Twitter has sold a bunch of old tweets to a firm called DataSift, which will analyze them for marketing purposes.
The Mail Online reports that DataSift is the first such company to get access to the tweets, which go back two years. Another 1,000-plus companies are on DataSift’s waiting list.
DataSift confirmed the report to Mashable, but Twitter could not be reached for comment. The former has launched a product called DataSift Historics, which lets companies extract insights and trends that relate to brands, businesses, financial markets, news and public opinion, a rep says. DataSift will analyze public tweets, not private ones. If you delete a tweet, it’s deleted from DataSift’s archives.
Selling old tweets would be one way to monetize Twitter’s archive. So far, Twitter’s focus has been on building revenues by advertising to its 100 million or so active monthly members rather than selling its data.
Twitter makes the bulk of its revenues through advertising. A private company, Twitter doesn’t disclose its finances. However, eMarketer estimates that Twitter will earn about $259.9 million this year and $399.5 million in 2013.
The latest revelation is sure to rankle privacy advocates, who have so far focused on Google and Facebook. Both of these companies have been accused of having too free a hand with consumer data.
What do you think? Do you care what Twitter does with your old tweets? Sound off in the comments.
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In the startup world we talk a lot about “the Pitch”—either to investors, team members, or potential customers about why your business/product is awesome. I’d like to propose a startup pitch competition that results in a listing on a dedicated Vimeo Channel, where the prize is a professionally made video illustration/animation of the entrepreneur’s concept.
Online video has changed many things, but the greatest success until a few years ago has been making meme masters of babies and cats. More recently, we are seeing the true transformative power of online video with Skillshare, OpenCourseWare for education, and even Kickstarter to help communicate potential products. It may also be an essential tool in the next generation of crowdfunding.
In 2007, I participated in the MIT Elevator Pitch Contest. This is a great event for a number of reasons. It forces you to boil your idea down to 30 seconds, and work up the courage to stand up in front of a large room of people. In most cases this is not the full investor pitch; the first audience consists of other future team members. Afterwards, the judges provide feedback on how your presentation could have been improved… but the most rewarding feedback you can get is from somebody in the crowd who says, “I’m inspired by what you said and I have some skills that might be useful for realizing your idea.”
The tradeoff with university campus-based pitch events is that they may exclude external collaborators. The campus is great for community building, but there can also be substantial benefits in collaboration with those from different campuses, or with individuals outside of the community. However, it may be difficult to get all potential collaborators to the same event. Pitch events with online video mean that the collaborator pool can be greatly expanded.
Early ideators often worry that somebody might steal their idea, so it is important to frame the pitch in the context of who the person is, what problem they are trying to solve, and a hint at the methodology…without giving too much away. This is possible even in a longer format 2-minute video.
Here is a potential framework for an open video pitch competition:
1. Event space is set up with video recording, lighting, and sound capabilities to make a quality online video.
2. Applicants complete a short application including name and qualifications.
3. People apply for a 1-minute time slot to present their idea, and get a high quality recording of their pitch.
4. Non-attending users can also submit their pitch videos, which are then voted up by audience members.
5. The winners receive a working session with an animation and video production group to do a full video of their solution design for promotion.
For this model to work, initial pitches should be in a highly standardized format for the videos to allow for quick review. The final product, however, can be very different and need not be specifically structured. Take this video from SolSolution for example. The product video can ultimately help in a number of different ways. It could assist team formation, or even be a launch video for a website or a Kickstarter project.
Entrepreneurs: would you be interested in a competition like this? Investors: would you find it helpful to see these more standardized video pitch formats proliferate? Let us know in the comments.
Jeff McAulay is a Manager of TechBridge at Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems and a BostInno contributor.
While it only earned one-third the social media chatter as the Super Bowl, this year’s Oscars broke serious records. According to Trendrr, the 2012 Academy Awards earned 4.2 million social media mentions, more than double what it earned last year.
And that’s not even counting the red carpet chatter, which topped 3.9 million social media activities. Celebrities in attendance certainly helped inspire the content, whether it was Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest red carpet stunt, Angelina Jolie’s legbomb or Octavia Spencer’s touching acceptance speech.
