The Internet industry in Pakistan is at an extremely exciting point, and the outlook for local entrepreneurs and venture capitalists is strong in the mid to long run.

As the sixth largest country in the world in terms of population, Pakistan has an ever-expanding web base which currently stands at 22 million users, with 8 million now on Facebook.

With such a wide array of currently undeveloped markets to compete in, the need for online stores will only increase over the course of time. When one further considers the high cost of establishing a traditional brick-and-mortar store, one realizes the advantages to which online entrepreneurs are privy.

The Internet industry dynamics have also changed quite dramatically, with 2012 being a possible turning point for rapid growth. As a result of heavy investment from three major players — the largest courier company in Pakistan, a major retail outlet and one of the largest venture builders globally — a string of competitors have started to emerge.

Early Days

Building Internet businesses has traditionally not come easily to Pakistan. Our first e-commerce venture began in 2001 with the establishment of Abid Beli's Beliscity.pk. Although initially started as an information website for mobiles and computers, it soon turned into an e-commerce store as a result of its growing popularity.

You might then expect this venture to have turned out a success story, with Beliscity ending up being the equivalent to Amazon in Pakistan. Unfortunately this was not the case. Owing to many complications and troubles, not only was Beliscity forced to changed its name to Gulf Dealz, but it also fell into obscurity competing with countless other players in the online retail arena.

Arguably Pakistan’s greatest Internet success story is Rozee.pk. Founded in 2007 by Monis Rahman as an add-on to his main business, Rozee has grown to become Pakistan’s premier portal for jobs. This journey was also not an easy one at all. When Monis was trying to raise funds through foreign investors in the second half of 2007, Pakistan was in the news almost daily with images of the bombing due to Benazir Bhutto’s arrival and her subsequent assassination.

3 Hot E-Commerce Startups to Watch in Pakistan

Those, however, were just the early days and the environment seems much more conducive to starting e-commerce ventures now. Last year will go on record as a landmark year for Internet businesses in Pakistan as three very different and important companies launched their own e-commerce portals:

TCS Connect is the online portal of TCS Couriers, Pakistan’s most reliable and wide-reaching logistics company. In May 2012, TCS launched its online shopping portal, TCS Connect, which has products like computers, mobile phones, home and kitchen appliances and even automobile accessories.

Labels eStore is the online store for Pakistan’s largest high-end fashion outlets. With its product lines covering the biggest fashion designers in Pakistan, it targets high-end consumers in the local market and the Pakistani diaspora across the world.

Daraz.pk represents the fashion vertical of the global venture developers, Rocket Internet. The company did not enter into our local online market arena at the behest of Pakistani entrepreneurs who sought funding, but rather as a ‘top-down’ decision by Oliver Samwer to capture the developing Pakistani market in the long-term.

The establishment and subsequent success of these and other businesses have led to a greater focus on e-commerce sites. They may be other clothing brands expanding their businesses online, logistics companies either starting online stores themselves or providing tools and consultancy for brick-and-mortar retail owners to start a digital side to their existing businesses, or young entrepreneurs themselves wanting to get into this nascent business.

Whatever the case, online stores are here to stay in Pakistan and will only attain a larger customer base going forward.

The success of Rocket Internet’s Daraz has also made other venture capital firms take notice and start making initial contact with local players in the industry to fund entrepreneurs.

Future Outlook, Untapped Space

With this hive of activity, the future for Pakistan’s e-commerce and Internet industry has a positive outlook. Local entrepreneurs should seize this opportunity to capitalize on the open market space. The diagram below illustrates the vast amount of untouched market space, ready and waiting to be capitalized:



Disclosure: Adam Dawood is the founding partner of DYL Ventures, a Pakistan-centric venture capital and consultancy firm. One of the first employees of Daraz.pk and its product manager, Adam has now returned to the family business, DYL Motorcycles, and is looking to the future in both the motorcycle and e-commerce industry. You can find him on Twitter as @adamdawood. Please see our ethics statement for further information

Image via iStockphoto, danishkhan


































View the Original article

Past performance is no guarantee of future results, as the old business truism says. But you also may have heard that you can’t know where you’re going without knowing where you have been.

To get a sense of which industries small businesses are growing in, the analysts at Raleigh, N.C.-headquartered private-company financial-information company Sageworks ran some numbers for Entrepreneur.com. Here’s a look at the industries where U.S. companies with $10 million or less in annual sales have shown the highest and lowest percentage change from Jan. 1 to Dec 31, 2012. As a benchmark, the average growth rate across all U.S. small businesses in the time period was 8 percent, says Libby Bierman, an analyst at Sageworks.


Fastest-Growth Industries for U.S. Small Businesses in 2012

• Residential building construction: 14.77 percent
• Building custom software and servers for businesses: 14.29 percent
• Machinery, equipment, and supplies merchant wholesalers: 13.75 percent
• Management, scientific, and technical consulting services: 12.31 percent
• Architectural, engineering, and related services: 11.40 percent
• Foundation, structure, and building exterior contractors: 11.37 percent
• Building finishing contractors who make additions, alterations, maintenance and repairs: 11.32 percent
• General freight trucking: 10.41 percent
• Services to buildings and dwellings, including pest exterminators, janitorial services, and landscaping: 10.11 percent
• Other specialty trade contractors, including site preparation activities and other specialized trades: 10.04 percent

Slowest-Growth Industries for U.S. Small Businesses in 2012

• Skilled nursing care facilities: -3.29 percent
• Printing and related support activities: 1.86 percent
• Automotive repair and maintenance: 2.81 percent
• Offices of physicians: 3.00 percent
• Highway, street, and bridge construction: 4.24 percent
• Insurance agencies, brokerages, and other insurance-related activities: 4.32 percent
• Lessors of real estate: 5.07 percent
• Other miscellaneous manufacturing including jewelry and silverware, sporting and athletic goods, dolls, toys, and games, office supplies other than paper, and signs: 5.55 percent
• Offices of health practitioners other than physicians and dentists, including chiropractors, optometrists, mental health practitioners, speech and occupational therapists: 5.98 percent
• Other amusement and recreation services including bowling centers, golf courses, and recreational centers: 6.03 percent

The good news for entrepreneurs is that much of the fastest growth is in service businesses, which can be started without a lot of money to buy equipment and inventory, says Bierman. Software development, management consulting and architecture firms have been frontrunners have been for a few years now, says Bierman.

