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| English Teacher Rethinks Grammar Lessons -- With an App | |  In the last eight years, high school English teacher Jeff Scheur has graded 15,000 papers. He estimates that each time he collects a new round of essays from his 150 students, it takes him about 40 hours to read them, fill out grading rubrics and write personalized feedback. Meanwhile, he questions the impact of his efforts. "Students get a paperback, and you want to follow up and track if they're making progress," he says. "But I realized there wasn't a good feedback loop to make that happen." He decided to build one. Last month, he pushed the first version of a web app called NoRedInk that creates quizzes to teach grammar skills. Instead of just pointing out the grammatical mistake a student makes in papers over and over again, he now assigns him or her a specific skill quiz within the app. It's not a multiple-choice quiz. Rather, students manipulate punctuation and change words themselves. Teachers can view how all students in a class are progressing in NoRedInk through one dashboard. Without any sort of marketing push, Schuer says about 300 of them -- most in the Chicago area, where he teaches -- have signed up to use it in their classrooms. One strength of the product is that it's built from a teacher's perspective. Schuer noticed, for instance, that students in his classroom pay more attention when sample sentences include popular characters (Mr. T was an early favorite). In the app, students can choose interests such as NBA or Superheroes that are then included in their practice problems. "Teachers tend to be very student-centered thinkers," Scheur says. "Being attuned to the needs of students every day, for 'x' hours a day, for a decade has given me a sense of what motivates them." Motivating students to learn grammar is particularly important. On average, last year's graduating high school class scored lowest on the writing section of the SAT. The 49% of graduates who took the ACT's four subject tests also scored lower on average in English than any other subject. A 2007 National Center for Education Statistics Assessment found that just 24% of 12th graders performed at or above a "proficient level." Scores on similar tests are used to rate overall school performance. As Sheur put it during a recent demonstration of the app at General Assembly in New York, "Schools in Chicago were shut down last year because students didn't know how to use apostrophes." There's a long way to go before NoRedInk for basic grammar is finished. The current design is basic and lessons are restricted to "Apostrophes," "Subject/Verb Agreement" and "Commas, Fragments and Run-ons," but eventually Schuer hopes to incorporate more complex writing skills such as quote usage and conclusion composition into the product. "Learning any skill comes down to practice," he says. 'here's 10 sentences for practice,' but what if that's not enough? What if a student needs 40? or 400? or 4,000?" Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Hafizov |
| Apple Gives Siri Deeper Integration with Yelp [VIDEO] | |  Now when you're looking for a great place to grab dinner, get your haircut, or find an awesome dog walker for your K9 companion, Siri can help - with ratings. With the launch of iOS 5.1 last week, Apple added deeper Yelp integration for the built-in personal assistant. Yelp business information has been integrated into Siri's search results since the launch of the iPhone 4S last year. So, if you asked Siri where the best place is to grab a cup of coffee, she would search through Yelp's reviews to find the greatest cup of Joe near your currently location. Previously, clicking on a search result, however, would map out directions to a particular business rather than take you to its profile page so you'll know how to get to that coffee but not much more about it. Now when you search for a locksmith, ice cream parlor, or pizza joint, Siri will display the same search results from Yelp. However, tapping on a particular business will take you to that businesses' profile page on Yelp so you can read more about it and decide if you really want to head that way -- bridging the gap between finding out if a business exists and getting directions there. Yelp and Google Maps are currently two of the few services that Siri uses to provide search results. Apple has not announced plans for when -- or if -- other developers will ever get a crack at Siri's API. Do any of you currently use Siri to find restaurants or other suggestions? Let us know what you think about Apple's deeper Yelp integration in the comments. |
| Legal Blogging: How to Craft the Right Strategy | | Wednesday, March 21, 2012 11:16 PM | Kevin O'Keefe |
