Archive for the ‘board’ tag
Pinterest for Non-Profit Brands
Pinterest is continuously becoming a famous online platform to various brands, including non-profit organizations. They can use the online pinboard to connect with other people based on their “shared tastes and interest.”
Know Your Audience
Before you take the waters of Pinterest and start your campaign, it would be ideal to know who uses the service. According to MDGadvertising, 87% of Pinterest users are women with an average age span between 25 and 54.
Take advantage of this information by outlining your organization’s profile based on this demographic. This will enable you to provide an inviting content for Pinterest users. That way, it’ll be easy for you to get personal with your followers.
Give Your Organization a Face
Pinterest is an image-heavy platform. That being said, you can use this to give your organization a face and identity. Pin photos and videos that shows your staff, volunteers and the people who benefit from your organization. That way, you’re showing your followers that something can be achieved through your group, and that you’re more than just a name and a logo.
Connect with Other Non-profits
Since Pinterest is also considered as a social media, it means that this is not designed to hard sell your organization. Working with relevant non-profit groups is one way to build your online presence on the virtual pin board. This will help you connect with their followers, thus increasing your fan base too. Moreover, letting other people contribute on your board adds diversity on your content.
Start a Fund Raising Campaign
Having a Pinterest makes it easy for your organization to start a fund raising campaign. After pinning the image, just type the “$” sign with the price on the description box. The online pin board will automatically add a banner on the to-left corner of the image, and it’ll be added on the Gifts tab on the homepage.
Post Videos
Videos may not be that popular on Pinterest, but it can also provide a strong call to action for your campaign. It also adds emotion to your campaign that images sometimes can’t give. Your followers are most likely to help your organization if you have a compelling content like a short video presentation.
Using Pinterest may be a solitary action, but it is also a great tool to create a community around your orgranization. When used properly, it can serve as an extension for a non-profit group. What’s important is that you can create an online presence that’s inviting for your followers to share their stories, not just on your board, but also with relevant people.
Source: Pinterest Home Page
The post Pinterest for Non-Profit Brands appeared first on About Social Media.
Alleged next-gen iPhone logic board revealed in new photos
New photos claiming to show the logic board of Apple’s next generation iPhone hit the web on Sunday and, if legitimate, are some of the first images of functional circuitry for the much-rumored handset.
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Facebook gains as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings buys $1M in stock and Microsoft holds on
In a dramatic move befitting of his company’s business, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings ponied up more than $1 million for a small stake (0.0017 percent) in Facebook, a company for which he already maintains a board seat.
According to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Hastings purchased 47,846 shares at $21.03 a piece on Wednesday costing him $1,006,201.38. The investment has already accrued more than 37,000 for Hastings, as Facebook’s stock closed up at $21.81 on Friday.
The move suggests that Hastings holds confidence in the stock, which hit new lows after Facebook provided zero guidance on its earnings expectations for the rest of the year. Perhaps Hastings knows something the market doesn’t, or maybe the buy is a symbolic gesture meant to show support for a close partner. Netflix was a launch partner of Facebook’s Open Graph and may soon be able to enable U.S. subscribers to automatically share their viewing actives with their Facebook friends.
Facebook got a second vote of confidence today courtesy of Microsoft. Bloomberg claims that Microsoft will be holding on to its trove of Facebook shares, even though the company will be free to unload its stock next week. Microsoft, said an anonymous source, views Facebook as a long-term investment.
Surely no one, save Facebook, would fault Microsoft for dumping its stake. Even with the stock resting around $22 a share, a much depreciated value from the IPO price, the software giant would stand to make a handsome profit from its 2007 investment. At the time, the company put in $240 million and holds a 1.7 percent stake in Facebook. That stake is worth around $1 billion.
But investing in Facebook has been one of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s more highly regarded decisions in the last decade. Both companies also have a common enemy in Google, and they remain tightly aligned in many ways, including patent-sharing deals and a partnership that gives Microsoft’s Bing search engine a Facebook advantage. Cashing out now doesn’t seem likely.
The market has reacted well to both pieces of news, but Facebook will be put to the test yet again on August 16, when a share lock-up period expires and insiders are allowed to sell.
