After a BlackBerry service outage that lasted more than three days, RIM is trying to make amends with users by offering them a selection of premium apps for free, as well as one month of free technical support.
There are currently 12 apps on offer, including SIMS 3, Bejeweled, Texas Hold’em Poker 2, Bubble Bash and Shazam Encore, and RIM claims more will be added at a later date. The value of all the 12 apps put together is approximately $100.
Enterprise customers will be offered one month of free technical support; current customers will get a one month extension on their existing contract, while customers who currently don’t have a technical support contract will get a one month trial of the service.
The BlackBerry service outage, which lasted for the better part of last week, was one of the worst such outages in the history of the company, leaving millions of customers worldwide without access to various apps and services such as e-mail.
RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis publicly apologized after the outage, and now RIM is trying to make the entire experience less painful with some apps and free support. It’s a nice gesture, but we’re not entirely sure that users who were unable to access their e-mail for several days will be satisfied with a bunch of free apps, half of which are games.
What do you think? Has RIM done enough to make amends with its users? Please, share your opinions in the comments.
We’re guessing that by now, the harsh reality has sunk in: the iPhone 4S is physically more or less identical to its predecessor. If you want to be special, however, there is a way to make your new toy stand out from the rest and shine in many magnificent colors.
ColorWare‘s interactive website lets you choose a number of solid, glossy or metallic colors for your iPhone’s frame, back, button, SIM card tray – even the earbuds.
It comes with a steep price, however: $1500 for a 16 GB model, $1700 for a 64 GB one, or $250 if you opt to send your own iPhone 4S to ColorWare and let them work their magic with it.
Apple is bringing speech recognition to the masses with its new iPhone 4S, equipped with an intelligent assistant named Siri. It’s a major differentiator for the new iPhone, setting it apart from its predecessors. I’ve been using speech recognition software for the past 8 years, so I was eager to take this enhanced version of Siri for a spin. Here’s my review.
So now Siri is baked into every iPhone 4S, and not available elsewhere. Siri has come a long way since it was first introduced as a less-accurate and somewhat incomplete iPhone app. Now it’s better integrated into iOS 5, and my immediate impression is that it’s more accurate than it’s ever been. Even in a noisy environment inside a car going 60 miles an hour, it can still understand most of what you’re saying if you hold the iPhone up to your ear. Its speech recognition isn’t perfect, and some of its errors are laughable, but in a quiet environment its accuracy is nearly equal to that of the desktop version of NaturallySpeaking running on extremely powerful processors.
Its integration into the iPhone 4S’s iOS 5 software makes it convenient to use. You press and hold the iPhone 4S’s Home button, and it springs to life, sounding a short beep to signal for you to begin speaking. You can use it in this speakerphone mode, or if the iPhone 4S is turned on, you can simply raise the handset to your ear (a necessity when riding in a noisy vehicle) and the phone’s proximity sensor activates Siri, usually prompting you to begin speaking (inexplicably, sometimes it doesn’t respond).
"Only a company with the chutzpah of Apple would have the courage to try something like this. But Siri works just barely well enough for Apple to pull it off, bolstered by the iPhone 4S’s faster processor and better camera.”
That odd non-working tendency must be why Apple is still calling Siri “beta.” The company reassures users that the Siri will be continuously improved, adding that the software learns how you speak as you go and will perform more accurate recognition as it learns your way of speaking. Still, loading beta software into a new piece of iPhone hardware is a thin thread on which to differentiate this new product. Only a company with the chutzpah of Apple would have the courage to try something like this. But Siri works just barely well enough for Apple to pull it off, bolstered by the iPhone 4S’s faster processor and better camera (among what Apple boasts as 197 other incremental improvements), all doing their part to strengthen the lure of this updated iPhone.
Over the 48 hours I’ve been using Siri, it’s hard to tell if it’s actually improving its speech recognition, but as it stands, it’s just good enough to be fun to use. I especially like the way you can almost carry on a conversation with it. For example, you can ask it, “How’s the weather in New York today?” It will answer by showing you the iPhone’s weather app with New York’s data displayed. Then, if you ask it, “Where are the good Italian restaurants there?,” Siri responds by finding 24 Italian restaurants in New York, sorted by rating. It knows you’re still talking about New York. Clever.