|  Kevin O'Keefe is CEO and publisher of LexBlog, the leading provider of professional turnkey blog and social media solutions. The LexBlog Network (LXBN), with over 7,000 lawyers and other service professionals, is the largest network of professionals blogging. For the better part of a decade, law firms have successfully used blogs to bring in high-quality work. Now, there is new industry research that measures the impact of blogs as business development tools. A recent survey by communications firm Greentarget measured how in-house counsel use and perceive blogs. The findings have raised some eyebrows: In-house attorneys exhibit widespread trust (84%) in blogs. They read attorney-authored or firm-branded blogs more often than they read blogs written by actual journalists. More than half of respondents said they think a prominent blog will influence clients to hire one firm over another. While daily blog readership dropped 10% from 2010, weekly and monthly readership more than made up for it, shedding new light on the quality versus quantity debate. Decision makers are relying on blogs for critical business information and in deciding which law firm to hire. Law firms, in turn, are increasing the number of blogs they publish. Recent analysis found that 68 of the top 100 firms are publishing a total of 272 blogs. This is up from 156 blogs in 2010 -- a 74% increase. Given the increase in the number of law blogs, the question becomes, what makes one blog successful and one not? The answer is developing a strategy based on engagement. Relationships and a strong word-of-mouth reputation are how lawyers have always found their best work -- the Internet doesn't change that. It is a relationship and reputation accelerator. Outline for a Winning Strategy Identify the type of work and clients you want. The top blogs focus on specific practice areas and vertical industries, not firm brands. Identify your target audience. While clients and prospective clients are important, influencers and amplifiers are more important. Engaging reporters, association leaders, publishers, conference coordinators and leading bloggers gets you seen and referenced as a thought leader. Listen. Listening to what is being written and shared on the Internet is more important than content. The quickest way to earn someone's attention is by listening to and sharing what they have to say. Network. Blogging is all about networking, not marketing. Be it interviews, quoting the work of others or even comments, use the blog as a way to introduce yourself to new people. Invest the time. Like any business development effort, blogging takes time. Unlike advertising, for which people expect immediate results, networking through the Internet to build relationships and a strong reputation can take a year or two -- though, that's faster than doing so offline. Complement blogging with short-form social media. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and even a website are all roads leading to a lawyer's true identity: his or her blog. Lawyer Role Models Looking to other lawyers who've experienced business development success is a good place to start. Relationships and engagement are the keys to a blog's success, per New York attorney Peter Mahler of Farrell Fritz, who publishes a blog covering business dissolution matters titled New York Business Divorce. "My blog has not only been a powerful business generation tool for a niche practice like mine, but it has also opened the door to a host of professionally rewarding relationships with other lawyers, law professors, judges and experts. My blog's success comes from consistently posting about interesting topics in an engaging style that tells the reader not only what happened in this or that case, but why it happened, how it fits into the bigger picture and what the reader's takeaway should be, all of which allows me to demonstrate my expertise as a business divorce lawyer." In addition to making his legal practice more fulfilling, Chicago attorney R. David Donoghue of Holland and Knight, publisher of both the Chicago IP Litigation Blog and the Retail Patent Litigation blogs, reports that his blogs have been a powerful source of both reputation and business generation. "While it took time for my blogs to begin generating business, over time they have helped generate significant patent litigation matters," he says. Execution of Your Blogging Strategy Like any business development effort, execution is key. Some law firms will have individual lawyers blogging, while other law firms will blog by practice group or industry. Philadelphia attorney Sean Wajert publishes his own blog, Mass Tort Defense, regarding defense of mass tort cases and large scale product liability claims. At the same time, Wajert is chair of the mass torts and product liability practice group for Dechert, an 800-lawyer multinational law firm. The Privacy Law Blog, published by the Privacy and Data Security Group of Proskauer, another global law firm, has 16 lawyers contributing as writers with one lawyer serving as editor. Though quality over quantity is key, good law blogs publish two to four times a month, with many choosing to publish more often. Developing a social media policy which complements the firm's existing communication policy helps guide lawyers on issues such as taking a strong position on a law blog and conflicts of interest. The blogs that in-house counsel want to read give them information and insights they can't get elsewhere. In revealing that in-house counsel read firm-branded blogs more often than blogs by professional reporters, the Greentarget survey respondents signal an important trend: They see value in going directly to unfiltered sources of information from true subject matter experts. Journalists are no longer the primary conduits to a mass audience. Self-publishing means attorneys can go there directly. Even with a strategy in place, attorneys want to see the blog's impact, that it isn't falling on deaf ears. Greentarget's report indicates that may not be the easiest thing to do, but