Not all of the businesses on the fastest-growing list are service based. In particular, the residential housing market has just started to recover, and that is supporting businesses related to the construction industry, including foundation and exterior construction and specialty contractors. A lot of construction projects were abandoned during the recession and so part of the bounce in construction is businesses and individuals picking back up old half-finished projects.

Business services and construction are looking strong in the coming years. “They provide services that are, maybe not critical, but very much needed by other businesses and people who are trying to even grow their homes,” Bierman says. “I don’t see these industries going anywhere. Maybe their growth rate won’t be as high as it has been, but I don’t think it will be a decline anytime soon.”

A list of the fastest-growing industries for all businesses would include manufacturing, says Bierman, but most successful manufacturers have more than $10 million in annual revenue. “Manufacturing as a whole has been something that has pretty positive news lately,” she says. “If those manufacturers are having pull, the middlemen, or the wholesalers that are transacting those sales, will continue to see growth, too.”

During the depths of the recession, many industries were contracting. Now, almost all industries are growing, albeit some at more sluggish rates. The slower-growth companies are not seeing impressive growth rates because they are entrenched in technology that is becoming obsolete, such as printing. But some of those industries are seeing slower growth simply because they have relatively inelastic demand. For example, an economic recession does not change the fact that sick people need to go to the doctor. The growth rate for physician’s offices does not typically change drastically.

Overall, the home health-care industry has seen positive growth rates in revenue over the past year as consumers look for an alternative to moving into a nursing care facility, says Bierman. Skilled nursing care facilities come up on this list as a shrinking, but that’s partly because of the restrictions placed on the data. For this research, Sageworks included only those businesses with less than $10 million in annual revenue. The decline in skilled nursing care facilities may be an indication that smaller facilities are losing ground to their larger competitors or home health care alternatives, she says.

If you thinking about starting your own business, what industry are you considering and why? Leave a note below and let us know.
































View the Original article

With so many concerns about the current economic climate, allocating resources and planning a budget have become increasingly important. Although many businesses are facing financial hardship, nearly half of marketers in the B2B space have decided to increase their budgets for 2013. Specifically, 67.2% of marketers plan to increase their digital marketing spending, and 52.5% of content marketers will up their search marketing budgets.

This infographic, compiled by Ambassador, a service that helps turn your customers into brand ambassadors, illustrates where B2B marketers plan to increase their spending in 2013.

Check out the full infographic below, and tell us in the comments where your business will stretch the cash this year.


Image via istockphoto, RapidEye

























View the Original article

Your smartphone isn't just for checking email and playing Temple Run.

Business owners can perform a variety of tasks on those smartphones when they're away from the office -- far away, in fact, like on a beach or ski lift.

A recent infographic from Desk.com compiled 13 of these apps that help with financial management, communication, customer support and more.

Take a look:

Facebook has acquired Storylane, a relatively young social network focused around telling stories, for an undisclosed sum.

Storylane announced the acquisition in a blog post Friday, noting that the service will wind down and the team will join Facebook. "After a lot of discussions with Facebook about how our teams might work together to have even greater impact, we are announcing today that the Storylane team will be joining Facebook," Storylane's founder and CEO Jonathan Gheller wrote in the post.

Facebook confirmed the acquisition in a statement provided to Mashable: "The team from Storylane will be an incredible addition to Facebook. Their previous work showcasing real identity through sincere and meaningful content will make them a perfect fit at Facebook."

We've heard from a source that the five-person staff at Storylane will join Facebook's Timeline team, reporting to Sam Lessin, who heads up the "Identity" product group at the company.

Storylane launched in October with the goal of prompting users to share meaningful stories from their lives. The service is perhaps most similar to Medium, the publishing platform launched last year by two of Twitter's co-founders. Gheller was ambitious in his goals for the service, telling Mashable at the time that the service was trying to "build a library of human experiences by crafting a community where people can share things that really matter."

For those who did share stories on the service, Storylane plans to roll out tools to help migrate those posts to other sites. Gheller also says Facebook will not be getting any of the company's data or operations as part of the acquisition.

Here's the full announcement Gheller made to the Storylane community:

Two years ago the team behind Storylane began working to help people connect in more fruitful and meaningful ways. We took on a mission – trying to help people better communicate who they are and what they care about, improve the way we do business with each other, find love and make new friendships. And at the heart of this work has always been our drive to build a more genuine online identity.

After a lot of discussions with Facebook about how our teams might work together to have even greater impact, we are announcing today that the Storylane team will be joining Facebook.

This is an exciting opportunity. Facebook’s mission of connecting the world has always been at the center of our work, and like our friends at Facebook, meaningful connections are what our team is most passionate about.

The beautiful stories you have decided to share with us are yours to keep and share in however way you want. We are building tools that will help you migrate the content to other services if you so desire. I will be in touch with you about those specific tools later, but I can confirm that Facebook is not acquiring any of your data; and we’re working to make sure you can migrate your content in a manageable way.

We want to give special thanks to our investors who supported us and encouraged us to dream big. It has been an absolute honor to work alongside such an outstanding group of people. Our journey as a young company was made possible by their commitment and patience. Without their guidance we would not be in a position to further our mission through Facebook.

Most of all, I want to thank our users. Your passion, sincerity and willingness to share, has made Storylane the incredible experience that exists today. We have learned so much from you. Your ideas and creativity will stay with us and inspire us on the next stage of our journey.
Image courtesy of Storylane.








































View the Original article

Facebook unveiled its "new" News Feed Thursday, and while we won't know the full range of effects it will have on the pages of brands and publishers for some time, Facebook has provided a few clues to help administrators optimize their pages ahead of its rollout.

First, let's take a look at the changes. The new News Feed is cleaner, more visual and has more filtering controls. The size of photos and videos have been enlarged, making the quality of visual media more important than ever before. That's great news for magazines and other publishers with deep photo resources; for publishers that rely largely on Creative Commons or stock imagery, the challenge is greater.



