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| How to Fix Microsoft With Marketing | | Thursday, February 23, 2012 8:27 PM | Alex Goldfayn |
|  Alex Goldfayn's new book is called Evangelist Marketing: What Apple Amazon and Netflix Understand About Their Customers (That Your Company Probably Doesn't). He is CEO of the Evangelist Marketing Institute, a marketing consultancy with clients that include T-Mobile, TiVo and Logitech. Microsoft's stock price today is approximately half of what it was in late 1999. While there are many reasons for the company's stock slip, two problems stand out: mindset and marketing. The latter is caused by the former. In Microsoft's case, the two strands are intertwined and linked together like corporate DNA. Mindset In February 2005, when Microsoft was still universally acknowledged as the leading technology company on the planet, CEO Steve Ballmer addressed the current state of the company in a speech. "And so in a sense, the lifeblood of our business is that R & D spend. There's nothing that flows through a pipe or down a wire or anything else; we have to continuously create new innovation that lets people do something they didn't think they could do the day before so they get the newest version of a Windows or an Office or a new program, new application that we put in place. And so in a sense, you could say all we have to live with is our innovation." What he's saying is the lifeblood of Microsoft's business is engineering, product development and feature development. What he doesn't mention is marketing, customers, branding or life-improvement. If corporate mindset was a continuum, with engineering on one side and marketing on the other, here is where most technology companies, including Microsoft, would fall. The ideal range, as you can see, falls to the middle-right of the scale. Apple is there, and so is Amazon. Microsoft is to the far-left of that desired range. Microsoft requires a shift in mindset, toward marketing. Of course, it must remain a top engineering firm, but to compel consumers, to create passion and energy among them, it must shift its focus from purely the "R&D spend" toward aggressive marketing, by demonstrating how its products improve people's lives. This will be very difficult for a company whose internal culture is so deeply rooted in engineering. But it is absolutely essential if Microsoft wants to get off of the stock price plateau it has occupied for the last decade. Share Price Speaking of stock price, I advise my clients -- from publicly traded companies to startups -- that share price in consumer electronics is a direct function of consumer energy. The more energy in the marketplace for your brand, the more evangelists you develop, and the more sales, revenue and profit you'll enjoy. See Apple, the most effective marketer on the planet, which is now worth more than Microsoft and Google combined, based on market capitalization. Apple's stock price has grown twenty-fold in the same time period that Microsoft's has halved. The difference is mindset, marketing, and the resulting consumer energy each company creates. See Netflix, whose share price soared on the strength of consumer passion, that is, until it angered customers last year with a series of harmful decisions. Passion plummeted, customers left, and the stock lost two-thirds of its value in three months. A Marketing Plan for Microsoft The mindset shift away from engineering is difficult, but good marketing is not. Here is a six-step marketing plan Microsoft can implement to dramatically improve its effectiveness. Focus on strengths: The company's strengths, as I see them, are software, productivity and the Xbox. This is where Microsoft can reasonably claim that it is superior to the competition. And this is where its marketing effort should focus. Adopt strengths: Everything you need to know about Microsoft's problems with identifying its strengths is summarized in the following sentence: Microsoft Office is still not available for Android and iOS devices, although rumors have surfaced that its launch is imminent. Software is a strength, but software for computers became uninteresting five years ago. Microsoft should be adopting its excellent productivity software -- as well as its tremendous gaming platform -- for phones, tablets and the cloud. Abandon weaknesses: Smartphones are not Microsoft's strength. In fact, Microsoft phone market share fell 20% in the fourth quarter to 4.7%. Nokia or not, there is little Microsoft can do in smartphones to gain on Android's and Apple's devices. Further, while Microsoft's Bing search engine has resonated somewhat with Internet users, it is not a strength. Microsoft's U.S. search engine share in 2011 was up just 0.1% to 15.2%. Google's was 61%. This war is lost. It's time for Microsoft to abandon and