it's still happening. Is it Resonating? The Greentaret survey touched on an interesting "invisible user" phenomenon. The research reflects that 68% of respondents use social media to "listen" exclusively. So, if a blog isn't generating comments or tweets aren't being retweeted, that does not mean in-house counsel aren't depending on these platforms for information and hiring decisions. Social listening campaigns to measure the effectiveness of a blog's content strategy -- compelling metrics for consumer-oriented blogs -- don't necessarily apply to the in-house legal community. Lawyers and firms need to focus on the right set of measurable objectives when it comes to blogging. Rather than focusing on data-based metrics, a mistake that many law firms make, the real ROI for blogging and social media activity should be measured in the following ways: Is your reputation being enhanced? Is your network of relationships growing? Are you establishing yourself as a subject matter expert? Are you getting not just clients, but high-quality clients? Law firms have access to valuable information and perspective and should view blogs as a way to leverage this information to build and deepen relationships with clients and allied organizations. Lawyers and firms are arguably in the greatest of positions to self-publish and produce compelling content because they are at the intellectual apex of most legal, regulatory and economic developments impacting business worldwide. In capitalizing on this, lawyers and law firms have the potential to bring in high quality work with a level of efficiency and interpersonal engagement they have never experienced before. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, shironosov |
| Zynga's Purchase of Draw Something: 'It's Going To Be Drawsome' | | Wednesday, March 21, 2012 10:38 PM | Emily Price |
|  Social game giant Zynga purchased mobile drawing game sensation Draw Something creator OMGPOP Wednesday for a rumored $210 million in cash and employee retention payments. The popular game has been downloaded over 30 million times since its launch 6 weeks ago, with more than 1 billion drawings being created in the process. It's easy to see why Zynga, which is in the social gaming business itself, might want to purchase the company and its engaged customer base, hoping to bring those same players into other Zynga games in the future Now that the Pictionary-style game is under Zynga's umbrella, however, what's that going to mean for the world's most popular word game? "The game is a huge monster. People love the game -- we're just going to support the game," Zynga CMO David Ko told Mashable. Now that the game is part of Zynga, the company plans to let things continue to run as they have been, except now under the Zynga umbrella. Rather than simply putting a Zynga label on the game, it plans to help the existing developers improve performance issues within Draw Something, find new developers to work on the game, and help the existing OMGPOP staff plan new games for the future. OMGPOP was made up of a fairly small staff of people. "There are more features people want in the game, and there's no way we could scale enough people fast enough," said OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter. "The game is so large that you need a really big scale." OMGPOP hopes that the Zynga acquisition will help give it some of the resources it needs to add those features quickly. "Chat is a big part of the plan, but tricky because you don't want to break the guessing cycle of the game," says Porter. The company is looking to add a chat feature that appears after you've finished guessing a photo where you could commend or condemn your opponents artistic abilities. Sharing is also part of the plan. Currently there is no way for users to save drawings they create or receive during the game other than creating screenshots on their devices. Porter says that the company is close to being able to integrate in a sharing feature in the game where drawings can be saved and shared with friends online. Early on OMGPOP realized that words were a huge component in the game, and the company recently added the ability to add words on-the-fly to the game, a feature absent in its original release. Now words within the game can be changed to topics that are currently in the news. For instance, when the Hunger Games debuts later this week there will be 10 new words in the game related to the movie. "Just like Draw Something is a cooperative game where two players work together and have a lot of fun, we hope to replicate that same feeling with OMGPOP and Zynga," said Porter in a post on Zynga's website. Plans for the future also involve creating more cooperative games like Draw Something where players work together rather than against each other and there is no "winner" or "loser." "It's going to be drawsome." |
| Zynga Snaps Up 'Draw Something' Creator OMGPOP for $180 Million | | Wednesday, March 21, 2012 5:05 PM | Emily Price |
