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| HootSuite Acquires Seesmic To Snatch Up Its Enterprise Users | | 12:41:08 AM | Seth Fiegerman |
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HootSuite has acquired Seesmic, one of its competitors in the social media management space, for an undisclosed sum, the two companies announced on Thursday. HootSuite's CEO Ryan Holmes told TechCrunch that the main motivation for this acquisition is to build up its enterprise user base, which is currently about 4.5 million. According to TechCrunch, the final price of the acquisition will depend on how many Seesmic users end up switching over to HootSuite. Seesmic is estimated to have roughly 30,000-40,000 monthly visitors, though the company's founder Loic Le Meur told TheNextWeb in an interview that his company actually has "hundreds of thousands of active users." Regardless, it's unclear how many of Seesmic's users are paying business users verses ordinary consumers using the service for free. Throughout its four year history, Seesmic has struggled to figure out just what function it should serve. The company initially started out as a video conversation service before changing courses several times and eventually settling on being a social media dashboard. Le Meur will reportedly stay on with HootSuite to help with the transition. With Seesmic out of the picture, HootSuite's primary competition now is Tweetdeck. These two platforms are arguably in a better position to control the space than services like Seesmic because of their close relationship to Twitter, which has been cracking down on third party apps by restricting its API. Tweetdeck is owned by Twitter and HootSuite has entered into a partnership with Twitter to sell advertising. Image courtesy of Flickr, PromoBlog |
| 7 Tips to Ace Your Video Interview | | Thursday, September 06, 2012 8:06 PM | BusinessNewsDaily |
|  Job seekers may want to brush up on their skills in front of the camera, new research shows. A study by staffing firm OfficeTeam revealed that more than 60% of businesses are conducting job interviews via video, up significantly from just 14% one year ago. In addition, 13% of the human resources managers surveyed expect to increase the use of videoconferencing in their job selection process. "Many companies are embracing video interviews, which are often conducted online via webcam, as a way to quickly and cost-effectively evaluate applicants," said Robert Hosking, executive director of OfficeTeam. "Job seekers can use these virtual meetings to put their best foot forward, just as they would in person." However, there are special considerations when meeting via video, according to Hoskins. "You need to not only be prepared to say the right things, but also make sure you and your surroundings appear professional on camera," he said. SEE ALSO: The Questions You Should Be Asking in a Job Interview OfficeTeam offers several tips for job candidates who have to participate in a video interview: Test the technology: Familiarize yourself with the video tools and functionality in advance to troubleshoot issues. Also, if your computer is prone to problems, consider having a backup on hand. Choose the right location: Conduct the meeting in an area with good lighting that's free of distractions or anything within view that could be perceived as unprofessional. Beware of things like windows in the background, which can cast dark shadows, or barking dogs that may make it difficult to hear. Take a trial run:Ask a friend to videoconference with you and provide feedback on how close you should sit to the camera. He or she also can recommend adjustments for your surroundings. Suit up: Dress and groom the way you would for a face-to-face interview, and don't assume you'll only be visible from the waist up. Avoid bold patterns and colors that don't show up well on video. Exude confidence: Look at the camera when answering questions so it appears you're talking directly to the employer. Also, don't forget to smile and sit up straight. Be heard: Make sure your responses are audible to the interviewer. Speak loudly and clearly into the microphone. Treat it like a real interview: Approach the meeting with all the seriousness and preparation you would give to an in-person interview. This includes having questions ready and following up with a thank-you note. The research was based on surveys of 500 HR managers at U.S. companies with 20 or more employees. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, deanm1974 |
| Apple Working On Pandora-Like Service [REPORT] | | Thursday, September 06, 2012 4:52 PM | Kate Freeman |
|  We know Apple is vehemently against being copied, but the iPhone maker might be taking a page out of Pandora's playbook. It may be, according to a report on the Wall Street Journal, creating a similar service. The music service from Apple would supposedly work with all Apple's existing products. It would operate similarly to Pandora in that users could select a musician they like and a station would play songs by similar artists. The WSJ article says Apple is attempting to negotiate its own licensing deals with record companies as opposed to the government-set rates paid by Pandora. The story also suggests this new service might be unveiled at Apple's big event next Wednesday, Sept. 12. Apple's iTunes is a top destination for song downloads, but streaming audio sites like Pandora and Spotify offer up some competition. Would you use a music service similar to Pandora, but from Apple? Sound off in the comments. |