In addition to larger photos and videos, Facebook has introduced a number of "sub feeds" to give users greater control over what updates appear in their streams. Users can opt to view updates from All or just Close Friends, only photo updates, only music updates, only updates from pages and public figures they follow (i.e., subscribe to), only updates from Groups and only updates from game apps. They can also view updates in reverse-chronological order.

While these changes could have a negative impact on publishers' pages, particularly if users opt to spend all or most of their time viewing updates from their Close Friends, Facebook insists it could be a boon as well, because users can switch over to the "Following" feed to get updates outside their friend circles precisely when they want them.



Beyond those changes, the look of the new News Feed is far more consistent across smartphones, tablets and desktops than previously. For a visual overview of the alterations, click through our slideshow, or check out Facebook's official overview.

Optimization Strategies

Publishers can make some changes to their content to take advantage of the coming changes. Here's a few recommendations:

1. Invest in high-quality, high-resolution images. High-quality imagery is more important than ever before. Photos now make up nearly half of all News Feed stories, according to Facebook, up from 30% just a year ago. That growth is likely to accelerate now that Facebook is enlarging the size of photos in the News Feed. Facebook recommends publishers use images with a width of at least 552 pixels. As a bonus, publishers no longer need to upload full-sized images next to their story links. According to one Facebook source, Facebook will now display thumbnail photos pulled from story pages at the same size as images uploaded directly to the News Feed. As such, it's important for publishers to upload thumbnail images with a width of at least 552 pixels on their sites.

2. Improve your cover photo. Publishers may have had little incentive to invest in a great cover photo until now because it never showed up in the News Feed. That's about to change. When a group of friends Like or otherwise interact with a Facebook page, that Page may be highlighted in the News Feed with its cover photo on display. As Facebook says, "Having an engaging cover photo that tells your or your Page's story is even more important to improve your discovery through connection stories."



3. Post about trending topics. News stories about a single topic will be highlighted in thumbnail-rich carousels in the News Feed, like the one featuring Taylor Swift stories, below. Thus it may be more advantageous to share trending rather than outlier stories on Facebook.



4. Share different types of media. If publishers want to have a presence in users' sub feeds — namely, their photo and music feeds — consider sharing more photos, and linking a company Spotify or Rdio account to Facebook.





























View the Original article

In case you hadn’t noticed, Pinterest has been in the news a lot recently.
In November last year, Pinterest started courting the business community with the creation of its business-specific accounts  and a dedicated business support page.

Then earlier this month, Pinterest quietly raised a cool $200 million at an astonishing $2.5 billion valuation – not bad for a company that has yet to make a profit!

Most intriguing of all though was a study published last week by research center Pew. It suggested that Pinterest has grown so quickly, it’s now on course to catch Twitter in the battle for second place behind Facebook in the US social networking market.

These events indicate that Pinterest is quickly evolving from being last year’s hot new upstart to a legitimate social network that should be part of your marketing mix.

How can you maximize your time on Pinterest?

But how can you maximize your Pinterest activities without spending a ton of time on it? Well, along with scheduling your pins, one of the most effective but underutilized strategies to get more exposure from Pinterest is by using group boards.

Now, if you’re new to Pinterest, you may only know of regular boards that only you can pin to. You may have never have heard of group boards. Or maybe you have but you don’t know how to use them or don’t think they apply to you.

I’ve been dabbling with group boards over the past few months and have seen a dramatic increase in followers since I strategically introduced them to my Pinterest marketing.

So in this post I am going to demystify group boards, explain the advantages of using them and outline a few ways you can get started straightaway with this strategy.

What Are Pinterest’s Group Boards?

A group board works like a regular Pinterest board. The only difference is that along with the board creator, other people are also allowed to pin.

Group boards go under many different names – shared boards, contributor boards, community boards and collaborative boards. Regardless the term, they are all exactly the same thing.

There is currently no directory of Pinterest group boards. In order to distinguish a group board from a regular one you need to look out for the group icon at the top of a board when you are browsing someone’s page.

This snapshot of Jeff’s Pinterest page clearly shows that the board on the left, “For The Home”, is one of Jeff’s own, whilst the two other boards have contributors.



Key Benefits of Using Group Boards

Group boards are not only a great way to organize ideas and bring people together, but they can also have real tangible benefits for your brand and business.

#1. Dramatically boost your followers

If you join a group board with hundreds or thousands of followers they will automatically become your followers too. More followers means greater exposure.

#2. Exponentially increase the number of repins

The more followers you have the more likely they (and their followers) are to see your content, repin your pins and click through to your website. This means more traffic to your site and potentially more subscribers, customers and clients.

#3. Put your pinning virtually on autopilot

Implement this strategy correctly and you could get other people creating content for.

Certainly at the start, Pinterest can be time-consuming but managed well, you could soon have a team of people perpetuating your content for you across their networks.

#4. Increase engagement and create brand ambassadors

Your customers may already be liking, commenting and sharing your content with their followers on Pinterest. But inviting them to pin to your brand’s group board will get them more engaged and involved in your online conversation.

It will also elevate them to the role of brand ambassadors, who their followers are more likely to take note of.

Let’s take a look now at some ways you can harness the power of group boards in your business.

How Can Businesses Use Group Boards?

• Collaboration – are you working with other people, employees or co-workers on a specific project? Use group boards to share industry-specific tips, training materials and resources. Make the board “secret” if you want to keep the information under wraps.

• Planning – are you a wedding planner, interior designer or in charge of an event that requires input from others? Invite the stakeholders to join you on a group board where you can collect and share design ideas, compare menus, color schemes, flower arrangements, room layouts, fabric samples and so on.

• Promotion– thinking of running a contest, raising funding for your big idea or promoting a worthy cause? Group boards are perfect for engaging your audience, getting customers to interact with your brand as well as sharing data, statistics, success stories etc to raise awareness about your brand or a particular issue.

• Networking – why not invite other pinners to pin about a common topic and expand your network at the same time? Bloggers especially can benefit from group boards by using them to connect with other bloggers and actively repinning each other’s content as part of a blogging network.

