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ZYNGA PLANS ITS OWN SOCIAL NETWORK AND LEAVE FACEBOOK, BUT THIS WON'T SOLVE ITS DRASTIC DECLINE IN GAMERS

Click image to view Zynga With Friends website

Zynga, the titan of time-wasting, is broadening its distribution base with a new social network called “Zynga With Friends,” where players can build profiles and connect with other players while wasting epic amounts of time, according to the company, which announced the plans on Tuesday. In addition to giving gamers a new go-to destination for flushing their lives down the toilet, the move is interesting because Zynga With Friends will be an alternative to Facebook, where most Zynga games are currently played.

Indeed, it’s worth noting that Zynga With Friends replicates many of the features and capabilities offered by Facebook, including profiles with pictures and interests, messaging, chat, and status updates. It also offers real-time multi-player mode, for simultaneous collaborative game-playing. Zynga With Friends can be accessed via multiple platforms, including laptops, smartphones, and tablets.

In a bid to spread buzz and build traffic, the company is opening Zynga With Friends to other game developers, including Phospher Games, Sava, Crashlab, Fatpebble, and Atari (yes, you read that right: Atari is producing a game for Zynga to commemorate its 45^th anniversary).

Zynga has long hinted that it would like to lessen its dependence on Facebook, which takes a 30% cut of revenues generated through sales of virtual goods to casual gamers. These revenues, in turn, still make up a substantial part of Facebook’s bottom line -- some 11% of total revenues in the first quarter, plus another 4% from advertising on Zynga games. While Zynga still relies on Facebook’s payment system for sales on its own site, strengthening its own site may be a preamble to setting up its own payment system, heralding the end of revenue sharing with Facebook (at least for games played outside Facebook).

That would be more bad news for Facebook, which is struggling to demonstrate sustainable growth to Wall Street analysts and investors. If advertising revenue growth continues to slow, this would leave Facebook all the more dependent on revenue streams like Zynga’s virtual goods sales -- just as Zynga is pulling away.

COMMENTARY:   It's about time that Zynga unhitch itself from dependance on the Facebook platform.  According to Zynga, it has 232 million monthly active users
 and 60 million daily active users.  Its social games include:

• Bubble Safari 
• Castleville 
• Cityville
• Empires & Allies
• Farmville
• Hidden Chronicles
• Pioneer Trail
• Mafia Wars 2
• Zynga Poker
• Words With Friends.  

In a blog post dated June 12, 2012, I posted a body of evidence that strongly suggests that Zynga's best days may be over.  Nearly all of its games, including its two biggest winners, Farmville and Mafia Wars, have experienced drastic drops in monthly/daily active users between Janaury and May 2012.  These are not good times for Zynga.  It's IPO on December 16, 2011 was considered a flop.  Shares came out at $10.00, but dipped to $9.50 at the end of trading.  It's share speaked at $14.69 on March 2, 2012, but have declined dramatically since that date.  As of today, Zynga's stock (NASDAQ:ZNGA) have dropped to 5.44, with a market capitalization was only $4.01 billion.   Rumors that they maybe acquired by Facebook are rampant.  Analysts have downgraded the stock believing that its business model is not sustainable.

Whether Zynga With Friends will allow it to keep its traffic numbers and retain most of its revenues remains to be seen.   Most of the articles I have read believe that unhitching itself from Facebook, could be a huge mistake.   Facebook will also feel the loss.    

• Zynga's gross revenues for the year ending December 31, 2012 were $1.140 billion.  
• It paid Facebook 30%, or roughly $330 million.  
• It ended the year with a net loss of -$404 million.   
• R&D for the year ending December 31, 2012 was $727 million.   

Zynga needs new hit games with lasting power.  However, recent trends show strong evidence that social games are losing popularity, and users are flocking to other gaming or entertainment sites.

I have yet to find a single social media or stock analyst that believes in Zynga anymore. 

Courtesy of an article dated June 27, 2012 appearing in MediaPost Publications The Social Graf

HOW ART SCHOOL GRAD PO-CHIH LAI DESIGNED THE "STAIR ROVER," A SKATEBOARD THAT YOU CAN RIDE DOWN STAIRS

NOW THE ONLY PROBLEM IS ALL THOSE "NO SKATEBOARDING" SIGNS.

Why do skateboarders grind on railings? Was it part of an evolution of the sport, from backyard pools to urban landscapes? Sure. Was it a ridiculous idea from a skateboarder who preferred to risk life and limb, sliding down a rail rather than face certain death taking the stairs on a skateboard, again? Probably.

Click Images To Enlarge

Now, recent Royal College of Art graduate Po-Chih Lai has designed a skateboard that can cruise down stairs without a second thought. Called the Stair Rover, it’s the semi of skateboards, an 8-wheeled beast that’s quite literally “rocking” an aluminum Y-frame to transform stairs into a passive-propelling landscape.

 

Lai tells Co.Design.

“My idea is basically the same as surfers.  They look for the hidden energy of nature, which is waves. Mine is looking for the hidden energy around us. Interestingly what I found is stairs, there are plenty of stairs hidden around our playground and habitat--the city.”

Whereas some may see Lai’s clever skateboard as an overly simplified parallel to the automatic transmission in a suburban car, he sees his stairmaster as an extension of the extreme sport, turning “boundaries and restrictions into a positive and creative physical enquiry into the ever changing kinesis of the urban ecosystem.” Skateboarding is an activity shaped as much by culture as it is hardware, but as a once-clandestine activity has gone mainstream, it will be interesting to see if the traditional hardware is reassessed to enable a new generation of bigger, crazier tricks (and plenty of commuter convenience along with them).

