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| 3 Best Social Good Startup Accelerators You've Never Heard Of | | Wednesday, February 29, 2012 10:31 PM | Scott Henderson |
|  Scott Henderson is managing director of CauseShift, writes about social impact for the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and is founder of NewEmpireBuilders.com, a media collaborative covering the startups, non-profits and companies making the world better. Startups have become the darling children of the world, it seems. Aspiring Mark Zuckerbergs, Caterina Fakes and Jack Dorseys are eager to launch the next big thing. This rising entrepreneurial tide is having an impact on all sectors. The latest generation to enter the work force arrives at a time of high unemployment. Its members see large problems that need to be fixed, and often, they have little faith in incumbent institutions' ability to solve them. In an attempt to change the world, these aspiring entrepreneurs are choosing to launch new ventures, for profit and non-profit, that embrace transparency, agility and innovation. No single company, non-profit or individual can solve the problems facing humanity, however. It will take leadership from all directions, converging on the social impact sector. To that end, social entrepreneurs are pioneering a new wave of charities and socially minded companies. What differentiates social entrepreneurs from other entrepreneurs? They have a focus on solving social problems and a greater willingness to reinvest profits into the communities they serve. Some choose the traditional non-profit structure; others elect established, for-profit models; still others are embracing corporate structures, such as benefit corporations and low-profit limited liability companies (L3C). No matter the structure, these startup founders seek to deliver value to the marketplace while simultaneously solving community problems. Non-Profit Startup Accelerators Realizing the potential, venture capital firms, angle investors and civic leaders have created programs to help these startups take root in the marketplace. In exchange for equity stakes, for-profit accelerators and incubators provide robust resources and access to experts. Y Combinator, TechStars and a growing population of other companies have paved the way. Fortunately, social impact startups (for-profit and non-profit) are feeling the love, too, thanks to springboard organizations like Skoll Foundation, Scwab Foundation, Echoing Green and Ashoka. Here are three more programs worth considering if you want to accelerate the growth of your social-impact startup.? Unreasonable Institute - Boulder, Colorado: Unreasonable's marketplace is open; you can help determine or even be one of the projects selected for this summer's program. Do you like the mountains and being connected to a global roster of mentors? Check this program out. Civic Accelerator - Atlanta, Georgia: Just announced this year, the Points of Light Insitute's Civic Incubator program is expanding to launch one of the first accelerators focused on social entrepreneurs. Learn more as it rolls out the program in the coming weeks and months. MassChallenge - Boston, Massachusetts: In its third year, MassChallenge is open to all startups and has no strings attached. Compete for $1 million in cash prizes, interact with over 600 mentors and experts over four months, and enjoy free office space overlooking Boston Harbor. Four of last year's top cash prize winners were social-impact startups. Apply for this year's program starting March 1. What do you think about the social entrepreneur trend? How are you planning to take advantage of it? Image courtesy of iStockphoto, lightkeeper |
| Facebook Ads Announcements: Everything You Need to Know | | Wednesday, February 29, 2012 9:35 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Facebook gathered hundreds of people into the Museum of Natural History in New York on Wednesday for its first-ever Facebook Marketing Conference. At the top of the agenda was Premium, a new suite of products for marketers designed to leverage the social network's access to your friends and friends of friends. As a user, you're not likely to notice any huge differences, except maybe for the new Timeline Brand Pages, a related announcement. But there are some subtle changes that Facebook believes enable marketers to evolve their relationship with consumers beyond advertising and into "stories." The following is a rundown of everything Facebook announced, in Q&A format. What new ad products did Facebook announce? Officially, there were five: Ads that appear in News Feeds Ads that run on the right-hand side of your homepage Ads within the News Feed on your mobile device Ads that appear when you log out Offers But, unofficially, only the log-out ads and Offers are really new. The News Feed ads had been out since gross rating points" to Facebook that de-emphasize click-throughs. Why? Click-through rates for Facebook ads are pretty low. Facebook has also argued that CTRs are a poor and even irrelevant measure of an ad's performance. You can't click through a TV ad, for instance, but it still might persuade you to buy something. Without CTRs, how do advertisers know their ads worked? Facebook is using mixed-media modeling (a.k.a. "marketing mix modeling") with some clients, like Procter & Gamble, to demonstrate an ad campaign's efficacy. The company is working with advertisers on other ways to show a Facebook campaign moved the needle on sales or awareness -- whatever the goal might be. What is Reach Generator? Reach Generator is a new tool designed to let brands reach all their fans. The average post by a brand (or a person) only reaches 16% of such fans for various reasons, like the number of times you log on and the number of people and brands in your network. Reach Generator lets advertisers reach the other 86% by rerunning status updates as ads aimed at those fans. Why is Facebook putting so much emphasis on brand Pages? The company believes brands should be indistinguishable from your Facebook friends. That is, if they post something interesting, it should get pickup in your feed, but if they post something boring, it should not. By offering greater engagement and reach for brands with well-run Facebook brand Pages, Facebook hopes to make it the cornerstone of any marketer's outreach and ensure that brands offer engaging content. In other words, a rising tide lifts all boats. What could derail this from happening? Lots of things. Users might get sick of seeing so much content from brands and decide to withdraw their Like. Google+ or Twitter might prove to be a better destination for brands. That status update-based ads might prove ineffective in the long run. Advertisers might decide that click-throughs actually were a good measure of ad performance. Ultimately, consumers will have the final say. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ymgerman |
| How Ford Kicked Its Social Marketing Strategy Into Overdrive [VIDEO] | | Wednesday, February 29, 2012 3:53 PM | Mashable Video |
|  You don't have to look very far to notice that there are a lot of car companies trying to get in the social game -- you can see plenty examples in this year's Super Bowl ads. It wasn't always this way for Ford. In 2009, they recruited Scott Monty to be their head of social media. Since then, he's come up with innovative strategies to blend social into all of Ford's marketing campaigns. "Social media is not a standalone," Monty said. "It's not a rubber stamp you put on after having done everything else. It's absolutely important to be integrated into the thinking early on as you're putting your strategies, programs and tactics together." In this episode of Behind the Brand, Monty speaks to Brian Elliot about the company's biggest success stories in bringing all their marketing elements together. When Ford began planning how to unveil the 2011 Ford Explorer, they decided they wanted to centralize the announcement around the brand's Facebook Page. "Not only did we want to reinvent the vehicle, we wanted to reinvent the way we told the story," Monty said. Watch the whole interview with Scott Monty above to learn about the innovations behind Ford's social media strategy, and how he's helped raise the brand's engagement level, then tell us what you think in the comments. Behind the Brand is hosted by Bryan Elliott. Stay tuned to Mashable every Wednesday for new episodes. More Recent Episodes of Behind the Brand: What to Do When Your Social Media Strategy Is Successful/a> The New Rules of Relationship Marketing/a> Why You Should Stop Marketing and Fascinate Your Customers Instead/a> |
| Facebook Introduces Ads That Appear When You Log Out | | Wednesday, February 29, 2012 2:38 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Ads will start popping up on mobile News Feeds and as you log out of the site, Facebook announced Wednesday. Although mobile ads had been reported by Bloomberg in December, the idea of a log-out ad, which will go live in April, is new. Mike Hoefflinger, director of customer marketing at Facebook, announced the ads will reach the 37 million people who log out of Facebook every day. Log-out ads, or "stories" as Facebook prefers they be called, are one of four new "Premium" products for advertisers that were announced at the Facebook Marketing Conference in New York. The other placements include right-hand ads on the homepage and ads within the News Feed on desktops. Both of those ads had been in circulation since at least early January. The idea behind Premium is a paradigm shift from advertising to stories. Underscoring the change, Premium ads will all originate from brand Pages and often won't look like traditional ads, but will be based on status updates, questions and videos. Hoefflinger says that such ads, piloted by Dr. Pepper, Butterfinger and EA, deliver $3 of sales for every $1 spent by advertisers and deliver five to 10 times the click-through rate of other ads on Facebook. (Such CTRs are low by industry standards.) The better metrics are proof, the company contends, that consumers and advertisers are evolving their symbiotic relationship beyond advertising and into storytelling. will engage more with you, are going to like you more and create little stories on top of your stories." The announcement comes after Facebook also launched its long-awaited Timeline Brand Pages earlier Wednesday. |
| Timeline for Brands: How to Prepare for Your Company's New Facebook Page | | Wednesday, February 29, 2012 10:12 AM | Jim Belosic |