redirect its marketing budget. Focus marketing on consumers: Consumers, not businesses, create market passion. Corporate customers are critical, but likely saturated with Microsoft products long ago. Rather, Microsoft's marketing should focus on consumers. These are the people who can become evangelists, drive market energy, and ultimately affect the share price. Gather powerful, qualitative customer insights: If you're going to market to consumers, you need to understand what consumers think, say and want in the first place. You should know precisely how they use your products -- and your competitors' products. To gather these insights, interview customers qualitatively for 20 to 30 minutes each. Internet surveys and focus groups won't uncover the kind of compelling language and messaging that resonates with consumers. There is no replacement for one-on-one customer conversations. Aggressively communicate: Once Microsoft understands what to say, it must continue repeating its message relentlessly, with a focus on consumer life improvement. Remember when Apple mercilessly hammered Microsoft with its "I'm a Mac" ads? Microsoft requires the same kind of frequency and focus. Microsoft has the money for these improvements, but its communication has likely been sporadic due to everything I discuss above: Microsoft's mindset is on engineering, not marketing; the company's products are too diverse; and Microsoft doesn't know what its customers find compelling. In my experience, a company cannot be truly effective unless it markets life-improving products. But in its corporate DNA, Microsoft sees itself as a product engineering organization. The company must shift this mindset -- must alter its DNA -- in order to unleash the kind of powerful marketing that will energize its customer base, increase consumer passion and drive its share price up. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, JasonDoiy |
| KickStumbler, a StumbleUpon for Kickstarter, Will Steal Your Day | | Thursday, February 23, 2012 4:19 PM | Sarah Kessler |
|  At some point, Kickstarter became more than just a way to fund art, music and other creative endeavors. It became entertaining content in itself. A new website called KickStumbler plays up the entertainment value of Kickstarter projects by applying a StumbleUpon concept to them (StumbleUpon declined to comment on what they thought about the imitation). Users can hit a button on the site's toolbar in order to see a new random project. They can also choose to Stumble within specific categories or keep it to video only. The Kickstarter projects that are featured often contain stories. What would inspire an industrial designer to make a rabbit-shaped hook named Frank? What does photography described as "romantically morbid" look like? And can anything really be cool enough to meet a goal of raising $2 million? Even if you never fund one, it's easy to get sucked in to the site. "I wrote this because I really found myself wanting to use it," explains Anthony Volodkin, KickStumbler's creator, "that's actually the most time-consuming part, it's easy to get distracted with the projects themselves." Volodkin spends his days running Hype Machine, a music discovery app that keeps track of what music bloggers are talking about. He told Mashable that KickStumbler, which he created over a few sleepless weekends, was born from a personal obsession. "When not making Hype Machine, I've been obsessively browsing and funding projects," he says. If you launch KickStumbler on your browser, there's a good chance you'll be doing the same. Let us know in the comments if you stumble across any particularly interesting projects. Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, FMNG |
| Hey Pinterest, This Fancy Startup Actually Lets Us Buy Stuff | | Thursday, February 23, 2012 2:33 PM | Sarah Kessler |
|  A familiar-looking site called Fancy has beaten Pinterest to the punch -- by monetizing its user-curated collection of images. Fancy, which lets users organize images from around the web into "lists," announced Thursday that it would begin conducting transactions directly on its site. Previously, users could click on a link listed with an item to buy it on a third-party site. Now they can shop directly on Fancy -- and the site will take a cut of every purchase. Fancy founder Joseph Einhorn says that this is the first time the site will be accepting revenue, although the site has previously ran deals on behalf of brands that gave consumers who "Fancy'd" a certain number of items codes for discounts. It didn't charge brands to run those promotions. "What is better for a merchant?," Einhorn says, "getting a person to click on a link that sends them to a website, or giving them completed orders?" Merchants need to claim items already posted on the Fancy site in order to