How do businesses turn Instagram (FB) “likes” into sales dollars? That’s the multimillion-dollar question in a retail industry struggling to find the sweet spot between e-commerce and old-fashioned stores.
Nordstrom’s (JWN) answer: Build a sort of fake Instagram. In a platform that launches this morning, the department store has created a site called Like2Buy that looks like the social network and acts like the social network but links photos directly to product pages on its Web store and stores the photos that users “like.”
Nordstromwill still maintain its traditional Instagram feed, which nearly 529,000 people follow. But a link on its Instagram profile will connect users to its shadow site, where its Instagram photos can be clicked and items purchased. That additional step, in theory, is easier for shoppers than it would be to hunt for the product on the Web.
Bryan Galipeau, Nordstrom’s director of social media, says Like2Buy will stem a tide of questions the company has long been fielding in Instagram comments: Where can I buy this? Do you still carry this? How much does this cost?
Courtesy Nordstrom
“This is the first experience of its kind,” Galipeau said. “And it’s the closest thing out there—that I’m aware of—in terms of delivering a seamless shopping experience.”
Plenty of social networks lend themselves more readily to commerce, most notablyWanelo and Pinterest. On those sites, users build a sort of wish list from Web pages. Instagram, however, is a different social animal. It is simply a stream of photos without product details and it doesn’t allow users to propagate links beyond one Web address that can be included in the user’s profile.
That said, Instagram has a massive—and keenly engaged—foundation of users. It says 200 million people (and businesses such as Nordstrom) regularly log onto its platform, sharing about 60 million photos every day. Pinterest doesn’t share user stats, but recent estimates say its base is only about one-quarter as large.
Nordstrom is a step ahead of other brands on Instagram; its 529,000 followers dwarf the communities built by many of its rivals.
None of those brands, however, have been effective at cashing in on those fans. They have cobbled together a variety of techniques to link Instagram fans to their Web stores. Nordstrom, for example, has traditionally listed the item number of products featured on its Instagram feed, so people can more easily hunt the goods on the company’s Web store.
“Everybody is trying to hack Instagram,” said Apu Gupta, cofounder of Curalate, a Philadelphia-based company that built Nordstrom’s new product. Gupta likens a lot of retail Instagram feeds to “walking into a flea market.”
Curalate, meanwhile, is hoping to build similar platforms for many of the 450 clients that already pay it to track social media engagement and build digital marketing campaigns. That group includes a host of retail brands, including Gap (GPS), Urban Outfitters (URBN), Under Armour (UA), and Neiman Marcus.
“We came to this realization a few months ago,” Gupta said. “We think it’s going to be a very big deal.”
Stock is an associate editor for Businessweek.com.
Ralph Lauren's classic frat-guy uniform is getting a high-tech makeover for the U.S. Open and beyond
Forget Google Glass. The latest wearable computing innovation is the smart Polo shirt. Yes, you read that correctly — Ralph Lauren's classic frat-guy uniform is getting a high-tech makeover.
The new Polo Tech shirt, unveiled Monday morning to coincide with the first day of the U.S. Open, goes beyond the old preppy design you know and love. It's essentially a compression shirt that has knitted-in sensors that can read biological and physical data, such as heartbeat, respiration, stress level, and energy output, and send this information to your smartphone. Aimed at athletes, the Polo Tech shirt is designed to help "improve general wellness and increase personal fitness," the luxury lifestyle brand said in a statement.
Tennis fans will be able to check out the shirt when they tune into the U.S. Open. Several of the ball boys who retrieve missed shots will be wearing the shirt, andMarcos Giron, the No. 1 singles player in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association who is playing in his first Grand Slam in Flushing, will rock the computerized shirt during his practices.
"Our goal is to create and reflect the ultimate lifestyle, and we believe that a healthy and active life is an essential part of that," David Lauren, Ralph Lauren's senior vice president of advertising, marketing, and corporate communications, said in a statement. "Ralph Lauren is excited to help lead the industry in wearable technology in this ever-evolving, modern world."
The new Polo Tech shirt is black with the signature Polo Player logo in yellow. Ralph Lauren developed the shirt with technology from Canadian-based OMsignal, which makes wearable fitness trackers. It should be available for purchase in the first half of 2015.
"Our vision is that this will transcend sports to help us at every age and in every aspect of life," Lauren said. "Reaching far beyond just the needs of elite athletes, Polo Tech will offer innovative technology for all ages and lifestyles to promote general wellness and quality of life."
