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Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “AI Project Funded By Google Wants to Teach Computers Regret”

Posted by Ashim Adhikari on 5:06 AM // 0 comments

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “AI Project Funded By Google Wants to Teach Computers Regret”

AI Project Funded By Google Wants to Teach Computers Regret

Posted: 14 Apr 2011 01:43 AM PDT


Computer researchers at Tel Aviv University are working on a project funded by Google that aims to teach computers how to minimize “regret” or, in other words, to learn from their decisions and make better ones next time.

According to Prof. Yishay Mansour of Tel Aviv University’s Blavatnik School of Computer Science, this foundational research could improve efficiency in many branches of computer science. The machines would be able to learn and improve tasks like packet routing, load balancing and prioritizing server resource requests by being able to evaluate all the relevant variables in advance and make the best possible decision.

“We are able to change and influence the decision-making of computers in real-time. Compared to human beings, help systems can much more quickly process all the available information to estimate the future as events unfold — whether it’s a bidding war on an online auction site, a sudden spike of traffic to a media website, or demand for an online product,” says Mansour.

Computers don’t actually feel “regret” – or at least we think they don’t – but they can measure the distance between a desired outcome and the actual outcome, which can be interpreted as “virtual regret.” Mansour has developed an algorithm that minimizes the amount of computer “regret,” adapting to the situation and learning as it’s running. The result, claims Mansour, is “almost as if you knew all the variables in advance.”

It’s easy to see why Google would be interested in such a project. As a company that handles immense amounts of data, any increases in efficiency can be highly beneficial to the search giant. A 20-person team will work on the project together with Google, headed by TAU’s Prof. Mansour and Prof. Noam Nisan of Hebrew University.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, kemie

[Tel Aviv University via Engadget]

More About: computers, Google, regret, Tel Aviv University

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New Mars Rover to Land Using Rocket Crane [VIDEO]

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 10:06 PM PDT

By the end of this year, a bigger and smarter rover will be on its way to Mars. Called Curiosity, NASA‘s six-wheel-drive, 9-foot-long robotic research vehicle will be delivered to the planet’s surface using the most unusual method yet, which you can see in the video above.

Unlike its predecessors that landed on Mars inside huge balloons that bounced along the surface until they came to a halt, the heavier Curiosity will be suspended by a tether from a crane-like rocket platform that gently lowers the robot to the surface. Then that platform will fly away and crash elsewhere into the surface of the Red Planet while Curiosity gets its 687-Earth-day (1 Mars year) mission underway.

This Mars buggy, officially called the Mars Science Laboratory, will have 10 scientific instruments on board, and one of those instruments is a laser that can vaporize rock, analyzing its composition. According to Space.com, instead of the solar power of the other rovers, this one will be powered by plutonium, letting it roam any time of the Martian day or night.

Personnel at NASA must be breathing easy after they found out the U.S. Government’s 2011 budget compromise included $18.485 billion for the space agency, just 1.3% less than the amount NASA received in 2010. While this Mars project was already built using funding from years past, the program will still need money to pay scientists to monitor and study the data Curiosity sends back to us.

Take a look at the gallery below, and you’ll see close-ups of the rover, which is now almost completely assembled:


NASA Mars Rover Curiosity at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory






Arm and mast





Front 3/4 View




Those tires are made out of thin aluminum.


Remote Sensing Mast





9 Feet Long




It's bigger than it looks in the video.

Graphics and video courtesy NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory

More About: Curiosity, Mars, Mars Science Laboratory, NASA, rover, scientific research, space

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Startup Uses SMS for Research & Advertising in Developing Countries

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:11 PM PDT


The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: txteagle

Quick Pitch: Txteagle engages 2.1 billion emerging-market consumers via mobile phones.

Genius Idea: Compensating consumers in developing nations with prepaid mobile airtime for participating in surveys or branded advertising campaigns.

Advertisers and marketers looking for a way to survey consumers or run branded campaigns in developing countries are limited in their abilities to reach these audiences.

Txteagle seeks to change that and boasts a database of more than 2.1 billion prepaid mobile subscribers across 220 operators in 80 countries. It can use the mobile phone to serve as conduit between advertiser and consumer.

The startup uses airtime compensation to sugarcoat its survey and campaign solicitation attempts. Txteagle founder Nathan Eagle says this is because airtime is equivalent to — if not greater than — cash in these countries. Ten percent of an individual’s annual income in emerging markets is spent on purchasing prepaid airtime, Eagle says.

Eagle learned about the research incentive accidentally in 2006 when he was a research faculty member at MIT, and moved to East Africa to teach students at the University of Nairobi how to program applications. While working in the district hospital of Kilifi, he soon found a disconnect between Kenya’s centralized blood bank and rural hospitals that often led to blood shortages.

In 2007, his University of Nairobi students developed a simple SMS application that gave nurses at rural hospitals the ability to text updates of blood supply levels. The system also supplied blood bank officials with a real-time visualization on the status of supplies. The system solved the shortage challenge, for about a week.

In a month’s time, nurses had stopped texting updates altogether. Why? Eagle had overlooked an important cog in the larger machine: The price of a text message. “Asking nurses to send text messages everyday was essentially asking them to take a pay cut,” he says.

“So we modified the software,” he explains. “Upon receiving an SMS message with the day's blood supplies, the system would automatically transfer a small amount of airtime back to the nurse who sent the message. A switch flipped; the nurses began enthusiastically sending daily updates.”

Eagle’s existing telecommunications research projects at MIT had netted him relationships with operators that he was able to parlay into this airtime compensation system for the Kenyan blood bank SMS project.

As it turns out, the airtime compensation model he uncovered has far-greater implications for market research and advertising in emerging markets. In 2009, Eagle founded txteagle to explore these opportunities.

Today, txteagle has Nokia and the United Nations in its client Rolodex. The United Nations conducts an annual disaster-preparedness survey and used txteagle for its most recent survey to recruit, survey and compensate respondents in 50 counties.

Txteagle has received more than 250 unsolicited requests for proposals, because it can provide a service that no one else can, Eagle says. It’s a demand that far exceeds its current capabilities.

Txteagle plans to use a recently closed $8.5 million funding round to expand its team from six to 20 by year’s end. Its next steps include working to create replete profiles on its 2.1 billion respondent pool so it can help advertisers send targeted advertising messages under the same airtime compensation model.

“Advertising in developing worlds is a $120-billion-a-year business,” Eagle says, who believes his company is best positioned to provide targeted advertising to these audiences.

Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

Microsoft BizSpark

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

More About: bizspark, Mobile 2.0, Nathan Eagle, SMS, spark-of-genius, startup, txteagle

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Wedding Invitation Turns Into a Paper Record Player [VIDEO]

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 07:12 PM PDT

Bet you’ve never received a wedding invitation like this before: Folded just so, this card turns into a manually operated paper record player that plays a song recorded by the future bride and groom.

Designer Kelli Anderson wanted to create something original for the wedding of her friends Karen Sandler and Mike Tarantino, and look at (and listen to) the result. Wow.

If recipients aren’t pleased with the tinny sound of the hand-spun version, they can pop that “flexi-disc” out of the wedding invitation and let a conventional turntable do the spinning for them, where it’ll play just like any other record.

Karen and Mike wrote the lyrics and performed the music, vocals and audio engineering themselves. Certainly a big help was the fact that Mike is a Grammy-nominated audio recording engineer.

We know, musical purists, you probably noticed they’re not exactly professional singers, but at least they didn’t autotune it to death like some “recording artists” we’ve encountered lately.

Enhancing the overall originality of the design is the rest of the card, packed with clever graphics. “As a fallback measure (if the record-playing didn't work for whatever reason), the package sure as hell had to look great,” Kelli says.

Mission accomplished. It’s a masterpiece. Read more details about the trials and tribulations of making this original wedding invitation at Kelli’s site.

UPDATE: I asked Kelli how many of these cards she made, and how long did it take to make them: “We made 150 of them,” she says. “The project started in February … the whole thing was a really tight turnaround (I had some doubt at moments). It takes a month to get flexis manufactured and it took me about a month (on and off) to design it. A lot of the materials had to be prepped, so we got a group of people over here to help with the tedium of that a few nights in a row (scoring, stickering, wrapping screwposts, punching holes in felt, cutting the flexi records into circle shapes — since they annoyingly came as squares).”

Kelli got the routine down to where she could put together about 10 of them herself in an hour. Wasn’t that assembly a bit tedious? She replied, “That part was pretty fun, actually, even though that sounds like a long time to do the same thing.”

Has she done other record playing cards or objects? “Nope, this is the first one. Do you think I could get away with doing another, or is that copying myself?”

I think she could get away with it.


Invitation Cover





So far, it looks pretty much like any other wedding invitation.


Nice Design




Here's where you start thinking this is not going to be an ordinary wedding invitation.


Instructions




Perform these three steps, and you can get a record to play with this wedding invitation.


Closeup of Needle




A small sewing needle is carefully mounted in the paper, and when you fold it just so, the needle sticks out enough to follow the grooves in that Flexi-disc.


Clever Designs




Go to the artist's site to see the various parts of the bride and groom's life together told in graphics.

Images courtesy Kelli Anderson

Via CoDesign

More About: design, Kelli Anderson, paper record player, record player, trending, video, wedding invitation

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Microsoft Dips Toes in Local Deal Waters — in Sweden

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 05:18 PM PDT


Microsoft is hopping gingerly aboard the local deals bandwagon; its first test market is Sweden, where it is launching Lokaldealen, a service that is exactly what it sounds like.

The service is a result of the software giant’s partnership with Lokaldelen (see what they did there?), a Swedish business directory.

