Wednesday, February 19, 2014

How a Small Family Business Pulled Off One of the Greatest Successes in YouTube History - Business 2 Community

How a Small Family Business Pulled Off One of the Greatest Successes in YouTube History - Business 2 Community


Social Media Success Stories: How a Small Family Business Pulled Off One of the Greatest Successes in YouTube History


On his 222nd video, Stephen hit paydirt. In a 29-second video, he demonstrated how to open a wine bottle without a corkscrew. It has now attracted well over 6 million views!


Is Instagram Another Path to Riches for Facebook? - NYTimes.com

Is Instagram Another Path to Riches for Facebook? - NYTimes.com

If Instagram were to turn up the volume on e-commerce and advertising — imagine a click-to-buy button on that photo of Louboutin shoes — well, let’s just say that would be Instamoney. (L2 predicts that Instagram will generate $250 million to $400 million in revenue this year.)


Instagram is already generating real revenue for brands, according to Pau Sabria, co-founder of Olapic. His firm helps companies like American Eagle Outfitters, LancĂ´me, Coach and West Elm to solicit photos of their products being used by ordinary people and then post them on retail sites as a supplement to staged catalog shots.


He said that by adding such user-generated photos to a retail site, the number of visitors who turn into buyers increased by 5 to 7 percent and the average order value rose by 2 percent.

Monday, February 17, 2014

Reporting From the Web’s Underbelly - NYTimes.com

Reporting From the Web’s Underbelly - NYTimes.com


Brian Krebs’s widely read blog, Krebs on Security, covers a particularly dark corner of the Internet: profit-seeking cybercriminals who make billions off spam, malware and frauds.


In the last year, Eastern European cybercriminals have stolen Brian Krebs’s identity a half dozen times, brought down his website, included his name and some unpleasant epithets in their malware code, sent fecal matter and heroin to his doorstep, and called a SWAT team to his home just as his mother was arriving for dinner.


Mr. Krebs, 41, tries to write pieces that cannot be found elsewhere. His widely read cybersecurity blog, Krebs on Security, covers a particularly dark corner of the Internet: profit-seeking cybercriminals, many based in Eastern Europe, who make billions off pharmaceutical sales, malware, spam, frauds and heists like the recent ones that Mr. Krebs was first to uncover at Adobe, Target and Neiman Marcus.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Daily Report: Facebook Settlement on Ads and Privacy Comes Under Fire - NYTimes.com

Daily Report: Facebook Settlement on Ads and Privacy Comes Under Fire - NYTimes.com



If you are among Facebook’s 1.2 billion users, the company says, you are automatically consenting to such social ads. Opting out is impossible for some ads, and for others, the control to stop them is buried deep within the service’s privacy settings.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

The strength of ‘weak signals’ | McKinsey & Company

The strength of ‘weak signals’ | McKinsey & Company



Spotting an opportunity to share this online engagement with in-store shoppers, the company recently started displaying popular Pinterest items in two of its Seattle-area stores. When early results were encouraging, Nordstrom began rolling out the test more broadly to capitalize on the site’s appeal to customers as the “world’s largest ‘wish list,’” in the words of one executive.2 The retailer continues to look for more ways to match other customer interactions on Pinterest with its products. Local salespeople already use an in-store app to match items popular on Pinterest with items in the retailer’s inventory. As the “spotting” ability of companies in other industries matures, we expect visual tools such as Pinterest to be increasingly useful in detecting and capitalizing on weak signals.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Entering the Era of Private and Semi-Anonymous Apps - NYTimes.com

Entering the Era of Private and Semi-Anonymous Apps - NYTimes.com

A number of new apps, including Wut, Secret and Confide, are intended to let users either talk secretly or semi-anonymously online.

More apps like snapchat. And very distinctive behavioral patterns observed among their users.

"open this app and you’ll find yourself in a sea of negativity, with apparent Silicon Valley citizens complaining about venture capitalists, founders of companies and their 'friends.'"

"the negative seems to be predominant at least partially because there are no consequences to what you say."

Twitter's Stock Crashes Back to Reality - NYTimes.com

Twitter's Stock Crashes Back to Reality - NYTimes.com

Shares of the social network dropped 24 percent on Thursday following the company’s financial results, which disclosed a slowdown in user growth and declines in usage by existing users. However, the company also showed strong growth in advertising revenue, suggesting that if it fixes the user problem, it would have bright prospects.

A Social Network That's Just for College Students - NYTimes.com

A Social Network That's Just for College Students - NYTimes.com

The founders say college students are tired of using a social network where their parents, grandparents and future employers can see their updates.

Quora and the Search for Truth - NYTimes.com

Quora and the Search for Truth - NYTimes.com

The Internet is a place of unreliable facts and heavy socialization, so it makes sense that there is a website like Quora, where a registered community of users poses and answers questions about all sorts of things. With 450,000 topics, it’s a challenge to keep it all straight, but it’s necessary for a future ad business.

Wikipedia vs. the Small Screen - NYTimes.com

Wikipedia vs. the Small Screen - NYTimes.com

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that depends on readers to create and edit its articles, is concerned about whether they will continue to do so on mobile devices.