I had to do a marketing case study or “show and tell” in class awhile ago, what else would I use, but social media? Two bloggers, Pat Law and Steven Hodson from Singapore and Canada, had negative experiences with Challenger (a Singaporean Best Buy alternative) and Tim Hortons (the Canadian alternative for Starbucks) respectively. With Pat, there was a huge mess with getting delivery on time, horrendous customer service and problems all round. With Steven, a Tim Hortons cashier short changed his wife of $20, and despite the fact that it was obvious from the CCTV that there was an...
After a 3 month break we happy to report that 125px advertising units are back at The Inquisitr. The new units are being offered as part of the beta rollout of Technorati Engage, and we’re among the first to be able to offer them. Units start at the special introductory price of $750 a week or just under $3000/ mth which works out at just under $3 CPM based on traffic of over 1 million page views a month. Our traffic is predominantely US based, is split 55% male, 45% female and has a strong bias towards college educated...
A few days ago, Chris Brogan started an interesting discussion. His post was about how social media changed the way people were talking and how big companies wanted big conversations like mass mailings: For the rest of the world, I believe that there will be some issues with how social media delivers. I think some companies will want big conversations, mass messaging, when what we’re offering are cafe conversations. We’re offering the intimate, the personal, the chance to talk in numbers of dozens and hundreds, and to make the appropriate kind of impact. Steven Hodson followed up with an interesting...
When I was a kid, Lucy the Elephant, was in a state of disrepair. A community group worked hard to get her placed on the historic register and raise money to restore her to her mid-century glory. How? Bake sales organized by my third grade teacher, Josephine Harron or was known as "Cupcake." I baked a lot of cupcakes with my mom for those bake sales.Whether I'm fundraising for Cambodia or Creative Commons, I involve my kids. But it doesn't involve baking cupcakes. We have dinner table discussions on why it is important to support causes, particularly programs in Cambodia...
Nominations are now closed and voting open for the Second Annual Open Web Awards. The only fair, transparent, and honest awards for the sector are decided by the readers of The Inquisitr, and the many fine awards partners joining us in backing Awards host Mashable for the event. Over 43,000 verified nomination were received and the 10 most-nominated sites and services in each category (where 10th place was a draw, we allowed more than 10 nominees in that category) selected for the voting round. The first of two voting rounds starts now, and you can vote for one company...
I know I joke around a little about being a cranky old fart but there are time when I sti back and look at some of the things I’ve done in my life and I figure the tagline works out pretty good. Considering that I started working on a dairy farm at the age of eleven (you ever try throwing hay bales that weigh more than you do? ) I have been working now for some 40+ years and had some great jobs in that time just as I have had some that really sucked - not to mention the...
The nominations period for the second annual Open Web Awards is nearly over. If you haven’t nominated your favorite site or service, this is your last chance, with nominations set to close Sunday, November 16th at 11:59 pm PST. The only true fair, transparent, and honest awards for the sector are decided by the readers of The Inquisitr, and the many fine awards partners joining us in backing Awards host Mashable for the event. Widget as follows, and a small reminder: you can nominate The Inquisitr is a number of categories Mashable Open Web Awards Related PostsOpen Web Awards...
FriendFeed’s all about adding the new features these days, as Steven Hodson pointed out in this post about the value (or lack thereof) of the new mapping option that popped up this week. Now, another function has come out of the woodwork. This one, though, could actually come in handy. The feature, announced just this afternoon, is called FriendFeed Over IM. It lets you interact with your FriendFeed via Google Talk or Jabber, similar to the functions some third-party utilities have offered in the past. This way, if you don’t keep FriendFeed open at all times but are signed in...
The nominations for the second annual Open Web Awards are now open. The only true fair, transparent, and honest awards for the sector are decided by the readers of The Inquisitr, and the many fine awards partners joining us in backing Awards host Mashable for the event. You can nominate your favorite startup or site now via the following widget. Awards are given for the top achievements in 26 categories, so there’s no excuse not to nominate your favorite site. We’ll be covering the entire process as it continues, so tune in for more. PS: you can nominate The...
Shared by Robert Scoble This is why I say you ALWAYS are representing your company when you are online, even if you think you are not. People who work for corporations do NOT have freedom of speech. For some reason, many people have the idea that if they use a social network or other popular website they can say whatever they want. People feel that sites like Facebook are their playground. They can talk about their employer or former employer without any recourse. People are finding out that this is not true. Steven Hodson of Inquisitr reports that Virgin Atlantic...
The Inquisitr has joined a range of other blogs in supporting this years Open Web Awards as an official “blog partner.” The annual awards, run by leading social media blog Mashable, rewards major innovations in web technology in 26 categories via an online vote. The awards attracted over 250,000 votes in its first year in 2007, and now established should attract even more this year. Competitions and web award style events are as old as the web itself. From the early days of Netscape awarding a site of the day award (Yahoo use to offer this as well) through...
In the past month you may have spotted me engaging in conversation and numerous activities on Friendfeed and Facebook, more specifically in the RWW Groups on these services. The purpose was to attempt to engage our audience as much as possible and of course bring some traffic back to ReadWriteWeb. However in doing all of this I learned something about myself and about being a community manager. I think it’s very important to have this trait and hone to the best of your ability if you’re looking to be a community manager. Most people talk about listening to the...
Steven Hodson, over at the Inquistr blog, says “the sky isn’t falling” and “What do we get instead? We get people like Robert Scoble who have for the last few days done nothing more than highlight everything bad going on.” Ahh, yes, ye olde blame the messenger post. See, all week long I’ve been saying we’re in a death spiral. They argued with me last weekend and on Monday before the market had its worst week ever. Ever. They are still fighting with me after I’ve been talking with CEOs, investors, normal people, and reading thousands of feeds and watching...