yesterday
Here’s The Big Problem With Facebook’s New E-Commerce Effort (FB)
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-big-problem-with-facebooks-new-ecommerce-effort-2012-9
Yesterday, Facebook announced that it will sell gifts users can send to their friends.
Chris Dixon, a successful serial investor and one of New York’s most visible startup investors is skeptical it’ll work.
“Getting users to switch ‘modes’ from online to offline (& vice versa) has historically yielded very low conversion rates,” he tweets.
His point is that when people go to people go to Website for one reason, it’s hard to get them to do anything else.
Users go to Amazon to shop, Match.com for a date, and Craigslist for a free sofa. Users go to Facebook to share photos and maybe read news, not buy things.
Just because a new feature from Facebook appears, doesn’t mean users are going to suddenly start going there to use it.
“It’s all about the mental state. Are you sharing photos online [or] giving something offline? The numbers show it’s hard to switch.”
Other cases in which getting users to switch “modes” from offline to online or back again, that hasn’t worked include “showing URLs in TV ads or magazines” or “trying to sell anything on [a] social network.”
Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.
! Join the conversation about this story »
Giftly, A Startup That Wanted To Make All Gift Cards Digital, Had A Pivotal Moment Yesterday
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/giftly-2012-9
Giftly launched last September with nearly $3 million in funding and a dream of making all gift cards mobile.
But after the holiday season struck, founder Tim Bentley and his team of ten started to rethink the product.
Giftly was a location-based gift card service. The sender could pick a venue and gift a friend a small sum to spend there. It used geo-location to unlock the giftcard when the recipient neared the venue.
But Bently found people preferred gifting items over locations. He and his team shifted the company’s vision, so much so that the site now reads, “A Giftly is not a giftcard…it’s better!”
They spent six months creating an iPhone app which went live yesterday. Now Giftly lets users send items or experiences to friends from their mobile devices.
Here’s how it works: A user selects a Facebook friend to send a gifted amount to, up to $250. They then select a suggested venue, but the Giftly can be unlocked and used anywhere by the friend. They also suggest an item for the friend to buy (see screenshot below).
When the friend uses the Giftly, they’re asked to send a quick message of thanks and a photo of the purchase to the user.
At its core, Giftly is a way to send small sums of money to friends, wrapped up in a thoughtful way. If you actually want to send your friend something like flowers or a cupcake, you’re still better off calling an actual store and getting the items delivered. But Bently thinks there’s a use case for people who want an easy way to be thoughtful from time to time.
“When we surveyed our users before, we asked them ! how ofte n they’d buy gift cards for people. They’d usually say twice per year, on birthdays and holidays,” says Bently says of pivot. “We realized we were building a product around giftcards and locations, and we were being too conservative. Really, people give little gifts to each other all the time.”
Here’s what the new app looks like:
Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the conversation about this story »
Newspaper Uses Photoshop to Make Syria Look Worse
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5929952/newspaper-uses-photoshop-to-make-syria-even-worse-somehow
The Kronen Zeitung is Austria’s largest newspaper, with a daily readership of around three million people. Yesterday, those readers were treated to the image on the left of war-torn Aleppo, bombed out and desperate. Except, as one sharp-eyed Redditor points out, that wasn’t the scene at all. It was just another Photoshop job.
Just to be clear, the family in the photograph is, in fact, in Syria; the original photo (on the right) came from the European Pressphoto Agency. But merely fleeing a city ravaged by guns and mortars apparently isn’t quite dramatic enough on its own. The editors of the Krone—as it’s commonly called—needed this baby to sing.
Using Photoshop to make actresses and models look unrealistically attractive is bad enough. Using it to make a part of the world that has enough problems as it is look even more apocalyptic? That’s just disgraceful. [Facebook via Reddit]
Brewster, The iPhone App Everyone Was Going Nuts For Yesterday, Had A Big Privacy Leak
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/brewster-privacy-2012-7
Brewster, the new contacts management app for iPhone, had a few privacy leaks on launch day yesterday.
TechCrunch first reported that the app leaked personal contact information for Ashton Kutcher, MG Siegler, Dave Morin, and others.
We pressed Brewster for more details, but they would only give us this statement:
“We take privacy extremely seriously at Brewster. When we launched yesterday, we had a tremendous number of user signups, and fixed a number of problems, including scale issues and bugs.
One unfortunate problem that arose was for Foursquare users who were fans, but not friends, of other Foursquare users. Even further, Foursquare only offers the ability to be fanned to an extremely small number of users. In this case, if we had the contact information from a full Foursquare friend, we briefly displayed their contact information to fans. This happened with one user who was fans of multiple people on Foursquare.
As soon as we heard of this issue from the user, we made sure this bug was resolved immediately, and put safeguards in place to ensure it never happens again. This is the only instance we heard of this issue.