Lokaldealen’s offers are exactly what you’d expect to find on any Groupon clone’s site: Users purchase limited-time-offer vouchers for discounts of popular goods and services.

For example, the current deal in Stockholm is 30 pieces of sushi for 140 kronor, a discount from the normal price of 285 kronor. The deal is running for 32 hours longer; so far, nine people have purchased vouchers.

In addition to the partnership with an established brand, the service is getting a social boost via a Facebook tie-in.

Microsoft will market the deals on the Swedish version of the MSN portal, in Hotmail and via Live. Microsoft told Swedish business newspaper Dagens Industri that Lokaldealen currently employs a 300-person salesforce and is preparing to do business in 12 districts in Sweden. The service is now available in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.

Groupon has already established a presence in Sweden and is Microsoft’s main competitor in that country for daily deals. If the Lokaldealen is a hit in Sweden, the rest of Europe is next on Microsoft’s list.

Check out the official promo clip for the new service, and in the comments, let us know if you think Microsoft’s first foray into local deals will fly or flop.

[via AllaDeals]

More About: -local, deals, location, lokaldealen, microsoft, sweden

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Gmail Graduates A Couple of Bobs

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 04:21 PM PDT


Poor Bob. If he’s not being left out of emails, he’s being confused with other Bobs. But Google’s got Bob’s back; it’s graduating its two Gmail Labs features — “Don’t forget Bob” and “Got the wrong Bob?” — Wednesday and turning them on for all Gmail users.

If the Bobs don’t ring a bell, here’s a refresher: Don’t forget Bob automatically suggests contacts to include in the To field based on the groups of people you email post. “Got the wrong Bob?” identifies included message recipients that you may have confused with the wrong people.

The Gmail extras, both introduced in 2009, were designed to save the email sender from two common, but oh-so-embarrassing mistakes.

The features have proved their merit in email college, and they’re now ready to enter the real Gmail workforce and share the alumni title with other Labs graduates. You may recall fellow overachievers YouTube Previews, Custom Label Colors and Forgotten Attachment Detector — the later is a great friend of mine.

Google will upgrade Gmail with the graduated Bobs labs in a gradual rollout over the course of the next few days. Congrats to the Bobs!

Got the wrong Bob? Gmail suggests the right one.

Don't forget Bob. Gmail suggests the people you might want to include.

More About: email, gmail, gmail labs, Google, got the wrong bob

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Facebook’s Complicated Ownership History Explained

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 03:35 PM PDT


Facebook’s tangled founding story is about to get more complicated, thanks to a man named Paul Ceglia.

Anyone who has seen The Social Network knows about Eduardo Saverin and the Winklevoss twins. Facebook co-founder Saverin was forced out, sued Facebook and settled for a 5% stake of the company. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss contracted Zuckerberg to build a Harvard-based social network for them, but when Mark Zuckerberg launched “TheFacebook.com” instead, the twins sued. That case was also settled, though the twins have been trying hard to rescind it in court.

But there’s more to Facebook’s legacy of lawsuits than the movie mentioned. Last year, Ceglia claimed he and Zuckerberg signed a contract giving Ceglia 50% of Facebook. Most legal experts dismissed Ceglia’s lawsuit as outlandish, but it has resurfaced this week with evidence that promises to make this a messy affair.

So what exactly happened at Harvard in 2003 and 2004? Why have so many people claimed an ownership stake in Facebook? Who is Paul Ceglia, and does he actually have a case?

To answer that, we need to explore Facebook’s complicated ownership history.

Eduardo Saverin

Until 2009 Saverin wasn’t even acknowledged as a co-founder. It took a lawsuit and a settlement to make that happen.

Both sides dispute the details of the case, but here are the basics. In 2003, Zuckerberg (then a sophomore at Harvard) approached Saverin (a junior) about TheFacebook.com. He asked Saverin to become his business partner and to put down $15,000 for the servers needed to run the site. In return, he’d get about 30% of the company.

When Facebook took off in 2004, Zuckerberg and another co-founder, Dustin Moskovitz, decided that they had to move to Silicon Valley. They got a place in Palo Alto and started coding. Saverin had an internship with Lehman Brothers in New York. According to Business Insider, Zuckerberg asked Saverin to take care of the paperwork, to get funding and to figure out a way to make money.

But Saverin was slow to make decisions and slow to sign off on the paperwork. Eventually, his role was taken by entrepreneur Sean Parker, who quickly secured a $500,000 investment by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Zuckerberg was able to reduce Saverin’s stake in the company from 30% to less than 10% in short order. His equity was diluted from that point onward.

As detailed in The Social Network, Saverin eventually sued Facebook. The matter was soon settled. Saverin got about 5% of the company (worth more than $2.5 billion today) and signed a non-disclosure that has essentially kept him quiet since.

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss

Zuckerberg just can’t seem to get rid of the Winklevoss twins.

In 2003, the Winklevosses and their business partner Divya Narendra approached Zuckerberg about their new project, HarvardConnection, a social networking site for Harvard students. Zuckerberg allegedly entered into a verbal contract with the Winklevosses, promising to help build the site in return for equity.

Meanwhile, Zuckerberg was deep in the development of TheFacebook.com. Between November and 2003 and February 2004, he communicated with the twins through a series of 52 emails and several in-person meetings. Zuckerberg launched TheFacebook.com in February 2004 and, two days later, the Winklevosses learned of the site in The Harvard Crimson. A few days later, the Winklevosses and Narendra sent Zuckerberg a cease-and-desist letter.

While HarvardConnection eventually launched a few months later, as ConnectU, it failed to gain traction. ConnectU’s founders filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg in 2004, prompting a legal battle that dragged out for years. In February 2008, the two sides finally settled. Facebook acquired ConnectU’s assets in exchange for 1,253,326 shares (worth around $180 million today) and $20 million in cash.

That wasn’t the end, however. In March 2008, the ConnectU founders filed another lawsuit, attempting to rescind the settlement. They argued that Facebook misled them over the true value of the stock. The twins also sued their law firm, Quinn Emanuel, for malpractice. That’s not all: Wayne Chang, founder of a file-sharing service called i2hub that had partnered with ConnectU, sued the twins for 50% of the Facebook settlement.

It’s a confusing tangle of lawsuits, but the bottom line is that the Winklevoss twins settled their case with Facebook years ago. Their recent attempts to change that settlement are falling flat. A U.S. judge ruled this week that the settlement still stands. The twins, of course, are appealing that ruling.

What About Paul Ceglia?

Now for the question that has been causing headlines this week: did Zuckerberg potentially sell a 50% stake in Facebook for $1,000?

That’s the notion that Ceglia, owner of a wood pellet fuel company, put forth in a lawsuit filed last July. In the suit, he claimed that he and Zuckerberg had an agreement in which Ceglia would receive 50% of Facebook for a $1,000 investment, in addition to 1% of the company each day until a site called “the face book” was completed. Since the project was allegedly 34 days late, Ceglia says he was entitled to 84% of the company.

The story sounded outrageous on the surface, especially as Ceglia had waited a full six years before speaking up. Furthermore, Ceglia is a a convicted felon.

This week, however, the lawsuit resurfaced. Ceglia refiled his case with prominent law firm DLA Piper and said he has produced email conversations that support his claims. The lawsuit now claims that Ceglia offered Zuckerberg $1,000 to work on a project called StreetFax, as well as $1,000 to fund “the face book.” The suit claims the two met in Boston and signed a contract with a witness present.

Allegedly, Zuckerberg and Ceglia discussed details such as the site’s domain name and business model. The suit says Zuckerberg mentioned the Winklevoss twins in November 2003, telling Ceglia that he had “stalled them for the time being.” Eventually, according to the suit, Zuckerberg told Ceglia he thought that 1% of equity for each day of delay was unfair, and the two agreed to split the project 50/50.

Things allegedly blew up in April 2004, two months after Facebook’s blockbuster launch. Zuckerberg is supposed to have told Ceglia he was thinking of taking the server down and wanted to give Ceglia his money back. Ceglia responded negatively, claiming that Zuckerberg was pulling “criminal stunts.” The DLA Piper lawsuit asks for 50% of Zuckerberg’s stake as compensation.

Facebook insists that the emails and contract are fabricated. In an email to Mashable a Facebook representative said:

"This is a fraudulent lawsuit brought by a convicted felon, and we look forward to defending it in court. From the outset, we've said that this scam artist's claims are ridiculous, and this newest complaint is no better.”

Next Steps

Facebook is seeking to dismiss this case, but the emails — fraudulent or otherwise — may be compelling enough for the case to move into discovery. It’s at this point that Facebook will be able to look at the evidence, including Ceglia’s emails and hard drives. If they can show that there was any tampering with the evidence, the case will be thrown out. But if not, the company may be forced to dish out money for yet another settlement, just to make Ceglia go away. DLA Piper, one of the world’s largest law firms, has agreed to take on the case — which is a sign that this dispute could be stuck in the courts for a long time.

More About: Cameron Winklevoss, Eduardo Saverin, facebook, lawsuit, legal, mark zuckerberg, the social network, trending, Tyler Winklevoss, Winklevoss twins

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Internet Ad Revenues Rebounded, Hit Record High in 2010

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 02:31 PM PDT


Revenues from Internet advertising got back on track and broke records last year — just as they have done every year, with the exception of 2009.

According to a report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, online ad revenue jumped 15% to $26 billion in 2010. That’s a sharp reversal from a 3.4% decline during the recession of the previous year.

Search advertising once again took the biggest share of revenues: 46%. That was down slightly from 47% the previous year, but the search category as a whole grew 12% in 2010. Display advertising accounted for 38% of the market. That’s up from 35% in 2009. The display ad market grew by roughly a quarter in 2010.

