Got a technical, software or programming question like, “Is a function larger than an array [in Javascript]?” Or, do you just want to know when the first use of a secret identity in a comic book was? Either way, I’ve got your answer.
Well, I don’t, but Stack Exchange does. There’s a lot of user- generated question and answer sites out there, finding information you want isn’t necessarily difficult on the internet. What struck me when I was browsing through Stack Exchange was that the quality of the questions was far better than your average Yahoo! Answers. This is not a venue for “how du u kno wen ur in luv?” It’s smart people needing information from other smart people. The homepage is an endless scroll of questions, most of them interesting enough I found myself browsing the site. If you’re interested, the gent that founded Stack Exchange also founded Super User, a Q&A site that focuses only on technical questions.
Founder Jeff talks more below about creating a super exchange (see what I did there?):
How would you explain what you do to somebody’s grandmother?
If you have a technical question and type it in to Google, we want Stack Exchange (and Super User) be the page with the best answer!
What are some industry specific challenges you faced?
There are a lot of sites and forums that already offer technical answers to computer questions. Getting heard above the din takes time and effort, but our focus on simple, clean presentation and a relentless dedication to quality pays off, particularly on new topics where there aren’t as many web pages out there.
If you could go back, would you do anything differently? If so, what and why?
Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account, I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design, web design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!
The video above shows Australian Magician James Galea performing an unbelievable magic trick with a deck of cards. How does he do that?
Valentine’s Day. Those words might send you into visions of long-stemmed roses and Michael Bolton or into a seizure of disgust and disillusion. Or a shrug of absolute disinterest. But it’s today, the day after Valentine’s, that is the most interesting. It’s the holiday I like to call: “WE’RE ENGAGED! NOW LOOK AT MY RING FROM EVERY POSSIBLE ANGLE AND ON EVERY POSSIBLE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM” Day. (Clearly catchy names are kind of my thing.)
For every heart-felt congratulations, there’s always that one couple that causes a Scooby-Doo “Errrwaahh?” And for the next year or however long their engagement is, you’re stuck wondering if you should say something or if you just have to forever hold your peace. Or, maybe you’re in the other boat: you want to get married, but you’re worried about being the couple that causes everyone a Scooby-Doo “Errrwaahh?”
Either way, Should I Get Married is here for you. What it does is allow potential fiances (or any long-term, committed couple– even if you can’t legally get married) to collect anonymous feedback from their friends and family. If you want the cold, hard truths about what those closest think about your relationship, all you have to do is go to the site and fill out an “Invite For Insight.” Proceed with this knowledge carefully.
Below, Travis talks more about creating Should I Get Married:
How would you explain what you do to somebody’s grandmother?
Our website offers a very unique tool to assist folks that are considering marriage to be sure they are truly making the best decision for themselves and their future. We hope to help our customers make sure this marriage will be their last. We want to help them ensure they are part of the 50% of people that will stay married and live happily ever after. So, with the help of tools from the digital age, we have created an “Invite for Insight” or IFI.
An IFI is completed by our customers on the website and allows them to gain specific insight about their relationship, from folks in their life whom they trust most for good advice. The IFI, allows them to learn the real unspoken perspective’s of these trusted folks, on a variety of topics concerning their relationship and their partner.
Shouldigetmarried.net sends and receives the IFI’s to keep the responses anonymous so folks are more likely to answer honestly without fear of hurting their personal relationship. When we compile the responses of the IFI the results are often very powerful. The IFI reveals the true positives and negatives of the relationship as it is perceived by people who have different relationships with the couple. One thing is for sure, the Invite for Insight offers truth, like never before. Essentially we are the virtual version, of speak now or forever hold your peace, less the drama. Truth that we believe can add strength and confidence in what ever decision they ultimately decide on. So if you know someone considering marriage, you can Gift them an IFI and we will send it on your behalf or anonymously.
What are some industry specific challenges you faced?
The biggest industry specific challenge we encountered was setting ourselves apart from what’s currently out there. We needed to make it clear that we are striving to differentiate ourselves in a sea of marriage sites that pretty much all look and feel the same; that we are not just offering the same-old, recycled advice that is not specific to any one’s particular relationship. We take into account all of the variables that someone may not even be aware of themselves, and help folks find the truth that’s relevant to them. (more…)
Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account, I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design, web design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!
