True confession: I’m way more popular on than I am in actual existence. Sorry, readers, but as a freelance writer, my best shot at an LOL in real life is asking my barista for a double grande, sugar-free, non-fat, half-caf, no foam, extra caramel, two-pump hazelnut macchiato with Sugar in the Raw under a dome lid and a venti straw. But on Facebook, it’s a whole other story. All I need to do is update my profile picture and I’m good for 15 or 16 “likes.” A witty comment on the day’s events and I’ll get 20 or more comments. When I really hit it out of the FB ballpark, I can generate dozens of what I call (well, to myself anyway) SLCs — shares, likes and comments. To me, Facebook is a game and here’s how to play it for maximum return.
Tag Archives: FB
Analyst Moves: FB, FDO
By MarketNewsVideo Facebook (FB) had its estimates and price target reduced by Oppenheimer (OPY) due to a lower mobile ad monetization outlook. An outperform rating was issued with a price target of $32. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Markets
As Facebook Ages, is the Social Network Getting Boring?
Filed under: Facebook, Internet
By BARBARA ORTUTAY
NEW YORK — To see what Facebook has become, look no further than the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer.
Sometime last year, people began sharing tongue-in-cheek online reviews of the banana-shaped piece of yellow plastic with their Facebook friends. Then those friends shared with their friends. Soon, after Amazon paid to promote it, posts featuring the $3.49 utensil were appearing in even more Facebook feeds.
At some point, though, the joke got old. But there it was, again and again — the banana slicer had become a Facebook version of that old knock-knock joke your weird uncle has been telling for years.
The Hutzler 571 phenomenon is a regular occurrence on the world’s biggest online social network, which begs the question: Has Facebook become less fun?
That’s something many users — especially those in their teens and early 20s — are asking themselves as they wade through endless posts, photos “liked” by people they barely know and spur-of-the moment friend requests. Has it all become too much of a chore? Are the important life events of your closest loved ones drowning in a sea of banana slicer jokes?
“When I first got Facebook I literally thought it was the coolest thing to have. If you had a Facebook you kind of fit in better, because other people had one,” says Rachel Fernandez, 18, who first signed on to the site four or five years ago.
And now? “Facebook got kind of boring,” she says.
Chatter about Facebook’s demise never seems to die down, whether it’s talk of “Facebook fatigue,” or grousing about how the social network lost its cool once grandma joined. The Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project recently found that some 61 percent of Facebook users had taken a hiatus from the site for reasons that range from “too much gossip and drama” to “boredom.” Some respondents said there simply isn’t enough time in their day for Facebook.
If Facebook Inc.’s (FB) users leave, or even check in less frequently, its revenue growth would suffer. The company, which depends on targeted advertising for most of the money it makes, booked revenue of $5.1 billion in 2012, up from $3.7 billion a year earlier.
But so far, for every person who has left permanently, several new people have joined up. Facebook has more than 1 billion users around the world. Of these, 618 million sign in every day.
Biggest Challenge
Indeed, Fernandez hasn’t abandoned Facebook. Though the Traverse City, Mich., high school senior doesn’t look at her News Feed, the constant cascade of posts, photos and viral videos from her nearly 1,800 friends, she still uses Facebook’s messaging feature to reach out to people she knows, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
SEC Approves Plan to Reimburse Investor Losses in Facebook IPO
By Reuters
Filed under: Facebook, Market News, Stocks, IPOs, Stock Markets
Regulators approved on Monday a plan to compensate market makers who lost money in a botched Facebook Inc. (FB) public offering on Nasdaq OMX Group Inc’s Nasdaq exchange.
The decision from the Securities and Exchange Commission was in response to a series of high-profile glitches last year that shook the market, including the handling of Facebook’s long-anticipated initial public offering on May 18.
(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
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Subaru to Debut XV Crosstrek Hybrid and New Performance Concept in New York [2013 New York Auto Show]
Subaru is set to make two major debuts at next week’s New York auto show: One we’re eagerly anticipating and one that granola nation likely is equally excited about. Our news first. The brand will debut a “performance concept car,” which we believe will preview the next-generation WRX, due later this year. Unfortunately, Subie wouldn’t reveal any further information on that front. As to what surely will have Portland in hysterics, Subaru’s first recipient of a hybridized powertrain will be the XV Crosstrek. The Japanese manufacturer didn’t provide further details, but it has left a trail of breadcrumbs for us to decipher what’s likely under the hood of the XV Crosstrek hybrid.