The biggest category expansion, however, came in sponsorships, which grew 88% in 2010. The fourth quarter alone saw a 142% increase in sponsorships.

Other highlights from the IAB’s report:

  • Classified advertising accounted for 10% of revenues for 2010 or $2.6 billion, which was up 15% from 2009′s $2.3 billion.
  • Lead-generation revenues were down 8% to $1.3 billion.
  • Email marketing revenues fell 33%, to $195 million. That’s just 1% of the market.
  • Mobile advertising, which hadn’t previously been included in the IAB’s report, is now estimated to account for between $550 million and $650 million.

The report also looks at who is paying for those ads. The leading spender once again: retail stores, which bought 21% of inventory last year.

Telecom and financial services were second and third, respectively.

A full copy of the report is available here.

Image courtesy of Flickr, tonyhall

More About: display advertising, IAB, Internet advertising, Search, trending

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Another Facebook Lawsuit = Another Nonsensical Taiwanese Animation

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 01:30 PM PDT

Paul Ceglia emerged from the ethers last summer with a lawsuit targeted at Facebook, claiming that he owned 84% of the social network.

According to court documents, Ceglia claims he signed a contract with Facebook in April 2003 to design and develop thefacebook.com (Facebook's original name).

Ceglia says he was to be awarded a $1,000 fee and a 50% stake in Facebook for services rendered, with a further 1% stake for each day until the site was finished, which was on February 4, 2004. Add it all up, and Ceglia claims he should be the owner of 84% of Facebook.

We haven’t heard much from Ceglia in the ensuing months, but now he’s back, and, according to Business Insider, with a slew of what Ceglia says are emails between him and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, as well as a new and much more powerful law firm, DLA Piper.

Naturally, the folks at NMA.TV had to provide their own take on the matter. It includes a pirate ship, lawsuit/bird hybrids and Mark Zuckerberg urinating on legal documents.

Yup, all this looks about right.

More About: facebook, humor, lawsuit, NMA, paul-ceglia, pop culture, video

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One Search Engine for a Million Apps [INVITES]

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 01:00 PM PDT


There’s probably an app for that — whatever “that” may be. With countless applications available for web and mobile, the challenge lies in finding the right ones. Now, Quixey — a search engine for apps, 18 months in the making — seeks to find them for you.

Quixey is lifting the veil on its fully automated, self-described “functional search” engine for applications Tuesday. Instead of simply searching for an application by its developer-generated description, the user can search and discover apps by Quixey-defined functions.

Tell Quixey what you want to do — see sports scores, edit video, find cheap gas, etc. — and the search engine will return results, ranked by relevance, with all of the web, Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android, Firefox, IE and Chrome apps that match your query.

You can filter the results by type, or by associated platform — say, for instance, you’re only in search of applications that remove redeye and plug in to Flickr (as the photo illustrates). On the right-hand side of the page, Quixey displays system-generated text for each app that attempts to inform you whether the app lives up to its stated purpose.

The startup grabs app information from forums, blogs, social media sites and additional unnamed sources in an effort to return the highest quality results. Quixey’s keeping mum on exactly how it goes about indexing applications and defining its search algorithms — in part because it took the seven-person team a year-and-a-half to build the new technology to collect data on apps — but app popularity, rating and download figures all factor into the secret formula.

Some queries are better than others. Enter “Identify music,” and Shazam and SoundHound appear at the top as they should. But search for “stream music” or “play music” and the top applications that come to mind are outranked by several odd selections. Clearly, a few kinks still need to be worked out.

Co-founder Tomer Kagan says that Quixey will be adding a machine learning layer to help improve its app search engine in the months ahead.

“We’ve only completed three to five percent of what’s on our road map,” he says, “but we’re already getting amazing results.”

Kagan also discloses that Quixey will soon be launching developer pages to provide app developers with access to the data Quixey has unearthed on their apps. The goal is to ultimately help developers figure out how best to get their applications discovered.

The startup is also in talks with potential partners interested in a white label version of the search engine for their app stores. Quixey especially sees opportunity in the multitude of Android app stores in development by device manufacturers.

Quixey recently raised $400,000 in a seed round led by Eric Schmidt's personal fund Innovation Endeavors, and Archimedes Ventures.

Mashable has exclusively obtained 500 Quixey invites for our readers. Interested parties can click on the “Want an invite link” here to get private beta access to Quixey’s app search engine.

Photo adapted from an image courtesy of Flickr, davemorin

More About: Android apps, apps, iphone apps, Quixey, Search, startup, web apps

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Start Your Career in Social Media Marketing, Sales & Development

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 12:26 PM PDT


If you’re seeking a job in social media, we’d like to help out. For starters, Mashable‘s Job Lists section gathers together all of our resource lists, how-to’s and expert guides to help you get hired. In particular, you might want to see our articles on How to Leverage Social Media for Career Success and How to Find a Job on Twitter.

But we’d like to help in a more direct way, too. Mashable‘s job boards are a place for socially savvy companies to find people like you. This week and every week, Mashable features its coveted job board listings for a variety of positions in the web, social media space and beyond. Have a look at what's good and new on our job boards:

Mashable Job Postings

Executive Assistant at Mashable in New York, New York.

Community Intern at Mashable in New York, New York.

Ruby on Rails Developer at Mashable in San Francisco, California.

VP Product (NYC or SF) at Mashable in New York, New York.

Editorial Intern at Mashable in New York, New York.

Mashable Job Board Listings

Regional Sales Director at Mashable in San Francisco, California.

Social Media Manager at Glu Mobile in San Francisco, California.

Vice President of Engineering at Bishop-Wisecarver Corporation in Pittsburg, California.

Global Director of Marketing at White Digital Media in Carlsbad, California.

Associate Account Director at 24 Seven in New York, New York.

Team & Technical Lead (Flash/Front-End) at Cimarron Group/Cimarron Digital in Los Angeles, California.

Web Developer/Designer at Sennheiser Electronic Corporation in Old Lyme, Connecticut.

Senior Director, Social Media Strategy at The College Board in New York, New York.

Social Media Consultant at Projectline in Seattle, Washington.

Web Designer, Web Project Manager at Warm Blankets Orphan Care, Intl in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

Marketing Intern at Fanscape, LLC in Los Angeles, California.

Interface Designer at Paperless Post in New York, New York.

Digital Marketing Manager at Murphy USA in El Dorado, Arkansas.

Social Media Manager at Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York, New York.

RoR Developer Professional Services at New Relic in San Francisco, California.

Graphic Designer, Web at Tire Rack in South Bend, Indiana.

Account Director at Attention USA in New York, New York.

Manager, Video Initiatives at Teach For America in New York, New York.

Senior Account Manager at 5th Finger in San Francisco, California.

Marketing Analyst at Everyday Health in New York, New York.

Social Media Manager/Web Developer at XMOS Semiconductor in Santa Clara, California.

Director, Product Management at Everyday Health in New York, New York.

Social Media Manager at Public Radio International in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Social Media/Digital/Print Marketing and Communications Manager at Iowa State University – Office of Admissions in Ames, Iowa.

Product Manager, Customer Education/a> at Sprout Social Inc. in Chicago, Illinois.

Product Manager (DLP & Search Applications) at Everyday Health in New York, New York.

Marketing, PR Intern: Create a New Voice at Voicefield in New York, New York.

Director of Community at Electronic Arts in Redwood City, California.

Community Manager, Founder at Wikia in San Francisco, California.

Community Support, Founder at Wikia in San Francisco, California.

Marketing Communications Specialist/Copywriter at AIS Media, Inc in Atlanta, Georgia.

Social Commerce Specialist at Idea in San Diego, California.

Account Manager at News Distribution Network, Inc. in Washington, D.C.

PHP Developer at Blue Fountain Media in New York, New York.

Vice President/Senior Digital + Creative Producer at APCO Worldwide in Washington, D.C.

Web Editor at Lessiter Publications in Brookfield, Wisconsin.

Digital Marketing Director at Robin Hood Foundation in New York, New York.

Lead UX Designer at Crowdtap in New York, New York.

Manager, Audience Development at Time Inc. in New York, New York.

Community Manager at UBM in Shanghai, China.

Entry Level PPC/SEM Specialist at Motivators, Inc. in Westbury, New York.

Social and Digital Account Executive at Levick Strategic Communications in Washington, D.C.

Technology content writer/blogger – freelance at Bright Blue Day in London, United Kingdom.

Social Media Community Manager at MOLOTOV in Los Angeles, California.

Audience Development Analyst, YouTube Operations at Google, Inc. in San Bruno, California.

Audience Development Strategist, YouTube Operations at Google, Inc. in San Bruno, California.

Senior Systems Administrator at New Relic in San Francisco, California.

Senior Manager, Digital Communications and PR at Disney Consumer Products in Glendale, California.

Junior Web Developer at Imagination Publishing in Chicago, Illinois.

Junior/Mid Level Web Developer/Programmer at telescope in Los Angeles, California.

Helpdesk Technical Support at Telescope, Inc. in Los Angeles, California.

Videographer/Editor at Levick Strategic Communications in Washington, D.C.

Senior Marketing Analytics Manager at Demand Media in Santa Monica, California.

Social Media Marketing Manager/Strategist at 24 Seven in New York, New York.

Developer at Levick Strategic Communications in Washington, D.C.

Front-End Developer at Teach For America in New York, New York.

Developer at Levick Strategic Communications in Washington, D.C.

Digital Marketing SEM/SEO at Enova Financial in Chicago, Illinois.

Director of Online Fundraising at National Parks Conservation Association in District of Columbia.

Social & Digital Media Account Supervisor at Levick Strategic Communications in Washington, D.C.

Senior Game Designer at Arkadium in New York, New York.

Community Manager at Gerson Lehrman Group in New York, New York.