At May's Code Conference, Intel chief Brian Krzanich showed up wearing a shirtthat included sensors and an Intel Edison chip, which measured his heart rate and took an EKG, the results of which showed up on his smartphone. Krzanich partnered with AIQ for the shirt, which features a special silicon called Gossmer. AIQ is expected at next week's IFA trade show in Berlin.
Angela has been a PCMag reporter since January 2012. Prior to joining the team, she worked as a reporter for SC Magazine, covering everything related to hackers and computer security
NAB says that auction rules as they stand could hurt stations that opt not to participate in the auction.
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) on Monday filed a suit challenging the FCC's incentive auction, which NAB says could hurt TV stations that choose not to participate in the auction.
As dictated by the Spectrum Act, the auction is designed so that broadcast television licensees, including NAB's members, can voluntarily relinquish unused spectrum and get a cut of the purchase price when it is auctioned off to wireless providers.
But the NAB suit says that the FCC is not providing adequate protection for broadcasters who decline to participate in the auction and remain on the air. Specifically, NAB takes issue with a methodology known as TVStudy.
"Under this new methodology, many broadcast licensees, including NAB's members, will lose coverage area and population served during the auction's repacking and reassignment process, or be forced to participate in the auction (and relinquish broadcast spectrum rights)," the NAB lawsuit states.
In response, the FCC said it is "confident that the Report and Order fulfills the mandates established by Congress on this complex matter."
According to 2013 documentation about the spectrum auction, the FCC said that its TVStudy software "operates on modern computer systems, and it runs much faster, provides greater accuracy in modeling and analysis, and is easier to use and more versatile than the existing software."
In a blog post, NAB's Rick Kaplan, executive vice president of Strategic Planning, said NAB does not want to delay the spectrum auction, which is currently set for sometime in 2015.
"Consistent with that approach, we have filed our petition at the outset of the 60-day filing window and we will be seeking expedited review," Kaplan wrote. "Our aim is to resolve our core challenges as quickly as possible, so the FCC can immediately return to its auction preparations. We believe the court can help us swiftly address our discrete issues."
Though the FCC issued its spectrum auction rulemaking in May, it was only just published in the Federal Register, which is required before any entity can file a legal challenge.
Not surprisingly, wireless industry trade association CTIA has a different take. In a statement released Monday, CTIA Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Scott Bergmann, said the FCC's order "strikes the right balance to ensure that consumers emerge as winners."
"As the FCC Commissioners, members of Congress and independent third party analysts continue to emphasize, the wireless industry needs more spectrum as soon as possible to be able to meet mobile broadband demand," he said.
Stephanie began as a PCMag reporter in May 2012. She moved to New York City from Frederick, Md., where she worked for four years as a multimedia reporter at the second-largest daily newspaper in Maryland.
Summary: Community Health Systems, a US chain of more than 200 hospitals, said patient information such as names, addresses and social security numbers were stolen in the attack. By Natalie Gagliordi for Between the Lines |
The US hospital network Community Health Systems confirmed in an SEC regulatory filing Monday that its computer network was the target of an external, criminal cyberattack.
The breach, which is believed to have originated from a Chinese hacker ring, resulted in stolen personal data from nearly 4.5 million patients who were treated within the hospital chain over the last five years.
In the filing, the hospital company said the attacker was an Advanced Persistant Threat group using highly sophisticated malware to gain entry into its computer network.
The attacker copied and transferred non-medical patient identification data that is protected under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, such as patient names, addresses, birthdates, telephone numbers and social security numbers.
Community Health Systems stressed that no patient credit card data was stolen, nor were any clinical or medical records. The attackers also failed to retrieve any sensitive intellectual property data, which is what the hospital company said this particular hacker ring typically goes after.
Since learning of the attack, the hospital chain said it's been working both with federal law enforcement authorities and the forensic security company Mandiant, with the latter helping the company work through remediation efforts and eradicate the malware from its system.
The healthcare industry has frequently been criticized for poor security practices in recent months. In April, the FBI issued a warning to healthcare providers regarding potential security weaknesses, and several security reports have highlighted the same threats.
According to a recent report from BitSight Technologies, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies have the lowest security performances when compared to the finance, utility and retail sectors. Given the lasting repercussions from Target's security debacle, that's saying something.
Natalie is a ZDNet staff writer based in Louisville, Kentucky.
Question: I get a lot of customers who come into my business once but never return. Do you have any tips on building customer loyalty?