The data below is compliments of our friends at Trendrr, who measure specific TV show activity (mentions, likes, checkins) across Twitter, Facebook, GetGlue and Miso. To see daily rankings, check out Trendrr.TV.
Let’s say you are attending a TEDx event, where speakers from different fields come to talk about the latest technologies, their achievements, and magnificent ideas. Yes, the talks are great, but we are all here to network, and the time has come! You start going around the room, talking to a few people, and the moment of truth is here, did you bring your business cards?
You are now frantically searching for them in your pockets, your bag, your wallet, but no luck. Isn’t it such an awkward situation when people are handing you their business card and you have to apologize for not having yours? They either think you are careless for not bringing your cards to TEDx, or that you only have a few and don’t think they are important enough to hand them a card.
A great scenario here is that you did bring your business cards with you, and your networking skills are on fire! You are ecstatic about the number of people you met and the cards you got (awesome event!). But let’s be real, it only gets worse when you head back to your office and stare a the pile of cards you got (let’s hope you remember the names of the people you want to get in touch with). What to do now?!
Our post was inspired by a recent article by Scott Kirsner.
These little rectangles accumulate in pockets, purses, and desk drawers. In the 20th century, we knew what to do with them: staple them to other pieces of paper and insert those pieces into a device called a Rolodex. The number of Rolodexes on a person’s desk was an indicator of power and influence.
In the 21st century, though, we want phone numbers and e-mail addresses to be digitally accessible. I have been exploring the best ways to accomplish that – by scanning cards, photographing them with a mobile phone, mailing them to someone else to deal with, or trying to avoid exchanging cards entirely. The only strategy I have eschewed is typing the information in myself.
What I personally do is take a photo of the card, email it to myself with the contact’s name and company in the subject line. Absurdly manual, and I need a better solution.
Thanks to Scott’s diligent research, we have options:
CardMunch (it’s free):
Unfortunately, it’s only available for the iPhone, with no plans announced for an Android version. Given a decent picture of a business card, CardMunch not only returns perfect data in the proper fields, but it also tries to find the person’s profile on LinkedIn, the business networking site. (LinkedIn bought the company in January 2011.) The app gives you the ability to connect with the person via LinkedIn, and also to export their contact info to your iPhone’s address book. CardMunch doesn’t bother trying to automatically recognize the text on the card; instead it sends the digital image to an army of self-employed typists around the world who act as your outsourced secretaries in exchange for a few pennies per card. To ensure accuracy, each card is typed in by as many as four workers, and the results compared. CardMunch promises a 24-hour turnaround time, though the actual results can be much quicker.
ScanBizCards (priced at $6.99):
It first tries to decipher the text on a card. Then, you can either make the corrections and fill in any missing data, or you can request that someone else do it for you. (The app comes with a couple of free transcription credits; after that, transcriptions cost 18 cents per card.) When the app failed to notice that a person’s office was in Cambridge, and missed the company’s name because it was printed as a swirly logo, I requested a transcription. It came back within 10 minutes, with everything entered perfectly.
CamCard (priced at $6.99):
It doesn’t include the human transcription option. Both CamCard and ScanBizCards back up a copy of your data on their secure websites, and they also both offer free versions of their apps that have limited functionality.
CloudContacts:
You toss the business cards you would like to have digitized into an envelope, mail them to the company, and they scan and correct them for you. You can then download a file from CloudContacts’ website that can be imported into whatever software you use for managing your contacts. (CloudContacts will even transcribe notes you have written on the back of a card – as long as they are legible.) The company charges $29.95 to digitize 100 cards.
The challenge here is accumulation:
If you keep up with cards and scan them as you get them, any of the mobile apps will probably work just fine. If you let them accumulate and don’t have time to process them, it’s hard to beat the CloudContacts solution.
That paper business cards may be like handshakes – a central and ineradicable part of the ritual of meeting someone new. “We’ve been very focused on not breaking the social protocol of exchanging business cards,’’ says Viswanathan, who is now a product manager at LinkedIn. “Even though the mobile device is becoming the center of your contact universe, the new Rolodex, it still seems like the most frictionless way to exchange information today is the business card.’’