Some 18 months ago, Subaru confirmed future hybrid powertrains would center around the 2.0-liter offering of its FB family of engines. This 148-hp, 145–lb-ft boxer-four first debuted in the new-for-2012 Impreza—an example of which recently made it to the end of one of our grueling 40,000-mile long-term tests.
- First Drive: 2014 Subaru Forester 2.5i / 2.0XT Turbo
- Long-Term Road Test Intro: 2013 Subaru BRZ Premium
- Comparison Test: 2011 Volkswagen Touareg V6 TDI vs. 2011 Touareg Hybrid
Two of the brand’s recent hybrid concepts have featured drivetrains making use of multiple electric motors—one mounted up front to aid propulsion and to serve as a generator, and at least one electric motor out back to power the rear wheels. The Japanese marque’s Hybrid Tourer concept used a single electric motor to power the rears, while the Viziv concept that debuted at this month’s Geneva show used an electric motor to drive each wheel and provide toque vectoring. Considering this trend of development, we expect to see the XV Crosstrek hybrid’s rear wheels to be electrically powered.
Facebook's Zuckerberg Tops Highest-Rated CEO List
Filed under: Industry News
Internet jobs site Glassdoor has released its list of the top 50 U.S. CEOs, based on employee feedback, for the past 12 months through February 27. The company asked the question, “Do you approve of the way your CEO is leading the company?” and received more than half a million responses.
The top-ranked chief executive officer this year is Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB). Others in the top five are SAP A.G. (NYSE: SAP) co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe, McKinsey & Co. CEO Dominic Barton, Ernst & Young’s Jim Turley and Northwestern Mutual’s John Schlifske. Turley is the only repeater in the top five.
Last year’s top-rated CEO, Tim Cook of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), fell to 18th this year, although the decrease in his score was relatively small, from 97 to 93. Larry Page, CEO at Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), fell from fifth place a year ago to 11th place, but improved his score from 94 to 95.
Glassdoor’s CEO noted:
The CEOs who are most successful in gaining employee approval are those who paint a clear vision of what the company is setting out to achieve and how it’s going to get there. To be recognized by your employees as a strong leader also comes as a result of having a solid company culture that helps employees foster the skills necessary to move business forward and meet the needs of customers.
Glassdoor’s top 50 list is available here.
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Corporate Governance, Research Tagged: AAPL, FB, GOOG, SAP
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Auschwitz survivor searches for twin on FB
By hnn
It’s most likely that Menachem Bodner last saw his identical twin in 1945, in Dr. Josef Mengele’s gruesome Auschwitz laboratory. He was 4 then and doesn’t remember his time in the notorious death camp. But in the 68 years that have followed, Bodner says he’s “always” been certain he was one of a pair. He just didn’t have any proof until this past year. Now, he’s searching for Jeno, a man who probably looks just like him, and who has a distinctive “A-7734” tattoo on his forearm. And 1 million Facebook users are helping him look.
Source:
The Daily Beast
Source URL:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/10/an-auschwitz-survivor-searches-for-his-twin-on-facebook.html
Date:
3-10-13
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at History News Network – George Mason University
More Working Moms Want Full-Time Jobs
Filed under: Economic Recovery, Job Market, Economy, People
By JENNIFER C. KERR
WASHINGTON — Working mothers increasingly want full-time jobs, and tough economic times might be a big reason, according to a national survey.
In the Pew Research Center study being released Thursday, researchers saw a big spike in the share of working mothers who said they’d prefer to work full time; 37 percent said that was their ideal, up from 21 percent in 2007.
The poll comes amid a national debate on women in the workplace ignited by top Facebook Inc. (FB) executive Sheryl Sandberg, who writes in a new book about the need for women to be more professionally aggressive.
In “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead,” Sandberg argues that women have not made true progress in the workplace over the past decade and that they need to raise their hands more and “lean in” if they want to land more senior positions in corporate America.
