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Author Archives: John Kisha
Small Sites for Big Holiday Shopping
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How Google, eBay, And PayPal Are Gearing Up For A Very Mobile Holiday Shopping Season | TechCrunch
Online holiday shopping reached record levels in 2010. And e-commerce spendingis up this year. All signs point to consumers spending even more online this holiday season. I sat down with executives from Google, eBay, PayPal and ShopKick to discuss the trends that are expected to emerge in the e-commerce space over the next few months. They center around mobile, tablets, and deals.
PayPal has more than doubled its mobile payments volume since the 2010 holiday shopping season, and we haven’t even hit the thick of this year’s rush. eBay is projecting $5 billion in mobile payments volume in 2010 and this number could increase in the next few months. And Google projects that 15 percent of total search on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving and one of the biggest shopping days of the year) will come from mobile devices. Tablet devices are now a part of the online shopping experience and retailers are taking note. Clearly, all signs point to the fact that this could be the breakout year for mobile shopping.
How Google, eBay, And PayPal Are Gearing Up For A Very Mobile Holiday Shopping Season | TechCrunch
Top 5 Foursquare Mistakes Committed By Small Businesses
Top 5 Foursquare Mistakes Committed By Small Businesses
From our coverage on Mashable, you’ve probably learned a fair share about Foursquare for business. There are more than 9 million people on Foursquare, and there are 250,000 businesses that have claimed venues and use the location-based service as part of their overall marketing program. Foursquare is a free platform for merchants to use to engage and incentivize customers, but only if done right. Here’s what not to do as you embark on your Foursquare marketing endeavors.
1. Creating a complicated special
There’s no fun in trying to unlock a special that is nearly impossible to unlock. Keep it simple. The purpose of Foursquare’s merchant platform is to bridge the gap between customers and merchants, and a high barrier to entry could easily turn users off. There are seven kinds of specials to choose from, depending on whether you’re targeting new customers, encouraging people to come back multiple times or wanting to reward the mayor (your most loyal Foursquare customer).
Foursquare enables businesses to activate a special only on certain days or during certain times, or they can reward people for every nth check in, regardless of what time or day it happens. “Receive a free cupcake on your fifth check in” or “10 percent off your bill on Tuesdays” are good examples of simple rewards.
Specials can provide discounts, a few bucks off or a free item. If you’re worried about margins, you can offer a special that doesn’t affect your bottom line—maybe users will get to shop during special hours at your shop. Alternatively, you can post videos of your most active Foursquare users on your Facebook and Twitter pages. Eric Friedman, Foursquare’s director of business development, says the best kind of specials are those that make people feel special and provide them with something they couldn’t get as a regular consumer.
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Amazon Cloud Services Have Major Outage
Even the big guys have unexpected problems.
“This is a wake-up call for cloud computing,” said Matthew Eastwood, an analyst for the research firm IDC, using the term for accessing services and information in big data centers remotely over the Internet from anywhere, as if the services were in a cloud. “It will force a conversation in the industry.”
That discussion, he said, will most likely center on what data and computer operations to send off to the cloud and what to keep inside the corporate walls.
But another issue, Mr. Eastwood said, will be a re-examination of the contracts that cover cloud services — how much to pay for backup and recovery services, including paying extra for data centers in different locations. That is because the companies that were apparently hit hardest by the Amazon interruption were start-ups that, analysts said, are focused on moving fast in pursuit of growth, and less apt to pay for extensive backup and recovery services.
Amazon set up a side business five years ago offering computing resources to businesses from its network of sophisticated data centers. Today, the company is the early leader in the fast-growing business of cloud computing.
In business, the cloud model is rapidly gaining popularity as a way for companies to outsource computing chores to avoid the costs and headaches of running their own data centers — simply tap in, over the Web, to computer processing and storage without owning the machines or operating software.
Amazon has thousands of corporate customers, from Pfizer and Netflix to legions of start-ups, whose businesses often live on Amazon Web Services. Those reporting service troubles included Foursquare, a location-based social networking site; Quora, a question-and-answer service; Reddit, a news-sharing site; and BigDoor, which makes game tools for Web publishers.
The problems companies reported varied, but included being unable to access data, service interruptions and sites being shut down.
Amazon has data centers around the world, but the current problems have come from its big center in Northern Virginia, near Dulles airport. Amazon’s Web page on the status of its cloud services said on Friday that matters were improving but were still not resolved. A company spokeswoman said the updates would be Amazon’s only comment for now.
Big companies, that have decided to put crucial operations on Amazon computers are apt to pay up for the equivalent of computing insurance, analysts sa...