Click Images To Enlarge

What could Tony Hawk do on a skateboard fitted with Segway-like intelligence and an F1 engineering crew? What if sensors were ensuring his board was always at the right angle when making contact with the pavement, allowing him to focus even more on wild aerial stunts? What if traction control could assist where his balance failed?

And what if--just what if--Lai’s skateboard could climb up the stairs, rather than just down them?

COMMENTARY:    Nice design.  Handmade.  Eight wheels.  Expensive, no doubt.   You are looking at a $600 skateboard.  If you got the doe, and willing to take the chance of being caught skateboarding down stairs, have at it.  Looks like fun to me.  

Courtesy of an article dated June 28, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design

8 TIPS FOR RUNNING SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTIONS TO ENSURE LEGAL COMPLIANCE, BUILD BUZZ AND ENCOURAGE UGC

Click Image To Enlarge

If you’re looking to gain even more traction with social promotions like contests and sweepstakes here are eight additional tips to enhance your next social media campaign courtesy of Ben Pickering, author of How to Run a Successful Social Media Contest. 

Ensure Your Promotion Doesn’t Get You In Hot Water

It’s difficult to run a successful campaign if your promotion is blocked, removed or challenged in a court of law. So before we get to the fun part of marketing, there are a few logistical tips to keep in mind.

#1: Running a Facebook Promotion Requires an App

Much has been written about the Facebook Promotional Guidelines and how to run a compliant promotion. The guidelines have evolved, but the most important requirement remains the same: any promotion (i.e., something where a consumer enters for a chance to win a prize) on Facebook must be handled through an app.

If you know what you’re doing, you could develop your own Facebook app, but you might prefer to personalize an “off-the-shelf” app by a variety of companies such as:

• North Social 
• Wildfire
• Strutta

Some are inexpensive and no-frills, while others provide a more robust set of features and options to connect you with your customers and personalize the experience.

If you choose a third-party app provider, choose a Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer so you can feel confident you’re in compliance with Facebook’s platform policies.

Look for developers and platforms that display this badge with the Apps qualification.

#2: Twitter Promotions Must Provide Rules Disclosure

Any contest or sweepstakes must provide participants with terms and conditions of entry and Twitter is no exception. With only 140 characters to work with, this becomes one of the bigger challenges of running a Twitter-based promotion.

The easiest way to address this is to host the rules on a separate web page and include a short link when tweeting about the contest. Alternatively you can host a landing page with all of the contest details and requirements and direct traffic to that page, rather than having the interaction take place within the Twitter stream.

For larger-scale promotions, you may wish to utilize a third-party service such as CMP.LY to ensure compliance.

In this example, the CMP.LY service is used to provide a short URL linking to the terms of the promotion whenever it is shared on Twitter.

#3: Beware of the Lottery

No, I’m not worried about you blowing your paycheck on Powerball. But lotteries are the domain of the government and you want to ensure your promotion isn’t deemed an illegal lottery.

Any promotion that contains the following THREE elements is considered a lottery: 

• prize 
• element of chance in winner selection 
• consideration (cash payment, purchase requirement or extensive effort required to enter)

Since you wouldn’t have much of a promotion without a prize, you must eliminate either chance or consideration (or best of all, both) to steer clear of potential legal concerns.

Tips to Build Buzz

Once you’ve dotted your I’s and crossed your T’s on the legal and policy side, it’s time to think about how to drive traffic and build momentum for your promotion.

#4: Make it Easy for Users to Share

This is the most important tip when it comes to marketing. Much of the value in a social promotion comes from the increased ease for participants to share your promotion through their social graph.

One of the reasons contests such as “Retweet to Win” are so popular is the nearly frictionless sharing. If you’re using an app on Facebook to encourage viral sharing, ensure that the sharing options are easy and intuitive.

However, it’s also important to be aware that over-sharing can lead to the perception of spam, so it’s important to strike the right balance.

Note: It’s against Facebook policy to directly reward a user for sharing. You may use Facebook apps to reward referrals, but be careful not to directly incentivize sharing.

Integrated share tools make it easy for contest participants to share if they want to.

#5: Regularly Promote Your Contest

Contest organizers will often schedule a bunch of communications when a promotion launches, then fail to maintain communication throughout the campaign.

Be sure to share key milestones and events (e.g., contest round ending, finalists being selected, just reached 100 or 10,000 entries).

If you’re running a user-generated content promotion, it’s also a great opportunity to share content (e.g., popular or unique entries) that will drive greater engagement.

When posting about your promotion on Facebook, be sure to utilize the pinned post feature to keep the post visible at the top of the timeline.

And don’t forget to utilize all of your social channels—it’s OK to promote your Facebook contest on Twitter and Google+.

In this example, a compelling image is used to draw attention and a direct link to the contest app is provided.

#6: Amplify Your Message Through Partners

Tap into the power of partner marketing by including sponsors and providing them with exposure in exchange for cross-promotion.

Also be sure to identify influencers (journalists, bloggers, etc.) whom you canreach out to and share news about your promotion.

If you’re running a contest with a judging component to evaluate entries, you may want to invite influencers to be a part of the judging panel. Attaching their name to your contest adds credibility and gives them a good reason to talk about it!

PR firm Affect tapped influential people in the PR and marketing world to serve as judges and help them find the ultimate summer intern.

Tips for Contests Featuring User-Generated Content

I am a big believer in the power of user-generated content promotions, but having been involved with many over the past five years, there are a couple of key lessons I’ve learned.