| Can Interest Targeting Improve Facebook's Ad Model? | | Thursday, September 06, 2012 3:32 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Most people don't hear the name "Leighton Meester" and think "jewelry," but there's a strong correlation between the Gossip Girl star and consumers who are in the market for some bling. The relationship had been unexploited and probably unknown until SocialFlow, the New York-based social media marketing firm, crunched the numbers. Working on behalf of a large jewelry client, SocialFlow was able to buy ads against Facebook conversations about Meester. The result, says Frank Speiser, co-founder of SocialFlow, was a 2x to 3x jump in click-through rates for ads. Since CTRs for Facebook ads are notoriously low, the actual figures are unlikely to impress outsiders, but getting a 0.03% rate instead 0.01% is a big jump. Speiser also says that there's a big viral lift -- a.k.a. new conversations -- for brands that run such so-called "interest targeting" campaigns. (Though his term for it is the far geekier "linguistic prototyping.") Speiser was in full pitch mode on Thursday for linguistic prototyping as SocialFlow brought its Crescendo product out of beta. While SocialFlow's eponymous product lets marketers help target and measure their activity on Facebook and Twitter, Crescendo lets them buy ads on Facebook as well. The value-add is that the ads are based on interest targeting so unlikely associations like Meester and jewelry can be employed instead of the comparatively inexact demographic targeting. In the marketing world, there's nothing new about psychographic targeting, a concept coined in 1974. The idea is that the more you know about a consumer's mindset, the better you can market to them. For example, fans of Lifetime's America's Supernanny are more likely to be fans of Walmart while Target customers are apt to be devoted to CMT's Top Secret Recipe, according to Bluefin Labs. To use a Image courtesy of Flickr, david_shankbone |
| Google+ Goes Backstage at New York Fashion Week | | Thursday, September 06, 2012 1:07 PM | Lauren Indvik |
|  Google is expanding its New York Fashion Week offerings this season. In addition to streaming 30 shows live on YouTube, a 17% increase from last year, the tech giant is also partnering with brands to bring on-the-spot Fashion Week coverage to Google+. Beginning at 1:15 p.m. ET Friday, Teen Vogue beauty director Eva Chen will be hosting a Google Hangout on startup Lyst's Google+ page before fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff's show at Lincoln Center. Between four and five people, all pre-screened, will be invited into the Hangout to pose questions to backstage makeup and hair artists as well as Minkoff herself. Chen will moderate and also ask questions e-mailed in to editor@lyst.com ahead of time. Lyst will host another Hangout at 6 p.m. ET Saturday ahead of Tibi's show. Chen will again moderate. In addition to backstage makeup and hair stylists, Chen will also interview Tibi designer Amy Smilovic and Man Repeller fashion blogger Leandra Medine. Since the Wi-Fi is notoriously bad at Lincoln Center, Lyst will be using an Ethernet connection from IMG to host the Hangout. Google staffers will be on-hand to help with technical support, a Lyst spokesperson said. Beyond the live Hangouts, Lucky Magazine editors and outside contributors will be uploading images to a live slideshow on its Google+ Page, and Vogue Paris is creating and sharing short, animated GIFs from Fashion's Night Out on its page. Whether on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Instagram or Pinterest, you'll be hard-pressed to avoid references to New York Fashion Week from now until next Thursday. For a complete guide to following the week's events online, click here. |
| Microsoft Asks Consumers to Compare Bing to Google Via a Pepsi Challenge | | Thursday, September 06, 2012 12:31 PM | Seth Fiegerman |
|  Microsoft is trying a new marketing gambit to get consumers to use its Bing search engine: A blind taste test. The campaign, called Bing It On, asks users to compare any five search results for Bing and Google side-by-side without knowing which is which, and pick out the results that are the most relevant. Users can do this using BingItOn.com and then find out whether they really prefer Google or Bing. It's basically the online equivalent of the Pepsi Challenge. The Bing It On campaign comes on the heels of an independent study of nearly 1,000 Internet users commissioned by Microsoft, which found that people prefer Bing's search results to Google's two-to-one in blind comparison tests. Despite these findings, Bing has been stuck in a distant second place behind Google in the search market. Bing currently has just 15.7% market share, while Google has two-thirds of the market, according to the latest numbers from comScore, though Microsoft's share jumps to 28.7% if you include Yahoo's sites, which are powered by Bing. "We've increasingly seen that customers