sell there. Right now, the startup will only accept one merchant per item. Eventually, like Google, it will list many merchants who sell an item. If no merchant claims an item, users still need to travel to a third-party site in order to make the purchase. Fancy, though it is similarly organized, is not just like Pinterest. The one-year-old site has focused on things you can buy from its beginning, while Pinterest seems to tend toward what Einhorn good-willingly calls "endless self expression." Pinterest, which is reportedly 11 million users strong, hasn't yet established a major revenue stream. The startup has likely collected some modest amounts by referring buyers to merchants. Fancy provides an example of one way Pinterest could eventually monetize its site. It may not have Pinterest's user base, but it does have investors backing it that could help it grow quickly. Among them are Ashton Kutcher and Bob Pittman, the founder of MTV. Holding company PPR, which has a portfolio that includes Gucci, Puma, Bottega Veneta, Alexander Mcqueen, among others, is also a shareholder. We're guessing it was through one of these influential channels that Kanye West ended up tweeting that Fancy "is really dope" to his 6.7 million followers on Monday. It's not that Fancy is ever going to "take on Pinterest," per se, but it does beg the question of whether there is indeed room for more than one significant social image-cataloging site -- with more than one business model -- on the web. "I think there are going to be a zillion successful social ecommerce sites on the Internet," Einhorn says. "Just like there are a zillion companies successful in ecommerce." Image courtesy of iStockphoto, chieferu |
| Get Ready to Grab a Free Song From This Oscar Ad, via Shazam | | Thursday, February 23, 2012 1:09 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Viewers of this weekend's Academy Awards telecast may want to have their smatphones handy when a Tide ad comes on. If you have the Shazam app, you can download a free song from that ad. The tune, "Pop Goes the World," is a remake of a Men Without Hats song by Savoir Adore. (See below for the original version.) The ad, for Tide's new Tide Pods laundry detergent, will feature a "Shazam bug" to access the song plus content about Tide Pods. Users have to install the Shazam app to access it. The ad is the first one from the Procter & Gamble brand to feature a Shazam integration. "The marketing campaign for Tide Pods was designed to make you take notice that this isn't your typical new and improved laundry detergent," a rep for the brand says. Nevertheless, Tide is hardly the first brand to offer a Shazam bug. Nearly a third of this year's Super Bowl ads were Shazam-enabled, according to a Shazam rep. Advertisers using Shazam in this year's game's ads include Toyota, Best Buy and Pepsi. In addition, the movie trailers for John Carter, Act of Valor and The Avengers all featured Shazam integration, which was used to access more information about the films. Shazam, initially known for identifying music, has been employed as something of an aural QR code since last year, when the company launched its "Shazam for TV" initiative. One of the first Shazam-able ads, for Transformers 3, unlocked a free download of a Linkin Park single. |
| What Marketers Can Learn From Whole Foods' Organic Approach to Pinterest | | Thursday, February 23, 2012 12:31 PM | Lauren Drell |
|  The Behind the Social Media Campaign Series is supported by Oneupweb, a relentless digital marketing agency focused on search, social, and design for mid-to-enterprise level brands. Learn how to track your social media conversions with our new technology, ROSI traxT. Watch the demo! Pinterest is on everyone's lips these days, and many brands are trying to figure out how to leverage the platform as a marketing tool. Fortunately, there are already a handful of brands out there that are doing it well. Pinterest co-founder and designer Evan Sharp told Mashable in December that when it comes to marketing on the platform, "the idea behind your brand makes sense on Pinterest," and he pointed to Whole Foods as a great example. Whole Foods was one of the first brands on the site, debuting a brand account in July 2011. Since then, the grocery company has racked up 14,421 followers on its Pinterest page. As of this writing, the company has pinned nearly 700 pins across its 22 boards -- all of which are curated by Michael Bepko, global online community manager for Whole Foods. For those out there who don't see how Pinterest could benefit their business, here's Bepko's brief explanation: "It allows us to curate images from across the web that really speak to who we are as a company, images that reflect our core values and essentially communicate the essence of who we are." At a time when consumers are