As you can read in our posts about Siri, it does bring a slight attitude along with it, which I find refreshing. Other times, it has hilarious misunderstandings, such as when I asked it yesterday to “Call me an ambulance,” and it responded, “From now on, I’ll call you ‘an ambulance’. Okay?” I was disappointed to hear Siri’s voice, which still sounds way too robotic for my taste. I was thinking that somehow, now that Apple owns the app, it would gussy it up to sound more like GPS units do, or like the mellifluous yet mutinous HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. But I suspect that’s still way off in the future. Instead, there are some oddities in its stilted pronunciation, such as the way Siri says the word “restaurant,” speaking with a drawl that sounds like it’s straight out of my native Southern U.S.: “Resta-runt.” Grandma, is that you?
Among its myriad capabilities, of course Siri can help you place phone calls with aplomb, where all you have to do is speak the name of anyone in your Contacts app, and it quickly connects you (something that’s been possible for years with much lesser cellphones). Beyond that, it can also help you speak an email and turn it into text, where it walks you through by asking who you’re sending it to, the subject line and so forth. However, it’s not too adept at breaking out separate paragraphs of text, even if I spoke to it the way I do with NaturallySpeaking, specifying things such as “new paragraph.” Although the email function could be useful for creating short emails while driving (not recommended), it still has some polishing to do before it’s truly useful for sending emails solely by speech.
Some of its capabilities go deeply into science fiction territory, such as pushing and holding the Home button, and then telling it to set a timer for 15 minutes. I especially like telling it to set an alarm, asking it directions, or asking it to launch a playlist in iTunes. I was disappointed to see that it wasn’t able to interact with Twitter, but I found a workaround for that, so that problem is solved already. Still, Apple should have made that capability available from the beginning, and if the company follows through on its promise, we will soon see a lot more interaction with various iOS apps.
Siri on the iPhone 4S still feels like a work in progress. I think it could have used another few months of development before it was released to push it well beyond gimmick territory. But Apple was already later than usual in its product cycle with this iPhone 4S, so might have been compelled to release it early. Even so, Siri as it stands now gives us a hint at what’s to come, and the future looks bright.
Each week, Mashable picks a popular song, finds 10 covers of it and asks you to vote for your favorite.
Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” — which remains on Billboard‘s Hot 100 charts in its 24th week — has made several headlines in recent days after an 8-year-old girl’s YouTube cover of the song went viral.
But the child’s cute rendition (see videos 11, 12 and 13 below) isn’t the only cover that is racking up millions of pageviews. Here, we've chosen 10 eclectic covers that are attracting lots of eyeballs, including guitar, piano and punk versions. Vote for your favorite in the poll.
And if you know any YouTube cover artists who should be on our radar, please let us know in the comments.
“I hear the song as a duet — two people singing to each other about moving on from a relationship and being OK with it,” Lane told Mashable. “It’s obviously a tough song to sing, so I enlisted one of the most talented male singers I know to step up and Corey nailed it. I can’t even begin to describe what the song means to me. I had someone in mind while singing it and our relationship was definitely parallel to that song.”
Here’s a collection of covers from last week’s winners.
"Someone Like You" Cover by Jenny Lane and Corey Gray
“Right now, I’m so excited to be building my YouTube channel and introducing myself to the world,” Lane said. “I can’t wait to release original songs in a few months and then really, the sky’s the limit.”
Gray, on the other hand, says he’ll be touring soon.
“I really want to be able to take people to these rich and deep places that fuel my song writing,” Gray said. “I want to help them through hard times and make the good times even better. I want to be an example that your dreams can become reality if you believe in yourself and let go of the fear that runs so many of us.”
What popular song should we pick next week for the YouTube Cover Song Face-Off?
One of the limitations of the iPhone 4S’s intelligent assistant Siri is its inability to speak your tweets into the iPhone‘s Twitter app. Here’s a quick workaround for that:
1. In your Mac or PC browser version of Twitter, you must first enable Twitter text messaging (if you've already done this, you can skip to step 5). Do this by clicking on the drop-down list on the top right (next to your twitter handle) and selecting Settings. Keep in mind that if you don't have unlimited texting, this could get expensive.
