Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Saturday, January 28th, 2012
Facebook uses the freemium model to sign up hundreds of thousands of followers. LinkedIn offers free trials to entice potential advertisers to try premium services with free ad placement credits. Will the free trials and freemium business models that have launched some of the most successful recurring revenue business and services work for your company?
Mike provides a link to Aria’s White Paper entitled
Comparing Free Trial and Freemium Models, providing more detail on the various models and how they work to convert paying customers. The White Paper evaluates the various strategies (Opt-in or Opt-Out, Demoware, “Value Gap”) and best-practices for successful adoption of services.
About Aria Systems
Aria Systems provides subscription billing and management services to help Global 2000 companies such as Disney, EMC, CA, Hootsuite, Roku and VMware monetize their products and services online. Free copies of Aria System’s Subscription Billing for Dummies book are available for download.
Aria is a client of The JAGWIRE Group.
Tags: Aria Systems, free trial, Freemium, recurring revenue, subscription billing
Posted in Marketing, Monetizing IT, News | No Comments »
Monday, September 12th, 2011
Marcy Gordon describes herself as “a reader, writer, eater, traveler” on her “Come for the Wine” blog, but she’s much too modest. While she didn’t invent Post-Its or fly around the world in a hot air balloon (yet) she did come up with the name “Travelocity,” that little Website that we all use now and again to book our travel. Through hilarious tweets and travelogues she takes her captivated readers on Odysseys through the world’s vineyards and far-flung travel destinations. She’s managed to attract a devout following on Twitter, and she was kind enough to share her social media philosophy with The JAGWIRE Group in this interview.
What Social Media apps do you use, and why?
I only use Twitter. I like its low barrier to entry, nothing to maintain, nothing to manage, just point and tweet. And when the day comes when we all move en masse to the next big thing, and that day will come, there is nothing lost as twitter exists in the moment.
Which ones are you steering clear of, and why?
As I said above I only use Twitter. I pretty much steer clear of everything else.
I don’t like the user interface of FaceBook and dislike the constant changes in privacy policies. Essentially I have a deep distrust of Face Book. Social media is a moving target and for now the home base tool of choice for staying in touch with the people you already know or for creating a home base for some businesses is Face Book. But Face Book feels constrained to me and I have no interest in reconnecting with anyone from my past.
I find no value in Foursquare and all other “check-in” type of apps. These apps are just noise to me. Goggle Wave seems to have washed ashore with no one on it and I have no desire to join Google + at this point in time.
I used to be an early adopter of all new technologies, but now I am a diligent laggard. I don’t have the time or inclination to be out on the SM front lines determining if something is worthy. I let the masses prove the concept, and if the buzz is maintained and people I trust like it, I will consider joining. But I have no desire to be first in to the burning building anymore. My fireman days are over. Prove it to me first. My time is too valuable to be beta testing. (more…)
Posted in News, Social Media, Talking Social Media Column | No Comments »
Monday, August 8th, 2011
Jottings by a tech PR consultant on a tireless quest for the next best tool, application, widget or Website to help “balance” life between the cyber and real worlds.
I wish I could say my favorite tool of the day is a new discovery. One that will bring you great fame and fortune. I would love nothing better than to promise you a shiny new social media toy that will captivate you for the next few weeks or even months (if your attention span is a little longer than the norm).
But no … If I’m completely honest (and I always am). 
It’s without a doubt, something you’ve been hearing about ad nauseam: Twitter.
I have to admit, I didn’t get the Twitter thing at first. In fact, I sat on my new Twitter account for a good seven months while I “played” with Facebook and LinkedIn. I signed up for Twitter more than three years ago on June 9, 2008, but my first Tweet wasn’t until January 26, 2009. I can assure you that I wasn’t going to tell anybody what I had for lunch or about my latest mundane thought. To the uninitiated, it sometimes seems that is all people talk about on Twitter.
