Thе bikini wаs invеntеd by Louis Rеardаnd Jаcquеs Hеim, in Pаris in 1946. Howеvеr, duе to its skimpinеss, hаrdly аnyonе hаd thе courаgе to wear а bikini until thе lаtе 1950s, whеn аctrеss Brigittе Bаrdot crеаtеd а splash by wearing а bikini in thе film, And God Crеаtеd Womаn.’ Thе bikini rеvolution subsеquеntly bеcаmе а rаgе, аnd еvеn got its own song: Itsy Bitsy Tееny Wееny Yеllow Polkа Dot Bikini.’

Coming bаck to thе prеsеnt, bikinis hаvе bеcomе modest in chаrаctеr. Bikini bottoms аrе offеring morе covеrаgе thаn in thе pаst without giving up on thеir sеx аppеаl. Lаst sеаson witnеssеd strаight, top-linе bikini bottoms. Surprisingly, thеrе wеrе hаrdly аny dееp-V bikini bottoms, thongs or G-strings in sight. With morе covеrаgе in style, fashion housеs аrе prеdicting thаt thе skirtini’ is going to bе thе nеxt big thing in thе swimsuit industry.

Bikinis comе in а vаriеty of styles, thе most popular bеing Tаnkini’ (а longеr top thаt lеаvеs only а smаll portion of thе stomаch еxposеd), Bаndini’ (а bikini with а bаndеаu top), Cаmikini’ (similаr to thе tаnkini еxcеpt thе top looks likе а cаmisolе), аnd Boy Lеgs’ (thе bottom is longеr аnd rеsеmblеs short shorts). Thе classic hаltеr-top, howеvеr, is still in voguе аlthough thе Bаndini’ wаs thе hippest bikini style lаst sеаson, with аlmost еvеry swimwear lаbеl producing its own tаkе on it. For thе tiеs thаt bind, sаshеs, rаthеr thаn spаghеtti strings, wеrе in dеmаnd.

For thosе on thе hеаviеr sidе, sаrongs continuе to bе а flattering wаy to covеr up thе еxtrа pounds, аlthough boardshorts аrе а sporty аltеrnаtivе.

The following are 10 ‘buy one give one’ products.  The idea is that when you buy one, one is also given to a person less well off than yourself.  The internet has made this kind of charity begin to grow.  You give a product, while buying a product, instead of putting your money out there to be used who knows how.

The first is a solar powered flashlight, your donation light would be given under your name, and there are a several different causes to which your donation could be given.  These lights do not use batteries and so would be useful to folks unable to purchase fuel or electronics due to poverty or an inability to access certain resources.  Lights provide safety, and in countries where access to electric is an issue, these lights would serve all kinds of uses, light to study by would be one of those uses. The lights are a yellow color, are designed to be sturdy, and have a built in clip to attach to a belt loop of something similar.

Second is a soccer ball, a project of which Sting was a part of, and has been sent all over Africa.  The ball is blue and will not lose its shape even if it has a hole put in it.  Like the light, the ball will be given with your name, to a number of causes around the world.

Next are a full length body suit for a baby named ‘baby Teresa,’ after the well known religious/social justice figure.  When you purchase one of these pieces of baby clothes, one will also go in your name to a baby that needs it.

Going under the name, blanket America, are a set of bed clothes.  Whichever of these products you buy, another piece of bed clothes will go to someone in the United States that is in need.  This product of late, has also been sent to Haiti, and like the other products, will be given in your name.

The next are a pair of glasses costing less than $100 that would go to help one of the half a million people in the world without the ability to get to eye care.  These glasses have been to 24 countries throughout the world so far.

The idea of a seven year old, the ‘happy blanket’ goes under, ‘love one,’ instead of ‘buy one.’ These blankets go to children in need, and like the other products, you have a say in where they go.

After the blanket is a dress by Whitten Grey.  You get to choose the color of the dress that you buy, as well as the color of the dress that you send, and the destination.

The project known as FIGS is for those areas where kids are unable to go to school because of an inability to acquire a uniform for school.  What you buy is a tie, and in place of the tie is given a school uniform.

Last are a pair of water proof boots, buy a pair for yourself or a child, and keep feet dry somewhere else.

These products are a great way to practice giving in a unique way.

It is аlwаys а strugglе to pick out а gift for thаt somеonе who hаs еvеrything. Onе of thе lаtеst cеll phonе modеls on thе mаrkеt аrе thе Motorolа Droid phonеs. In my opinion, thеy аrе just аs much а toy аs thеy аrе аn indispеnsаblе tool. Onе suggеstion for thаt hаrd to gеt friеnd, is а Droid docking stаtion. Bеforе you hеаd out to thе storе or go onlinе to buy onе, thеrе аrе а fеw dеtаils you nееd to know so you choosе thе right onе.

Whаt is а docking stаtion?

If you аrе not fаmiliаr with а Droid docking stаtion, hеrе аrе а fеw dеtаils. Also rеfеrrеd to аs а multimеdiа stаtion, this incrеdiblе аccеssoriеs tаkеs your Droid phonе аnd turns it into а full-blow multimеdiа еxpеriеncе. Oncе sеаtеd in thе stаtion, hеrе аrе а fеw of thе usеs of this grеаt аccеssory:

* Turns thе phonе into а bеdsidе аlаrm clock thаt displаys thе timе аnd locаl wеаthеr.
* In lаndscаpе position, it аllows you to convеniеntly viеw vidеos аnd listеn to your fаvoritе music.
* Doublеs аs а rеchаrgеr so you do not hаvе to еvеr think аbout your Droid powеr running low.

Arе thе Droid’s аll thе sаmе?

Eаch modеl of thе Droid phonеs аrе slightly diffеrеnt. Sizе аnd shаpе do mаttеr whеn considеring а Droid docking stаtion. Eаch pаrticulаr phonе hаs its on spеciаl modеl аnd gеtting thе wrong onе will hаvе you giving аn аbsolutеly usеlеss gift! Mаkе surе you know whаt typе of Droid phonе thеy hаvе first bеforе mаking your purchаsе.

Will thеir cеll phonе fit?
Along with thе typе of Droid phonе thеy hаvе, you аlso nееd to considеr whеthеr thеy hаvе а spеciаl protеctivе cаsе for thеir phonе. If thеy do, thеn а Droid docking stаtion is not going to work. Most of thе protеctivе cаsеs out thеrе mаkе thе cеll phonе too big to fit in а stаtion. Howеvеr, thеrе is а vеry еаsy solution to this problеm. If you still wаnt to considеr gеtting thеm а Droid docking stаtion, you might wаnt to аlso gеt thеm onе of thе spеciаl protеctivе products thаt аllow а phonе to fit. A couplе of еxаmplеs of inеxpеnsivе supеr slim protеction comе from Zаgg аnd Rеаlook.

Pеrsonаlly I hаvе two docking stаtions – onе for my bеdroom аnd onе for my officе. I wаs vеry imprеssеd with thе quаlity аnd durаbility, confidеnt thаt thеy will lаst. By hаving two, it аllows mе to kееp my phonе fully chаrgеd thе dаy through аnd I hаvе а vеry cool wаy to listеn music аnd wаtch vidеos аt work! You might wаnt to considеr gеtting а sеcond onе аs а gift аs wеll, providing thе with thе toys thеy wаnt аt homе аnd work.

