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Showing posts with label Productivity & social. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Productivity & social. Show all posts

What's the tangible, money-in-the-bank benefit of a Facebook follower? Social marketing mavens have pondered the question for years and we're still not any closer to a hard answer. Facebook last month swept fake "Likes" from its pages, to the chagrin of spammers. But do efforts at gaming the social network even pay off? If you're using Facebook for legitimate marketing, what's the ROI of having virtual fans?

Depending on who you ask and the metrics you use, a Facebook follower could be worth nothing at all, as little as $3.60, as much as $22.93, exactly $136.38 more than a non-follower, or a whopping $214.81 for a nonprofit organization.

That's a lot of numbers—and a gaping variation in the value of a "Like." Where does the truth lie?

Ecwid, an e-shopping cart provider and the self-proclaimed "second largest store-building application on Facebook," explored the data from the 40,000-plus Facebook stores that run on its software to try and determine the answer. The results Ecwid provided me are far from definitive, but they sure are interesting.

Are fake followers worth the money?

Sales and 'Likes'

Ecwid took the 12-month cumulative sales from the storefronts that use its software, then compared the total against each store's number of "Likes." The baseline provides some insight in and of itself: on average, each Facebook "Like" equated to just 21 cents in annual sales.

Drilling down further revealed intriguing details. For the top ten percent of stores by sales volume, the value of a "Like" increased to $1.20 a pop, soaring to $21.49 in the top one percent of stores. Some retailers obviously have some sort of secret sauce when it comes to engaging an audience and converting engagement into sales. One study showed that only 1 percent of Facebook fans interact with the brands they follow; I'm guessing those top stores keep things lively.


But do more "Likes" mean more sales? Not according to Ecwid's figures. In fact, the 25 percent of Ecwid-powered storefronts with the most "Likes" only earned 13 cents per "Like" per year, dropping to a paltry penny for the one percent of stores with the most fans. Neither of those numbers comes close to meeting the 21-cents-per-"Like" baseline average.  
Ecwid's study included data from over 40,000 Facebook storefronts.

So What Does It All Mean?

Nothing of definite value, unfortunately, aside from that there's no definitive correlation between a "Like" and sales volume. Even that axiom isn't hard-set; a store with a million "Likes" will very likely sell more product than a store with 100 "Likes," after all.

That kind of dangerous thinking could lead a business to sip from the black-hat, social SEO Kool-Aid, but Ecwid's data shows that a torrent of "Likes" alone won't translate into sales; you aren't likely to see a good return on investment if you shell out company money for false "Likes" and inflated follower counts. I think Forrester's Augie Ray nailed it when he said that a Facebook "Like" is chock full of potential value, but very little real-world value—virtually none, in fact—until your nurture that connection.

What's a Facebook 'like' worth?


What's the tangible, money-in-the-bank benefit of a Facebook follower? Social marketing mavens have pondered the question for years and we're still not any closer to a hard answer. Facebook last month swept fake "Likes" from its pages, to the chagrin of spammers. But do efforts at gaming the social network even pay off? If you're using Facebook for legitimate marketing, what's the ROI of having virtual fans?

Depending on who you ask and the metrics you use, a Facebook follower could be worth nothing at all, as little as $3.60, as much as $22.93, exactly $136.38 more than a non-follower, or a whopping $214.81 for a nonprofit organization.

That's a lot of numbers—and a gaping variation in the value of a "Like." Where does the truth lie?

Ecwid, an e-shopping cart provider and the self-proclaimed "second largest store-building application on Facebook," explored the data from the 40,000-plus Facebook stores that run on its software to try and determine the answer. The results Ecwid provided me are far from definitive, but they sure are interesting.

Are fake followers worth the money?

Sales and 'Likes'

Ecwid took the 12-month cumulative sales from the storefronts that use its software, then compared the total against each store's number of "Likes." The baseline provides some insight in and of itself: on average, each Facebook "Like" equated to just 21 cents in annual sales.

Drilling down further revealed intriguing details. For the top ten percent of stores by sales volume, the value of a "Like" increased to $1.20 a pop, soaring to $21.49 in the top one percent of stores. Some retailers obviously have some sort of secret sauce when it comes to engaging an audience and converting engagement into sales. One study showed that only 1 percent of Facebook fans interact with the brands they follow; I'm guessing those top stores keep things lively.