Answer:Loyalty really comes down to this: giving people a reason to shop at your business, rather than going across town or hopping online and spending their money at a larger, better-known company. Most often, people go out of their way to patronize small companies because they know and like the people there and enjoy the shopping experience.
Of course, you have to offer excellent products or services at reasonable prices, but you probably can’t compete for customers who are looking only at cost. What you’ve got that the bigger guys don’t, however, is a reputation in your community.
Be the kind of friendly, honest, service-oriented business owner whom everyone enjoys interacting with, and you shouldn’t have a problem getting repeat customers. Here are a few more specific tips:
Make your customer service stellar. Seems obvious, right? Yet how many times have you gotten the evil eye from a surly clerk or been ignored by a receptionist on a personal call? “Make sure the customer is dealt with promptly, courteously, and efficiently. Customers will remember this, but they will remember bad service even more,” says Gabriel Bristol, president and chief executive officer ofIntelicare Direct, which operates customer service call centers in Las Vegas and San Diego.
Be a people person. Remember names and family details. Buying decisions are more emotional than logical. Give your customers good feelings, and they’ll come back for more. “There cannot be any customer loyalty if you do not genuinely care about customers,” says Joy Karp, a small business owner and the author of The Power of Service: Service Through the Eyes of Customers. Your employees should be genuinely kind, caring people as well. “Bad or sullen attitudes are contagious and will infect your service like a bad flu,” she says. “Get rid of it wherever it exists within your business.”
Resolve problems quickly. It’s not always easy, but don’t ignore or get annoyed by complaints. “Not every product works exactly right, and sometimes paid services don’t meet expectations,” Bristol says. “Accept that when the customer’s expectations haven’t been met, you must work hard to make sure the issues are resolved to their satisfaction. They will remember this, and they will feel like their purchases are safe with you next time.”
Don’t oversell. “No badgering, no patronizing,” Karp says, recalling a shoe store owner who was so pushy he drove customers right out the door. Focus more on how you can help your customers than on how you can sell them something. “Humor is good, as long as it is clean and relevant, never sarcastic or cynical,” Karp adds.
Keep in touch. Let your regulars know about specials, sales, and new products. Thank them in person and with special discounts—or even freebies—for being such loyal customers. Once they know how much they mean to you, they won’t want to take their business anyplace else.
Summary: This is where the rubber meets the road with Windows Phone. We take a selection of regularly-used apps and see whether Windows Phone can provide similar functions. The results may surprise you! By David Gewirtz for DIY-IT |
About a month ago, in the beginning of July, I began an evaluation of Windows Phone. I've long been an iPhone and Android user, but had no experience with Windows Phone. I reached out to Microsoft, and they provided me with a Lumia Icon to use for my review.
In previous articles, I described my first impressions. There is no doubt the device is a sweet phone. But the big question in my mind is also probably the single biggest negative Microsoft has to deal with in marketing Windows Phone: the app gap. Compared to the iOS app store and Google Play, Windows Phone has just a fragment of the apps.
What I wanted to find out was whether that mattered in real, day-to-day use.
Before I used a Windows Phone device for the first time (and mine is upgraded to 8.1 with the latest updates), I set out a list of app requirements based on my day-to-day use of my Android Phone, a Samsung Galaxy S4 that's under contract until next year.
Each of these requirements reflects my daily usage pattern for the phone. My feeling was that if I could do pretty much the same stuff on a Windows Phone, then it would pass the app challenge. But if I was unable to get the same productivity out of Windows Phone as I could with either iOS or Android, it would fail the challenge.
Grading scale
To evaluate the app challenge, I set out 19 requirements in my initial article. Windows Phone will be graded on a 0 to 5 scale for each requirement. Those of you math wizards in the audience will notice that 19-times-5 is 95, so to bring the scale up to 100, I'll give Windows Phone an initial 5 points just for plucky competitive spirit.
Finally, I'll report a final grade from F to A, according to the same numerical grading scale I use with my students:
One other thing. In terms of scoring, I'll be judging on two levels. First is functionality. Can the phone get the job done? Second is whether it can be done nicely.
What do I mean by this? Let's say I was handed the phone and had to use it for some reason instead of the S4. Could I get my work done, regardless of whether or not the interface was pleasant or just workable? Was I just plain out of luck? I will award 0-3 points for functionality.
The usability requirement is really a question of how elegantly it's done. Is it a pain in the neck to use? Do I have to resort to loading a Web page instead of an app? Is it a slick, clean user interface that's a pleasure to use. I will award 0-2 points for usability.