Web Designer at A Confidential Company in Los Angeles, California.

Social Media and Engagement Specialist at Fox News Chicago in Chicago, Illinois.

Client Relationship Manager at Schawk in Singapore.

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HOW TO: Start Marketing on Gowalla

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 11:55 AM PDT


The Social Media 101 Series is sponsored by Global Strategic Management Institute, a leading source of knowledge for today’s leaders. Learn more by visiting GSMI’s website, liking it on Facebook and following it on Twitter.

Location-based services, such as Foursquare, Gowalla and SCVNGR, offer plenty of innovative ways for brands to interact with local consumers.

Getting started on location-based platforms, though, can sometimes seem a bit overwhelming for newcomers. In the Social Media 101 Series, we’ll review our top tips for getting started on various social platforms.

Kicking the series off, we spoke with Andy Ellwood, Gowalla’s director of business development, for the complete scoop on how to start marketing your brand on the location network.

7 Ways To Engage With Gowalla Users

Gowalla offers brands seven main ways to connect with its users. As a result, the platform is quite inclusive of just about any type of brand, big or small. Ellwood took us through an overview of the seven key ways that brands are using Gowalla to engage users:

1. Passports

Ellwood explains that every move the company makes ties back to the idea of “What if you could use your mobile phone as a passport?”

Just as Gowalla users create “Passports” to document their adventures, brands too can join in on the fun, checking in to venues related to their brand. Red Bull, for example, maintains a Passport and “checks into places and events where people should be drinking Red Bull,” says Ellwood.

To get started with a Passport, businesses should create an account on Gowalla (as a regular user). If the brand would like to be identified with the “follow” model — instead of with the “friendship” model that users use — then Gowalla’s business development team can help switch the account over. Read the “Speaking With Humans” section below for details on contacting Gowalla’s team.

2. Custom Stamps

When users check in to “Spots” on Gowalla, they receive “Stamps,” which act as virtual bling for their passports.

Gowalla enables businesses with physical locations to customize the Stamps that users receive when checking in to their venues. Prices and commissioning time vary, but the team usually releases 100 Stamps at a time, roughly once per month. The most recent batch of custom Stamps were commissioned for $150 each.

“These Stamps are a great way for Spot owners to have their brand seen and discovered within Gowalla,” says Ellwood. “The more the experience looks and feels like the place where people are, the better [the] experience they can share with their networks.”

For more details on commissioning custom Stamps, visit gowalla.com/stamps.

3. Pins for Trips

Users and brands are able to create “Trips,” which Ellwood describes as a “playlist of Spots.” Creating a Trip is much like creating a mix tape — just as one would choose thematic songs for a mix tape, a Gowalla user curates similar or related Spots to create a Trip.

When Disney partnered with Gowalla, for example, it created a number of Trips across its parks. When users complete specific Trips, such as the Thrill Seekers Unite Trip, which entails checking in at all of the biggest thrills at Disneyland, they earn Pins.

Small businesses looking to create Trips can do so without investing in custom Pins. Gowalla offers 16 preset Pins for users and brands. If a business is looking to go beyond the basic offerings, custom programs can be discussed with Gowalla’s business development team.

4. Pins for Challenges

Gowalla users can also earn Pins for completing “Challenges.” A Challenge is complete once a user demonstrates a certain type of behavior, such as checking in to 10 pubs to earn the “Pub Crawl” Pin.

Disney also offers a number of Challenges, including the Disneyland Mountaineer Challenge, which entails checking in at all of Disneyland’s mountain-themed attractions, such as Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

5. Virtual Items

Each Gowalla user has a “pack,” in which virtual items can be stored as they are found.

Another way for brands to engage with users is to offer virtual items. This option is particularly useful for brands that do not have physical locations but that would love to get involved with the Gowalla community.

Tazo Tea, in partnership with Whole Foods, created three virtual tea items that users could collect by checking in to Whole Foods. While attributable sales couldn’t be tracked, Tazo Tea hoped that users would be compelled to buy more Tazo Tea once they unlocked the virtual items in Whole Foods, where the teas are distributed (among other retailers). While sales were difficult to track, the increase in awareness for Whole Foods was significant — checkins at Whole Foods amounted to greater than a 100% increase over the monthly average, says Ellwood, stating that these types of programs help build stronger business-to-business relationships.

6. Highlights

“A ‘Highlight’ is a subjective way to share information about places that are important to you, without requiring you to check in,” says Ellwood.

CNN’s iReport was the first case study of branded Highlights on Gowalla. iReport aims to enable Gowalla users to report breaking news as it’s happening. All Highlights submitted to iReport on Gowalla go directly to the iReport desk — if a user’s Highlight is published, he or she receives the iReport Pin.

7. Claiming a Spot

Businesses with physical locations have the ability to claim their Spots on Gowalla. Claiming a Spot enables business owners to share more information about the location, create a checkin message or special offer and monitor checkin activity.

“Each time a person checks in to a Spot, he is essentially adding his personal endorsement to his entire network,” notes Ellwood. “The more that Spot owners do to incentivize endorsements and to create an experience at their Spot, the more likely people will be to check in and share those experiences with their friends.”

Speaking With Humans

Gowalla’s business page is a great resource for brands seeking an introduction to getting started on the platform. But if that isn’t enough, the business development team is all ears.

“Emailing business@gowalla.com is the best way to let the business development team know that you are interested in speaking about a campaign,” explains Ellwood. He says the team tries to respond to all inquiries within 7-10 business days.

In order for Gowalla’s team to understand a brand’s needs and respond quickly, Ellwood encourages inquirers to provide as many details as possible in their initial email. Here’s a quick checklist of the details that help Gowalla’s team best understand a brand’s objectives and needs:

  • What experience the brand is hoping to create with a Gowalla campaign
  • Which places will these experiences occur in
  • What the time frame of the campaign is
  • The brand’s budget for the campaign
  • The goals of the campaign

Because there are seven main ways for brands to engage with Gowalla users, “not every set feature is right for every brand,” Ellwood says. “Once we understand what their goals and objectives are, we can work to build a campaign that drives those kind of results and experiences.”

Your Questions

This guide is just a primer on how to start marketing on Gowalla. Let us know which questions you have about engaging with consumers on the platform in the comments below.

Series Supported by Global Strategic Management Institute

The Social Media 101 Series is sponsored by Global Strategic Management Institute. GSMI’s Social Media Strategies Series are the leading educational events for organizations looking to advance their online capabilities. Learn more at socialmediastrategiessummit.com.

Image courtesy of Flickr, hyku

More About: business, gowalla, lbs, List, Lists, location, location based advertising, location-based, location-based marketing, MARKETING, online marketing, Social Media 101 Series

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Why Large-Scale Product Customization Is Finally Viable for Business

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 11:39 AM PDT


J. P. Gownder is vice president and research director at Forrester Research, where he leads a research team that serves consumer product strategy professionals. You can follow him on Twitter at @jgownder and read his blog or his team's blog.

Mass customization — where customers can tailor a product's appearance, features or content to their own specifications -– has been the "next big thing" for for a long time. As far back as 1970, the futurist Alvin Toffler predicted its emergence. Customization expert Joseph Pine published his seminal book in 1992, and the 2000 book Markets of One suggested that customization would change the fundamental structure of the American economy.

Yet for years, mass customization largely failed to take off. Worse yet, big brands have tried and failed with customized offerings. Levi Strauss offered customized jeans from 1993 to 2003 but failed to offer the kinds of choices to consumers -– like color -– that would have made the offering successful. Dell, once the most prominent practitioner of mass customization, flamed out spectacularly, saying that the model had become too complex and costly to continue.

But today, mass customization is enjoying a renaissance among big brands such as Kraft, Hallmark, M&Ms, Wrigley and the longest-running success, Nike. And a number of pure-play international startups selling products such as chocolate, jeans, mosaic tile, jewelry and cereal, are showing the value of mass customization to consumers and product strategists alike.

We're entering a new era in which mass customization will lead a number of consumer product categories, creating value for buyers and sellers alike. Here’s why.

Digital Technologies Will Turbo-Charge Mass Customization

customization image

Consumers' expectations are being shaped by their lives online. Customization plays a large and growing role in digital experiences, from Facebook to Pandora Internet radio to mobile applications like location-aware Google Maps. These rising expectations are being met by three trends that will promote mass customized product offerings:

  • Today's supply chain technologies enable more efficient production. Supply chain software promotes an efficient flow between customers' co-design efforts and fulfillment on the production side, as Archetype Solutions demonstrates.
  • Today's customer-facing technologies are cheaper and easier to deploy than ever. The price (and time requirement) for developing customer-facing configurators has dropped significantly in the past few years. It’s a fraction of the cost even compared to a few years ago (think $50,000, down from $1 million). And new uses –- like embedding configurators within Facebook — make configurators more accessible (and more social).
  • Tomorrow's customer-facing technologies will be revolutionary. Technologies allowing customers to design their own products will become richer and more plentiful. For example, Microsoft's Xbox Kinect shows the pathway toward the ultra-configurator: A device that will measure the contours of your body (or home) and allow gestural configuration. A tug on your augmented reality sleeve will lengthen it; pulling on a lapel will widen it. This super-configurator will be used for immersive design experiences across a wide variety of products.

Mass Customization Fits This Age Of Customers

Although mass customized products aren't yet widespread –- aside from in long-standing categories like eyeglasses — interest in customizable products is mounting. More than 35% of U.S. online consumers are already interested in customizing product features or in purchasing build-to-order products that use their specifications, according to a recent study conducted by my company. The opportunities are much greater than this initial data suggests. Psychologists have determined that an "I Designed It Myself Effect" exists in mass customization, where buyers feel a sense of accomplishment from their co-design efforts. Buyers gain additional value from the certainty that features will be exactly what they want. And they can express themselves with public goods (such as clothing, cars, jewelry, or even PCs) that reflect their unique design. Ultimately, these psychological benefits translate into a higher willingness to pay into loyal, repeat-purchasing customers.

