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| Boost And Expand Your Professional Network With LunchMeet | | Tuesday, November 08, 2011 11:58 PM | Veena Bissram |
|  The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: LunchMeet Quick Pitch: LunchMeet works with LinkedIn to find professional contacts in your area who are available and willing to meet up for a meal, coffee or drinks. Genius Idea: Makes networking easy, creating opportunities to meet other professionals in your free time. These days the saying "It's all about who you know" seems to undermine the idea that hard work is key to climbing the success ladder. Building strong relationships and connecting with the right people can often help you advance your career, land your dream job or gain insight on ways to make your business more successful. This is the idea behind LunchMeet, a free application tool that helps people strengthen and expand their professional network by having face-to-face, meaningful conversations in their free time. Known as "an app to never eat alone," LunchMeet allows you to search for other professionals in your area, or a city you plan to visit, who are also available when you are. "I realized how many people criticize social media for pushing people apart because they spend too much time on technology rather than socializing with people," said Taylan Kay, developer of the LunchMeet app. "LunchMeet actually brings people together and helps them form meaningful connections with people." The new application, available for iPhone devices, is easy to use: 1. Log in to the app using your LinkedInTM account 2. Enter the timeslots and location of your availability 3. Search for other professionals who are also available in the same area during the same timeslot 4. Call them or use the in-app messaging to arrange a LunchMeet A LinkedIn account is necessary to use the app. Once users are logged into the app, LunchMeet will generate a small personal profile for you based on your LinkedIn profile information. Don't worry about privacy issues - your personal information will not be publicized or stored without your permission. Only your connections will be able to see your name and company. All other contacts will only see your professional title. Schedule a LunchMeet Users can invite their LinkedIn connections to use the app, post their meeting availability on their LinkedIn status and automatically add meeting details to their iPhone calendar. The app is a great way to network with a range of professionals such as entrepreneurs, consultants, job seekers, talent hunters and business school students. "There are so many apps out there that don't have a narrow context and advertise the same idea, such as dating or finding new partners" said Kay. "LunchMeet narrows the context so that users know it is only for professional networking." LunchMeet was inspired by the book "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi. In the book, Ferrazzi claims the key to advancing in life and climbing the business ladder is reaching out to other people. He also describes the steps he took to connect with friends and colleagues who have helped him succeed in his life and career. The app will soon be available on Android devices. Image courtesy of LunchMeet, LunchMeet Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. |
| Bring Carwashers to Your Car With a Checkin | | Tuesday, November 08, 2011 10:14 PM | Sarah Kessler |
|  The car wash rarely lives up to the enthusiastic disco hit that Rose Royce once dedicated to it. It's time consuming and inconvenient. But now -- like groceries, car service and random tasks -- it can be sent to you with the click of a smartphone. Startup Cherry.com launched a new service on Tuesday that lets drivers to park, check-in (on its website or with an app), and have their car washed while they're away. "Believe it or not there's a lot of technology involved," says CEO and Co-Founder Travis VanderZanden, who was the first employee at Yammer. About 20 cleaners that the company has hired in the San Francisco area have their own version of the iPhone app that they use to update their locations. When a customer requests a cleaning, Cherry.com's software automatically locates a Cherry employee nearby who can make the trip, and gives the customer an estimated arrival time. The customer also gets text messages when the the washer arrives and leaves. Cherry.com plays in a similar space as companies such as grocery delivery service Fresh Direct, car service Uber and task-on-demand site Taskrabbit -- the space in between digital and real worlds. VanderZanden says that he hopes to expand to similar services that make real-life tasks easier through technology. For now, he's focused on expanding beyond San Francisco. Not needing to establish brick and mortar stores, along with $750,000 in seed funding from Yammer CEO David Sacks, PayPal founder Max Levchin and Square COO Keith Rabois, should help it do so quickly. In order to succeed, however, it will need to convince people that it's OK to leave their cars unlocked (the company covers damage or theft) and that a car wash is worth its flat fee of $29. "As long as you value your time at least $29," VanderZanden says, "it's pretty much a free car wash at that point." |