1. In your Mac or PC browser version of Twitter, you must first enable Twitter text messaging (if you've already done this, you can skip to step 5). Do this by clicking on the drop-down list on the top right (next to your twitter handle) and selecting Settings. Keep in mind that if you don't have unlimited texting, this could get expensive.
One of the limitations of the iPhone 4S’s intelligent assistant Siri is its inability to speak your tweets into the iPhone‘s Twitter app. Here’s a quick workaround for that.
Forget Apple's Siri voice recognition technology taking over the world. I have seen two robots playing ping-pong and now I am truly scared for humanity.
Named "Wu" and "Kong", these two human-sized robots are the products of China's Zhenjiang University. They play ping-pong not only against each other, but will take on humans as well. In the video, it's clear they're as adept at forehand shots as they are at the backhand.
Named for a character in the classical Chinese Epic novel ("Monkey King" or "Sun Wukong"), the robots are part of a long-term project at the university to build a "high-performance humanoid robot unit and system." The university website also oddly calls the bots "Big Size Humanoid Robots." This may be reference to the multitude of tiny robots produced in and around Japan. A tiny robot, for instance, recently took on an Ironman Triathlon challenge.
The two table-tennis-playing robots do not appear particularly mobile. Neither moves its feet during the match, yet they never seem to miss. This is likely due to the 30 motors — all of which can work independently — and the seven separate actions each arm can perform. The robots do maintain their own balance and can detect the movement of the ball — even so far as to predict the path of an incoming shot. And, yes, they also serve on their own — a feat many humans I know cannot effectively accomplish. Scientists are in the background analyzing and tracking the robots’ movements, and it’s unclear how much, if at all, they’re controlling Wu’s and Kong’s responses.
No word on when, or if, the robots will travel the world to take on international challengers. However, if they can play ping-pong this well, who knows what Zhenjiang's scientists will have Wu and Kong do next. Wonder if they've thought about licensing Apple' Siri technology.
Tell us what you think of these robot athletes in the comments and if you fear an uprising of our robot overlords.
Curated by two web designers with a passion for the topic, as well as examples of great type, this blog offers some really interesting typography-themed videos.
Tumblr is a great source of inspiration, as well as a destination for expression and entertainment. We have found 10 Tumblr blogs that showcase terrific typography which we think are are well worth font-fanciers following.
In May 2011, Harold Camping became world famous (not to mention Internet famous) for predicting that the world would end on May 21.
The notion became an ironic web meme, topping the charts that week as the most discussed topic on Twitter, with hashtags like #iftheworldendsonsaturday showing up on Twitter’s trending topics.
When the saved did not rise up to heaven on that date, Camping updated his prediction, stating on his website: “Thus we can be sure that the whole world, with the exception of those who are presently saved (the elect), are under the judgment of God, and will be annihilated together with the whole physical world on October 21, 2011″.
October 21 is this Friday.
What might we see if Camping is right this time? Thanks to May’s #rapturebomb trend (below), we can take a guess — and yet the more likely outcome seems to be another round of Twitter jokes.
Get your fingers on the pulse of the social media community with this survey conducted by Lab42. It’ll get you caught up on the hot tech issues of the past couple of weeks.
For the data embedded in this infographic, market research firm Lab42 conducted a study online via social networks between Sept. 30 and Oct. 23, 2011 among 500 social media users, asking them questions about the iPhone 4S, Kindle Fire, Netflix, the radical changes in Facebook and more.
It’s a tight wrapup of the issues we care about. One ominous takeaway we noticed: Look out, Netflix — a surprisingly large proportion of your social-media-using customers are just about to jump ship:
The local food movement is taking the world by storm, as more people learn about the numerous benefits of eating locally.
What exactly is local food? Is it hype? In a word, no. It’s grown nearby, and supports your local economy. It tastes better because your food is often harvested on the day of purchase. It’s healthier, as local crops are designed to taste good rather than spend weeks in transit and on store shelves. Plus, eliminating that long trip fights climate change.
If you’re interested in learning more about sustainable farming practices, there are plenty of online resources — and even mobile apps — that can make eating environmentally sustainable food easy. If you’re already connected with the local food movement, you can share your expertise with online communities hoping to create extensive databases of farms, shops, butchers, bakers and restaurants.