concerned about who they're buying from and want companies to have a soul, it's important to convey this information. Some of Whole Foods' core values are: Caring about the community and the environment Promoting healthy eating and education to our stakeholders Selling the highest quality organic and natural foods available Creating ongoing win-win partnerships with our suppliers Thus, the carefully curated boards capture these values in a visually stunning user interface. You might look at Pinterest and think it's really simple, but that's exactly what makes it a great platform: "It's so easy, it's so uncluttered and by browsing the images, you can create an emotional connection with somebody around something that you have a shared interest in," explains Bepko. To make a lasting connection, the goal is not to promote the shampoos, strawberries and steaks that are sold in the actual stores but to communicate the lifestyle that the Whole Foods team aspires to -- an appropriate ambition, given that Pinterest has often been likened to a digital inspiration board. And by creating an aspirational lifestyle, Whole Foods can convert casual pinners into brand enthusiasts and, hopefully, customers. Wondering how do they do it? Mashable spoke with Bepko to find out all there is to know about Whole Foods' Pinterest presence. The Background Many brands are already on Facebook and Twitter, and perhaps they also host a Tumblr and even got on board with Google+. So do they really need a brand Pinterest account, too? Bepko says Pinterest fills a niche that had been left empty by the other platforms. "The main difference is that we're curating images -- it's really image-based, as opposed to message-based," he adds. What's amazing about Whole Foods' use of Pinterest is that within those 22 boards, you'd be hard-pressed to find an actual Whole Foods product -- that's not how Bepko curates the site. Rather, he and fellow Whole Foods teammates cruise blogs and follow writers on other social platforms, exposing them to a massive array of content that's relevant to Whole Foods' core pillars. When something strikes a cord, it gets pinned -- "Pinterest allows us to share the images that move us," says Bepko. Not only does this help to promote the Whole Foods lifestyle, but it also gives a nod to bloggers who devote their time and writing to sustainability, upcycling, DIY projects and the environment by putting their work in front of a new audience with every repin. Plus, Pinterest allows this content to be grouped by topic in an easily navigable UI, which isn't easily done on more linear platforms, like Twitter and Facebook. While Whole Foods as a brand has just under 15,000 followers, you'll notice that some individual boards have upwards of 24,000 followers. The lesson? Careful curation of niche board topics can help you attract a much wider audience, via the search function and a pin's natural course through the Pinterest ecosystem. For example, when someone searches for "kitchen" and finds an entire board devoted to immaculate kitchens -- like Whole Foods' Super Hot Kitchens board (above) -- he could follow it without also being forced to consume Whole Foods' pictures of heart-shaped cookies, too. In short, Pinterest's board layout enables users to pick and choose what aspects of the brand he wants to experience on Pinterest. As Bepko says, Pinterest is "a fantastic way to build connections with people around shared interests." The connection-building experience makes a great impact, however granular the interests may be. The Strategy Source: icreatewithlove.blogspot.com via Whole Foods on Pinterest Whole Foods' Pinterest page started before most people knew about visually-oriented social platform, and its approach has blazed the trails for brands on the sire. "I began with our core value and worked from there," says Bepko. In general, his approach was more lifestyle-based than product-based. "We're about so much more than just natural and organic foods, so the boards that I wanted to create needed to represent the varied lifestyles of our brand and of our team members," he explains. One sector of Whole Foods customers is into upcycling and repurposing materials, so there's a board where Bepko collects ideas and DIY projects that are really thrilling for people to take in. For those who don't practice upcycling, they can still appreciate the sustainable practices, the resourcefulness and the potential second life of an everyday item. Given that Whole Foods is a market, there's obviously a demographic of cooking fiends; for them, there's an entire board devoted to dinner recipes -- the beautiful imagery really elevates cooking into an art. "It resonates with people who love to entertain and cook and connect with people over the enjoyment of food," Bepko says. Over time, he's added boards