But do more "Likes" mean more sales? Not according to Ecwid's figures. In fact, the 25 percent of Ecwid-powered storefronts with the most "Likes" only earned 13 cents per "Like" per year, dropping to a paltry penny for the one percent of stores with the most fans. Neither of those numbers comes close to meeting the 21-cents-per-"Like" baseline average.  
Ecwid's study included data from over 40,000 Facebook storefronts.

So What Does It All Mean?

Nothing of definite value, unfortunately, aside from that there's no definitive correlation between a "Like" and sales volume. Even that axiom isn't hard-set; a store with a million "Likes" will very likely sell more product than a store with 100 "Likes," after all.

That kind of dangerous thinking could lead a business to sip from the black-hat, social SEO Kool-Aid, but Ecwid's data shows that a torrent of "Likes" alone won't translate into sales; you aren't likely to see a good return on investment if you shell out company money for false "Likes" and inflated follower counts. I think Forrester's Augie Ray nailed it when he said that a Facebook "Like" is chock full of potential value, but very little real-world value—virtually none, in fact—until your nurture that connection.

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Posted at 09:00 |  by Unknown
A little over a week ago, LogMeIn Product Specialist Sean Keough announced a change to the company's LogMeIn Free remote-access product: Instead of using it on unlimited PCs, customers would be limited to 10 PCs each.

As a longtime fan of LogMeIn Free and a self-proclaimed cheapskate, you'd think I'd be outraged by this decision, as lots of other users have proclaimed to be. (Look no further than the comments section beneath Keough's post.)

Quite the opposite: I say, good for LogMeIn. The free ride isn't over, it's just no longer available to mid-size businesses that should have been paying for LMI to begin with. (LogMeIn Free is really intended as a consumer product, though no doubt some businesses have leveraged it for work purposes.)

The mistake LMI made was allowing unlimited PCs from the start. I think there's such a thing as "too much free," and that many of us have grown spoiled by all the gratis goods and services available nowadays—to the detriment of development and innovation. Hence the backlash: Once you give people something for free, it's awfully hard to get them to start paying for it.

LogMeIn all but pioneered the remote-access category, making it possible to connect to and control distant PCs, thus avoiding the hair-pulling nightmare that is phone-based tech support. I've used it myself countless times to help friends and family members troubleshoot PC problems. And I've loved it for that.

But the remote-access field is now crowded with competitors, and if LMI wants to stay in it for the long haul, they have every right to nudge users toward paid versions—in this case LogMeIn Central, which costs $299 annually. That's just under $25 per month, which shouldn't break the bank for any small business.

Still not convinced? No doubt you've started looking at other free remote-access tools, like CrossLoop and TeamViewer. But guess what? CrossLoop limits you to one PC unless you go Pro. And TeamViewer Free is expressly "for private use," meaning you're not supposed to use it in business at all. If you want a paid license, it'll cost you a whopping $749 (which, admittedly, is for a lifetime license).

The switch to a 10-PC limit may prove painful for some LMI users, but the reality is that some services are worth paying for, especially if you want them to continue to exist. Before you start grumbling about the cost, ask yourself how much money you've already saved. The answer may surprise you.

LogMeIn limits freeloaders to 10 PCs. So what?

A little over a week ago, LogMeIn Product Specialist Sean Keough announced a change to the company's LogMeIn Free remote-access product: Instead of using it on unlimited PCs, customers would be limited to 10 PCs each.

As a longtime fan of LogMeIn Free and a self-proclaimed cheapskate, you'd think I'd be outraged by this decision, as lots of other users have proclaimed to be. (Look no further than the comments section beneath Keough's post.)

Quite the opposite: I say, good for LogMeIn. The free ride isn't over, it's just no longer available to mid-size businesses that should have been paying for LMI to begin with. (LogMeIn Free is really intended as a consumer product, though no doubt some businesses have leveraged it for work purposes.)