Facebook declined to comment on this story.
Filed under: social 
The Kicking Of RIM’s Tires Continues, As IBM Reportedly Considers Its Enterprise Unit
The fear and loathing of RIM has been well-documented by this point. At the end of June, the company released its Q1 2013 earnings, which were more than a little disappointing, with RIM reporting its first operating loss in eight years, that it would be cutting 5K+ employees and that the release of its new BlackBerry were again being delayed — this time until the beginning of 2013.
The acquisition rumors had already been swirling around the BlackBerry maker, and since then, they’ve intensified, with some big names kicking the company’s tires. This morning, Chris wrote about Samsung’s confirmation that (again) it was neither considering a buy-out nor a licensing agreement, even though it’s been reported numerous times that it, in fact, it’s been considering both. And, today, Bloomberg has reported that IBM has “made an informal approach” to acquire RIM’s enterprise services unit, which is really at the core of BlackBerry’s business.
While RIM has certainly been hurting, the company still has hopes that BlackBerry 10 can reinvigorate consumer interest in its products. That’s obviously part of the reason why RIM’s board has reportedly turned down IBM’s interest in its enterprise unit — after all, as new CEO Thorsten Heins has said (via The Verge), “enterprise is where BlackBerry lives best.” Big Blue obviously knows a thing or two about enterprise, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see it continue to seek an acquisition in the event BlackBerry 10 isn’t the panacea RIM hopes it could be.
What’s more, Heins has said in the past that RIM might consider licensing BlackBerry 10 to hanset manufacturers, which naturally he believes to be a scenario preferable to one in which RIM is broken up into pieces and sold to the highest bidders. In keeping with that preference, RIM’s board has allegedly nixed the idea of selling its divisions, to both Samsung and now IBM.
There are a lot of people (customers and beyond) both quietly and loudly pulling for RIM, hoping that it nails BB 10. However, as the long wait for its arrival continues, the pressure on the company to produce big innovations in the market and release some sort of WonderBerry may be too great.
It’s increasingly likely that RIM will have to, at the very least, undergo a major restructuring, and if BB 10 should fail, the enterprise unit will likely curry the highest price as it’s really the most valuable component of RIM’s business. So this probably isn’t the last time we’ll hear reports of big names jockeying for first dibs.
Excerpt image from MyBankTracker
"The challenge for VCs is that it is easy to spend a lot of time going nowhere on advised deals. Good…"
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The challenge for VCs is that it is easy to spend a lot of time going nowhere on advised deals. Good advisors know that the way to reach the highest price is to keep investors guessing about whether they are going to win the deal. As a result there is usually at least one VC who invests a lot of resources and then loses. And when you lose a deal as a VC you are left with very little, and often precisely nothing, to show for your efforts.
I am much more excited, however, to see an email from someone I respect who is helping a company because he is on the board or board of advisors. I generally feel that my chances of success are much higher from this kind of introduction because it will be less widely shopped, and, ceteris paribus, it will get more attention than an advised deal.
” – Nic Brisbourne, Advisors: they don’t help VCs, but they can help start-ups via The Kernel This is one of the reasons that I recommend to my startup clients that they create a real advisory board, people that will play an active, although very part-time role working with the company, and that the introductions from those advisory board members are worth a lot. I don’t approach VCs with seven deals a month, so if I were to contact Nic Brisbourne with something, he’d likely take a meeting. (Nic’s a friend, by the way.)
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Monopoly, the movie
*imagine deep, epic voice*
In a world where classic board games meet the real world… this is what the movie posters would look like.
More here.
A tacky mess: the masses vs. great design
Designers prune.
Left to its own devices, the mob will augment, accessorize, spam, degrade and noisify whatever they have access to, until it loses beauty and function and becomes something else.
The tragedy of the design commons.
A farmer’s market with no entry requirements turns into a bazaar and then into a souvenir stand and finally into a flea market.
A bulletin board with no moderator or hierarchy becomes a random mess of affiliate posts and noise, where only a smart search engine is helpful.
An Apple product designed with user feedback would have thousands of extra features, multiple input methods and weigh 18 pounds.
