offered and what conditions need to be met.

At participating Paul Frank stores, users get an instant 20% discount on their purchases just for checking in. The company’s stores in Chicago, Costa Mesa, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco are all participating in this promotion.

Just check in and present this coupon on your smartphone at the cash register:

At the Element store in Times Square, you can check in with Loopt Star to receive a free Element Eco-Water Bottle and a 10% discount off any purchase of $75 or more.

Element and Paul Frank are running similar promotions with Gowalla as well.

This summer, Loopt Star has also rolled out rewards for things like free music at participating bars throughout the U.S. The company will continue to add new partners and promotions every few weeks.

Incentives Are the First Step to Widespread Location Usage

While the social sharing and “badge earning” aspects of social location games like Foursquare, Loopt and Gowalla are certainly interesting and compelling for some users, we believe that it’s incentives and discounts that will really make the effort to check in worthy of mass adoption.

However, the other growing issue with location-based services is originality. While some services like SCVNGR are doing very creative things to play up the game elements of their apps, creating a unique experience for users is something all location-based services are struggling to do.

Loopt’s solution is to offer three separate apps, each of which offer different kinds of experiences:

  • Loopt: For traditional location-based sharing within your network (complete with proximity alerts and background location).
  • Loopt Mix: A local friend-finding app. Can also be used for, say, finding a fourth person to join your basketball game.
  • Loopt Star: For users who cares less about earning badges, and more about sharing rewards and finding out about cool things going on with the brands they like.

Ultimately, we’d like to see all of those products together under a singular Loopt brand, or at least the option to combine accounts if for no other reason than overall consistency.

Loopt Star’s greatest asset is its use of Facebook for your social graph. Unlike other geolocation services, you don’t have to add friends or invite people. Its integration with Facebook has amazing potential, we think; Loopt could, for instance, pull in data about your Facebook Likes and other information for special promotions, or allows for seamless sharing and synthesis with features like Facebook Events.

Combine that with something like proximity alerts for rewards — for instance, getting a notification that your favorite store around the corner is having a sale right now — and we think Loopt Star could really position itself as the consumer loyalty location program to beat.

What do you think of how location based services are teaming up with brands to offer discounts and rewards?

Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare, Gowalla

More About: element, geolocation, loopt, loopt star, MARKETING, paul frank

For more Business coverage:

Growing Your Business: 5 Tips From the Founder of Blip.tv

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 08:49 AM PDT


This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Dina Kaplan co-founded Blip.TV, a video sharing platform for independent web shows, five years ago. In those five years, Kaplan has seen her business grow from a really small niche of video bloggers who were producing original video shows, to thousands of users using the site to host their own shows and upload produced videos.

The New York-based company, which shares revenue 50/50 with content producers, has scaled to 96 million video views a month and is now seeing more of its shows making more than $10,000 a quarter than ever before. In fact, Kaplan said payouts to content producers have increased 77% from Q1 to Q2 of this year.

In the last five years, Kaplan has learned quite a bit about what it takes to grow a business, with or without the help of funding. Here are 5 things Kaplan recommends to entrepreneurs.

1. Don’t Try To Be All Things To All People

Kaplan said that when Blip.tv was just starting in 2005, the company went after a discrete market. "We didn’t try to be all things to all people," she said. Blip.tv targeted a group of people who were producing original shows for the web and saw an opportunity to make their experience better. They saw a problem that could be fixed. The market they chose was very small, she said, but one that they knew would grow.

2. Learn From Your Customers

Once the company identified their target market, they studied it. They spent time with key users who were producing original video for blogs. Kaplan said it was just a handful of people at that point, and they hung out with them, got beers with them, and did a lot of listening to learn exactly what they were looking for in a platform that would host their shows.

"We did a lot of listening and built tools that would make their lives easier," Kaplan said. "As the market grew, we did more listening and adapted the platform to the needs of the producers of video content."

3. Hire Experts

Kaplan stresses hiring as one of the most important aspects to growing your business. At the beginning, the founders are doing everything, but it’s important that as you grow you hire experts in the different fields your business requires. Use your personal network, friends, cousins, a professional contact, and go to industry events and meet with people in your field.

"Hiring sets up your company to be much larger than yourself," she said. "Give it all you got. You will benefit from good recruiting."

She also noted that the reputation and culture of the company is important in hiring. People talk, and if your company is a good place to work and has a great environment, treats its employees well, people will hear about it, she said. One of the things that Blip.tv has done is give all of its employees free lunch every day. "Sure it costs a lot of money, but it brings our company together," she said.