have a tough time breaking their Google habits," Lisa Gurry, Bing's senior director, told Mashable. "The use of Google for any search is very habitual, like tapping your foot in a meeting, you don't really give it a lot of thought. With this campaign, we want to help people realize there is another option for search." We reached out to Google for comment and will update this post when we hear back. This isn't the first time that Microsoft has tried to battle consumers' ingrained habits. In February, the company launched a Pepsi Challenge for its Windows Phone that offered side-by-side comparisons to iPhones and Android-based devices. That programhit a glitch the following month when an Android user charged that the competition was rigged. This time around, Microsoft is going all out by promoting the Bing It On campaign during the MTV Video Music Awards on Thursday and in Microsoft stores around the country. Microsoft is also launching a sweepstakes to promote the Bing It On challenge. Anyone who tweets about the campaign using a link found on Bingsweeps.com will be entered to win one of several Microsoft prizes including a Surface tablet, Xbox, Windows phone and more. While the Bing It On campaign is a fun idea, it could also end up backfiring on Bing. When this reporter took the test, Google won five out of five rounds. |
| A Startup Competition for $100K, and 40+ More Events | | Thursday, September 06, 2012 12:10 PM | Dani Fankhauser |
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Whether you're looking to make industry contacts or learn the latest trends in advertising, technology and media, Mashable's Events Board has something for you. We picked four of the latest events to be listed to give you an idea of the possibilities for networking, developing skills and moving your business forward. Check these out, or head over to the full listings to find relevant events in your area or preferred destination. Our events board was recently updated so you can easily sort listings by when they were added. Many event organizers offer a discount code for Mashable readers and feature a YouTube video of a past event so you'll know what to expect. You can also subscribe to the events newsletter or follow our events account on Twitter so you'll catch the best events before they sell out. Mastering Business and Personal Relationships Date: 10/4/2012 Location: Istanbul "Turkey is the hottest internet market in the world. This event will witness the participation of some of the biggest stalwarts in the internet industry." "The Webrazzi Summit 2012 is also going to be bigger with 1000 attendees expected to attend the event this year and an audience comprising CEOs, Founders, VCs, Angel Investors, and internet professionals. Last year, Webrazzi received an overwhelming response with entry to the Webrazzi Summit 2011 selling out weeks before the event. So, interested attendees should register as soon as possible to confirm their spot for this year's event." Distilled Intelligence 2.0 -- Startups, apply to compete for $100K! Date: 10/11/2012 - 10/12/2012 Location: Washington, DC "Apply today to the pitch competition created by Fortify.vc and compete for $100K. Applications for the October 11 - 12, 2012 event are rolling in and this event will be provide a stage for startups from around the world. Tickets are on sale at www.distilledintelligence.com for investors and entrepreneurs." "Distilled Intelligence 2.0 sponsors include: Microsoft, Cooley, BDO, SpeakerBox Communications, Hamilton Insurance Agency, CRESA, Application Developers Alliance, Arlington, VA, DC One City, Social Tables and Events DC." The Social Media for Customer Service Summit Date: 10/23/2012 - 10/24/2012 Location: New York "You will join 20+ leading corporate speakers from brands such as McDonalds, FedEx, Citi, Coca-Cola and Southwest Airlines as they answer your questions in 14 interactive sessions. It is the only summit designed exclusively to take your social media customer service strategy to the next level." "The Social Media for Customer Service Summit is a practical and interactive business conference that will teach you how to deliver better customer service for brand loyalty, customer acquisition and reputation management." Streaming Media West Date: 10/30/2012 - 10/31/2012 Location: Los Angeles, Calif. "Streaming Media West is where content owners, viral video creators, online marketers, broadcast professionals, ad agencies and others come to see and hear the latest in online video technology and what the future might bring." "Network with your colleagues, peers, and experts in online video, learn about the new business and distribution models for online video and what you need to know to make streaming work from content capture and creation to distribution and management." Promote your event on Mashable's Events Board here. Want to see the full list of upcoming conferences and events? Click here. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, pagadesign |
| Amazon to Reissue Dickens Novels in Original Serial Format | | Thursday, September 06, 2012 11:16 AM | Lauren Indvik |