Me-Commerce Anticipates Customers' Needs

Customer loyalty can only be achieved through unprecedented levels of prediction. Practitioners of mass customization must learn who their buyers are as individuals, forecast the feature combinations that will resonate with them and — eventually — predict what new features these customers will want.

Pandora has shown the way by leveraging direct customer input (ongoing thumbs-up, thumbs-down ratings), sophisticated predictive statistical models (what do other customers like who also like this song?), and product analysis (the famed Music Genome, which analyzes songs) to offer an ever-improving experience to customers. Makers of physical goods will embrace similar methods to sell mass customization products.

Manufacturing Will Return To The U.S. and European Union

Beyond changing the way customers interact with brands and products, mass customization will have an impact on local economies by offering an alternative to the mass-produced, price-is-everything Asian factory model. Mass customized product strategies require local production to reach customers quickly and require highly skilled labor and significant investments in both customer-facing and back-end IT systems. Consequently, these businesses tend to produce locally. Pure-play mass customized companies generally produce their goods in the U.S. (or Germany, a leader in mass customization).

While the U.S. and EU won't regain their lead in overall manufacturing, mass customization will lead to a small but important reindustrialization for build-to-order production.

What do you think? Has the time finally come for mass customization to take over? Let us know in the comments below.

Interested in more Business & Marketing resources? Check out Mashable Explore, a new way to discover information on your favorite Mashable topics.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, FikMik

More About: business, customization, e-commerce, MARKETING, mass customization, social media

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In Crowded News Reader Market, FLUD Steps Up Its Game

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 11:12 AM PDT


In the race to become the most recognized personalized news reader, Flipboard and Pulse have pulled ahead of the competition. FLUD, a lesser known news reader for iPhone and iPad, has fallen off the pace. It now hopes to catch up with $1 million in fresh funding.

FLUD, a part-time app maker, is growing into a full-fledged startup thanks to the seed round investment led by Detroit Venture Partners, the firm of Cleveland Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert.

“The most important thing we need to do is hire,” says San Diego-based CEO Bobby Ghoshal. “The biggest issue we’ve had so far is how fast we can deploy the product.”

Ghoshal admits to being outpaced by the competition thus far. FLUD is approaching 1 million users, while its most direct competitor Pulse has surpassed 3 million users, Ghoshal notes.

But with money in the bank, FLUD is intent on firming up content partnerships with publishers and releasing new applications to reach new audiences. An Android app and desktop version are said to be just a few weeks out.

“We’re not building a magazine app,” insists Ghoshal, who believes that the news reader landscape is in flux. “We’re an RSS reader right now, but we’re moving away from that. … The playing field will change quickly.”

FLUD defines itself as a social news ecosystem, and sees a future in creating a “hyper-relevant” news reading experience. If you like certain types of news, Zite will show you more of those kinds of stories, but FLUD can do better than that, Ghoshal says.

How will FLUD deliver on the promise of hyper-relevance? Ghoshal is tight-lipped on the details. The answer may have something to do with the pending release of the FLUD API, which Ghoshal describes in  ambiguous terms. “The API will give FLUD a disruptive revenue stream,” he says, in one of his more tangible descriptions.

Until that API materializes, FLUD will need to do some speed racing to catch the competition.

More About: Flipboard, FLUD, news reader, pulse, zite

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Beaucoup Oranges Power French Billboard [VIDEO]

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 10:38 AM PDT

Apparently, if you have enough oranges, you can power an electric billboard. This video, for a Tropicana promotion in France, details the creation of the outdoor sign, which took a ton of oranges and some technical know-how.

Creativity Online reports that 2,500 oranges were used and fitted with zinc and copper spikes, and “the orange juice dissolved the metals, causing their electrons to create a current.”

This, along with a recent Foursquare-enabled, dog food-dispensing billboard for GranataPet in Germany, shows that at least some out-of-the-box thinking related to outdoor advertising is happening in Europe.

More About: advertising, Billboard, MARKETING, Tropicana

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WordPress.com Servers Hit in Security Breach

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 10:19 AM PDT


Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, has announced that hackers have breached its security and broken in to several of its servers, putting any information on them at risk.

Automattic and WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg says that Wednesday’s incident was a low-level root access breach. The company is reviewing its data logs to figure out what information may have been stolen and is working on patching any holes in its security. It seems unlikely that personally identifiable user information was taken during the attack, but Automattic has yet to complete its investigation.

“We presume our source code was exposed and copied,” Mullenweg stated on the company’s blog. “While much of our code is open source, there are sensitive bits of our and our partners' code. Beyond that, however, it appears information disclosed was limited.”

WordPress was the target of a high-profile attack in 2009 that utilized a security exploit in its popular blogging software to create new “hidden” administrator accounts. Today’s security breach is much different than the 2009 incident. If you host a WordPress.org website on your own servers, you shouldn’t be affected, but Automattic suggests that you make sure your various online accounts utilize a variety of strong passwords.

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YouTube Video of the Day: Can an Internet Troll Pick Up a Girl IRL?

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 10:10 AM PDT

Internet trolls have a rep for being semi-misogynistic basement dwellers whose girlfriends require an air pump to get ready for a date.

The above video (NSFW: language), showing “Internet Trolls” using memes to hit on chicks, does little to dispel that stereotype.

Share your favorite amorous zingers in the comments below.

[via The Daily What]

More About: humor, Meme, pop culture, viral video, viral-video-of-day, youtube

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How Tasti D-Lite Has Raised the Bar for Social Media Success

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 09:49 AM PDT


The Social CMO Series is supported by the Discover Digital Group, a unique consultancy that focuses on identifying new e-revenue opportunities for both Fortune 1000 and startup clients alike. Follow DDG on Facebook to get a taste of the insights that are offered.

Frozen dessert shop Tasti D-Lite has been heating up the social space over the past few years, introducing a series of innovative digital programs and campaigns, including the introduction of social tie-ins with its TastiRewards loyalty program and in-shop iPads that serve as customer information kiosks.

We spoke with Chief Marketing Officer Bill Zinke to get a taste for what the company is up to lately and what digital and social projects it’s working on next. Check out the interview below and let us know what questions you have for the company in the comments.

Q&A With Bill Zinke, Chief Marketing Officer, Tasti D-Lite

How much focus does Tasti D-Lite put on digital and social marketing, as opposed to traditional marketing?

We started getting into our social media efforts about two to three years ago, and the amount of dollars, time and pure human capital that we’ve invested in social media and digital marketing have grown fairly significantly each year. The fact that we have not only a head of marketing at our company, but also BJ Emerson, who is head of technology, shows that we put more and more into digital.

Social media is an area that we want Tasti D-Lite to be a leader in. We will be looking very aggressively and progressively at ways that we can continue to show to our customers, to our franchisees and to the world that Tasti D-Lite is really a brand that is not just up with the modern age of technology, but hopefully out on that leading edge.

We as a company — up to our CEO — really believe that this is where a lot of customer relationships and overall marketing are evolving toward, to more one-on-one relationships. There is still plenty of room for more mass market or broad campaigns, whether that’s through print or other ways — those will not ever go away. Mainstream messages are important, but the ability to build one-on-one relationships now with social media is changing marketing for good and in a very good way, as long as you’re willing to let go a little bit and realize you can’t control everything that is said about your brand. If you have a lot of faith in people and customers, out comes a lot of mostly good things. Some things may be critical, but those things will help us become a better company and better serve our customers. So, even whatever negatives may come, end up becoming positives.

What are the key elements to Tasti D-Lite’s digital strategy?

Our company’s mission as a brand and as a business is about delivering great-tasting, good-for-you treats to our consumers, and making their days better as a result of visiting Tasti D-Lite. Another key part of our mission is that we do that in order to help benefit our franchisees, who have invested their hard-earned dollars to partner with us. They’re looking to fulfill their dreams and serve their customers and also build the business.

The key elements of our digital strategy relate to achieving that mission. It is, “How can social media and digital marketing and customer relationships through online relationships … make people’s days and lives brighter and better, help them live and eat healthfully, and connect them to the brand on an emotional level?” At the same time, [we aim to] support our franchisees and their businesses and help make sure that they’re doing what they can locally to build or strengthen those [customer] relationships.

How is TastiRewards, the company’s loyalty program that also rewards a user’s social networking participation with Tasti D-Lite, going?

When we launched our loyalty program nearly two years ago, it started out being just a simple platform for gaining points, pre-tax dollars, towards earning free Tasti D-Lite. And then BJ [Emerson, VP of Technology], working with partners, came up with the concept of linking it to social networks. To say that it was a big idea is underselling it — it was a gigantic idea.

It has evolved in a very natural way as we look for more ways to make this program more fun, more engaging and more rewarding. Overall, it’s going very well. We get great feedback — when you get a true win-win-win out of a program, you know it’s working and you’re on the right track. The win is:

  • Our customers love it. They like [that we're] making it simpler for them to send out messages, whether it’s Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook — to save them a step of having to check in on their smartphones. We’re hearing from them that they love doing it and also that they like getting the extra points, because they’re earning their free Tasti faster [as a result of using the social tie-ins].
  • We’re hearing great things from our franchisees. They’re seeing the benefits of the TastiRewards program. They’re talking and tweeting about it and sharing information. It’s made us more of an “it” brand, where people want to be tweeting out to their friends or posting messages on their Facebook walls.
  • We’ve gotten phenomenal exposure for the brand. We have literally millions of impressions of eyeballs that have seen tweets and messages through Facebook and Foursquare, that are getting exposed because their friends have connected their social accounts to TastiRewards.