(The best exception to this rule are some–not all–places where people live, including parts of Manhattan and Kibera, Kenya. But even in the best instances, as soon as commercial interests are served, it starts to fail).
It seems democratic and non-elitist to set it and forget it and let the users take over. But the tools we use (Wikipedia) and the brands we covet (Nike or Ducati) resolutely refuse to become democracies.
How to Add Your YouTube Videos to Pinterest
This guest post is by Krizia of CreateProfitableVideos.com.
So you’ve started using Pinterest to promote your blog. Congratulations!
When I started using Pinterest to promote my business, at first I was just happy uploading cool-looking photos. But after a few days, I realized that unless I established a clear strategy for my Pinterest activities, I’d be wasting a lot of time and I wouldn’t be able to delegate this social media activity to my assistant.
The reality is that Pinterest is a phenomenal tool for retailers, but if you’re a blogger or content marketer who uses words more than pictures, generating buzz using Pinterest may not be as easy.
From my experience, Pinterest can be a colossal waste of time. I mean it takes time to source all these photos on the Internet, and you also need to write descriptions for each of the photos you upload, and you also need to make sure you optimize everything you do to ensure the traffic comes back to your site.
But once I realized I could promote my YouTube videos on Pinterest, everything changed!
I’ve spent a lot of time, effort and energy building my YouTube channels and I’ve made sure each video we upload is optimized and takes viewers to a page where they can sign up to be added to my blog’s mailing list. Pinterest lets me capitalize on all that work, through a different medium. It’s become one of my favourite social media platforms to share videos from all four of my YouTube channels.
Adding your YouTube videos to Pinterest is quite easy, but if you’ve never done it before, I’ll share a few key points that will take the guess work out of the equation for you! Here are ten quick steps to getting your YouTube videos onto Pinterest.
1. Make sure you have an active YouTube channel
Pinterest is already set up to easily and quickly fetch videos from YouTube, but to use the functionality, you’ll need to have your own YouTube channel to make this work.
2. Make sure your videos are branded
Pinterest users don’t need to leave Pinterest to view YouTube videos. Once you click on any video link, it automatically opens inside the Pinterest platform. This is why branding your videos is so important.
By “branding” I mean that you should always have a branded intro and outro to your videos, and you should also make sure that you add an image watermark or a URL to make it easy for people to work out where the video comes from, and to click through to your blog.
3. Create a Pinterest board specifically for your YouTube channel
When you’re naming your board, make sure you take search engine optimization into consideration. Pinterest can bring you traffic from both inside its own community and from Google. That said, you’ll need to take the time to do a bit of research to find out which are the most appropriate keywords you should use.
4. Grab your YouTube embedded link
To crop your video into Pinterest, you’ll need to fetch your embedded link from YouTube. Right below your YouTube video, you’ll find a Share button. Click on that, and you’ll automatically see a dropdown box that contains a link.
A word of caution: there are two types of YouTube embedded links. There’s a shorter one (which is the first one you see), and a long link (which is hidden). Pinterest will reject the short link because the system sees it as spam. You’ll need to fetch the longer link.
5. Upload a new pin
In order to add a new video to Pinterest, you’ll first need to add a new pin, then copy your YouTube embedded link into the Add a pin box, like so:
6. Select the appropriate board
Remember in point #3 I suggested you create a board specifically for your YouTube videos? Well, once you’ve uploaded your video, you need to select the board you want your video featured on.
7. Add a description
You have 500 characters with which to describe your video. Make sure the copy is inviting, and that it includes a number of keywords related to your blog.
8. Add a link to your blog or squeeze page
You should also add the complete URL for your blog or squeeze page to the description box. This won’t just give your blog a backlink from a trusted source, it’s also a great way to make it easy for people to easily get to your blog or squeeze page.
By making all links active from the description box, Pinterest makes it easy for you to build a strong community of loyal followers!
9. Automatic sharing on Facebook
If you sign into your Pinterest account (the same holds true if you sign in using your Twitter account), all of your updates will automatically be added to your Facebook personal profile. Pinterest has systemized sharing content from their platform to other social media platforms, which, again, makes our lives easier!
