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Sunday, September 30, 2012
TRENDING STORIES IN BUSINESS & MARKETING 'People Style Watch' Sells Ads on Its Twitter Page Apple No Longer Saying Maps Are 'Most Powerful Ever' Small Business Advertisers Like Facebook's Immediacy, But Not Its Metrics ALL STORIES IN BUSINESS & MARKETING Bots Drive 16% of U.S. Web Traffic [INFOGRAPHIC] Saturday, September 29, 2012 7:28 PM Sam Laird Along with trolls and Rickrolls, bots are the scourge of the Internet. Automated clicks on ads and other web content drive down value, diminish investments and hurt integrity. And the bot problem only seems to be getting worse as technology advances. This summer, for example, a Long Island startup gained widespread attention after claiming that 80% of the clicks it paid for in Facebook ads came from bots and not humans. But just how bad is the bot epidemic -- and how can bots be beat? The online advertising company Solve Media recently ran some analytics on the issue, and came up with a number of interesting results, which are presented in the following infographic. Among Solve's more interesting findings is that, while the United States may have the most bots in terms of sheer numbers, it actually has a lower rate of non-consumer traffic than some other countries. Some 16 percent of U.S. traffic is bot-based, according to Solve, but in Singapore that number is an astonishing 56 percent. In Taiwan, it's 54 percent, and 43 percent in the Philippines. That can mean a potential major loss of money for advertisers. Online display advertising will reach $15.3 billion this year, according to some estimates, so all that bot traffic means an overall potential spending waste by advertisers that reaches into the hundreds of millions of dollars at a minimum. So what can you, online advertiser, do to defeat the bots? Looking for cost-per-engagement advertising opportunities, partnering with publishers who actively fight bot traffic and implementing tracking technology are three good ways to get started. For more, check out the full infographic below. What are the best anti-bot measures you know of? Let us know in the comments. 5 Easy Steps To Make Your Job Descriptions Go Viral Saturday, September 29, 2012 5:45 PM Jason Webster Jason Webster is a social recruiting enthusiast and co-founder of Ongig, a platform that creates shareable, visually-appealing job descriptions. He has spoken at multiple social recruiting events, where his passion for candidate experience is the primary topic. Connect with Jason and Ongig on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. A Salesforce.com Community Manager job description recently got 57 tweets, 20 likes, and 3,979 views. How'd they do it? First, let's back up for a second. It's no secret there are more online venues to search for jobs than ever before. According to recent research, job candidates today use an average of five resources in their job searches, most of them online. However, recruiters haven't yet adapted to all of these options and are only using one or two means of sharing a job. So, not only are jobs too cumbersome to apply for, but they aren't being seen by the appropriate candidates. One remedy is to make your job description viral. A viral job has similar qualities to the other content (videos, websites, and photos) that you regularly share with your own social network. It's socially connectable, visually appealing and transparent. Here are five easy tips to help you get there: 1. Be Transparent About Your Hiring Team Top candidates are most interested in three things: Who will I work for? Who will I work with? What is the environment like? If you are trying to communicate this through a three-paragraph, written job description, good luck. Top candidates will not take the time to read your description, nevermind a passive candidate. Want a good attention-getter? Put the hiring manager or member of the hiring team up front. You can do this by posting their name and some means of contacting -- or better yet, connecting with -- them within your job description. Suddenly, your job is better and more attractive than 99% of jobs on the Internet. You want to avoid making job prospects feel like they are sending their applications into a black hole. This quality itself will make the job description more appealing. 2. Integrate Pictures and Video Studies have shown that employers using recruiting videos received a 34% greater application rate. So, an even better thought is to post a video directly from your hiring manager. The average job seeker spends less than 30 seconds reviewing a posting. Sites with more compelling and content-rich job descriptions can reach upwards of four minutes on a posting -- that is due in large part to the pictures and video employers put up there. SEE ALSO: Join Twitter Today! Recruiting Video Is So Bad It's Good Whether candidates give you 30 seconds or four minutes, here are some easy ideas for video and pictures to consider: Show team members. Show the office space, inside and outside. (Surprisingly few employers do this!) Show events you attended or hosted (including company parties). Have a little fun and go unscripted. 