SEO Werkt!

Jordan Benedet is a Manager on the Client Strategy and Innovation team at Social Media Group. Follow @jbenedet.

Join Maggie Fox, Ann Handley, and C.C. Chapman tomorrow, Tuesday Jul 31st at 12pm EST / 9am PST for a free live webinar titled Content Marketing on the Social Web, hosted by Social Media Today.

The internet is full of content which can quickly become a blur to internet users. The quality bar for content has been raised. Continually producing high quality content is not always enough to reach your ideal audience anymore. Content overload is now a reality!

Marketers need to make adjustments to strategy and tactics in order to differentiate content, reach the right audience while they are in content consumption mode, and help solve problems. These adjustments require a detailed understanding of your audience such as: topics of interest, common problems, and the delivery method of content.

The panelists of Content Marketing on the Social Web will discuss questions like:

• Who is excelling in content marketing right now?
• Where does good content come from?
• How fast does a marketing department have to move to keep up with changing tastes?
• What kinds of businesses are best at content marketing?

We hope you can make it – register for the free webinar now!

iOS/Android: The 2012 Summer Olympics in London officially start tomorrow with the opening ceremony beginning at 4:30 pm PST on NBC. If you plan to keep up with all the action while on the go, NBC has you covered with a couple of their own apps for both iOS and Android. More »

Google Talk is currently having a service outage. Since 3:40 am PST, Google Talk users have been able to log in, but receive error messages when they try to send a message. Google has been providing hourly updates on the outage. You can keep track of the status of the service by clicking the link. [Google Talk - Service Details] More »

DISRUPT Extra Early Bird ticket sales end tonight at 11:59 PM PST, so buy your tickets now! If you miss the Extra Early Bird tickets, you’ll be able to buy Early Bird tickets until August 11th.

Our confirmed speaker line up includes industry luminaries like Mike Arrington, Marissa Mayer, Marc Benioff, Joel Klein, Ben Horowitz, Ron Conway, Mayor Ed Lee, and Vinod Khosla. And, you’re guaranteed to be equally inspired by the speaker announcements that we’re making next week.

In addition to the amazing line up of speakers, we’ve also received an incredible number of high quality applications for the Startup Battlefield. As you know, the Battlefield is at the heart of DISRUPT. Startups don’t pay money to get into the Battlefield – the cost to get in is a good idea and the drive to build it.  Participating companies have six minutes to present to a panel of the most influential investors and thought leaders in the world. The Battlefield was the launchpad for the likes of Mint, Dropbox, Yammer, Red Beacon and Tripit. Joining us at DISRUPT will give you the chance to see the newest breed of innovative startups.

While the days at DISRUPT are filled with amazing sessions and speakers, the nights are filled with great after parties at some of San Francisco’s greatest night clubs. Party with the investor elite and startup geniuses as well as the world-class TechCrunch team.

Seriously, get your tickets now.

Check out some pictures from our last DISRUPT SF below. Hope to see you there!

In May, we wrote about Flikdate, an innovative mobile video dating service that feels like a mix between Chatroulette and Match.com. The free app is now available in Apple’s App Store. Unlike most other video dating services, which focus on pre-recorded videos, Flikdate allows you to set up virtual mini-blind dates using video chats right on the phone. The app, which was created by an all-girls team, isn’t the first to try this, with Date.fm and others also playing in the market, but it has an innovative business model that really sets it apart from its competitors.

On Flikdate, every conversation is limited to 90 seconds and you start every day with a credit of 25 ‘fliks.’ Every conversation costs you one flik and if things go well and you would like to talk for longer, you can set up a virtual date without time limits for five fliks. Once you run out, you can buy 25 additional fliks for $0.99. While the focus is obviously on the video chat feature, users can also use a text chat to keep in touch after a virtual date.

During a conversation, users can vote each other up or down and flick over to the next conversation if things get boring. To avoid the standard Chatroulette problem of people exposing their private parts on video, Flikdate uses Facebook as its identity mechanism and bans users who just can’t keep their pants on. When talking to each other, though, it’s important to note, users remain completely anonymous – just the service itself knows who you are.

To introduce the app to new users, the Flikdate team is hosting a virtual launch party on the service from 7pm to 9pm PST today and from 12pm to 2pm PST on Friday. You can download the app here.

I am moderating an IBM tweetchat that starts in just a few minutes at 10 a.m. PST. The topic: “The Economics of IT – Cost and Benefits of Integrated Systems.” Follow the hashtag #ExpertSysChat to participate.