based on seasonality -- like fall, Christmas and St. Patrick's Day. Bepko's also been receptive to feedback from the community. After about 20 boards had been populated, a consumer reached out to Whole Foods via Twitter and said it was lacking a board that's specific to vegan or vegetarian recipe ideas. Of course, the next day Bepko created the Eat Your Veggies board to fill this need. "It's about paying attention to what people are asking for," he says. And because the point of Pinterest isn't to push products, but to help people explore and deepen their interests, consumers don't feel like they're being marketed to. "The fans who interact with us there have had a really organic experience with us with who we are -- pardon the pun!" says Bepko. Source: wholefoodsmarket.com via Whole Foods on Pinterest "We've really focused on remaining authentic to the space thatcreated and not treated it as an extension of our website or as an advertisement of our products," Bepko says. "I feel that Pinterest can appreciate and respect a brand that recognizes the purpose of their site, which is to share what you're passionate about and to connect with the community there around common interests." Not to shamelessly self-promote and peddle one's products. One thing brick-and-mortar companies will have to grapple with is whether they should have one unified branded Pinterest or whether each location should have its own account, with a local flair. Bepko says that there's less of a need to have disparate accounts on Pinterest, because the site isn't a portal for store-specific information, like hours, menus or services, in the way that Facebook and Twitter are. Because Pinterest is just a visual representation of the brand, Bepko says Whole Foods has just one branded presence within the space. However, he has enabled collaboration from individual stores so that teams at each store can contribute pins to the Whole Foods Pinterest boards. ROI and the Future So, is all the pinning paying off? Anecdotally, yes. Pinterest is "absolutely" driving traffic to WholeFoods.com, but the team is still working on determining the best metrics for Pinterest -- something many brands are grappling with (and a challenge, it should be noted, that is not limited to Pinterest). A few things are certain: Images with recipes do drive visits to the website, and Bepko sees images of Whole Foods recipes floating around the web that have positive recommendations or reviews. "This leads me to believe that folks have taken time to look at the recipe, purchase the ingredients and try the meal at home," he says. At this point, though, it's difficult to trace the purchase funnel from Pinterest to the Whole Foods checkouts. Since the site -- and its use by brands -- is still so new, there isn't yet a good way to quantify the ROI. But Bepko is confident that data and analytics will come in due time. For now, he's working on honing in on the community and Pinterest's expanding audience. Pinterest is known for being overwhelmingly female, but its mainstream coverage and seeming omniscience means there more men are joining Pinterest ... and following Whole Foods. For Bepko, that just means an even larger audience to reach and more boards to create. "It'll be interesting to see how the dynamic changes, to see how boards change, how the image stream changes," he says. "We'll just adapt the best we can." In the meantime, Bepko says the biggest challenge is making sure that Whole Foods' participation is relevant and meaningful to the community that's on the site, which is the perennial challenge on any social, community-driven platform. Series supported by Oneupweb
The Behind the Social Media Campaign Series is supported by Oneupweb, a relentless digital marketing agency focused on search, social, and design for mid-to-enterprise level brands. Our new social media conversion tracker, ROSI traxT, can show you the value of your marketing investment. Learn more now, and gain access to our free digital marketing magazine, The Merge® for ideas to ignite your marketing strategy. |
| Microsoft Takes on iPhone, Android with 'Windows Phone Challenge' [VIDEO] | | Thursday, February 23, 2012 11:42 AM | Todd Wasserman |