3. Enable Social Connectability To Your Team We have had A-player candidates tell us a job "hooked" them primarily due to the fact that they learned they knew someone who worked at the employer. So, enable candidates to easily see how they're connected to you and your team through social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn. The providers of tools for connectability include Facebook and LinkedIn themselves (both of which will supply you with access to their API data), as well as new career-related sites like Glassdoor. 4. Give Your Employees A Good Reason To Share The Job Just like any other shareable content on the Internet, if there's a "Share" link that allows postings to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, it's already more likely to be shared. This will not only increase referral rates, but also create a better job applicant pool. But you can't stop there. You must arm your employees with awesome content to share. Awesome content that is based around people and emotion is more likely to be shared. What makes for awesome content? It begins with tips 1 - 3 above -- if you can do those, your content is already more awesome. But the most important advice for providing awesome content is to be authentic and just tell the story of the job opportunity through the best tools you can find. Always remember this headline when creating content: Your employees are your best social recruiters. Get them involved early and often in the process. They will feel ownership in the process and share more frequently. 5. Real-Time Interactivity Finally, businesses should add commenting to their descriptions that allows candidates to "follow" jobs, ask questions online, and receive updates about the application process. Candidates should be able to interact anonymously -- or identify themselves if they choose. Real-time interactivity brings the job to life, and candidate can evaluate the opportunity over time versus in a 30-second browsing of the written job description. Close the loop with all applicants and interested candidates when the position is filled by simply placing a comment. Everyone is notified, and you created a positive candidate experience instead of the application "black hole." Applicants will feel more connected to -- and impassioned about -- a job description that provides them with job status updates straight from the hiring manager or, in some cases, the recruiting team. Remember that Salesforce.com job? It received more than 50 applications and resulted in an awesome hire. If you follow these five steps, the chances that your job description goes viral -- like Salesforce.com's -- will increase exponentially. What other ways can employers make job description go viral? Tell us in the comments. Social Media Job Listings Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we've selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting! VP Consumer Marketing at Porter Novelli in DC Manager, Social Media Channels at Princess Cruises in Valencia, Calif. Manager at BrainLine.org in Arlington, Va. Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, VCTStyleM Why Social Media Makes Customer Service Better Saturday, September 29, 2012 5:27 PM Harry Rollason This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. By the end of the year, 80% of companies plan to use social media for customer service. On the consumer side, 62% of customers have already used social media for customer service issues. Gartner predicts one billion users will be on social networks by the end of 2012. The social landscape is evolving, but one thing remains certain in all this uncertainty. Your ability to serve your customers, in the channels they wish to be served in, is critical to your business success. But social media customer service isn't a cute tool to be used by opportunistic marketing departments to big up the brand; it is an essential method of communication that needs to become part of a clearly defined organizational model. It Affects Current and Potential Customers The post-sales experience brings both acquisition and retention power. It is critical to keep current customers happy and show potential customers how well you do business. Social media gives your business a channel to achieve all of the above. Any strategy for the implementation and integration of social media customer service must be future-proof, responsive and enhance the business as a whole. The social customer service model needs to be as organic and flexible as the medium that created it, while simultaneously delivering tangible results for the business through a stronger brand identity, better customer service and a long-term strategic plan. But problems still exist. A study by A.T. Kearney found that, of the top 50 brands, 56% did not respond to a single customer comment on their Facebook Page in 2011. Brands ignored 71% of customer's complaints on Twitter. And, 55% of consumers expect a response the same day to an online complaint, while only 29% receive one. Your customer service strategy must include social media and be part of your long-term business plan to maintain competitive advantage. It Addresses Existing Customer Service Needs Debbie Curtis-Magley, public relations manager at UPS and Viktor van der Wijk, director of a-acquisition at KLM deliver two standout presentations on how you can better leverage social media for customer service. The presentations look at how you can boost customer retention and aid acquisition, show how to better serve your customers through social media and deliver the business case to get your social media customer service program into full effect. Based on these presentations, here are three tips for brands to better use social media as customer service tool. 1. Integrate social media into your existing customer service function. Gone are the days when social media sat on their own at the table, you now have allow social to influence all business functions to become a more responsive customer-centric business. 