| Two Schools of Thought: The Key Difference Between Apple and Google | | Tuesday, November 08, 2011 8:19 PM | Ben Parr |
|  Apple and Google may look similar on the surface, but the companies couldn't be any more different. That much has become clear to me after reading both the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson and Steven Levy's In the Plex. Google and Apple are technology behemoths that bucked the system, created game-changing products and are worth more than $550 billion collectively. Both companies have successful mobile phone divisions and web browsers, and both companies have a common enemy in Microsoft. The two companies are build on completely different foundations, though. Sergey Brin and Larry Page firmly believe in the power of data and numbers, and that reliance on the metrics is the cornerstone of every major decision the company makes. Information was the great leveler at Google. Steve Jobs, on the other hand, believed in the power of design and often threw out the data. "It's really hard to design products by focus groups," he famously said in a 1998 BusinessWeek interview. "A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." There is no starker contrast of the ying-yang battle of data vs. design. It's that conflicting yet complementary relationship that sparked one of the industry's closest friendships and, more recently, one of technology's fiercest rivalries. Google: Data Is King For some reason, I decided to read both Steve Jobs and In the Plex at the same time (the former via Kindle, the latter via audiobook). It was a surreal experience, but it made it clear to me that Google and Apple are polar opposites. Let's start with Google. If you need proof that data is king at Google, look no further than In the Plex. The word "data" appears in Levy's book approximately 319 times. "Design," on the other hand, appears fewer than 60 times. The emphasis on design comes directly from the founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Here's how Levy describes them in the beginning of the book: felt most comfortable in the meritocracy of academia, where brains trumped everything else. Both had an innate understanding of how the ultraconnected world that they enjoyed as computer science students was about to spread throughout society. Both shared a core belief in the primacy of data." The result is a company with a deliberately collegiate atmosphere, a strong meritocracy where engineers are king, and most of all a "deep respect for data." Google is famous for making the tiniest changes to pixel locations based on the data it accrues through its tests. Google will always choose a spartan webpage that converts over a beautiful page that doesn't have the data to back it up. "It looks like a human was involved in choosing what went where," Marissa Mayer once told an upset team of designers about a product design she rejected. "It looks too editorialized. Google products are machine-driven. They're created by machines. And that is what makes us powerful. That's what makes our products great." Apple: Design Is in Its DNA Apple, on the other hand, falls on the opposite end of the spectrum. The word "design" and its variations appears in the Steve Jobs biography 432 times. The word "data" appears just 26 times in the book. "I love it when you can bring really great design and simple capability to something that doesn't cost much," Jobs once told Isaacson. "It was the original vision for Apple. That's what we tried to do with the first Mac. That's what we did with the iPod." That emphasis on design derives from Jobs's childhood experiences. Early in his life, his father taught him that it was important to craft the back of fences and cabinets properly, even though nobody would see them. Later in life, Jobs traveled through Asia and connected with the simplicity of Zen Buddhism. Those lessons and experiences became part of his quest for perfection, a philosophy that is now essential to every product Apple ships. Conclusion Google has placed its faith in data, while Apple worships the power of design. This dichotomy made the two companies complementary. Apple would ship the phones and computers, while Google would provide Maps, Search, YouTube, and other web tools that made the devices more useful. But when Google decided to release its own mobile OS, their friendship quickly turned into a rivalry. And with Google poised to acquire a hardware company, that rivalry will only get stronger. What can we learn from the battle between data and design? What can we learn from the relationship between Google and Apple? Clearly no one school of thought is right: Apple and Google are both wildly successful and profitable companies that changed the world. Building a successful company (or living a happy life, for that matter) is not about embracing