Saturday, April 20, 2013

Google Drive, Gmail Experienced Service Disruptions Wednesday

Google Drive, Gmail Experienced Service Disruptions Wednesday

Link to Small Business Trends

Google Drive, Gmail Experienced Service Disruptions Wednesday

Posted: 19 Apr 2013 04:00 PM PDT

google drive

Many of Google’s most popular and used Apps including Google Drive and Gmail experienced service disruptions on Wednesday morning, causing some panic among faithful users.

According to the Google Apps Status Dashboard, its Mail and Drive services, primarily, began experiencing interruptions just before 9 a.m. EST on Wednesday. However, industry observer Barry Schwartz reported problems with Google Docs and Gmail may have begun around 8 a.m.

Most Google users noticed the lack of service when trying to access files stored on the Drive App. This is a popular App that allows users to store documents, spreadsheets, forms, drawings, and other files in its cloud storage.

Disgruntled Drive users who lost their service temporarily took to Twitter and forums on Google+ to vent their frustrations. The discussion under the Twitter tag #googledown shows many users reporting that their service was down and wondering if any other users had been experiencing the same outages.

One user posted the 502 Error screen he encountered on Wednesday:

 

Just before 11 a.m., Google reported on the Dashboard that the problem had been resolved and that Mail and Drive were working properly again.

Google said the problem affected just seven one-thousandths of its Mail users, but specified no numbers on the amount of users affected by the outage with Drive. Google has yet to offer any explanation on the outage, either. The Twitter accounts for both @googledrive and @gmail were both silent through the day on Wednesday.

Even though hearing it from Google would probably have been the best way to learn about service disruptions and find out when service has been restored, users were busy during the downtime keeping each other informed, including on Google’s fledgling social network, Google+. Still, if small businesses and others rely on Google Drive and Mail to conduct their daily business, knowing when it may again be available would be helpful. Otherwise, people get other ideas:

 

This is the first service disruption to Google Drive since March 21, 2013 when users experienced long load times and received “still trying” warnings while attempting to access their files saved in its cloud. Google filed a report (PDF) on that incident one full week after the service disruption.

The post Google Drive, Gmail Experienced Service Disruptions Wednesday appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Dell Unveils A Huge 18-Inch Tablet and Desktop In One

Posted: 19 Apr 2013 01:30 PM PDT

dell xps

Dell has finally unveiled its long-awaited large tablet / desktop computer hybrid, called the XPS 18 (pictured above).  It’s an all-in-one computing device.  It runs Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro.

Business users will want to take note.  The new product, the company boasts, can function like a computer someone might use for business purposes, but features the benefits of a touch  tablet.

All the computing elements are in one unit, behind the screen. A stand is available, and when you add a keyboard and mouse, the unit functions like a sleek desktop or laptop.

Take it off the stand, and you can use it as a tablet.  And it would be a rather large tablet, with a screen over 18 inches.

With the ability to use it like a regular desktop or laptop, with keyboard and mouse, you can apply it to some heavy duty work like data entry and spreadsheets.  But when it’s time to wind down, you can curl up with as a portable tablet, and surf the Web, watch videos or play games.

Dell calls the XPS 18 the “world’s thinnest and lightest portable AIO” device available.

According to a Dell announcement from its Chief Blogger Lionel Menchaca, the $899.99 price point on the XPS 18 delivers the standard hardware, a 1.8GHz Pentium processor. A souped-up version of this AIO features Core i3 or Core i5 processors with up to 8GB RAM.

The most noticeable feature on the XPS 18 is the overall size of it. Though it weighs less than 5 pounds, the Dell AIO has an 18.4-inch touchscreen display, featuring 350-nit full HD (1920 x 1080) capabilities. At that size, it is nearly double the size of most other tablets. Running Windows instead of an Android system is a clear advantage for those wishing a tablet were more integrated with their other business machines.

Menchaca writes in his overview of the XPS 18: “I … installed Microsoft Office 2013, and used both SkyDrive and Google Drive to store documents and notes using a combination of my Latitude work laptop, my Studio XPS 7100 desktop and the XPS 18 along the way. One Note 2013 also made it really easy for me to share information across these devices.”

