Mashable Articles: September 2013

Monday, September 30, 2013

Job Hunting? 180+ Openings at Zappos, Livestream and More

Are you searching for your next great career opportunity in the digital space? The Mashable Job Board is here to serve you as the leading destination for digital talent.

Since its launch four years ago, the Mashable Job Board has been a hiring hub for more than 3,000 employers. We have showcased career opportunities from companies like Google, Edelman, Viacom, Yelp, American Express, NBC Universal, Digitas, and many others seeking to attract our audience.

This past August we relaunched the Job Board with a fresh design and many new features. Job seekers can now create user profiles, upload resumes and application materials, sign up for job alerts, browse our employer directory, and search and apply for jobs through mobile.

Below are 10 recently posted job openings. Check the Mashable Job Board daily for more open positions and read our Job Search Series for useful career tips.

Position: Information Systems Developer
Company: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Location: New York, N.Y.

The Department of Digital Media at The Metropolitan Museum of Art seeks a talented Information Systems Developer to work collaboratively in a team environment in the support, strategy, management, dissemination and delivery of its collection documentation, metadata, and digital assets to public facing technologies that support the Museumâ€™s collection, exhibitions, and related programs.

Position: Director of Content
Company: Internet Week New York (IWNY)
Location: New York, N.Y.

Internet Week New York (IWNY), the Big Appleâ€™s week-long festival celebrating Internet business, culture and technology is seeking a Director of Content. Itâ€™s a high-profile role for a connector and a content genius who can shape both the programming on stage as well as build IWNYâ€™s web site, newsletters and mobile apps into an essential news source for whatâ€™s happening in New York tech.

Position: Digital Media Planner
Company: Mindgruve
Location: San Diego, Calif.

Weâ€™re looking for a Digital Media Planner who will assist in researching, planning, and executing paid search, display and programmatic buying platforms advertising campaigns.

Position: Account Manager
Company: Parse.ly
Location: New York, N.Y.

Parse.ly, a venture-backed startup in NYC, is the authority in content measurement. We deliver analytics and optimization technology for some of the largest sites on the web.

Position: Social Media and Marketing Manager
Company: University of California Santa Cruz
Location: Santa Cruz, Calif.

The Social Media and Marketing Manager serves as a key member of the Constituent Engagement team to manage the strategic development and execution of technology initiatives designed to identify, attract, engage, cultivate, solicit, steward, and connect members of the key constituencies that support UCSC.

Position: Manager, Retail Marketing
Company: Viacom Media Networks
Location: New York, N.Y.

This position will report to the Director of Retail Marketing, and will focus on new business retail opportunities. This position will be instrumental in creating new relationships with retailers and developing marketing programs to engage new and existing consumers for Nickelodeon brands.

Position: Director of Marketing
Company: Moontoast
Location: Boston, Mass.

Reporting to the CEO, the Director of Marketing is responsible for establishing & implementing strategic and tactical communications plans designed to take advantage of market opportunities and generate demand.

Position: Account Executive
Company: Livestream
Location: New York, N.Y.

Livestreamâ€™s mission is to connect people and live events. Livestream offers event owners a complete set of hardware and software tools to share their events with a growing community online.

Position: UI/UX Designer
Company: Atlassian
Location: San Francisco, Calif.

Bitbucket is Atlassian's cloud-based hosting service for software development projects using distributed version control systemsâ€"Git and Mercurial. The Bitbucket team is looking for a UX/UI (User Experience/User Interface) designer is responsible for end-to-end product design of bitbucket.org.

Position: Website Systems Manager
Company: Zappos.com
Location: Las Vegas, Nev.

As manager of the website systems team, you will be developing a mix of new features for the site as well as investigating cutting-edge technologies to make the site better (either more robust, able to handle more transactions, or simply provide a better customer experience).

Check out these and more career opportunities on the Mashable Job Board. New positions are posted daily ranging from entry-level to C-suite positions.

Image: Flickr, Super Happy Block Party

Is Your Business Spending Too Much Time on Facebook?

Countless articles and studies have focused on the negative psychological consequences of Facebook. They include everything from depression (seeing friends' awesome vacation photos while youâ€™re sitting at a computer can spark FOMO, or "Fear of Missing Out") to relationship problems (a British survey found that nearly one-third of divorce filings in 2011 mentioned Facebook).