• Authority – are you knowledgeable about a particular subject area? Create a themed group board and contribute regularly to build credibility and establish yourself as a thought leader to the board’s followers.

How To Create A Contributor Board

Go to the Pinterest home page and click on the Add + tab at the top of the page.



Then select the option to Create a Board.



Next choose a name for your new board, select a category and whether you want to make it a private (secret) board or a public one.

The final step is to decide who you want to add as a contributor.



How To Add Contributors

There are two ways to make someone a contributor:

You can type their email address into the Who can pin? field. Pinterest will email them an invitation and prompt them to join Pinterest if they haven’t done so already.The easier way is to simply add the username of a pinner you would like to invite. The only condition is that you must be following them first.

As you start typing their name, Pinterest will automatically bring up all the potential matches i.e. people with those initial letters in their username.



Just select the names you want to add as contributors, click invite and then save your settings using the Create Board button.

Pinterest will send an invitation from you, the board creator, to the invitees to join your board. When they accept, they can pin on the same board with you and the group board will appear on every contributor’s page.

You can of course make any of your current boards into a group board. Just follow the steps above from How To Add Contributors.

A word of caution.

Pinterest will send you a notification each time a contributor pins to a group board. I recommend you turn off these notifications to avoid bombarding your inbox with unnecessary emails.

Just select the group board in question, click the Edit Board button and turn off the notifications tab.

Keep An Eye On Your Contributors And Group Boards

Remember that you don’t have to (and shouldn’t) accept every invitation you get to join a group board. Be selective.

Check to make sure that the board is on-brand for your business and a good fit for your audience before agreeing to join. The number of followers on a group board is another metric to take note of; the more followers a group board has, the greater the exposure you can expect for your business.

When you follow a group board, you will be able to see all of the content that is currently on that board. Any new pins that get added to this group board will also appear on your Pinterest feed, regardless of the person who is pinning the images.

There is currently no way to filter which pins you can see.

This means that you might see pins from people you are not directly following which could include inappropriate content and spam.

Make a point of regularly monitoring your feed and respond quickly if you spot something undesirable by taking one of the following actions:

How To Remove Someone From A Group Board

If you would like to remove someone you have added to a particular group board just select the group board, and click on the Remove tab next to their name.

You can also delete the board entirely if you created it by hitting the Delete Board on the far right.



How To Leave A Group Board

In the example below, you can see Jeff was added to someone else’s Marketing Infographics board and that he can leave any time.



Pinterest will prompt you by asking if you are sure you want to leave the group board, just click Leave again and you will be permanently removed from that board.

Final Words

It’s important not to go overboard with this strategy and send out blanket invitations to all your followers. Not everyone welcomes group board invitations especially persistent ones so be careful not to annoy people!

In fact, the Pinterest blog recommends that you should only send invitations to Pinterest users who have expressed an interest in your pins and to avoid sending out repeat requests.

One way of encouraging people to join your group boards is to add a line in the board description. You could state that you welcome contributors and that anyone interested in joining the board should add a comment against a pin.

So there you have it, a whirlwind tour of Pinterest’s group boards.

What do you think? Is this a strategy you’ll be trying out? Or have you already set up a few group boards? Please comment below and share how they are working out for you.






































View the Original article

The amount of time a recruiter spends looking at your resume is roughly six seconds — the length of a Vine video.

For people who are unemployed or underemployed, figuring out how to stand out in the job search is crucial. Despite discovering job openings that fit your experience, you send your resume out to the ether — and feel you're continuously overlooked in favor of someone with equal qualifications. Many job seekers have taken to desperate measures.

"Visual design is a great way to differentiate yourself from other job candidates," says Dodd Caldwell, cofounder of Loft Resumes. "Design in general is increasingly important in the business world."

Companies are always looking for candidates who will go the extra mile, and your resume is literally your first point of contact — your first chance to put yourself in the "yes" bucket. And what recruiters are looking for can mostly be narrowed down to science, as The Ladders found last year in an eye-tracking study on resumes.

Recruiters spent 80% of their time looking at six data points:

• Name
• Current title and company
• Previous title and company
• Current start and end dates
• Previous start and end dates
• Education

The key is to keep these important data points clear. Loft Resumes recommends a hierarchy that presents information in a way that is easy to find and digest. Its service relies on graphic design principles, and clients can select from various formats or color palettes, but no two resumes will be exactly the same.

While presenting information visually is a plus, especially in a time when Pinterest, Instagram and other visual experiences are winning our time and attention — it's still not a good idea to put a photo on your resume (unless your industry requires it). Research from The Ladders on online profiles found the human eye is naturally drawn to photos, in this case the profile photo, which prevented recruiters from looking at more relevant data such as experience.

While a resume from Loft Resumes is not cheap ($99), it is an investment. The price includes two rounds of revisions. Additional revisions later — perhaps after you've acquired additional skills or experience — are only $5.

Have you tried using a service for professionally designed resumes? Did it make a difference in your job search? Let us know in the comments.

Here are some examples of resume makeovers by Loft Resumes:







Images courtesy of Loft Resumes, lead image via iStock, RussellCreative


































View the Original article

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason came up with a great idea the other day that has nothing to do with daily deals. Mason, who' was ousted after his company reported poor results in the fourth quarter, tweeted a proposal that would have profound implications for anyone struggling to reach Inbox Zero nirvana:

As Business Insider has subsequently reported, a software engineer at the company took the challenge and wrote a script to apply the 50-words-and-under limit to Gmail.

When compared to Twitter's 140-character limit, this is actually quite generous. Since that quota evens out to about 25 words, you would now have double the amount to say in an email than what you might tweet. As Twitter users well know, crafting tweets can be tricky, but you can pretty much get across whatever you need to say. With 50 words, you would have no excuse.

Enforcing discipline would improve the content of most emails. There's a timeworn case to be made that shorter is better. For instance, Mark Twain once apologized for writing a long letter because he didn't have time to write a short one. Shakespeare also opined (via Polonius in Hamlet) that "brevity is the soul of wit." In addition, you would also automatically screen out a lot of spam and, for us journalists, press releases. Just like in Twitter, if a company wanted to alert you about a press release, they could send a sentence with a link, rather than the whole enchilada.

