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Making Money with Social Media

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Making Money with Social Media

Do blogs and tweets help a company's bottom line? One startup thinks it has the answer.

By Erika Jonietz
Tuesday, December 29, 2009

In retrospect, 2009 may be viewed as the year "social media" came of age: Facebook passed 350 million active users, Oprah made Twitter mainstream, and LinkedIn introduced a service to help recruiting agencies search the site for job candidates. But using microblogs, photoblogs, user-generated content, and even traditional blogs to interact with customers takes time and money, and some companies still question whether all that effort is doing them any good. So how does a company not only measure the results of its social media efforts but also effectively manage them?

Social costs: The Spredfast dashboard lets users track the reach and efficacy of integrated social media campaigns, including blog posts, Facebook updates, tweets, and Flickr streams.
Credit: Social Agency

Early in December, Social Agency, a five-person startup based in Austin, TX, launched a Web-based software package called Spredfast that helps companies manage their social media campaigns. The software not only measures audience size and engagement but also allows coordinated planning and automated posting across multiple social media platforms.

Profile: Admob

Startup Profile

Google sharpens aim buys Admob

2009-12-29 10:03

California - Four years ago, Omar Hamoui was just another ineffectual entrepreneur trying to spruce up his resume in graduate school.

Now, he's poised to become Google Inc's newest weapon as the company aims to extend its dominance of online advertising from computers to mobile devices.

Google is buying Hamoui's expertise in a $750m acquisition of AdMob, a network for ads on iPhones and similar gadgets. He launched the business while struggling to support his wife and children as a student at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

Startup / Entrepreneurship

City entrepreneur creates New Britain Web site

Wednesday, December 30, 2009 10:36 PM EST
By JAMES CRAVEN

NEW BRITAIN — If necessity is the mother of invention, then tedium and a bad economy must be close sisters.

The bad economy and slow business climate left local entrepreneur Tom Matuszewski with some time on his hands but like many creative people, he quickly put his mind back to work and came up with an idea for city residents looking for information.< /p>

“The Best of New Britain Web site came about because I was looking for some local information and couldn’t find it,” Matuszewski said.

The owner of Trydella, a Web design company at 122 Main St., Matuszewski decided city residents needed a one-stop Web site where information was free and easy to find.

Startup / Entrepreneurship

Possible dream? Starting a company in a recession

By Joyce Rosenberg / AP
Updated: 01/08/2010 01:36:31 PM MST

While much of the business world struggled with cutbacks and layoffs during 2009, many people saw opportunity. Undaunted by the recession, they started their own companies.

Entrepreneurs are by and large an optimistic lot, with faith in their ideas and their ability to execute them. So it's understandable that they would find reasons why it made sense to start a business in a sickly economy. Among them: It's easier to rent commercial space at a discount when landlords are hungry for tenants.

Still, many had some scary moments as customers stayed away or money ran low. A look at how four new business owners fared last year:

Startup / Entrepreneurship

Young Guns: Startup Picks Online Friends for You

By Christina Scotti / FOXBusiness
January 06, 2010

The online astrology startup Moonit.com lets you figure out whom you’re simpatico with—and which Facebook friends are worth your time.

FOXBUSINESS.COM PROFILES ENTREPRENEURS 35 AND YOUNGER

The average Facebook user has some 130 friends, and with over 350 million active users on the site, there is no shortage of people to keep up with. But how do you manage all those connections? Startup Moonit.com, a Web site that uses astrology to assess relationships, says it can tell you which friends deserve your focus.

The co-founders, 30-year-old Dana Kanze and 31-year-old Mason Sexton, not only share a business, but they share a New York City apartment. The two U Penn graduates founded the company in January 2008 after quitting their day jobs.

The Six Shooter Q&A: Dana Kanze and Mason Sexton

Where were you when you thought of your business plan?

We were at a dinner with some friends, and everyone was talking about how they couldn't keep track of their online contacts. It clicked for us that there was a gap in this area where social networking, traditional dating, and astrology sites converged. We set out to offer relationship assessments to help optimize our social graphs and those of our friends.

Startup / Entrepreneurship

Mobile startup in Fremont smartens up mass market cell phones

Thursday, December 24, 2009, 12:02am PST
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal - by John Sailors

HipLogic Inc. is working to bring hip smartphone apps to mass market cell phones.

The Fremont company this month raised $7 million in a second round of funding to help bring its “phonetop” software to market. The company also announced its first partnership, with the European mobile retailer Carphone Warehouse Group PLC, which has created a giant retail venture with Best Buy Co. Inc.

HipLogic’s software gives users instant access to their favorite content, from social networking sites including Twitter and Facebook, to news, weather and traffic reports.

“What people see on TV as the iPhone experience, we want to take that across to many, many devices,” said HipLogic President and CEO Mark Anderson.

Start ups start young

Startup / Entrepreneurship
Start ups start young By David Markiewicz / The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Until two years ago, Juan Calle and Adam Berlin were like many other University of Georgia students: rabid college football fans who sometimes followed their Bulldogs on road trips. Then they changed. They became entrepreneurs. With fellow student and partner Andrew Pizitz, the friends turned their fandom into a business, SEC Excursions. The company provides bus transportation, hotel lodging, and tailgate food and entertainment to groups of students traveling to away games in the Southeast. “There were always these issues of, who’s going to drive to the game? Where are we going to stay?” said Calle, speaking of his own experience and that of many others. “We thought, why not provide a service to students where it’s all taken care of?”
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