Continue reading HootSuite Rakes in Close to $2 Million in New Venture Round

HootSuite Rakes in Close to $2 Million in New Venture Round originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Very interesting story/rant over on WalletPop.com about the latest in a line of DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) ads -- this one featuring Chris Farley. Jami Bernard, the rant's author, is upset that David Spade is using a famous clip from his and Farley's hit comedy Tommy Boy to advertise the satellite-television provider. Bernard argues that Farley would not have liked to be remembered for a minor fat joke.

How was that assumption exactly made? Farley made fun of his size. He made his money by being an oversized, clumsy, fish-out-of-water comedian, so how can we determine that a "minor fat joke" (which some may argue is the funniest part of a very funny movie) is how he would or would not like to be remembered?

Continue reading Is DirecTV's use of Chris Farley distasteful? Will it help the stock?

Is DirecTV's use of Chris Farley distasteful? Will it help the stock? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Is it possible to run a business by giving away your stuff? It sounds counterintuitive. But hey, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) gives away much of its offerings, right? I'm actually using Google Docs to write this column, for example.

True, Google is perhaps an exception (it certainly helps to have a huge user base and brand name). But it is worth exploring the concept. In fact, there is an excellent book on the topic -- Free: The Future of a Radical Price-- which came out recently.

Continue reading Entrepreneur's Journal: Should your business start giving away stuff?

Entrepreneur's Journal: Should your business start giving away stuff? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Whatever happened to Carl Icahn's blog?

Whatever happened to Carl Icahn's blog? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In the wake of Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) stronger-than-expected earnings, I found an interesting article about a study published by wiki provider Wetpaint and the Altimeter Group. The study suggests that when a company/brand is more active with its consumers through social media (the likes of Facebook and Twitter), it is more likely that the company will have financial success. The study looked at a group of 100 companies from BusinessWeek's listing of the top 100 brands of 2008 and their activity on Facebook, Twitter, and the likes.

According to the study, the brands scoring the highest on the engagement scale saw 18% revenue growth in the past year. Those brands with the least engagement saw revenue decline 6%. Companies that were the most active were classified as "mavens," while the least active were called "wallflowers."

Continue reading Is the use of social networking the key to a company's success?

Is the use of social networking the key to a company's success? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The layoffs are already well under way at big media companies including Viacom (NYSE:VIA) and NBCU. But, what about the new media world, all of the blogs which have been created over the last three or four years? Those not owned by large companies (Blogging Stocks is owned by AOL), may simply not make it, even though they have become remarkably popular.

One of the largest blog networks, Gawker, has already said it will need to cut a significant numbers of people. And, it is a profitable company. A lot of independent blogs built up staff and other costs in the anticipation that growing visitors and pageviews would allow them to benefit from increasing advertising revenue. The recession has robbed them of that hope. The blogs backed by venture capitalists may not be able to get more money. Those which never raised money and have never had access to outside capital could be in the most trouble.

Some blogs have been lucky. paidContent was sold to the Guardian group in the UK. Ar's Technical, a tech blog, was sold to Conde Nast. Huffington Post raised $25 million. According to blog measurement site Technorati, Huffington is the top blog in the US. That gives it the advantage of size and branding.

There are several hundred blogs which have become important voices within their fields. Many of those that ramped up expenses in 2006 and 2007 are not going to make it. The revenue they were hoping for is not going to show up.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wall st.com.

The media recession: How many blogs will go under? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Four hundred financial blogs. Who knew there were so many? Perhaps they have come of age now, at least as commercial entities. According to The Wall Street Journal, "Forbes Inc., was set to announce Monday that it will start selling ads this spring for about 400 financial blogs."

It is an open question as to whether Forbes can make money. Some of the larger blogs in the network are still tiny. Take Xconomy, one of the blogs Forbes is pitching. According to measurement service Compete, only a little over 18,000 people visited the site last month. Another site in the network, Talking Biz News, is too small to be measured by Compete or Alexa, another audience measurement firm.