Separately, from this bug, we have also responded to questions from users related to information that they had access to from different services. For instance, a user might have a public photo available that they haven’t seen before, or a phone number rightfully accessible if connected on Foursquare. These instances are completely consistent with the access the user gives these third-party services.
Brewster strives to be a trusted personalized address book for our users. We hope this serves as an example of how seriously we take issues of privacy, how candid we will be if issues ever arise, and that our users remain a top priority.
Don’t Miss: Meet Brewster, The Next Must-Have App For Your iPhone >
Please follow SAI: Tools on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the conversation about this story »
If You Miss Tweets Popping Up Automatically On LinkedIn, Startup IFTTT Has A 90-Second Workaround
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-tweet-to-linkedin-2012-6
Yesterday, Twitter cut ties with LinkedIn; tweets will no longer appear on LinkedIn via status updates.
It’s part of Twitter’s effort to control tweet consumption.
If you miss your tweets popping up automatically on LinkedIn, there’s a 90-second workaround using startup IFTTT [via Monica Rogati].
IFTTT creates a series of “If. Then” statements for web applications, like glue that binds the Internet together.
If you want two applications that aren’t currently integrated to work together, like LinkedIn and Twitter, you can create a “recipe” on IFTTT that says,
“If I tweet, then it will appear in my LinkedIn status.”
You can do this by heading to IFTTT and selecting Twitter as the trigger application, and LinkedIn as the action application in your if/then statement.
In 7 quick steps, your tweets will reappear on LinkedIn.
Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the conversation about this story »
The Scariest Thing For Anyone Thinking About Buying The Facebook IPO
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-revenue-growth-ahead-of-ipo-2012-4
Here’s the scariest thing to come out of Facebook’s updated financials yesterday: The company’s growth is rapidly decelerating.
Last quarter it was only up 45%. The quarter before that it was 55%, and the quarter before that it was 104%. 45% is good for most companies, but for a company that’s supposed to be a hot IPO it’s underwhelming, as is the growth trend.
Follow the Chart Of The Day on Twitter: @chartoftheday
Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the conversation about this story »
Groupon Needs To Be VERY Careful, Because The Sharks Are Circling (GRPN)
Groupon is bleeding in the water, and the sharks are circling.
On Friday, we learned that Groupon under reported the number of returns it had in Q4, and that the company had to revise its earnings.
Then Groupon’s auditor filed a “statement of material weakness,” basically telling the SEC it would not vouch for the company’s numbers.
Yesterday, the WSJ reported that the SEC is investigating the company.
That’s not all the company has to worry about.
Institutional investors put big money into Groupon’s IPO.
Since that day’s highs, the stock is down more that 50%. It tanked 16% yesterday alone.
If those institutions can blame somebody else for those losses and recoup any of their own investor’s money, they will.
That means if those investors catch even slight whiffs of fraud out of Groupon – and trust me, they are sniffing – the lawsuits and subpoenas will come in rapid succession.
Ever seen a shark frenzy?
Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
- Groupon’s Andrew Mason: We Were ‘Toughened Up’ By Quiet Period
- Groupon Eyes Foursquare Territory And Acquires Location Database Startup, Hyperpublic
- San Francisco Puts Hackers To Work Fixing The Horribly Broken Taxi System
Facebook’s Magic Number 16%
One secret reason why Facebook ad revenues haven’t quite taken off like they should – and are, in fact, decelerating – is that for years now, brands have advertised on Facebook without paying Facebook.
Here’s how they’ve been doing it:
- Brands build a “page” on Facebook.
- Facebook users become “fans” of that brand page, thanks in part to ad campaigns off Facebook.
- The brands post video, photos, or text to the page.
- That content goes into fans’ News Feeds.
Google Still 80 Percent Of E-Commerce Referrals
Google is still e-commerce’s best friend, at least for the time being. Social is just beginning to change business online, but search engines still dominate referral traffic to e-commerce sites.
Google alone accounts for over 80 percent of e-commerce traffic referrals, according to a study by RichRelevance. Meanwhile, Facebook made up 0.5 percent of traffic, but that number was up 92 percent from the year prior.
There is some anecdotal evidence that this may be changing. At yesterday’s Social Commerce Summit, Sheezan Bakali, Director of Marketing at hot flash sales startup Fab, indicated that Facebook was its third largest source of traffic after direct traffic and e-mail referrrals. Nonetheless, search still powers e-commerce—for now.
Please follow BI Intelligence on Twitter.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
- Facebook Is Eating The World
- The Internet’s Next Frontier
- User Engagement: Facebook’s $100 Billion Competitive Advantage
This ‘SHCOOL X-ING’ Sign Has Been Posted Outside A New York School For Months
There are many signs that America’s schools are crappy — and now, thanks to a spelling gaffe outside a Lower East Side high school, we are seeing that trend physically manifest itself on the sidewalks of New York City.