There is a debate about the relationship between the cloud services like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the solutions oriented offerings that you see from IBM. I expect we will discuss this to some extent today.

Last week I wrote a post about what a platform as a service (PaaS) means to IBM and why I think it is off base when the company uses this term to describe its PureSystems technology. I expect we will get into that discussion today. I spoke yesterday with an IBM executive who convinced me that PureSystems has aspects of a PaaS. I look forward to them explaining their position in the discussion.

Here are some of the questions we will ask participants:

• What are the biggest obstacles in enterprise hardware/software deployments, and the primary drains on IT budgets?
• What facets of adopting new enterprise IT solutions are proving to be most cost prohibitive?
• What is the cost of not considering an integrated approach within corporate IT environments?

Those are IBM’s questions. I will have a few of my own, which I will save for the tweetchat.

Hope to see you there.

I was honored to write a feature article in the recent issue of the NTEN journal called “The Unanticipated Benefits of Content Curation: Reducing Information Overload.”   I’ll be doing a FREE webinar on Thursday, July 12 at 11 am PST to walk you through the idea and practices described in the area.  You can register for the webinar here. I’ll cover the basics of content curation – what it is, why is it important for nonprofits, and how to use curation as part of your content strategy.    I’ll also be talking about how good curation skills can build staff expertise and avoid the pain of information overload and including some simple frameworks to get started. And, of course, I’ll also cover the tools.

Master curator, Robin Good, is the all around expert when comes to the topic of content curation.   His deep knowledge of the practices and the tools is impressive.  I’ve learned so much just watching his curation technique over at scoop.it.    Robin recently shared his comprehensive map of content curation skills, dividing them into couple of key categories.   There are over 250 tools in this collection, so it might be a little bit overwhelming for beginners.

Last January, I had the opportunity to present with Robin at the Social Media 4 Nonprofits Conference and he was very generous with his time, agreeing to do a video interview on skype before the session.   I asked what if someone was new to content curation – and wanted to consider a short list of tools.    One of the points he made during our planning call is that in order to curate, you need two sets of tools – news discovery and curation tools.      News discovery tools select and aggregate content based on keyword searches, but give a higher signal to noise ratio than general keywords searches or general news sites.  Curation tools are platforms that let you display your collection.

What tools are you using for content curation?

Update at 12:02 p.m. PST: Apple will delete negative reviews upon request. See bottom for more details.

Appagedon is over, for now. Apps are once again being downloaded from Apple’s app store, they’re working, and all is well in Apple’s app-dom.

Or is it?

Maro Arment of InstaPaper first noticed the issue: Apps that were recently updated and working perfectly for developers (and presumably for Apple testers) crashed and burned after users updated them from the app store. Apple fixed the issue — a bug caused when adding digital rights management technology to apps — and said it only affected a small number of users.

(I was one of them, for the record, and the smallness or largeness of my group doesn’t make me feel any better.)

But two issues are more important than a few corrupted-and-now-fixed app updates.

One is reviews.

Developers whose apps received scathing, negative reviews for app crashes that were not their fault are stuck with the reviews on their apps.

Source: iTunes

Reviews on iTunes

Apple at first seemed to remove negative reviews submitted during Appageddon, but then, as MacStories noted, simply updated the version number of the app, causing the negative reviews to just move down a little in visibility.

A prime example is entertainment app Tap Sonic by Neowiz.

Users who updated on July 5 say “I can’t even open the app” and “crashes as soon as I touch it.” As of this moment, those reviews are staying there, and they are on Tap Sonic’s permanent app store record…even though the problems were Apple’s fault.

That’s not OK. Apple should remove any reviews for affected apps.

The second issue is DRM.

Or, more specifically, the app store process of packaging, wrapping, and distributing apps.

Tap Sonic from Neowiz

In a statement, Apple said ”the issue has been rectified and we don’t expect it to occur again.” Most developers don’t expect bugs to reoccur either, but they do.

The Android Market…err…Google Play is a more open environment, and there are multiple Android app stores that don’t have the same processes as Apple’s. That can and has resulted in more security issues, but it also means the app store owner has fewer opportunities to make mistakes that affect great swaths of apps (at least 114, according to Arment) in one fell swoop.

This all means that updates to DRM or app store packaging that potentially affects hundreds of thousands of apps are unbelievably sensitive.