|  Jim Belosic is the CEO of ShortStack, a self-service social media platform that allows users to create custom Facebook tabs. Its easy-to-use interface provides small businesses, individuals, graphic designers, agencies, and corporations with the tools needed to build mini-websites within their Facebook pages. Facebook has officially announced Timeline for brand pages after dangling the carrot in front of page admins for some time now. The pages will be pushed live to everyone on March 30, but for now, you have some time to preview the new look and review your page before the changes take effect. Here are some ways that businesses can prepare for Timeline without throwing away everything we've come to learn and love about brand pages thus far. Re-Visit, Re-Vamp or Create Your Social Media Plan The layout of your Page is going to change once Timeline for pages is enabled, this much we know. However, Facebook and its purpose in the social media world hasn't changed at all. Facebook has always been and will remain a communication tool. For businesses, it is a way to create two-way communication between your brand and your audience. Even if the layout looks different, the capabilities will still be the same. From a design perspective, pages will be more aesthetically pleasing, but timeline for pages is just an enhancement to an existing product, and the rules are all the same or possibly even better. SEE ALSO: Why Facebook Timeline Will Be Huge for Brands If you have a social media plan that's working for you, stick to it. If your plan could use some adjustments, now would be a good time to see what has been working and what hasn't and how Timeline can assist with some improvements. If you're winging your social media plan day-by-day, this is a good time to sit down and hash out why you have a Facebook Page in the first place. Start Preparing Your Timeline Image One of the most exciting features of timeline is the large image featured at the top of the page. Facebook has given a lot of real estate to that image, and businesses should use it as an opportunity to feature something powerful and captivating. Businesses can leverage the image by changing it out frequently, featuring a weekly special or a reason for people to like your page. The possibilities are endless, so start thinking of what you want people to see when they visit your Page. Need some help crafting your cover photo image? These five tools will work, as well as this new option from Aviary. Go Through Your Company's History With Timeline, businesses owners will be able to reference company events that preceded Facebook itself. Go through your company's history and mark milestones, such as the date you were founded, your first customers, when you moved to a new location, when you added new services, or increased staff. Fans love to see businesses add a personal touch on a Facebook page, and everyone loves a good startup story. Take this opportunity to tell your business' story, add personality, let people know how it all began and talk about how you got to where you are today. Do Some Spring Cleaning Now is a good time to moderate your Facebook page and evaluate the people you have involved. Look at your admins -- are they all necessary? Update your information, add videos and photos and make sure your location data is up to date. One of the features of timeline is a map, so you'll want to make sure that people can find you. Relax, Everything Will Be OK Facebook doesn't typically force its users to make a huge change overnight. Like we saw with the switch from personal profiles to Timelines, we have a grace period that, in this case, lasts until March 30. Businesses will have time to think about the changes, adjust their pages and prepare before making the switch. Facebook values the level of functionality and engagement that third-party apps offer, including sweepstakes, contests and landing tabs, and all of those features are still going to exist in some form. Let the third-party apps worry about the kinks and the aesthetics and remember that your fans are still visiting your page on a daily basis to get the same engagement and attention they've always received from you. With all the rumors we've heard, Facebook pages are about to be better than ever. |
| The Power of the Social Consumer [INFOGRAPHIC] | | Wednesday, February 29, 2012 9:00 AM | Matt Silverman |
|  Twenty years ago, if you were dissatisfied with a company's product or business practices, you'd probably stop buying from them. You might write an angry letter. You might even tell your friends and family (a whopping 25 people, at best) not to patronize that business. But the game has changed with social media. While one angry tweet may not make much impact, the web allows customers to find and connect with like-minded parties. Critical mass has never been more within consumers' reach. At best, companies strive to be more responsive. At worst, they now live in fear of these pools of discontent. SEE ALSO: The Social Media Salary Guide/a> Below, in an infographic from Frugal Dad, are some compelling examples that illustrate the power of the social media consumer. Do you have a favorite story about how social outcry changed the course of business? Share yours in the comments below. Infographic courtesy of Frugal Dad. |
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