Marketing

Sprint Nextel prepaid brand Boost Mobile launched an Android-based mobile wallet service powered by Wipit that will let consumers load cash to their wallet, pay their bills, top-up their account, transfer funds and send money to other countries. In addition, customers will get a reloadable Visa prepaid card that is linked to their mobile wallet account.

Yesterday, Frank posted the news that Yahoo bought Tumblr. The big takeaway was this quote from Yahoo’s announcement: We promise not to screw it up.  Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going.  We will operate Tumblr independently.  David Karp will remain CEO.  The product roadmap, their team, their wit and irreverence will all remain the same as will their mission to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve.  Yahoo! will help Tumblr get even better, faster. Yahoo (which used to be hip. . . but this is what happens with age) attempted to replicate the kind of wry humor you find on Tumblr with an animated gif that changes from “Keep Calm and Carry On” to the words Yahoo!, Tumblr, then the final graphic you see here on the right. Wait. Am I reading that correctly – Yahoo + Tumblr = Now Panic and Freak Out? Let me check on that. . . ‘ Yep, it’s signed Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo! Maybe tomorrow she’ll come back and say the account was hacked and she didn’t post that message. Bizarre. So here we are a day later and it’s all about the ads. Come on, you didn’t think Yahoo was going to take over Tumblr and not use it as an ad platform? As popular as the site is, it’s been hemorrhaging cash for awhile and sources now say that it was months away from closing the doors if this buy hadn’t happened. Karp told Bloomberg that even so, he wasn’t shopping for a buyer. The Yahoo deal was simply providence. In that case, this buy-out is good news for all the Tumblr fans who might have had to find a new social network had things gone a different route. Which brings us back to the ads that Karp has publicly spit on in the past. The last time Tumblr talked advertising, it was all about content marketing and visual design. None of this Old Navy ads in the sidebar biz. They were going to keep it native and creative. Good luck with that. Now there’s talk of building an ad exchange network for Tumblr using cookies to deliver relevant ads. In order to preserve the artsy nature of the site, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer says their considering asking bloggers for their permission before running ads on their posts. If they agree to split the revenue the way YouTube does, they might have a shot at it. But Tumblr’s audience is known for its anti-establishment stance so it’s hard to imagine that the big players will agree to random advertising. Of course, Yahoo could always play the mommy card – do what I say or find somewhere else to play. It’s hard to say how far the users can be pushed before they pack up their toys and leave. Tumblr is unique. It has elements of LiveJournal, Pinterest, DeviantArt and Facebook all rolled into one. There might be a similar start-up elsewhere on the web but I haven’t seen it. If you’re an enterprising, young developer, now would be a good time to start creating another social network because with Yahoo behind it, Tumblr could be MySpace very soon.

I’m tramping through the ether, digging around, stuffing my pockets, but can’t unearth that one big blog-worthy story. Nuggets gathered: Why are baby boomers leading the entrepreneurial movement?… Amid economic and social changes, the 55- to 64-year-old age group has had the largest increase in entrepreneurial activity over the last decade. I’ve heard something about this… Entrepreneurs & Baby BoomersAll of a sudden every other news article about Baby Boomers is focused on business and entrepreneurs. 17 September 2009Late Bloomer BoomersThis isn’t like retired people taking on hobbies. The Late Bloomer Boomer Movement is going full blast, and there’s no stopping it. The magic equation: Thirty-odd years of experience plus not feeling old and being relatively healthy plus knowing you have another quarter-century of productivity in you equals . . . Well, we’ll see. Dick Stroud visits Arjan in't Veld and De Youngsters (via Google Translate). Amazing stuff, mandatory click: Portraits News Flash: Baby Boomers Downsizing Homes, Upgrading OptionsThe baby boomer generation has made it clear they are not ready to retire. For that reason home builders, designers and architects are continuously modifying floor plans to meet their demands. Hmmm. Sounds familiar: Selling Universal Design To Baby Boomers/Aging In Place (PDF) © 2005, 2007 Aging In Place & Universal Design Posts That’s it. Unless you want to play some brain games.

No matter what happens, you should never stop learning, says Matthew Brimer and a panel of entrepreneurs.Entrepreneurs should think of their education as always being in beta with room for growth and improvement, said Matthew Brimer, co-founder of General Assembly, a start-up academy."We have this idea that education is this kind of an adjective that you can apply to yourself after you go through four-plus years experience in your late teens and early twenties," he said in a panel held Tuesday at Internet Week. "So you come out with a college degree and you are educated."But this doesn't mean we're always prepared. The knowledge needed at different stages of an entrepreneur's life and career evolves over time."Rather than thinking of education as this thing that happens in a four year period of your life and then you are over, you are done, we like to think of education as something that should be tracked to both your life and your career, as well as your progress through it, so that it is suited to what you need and when, but is also attached to the world as it exists today," Brimer explained. Some entrepreneurs learn from watching their peers, chimed in Bridgette Beam, moderator of the panel and Google's global entrepreneurship manager. In her experience, she's learned a lot just by talking with colleagues. "It starts with asking for help," added Matt French, director of business development for Startup Weekend. "Most entrepreneurs don't know the answer to every question, and surrounding yourself with smart people can help answer them." Brimer agrees. "Hire people who are better than you at specific things," he urged. "Ideally, as your company grows, you should be the least talented, the least capable and the dumbest person in the room. And if you are not, if you are the most talented, the most capable, and the smartest person in your company, then you are hiring all terrible people." This might not make entrepreneurs feel like kings of their castles, but it will help them to build more sustainable companies and boost the value of their products.