Of course, Dell is offering peripherals to have the XPS 18 function more like a conventional desktop computer and it also features a kickstand for a convenient display when using the device either as a desktop or a tablet. There are two USB 3.0 ports available on the XPS 18 but it also features built-in wireless capabilities that allow it to work with the Dell wireless keyboard and mouse combination without occupying one or both of these ports, according to Dell.

The post Dell Unveils A Huge 18-Inch Tablet and Desktop In One appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Top Small Business News Stories: Week of April 19

Posted: 19 Apr 2013 11:00 AM PDT

small business news april 19

Here’s a recap of the key small business news stories for this week.

All eyes were on Boston, as a tragic bombing took place near the finish line of the famed Boston Marathon on Monday.  Social media, particularly Twitter,  took center stage as a communication channel.  The value of social media showed up again later in the week, during the dramatic shootout that led to the death of one police officer and one suspect.

However, the negative side of social media was also seen.  Rape allegations surrounding TechCrunch founder, Michael Arrington, ended up being tried in the court of social media – and it got ugly.

Below the Small Business Trends Editorial Team puts your small business news for the week into perspective:

Social Media

Tech

  • Flipboard app turns social media feeds into “magazines.”  Users of the new edition of the app created more than half-a-million of these “magazines” in the first two weeks since its release. Flipboard 2.0 is only available for Apple devices right now, but an Android edition is on the way.
  • E-book sales are growing. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a big publisher or an independent. Data from the Association of American Publishers found 23 percent of revenue from book sales came from e-books in 2012. That’s up from 17 percent in 2011. Small publishers take heed. Fewer of your future titles will be sold on paper.
  • You can now get YouTube live streaming on  iPhones. The new iOS app for YouTube means you can stream video and your customers and audience can view it on the iPhone.  Some other new features for iPhone users are also available in the app.

Government

  • Small business owners would prefer less government interference. Here’s what the numbers say. One study found nine out of 10 business would prefer less assistance and more predictability from Washington. Another found 70 percent of owners surveyed think federal taxes are harmful. Eighty percent believe regulations are too.
  • National Small Business Week is coming. The annual event hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration will be held June 17-21, 2013. Events will take place in several cities, not just Washington.
  • CISPA makes its way through the legislature. UPDATE: CISPA was passed in the U.S. House on April 18. It must now be voted on in the U.S. Senate. It will then go to the to the President for signature. Supporters of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act insist the controversial legislation is vital to protect companies from cyber attack. But small businesses and privacy advocates are worried their private information could be shared with the government.
  • A report by the National Small Business Association highlights tax challenges. The report says half the business owners polled take up to 80 hours to complete their taxes. Another third said they spend up to 72 hours just organizing payroll tax information.

Affiliate Marketing

  • Google Affiliate Network to shut down, surprising some. But others point out that Google doesn’t really need a third party network because it offers advertisers so many new options in its search results.  BizSugar member Ivan Widjaya explains why he will miss the Google Network and his search for alternatives.
  • Great resources for affiliate marketing managers.  If your business offers an affiliate program to help drive online sales – or if you are thinking about it – be sure to catch our coverage of the Affiliate Management Days conference.  You’ll find that very latest in thinking from top affiliate marketing experts.

Hiring and Financing

  • Summer hiring is heating up. If you are hiring for the summer months, you may find things a bit more competitive. A poll of 1000 hiring managers nationwide found 19 percent plan to hire more employees this summer, up nine percent from last year. Wages will also be going up, so be prepared.
  • Franchise loans are increasing, but more is needed. Franchisees will have an estimated $23.9 billion in loans available to them in 2013. That’s the highest amount of financing the industry has had since 2009. But it’s still short of the $26.5 billion in loans franchises will need to keep operating or start new operations this year.

Bostonbombing image credit: ABC news coverage

The post Top Small Business News Stories: Week of April 19 appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Matt Thomson of Klout: Measuring Influence in the Social Sphere

Posted: 19 Apr 2013 08:00 AM PDT

Tune in as Matt Thomson, Vice President of Business Development and Platforms for Klout, joins Brent Leary to discuss the ins and outs of social influence.  Among the topics discussed are measurement, influential media, leveraging, branding and more.

* * * * *

social influenceSmall Business Trends: Can you tell us a little bit about your background?