Despite the evidence, though, not everyone is convinced this is a good idea. Susan Etlinger, an analyst with the Altimeter Group, says that a 50-word limit is "solving the wrong problem." In her view, the issue with emails isn't their length but their sheer number. "You have to mentally triage — read and respond, ignore — that takes a lot of mental energy," she says. She also thinks that unless there was an industry-wide agreement on a 50-word length, adherence to the restriction would be spotty at best.

Joshua Lyman, an independent tech consultant, says that forcing shorter emails might lead to a "chat-like environment" where you'd get three emails instead of one. "It could certainly not help," he says. Lyman says that a word limit would, however, "make people think about their emails."

Despite the potential downsides, I think a word limit is worth a try. Email has become a scourge. Apps like Mailbox are a step in the right direction, but we need to do the equivalent of wiring our jaws shut at this point. A diet of 50 words or less will keep our inboxes lean and mean, especially if we've already set up a filter for those bloated missives from Groupon.

Image courtesy of Flickr, TechCrunch






























View the Original article

Are flexible work arrangements a discretionary perk or the backbone of a modern company? How should productivity be measured? And how should it be balanced against less tangible priorities such as innovation and collaboration?

These are just some of the issues bubbling to the surface in the wake of news that struggling media company Yahoo is eliminating its work-from-home policy.

First reported Friday by All Things D, the leaked internal memo emphasized the spontaneous interactions between employees that occur in an office and that that all remote workers will be required to report to an office. The new policy has sparked a vociferous debate about the importance of telecommuting and whether CEO Marissa Mayer made the right call.

But we'd like to hear your thoughts. How does your company handle flexible work arrangements? Is it more important to facilitate creativity and interaction or encourage productivity in whatever form it takes? How often do you work from home and what schedule would you prefer? Take our poll below and share your experience in the comments.

Do You Work From Home?
Image via iStockphoto, bonniej































View the Original article

After widespread criticism of Yahoo's decision to ban employees from working at home, the company has addressed the controversy in a vague statement.

"This isn't a broad industry view on working from home," it said. "This is about what is right for Yahoo right now."

A spokesperson for Yahoo declined to elaborate on the matter, telling the New York Times, "We don't discuss internal matters."

But several anonymous employees said Yahoo's move to abolish telecommuting indicates that Marissa Mayer, who became company CEO last July, is "in crisis mode." They told the Times that Mayer believes the policy is necessary rejuvenate Yahoo, which has seen a years-long decline.

An internal company-wide memo from Jackie Reses, Yahoo's head of human resources, said:

To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.

Work ethic at Yahoo has deteriorated over time, and the new policy allows management to better monitor and inspire people at the office, the employees revealed. What's more, it's seen as beneficial if less productive staff chose to leave because of the policy, they added. Indeed, some workers have abused the work-at-home option to the point that they've founded startups while being on Yahoo's payroll, the employees said.

All those currently working from home will be required to work at Yahoo's offices starting this June.

Yahoo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Image courtesy of Flickr, eirikso
































View the Original article

Twitter is underwhelming at 140 characters. Any sane person would say “What do you do with that?”

Why limit yourself to so few words when there is a dictionary
and an encyclopedia available and limitless communication at your disposal.

Its brevity is both an enigma and its charm. It has been its weakness and strength due to that simplicity.

Keeping it simple is not without success precedent.

One of the most successful children’s books of all time was written with only 50 words. It was a challenge thrown down to Dr Seuss by his editor when he was about to write his  next book “Green Eggs with Ham“.

Simple is good.

The history of short and simple

Just over twenty years ago on December 3, 1992 the message “Merry Christmas” was sent by software engineer Neil Papworth to the Vodafone director Richard Jarvis.

That was the world’s first text message. It was short and it was simple.

Who would think that 20 years later that:

• 6  billion messages would be sent every day in the USA
• 2.2 trillion texts would be sent every year in the USA
• 8.6 trillion SMS messages would be created every year around the planetText messaging would be a $150 billion a year industry

It is the messaging of choice for most teenagers. The adults have also realized its time saving capabilities.

People have also understood that having a conversation is maybe not something you always want to do.

Twitter wants to transform video messaging

Twitter has just announced a smart phone app called “Vine” that allows you to take a video that is limited to 6 seconds and continues to loop.

It is not alone with the idea.

There are competing apps called Viddy and Tout that do much the same.

So what can you do with a 6 second video and it raises this question again.

Why bother?

Maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to put the boot in. Twitter took texting to a new level and put it on steroids. Maybe a short and simple video is enough to get a powerful message out that is memorable.

Is less more?

How could you use Vine for marketing?

Viddy thinks that 15 seconds is the right length for a video short message while Vine has chosen 6 seconds. Maybe there is some science behind both but let’s look at some possible ideas for marketing with a short video.

Here are 6 ideas:

1. The brand elevator pitch

Want people to understand what your brand is all about. The elevator pitch is where you wrap it up in one sentence or two. 6 seconds is maybe enough.

How could you make it visual and viral.

2. Product demonstration

One to two minute video reviews of products in your online store are now maybe too long. Why not experiment with six seconds?

3. Launching a new product or service

Explain your new product in six seconds if you can. (If you don’t then use YouTube). Maybe your messaging will  get better as you learn to communicate the key features and not the unnecessary.

4. Give your brand a personality

Social media allows and wants you to give your brand a personality. Use Vine to make it real and authentic. Make it quirky or innovative.

Many brands want an image that goes beyond bland.

5. Marketing a promotion

Use a 6 second Vine video to market a new promotion. This could  be a new book, song or  a movie or even an event. How long do you need to communicate something new. Remember the power of simple.

6. Announcing a special offer or discount

50% off. How long does it take to announce that special offer for your clothing store?  Make it visual, aural and shareable.

If you want to look at how 15 businesses are using the Vine video app for their brand. Check out this post over at Hubspot.

What about you?

How do you think you could use a six second video on Vine to market your business and brand? Do you even want to?

Do you think this idea will stick or do you think it is a fad?

