Another fan buying enterprise, Bird Bird Fans, has recently launched its service of buying high volumes of fans to boost the Facebook pages of small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) new to the market.

According to Mark Macias, Founder & Managing Partner of 3M Media Group, the company behind Big Bird Fans, multinationals spend “$100k a month on social media fan acquisition.” He claims Big Bird Fans will bring this technology and acquisition techniques only used by large brands to SMBs.

Macias believes some people just want fans from anywhere and organic fans have too high a cost. For him, targeting is something that large companies are looking to do, not SMBs but it really depends on the client’s goals. “Most companies starting out don’t need a customised approach. It’s more about the image. Sheer numbers count first.”

“We’re in the beginning stages of power marketing with Facebook,” Macias continues. “Until someone figures it out, and I hope it takes them a decade, [Big Bird Fans] will help separate my PR firm from any other PR firm.”

But is this ethical?
A number of PR managers and small businesses would seem to disagree with Macias’s fan buying ethos.

“The line from services like this is that “thousands of fans will make any restaurant or lounge look like the hottest spot in town,” said Max Tatton-Brown, account manager at PR firm, EML Wildfire.

“In truth, this is like saying you should hire a fleet of actors to fill up your restaurant on week nights. Generating the veneer of popularity is no replacement for actually looking into who your advocates are and giving them a reason to express their support online. While you’re busy paying to fake it, you risk competitors increasing their lead in doing the hard work of creating true communities online.”

Macias professed that Big Bird Fans was just the service for restaurants and bars in major centers across the US. Jesse Alexander, owner of family run EN Japanese Brasserie in New York’s West Village, has had slow and steady growth on Facebook but it was all done organically.

“Restaurants have a small profit margin. Very low profit. So I have to be super picky on choices. $2000? I could never imagine that $2000 coming back to me so I don’t see advantage as a business owner.

More important than cost, is how I run my business. A lot of the decisions I make are based on my principals and philosophy of how to handle business. And that’s all about honesty. If I’m dishonest, I believe it will come back to me.

If something goes bad, I won’t sell it. I won’t tell one customer one thing and another something else. And I wouldn’t buy fans as it’s dishonest and it’s dishonest to the rest of my Facebook fans. I’m not a dodgy business man.”

Charles Powne, owner of Portland-based Soleilmoon Recordings, had never heard of businesses buying fans especially a service like Big Bird Fans where a base package costs $1500 for 2000 fans.

“My business has 1352 fans (I just looked), and certainly having fans brings in sales for me, but I’d never pay that much to get 2000 more fans, especially since its 100% certain that they’d never convert to paying customers. It wouldn’t be cost effective, in other words. The best way to grow your social media community is to employ methods that work organically and authentically. Growth for its own sake may look good, but if it’s faked then it’s not terribly meaningful.”

Pinball Publishing’s Laura Whipple thinks buying fans is a bad investment.

“It’s fake, and it’s really easy for people to detect false sentiment in social media realms. I think it would be better for small to medium businesses to find creative ways to build a true fan base on their social media sites. It will take longer, but it’s a more lasting strategy. Fans are another name for potential customers, so if your social media network is just flooded with fake potential customers, it will be much harder to communicate with the real ones.”

“Fan falsification is a big problem in the US and globally for social networks,” says Phil Sheard, Associate Director of Hotwire’s specialist digital agency, 33 Digital. “These ‘get rich quick’ style schemes undermine the hard work of those brands that put in work to get real results – and these brands pay the bills through advertising so they’ll get looked after. Don’t be surprised when fan purchasing schemes get stamped out, by the social networks themselves or if not through rules like the Federal Trade Commission policy on blog disclosure. People surely flock towards popular places but this isn’t real popularity so companies could face a backlash when they get found out.”

Is it true that how you get fans doesn’t matter?
The Emerging Media Research Council report on “Facebook and Twitter: Measuring the value of the Web’s most powerful communities” believes organically grown fans and followers will yield more return. “The consumer who opts-in to an organization’s Facebook or Twitter presence is far more likely to engage with that organization’s content than the fan who is delivered for a fee just as repeat donors are far more valuable to fundraisers than people who have never given before.”