The shift toward full-time work in the Pew poll, however, coincides with the recession and may have less to do with career ambitions than with financial realities.
“Women aren’t necessarily evolving toward some belief or comfort level with work,” says study co-author Kim Parker, an associate director at the center. “They are also reacting to outside forces and in this case, it is the economy.”
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Among women who said their financial situations aren’t sufficient to meet basic expenses, about half said working full time was best for them. Of the women who said they live comfortably, only 31 percent said full time was their best situation.
Melody Armstrong, 34, of Hampton, N.H., works full time and says she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It works better for my family, and for our finances,” Armstrong said in an interview. “It helps pay the bills and we can enjoy the lifestyle we have. We need to have two incomes.”
Armstrong and her husband have six children between them, a blended family with one child off to college and a baby at home. She works for Double Black Imaging, a Colorado-based company that sells medical monitors. Armstrong says her company gives her the flexibility she needs to work her sales position from home.
“I do some work early in the morning or after dinner,” Armstrong says, and can adjust around her children’s school and sports schedules.
Mothers’ attitudes — both for those who work outside the home and those who don’t — have changed significantly. Among women with children under 18 years old, the proportion of …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Media Digest (3/13/2013) Reuters, WSJ, NY Times, Bloomberg
Filed under: Investing
Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) gets permission from the FAA to test fly its troubled 787. (Reuters)
Job openings rose in January, according to the Labor Department. (Reuters)
President Obama will meet with CEOs on the subject of cyber security. (Reuters)
IDC expects sales of Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android-powered tablets to pass the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad this year. (Reuters)
Dean Metropoulos and Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE: APO) will buy some of the Hostess brands. (Reuters)
The FTC wants standards for traditional ads to apply to those on Twitter and Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) sites so that certain disclosures about the marketers are clear. (WSJ)
Samsung spent more than Apple to market smartphones in 2012. (WSJ)
Audi’s sales pace may allow it to challenge BMW and Mercedes for market share. (WSJ)
Regulators approve a deal for T-Mobile to combine with MetroPCS Communications Inc. (NYSE: PCS). (WSJ)
Sudan agrees to begin new shipments of crude oil, which had been suspended recently. (WSJ)
China steel output rose 9.8% last month, largely due to domestic construction. (WSJ)
Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) enters the mortgage business. (WSJ)
Google presses into the cloud computing market now dominated by Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). (NYT)
West Texas Intermediate crude nears a two-week high as U.S. supplies drop. (Bloomberg)
The new Samsung Galaxy IV will target sales of Apple’s iPhone. (Bloomberg)
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Press Digest Tagged: AAPL, AMZN, APO, BA, DFS, FB, GOOG, MSFT, PCS
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Media Digest (3/5/2013) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
Filed under: Investing
China will lean on consumer spending to expand its economy. (Reuters)
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) faces more lawsuits over its initial public offering. (Reuters)
The White House says it believes people should be able to unlock their cell phone for use on more than one network. (Reuters)
Pew reports that debt among young people has dropped to a multiyear low. (WSJ)
The Chinese government drops annual GDP growth goals to 7.5%. (WSJ)
Citigroup Inc.’s (NYSE: C) new CEO, Michael Corbat, is more likely to track the performance of individual senior executives. (WSJ)
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will combine some operations. (WSJ)
A senior General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) executive says the company will keep its Opel operations in Europe. (WSJ)
The CEO of H.J. Heinz Co. (NYSE: HNZ) could make $200 million if he leaves the company after a buyout. (WSJ)
Theft of oil from Nigerian pipelines starts to sharply cut production. (WSJ)
Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE: RDS-A) will build LNG plants in Louisiana and Canada. (WSJ)
The chief of Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) says the return to service of the 787 will depend on how fast the FAA approves a potential fix. (WSJ)
Bond yields on Spanish and Italian debt narrow because of stability in Spain and instability in Italy. (WSJ)
Facebook creates an ad system that could take business from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). (WSJ)
Congress accuses key J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) executives of roles in the bank’s $6 billion loss. (NYT)
Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) will sell its gas stations as investors pressure it to restructure the company. (NYT)
Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares reach a 52-week low as Google’s reach an all-time high. (FT)
Boeing defends its decision to keep the battery used in its 787 Dreamliner. (FT)
European Union finance ministers may ease budget restraints to cure the fallout from austerity. (Bloomberg)
Pearson PLC (NYSE: PSO) executives tell the Financial Times that a number of positions will be cut. (Bloomberg)
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Press Digest Tagged: AAPL, BA, C, FB, GM, GOOG, HES, HNZ, JPM, PSO, RDS-A
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Making Search Results Pay
Filed under: Technology
Everyone knows that if a company or product shows up on the first page of results from a search engine query, the chances that the company or product will get noticed, or even better get a click, go way up. But how far up can a company expect to go?
