As is usual when we have SMBs on stage, our SMB advertiser panel was one of the highlights of the first day of ILM East. The local Boston area businesses provided attendees with the down-low on what’s working and what’s…
With several recent tech valuations raising eyebrows -- Quora at $86 million, Twitter at nearly $8 billion to name just two -- a word that's been tossed around Silicon Valley a lot these days is "froth." Sean Moriarty, entrepreneur…
This afternoon at ILM East, At&t's Maria Kermath outlined the do's and don't's of approaching and navigating the sales cycle of AT&T Interactive. As bus dev lead for AT&T's "product factory" she straddles partner vetting and product development. This is…
Foursquare is out with a new tool for businesses that should make it easier to sign up and use the service, which already serves 250,000 businesses, according to GM Evan Cohen, who was speaking at ILM East. Foursquare has also…
David Weinberger, author and senior researcher, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University, kicked off ILM East 2011 with an opening keynote focusing on use of social media by local businesses to pursue conversations, engagement and customer acquisition. Weinberger…
This afternoon at BIA/Kelsey's ILM East, Boston Globe publisher Chris Mayer got things going with remarks that shed light on how a traditional media company is transforming itself to a new digital era business model. His challenge is not finding…
In the diverse yet confusing local advertising ecosystem, the new mandate calls for media companies to engage local business clients with holistic solutions that engage their customers in new ways. Deals and mobile optimization have received the lion’s share of…
Last week we mentioned that DoubleDutch built us a custom check-in app for ILM East. After a weekend building badges in photoshop, I'm happy to say that the app is conference ready. All the awards, badges and offers are outlined…
Mobile is playing an increasingly large role for deal a day, with some companies seeing it accounting for 20 percent to 25 percent of their traffic. But making transactions from mobile devices remains a work in progress. There is apparently…
LivingSocial stepped up to the plate Thursday with the ultimate daily deal. On the blog this week, Peter tells us that for every $5 donated for Japan Relief to the U.S. Red Cross, LivingSocial will match it.
Social dominated much of the news this week. I looked at how Google slowly continues to reveal its social search strategy, while Jed summarized Google’s Marissa Mayer’s keynote at South By Southwest (SXSE), the focus on Hotpot.
Jed wrapped up our continuous coverage of SXSW from the check-ins to the daily deals and how Twitter continues to save broadcast TV. (What a week.) Wait, there’s more. Mike told us about the mobile and social scene at ILM East, and Peter dealt us the details on Yellowbook’s Pat Marshall.
Here’s what we uncovered this week out there in the socialsphere:
Nobody Ever Gets Fired for Hiring Gilbert Gottfried
What happens when word come across on Twitter or Facebook as “tasteless, inappropriate and insensitive”? Aflac and Chrysler Group struggled to answer that question this week, according to Stuart Elliott. He tells us one expert calls it the “amplified effect” of social media and provides insight on what to do if it happens to you.
Eventbrite Director of Marketing Tamara Mendelsohn told us at SxSW Interactive that because "events are inherently social," the online events organizer and ticketing exchange in uniquely positioned to leverage social media to allow literally anyone to post and share events. But Mendelsohn's…
Here's a good deal: Donate $5 for Japan Relief to the U.S. Red Cross, and LivingSocial will match it (up to $1 million). If you are already registered with LivingSocial, it's as easy as 1-2-3. "Due to Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake,…
Jordan Muela pointed out a new Google Social Search feature showing up in the SERPs. As you can see from the screenshot Google appears to be asking searchers to link their Twitter profile to their Google profile by encouraging discovery…
It's hard work distilling 20,000 people, hundreds of sessions, droves of start-ups, seemingly endless parties and even a Mike Tyson cameo into a cliffs notes recap of SxSW Interactive. Not that anyone is shedding any tears for me. America loves lists…
Around here, we're all busy gearing up for our big ILM East next week in Boston. There's a great lineup of speakers including lots of mobile, socia, and group buying action. In the spirit of Google's famous "dogfooding," we're trying to…
With 300,000 delivery and takeout restaurants in the U.S., the online food ordering space is definitely heating up, with New York Magazine’s MenuPages launching in many markets, and allmenus.com still playing (although with leadership changes). Now coming on strong is…
James Moran of the daily deal aggregator Yipit presented this slide at SXSW on Monday and I thought it would be of interest to post it here:
In the first of many possible partnerships with local media companies, Centro has teamed up with Morris Digital Works to create a network that allows advertisers to place geo- and vertical- based ads across a broad spectrum of local and…
SCVNGR “chief ninja” Seth Priebatsch and Gowalla CEO Josh Williams both employ game mechanics to elevate their location-based services, and both believe that gaming’s inherent fun factor can motivate more important behaviors, including social good. But that’s where the similarities…
Last week, I had the chance to catch up with the team at Poynt about new acquisitions, usage milestones, intellectual property and general directions. The short version: There's a lot happening up there in Calgary. First, the company announced on…
