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Would a secondary market for startup stock be a blessing or a curse?

The current state of the financial markets has made it very difficult for startups to go public. Even startups with significant revenue and bright futures have no guarantee that they'll be able to go public anytime soon.

The dismal IPO market is taking its toll on venture capitalists, who invest in companies that they expect, if successful, will be liquid within some years.

by Patricio Robles 24 April 2009 09:30am 0 comments

Would you pay for a Facebook vanity URL?

As Facebook's unbelievable growth continues unabated, the company is increasingly finding itself scrutinized by critics who are asking a simple question: 'where's the money'?

Even though Facebook is generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, its costs are growing rapidly and there are various unsubstantiated rumors that the company is on a potentially disastrous financial path.

by Patricio Robles 23 April 2009 12:04pm 4 comments

Two sites for protecting your brand's usernames

It used to be that you do a decent job of protecting your brand by registering the domain names that incorporate your brand name.

Not anymore. Thanks to social networking sites and other online communities, consumers are increasingly interacting on third party services that have become targets for brand hijackers, impostors and opportunists. Their MO: snap up usernames that are related to major brands (and prominent individuals).

by Patricio Robles 21 April 2009 14:35pm 2 comments

The power of social media for customer service

We've written about the potential of using social media for customer service, or at least monitoring and responding to customers' comments and complaints, and here is a great example of how valuable this can be.

Naked Wines, which launched last December, was very quick to get involved in social media; it has a Twitter account as well as a Facebook group, and this example shows the value of monitoring and responding to customers' concerns where they are talking about you.

by Graham Charlton 21 April 2009 11:44am 14 comments

The cost of content: pick your poison

Content may be king but many companies have found that producing and distributing quality content requires a royal bank account.

The plight of the newspaper industry is a good example: news hasn't gone out of style but, for many newspapers, the cost structures associated with producing the news is incompatible with today's market. Costs simply exceed revenues.

by Patricio Robles 17 April 2009 13:02pm 3 comments

Yahoo prepares to apply the social glue to its network

Yahoo has a lot of work to do as it looks to rebuild under new CEO Carol Bartz. Bartz has assets to work with, namely Yahoo's diverse portfolio of highly-trafficked properties.

One of the biggest challenges: figuring out a way to pull them all together, both from an operational standpoint and a functional standpoint.

by Patricio Robles 08 April 2009 11:30am 1 comment

Consumers heart online coupons

With all of the talk about social media and Marketing 2.0, it's easy to overlook less exciting marketing tools. Like coupons.

But make no mistake about it: coupons are in vogue as consumers look for every opportunity to save money. That means business is good for players in the online coupon industry.

by Patricio Robles 08 April 2009 10:05am 2 comments

Digg gets into the toolbar, URL shortening market

Digg, the popular content sharing website that lets users 'vote' for their favorite content on the web, is a favorite of online publishers. Get Digged enough and you might hit the Digg homepage, which can drive tens of thousands of visitors in short order.

Currently, there are two ways to Digg content: on the Digg website or through a button that publishers place on their web pages.

by Patricio Robles 03 April 2009 09:13am 3 comments

Should brands ignore social media criticism?

Social media has given brands a new medium in which consumers can be engaged. Most agree: there's something really important about this, even if we disagree on just what that is.

At the same time, social media has given consumers a powerful new tool for interacting with brands. It's now possible to provide feedback, issue praise and voice complaints in a manner that can have a real impact very quickly.

by Patricio Robles 02 April 2009 11:16am 9 comments

Is Facebook in trouble?

By almost all metrics, Facebook is the top dog in the social networking market. Even though it's now 5 years old, it's still growing like a weed and there's no reason to believe that its growth is going to subside anytime soon.