Editor’s note: James Gross is co-founder of Percolate, a marketing company with a mission to help brands create content at a social scale. Follow him on Twitter: @James_Gross.
There’s been much buzz around the term “native advertising” lately. And with the buzz has come a bit of backlash, and it’s been mostly from publishers who are looking at the native solutions for their sites and… → Read More
Editor’s note: Nasir Jones is co-founder of 12Society and a multi-platinum recording artist. Follow him at NasirJones.com and on Twitter: @Nas.
On July 24, I found out that my newest album hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200. This isn’t my first time around the block, but it’s one of the most satisfying. I started as a hungry MC from QB, but now I am trying to give back to the hip hop… → Read More
This week Twitter launched its new API. There are still lots of questions about what this means for developers, and what role developers have played in Twitter’s rise. But the general consensus seems to be that it doesn’t matter much for most users.
Apparently most users just use Twitter’s official clients and supposedly will never notice if Twitter bans most third party clients. Even if that’s… → Read More
Social media dashboard maker MarketMeSuite, which targets SMBs with tools that help them better manage their Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn postings in order to target leads, has raised $1.1 million in new funding today, in a round led by Boston-area VC Jeff McCormick of Saturn Venture Partners. The company also recently uprooted from its home base of Norwich, U.K. to set up shop in… → Read More
Today Bitly announced a new Bitly Labs project called Realtime, a service for finding the most clicked on Bitly links. Realtime, now in private beta, allows users to filter searches by social network, keyword, subject and more. For example, here are the results for a search for the keyword “startups” in technology on Twitter: → Read More
If you had to recruit the ideal team to help you navigate the intersection of technology, media, and celebrity, it probably wouldn’t look much different from the partnership behind theAudience. The stealthy social media company, which has flown under the radar until recently, counts Sean Parker, Ari Emanuel, and Oliver Luckett as its co-founders — just your average startup’s triumvirate of tech… → Read More
Using Google to develop passenger dossiers wth Google Images? Now that’s what you call customer service!
At least that’s British Airways spin. Privacy advocates call it . → Read More
BNDWGN, a new app from the makers of free texting service HeyWire, is launching what’s being called a “content messenger” service. The app is a combination of private friend-to-friend(s) chat and social media aggregation. Using BNDWGN, you can combine various streams from sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram into an interest-focused group which can be as narrowly defined as “Lady… → Read More
So that’s how Badgeville is using some of that $25 million in funding from May. The engagement-focused startup (and former TechCrunch Disrupt participant) is today announcing the acquisition of the Gamification.org Community from Gamify, a two-year old online community that also just happened to have the rights to the the “gamification” username on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Google+ . Yep… → Read More
Branding Brand is an under-the-radar company whose name you might not know offhand, but whose platform powers the mobile commerce in several names you probably do know. Their client list includes brands like American Eagle Outfitters, Ralph Lauren, Sephora, Anthropologie, Dick’s Sporting Goods, GNC, Steve Madden, TigerDirect, West Marine, Timberland and Crate & Barrel, for example.
Given… → Read More
Pivoting is a part of life for startups. But, generally speaking, most entrepreneurs aren’t going to go out of their way to pivot right when their business starts taking off. But that’s what SimpleReach did. The startup’s first product, The Slide, is a simple widget that lets publishers recommend similar content at the bottom of articles. In just a few months, it was adopted by thousands of… → Read More
As enterprise companies like Salesforce and Oracle continue to sharpen their social media services for enterprises, Twitter is locking arms with one of them in a strategic alliance. Radian6, the social media monitoring service bought by Salesforce in March 2011 for $326 million, has announced that it has signed a strategic alliance with Twitter that gives Radian6 customers “complete access” to… → Read More
Spotify’s move last year to open its platform to other apps has created more stickiness for its streamed music services. Now, one of the startups based around that idea has found some traction of its own: Oslo-based Soundrop, which creates “listening rooms” and social jukebox-style service for Spotify users (think Turntable.fm), has picked up its first round of investment, $3 million from … → Read More
It’s nice to check-in to battle to be the mayor of your favorite burger joint, or to get 30 percent off a purchase, but it’s much more satisfying to check-in and feel as if you’ve actually done some good in the world. That’s because the AIDS battling organization (RED) has announced today that it will be partnering with Foursquare to leverage check-ins and social media awareness in the largest… → Read More
It’s not clear if this is a one-off glitch, a signal of a bigger issue — or a way of pumping up/sabotaging Klout scores for those who care. But it’s not great news any way you spin it, if it’s true: a Klout user has gotten in touch to say that when he accesses the social influence ratings service, he is getting signed in to Klout not as himself but as someone else.