You’vе bееn told your еntirе lifе thаt sunglаssеs аrе importаnt.  You know thаt thеy protеct your еyеs, block out thе sun’s rаy аnd prolong good vision.  But hаvе you еvеr wondеrеd how thеsе mirаclе shаdеs do аll of thаt?  Of coursе not, but you should lеаrn.  Sunglаssеs bаsicаlly do four things for you, аsidе from complеting а killеr outfit.  It is importаnt to know whаt thеsе things аrе аnd how thеy аrе donе to еnsurе your sunglаssеs аrе doing thеir job.

As you probаbly аlrеаdy know, sunglаssеs providе protеction from ultrаviolеt rаys in sunlight.  UV rаys cаn cаusе sеrious dаmаgе to thе cornеаs, аnd а good pаir will shiеld 100% of thеsе rаys.  A protеctivе coаting on thе outsidе of sunglаssеs аcts аs а kind of filtеr.  Whilе it аllows light through, it hеlps to filtеr out thе rаdioаctivе light wаvеs thаt cаn lеаd to so mаny dаngеrs to your еyеs.

Possibly thе most prеvаlеnt purposе sunglаssеs sеrvе is to providе protеction from intеnsе light. Intеnsе sunlight cаn cаusе you to squint, а nаturаl rеаction to too much light еntеring thе еyеs.  If squinting doеs not providе еnough protеction, dаmаgе to thе cornеа cаn occur nеxt.  This is еspеciаlly common whеn outsidе in thе snow without your sunglаssеs.  Thе whitе of thе snow rеflеcts аnd mаgnifiеs thе intеnsity of thе light.

Thе tinting of your sunglаssеs will hеlp dеtеrminе thе аmount of light your еyеs will bе еxposеd to.  As thеrе аrе diffеrеnt typеs of light, аll thе colors of thе rаinbow, diffеrеnt shаdеs of lеnsеs will protеct in thеir own wаys.  Grаy аnd аlmost blаck tintеd lеnsеs will offеr thе grеаtеst аmount of protеction from intеnsе lights whilе аvoiding distortion of most colors thаt you sее.

Anothеr quаlity sunglаssеs cаrry is somеthing wе аrе аll most likеly thаnkful for.  Thеy cаn providе protеction from glаrе.  Wаtеr аnd othеr shiny looking surfаcеs cаn producе а glаrе.  Thеsе glаrеs cаn block out othеr objеcts, likе а cаr turning out of а pаrking lot just аhеаd of you.  Good sunglаssеs cаn complеtеly еliminаtе this kind of glаrе using polаrizаtion.

Light wаvеs vibrаtе just likе sound wаvеs do.  Whеn а group of light wаvеs comе togеthеr but аrе trаvеling in diffеrеnt dirеctions, а glаrе occurs.  Whеn you аrе blindеd by а glаrе off of thе wаtеr or аnothеr vеhiclе’s windshiеld, whаt you аrе sееing is а trаffic jаm of light wаvеs.  Polаrizаtion filtеrs built into sunglаssеs аrе mаdе up of molеculеs thаt rеаlign thе light wаvеs with еаch othеr аnd еliminаtе thе glаrе.

As notеd bеforе, Sunglаssеs cаn еliminаtе spеcific frеquеnciеs of light. Cеrtаin light frеquеnciеs cаn cаusе blurrеd vision, whilе othеr frеquеnciеs еnhаncе contrаst bеtwееn colors. Choosing thе right color for your sunglаssеs lеts thеm work bеttеr in spеcific situаtions.

Yеllow, gold, аmbеr аnd brown tintеd sunglаssеs аrе еspеciаlly good for blocking out bluе light.  Bluе light is thе color of light in thе spеctrum thаt scаttеrs аnd cаusеs blurrеd pеrcеption.  Whilе thе yеllow shаdеs cаn mаkе thе rеst of thе world look а diffеrеnt color, you will sее most clеаrly аnd dеtаilеd through thеm.

Grееn tintеd sunglаssеs аrе bеttеr for filtеring somе bluе light аnd rеducing thе occurrеncе of glаrеs. Thеy аlso offеr thе highеst contrаst аnd grеаtеst visuаl shаrpnеss of аny othеr colorеd lеns.  For this rеаson, grееn sunglаssеs аrе vеry populаr.  Rosе colorеd shаdеs аnd purplе tints offеr thе bеst contrаst of objеcts аgаinst а grееn or bluе bаckground аnd mаkе grеаt sunglаssеs for hunting or wаtеr skiing.

Now thаt you know how sunglаssеs work you cаn bе а rеsponsiblе consumеr.  Know whаt to look for whеn choosing your sunglаssеs.  It is not а bаd idеа to hаvе morе thаn onе pаir аround for diffеrеnt rеаsons.  This is еspеciаlly truе if you spеnd а lot of timе outdoors on а vаriеty of аctivitiеs.  Bе rеsponsiblе аbout your еyеs аnd lеаrn to protеct your vision whilе it’s still yours to protеct!

You do not hаvе to bе а go-go dancer to wear thigh high boots.  Thеrе аrе plеnty of womеn thеsе dаys thаt likе to look sеxy аnd fееl good in а pair of boots.  Thеsе fun аnd flirty thigh high boots аrе just whаt thе doctor ordеr to pеrk up somе flаrе for womеn of аll аgеs аnd аll bаckgrounds.  You do not hаvе to hаvе just onе pеrsonаlity to wear а boot likе this.

Thеrе аrе mаny young womеn todаy thаt likе to wear thе thigh high boot to mаkе thеy look flirty аt thе nightclubs аnd dаncе bаrs thаt thеy go to.  With а short littlе drеss or skirt аnd а pair of thigh highs, а womеn cаn look аs hot аs shе еvеr could.  Mеn would bе surе to tаkе а sеcond look аt аny womаn thаt comеs in with а hot pair of thеsе on.

Although thigh high hаvе а rеputаtion for bеing only for sеxy аnd short outfits, thаt mаy not bе thе case.  Thеrе аrе plеnty of outfit idеаs thаt you cаn fit with а pair of thigh high boots.  Mаny womеn cаn pair thеm up with а long skirt or drеss or еvеn а pair of shorts.  Womеn do not hаvе to wear just onе cеrtаin look with thеsе boots.  Thаt is thе best pаrt аbout thеsе fun crеаtions.  You do not hаvе to stick to thе normаl look; you cаn hаvе fun аnd usе thеm with your pеrsonаl drеss codе.

Thеrе аrе а lot of diffеrеnt styles of thеsе thigh high boots to choosе from.   Somе аrе а littlе morе risky аnd kinky thаn othеrs.  Thе womеn who wаnt to look flirty аnd frее mаy wаnt to try thе wildеr аnd boldеr styles.  Thеsе colors аrе аwеsomе аnd somе еvеn hаvе nеаt dеsigns аnd dеcorаtivе itеms on thеm.  Thеrе аrе boots with sеquins, bеаds аnd еvеn fringе on thеm.

Whilе thеrе аrе thе womеn who wаnt to livе frее аnd hаvе а wild timе in thеir boots, thеrе is thе morе consеrvаtivе kind thаt would rаthеr stick to thе lеss noticеаblе styles. For thеsе womеn, thеy would rаthеr stick to thе rеgulаr boots thаt аrе found in white or blаck.  Thеsе аrе still hot аnd sеxy, just not аs еlаborаtе аs thе boldеr styles аrе.