Matt Thomson: Sure, I mostly spent my time consumerizing the enterprise normally on the product side. Klout is actually is my first business development role. Before that I worked at Lithium and Microsoft; Microsoft in the Dynamics CRM area. I came over to Klout as the first business guy, if you will. But again, my background is mostly on the product side and little bit of marketing.

Small Business Trends: Is it more difficult to measure online influence today as compared to when Klout first start rolling a couple of years back?

Matt Thomson: It is a little more difficult both industry wide and Klout-specific. Let's talk industry wide first. Estimates are about 2.3 billion people in the world are on some form of social. Mobile makes it easier; you’ve got video now and it is much easier to work with. Bandwidth is getting better and images are coming on really strong.

Instagram's growth cannot be trifled with. I don't know how anybody who doesn't think about this as a standalone business can actually track this in a meaningful way.

Now from the Klout standpoint, we started with a robust vision and a very simple way to try to parlay that vision to the world with the Klout Score. We started two and a half years ago breaking it down into more contextualized chunks. For example, Matt is influential in Pabst Blue Ribbon. We have gotten to the point where we can actually crunch data enough to dictate that fact for about 150 million people.

Small Business Trends: You mentioned Instagram is becoming a real force. When did you see that happening and how quickly can you determine whether a new network is going to be something very important in this sphere of influence?

Matt Thomson: I would break that question down into volume vs. the niche. I think there are some niche networks out there that are very important and this is something that Klout probably is a bit long term vision on. You can think of something like Stock Twits.

Those are super interesting to us, mostly because of the very robust verticalization.

Now to answer your question more directly about volume-oriented networks, what you see with Instagram, we just registered a user base attaching their Instagram accounts at a level that's almost above Twitter and Facebook at this point. So you can see some mature volume numbers and rate of growth, because if you think about Klout, at the end of the day a lot of users aggregate all of their networks in one place. Instagram grows quickly.

There is a cycle where you go up through the hype and then go under the trough of disillusionment. With Instagram, you just don't see that. You  see it continuing to grow up and out to the right.

Let me give you a good example of a network I personally love that the jury is still out on – and that's Vine. It is number one in the App Store. You see more and more Vines being created. I would say that we are still in that phase to see if it is going to be big.

Small Business Trends: Are you seeing smaller businesses being able to leverage what you guys are doing in terms of using Klout from a corporate branding perspective?

Matt Thomson: I think if you are talking about brick and mortar, like Little Star Pizza in San Francisco that has two or three locations now, no not yet. They might have the same page on Facebook and maybe on a Twitter account and that is about it.

Now with what I would consider an SMB (small business) like a Cirque Du Soleil. They are a pretty outsized brand, but they are still in my world an SMB, because they are not an enterprise. Usually, what it comes down to is if it's a consumer facing company that uses brand and awareness to drive purchases down the funnel. Is it a heavy word of mouth driven industry? Fashion is pretty good for this, obviously travel and entertainment, all of those kinds of SMB’s in those areas, absolutely. It is still creeping down, but I would say it is still in the upper echelons like the P&G's of the world, McDonalds, etc.

A lot of SMB's consider themselves to have conversion based products. Obviously influence, advocacy, word of mouth lends itself very well to basically the whole brand funnel of awareness, consideration and purchase intent.

Small Business Trends:  What are some of the best ways that they could begin to use Klout?

Matt Thomson: I think generally our Perks program has proven really successful in mobilizing influencers to discuss a brand. So that is clearly our bread and butter business. Then, our API and our data is just heavily utilized. Going forward, we are basically going to be moving a little bit more into allowance. We announced Klout for Business almost a month ago, and we will be looking a lot more at letting friends come in and do self-service.

What we are going to do is give more tools around audience analysis and group management of influencers. Then allow brands to not only give rewards based on that, but also conduct surveys of their top influencers so they are giving their opinion of the most influential people in the market for their brand. Then we are going to be experimenting with other engagement channels to come off of Klout. So if you think about LinkedIn, they have an InMail feature, they have a customer side, they have an enterprise side, they have a recruiters side in their case and then they have an InMail feature which allows those two sides of the platform to connect. We think about our business very much like that.