The mistake LMI made was allowing unlimited PCs from the start. I think there's such a thing as "too much free," and that many of us have grown spoiled by all the gratis goods and services available nowadays—to the detriment of development and innovation. Hence the backlash: Once you give people something for free, it's awfully hard to get them to start paying for it.

LogMeIn all but pioneered the remote-access category, making it possible to connect to and control distant PCs, thus avoiding the hair-pulling nightmare that is phone-based tech support. I've used it myself countless times to help friends and family members troubleshoot PC problems. And I've loved it for that.

But the remote-access field is now crowded with competitors, and if LMI wants to stay in it for the long haul, they have every right to nudge users toward paid versions—in this case LogMeIn Central, which costs $299 annually. That's just under $25 per month, which shouldn't break the bank for any small business.

Still not convinced? No doubt you've started looking at other free remote-access tools, like CrossLoop and TeamViewer. But guess what? CrossLoop limits you to one PC unless you go Pro. And TeamViewer Free is expressly "for private use," meaning you're not supposed to use it in business at all. If you want a paid license, it'll cost you a whopping $749 (which, admittedly, is for a lifetime license).

The switch to a 10-PC limit may prove painful for some LMI users, but the reality is that some services are worth paying for, especially if you want them to continue to exist. Before you start grumbling about the cost, ask yourself how much money you've already saved. The answer may surprise you.

No comments
Posted at 05:35 |  by Unknown
 
You're on the train to work. Inspiration strikes. You've just figured out how to double market share and save the company. Now you just have to sell the idea to the team.

Sure, you could pull out your laptop, wait for it to boot, run PowerPoint, and start the slow, laborious process of building a killer presentation.

Or you could pull out your iPad, run Haiku Deck, and start the fast, fun process of building a killer presentation -- and finish it before the train reaches your stop.


You're on the train to work. Inspiration strikes. You've just figured out how to double market share and save the company. Now you just have to sell the idea to the team.

Sure, you could pull out your laptop, wait for it to boot, run PowerPoint, and start the slow, laborious process of building a killer presentation.

Or you could pull out your iPad, run Haiku Deck, and start the fast, fun process of building a killer presentation -- and finish it before the train reaches your stop.


This is not hyperbole: Haiku Deck is one of the coolest slide-makers I've ever tried, in part because it's incredibly easy to use, and in part because it's smart.

As you probably know, half the battle in crafting a nice-looking slide is finding appropriate artwork to go with it. Haiku Deck lets you add your own, of course, but it also searches millions of free (i.e. Creative Commons-licensed) images based on the words you've chosen for that slide.

So, for example, if you enter words like "sales" and "money," you'll quickly get a list of thumbnails that match. Tap one you like and presto: You've got the perfect background for your slide.

You can also opt for a solid background color or insert your choice of bar, pie, or numeric charts, with manually entered labels and numbers.

Ultimately, Haiku Deck is all about whipping together attractive slides, and it's great for that. When you're done, you can share your deck via Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail, or get embed code for use with your blog or Web site. You even have the option of exporting your presentation for further tweaking in, say, PowerPoint or Keynote. Here's a sample, one that introduces Haiku Deck itself:

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad

However, the app is definitely somewhat limited. It doesn't support sound, transitions, or animations. You can't manually place your text, and I couldn't figure out a way to change the background color for charts. In fact, trying to make any major slide changes often caused me to lose the work I'd already done. There's no "save" option as such.

That said, once you figure out Haiku Deck's mechanics (it took me all of about 10 minutes to fully learn the app), you'll find it a great tool for building short, simple, attractive slide decks on the run. And you can't beat the price: it's free. (There are additional themes you can buy, but I think most users will find the free ones sufficient.Haiku Deck helps you build slick slides like this one.

This is not hyperbole: Haiku Deck is one of the coolest slide-makers I've ever tried, in part because it's incredibly easy to use, and in part because it's smart.

As you probably know, half the battle in crafting a nice-looking slide is finding appropriate artwork to go with it. Haiku Deck lets you add your own, of course, but it also searches millions of free (i.e. Creative Commons-licensed) images based on the words you've chosen for that slide.