Researchers in Norway have even published a new psychological scale to measure Facebook addiction. Yet, while these all focus on personal afflictions, I wonder whether there's a similar phenomenon with businesses today.

Can a business spend too much time on Facebook? And what are some of the negative consequences?

1. It lowers employee productivity.

When social networking first arrived on the scene, employers' biggest fear was the time suck â€" productivity levels would drop as employees spent too much time on their personal Facebook pages.

But Facebook can also be an enormous resource drain, even when employees are using it for business purposes. Thatâ€™s because Facebook isn't free. Cultivating a community, moderating discussions, responding to feedback and other Facebook page activities require an ongoing commitment.

Considering that resources are always finite, any resources allocated for Facebook must be pulled away from other activities. Without explicit goals, Facebook can easily become a massive waste of time, draining important resources from other marketing, sales and customer service priorities.

2. It encourages unfair comparisons.

A recent study from the University of Michigan found that Facebook use leads to declines in moment-to-moment happiness and overall life satisfaction in college-aged adults. According to research co-author John Jonides, "When you're on a site like Facebook, you get lots of posts about what people are doing. That sets up social comparison â€" you maybe feel your life is not as full and rich as those people you see on Facebook.â€

Likewise, small businesses, especially those just launching their campaigns, can easily become discouraged when comparing themselves to Pepsi, Pampers, Starbucks, Virgin Atlantic and other brands on Facebook. Running campaigns at that level takes a tremendous amount of strategy, resources (both internal and external) and expertise.

This pressure to "keep up with the Joneses" can have two negative consequences. One, businesses may end up spending more time on Facebook due to competitive reasons, as opposed to basing their priorities on actual business objectives or realities. Secondly, businesses may end up focusing on the "wrong" aspects of Facebook, such as racking up fans.

3. It's difficult to measure.

Wanting to succeed on Facebook, many businesses hone in on some of the easiest metrics around: the number of fans and the number of likes. After all, these numbers can be a very visible measure of status, and itâ€™s easy to treat the site like a game in which the whole goal is to amass more likes than your competitors.

However, just how much does the number of Facebook fans matter? Many businesses host contests and offer discounts in exchange for clicking the Like button. For example, I once liked a store that I've never shopped at (and have no plans to either), simply because it was raffling off a vacation. I never visited its page or interacted with its brand after that initial like (and shortly after, unliked it because I was tired of seeing the updates). If this brand included my like as an indication of positive consumer engagement, it was definitely wrong.

The real question is, how do you measure the value of your Facebook fans? How many fans do you need to create a new customer or sale? Unless you have a way to prove that your Facebook page is making you money, you may run the risk of wasting substantial resources here instead of focusing your efforts elsewhere.

4. There's no direct link to sales.

Facebook can be an ideal channel for generating buzz and engagement, but this doesnâ€™t necessarily translate into sales â€" at least in the short term.

A 2012 Forrester study analyzed 77,000 online transactions over a two-week period and found that less than 1% of transactions could be traced to social media (compared with 40% from organic or paid search, and 30% from repeat business sparked from email).

If youâ€™re looking for more proof that Facebook is not an effective direct sales channel, consider the fact that the number of U.S. retailers with Facebook-enabled checkouts plummeted from 63% in Q4 2011 to just 6% in Q4 2012.

Again, Facebook can play an important role in building relationships, but as a small business owner, I need to make sure weâ€™re investing resources in those activities that have a more direct link to the bottom line.

5. There's no human connection in the cloud.

Engaging via email or Facebook is entirely different than actually talking to someone in person or over the phone. A one-on-one conversation creates a deeper connection, and a more detailed exchange of ideas. The biggest risk for businesses with Facebook is assuming that social media engagement is the only customer interaction you need.

The New York Times illustrated just how difficult it is to reach a social media company on the phone: "Twitterâ€™s phone system hangs up after providing web or email addresses three times. At the end of a long phone tree, Facebookâ€™s system explains it is, in fact, 'an Internet-based company.' Try email, it suggests."

Facebook and Twitter are excellent initial touchpoints for customer support, but nothing beats personal conversations.

In the end, be realistic.

Iâ€™m not advocating that any business should walk away from social media. However, you need to be realistic about the potential returns. Invest your resources based on the opportunity, rather than just because everyone else is doing it.