In honor of World Food Day (Oct. 16), Mashable is participating in Blog Action Day, which is seeking to create an online global conversation about food issues. We’ve chosen to contribute by sparking a discussion of local farming. We hope this post opens your eyes to ways you can connect with the local food movement, by making your daily food consumption more environmentally and economically sustainable.
Are you a subscriber to the local food movement? Please let us know in the comments if you know of other ways to connect online.
Wholeshare makes purchasing locally grown food up to 20% more affordable through the power of group buying. Groups of shoppers are automatically joined together by the site and treated like a wholesale client. The site, functioning as the middleman, coordinates delivery directly to your door.
California Gov. Jerry Brown officially declared Sunday (10/16/2011) Steve Jobs Day in California, and Apple is holding an invitation-only memorial event for Steve Jobs at Stanford University. To commemorate Steve Jobs Day, I found a video I think he would have liked.
Of the dozens of memorial videos that honor Jobs, I thought this one was the most appropriate for the occasion, created by a musician who calls himself AzR. Here’s how he describes the production of this profoundly moving video:
“I made this song using only sounds from Apple products and Steve’s 2005 Stanford commencement speech. Every instrument, including drums, has been sampled from a Mac product, tuned by ear, and replayed in the context of the song.”
If you take away nothing else from this day, just remember what I think is the most important quote ever said by Steve Jobs: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
Here’s Steve Jobs delivering his memorable Stanford Commencement Speech in 2005:
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
New hires learn the ropes of a new company in a variety of different ways. Some methods are formal, others are informal, but either way, the new employees are provided the important and essential information they need in order to be a productive member of the team.
It's extremely important to understand exactly what employees need to know in order for them to become valuable team members. But companies also must learn when an employee needs to know the information and what is the best method to convey that knowledge to a new hire.
One crucial aspect of the “knowledge and information” we're referring to is company performance standards, the things a CEO comes to expect from everyone working at the company. And the best way to evaluate the performance of your employees is based upon established company standards. It's only logical to evaluate new hire performance based upon what has been communicated to them during the interview, orientation and onboarding process.
Here are some best practices and stories from companies that evaluate performance based upon the expectations that are communicated early on.
Conduct On-The-Job Training
Sometimes we have a tendency to forget how valuable on-the-job training can be. Just because it doesn't take place is a classroom doesn't mean it's not good training. Linda Varrell, president of Broadreach Public Relations, uses this approach to guide an employee's first day. "We have an initial meeting with the new hire to go over their job description, introduce them to the entire team, go through office procedures and processes and take care of any logistical set up needed."
It takes two to three months for a new hire to become fully productive at Broadreach. Varrell says that since Broadreach is a small firm, supervisors have their own clients to focus on, so employees must anticipate problems and be prepared to work on their own. "Our new hires need to be able to figure things out with a certain degree of independence and anticipate any questions or issues that may arise. Although our new hires are in close contact with their supervisor on any task or project, we want them to go through a process of understanding any task/issue at hand, trying to solve it through their own means, and then asking their supervisor for help. This helps them become stronger critical thinkers and allows supervisors more time for their own work."
That's why having an in-the-trenches process works for Broadreach. Varrell explains,
"We have a 'dive right in' mentality with new hires, giving them client-related assignments right at the start. The supervisor is responsible for making sure the new hire has all the information or tools to complete the task, explains the end result goals and then basically lets them go for it. The new hire works on it and then presents the completed task to their supervisor. At that point, the supervisor asks questions to encourage more creative thinking, corrects any technical or procedural errors, has the new hire explain their thought process and then sends them back for round two if necessary. Although longer and more involved at the start, this training process helps a new hire become more effective and efficient faster because they have to be responsible for their work and they have to learn how to figure things out. This also helps the company quickly see if a new hire isn't going to fit because not everyone can successfully work with that level of independence and responsibility."
Create Formal Training Programs
After just explaining that good training doesn't exist only in classrooms, it's important to note that there's plenty of great formal training programs being used. Erika Walker, human resources manager at BestEssayHelp, a professional writing and research company, explains the training program she has created for new team members. "A training process for new hires usually lasts around a week and is a copy of the regular support-team member shift featuring useful tips on handling communication with the customers and writers. It also involves the discussion of the commonly occurring crisis situations and possible problems when the new hires are presented with several ways of solving each possible problem."