And it means that Apple needs to do — and say — more than “we don’t expect it to occur again.”

Update: It appears Apple will now delete negative reviews. We just received the following from Reuven Moskowitz, founder of Penguin Digital.

Our app, MoPho App, was effected as well. However, Apple has been really great to us over the past 24 hours. Dev support was really responsive, and they’ve just contacted us to let us know that they will remove the negative reviews.

Apple developer support said:

“Thank you for your message regarding these customer reviews. After evaluating your request, it has been decided that these customer reviews meet the criteria for removal.  Please allow up to 24 hours for these reviews to be removed from your Customer Review section on the App Store.”

Image credit: iQoncept/ShutterStock

VentureBeat has contacted a number of app developers for their comments. We’ll update this post as necessary. If you are a developer and have a comment, please let us know in the comments, or email me.

Filed under: cloud, dev, Entrepreneur, games, mobile, security

Facebook will give investors and the world their first official look at its post-IPO earning for Q2 2012 at 2pm PST on July 26th, according to a brief note posted to its investor relations page just now. There’s been no indication of whether CEO Mark Zuckerberg will participate in an earnings call or if more business focused execs COO Sheryl Sandberg and CFO David Ebersman will be the ones fielding questions.

The company pulled in $1.058 billion in Q1 2012 revenue with a net income of $205 million. Critics will want to see both of those increase and will likely focus on its mobile revenue. Facebook only began showing ads on mobile at the end of February, but monetizing the medium is believed to be the linchpin of Facebook’s future success.

The company’s share price closed at $31.095 today, down $0.265 or 0.85% and beneath the recent peak it hit at $32.86 on June 25th. It’s still closer to the $38 IPO price than its been for most of the time since its May 18th public debut, though. Here’s a look at the last earnings and revenue info it released in its S-1 prior to its IPO.

Facebook gave potential investors a scare when its showed that despite revenue going up 44.7% from Q1 2012, it was down 6.5% from Q4 2011. While surely influenced by the waning of holiday advertising, many suspected this was the first sign of slowing momentum due to the shift of its user base to mobile where it wasn’t monetizing as effectively.

But recent data first published by TechCrunch showed very strong potential for Sponsored Stories ads in the news feed to make mobile a significant revenue stream. Facebook’s biggest advertising API partners showed users were 13 times more likely to click mobile Sponsored Stories than its desktop ads, and they earn the social network 11 times more each.

Facebook is purposefully throttling the ramp up the presence of these ads as not to shock users who’ve had their mobile experience ad-free for years. Finding the maximum number of ads it can show without decreasing usage and engagement, or leaving sour taste in users’ mouths will be crucial.

While their power won’t be reflected in the Q2 2012 earnings, there are three new Facebook ads products that could make future earnings releases a lot shinier:

• Facebook Exchange – a retargeting system that lets third-party websites drop cookies on visitors and then target them with ads on Facebook designed to get them to complete purchases they may have been considering
• Hyper-Local Ad Targeting – While not confirmed, Facebook is reportedly working on more accurate local ad targeting that could show users ads related to businesses they’re within a few hundred feet of
• Off-Site Facebook Ads – Facebook last week began showing ads on Zynga.com in a revenue sharing agreement that could eventually blossom into a lucrative ad network on more third-party sites

Taking these new developments into account, the three lead investment banks who underwrote Facebook’s IPO, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley all issued the equivalent of a”buy” ratings this week. Other banks issued “neutral” or “hold” ratings.

Many want to see signs that Facebook will weather the transition to mobile gracefully. If it can show as much on July 26th and the price stays where it is now, investors might flock to Facebook. Regardless of the financials, the sheer presence of Mark Zuckerberg on the earnings call could reassure investors who may worry they’re far down the young CEO’s list of priorities after he skipped several meetings with them during the pre-IPO roadshow.

And if he does join the call, I better not hear one analyst mention of hoodies, pokes, or any of those awful Facebook puns.

Google announced the new AdWords interface is now rolling out to everyone. I currently have the new interface, it looks like this for me:

click image to enlarge

The new interface redesigned some of the tabs and buttons, plus made the graphs and data stand out more. Plus, Google made the interface faster.

Google is holding a Q&A on this new launch on Google+ on Thursday, June 21st at 9:30am PST/12:30pm EST.

It is often hard for those who live in an interface for so long to switch, so expect a lot of complaints.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.