So, for example, if you enter words like "sales" and "money," you'll quickly get a list of thumbnails that match. Tap one you like and presto: You've got the perfect background for your slide.

You can also opt for a solid background color or insert your choice of bar, pie, or numeric charts, with manually entered labels and numbers.

Ultimately, Haiku Deck is all about whipping together attractive slides, and it's great for that. When you're done, you can share your deck via Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail, or get embed code for use with your blog or Web site. You even have the option of exporting your presentation for further tweaking in, say, PowerPoint or Keynote. Here's a sample, one that introduces Haiku Deck itself:

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad

However, the app is definitely somewhat limited. It doesn't support sound, transitions, or animations. You can't manually place your text, and I couldn't figure out a way to change the background color for charts. In fact, trying to make any major slide changes often caused me to lose the work I'd already done. There's no "save" option as such.

That said, once you figure out Haiku Deck's mechanics (it took me all of about 10 minutes to fully learn the app), you'll find it a great tool for building short, simple, attractive slide decks on the run. And you can't beat the price: it's free. (There are additional themes you can buy, but I think most users will find the free ones sufficient.

Build beautiful slide decks on your iPad with Haiku Deck

 
You're on the train to work. Inspiration strikes. You've just figured out how to double market share and save the company. Now you just have to sell the idea to the team.

Sure, you could pull out your laptop, wait for it to boot, run PowerPoint, and start the slow, laborious process of building a killer presentation.

Or you could pull out your iPad, run Haiku Deck, and start the fast, fun process of building a killer presentation -- and finish it before the train reaches your stop.


You're on the train to work. Inspiration strikes. You've just figured out how to double market share and save the company. Now you just have to sell the idea to the team.

Sure, you could pull out your laptop, wait for it to boot, run PowerPoint, and start the slow, laborious process of building a killer presentation.

Or you could pull out your iPad, run Haiku Deck, and start the fast, fun process of building a killer presentation -- and finish it before the train reaches your stop.


This is not hyperbole: Haiku Deck is one of the coolest slide-makers I've ever tried, in part because it's incredibly easy to use, and in part because it's smart.

As you probably know, half the battle in crafting a nice-looking slide is finding appropriate artwork to go with it. Haiku Deck lets you add your own, of course, but it also searches millions of free (i.e. Creative Commons-licensed) images based on the words you've chosen for that slide.

So, for example, if you enter words like "sales" and "money," you'll quickly get a list of thumbnails that match. Tap one you like and presto: You've got the perfect background for your slide.

You can also opt for a solid background color or insert your choice of bar, pie, or numeric charts, with manually entered labels and numbers.

Ultimately, Haiku Deck is all about whipping together attractive slides, and it's great for that. When you're done, you can share your deck via Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail, or get embed code for use with your blog or Web site. You even have the option of exporting your presentation for further tweaking in, say, PowerPoint or Keynote. Here's a sample, one that introduces Haiku Deck itself:

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad

However, the app is definitely somewhat limited. It doesn't support sound, transitions, or animations. You can't manually place your text, and I couldn't figure out a way to change the background color for charts. In fact, trying to make any major slide changes often caused me to lose the work I'd already done. There's no "save" option as such.

That said, once you figure out Haiku Deck's mechanics (it took me all of about 10 minutes to fully learn the app), you'll find it a great tool for building short, simple, attractive slide decks on the run. And you can't beat the price: it's free. (There are additional themes you can buy, but I think most users will find the free ones sufficient.Haiku Deck helps you build slick slides like this one.

This is not hyperbole: Haiku Deck is one of the coolest slide-makers I've ever tried, in part because it's incredibly easy to use, and in part because it's smart.

As you probably know, half the battle in crafting a nice-looking slide is finding appropriate artwork to go with it. Haiku Deck lets you add your own, of course, but it also searches millions of free (i.e. Creative Commons-licensed) images based on the words you've chosen for that slide.

So, for example, if you enter words like "sales" and "money," you'll quickly get a list of thumbnails that match. Tap one you like and presto: You've got the perfect background for your slide.

You can also opt for a solid background color or insert your choice of bar, pie, or numeric charts, with manually entered labels and numbers.