If Forbes can pull together 400 sites with 5,000 visitors a month, however, it can have a network with two million visitors. And that's a lot.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Forbes starts big financial blog ad effort originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading eBay (EBAY) future blogger Richard Brewer-Hay gets ready for eBay Ink launch

eBay (EBAY) future blogger Richard Brewer-Hay gets ready for eBay Ink launch originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Young adult vote could surge in 2008, driven by Obama, Internet factors

Young adult vote could surge in 2008, driven by Obama, Internet factors originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

1. ChrisPerruna.com - the most well organized stock blog around, very useful analysis
2. Dealbreaker.com - if you want Wall Street gossip, this is where you go
3. FeedTheBull.com - an up and coming site where bloggers can submit articles and users can vote their favorites
4. HowardLindzon.com - one of the godfathers of stock blogging, a real pro investor focusing on stocks making new highs
5. pfblogs.org - a blog comprised of posts from 1,000 different finance bloggers, say good-bye to whatever life you had

Continue reading 10 finance blogs for 2008

10 finance blogs for 2008 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hygenie.com

• Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer -- Check out the picture of him sweating: Yuck!
• Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky -- Face itcher!
• Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson -- Streaker!
  

Continue reading Dirty business: Hygenie's list of the ten least sanitary CEOs

Dirty business: Hygenie's list of the ten least sanitary CEOs originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Is TechCrunch being Punk'd? A case of Google voodoo and Ashton Kutcher's bare torso originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

What's the price of a blogger's soul? In some cases, it's as little as dinner with a guest at a nice restaurant.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "As online food sites become increasingly influential in the restaurant business, chefs and owners are plying bloggers with free meals to get good write-ups. Some are also posting favorable reviews about themselves on popular Web sites or becoming Internet scribes."

This is as clear a violation of journalistic ethics as you will find. Real food critics dine anonymously and pay their own bills -- a known critic is likely to receive special treatment, which of course could make their experience less than indicative of what their readers can expect.

And then there's another problem: Is it really possible to be objective in a review when you aren't feeling the sting of having paid for it?

Blogs are certainly giving the traditional media a run for their money. But in order for the coup to be successful, they will have to adopt some of the ethical standards of the traditional media. For what it's worth, this is the policy for all blogs in the Weblogs Inc. (owned by AOL; includes BloggingStocks) network:

• Bloggers do not receive free products or services from the companies they write about.
• Bloggers do accept review units (e.g., a new cell phone at Engadget, a video game at Joystiq, or a week-long car loan at Autoblog); however, when they're finished reviewing products, they return these items to the manufacturers. If the manufacturers do not take the items back, we give them to our readers. This is the same editorial policy as the New York Times or Wall Street Journal.

Bloggers sell their souls for free food originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 07 Oct 2007 11:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Reuters (NASDAQ:RTRSY) has a blog section at the bottom of most business stories at Reuters.com. It is called Business Blog Posts, and it is powered by Blogburst. Blogburst is part of blog syndication service Pluck. And, Reuters is one of Pluck's owners.

Complicated? Yes.

The business blogs that Reuters runs are mostly small, one-person operations like Phil's Stock World and Captain Currency. Some, like The Kirk Report and Bill Cara, are well regarded. But, Reuters does them a disservice. It keeps the traffic for their content when it runs on Reuters.com. So, Reuters gets the ad revenue on those pages. The bloggers get their names on Reuters, and a link back to their sites, which is probably rarely used.

It is interesting to note that none of the big business blog sites like SeekingAlpha or Ticker Sense run in the Reuters program. They understand that the deal is good for Reuters and bad for the blogs. They aren't prepared to let Reuters compete with them for eyeballs using their own blog content.

It is a shame that Reuters has handled bloggers this way. Many other media outlets like WSJ.com and TheStreet.com comment on blogs but send traffic to the bloggers. Reuters has decided not to give the little guy a leg up.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St. which was approached about the Reuters program and turned the company down.

What does Reuters have against financial blogs? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Huffington Post wants to be more like a newspaper -- Why?! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For many entrepreneurs, the VC world is a mystery. What do VCs really want? What are the valuation metrics? What are the key terms in a shareholder's agreement?

It's all complex stuff (even for some VCs) and, yes, there are numerous VCs who are blogging about these issues.