What about the numbers?
On Quora, users are discussing the worth of fans. Christopher Tuff, Director of Earned and Emerging Media at 22squared, is seeing efficient buys with the new “sponsored stories” ad units. “Users that click through to the landing page for non-fans, we see a conversion rate of about 50% (as opposed to 25% without a like-gate).” Once you have fans that are interested in your brand, you could see 20 times more visits to your site verses those from non-fans.

Costs can range. Socialbakers has compiled a list of average advertising costs on Facebook by country. The average cost per click (CPC) in the US is $.68 and the average cost of cost per impression (CPM) is $0.29. This varies by how popular your target area is (a little like bidding on Google ad words) but you can choose who you are aiming for.

If you still want to get into the pay for play game…
Big Bird Fans will cost you $0.75 per fan as a starting rate. As that price doesn’t look for fans that are relevant to your brand, it will cost more for a targeted approach. Any old fan will do in their eyes for clients who just want to boost their numbers, even if they are half way around the globe and your restaurant is in Brooklyn.

Though you could gain more targeted fans yourself, there are other companies in fan acquisition such as uSocial, who offers fans starting at $0.14. Do keep in mind that uSocial has been served with cease and desist orders before. Not ideal when you’re trying to build a credible brand.

But that’s not the type of brands Alexander thinks Big Bird Fans are marketing to. “If I was out of touch and was trying for a way to get in “with the kids”, it may appeal to me. But this product is not for people with a head on their shoulders.”

If that doesn’t turn you off, then buy to your heart’s content. Hopefully your true fans don’t find out. As Sheard deftly commented, “What’s the point in having 2,000 fake fans if your restaurant is still empty on Saturday night? Is that a risk worth paying for?”

Original Article

Kristof, who is very active on social media, talked about how he engages with his large following, and also said that since the implementation of Facebook Subscribe, he’s seen a big change in the value of Facebook. Kristof says he has 1.2 million Twitter followers, but his Facebook subscribers, who are only a fourth of that number, are more engaged.

“The Facebook people spend much more time on Facebook, and I think they are real,” Kristof said. “My sense is that every Facebook subscriber is worth four Twitter followers.”

But, Kristof said Twitter still has a huge value, and it’s where he turns to post breaking news. On the subject of Google+, Kristof said he was originally skeptical, but has only seen the value in the past two weeks or so. “It’s really going to go mainstream,” he said.

Kristof also told a story about he and his wife’s new book Half the Sky, and said they had come upon a dilemma. Those who would read the book would already have some knowledge or interest in the subject, and you’d be “preaching to the choir.”

“We want to get beyond that choir; we want to build that choir,” Kristof said. “We decided to go into gaming, because games can go viral. They can also have a very low barrier to entry, if they aren’t didactic, but fun. It will bring people into these issues and expose them to it.” (See Also: FarmVille for Change: Times Columnist Set to Launch Social Game.)

Kristof says that it would be a “mistake” for them to miss the potential benefits of gaming. The game, as well as a PBS documentary, will come out after the 2012 presidential election this year.

Original Article

For instance, generate a clear and simple idea, then determine what industry or market you plan to target, what type of corporate organization you’ll implement and where your business will be located.

Each is an important decision, but the main consideration when starting a company is how to manage risk. Risk is the heart of entrepreneurship — defined as “the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.” Risk is the sole determinant whether you will succeed or fail.

Billionaire Sir Richard Branson follows a principle called “protecting the downside,” which means that by looking at any situation and determining all options before making a decision, one can identify the worst case scenario and work backwards from there to find the optimal route forward. Protecting the downside is all about identifying and understanding risk.

Here are five risky steps that will actually help protect the downside of a new company and, counterintuitively, set you up for success.

1. Quit Your Job

Conventional wisdom suggests, “Don’t quit your day job” while you start your new venture; only jump over when it shows promise. Unfortunately, this decision can be a recipe for disaster. You will be double-minded, your current efforts at your job will suffer, your family time will suffer, and your product will suffer. Plus, investors will not be impressed with a lack of time commitment. And most likely, you will fail.

Sit down and ask yourself which path you really want to take. Do you really want to leave your current job and start something new? Or do you like the security of your job and a stable paycheck? Although risky, committing to one path will greatly increase your odds of success.