4. Engage and Connect With Your Community

Connecting with your professional community is not only important in hiring, but in doing business in general. It can generate leads, partnerships, and opportunities that you may not have known were available. Kaplan said that some time should be spent with your "head down" focusing on the product, and a good chunk of the time should be spent with your "head up" meeting with people in your industry, communities of professionals, companies and other entrepreneurs.

"You should spend some of your time learning from other people and making connections," Kaplan said. "Your business shouldn’t exist in a vacuum."

5. Don’t Obsess Over Funding

Kaplan said companies often obsess on the funding, often at the expense of the product. She said business owners should focus on the product and market, and if the product is a great idea, the money will follow. She thinks focusing on building the product, especially for Internet companies, is the first step and then looking for revenue or funding should follow.

"The funding isn’t the scarce resource. The scarce resource is good ideas, and more importantly, good execution," Kaplan said.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- Growing Your Business: 5 Tips From the Founder of Foursquare
- 10 Tips for Corporate Blogging
- 5 Lessons to Learn from Web Startups
- 11 Essential Online Resources for Consultants
- 5 Online Tools for Answering Your Small Business Questions

Reviews: BLIP, Internet

More About: blip.tv, business, dina kaplan, entrepreneurs, List, Lists, small business, tips

For more Business coverage:

Butter Up: New Facebook App Lets You Create Personalized Butter Statues

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 08:28 AM PDT


Well, this adds a whole new meaning to the term “butterface.” The Midwest Dairy Association has just launched a new Facebook app called “Butter-Fy Yourself” that allows you to — get this — create and share of image of yourself that replicates the butter statues of state fair fame.

If you’re anything like me — who hails from a town in Connecticut where people are mortally afraid of butter — you’re probably not aware of the illustrious history of the butter statue. Apparently, the first such statue was created by Tibetan monks, who carved animals and gods out of the fatty substance, which was then jazzed up with colorful dye. After that, the buttery creations found their way to North America in the early 1800s, where people whipped up decorative patterns and displayed them at state fairs. In 1910, the first butter cow was created at the Iowa State Fair, and now you can find sculptures of all shapes and sizes at fairs across the Midwest.

All right, history lesson over — on to the app. It’s simple and rather fun, actually — just select a photo from Facebook or your desktop to butter-fy, and then select a butter persona — Dairy Princess, Butter Hippie, Butter Cow, Butter Liberty, Butter Bouffant and Butter Up — you can then arrange your photo within that frame, slap it on a postcard, and share it with your friends via your wall, photo album or personal invite to join in the fun. I tried it out below, selecting Butter Hippie and Illinois, seeing as how I used to live there.

Yeah, it’s a silly app — and probably legit horrifying to the vegans among you — but with temps topping 90 around the U.S. of A. today, we’re all melting anyway, right?

Reviews: Facebook

More About: facebook, humor, pop culture

For more Social Media coverage:

FarmVille Cash Invades Supermarkets Nationwide

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 07:45 AM PDT


The social gaming giant FarmVille has teamed up with Green Giant to put Farmville Cash coupon stickers on select produce in 4,000 stores nationwide.

You may now begin to notice a sticker with a redeemable code for “5 free farm cash,” the FarmVille currency that is used to manage virtual goods in the game.

In the six-week pilot for the promotion, more than 100,000 in virtual Farm Cash was redeemed using the stickers, which appeared on 25 different Green Giant produce items. The promotion was launched in Target Fresh Grocery and SuperTarget stores first, but was expanded to stores nationwide as a result of the pilot promotion success.

If you’re a hardcore FarmVille fan and want to stock up up some virtual currency, you can locate participating stores here.

FarmVille, which has 65 million users and 20 million who play daily, has perhaps finally reached the mainstream by getting inside our grocery stores and refrigerators. Recently, we learned that Google is reportedly partnering with FarmVille game-maker Zynga to launch a hub for social online games after investing some $100 to $200 million in the company. And one of Zynga’s newest social games, FrontierVille, recently passed the 20 million user mark.

What do you think of the promotion? Will more of our virtual social lives start to cross over to the mainstream?

Here’s an example of what the stickers look like:

More About: farmville, frontierville, Google, green giant, social gaming, virtual currency, Zynga

For more Social Media coverage:

Two New Facebook Scams Make the Rounds [WARNING]

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 07:11 AM PDT


Hot on the heels of the Coca-Cola Facebook scam, which promised to reveal the “truth” about Coca-Cola (but in reality simply aimed to get a hold of your personal info), are two more spreading via Facebook status updates.

The first one contains the message: “OMG!! Guys, you have to see this: This mother went to jail for taking this pic of her son,” with a link to a page that tricks you into sharing the story with your Facebook buddies. Once you’ve done that, the page will take you to a survey designed to take your personal info.

The other scam is also spreading through Facebook status updates. This time the message says, “OMG!! McDonalds might soon shut down because of this, you have to see this,” followed by a link that roughly duplicates the process above.

