Twitter appoints Katie Stanton global media chief

SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter Inc has appointed Katie Stanton its new media chief, placing the former Google executive at the heart of its crucial relationships with Hollywood and the global media industry, a source with knowledge of the move said on Monday. 

Stanton, formerly head of international strategy, fills in for Chloe Sladden, who left the online messaging service as part of a recent management shake-up that also included the departure of former chief operating officer Ali Rowghani. 

Twitter has reported lackluster user and usage growth for the last couple of quarters, and its stock price has nearly halved in the last six months. 

Stanton will now oversee Twitter's continuing efforts to court TV networks, Hollywood studios and other media companies around the world. The service in recent years has become a popular platform for promoting the content of media companies, and for viewers to interact around programs and live events. 

That in turn drove advertising and revenue growth. 

Stanton's new role as vice president of global media entails working with media companies around the world. That expands on Sladden's US brief and builds on Stanton's previous role, which involved expanding Twitter's operations outside of the United States, the source said on condition of anonymity because the appointment has not been announced. 

Stanton, who formerly worked for the US state department, already leads Twitter's relationships with foreign media companies such as the BBC and Brazil's Globo, and sits on the board of French conglomerate Vivendi. 

Get more details on this post related visit here

 

The 8 Best Industries for Starting a Business (In Detail)

Digital detective. Health care disrupter. Purveyor of all things organic. These are just some of the most promising ground-floor opportunities in 2014.

Some entrepreneurs are drawn to the New New Thing; they hunger for a first-mover advantage. To them we say, best of luck. Others want to enter a promising industry early on, but with some evidence that the industry actually exists and has room for new players. To them we say, welcome.

Our annual look at the best industries for starting a business is based on a range of research, interviews, and scouting reports. We’ve identified a cross section of businesses that call for a variety of skills, from technological expertise to retailing savvy to, above all, the ability to innovate. Think of these industries not as New New but as Hot Hot. They are up and running but still very much in their early days. If you have the right skills and focus, you have plenty of opportunity not only to jump on the bandwagon but to call the tune.

Automated Guided Vehicles (a.k.a. Robotic Forklifts)

Jeff Bezos triggered a near-meltdown in the Twittersphere when he suggested that Amazon might deliver products via drones. Closer to earth, Amazon did spend $775 million in 2012 to buy Kiva Systems, which manufactures robotic automated guided vehicles, or AGVs. These devices automate many earthbound warehousing and logistical functions, such as picking products to fill a specific order and prepping them for loading onto good ol’ trucks. Though they may lack the sci-fi sexiness of drones, AGVs such as forklifts, loaders, and towing vehicles are increasingly in demand, as companies pursue a Warehouse 2.0 strategy, using any and all technologies available to cut costs and speed up fulfillment. 

Why it’s Hot: AGVs are used in numerous industries, including pharmaceuticals, chemicals, food, automotive, warehousing, and other businesses that require the movement of materials. 

The Downside: Startup costs are high. We’re talking about a sophisticated manufacturing operation here, often reliant on raw materials including steel, which has been getting more expensive. The technology is also evolving fast, which means keeping up with the latest trends in laser targeting, gyroscopic, optical, and magnetic navigation systems. 

Skills Needed: Experience in robotics and computer systems. If you lack the capital or partnerships to jump into manufacturing, you could focus on software or subcomponents. 

Competition: There is no dominant player, but the top four companies account for half the industry revenue. Savant Automation, Dematic Group, and Bastian Solutions are among the companies that merit a look as you research this market. 

Eco-Friendly Building

The housing industry is returning to a state of market equilibrium as supply and demand balance and prices rebound. One particularly robust sector is green construction, which emphasizes designs and materials that maximize energy-efficiency and environmental sustainability. New building codes and tax credits are helping the sector take off. 

The Outlook: Demand is booming. Within the next two years, more than half of all commercial and institutional construction will have a decided tint of green, according to the U.S. Green Building Council. 

Uncle Sam Wants You: At least half of all green construction projects will be funded by U.S. government agencies, as new schools, government offices, and other projects must meet more stringent standards. 

Industry Buzzword: LEED, short for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. You’ll want to bone up on certification requirements. 

Barriers to Entry: Skilled workers are scarce, and an established reputation really helps. 

Competition Traditional builders have jumped into green building, and the number of new companies is growing by 15 percent annually. 