In the summer of 1994, Jeff Bezos quit his job as a vice president of the financial services firm D.E. Shaw. He and his wife moved to Seattle to take advantage of the explosive growth of the Internet and to launch Amazon. When the site first launched in 1995, everyone at the company worked until two or three in the morning, kneeling on a concrete floor to pack, address and ship books. He was all in on his new dream.

Would Amazon have survived and become what it is today if Bezos had chosen to stay at his job and work part time on his side project? I don’t think so. He’s no Steve Jobs, but Amazon is looking to become the next Apple, so I think he made the right decision.

2. Don’t Follow The Crowd
Oddly enough, once most entrepreneurs abandon a “normal life” and set out on their own paths, they then look at what others are doing in the industry and opt to imitate instead of originate.

Following others will only get you lost in the crowd. Why not be unique and stand out from the all the rest? Unconventional leaders and companies are, quite frankly, more interesting. A unique story and perspective will help you break away from the pack and shed more light on your value. Put differently, if your startup is unique and has a differentiating value proposition, you will more likely gain customers, media attention and ultimately lure investors.

Steve Jobs viewed himself as an artist, and drew inspiration from the Beatles and Bob Dylan, rather than from industry contemporaries like Bill Gates and Larry Ellison. He was, in a word, different. For those of us too young to remember what he was like in his twenties and thirties, here is a little snippet from Walter Issacson’s new book, which describes a time early in Jobs’s career.

Despite his new fame and fortune, [Jobs] still fancied himself a child of the counterculture. On a visit to a Stanford class, he took off his Wilkes Bashford blazer and his shoes, perched up on a table, and crossed his legs in a lotus position. The students asked questions, such as when Apple’s stock prize will rise, which Jobs brushed off. Instead, he spoke of his passions for future products, such as someday making a computer as small as a book. Later Jobs would complain about the new generation of kids, who seemed more materialistic and careerist than his own.

Guy Kawasaki calls it “jumping to the next curve.” He writes, “Big wins happen when you go beyond better sameness. The best daisy-wheel printer companies were introducing new fonts in more sizes. Apple introduced the next curve: laser printing. Think of ice harvesters, ice factories, and refrigerator companies. Ice 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Are you still harvesting ice during the winter from a frozen pond?”

3. Join Strangers, Not Friends

One of the biggest questions when starting a company is “who will start it with me?” Conventional wisdom encourages you to bring together a few friends — people you already know and trust — to help launch your new company.

In reality, starting a company is tough and many things can go wrong. Don’t let friendship get in the way as you pursue your dream. Although it would be great if one of your best friends was a world-class developer, highly trained in the exact programming language required for your new product, this kind of luck rarely happens.

In order to find the best team, get out of our comfort zone and meet new people. Use LinkedIn as a starting point to sift through your immediate network, or to find someone looking for a new adventure.

Sites such as Founder2be were created for this exact purpose: to help co-founders meet each other. Founder Institute can help you find others to round out the team and connect with like-minded people. Attend conferences and industry events, like the upcoming Ignition: West in San Francisco. These types of events provide great opportunities to not only increase your network, but also to find a co-founder.

Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg offers great advice on finding a co-founder: “The best founding team for a startup is a group of two or three people who have synergistic — not overlapping — skills. Note that it’s also important your goals and passions be similar…You need to find folks with skills that compensate for your weaknesses. Co-founding a startup is like getting into a marriage — picking the right people is critical.”

His big to-do’s: 1) Get out there and find activities that attract diverse groups of people, 2) ask your friends to introduce you to people in the area you’re targeting, and 3) join or attend local organizations designed to foster introductions between startup-minded folks.

4. Launch A Buggy Product
Which situation will produce better results: a perfect web application that took nine months to launch, or a buggy but working prototype released in four weeks that gets immediate attention from early test users?

Conventional wisdom says a product must be completed to be marketed, but releasing something sooner, albeit imperfectly, will actually decrease risk. The quicker you can get something built and into users hands, the quicker you can get crucial feedback on your product, which ultimately means the quicker your product gains market traction. Taking nine months to develop a product in solitude will only guarantee one thing: less outside feedback.

Eric Ries, voice of the Lean Startup movement, says you should release a “minimum viable product” for early adopters. That way, you realize perfection is not the goal. Releasing a product early enough allows you to quickly build, test, learn, iterate…and repeat.

Twitter was notorious for being a buggy product at first — users constantly encountered the fail whale. Do you think it hurt them? A Quora thread asked, “Why didn’t Twitter’s performance problems doom it early on?” Co-founder of Buffer, Leo Widrich, responded, “Twitter had to make a tradeoff: Continuing to add users like crazy at the risk of going down more often, or limiting the amount of new users and working more on the stability of their servers. In my view, it was the right choice to go for more users and downtime.”

Twitter founders Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone realized they needed to keep gaining users at all costs, and that they could take care of the downtime issues later.

5. Build A Board of Advisors — Now

Conventional wisdom says that entrepreneurs don’t need to report to anyone. On the contrary. Developing a board of advisors as soon as possible will help keep a company on the right path. After determining the composition of your founding team, pinpoint appropriate areas of expertise and qualifications that you lack. Then recruit advisory board members the same way you would any top-level executive, by putting together a one-page description of your company, including goals and financial history.

Find five or six people who can validate the startup to investors, as well as connect the team to their networks. The move will be priceless and drastically launch a young company forward. You cannot make this decision early enough.

Original Article

Symantec, the anti-virus software company, warned users of pcAnywhere, a tool that allows for remote access to your computer, to disable the software. Symantec revealed in a white paper that Anonymous stole pcAnywhere’s source code in 2006 and could use that information to create vulnerabilities:

Upon investigation of the claims made by Anonymous regarding source code disclosure, Symantec believes that the disclosure was the result of a theft of source code that occurred in 2006.

The company is working on a set of updates and patches to fix the vulnerability issue even though Anonymous — as far as we know — hasn’t capitalized on it yet. The source code could let malicious users build exploits and attacks targeted at pcAnywhere users to reveal session information, PC Mag reported.

This is not the first time a Symantec product has been compromised, PC Mag pointed out:

In early January, Symantec confirmed that source code used in its older enterprise antivirus products was stolen. Hacker group the “Lords of Dharmaraja” of India had threatened to publish the code online. Although the code dated back to 1999, security expert Alex Horan of CORE Security Technologies said there was still potential for harm.

For users that insist on accessing pcAnywhere, Symantec recommends having the latest version of the software installed to prevent as much damage as possible.

Anonymous is proving to be an international force, not only attacking sites for fun but acting like a kind of digital watch dog. When Megaupload was shut down amid the SOPA and PIPA controversies, alleged members of Anonymous went after SOPA supporters and even the State Department website. Members of Anonymous had previously gone after banks and big business during the financial crisis and even targeted child porn sites. It’s unclear how and why Anonymous would use Symantec’s pcAnywhere source code but hopefully it would be for good and not ill.

In a post explaining the move, Bradley Horowitz, vice president of product at Google+, doesn’t mention Facebook by name, but dubs current social media sharing “second-rate.”

“In life, for instance, teens can share the right things with just the right people (like classmates, parents or close ties). Over time, the nuance and richness of selective sharing even promotes authenticity and accountability,” Horowitz wrote. “Sadly, today’s most popular online tools are rigid and brittle by comparison, so teens end up over-sharing with all of their so-called ‘friends.’”

Google, which had previously barred consumers under 18 from joining Google+, is attempting to avoid such a situation on its network via a series of enhancement aimed at protecting people on the network aged 13-17.

Those include steps in which Google will intercept teens before they overshare or expose themselves to risk. For instance, when teens attempt to share a post to people outside their Circles, Google will flash a message noting “When you share publicly, people you haven’t added to your circles will be able to view your post and may be able to comment.”

In addition, there’s a default setting in which “only those in teens’ circles can say hello, and blocking someone is always just a click or two away,” Horowitz wrote.

In addition, there’s another feature in which teens taking part in a hangout will be removed automatically if a stranger joins. Finally, Google has added a Google+ Safety Center which describes the changes.

At the moment, it’s unclear how many teens are on Google+, though the network claims 90 million users in total. Facebook — which has an age cutoff of 13 — may be vulnerable to competition for teens since there’s some evidence that the notoriously fickle demo may be looking for an alternative.