Tech giants increasingly want to be the one and only stop for every aspect of your life. They want to be where you go to socialize with friends, where you go to read the news, and where you go to be entertained—without ever leaving their enclave.
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Friday, July 17, 2015
FACEBOOK WANTS TO OWN YOUR LIFE, NOT IMITATE AMAZON
Tech giants increasingly want to be the one and only stop for every aspect of your life. They want to be where you go to socialize with friends, where you go to read the news, and where you go to be entertained—without ever leaving their enclave.
Google’s Share Price Hits All-Time High
Google Inc. shares hit an all-time high on Friday, propelling the search giant’s market capitalization well past $400 billion, after the company reported strong results for its second quarter.
Shares rose as much as 15.5% to $695.25 in morning trading, easily topping its previous high of $615.03 a share from February 2014. The company’s stock had already gained 13.4% this year through Thursday’s close.
More recently, the stock traded at $693.13, giving the company a market value of $473 billion, according to FactSet.
The surge follows Google’s quarterly report that handily beat Wall Street expectations after the bell Thursday. Analysts were particularly cheered by Google’s stronger-than-expected revenue growth and tighter controls on costs.
In a research note, Nomura analysts said Thursday’s results help allay some concerns surrounding Google, such as that its desktop search is declining and expense growth is outpacing revenue increases.
Excluding currency fluctuations, revenue rose 18% from a year earlier, compared to 17% growth in the first quarter. Google attributed growth to strength in its core search business, mobile and YouTube.
Meanwhile, second-quarter operating expenses, which include research and development as well as sales and marketing costs, totaled $6.4 billion, down slightly from the first quarter.
“Google hasn’t delivered a quarter like this in a long time,” J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth said in a note.
The company’s new financial chief, Ruth Porat, hinted on Thursday that Google, which has never repurchased stock or paid a dividend, might distribute some of its cash to shareholders. She suggested Google could issue debt to finance the program, or for acquisitions and other investments.
Some analysts and investors have expressed concern that Google’s main search-advertising business is vulnerable to the smaller screens of smartphones and the rise of mobile apps, trends that have pressured its advertising prices. The price of Google’s mobile search ads is still lower than those on personal computers, but Ms. Porat said that gap is narrowing.
Friday, April 3, 2015
3 simple tips for winning the hearts of an online community
This article is part of SWOT Team, a new series on Mashable that features insights from leaders in marketing, brand-building and public relations.
We often hear that success in social media lies in empowering consumers to create content about your brand.
But as marketers, we typically view giving up control as incredibly risky. What if someone says something bad about my brand? How will we recover from that?
Fortunately, you don't have to go all in and risk the farm on day one. From working with hundreds of retailers at Polyvore, we have identified some best practices for brands interested in building a more engaged and passionate community. Here are three simple strategies to get you started on the path to success:
1. Learn what drives each community
Every social network offers consumers a unique reason to join: Twitter is about connecting with your interests; Pinterest is about discovering things you want to do; Polyvore is discovering and shopping for fashion. As marketers, our job is to understand what makes each community unique and use that to determine how our brand should participate.
For example, at Polyvore, we start by recommending that brands look at how their products are finding their way onto our platform organically, which of their products are most popular and how our community is styling those products in outfits and collections. We provide all of these data points through our Brand Analytics tool, which is available to every brand and retailer that has an official profile on Polyvore.
Similarly on Pinterest, brands can use Pinterest’s business analytics tool to identify which pieces of their content are getting pinned the most. Brands can also use third party tools likeCuralate to sift through what users are saying about their pins. Twitter also offers a very robust analytics platform that shows which pieces of content from your site are getting the most engagement on Twitter.
2. Find and engage your brand advocates within each community
IMAGE: FLICKR, PLANTRONICS
Every community has a core group of very active members: Twitter has celebrities and athletes; Pinterest has lifestyle bloggers; Polyvore has fashionistas making 3 million outfits a month.
As marketers, our job is to find the people within each community who are naturally talking about our brand and start building relationships with them.As marketers, our job is to find the people within each community who are naturally talking about our brand and start building relationships with them.
At Polyvore, we give brands a scorecard showing which community members are creating the most outfits with their products, and we encourage brands’ social teams to like, comment or message in an authentic way. It’s amazing how far lightweight interactions like these can go to start building positive relationships. Designer Shoe Warehouse and Barneysare good examples of brands who are doing this successfully on Polyvore with minimal time investment.
Similarly on Pinterest and Twitter, brands can identify influential users amongst their followers and build relationships with them, leading to increased user pins and shares. Some brands do this in-house via their social media teams, while other brands use third parties like Hello Society or Refame to do the wrangling for them.
3. Align your paid and social activities within each community
Most social networks now have native monetization programs to complement social programs: Twitter has promoted tweets; Pinterest has promoted pins; Polyvore has promoted collectionsand promoted products. As marketers, our job is to make sure our paid media programs support our social media programs, and to give them higher share of voice in the community.
At Polyvore, we enable brands to promote collections of new products to our community in order to inspire outfit creation. It also keeps relevant sections of brands’ product catalogs top of mind when community members browse for products to buy. The RealReal, Heels.com and many of the top luxury apparel brands are all examples of retailers seeing regular success following this approach on Polyvore.
Similarly, on Twitter, brands can promote their most popular tweets to their own followers to ensure they aren’t missed. Brands can also promote tweets to targeted audiences as an effective way to acquire new followers. Rock/Creek is a good example of a brand doing this on Twitter. Pinterest’s ad platform is still in its early days, but promises to offer similar capabilities for promoting brands’ most popular pins.