|  Zynga acquired Draw Something creator OMGPOP Wednesday. The company has not disclosed the cost of the sale, but AllThingsD reports the acquisition cost Zynga $180 million, plus another $30 million in employee retention payouts. Draw Something is a Pictionary-style game that lets you draw pictures on your phone or tablet and then send that drawing to a friend who's left to guess what you've drawn. The Facebook-connected game is played only on mobile devices -- not on Facebook itself -- and it currently sits at the top of the most-downloaded paid and free app lists on both Apple's App Store and Google Play. The game also recently overtook Zynga's Words With Friends on AppData's list of the most popular Facebook Connected games. "The OMGPOP team has created a game that's fun, expressive and engenders real social interaction," said Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga. "Draw Something has captured the imagination of millions of people around the world. We love the way they've worked playful and relevant culture into their games from Devo to Daft Punk, from Lin to Beckham. We're honored to have the opportunity to partner with and support such an innovative team of creative inventors." Until recently, the four-year-old OMGPOP only had 20 million registered users for its entire roster of games. "Then we launched Draw Something, and it's been an incredible and wild ride since," says Dan Porter, CEO of OMGPOP. The game, which launched six weeks ago, has now been downloaded over 30 million times. More than one billion drawings have been created in total. Tuesday, Draw Something had over 3,000 drawings per second at its peak, and it's the top word game in more than 84 different countries in the App Store. Porter assures fans that the Zynga acquisition will not change the game: "Zynga offered us a chance to focus on Draw Something -- they know the power of the game and they planned with us how to let it keep rolling in the same fun, irreverent, social way that it has been. That was really important to us." SEE ALSO: Singer Uses 'Draw Something' Pictures from Fans in Music Video Draw Something isn't the first popular app that Zynga has acquired. It purchased New Toy Inc., the original creators of Words With Friends, 15 months ago for $53 million in cash and stock options. Let us know what you think about Zynga's purchase of OMGPOP in the comments. |
| Startup SendHub Lets You Send Mass SMS to Students, Clients | | Wednesday, March 21, 2012 4:43 PM | Kate Freeman |
|  "Email is an overburdened communication channel," says Ash Rust, cofounder of startup SendHub. SendHub solves the problem of sending mass messages to people and ensuring those messages are read. Currently, SMS on cellphones can be restricting -- limiting the number of contacts you can reach with one message, Rust says. With SendHub, users can disseminate messages to up to 5,000 people at a time. Sure, you can reach thousands via email, but SMS are much more likely to be read. According to a Juniper research report last year, 97% of text messages are read, with 90% read in the first 4 to 6 minutes -- much higher compared to email read rates. SendHub has a text-to-join system. Sign-up on the website and you'll get a free number. Then you can let people know via email, Facebook or Twitter about the group, which they can opt to be added to. Simply text that number to reach all contacts in that group. SendHub monitors feedback to ensure users don't spam people through the service. Every message has a link that connects users to a feedback page where messages can be rated or blocked. When users block a number, SendHub keeps a record of it and monitors the account daily. The other cofounders are Garrett Johnson and John Fallone. Johnson, a Rhodes Scholar, met Rust six years ago when they were in graduate school. Fallone has a legal background. The trio was able to fine-tune their idea at startup incubator Y Combinator located in Mountain View, Calif. Rust says the original model was built for business use, but then they realized teachers could also utilize SendHub to instantly communicate with students. SendHub offers a free plan that provides 1,000 messages per month for up to three groups no larger than 50 people. Plans run $10, $50, $100 and $500 per month for a maximum of 2,000 groups with 5,000 people each. The site has been growing about 20% each week since this session of Y Combinator's program began in January, Rust says. More than 120,000 messages are sent per month with more than 1,500 users on the site. SendHub will be launching mobile apps in early April, first iOS then Android and Windows. Mashable covered a similar company in 2010 called TextMarks. Other group texting services such as GroupMe, Fast Society, Beluga and Kik all offer group messaging services. Only time will tell if SendHub can set itself apart from the others. Would SendHub be useful to you? Tell us in the comments. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, chrisgramly |
| What Kind of Startup Is Right for You? | | Wednesday, March 21, 2012 3:31 PM | Nellie Akalp |
|  Nellie Akalp is CEO of CorpNet.com. She has formed more than 100,000 corporations and LLCs across the U.S, building a strong passion to assist small business owners and entrepreneurs in starting and protecting their business the right way. Visit Nellie's free resource center, follow her on Twitter @CorpNetNellie, Like CorpNet.com on Facebook and add CorpNet to your Google+ circles. Do you dream of the day you can start your own business? Take control of the reins, set your own schedule and make your own decisions? In these days of economic uncertainty when layoffs and unemployment rates dominate the news, the idea of starting a business no longer seems all that much riskier than the traditional nine-to-five office job. Now that you've decided to take the plunge into entrepreneurial life, do you know how to choose the type of business that's right for you? What industry and business would make the best use of your specific abilities and assets? Here are six tips for selecting the business that's right for you: 1. Align Your Strengths and Interests Not sure where to focus? Let past experiences be your guide. Maybe you spent six years running marketing programs for a legal firm. Maybe you're famous for throwing the most creative birthday parties for your children. Consider all previous work experience and hobbies, and think about how you can parlay that into a successful business. Create a list of skills that covers what you're good at and areas where you're a subject matter expert. Then list out the things you like to do. Compare these two lists and see if any patterns emerge, or point to any business type that aligns both your strengths and passions. 2. Don't Worry About Reinventing the Wheel (Just Make a Better One) Worried that your business idea isn't original enough? Many first-time entrepreneurs make the mistake of thinking they need to blaze a new trail to be successful. Yes, the market always needs innovators, but a thriving business doesn't necessarily have to be disruptive. Think about it. Starbucks wasn't the first company to sell coffee (even expensive coffee) and will hardly be the last. Rather than struggling to come up with a brand new idea, take a look at your target industry and see where there's a void to be filled. My husband and I entered a very established and saturated market, but have been able to differentiate our business by bringing a personal, customer-centric, small business touch. 3. Take the Dinner Party Test OK. Imagine yourself at a cocktail party, Tweetup or other networking event, and you're asked that inevitable question: "So, what do you do?" Think about how you'll respond with each potential business option. Are you proud and excited to describe your new business? Or a little embarrassed and looking to steer the conversation elsewhere? Playing out this scenario can help you uncover your true feelings about a potential business idea. Not every great business is going to translate well for the cocktail crowd (and that's OK), but being proud and passionate about your venture is an important key to success. 4. Match Your Funding Situation When considering business options, you'll need to be harshly realistic about your financing. The majority of startups fail because they don't have enough capital to power through the early days. If you don't have enough capital to realistically support your business and personal financial needs for at least six months to one year, you should consider another business option. There is some good news on the funding front. The Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index, which measures the overall volume of financing to U.S. small businesses, jumped 18% in January compared with a year ago. This marks the index's 18th consecutive double-digit rise. 5. Fit Your Lifestyle If you want to jump into the entrepreneurial game but aren't quite sure what the business should be, chances are you're looking for a specific lifestyle. You need to make sure your new business will fit the kind of life you lead, or wish to lead. For example, if you have family obligations, consider how much time you can spend away from home. If you're looking for the flexibility to work from a tropical beach one week and the ski slopes the next, make sure you start a business that can be managed virtually. And keep in mind that as a business owner, you may no longer be stuck in a cubicle all day long, but you may still need to be chained to your laptop or phone. 6. Do What You Love, But... We've all heard the saying "Do what you love and the money will follow." That's not exactly the case. Yes, passion is important. But in order to turn your passion into a profitable business, you have to fill a need that others are looking for. I happen to adore sitting on the beach, but I've yet to translate that into steady income. Remember that the market isn't necessarily concerned if you are fulfilling your lifelong dream. Customers spend money on products and services that fulfill their own needs and desires. To turn a profit, focus on how your passion can make a difference to others. In short, when deciding what business to start, be sure to consult both your head and your heart. Then buckle your seat belt and get ready for an incredibly exciting, tiring and always rewarding ride. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, tumpikuja |
| Hotel Booking Site Tingo Gives Refunds After Price Drops | | Wednesday, March 21, 2012 12:58 PM | Samantha Murphy |