Once a new hire completes training, Walker says it takes about a month for new hires to work on their own. "It usually depends on the personality of the new support team member as well as the amount of orders coming in. I would say that in about a month's time new hires are able to work on their own almost without any tips or suggestions from the rest of the team. But they are always more than welcome to ask questions or seek help, as other team members will always be there to help them."
Walker added that after new hire training, BestEssayHelp uses customer conversion rate indicators to measure how the employee is performing. "Basically, customer conversion rate is the number of customers who place the order, out of all those who registered on the website. Every customer is assigned to a specific support team member, which helps to evaluate the performance of every supporter. Being a customer support team member is a very challenging job, as the supporters represent the company and make the first impression. That is why we have to ensure that they work efficiently and make a long-lasting, positive impression on each and every customer."
Samantha Lambert, director of human resources at Blue Fountain Media, a website design, development and marketing agency, shared the details of their orientation/onboarding process. "We use new hire beads. Think Mardi Gras in our bright company colors, orange and blue. On the first day of employment, HR greets new hires in reception and places the beads around their neck (Hawaii style). We ask that all new employees wear their ‘new hire beads’ until they have passed the evaluation with an 85% (not your average passing score). Wearing the shiny beads not only shows/tells our seasoned employees who the newbies are and initiates frequent introductions, but it gives them an immediate goal to study Blue Fountain Media’s intranet and internal processes so that they may graduate from new hire status and focus on client projects."
Lambert says the amount of time it takes to onboard a new hire varies but a good average is three months. During that time, employees attend orientation, complete a new hire evaluation, attend biweekly meetings with their supervisor and learn the processes/guidelines/general info about how the company operates.
Assign Tasks and Look for Proven Results
Ian Aronovich, CEO of GovernmentAuctions.org, a company that compiles and provides information about government auctions of seized and surplus merchandise, says the best way to evaluate new workers is by giving them large responsibilities. "You need to see how much of an independent workload your incoming workers can handle. The first couple of weeks that a worker is at our office is going to be their biggest test. Once they have proven themselves to be a person who can multi-task and manage everything that is thrown at them, we give them an incentive plan."
On the surface, this might sound like sink-or-swim, but Aronovich explains what they look for. "At our company, we need people to be responsible for all aspects of their position. He or she must be on time, get work done in a timely fashion, help others when needed, stay late or come in early if there is extra work to be done and be willing to go the extra mile for every task that is put in front of them."
The method has worked well for GovernmentAuction.org, says Aronovich. "We hired a person for general office work about two years ago. This person soon became adept at business development and we decided to make her the company’s affiliate manager. Over time, she garnered a whole new crop of members for our website, and the affiliate program is thriving under her diligent work ethic. Our method molds people into the position that they are most comfortable filling. For her, she was a business-savvy individual who helped us grow by adding a new aspect to the company."
Offer Coaching to Enhance Performance
While every company will have a different approach to setting expectations, training for knowledge and evaluating performance, all organizations need to recognize the importance of ongoing communication. Varrell shared that, at Broadreach, weekly meetings take place to see how new employees are doing. "After 90 days, we work out a Personal Development Plan, identifying areas of development and ways to achieve success. It is different from an evaluation in that the employee tells us what they need to work on and what tools, training and resources they need. We really focus on having our employees (and interns) take full responsibility for their careers and success."
It's very easy to forget what it's like to be a new hire, but putting a solid information sharing process in place will set your new hires up for success. And that's what evaluating performance is all about — creating a mechanism for employees to get the information they need, when they need it, in the most effective means possible.
The Occupy Wall Street movement, which opposes economic inequality, marched to New York’s Times Square on Saturday. The crowds were estimated to consist of thousands of people — Bloomberg claims that 6,000 were present.
Occupy Wall Street has effectively utilized social media to spread its message — the #occupywallst hashtag on Twitter helps to coordinate activities, while photos and videos of the protests are posted to YouTube, yfrog, Twitpic and other services. Some have compared the movement to the Arab Spring, in which the role of social media in organized demonstrations first became evident.
1. Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook: Slim Like a MacBook Air, But With a Slimmer Price
Who says Apple's the only slim-laptop maker in the world? Take a gander at this 3-pound piece of aircraft-grade aluminum with a 13.3 -inch screen. Alluring, isn't it? And the best news of all: The cheapest model will only set you back slightly less than $900. [via Engadget]
In a week dominated by the iPhone 4S and its accompanying iOS 5 operating system, we gather up those highlights and add even more techo-goodness in this week’s edition of Top 10 Tech.
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
As a freelancer or job seeker, it is important to have a resume that stands out among the rest — one of the more visually pleasing options on the market today is the infographic resume.
An infographic resume enables a job seeker to better visualize his or her career history, education and skills.
Unfortunately, not everyone is a graphic designer, and whipping up a professional-looking infographic resume can be a difficult task for the technically unskilled job seeker. For those of us not talented in design, it can also be costly to hire an experienced designer to toil over a career-centric infographic.
Luckily, a number of companies are picking up on this growing trend and building apps to enable the average job seeker to create a beautiful resume.
To spruce up your resume, check out these four tools for creating an infographic CV. If you’ve seen other tools on the market, let us know about them in the comments below.
Vizualize.me is a new app that turns a user’s LinkedIn profile information into a beautiful, web-based infographic.
After creating an account and connecting via LinkedIn, a user can edit his or her profile summary, work experience, education, links, skills, interests, languages, stats, recommendations and awards. And voila, a stunning infographic is created.
The company’s vision is to “be the future of resumes.” Lofty goal, but completely viable, given that its iteration of the resume is much more compelling than the simple, black-and-white paper version that currently rules the world.
Re.vu, a newer name on the market, is another app that enables a user to pull in and edit his or her LinkedIn data to produce a stylish web-based infographic.
The infographic layout focuses on the user’s name, title, biography, social links and career timeline — it also enables a user to add more graphics, including stats, skill evolution, proficiencies, quotes and interests over time.
Besides the career timeline that is fully generated via the LinkedIn connection, the other graphics can be a bit tedious to create, as all of the details must be entered manually.
In the end, though, a very attractive infographic resume emerges. This is, by far, the most visually pleasing option of all of the apps we reviewed.
Based on a user’s imported LinkedIn data, Kinzaa creates a data-driven infographic resume that focuses on a user’s skills and job responsibilities throughout his or her work history.
The tool is still in beta, so it can be a bit wonky at times — but if you’re looking for a tool that helps outline exactly how you’ve divided your time in previous positions, this may be your tool of choice.
Unlike other tools, it also features a section outlining the user’s personality and work environment preferences. Details such as preferences on company size, job security, challenge level, culture, decision-making speed and more are outlined in the personality section, while the work environment section focuses on the user’s work-day length, team size, noise level, dress code and travel preferences.
Brazen Careerist, the career management resource for young professionals, launched a new Facebook application in September that generates an infographic resume from a user’s Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn information.
After a user authorizes the app to access his or her Facebook and LinkedIn data, the app creates an infographic resume with a unique URL — for example, my infographic resume is located at brazen.me/u/ericaswallow.
The infographic features a user’s honors, years of experience, recommendations, network reach, degree information, specialty keywords, career timeline, social links and LinkedIn profile image.
The app also creates a “Career Portfolio” section which features badges awarded based on a user’s Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn achievements. Upon signing up for the app, I earned eight badges, including “social media ninja,” “team player” and “CEO in training.” While badges are a nice addition, they aren’t compelling enough to keep me coming back to the app.
Your Thoughts
Have you used a web app to create an infographic resume? If so, which tool did you use and how was your experience? Let us know in the comments below.
Facebook’s gone through some profound changes lately, which is exciting to us, but leaves others in a profound state of anger and frustration. Like it or not, all is not perfect with the world’s largest social network, and here’s an infographic by a company that’s more than happy to point out Facebook’s shortcomings.
The “Facebook Wall of Shame” was created by WordStream, Inc., a provider of search marketing software and services. Apparently Facebook‘s release of its iPad app left the company cold. For instance, WordStream points out how some critics who reviewed the Facebook iPad app called it “too little, too late.”
