Pinterest introduces new features for business users

Pinterest rolled out free tools and resources for businesses on Wednesday as it continues to explore ways of moving towards monetizing the site.

In what looks like a precursor to the launch of paid products somewhere down the road, Pinterest announced details of new tools for businesses on Wednesday.

“We want to help more businesses provide great content on Pinterest and make it easy to pin from their websites,” the San Francisco-based social networking company wrote in a post on its blog, adding, “Today, we’re taking a first step toward that goal with some free tools and resources.”

Companies are now invited to open a business account on Pinterest – before now there was just one type of account for all users – with its own specific terms and conditions, which mean the platform can now be officially used for commercial purposes. This is certain to result in a boost in interest from businesses, as before now anyone creating a Pinterest account had to agree not to use the site for explicit marketing. This goes some way to explaining why, in a survey conducted over the summer, only seven percent of companies questioned said they had a presence on Pinterest, while 44 percent said they had no interest at all in using it.

Businesses already on Pinterest can easily convert to a business account by clicking on the ‘convert your existing account’ button here.

Features

A Pinterest business account allows companies to sign up with the name of the company (as opposed to first-name-last-name as before) and go through what Pinterest calls “an optimized user flow” that enables new members to verify that the business owns the website on the Pinterest profile so visitors can “more easily find the business they want in search results”.

It also helps users to add a Pin It button, Follow button, Profile widget, or Board widget “to get more engagement from pinners and traffic back to your site.” Holders of a business account will also receive information on upcoming features “that will provide more powerful ways of reaching and understanding your audience on Pinterest.”

Case studies

If a company is in two minds about whether to open a Pinterest account, the social networking firm is encouraging it to check out new pages showing case studies and the like, which explain how businesses are already making use of the site.

Matt Wurst, director of digital communities at digital agency 360i, told Adweek that Pinterest’s launch of business accounts was “a symbolic first step toward understanding the value that brands can have leveraging [Pinterest’s] platform to connect with consumers.”

He added that the move would likely result in the roll out of paid-for options for businesses to highlight their Pinterest profiles and wares to users.

Pinterest has been gathering members fast since it ended its invitation-only model in August. On top of that, the site, which launched in March 2010, broke into the top 50 chart of most visited US websites for the first time in September with more than 25 million visitors during that month, according to research firm comScore.

Visitor numbers have also been boosted with the recent launch of free apps for Android devices and Apple’s iPad.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

LinkedIn partners with YouTube to offer easier B2B video ads

LinkedIn is making it much easier for businesses to advertise for B2B connections on its site, partnering with YouTube to allow businesses to upload their own video ads.

LinkedIn occupies a strange place in social media. It’s never been a particularly “hot” site, nor is it one that’s often considered during discussions of social media sites that are particularly well-traveled, but nonetheless, it’s become a successful niche destination for professional networking; a day doesn’t go by without getting some form of request for connection, endorsement or some other form of interaction, suggesting a high level of participation from members. And now, the site is planning to offer yet another way in which users can be touched by companies and corporations on the site: Video ads.

According to a post on SocialTimes, LinkedIn is partnering with YouTube to replace the existing 300 x 250 video ads on the site with new videos from YouTube that will be reformatted to work on the site. The new ads will play for 30 seconds, before offering viewers the opportunity to click through to a website to learn more about the company, and are said to be ad spaces to promote “a complex B2B [business to business] service [or communicate] an inspiring brand message,” according to the site.

The new video ads appear to be a response to the drop in marketing revenue made by LinkedIn so far in 2012, compared with the previous year (Marketing revenue amounted for 28 percent of total Q2 revenue for the company, compared with 32 percent for the same period in 2011). Explaining the drop on an investor call earlier this year, SVP and Chief Financial Officer for the company, Steve Sordello said that the “self-serve LinkedIn Ads platform continued to outpace overall site page views, although revenue declined slightly versus the first quarter as field sales absorbed more of the available inventory.” He added, however, that “Click-through rates and CPCs steadily improved versus last year and in addition to working to drive further engagement on the site, we continue to look for new ways to add inventory for our self-serve channel.”

That last point is where these new video ads come in, apparently. When asked about the origin of the new system, a LinkedIn spokesperson responded by saying that the company is “always exploring new ways to drive engagement, and bringing new products like video ads is part of our larger plan to do so.”

With a recent report from the Content Marketing Institute announcing that LinkedIn is the number one resource for business to business content marketing online – An impressive 83 percent of B2B marketers apparently use LinkedIn to distribute content, compared with 80 percent using Facebook or Twitter – it’s possible that these “do it yourself” video opportunities will be exactly what LinkedIn needed to raise its marketing bottom line. The question may be: When will regular users get a chance to add their own YouTube content to their profiles?