Mobile Health or "mHealth"

Talk about the intersection of two hot trends: The world is going mobile, and everything regarding health care is up for a rethink. Put them together, and you have “mHealth,” as in “mobile health.” An aging population, increasing chronic illness, accelerating health costs, new regulatory reforms, and increased consumer demand for health information and self-care will have doctors, patients, and everyone in between eager to see as much health information as possible made available on every kind of mobile device. 

Vital Signs: The global mHealth market is poised to surpass $10 billion by 2018. 

Bone Up: Though it’s not exactly a beach read, the fine print of the Affordable Care Act can point you to opportunities in specific sectors. 

Promising Niche: Remote patient monitoring. mHealth apps promise to cut the time and money spent on visits to the doctor’s office by remotely tracking measures related to many chronic illnesses. 

Technical Challenge: Security. As more patient data is captured, companies risk violating rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. 

Competition: Companies specializing in everything from medical devices to exercise gear are jumping in. HealthTap, Patient Conversation Media, and Informatics Group offer some useful lessons on where things are heading. 

Foodie Fare

As consumers awaken to the presumed health benefits of foods such as kale and quinoa, retail stores specializing in organic, gluten-free, and healthful foods are sprouting up everywhere. There has also been a parallel boom in the businesses creating the foods these stores sell. Since 2003, an average of 4,300 specialty-food products have been launched. Though we may not yet be at the “Salad: It’s What’s for Dinner” stage, we’re eating a wider variety of healthful foods than ever. 

Big Appetites: Total specialty-food sales in 2012 topped $85 billion, according to the Specialty Food Association. The fastest-growing segments are energy bars and gels and shelf-stable beverages. Interested in something more indulgent? Artisanal cheeses are huge. 

Promising Niches: Ninety-five percent of specialty-food stores carry all-natural products, and 88 percent are riding the locavore train, with “local” foods defined as those produced within 200 miles of where they are sold. 

Startup Need: For retailers, a store. The size of the average specialty-food store is slightly more than 5,000 square feet, with room for some 1,400 products. Location is key, because you’ll need to be close to customers willing to pay for premium products. For would-be food makers, you may only need a good recipe, quality ingredients, a commercial kitchen, and a van. To start, anyway. 

Competition: National chains such as Whole Foods, regional players like Mom’s Organic Market, and expanding organic offerings from traditional grocers and big-box retailers, including Walmart. 

Buy, Buy Baby (Products)

One of the fastest-growing segments of online retailing focuses on the needs of consumers who don’t use computers (or at least, not well): babies. Products from diapers, clothing, and shoes to feeding aids, strollers, and furniture defied the recession and remained in high demand. The demand is still intense, and increasingly it is being satisfied online. Baby apparel alone will ring up $6 billion in e-tail sales this year. 

Growth Spurt: Experts say demand will increase over the next five years, owing to demographic factors (primarily, an increased birthrate) and a rise in disposable income that will prompt busy parents to shop from their couches whenever they can grab a few minutes of peace. 

Promising Niches: More than 40 percent of all revenue in this sector comes from the sale of diapers, so think outside the training pants. Organic skin care and branded baby clothing, however, are the kinds of things that can help you carve out a space. 

Competition: Getting noticed could be tough: By 2018, it’s predicted, there will be more than 6,000 baby-product e-tailers. Look at i play, 4Moms, Babyhaven, and Happy Family Brands for inspiration. 

Decoding the Language of Business

It may be a small world, but it certainly has a lot of languages. More than 6,700, to be semi-exact. As businesses become more global, demand for people (or companies) who can bridge the language divide is growing. An increase in foreign tourists visiting the U.S. is also a factor, as is the need to communicate with Hispanic and other non-native-English speakers now living in the U.S. 

Talking Points: A big opportunity can be found in website localization. As U.S. companies look to expand into markets such as China, Brazil, Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, there will be increased demand for individuals and companies that can translate English-based sites into local languages. One recent study found that just 20 percent of the top U.S. retailing sites have information translated into a language other than English. 

Promising Specialties: U.S. health care companies, which are rapidly expanding into South America, Canada, Europe, and the Asian-Pacific market. There is also high demand for translating official immigration documents, including birth and marriage certificates, and diplomas. 

Big Threat: Automation. The use of artificial intelligence, as well as voice and optical character recognition, is expected to increase drastically in the next five years. And, of course, there are apps for this. 

Competition: There are about 50,000 translation businesses out there, but 95 percent of them are individual operators, so the opportunity to pursue this field as a true business is grande. 