#7: Prime the Pump

Any time you’re asking users to submit content into a promotion, it’s a good idea to seed the contest with a few submissions.

These can be sample entries that you create which are not eligible to win or submissions from participants who have been encouraged to enter early.

In this contest run by Social Media Examiner's own Mike Stelzner, Mike provided his own sample entry to help inspire participants.

The key is to have some entries right away to break the ice and provide others with inspiration for their own submission.

#8: Think Twice Before Relying Solely on the Court of Public Opinion

Contests featuring user-generated content often incorporate a component of public voting. This is something I would encourage because it drives greater virality, with participants naturally incentivized to share their entries and voters taking an active role in the outcome.

However, if your contest is decided 100% by public voting, you need to be prepared to relinquish control of the outcome to those individuals with the largest social networks and/or those using vote-swapping and other tricks to try to game the system.

The most popular contest model among our clients uses a round of voting to narrow the field of entries down to a predetermined number of finalists, and a panel of judges then decides the winner.

By employing a set of predefined judging criteria, the client is able to retain some discretion over who is named the winner(s) while still generating a lot of voting and sharing activity up front.

Another option is to use judging criteria to select finalists and then open it to voting. Regardless of your preferred contest model, ensure that your platform of choice is well-equipped to handle voting and the potential challenges that come along with it.

A Success Story

Recently Mari Smith launched her very first contest. Mari wanted to do something fun and rewarding for her fans, and to introduce a new webinar she was hosting. She was consistently enthusiastic about delivering a great experience for her community and utilized many of the tips outlined above.

Mari did a great job of promoting the contest and keeping fans engaged by profiling interesting segments along the way.

Mari invited everyone to submit their Facebook cover photo for a chance to win a Facebook Makeover valued at $1,000. In just three weeks, the promotion received nearly 400 entries, which in turn generated 1,500 shares and more than 3,000 click-throughs.

An additional 2,000 people subsequently participated as entrants or voters as a direct result of another entrant sharing the promotion with them.

The contest received more than 25,000 visits in just three weeks, providing great exposure for Mari and generating a significant number of signups to her webinar.

I’ve seen companies of all sizes use promotions in a similar fashion to inexpensivelyacquire and engage fans, build awareness for a new product and ultimately drive conversions to sales.

What do you think? What would you like a social promotion to do for you?Please join in the discussion below.

COMMENTARY:    Here are 7 simple steps to launching a successful social media promotion by Dave Kerpen, CEO, Likeable Media in an article that appeared in All Things WOM:

1. Build a community first. Too often, companies think that if they create an exciting contest or sweepstakes, it’ll “go viral” and bring them lots of Facebook fans or Twitter followers. That may happen, but you’re much more likely to succeed with your social media promotion if you already have an established Facebook or Twitter and blog community.
2. Define your goal carefully. Are you looking for increased targeted likes? Website traffic? Leads? Buzz? Sales? Your goal will inform what kind of promotion you put together, the budget and length of the promotion, and success metrics.
3. Create a simple experience. Elaborate contests can be fun to envision, but too often are complex and ask too much of consumers to enter. It’s a lot to ask people to create videos, for instance, but easier to ask them to upload photos and even easier to ask them to answer a question.
4. Understand the laws of the land. When you run a contest or sweepstakes, you have to make sure the t’s are crossed and i’s dotted in your rules. In social media, it’s even more complicated, as Facebook has its own set of ever-changing Promotions Guidelines to plan around.
5. Choose a great tool to help you. Two of the best-known social media promotions tools are WildfireApp and Strutta, but there are lots of social media promo companies worth looking at. When setting up your promotion, keep in mind not only how easy it is to enter, but also how easy and compelling it is to share across social networks.
6. Include a social network media budget to support the promotion. You wouldn’t host an offline sweepstakes without a media budget to support it, so don’t expect to host an online promo without an advertising budget. Ideally, the media should be spent on the social platform where the promotion resides. So if it’s on Facebook, run Facebook ads. On Twitter, run Promoted Tweets.
7. Track results and iterate for the future. Unlike offline promotions, which may take a year to plan and execute, social media promotions can be planned and executed a lot faster, giving you more time to look at the results and make changes for the near future. Whatever success looks like to your brand, it can always be better, so the more you track, the more you can analyze and improve.

Above all else, take off your marketing cap, put on your consumer cap, and ask yourself, “Would I be excited to enter this contest and tell all of my friends about it? Is this easy enough to enter? Is the prize right?” If the answers to these questions are all “YES”, you’re well on your way to launching a successful social media promotion.

Want to know how the pro's design winning sales promotions? Check out social media expert Jeff Bullas' Top 10 Best Facebook Campaigns for 2010.

Courtesy of an article dated June 28, 2012 appearing in Social Media Examiner and an article dated June 21, 2011 appearing in AllThingsWOM and an article dated March 1, 2011 appearing in Jeff Bullas blog

GOOGLE UNVEILS ITS NEW NEXUS 7 TABLET, RUNS ON ANDROID 4.1 JELLY BEAN, COSTS $199, TO COMPETE AGAINST THE KINDLE FIRE

Hugo Barra, Director of Product Management, Android, presents Google's Nexus 7 tablet at Google's I/O Developer Conference in San Francisco on June 27, 2012 (Click Image To Enlarge)

At Google's I/O Developer Conference 2012 , Google officially unveiled its new Nexus 7 tablet.   The 7-inch tablet is the first and currently only device shipping with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and takes advantage of its optimization for smaller tablet screens, magazines and movies.  

 

The Nexus 7 tablet is built by ASUS and here are some of the key specifications:

• Google Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
• Quad-core Tegra 3 processor running at 1.3Ghz.
• 1.2-megapixel front camera. 
• Near field communication (NFC) capability.  
• An in-plane switching (IPS) LCD screen with 1280 x 800 pixels is a trait found in pricier tablets. 

The Nexus 7 tablet prices are as follows:  

• 8GB model - $199 
• 16GB model - $249

The Nexus 7 tablet includes a  $25 Google Play credit and a slew of bundled content. 

There's no SD card slot, however.

The Nexus 7 tablet is available for ordering through Google Play (and possibly local stores) in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US with a mid-July shipping window.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012's opening keynote at our event hub!

Complete Asus Nexus 7 Tablet Specifications

Complete Asus Nexus 7 Tablet Specifications (Click Image To Enlarge)

PostPCNation found about Google's Asus Nexus 7 tablet prior to the I/O Developers Conference 2012 and provided the following specifications video:

 

COMMENTARY:   This is the presentation video from the 2012 Google I/O keynote, where Google announced they will be releasing a new tablet, called the Nexus 7. The Google Nexus 7 will be manufactured by Asus, has a 7" screen with 1280 x 800 resolution, and will use a Tegra 3 processor. The device will cost $199, is available to order today through the Google Play store, and will ship in July.

 

Although Google claims that the Asus Nexus 7 tablet is competing against Amazon's Kindle Fire 7-inch tablet, the Nexus 7 is a superior tablet, so I don't see the Kindle Fire as its chief target.  The Google cloud is becoming more Apple iCloud-like everytime I look at it.   I still believe that Google will eventually take on the iPad.  And why not, it has 500,000 apps, 250,000 developers, Google cloud to support Music, movies and mobile apps, plus synchronization on any Android mobile device.  It's starting to look more Apple-like to me.  I thik what we are seeing is the transformation of Google from a pure-play search and software company to a hardware company, with control over the entire Android ecosystem.   Yup, I think Google is after Apple, not right now, but definitely by 2013.   

Courtesy of an article dated June 27, 2012 appearing in Engadget, an article dated June 27, 2012 appearing in Engadget

TESLA MOTORS HITS THE ROAD: DELIVERS THE FIRST MODEL S ALL-ELECTRIC SEDANS

Just over three years ago Tesla Motors unveiled its vision for the future of transportation:  the Model S all-electric sports sedan.  On June 22, 2012, Tesla Motors finally began delivering the first Model S to its customers.   Checkout the Tesla Motors delivery event video:

 

Over a period of three years Tesla Motors developed the Model S sedan from the ground up with persistence and passion.   In my personal opinion, the Model S sedan is the classiest, best designed and engineered all-electric vehicle for mass production.   Yes, its pricey, but in terms of design and engineering it stands head and shoulders above anything coming out of Asia or Detroit.  Nothing even comes close in terms of overall design and performance.  

If you haven't see the Model S all-electric sedan, click HERE or checkout all of my blog posts for Tesla Motors by clicking HERE.

Courtesy of a press release dated June 22, 2012 appearing in Tesla Motors website

MICROSOFT PAYS $1.2 BILLION TO ACQUIRE YAMMER, A FACEBOOK-LIKE SOCIAL NETWORK FOR BUSINESSES, BUT IS IT TOO MUCH, TOO LATE?

 

Microsoft's announcement Monday that it will acquire Yammer, a social network for corporate use, sparked concerns about whether it paid too much, too late.

The $1.2 billion buyout comes as Salesforce.com, Oracle, Google and SAP continue expanding business-use social networks integrated into their respective product lines.

Microsoft has been trying futilely for years to popularize social networking within SharePoint, its collaboration server that comes bundled with versions of its Office productivity suite sold to large businesses.

 

By acquiring Yammer, the software giant is attempting to "fill a gap," says Wesley Miller, analyst at research firm Directions on Microsoft. Similar to Facebook, Yammer connects users and claims more than 200,000 corporate customers, including Ford, Orbitz Worldwide and 7-Eleven.

Miller says.  

"The valuation seems high.  This is Microsoft recognizing a valuable player in the field. The reality is, Yammer has a name, brings a fair amount of users, and offers an experience which SharePoint doesn't."

How The Microsoft of Yammer Acquisiton Fits

Click Image To Enlarge

Founded in 2008 by former PayPal executive David Sacks, Yammer made hay by offering a free micro-blogging service that caught on. It can enable the creation of private social networks where employees collaborate on projects.

Yammer will be added as a new Microsoft division and Sacks will stay on as chief executive officer.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement. 

"The acquisition of Yammer underscores our commitment to deliver technology that businesses need and people love.  Yammer adds a best-in-class enterprise social networking service to Microsoft's growing portfolio of complementary cloud services."

Business Enterprise Collaboration Software Comparisons

Click Image To Enlarge

Trip Chowdhry, managing director at Global Equities Research, predicts Microsoft Yammer will have a difficult time catching Salesforce.com, which has been beefing up its Chatter social network for a couple of years, and Oracle, which is pushing its Social Relationship Management services.

Chowdhry says.  

"Microsoft is too late to the social party.  You cannot get into a leadership position by imitating the leaders. This is a non-event for Microsoft and for the industry."

Even so, Tony Zingale, CEO of business social network supplier Jive, which went public last year, says the buyout validates the notion that social networking is destined to emerge as a must-have business tool.

Zingale says.  

"Microsoft had to make a rather desperate move to buy a company — that has an extremely narrow offering that's given away for free — to be able to compete with the likes of someone like Jive."

Miller notes that back in 2008, Microsoft spent $1.2 billion to acquire FAST Search & Transfer and integrate the search engine into SharePoint. But that upgrade has failed to wow customers, he says.

It remains to be seen whether the Yammer deal will follow suit.  Miller says.

"My concern with Yammer is that they may present a more confusing picture in the short term, by broadening Office and SharePoint. "

COMMENTARY:     I never heard of YAMMER until just today.   Unless you are a user of a large corporate enterprise system (i.e. Fortune 500/1000) chances are pretty good that you never heard of YAMMER either.  Needless to say, it's official:  Microsoft is acquiring Yammer  

Here's the press release on the YAMMER website:

"Yammer is pleased to announce that we have signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Microsoft. Microsoft will continue to invest in Yammer's stand-alone service, and the team will remain under the direction of David Sacks within the Microsoft Office Division. As a Yammer customer, you will continue to get a secure, private social network—delivered with the same focus on simplicity, innovation, and cross-platform experiences. Over time, you’ll see more and more connections to SharePoint, Office365, Dynamics and Skype. With Microsoft’s backing, our aim is to massively accelerate our vision to change the way work gets done through software that is built for the enterprise and loved by users. Read the press release and our blog post to learn more.

Social media has dramatically changed the way we share and connect with friends and family, and it will have an even more profound impact on the way companies operate. Giving your organization the advantage of a social foundation is critical for success in today’s fast-paced environment.

Yammer is a secure, private social network for your company. Yammer empowers employees to be more productive and successful by enabling them to collaborate easily, make smarter decisions faster, and self-organize into teams to take on any business challenge. It is a new way of working that naturally drives business alignment and agility, reduces cycle times, engages employees and improves relationships with customers and partners."

About Yammer

Yammer is a secure, private social network for your company. Yammer empowers employees to be more productive and successful by enabling them to collaborate easily, make smarter decisions faster, and self-organize into teams to take on any business challenge. It is a new way of working that naturally drives business alignment and agility, reduces cycle times, engages employees and improves relationships with customers and partners.

Background

• Pioneered Enterprise Social Networking when we launched in 2008
• Among the fastest growing enterprise software companies in history, exceeding over four million users in just three years
• Raised $142 million in venture funding from top tier firms
• Used by more than 200,000+ companies worldwide

Social Expertise

• Built social from the ground up with ‘Facebook DNA’: Facebook’s Founding President, Sean Parker serves on Yammer’s Board of Directors
• Yammer and Facebook share the same first investor, Peter Thiel; backed by Social+Capital Partnership – a fund established by former Facebook Vice President, Chamath Palihapitiya

Their Customers

• More than 80 percent of the Fortune 500® are using Yammer
• Leading organizations including Deloitte, Ford, Nationwide, 7-Eleven, Orbitz Worldwide, Rakuten, and Telefonica O2 have adopted Yammer

Recognition

• A leader in “The Forrester Wave™: Mobile Collaboration, Q3 2011″
• Recognized with Deloitte Australia in the 2011 Forrester Groundswell Awards as the winner in the Management: Collaboration System category
• Named an “Innovative Application Software Company Under $100 Million to Watch, 2011″ by IDC

Accessing Yammer

Users can access Yammer anywhere since it is a Software as a Service running "in the cloud."   You can access Yammer on your desktop computer, laptop or handheld mobile device. Yammer apps are available for your iPhone, iPad,Android, Blackberry & Windows devices.   You can also embed Yammer into other applications to receive your Yammer newsfeeds automatically.   Yammer can seamlessly integrate with Microsoft Sharepoint, Salesforce and SAP.  

Microsoft Strategy Behind Yammer Acquisition

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is counting on Yammer’s sharing tools to ensure that long-established Microsoft applications, including its word processing and spreadsheet programs, remain vital components for getting work done. Google Inc. has emerged as a threat with a toolbox of similar programs that run primarily over the Internet rather than on individual machines.

Ballmer said on a Monday conference call.

“Think of Yammer as a fundamental part of our Office family.” 

Microsoft will have much of the same autonomy given to Skype since that deal closed eight months ago. Yammer will continue to be run from its San Francisco headquarters by its co-founder and CEO, David Sacks. It will also continue to provide its services separately from Microsoft’s offerings.

Gartner Inc. analyst Larry Cannell said Microsoft’s latest acquisition was smart and reflected “a recognition that the social capabilities in Microsoft’s products have been deficient.”

Although other companies such as Jive Software Inc. and Salesforce.com Inc. are building social networks for businesses, Yammer shares the most DNA with Facebook Inc.

When it started in 2008, Yammer raised its initial funding from Peter Thiel — Facebook’s first major investor. Thiel formerly worked with Sacks while they were both executives at PayPal, an online payment service that eBay Inc. bought for $1.5 billion in 2002.

Salesforce's Chatter users have created over 250,000 social networks, so their product is obviouly filling a need in both SMB's and enterprise users.   Yammer claims that 80% of the Fortune 500 are using its enterprise social network SaaS.  Because Yammer already integrates with Salesforce, Microsoft's Share and SAP, it can tap into those large user customer bases.  The payoff for Microsoft will come in huge amount of data that it will be able to gather about its users. This will allow it to better serve its SMB and enterprise-wide customers and provide them with the products of the future.  

If you would like to learn more about Yammer, check out their product videos on YouTube by clicking HERE.

Courtesy of an article dated June 25, 2012 appearing in USAToday and an article dated June 25, 2012 appearing in The Washington Post

 

 

 

RUMOR: MICROSOFT TO INCLUDE MICROSOFT OFFICE 2013 WITH ITS NEW WINDOWS 8 PHONES WHEN THEY LAUNCH LATER THIS YEAR

 

This morning Paul Thurrott, the well-known Microsoft watcher, writing in Windows IT Pro, detailed a number of Windows 8 features that Microsoft either mentioned or alluded to in its presentation last week in San Francisco.

The post, however, did include something that TNW hadn’t heard before, that in Windows Phone 8, a fresh set of productivity apps will be included, under the Office 2013 brand. This makes sense, as Windows Phone 8 is also bringing a new version of Internet Explorer, and likely the new Xbox Music service as well; the inclusion of refreshes is the name of the game for the next generation of Windows Phone.

Even more, the timing makes sense. Windows Phone 8 will be out later this year, as will, it appears, the next version Office. Office 15, its working name, will be called Office 2013. The fact that it will be called Office 2013 will not force the code to actually come out in that year; there is a history of Office releases coming out before their name would indicate.

Therefore, given that Windows phone 8 will have, according to Thurrott who is very rarely wrong, Office 2013, in 2012, indicates strongly that the next version of Office will come out this year. Again, not a surprise, but another indication to back our assumptions. Microsoft wouldn’t release Office 2013 mobile before the desktop version, right?

As we reported last week, other features besides MS Office 2013 that Microsoft intends to use to entice business customers include:

• New app installation processes. 
• Encryption 
• Improved device management for enterprises. 

The company has yet to detail the full set of consumer-facing features that Windows 8 will contain.

Don’t expect to see that list soon. Microsoft is going to keep it tight to its chest, as it doesn’t want people holding off buying a handset now, to buy one later; much of Windows Phone 8 won’t work on hardware that isn’t shipped with the code, meaning that any phone bought before its release will suffer from a lack of future firmware upgrades. For that reason, Microsoft wants consumers to not know what they won’t get in the future, and thus buy a handset now. It’s a dance, but one that may work.

COMMENTARY:  I think including MS Office 2013 on Windows 8 phones is a fantastic idea for the reasons given in the article.  However, creating a spreadsheet on a mobile phone is not very productive due to the small screen footprint.  Hopefully, MS realizes this, and if MS engineers are smart like they were in designing Microsoft's dazzlig Surface tablet, they will provide a separate keyboard or larger screen phone like the Samsung Galaxy S3 phone.  That phone comes with a stylus that allows you to doodle, write comments on emais, drawings, etc.  The Surface tablet, with a 10.1-in screen, so it might be logical to assume that MS will come out with a larger Windows 8 phone as well.  That's not a prediction, but I think Samsung's phone will start a trend of bigger screen mobile phones.

The Nokia Lumia 610, 800 and 900 series phones running Windows 7.5 OS have larger screens. My favorite is the Nokia Lumia 900 with a 4.3-inch screen. That's nearly an inch bigger than the iPhone 4S.  The handicap is the slower 3G speed, slow processor and screen resolution.  However, Lumia phones running Windows 7.5 offer tight integration with Microsoft Office (see below).  The screen resolution should not be a handicap, as text readability is excellent and you can see images much clearer than the iPhone in bright sunlight.  Somehow, I have a feeling that Nokia will produce an even bigger screen on their next Lumia 900, that will allow MS Office 13 to really zing.  Rumors are already circulating that a future iPhone will come with a larger screen.  

Courtesy of an article dated June 26, 2012 appearing in TheNextWeb

2012 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING INDUSTRY REPORT: HOW MARKETERS ARE USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO GROW THEIR BUSINESS

Social media isn't easy.

There's always a new platform you should sign up for, or a new feature you need to learn about. And everyday you're reminded of just how far behind you are.

But here's the good news.

By simply addressing a few mistakes with your social media strategy, you can improve your results and finally catch your breath.

Here are 3 social media mistakes you don't know you're making.

1. Not Asking the Right Questions

People always want to know "how many Tweets per day should they send" or "what day should I schedule my blog posts?

But these questions are usually pointless. Social media can't save your brand.

Today, your product and service is your marketing. That means:

• If you're providing a product, then make it the most innovative, unique and easy-to-use product in your space.
• If you're providing a service, then make go above and beyond expectations to deliver the best possible customer experience.
• If you're writing a blog post, then make it the best, most actionable or information-packed post possible.

Instead of worrying about your Klout score, start thinking about your Net Promoter Score.

How likely is it that you would recommend [Company X] to a friend or colleague?Customers respond on a 0-to-10 point rating scale and are categorized as follows:

• Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth.
• Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings.
• Detractors (score 0-6) are unhappy customers who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth.

To calculate your company's Net Promoter Score (NPS), take the percentage of customers who are Promoters and subtract the percentage who are Detractors.

Red Bull and Oprah both have a huge social media presence because they're the best in their business... not because they Tweet 15x per day or started using Pinterset last month.

2. Lacking Focus

When the late (great) Steve Jobs first came back to Apple in 1997, he had a lot of work to do. The following excerpt is from MSNBC: 

One of Jobs' first goals as CEO was to review the company's sprawling product line. What he found out was that Apple had been producing multiple versions of the same product to satisfy requests from retailers.

For instance, the company was selling a dozen varied versions of the Macintosh computer. Unable to explain why so many products were necessary, Jobs asked his team of top managers, "Which ones do I tell my friends to buy?"

When he didn't get a simple answer, Jobs got to work reducing the number of Apple products by 70 percent. Among the casualties was the Newton digital personal assistant. Unfortunately, the cut-backs also resulted, in part, in a workforce reduction of about 3,000 employees.

"Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do," Jobs says in the book. "It's true for companies, and it's true for products.

People and companies are struggling with the same problems today when it comes to social media.

There's too many opportunities, too many new features, and too many new shiny tactics to try.

But here's the problem. Unless you're in the Fortune 500, you're probably short of (1) time, (2) energy, or (3) money.

If you want to stand out, then you need to be exceptional. So instead of spreading yourself too thin, focus everything on one major platform or social network. How do you decide?

• Where are your customers predominately?
• What activities will give you the highest marketing ROI?

Maybe that means you hire a blog writer and focus mainly on content creation and email marketing. 

Or perhaps Pinterest for your business is a waste of time, so you can ignore it.

Or there's the possibility that Google+ is essential for your business because you rely on SEO heavily.

Either way, the point is that if you can answer these two questions and act accordingly, then your marketing results will double in no time.

3. Having Realistic Expectations

Marketing guru Seth Godin says that one of the biggest mistakes marketers (and companies) make, is being "impatient".

But what does that mean? Who can be patient when there's bills to pay and competition coming after you?

When Seth said marketers need to be patient, he meant that if you want to make a sale next week, you can't start marketing today. You should have started three years ago.

You can't throw a Hail Mary pass in the last minute of the game and expect to win the game. Marketing and sales only work if people trust you. And that process takes time. In the simplest terms possible, there are two ways to market online.

1. Use advertising to "rent" attention.
2. Use inbound marketing to "earn" attention.

But guess what? Both are going to cost you something.

If you don't have the time or energy, then you need to spend money on advertising.

If you don't have money to invest, then you need to spend time and energy in creating content, building relationships, and learning a basic SEO strategy.

You won't have hundreds of visits each day when you launch a new website.  Traffic won't just fall out of the sky.

You need to You need to understand how to get traffic that will convert into loyal subscribers. And you then need to pick the right online marketing channels for your unique business, and work them consistently, every single day.

Because mastering these techniques is what separates the amateurs from the pros.

And at the end of the day, you'll feel more relaxed and have results to show from it.

COMMENTARY:   The Social Media Examiner recently published their 4th Annual Social Media Marketing Industry report. Each year they interview marketers about how they are using social media to grow and promote their businesses.

For the 2012 report, they interviewed over 3,800 marketers to determine:

• The top 10 social media questions marketers want answered
• The time commitment
• The benefits of social media marketing
• Commonly used social media services
• Social media sites people want to learn more out
• How B2B vs. B2C companies use social media
• How marketers are using other forms of marketing
• Outsourcing of social media management

 

Benefits of Social Media Marketing

One section of the report that I found most interesting was the benefits of social media section. The top 5 benefits of social media marketing that marketers have seen are:

1. Increased exposure
2. Increased traffic
3. Provided marketplace insight
4. Generated leads
5. Developed loyal fans

Below is a graph from the annual report that shows the percent of marketers who have seen specific benefits from using social media marketing.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing (Click Image To Enlarge)

An interesting change from the 2011 to 2012 report is the percent of marketers who said social media marketing helped to improve search rankings. In 2011 62% of the marketers interviewed said that their search rankings improved, but only 55% of the marketers interviewed in this year’s report saw a benefit.   I found this change very interesting since I have experienced improvements in search rankings using social media campaigns in the past. After examining the report further, it appears that those who saw improved search rankings were investing more than 10 hours a week in social media, have at least 3 years experience, or are selling to other businesses (B2B companies). There appears to be a direct correlation between the amount of time invested and experience on search ranking. However, industry is a large factor, as only 50% of businesses who sell to consumers saw a significant increase in their search rankings.

Benefits of Social Media Takeaways:

• B2B companies are more likely to grow business partnerships using social media than B2C companies.
• Spending 6 hours or more a week on social media shows a significant increase in lead generation.
• Small business are more likely to see an increase in lead generation than large companies.
• Those with 3 and more years experience managing social media see a significant increase in all the measured benefits compared to those with less experience.
• Over a third of all mid-sized and large companies have not seen a reduction in their marketing expenses. This is very interesting, I wonder if social media is seen as an additional marketing effort not a replacement for other marketing at this time.
  
• A not surprising find, social media is great for generating site traffic. 74% of marketers saw increases in site traffic when investing minimum 6 hours a week in social media.
• B2B companies use social media for gaining marketplace insight much more than B2C companies.
• B2C companies have a much larger increase in their loyal fan base when using social media than B2B companies.
• There is a direct correlation between amount of time invested in social media and acquiring loyal fans. More Time Invested = Increase in Loyal Fans

Check out the full 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry report on the Social Media Examiner site.

According to the 4th Annual Social Media Marketing Industry report, you MUST be prepared to spend time and resources into social media in order to generate measurable benefits. If your goal is to generate increased website traffic, sales leads and brand loyalty businesses MUST be prepared to invest a MINIMUM of 6 hours per week in social media marketing activities.   This takes time and effort and money.   You cannot go about your social media activities haphazardly or lackadaisily.   According to the report, Companies that have been using social media for 3 years or longer, generated the most measured benefits. 

Courtesy of an article dated June 25, 2012 appearing in Social Media Today and an article dated April 10, 2012 appearing in the Social Media Examiner

COUNTDOWN: TESLA TO DELIVER FIRST MODEL S ALL-ELECTRIC SEDANS THIS FRIDAY, JUNE 22, WATCH THE TESLA MODEL S GET MADE

 

The electric vehicle world is pretty quiet right now; following the much-hyped launches of the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt (and subsequent criticisms of the Volt’s safety), there hasn’t been much to pique mainstream America’s interest. That’s going to change soon, when the Tesla Model S, billed as "the world’s first premium electric sedan," rolls off the assembly line.

At $49,000 (with a $7,500 tax credit), the vehicle isn’t incredibly cheap--but it’s a bargain compared to Tesla’s old offering, the $109,000 Roadster. And after months of Tesla teasing us with pictures and video, the Model S is finally going to be released on Friday. But Tesla has released some teaser videos of the car in the factory, so we can take a look at the production process of the vehicle. In the video above, we can watch as the vehicle gets stamped.

Below, we can see the body center, a place where robots rivet and weld to their hearts’ content.

 

Next comes the painting process:

 

And finally, the assembly center, where high-definition 3-D cameras properly position the panoramic roof, the seats, center console, and the drivetrain and batteries are installed. Exterior components are also added. Then, according to Tesla, comes the industry’s first "all-glass water test booth, where it is sprayed by water from 360 stationary nozzles to ensure your car has perfect water tightness."

 

The Model S certainly has its skeptics. This Slate article sarcastically notes that the

"Tesla Model S is practical and affordable, as long as you’re rich."

And many people agree that this is a make or break moment for Tesla. For the sake of the larger electric vehicle industry, we hope Tesla succeeds. At the very least, the industry could use a little excitement. Stay tuned--we’ll be at the Model S launch this week and will come back with in-person impressions.

COMMENTARY:   

FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 2012 at 3:30 p.m. PDT

It’s really happening. In three days, we will be delivering Model S. I've heard from many of you that you would like to be a part of this incredible occasion, and we definitely want you to be there. In order to make this happen we will be providing a live webcast of the event on ourInside Tesla page. Join us from your home, office, or mobile device at around 3:30 p.m. PST this Friday to watch some of our very first Model S customers receive their keys. For many of us, this is something we have been looking forward to for a long, long time. We hope you join us to share this incredible moment.

I look forward to seeing many of you this weekend at the Fremont test drive event and look forward to your recommendations on the Opportunity Console. Next week will be the final installment of Inside Tesla. It will be filled with lots of images and anecdotes from our delivery event.

The countdown is now almost complete and it’s time for you to drive Model S. See you on the road!

GeorgeB

Courtesy of an article dated June 21, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Exist

FACEBOOK SETTLES "SPONSORED STORIES" LAWSUIT, WILL GIVE USERS MORE CONTROL OVER THEIR PERSONAL DATA

Facebook Inc has agreed to allow users more control over how their personal information is used in its "Sponsored Stories" ad feature, part of a deal to resolve litigation against the social networking company.

The value to Facebook members resulting from the changes is about $103 million, in the opinion of one economist hired by the plaintiffs. But the amount Facebook will actually pay to settle the case is just over $20 million, according to court documents filed on Wednesday.

A "Sponsored Story" is an advertisement (see sample below) that appears on a member's Facebook page and generally consists of another friend's name, profile picture and an assertion that the person "likes" the advertiser.

Five Facebook members filed a lawsuit seeking class-action status against the social networking site, saying it violated California law by publicizing users' "likes" of certain advertisers without paying them or giving them a way to opt out.

The case involved over 100 million potential class members.

Under the terms of a settlement agreement filed on Wednesday, Facebook members will be able to control which content can be used for Sponsored Stories. Facebook agreed to maintain these changes and other new disclosures for at least two years, according to court documents.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs say the changes to "Sponsored Stories" are worth $103.2 million, based on an economist's analysis of the revenue each ad brings to Facebook. Those figures were redacted in the court documents.

A Facebook representative declined to comment, and an attorney for the plaintiffs could not immediately be reached.

Facebook has agreed to pay $10 million to organizations devoted to educating people about how to use social networking technology safely. Groups set to receive money include the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School, according to the court documents.

Facebook will also pay an additional $10 million for plaintiff attorneys' fees.

The settlement agreement must be approved by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California. She must weigh whether the deal's terms adequately benefit class members.

In the lawsuit, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was quoted as saying that a trusted referral was the "Holy Grail" of advertising.

In addition, the lawsuit cited comments from Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, saying that the value of a "Sponsored Story" advertisement was at least twice and up to three times the value of a standard Facebook.com ad without a friend endorsement.

Koh said the plaintiffs had shown economic injury could occur through Facebook's use of their names, photographs and likenesses.

Plaintiff attorneys argued in court filings on Wednesday that the policy changes and charitable awards will constitute "significant benefits" for the class members.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Angel Fraley et al., individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated vs. Facebook Inc., 11-cv-1726.

COMMENTARY:   The Sponsored Stories lawsuit brought against Facebook by Angel Fraley is just like the one brought against LinkedIn for using the photos of its users in its ads in 2011.  You would think that Facebook would've learned from the LinkedIn class action lawsuit.  Zuck zucked up again.   

I should also mention that Facebook is on a 20-year probation by the FTC for various privacy violations.  That sanction includes annual privacy audits to show that they are in compliance with the requirements of that probation.  Didn't take Facebook long to violate that sanction.  If the FTC decides to make an example out of Facebook it could be very, very costly.  As I recall, the FTC can fine $15 per privacy violation.  If you do the math, this would amount to a fine of approximately $1.50 billion (100 million violations x $15).  No problem.  Facebook has $20 billion in cash in the bank.  

Courtesy of an article dated June 22, 2012 appearing in Reuters