someone else's philosophy, but staying true to your own beliefs about the world and learning from the mistakes you make along the way. Second, design-focused companies tackle different types of problems than data-focused ones. A design-focused company like Apple (or Flipboard) will focus on creating revolutionary, never-before-seen products, because data isn't great at predicting market revolutions. Data-focused companies like Google, however, have a better chance at revolutionizing existing markets because their products are simply better and more efficient. The search engine existed before Google, but the company used data to make the most effective one in the world. Apple, on the other hand, is credited with launching multiple revolutions, starting with personal computing. Finally, while data and design are often opposing forces, they need each other as well. Jobs may have focused on design, but he didn't ignore the data. When he saw the dropped call data from AT&T at the beginning of "Antennagate," he rushed back from Hawaii to deal with it. The data provided the context on which he could design a response. Great design, even revolutionary ones, is built on solid data. The Social Analyst is a column by Mashable Editor-at-Large Ben Parr, where he digs into social media trends and how they are affecting companies in the space. Steve Jobs/Android image courtesy of Flickr, Jesus Belzunce |
| Reddit Turns One-Word Actor into Viral Star [VIDEO] | | Tuesday, November 08, 2011 5:48 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  An actor with a bit part in at AT&T ad became a celebrity thanks to a Reddit thread on Monday that prompted the ad to become a viral hit. Nate Dern, a writer and performer with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and known for being a finalist on Beauty and the Geek in 2007, posted on Reddit on Monday about a role he got in a new ad from the carrier. The ad shows a boss barking orders to his subordinates about what to do with their BlackBerry Torch 4Gs. The joke is that the boss is telling them to do things like play games and post videos of their kids on YouTube. Although the ad is not without its charms, it appears to have gone viral not so much for its quality, but because Dern went on Reddit to talk about it. "Hi Reddit. After three years of auditioning, I booked my first commercial. I say 'Huh?' in this AT&T spot. Just wanted to share," Dern wrote before linking to the YouTube page for the ad. So far, that post has gotten close to 3,000 comments and netted more than 400,000 views since the ad was posted on Monday. Dern and his role in the ad became a meme on Reddit as commenters piled on with cinemagraphs of Dern saying the line and a long comment thread about his delivery of the line. "I am hoping people will realize that he actually is pretty diverse when it comes to acting skills. You should see his 'Hmm...!'" one wrote. The conversation also spilled out on to YouTube, where some speculated that Dern should win an Oscar for his performance. Dern, 26, says he has posted things to Reddit before, but has rarely gotten more than 30 comments or so. He says the Reddit success is a fluke. "They have a soft spot for underdogs," Dern says of the Reddit community, "but this wasn't about me. It was an inside joke and they ran with it." Erik Martin, general manager at Reddit, says that it's unusual for an actor to propel a video the way Dern did, but Reddit recently prompted some viral success for an eBay ad because commenters hated it so much they couldn't stop talking about it. |
| Starbucks Holiday Cups Come to Life With Augmented Reality App | | Tuesday, November 08, 2011 4:24 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Starbucks is launching its first major augmented reality app this holiday season that will let customers animate their coffee cups with their smartphones. Starbucks Cup Magic launches for iPhone and Android devices in the U.S. next Tuesday. (In Canada, just the iPhone version will launch.) As demonstrated in the video above, the app works by pointing your phone's camera at the company's red holiday season coffee cups and 47 additional objects, such as bags of coffee, on display at Starbucks retail locations. Doing so will produce animations involving five characters -- an ice skater, a squirrel, a boy and a dog sledding and a fox -- on your screen. You can also interact with the characters. For instance, if you tap the boy on the sled he does a somersault. Those who activate all five characters can qualify to win an as-yet-unnamed prize. The app also includes traditional and social sharing capabilities. You can the send ecards as well as holiday offers from Starbucks, among other things. The object, says Alexandra Wheeler, vp-global digital marketing for Starbucks, is to "surprise and delight" customers during the holiday season. Although Starbucks experimented with an AR app years ago in an ad, Wheeler says this is the first major AR push by the company. The effort follows some other recent AR programs from marketers including an app from Nivea featuring Rihanna and an Amazon app that lets you point your phone at objects and then buy them. Cup Magic, created by Blast Radius, caps off a year of successful mobile implementations by Starbucks. The brand launched a mobile payment app in January that has been used in more than 20 million transactions and a QR code program designed, like Starbucks Cup Magic, to enhance the in-store brand experience. |