What do you think? Is it just a matter of time for business cards to become obsolete? Or are they here to stay?
The Guardian reports that Apple is currently working on a new audio format that could allow the company to offer "high definition" audio via iTunes. The format would also integrate an "adaptive streaming" component that would allow music being accessed from iCloud and iTunes Match by portable devices to be automatically adapted to fit bandwidth or storage constraints.
Apple is working on a new audio file format that will offer "adaptive streaming" to provide high- or low-quality files to users of its iCloud service. [...]
The new system would adjust itself to the bandwidth and storage available on the receiving device.
It is believed that Apple will use the new file type to upgrade its iTunes Match service, which allows users to re-download music from iCloud to their Apple devices.
According to the report's source, Apple has asked one London music studio to prepare audio files in the new format, which would allow Apple to instantly and automatically improve the quality of iTunes Match content. The source is unclear, however, on whether Apple would transcode the higher-quality files on the fly to match a given bandwidth/hardware setup or if it would simply maintain several versions of the track at different qualities and serve the most appropriate one for a given situation.
Given the timing of Apple's work, the source suggests that the company is likely preparing the new format for a demonstration at its iPad media event rumored for next Wednesday, March 7.
The new report comes less than a month after Neil Young revealed that he had worked with Steve Jobs on a high-definition music format for the iTunes Store but that "not much" had ended up happening with the effort. Apple has also recently begun a significant expansion of its Mastered for iTunes program. The initiative encourages recording professionals to utilize high-quality master recordings of songs and albums as the initial source material for iTunes Store submission, processing them using Apple's guidelines and tools to achieve file compression allowing for the highest-quality sound available. Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories
• Apple Releases iMac Wi-Fi Update v1.0
• Apple Sells Top 3 U.S. Smartphone Models for All of 2011
• Apple Releases EFI Firmware Updates for Mac Mini, iMac, MacBook Air and Pro
• Samsung "Street Challenge" Pits iPhone Against Galaxy Note
• Apple Co-Founder Ron Wayne on "Why I Left Apple"
Zothecula writes "It is a great irony that alcohol should be legislated into becoming man's most commonly used recreational drug, as it's the only drug that causes more harm to others than to the user. This is most evident on our roads, where even in first world countries with low road tolls, alcohol still accounts for between a third and a half of road deaths. Now France is to attempt a novel solution — from July of this year, it will become law in France to have a working breathalyzer in every car on the road, with enforcement beginning November 1."
Will you be at SXSW this year? This year, we’ll have another cadre of Industry Analysts there, please join me and my colleagues in learning, sharing, and networking at this annual festival.
I’m excited to return for my 5th interactive festival and it’s been fascinating to watch it grow and change to now include many business folks.
Blogger Lounge, Daily: The Altimeter Group will assemble when available at meet folks at the blogger lounge, in part sponsored by Brian Solis in the conference.
Book signing, Rebecca Lieb, Sat 2pm Rebecca will be signing her latest book Content Marketing at 2 Sat: Austin Convention Center in foyer of Ballroom G.
Keynote by Brian Solis, Monday, Mar 12 Principal analyst Brian Solis will be presenting the The End of Business As Usual, at Austin Convention Center, Ballroom D, Monday, March 12, 3:30-4:30. Stay tuned for a special guest to attending with him on stage, you won’t want to miss this.
Where will you be? Leave comments on the top panels and events where the Altimeter community can meetup, learn, and network. Looking forward to a great SXSW, get those boots on, stay hydrated and bring plenty of business cards.
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
You don’t have to be in the market for a Super Bowl ad to learn the world’s biggest marketers. In fact, as a quick trip to Facebook illustrates, social media has a leveling effect: Whether you’re Coca-Cola or Jones Soda, your Facebook Page looks pretty much the same. Coke’s billions won’t buy a dedicated wing on Twitter, either.
With this in mind, the following social media campaigns from marketers big and small are designed to be idea generators. This isn’t a ranking of the most effective social media campaigns of the year, but rather the ones that have the most to offer an entrepreneur with big ideas and a not-so-big marketing budget.