Digital Detectives

The proliferation of smartphones, tablets, and PDAs has brought with it the very real possibility that people will have an increasing need to retrieve precious data, either because they’ve lost it (think a CFO’s laptop falling down the stairs) or because someone is trying to hide it (think computer crime). As a result, the demand for digital forensic services is booming. 

Promising Niches: The crime-fighting side is where the action is. Companies that can assist investigations into phishing schemes, bank fraud, and child-exploitation cases will be in high demand. The ability to recover data from compromised machines and networks is also promising; it’s expected to account for half of all sector revenue over the next few years. 

Barriers to Entry: You’ll need the technical chops to retrieve data from hard drives, networks, and the cloud, which has greatly complicated the tracking of data. You’ll also need to know about regulatory and compliance issues, and you may need certain security clearances if you pursue government work. 

Competition: There are companies that specialize in this area, and traditional IT-services companies and large consulting organizations are also touting their forensic capabilities. Check out AccessData Group, D4 eDiscovery, and CaseDriven Technologies. 

'Appifying' Business

As tablets become the de facto portable business device, companies want to help employees be more productive by making sure simple (but critical) functions are just an icon-press away. In this world, you are really limited only by your imagination. And coding ability. 

Skill Set: The hot programming languages to know for building business apps are JavaScript and HTML5. From a software-design standpoint, think about building simple mobile apps that can be integrated to create larger applications. 

Promising Niche: Corporate social software. Apps that help your employees share what (and who) they know with one another, so that one person’s connection becomes everyone’s connection. That can help with a number of things, from hiring the best people to landing new clients. 

Who’s Buying?: The greatest demand is coming from financial services, manufacturing, the federal government, retail, communications, and high tech. Big companies tend to prefer big vendors, but if you have a clever app you can get their attention. Small and medium-size companies are more amenable to small businesses and even sole proprietors, but they don’t have deep pockets. 

Competition: Have you visited an app store lately? It’s a crowded field, so in addition to searching out companies whose apps might be close (but not too close) to yours, also invest in social-media expertise and create a great website. Both are table stakes for getting noticed and can also highlight your tech savviness and industry knowledge. 

Visit here full information on this post

  

Social Login Trends Across the Web for Q2 2014

The ability to use an existing social network or email identity is now the most popular way to create accounts on the web. This shouldn’t come as a surprise; 90% of people have encountered social login before, and more than half of people use it. Social login streamlines the account creation and login process by eliminating the need to create and remember yet another username-password combination.

For the past four years, Janrain has published quarterly reports to shed light on consumer preferences for social login, with data aggregated from sites that use Janrain. The key takeaway, above all else, is that people want a choice of social login providers. The social media landscape is fragmented, and people use each of their  social networks for distinct purposes, whether to interact with friends and family, project professional identity or follow influencers.  We hope these findings provide a useful benchmark for developing your own personalized marketing strategy.

Facebook reversed a streak in which it lost market share in six straight quarters, increasing its share of social logins by 1.5%. The increase was especially pronounced on media, retail and B2B websites, each of which saw a 2% increase in Facebook’s share.

Google remains Facebook’s strongest contender. Its popularity may be the result of its push to unify each of its services, such as Gmail, Google+, YouTube, Android and Play, under a single Google identity. People are using a single Google identity to access each of these services, making it stickier.  Social login preferences tend to reflect consumer affinities, so we believe that the Google identity now has more brand affinity and value for consumers.

Facebook’s growth primarily came at the expense of Yahoo, which saw its share drop by 3%. For the first time since Q3 2012, Twitter surpassed Yahoo as the third most popular choice.  Just last quarter, Yahoo recorded its largest single quarter increase in four years on the heels of revenue gains and new identified revenue streams. It will be interesting to see if Yahoo can recover its Q1 momentum.

Despite the perception of a two-horse race, consumer preference differs widely across the world. In Russia, VK is one of the most popular social networks and is a common choice for social login. In China, networks such as Sina Weibo, Renren, Tencent Weibo and QQ are popular. In Japan, many choose Mixi.

We also observed that social login usage will vary when alternatives are present. Some of the identity providers we have recently started to support, such as Instagram and Amazon, earn anywhere from 10-25% share of social logins on sites that have enabled it. As more of our clients support these networks, we expect to see their market share climb.

As with our previous reports, we have taken a look at sites in six industry verticals to measure trends in consumer login preferences.