| | At a press event in Santa Monica, Calif., Thursday, Amazon announced it would be re-issusing the novels of Charles Dickens in the same serial format they were originally released in. There's one big difference, of course: Amazon will be publishing them as digital files to be sold through its Kindle store. Dickens issued many of his most famous works, including Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist, as part of weekly and monthly installments over the course of one to two years. Some were published as independent singles, others appeared in the pages of magazines. Many were illustrated. Today, Dickens's works are typically bundled and distributed as thick, single-volume novels. The Dickens serials are part of a new product from Amazon, appropriately named "Kindle Serials." Readers will be able to purchase complete Serials for $1.99 upfront, and will receive new installments as they become available. The new format will enable authors to gather reader reactions as they write, and adapt future installments accordingly, just as Dickens did, Jeff Bezos said. We hope Amazon is planning to re-introduce serial works from authors besides Dickens -- I'd particularly like to see George Eliot's serialized fiction re-released in that form. However, it should be noted that consumers will pay a premium for accessing Dickens' works in their original form -- much of the author's works are available on Kindle for free. Image courtesy of Flickr, Matt Neale |
| Rent the Runway Founder Jennifer Fleiss Answers Reader Questions [LIVE CHAT] | | Thursday, September 06, 2012 10:50 AM | Scott Gerber |
|  Got a question for Fleiss? Use the chat feature above to get it answered live. Jennifer (Jenny) Fleiss is an entrepreneur at heart. She started her career at Morgan Stanley in the strategic planning group, where she crafted long-term company strategy. She then moved on to Lehman Brothers' asset management group, where she was responsible for analyzing business growth opportunities through acquisitions, international expansion and new product strategies. A natural leader, Fleiss founded an essay editing and coaching service for college applicants, and built the idea into an online tutoring company. In 2007, Fleiss began Harvard Business School, where she met friend and fellow co-founder, Jennifer (Jenn) Hyman. As section mates, the two women met frequently to discuss entrepreneurial ideas, one of which was Rent the Runway. Designed to solve the common "closet full of clothes but nothing to wear" problem, Fleiss and Hyman launched Rent the Runway in November 2009. SEE ALSO: Rent the Runway: How Two Women Are Making Luxury Fashion Affordable Now nearly two years into the business, Rent the Runway has quickly grown to acquire over 1 million members and has signed on 150 top designer brands. With an inventory of 25,000 dresses, 4,000 accessories, including new categories such as weddings and beauty, Rent the Runway has become the one-stop shop for life's special occasions. Fleiss received her B.A. from Yale University in 2005, graduating cum laude, and her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 2009. Fleiss is a member of the New York Economic and Development Corporation, where she helps with corporate mentorship and advisory within the startup community. She is also a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2012 Award in the New York region. ?#StartupLab is a free virtual mentorship program created by The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only non-profit organization comprised of over 500 of America's most successful young entrepreneurs who have collectively generated tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. #StartupLab offers millions of entrepreneurs, small business owners and startup founders the tactical advice they need to launch and grow new businesses via live, interactive video chats, educational content and mentorship opportunities -- right on Facebook. |
| LinkedIn Revamps Brand Pages | | Thursday, September 06, 2012 10:29 AM | Seth Fiegerman |
|  LinkedIn is rolling out new brand pages to boost engagement between job hunters and companies on the social network, according to an announcement Thursday on LinkedIn's website. The revamped company pages are more visual and less flooded with widgets. There is a large cover photo at the top of the page, similar to Facebook, and company updates about product announcements and job opportunities are displayed more prominently. Behind the scenes, LinkedIn has come up with an algorithm to make sure that each company's update stream is customized for the person checking the page, ensuring that the user sees the most relevant posts first. LinkedIn has introduced several new features in recent months to get users more engaged on the social network. Earlier this year, LinkedIn released a Follow Company button to make it easier for users to keep up with news from their favorite businesses and just this week, LinkedIn announced a new Facebook-style notification system to track updates on the social network better. The revamped brand pages are just the latest effort for LinkedIn to assert itself as a viable marketing platform for brands. Several companies have already updated their pages, including Citi, Dell and Philips. You can check out how these and other companies are using the new brand pages in the gallery below: |
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