One out of five of our TastiRewards members are enabling connections to one or more social networks, and 18% of those enabling the social connections are enabling automatic checkins on Foursquare.

It’s going very well, but again, the reason it’s working is because it’s working for the customer, it’s working for our franchisees and it’s working in the world of just growing and expanding our brand, which is what we’re trying to accomplish.

How are the TastiPads being received by customers?

I don’t have quantifiable data, but what I can tell you is the qualitative and anecdotal feedback — people really like them. What we’re seeing and hearing most is that people are using them for the nutritional information. You can pull up nutritional panels for all of our flavors. That’s been one of the most popular elements of the TastiPad.

There are other fun things, like the guestbook. When I go to the Tasti D-Lite near my home in Nashville, I always peruse the comments, and quite honestly, I sometimes go back and find some of my daughter’s comments. It’s really fun to see the comments that come through — it’s another way [that] people can come in and share their experiences digitally, and it can become a long-lasting record. It becomes just like any other guestbook — you’re interested in not only writing something, but also seeing what other folks have written.

Those are two elements that have been the most popular and fun to use. And so, TastiPads have now become a standard — it is part of the model for all Tasti D-Lite’s moving forward.

What location-based initiatives is the company working on?

We were a launch partner with Foursquare’s nearby specials. We continue to run campaigns for many of our locations. Some attract and reward “Newbies” for checking in for the first time, while others reward regulars for every checkin.

To date, what has been the company’s most successful digital marketing campaign?

The most successful thing that we’ve done within the digital world and social media frontier over the past couple of years has been the TastiRewards program. It has, in some ways, set a new standard and allowed people to see the power of taking loyalty programs to the next level, and how social networks can fit into that.

Consumers, the industry, retailers, potential new franchisees see Tasti D-Lite as a progressive, leading-edge company within the world of social media that knows how to benefit across all parts of our business.

Tell us about the latest Tasti D-Lite digital marketing campaign.

In March, we launched a “Healthy Habits Search” campaign, in which we’re asking consumers to tell us their stories of what Tasti D-Lite means to them in their lives and in their health. Each month, we’re going to have a new winner — the winner wins $1,000 cash and a month of free Tasti D-Lite during the month that he or she is featured.

This campaign is going to be a very digitally-oriented one. We’ll be posting the winners’ stories on all of our social networks, and we have a dedicated TastiHabit.com website.

We already have well over 100 entries just in the first few weeks of the campaign, and we’ve already got some amazing stories about people losing weight. We featured our very first monthly winner this month in April. Her name is Joeleen Tepper [read her story here].

Series Supported by Discover Digital Group

The Social CMO Series is supported by the Discover Digital Group, a unique consultancy that focuses on identifying new e-revenue opportunities for both Fortune 1000 and startup clients alike. From developing new digital products to generating new audiences and revenue for existing online products, it creates smarter, more effective solutions for your business challenges. Follow DDG on Facebook to get a taste of the insights that are offered.

More Marketing Resources from Mashable:

- Why Cross-Channel Messaging Is Crucial to Reaching New Consumers
- HOW TO: Sync Your Online and Offline Marketing Campaigns
- 3 Facebook Mobile Trends to Watch This Year
- 5 YouTube Marketing Tips for Better Engagement
- 6 Tips for Creating Valuable Branded Content

Image courtesy of Flickr, Edgar Zuniga Jr.

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Google Reportedly Frustrated With Record Labels, May Pare Down Rumored Music Service

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 09:26 AM PDT


Add this to the swirling mire of rumors surrounding Google’s new (reportedly) cloud-based music service: Sources now say that Google is tired of negotiating with labels and may, a la Amazon, launch its new service sans licenses.

The Music Void reports that Google is fed up with the labels, particularly WMG, which is said to be suggesting that Google charge users $30 per year for the cloud service. Apparently, Google wants users to be able to try the service for free with the first 500 tracks stored. Warner declined to comment. (Still, $30 per year doesn’t seem outlandish by any stretch — services such as MOG and Rdio cost around $10 per month.)

Google may decide to go the way of Amazon (by creating a more basic music locker, sans licenses) or shut down the service all together, reportedly. Still, we have to keep in mind that these are all rumors, and negotiations are fluid.

Moreover, we’ve been getting glimpses of the service at a rapid clip lately, including a video in December, a screenshot in January that includes a “Sync Music” function, recent buzzing that Google has been dogfooding the product at HQ, and a set of leaked photos just last week.

We’ll just have to see what — if anything — materializes.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, shulz

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Nintendo To Cut Wii Price To $150 In May [REPORT]

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 09:06 AM PDT


A year and a half has passed since Nintendo last cut the price of the Wii, to $200. And it might almost be time for another price slashing for the popular gaming console.

Nintendo plans to reduce the price of the Wii to $150 on May 15, according to reports citing sources familiar with the company’s plans.

Nintendo has sold more than 35 million Wiis in the U.S. as of March 2011. Sales were on the decline in 2010, although it’s no wonder given that the console was released in 2006.

A price cut might make sense for the company, which recently reported a large drop in operating profits on account of weaker Wii and DS sales, but nothing has been officially confirmed by Nintendo.

In the meantime, if you’ve been planning on buying the Wii, you might want to hold on to your cash just a little longer to see if the rumor is true.

[via Engadget]

More About: gaming, gaming console, Nintendo, price, Wii

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Is UberMedia Developing a Twitter Competitor?

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:56 AM PDT

ubermedia

Now that Twitter is encouraging developers to move away from creating Twitter clients, those developers may decide to build their own alternative to the micro-blogging service.

According to CNN, UberMedia — the company responsible for UberSocial, Echofon and Twidroyd — is looking into developing its own Twitter-like competitor. CNN cites three people briefed on the matter (but not authorized to speak publicly) as describing the service as a response to some of the most common complaints about Twitter, including restrictions on message length.

In the past eight months, UberMedia has acquired a number of high-profile Twitter clients, quickly building itself into a third-party powerhouse. The company raised $17.5 million in funding in February, following rumors that it is in talks to acquire third-party juggernaut TweetDeck.

The company ran afoul of Twitter’s policies in February, and Twitter temporarily banned apps like Twidroyd. The apps regained access to Twitter after a few days, but that situation, as well as Twitter’s position on client applications, may have the company seeking out alternatives.

The problem with building an entire business on someone else’s platform is that if the rules regarding the platform change, the business can be put in jeopardy.

CNN says UberMedia’s Twitter alternative might be a “just in case” backup plan, only to be utilized if relations with Twitter break down.

TweetDeck, the leading third-party Twitter client, has its own alternative network of sorts, Deck.ly. It allows users to post messages longer than 140 characters. Additionally, because TweetDeck users create a TweetDeck account in addition to a Twitter account, creating a backup network or alternative communications platform is less cumbersome for users.

Many companies have tried — and have failed — to compete with Twitter. It appears that UberMedia hopes to leverage its user base — especially its power users — in building an alternative network.

Although we agree that it is important for companies like UberMedia to diversify their options and reduce platform dependence, we’re not sold on the idea that an alternative network could actually work. The buy-in that Twitter already has — with both users and brands — is huge. Convincing brands to maintain two accounts, one for Twitter and one for some Power Twitter Alternative will be an uphill battle. Moreover, Twitter has tremendous buy-in from developers of non-client applications.

The number of apps that connect to the Twitter API is growing every day, and an alternative network needs to compete not just with Twitter.com, but with the fact that apps like Flipboard and Instagram seamlessly connect with Twitter.

In an ideal world, UberMedia could develop an alternative network that could operate in parallel with Twitter. This is the approach that Identi.ca takes. Users of the Identi.ca service can sync with a Twitter account and communicate with users on both networks, while also taking advantage of Identi.ca only features. To us, Status.net’s model seems to be the most well-suited for this type of venture.

We reached out to UberMedia and Twitter for comments on this story but have not heard back.

Would you consider using an alternative to Twitter if it was built and supported by your favorite client? Let us know.

More About: social media, trending, twitter, UberMedia

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Connect With Your Favorite Bands on SoundCloud’s New Q&A Platform [INVITES]

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:24 AM PDT


SoundCloud, which is rapidly becoming the audio platform of choice for many a musician, has launched a new Q&A platform that will let fans connect with their favorite bands and personalities.

The platform, titled Takes Questions, is still in beta, but there are tons of artists on there accepting questions, including Imogen Heap; BBC Radio 1′s DJ Nihal; pop singer Diana Vickers; rock band The Blackout; pop punk band All Time Low; R&B act Encore; and electropop band Fenech-Soler. SoundCloud also asked me to put up a page, so if you have any burning questions about music, hipsters or bagels — I’m listening.

The platform is actually rather simple. Users set up their own, customizable webpage, where other users can record questions from their browser (thanks to the platform’s new “Record” feature). The person being queried can, in return, record an answer from the browser, iPhone or Android that will then be uploaded to his or her page. Once a question is answered, the questioning party will be alerted via Twitter. Other users can then surf over to the artist’s page, where they can listen to all questions posed by others as well as the answers.

While this isn’t a wholly new idea — Blazetrak does something very similar — this free, open tool seems a wonderful way for artists to more deeply engage with their fans.

As we said, the product is still in the experimental phases, but we have 50 invites for Mashable readers looking to connect with their followers.

Update: Looks like they’re out of invites!

Image courtesy of Flickr, alexanderdrachmann

More About: music, soundcloud

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Search Marketing To Grow 16% This Year [REPORT]

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 08:02 AM PDT

search image

Search marketing will grow 16% this year to $19.3 billion and 74% of North American ad agencies say their clients use Facebook, according to a study released Wednesday.