Image: iStockphoto, courtneyk

Photoshop: The Reason for Delusional Photographers

By Neha Prakash2013-09-29 02:00:41 UTC

PCW_photoshop_comic

While Instagram filters and Photoshop may help amateur picture-takers create beautiful images (or selfies), they've also spawned a generation of delusional photographers who think their skills are on par with true professionals.

In this comic, Krishna Sadasivam of PC Weenies shows us the inherent difference between skilled photographers and Photoshop-relying frauds.

BONUS: 10 Essential Photoshop Tips From Advice Mallard

Sometimes an explanation requires more than just words.

A new iPhone app called Shadow Puppet lets users generate narrated tutorial videos or photo slideshows straight from their phone.

Users simply select images from their library, arrange them in the order they wish to share them, and use the phone's voice recorder to narrate the slideshow as it plays. They can then share the videos â€" called Puppets â€" straight to social media, or send them to family and friends via text or email. Users can also embed their Puppet videos onto personal blogs or websites.

The app launched last week along with Apple's iOS 7 update, but was actually built by co-founders Carl Sjogreen and Adrian Graham back in April. The duo said they wanted to build something that was useful, but also practical, and hopes that people can use puppets to share personal moments as often as they share how-to videos. For example, Sjogreen's daughters use the app to narrate photo slideshows they send to their grandmother. "We've heard from people that Shadow Puppet is about making it easier to tell the stories behind their photos and stay connected with friends and families in ways they couldn't do before," he said.

Prior to Shadow Puppet, Sjogreen and Graham worked at Google before starting a travel startup known as Nextstop that was acquired by Facebook in 2010. Their past experience encouraged them to "keep things simple," they said. When creating their slideshow app, the duo wanted a name that was synonymous with storytelling and using your hands â€" hence, Shadow Puppet.

For now, the app is only available on iOS, although an Android version could be on the horizon. Users can't currently incorporate video or music for iTunes, although some have been playing music in the background while narrating their stories, Sjogreen said.

Image: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

7 Big Names New to Social Media This Week

Each Friday, we're bringing you a list of new accounts added to various social media platforms â€" whether they be celebrities, politicians or ... airlines? Here's your social media roundup for the week ending Sept. 20:

Tim Cook on Twitter

The most notable edition this week was Apple CEO Tim Cook, who surprised everyone when he quietly added his handle to the ranks Friday afternoon. While Cook himself didn't make a big deal about joining the party, everyone else was pretty happy to see him â€" he gained more than 33,000 followers and a verification tick within the first hour of sending his first tweet.

Ashley Young on Twitter

For all of you sports fans out there, Ashley Young, an English footballer who plays for Manchester United and the English national team, has joined Twitter. Looks like someone had a case of the FOMOs.

N. Chandrababu Naidu on Twitter

Also joining Twitter this week was N. Chandrababu Naidu, India's former chief minister and the president of the center-leftist Teluga Desam Party. Naidu is known in Indian politics for being especially tech savvy, so it's a wonder he's so late to the game.

Ryanair on Twitter

This week's oddball account goes to Ryanair, a low-cost European air line based in Dublin. This is probably part of a massive effort by the company to improve customer service, as it was recently voted the worst of the 100 biggest brands serving Britain.

The company is already bringing some snark to its social presence, taking a dig at Which magazine, which released the survey.

iTunes on Twitter

And in everyone-probably-assumed-this-was-already-a-thing news, iTunes has taken to the Twittersphere.

The Bioethics Commission on Twitter

Is your Twitter feed suffering from celebrity overload? Then maybe it's time to follow some social good accounts. The Bioethics Commission promotes social and ethical practices in science, health care and technology.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Vine

Finally, finally, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has jumped into the Vine pool. Remember: that six-second video plays on a constant loop, so maybe set the afternoon aside. You've been warned.

Anyone you're hoping will get it together and join the rest of us in the social media obsession? Let us know in the comments below.

Image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

No One Is Safe From the Pumpkin Spice Food Craze

The changing color of leaves is no longer the only sign that fall has officially started. Rather, the real sign that autumn has arrived is the Pumpkin Spice Latte's sudden reappearance. From there, it's a slippery slope to squash-flavored muffins, cookies and cakes. Not even beer is safe from the fall flavor's clutches.