1. Kraft Macaroni & Cheese’s Jinx
Last March, the venerable Kraft brand launched an interesting campaign on Twitter: Whenever two people individually used the phrase “mac & cheese” in a tweet, Kraft sent both a link pointing out the “Mac & Jinx” (as in the childhood game Jinx.) The first one to reply back got five free boxes of Kraft Mac & Cheese plus a t-shirt.
What you can learn from this: This is a low-cost way to track down potential fans on Twitter. All you have to do is search a given term and identify two people who tweet the same phrase at (roughly) the same time. In return, you’ll gain goodwill, a likely follower and probably some good word-of-mouth buzz on the social network.
2. Ingo’s Face Logo
When Swedish ad agencies Grey Stockholm and Ogilvy Stockholm merged last year, they wanted to get social media fans involved. The two agencies asked fans to participate by signing into Facebook to see the new name. Every time new people logged on to the dedicated site, the logo added their profile picture. With every picture, the logo got a little bigger, until 2,890 fan photos comprised the full name, Ingo, over a four-hour period.
What you can learn from this: This was another inexpensive way to get fans literally enmeshed with the brand. Another alternative is to create a real-life mosaic based on pictures of your Facebook fans, a project that Mashablerecently completed.
3. BlueCross BlueShield of Minnesota’s Human Doing
What better way to illustrate the plight of the common man than an actual common man? That was the thinking behind a BlueCross BlueShield of Minnesota program last year that put Scott Jorgenson, a St. Paul resident, in a glass apartment in the Mall of America for a month. To demonstrate the recuperative effects of exercise, Jorgenson was put on a workout routine for the month that compelled him to exercise three to five times a day, in 10-minute spurts. In a social media twist, Twitter and Facebook followers dictated the type of exercise for each session.
What you can learn from this: Creating an event, especially one that involves social media fans, is an alternative to launching an ad campaign. Humanizing a problem for which your company provides a solution is also a good idea.
4. GranataPet’s Foursquare-Enabled Billboard
Pet food brand GranataPet earned worldwide attention last year for its billboard in Agenta, Germany. This wasn’t just any billboard, though. It was rigged so that if a consumer checked in on Foursquare, the billboard would dispense some of the company’s dog food. Someone from Granata’s ad agency filmed the billboard in action, and the video now has more than 50,000 views on YouTube (in various iterations.)
What you can learn from this: In the social media age, a single ad or a single billboard can generate images, press and videos, but only if it’s clever enough.
5. Reinert Sausages’s Wurst-Face App
Another German brand, Reinert Sausages, transcended its roots with a clever Facebook app that let users upload their photo and receive a “Wurst Face,” a graven image of themselves in cold cuts. The name “Wurst Face” comes from the extra piece of sausage that kids get for free at the butcher.
What you can learn from this: If you can create an app that’s social, fun and brand-appropriate, it will function more effectively than even a high-budget ad campaign.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published on InTheEmpire – a Streetwise property launching in New York City in the coming weeks. For more info follow Will Wei on Twitter.
Sure seems like a lot, but when you compare that 3.8 million figure to the Super Bowl’s 12 million social media comments and the Grammys’ 13 million, the Oscars fell flat on its shiny golden face.
MIT’s very own Bluefin Labs, which measures “social media conversations about TV,” says that social comments about the Oscars went up by 293% this year, which still pales in comparison to the Super Bowl’s 580% increase and Grammys’ 2,300% bump.
The good news is that the Oscars’ social media presence jumped up by a ton. The bad news is that it’s not keeping up with the other big annual live television events. The social media peak for the Oscars came at about 11:30 pm, when Meryl Streep won the award for Best Actress and The Artist won Best Picture.
That’s a telling sign as to why the Oscars didn’t dominate Twitter and Facebook as well as the Super Bowl and Grammys did. Meryl Streep won again? Yawn. The Artist got Best Picture? Who’s this artist guy?
There were no surprises and no drama this year at the Oscars — save for one nip slip, which didn’t ever register a, no pun intended, peak on Bluefin’s infographic below.
If you look real closely, you’ll also see that a certain four-letter word was trending on social media sites in relation to the Oscars. We’d like to think passionate Oscars viewers were Tweeting out messages like “F*ck no! Meryl Streep again!?”