Is it a good thing? Well, there's a piece on the topic on Boston.com. So far, it seems the answer is "yes."

After all, if entrepreneurs have accurate guidelines, it means that the parties won't waste time. Something else: certain companies - that may provide tremendous benefits - can get the funding they need.

Oh, a blog can also bring more deal flow for VCs, and in light of the competition, this can be a nice advantage.

What's more, VC blogs can be a good source for those who aren't looking for capital. After all, VCs must keep a pulse on the latest-and-greatest. So, they often have some intriguing opinions.

If you want to check out some of the VC blogs, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Should VCs get bloggy? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As an M&A junkie, I'm always interested in cool blogs on the topic. The problem is: they're not many. But over the past couple months, I've been regularly following the M&A Law Prof Blog.

The blogger is Steven Davidoff, who is an assistant Professor of Law at Wayne State University. Before this, he was an attorney at Shearman & Sterling. Oh, and he is also the founder of Wasabi Sushi.

On his blog, Davidoff goes into detail on the intricacies of M&A transactions, covering things like Material Adverse Change clauses, tender offers, poison pills and so on. It's great stuff.

Well, he has a must-read M&A Fall Preview. Basically, the private equity crowd is going to be very busy with restructuring deals, renegotiations -- and perhaps some litigation. That's good news for strategic buyers (and, of course, deal attorneys). Also, it's a good bet that deal making in Europe will continue apace.

All in all, the M&A Law Prof Blog is standout. So, if you want to increase your deal-making IQ, definitely check out the site.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

M&A blog looks into the crystal ball originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 09 Sep 2007 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Discovery throws down some green for TreeHugger.com originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 02 Aug 2007 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In honor of the tenth anniversary of blogging, The Wall Street Journal interview a handful of noteworthy minds on the impact of blogging on society. For investors, the most interesting comments came from SEC Chairman Chris Cox:

As investors strive to make sense of the ever-higher mountains of data that we're buried under, the services of bloggers, whom we can imagine sitting at home in their pajamas trolling the Internet for us, free of charge, are likely to be an increasingly consequential addition to the investor's tool kit...

Do bloggers portend more lasting ramifications for the securities world? But of course. Shareholders are on the move, and technology has given them a cheaper and more-effective means to communicate. From improved price discovery to better corporate governance, investors, markets, managements and boards will never be the same.

It's encouraging to see that Chairman of the SEC recognizes the positive impact that blogs can have on financial markets, and all of us at BloggingStocks are thrilled to be "sitting at home in pajamas trolling the internet for you, free of charge."

His comment that bloggers can lead to "better corporate governance" is particularly interesting. Bloggers have the space to rant about executives in a way that few print publications to do. In the past, I've used BloggingStocks to try my hand at shareholder activism involving a company I own shares of, and I plan on doing more of that in the not too distant future.

Bloggers like Gary Weiss have used the internet to expose fraud and corporate shenanigans.

There's no question that blogging has already made a big impact on the investment world and, as it gains acceptance (The SEC chairman endorsing blogging!), I would look for that influence to increase.

SEC Chairman is a fan of blogs! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 16 Jul 2007 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In a sign of the increasing importance of high-end financial blogs, Reuters Group Plc (NASDAQ: RTRSY) is starting a new network of the sites. Or, it could be that the Reuters business development people have down time because of its upcoming purchase by Thomson Corp. (NYSE: TOC).

The offer that Reuters is making to a number of high-end blogs is that it will link to the participating sites from Reuters.com, offer free access to selected Reuters Headlines (RSS or Headline Wizard) and Reuters Video Player to publish Reuters News, and get 30% of an advertising program that the big financial services company will manage.

In return, each blog agrees to execute contracts with comScore and NetRatings to assign its traffic to Reuters.com. NetRatings ranks Reuters.com as the No.7 financial website with unique visitors of 6.1 million in May.

Reuters may be trying to match blog initiatives at media outlets including FT.com, WSJ.com, and AOL.com.

Either Reuters has a very high regard for financial blogs or it needs to pump up its audience ratings.

Disclosure: 24/7 Wall St. was approached by Reuters about this opportunity.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a principal at 24/7 Wall St.

Reuters starts financial blog network originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.