As a PR practitioner, I was feeling growing pressure to get with the Twitter program. The catalyst for me was when one of my enterprise software clients was ready to launch a new Website alerting people to breaking news and commentary on cybercrime. It wasn’t long after that when I began to see how useful it was to my other enterprise clients who were releasing industry trend predictions and writing by-lined articles for the niche trade press. (more…)
Tags: Social Media, Twitter
Posted in My Favorite Tools, News, Public Relations, Social Media | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
“In the past three years, state agencies have spent more than $20 million in taxpayer money on outside advertising, public relations and media campaigns,” writes Gregory B. Hladky of the Hartford Advocate (May 17).
A policy advisor for Connecticut Governor Dannell Malloy is quoted in Hladky’s article “Is The State Spending Too Much Money On PR?“ as saying that when the new administration took office in January they were surprised to find how much money was being spent on outside PR consultants. [Note that the $20 million under scrutiny here is in addition to PR staff already on state payroll.]
Personally as a California resident, I’m relieved that this week’s revelations about Arnold Schwarzenegger having fathered an illegitimate child 10 years ago broke after he left office. Imagine the PR tab California would have to bear to address this latest scandal!
Tags: Dannell Malloy, Hartford Advocate, Is the State Spending Too Much Money on PR?, Public Relations
Posted in News, Public Relations | No Comments »
Monday, March 14th, 2011
If you are at the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference and Festival in Austin this week run don’t walk to the nearest movie theater screening Something Ventured, a new documentary offering an insider’s look at the genesis of some of the most successful tech companies in the US. Something Ventured, narrated by Po Bronson, features interviews with the original VCs of the 1950s and 1960s, and offers a rare glimpse of what the Silicon Valley was like 50 years ago when the two words “venture” and “capital” were auspiciously joined to form an industry that would eventually fund 27,000 companies to the tune of $47B.
Luck of the VCs
In this 85 minute film, the original investors and founders of such companies as Apple, Atari, Cisco, Fairchild Semiconductor, Genentech, Intel and Tandem Computers share their memories of successes and failures. Listening to the candid and occasionally self-effacing recollections of these gutsy investors and entrepreneurs who brought us the personal computer, fault-tolerant computers, human gene-splicing and the router among other innovations that we take for granted today, it is striking how much of their success is due to serendipity. The investors and entrepreneurs interviewed in this documentary include Nolan Bushnell (Atari), Reid Dennis (Institutional Venture Partners), Bill Draper (Draper Richards), Pitch Johnson (Asset Management Company), Dick Kramlich (NEA), Tom Perkins (Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers), Arthur Rock (Arthur Rock & Co), Don Valentine (Sequoia Capital), Dr. Herbert Boyer (Genentech), Jimmy Treybig (Tandem Computers), and Sandy Lerner (Cisco Systems). Each has a fascinating story to tell about how they followed their gut to bet the farm on long-shot investments. (more…)
Tags: Apple, Apple Computer, Arthur Rock, Atari, Bill Bowes, Bill Draper, Cisco, Cisco Systems, Dick Kramlich, Don Valentine, Dr. Herbert Boyer, Fairchild Semiconductor, film, Foundation Capital, Geller Goldfine Productions, Genentech, Intel, Jimmy Treybig, John Morgridge, Leonard Bosack, Mike Markkula, Miralin Productions, Molly Davis, Nolan Bushnell, Paul Holland, Pitch Johnson, Po Bronson, Rainmaker Communications, Reid Dennis, Robert Campbell, Sandy Lerner, Something Ventured, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, SXSW, Tandem Computers, Tom Perkins, Traitorous Eight, Venture capital
Posted in Monetizing IT, News | No Comments »
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
Apple's Steve Jobs and investor Mike Markkula in the early days
A one-of-a kind documentary film chronicling the early years of Silicon Valley’s venture capital industry will debut in the Spotlight Premiere category of the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference and Festival in Austin in a few weeks (March 11-19). “Something Ventured” is a must see for everyone in the tech business, but it will captivate most anyone who uses a computer, creates PowerPoint presentations, once played Pong, or has ever started a business. As told by the original VCs of the 1950s and 1960s, the film offers an insider’s look at the genesis of some of the most successful tech companies in the US.
I first wrote about my impressions of the documentary when I saw an early screening at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA last year. Since renamed, the film offers a rare glimpse of what the Silicon Valley was like 50 years ago when the two words “venture” and “capital” were auspiciously joined to form an industry that would eventually fund 27,000 companies to the tune of $47B.