The report, from the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, is based on an online survey of 920 companies carried out in February and March. The companies reported a rise in mobile marketing, which accounts for some of the rise in search advertising. Local search was cited as the most significant new trend, though the respondents said behavioral targeting is becoming more important as well. The survey also found that more marketers are outsourcing their SEO and social media to agencies.

The 16% growth figure for search is a slight jump over last year’s 14% rise. Meanwhile, researcher eMarketer predicts an 11.2% jump in search marketing revenues for 2011 vs. 2010 and places the total revenue figure for the end of 2011 at $16.6 billion. That said, eMarketer’s figures refer specifically to U.S. spending, while SEMPO’s refer to North American spending. Below are SEMPO’s estimates for the market over the past few years:

Here are some other findings:

  • 40% of respondents said that the growth of the mobile Internet was “highly significant,” compared with 26% last year.
  • 84% of companies (rather than the figure for agencies, listed above) use Facebook to promote themselves, compared with 73% last year.
  • 75% of companies use Twitter to promote their companies or brands and 52% use LinkedIn.
  • 44% of companies do SEO in-house, compared with 51% last year.
  • 55% are doing social media marketing in-house, compared with 62% last year.

Image courtesy of Flickr, andercismo

More About: advertising, MARKETING, search engine

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What’s About To Happen at Adweek

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 07:52 AM PDT


Beginning next week, Brandweek and Mediaweek, two industry publications in print for nearly 20 years, will cease to exist.

Under the editorial supervision of Michael Wolff, the controversial Vanity Fair media columnist and one of the founders of news aggregator Newser.com, the two properties will converge under the Adweek banner.

Adweek itself will re-emerge with a new website, courtesy of Manhattan-based North 6th Agency, and a weekly, image-heavy glossy magazine in lieu of industry-standard newsprint. Its tagline, says blogger Tony Case, will be “The Voice of Media.” We’ve also heard it described internally as “All Things Media,” and the “Politico of media.”

The convergence has been taking place for some time; the editor of Mediaweek took up a new role in public relations in December 2010, and our own Todd Wasserman, the former editor of Brandweek, joined Mashable as business and marketing editor that same month. Wolff also lost star reporter and Adweek digital editor Brian Morrissey to Digiday, a startup publication of which he is now the chief editor. The three titles have been operating under a single staff for the past few months, composed of many new, younger (and thereby less expensive) hires.

Although the converged property will bear the name of Adweek, we expect this will primarily be a publication about the media industry and, more specifically, figures within the media industry. Its voice is already changing, taking on a tone more akin to the New Yorker Observer and Gawker, as evidenced in this recent sketch of NYC Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne and a rumor-laden profile of Observer editor Elizabeth Spiers titled, “Elizabeth Spiers and N.Y. Observer: Married in Hell?”

Does the web, we wonder, really need another snarky, insidery media publication?

These challenges aside, the biggest difficulty the new Adweek faces is with ad revenue. How will the new Adweek maintain the profits of three fairly successful, reliable industry print publications with only a single, mainly online publication? Based on earlier conversations, the answer is unclear to Wolff, and, it appears, to his financial backers as well.

Details about the relaunch will be announced officially Monday.

Image courtesy of Flickr, eirikso

More About: adweek, brandweek, media, mediaweek, michael wolff

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How Smarter Parking Technology Will Reduce Traffic Congestion

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 07:30 AM PDT


The Global Innovation Series is supported by BMW i, a new concept dedicated to providing mobility solutions for the urban environment. It delivers more than purpose-built electric vehicles — it delivers smart mobility services. Visit bmw-i.com or follow @BMWi on Twitter.

Between 8% and 74% of traffic in congested downtown areas is caused by people cruising for parking, according to a report by UCLA professor Donald Shoup who synthesized studies from 70 years of research on the subject. The paper indicates that drivers in major cities — including San Francisco, Sydney, New York and London — spend between 3.5 and 14 minutes searching for a space each time they park.

The last study Shoup included in his report ended in 2001. Today, wasted cruising time is likely longer, and it’s on track to get worse. During a recent Ted Talk in March, Ford Motor Company Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. estimated that the number of cars on the road could go from 800 million to nearly 3 billion by 2050.

Ford also shares a solution for avoiding the gridlock that so many cars might cause (and no, it has nothing to do with reducing the number of cars on the road). What he envisions is a world in which cars are connected to each other and to cities, enabling drivers to avoid traffic, calculate exact driving time and efficiently manage parking spaces.

While the sci-fi possibilities of Ford’s full vision have yet to be realized, many companies and cities have started implementing smart solutions for parking and traffic problems. What they’re learning in these first steps may help shape the future of smart driving.

Smart Parking Technology

The city of Los Angeles recently installed low-power sensors and smart meters to track the occupancy of parking spaces throughout the Hollywood district, one of its most congested areas. The sensors are about the size of a coffee cup lid and are embedded in the asphalt. The smart meters attach to regular meters and allow users to pay with their mobile phones in addition to communicating payment information to the city.

With the information from the sensors, the city is able to change pricing on its parking depending on demand — raising it for a special event or a particularly busy hour, for instance. The information also alerts enforcement officials about expired parking meters or other parking violations and reduces the time they spend driving in circles.

Drivers can also access information gathered by the sensors through a free app called Parker. The app alerts drivers where there they are or are not likely to find an available parking space so that they can save time cruising around.

The city of Los Angeles saw a return on its investment within three months, according to Streetline, the company that created the technology. Similar programs have been implemented in Sausalito, California, Washington, D.C., Salt Lake City and Roosevelt Island in New York City. The University of Maryland recently installed the sensors to keep track of which electric car charging stations are vacant.

Streetline Vice President Kelly Schwager says parking is just the tip of the iceberg, and the company plans to help create around smart cities and traffic management.

“Once you have this infrastructure of sensors throughout a city, you can use these networks in a number of different ways,” she says. “We're starting in parking today, but eventually you can envision this being used for measurement of pollution or to detect if a water pressure system in a fire hydrant is operating at the right pressure or if a streetlight bulb needs to be replaced. … there are lots of smart city applications that can be built on top of this.”

Crowdsourcing Parking and Traffic Information

Installing Streetline’s sensors is an expensive prospect at about $20 to $30 per sensor per month. Even if the technology does eventually result in savings, as it did in Los Angeles, it’s not a line item that most city governments can slip into their budgets. But several other companies have taken an approach to improving congestion that relies not on installing technology but rather on crowdsourcing information.

Brooklyn-based Roadify, for instance, awards users with “StreetCARma points” for spotting parking spots for the community. Users enter the address of a spot that they are about to leave or one that they happen to walk by. Other users nearby will see that spot on the app if they search the area.

Since Roadify’s launch in November 2009, about 40,000 spots have been “given” in New York. The parking aspect admittedly has a ways to go before it becomes a real-time parking space map, but the concept has helped the company expand to an app that helps users avoid traffic jams, navigate subway delays and track buses as well. While the non-parking categories are based on data provided by the city, crowdsourcing enhances them.

“Numbers are great, but they lack a certain amount of information,” explains Dylan Goelz, Roadify’s head of user experience. “A sensor can tell me that at this one point on the Brooklyn Bridge [traffic] is going so many mph, but 10 feet in front of it, it might be going 0 [mph].”

The same inconsistencies apply in posted and actual bus schedules and subway delays.

Another startup, Waze, crowdsources traffic information, but it doesn’t rely on user reports to do so. The app automatically crowdsources road maps and traffic information by tracking where its users drive with the app open. If drivers in a specific area slow down, the app automatically detects and displays a traffic jam to warn other drivers. Drivers stuck in the jam can choose to actively report it and upload photos from their phone, in addition to the automatically transmitted information.

City-Led Initiatives

Unless it had massive adoption rates, Roadify’s app wouldn’t be as useful without city data. As more cities open their databases to the public, the number of applications designed for navigating transportation and traffic like Roadify is bound to increase.

New York City started a competition in 2010 to award apps that use city databases. Roadify won this year’s grand prize, and transportation apps in general were well represented. Third place winner Best Parking provides parking information by address. Honorable mention NextStop tells users when their next subway train will arrive.

Other cities such as Paris, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and many others have also made some of their data available to developers.

Eventually San Francisco’s database will include some information that Roadify developers are looking forward to integrating — the city is currently testing smart meters and sensors at 6,000 of its 25,000 metered parking spaces. Similar to the Streetline solution in Los Angeles, it will use the information it gathers to adjust parking rates based on demand.

“We know it is going to happen, we’re happy to see it come,” Goelz says. “But in the meantime everyone has a role to play if they want to make it smarter.”

What Innovations Are Improving Your Community?

Do you know of a forward-thinking startup or technology that deserves to be a part of the Global Innovation Series? Let us know about it in the comments below.

Series Supported by BMW i

The Global Innovation Series is supported by BMW i, a new concept dedicated to providing mobility solutions for the urban environment. It delivers more than purpose-built electric vehicles; it delivers smart mobility services within and beyond the car. Visit bmw-i.com or follow @BMWi on Twitter.

Are you an innovative entrepreneur? Submit your pitch to BMW i Ventures, a mobility and tech venture capital company.

More About: Global Innovation Series, roadify, SFpark, smart parking, streetline, tech, traffic, waze

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Gigabyte to Launch Two Dual-Boot Tablets This Year

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 07:26 AM PDT


Yearning for a tablet with more OS options? You might be in luck, as Gigabyte is planning to launch two tablets that will let users boot either Android or Windows 7 operating systems.