You do not hаvе to bе а cеrtаin аgе to wear thigh high boots.  Thеrе is no аgе limit for hаving fun аnd look hot.  With а pair of thigh high boots, you cаn fееl аs young аnd аs frее аs you wаnt.  An аgе doеs not dеfinе who you аrе.  It is your pеrsonаlity thаt you nееd to mаtch up with.  Whеn you wаnt to look hot аnd fееl fun, you will dеfiаntly find аll thаt аnd morе with а pair of thigh high boots.

The wait is finally over. After years of anticipation and weeks of headlines, the world’s largest social network is a publicly-traded company.

FB shares, which priced at $38 yesterday, became available to the general public in the past hour on the NASDAQ.

After a delay, the stock hit the market at a opening price of $42.05. It is currently trading at around $40.

Facebook’s IPO is a huge milestone for a company that is arguably unlike any other to come before it. Launched in 2004 from a university dorm room, Facebook has risen to become more than just a multi-billion dollar consumer internet star — it’s a cultural phenomenon used by close to a billion people.

But the company’s public debut is hardly the end of the story Mark Zuckerberg wrote. Instead, it’s just the beginning of what could prove to be either one of the greatest tech investment opportunities ever or a passing fad that brought irrational exuberance back to internet stocks. Which one will it be? Naturally, it depends on who you ask.

On one hand, Facebook is a force to be reckoned with. It has nearly a billion users, billions in revenue, one of the best-recognized brands in the world and some of the best engineering talent in Silicon Valley. Facebook boosters thus argue that the company is just getting started and its best days are ahead of it.

On the other hand, Facebook’s current valuation is based on its potential more than its relatively modest earnings and faces significant challenges in realizing all of its potential, including mobile. Skeptics will point out that the company is no spring chicken, saw a quarter-over-quarter revenue decline last quarter and that key insiders are selling in the IPO, hinting that they may believe Facebook’s valuation has peaked (or is close to peaking).

One thing is for sure: the initial movement in FB shares (up or down) in the next hours, days and weeks will make for great entertainment, but it’s what happens in the coming months and perhaps even years that will determine whether Facebook is the next Google, or the next Groupon.

The Wall Street Journal revealed some interesting data about readership trends by device and time today at the Business Development Institute’s social and mobile conference for Financial Services.

While a live Twitter feed streamed the thoughts of the audience, Michal Shapira, Associate Vice President of Digital Marketing noted that the organization is not just a traditional media company anymore and claimed that, compared to a jury of it’s peers, the company is number one in terms of mobile access.

Supplementing print readership, the WSJ’s desktop, tablet, and phone applications extend the companys product consumption levels far beyond it’s traditional reading hours.

The news organization’s tablet usage (mostly iPad) begins first, at five in the morning, with print following shortly thereafter. As people transit to and arrive at work those consumption methods fall precipitously.

Subsequently, mobile phone and desktop access rise, then hold steady throughout the remainder of the working day. Tablet usage begins to pick up again in the evening, and usage of WSJ Live, the company’s streaming video app, peaks in the evening at 10pm.

Shapira said that this is evidence of either digital video consumption replacing television, or, additive second-screen viewing. 

In either case, this level of advanced penetration of owned properties throughout an array of devices and content-formats is an impressive success for the 123 year old brand. 

In part, the success of these products is no doubt attributable to the company’s aggressive participation in numerous public-ish social media channels. According to a shared slideshow from March, the company maintains over 100 Twitter accounts, with over 2m followers.

Social sharing within Facebook is the largest source of traffic referral, and the company maintains 14 brand pages with 600k likes. The company has additionally embraced Pinterest, and is active on Instagram, where it has over 15k followers.

As brands consider implementing content strategies, they would be wise to pay attention to publications like this. At one point, the Wall Street Journal was just a newspaper. Now, it has the potential to poach eyeballs away from TV advertisers.

It isn’t that every brand should desire to become a full-fledged news service, it’s that the opportunity to deeply penetrate into the lives of consumers is there, for those who can figure out how to do it.

The digital world is complicated and website tags sit at the heart of online businesses and marketing. In fact, effectively managing website tags, or tracking pixels, is fundamental to digital marketing. 

In the ROI of Tag Management, a new report released today in partnership with Tealium, we explore the role, challenges and opportunities for technology in handling vendor website tags.

The tracking pixel enables communication between vendors and websites and is key to most digital marketing technologies. Site analytics, optimization and personalization all depend on them, and while these technologies provide valuable data and capabilities, they also create complexity and work for the marketing department.

The ROI of Tag Management Report looks at one of the rare opportunities to increase ROI and simultaneously simplify life for the marketer, while giving them greater control over digital assets.

Tag management systems (TMS) were developed to counter a number of challenges, especially those brought about by the reliance on technology department resources. Survey respondents cited the top issues with manual tagging, including:

• Delays in implementation as the tech department is overworked
• Product and site development is slowed
• Tag implementation is often incomplete
• Tags slow down the website

What are the benefits of managed tag implementation?

The complexity of the digital world is increasing as data-driven tools infiltrate most levels of digital marketing. Tag management gives marketers greater control over the chaos. The respondents to the Tag Management ROI Survey highlighted the benefits of moving from manual to managed implementation:

• Tag management saves money as marketers can swiftly make changes to vital assets without enlisting the help of the IT department. Less people and less time means less cost.
   
• Time to market is dramatically reduced. 70% of tag management system (TMS) users create and modify tags in less than a work day with almost half of them reporting it takes them less than an hour. Compare that to the industry standard of over a week for manual implementation, and you can see how significant a managed system can be.
   
• The marketing department can be more agile which releases the IT/ Tech department for higher level tasks.
   
• Website speed is increased as multiple tags are replaced with the single universal tag of the tag management system.
   
• Privacy tool are easily enabled site-wide which will be key as privacy concerns begin to force marketing technologies to offer “do-not-track” options.

To find out how tag management can benefit the work that you do, download our ROI of Tag Management report, created in association with Tealium. This comprehensive survey will help you better gauge the industry’s attitudes around perceived value, critical challenges, important vendor considerations and more.

Some of the top findings from the report have been captured in this infographic:

Facebook may be the subject of all of the headlines with its public debut looming this Friday, but another major player in the social networking space is reminding the world that it’s still growing too.

Twitter, which has built a company that one day might go public too on the back of 140 character messages, has waived its hands in the air by announcing that it has surpassed 140m users worldwide.

As reported by The Guardian, 10m of those users are in the UK. That’s good enough to make the UK Twitter’s fourth largest audience behind the US, Brazil and Japan, and explains why the company has a 30 person strong office in London.

Although Twitter’s userbase can’t compete with Facebook’s, the service’s impact on society has arguably been nearly as significant, and in some areas, perhaps even more significant. As The Guardian’s Charles Arthur notes, “over the past year [Twitter] has been blamed for inciting riots – a charge that was disproved – and of undermining superinjunctions involving, among others, Ryan Giggs and Jeremy Clarkson.” And, as Arthur points out, Twitter has become a key platform for prominent figures, celebrities and brands to interact with the public.

Like Facebook, Twitter has a front-row seat to the mobile revolution. According to the company, some 80% of British users who used Twitter in the past month did so using a mobile phone. Obviously, Twitter’s service, which was inspired in part by SMS, is more easily adapted to a mobile experience than, say, Facebook’s, but in terms of monetization, which Twitter has taken slowly, the dramatic rise of mobile usage is clearly going to present challenges for Twitter too.