A passionate community can be a powerful audience and ally for any brand. Follow these three best practices and watch your own community grow.
3 ways small businesses can use video marketing
This article is part of SWOT Team, a new series on Mashable that features insights from leaders in marketing, brand-building and public relations.
In an age of ubiquitous viral photos and videos, 2015 is the veritable heyday of self-promotion.
Generation Y has become so adept at personal marketing — managing their personal brands everywhere from Twitter and Facebook to Instagram and YouTube — that they have turned the field into a form of entertainment and even surpassed small businesses in their ability to create a personal brand.
Despite brands' ability to connect directly with consumers on Twitter or other social media platforms, only 22% of companies see the value of creating a personality for their brand marketing.
So why are young people so much better than brands and businesses at connecting with people online? The answer is simple: Individuals have learned to live and breathe their personal brands, whereas many professional marketers still view growing a brand as, well, a job.
Injecting personality into a company's online presence is what sets that organization apart from the crowd. Video is the perfect venue to showcase the "you" of your company.
Video marketing is exploding in popularity, and with good reason: According to a report fromVidyard, more than 70% of marketers say that video produces conversions better than any other type of content. Additionally, an Animoto survey last year showed that 73% of U.S. adults are more likely to make a purchase after watching an online video explaining a product or service.
Your video marketing endeavors will never be successful if you think of them as a task to perform, delegate or measure according to metrics. You need to start thinking about video as a channel for making personal connections.
Nikon's 1 J5 camera is sleek, but its 4K video recording is a joke
Nikon's 1 series is considered to be the bottom of barrel when it comes to mirrorless cameras. With a fresh makeover and beefed up features, the company's new 1 J5, however, may finally be a step in the right direction in the face of fierce competition from the likes of Sony andOlympus.
The J5 is the successor to the 1 J4. Its construction and design is a complete revamp from the minimalist J4. The camera now sports a sleeker faux leather finish and a grip for your fingers.
Inside, the J5 packs a higher 20.8-megapixel 1-inch image sensor, faster Expeed 5A image-processing engine, 20 frames per second (fps) continuous shooting with autofocus, and ISO 160-12800.
The vague mode dial on the old J4 has been replaced with a more traditional PASM (Program Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority, Manual). There's also dedicated programmable function (Fn) button. Lastly, in addition to built-in Wi-Fi, the J5 has built-in NFC to pair with smartphones and tablets quicker.
FUSION
'Landmark' Agreement... Deal Of A Lifetime... 'Surprisingly Specific And Comprehensive'... 'Well Beyond What Many Of Us Thought Possible'... 'Astonishingly Good'...
April 2 (Reuters) - Following is the full text of a U.S. "fact sheet" released after Washington and other major powers reached a framework agreement on Thursday on curbing Iran's nuclear program for at least a decade after eight days of marathon talks in Switzerland.Below are the key parameters of a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran's nuclear program that were decided in Lausanne, Switzerland. These elements form the foundation upon which the final text of the JCPOA will be written between now and June 30, and reflect the significant progress that has been made in discussions between the P5+1, the European Union, and Iran. Important implementation details are still subject to negotiation, and nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. We will work to conclude the JCPOA based on these parameters over the coming months. Enrichment Iran has agreed to reduce by approximately two-thirds its installed centrifuges. Iran will go from having about 19,000 installed today to 6,104 installed under the deal, with only 5,060 of these enriching uranium for 10 years. All 6,104 centrifuges will be IR-1s, Iran's first-generation centrifuge. Iran has agreed to not enrich uranium over 3.67 percent for at least 15 years. Iran has agreed to reduce its current stockpile of about 10,000 kg of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to 300 kg of 3.67 percent LEU for 15 years. All excess centrifuges and enrichment infrastructure will be placed in IAEA monitored storage and will be used only as replacements for operating centrifuges and equipment. Iran has agreed to not build any new facilities for the purpose of enriching uranium for 15 years. Iran's breakout timeline - the time that it would take for Iran to acquire enough fissile material for one weapon - is currently assessed to be 2 to 3 months. That timeline will be extended to at least one year, for a duration of at least ten years, under this framework. Iran will convert its facility at Fordow so that it is no longer used to enrich uranium Iran has agreed to not enrich uranium at its Fordow facility for at least 15 years. Iran has agreed to convert its Fordow facility so that it is used for peaceful purposes only - into a nuclear, physics, technology, research center. Iran has agreed to not conduct research and development associated with uranium enrichment at Fordow for 15 years. Iran will not have any fissile material at Fordow for 15 years. Almost two-thirds of Fordow's centrifuges and infrastructure will be removed. The remaining centrifuges will not enrich uranium. All centrifuges and related infrastructure will be placed under IAEA monitoring. Iran will only enrich uranium at the Natanz facility, with only 5,060 IR-1 first-generation centrifuges for ten years. Iran has agreed to only enrich uranium using its first generation (IR-1 models) centrifuges at Natanz for ten years, removing its more advanced centrifuges. Iran will remove the 1,000 IR-2M centrifuges currently installed at Natanz and place them in IAEA monitored storage for ten years. Iran will not use its IR-2, IR-4, IR-5, IR-6, or IR-8 models to produce enriched uranium for at least ten years. Iran will engage in limited research and development with its advanced centrifuges, according to a schedule and parameters which have been agreed to by the P5+1. For ten years, enrichment and enrichment research and development will be limited to ensure a breakout timeline of at least 1 year. Beyond 10 years, Iran will abide by its enrichment and enrichment R&D plan submitted to the IAEA, and pursuant to the JCPOA, under the Additional Protocol resulting in certain limitations on enrichment capacity.
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