That iPad app’s release must have been the last straw for the company. The result? This hard-hitting infographic smackdown that reveals what WordStream calls “Facebook’s errors in judgment.” Take a look at this litany of complaints, and let us know in the comments which ones you think are justified or not.
Facebook for iPad Login Screen
The first step to Facebook for iPad is logging in.
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
By now, most small business owners understand the important role the Internet can play in helping to raise and drive interest and demand for their products and services. With all the innovative online technologies out there, it's easy to feel tempted to rush into things. Please, for the love of your business, slow down.
Before you worry about launching a Twitter channel or pitching a post idea to a local blogger, you need to take a step back and consider how online conversations might impact the reputation of your small business. PR blow-ups aren't just a problem for big companies — there are risks for small businesses, too. Online engagement requires the same level of planning and thought you give to other parts of your business. Here are four tips for protecting your small business — and livelihood — online.
1. Research & Planning
Thinking through the details is the most important way you can start to protect your reputation online, whether you have a small bakery outside Detroit or a multi-national corporation. Ask yourself these important questions before you do anything:
What are my goals and objectives?
Who am I trying to reach? Where do I think those people are online?
What online channels or social media sites might be the right fit for my business?
How much time do I realistically have to invest in this?
Am I prepared for negative conversation about my products and services?
Use the intelligence you gather to assemble a plan, and think modestly to start. Remember, the goal is not to get on every social media channel out there. You should instead be contributing in the places online that make sense for you.
2. Monitoring & Listening
Like research and planning, listening to online conversations is a critical part of protecting your small business's reputation. There are a couple of reasons why.
First, before you start communicating, you should know what others are saying about you, your competitors and other similar businesses. This background information will help you determine what you can share that others might find of interest or value. It will also help prevent you from sticking your foot in your mouth. If you open a butcher shop, you’d want to know the most influential foodie blogger in your area is a vegetarian before you shoot him an email about your new organic bacon, for example.
Monitoring conversation is also important because it will help you uncover complaints and other problems that you might not otherwise know about. This is directly connected to how you respond to negative comments, which we’ll explore in a moment. There are number of easy ways you can monitor online conversation, such as using a tool like HootSuite for Twitter and Facebook and Google Alerts for blogs and traditional media coverage. Mashable has a number of great articles with more information on how you can do this affordably.
3. Joining the Conversation
How you engage in conversations online will vary depending on the channel you pick, whether that's Facebook or Foursquare. No matter what channel you choose, you can help mitigate risks to your business by planning ahead, being committed and showing transparency.
Planning ahead. Like newspapers and magazines, big companies often create editorial calendars for their online communications, aligning things like company events and press releases with messages on Facebook, Twitter and blogs. Your small business might not need an elaborate spreadsheet to schedule your updates, but you should look ahead and think through the news and information you might want to share in the weeks ahead. Try creating your own calendar every two weeks. After you give that a try, you can do it more or less frequently, depending on what works best for you.
Being Committed. When you join conversations, online communities will expect you to stick around. Oftentimes, people may have follow-up questions or new issues may arise. Don't post something and disappear. Keep your editorial calendar current and keep checking back on old posts and respond again, if warranted. If you don't, people will begin to see your online interactions as self-serving or lazy, and you will lose trust.
Showing Transparency. Lastly, always be transparent about who you are and what you're doing online. This is extremely important. Whenever you join conversations, whether it is emailing a blogger, commenting on a Facebook post or responding to a comment about your business on Yelp, always be very clear that you are responding on behalf of your small business. In some cases, it may even make sense to include your email address so people who would like more information can reach you. Online communities hate feeling misled — even if it is completely unintentional. Above, you’ll see a great example from a small indie record shop in Cleveland on how to keep your community informed about important policy changes that impact them in a friendly, casual and professional way.
4. When Conversation Turns Negative
Before you hit the ground running with your digital communications plan, there is one last thing to consider: What will you do if people write nasty things about you, or even worse, an issue explodes that could deliver a devastating knock-out blow to your business?