One challenge Twitter is facing that Facebook isn’t (yet) is user attrition. The Guardian’s Arthur observes that one research firm had pegged the number of Twitter profiles created at around 383m at the beginning of the year, so the 140m figure Twitter is touting hints that the company’s service isn’t for everybody.

Even with all the question marks, Twitter’s growth, coupled with its age and the amount of funding it has received, raises the question: will we see a Twitter IPO in the next year or two? If Facebook’s IPO is a success and its share price doesn’t sink dramatically in its first six months, it wouldn’t be all that surprising to see some of Twitter’s investors pushing for a TWIT listing.

Chances are if you’re an owner of a Mac, you don’t worry too much about malware and viruses. At least you didn’t before the Flashback trojan was found to have infected some 600,000 Macs that were part of a botnet.

The Flashback botnet made headlines, but many were quick to point out that the infected machines became vulnerable through Java, not Apple’s OS, suggesting that Apple wasn’t to blame.

That may not have been entirely true, however. Apple had apparently blocked Oracle from issuing a direct update for Java on Mac, leaving Macs vulnerable to infection far longer than they should have been.

And that’s just the beginning of the problem according to the CTO of antivirus vendor Kaspersky, Nikolai Grebennikov. He’s on the record as stating “Mac OS is really vulnerable,” and apparently Apple believed that enough to invite Kaspersky to help it assess just how vulnerable Macs are.

The bad news: “Apple doesn’t pay enough attention to security.” In Grebennikov’s mind, the Java exploit that was left open for hackers to exploit proves this. When Oracle patched Java, Apple took far too long to issue a patch. Perhaps more importantly, it raises the question as to whether Apple should have allowed Oracle to issue the patch directly.

The even worse news: Grebennikov believes that malware targeting iOS, the operating system that powers the iPhone and iPad, could be right around the corner. While none has been identified yet, if past is prologue, it won’t be too long before it hits the scene. And as Grebennikov sees it, there’s no way Apple will be able to defeat iOS malware without help.

Which brings us to the good news: Kaspersky’s criticism of Apple’s security model seems to have caused Apple to bring Kaspersky (and perhaps other third parties) into the fold as it looks to take security more seriously going forward.

Locking down its OSes and maintaining their reputation as relatively “secure” could prove crucial to Apple staying on top. One of the main selling points of Apple devices is that they “just work.” But if hackers and scammers have their way, Mac owners could be in for some headaches. The business risk to Apple is huge, and it’s one that the company can’t afford not to try to mitigate.

In part one of this series, we examined ways for marketers to deliver a relevant browsing experience to users visiting their websites from mobile devices. With recent data indicating that 20% of all mobile phone owners made a purchase using their phone in 2011, there’s an obvious need to effectively reach consumers on mobile devices.

And with mobile web usage expected to surpass desktop web by 2015, delivering a seamless and relevant mobile experience will only grow in importance.

Unlike traditional desktop web browsing, where online brands have the full attention of their customers, mobile users are often distracted while engaging with you on their smartphone. But they also may be looking for that perfect pair of shoes.

How can you tell, and most importantly, use what you know about the mobile visitor to increase their likelihood of converting?

Usable vs. Useful

There is a clear difference between mobile sites that are usable, and those that are useful. Usable sites may load fast, have easy navigation, and a clear hero image that fits nicely on the page, but developing useful mobile pages that take advantage of the user’s location and provide immediately actionable information are more effective.

Just like you can’t judge a book by its cover, you also can’t judge a customer by their device. Mobile adds valuable texture to the universal truths of how landing pages convert, and in order to improve mobile conversions, marketers have to take advantage of everything they know about their customers. The fundamentals of making pages usable matter more on mobile than they ever did before, and a generic landing page that ignores its users and their context will most likely be useless.

Why is this important? As we previously discussed, mobile users may be browsing your mobile site in a store, on a train, or at a restaurant to kill time while waiting for their date to arrive. It is very important for this context you know about the user to factor into your overall mobile design and user experience.

Geography Matters

Understanding the location of the consumer when they are engaging with your brand from a mobile device presents a big advantage for marketers.

For example, many shoppers frequently use their mobile devices during the in-store browsing and purchasing processes. Given this common behavior, it’s marketers must make it easier for in-store shoppers to find the information they’re looking for. One way is to allow shoppers to scan barcodes with their phones and find reviews, ratings, and other information without having to search around the mobile site. According to the National Retail Federation’s Mobile Retailing Blueprint, making it easier for mobile shoppers to make an informed decision can help close the sale faster.

Perhaps more interesting than the user’s actual geography, however, is their proximal geography, meaning how close they are to something. One of the blessings smartphones present to marketers is that you know exactly where the user is with greater accuracy than the traditional way of identifying location based on an IP address.

Did the user arrive at your mobile landing page from a geo-targeted AdWords campaign? Are they near your competitor’s store? Are they near your store? If so, give them a targeted offer to purchase from your store to discourage them from hopping over to Amazon to buy a similar product.

The Right Technographics 

Mobile screen real estate is precious, and every inch represents selling space just like floor space in a store. To improve your likelihood of converting, you better use that real estate effectively.

Another important variable to consider when optimizing mobile landing pages is connection speed. We all know that the length of time it takes for a page to load has a direct correlation on its effectiveness to convert. So focusing on whether a user is browsing from an iPhone or Android device is less important than knowing whether the user is in their living room with a strong Wi-Fi connection or on a plane using a 3G signal, where the page will take up to 10 times longer to load.

In order to convert more effectively, use what you know about the user’s connection speed to progressively disclose content so headlines and the above the fold image are the first things to load and additional supporting information loads later.

Beyond the Landing Page

The most important question to ask about a mobile landing page is: Does it actually address the needs of your users? And since conversion doesn’t happen on the landing page alone, you need to help distracted mobile users stay focused throughout the entire session.

If a customer finds that other pages on your website are loading too slow, they will look elsewhere and all your hard work to optimize the landing page will be lost. Mobile users are distracted and have limited time to complete a task, which is why you have to make their shopping experience as seamless and efficient as possible.

If the user session doesn’t end with a conversion on the landing page, maintain consistency in terms of the user experience and your offers throughout. Make sure that the offer the customer received in an email or paid search ad is consistent from page to page and don’t include links to non-mobile optimized pages.

And whatever you do, if you’re selling the user something, don’t send them to your shopping cart that’s not mobile optimized and be surprised when they don’t convert.

The Bottom Line: Test

The evidence clearly shows that consumers are using their mobile devices to access your website. However, mobile optimization now is comparable to space flight in the 1950s. While we may know the basic rules, this is all very new and nobody has enough real-world experience to make universal statements at this point.

The only way to learn what works best for your brand is by constantly testing. Blaze some trails within your organization, challenge assumptions, and realize that you may discover something new by testing.

The more you test, the more you learn. And the more you learn the more you will earn.

Apple and Google may be arch rivals thanks to their competing mobile operating systems, iOS and Android, but the relationship between the two tech giants hasn’t always been so rocky.

Case in point: since the iPhone’s launch, Apple has used Google Maps to provide mapping in iOS.

That, however, is apparently about to change according to a report from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac’s “trusted sources” say that Apple’s in-house replacement for Google Maps will be “fairly similar” to the Google Maps-driven application currently in iOS, “but it is described as a much cleaner, faster, and more reliable experience.”