| Google+ Brand Pages Are the "Wild West"-- for Now | | Tuesday, November 08, 2011 4:11 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  First, the good news for marketers about Google+: It's incredibly easy to set up a brand page there. Now, the bad news: It's incredibly easy to set up a brand page there. Although there's a verification system in place, I was able to create this fake Coca-Cola brand page in a few minutes. The biggest hurdle to setting up a fake brand page is you have to agree to Google's Page's Terms, which requires that only users "with authority over the subject matter" can set up a Google+ Page. If you violate those terms, Google says it will block or take your page down. It's also possible to set up an "unofficial" Google+ page for a brand you like, like this one for Coca-Cola. David Berkowitz, president of emerging media at 360i and one of the people behind what will eventually be Coca-Cola's real Google+ brand page, says that he expects Google to clamp down on fake brand sites. "It's the wild west right now," he says. "They made it so open." Jim Prosser, a Google rep, says that the company is providing verification badges so users can confirm the authenticity of a page. "Verification badges are designed to help our users find what they're looking for by ensuring that people, brands and businesses that are subject to broad-based impersonation are protected," he says. "Because of this, it's intended primarily for global or broadly known brands." Such badges appear as a check the right of the brand's name on its Google+ page; if you run your cursor over the check mark, it reads "verified name." There is also a link to "report this profile" if you spot a fake site. Considering the fuss Google put up about fake accounts prior to the launch of brand pages, Google's current, more laissez-faire approach is surprising, but for marketers it may be vexing as well. That's because it can be difficult to find even official Google+ pages. Generally, to find such a page, you have to search the brand name plus "google plus" or "google+." For instance, the Ford Motor Company has had a Google+ page more or less since the social network launched in July. Yet you have to Google "ford google plus" to find it. A more general Google search for "Ford" won't bring it up. Searching on Google+ for your brand, meanwhile, will only produce instances in which people in your circles have mentioned the brand. Not surprisingly, given their lead in the marketplace over Google+, it's a lot more difficult to set up a fake brand page on Facebook or Twitter. Facebook will automatically reject a brand name that has already been used (like "Coca-Cola") and requires that users with a "large number" of fans verify their identity. On Twitter, it's harder to create an ersatz page because the desired name is likely to be taken. Twitter also verifies brand pages. Nevertheless, Facebook's system for setting up brand pages was once somewhat chaotic as well. What is now Coke's official Facebook brand page, for instance, was started by fans, rather than the company itself. Image of fake Coca-Cola Google+ page courtesy of Fantasy Interactive. |
| End the Office? Students Want Right to Work From Home [INFOGRAPHIC] | | Tuesday, November 08, 2011 3:51 PM | Chris Taylor |
|  Planning on hiring a hotshot kid straight out of college? Here's a checklist for you: Make sure she can tweet or update Facebook while on the clock. Let her get work email on whatever device she wants. Allow her to work from home on her own schedule, even though she's unlikely to really think it makes her more productive. And by the way, an increasing number of your employees don't think they need to be in the office either. These are all the results of a Cisco survey of 2,800 college students and young professionals worldwide. The survey had a number of questions that make good cocktail party trivia (one-third of students think the Internet is as important as food, air and water) and are rather less impressive the more you consider them (the vast majority, after all, don't believe that for a moment). Where the study really gets interesting is when it comes to students' workplace expectations -- or rather, the expectation that they won't be in the workplace. More than 60% say they have a right -- not just a desire, but a right -- to work from home on a flexible schedule. Some 70% say coming into the office regularly is unnecessary. That's despite the fact that only a quarter of students are willing to say working from home makes them more productive. SEE ALSO: The Perks of Working at Google, Facebook, Twitter and More/a> They have some backup, at least -- 69% of all workers say the office is unnecessary, a figure that has grown from 60% last year. So is the workplace doomed, or will a weak economy force young adults to learn to love the cube? Let us know in the comments what you think. |