Social Advertising May be Wasting Money
Something to be considered…
It’s not surprising that those who are most hesitant to adapt will be the first to embrace a contrarian article like this one. Young, small, and agile companies in all industries are seeing great results from their social presence (hence the majority of positive press for SM and the many case studies), because they know how best to use it to their benefit and how to be “real” or authentic.The archaic brands out there who have massive policy restrictions on SM that bind the hands of employees and remove any possibility of authenticity in their mandated One Social Media Decree Posted Per Week (usually something in the vein of “LOOK AT US, WE ARE GREAT, BUY OUR STUFF” partly because of said policy, partly because of fear, and partly because you can’t force creativity), are going to love this article, print it out (because they’re usually the type that prints out everything), think they have been proven correct in their archaic approach to online marketing, and believe their company should immediately cease all SM work.Good. It’s their loss. Let them fail to grasp it, it just gives entrepreneurs a better chance to succeed and cut into that brand’s marketshare.WebVixn wrote: “I agree wholeheartedly with its ineffectiveness in a direct marketing effort (for retail): who logs on to Facebook or Twitter just for the spam?” One could just as easily ask, “Who logs into email just for the spam?” Provided you set up your account properly, no one can spam you on Twitter or Facebook without you first connecting with them. But we all receive unsolicited spam email marketing and, aside from a few masochists, we all hate it.For many folks, email is important for business and transactional use, hence the need for white lists, spam filters, and rules/tags to segregate what comes in through it and cut down on time wasted by junk. It’s all a big pain in the butt, honestly, hence why something like CAN-SPAM had to happen, imperfect as it is.Twitter and Facebook are different tools with different marketing purposes. They aren’t primarily about formal business use, so quite naturally they will be better grounds for building community, customer service and interaction, timely communications, and even certain promotions. To not see the distinctions between the uses of email and a variety of other platforms is to not understand their real benefits of each for a brand.Twitter in particular is practically designed around the concept of what marketers might think of as “spam”, because t...
Effective Tips For Designing Your Website
Because we are first and foremost designers (rather than consumers), our communication must cater to two types of individuals: our visitors (or customers) are the ones whose attention we have to get, while our clients are the ones whose goals we are serving.
Be under no illusion: the visitors should always come first (because without them, a website is pointless). But as designers, we have a duty to those we design for!
Visitors and clients are different beasts, and we’re responsible for connecting them to each other.
Communication between visitors and clients comes with different variables to consider. When we build a website for a client, our focus is often on their business objectives (things like cost, scope, etc.).
Ensuring that both the client and visitors end up with something that encourages the client to retain our services is a bit of a balancing act. If you want to be a web designer, you must be able to communicate through your portfolio and other direct methods.
Below are some tips and tricks for working with clients, bosses and other third parties:...
52 Incredibly Useful Sites
You know all about Google’s (GOOG) smorgasbord of Web tools, but have you tried Measy, Topicfire, or Yammer? While a few big names seem to dominate the Internet, the Web continues to flourish with a never-ending stream of incredibly useful new sites and services.
PCWorld’s editors never stop scouring the Internet for the best and most creative new ideas we can find. Here are 52 phenomenally cool Web services that you may not have heard of, but definitely need to try.
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5 Great Small Business Blogs to Learn From
Cure hosts its blog on Tumblr, which is known for fostering a community that appreciates beautiful photography. The thrift shop's quirky photos of one-of-a-kind objects fit right into the Tumblr mix while also letting followers know what's new at the shop.
2. The Brooklyn Kitchen: Say it with a video
Small business owners usually have a fair amount of expertise to share with the world. A blog can be a wonderful place to flaunt all of that pent-up knowledge—incorporating videos, though, can take your advice to the next level.
The folks over at The Brooklyn Kitchen understand the virtue of nicely-produced videos. The team creates how-to videos for its cooking-crazed fans. Whether they're showing viewers how to shuck oysters or clean a blade grinder, The Brooklyn Kitchen crew focuses on providing useful and targeted information in a high-quality format.
One of my favorite videos they've produced is a gem on how to saber a champagne bottle, as demonstrated by co-owner Harry Rosenblum. This is the type of how-to you'd only expect to get from a group of passionate foodies. Readers value that type of expertise, especially when they feel they can't find it elsewhere.
3. Sweetgreen: Think big
With seven locations in the D.C. area and one outside Philadelphia, Sweetgreen is a restaurant that offers all-natural salads and frozen yogurts—it's a healthy, sustainable business that immerses itself into local culture. The company's website explains, "We don't believe that you can have a successful business in an unsuccessful community."
Based on that idea, Sweetgreen's founders aim to make a positive difference in their community. The Sweetgreen blog captures all of the community activities that the company is sponsoring and taking part in, along with the usual day-to-day activities of running a restaurant. You can find the team throwing music festivals, hosting nutrition classes at local schools, or just concocting mouth-watering seasonal ...
Facebook’s New “Questions Tool”
Within 15 hours, we had engaged 13% of our fanbase and had not only gained votes on answers we had given to the question; we also had fans suggesting (and voting for) new answers, including local couponing sites, LiveTVChat and more. For us, it was an opportunity to enjoy a high level of engagement with our followers, emerge as a thought leader and learn a little all at the same time.The next frontier, after some additional testing, will be to activate Questions on behalf of our clients. Next month, we are planning on extending Legends Outlets Kansas City’s “Charity Check-In” program through use of Facebook Questions. On Legends Outlets Facbeook Page, Legends Outlets is currently encouraging its consumers to check-in with Facebook Places in order to trigger the brand to donate $1 to a pre-determined, local Kansas City charity.Next month, the brand will be doing the same, but we will also be employing Facebook Questions to ask the fans what charities they would like to see appear as part of the ongoing Charity Check-In program. We’re excited to help Legends Outlets partner with the charities that mean the most to its fans, while raising their friends’ awareness of ways they can give back to the community.Mashable: What was your initial reaction to the new Facebook Questions tool?Grossman: Any time Facebook adds a new standard application to all user and business profiles, I get excited. When Facebook adds major new functionality like Questions, it stands to shift the social dynamic of over 500 million people, creating richer, more diverse and increasingly dynamic conversations.Beyond the impact it will have on users, the widespread release of Facebook Questions is also emblematic of the continuing trend we’ve seen from Facebook: As soon as a new trend in social media begins to rise up, Facebook acts quickly and decisively. For those long-time Facebook users out there, Questions will hearken back to the days when Polls were far more common on Facebook. But this round ...