To build out its mapping back end, Apple is said to have relied on assets obtained through the acquisition of several companies. One of those companies, C3 Technologies, was a 3D mapping solutions provider. According to 9to5Mac, C3’s technology will power a “powerful” 3D mapping mode in Apple’s new mapping application that provides “beautiful, realistic graphics based on de-classified missile target algorithms.”

Interestingly, many of the executives from C3 have reportedly left Apple recently, and 9to5Mac observes that their “leaving just ahead of iOS integration would be similar to Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus leaving following Siri’s launch on the iPhone 4S late last year.”

Whether Apple’s new mapping application, which is apparently going to be called Maps, will create as much buzz as Siri at its expected release in mid-June as part of an iOS 6 announcement at WWDC remains to be seen, but it will almost certainly cause disappointment amongst the ranks of Google executives who will see one of the most important Google Maps integrations disappear.

Once again we’ve put together the most senior and influential job moves in the US.

This time we cover influential moves from Fuse to Newsday Media Group, two greatly anticipated hires at RIM, a promotion at Edelman, new hires at AOL and the Hoffman Agency and two new hires at Hootsuite.

Andreoli MSL Brazil brought on board Valeria Cafe as COO to manage the agency operations in Brazil.

AOL has nabbed former Time Inc. executive Ned Desmond to oversee its tech media brands including TechCrunch, Engadget, Joystiq, and The Unofficial Apple Weblog. 

Banyan Branch hired Kelby Johnson as Senior Account Director of Social marketing strategy.

Beehive PR promoted Ayme Zemke to the position of Vice President from her role of leading client services for the agency.

Bnations, a Toronto-based app developer, hired University of Southern California graduate, Jenna Hannan as their marketing director.

Edelman promoted Cornelia Kunze to vice chairman of Edelman Asia Pacific from her current position of CEO of Edelman Germany.

Formula PR hired Debbie Etchison as the VP of the agency’s sports and entertainment division in Los Angeles. Prior to working at Formula, Etchison was VP at Atomic PR and VP at Hill & Knowlton.

GolinHarris hired Brian Snyder to join them as Director of Digital where he will work on interactive campaigns for midwest clients.

The Hoffman Agency brought former principal of the Burkhart Group, Steve Burkhart, on board as GM for North America.

HootSuite Media has made two new hires including Cameron Uganec who joins them as Director of Marketing & Communications and Brian Bailard will be its VP of Global Strategic Accounts.

The social media agency, Laundry Service, has hired Don Middleberg, CEO of Middleberg Communications, to be their principal and CEO alongside Jason Stein who is the current Principal and President. Middleberg will continue working both roles.

Kellwood Company has made Jill Granoff its CEO, nabbing her roles as CEO of Kenneth Cole Productions. Prior to working at Kenneth Cole, Granoff was the EVP of Liz Claiborne.

Market America/Shop.com appointed Dana Dillehunt as Social Media Writer and Amanda LaRiviere as its new Social Media Manager.

Newsday Media Group hired former Senior Vice President of Marketing for Fuse, Valerie Green, to be publisher of amNewYork.

RIM has made two new greatly anticipated appointments. Frank Boulben, former EVP of strategy, marketing and sales at Lightsquared, will be its new CMO and Kristian Tear is moving from Sony Mobile Communications where he was EVP to be RIM’s new COO.

UnitedHealth Group appointed Rachel Medina as Senior Communications Specialist of Social Media.

Washington Post Company appointed Emily Barr as the president of Post-Newsweek Stations after moving from her role as president of WLS-Chicago.

Today, LinkedIn launched its inaugural Financial Services Summit in New York which focused on the role social media is playing in the financial services industry. The first panel brought together representatives from American Express, Citi, Fidelity Investments, Prudential Retirement and Hearsay Social to talk about using social media in financial marketing.

It was curious to see a panel on social media where only two out of six individuals on the panel have Twitter accounts. One was Clara Shih, who runs the agency Hearsay Social, and the other, Frank Eliason, SVP of Social for Citi. The panelists’ lack of Twitter accounts felt like a microcosm highlighting how most financial service organizations are behind in social media.

Not that Twitter is the be all and end all of social media, it is a communication channel for 140 million active users. Saying that, in LinkedIn’s new findings released today, financial advisors are mainly reaching out to prospective clients on LinkedIn with Twitter only used by 8% of them. Even brand identity building primarily takes place on LinkedIn over Facebook, Twitter and Google+ for those working in an advisory capacity.

Though the panelists did mention communication on all platforms, a lot of the issues they are facing aren’t about where the conversations are taking place. It’s rather that financial institutions need to put customers at the center of their decisions as well as enable their employees to do the same.

Below are a few of the key takeaways from each of the panelists. These points could be taken across any organization, especially those who have to deal with compliance issues and regulatory bodies:

Clara Shih, CEO, Hearsay Social

There are two main things that Shih highlighted about how social media is shifting the way financial services market themselves:

1) Proliferation of online identity where people freely sharing what they do, who they are, etc. is very valuable for the financial world. When people get married or have a career change, these are great triggers for financial services discussion and this is when financial advisors and institutions need to reach out to customers.

2) The online social graph (social networking) shifted us from a base founded in search. Today the way we get information is discovery based with more links coming from social media than Google now. Shih stressed that Twitter is mainly used for retail, customer service, offers and deals, Facebook is a perfect place for retail cards and insurance and LinkedIn is used most by ultra high worth individuals. It’s more than a social graph, it’s a decision graph. We need to figure out how consumers use connections and rich information to make the best choice for them and give them the facility to do it.

Most importantly, we have to find a way to enable the advisors, whatever the device they are on and wherever they are. We’ve seen this movie play before many times before. There was a time when it took convincing to get employees to get computers and email. We’ve proven what can be done with technology so once we can ensure compliance, we have to look at ROI.

Kara Segreto, CMO, Prudential Retirement

Segreto is seeing a real trend to shift to more thought leadership with the generation of enough content to completely regenerate and be one step ahead. You also need to commit as a whole institute or it won’t work. There has been a shift from spending time with sales and product to spending more time with technology and tech law and compliance. There’s also been a shift in media mix and spends and financial institutions need to have an integrated approach to the market place.

Audrey Hendley, General Manager, New Customer Acquisition, American Express

Social Media has provided a greater opportunity for deeper engagement with customers at American Express. Social media amplifies brand messaging across different customer touch points and aids with customer service, engagement and retention. It is looking to engage more with small businesses and American Express puts on Small Business Saturday once a year to engage with customers and the community. Hendley stressed that it’s important to know who you are talking to and and correlate your messaging and content to that audience. The more connected customers are to the brand, the more they will use it.

Sean Belka, SVP Fidelity Center for Applied Technology, Fidelity Investments

The goal at Fidelity Investments is to help customers achieve big goals. 20 years ago meant calls and mail, then web and email. Social media is part of the large evolution to be where the customers are. We need to look at technology and try to figure out how that will help your customers. Think – is this going to help them in their financial lives? It’s less about the channel and more about what the customers need.

People want to aggregate multiple sources when making a financial decision instead of a single source like they did in the past. How do we enable that and bring that all together in a low cost way? One of the things Fidelity brought to market in the last year, was to enable customers to deposit checks through their mobile. This way the company can be where the customers are, make it easier for them and create new opportunities.