2. Create humanized response models to engender loyalty and build relationships. Many companies are guilty of creating robust and well-planned strategy for social customer service delivery -- but fall at the final and most important hurdle -- creating a voice your audience can relate to. 3. Monitor social interaction to spot issues and solve problems before they become crises. Social customer service delivery involves dealing with criticism and complaints in public, often in front of an audience of millions. If you're going to prevent a small problem growing into something worse, you need to have a detailed understanding of what you need to respond to, a path to response, and escalation policies for resolution. More Small Business Resources From OPEN Forum - How to Use Hashtags to Promote Your Small Business - 10 Things You Didn't Know About Yelp - How to Master Social Media Like a Famous Comedian Image courtesy of iStockphoto, talymel 10 Essential Resources for Bootstrapping Businesses Saturday, September 29, 2012 5:01 PM Dani Fankhauser In the Bootstrapping Business Series, Mashable talked to a ton of entrepreneurs about how they got started, what tools they live by and what they wished they had known at the beginning. The result is a deep pool of tips and tricks for aspiring business owners who are looking to raise money, start a tech startup or build their brand. From selecting the best employees to putting together an awesome workspace, the little decisions are the ones that add up and will make you successful in the long run. Take a look at a roundup of 10 of these solid primers below. Have tips of your own? Tell us in the comments. 1. What Founders Wish They Knew Before Starting Companies The entrepreneurship journey isn't an easy one -- developing a product, scaling a business and growing an audience are intimidating tasks that necessitate endless hustle, ambition and passion. And even if you have all of those qualities in spades, there's still a good chance your venture will fail. But one in 12 startups succeed, and these businesses are healthy, growing and maybe even profitable. But that's not to say there weren't bumps in the road. We've asked some founders for things they wish they knew when they started their companies, in the hopes that it'll help you and your startup avoid a fatal flaw. Read the full story here. 2. 10 Tips for a More Beautiful and Functional Home Office If you work from home, you owe it to yourself to set up a proper office space. It's vital you have somewhere to concentrate that's separate from your home life -- and is hopefully a nice space to spend time in. A good working space is even more important if you operate your small business out of your home. To help you out on this rather specific front, we have pulled together some useful tips from experienced home-workers and chatted with home office expert Lisa Kanarek, founder of WorkingNaked.com. Read the full story here. 3. 4 Ways to Grow Your Customer Base Once your startup hits the market, there's reason to celebrate -- but this is only the beginning. The next step is growth, either indirectly through user acquisition or by bringing in additional customers. You know your product is performing well and has a few happy users or customers, so how do you get the word out? The challenges faced by early-stage startup are unique. There is no existing user base to piggyback on with network dynamics and little data to determine the most effective entry points that lead to a paying customer. Also, many startups are too small to bring on a PR staff, and most founders are not educated in the best tactics for reaching out to media. The good news is that social media can enable you to reach potential customers without depending on traditional outlets, and sometimes these tactics will work hand-in-hand. Read the full story here. 4. 4 Hiring Tips for Your Lean Startup There's a ton do when you're first starting a company. Each co-founder or employee executes several job descriptions jumbled together, and it seems a simple solution to just hire a new person and delegate away responsibilities, never to be worried about again. This becomes especially relevant post-funding, because it suddenly becomes plausible to hire with the intended result of getting more done faster. But this isn't necessarily true, according to Eric Ries, creator of the Lean Startup methodology. "As you add people to a team or project, there is an increase in communications overhead that makes everyone slightly less productive," he explains. It may seem counterintuitive to do anything slow when following lean startup methods, but Ries' point stands: To continue executing effectively, you must not introduce a point of friction to your team. Finding the right person is paramount, and worth the wait. Read the full story here. 5. 