On Twitter, Facebook, and dozens of other social sites, normal consumers often choose to keep tabs on the brands they love. In fact, many brands have highly optimized their marketing and PR strategies to accommodate that behavior, even going to far as to do one-to-one CRM (that’s customer or consumer relationship management ) through avenues such as Facebook and Twitter. As social CRM specialists Get Satisfaction found, many consumers who follow brands online are only in it for the perks. Around 40% of Facebook, MySpace and Twitter users in a recent study said they followed brands to get access to discounts and special deals. SEE ALSO: The Biggest Brands on Facebook [INFOGRAPHIC] Another common response in the same survey indicated that many consumers will follow a brand if they are current customers. And creating interesting, entertaining content online is another great way for brands to earn followers and fans on social services. Check out this infographic from Get Satisfaction and design shop Column Five for more details on why and how ordinary folks follow brands online. Click image to see full-size version. [ source: Get Satisfaction blog ] Top image courtesy of iStockphoto user Ridofranz . More About: brands , get satisfaction , infographic , MARKETING For more Business & Marketing coverage: Follow Mashable Business & Marketing on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Business & Marketing channel Download our free apps for Android , Mac , iPhone and iPad
Google is getting more social , and its web analytics tools are no exception; Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools have added new tools for tracking the impact of tweets, likes, +1s & more on your website’s traffic. Google Webmaster Tools now has a “+1 Metrics” section, which provides reports on the impact of the +1 Button on search. The new analytics show how +1s affect your website’s clickthrough rate (CTR).
After finding success revolutionizing restaurant reservations, OpenTable founder Chuck Templeton has taken up a new challenge: to bring neighbors closer together through hyperlocal sharing. Templeton’s new startup, OhSoWe , quietly launched earlier this month. At its core, it’s an online community platform for neighborhoods to network and communicate online. Instead of providing local news (like AOL’s Patch), OhSoWe provides a website for posting items to share or starting a local discussion. Templeton told Mashable that a big part of the problem he sees is with the unused hammer, lawnmower or shovel simply collecting dust in the shed. Most tools only get used for a few minutes per year; why not make it easier to share or lend those items to neighbors? Why aren’t neighbors sharing and lending their stuff more often? OhSoWe is an attempt to solve that problem. It has three key sections for connecting with the people who live closest: Neighbors, Communication and Shareables. Neighbors is simply a list of people who live near you. OhSoWe takes verifying a person’s address seriously; you have to either use a credit card or a postcard to verify your address. Communication is a public message board for your “Neighborstead” (OhSoWe’s term for its hyperlocal groups). Shareables is like a local Craigslist where you can offer items to lend or sell
The rumor mill has been churning Monday afternoon with reports that Twitter is working on its own photo-sharing service that would compete with the likes of Twitpic and Yfrog . TechCrunch first reported the tip, citing multiple unnamed sources, Monday afternoon.
Each Monday, Mashable highlights an exclusive new video or song. Check out all our Music Monday picks . Playing for Change is out with a new video Monday that gives the global treatment to the classic Rolling Stones song, “Gimme Shelter.” If you’re not familiar with Playing for Change , it’s a band and foundation created by Mark Johnson, who spent four years traveling and filming musicians from around the world (local and street musicians alike). In 2008, he released a cover of the song “Stand By Me.” That video has garnered close to 30 million YouTube views, and it helped lead to a PBS documentary and CD series. The Playing for Change band was also born (and will soon be playing at Jazz Fest in New Orleans), as well as The Playing for Change Foundation, which seeks to support music education. The video above is from the band’s upcoming album, PFC 2: Songs Around The World . “There are many songs that can touch deep into the human heart, and sometimes we need songs that sincerely express the urgency of our situation as a planet,” says Johnson. “We have far too many starving children, warring nations and divided people. ‘Gimme Shelter’ is a song with such a purpose and can inspire us without preaching.” As a rule, Playing for Change makes an effort to go into a variety of global communities to find performers to contribute to its albums and accompanying videos. Johnson gave us the rundown on some of the musicians in this video. Check that out their stories below while you watch the video. The video starts with two musicians playing Delta Blues with a steel guitar (Italy) and a washboard (New Orleans)
A collection of console emulators, including N64oid, Nesoid and Snesoid, have been removed from the Android Market . HotHardware and Engadget both report that the -oid series developer, Yong Zhang, has also lost his Android Market developer account. Although emulators have cleared various legal challenges in the past, most commercial application stores — including Apple’s App Store — ban emulators unless the packaged ROMs are specifically licensed. Until recently, Google has seemingly turned a blind eye toward emulators, allowing users to sell emulators for virtually every classic console or old-school PC platform. That started to change in April, when Google removed the PSX4Droid emulator from the Android Market . The removal of PSX4Droid from the Android Market was suspect, especially given Sony’s announcement of the Xperia Play Android phone, which can download and play many classic PlayStation One games. In the case of -oid series, the decision to remove the apps purportedly came after game maker (and console maker of old) Sega filed a complaint with Google. Presumably, Sega is upset that the emulators allow users who have illegally obtained ROM files for its games to play those games on their Android smartphones or tablets. In response, the -oid developer has made its emulators available on the third-party Android market, SlideME and is making the apps free to download for now — so that users won’t have to worry about paying for an app twice
The number of adults in the U.S. who make phone calls over the Internet has risen exponentially in recent years.