The folks at Official Comedy are poking fun at this inescapable obsession in its latest parody movie trailer for "Pumpkin Spice."

The clip follows a man slowly realizing that he is surrounded by pumpkin spice-gobbling zombies, brainwashed into believing that everything tastes better with cinnamon.

He learns the hard way that once this fall flavor takes hold, there's no turning back.

Homepage Image: YouTube, Official Comedy

BlackBerry Posts Nearly $1 Billion Loss in Q2

BlackBerry's second quarter earnings were bad by pretty much every standard except the incredibly low one set by BlackBerry.

The company posted a $965 million loss in the second quarter on revenue of $1.6 billion due mostly to a massive $934 million charge for unsold Z10 phones as well as a $72 million charge related to staff layoffs. Excluding these charges, BlackBerry lost $0.47 per share for the quarter, which was actually slightly above Wall Street estimates for a loss of $0.49 per share.

While the earnings report was bad, it certainly wasn't a surprise. BlackBerry pre-announced last week that it planned to cut 4,500 jobs and would report a loss of between $930 million to $960 million for the quarter due to lower-than-expected demand for the Z10.

â€œWe are very disappointed with our operational and financial results this quarter and have announced a series of major changes to address the competitive hardware environment and our cost structure,â€ Thorsten Heins, BlackBerry's CEO, said in a statement. "We are focused on our targeted markets, and are committed to completing our transition quickly in order to establish a more focused and efficient company.â€

In an unusual move, the company revealed earlier in the week that it would not be holding an earnings call Friday to discuss the results. The company cited its recent acquisition offer from Fairfax Financial Holdings as reason for canceling the call.

BlackBerry's stock increased by as much as 2% in pre-market trading.

BBRY data by YCharts

Image: Mario Tama/Getty

Samsung Announces Gold Galaxy S4

Do you like the gold iPhone 5S, but can't bear to give up your Android? Perhaps Samsung's gold Galaxy S4 will tickle your fancy.

Samsung Arabia revealed the Galaxy S4 Gold Brown and Gold Pink editions via Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday.

It's a clever move by Samsung â€" we assume the company is testing the waters by launching the devices first in the Middle East. Should there be a global demand for these new colors, we'll likely see some gold variant of the S4 in other markets as well.

How do you like these new Galaxy S4 colors? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Image: Facebook, Samsung Gulf

Facebook Stock Tops $50 for First Time

Facebook stock climbed above $50 in early trading Thursday after flirting with that price for most of the week. This marks a new all-time high for the company and an 87% increase from stock's price at the beginning of the year.

After suffering a long and painful decline throughout much of its first year as a public company, Facebook has seen its stock rebound on renewed optimism about its strength on mobile and the prospect of additional revenue streams, including Instagram advertising and the seemingly inevitable launch of video ads on Facebook's homepage.

Facebook returned to its IPO price of $38 a share at the end of July for the first time since going public in May 2012 and topped its previous all-time high of $45 a share earlier this month. Those gains followed an impressive second-quarter earnings report, in which Facebook revealed that mobile ads now account for 41% of its total ad revenue.

The stock has been helped this week by upgrades from multiple analysts. Mark May, an analyst with Citi, raised his price target for the stock to $55, based on talks with advertisers, which suggest that Facebook will continue to experience growth in ad revenue.

The recent stock surge has pushed Facebook's market cap above $120 billion, making it slightly more valuable than other tech giants like Intel and Qualcomm, and about $25 billion less valuable than Amazon.

FB data by YCharts

Do you think Facebook is out of the woods? Share in the comments.

Image: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty

Two Thumbs Up for Movie Trailer Marriage Proposal

Boyfriends, take note: Flash mob proposals are out, and elaborate re-cut movie trailers are in.

Joe Wakim decided to pop the question to his girlfriend by editing himself into her favorite movies. The talented romantic worked himself into heart-destroying flicks like Titanic and The Notebook, and also the significantly less romantic, The Shining.

"I was mainly inspired by Billy Crystal's Academy Awards opening and some videos that Ellen did compositing herself in Titanic," Wakim said.

It took him two weeks to put the trailer together, not counting all the time spent watching the movies to pinpoint the perfect spots for his proposal. And his hard work paid off â€" the day after he uploaded the video, he tweeted, "She said yes!"