Look forward to your comments below. Tell us your thoughts and ideas.








































View the Original article

Employers who leave rejected job candidates with a bad taste in their mouths may see the bottom line suffer for it, new research shows.

A study by online job site CareerBuilder found that candidates who had a bad experience when applying for a position are less likely to seek employment at that company again. They are also more likely to discourage friends and family from applying or even purchasing products from that company. Overall, more than one in four workers have had a bad experience when applying for a job.

The vast majority of job candidates expect to hear responses from a company after an application, whether or not the employer is interested. But 75% of applicants said they never heard back from a business they applied to in the last year.

The research shows that by simply not responding, employers run the risk of losing out not only on a future employee, but a customer as well. Nearly one-third of those surveyed would be less inclined to purchase products or services from a company that didn't respond to their application.

Several other actions also led to bad experiences for applicants, including: employers who didn't let candidates know the company's decision following an interview, job requirements that didn't match what was in the job posting or company representatives who didn't present a positive work experience or seem knowledgeable.

The study found that the effects of a job candidate's negative experience can lead to a broader impact on the employer's ability to recruit and sell products. Specifically, more than 20% of job candidates who have had bad experiences would tell others not to work at that company, while 9% would discourage family and friends from patronizing the business.

Sanja Licina, senior director of talent intelligence at CareerBuilder, said that from the second job seekers view a job ad and apply, they are forming an opinion of who the company is as an employer and as a business.

"One bad applicant experience can have a ripple effect, with candidates not only vocalizing their dissatisfaction with how they were treated, but encouraging others not to apply or even buy products from that company," Licina said. "It's so critical that your employment brand effectively carries through at every touch point with candidates."

Just as bad experiences can carry long-term effects, so too can good applicant experiences, even if the candidate wasn't actually hired. Nearly 40 percent of candidates who were happy with the way an employer treated them after an application would recommend others to work at that bussiness, while 23 percent would be more likely to purchase products or services from that company.

The study was based on surveys of more than 3,900 U.S. workers.

































View the Original article

Chelsea P. Gladden is the Director of Marketing & PR for FlexJobs, an award-winning service that helps job-seekers find professional opportunities that also offer work flexibility, such as telecommuting, freelance, part-time or alternative schedules. To learn more about Chelsea, visit FlexJobs.com or tweet her @FlexJobsChelsea.

If you’re like millions of Americans looking for a job right now, it might be time to take a step back and evaluate your job-search tactics. There are some common mistakes that can make you your own worst enemy when trying to get your foot in the door of a new employer. To give your employment search some performance enhancement, make sure to follow these tips.

1. Early Bird Gets the Worm

The sooner you get your job application in, the better luck you will have at getting your resume seen. If you are slow to reply to a job listing, you likely will lose your shot at be considered, so make sure to stay up-to-date on new listings as they arise.

2. Get a Jump-Start

Even better than being one of the first to apply for an open position is seeking one out before it is posted. Research the companies you are interested in working for and reach out to see if any openings are on the horizon. Interact with the company on LinkedIn, join the same local trade organizations the company attends and find out where their staff members might be speaking publicly. Consider volunteering at events the company may be involved with to start to get to know the staff and familiarize yourself with the company culture.

3. Tailor Your Information

Applying for jobs can often be a numbers game, so once you have narrowed down the best fits for you, make sure you customize your resume and cover letter for each position you apply for. Though you will want to be one of the first to apply, don’t be in such a rush that you automatically eliminate yourself by not indicating how your skills are a match for a specific position and how you meet that particular’s company's requirements. Not showing you are a fit for that specific job will surely end your chances of being considered.

4. Follow Up

Though it may feel like you are sending your information into a large black abyss at times, there are people on the other end. It’s perfectly acceptable — even preferred — to send a follow-up email if you don't get a response within a couple of days. This is when you confirm that the interviewer received your information, giving you a chance to reiterate your interest in the job. But, if a listing specifically states "no phone calls or emails," abide by that request or you may end your chances. Once you have landed the interview, absolutely follow up with your interviewers through a thank-you note, again expressing your interest in the company and the job.

If you feel like your job search is at a standstill, be sure to reevaluate how you are going about it. After all, we all could use a little performance enhancement from time to time.
























View the Original article

Pinterest's motto is that "no matter what you're interested in, there's a place for it here," but Austin Phillips has found this to be problematic for creative professionals using the service who want to find very specific content.

"I started talking with a lot of other designers and creators, asking 'Do you use Pinterest? Do you like it? And the overwhelming response was that they use it, but don't like it because it's too cluttered," Phillips told Mashable. "If you want to find design, photography or videos, you have to sift through recipes and other stuff you're not interested in."

With that in mind, Phillips and his wife Natalia decided to create a new social bookmarking site in their spare time geared specifically towards professionals who focus on "the visual side of creativity," like designers, photographers and illustrators. The end result was The Matboard, a website that launched publicly earlier this week after several months in beta.

The Matboard's mission is to inspire creative professionals with collections of ads, magazine designs, illustrations, infographics and more curated by a community of like-minded users. There are more than 2,000 items currently posted to the site, though a little more than half of those were selected and uploaded by Phillips and his wife. Like Pinterest, these visuals are presented in tiles, or "boards," organized into various categories and the site offers social integration with Facebook and Twitter. But the team has also made a conscious effort to move away from some of Pinterest's design elements, including foregoing having comments show up on top of each picture to reduce clutter.



"I didn't want it to be another Pinterest, that was never the intention," Austin says. In fact, he says he originally had the idea for the site four years ago (before Pinterest launched) while studying graphic design in college, but he ultimately decided to "put it on the backburner" for awhile. A few years later, Austin, a designer, and Natalia, who works in marketing, partnered with a programmer and bootstrapped development of the site.

In addition to serving as a source of inspiration, Austin says The Matboard will help creative professionals build and share visual portfolios of their work, similar to Behance. Going forward, he says the service will start to fine-tune what users see based on the styles of work that they typically browse through to ensure that they only see things that are relevant to them.

Images courtesy of The Matboard





































View the Original article

Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr have all warned their users that some of their data might be compromised after a security breach at Zendesk, a company which provides customer support services for all three companies.