 

 

Facebook overtook Google and LinkedIn as the most popular choice on B2B sites, with Facebook extending its lead on media and retail sites. We also observed a decrease in popularity for Google on retail sites. We expect this landscape to evolve as momentum builds for innovations such as Google Wallet Instant Buy and Autofill with Facebook, both of which encourage the use of social login during checkout.

What do these findings mean for your business? As you think of ways to improve registration conversion and know your customers, social login can play a major role:

For Marketers:

Social login helps solve the challenge of collecting accurate customer profile data without sacrificing acquisition rates. Social login accelerates the registration process to a single click and grants instant permission-based access to rich demographic and psychographic data about your customers. This social profile data can be utilized to improve segmentation, personalization and targeting efforts.

For Developers and Technologists:

It can be a headache to implement the plumbing for each social network API on your own.  Under the hood, these networks use different protocols like OpenID, OpenID Connect, OAuth, and proprietary frameworks. As a result, coding social login on your own requires significant investment of time and engineering expertise.  Ongoing maintenance is another challenge, especially when networks change their APIs, in some instances without advance notice.

Your social login and sharing solution should allow you to easily integrate multiple social networks by writing once to a single API. Implementing  social login technology on your site cuts deployment times to days from weeks or months and keeps engineering resources focused on your core competencies.

Get more details on this topic visit here full view

Twitter Acquires TapCommerce To Improve Mobile Retargeting & Reengagement Ads

Twitter announced today that it has acquired New York-based TapCommerce, a specialist in mobile re-targeting and re-engagement advertising.

The acquisition, reportedly for about $100 million, was made public hours after Twitter announced the global rollout of its mobile app promotion suite. It’s a further move to strengthen the company’s mobile advertising offerings, along the lines of purchases of mobile ad network MoPub last year and native ad provider Namo Media this month.

TapCommerce, which has roots in the e-commerce industry, adds programmatic mobile ad buying to the mix, reporting reach across multiple exchanges to more than 50,000 apps. Its ads prompt users to open apps they have downloaded or make purchases from businesses they have bought from previously.

Ricard Alfonsi, Twitter’s vice president of global online sales, explained what the TapCommerce acquisition will mean in a blog post:

Advertisers spend aggressively to get new users, but re-activating existing or previous users can provide just as attractive a return on investment. Programmatic buying is increasingly the method of choice for advertisers and brands who want to buy in mobile, because it allows for more granular targeting and messaging.

Together with the TapCommerce team, Twitter will be able to offer mobile app marketers more robust capabilities for app re-engagement, tools and managed service solutions for real-time programmatic buying, and better measurement capabilities. Combined with our other ad solutions, advertisers will be able to drive conversions and ROI with mobile consumers on and off of Twitter, across the full user lifecycle — from acquiring new users through app installs, to engaging existing users who already have the advertisers’ apps on their device. And if you’re an everyday mobile user, we expect this will mean better and more relevant ads in the apps you use.

More details on this post related visit here  

The Best Infographics of 2014

It takes a good deal of effort to draft, design, and finalize an infographic, but it doesn't take a lot of effort to read an infographic -- which is exactly why people love them so much.

Humans have short attention spans and, let's face it, the internet is cluttered. To stand out, boost engagement, and increase shareability, many marketers have turned to visual content -- especially infographics. They're an awesome medium to use to share facts, tips, and tidbits of information in a way that's easy for people to understand and remember.

The best infographics are clear, easy-to-follow, contain useful information, and have colors that go well together. Here are 11 brands from all different industries -- from real estate companies toparalegal programs -- that totally nailed their infographics this year so far. So scroll on and get inspired! 

(Dying to learn how to create your own infographic, but don't know where to start? Click here to learn how to create and design your own.)

11 of the Best Infographics From Brands This Year

1) The Blogging Food Groups: A Well-Balanced Diet of Content, by LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

One great use of infographics is to illustrate and explain an analogy via visuals -- and who doesn't like food analogies? Since blogging is such a big fuel source for the content mix, Jason Miller of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions borrowed (and properly cited) an analogy originally coined by HubSpot’s Rick Burns in 2009 and turned it into a great piece of visual content showing how blogging is such a big fuel source for the content mix. Analogies work very well in infographic form.

75

75

2) Dining Etiquette Around the World, by The Restaurant Choice

Did you know it's rude to tip restaurant servers in some countries? Gift voucher company The Restaurant Choice created this cool infographic to show cultural changes in dining etiquette around the world -- while hinting that their network has global reach. We love that this infographic isn't heavy-handed on the product mentions, but still is intriguing enough for you to want to check out their website (which you know because it's clearly displayed at the bottom).