According to the latest data from Experian Marketing Services, the top five sites capturing search activity are Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), with about 8.5% of clicks, Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube, 5.6% of clicks, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) with 2.6%, Wikipedia with 2%, and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) with 1.4% of clicks. These top 5 account for 20% of all search activity and the top 500 sites account for about 50% of all search activity.
The results for paid search are similar: the top 5 sites get 16% of the clicks and the top 50 sites get 56%. The top site is Amazon.com with 4.2% of clicks, followed by Ebay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY), Demand Media Inc.’s (NYSE: DMD) eHow, Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY), and Yahoo! Shopping.
Google serviced about 3 billion searches a day in 2011, which means that Facebook gleaned about 255 million clicks every day from Google searches. Even at a 1% rate, that’s 3 million clicks a day. Amazon is paying for around 126 million clicks a day, given its 4.2% activity rate.
Even at click-through rates that are lower than 1%, the top sites get a lot of traffic from searches, free and paid. Big changes at the top are not likely.
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Internet, Research Tagged: AMZN, BBY, DMD, EBAY, FB, GOOG, YHOO
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Using Black Swan and Antifragile Analysis for Tech Stocks (UBS, VMW, CRM, AAPL, FB, LNKD, HPQ, NTAP, FIO, IBM, EMC)
Filed under: Technology, Earnings, Telecommunications
Nassim Taleb is well known for his work as a trader and professor, as well as the author of the book ” Black Swan.” He often concentrates his work on market volatility and the likelihood of extreme situations or occurrences that can radically move stock prices. The 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center were a black swan event, devastating and totally unpredicted. His new book “Antifragile” focuses on things that gain from disorder. Are there tech stocks that can gain from disorder as well?
The tech analysts at UBS A.G. (NYSE: UBS) decided it would be interesting to apply some of the principles of Taleb’s book to tech stocks they cover. They point out in their report released today that Taleb advises using optionality to your advantage in finding situations with limited downside but undetermined upside. What matters is not the frequency of being right but the magnitude when you are correct. Also, to favor a barbell approach, both in specific companies that avoid the mushy middle of markets and in your portfolio by mixing low and high-risk assets.
Fragile things hate volatility and uncertainty, while the antifragile thrives on it. The UBS team believes that technology stocks, especially large caps, are inherently fragile, given that the industry structure changes every 15 years or so. They looked for companies riding emerging trends, and point to VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) and Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) as examples.
Vendors creating new product categories also scored high as antifragile. This category included names like tech giant Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), social media leader Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) and business networking site operator LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD).
One area that the spectrum of fragility did not favor as well was information technology (IT). The UBS analysts pointed out that computing as a service may present more risk than upside for many of the names that they cover. In their coverage universe, they consider Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) particularly fragile, given its size and share losses. They also see NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) as caught in the middle as it remains concerned about Fusion-io Inc.’s (NYSE: FIO) niche status. However, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) scored much better and are well-positioned large vendors.
At the end of the day, technology in always changing and evolving. Companies that look to past successes and not to future growth often can find themselves in the stock graveyard. Antifragile tech stocks might be the way to protect a portfolio from rapid technology and consumer shifts.
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Analyst Calls, Technology, Technology Companies, Telecom & Wireless Tagged: AAPL, CRM, EMC, FB, FIO, HPQ, IBM, LNKD, NTAP, UBS, VMW
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Unfriending: A Facebook 'Fate' Accompli?