| AT&T Ad Goes Viral By Telling It Like It Is | | Tuesday, November 08, 2011 1:00 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Each day, Mashable highlights one noteworthy YouTube video. Check out all our viral video picks. Many smartphone ads tout all of the wonderful ways their devices will help you keep on top of your job, but we all know that there's more to smartphones than that. Perhaps that's why this ad from AT&T promoting Research In Motion's BlackBerry Torch 4G has struck a chord. The ad broke on Monday, but is already up to close to 400,000 views. Why? There's something inherently funny about brutal honesty delivered as if it was plain vanilla management speak. Here, the boss barks out orders to do things that employees are going to do with the phones anyways, such as loading videos of their kids on YouTube and checking in everywhere on Foursquare. Updated: As our readers have pointed out, a posting on Reddit had a hand in sending this video viral. An actor in the commercial posted the video with the caption, "After three years of auditioning, I booked my first commercial. I say "Huh?" in this AT&T spot." After one day, the post has nearly 3,000 comments. To see an expanded use of this deadpan technique, check out the "Truth In Advertising" video below, which made the rounds in ad circles a few years back. Warning: Language is NSFW. |
| 12 Tips to Make Your Company More Creative | | Tuesday, November 08, 2011 12:44 PM | Ronald Brown |
|  Ronald Brown is a successful startup CEO with an extensive background in technology and consumer marketing. His new book, Anticipate. The Architecture of Small Team Innovation and Product Success is available via iTunes, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Last year, reports said creativity was on the decline in the U.S. However, reports this year indicate that creativity is more important than ever to business success. IBM weighed in with a massive study, interviewing over 1,500 CEOs around the world. Those CEOs collectively agree that employee creativity is the most important talent for the 21st century. Although it seems to be on the decline, creative capacity is more important than ever. Many large companies deem creativity a major competitive advantage. So, where do you start? What will be your strategy to bolster not only your own creativity, but also that of your business? First, you'll need creative employees -- then, an environment that fosters and promotes that creativity. Let's divide these categories further. Employee Creativity Hire for innate creativity. Even if a candidate's domain skills come first (e.g. engineering, finance, marketing), stay on the lookout for creative skills - it's easy and relatively inexpensive. Bringing people on-board with high "creativity quotients" will pay off enormously in the long-run. Assess current employees. Once you identify creative types within your organization, deploy them for special projects or team leadership positions. Train for creative thinking skills. It's a structured and rich process, and everybody, regardless of inherent abilities, can improve their creativity with practice. Personal Relationships Teach marketing principles. Since business success is so much about marketing, and marketing is so much about creativity, it would be hard to imagine a more fertile ground for sharpening creative thinking skills. Advertising and design (product and graphic) tasks are also effective in getting creative juices flowing. Allow for reflection time. Employees need places where they can get away from mainstream energy and potential conflicts. Creative professionals recognize solitary time as part of the "incubation" process, necessary for clarifying and polishing ideas. Encourage play. Impromptu team recreation builds trust and reinforces collaboration. Make it accessible on a daily basis. Mix it up. Multi-cultural and mixed gender teams tend to have higher creative output. Visit customers. Ideas are most valuable when they are put in context of customer needs and circumstances. Learn from customers, allow them to suggest ideas, and be sure to share concepts, drawings and prototypes with them. Encourage industry networking. Interaction with peers builds tacit knowledge. Management Involvement Define a powerful vision. Vision is the single best agent for galvanizing teams. While high performance teams need the freedom to direct their own time and efforts, management directs the process through a vision that team members can get excited about. Physical Surroundings Create big open spaces. There's a reason design firms and ad agency offices are visually free flowing, interesting, and non-constraining: environmental clutter is distracting and stressful. Create friendly spaces. Individual workspaces should put people at ease. Some prefer music. Some work well with clutter, like piles of books or papers, while others like things tidy and minimal. The goal is to meet everyone's needs the best way possible. Bottom line, you want employees to feel good being at work. Image courtesy of Flickr, lodge28 |