Small Business Trends: Are you doing anything to address some of the concerns people may still have in terms of getting the full measure of somebody's influence?

Matt Thomson:  Yes, you thought I was going to say no, right? I think when I get into that world I start to think a lot about the old word of mouth practices, about worrying about everybody's offline influence in every way, shape and form. It is where you draw the line saying this is the amount of information we can actually utilize, and then this is the amount of information that gets us 80% of the way there.

I think anything that has scale in history had to make some concessions to perfection. In other words, some concessions with perfection taking a back seat. Do I think we are perfect? No, absolutely not. Do I think we are going to do a lot more at scale than any other company can do out there that is trying to perfect it? Yeah, absolutely.

Usually those complaints come from the business side of the world. While we care about the business side, our one guiding principle is to make Klout a viable utility for consumers, not to make money from brands. I think we do pretty well. I can guarantee that we have more science behind what we do, than any so called experts out there in this field of word of mouth.

Small Business Trends: Where can people learn more?

Matt Thomson: I would say Klout.com is obviously a great resource. There are some really good books like Mark Shafter on Influence and stuff like that are out there that are very interesting, that are good reads about the market overall.

This interview is part of our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This interview has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, click the right arrow on the gray player below. You can also see more interviews in our interview series.

The post Matt Thomson of Klout: Measuring Influence in the Social Sphere appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Boston Locked Down, Businesses Closed, Social Media Scoops All

Posted: 19 Apr 2013 05:37 AM PDT

It’s been a shocking time in the past 12 hours in the Boston area.  In the wake of Monday’s bomb attacks at the Boston Marathon, one police officer is dead and one wounded, and one suspect is dead.   And nearly the entire metropolitan area of Boston is currently in the midst of a giant manhunt for the second suspect (pictured,  inset below) as of 8 am Eastern time.

Boston lock down

Public transportation in the Boston area is shut down, and all colleges are closed. Citizens are being asked to stay in their homes and businesses are being asked to stay closed — at least those in the immediate area of Watertown and surrounds.

And once again, just like in the immediate wake of Monday’s Marathon bombing, ordinary citizens using social media had the scoop on tragic events even before the news media.  Armed with cameras, mobile phones and Internet connections, people in Watertown, Massachusetts were giving gripping minute-by-minute accounts as the events unfolded.  Eventually the news media will catch up, but the value of social media in these situations in warning citizens and sharing important news has been proven.

The latest events started unfolding at around 5 pm yesterday, when the FBI released photographs of two suspects.  Several hours later after a convenience store robbery and a carjacking, a ferocious gun battle was caught on video by a citizen (it was happening outside his house).

Reddit.com in particular was an excellent a source of information on events as they unfolded overnight.  Two threads (including this one) have had ongoing updates, including photographs, police scanner reports, and videos.  There’s even a link to an interactive Google map with locations identified of shootouts and other activities.  The Huffington Post also has had live blog updates with a good collection of images at the bottom of the post.  UPDATE: some have come under fire for spreading incorrect information in the early hours.

Twitter also had coverage, although there were many rumors tweeted that turned out not to be true.  For instance, the names of suspects were inaccurately discussed for hours. Still, a lot of good and valuable information was shared, for those willing to take the time to sift through it.  And you get riveting shots, like this one taken by Shawna England and shared on Twitter, showing police on the roof of a building in her backyard in Watertown at 6 am local time.

The FBI has asked citizens who know anything (“no detail too small”) to provide information by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI or visiting bostonmarathontips.fbi.gov.

UPDATE:  It appears that some on social media, while providing great info, also spread some misinformation about some individuals and named them.  And I certainly do not condone the spread of incorrect information that improperly had named individuals.  That part was regrettable.  I’ve updated this post to reflect that sentiment.

SECOND UPDATE: Reddit  came under fire for spreading false identification of suspects, and a moderator apologized.  It appears that the information may not have originated on Reddit, but elsewhere and was repeated on Reddit. There have been a lot of rumors and speculation in the mainstream media and all over the Web.

Image credit: ABC News

The post Boston Locked Down, Businesses Closed, Social Media Scoops All appeared first on Small Business Trends.