The image to the left is a fun look at what a movie poster for an Oscar-nominated film would be like if it literally wanted to communicate what the movie was about. More fun posters in the Other section below.
Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account, I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design, web design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!
The video above is a new Super Bowl commercial from Honda, featuring Matthew Broderick and reminding us how much we loved Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
What Zappos Can Teach You About Becoming Irresistible to Customers – http://t.co/3UxbuL0b
Gamification: The buzzword that can ruin your apps and business – http://t.co/bdsJOO6q
Sometimes it seems like the world of entrepreneurs is approximately 5,000% male. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to turn into a lecture about institutionalized sexism (though, largely male tech community: don’t tempt me!). Instead, I want this to be a celebration of women who go out, start their own businesses, and get exactly what they want.
Today’s spotlight is Geben Communication, a PR and communications firm located in Columbus, Ohio. Don’t let their “fly-over” status fool you: these guys are pros and handle clients from across the globe. President Heather Whaling has truly taken the world by storm. She’s been listed as one of the Top 30 PR Professionals to follow on Twitter and writes a monthly column on digital PR trends for American Express OpenForum. If that’s not enough (seriously, I’m exhausted listing all this!), she co-moderates a Twitter chat every week called PR 2.0 Chat (#pr20chat). There’s only one word for this woman: kick ass.
Heather talks more about taking over the PR business:
How would you explain what you do to somebody’s grandmother?
It seems like a new tool is being added to the communication toolbox every day. That can be
overwhelming for businesses who are trying to navigate this fast-paced, “always on, always
connected” world we live in. At Geben Communication, we help companies achieve their
business goals by incorporating the right mix of online and offline communication.
We deliver a wide range of services, depending on the client’s specific needs – anything from
media/blogger relations, online community building, and content marketing … to securing
speaking engagements, promoting events or managing crisis communication.
By combining traditional and digital PR, businesses can shape perceptions and influence
behaviors among key audiences – including customers, prospects, referral sources, industry
analysts, investors, and so on.
What are some industry specific challenges you faced?
Because social media gets so much attention, some companies think they can just launch a
Facebook page or a Twitter account, and the rest will take care of itself. It’s not quite that
simple. This isn’t Field of Dreams. If you build it, they won’t necessary come. Instead, truly
effective social media requires strategy, creativity and an investment of time and resources.
Plus, companies can amplify their message by using traditional PR and marketing to support
their online efforts. But, that requires planning and coordination. People see these free online
tools and sometimes don’t realize all the work and resources required to build a successful
online presence.
This isn’t an “either, or” situation. Instead of trying to choose between traditional PR or social media, figure out how they can work together. (more…)
Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account, I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design, web design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!
The image above is a fun look at bottled water from Apple – if Apple made bottled water. That post, and other interesting posts are in the “Other” section below.
Crowdsourcing: a 7+7 Primer (tips for businesses on leveraging crowdsourcing) - http://bit.ly/wxqtb5
Starting a new biz with a friend? Good interview with @mike_samson about biz w/ friends – http://bit.ly/wBFfBv
Women Small Business Owners – America’s New job Creators [infographic] – http://t.co/74nUB76D
crowdSPRING’s Small Business Spotlight of the Week: Studyers -http://bit.ly/wy7Qty
crowdSPRING’s Small Business Spotlight of the Week: Twittapolls – http://t.co/aFHWJTmq
In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING community. For these interviews, we pick people who add value to our community – in the blog, in the forums, in the projects. Plainly – activities that make crowdSPRING a better community. Be professional, treat others with respect, help us build something very special, and we’ll take notice.
We’re very proud to feature Vinay and Asha (crowdSPRING username: Knifeonbutter) today. Vinay and Asha live and work in Goa, India.
1. Please tell us about yourselves.
We have traveled around the world, working in places as far and diverse as Fiji Islands and Dubai, not to mention all the cities across India. We now reside in Goa, dream beaches, sun,sand, coco feni, and like to pretend to work hard. Ideas fortunately , winning ideas save the day for us on sites such as yours. We just love crowdSPRING.
2. How did you become interested in writing?
We are both writers from the day we left college, and have worked with top 10 ad agency networks. It all started in school, when the teachers noticed we had a flair for writing, however, the idea lightbulbs started glowing, later on, after 3 years of hard, rigorous college education in disciplines as strange as physics and home sciences.