6 Ways to Get the Most Out of Freemium for Your Small Business One of the most difficult things about bootstrapping a startup is utilizing the right resources to optimize efficiency and promote growth. And, it doesn't help that the best tools for the job often come at a pretty hefty price. It's easy to feel shortchanged, especially when the apps of your dreams feel like a mouse-click away. But don't despair. Over the last few years, startups benefited from the so-called "freemium" model -- a company offers the basic functions of an app suite for free, and then charges more for premium features and bigger storage space. A classic example is newsletter platform MailChimp, which is free for a few subscribers, but as your userbase -- and business -- grows, so does the cost, increasing incrementally according to your number of subscribers. Taking advantage of freemium options can help you put together the enterprise arsenal of your dreams while also maintaining that shoestring budget. However, it's important to note that choosing freemium doesn't automatically guarantee satisfaction. Here are some tips and tricks that will help you hedge your bets within the freemium system -- and benefit like a high-rolling VIP. Read the full story here. 6. 10 Must-Have Tools for Entrepreneurs For many entrepreneurs, the startup journey transforms them into more of a generalist than they likely were in a position at a larger company. This calls for specialized tools. The vocation-centric applications and programs no longer cut it. Productivity is essential when you have a lot on your plate. Time is money, so when an app is able to help you do more faster, it becomes worth paying for. Other apps will streamline communication or collaborative processes and reduce the friction of working in tandem with team members. Of course, no entrepreneur is all work, no play -- taking a break will give your brain a rest, and it's important to have options on hand that let you re-center your chi. Read the full story here. 7. 4 Ways to Budget Your Business Like a Pro Nobody likes to talk about budgeting. Even more, budgeting is sort of a drag to do -- but all can agree it's incredibly important. A few companies have launched software to make budgeting faster and easier. Plus, options for interaction with fellow entrepreneurs on sites like Twitter and Quora enables relevant feedback so you don't pay excessive amounts for a service you don't need. Read on to discover a few ways you can manage your company's spectrum of debits and credits without too much stress. Read the full story here. 8. 8 Tips for Building Your Brand on the Cheap When starting your business, we know there's a lot to handle and think about. There's your (growing) team, your intellectual property, product management and a pinched budget, all while you're trying to navigate the waters of entrepreneurship. But even without millions your brand can make an impression. All the free social media tools are a great start -- Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest are key, but there's more you can do to make an impression. We've rounded up eight ways to build your brand on the cheap -- because there are more important things to spend money and time on, like your product and talent. Read the full story here. 9. 7 Tech Upgrades for Your Small Businesses There's nothing better than a shiny new piece of technology, but not everyone can just splurge for a laptop, tablet or iPhone every time another one comes around. With so many tech upgrades and accessories on the market to turn existing hardware into even more powerful mechanisms, it's not unusual for small businesses to save time, money and a whole lot of headaches by implementing a few simple add-ons. For example, some small businesses are using systems that turn mobile devices into landlines to help make conference and video calls more user-friendly and less expensive. The AudiOffice by Invoxia features a dock equipped with speakers for devices such as the iPhone, iPod and iPad, and thanks to apps such as Skype and FaceTime that allow businesses to communicate with each other via chat, small businesses can cut down on communication costs. Read the full story here. 10. 4 Ways Startups Can Leverage Employee-Owned Tech The concept of BYOD, or "Bring Your Own Device," has gained plenty of traction as the mode du jour for budding startups. And it's easy to see why more companies -- both big and small -- are willing to take the plunge: The savings involved in allowing employees to utilize their own devices for work can be staggering. But don't get too caught up in the savings, or you'll expose yourself to a world of risk. What companies gain in convenience and extra cash can be lost in poor control and flimsy policy. The unknown elements that can happen with a BYOD policy have led critics to call it "Bring Your Own Disaster," and it's easy to see how even the best intentions can lead to a serious security breach or aggravating compatibility problems. Thinking of switching to BYOD? Here are four things to keep in mind when crafting and enforcing your policy. It's important to note that the preferences and cultures of each company are different, so use your own needs as a guideline to developing a BYOD system that works for you. Read the full story here. Former Employee Explains Why He Was Fired From Facebook Saturday, September 29, 2012 3:29 PM Joann Pan Getting fired sucks. Now imagine how it would feel to get canned