YouTube News You Can Use

Posted: 19 Apr 2013 02:30 AM PDT

youtube for business

In March, YouTube hit 1 billion unique visitors per month, meaning its vast audience includes about 15 percent of the people on the planet.

It’s a big audience — and that makes us think about how small businesses can use YouTube for marketing.

Here is recent YouTube news you’ll want to keep up with in order to better use YouTube for your business.

Latest YouTube News and Developments

YouTube now has similar size audience as Facebook ~ Business Insider

So, YouTube has reached 1 billion monthly unique visitors. That gives YouTube a comparable size audience with Facebook. If you already use Facebook to engage with customers, you should be aware that for the first time another network has an equal reach as far as visitors.

YouTube official blog touts size, advertiser appeal ~ The Official YouTube Blog

And the push by social media sites to get advertising dollars continues…. YouTube apparently apparently feels under-appreciated, and wants you to know that its audience is more than just a bunch of people who watch funny cat videos. On its official blog it points out that all of the Ad Age Top 100 brands are currently running ad campaigns on YouTube. And that, “If YouTube were a country, we'd be the third largest in the world after China and India.”  Got it?

Tips for using YouTube’s new One Channel redesign  ~ Search Engine Watch

From the days of early email marketing, online businesses have focused on the value of building a list of faithful subscribers. Those subscribers then become potential customers and clients. YouTube’s new One Channel design focuses on subscribing to favorite video channels versus randomly watching popular individual videos. This article offers tips for migrating to the new YouTube One Channel approach.

Celebrities like Psy continue to go viral ~ New York Daily News

South Korean rapper Psy’s followup to his popular Gangnam Style video racked up 82 million views as of this week. Twenty million of those were in the first 24 hours. That’s better than Justin Bieber’s latest record. While the typical small business couldn’t dream of those numbers of views — still it proves the viral video is alive and thriving. On a more modest scale, you can gain interest with a quality video that gets even a fraction of those numbers.

April Fool’s gag demonstrates live streaming potential  ~ YouTube Live Streaming

YouTube recently demonstrated the use of its streaming video feature to build both brand awareness and engagement with an elaborate April Fool’s video presentation. The gag awards broadcast generated more than 400,000 comments, more than 50,000 new channel subscribers, and more than 500,000 unique views. Again, as a small business those kinds of huge metrics may be out of reach — but even modest live streaming numbers could give a boost to your marketing.

New edition of YouTube app for iPhone users ~ Small Business Trends

A recent update of the YouTube iOS app will allow iPhone users to view the new streaming video feature on their mobile devices. The update means more iPhone users on YouTube, and of course, a potentially bigger audience for your channel and for streaming videos you create for your brand. With growing mobile use and the popularity of the iPhone, this offers even more opportunities to reach your audience.

Gary Vaynerchuk predicts plenty of growth ahead ~ New Media Rockstars

You may be reading all these big numbers and feeling a bit inadequate. Perhaps you haven’t gotten involved in posting online video for your business on YouTube. Perhaps you haven’t yet had a chance to share some of those videos via social media or on your website. But entrepreneur and celebrity wineseller Gary Vaynerchuck, a big YouTube user, says there’s still time to get involved. Vaynerchuck predicts plenty of growth ahead and opportunities for businesses to use YouTube for marketing.

You can now connect Google+ to your YouTube channel ~ Tech 2

You can now make your YouTube channel even more social. Google allows users to add a Google+ account to their YouTube channel. The new feature allows brands to add even more social engagement to their video channel, but it also allows them to create even more potential crossover between Google+ followers and YouTube subscribers.

YouTube ecosystem: companies like Pixability get funding to expand video services ~ Boston Business Journal

Like most large platforms, YouTube has developed a surrounding ecosystem of smaller companies and startups that provide products and services to help businesses use YouTube.  Cambridge-based Pixability is one such example. The company just raised $4.1 million in funding for its YouTube-related services.

Yahoo in talks to acquire YouTube competitor, Daily Motion ~ Fox Business

If you still need convincing about the power of video, just look at Yahoo’s bid to acquire YouTube rival Daily Motion.  Former Googler and now Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer wouldn’t be interested in acquiring a video competitor if video wasn’t important to the future.

The post YouTube News You Can Use appeared first on Small Business Trends.
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