Yesterday, The Lo-Down’s Erin Rodriguez spotted a crossing sign outside Marta Valle High School incorrectly spelled “SHCOOL X-NG.”
Jennifer Bain and Jeane Macintosh of The New York Post picked up the story about the embarrassing spelling error, which has apparently gone unnoticed by school officials for months.
The Post says Marte Valle officials could not be reached, but a spokesman from the Department of Transportation told the publication that the error was made by a utility provider—not the city—after construction was done on the street over the summer.
The DOT says it is now working on correcting the mistake.
Don’t miss: What’s Wrong With Education In America?
Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
- Hey Apple: Here’s A Company That’s Already Disrupting Education
- Teachers Are Spying On Your Kids With Little Monitors To Fight Obesity
- McDonald’s Twitter Campaign Goes Horribly Wrong #McDStories
|
|
||
—
drag2share – drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)
Digital Consigliere
Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights.
http://twitter.com/acfou
Send Tips: tips@go-digital.net
Digital Strategy Consulting
Dr. Augustine Fou LinkedIn Bio
Digital Marketing Slideshares
The Grand Unified Theory of Marketing
Collaborators – Digital Profs
Pages
Popular Posts
- The Perfect Babe - Megan Fox (pics)
- Samsung 52 inch HDTV $9.99 at BestBuy - purchase receipt below (6:21a eastern time August 12, 2009)
- The Grand Unified Theory of Marketing(tm) - Digital String Theory
- Facebook advertising metrics and benchmarks
- Marketing Costs Normalized to CPM Basis for Comparison
- How-To View Gmail for iPad on Your Regular Computer - Chrome and Safari
- Netflix vs Blockbuster - Perfect example of an industry replaced by a more efficient version of itself
- The JKWeddingDance video was real; the viral effect was MANUFACTURED - Post 1 of 2
- China Has More Mobile Internet Users Than Broadband Users
Tags
Prototype Web Services
- drag2share – quickly share news items by drag and drop on email addresses
- LivePhotoFrame – upload and remotely manage a digital photo frame via unique URL
- MedleyTuner – create a continuous listening experience by uploading mp3s
- MusicSamplr – discover new artists and music, listen to samples
- SharedMost – what links on ANY webpage are shared most?
- Signatory – sign and date a document and verify it hasn't been altered since that exact time.
- WebTeleprompter – just what it says it is
Archives
- February 2016 (2)
- January 2016 (6)
- October 2015 (2)
- September 2015 (7)
- August 2015 (6)
- July 2015 (2)
- June 2015 (5)
- May 2015 (4)
- April 2015 (32)
- March 2015 (57)
- February 2015 (79)
- January 2015 (86)
- December 2014 (69)
- November 2014 (98)
- October 2014 (150)
- September 2014 (109)
- August 2014 (44)
- July 2014 (92)
- June 2014 (118)
- May 2014 (173)
- April 2014 (130)
- March 2014 (247)
- February 2014 (167)
- January 2014 (222)
- December 2013 (167)
- November 2013 (111)
- October 2013 (116)
- September 2013 (214)
- August 2013 (210)
- July 2013 (200)
- June 2013 (87)
- May 2013 (87)
- April 2013 (70)
- March 2013 (114)
- February 2013 (89)
- January 2013 (136)
- December 2012 (96)
- November 2012 (130)
- October 2012 (147)
- September 2012 (93)
- August 2012 (93)
- July 2012 (112)
- June 2012 (71)
- May 2012 (82)
- April 2012 (80)
- March 2012 (122)
- February 2012 (114)
- January 2012 (129)
- December 2011 (60)
- November 2011 (54)
- October 2011 (29)
- September 2011 (17)
- August 2011 (30)
- July 2011 (18)
- June 2011 (19)
- May 2011 (22)
- April 2011 (23)
- March 2011 (52)
- February 2011 (69)
- January 2011 (108)
- December 2010 (82)
- November 2010 (67)
- October 2010 (68)
- September 2010 (44)
- August 2010 (101)
- July 2010 (61)
- June 2010 (28)
- May 2010 (28)
- April 2010 (26)
- March 2010 (33)
- February 2010 (21)
- January 2010 (13)
- December 2009 (4)
- November 2009 (2)
- October 2009 (14)
- September 2009 (6)
- August 2009 (19)
- July 2009 (34)
- June 2009 (11)
- May 2009 (4)
- April 2009 (6)
- March 2009 (13)
- February 2009 (32)
- January 2009 (25)
- December 2008 (1)
- October 2008 (1)
- June 2008 (1)
- November 2007 (1)