Following months of speculation as to what Microsoft’s next-generation video game console would look like, the company behind the venerable video game brand finally answered our burning questions today. On Tuesday, Microsoft unveiled the “Xbox One,” its next-generation voice-controlled video game console. The Xbox One, which will be available later this year at a price to be announced, will also be the first platform to release the next installment in Activision Blizzard Inc’s blockbuster shooter franchise, “Call of Duty”. According to Microsoft, its first gaming console in eight years delivers ample exclusive video and software content, not the least of which is a new “Halo” series produced by Steven Spielberg. Already advertised as the ultimate gaming and entertainment hub, Microsoft is clearly taking aim at rival entertainment platforms being cultivated by Apple and Google. “The world’s largest software company also sees the Xbox One as a broader strategic piece in the battle with Apple Inc, Google Inc and others to control consumer entertainment in the age of tablets and smartphones,” Reuters reports. What’s your first impression of the Xbox One?

Does Number of Likes and Followers Matter? This is a one of those questions that keep coming up during conferences, the classes I teach at University of Washington, client conversations... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

A recently-acquired founder has some advice on company culture for Marissa Mayer.So another young tech genius cashes out as Yahoo acquires Tumblr for $1.1 billion. Will Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer be able to turn it into a profitable venture? I'll leave that to the pundits. I'm going to address what poses the biggest risk to a successful integration: culture. Yahoo and Tumblr have very different company cultures--and if the marriage is not handled correctly, it could mean disaster for everyone involved.Already social media observers and even Tumblr employees are openly saying to Yahoo: "Leave us alone." Tumblr has built a successful brand and culture by doing things its own way. And while the execs at Yahoo will certainly be touting the Tumblr culture as a major reason they bought the company, make no mistake: they will do whatever is necessary to monetize the investment and satisfy shareholders.My own company, BerylHealth, was recently purchased by a large public company. I've felt assured Stericycle respects Beryl's culture; the CEO asked me to become the chief culture officer of the combined entity. But I have no doubt that merging into a larger company--let alone scaling Beryl's culture to a multi-billion dollar enterprise--will have its challenges.Here's the advice I have for Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer:Don't say, 'Nothing will change.' While this could placate employees in the short term, you know it's not true, and you'll lose trust when you inevitably start making changes.Recognize your new people--soon.You bought a cool social media site that caters to the younger generation. But you didn't just buy a website. You bought the hearts and minds of 175 people who live and breathe the Tumblr ethos. They are your product.Get to profitability.Tumblr will only survive (and Yahoo will only thrive) if it makes money. Tumblr's employees need to know that millions of blog posts a day doesn't ultimately provide a long-term return to stakeholders. No need to apologize for that.Brainstorm together.Don't make decisions for the Tumblr team, but with them. These are smart people who know their business. Tumblr's leaders have earned a right to be at the table.Make known your core values.Start right now and make sure your employees understand your company-wide mission, vision, and values-- that they are part of something bigger than themselves.I wish you all the best of luck.

The celebrity chef talks branding, business, and building quality products with Scott Gerber.

In order for any website to succeed online, whether it is an informational site or a business site, it must get substantial amount of Internet traffic flowing to it day in day out. Traffic is the life of the Internet and without it; the Internet would just be a couple of web pages linked together without any meaning. It is for this reason that any webmaster or website owner looking to run a successful website must also put in place strategies to help them get website traffic to their site. The more traffic one is able to attract, the higher their chances of succeeding in the online world. When it comes to running a business site, the type of traffic that one requires is a little bit more specific. One needs targeted traffic, which is traffic that actually leads to conversion. Online business is also about conversion and getting people to take action on your site. For one to achieve this, they need to ensure that they attract people who are interested in what they have to offer and who are willing to do business with them. One should therefore find ways to get website traffic that is targeted to their sites. One of the easiest ways for online business owners to ensure that they get website traffic that leads to conversion to their sites is by carrying out SEO. It is common knowledge that most people usually start their Internet browsing by entering some keywords or phrases into search engines and browsing through the results that they are given. In order to ensure that you are positioned to take advantage of this free Internet traffic and that your site actually gets listed, you must ensure that it is properly optimized for the search engines. Optimization means that you take steps to ensure that your site is well ranked by the search engine crawlers for specific keywords or keyword phrases that your business deals in. At the forefront of any SEO, campaign is the issue of keyword research and keyword density. To ensure that people find you when they are looking for something they are interested in, you need to carry out keyword research so that you can best know how to identify with your clients’ needs. Once you do this, in order to actually get website traffic, you must ensure that you have a certain keyword density on your website. An optimal keyword density is usually 2-3%, and when this is used in conjunction with other SEO techniques, it should get you highly ranked on search engines results pages and thus get you more exposure and more targeted website traffic.

AT&T is working to make more of its API catalog available to enterprises so that business customers can then develop products and capabilities that will benefit their customers. This new API initiative will be unveiled in early 2014.