"Brain Hacking" - Another Unintended Consequence of Technology http://t.co/EOoZ1roK via @sharethis
Foursquare raises $50 million
Fast-growing, location-based social networking service Foursquare has raised $50 million in venture funding. The company’s third round of financing was led by Andreessen-Horowitz, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture capital firm that has funded several other high-profile tech startups including Skype, Facebook, Twitter and Groupon. Also participating in the funding were Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, all of whom are existing investors in the company. According to Foursquare, the company will use a major portion of the new funding to hire engineers to help build out its merchant offerings more rapidly.Much of the investor interest in Foursquare comes from its emerging status as one of the Internet’s premier destinations for information on local businesses. Foursquare currently has over 10 million members who use the service regularly to get information on the best places within a neighborhood for shopping, dining, entertainment, pet care and other interests. Foursquare was one of the first social networks to introduce the concept of location-based networking. The service features a GPS application that lets members use their mobile phones to ‘check-in’ at participating businesses and collect discounts, coupons and other freebies from the merchant. The service awards badges, ‘mayorships’ and other similar incentives to encourage members to patronize local businesses. Foursquare lets people share details of their physical locations with other members and alerts them to any special deals, coupons or promotional offers being offered by businesses near their present location.
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5 Tips for a Revenue Generating Website
A successful website is a need to have item now a days, you can create a informational gateway while at the same time being creative and incorporating new, technology-friendly strategies.
Here are 5 tips to have a successful website:
1) Be artistic.
Designing a website is as much an artistic endeavor as it is an intellectual one. The best web designers are artists first. Instead of using brushes or clay, they use computers. They have an artist’s eye, touch and sensibility.
Hone your art.
2) Be intellectual.
Once the art has been mastered, start focusing on the mental side. Websites are made up of numbers and equations. Successful designers understand all the working parts of a website.
Memorize the formulas. A website can flourish or flounder based on one set of numbers.
3) Satisfy customers.
As an artist and thinker, living up to your own standards is vital. But you have a more important person to please: the customer. Always make sure they will be able to navigate and contact you easily.
Sit down with a few of your customers and find out exactly what they would like to see in your website.
Nat Geo Goes Social
Nat Geo is been around for a long time, but they're certainly trying to freshen up their image. A while back, they decided to shorten the name from National Geographic to simply Nat Geo. Now they're really stepping into the future with social networking. They've collaborated with Fotopedia to move into the mobile space with an iPad app called Dreams of Burma. The Dreams of Burma app is the fifth in the line of apps from Fotopedia. It displays more than 1,000 photos from the land of Burma taken by Fotopedia community members. In addition to the discerning eyes of the Fotopedia community, the editor of National Geographic Traveler also curated these photos. Similar to the other four apps, the images have metadata attached so you can view where they were taken and even bring up the Wikipedia entry related to that location. Viewing the location on a map is also an option, with photos taken nearby displayed as well. The previous four apps in this series have been downloaded a total of 3.2 million times, nothing to shake a stick at.
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Are Your Friends As Loyal As This?
UPDATE: This was a stunt by Pretty Social and Tattoo Dex. The Tattoo is a try-out tattoo which sticks for 5 days. The purpose was to see the reactions of the social media community. This was a brilliant and perfectly executed social media stunt to create brand awareness a video viral. I guess it was go big or go home for this one!
Facebook is the hottest social network around right now. Nearly everyone and their mother is on the site, farming virtual fields and "liking" all sorts of content. Most people use the site as a fun way to see what's going on in the lives of their friends and family. However, some people take their enjoyment to another level. In fact, one girl got a tattoo showing her dedication to Facebook and her friends to that next level. Her density for Facebook Tattoo was something to see. Business owners around the world should take notice and decide how they can take advantage of this fanaticism.
Friends are a good thing and it's great to stay loyal to them. One girl certainly believes in those ideals. She tattooed all 152 photos of her Facebook friends on her arm. It may be a publicity stunt, but it doesn't change the fact that this girl is crazy about Facebook and her friends. Many business owners are wondering how they can get the same type of fanaticism from their customers on Facebook. What if a business could get customers to start tattooing the logo on their arms? That's the type of advertising money can't buy.
Twitter Tools for Social Community Managers
There's no denying that social media is the key to the future of marketing. Everyone from Barack Obama to Walmart uses Twitter to expand their brand and keep in contact with their community. Since Twitter's release in 2006, applications for browsers, desktops, and mobile devices have been developed to make the tweeting experience easier and more productive. If you're trying to manage a social community or build a brand in the best way possible, take advantage of some of these twitter tools for social community managers.Desktop Applications
These are downloadable programs you can run on your desktop or laptop to make the tweeting experience easier. The most popular desktop applications for Twitter are Tweetdeck and Seesmic. You can tweet, retweet, reply, direct message, share pictures and links, and group followers. When you group your followers, it's easier than ever keep up with your online presence and distinguish between consumers, fans, and business partners. All the features found in Tweetdeck and Seesmic help you save time while still accomplishing your Twitter goals. These programs even have mobile versions so you can keep updated on your iPhone, Blackberry or Android device.
Browser-Based Clients
Like desktop programs, browser-based clients help users make sense of Twitter and organize followers and tweets. However, the biggest advantage to using a browser-based client is that you can easily use the features on any computer without having to download a program. This is ideal if you're constantly switching computers and don't want to download the same program on all of them. Some clients are optimized for businesses, like HootSuite or CoTweet, but many more are simple clients that can be used by both individuals and businesses. Examples of these include Brizzly and Seesmic's web version.
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