Using an HTC Sensation… → Read More
Storify, the startup that lets anyone “curate” stories from around the web by collecting posts from social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, is today announcing its first-ever syndication deal. Through a new partnership with popular news reader Pulse, Storify’s curated feeds will now appear within Pulse’s app, allowing readers to subscribe to curated stories from a number of sources… → Read More
There is hardly a program or ad on TV these days that doesn’t ask its viewers to like its Facebook page or tweet about it. According to a new survey by global consulting firm Accenture, there’s a simple reason for this: those social media symbols actually work. Accenture found that, in the U.S, about a third of TV viewers have liked a show’s or brand’s Facebook page or tweeted about what they saw… → Read More
The folks behind a forthcoming fashion catalog for the iPad, Bazaart, have launched an interesting side project in their downtime (what’s that?) from their participation in DreamIt’s new Israel-based startup accelerator program. In need of something similar for themselves, the company launched a Facebook app called “Pinvolve” which converts Facebook Pages into Pinterest pinboards.
To use … → Read More
According to a new report by Experian, 91% of online adults now regularly use social media in some form or another. This makes social networking the top online activity in the U.S. today, with 15% of all U.S. Internet visits going to a social networking site. Experian’s report also found that Pinterest is now the third most popular social network in the U.S., right behind Facebook and Twitter. → Read More
SoMe is a film about the rise (and fall?) of social media. Produced by web rabble-rouser and satirist, Loren Feldman, the film will feature Feldman’s signature puppet act (it will be cool, I promise) and interviews with and segments about web luminaries like:
Julia Allison, Michael Arrington, Steve Ballmer, Henry Blodget, Chris Brogan, Robert Bruce, Paul Carr, Pete Cashmore, Brian Clark, Ron… → Read More
Change.org launched in 2007 as a social networking site for non-profits. Today, the site looks quite a bit different and has morphed into a petition platform that wants to empower activists around the world through what it calls “people-powered campaigns.” While the site only grew rather slowly in its early years, it’s on a tear now. According to Change.org’s own data, the site just passed 10… → Read More
More developments for Pinterest co-founder Paul Sciarra, who we reported yesterday was leaving Pinterest as Ben Silbermann officially took helm as CEO. Sciarra is going VC and joining Andreessen Horowitz as entrepreneur-in-residence.
The move follows the bigger trend of startup execs/founders getting snapped up by the VC firms, to help them get a bit smarter in how they work with their… → Read More
Stock photo site Fotolia’s founder, Thibaud Elziere, has just invested a small amount into a new company called mention, a social media monitoring service launching today. Elziere is also a co-founder at mention, which was developed by a European team of five, based in Paris and Brussels.
While clearly a crowded space, mention is somewhat different in that it’s targeting individual users and… → Read More
PromoJam, a social marketing platform for the enterprise that allows businesses to create campaigns across Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and Myspace, has raised $1.2 million in Series A funding, the company is announcing today. The round was led by NYC-based Golden Seeds, and included participation from Band of Angels. → Read More
On the heels of last week’s announcement of “social” hostel booking site InBed.me picking up a $1.2m seed round, another social travel site is launching today: Tripbirds, which lets users pick up travel recommendations from friends via other social networks, is now open for business after a private beta period that saw 4,000 sign-ups and 13 million check-ins and images collected.
At the same… → Read More
I’m interrupting your tech news flow to tell you about a nifty little tool you’ll probably want to bookmark for later. It’s called Bliss Control, and it comes from the same folks that brought you the email notifications management utility called Notification Control (and seriously – check that one out, too, if you get too many social media updates in via email. Inbox savior!).
Expanding on… → Read More
Academy Award winning actor Forest Whitaker was at SXSW this past weekend, where his JuntoBox Films studio — which combines crowdsourcing social media technology with traditional film production — announced it has greenlit its first movie. Watch his interview with TechCrunch TV to see him discuss how technology is democratizing the filmmaking process, how Hollywood is slowly getting over its… → Read More
It may have taken longer than even its own creators might have guessed, but it’s finally come to pass: Brizzly, the Twitter/Facebook client that was bought by AOL as part of Thing Labs in September 2010, is shutting up shop at the end of March, with the news announced last night on Brizzly’s blog by Grant Shellen, and co-signed by Zachary Taylor and Jason Shellen, Brizzly’s and Thing Labs’… → Read More
Coverage of the NBA’s All-Star game in Orlando began tonight at 5pm ET, starting with the Sprite Slam Dunk contest, featuring the Indiana Pacers’ Paul George, Minnesota Timberwolves’ Derrick Williams, the Knicks’ Iman Shumpert, and Rockets’ Chase Budinger. The NBA is stepping up its social media coverage of the All-Star game this year, and is making some crowdsourcing-type changes to the… → Read More
Twitter, Facebook and other social networks have long counted on the rise in smartphone usage to help fuel their growth: that trend, however, seems to also be taking a toll on mobile carriers — specifically in the form of revenues.
The analyst firm of Ovum, part of the Informa Group, has estimated that operators lost $13.9 billion in SMS revenue in 2011, as a result of their customers using… → Read More
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