In a blog post titled "We've been hacked," Zendesk explains that a hacker has accessed their systems and probably downloaded user info from Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest users.

"We’ve become aware that a hacker accessed our system this week. As soon as we learned of the attack, we patched the vulnerability and closed the access that the hacker had. Our ongoing investigation indicates that the hacker had access to the support information that three of our customers store on our system. We believe that the hacker downloaded email addresses of users who contacted those three customers for support, as well as support email subject lines. We notified our affected customers immediately and are working with them to assist in their response," wrote Zendesk's Mikkel Svane in the blog post.

All three companies promptly sent a notice to users, explaining the nature of the data breach.

"Twitter – along with a number of other companies – uses a customer support portal called Zendesk. Zendesk recently blogged about a significant security breach. In order to ensure those who may be impacted by this breach are notified as quickly as possible, we are sending this notification to all email addresses, including this one, that we believe could have been involved. Zendesk’s breach did not result in the exposure of information such as Twitter account passwords. It may, however, have included contact information you provided when submitting a support request such as an email, phone number, or Twitter username," wrote Twitter in a message.

Pinterest and Tumblr sent similar e-mails to their users as well.

"For the last 2.5 years, we’ve used a popular service called Zendesk to store, organize, and answer emails to Tumblr Support. We’ve learned that a security breach at Zendesk has affected Tumblr and two other companies. We are sending this notification to all email addresses that we believe may have been affected by this breach.This has potentially exposed records of subject lines and, in some cases, email addresses of messages sent to Tumblr Support," wrote Tumblr.

Tumblr also advises that users review their correspondence with the following Tumblr support addresses: support@tumblr.com, abuse@tumblr.com, dmca@tumblr.com,legal@tumblr.com, enquiries@tumblr.com, or lawenforcement@tumblr.com.

"We’re sending you this email because we received or answered a message from you using Zendesk. Unfortunately your name, email address and subject line of your message were improperly accessed during their security breach," wrote Pinterest in its e-mail to users.

It seems no passwords have been compromised in the hack on any of the three service. However, as always, users are advised to use strong passwords, use different passwords for different services and never to reveal their passwords to third parties.


























View the Original article

The demand for fresh and high-quality articles on websites is at an all-time high.

Since Google’s Panda and Penguin algorithm updates in 2011 and 2012, content that uses spam SEO practices has been penalized and quality is ever more crucial. Although keeping a news site or a blog up to date with fresh daily content is important and an effective way to generate traffic, your website must also have a solid backbone of  ‘evergreen’ content – or stuff that will not go out of date so easily – to stay relevant.

Evergreen content is content that has endurance and longevity.


What is evergreen content?

You have perhaps heard about evergreen content from industry experts who seem to have fallen in love with the term. They will tell you that it is vital to your blog’s overall success. Evergreen content  covers topics that are always relevant whenever they have been posted. It is written with the goal of driving traffic to a website for a long period of time. Examples of these would be “Tips” and “How-to” posts that retain their value, unlike news content which relies timeliness.

Importance of evergreen content to business?

Most small businesses find it difficult to stick to a blogging schedule, as it takes time and money. As a result, people often write a selection of articles when they get the time and then post them over the coming weeks, without having to worry about tying into the day’s news. It thus sounds more practical as well as business-like to create articles that have no expiration date.

From a blog management standpoint, evergreen content is effective as these posts will continue to be relevant and receive visitors. Creating evergreen content is a powerful way of building your business’ online presence and audience.

Writing perpetually relevant content is not that difficult. It’s just a matter of searching for an interesting topic that fits your business.

To get you started, here are some guidelines to consider:

#1. Choose timeless topics

When choosing a topic for your evergreen post, remember the K.I.S.S rule (Keep It Simple and Sweet). Never choose topics that are too broad, as they must be thoroughly explained, which can make them far too long. Take note that a typical online reader will scan your website looking for keywords and sentences that match the information they are seeking.

In 2008, Nielsen reported that “79 percent of searchers scanned Web pages and they only read 20-28 percent of the words on the page.” Thus, if the readers found that your article is not relevant to them within the first few seconds, then expect them to be clicking the back button.

#2. Give the content depth

Research extensively about your chosen topic. Start by reading up on the subject on Wikipedia, then see what else the web can turn up. Although you’ve done your research, this does not mean that you can confuse your readers with jargon. Remember to write for your market. If your content is for beginners, avoid technical terms that could scare them off. Simplicity is the key to all effective writing. Consider reading 8 Essential Habits for Effective Writing on how to be an effective writer
for a more productive writing experience.

#3. Present your content with visuals

As the online marketing game becomes more competitive, business marketers are finding that interesting content isn’t just about what you say, but also how the information is presented. Content that includes appealing visuals such as photos, videos and graphs (to name a few) will help tell the story you are trying to convey.

In fact, in a study conducted by Florida’s Poynter Institute in May 2004, researchers found out that “images (photos and graphics) were viewed more than text. Photos attracted more attention than graphics. Sixty-four percent of the photos were viewed for about one-and-a-quarter second, on average. Graphics (other than banner ads) were viewed 22 percent of the time, and received about a second’s attention.” So if you’re planning to write tutorials or tips then consider searching for videos or photos to make your content more effective.

So what are you waiting for?

Maintaining a blog for your website often entails a lot of decision making, especially when it comes to deciding what topic to discuss. Remember that “creating content that is just as useful five years down the road as it was the day it was published is not easy, but it’s possible.”

So start investing in evergreen content now to build your brand’s online presence.





