Our advice, as always, is not to click on links like these. If a Facebook page or any site insists that you share a piece of content or do a survey before reaching the promised destination, it’s likely a scam. Never give away your personal info. Finally, if you’ve fallen for these (or similar) scams, remove the message from your status, newsfeed, and your Likes and Interests in the “Edit my Profile” menu.

[via Sophos]

Reviews: Facebook

More About: facebook, scam, warning

For more Social Media coverage:

25+ of the Latest Job Postings in Advertising, Social Media and Search

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 06:35 AM PDT


If you’re seeking a job in social media, we’d like to help out. For starters, Mashable’s Job Lists section gathers together all of our resource lists, how-tos and expert guides to help you get hired. In particular, you might want to see our articles on How to Leverage Social Media for Career Success and How to Find a Job on Twitter.

But we’d like to help in a more direct way, too. Mashable's job boards are a place for socially savvy companies to find people like you. This week and every week, Mashable features its coveted job board listings for a variety of positions in the web, social media space and beyond. Have a look at what's good and new on our job boards:

Mashable Job Board Listings

Account Manager at Sharethrough in San Francisco, CA.

Search/Keyword Marketing Specialist at Jawa in Scottsdale, AZ.

Search Marketing Analyst at Jawa in Scottsdale, AZ.

Creative/Marketing Genius at Steelcase in Grand Rapids, MI.

Online Campaign Manager at Veritas Prep in Malibu, CA.

Network Administrator at Capitol News Connection in Washington, D.C.

Business Development and Software Development at metaio Inc. in San Francisco, CA.

Manager of Online Communities and Nonprofit Outreach at The Extraordinaries in San Francisco, CA.

Office Manager at GasPedal in Austin, TX.

Senior Consumer Experience Manager at Nike, Inc. in Beaverton, OR.

Code for America Fellow at Code for America in San Francisco, CA.

Interactive Strategist at Rauxa Direct in Costa Mesa, CA.

Mid-Level Social Media Communications Specialist at The Cadmus Group in Arlington, VA.

Copywriter at Digitas in Boston, MA.

Product Manager at AOL in New York, NY.

Social Media Sales Consultant at Meltwater in Mountain View, CA.

Manager, Social Networking and Online Communities at Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, VA.

Interactive Media Coordinator at National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington, D.C.

Digital Strategist, Pharmaceuticals at Mc|K Healthcare in Boston, MA.

Project Manager, Ad Sales Operations at Federated Media in New York, NY.

Associate Director, Project Management at Digitas in New York, NY.

Sr. Copywriter at Digitas in Philadelphia, PA.

Freelance Senior Social Media Strategist at MWW Group in New York, NY.

Digital Advertising Sales Executive at YourTango in New York, NY.

Director, Digital Rights at CBC-Radio Canada in Toronto, Canada.

Director, Client Relationships at MotiveQuest LLC in Portland, OR.

Social Media Coordinator at Playboy Enterprises in Chicago, IL.

Senior Account Executive/Project Manager at Edelman Digital in San Francisco, CA.

Mashable’s Job Board has a variety of web 2.0, application development, business development and social networking job opportunities available. Check them out at here.

Find a Web 2.0 Job with Mashable

Got a job posting to share with our readers? Post a job to Mashable today ($99 for a 30 day listing) and get it highlighted every week on Mashable.com (in addition to exposure all day every day in the Mashable marketplace).

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, YinYang

Reviews: Mashable, iStockphoto, society

More About: jobs

Over 55 Percent of Android Devices Now Running Version 2.1

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 05:55 AM PDT


Let’s face it: Android will probably always be fragmented over three or four major versions. Some phone manufacturers are slow to adopt the newer versions of the platform, while some launch their phones with no updating in mind.

Still, as far as fragmentation goes, the recently updated Android distribution chart is looking better than ever, with 55.5% of devices running Android 2.1 and 22.1% are running Android 1.6.

Of course, an alarmingly high 18.9% of all Android devices are running the now quite obsolete version 1.5, while Android 2.2 is now showing up on 3.3% of devices, so an average user’s Android experience can still vary a lot, depending on what device/OS version he or she has.

What does this distribution mean for developers? Well, looking at the chart (above), if a developer wants everyone to be able to use their app, he’ll have to develop for Android 1.5 (all Android APIs are forward-compatible). If he or she wants to develop an app with all the latest bells and whistles of Android 2.1, then approximately half of Android users won’t be able to use the app at all. It’s a continuous race against the clock, but no one said that developing apps for smartphone platforms (especially if you want to develop a cross-platform app) would be easy.

Reviews: Android

More About: android, Mobile 2.0, smartphone

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