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| WebThriftStore Streamlines Charitable Giving | | Wednesday, March 14, 2012 10:34 PM | Zoe Fox |
|  WebThriftStore is bringing the $13 billion thrift industry online with a spin for good. The online thrift store gives you an opportunity to give to a cause you care about, while getting rid of the junk around your house. Sellers decide what charity they'd like their resold goods to benefit, and the cause of their choice receives 80% of the sale. "What's really innovative is that you're not selling -- you're donating, so there's no risk of seller fraud," Doug Krugman, who co-founded WebThriftStore with his wife Lynn Zises, told Mashable. "On eBay and other online retailers you have to deal with PayPal, maintaining a profile and establishing a reputation, which is why a lot of people don't take the time to sell stuff online. We've taken money out of the equation." Zises notes that WebThriftStore has a much simpler process than Craigslist or eBay for reselling. You can grab a photo from the web, write your listing and select your charity. WebThriftStore encourages people to use USPS's free pickup and delivery services, but sellers also have the local pickup option. "We see this as a way to reach donors who may want to be involved but don't have cash to give," says Zises. About a month after you sell goods, you receive a receipt you can use as proof for a tax exemption for the value of the sale you made. According to NPD research, Americans have $7,000 worth of unused items sitting around their houses, which totals $700 billion in America's 100 million households. WebThriftStore thinks this untapped resource can be a charitable goldmine. Possibly due to the economic situation, there was a 7% growth in thrift stores in 2011, according to the National Association of Resale Professionals. Currently, four non-profits are on board, including ASPCA, Maccabi USA, ClassWish and the East River Development Alliance. Women in Need will become a partner Thursday. Krugman says they get solicited by new non-profits each day who want to get on board. Krugman, a tech startup veteran, and Zises, an experienced non-profit worker, are based in New York. They received a $1 million seed round of funding from Esther Dyson (Flickr, Meetup, delicious). Would you sell your unused stuff online for charity? Let us know in the comments. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, greenmountainboy |
| How to Defeat the Social Media Skeptics in Your Company | | Wednesday, March 14, 2012 6:17 PM | Mashable Video |
|  For those trying to get a social media campaign going in their company, they'll often have to deal with naysayers that question the value. Former Kodak CMO Jeff Hayzlett says dealing with the non-believer is all part of "running the gauntlet." He believes it so strongly that he even wrote a book with the same title that promises to teach people how to push forward with their social media dreams. Hayzlett spoke with Bryan Elliott on Behind the Brand about what it takes to engage audiences, and how to explain to those number crunchers that social is valuable. For one, he said talking about return on investment is overhyped. "I say to them, 'What's your return on ignoring?'" Hayzlett said. "If you're engaged with your customers, and you have an operation that is doing what it's supposed to be doing, then you're going to make money." Hayzlett said at this point, not engaging via social media is just a way to lose money. He broke down his social media strategy, calling it "the four E's." "Get engaged, start doing it. Start being your own Chief Listening Officer," Hayzlett said. "When you educate people about your product, they get excited, and then start to evangelize by becoming brand ambassadors." If you have any comments about how to buck the social media naysayers, tweet them at @BryanElliott, or leave a comment below. More Recent Episodes of Behind the Brand: How Brands Are Tackling Social Issues With Social Media/a> How Ford Put its Social Marketing Strategy Into Overdrive/a> What to Do When Your Social Media Strategy Is Successful/a> |
| The Most Buzzed About Startup at SXSW 2012: Highlight | | Wednesday, March 14, 2012 4:34 PM | Sarah Kessler |
|  Mashable's SXSW coverage is presented by the Samsung Galaxy Note, a smarter phone for a smarter world. Check it out here, follow @SamsungMobileUS or join the conversation via #benoteworthy on Twitter. At SXSW Interactive this year, the default small talk question was, "How do you feel about Highlight and all of those apps?" Pundits crowned Highlight a SXSW breakout app early on, and according to Mashable's mRank leaderboard -- which analyzes conversations across Twitter, Facebook and blogs -- it dominated social buzz throughout the conference. The app keeps a log of who you pass by each day -- whether you've previously connected or not. It runs in the background to compile your list -- and put you on others' -- with no work on your part. It was so prevalent in conversation that at one