By Dena Kouremetis, Contributor
Six or seven years ago NO one had discussions like this: “Oh, I never ‘unfriend’ anyone on Facebook,” says a colleague. “I just hide their profiles and stop subscribing to their feed.” Another is somewhat selective about cutting off a FB friend: “If they’ve got more than 200 friends, I doubt they’d ever notice I’m not on their friends list any more.” …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Notable ETF Inflow Detected – VXF, GM, LVS, FB
Looking today at week-over-week shares outstanding changes among the universe of ETFs covered at ETF Channel, one standout is the Vanguard Extended Market ETF (AMEX: VXF) where we have detected an approximate $79.0 million dollar inflow — that’s a 4.6% increase week over week in outstanding units (from 26,244,385 to 27,447,224). Among the largest underlying components of VXF, in trading today General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) is up about 0.5%, Las Vegas Sands Corp (NYSE: LVS) is up about 1.2%, and Facebook, Inc. (NASD: FB) is higher by about 1.5%. For a complete list of holdings, visit the VXF Holdings page » …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Markets
Facebook, Google Led 2012's Race for Private Tech Acquisitions
Last year saw more acquisitions of closely held technology companies than any year since at least 2009, with social-media giant Facebook Inc. (FB) tying Google Inc. (GOOG) for most deals completed in the space, according to a report released this week by PrivCo LLC. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox Business Headlines
BofA/ML Analyst Upgrades Zynga as Uncommon Value
Filed under: Technology, Media, Earnings, Value Investing
Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) is no longer a very loved company. The social game maker has lost its favorable outlook largely as it and Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) try to distance themselves from each other. So when you see an analyst upgrading the stock, it may raise some eyebrows.
Bank of America/Merrill Lynch raised its rating to Buy from Neutral, citing Zynga’s asset value and mobile stabilization. Its price target was raised to $3.40 from $2.70.
The firm does caution:
While our upgrade could be early with bookings expected to decline quarter over quarter in the first quarter, and our below-Street 2013 estimates, we are upgrading Zynga to Buy due to the following: 1) valuation now reflects downside risk to bookings with $2.20/share in cash over assets, a $200 million per year poker business, and $150 to $200 million mobile business likely supporting the stock; 2) ZNGA‘s mobile trends may have stabilized (per comScore user data), and for PC there is option value for an inflection in players in 2013 driven by new categories (gambling and core); 3) recent 60-day performance of ANGI, FB, GRPN, and P suggest investors’ risk tolerance with developing business models has increased; and, 4) FB‘s 10-K disclosure suggests $15 to $25 million upside to fourth quarter guidance and our prior bookings estimate.
BofA also noted that social gaming trends remain weak and bookings may not bottom in 2013.
While BofA has raised its fourth-quarter estimates, the firm is still below Wall St.’s consensus in 2013. The firm is raising its 2013 total bookings estimate to $895 million from $825 million, EBITDA to $20 million from -$45 million, and adjusted “LPS” to $0.09 from $0.15. Its revenue projection for 2013 is $980 million, versus $1.06 billion.