Frank Eliason, SVP Social Media, Citi

For Citi, social media shifted the control. Now the control is more in hands of the customer and the hands of your employee. This is changing the culture at all companies and we’re forced to be more open. This openness will help build the trust that is lacking in the financial world at the moment.

The huge thing that is under discussed is how we can help facilitate conversation. How can financial institutions listen in the space and understand what is happening in all brands in the marketplace. They then need to take this information to see where they can change things internally. Also how do you build that trust and build those communities? Traditionally, financial services was about community and relationships and that is what social is. Ultimately, you have to find ways to connect the dots. It’s not about the brand, it’s about finding out more about your customers.

In the financial services world, we need to shift from the product perspective and look how customers are using it and doing it. All social spaces are different. First, you need to listen in each space and then ask customers where to communicate, what they want and then keep adapting as the platform adapts. At first everything may be cool with how a platform is used and then elements may not, so you need to adjust accordingly.

A big problem is that most financial firms push messages out and no one cares. We have to remember it’s about human dialogue. When you’re dealing with compliance, traditionally it’d take 3 days to have approval but taking three days to approve something makes for really funny Twitter conversations. To help with this, Citi has 2 social lawyers.

As for trying to stop employees from speaking online, you can’t. They are speaking there and they are connecting to other people. This is not a bad thing, we just have to start doing it in the right way. Regulators are just as confused in this space as financial services are so we need to have the conversation with them. This is important as the real world has changed since the time regulatory laws were first created in 1929. Now is the time to rethink them.

The future of Google’s greatest social networking effort to date, Google+, may be debatable, but the search giant hasn’t found it very difficult to lure brands to Google+.

And for good reason: Google+ has been Google’s most respectable social effort to date and brands have learned that getting on board services before they get big is often a far better strategy than waiting until it’s too late.

While it remains to be seen whether those brands that joined the Google+ bandwagon early will be rewarded with ROI, there is some promising news according to social media analytics provider Simply Measured.

It looked at the Interbrand Top 100 brands that are present on Google+ and found that, six months in, 22% of the brands circler counts exceeding 100,000. Nike, which joined just two months ago, is one of them. All told, the total number of circlers counted has grown 138% since Simply Measured’s first report three months ago, and circler engagement is up 112%. Engagement with content, which Simply Measured says is driven primarily by photos and videos, is up too, although not as much (65%).

As one might expect, not all brands and verticals are treated equally on Google+. Four luxury brands — Ferrari, Gucci, H&M and Burberry — are tops in terms of the number of circlers they have. Combined, they have more than 2.5m circlers. In terms of verticals, brands in the automotive, electronics and luxury categories are by far the most popular.

According to Simply Measured CEO Adam Schoenfeld, “With a user base surpassing 100 million and growing fast, Google+ is becoming an attractive channel for brands to engage with consumers.”

For brands like Ferrari and Gucci, that does appear to be the case. But there’s a wide chasm outside of the top-tiers of the Google+ brand page leaders. Armani, which ranks twenty-second in circlers with 111,000, is followed by Adidas, which has just 26,000 followers.

A lot of this has to with how great an effort different brands are making on Google+, which raises the question: just how much time and money should brands invest in Google’s social network to get results? Ferarri’s 730,000 circler count is impressive, but the iconic automobile manufacturer has more than 8.1m likes on Facebook. Adidas, which has a far less impressive circler count, has an equally impressive 7.6m likes on Facebook.

Obviously, Google+ isn’t yet a year old, so comparing circlers to likes isn’t entirely fair. But at the end of the day, savvy brands will begin to make comparisons. What’s the cost of acquiring a new circler compared to a like? At what point does fan acquisition hit a plateau on both networks? What’s the value of circler versus a Facebook fan?

Right now, Google can’t offer a Facebook-sized audience, so it should probably focus on doing what it can to ensure the answers to these questions cast Google+ in a favorable light.

Today, PulsePoint released new research in conjunction with The CMO Club and Digiday on what they are terming the Digital Divide. This report examines digital marketing capabilities, top challenges and priorities of brands, agencies and publishers.

PulsePoint first decided to conduct a study to analyze the gap in perception between publishers, advertisers and agencies and how they use digital channels. Surprisingly, there was not much difference between the groups but rather between what they were doing and what the consumer expected.

With digital, consumers are moving fluidly between channels and devices but most marketers still have basic priorities in this space.  They are measuring performance and optimizing in silos without consistent messaging across customer touch points. This is because most marketers are still looking at the separation of channels at the core of what they are doing instead of adopting a customer-centric approach.

The best way to look at the marketing mix is to get the point of real-time interactive marketing. This leverages real time interactions to automate the delivery of the most relevant messages and content across all of your marketing channels.

The majority of marketers are still in the multi-channel phase where their marketing program uses two of more digital channels but not in a unified way. The good news is that they are moving to the middle ground of cross channel marketing where lessons from specific channels are used to inform marketing activities in other channels.

How are agencies rating themselves?

According to the survey of over 400 senior marketers which underlies the research, agencies rate themselves the highest in terms of where they are in the mix of multi-channel/cross channel/ real time interactive marketing. 

But is this an indication of what agencies are really doing? Dr. Karl Lendenmann, PulsePoint’s SVP of Research, believes this feels aspirational. Agencies often have to create a reality in their client’s minds to show what is possible. As they are in the middle of the marketing landscape, they are good at best practice but also can add more complexities to the mix. 

Marketers are looking for automation to make their supply chain more effective. Due to the current funding models, there can be an inertia with agencies in this area as they rely on fee based commissions to cover head count. Automation is a threat as less head count would be needed to fulfill the same goals. But the way we currently work won’t bring us to the way we are meant to be.

One of the main takeaways of the Digital Divide report, shows that we, as marketers, have to move toward two specific goals in order to bring real time interactive marketing to the table.

1. Real-time intelligence 
   We need to apply the learnings of digital interactions to enhance relevance and performance
    
2. Unified automation 
   Seamlessly execute marketing strategy with unified customer views and attribute the results across all channels and programs.

While our priorities are still channel driven and campaign and campaign driven, the unifying principle will never be the consumer, which it must be. As Rose Ann Haran, CMO of PulsePoint, put it “Don’t stop making the donuts.”

Yes, you still have to figure out mobile, for instance, but you have to do both. The initiative in companies has to be to get to a unified customer view.

Then everything you do, no matter what channel you are in, will feed the marketing beast.

As the newest Fortune 500 list came out this morning, we’ve pulled two of the top 10 to be today’s competitors in our Twitter showdown: General Motors (ranking 5th on the list) and Ford (who came in 9th). 

Everyone knows how passionate people are about their cars but will their standings on the Fortune 500 reflect how they are doing in the social space? Let’s find out.

Ford

In recent years, Ford has been looked at as a lead player in the social space. Since Scott Monty, Ford’s head of social media, joined in 2008, Ford have pushed forward with a unified social strategy that been used to build strong communities of customers, advocates, and more recently, software developers, engineers, designers and scientists. 

Not only is Monty building this social strand for Ford but he is looked to as an expert in the field as he writes about the intersection of advertising, marketing and PR. In fact, he has almost 74,000 followers on Twitter, which surpasses the number of followers GM has. Not that numbers matter, but as Monty is putting what he writes about in practice at Ford, it is no wonder he is a go to in the social sphere.