View the Original article

1. Heavy Traffic

Craigslist receives more than 50 billion page monthly pageviews. More than 60 million people from the U.S. alone visit the site each month
Image courtesy of Flickr, epSos.de


2. Millions of Listings
Craigslist users post more than 100 million classified ads each month. Of those listings, more than 2 million are job ads.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Tax Credits


3. How Craigslist Makes Money
While some listings are free, Craigslist makes money by charging for job postings in 28 metro areas, brokered apartments in New York City and therapeutic services in the U.S.
Image courtesy of Flickr, epSos.de


4. Started in San Francisco
Craigslist started as an email list of events in San Francisco by Craig Newmark, a computer programmer.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Alex E. Primos


5. Why Craigslist Is a .ORG
Though Craigslist is incorporated as a for-profit, it uses a .org rather than a .com to signify the relatively non-commercial nature of the platform. It claims its mission is public service over spinning a profit.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, porcorex


6. Craigslist Is All Over the World
There are more than 700 local Craigslist sites in 70 countries around the globe.
Image courtesy of Flickr, shaire productions


7. A Small Team of Employees
Craigslist has 30-something employees in its San Francisco headquarters
Image courtesy of Flickr, Editor B


8. Craigslist Speaks 13 Languages
Craigslist supports Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, Filipino, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portugese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.
Image courtesy of Flickr, borkur.net


9. What Craig Is Up to Now
In March 2011, Newmark launched Craigconnects, a multi-issue non-profit working to "connect the world for the common good."
Image courtesy of Flickr, quinn.anya


10. EBay Has Partial Ownership
In August 2004, eBay acquired roughly 25% of Craigslist.
Image courtesy of Flickr, brianc


When you think of Craigslist, you probably imagine the sparsely designed Internet agora of job listings, apartment rentals and just about everything else in between. But what do you really know about the community-driven e-commerce hub?

We dug into Craigslist's About page to learn some lesser-known facts.

How many people actually post to Craigslist each month? Why is it craigslist.org rather than craigslist.com? And who is Craig, anyways? Take a look through the gallery above to become a Craigslist expert.

Are you a frequent Craigslist user? Let us know in the comments if any of these facts surprise you.

Homepage image courtesy of Flickr, Editor B

































View the Original article

Ever heard the name Guy Adams before this weekend? How about Gary Zenkel? No, me neither. Not until Twitter suspended the former, a British journalist based in LA, for tweeting the corporate e-mail address of the latter, the president of NBC Olympics — and created a tempest in a tea cup.

Not only was Twitter’s reaction completely disproportionate, there’s one major problem with it: he didn’t actually violate Twitter’s terms of service.

Adams, like a lot of us here on the West Coast, was upset that NBC had delayed broadcasting the London Olympics’ opening ceremony Friday night — so much so that the Pacific time zone was seeing it six hours after it actually happened (and three hours after our friends on the East Coast started tweeting like crazy about it.)

Plenty of critics vented their outrage at NBC’s policy (which included not putting the opening ceremony online, presumably to make more money from ads broadcast during prime time). Adams probably went a little further than most, calling the action “money grabbing” and decrying the network as “utter bastards.”

Then he wrote this fateful tweet: “The man responsible for NBC pretending the Olympics haven’t started yet is Gary Zenkel. Tell him what u think! Email: Gary.zenkel@nbcuni.com.”

The network complained, and Adams’ entire Twitter account was suspended Monday. The reason, he was told by a Twitter representative, was that he had violated Twitter’s terms of service by posting a private email address. NBC confirmed this in a statement to Mashable: “A user tweeted the personal information of one of our executives. According to Twitter, this is a violation of their privacy policy. Twitter alone levies discipline.”

Was that the case, though? Leave aside the question of whether a corporate email address counts as private. Let’s just assume that it does. Here’s what Twitter has to say about posting private information:
Posting another person’s private and confidential information is a violation of the Twitter Rules.

Some examples of private and confidential information are: credit card information, social security or other national identity numbers, addresses or locations that are considered and treated as private, non-public, personal phone numbers, non-public, personal email addresses.

Keep in mind that although you may consider certain information to be private, not all postings of such information may be a violation of this policy. If information was previously posted or displayed elsewhere on the Internet prior to being put on Twitter, it is not a violation of this policy. [Emphasis mine]

So if Zenkel’s email address was posted anywhere on the Internet prior to Friday, Adams is off the hook and his account should be restored. Right?

I’ll admit, the search is a wee bit harder than it should be. Currently, the first 8 pages of results for Zenkel’s email address on Google is clogged up with stories about Adams. (This is my point about creating a tempest in a tea cup; as a direct result of the suspension, Zenkel’s email has become one of the most public on the planet.)

But way down on page 9, we find what would have been the previous top result for Zenkel’s email address: this blog post from June 20, 2011, criticizing NBC Sports for removing the words “under God” from the pledge of allegiance during the U.S. Open.

Whatever you make of that post and the controversy it refers to, you can’t deny that it contain’s Zenkel’s email address, along with those of a long list of NBC Sports executives.

So Zenkel’s email address was “previously posted or displayed elsewhere on the Internet prior to being put on Twitter,” and Adam’s posting of it “is not a violation of this policy.” Game over, checkmate, or as Adams might say: howzat?

I’m not saying that this blog post is how Adams got the address; it has been noticeably absent from his defense. All his recent article in the Independent says is that anyone could construct that address from a basic knowledge of how NBC handles its accounts.

But you don’t even need to go that far. You don’t need to point out that the address is corporate, rather than personal. You need only point to Twitter’s own definition of its rules.

We’ve asked Twitter for comment, and will let you know what we hear back. But don’t be surprised to see Adams’ account reinstated — the company has a history of acting precipitously when it comes to account deletions, then reversing its decision later.











































View the Original article

Global revenues from social media are projected to hit $16.9 billion in 2012, a 43.1% jump over the previous year, according to Gartner.

The bulk of that will come from advertising, which will contribute $8.8 billion. Social gaming revenue is next at $6.2 billion and subscriptions account for another $278 million. The researcher predicts “moderate growth” for the segment in coming years, though Gartner declined to share specific figures.

The advertising figure appears to be in line with a similar projection by eMarketer, which predicts $7.7 billion in social media ad revenues for 2012 and $11.9 billion by 2014. The U.S.’s share of such revenues will stay at around 53% over the next couple of years, according to eMarketer, which does not have an aggregate figure for social media revenues.



To put the figure in perspective, the Interactive Advertising Bureau estimates that global ad revenues for Internet advertising were $31 billion in 2011. Display ads accounted for $11.8 billion. The IAB didn’t break out figures for social media advertising.














































View the Original article