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Analyst Calls, Internet, Media, Value Investing, Video Games Tagged: FB, ZNGA
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Zoetis Prices $2.2 Billion IPO Above Expectations
Animal-medicine maker Zoetis Inc. (ZTS) priced its initial public offering above expectations, a strong showing for the largest deal from a U.S. company since Facebook Inc. (FB) debuted last May.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox Business Headlines
Analyst Moves: CIT, FB
By MarketNewsVideo CIT Group (CIT) was downgraded by Morgan Stanley (MS) to equal weight from overweight with a price target of $46 due to a lack of catalysts to drive the stock price higher in the near term despite that management is turning around the business.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Markets
Links 31 Jan: Facebook Announces Good Results, Stock Falls
By Tim Worstall, Contributor Facebook’s Q4 and 2012 results were announced yesterday. The actual announcement is here. “In 2012, we connected over a billion people and became a mobile company,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. “We enter 2013 with good momentum and will continue to invest to achieve our mission and become a stronger, more valuable company.” Which is lovely of course. But what moves the share price is not what actually happened but what happened relative to what people thought would happen: As I told you this morning, the outlook was fairly optimistic — consensus expected a 34 percent boost in revenue from the previous quarter at around $1.525 billion, with an EPS of 15 cents. Facebook surpassed that revenue, coming in at $1.59 billion and an EPS of 17 cents per share. The street immediately proceeded to sell, trading down about four percent in after-hours. While sales and earnings were both up, so were expenses: R+D at $1.3bn was up by a factor of 3.6, which is huge. What does Facebook buy with its R+D money? It’s talent – this is almost certainly mostly compensation: salaries and share allocations. Share-based compensation expense in R+D jumped from $114mm to $843mm. They’ve doubtless got a lot more engineers, and they’re having to pay them well in a thriving Silicon Valley market. Zuckerberg announced on the earnings call that FB intends to hire more engineers in 2013 and in 2012 added 1,419 employees to the previous 3,200 employees; nearly 50% growth already. If you’re paying your average engineer $200K in salary and benefits, which seems low for Bay Area salaries, that’s $280 million you’ve just added to your annual payroll. And the problem with adding a lot of employees is that it’s a recurring cost – you can’t easily shrink wages, and if you start to fire significant numbers of them then you’re going to alarm the markets. There’s some fun charts here about where Facebook gets its money and traffic from: Facebook made $64 million (corrected; an earlier version of this story cited the operating profit, $523 million) on $1.585 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2012, a result investors found somewhat disappointing. Take a closer look at how and where Facebook is making its money, courtesy of slides (pdf) the company released along with its earnings statement. They’re very definitely making inroads into mobile: Facebook is continuing to see more mobile usage of the social network. In its fourth quarter earnings report, the company shared that it has 680 million mobile active users, up 57 percent year over year. This number is even more important because its also the first time Facebook has seen more mobile users than desktop users. And how much they make from each user definitely varies by geography. In case you’re wondering what you’re worth to Facebook, the average revenue per user was $5.32 worldwide. The average US and Canadian Facebooker – who makes up the bulk of Facebook’s revenues – is worth $13.58 to Zuckerberg’s firm, while the figure drops to $5.91 in Europe and just $2.35 in Asia. That’s rather a function of the maturity of the online advertising market in each place I would think.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
In Digital We Trust: 4 Questions to Keep Your Reputation in Check
By Meghan M. Biro, Contributor Hold on —I’m just checking my account . . . No, I’m not looking to see if I’ve got the funds in my bank account for my car payment. Instead I mean and so do you or will soon enough how many people have recommended me on LinkedIn, the number of “likes” I’ve posted on Facebook, the comments I’ve gotten on Airbnb — and whether I vote regularly. Like it or not (and do we?), the world of work is recalibrating your future career currency as you read this. Very soon, your online reputation will be far more significant than your traditional credit rating or FICO score has been for getting jobs, apartments, the best interest rate on mortgages, or even a run-down couch off of Freecycle. Start-ups are focused on figuring out the best ways to gather our social media data and convert it into reputation currency. Some of their approaches suck up data on trustworthiness, others, on social influence. Our social culture is accelerating in the drive toward the online reputation where your online history becomes more powerful than your credit history. Or as the global founding team of start-up Movenbank note, “it’s no longer about credit and a specific number”. It’s about credibility. It’s about authentic self branding. It’s about leadership. It’s about trust. You apply for a job where you’re going to have face-to-face contact with the public. Your employer checks out, say, Kred or Klout, to see how many friends you have on FB, whether you have a dialog going with them, if your comments “liked” on different sites, and so on. That data provide insight about your social reach and intelligence. You want to sell something on eBay. The buyer looks at your general rep for all transactions you’ve made across the web — Amazon, esty, airbnb. In short, you become a composite of all your purchases and sales on the web. You need a bank loan. Yes, Movenbank examines your credit rating, which is based on your past transactions, plus, on average, 8,000 other bits of social data about you to find out your likely future trustworthiness. The past is no longer prologue, at least that’s no longer the whole story How should we think about all this? Does it even matter what we think? Yes, of course it matters. We may not be able to stop this sea change (and do we even want to?), but, hey, we are the “social” in “social media” — our online life and preferences shape its direction. In trying to get my mind around all this, I offer 4 questions:
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest