Weplay Customers Join TeamSnap

by admin on May 20, 2013

Last week marked the sixth anniversary of the first beta version of TeamSnap. Our goal back then was simple – we wanted to create the easiest way for busy coaches, managers and parents to organize their teams and simplify their lives.

A lot has changed since then. We’ve grown to two million users in nearly 200 countries. Our team product is complemented by support for leagues and clubs. The majority of our customers now use TeamSnap on smartphones and tablets – devices that didn’t even exist when we launched. And we’re just getting started.

So today we’re now thrilled to announce another milestone: we’ve acquired the customers and technology of Weplay, a fellow pioneer in team management software. We tracked Weplay’s progress for many years and are excited to welcome their customers to the TeamSnap family. If you’d like more details, you can read today’s press release announcing the deal.

Weplay’s 2.25 million customers and 45,000 teams will be joining TeamSnap, further strengthening our position as the industry leader. We’ll also be bringing over some of their technology, coaching resources and videos to enhance the TeamSnap experience.

What does this mean to you? It means your favorite application is going to get even better. With a combined total of nearly five million users and the best of Weplay’s experience and technology, we’re poised to move faster and make TeamSnap work even better. You won’t see many immediate changes, but behind the scenes we’ll be more powerful than ever.

Whether you’ve been with TeamSnap since day one, or are just now joining us, we thank you for all of your support, ideas and feedback. We really couldn’t have done it without you. Today, we’re glad to celebrate with new friends and old as we welcome Weplay to the TeamSnap family!


From TeamSnap Blog

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RingRevenue’s Open House: Come See Our New Digs!

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Google Now: Could it Mean More Calls?

by admin on May 17, 2013

Google Now: Could it Mean More Calls?

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friday pulse

There is a lot of exciting news this week. The RetailMeNot and Google Wallet integration is a big one. Plus, I’m always on top of mobile figures and lately I’m fascinated by crowdfunding.

Happy Reading!!

This is a huge announcement about RetailMeNot and the Google Wallet integration. Big, big, big WOW! Thanks to our friends at Rakuten LinkShare for sharing this with me.

I posted last week about Google’s presentation about the value of coupons, deals and offers in Google Product Listing Ads (GPLA). This may be a fine “ah-ha” to those who don’t believe that offering coupons, deals and offers and using affiliate sites isn’t good business.

Want more research based facts – we’ve got that too.

RetailMeNot Announces Google Wallet Integration

Best quote: “Mobile traffic now comprises more than 10% of all web traffic worldwide, and by the end of 2013, mobile devices are expected to outgrow PCs when it comes to accessing the Internet. Additionally, between 2011 and 2012 mobile commerce sales doubled – a trend that is likely to continue over the foreseeable future.” Designing Your Site for the Mobile Customer

G+ has really upped its game. My first reaction is that it is really easy to use with this popup response box versus a page displaying like it had previously. I can’t wait to discover the rest of the features. The Tragic Beauty of Google+

This is a very, very interesting view into the next trends in the market. Crowdfunding Goes Mainstream: Why Donald Trump and Google are Supporting Grassroots Financing

I must admit, during this Google Affiliate Network shutdown, I have been so concerned with this issue I have over scheduled calls with networks, affiliates, my team and of course with the people we represent. Sometimes 7-8 scheduled calls a day. And that doesn’t include ad hoc calls, scheduled meetings and everything else going on. Oh yeah, and my wife and family needed some of my time as well.

But, for our company this was a crisis as it affected 61 separate URL’s that were in GAN at the time. So time management was not my first thought. Kudos to my great eAccountable team for doing the extra work and going the extra mile to make sure all of our customer’s needs and questions were answered. My scheduled may have been overly “full”, but the times and the need dictated this effort.

I guess Warren Buffet never has critical issues to deal with ;-) Why Productive People Have Empty Schedules

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By Crista Bailey, CEO Texture Media

Cross-posted from the ForumCon blog. ForumCon is the only conference dedicated to the business of forums and is held this year in San Francisco on June 13.
Registration is now open

The ForumCon team asked me to participate in a panel on “Forum Monetization” this year.  I’m grateful for the opportunity and look forward to June 13th.

I was also asked, for purposes of this blog post and for context at ForumCon, to share TextureMedia’s story and how a forum blossomed into a brand connecting a community of beauty influencers with global and domestic hair care companies.

Full disclosure, first things first, before I am asked the inevitable question.

I have straight hair — naturally straight.

And I work with a company all about curly hair attitudes, purchasing behavior, discussions, products, stylists, salons, care, styling… you name it. I have learned a lot and continue to be in awe of the engagement of this community and their real life tales previously unbeknownst to me.

I embrace my naturally straight texture while appreciating what we offer, which is a forum for people to tell their stories.

  • Stories of straight-haired moms adopting children with curly hair and having no idea how to care for it
  • Stories of being called names as a child or not being taken seriously at work by bosses who equate curly hair texture with unprofessionalism
  • Journals of lifelong product journeys in search of the “Holy Grail” product that will finally help someone love their curls
  • Transitioning tales told by women who have used chemical relaxers their entire life and who have made the big decision to “go natural.”

These people talk about real and important experiences to them. People with wavy, curly, and coily hair spend a lot of time and money figuring out how to wear, care, style, condition and showcase their tresses.

TextureMedia’s members across NaturallyCurly and CurlyNikki help people better understand their hair texture, to make more informed purchasing and stylist decisions, while also giving them a forum to support, share and learn.

I’ve attached our infographic, albeit almost one year old, that scopes the “textured hair” population and why it’s important.  Hair care is a big market (tens of $Billions), but as mentioned earlier, it’s not just about product.  It’s about self-esteem and empowerment.  There are good hair days and bad hair days, and that impacts how you carry yourself throughout that day.

Naturally Curly Infographic

How did all this start?

In 1998, Michelle Breyer and Gretchen Heber, two curly-haired Austin American-Statesman journalists, decided to take online their angst over the lack of hair care products and services in the market for people with curly hair.

1998. 15 years ago.

No mobile. No Google or Google Fiber. No blogs. No Internet access in cafes or in many households.

“You’ve Got Mail” was a big hit in 1998.

It was early Internet days, and a great time to start a website — being first to market with an idea and concept.  Michelle and Gretchen’s intent was more altruistic than business-focused.  They desired to create a place for people like them – curlies who were all but ignored in beauty magazines and salons. As far as revenue, they thought they would make a killing selling curl empowerment t-shirts.

The result was NaturallyCurly.com, the first online hair community via a v-bulletin board for people to share favorite products, ingredients and hair stories.

And it grew.

People from all over the world discovered NaturallyCurly via organic search and shared their hair stories too!  The early fans told more people about NaturallyCurly, and word-of-mouth marketing virally spread the word.

CurlTalk on NaturallyCurly became a true forum for discussion and genesis for other brand extensions.

Members discussed favorite products and ingredients, and even shared recipes for products they were creating at home.

The community and grass-roots product manufacturers eventually encouraged the two co-founders to sell products with limited to no distribution but that everyone was reading about — early “cult favorites”.  CurlMart became an e-commerce site that moved from a co-founder’s back bedroom to the thriving business it is today, a curated boutique where products are vetted and endorsed by community before hitting its shelves.

NaturallyCurly grew beyond a v-bulletin board, adding community-generated product and stylist databases, articles, photos, eventually videos — even a Frizz Forecast  that predicts a customized frizz forecast dependent upon hair type, location and weather.

An earlier member of CurlTalk and 2013 author of Better Than Good Hair, Nikki Walton, separately created her NaturallyCurly-inspired natural hair blog, CurlyNikki, which became part of the TextureMedia family in 2010.

In 2011, TextureTrends was born, annual market intelligence that truly leverages real people insights around hair care, attitudes, products and behaviors. It was the result of the dozens of questions we were fielding from brands about the what, why, how much and drivers to purchase for our community. I especially love TextureTrends because it is 160 pages of community feedback that we can share with our hair care brands and partners to create products our community wants, with ingredients they trust — and helps these brands understand where, why and how our community is influenced to buy.  We truly are a community of experts and influencers.

Our big decisions and organic growth stem from listening to our dynamic community, which has pushed above 2.7 million uniques in size this year.

It’s 2013.

And there are hundreds of hair care brands and thousands of stylists out there specifically targeting this market — the world of curls and texture.

We talk internally about “engaging and empowering the beauty influencer” as our mission and role.

What role does your forum play or what community does it serve?

I would love to hear your examples of organic monetization and successful features or ideas generated from community feedback.

More on the panel topic and how we’ve monetized our forum in this recently published interview with Murray Newlands of ForumConTV (thanks Murray!)

I look forward to more discussion on June 13!

 

Viglink

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view_from_the_top

I am really getting into crowdfunding. I know it’s been around for a while but recently I’ve found a few specific projects that excited me enough to dive in.

Crowdfunding is basically a way for an individual or a company to underwrite the cost of financing a product or service by getting people that like the idea to put up money or buy into it prior to completion. There are hundreds of platforms that do crowdfunding including: Kickstarter, Indiegogo, CrowdSupply. Some estimate there are more than 450 crowdfunding platforms.

In fact, crowdfunded startups doubled in 2012 to reach $2.66 billion and are expected to double that figure by the end of this year.

However, there are some industry watchers that claim crowdfunding is at its tipping point.

I tend to disagree.   Although the recent announcement that billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump has entered the space with FundAnything.com has me wondering if the death knell has been sounded. However, on the flipside, a new CNBC prime-time reality TV show Crowd Rules, where small-business owners compete for $50,000 and the audience votes on which owner to fund, debuted this week. In addition, Google last week announced a deal to buy a $125 million stake in the online, peer-to-peer lending platform Lending Club, valuing the crowd-financing site at more than $1.5 billion.

The genius of crowdfunding is the combination of social media and equity-based financing.  Still, to date, it seems like many of the investments opportunities are aimed at techies, funding media (movies, music, games, etc.) and those ventures that promote or support a cause. After reading much about the space, it appears that analysts expect more platforms that cater to niche needs. Just like most of online marketing, it’s all about targeting an audience by going narrower rather than broader. Although, I believe there is room for both.

My first venture was with Kickstarter. I invested in the Pebble E-Paper Watch for $150. The company raised $10 million in its Kickstarter campaign. My snazzy new watch is due to arrive sometime next month. I’ve invested in a couple more and it will be interesting if the product ends up as good as the concept.

And it looks like crowdfunding has cleared one of its major hurdles – legality and government regulation. later is year, pending SEC regulations, the equity crowdfunding part of the JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act will take effect, making it legal to seek investments by offering equity to crowdfunders.

I hope that all these crowdfunding investment and micro lending platforms will further spark innovation and competition, putting players in business that might otherwise not have access to funding through traditional methods such as bank loans and venture capital. That’s good for consumers.

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Big News for NetSuite Customers: New RingRevenue Integration

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friday pulse

This week there were so many interesting articles. I continue to gravitate towards all things mobile and m-commerce, along with analysis of the GAN demise and some not-so-thrilling news about crowd funding (which I love).

Happy Reading!!

This is an interesting post about some of the pitfalls of being in marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, Sears) from an SEO and PPC pro. He worries about the marketplaces getting better rankings since the datafeed is duplicate content and marketplaces get higher ranks many times than the seller does. Third-party Marketplaces: What Merchants Should Know

Thanks to tablet growth, which is still lumped into mobile, I’m not sure this is a useful number. Mobile Commerce Grows 31 Percent in Q1

When Donald Trump gets into crowdfunding does this mean its dead? I don’t think so, but having Trump in the space doesn’t give me any warm fuzzies. I’d much prefer Mark Cuban doing something like this. He’s got the tech chops and the savvy to really help people grow their businesses. New, Trump-Injected Crowdfunding Site Will (Not Really) Make Your Dreams Come True

This is a great infographic on 7 different kinds of free shipping options. The most popular for retailers is free shipping with a minimum purchase. And 90 percent of shoppers say free shipping gets them to spend more. 7 Different Types of Free Shipping You Can Offer Today

Will Google’s stepping aside allow more innovative performance marketing options? Cake’s Mitch Gordon thinks so. GAN Demise Opens Doors to the Future of Performance Marketing

Google is getting very mixed reviews on how this is being rolled out related to returns on investment. I think it will be adjusting this following feedback. Just like the early users of Google Product Listing Ads (GPLA) were disappointed in their returns, this tool was modulated and now is a key component of search strategy for retailers. Google Enhanced Campaigns: Get Ready!

TheFind keeps innovating and that’s why it is one of the top publishers in the affiliate channel and one of the few surviving Comparison Shopping Engines (CSE). I run into TheFind team at the ChannelAdvisor Catalyst event- always good to chat with them. Plus Rob Ulveling just celebrated his 8th anniversary working with TheFind. Congrats Rob! TheFind Draws From Facebook Likes and Past Shopping History to Personalize Product Search

eBay’s consumer shopping data is just as rich as Amazon’s. There is a lot of battling on the retail sales side of the aisle. eBay Plans to Share Its Users’ Data with Brands

I know Google prefers RESPONSIVE DESIGN for search. But if your ecommerce solution doesn’t support responsive design or you have it on your 2014 development roadmap to convert, why shouldn’t you use a mobile website (as in m.customer.com)? How Common are SEO Problems with Responsive Web Design?

The title of this article as displayed in LinkedIn news was “Go Mobile… or Else.” And I couldn’t agree more. How to Make Your Website More Mobile-Friendly

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Closing the Loop on Calls: 5 Real Life, Practical Examples

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Here’s a recent info-graphic we put together. The old world of manual linking is looking a bit long in the tooth. VigLink Insert is applying cutting-edge technology to improve the process of linking, and the links themselves. Scroll down to see just how far we’ve come in the last few months.

Viglink

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