|  A new campaign from Microsoft repeats what many reviewers have noted about Windows Phone: It's comparable or better than its iPhone and Android-based competitors. The effort, which rolled out on Thursday morning via Windows Phone's Facebook Page, shows Microsoft evangelist Ben "The PC Guy" Rudolph who bets consumers $100 that Windows Phone is faster than their phone. The challenge, which is sure to provoke online debate, involves activities like posting pictures to Facebook and finding music. The push, which also includes the Twitter-friendly hashtag #SmokedByWindowsPhone, comes as Windows Phone's market share hovers around 2%, according to Canalys. That's particularly frustrating to Microsoft because, unlike past attempts at mobile operating systems, Windows Phone 7, released last fall, has actually gotten glowing reviews. Mashable editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff also raved about Windows 7 last November, calling it a "good -- possibly great -- mobile platform." However, the platform has a lot to overcome, including Microsoft's reputation for so-so, me-too products (like its Zune MP3 player) and, perhaps more cripplingly, the lack of dedicated apps for the OS. Thus the new campaign, which should be familiar to those of us old enough to remember the Pepsi Challenge ads, which are clearly evoked. Microsoft, however, has tried the comparison technique before without a great deal of success. Most notably, in 2009 with a series of ads called "Laptop Hunters" that demonstrated Windows-based laptops' value over comparable models from Apple. That campaign didn't dent Mac sales in the least. Similarly, Motorola's attempt to take on Apple's iPad with a 2011 Super Bowl ad was unsuccessful. It remains to be seen whether Samsung will get traction by comparing its Galaxy S II with Apple's iPhone 4S in its 2012 Super Bowl ad. BONUS: Nokia Lumia 800 with Windows Phone |
| What to Do When Your Social Media Strategy Is Successful [VIDEO] | | Thursday, February 23, 2012 11:33 AM | Mashable Video |
|  There are many guides out there that teach businesses how to tactically use social media, but few that discuss how to adapt all your departments to its uprooting effects. That's what Amber Naslund says, and why she co-wrote The Now Revolution with Jay Baer, a book that focuses on helping businesses develop a "horizontal strategy" to handle the impact of social media. Naslund appeared on Behind the Brand to talk to Bryan Elliot about her book, and her advice for businesses. "Social media is really easy to get into, but we don't have a lot of suggestions of what happens when it goes right," Naslund suggested. "Slow down. Consider all the areas social could touch... like product development and customer service." As the former vice president of strategy for Radian6, a popular social media measurement tool, Naslund has experience helping businesses figure out what kind of returns to expect from investing in social media. She said that innovating and trying new things may mean you can't use traditional benchmarks to measure how well your new strategies are performing. "If you're doing something new, you kind of have to look at its success a little differently," Naslund said. "It's not that it can't make money out of the gate, you just can't tell what it's impacting immediately." Click above to watch the whole interview with Naslund, and tell us what you think in the comments. More Recent Episodes of Behind the Brand: The New Rules of Relationship Marketing/a> Why You Should Stop Marketing and Fascinate Your Customers Instead/a> How Kawasaki Motorcycles Is Using Social Media to Get Ahead/a> |
| Foxconn and Apple Respond to ABC Report | | Thursday, February 23, 2012 10:33 AM | Stan Schroeder |
|  Although it didn't unearth any atrocities in the factories of Foxconn - the Chinese company that manufactures goods for several electronic giants, including Apple - ABC's recent report did raise a lot of questions about the conditions there. The report suggested that many workers complain they're underpaid, while others work very long hours. Now, Foxconn, Apple and the Fair Labor Association have responded to the report, shedding new light on some important details about the working conditions at Foxconn. Responding to one worker's claim that she etches logos into 6,000 iPads during one shift, Apple claims this is not possible. "In manufacturing parlance this is called deburring. Her line processes 3,000 units per shift, with two shifts per day for a total of 6,000. A single operator at Ms. Zhou's station would deburr 3,000 iPads in a shift," Apple told ABC, adding that Zhou Xiao Ying probably misunderstood the question. Auret van Heerden, president and CEO of the Fair Labor Association, wanted to clarify its five-year talks with Apple, mentioned in the report. "The discussions began in April 2007 but stalled in March 2008. We then resumed them in April 2009 and decided to do a small pilot survey so that Apple could get an idea of how our tools might add value to their program. That pilot led to a second activity that I believe contributed to the decision to join the FLA at the end of 2011," he said. Apple is the first technology company to join the FLA, and it did so mere days before the New York Times published several articles that look into Apple's labor practices. Van Heerden says this could be a mere coincidence. "I, of course, cannot speak for Apple but I do believe that the