|  When you book a hotel online, there's always a chance that the price will drop later and you'll be stuck paying more than you have to. A new hotel booking site called Tingo -- which was launched on Wednesday by Smarter Travel Media, a subsidiary of TripAdvisor -- fixes this problem by automatically rebooking hotel rooms at a lower price if the rate drops. This means that if you book a hotel online for $200 each night, the site will automatically rebook your reservation if the price drops. Tingo keeps watching the price and rebooks you again and again if the rate decreases. It refunds the difference to your credit card shortly after your stay. Tingo, which shares a parent company with AirfareWatchdog.com and travel deal site SniqueAway, allows users to book most hotels found on sites such as Expedia and continually monitors the rate after it's booked. The name "Tingo" is a play on "bingo" and "travel," according to George Hobica, the CEO AirfareWatchdog.com and "travel watchdog" of Tingo. "There are other sites that offer money back for hotel price drops, but that is only if someone books the same hotel for the same exact dates as you," Hobica told Mashable. "Tingo gets you the lowest price whenever the hotel drops the price, not based on what other people book online. There's also no limit to how much money you can get back." Sites such as Orbitz have a $500 money back limit, Hobica noted. According to Tingo, about 45% of hotels are booked online, and Americans could have saved nearly $314 million if they had access to the platform in 2011. Hobica gave an example of how Tingo would benefit users by referencing a reservation booked in January at the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas for two nights. Although it cost a total of $1,273 when it was first booked, the price had dropped by $519 by the February 23 check-in date. It's not uncommon for hotel rates to drop. While looking at hotels in New York during February 2012, Tingo found that the average price drop for hotel stays was $46. Meanwhile, the average price drop in Los Angeles was $35, followed by Las Vegas with $26 and Chicago ($37). Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, MJ Photography? |
| How Chipotle Uses Social Media to Cultivate a Better World | | Wednesday, March 21, 2012 12:27 PM | Dan Klamm |
|  The Social Brands Series is supported by Spredfast, a social media management platform provider helping organizations unlock social business potential. Discover best practices & proven tactics for using social in the enterprise with the 7 Whiteboard Sessions for every Social Strategist. For a restaurant chain with more than 1,200 stores and upwards of 1.7 million social media fans, Chipotle has a remarkably simple goal: to change the way people think about their food. Specifically, Chipotle wants people to start considering where their food comes from. The company supports family farms over industrial farm factories and makes it a point to source ingredients from local farms that exhibit positive behaviors toward animals and the environment. From Facebook to Twitter to YouTube, Chipotle's social media activity remains fiercely loyal to this ethos. While other fast-food restaurants spend millions on traditional advertising, Chipotle channels its marketing budget into more grassroots initiatives. So far, it's working out quite nicely for them. In 2011, Chipotle posted an 11% increase in same-store sales, making it one of the most successful fast-food chains in America. Mashable spoke with Joe Stupp, Chipotle's new media manager, to learn more about the company's social media strategy. What do you think of Chipotle's social media efforts? Let us know in the comments. One-on-One Conversation In line with the company's "back to basics" mantra, Chipotle embraces a one-on-one engagement model for its social media platforms. In a 2011 Nation's Restaurant News study, it was found that Chipotle responds to 83% of Facebook posts -- more than any other quick-service restaurant. Likewise, about 90% of the company's activity on Twitter is responding to customers through @-mentions. "We love to have conversations," says Stupp. Structurally, Chipotle employs a three-person social media team to staff its main platforms: Rusty Partch, Myra Ryder and Stupp. On Twitter and Facebook, each team member signs his or her name at the end of a tweet/post, allowing community members to get to know the different voices on the team in a personal way. "It's more interesting for us and for customers to get to know individuals," says Stupp. "Rusty doesn't have the same voice as me -- and I don't want him to." Chipotle makes getting to know customers a priority. Adam Britten, a digital marketing student in London, says that Chipotle treats customers as individuals. "When responding to me in particular, they frequently include things like, 'How's school going?' or 'When are you moving back to the States?'" Britten says. Chipotle's team does use a social media management tool, but Stupp says most of the customer information recounted is actually from memory. When chatting so often with certain customers, the team gets to know them on a personal level. Chasing metrics is simply not in the company's DNA, says Stupp. Likes and retweets are great, but what matters most to Chipotle is genuine conversations with customers. Through these conversations, the social media team can share knowledge and gain insights that will ultimately make Chipotle restaurants even better. Creative Content You won't see dry press releases littering Chipotle's social media platforms -- in fact, you won't see much official Chipotle content at all. "We don't like creating boring content," says Stupp, explaining that the brand chooses to develop lively, engaging content through use of music and animation. Each piece of content pertains to Chipotle's core philosophy of getting people to think about where their food comes from. Most recently, Chipotle made a splash during the Grammy Awards by launching its first (and only) television advertisement: an animated 2-minute film entitled "Back to the Start," featuring a farmer who turns his family farm into an industrial plant, only to recognize his missteps and return to more humane farming practices. The film is set to a Willie Nelson cover of the Coldplay's "The Scientist." "Back to the Start" took on a life of its own on the social web, generating nearly 6 million views on YouTube and a ton of chatter on Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Other organizations, such as the Ohio Pork Producers Council, chimed in with their own thoughts on sustainable farming practices. Chipotle's message resonated loud and clear, successfully sparking a public dialogue on an important issue. Prior to "Back to the Start," Chipotle highlighted the plight of family farmers through a YouTube video entitled "Abandoned." Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs provided the music to this video, covering Willie Nelson's "Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys." With more than 150,000 views on YouTube, this video shined a spotlight on the impact of industrialization on family farms and, again, initiated public conversation on a relevant issue, says Stupp. While Chipotle does not produce a constant stream of video content, the material it does produce is creative, impactful and intricately tied to the company's philosophy. Community-Driven Initiatives Chipotle is about more than just chatter and flashy videos -- the company creates tangible online and offline promotions that reinforce its commitment to supporting family farmers and educating people about food. Each Halloween, Chipotle hosts a community-centric "Boo-rito" contest. Last year, community members could take a photo of themselves dressed up as a family farm animal, submit the photo via Chipotle's website and receive a ticket to buy a burrito at a local Chipotle restaurant for $2. The $2 would go toward FarmAid, a non-profit organization dedicated to family farmers. Another initiative is the Chipotle Cultivate Music Festival, a Chicago event bringing together food, farmers, chefs and musicians. At the festival, Chipotle offers samples of new, responsibly-grown dishes, as well as educational opportunities for people who wish to learn about sustainable farming and responsible treatment of animals. Celebrity chefs join in to provide cooking demonstrations, while musicians offer live entertainment. Last year's festival drew 17,000 people and proceeds went to FamilyFarmed.org, a Chicago-based organization championing locally grown and responsibly produced food. Within the last year, Chipotle also launched the invitation-only "Farm Team," an online initiative that rewards participants for exploring the Chipotle Farm Team website, watching videos, taking polls about farming practices and sharing their knowledge with others via social media. The most active participants are given free food, t-shirts and other prizes. The Future The future of social media at Chipotle? "A lot more of the same," says Stupp. "We're getting to be a large company, but we still want to be able to talk to people," he says, suggesting that the company's focus on individual conversation will not waver as it grows. Fans of the restaurant chain can expect more conversation, more community education initiatives and more music and animated content -- and of course, continued commitment to fresh food and sustainable farming practices. After an early blunder, Chipotle has bounced back and found a special place in the fast-food landscape. Series supported by Spredfast
The Social Brands Series is supported by Spredfast, which provides an enterprise-class social media management platform helping organizations unlock their social business potential. The Spredfast platform provides a unified system for managing, monitoring and measuring social media programs for better business results. Discover best practices & proven tactics for using social in the enterprise with the 7 Whiteboard Sessions for every Social Strategist. |
| HP Merges PC and Printer Units in Major Restructuring | | Wednesday, March 21, 2012 11:12 AM | Stan Schroeder |
|  Hewlett-Packard will merge Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) and its Personal Systems Group (PSG) - its PC and printer businesses - into one subdivision called the Printing and Personal Systems Group, the company has announced. The new entity will be led by Todd Bradley (pictured, right), who was the executive vice president of PSG since 2005. The vice president of IPG, Vyomesh Joshi, will retire after a 31-year career at HP. The rationale behind the move is, of course, savings. "Combining these two entities will rationalize HP's go-to-market strategy, branding, supply chain and customer support worldwide," says HP. The move comes after a tough year for HP. It shut down webOS and almost gave up on its PC business, only to change its mind mere months later, under Meg Whitman's new leadership. Besides this major change, HP has also announced several minor organizational changes. The company's Global Accounts Sales organization will join the new HP Enterprise Group, led by David Donatelli. HP will also move its Global Real Estate function from Finance into Global Technology and Business Processes. Finally, HP's Marketing functions will be unified across business units under Marty Homlish, and HP's Communications employees worldwide will be unified under Henry Gomez. |
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