panel I attended, the moderator listed within the rules for a joke panel drinking game: "Every time Highlight is mentioned, drink twice ... and then punch yourself." The "all of those apps" portion of the question above includes other passive location-based apps such as Glancee, Banjo and Sonar, which all have different takes on helping you figuring out who is nearby. Glancee, a Highlight competitor that also works on Android, finished second on the mRank leaderboard after starting the conference in fifth place (see below). Sonar and Banjo use location data from social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Instagram to show who is nearby. People need to publicly post their location data before they show up within the app, but the apps have the advantage of including people in their purview even if they have not installed the app. Perhaps because they lack the novelty effect of passive sharing, they didn't get as much attention as their background location counterparts and finished on the leaderboard in 10th and 11th place, respectively. The oddball of the most buzzed about items at SXSW was Grandstand, a product from iStrategy Labs that "transforms Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter and SMS into games, instant rewards and eye-popping visualizations." Because SXSW brings together massive numbers of early adopters, most of its historical "breakout startups" are social apps that become more useful when they're being used by many people in the same area (i.e. Twitter, Foursquare and Highlight). Grandstand, in contrast, is a marketing platform that had a game stationed at SXSW inside GE Garages. Yet at one point it led the leaderboard, and it never fell below third place. Other startups that made appearances in the top five mRank slots throughout the conference include peer-to-peer task marketplace Zaarly, a photo-viewing app called Pixable that curated the most popular photos of the conference, custom 3D-printing shop Shapeways and real-friends social network Path. Here's how the buzz played out throughout the five-day conference: Mashable mRank SXSW Leaderboard on Day One, March 9 Mashable mRank SXSW Leaderboard on Day Four, March 12 Mashable mRank SXSW Leaderboard on Day Five, March 13 Do you think the buzz around any of these items will live beyond SXSW? Let us know in the comments. Coverage presented by Samsung
Mashable's SXSW coverage is presented by the Samsung Galaxy Note, a smarter phone for a smarter world. Get ready to unleash your creativity and productivity. Check it out here, follow @SamsungMobileUS or join the conversation via #benoteworthy on Twitter. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, TommL? |
| Kevin Rose's Oink App Folds After Five Months | | Wednesday, March 14, 2012 4:04 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg, has pulled the plug on Oink, the first app from his new company, Milk. "Oink was our first test and, in preparing to move onto the next project, we've decided to shut it down to help focus our efforts," reads a post on Oink.com. A mobile app designed to let users rate things inside of places -- such as the type of ice cream in a dessert shop -- Oink went live on iTunes last November. Rose told a crowd at Le Web in December that the app had been downloaded 150,000 times. Neither Rose nor any reps from Milk could be reached for comment. The post gave no reason for the decision. Oink vied with Stamped, another "recommendations engine" that lets users track, share and compare things they like. Rose formed Milk last April, just weeks after quitting Digg. Milk, which is housed in San Francisco's Mission District, is billed as an incubator for mobile web ideas. Rose, who co-founded Digg in 2004, was featured on the cover of Business Week two years later with the headline, "How This Kid Made $60 Million in 18 Months." Though Google was reported to have offered $200 million for Digg, the deal never came to pass. Since then, Digg has been in decline and rival Reddit gets double Digg's traffic. Now 35, Rose has kept a relatively low profile since leaving Digg, though he helped Absolut launch a San Francisco-themed iteration of its vodka last June. |
| NFL Star, Olympian Want to Make You 'Untouchable' on Facebook | | Wednesday, March 14, 2012 3:55 PM | Sam Laird |