3. Who/what are some of the biggest influences on your writing?
David Ogilvy for sure. He was the greatest at one time. We never studied literature, so
we can’t quote Shakespeare. We are more fascinated with Adworld writers, Paul Hegarty, and creators like the Saatchi brothers.
Current education (I speak as a U.S. citizen) is a little– how to say this delicately– well, stale. Kids come from playing highly interactive video games or browsing on the collaborative internet to sit in uncomfortable desks, read from textbooks published in 1969 that are falling apart, and take notes on paper in cursive. How students are learning in the classroom isn’t super relevant to how they are learning vasts amount of information outside the classroom. But how do you start to connect this disparity?
It can start with a service like Studyers. Studyers is an online note-taking service, marketed primarily towards college students (or those lucky, lucky high school and middle school students who are allowed to have tablets or laptops in class). Students can type comments, upload the lecture’s presentation if available, and even draw arrows or doodles to help remember. Studyers also allows users to share with their friends, who can the post their own comments and feedback. Pretty rad, right? If anyone wants to post notes on how to master the pen tool in Illustrator, I’d be happy to take a peak (but seriously…HELP).
Shlomi talked to me more about making an online, collaborative note-taking platform:
How would you explain what you do to somebody’s grandmother?
Studyers is the easiest way to take notes online and share them with friends.
With Studyers a student can create a course notebook and create lesson notes. In the notes the students can type in their comments, free draw, add the lecturer’s presentation, create charts and graphs and add additional content from Wikipedia.
Studyers is also about sharing your studies which your friends (or with everyone) and enriching each others learning.
What are some industry specific challenges you faced?
We wish to replace the traditional notebook. We have discovered that many students are really attached to notebooks and won’t replace them easily. Additionally we learned that in some colleges teachers will not allow laptops / tablets in class, yet that is changing. (more…)
So, we all know that social media is this thing that we’re supposed to use to promote our businesses. There are a billion articles telling small business owners that this is REALLY IMPORTANT and NECESSARY and VITAL, or else we should go crawl into an analog, Web 1.0 hole and end it. This is mostly for good reason. After all, it makes it relatively easy for your company to interact directly with customers and for said customers to submit feedback and suggestions. However, organizing this feedback can prove to be quite the challenge.
Twittapolls is a service does just that: organizes the feedback you gather from social media sites. It’s simple to use, too, all you have to do is launch a poll, the service immediately promotes it on Facebook and Twitter, and then gathers the results to view and share in an easy and compatible format.
Below, Dave shares a lot of insight on starting a small business, especially one in such a popular medium:
How would you explain what you do to somebody’s grandmother?
(assuming everyone’s grandmother is as smart as mine….)
Granny, you see there are FREE services on the Internet called ‘Twitter’ and ‘Facebook’. They enable people to share personal opinion quickly in short messages using your computer and/or phone. They are very popular, and are in fact used globally….
However, while expressing opinion is easy, it is NOT easy to collect opinions and organize them. We created a service called “Twittapolls” (twitt-a-polls) to make that possible. Users can simply launch a poll, and automatically promote and share it using their existing Twitter and/or Facebook account. Results are collected automatically and are available immediately for everyone to view and share.
It was designed for use by Radio and TV stations to connect with their audiences, but is also used by individuals around the world. Oh, and we make money by providing the service and selling poll sponsorships (e.g. This poll sponsored by…).
What are some industry specific challenges you faced?
Getting people to re-think their own views of “success” in social media.
We honestly think the number of followers is completely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. In our view it is about the “passion” of your crowd; specifically, what percentage (%) of your friends/followers are actually participating, passing it on, and how often, and what is the trend? Twittapolls is the perfect measuring stick for that “passion” because it captures feedback and opinion by using polls using your Twitter and Facebook accounts – measuring your crowd’s responsiveness and engagement to your brand/account.
What was your biggest learning curve/experience?
Awareness is HARD to get in social media – there I said it… If you are not offering something obvious, cool, easy to use and works… you are not going anywhere fast. (more…)
crowdSPRING is the world's #1 marketplace for entrepreneurs, small businesses, nonprofits and agencies who need custom logo design, web design, a new company name or other writing and design services. Over 110,000 designers and writers work on crowdSPRING. We are trusted by more than 27,000 happy clients around the world.
Got a technical, software or programming question like, “Is a function larger than an array [in Javascript]?” Or, do you just want to know when the first use of a secret identity in a comic book was? Either way, I’ve got your answer.