Instagram users can now take advantage of hundreds of other photo effects and filters, thanks to a new feature in the app 100 Cameras in 1 [iTunes link]. 100 Cameras in 1, which is available for the iPhone and iPad , [iTunes link] lets users to apply various effects (and layer effects) onto photographs either stored on the device’s camera roll or taken directly from the device itself. The app already lets users share photos to Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Smugmumg, Dropbox and email, but the latest update also lets them send a photo directly to Instagram . Rather than using the API to directly publish a photo (something Instagram doesn’t currently allow), users instead open the photo that is saved in 100 Cameras in 1 directly inside Instagram. At this point, additional details can be added about location, Instagram’s own filters can be applied and users can choose what caption or sharing services they want to use. It’s a clever way to get around Instagram’s API publishing limitations, while still respecting the spirit of the Instagram app itself. In a little more than six months, Instagram has amassed over 4 million users. In the ever-growing swath of mobile photo sharing apps , Instagram stands out as the brightest success story, despite only being available for the iPhone. Part of what makes Instagram so special is, of course, it’s easy to use filters and tilt-shift effects , coupled with the ability to post to multiple social networks and services at once. For me, however, what really makes Instagram stand-out from the rest of the pack is the way in which the app lets me browse what my friends are doing. Like Om Malik , I too have taken to using Instagram as the hub for my photo-sharing universe. Even when I don’t use Instagram to take the photos I share, I almost always end up sharing those photos through Instagram. I hope other photo app makers will consider integrating “send to Instagram” support in their own apps. Moreover, I hope that at some point, Instagram will consider whitelisting applications or services that can publish directly to the Instagram network. What are your favorite photo filter and photo sharing apps?
In the competitive world of business it can be hard to stand out. A creative business card can help differentiate you from others and one way in which we’re seeing people attempt this is through augmented reality. Augmented reality cards can provide a wealth of information including additional text, images and even video just by holding the card up to a webcam.
Looking forward to buying the upcoming Galaxy Tab 10.1? That device might become obsolete sooner than you think: Samsung plans to launch a 4G LTE-equipped version of the Galaxy Tab in 2011. Samsung’s J.K. Shin revealed details about the upcoming tablet in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires. Shin also says the successor of Samsung’s latest Android smartphone, the Galaxy S II, is slated for release in the first half of 2012. With a new version of Galaxy Tab 10.1 replacing an older model this summer (after Samsung decided that the original was not good enough to compete with the iPad) in 2011, another version of the device in the same year seems a little too hectic, especially for customers who are always on the lookout for the best value for money. However, the details on the the form factor and the specifications of the upcoming devices are still a bit vague; we’ll just have to wait a little to see what Samsung has prepared for the near future. Shin also addressed the recent lawsuit from Apple, who claims Samsung has infringed on several of its patents when designing both its smartphones and tablets. “We have used many similar designs over the past years and it [Apple's allegation] will not be legally problematic,” he said. [ WSJ via BGR ] More About: galaxy tab , Mobile 2.0 , samsung , Samsung Galaxy S II , Samsung Galaxy S III , Samsung Galaxy Tab , smartphone , Tablet For more Mobile coverage: Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Mobile channel Download our free apps for Android , Mac , iPhone and iPad