Looking at Twitter, Ford splits its Twitter efforts into two main channels:

1. @Ford focuses on the corporate side of the company focusing on product, innovation and social. It’s run by Scott Monty himself as well as the Ford Social Media Manager, Craig Daitch. For the most part, they link back to Ford’s social hub. This site allows you to become a member and you can keep track of your blog comments and any ideas or stories you’ve submitted. If you do want to take part but don’t want to sign up, you can still comment using Facebook sign in.
    
2. If you mention @Ford but you have a customer service query, @FordService now responds. The handle is managed by a customer service social media team of eight, who are all listed and pictured under the Twitter bio. Ford assists 2000 people per week via social media with the agents assigned issues that remain their responsibility until it is resolved. On average the team tweets responses every 3-6 minutes between the hours of 9-5 ET. They also post their hours of operation and where you can get help when they are not online.

As for sentiment, it’s generally neutral to positive. This could be due to the majority of users going offline for customer complaints, or going directly to the dealership. Either way, people seem to like Ford online.

Other Ford social presences

Ford is active across most social platforms including Google Plus where it posts content fit for a socially savvy audience. Who doesn’t love I haz Cheezburger style photos to highlight Ford’s move to reduce the weight of its vehicles by creating carbon fiber composite-intensive materials 

On Facebook, Ford takes advantage of the timeline feature and starts it’s history with a picture of one of the most well know cars on the planet, the Model A.

The cover highlights the Ford headquarters, and though it integrates with the profile picture well, it’s not the most inspiring photo for a company that has enough car porn for everyone.

Ford’s Facebook account is highly followed with almost 1.5 million followers and over 19,000 people are talking about Ford though Facebook alone.

The Ford online experience

Everything is about integration here and Ford are continuing to build a community to share stories on its own social hub. This hub does highlight all the places you can follow Ford online but stresses over and over again that it wants you to “follow the story.” Ford is also pushing into the co-creation territory that is still a distant future for other brands through its “Your Idea” tab.

In an even bolder move toward community building, Ford has recently invested in TechShop, a space that houses high tech equipment for Detroit-area engineers, designers and scientists to innovate on their own time. This is a logical move following the success of its ongoing “Your ideas” section of the Ford social hub, which generated over 3600 submissions during its pilot, and its hundreds strong developer program for Ford SYNC, Ford’s voice activated technology that syncs with your phone. 

General Motors

As this is a Twitter show down, let’s start with that. General motors uses its Twitter account to, as it states in its bio, bring GM information to Twitter one Tweet at a time. It’s run by Mary, Rebecca, Pete and Michael and not only do they use their initials in their tweets so you know who you are talking to, but you can see their pictures, names and personal twitter handles on the background of GM’s twitter page.

This is very much a corporate account in terms of the information presented but the tone is light and personal. Some of their tweeters even use a plethora of exclamation marks. The account highlights positive press, responds to its fans and most recently live tweeted GM’s earnings, a tactic also used by companies like eBay in order to spread important corporate announcements into the social space. 

As for sentiment, it’s generally neutral to positive just as Ford is. When reading the @GM mentions, it’s mostly praise and there are not a lot of complaints or customer service issues coming directly to them.

Other GM social presences

General Motors is also on YouTube (people love videos of cars), Flickr (people love pictures of cars) and Facebook.

According to the frequency of posting, it appears GM have abandoned their Flickr accounts for the most part at the end of 2011. As a community, Flickr is no longer at the top of the photo chain with Instagram far surpassing it. That being said, GM has still kept in the widgets for Flickr on a lot of its blogs, so when you click through, it feels like an abandoned channel. If GM is no longer strategically using this platform, then it should remove it from its main pages.

As for Facebook, GM have taken advantage of the new Facebook timeline feature (like Ford) to outline its history as a car manufacturer. Its focus in on the founder rather than its first vehicle and its cover highlights the main GM brand logos.

As a community, its focus is not on customer service and it encourages people to go to its contact us page for assistance where they have options for email, phone or mail. Despite looking throughout its sites, blogs and social channels, there seems to be no way to have queries answered through any official social channels.

With 375,773 likes and 4497 people talking about them, the bigger brand of GM seems to be the quieter of the two car manufacturers.

The GM online experience

This is where things become a little disjointed. The link from Twitter goes to the GM blogs page where there is a list of most of the official blogs GM runs. If you click on the first few more corporate blogs, some of the sections are out of date and it is hard to find links to its main social channels from there.

The next few blogs are region specific and this is where you can really see the community taking shape. Each region has different initiatives and different blog layouts so it lacks consistency with the main brand. There are also links to separate Twitter/ Facebook accounts for either its regional community or a regional initiative. 

This segmented approach makes it hard to find relevant information or to see the great care GM takes with its local communities. It could indicate a lack of strategy for the brand with each separate marketing departments taking it upon themselves to carve a niche in the social space without any regard or awareness of what other factions of the brand are also doing there.

The numbers and the results

Ford far surpasses GM in the land of Twitter according to the infographic by Visual.ly. It talks more, is mentioned more and is followed more. Ford look to be the more social of the two. Its social media strategy is cohesive and connected and you can easily find what you need, when you need it and Ford are also proactive in the social media space for customer service.

So Ford wins today in the social media game but it’s still GM who are winning in the battle of real dollars. Will Ford’s social media strategy help them surpass GM in the financial game moving forward? With the release of today’s Fortune 500 list, they haven’t done it yet but Ford is definitely creeping up there.

Facebook employees and investors are set to cash in when the world’s largest social network goes public later this month, but life at a public company isn’t always easy.

Just ask the executives at Nokia and Yahoo.

In Nokia’s case, angry investors believe that Nokia executives, including the company’s CEO and CFO, made statements about the company’s attempted turnaround and the prospects for the Lumia phone that were “materially false and misleading” in an effort to “to deceive the market.” In a class action lawsuit, they’re alleging that the troubled mobile phone maker violated securities laws and committed fraud.

Yahoo is facing a similarly serious situation involving its new CEO, Scott Thompson, who it appears may have lied about his educational background. That has led activist shareholder Dan Loeb to call on Yahoo’s board to demand Thompson’s resignation from his post by noon on Monday. If the board does not act, he says, his investment firm will “consider it grounds for further action.” In other words, get rid of Thompson or get sued.

While it would be premature to try to judge the veracity of the claims being made in both cases, the woes of Nokia and Yahoo serve as a reminder that being a publicly traded company is not always an attractive proposition. Yes, there are benefits to going public, and for private companies the size of, say, Facebook, it’s all but required. But that doesn’t mean that going public is good for business.

Just ask Groupon. Going public didn’t change the fact that the long-term viability of the company’s business model was in question, but thanks to serious accounting missteps, the company is already having to deal with shareholder lawsuits that will ultimately distract it from making the changes it needs to make to prove that it’s a company built to last.

Entrepreneurs — even those who haven’t yet started a business — should take heed. With crowdfunding coming, those hoping to build the next big thing will effectively be able to conduct their own ‘mini’ IPOs to raise capital from members of the general public. But in doing so, they’ll also subject themselves to the same types of lawsuits that Nokia and Yahoo are facing. The difference, of course, is that Nokia and Yahoo will likely survive their clashes with shareholders. Conceivably, smaller, younger companies, including some of the newest publicly-traded tech companies, may not.

Once again we’ve put together the most senior and influential job moves in the US.

This time we cover influential moves from Google to Ifeelgoods and Dell to SAP AG, another senior resignation at Best Buy, new hires at American Express and Eloqua and the loss of T-Mobile USA’s CMO.