Ultimately, Haiku Deck is all about whipping together attractive slides, and it's great for that. When you're done, you can share your deck via Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail, or get embed code for use with your blog or Web site. You even have the option of exporting your presentation for further tweaking in, say, PowerPoint or Keynote. Here's a sample, one that introduces Haiku Deck itself:

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad

However, the app is definitely somewhat limited. It doesn't support sound, transitions, or animations. You can't manually place your text, and I couldn't figure out a way to change the background color for charts. In fact, trying to make any major slide changes often caused me to lose the work I'd already done. There's no "save" option as such.

That said, once you figure out Haiku Deck's mechanics (it took me all of about 10 minutes to fully learn the app), you'll find it a great tool for building short, simple, attractive slide decks on the run. And you can't beat the price: it's free. (There are additional themes you can buy, but I think most users will find the free ones sufficient.

No comments
Posted at 05:08 |  by Unknown

Many business users rely heavily on Evernote for managing documents and other information, but the service's Achilles' heel has long been its lack of markup capabilities.

That's where Skitch comes in. Now owned by Evernote, this desktop/mobile app provides a simple but effective set of tools for annotating documents, the idea being to get your point across visually when communicating remotely.

And it just got a much-needed feature boost: Skitch for iOS (and Mac) now supports PDF annotation.

That may not sound like a big deal, but for anyone who uses Evernote to store and especially share PDFs, it's welcome news indeed. Now you can mark up PDFs with text, arrows, shapes and highlighter tools, then sync them back to your account and/or share them with co-workers.

The new Skitch 2.5 also adds something called Summary, which assembles all added mark-ups into a single view. Evernote describes it thusly:
When you share an annotated multi-page PDF, Skitch lets you add a new first page to that document. This page is made up of previews of each piece of feedback contained in the PDF. Click on one and you’re taken to the annotation. This summary makes it a snap for your recipient to scan over all of your feedback, understand it, and take action without needing to go beyond the first page.
Other additions to Skitch 2.5 include a stamps tool used to add color-coded, at-a-glance feedback (approve, disapprove, question, etc.) to specific areas, and tool tips to help you learn the new features.

Although Stamps is available to all Skitch users, the PDF and Summary functions require an Evernote Premium account (though you can try them free for 30 days even if you're not a paying Evernote customer).

Skitch brings markup tools to Evernote PDFs


Many business users rely heavily on Evernote for managing documents and other information, but the service's Achilles' heel has long been its lack of markup capabilities.

That's where Skitch comes in. Now owned by Evernote, this desktop/mobile app provides a simple but effective set of tools for annotating documents, the idea being to get your point across visually when communicating remotely.

And it just got a much-needed feature boost: Skitch for iOS (and Mac) now supports PDF annotation.

That may not sound like a big deal, but for anyone who uses Evernote to store and especially share PDFs, it's welcome news indeed. Now you can mark up PDFs with text, arrows, shapes and highlighter tools, then sync them back to your account and/or share them with co-workers.

The new Skitch 2.5 also adds something called Summary, which assembles all added mark-ups into a single view. Evernote describes it thusly:
When you share an annotated multi-page PDF, Skitch lets you add a new first page to that document. This page is made up of previews of each piece of feedback contained in the PDF. Click on one and you’re taken to the annotation. This summary makes it a snap for your recipient to scan over all of your feedback, understand it, and take action without needing to go beyond the first page.
Other additions to Skitch 2.5 include a stamps tool used to add color-coded, at-a-glance feedback (approve, disapprove, question, etc.) to specific areas, and tool tips to help you learn the new features.

Although Stamps is available to all Skitch users, the PDF and Summary functions require an Evernote Premium account (though you can try them free for 30 days even if you're not a paying Evernote customer).

No comments
Posted at 04:56 |  by Unknown
Today, Microsoft released a Developer Preview version of IE 11 for Windows 7. Newer doesn’t always equal better, but IE 11 has some power under the hood that business users will benefit from.

To some extent, a browser is a browser. They all render and display content from the Web. However, since IE 8 Microsoft has invested significant effort and resources to push the envelope and expand the browser's capabilities. In a world where business is increasingly done online and in the cloud, it makes sense to have a browser that can deliver rich content and interactivity.