10. Rinse and repeat
Now that you’ve added your first YouTube video to Pinterest, make sure you keep up a consistent flow. My assistant ads one new video each week to my Pinterest account.
Here, we’ve talked about uploading YouTube videos to Pinterest, but you can also upload videos from Vimeo and pretty much any other video directory.
There are a few undeniable advantages to adding video to your Pinterest account:
- Your YouTube videos get a backlink from a trusted source, which helps increase the ranking of your entire channel.
- Your video appears in three different locations on Pinterest: on your board, on the Pinterest homepage where all your followers can immediately see it, and also on the Videos page on Pinterest.
- If you log into your Pinterest account via your Facebook or Twitter account, your new uploads are automatically shared on your personal Facebook account or your Twitter account!
Of course the best advantage of them all is the fact that you get to expose your content to new followers easily and simply!
Pinterest is just like any other social media platform: you need to go in with clear objectives, and you need to make sure your messages target the audience you want to attract.
That’s exactly why I love Pinterest’s automatic integration with YouTube—my videos act as a screening process for my business. Allowing potential clients to qualify themselves is a brilliant time-saver for me.
Pinterest users who land on your videos will know very quickly if your message resonates with them and from your YouTube channel they can make their way to your blog, site, or squeeze page.
Are you using video on Pinterest? How’s it working out? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
Krizia (aka Miss K), is an Entrepreneur, Video Marketing Strategist, Video Show Host, Video Blogger, Speaker and International Author! Krizia launched http://www.CreateProfitableVideos.com to help entrepreneurs create AMAZING and IMPACTFUL video messages and discover How to Use video to Attract MORE Clients, Sales and Profits!
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
How to Add Your YouTube Videos to Pinterest
Rand and Dharmesh Told Us "No", But We Did It Anyway
Posted by tailwindcreative
The Inbound Jobs story with Five Tips on Getting Buy-in from Thought Leaders.
Here are 5 tips on getting buy-in from thought leaders, based on our experience building the job board:
- Make Real Connections by Showing Up. LinkLove is a niche conference, and on paper it was a stretch for a bootstrapped company, but we went for the networking. We went to meet people in the industry and find ways we could add value. Meeting Tom was pure luck, but we wouldn’t have even had the opportunity without showing up. Figure out where thought leaders hangout online and in real life and connect with them in a thoughtful and intentional way.
- Find How You Can Help. Most people approach thought leaders looking for what they can get out of the relationship, but it’s better to think about how you might be able to help them. Uncover opportunities by asking what would make their lives easier or better. Maybe you aren’t a designer or a developer but there are many other ways to provide value. Think about how you can help them with your knowledge, skills and relationships.
- Invest Up Front. There are different philosophies here, but our mentality is to invest up front. You don’t need to create the entire piece of content, but create something good enough to show your idea and prove that you can deliver. In our experience, the more you can provide up front, the more feedback you will get. There’s no question that this is a risky strategy, and we don’t recommend it for every piece of content, but buy-in is much more likely if you have something solid to start with.
- Think/Go Big. Thought leaders are extremely busy people and they are bombarded with others trying to get their buy-in and support. When you reach out to them, only go after your best ideas since you have a limited amount of time and small window of opportunity.
- Create Content You Believe In. We believed that the inbound job board was necessary for the community. This made it a lot easier for us to invest up front. Push ideas that you believe in, and create content that you can rally behind. Don’t build content for the links, do it for the value the content will provide and the relationships you will form.
Conclusion
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Google Ventures Joins DocuSign’s New Funding, Round Grows To $55.7M
Looks like electronic signature company DocuSign wasn’t quite finished with its fundraising when its Series D was revealed last month — today it’s announcing a new investor.
The funding was first disclosed through a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, with the company then confirming that it had raised $47.5 million in a round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, with Kleiner partner Mary Meeker joining the board. Accel Partners, Comcast Ventures, SAP Ventures, and “a large global institutional investor” also participated.
Raising money from Kleiner is already pretty impressive, but DocuSign has added another big-name investor — Google Ventures, whose investment increases the round’s total size to $57.5 million.
The company has now raised a total of about $114 million. When the round was first announced, CEO Keith Krach told me that it would be spent on research and development, expanding into new industries, and international growth.