Now that you understand the rules of the challenge, let's get started with our first requirement. Good luck to everyone!
Let the challenge begin
All my phones use inductive charging. Can the Windows Phone?
It most certainly does. In fact, unlike the iPhone, which needs a brick-like sleeve and the Galaxy, which has a charging back that doesn't fit most cases, the Lumia Icon has inductive charging built in. There's no bulge. There's no muss. No fuss. This is how inductive charging should be done.
Functionality on 0-3 scale: 3
Usability on a 0-2 scale: 2
By contrast, I'd award both the iPhone and Android phone 2s for functionality. You can do inductive charging, if you buy add-ons. On the other hand, I'd award a sad 0 for usability for the iPhone. You need to attach a brick to it. I'd give a 1 to the Android phone because it then becomes incompatible with most cases, but at least it's not a brick.
Can I connect to both my email and my calendar? My email is Office 365 via Exchange and Outlook, but I live off of Google Calendar. Can I still manage my Google Calendar with this thing?
I had HUGE expectations for this. I expected the Windows Phone to integrate with my Office 365 account like butta. The phone even boots up with a friendly Office 365 icon right on the home screen. Excitedly, I tapped it, and ... well, huh? Where's my email?
I launched into the app, but there was no option to get my email. I could see my email attachments, but not my email. I pay $15/mo per user for Office 365, primarily for access to Exchange, but there was no email in the Office 365 app. 'Scuse me?
Where's my email?
As it turns out, if you exit the Office 365 app and go back to the home screen, there's a quarter-size icon (one quarter the size of the Office 365 icon) with an envelope on it. If you tap that, you can sign into your Office 365 email and get the relatively pleasant Outlook interface.
Why Microsoft? Why?
So, yes, you can access your Office 365 email from Windows Phone. But not only was it not integrated like butta, it was a completely separate icon with no connection whatsoever (except for seeing attachments -- bizarre on its own) to the Office 365 app.
This is where Microsoft baffles me. This was such a no-need-to-bungle opportunity to shine bright, but instead, sigh, no joy.
As for my Google Calendar, the good news is you can integrate the Google Calendar (including multiple individual calendars). It gets the job done. On the other hand, the month view of Google Calendar on the Windows Phone (and presumably the month view for Exchange) is nothing short of useless.
Windows Phone vs. Android
As you can see, the image on the left is from the month view of Windows Phone. The image on the right is from my Android calendar. It has so much information, I had to blur the whole thing out to be able to post it. Even more powerful, one of my home screens on my Android Launcher shows this calendar view, so I never even have to open the calendar to see my month at-a-glance. That functionality just brutalizes not only Windows Phone, but iOS as well.
Office functionality for Windows Phone was tough to rate. I fully expected this to be a knock-out-of-the-park 5, and instead:
Functionality on 0-3 scale: 3
Usability on a 0-2 scale: 0
Once you get past the initial idiocy of the way the apps work, you can enlarge the email icon and using it is reasonably pleasant. Even so, I dinged the score because it was just such an unnecessary place for confusion and such a huge missed opportunity to showcase integration.
Lots more apps to come. Windows Phone picks up some much-needed points...
By the way, I'm doing more updates on Twitter and Facebook than ever before. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz and on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz.
David Gewirtz, Distinguished Lecturer at CBS Interactive, is an author, U.S. policy advisor, and computer scientist. He is featured in the History Channel special The President's Book of Secrets and is a member of the National Press Club.
By Scott MattesonAugust 12, 2014, Find out how Google detected illegal activity on their systems and how they responded to the discovery.
The lines between good and bad don't get much clearer than this. It was recently reported that Google alerted the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) when they detected evidence of alleged child pornography being sent via a user's Gmail account. The NCMEC then contacted local police and the user, a Houston Texas resident previously convicted of sexual assault, was subsequently arrested after child pornography was found on devices that he owned.
Very few law-abiding citizens would object to such a measure, but nevertheless, the comments on various news sites, Facebook, and other sources began heating up almost immediately:
"This leads down a path that will end up eventually violating everyone's right to privacy." (Ryan Byers on theCNET.com Facebook page)
"The idea of privacy is an illusion. The big picture is that we are monitored and given the illusion of freedom." (Richard Ibah on the CNET.com Facebook page)
"I'm all for privacy, but the core of freedom is if it does not harm or infringe upon the rights of others." (Robert Riggs on the CNET.com Facebook page)
Most people reacted positively to Google's move, and the rest can largely be described as extreme privacy advocates who objected to Google "snooping" on people's email, or those concerned with false accusations (it bears repeating that further evidence was found in possession of the accused, confirming the police department's suspicions).