|  NFL star Drew Brees and Olympic softball gold medalist Jennie Finch know hard work and great gear can add up to being a star on the field. Now they're helping amateur and aspiring athletes get a leg up on the competition through a Facebook-based contest from Dick's Sporting Goods. You can enter the Untouchable Moment Sweepstakes through a tab on the company's Facebook Page. Fans are entered to win a one-hour shopping spree with Brees or Finch to get the best equipment and, hopefully, the best performance. Dick's Sporting Goods is promoting the hashtag #Untouchable for fans and consumers to chat about the brand and memorable athletic moments. Both athletes told Mashable the combination of equipment and social media is one that works. Brees said an "untouchable" moment occurs when an athlete reaches a sort of nirvana where nothing can go wrong. It's a "moment that will live for ever and that no one can ever take away from you," he said. Finch said such moments are hard to come by even for top athletes, but "that's what you train for and those moments make all those hours of training and sacrifice well worth it." Appropriate for a contest based on a Facebook Page, Brees and Finch are both enthusiastic users of social media. "My target audience is the younger girls," said Finch, who has been playing softball since age 5. "I hope to encourage and inspire them and social media is where they are." Finch maintains active Facebook and Twitter page. Brees, meanwhile, spends most of his time on Twitter. "I'm on Twitter quite a bit to connect with fans, to keep them updated on what I'm involved in, and then follow others as well for news and information," he said. Suzanne Guzzo, senior manager of digital consumer engagement for Dick's, also sees social media as an essential component of the Untouchable campaign. By hosting the sweepstakes on Facebook, she said, "we're providing our fans with an amazing opportunity to gear up for an upcoming season at a Dick's store with Drew or Jennie, but we're also giving them a venue to continue the conversation with others that share their same passions." Do you think the Dick's Untouchable Moment Sweepstakes is an effective use of social media? Let us know in the comments. Also, check out the campaign's TV commercial, below, just because it's a cool ad: |
| eBay Virtual Garage Pimps a Million Rides | | Wednesday, March 14, 2012 2:02 PM | Emily Price |
|  eBay's personalized shopping service My Vehicles now has more than 1 million registered vehicles. The service originally rolled out to users in the summer of 2011, and eBay plans to announce that it has surpassed the one million mark later today. My Vehicles is a personalized virtual "garage" where owners can upload information about the vehicles they own in order to create a tailored eBay shopping experience when it comes to that vehicle. For instance, if you're the proud owner of a shiny red 1963 Corvette, creating a My Vehicles profile will customize your search results for car parts to favor parts for your vette. A social profile for your ride, My Vehicles profile pages can be public or private with the public option offering you the option to brag about your wheels. Car enthusiasts can upload up to 24 photos of their vehicles to share with others, and the site offers a permalink for your car's profile as well as Facebook and Twitter integration for when you want to take that sharing off eBay. "Car fanatics love to swap stories and information about their passion more so than others, especially those with similar model vehicles and genres, such as muscle cars, collector cars, etc.," Danny Chang, Head of Marketing and Site Experience, eBay Motors told Mashable. "They want to share their vehicles and modifications, and also be inspired by new ideas they may not have thought of. The social aspect of My Vehicles provides a simple way to do this at scale, to reach many more like-minded enthusiasts quickly, not to mention the ability for everyday drivers and enthusiasts alike to easily find parts that fit their car." Tweets about vehicles from the service are adorned with the #MyVehicles hashtag and a link to that individual's car on eBay. eBay sees it as way for car enthusiasts to reach out to one another about their vehicles and potentially make a connection. "Certainly people like to show their cars off to their friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter, and interact with those who might congratulate them on a new car or comment on how cool their ride is," says Chang. "But there are also people who may see a vehicle come through with the My Vehicles hashtag on Twitter, click the link to view the vehicle profile, and then reach out to the person on Twitter to ask them questions about the car, modifications, etc." Today's one million users announcement refers to visits to the My Vehicles experience that resulted in a user registering a vehicle (or multiple vehicles) and parking it in their "garage." The total doesn't account for eBay users who may have multiple user accounts or have cars parked in several different accounts. The actual number of vehicles on My Vehicles is much higher than one million. Ebay says that it has 1,370,000 cars, trucks, and motorcycles currently parked in virtual garages on the site, with over 250,000 users parking more than two vehicles in their virtual garage. As for popularity, Chevy is the most saved vehicle brand on the service with more than 236,000 saves. Ford, Dodge, Toyota and Honda round out the top five respectively. The Ford F-150 is the most saved model of vehicle saved on the service, with more than 42,000 of the pickups saved. The Ford Mustang, Honda Civic, Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and Dodge Ram 1500 are also amongst the top five. Are any of you currently using eBay's My Vehicles? Let us know what you think about the service in the comments. |