| 6 Tips for Holiday Social Good Campaigns | | Tuesday, November 08, 2011 11:21 AM | Zachary Sniderman |
|  Commerce With a Conscience Series is supported by See how. The holidays are just around the corner, and for many non-profits, that means big opportunities. More people give money to charities toward the end of the calendar than any other time of year. A questionnaire from Philanthropy.com found that more than 60% of non-profits surveyed saw a boost in donations in November and December compared to the previous year. Another 20% of those surveyed said donations increased by more than 20%. Anecdotal evidence also supports the late-blooming boom. Some attribute the burst of wintery generosity to the spirit of giving fostered by year-end holidays. Others, like the folks over at Freakonomics, suggest all that giving is to capitalize on last-minute tax breaks. Whatever the reason, 'tis the season. Here are some basic tips for any organization looking to run a social good campaign around the holidays. 1. It's the Holiday Season It's the holiday season, so do something festive. Granted, this one is sort of a no-brainer, but it's important to remember that people are more likely to donate to something that is topical and of-the-moment. This isn't necessarily a good human trait, but it can make the difference for funding an important cause. If you're going to make a campaign specific to the holidays, it's important to not just window-dress what you're doing. People will be able to sniff out pretentiousness. Instead, try to think of ways to tie your issues and causes into the holidays. For example, if you're supporting developing communities, why not start a campaign to provide off-grid lighting solutions as part of the "Festival of Lights"? 2. Not Everyone Likes the Holidays It is enormously important to remember that just because you may celebrate a certain holiday doesn't mean the entire planet does too. Be respectful of your core audience and the people you are helping. For example, a non-profit supporting women's rights in the Middle East probably shouldn't deck out its website exclusively with Christmas lights. Instead, find smart ways to incorporate relevant holidays, or better still, find a way to include all relevant holidays and focus on the spirit of giving back rather than locking into a specific tradition. 3. Don't Stop It's the holidays, and holiday dollars are important. But do not, under any circumstances, stop or pause the longer-term initiatives your organization is running. Less mainstream campaigns usually take a back seat whenever the holidays roll around so that non-profits can get the most of their fundraising. Pausing your organization's core campaigns is a huge mistake, not only because it halts an important mission, but because it shows that you're willing to drop something important to capitalize on a tangential trend. 4. Be Consistent If you've already had success with a holiday campaign, for goodness' sake don't stop! Holding holiday social good campaigns year-over-year not only gives your audience something to look forward to, but provides some consistency to what can sometimes feel like a one-off event. Of course, these campaigns don't have to be identical every single year. Think about how you can expand what you did last year or follow up on the change you were able to enact. People want to know that you are still committed to your cause, even if you're creating a campaign that only happens once a year. 5. Start Early The "holidays" now seem to start during the summer. For better or for worse, the holiday season begins earlier and earlier every year. This means that you, Mr. or Ms. Non-Profit, can also start planning your campaigns earlier in the year. The earlier you start, the more time you'll have to flesh out all aspects of the campaign, gather funds and raise awareness. Of course, pick a logical date: There is such a thing as "too soon." 6. Everyone Loves Gift Cards Gift cards tend to have a bad rap as the thing you buy someone when you don't actually know what to get them. There is, however, a new trend of making a donation on someone else's behalf. The gifter will, for example, support a girl's education in a developing country for a year and provide the giftee with a card detailing the girl's name and how the sponsorship will help her have a bright future. Think: Is there a logical and relevant way of including a similar type of donation gift in your non-profit's holiday plan? These presents may not be as much "fun" as unwrapping a toy car, but they will do an entire world of good. Series supported by Fedex Commerce With a Conscience Series is supported by See how. Image courtesy of Flickr, Patrick Hoesly, Emily Barrera |
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