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Yelp tries public shaming to discourage businesses from gaming reviews and ratings

Yelp, in its latest measure to discourage businesses from gaming its reviews and ratings, will display warning signs on businesses suspected to be be illicitly enhancing their visibility and profile.

Yelp has become critical to local business’ success. Patrons consider the number of stars a vendor receives as well as user reviews on Yelp a great — and legitimate — source of first-hand feedback. Over the years, the platform has become a standard for judging the quality of services, and accordingly, small businesses have inevitably found ways to game the system and rack up the positive reviews. Now, Yelp is taking measures to crack down on companies that are resorting to these illicit tactics.

“The allure of a page full of five-star reviews can turn even the most ethical business owner starry-eyed and persuade some to attempt to game the system by paying for reviews,” Eric Singley Yelp VP of Product says.

It’s incredibly easy to find sources for faked reviews — a quick Craigslist scan reveals as much. Other more elaborate schemes involve entire businesses that are contracted by small businesses to improve visibility and ratings on the site. Such contracted organizations will use gray or black hat techniques including publishing false reviews and slandering competing businesses — the result of this being that the entire Yelp review system’s reliability is degraded. 

But Yelp will start taking an unconventional approach by publicly shaming businesses through a pop-up that warns consumers of the vendors’ less-than-legitimate actions. Businesses that Yelp is certain are gaming the system will be flagged starting today, and the platform revealed that the feature is launching with nine businesses that “will have the consumer alert message posted on their profile page.” The alert will appear for a period of 90 days and be removed thereafter unless the business in question doesn’t quit its scammy ways.

Yelp reviews’ controversial history has even led to a class action lawsuit against the company for allegedly extorting businesses to place ads on its site to surface their positive reviews. These issues have also kindled interest by researchers to detect false reviews using statistics and algorithms. Last year Cornell researchers developed a computer algorithm that in field trials was 90 percent accurate in detecting false reviews. And in June, researchers from the State University of New York, Stony Brook devised a statistical technique that spotted businesses with false reviews by comparing the statistical distribution of reviews. That method was said to work with 72 percent accuracy.

Review scammers are clever and their efforts are becoming more and more sophisticated as outlets try to fight them. Yelp claims to be ahead of the game compared to competitors, and the site will soon begin identifying businesses with a “large number of reviews submitted from the same Internet Protocol (IP) address.”

Yelp assures users and businesses that play by the rules that, “we are not going to let a few bad apples spoil the bunch.”

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

UK spy agency launches contest in hunt for tomorrow’s cyber security experts

UK spy agency GCHQ has launched a special contest in the hope of uncovering the cyber security experts of tomorrow.

With governments and businesses facing a growing number of cyber attacks perpetrated by increasingly sophisticated criminals, such bodies are struggling to keep pace with the escalating threat.

The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) – the UK’s central spy agency specializing in electronic intelligence gathering – is perhaps more worried than most, with many of its skilled tech wizards leaving for better paid jobs in the private sector.

In an attempt to shore up its defenses against hostile states and criminal gangs operating online, the spy service has launched a computer security competition open to all Brits aged 16 and over in the hope of discovering the cyber security experts of tomorrow.

The Balancing the Defence test puts contestants “in charge of managing the risk to a Government department’s computer network. You will analyse the network, looking for vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit, and apply a range of defensive controls,” it says on the competition’s website.

“Some will be technical in nature, but others will be based in the security policies you establish. Your budget is limited and you will have to make tough decisions about which controls you can apply to get value for money and reduce the risk to your network.”

Registration for the competition ends September 26, with the test lasting five days from from October 1.

The designer of the test – a GCHQ employee known only as ‘Karl’ – told the Guardian that no computer system can ever be 100 percent protected.

“There is no such thing as a completely secure system – businesses will always need to balance where to spend a limited budget, to manage risks and provide opportunities,” he said.

Back in June, the head of the UK’s domestic security service, MI5, said he was shocked by the number of cyber attacks taking place against the country.

“The extent of what is going on is astonishing, with industrial-scale processes involving thousands of people lying behind both state-sponsored cyber espionage and organized cyber crime,” MI5 boss Jonathan Evans told said in a speech in London.

With that in mind, the British government will certainly be hoping GCHQ’s cyber security competition uncovers some bright sparks who can help build an effective system to defend against attacks, ensuring the protection of highly sensitive information in the process.

[via Reuters] [Image: Rafal Olechowski / Shutterstock]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com