The 10-inch screen tablet will run Android 3.0 or Honeycomb, while the 7-inch device will run on Android 2.2 (now quite obsolete as both Honeycomb and Android 2.3 have been around for months). Users will also have an option to boot both tablets with Microsoft’s Windows 7 OS, which — while far from perfect for tablets — can be a nice option for many Windows users. Richard Ma, Gigabyte’s senior vice president, says the idea behind a dual-boot Android-Windows device is to give business users an option to edit their documents on the go — often a tough task on Android tablets.

Other specs for these devices are sparse: Ma says both will be powered by Intel Atom processors, but neither will include a USB port. It seems Gigabyte has determined users don’t need it since the company’s last tablet S1080 (pictured above) was a Windows 7-based device with three USB ports.

Gigabyte’s new tablets are slated to hit the market in October 2011 at a price that has not yet been determined, but it will be less than $400, Ma says. Gigabyte also plans to start working on a Windows 8 tablet by year’s end, and that device should hit the shelves in the final quarter of 2012.

[via PC World]

More About: android, gigabyte, Tablet, Windows

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Showyou Brings Flipboard Experience for Video to iPhone, iPad

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 07:00 AM PDT


Showyou, a highly social video viewing app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, has arrived in the App Store.

Like Flipboard, the app aggregates videos from friends on Facebook, as well as those one follows on Twitter, Tumblr (coming soon), YouTube (coming soon), Vodpod and the Showyou network itself. Videos are displayed in a seamlessly browsable, thousand-thumbnail grid; individual thumbnails can be clicked to pull up specific videos and comments.

Users can share videos with their followers by emailing a video link to their Showyou account, and by liking and commenting on other videos in the app. It’s also easy to share videos found on Showyou across one’s accounts on other social networks, comments intact.

Mark Hall, the CEO of Remixation, the company that built the app, says he and his team were inspired by both Flipboard, an iPad app that displays stories from one’s RSS and social network feeds in a unified, magazine-like format, and Instagram, an iPhone app that allows users to smoothly browse, comment and share stylized photos across multiple social networks.

“It’s different than Flipboard in that it has its own built-in social network, like Instagram, and it’s different from Instagram in that it has the Flipboard-like ability to discover outside [one's] current feeds,” he says.

While we appreciate the parts Hall and his team have adapted from both apps, we wish the app had also taken note of Flipboard’s sophisticated browsing and search structures. It would be nice to peruse videos by specific topic and genre, such as music videos or movie trailers.

Where the app really shines is with Apple TV, which enables users to pull up content from the app on their TV screens.

As for a business model, Hall says the company plans to integrate cost-per-play video ads into the thumbnail grid, and is considering implementing an in-app subscription service for long-form, premium content a la Hulu and Netflix.

For a preview of the iPad version of Showyou, check out the video and/or gallery of screenshots below.

Promo Video

Screenshot Gallery





Videos are displayed in a thumbnail grid.





Clicking on a thumbnaill will pull up the video with information about the source and comments.





Users can leave comments on others videos, and share those comments to other social networks.









Users can receive and share content across multiple social networks.





This is what a user profile looks like.





Users can browse videos in a single-column format as well as the grid.

More About: Flipboard, instagram, remixation, showyou, trending, vodpod, youtube

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LivingSocial Offers $1 Lunch Deals in Washington, D.C.

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 06:42 AM PDT


In an effort to publicize its newly launched Instant Deals offering, LivingSocial will point users to a slew of $1 lunch deals in Washington, D.C., on Friday.

The deals will be available to anyone in the city who logs in to the Instant Deals feature on LivingSocial’s mobile app. Using GPS, the app will pull up a list of such deals within a half-mile radius of the user. The deals will be available between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

LivingSocial didn’t give the full list of restaurants taking part in the deal, but two are Sticky Rice and California Tortilla in Chinatown.

LivingSocial launched Instant Deals on March 7, which competes with offerings from AT&T and Facebook, among others. The D.C.-based LivingSocial competes fiercely with Groupon, the leader in the group-buying category. In fact, LivingSocial claims it will overtake Groupon in market share in January 2012.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, MorePixels

More About: att, groupon, LivingSocial

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Was the Charlie Sheen Tweet a Win for Internships.com?

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 06:11 AM PDT


The Behind the Social Media Campaign Series is supported by Oneupweb, an award-winning agency specializing in search marketing, social media and design for mid-to-enterprise level brands. Download Oneupweb's free whitepaper, "The Bloody Truth about Social Media.”

When it comes to brand building, there are basically two schools of thought: "Build it and they will come" and "brainwash the masses."

The latter is based on the belief that any publicity is good publicity. If you get your name out there, the rest will fall in to place. A good example of this philosophy is GoldenPalace.com, which recently bought Justin Bieber's hair, and in the past has purchased William Shatner's kidney stone for the free publicity.

At the moment, Internships.com fits the latter category as well. If you've heard of the brand, it's most likely due to a single effective marketing campaign: An endorsement by Charlie Sheen via Twitter.

Internships.com, Charlie Sheen & Ad.ly

When Sheen joined Twitter on March 1, it's safe to say he wasn't a great fit with a lot of brands. Sheen had just had a major falling out with Chuck Lorre, the producer of Sheen's hit show Two and a Half Men and gave a series of bizarre interviews. It was clear that the star was something of a train wreck, and, to many, a fascinating one at that. Sheen became a trending topic on Twitter and, when he joined, set the Guinness World Record by getting 1 million followers in about 25 hours.

That combination of public pariah and social media star had appeal for a brand that was chiefly concerned with creating awareness. But Internships.com and Sheen needed a matchmaker.

That's where Ad.ly came in. Founded in 2009 by Sean Rad, Ad.ly sought to link celebrities with social media endorsements. The firm first came on a lot of people's radars when it arranged for client Kim Kardashian to receive $10,000 per tweet for spreading the message about Carl's Jr., a fast food chain. By now, Ad.ly claims more than 1,000 celebrities, who make endorsements on behalf of some 150 brands.

About the Internship

As it so happens, Internships.com's CEO, Robin Richards, sits on Ad.ly's board. Nevertheless, the year-old company — which connects internship seekers with companies offering internships — had some stipulations for working with Ad.ly and Sheen. "There were two things we needed to make sure of," says Kat Garcia, a rep for Internships.com. "We needed to make sure this was a legitimate internship and it was a paid internship."

The eight-week internship is real, but it's a little odd — the winner gets to manage Charlie Sheen's social media operations. It also pays — $10 an hour.

With those specifications in place, Sheen gave his tweet/plug on March 7: "I'm looking to hire a #winning INTERN with #TigerBlood. Apply here – http://bit.ly/hykQQF #TigerBloodIntern #internship #ad."

A Win For Internships.com?

The response to Sheen’s tweet was immediate. Within the first hour, the tweet got 95,333 clicks. A week later, the offer got more than 82,000 replies. "It's been overwhelming in a positive way," Garcia says.

While the promotion was undeniably successful in getting responses to the internship, it's not clear that Internships.com can build a brand off of it. The company, which had previously only run paid search advertising and the occasional print ad, is now known to most people as an extension of the Charlie Sheen brand.

Rob Frankel, a Los Angeles-based branding expert, says that's not necessarily a bad thing, but that this appears to be nothing more or less than a publicity stunt. "Awareness for awareness's sake never works," he says. "Cancer has a high awareness, but how many people want it?" Frankel says he believes that an attention-getting strategy is fine as long as it ties in with what the brand is offering — for him, the fact that the promotion is around a Charlie Sheen internship doesn't cut it.

When asked if there are potential downfalls to being yoked to Sheen — what if he dies for instance? — Lindsay Plotkin, another rep for Internships.com, sidestepped the question, focusing instead on what the promotion has meant for Internships's brand. "It kind of propelled us from maybe not being as well known to being a contender in this space," she says.

Potential concerns aside, Internships.com still has control of some of the message. One of the cleverer aspects of the campaign is that a single tweet launched a story arc for Internships.com. After narrowing down the field, the winner of the contest should be announced in a few weeks, no doubt providing more free publicity. After that, it will be up to Internships.com to plan what it will do with its newfound awareness. When asked, however, if anyone has successfully built a brand with publicity stunts, Frankel thought for a second. "I can't think of anyone that has," he said. "That should tell you something."

Series Supported by Oneupweb

The Behind the Social Media Campaign Series is supported by Oneupweb, an award-winning agency specializing in search marketing, social media and design for mid-to-enterprise level brands. Download Oneupweb's free whitepaper, "The Bloody Truth about Social Media" to learn how to cut through the clutter and be sure to catch up with them on Facebook and Twitter.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- Twitter + Random Acts of Kindness = A Successful Social Campaign
- How Social Media Helped Toy Story 3 Win at the Box Office
- Lessons Learned From The Old Spice Campaign & Its Imitators
- Top 5 Innovative Ways PR Pros Are Using Social Media
- How the Real Estate Industry Is Using Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]

More About: advertising, Behind the Social Media Campaign Series, charlie sheen, Internships.com, MARKETING, twitter

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LG Thrive, IE 10 & Final Cut Pro X Unveiled: This Morning’s Top Stories

Posted: 13 Apr 2011 05:58 AM PDT

Social Media News

Welcome to this morning’s edition of "First To Know," a series in which we keep you in the know on what's happening in the digital world. We're keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today.

AT&T Launches First Prepaid Smartphone

AT&T and LG have launched LG Thrive, the first Android smartphone to be available as part of AT&T's GoPhone prepaid plan.

Microsoft Unveils Internet Explorer 10 Preview

Microsoft has released the first platform preview for Internet Explorer 10, less than a month after the launch its much-hyped Internet Explorer 9 browser.

Apple Announces Final Cut Pro X

Apple has unveiled Final Cut Pro X, the newest version of its popular video-editing software.

Further News

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