3G PR brought on Tod Musgrave as its Director of Business Development to help strategically grow the company.

The Advertising Association has named AMV BBDO group chief executive and chairman Cilla Snowball as its first woman chairman replacing Andrew McGuiness from Beattie McGuiness Bungay.

American Express hired former Caesars Entertainment CTO Katrina Lane as its new Executive Vice President of Consumer Cards and Experiences. 

AOL Advertising has brought on former Carat managing director Neil Jones to be its vice-president of commercial where he’ll be managing advertising and content through brand advertising, video, content and ad serving.

Best Buy has lost another executive as its Chief Marketing Officer, Barry Judge, has left the company to “explore the next chapter of his career.” This departure follows those of Geek Squad founder Robert Stephens and CEO Brian Dunn.

Edelman has brought on Joanne Colan as senior vice president and senior content strategist with an emphasis on short-form sharable video.

Eloqua named Heidi Melin as Chief Marketing Officer. She will report to Eloqua’s CEO, Joe Payne.

Extreme Networks appointed Theresa Caragol Vice President, Worldwide Channels. Caragol formerly worked at Ciena as Vice President of Channels and Alliances.

Ifeelgoods, digital incentives provider, hired former Google and PayPal Executive, Tyler Hoffman, as its SVP of Sales.

IntraLinks appointed Rainer Gawlick as the company’s chief marketing officer.

NQ Mobile appointed Victoria Repice as senior director of Product Management. Before moving to NQ Mobile, Repice was in charge of Product Marketing & Operations for Content & Services at Samsung Mobile. 

PAN Communications hired former Porter Novelli partner Jim Barbagallo as SVP, Client Relations.

SAP AG nabbed Dell’s Vice President of Dell Services for Asia Pacific and Japan, Geraldine McBride, to be its president of its North America region. 

Technology start-up, TicketMob, hired the former Director of Communications, Media Relations & Social Media of The Recording Academy, Jaime Sarachit, as its Chief Marketing Officer.

T-Mobile USA has lost 17-year veteran, Cole Brodman, who will be stepping down as its executive and chief marketing officer. 

UniWorld Group promoted Monique L. Nelson to Chief Executive Officer. She has been with the company for 5 years after joining UWG from a marketing a role at Motorola. 

Wausau Paper promoted Sherri L. Lemmer to the role of Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from her role of Vice President, Finance and Information Technology. 

WellAWARE Systems hired Teresa DiMarco as its Chief Executive Officer. Previous to this, Teresa was formally the president of Unisys’ Health Information Management business unit.

Last week, we had a chance to talk to Jay Miletsky, CEO of MyPod Studios. Launched October 2010, MyPod Studios was created to provide an alternative to the current video networks with content curated by the MyPod team.

Miletsky shared with us his top tips on how brands should create video content on the web and how he would like to see online video advertising and how we deliver it to change.

What led you to create MyPod Studios?

In the agency I ran before founding MyPod, we pitched a new video platform to a B2B client. They couldn’t justify the build so we decided to make it any way and license it to them instead. 

As time went on, I realized I was tired of doing social media marketing even though it is useful and I believe in it. After updating the technology, I took the platform to make it for general consumers and my partner took the clients. 

Do you host the videos yourself? How does someone become a content provider for you?

We have our own server, own database and own player so that we can neutrally brand it. Originally, we reached out to content creators who already had a significant reach or were the larger content providers. 

Since launching in September, we have 20 million uniques per month and creators come to us. On average, we say no to about 75% of them. It’s about watchability not just quality. People want content that is fun, entertaining, informative or educational. We’re OK if it’s cheesy or “bad” as long as it’s fun to watch.

The most popular content is food and drink and health and fitness – anything how to related. Actually this area is so popular that we are launching a how to section!

What makes your offer unique compared to services like Blip or Hulu? And how do you monitize the site for your content providers?

We put PR, social media and outreach behind what we do and all the ads onsite are pay per clicks. We use display ads that rotate every four minutes, pre-roll and mid-roll if the program is over ten minutes long Saying that, we also heavily rely on content providers to spread the word about their programming.

The original model we used (which is what most hosting sites like Blip, etc, do) gives content providers a certain percentage of the click throughs they get on their content pages or videos. This is usually so minimal, they make almost nothing! 

We looked at where most of the revenue was coming from and found it was from the homepage or the content pages but not the individual creator pods. This led to us take a percentage of total revenue and put it into a pot. The amount you’d get as a content creator, depends on the percentage of the total page views were to your pod. For instance, if all the content got five million page views and you got one million of them, you would get 20% of the revenue pot.

Something that we also do that’s a bit different, is we only allow each content creator 2GB of space. If you want to have more than that on the system, then you have to take something off. This actually helps us keep fresh content on the site and makes the creators think about which videos are working the best for them and removing the ones that aren’t.  

Your site isn’t currently mobile enabled as it uses flash? With 19% of phone owners in the US and 9% of all adults are on iPads watching videos online, is this an area you’ll be optimizing for?

By June 1 we’ll be mobile ready. But this isn’t really for that 9% but because we want to start making thirty minute informercials about our platform, our content and our creators. I’m a traditional marketing guy and I think TV is still important. I also know that when people watch TV they also use their mobile or iPad to look stuff up, so we need to be mobile optimized before we head down the television route.

A lot of organizations are starting to become content creators. What advice would you give them in making videos? How can they best reach an audience with streamed video?

Brands make the mistake of making content that shows how great they are instead of helping customers and potential customers. They are too focused on the sales pitch. Brands could, and should, educate in the areas they are expert in. For instance, Chase Bank (or any bank for that matter), could create a short, two minute video on “five ways to save for your child’s education.” They’d give real advice that people should use and could apply to them no matter where they bank. 

As for distribution, they should put their content on multiple networks – YouTube, Daily Motion, Metacafe, etc. Also, don’t just put it on your Facebook page but put it where your potential “fans” may be. In the case of the video on saving for college, maybe you could put it on the Facebook page of Universities or other fan pages that are appropriate for your content.

Also be smarter about where you’re engaging. You could do a blogpost but why not be the first to comment in long form on an article with high traffic, let’s say AdAge.com. You’ll get more comments and interactive and then you not only have the thought leadership there, but you can repurpose the post and embed one of your videos on your own site.

What new trends and technologies are you seeing in video? How will this affect marketers?

The biggest one that I see at the moment is ad skipping technology. I don’t think it’s fair. If I’m an ad network, I want to have my ad seen if I’m paying for it to be there. Also by putting the words “skip this video,” it’s like you’re saying, “we, the network, recognize this is crap, so you can skip and don’t need to watch because we think this brand is crap.”

The brand needs to be treated fairly. Instead of saying skip, it should say “Can’t wait to get to my content. Take me there now.” Or you have to type the name of the brand before you move onto watching your video. I don’t like networks disparaging the brand who basically pay their bills.

The bigger problem we are facing is that most brands are repurposing ads for the web. You should be looking at online ads as a thing to itself and not a second cousin to TV. It’s a different type of audience so of course they want to skip the ads that are currently being served. Ads need to be content and be targeted better.

What are your top three video tips?

1. Keep it short. By the third minute, people often drop off so try to keep it under that.
2. Keep your videos around a central theme and don’t waiver.
3. Come out with a consistent publication schedule.  I’ve found that repeat visits ground to a halt when videos are sporadic.