The risks can be scary, but the good news is that by preparing in advance and following the guidelines discussed above, you can manage those risks. The most important thing to do when you receive negative feedback is to respond as soon as possible — and that's true of almost any online channel. Below is an example from Capital Bikeshare in Washington, D.C. This is a successful response because it is prompt, open to the public and offers an apology to the customer for his inconvenience. There is nothing wrong with admitting a mistake or apologizing. Most people will stick with you if you work to make things right.
Our last point — and this is really important — is to be very cautious about deleting negative comments. By overreacting to negative discussion, it may look like your business has something to hide. This chips away at the community's trust in you. You also will lose a valuable opportunity to change opinions. Thoughtful responses to negative comments are a terrific opportunity to engage your customers, help correct their complaints and potentially turn them into advocates. Don't throw that opportunity away by simply making an uncomfortable discussion disappear.
Do you have more tips for small businesses looking to engage online communities? Let us know in the comments below.
Each day, Mashable highlights one noteworthy YouTube video. Check out all our viral video picks.
A homemade video uploaded to YouTube last month recently went viral, attracting almost 11 million views and landing its star — 8-year-old British girl Sophia Grace Brownlee — a segment on The Ellen DeGeneres Show this week.
In the video (below), Brownlee performs a fierce a cappella version of Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” as her younger cousin Rosie Grace McClelland provides cute background vocals and even cuter dance moves.
Ellen Degeneres flew the girls to be on Ellen and surprised them (above) when she brought out the blonde-and-blue haired Minaj, who later performed “Super Bass” with the pint-sized duo.
“I’m the second Nicki Minaj,” yelled Brownlee after Degeneres plopped a wig on her head.
Degeneres often features launched a record label and immediately signed YouTube sensation Greyson Chance, who was 12 at the time and became famous for a middle school performance of Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi."
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.
Each weekend, Mashable selects startups we think are building interesting, unique or niche products.
In celebration of the release of the iPhone 4S, we’re featuring three startups with iPhone applications that will help you maximize your mobile lifestyle.
CardFlick’s answer to the digital business card is one of the best we’ve seen. Crowdmug could help you figure out where to go for a exciting night out. And Floop proffers both an entertaining and informative mobile polling experience.
CardFlick: iPhone Business Cards
Quick Pitch:CardFlick lets you create and share digital business cards with your iPhone.
Genius Idea: Digital business cards with panache.
Mashable’s Take: We know you’ve got (too many) options, but if you’re still searching for just the right digital business card application, consider giving CardFlick a whirl.
The application offers by far the simplest and most elegant card creation experience on the market, and it provides you with top-notch card design themes. Best of all, if you’re in the same room with another CardFlick user, you can literarily flick to send your card to your new contact. Our only gripe is that we’d love to be able to create more than one card.
And despite competition from a boatload of similarly-purposed applications, CardFlick reports it saw nearly 50,000 downloads in a 30-day period.
Crowdmug: See What’s Happening
Quick Pitch:Crowdmug lets you request photos or videos of places to see what the scene is like before you go.
Genius Idea: Cash-incentivized visual status updates.
Mashable’s Take: Finding the right bar scene can be a pain, so much so that startup Crowdmug is testing the theory that you’ll offer up a few bucks to get a first-hand glimpse at what’s happening at a particular venue.
The Crowdmug iPhone application lets you make location-related requests. You tell Crowdmug what you want to see (either a photo or video), where you want to see it and how much you’re willing to pay for your request. Your request is then sent off to app users in the area.
The app could, theoretically, come in handy if you’re curious about iPhone 4S lines, the crowd at the pub across town or the status of tables at your favorite local coffee spot.
You can also use Crowdmug to follow city-specific feeds of photos and videos being shared by other users who are out and about.
Floop: iPhone Polling
Quick Pitch:Floop is an iPhone app for polling and visual opinion graphing.
Genius Idea: Poll graphs that update in real time.
Mashable’s Take: This nifty iPhone application lets you measure the pulse of your friends or the community at large on a topic of your choosing. You can watch the opinion line graphs fluctuate in real time as responses pour in, cast your vote in others’ polls, and participate in group text or picture threads related to polls.
Plus, playing with Floop’s voting tool can be rather fun — just slide the yellow dot up or down to express your response to a question. Then, rotate your phone to landscape mode to see how others have voted over time.
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.
Each 
1 comment:
interesting knowledge
Post a Comment