| Announcing a Live Chat With Hootsuite Founder Ryan Holmes | | Wednesday, March 14, 2012 1:25 PM | Scott Gerber |
|  At 3 p.m. ET (12 p.m. PT) tomorrow, March 15, streaming live exclusively on Mashable, Hootsuite Founder Ryan Holmes will be answering questions from readers. As part of the Young Entrepreneur Council's program called YEC Global, Holmes will be answering questions live via video chat broadcast exclusively on this site. HootSuite's energetic CEO Ryan Holmes founded Invoke Media, the agency that created the highly successful social media dashboard. He has been active in all aspects of HootSuite's operations, focusing on strategy, business and product development, as well as technical and social networking trends. HootSuite is Ryan's fifth startup, with other ventures in a variety of industries. From founding a pizza restaurant chain, to building the top online paintball supplier in Canada, to creating Invoke Media, Ryan has established himself as a multi-faceted professional within the entrepreneurial community. Ryan frequently presents at international conferences, including TEDx, 140tc, OMNA, 140conf, IMA, and Open Network Labs, where he speaks about entrepreneurship, startups and the crossroads of marketing and the social web. When he's not grinding away at the HootSuite office, he can be found rock climbing, doing yoga, paragliding or hanging out with his dog Mika. He is also an international voice for startups, and has been featured and quoted in media sources including the The New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and Venture Beat. YEC Global is an international mentorship program of the Young Entrepreneur Council, an invite-only non-profit comprised of promising young entrepreneurs. Its goal is to promote and support young entrepreneurs around the world, as well as foster the thriving global entrepreneurial ecosystem by sending delegations to various countries around the world to lead in-person, peer-to-peer mentorship programs, creative sessions, panel discussions and business competitions. The program also offers one-to-two week internships at YEC-member owned companies. Check Mashable tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. ET (12 p.m. PT) where Holmes will be answering questions from the audience live via video chat. You can also sign up for an email reminder of the chat by visiting this registration page. |
| Apple Stock Up 50% Since Steve Jobs's Death | | Wednesday, March 14, 2012 10:42 AM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Defying the most dire predictions by critics, Apple has not fallen apart without Steve Jobs. In fact, the company has won over Wall Street with a nearly 50% boost in its stock price since Jobs' death last October. At Tuesday's close, Apple's stock price was around $575.64, a 52% jump since Oct. 5, the day Jobs died and Apple's stock was selling for $378.25. Of course, there are reasons for the optimism. Apple's reported blowout numbers in its fiscal first quarter with revenues of $43 billion and a profit of $13 billion. Apple's iPhone 4S launch, which came a day before Jobs died, also went very well, even if some were disappointed that an iPhone 5 wasn't available. It remains to be seen how the company's iPad launch will go this month, though Apple is said to be having trouble keeping up with demand. Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies and a longtime Apple watcher, says he's not surprised that the company seems to be faring well without its "spiritual head" as he terms it. "Apple has built an incredible foundation," Bajarin told Mashable. "They were building on it when Steve passed away." Bajarin says in the four or five years before Jobs died, the Apple co-founder had been putting a lot of his energy into overseeing the group that includes CEO Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive, senior vice president of industrial design. "He's been mentoring that entire group of executive leaders about how to carry forth his vision," Bajarin says. Not everyone agrees that Apple has made a seamless transition, though. Rob Enderle, principal analyst of the Enderle Group, says Apple was able to keep up appearances for years after the first time Jobs left, in 1985. "It took three years to become noticeable and seven years to be become unavoidable," Enderle says of Apple's decline during that period. Enderle believes Apple's iPad launch this month shows Apple's vulnerability. "People wondered if they'd be able to maintain that Steve Jobs wonder," Enderle says. "After this launch, people said 'It's got a nice display and it's a nice upgrade,' but there was none of the drama, none of that over-the-top stuff." What do you think? Is Apple coasting or is it still on top of its game? Sound off in the comments. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, veni Hands on with the New iPad |
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