from Facebook, only to watch it become a social phenomenon and the world's largest social network. Noah Kagan has lived through that experience. On Saturday, the AppSumo founder decided to write about his "$100 million dollar lesson" learned, detailing why he was terminated six years ago. Kagan joined Facebook as a product manager in November 2005, and was fired eight months later in June 2006. When he left, the social network was still limited to high school and university students. Facebook started accepting anyone with a valid email address in September 2006. He described the reasons for his dismissal like this: He was selfish, accidentally leaked company secrets to TechCrunch and didn't address his weaknesses as a product manager. "I wasn't great at planning or product management at this time. Fix them or move to another position," Kagan wrote. The serial entrepreneur worked exceptionally well as an employee in a 30-person company, but had a hard time adjusting as Facebook grew to 150 employees. He described himself as a "show-er" at Facebook or "someone who can be good for the company where they are now, but NOT where they are going." "Growers," or employees who can grow with the company and adjust to changes, are the ones who are successful, he said. SEE ALSO: These Are the Tech Job Hot Spots/a> While at Facebook, Kagan admits he used the company's name too much for his own personal gain. Employees should not rely on the brand, but rather just make "amazing stuff," he added. Kagan suggests the key to success is being a humble employee, listening during group collaboration meetings and being mindful of how you can improve as a part of a team. "Constantly ask yourself how can I make the company more valuable," he wrote. "You do that and you will never get fired, unless you do something really stupid or the company goes out of business." Read the rest of Kagan's brutally honest blog post here. Here's a picture of a "note from Zuck" to Kagan, written on the title page of The Elements of Style, the quintessential writing guide by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. What are the biggest lessons you've learned on the job? Can you relate to Kagan's blog post? Tell us in the comments. 'People Style Watch' Sells Ads on Its Twitter Page Saturday, September 29, 2012 2:16 PM Todd Wasserman Though advertisers have generally been slow to adopt Twitter's latest redesign of its profile pages, media companies are leading the charge and one -- Time Inc. -- seems to have found a way to profit off of the new format. Time's People Style Watch Twitter page last week began sporting ads from Jergens Daily Moisture. Twitter, somewhat surprisingly, is fine with the arrangement. "The space is the user's to customize, and we encourage them to be clear if they are promoting something there, for money or other consideration," a Twitter rep told Advertising Age. At the moment none of Time's other titles seem to be putting third-party ads on their Twitter profile sites. Some of the titles -- like Essence and InStyle haven't switched to the new design. Thumbnail courtesy of iStockphoto, youngvet Apple No Longer Saying Maps Are 'Most Powerful Ever' Saturday, September 29, 2012 8:29 AM Todd Wasserman The schadenfreude over the Apple Maps debacle is continuing through this weekend as bloggers pick apart even the minutest details of Apple's Maps marketing communications. The latest charges: Apple has backpedaled on the claim that Maps is "the most beautiful, most powerful mapping service ever" and the icon for the application has found to be inaccurate. On Saturday, Amit Agarwal, a personal technology columnist for WSJ India discovered evidence that Apple had updated its description of Maps after the app's faults caused an online uproar and prompted a rare apology from CEO Tim Cook. Agarwal noted that Apple's website had originally described Maps as: Designed by Apple from the ground up, Maps gives you turn-by-turn spoken directions, interactive 3D views, and the stunning Flyover feature. All of which may just make this app the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever. However, post-apology, Apple.com now states: Designed by Apple from the ground up, Maps gives you turn-by-turn spoken directions, interactive 3D views, and the stunning Flyover feature. All in a beautiful vector-based interface that scales and zooms with ease. Why the difference? Apple now recommends 13 competing mapping apps in its App Store. Meanwhile, entrepreneur Nik Cubrilovic observed that even the icon that Apple uses for Maps is inaccurate since it depicts taking a sharp left off a bridge to get onto Interstate 280. What do you think? Is this nitpicky and unfair or does Apple deserve all the abuse it's getting? Let us know in the comments.		TOP STORIES TODAY Bots Drive 16% of U.S. Web Traffic [INFOGRAPHIC] Former Employee Explains Why He Was Fired From Facebook Why Social Media Makes Customer Service Better 5 Easy Steps To Make Your Job Descriptions Go Viral 10 Essential Resources for Bootstrapping Businesses TOP TOPICS Trending 8,300 followers Watercooler 164 followers Mobile 5,487 followers Apps And Software 1,361 followers Business 41,119 followers Video 4,310 followers Gadgets 8,788 followers Social Media 78,868 followers Facebook 93,182 followers Work &Amp; Play 15 followers
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