228

228

3) Travel Hacks, by Best Hospitality Degrees

Best Hospitality Degrees is a resource for people looking for a hospitality degree program that's right for them, and this infographic shows they're dedicated to arming degree seekers with hospitality wisdom from the very beginning. We love how on-target this is for Best Hospitality Degrees' buyer personas (young, adventurous, smart people) -- and the color palette is top-notch, too.

39

39

4) You Have the Right to Stay Out of Jail, by Online-Paralegal-Programs.com

While this infographic's design is a little busy, it's packed with well-researched and incredibly useful information for human living in or visiting the United States. My favorite part is the "Miranda Rights" section, which gives an example of a realistic conversation you might have with a police officer trying to trick you into giving information you don't legally have to give. We love how they anticipated our questions -- even the uncomfortable ones -- and gave us on-point, thorough answers.

284

284

5) How to Use Cinnamon Sticks, by Frontier Natural Products Co-op

Who knew there were so many uses for cinnamon sticks? This infographic was introduced in a blog post about the health benefits of cinnamon. The icons are consistent in color and design, and they're spaced out well so they're easy to read. Also, the warm colors and wood background make me want to put on a huge sweatshirt and curl up by the fire with some hot cocoa -- which is exactly what they were going for. 

43K+

43K+

6) Wedding Planning Timeline, by LaurenConrad.com

Sometimes, all you need is a simple, clean layout to get your point across. Lifestyle, beauty and fashion website LaurenConrad.com nailed this approach for this Wedding Planning Timeline infographic. Infographics are a great way to show timelines, as long as the design is consistent so it's easy to follow. I can see brides-to-be everywhere printing this out and crossing each item off the list -- plus, the pink-and-white color palette is appropriate for the topic while also consistent with their branding. Well done!

1K+

1K+

7) How to Protect Yourself From Package Pillagers, by Endicia

This is a great example of an infographic that tells a story. Endicia, an online postage and shipping company, created it to educate people about package theft -- probably as a resource to send people who tell them their package has been stolen. We love how they started with the baseline statistics and then moved logically from one section to another, ending with what we can do to prevent packages from being stolen in the future. The narrative is fluid and cohesive -- just like a blog post. 

1

1

8) Your Brain on Beer vs. Coffee, by ILoveCoffee

This infographic is as entertaining as it is informative. The creator of this infographic, a Japanese blogger named Ryoko, curated all the information from this infographic from an article she read about whether beer or coffee makes you more creative. She borrowed (and properly cited) the information and turned it into an easily readable, skimmable, and shareable infographic that's much easier for the human brain to digest than the blog post itself. We love the fun icons, fonts, and color scheme because they match with the playfulness of the topic. She also made the conclusion really clear for skimmers, by labeling it "CONCLUSION" and making the conclusive points short and simple.

2K+

2K+

9) Color, Value & Evolution of Logos, by RubyMediaCorporation

What does your logo color really mean, and what does it say about your company? This is an example of a long-form infographic packed with substantial research, which makes it a really fascinating read. It starts with the information everyone wants to hear -- which colors are associated with which attributes -- and flows into answering more nuanced questions, like how much logos cost. We love that they included recognizable brands as examples throughout. They also played off our nostalgia by featuring logos that have changed significantly over the years.

121

121

10) Bob's Burgers Restaurant Valued at $796,446, by Movoto

This infographic is probably the most creative one of the bunch. Cambridge-based real estate company Movoto successfully took a pop culture topic -- the hit television show Bob's Burgers -- and used their expertise to create a clever, relevant, and shareable infographic about it. We love that it follows a train of thought, from a line in a TV show ("the rent is too damn high") to "I wonder how much the rent would be if this place really existed?" and exactly how Movoto got from A to B. The question-and-answer format here is engaging for readers and makes us feel like we're part of the process.

5

11) Keeping Track of Baby Habits, from PishPoshBaby

Finally, we have this timeline infographic from PishPoshBaby, an online resource for new or soon-to-be parents. Timeline infographics are done best when every time period has a consistent design, which PishPoshBaby executed really well: The stage names are always on the left, and the categories -- Sleeping, Feeding, Playtime, and Senses/Motor Skills -- are all in the same place as you move down the page. It's very easy to read and follow. We also love that they used gender-neutral colors like beige and yellow in addition to the predictable pink and blue, making it relevant for both baby girls and boys.

Visit here to full view of this topic