It's spelled right out in Google's Terms of Services, which state "You may use our Services only as permitted by law, including applicable export and re-export control laws and regulations. We may suspend or stop providing our Services to you if you do not comply with our terms or policies or if we are investigating suspected misconduct.... we may review content to determine whether it is illegal or violates our policies, and we may remove or refuse to display content that we reasonably believe violates our policies or the law."
Then there's Google's privacy policy, which informs users "We collect information to provide better services to all of our users -- from figuring out basic stuff like which language you speak, to more complex things like which ads you'll find most useful or the people who matter most to you online.... when you use our services or view content provided by Google, we may automatically collect and store certain information in server logs. This may include details of how you used our service, such as your search queries."
Furthermore, Google states "we will share personal information with companies, organizations or individuals outside of Google if we have a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request."
It's important to keep in mind the accused man in question was allegedly conducting illegal activities on services owned by Google. This is a far cry from the much less realistic threat that Google technicians could look at confidential business or personal information in a Gmail account and possibly leak details to someone else with malicious or financial intent (such as through blackmail).
In addition, Google is not the government -- it's a business. Nobody is forced to use its services. It would be one thing if the FBI required that all system administrators provide them with on-demand access to email databases and logs; the privacy outcry would be legitimate and valid.
Just how Google discovered the alleged criminal material isn't entirely clear, but an article that appeared on the Telegraph news site last year by David Drummond, the Chief Legal Officer of Google, states that Google is committed to finding and removing this material, and it hinted at the possibility of certain scanning algorithms "that trawl other platforms for known images" that are then verified as illegal content by human inspection. In other words, they don't have a spy assigned to each mail user to monitor what they're doing.
The privacy-first crowd usually makes valid points about topics similar to this, or at least they bring up issues worthy of consideration regarding the overstepping of big businesses, the danger in keeping confidential material on someone else's systems, and the unknown factor behind offsite data. However, this isn't one of those blurry areas of "Should they/should they not?" It involved illegal behavior that Google had a moral duty to prevent (especially since their systems were being misused). I, for one, salute Google for helping to protect the public.
Where do you stand on this issue?
Scott Matteson is a senior systems administrator and freelance technical writer who also performs consulting work for small organizations. He resides in the Greater Boston area with his wife and three children.
A woman was admitted to a psychiatric hospital after saying she believed that a famous actor was sending her coded messages via Twitter, according to a published research paper.
Does we make Twitter? Or does Twitter make us?Mashable/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET
It's almost a casual throwaway to describe those obsessed with social media as crazy.
Human behavior has seen radical shifts ever since noses were permanently pointed toward screens and lives began to be lived inside them.
One group of doctors, however, believes that social networks -- specifically Twitter -- can induce psychosis in those already predisposed to its effects.
The article describes a 31-year-old female patient who was admitted to Charité-Universitätsmedizin hospital in Berlin. She had no previous history of mental disorder. Suddenly, though, she was enveloped by a Twitter obsession.
She believed that a famous actor was sending her coded messages through the site.
As the Daily Dot reports, her symptom became extreme: "During the next couple of weeks, Mrs. C increasingly felt that the messages of other users were ‛meant in a symbolic way' and that she had to react to these 'tasks' in a certain manner."
Having taken on a belief in this Twitter symbolism, she then purportedly began to see the same symbols in her everyday surroundings.
Having looked at her case, the doctors posited that "the amount of symbolic language (caused by the limitation of 140 characters per Twitter message), the automated spam responses with seemingly related content, and the general interactive features of Twitter might combine several aspects that could induce or further aggravate psychosis."
All language, spoken or written carries symbolic meanings. It may be that for Mrs C. the particular language of Twitter, with its abbreviations, codes and even in-jokes, represented a world that resonated strongly with some predisposition already present in her.
It's not clear whether these doctors managed to deduce the core of her resonance. However, Mrs. C recovered after treatment and managed to release her Twitter bonds entirely.
Not everyone has the predisposition for such an extreme reaction. What if, though, we chose to step back from all those online behaviors that have become a habit? Would we become different people? Better people? Saner people?
Would we suddenly feel more connected, because we'd have more time to interact with others in a real-world way, rather than through a screen? Or would we feel deprived to the point of insanity?
It's worth more than one experiment, surely.
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world.
Courtesy Nordstrom