The Internet Explorer 11 Developer Preview for Windows 7 is very similar in scope and function to its Windows 8.1 sibling. Microsoft has tweaked performance, improved support for emerging Web standards, and expanded the ability to deliver an immersive experience from within the browser.

In IE 11, JavaScript runs 50 percent faster than in Chrome. It has improved support for HTML 5 features like drag and drop that will allow cloud-based tools like Microsoft’s SkyDrive and Office Web Apps to work more intuitively. IE 11 also supports WebGL for delivering smooth, 3D graphics over the Web.

A blog post from Microsoft explains some of the benefits of IE 11: “IE11 is the first browser to natively decode JPG images in real-time on the GPU, so pages load faster and use less memory, reducing power consumption and improving battery life. IE11 is also the first browser to render text on the GPU. Text and images are the heart of the Web, and accelerated text and JPG performance impacts nearly every page you see.”

More and more business is done through a Web browser. The fact is, for many business users and consumers, the Web browser is by far the single most-used application on the PC.

As I said at the beginning, a browser is a browser in most scenarios. Some support protocols or formats that others don’t, but as long as you’re using the latest version of each they’re all very similar. There’s always one that can claim to be the fastest, but we’re generally talking a millisecond here or there, and that torch is frequently passed among the major browsers.

There’s a new Web, though—Web 3.0. Web 1.0 was about simply displaying static HTML pages. Web 2.0 introduced interactivity, user-generated content, and Web applications. Now, we’re entering the Web 3.0 phase, the “intelligent Web” era of ubiquitous connectivity, data mining, and artificial intelligence.

The new Web requires new Web tools, and new Web tools need a browser capable of rendering and displaying the content. Microsoft is leading the way with Internet Explorer. You can check out Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7 by downloading and installing the Developer Preview.

Why Internet Explorer 11 is the right browser for business

Today, Microsoft released a Developer Preview version of IE 11 for Windows 7. Newer doesn’t always equal better, but IE 11 has some power under the hood that business users will benefit from.

To some extent, a browser is a browser. They all render and display content from the Web. However, since IE 8 Microsoft has invested significant effort and resources to push the envelope and expand the browser's capabilities. In a world where business is increasingly done online and in the cloud, it makes sense to have a browser that can deliver rich content and interactivity.

The Internet Explorer 11 Developer Preview for Windows 7 is very similar in scope and function to its Windows 8.1 sibling. Microsoft has tweaked performance, improved support for emerging Web standards, and expanded the ability to deliver an immersive experience from within the browser.

In IE 11, JavaScript runs 50 percent faster than in Chrome. It has improved support for HTML 5 features like drag and drop that will allow cloud-based tools like Microsoft’s SkyDrive and Office Web Apps to work more intuitively. IE 11 also supports WebGL for delivering smooth, 3D graphics over the Web.

A blog post from Microsoft explains some of the benefits of IE 11: “IE11 is the first browser to natively decode JPG images in real-time on the GPU, so pages load faster and use less memory, reducing power consumption and improving battery life. IE11 is also the first browser to render text on the GPU. Text and images are the heart of the Web, and accelerated text and JPG performance impacts nearly every page you see.”

More and more business is done through a Web browser. The fact is, for many business users and consumers, the Web browser is by far the single most-used application on the PC.

As I said at the beginning, a browser is a browser in most scenarios. Some support protocols or formats that others don’t, but as long as you’re using the latest version of each they’re all very similar. There’s always one that can claim to be the fastest, but we’re generally talking a millisecond here or there, and that torch is frequently passed among the major browsers.

There’s a new Web, though—Web 3.0. Web 1.0 was about simply displaying static HTML pages. Web 2.0 introduced interactivity, user-generated content, and Web applications. Now, we’re entering the Web 3.0 phase, the “intelligent Web” era of ubiquitous connectivity, data mining, and artificial intelligence.

The new Web requires new Web tools, and new Web tools need a browser capable of rendering and displaying the content. Microsoft is leading the way with Internet Explorer. You can check out Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7 by downloading and installing the Developer Preview.

No comments
Posted at 03:20 |  by Unknown
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