For more information, please visit the official site of Something Ventured.
Tags: Mike Markulla, Silicon Valley, Something Ventured, Steve Jobs, SXSW film, VC, Venture capital
Posted in Monetizing IT, News | No Comments »
Saturday, November 20th, 2010
Rapid-fire tweets from overlapping social media shows Web 2.0 Summit, DeFrag Conference 2010, Amplify and TWTRCON SF10 overwhelmed my Twitter feed this week. How can anyone keep up with all this information (and still do an honest day’s work)? Homework this weekend, that’s the answer! Here are the links to the articles and video footage that I plan to review. Please join me because I really don’t like to do homework alone.
Web 2.0 Summit (November 15-17, 2010) San Francisco, CA
Co-produced by O’Reilly Media and UBM TechWeb in association with John Battelle’s Federated Media, the Seventh Annual Web 2.0 Summit (formally known as the Web 2.0 Conference) was live-streamed for the first time in its history this year, and video footage is available on YouTube from O’Reilly Media. Here are a few links to videos that caught my interest, but there are more here: (more…)
Tags: Amplify, Baidu, Carol Bartz, DeFrag Conference, Eric Ries, Eric Schmidt, Esther Dyson, Ev Williams, Facebook, Fred Wilson, Google, John Doerr, Mark Zuckerberg, Mary Meeker, Robin Li, Social Cognition, Stowe Boyd, Twitter, TWTRCON 2010, Vinod Khosla, Web 2.0 Summit, Yahoo!, Zappos
Posted in Conferences & Webinars, News | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
Moderator Owen Thomas /VentureBeat and Panelists Paul Martino/Aggregate Knowledge; Christine Herron/First Round Capital; Corey Reese/Trumpet Technologies; Tim Chang /Norwest Venture Partners.
Is the tech industry headed for bubble number two? That was the burning question for those who gathered at the Automattic Lounge on Pier 38 in San Francisco last Thursday. The answer appears to be no — or at least there are no signs of it yet –according to a panel of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs brought together by the law firm Dorsey & Whitney who sponsored the event “Are We All Blowing Another Bubble?” Those of us in the audience who were in tech PR and marketing during the last dot-com boom, breathed an audible sigh of relief.
(more…)
Posted in Conferences & Webinars, Monetizing IT, News | No Comments »
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
Is that the faint tinkle of a death knell I’m hearing for Facebook among its once rabidly loyal small business owners? Probably not! It’s more likely just the echo of the reverberating collective screams heard on Twitter and Facebook and around the blogosphere since yesterday afternoon when word started to trickle out that Facebook had announced via its Developers Forum that Facebook Pages (formerly Fan Pages) could no longer have landing tabs unless they had at least 10,000 fans (in the new lingo fans are “likers”) or unless they advertised on Facebook. (See Jonathan Mast’s blog posting for more background). (more…)
Tags: Denise Wakeman, Facebook, Jonathan Mast, Mari Smith, Mark Zuckerberg, Social Media Examiner, TheBlogSquad
Posted in News, Social Media | 2 Comments »
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
“Social media is at a place right now where if it can’t prove itself, or if we don’t find the case studies that help everyone else learn, it will go the way of SEO,” said Chris Heuer, the provocative and colorful founder of AdHocnium and the Social Media Club during a Business Wire media breakfast panel in San Francisco on April 15th.” I use “colorful” for lack of a better adjective because several words that came out of Chris’ mouth in the first 60 seconds of his reply to “What’s the state of the union in social media” are ones that would make my mother blush. (more…)
Tags: 360 Digital Influence, AdHocnium, Amazon crisis, Autodesk, Business Wire, Chris Heuer, Crimson Hexagon, David Toole, Dominoes crisis, Foursquare, Google AdWords, Google keyword tool, Google Wonder Wheel, Ignore the Twittersphere?, Kimarie Matthews, Maura Ginty, MediaMobz, Navigation in Today's Global-Mobile-Social World, Ogilvy, Rachel Polish, Radian 6, Scoutlabs, SEO, Social Media Club, Tom Foremski, Will it Blend?
Posted in Conferences & Webinars, News, Social Media | No Comments »