decision to join was probably taken some months before (and therefore well before) the New York Times articles," said van Heerden. Finally, Foxconn claims the starting salary for employees is not as low as the report suggested. "We have over 75% of the employees in the category of earning at least 2,200 RMB ($349/month) basic compensation standard. That means they are earning 13.75 RMB ($2.18) per hour. If they work overtime on the weekend, they will earn 27 RMB ($4.28) per hour. In order to reach 3500 to be taxable, they will have to work 47 OT hours to reach 3,500," said Foxconn, adding that ABC's claims are only true when applied to "entry-level workers." What do you think: Do these details change the overall picture of the working conditions and pay at Foxconn factories? If you trust these corrections to be accurate, do you feel the working conditions at Foxconn are poor, acceptable or good? Share your opinions in the comments. The slideshow below shares some of the staggering facts revealed in ABC's report. |
| Gorillaz in the Midst: Converse Offers Exclusive Free Download of New Song | | Thursday, February 23, 2012 10:22 AM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Converse, long acknowledged for fighting above of its weight class in social media, offered another treat for fans on Thursday: A free, exclusive download of a new tune by Gorillaz. The song, "DoYaThing," is a collaboration between Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem and OutKast's Andre 3000. The release coincides with a new line of sneakers created in concert with Gorillaz and designed by English comic book artist Jamie Hewlett. In addition to being available on Gorillaz's site, the song can also be downloaded in Journeys stores in by activating an in-store QR code. The effort is the latest in Converse's "3 Artists. 1 Song" campaign, which has previously featured collaborations by Matt & Kim, Soulja Boy and Andrew W.K., among others. According to a report in Billboard, Albarn, Murphy and Andre 3000 recorded the track in September in London. Converse's brand has aligned with music acts for some time. In October 2010, the brand, a unit of Nike, built a recording studio called Rubber Tracks in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, for up-and-coming acts. By that point, Converse had already amassed a huge amount of followers on Facebook. At present, the brand has more than 23 million fans, far more than Nike. Geoff Cottrill, the brand's chief marketing officer, told Mashable last year that Converse's secret for building that community was to "act like a party guest" and let the fans lead. He also said that the brand likes to run unexpected posts and be spontaneous. |
| Today's Top Stories: Privacy Bill of Rights, LG L-Style Smartphones | | Thursday, February 23, 2012 8:37 AM | Stan Schroeder |
|  Welcome to this morning's edition of "First To Know," a series in which we keep you in the know on what's happening in the digital world. Today, we're looking at three particularly interesting stories. President Obama Unveils Privacy Bill of Rights President Obama has unveiled the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, a framework that aims to give individuals greater online privacy protection. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL have all expressed support for this initiative, which could lead to legislation following a discussion in the Congress. The Privacy Bill of Rights makes sure consumers have control over what personal data organizations collect from them and how they use it. This includes transparency, accountability, security of data, access to personal data in usable formats and the right to expect organizations to collect personal data in ways that are consistent with the context in which consumers provide the data. LG to Launch Three New "L-Style" Smartphones LG, a company known for stylish mobile phones, has announced a new line of smartphones with a focus on design called L-Style. Three new L-Style smartphones will be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week: The 3.2-inch Optimus L3, the 4.0-inch Optimus L5 and the 4.3-inch Optimus L7. The Optimus L3 will hit the market in March, while the other two devices should become available in the first half of 2012. Smartphone Penetration in the UK and Spain Over 50% Smartphone penetration in the UK and Spain is now over 50%, claims a new report from comScore, with the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS being the year's most acquired devices there. According to the report, 48.4 million consumers accessed mobile social media in Europe, an increase of 76 percent since past year, and 8.3 percent of all mobile subscribers have a tablet device. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59 |
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