The Social 6: Key Stories of The Last 24 hours, 8/4/12
As you may know, I’m a pretty voracious reader and generally share a bunch of news & reviews via my social platforms. Here’s a countdown of the top six most important articles I’ve shared in the last day. I curate this top six based on number of retweets, clicks, favorites, and mentions, so you guys are a large part of what ends up listed here :).
#6 Do You Remember All the Cool Things Your CRM App Can Do?
Christopher Bucholtz, in this E-Commerce Times piece, argues that the average enterprise isn't taking advantage of many of the features that come baked into their CRM implementation. As someone who's advised many companies in getting the most out of their CRM investment, I can attest to the problem. Scheduling features are the biggest opportunity for companies to easily extract more value out of CRM, as Mr. Bucholtz outlines in this piece.
#5 Facebook Photos Get Blurry With This Privacy Plug-In
This fall, you may see a lot of blurred photos on Facebook. McAfee will be making it a little safer to share your photos on the social platform thanks to Social Protection, a new product that will allow users better control over their, and prevents people from downloading those pictures to view anywhere else. This sounds more like McAfee looking for a saleable product than it is solving a real need, but maybe I'm in the minority? Emily Price reports more in this Mashable piece.
#4 Social Media Is Becoming Useful, Finally
Contrary to the headline of this article, it's not a rant about how social media has largely been a productivity waster. Instead, it's a piece about Clipboard, a privately beta-launched at the end of 2011 and available to the public since May, is looking to make social media more productivity for everyone. Gustavo Razzetti has more detail on Clipboard in this Clickz piece, and how it could be a bit of a game-changer.
#3 Google Plus Comes to Blogger, Brings Both Communities Together
Google rolled out a brand new feature in Blogger this past Monday that ties directly into Google Plus. In this Business 2 Community piece, Andrew Glasscock explains all of the benefits the new functionality offers for Blogger users. If you're a Blogger user, this is A) a must-read and B) something you should look more into!
#2 Kanye West Is Advising NYC Startup The Fancy on the Future of Commerce
This week, Kanye West payed a visit to one of my favorite NYC startups. The Fancy - which is is one of his favorites as well. Kanye stopped by to give advice to The Fancy CEO Joe Einhorn, who reportedly "looks up to Kanye the way most tech folks idolize Steve Jobs." Hey, whatever works for you. Key takeaway here: The Fancy is becoming a favorite of quite a few celebrities, not just 'Ye.
#1 A Real Dad Won't Save You if You're 'Taken' [VIDEO]
I think a lot of you were interested in winding down yesterday; that's probably the #1 reason so many of you clicked on this parody of the Movie Taken, the 2008 thriller about an American girl kidnapped by human traffickers in Paris. Pretty fun video of how a dad less capable than Liam Neeson's Taken character would react to his child's abduction.
The Social 6: Key Stories from The Last 24 hours, 7/21/12
As you may know, I’m a voracious reader and tend to share a good deal of news via my social platforms. Here’s a countdown of the top six most important articles I’ve shared in the last day. I curate this top six based on number of retweets, clicks, favorites, and mentions, so you guys are a large part of what ends up listed here :).
#6 YC-Backed PhotoSharing Service PicPlum Gets A Revamp; Mobile App & API Are Next
PicPlum, which debuted last summer, is going through a major upgrade! The photo-sharing and printing start up is overhauling its user experience in a big way. Good reporting by Sarah Perez of TC.
#5 Securing Federal Employees' Mobile Devices: Big Opportunities, Big Challenges
Hacking into phones - remotely or virtually - is something that most of us have to worry about these days, and federal workers are no exception. However, their data can often be more sensitive than those of everyday citizens. This Ecommerce Times piece delves into the issue in greater detail.
#4 33Across Picks Up $13.1M To Grow Its Big Data Social Graph, No Facebook Strings Attached
33across is a social targeting company which operated a social graph that covers users globally. The company claims to have a most robust than Facebook. How big of a reason is that for their getting funded? Great article by Ingrid Lunden of TC.
#3 US companies raised $8.1 billion through 863 VC deals in Q2 2012: Report
U.S.-based companies raised $8.1 billion through 863 venture capital deals. Sounds like a lot, maybe, but it's a 3 percent drop from last year. Through the first half of the year, VC investment added up to $15 billion, a 7 percent decrease in capital. 5 percent less deals were done from the same time period a year ago.
#2 Without Social Media, 18% Of Teens Would 'Stop Communicating'
It's no secret that going social using social digital platforms has taken over the lives of most people around the world. But a recent AWeber survey indicates teens feel they would stop communicating altogether if Facebook would go down! Overly dramatic, perhaps, but very interesting to see how important social platforms have become for today's teens. Emily Price of Mashable goes into better detail.
#1 Facebook User Satisfaction Falls, While Google Plus Takes Off
Is Facebook starting to become a thing of the past? Well....no. Hardly. But, research is indicating that users are no longer as satisfied as they used to be. Are other social sites taking advantage of this downfall? Well, if you read the title of the article....maybe! It will be interesting to see if Google+ can gain any traction, based on the findings of this report. Cadie Thompson of CNBC goes into better detail.
Come Join Me at Prestashop's 3/20 Barcamp Event!
In case we haven't spoken recently, you might have missed the chatter about Presto Changeo. My good friend Abe Shaw, VP Marketing at Presto-Changeo (the leading provider of Prestashop modules/add-ons and website dev provider), is helping organize Prestashop's is holding their Barcamp event here in NYC on March 20th. I'd love it if you could come, hang out, meet me, yada yada.
If you don't know about Prestashop yet, you should absolutely come and learn about the platform. It's like Magento, but plenty of pros like it more. It's an open-source, free e-commerce solution founded out of Paris & has offices in Miami too. The underlying technology has a strong undermining, based on the Smarty template engine, and is currently used by 100K+ ecommerce sites worldwide. PrestaShop was named the Best Open Source E-Commerce Application in the Packt 2010 Open Source Awards and the Best Open Source Business Application in the 2011 Open Source Awards.
Get all the details here: http://barcamp.prestashop.com/
In addition to everything Prestashop has planned (some great keynotes speakers, workshops, and of course, cocktails), Presto-Changeo will be holding "360 Degree Social Media Integration" workshops throughout the day.
Hope to see you there, and please pass this note along to anyone interested! I'd love to meet you guys there.