CRM Update – Apr 09 : 2:04 pm

There are plenty of startups that offer to help your social media efforts. How can you tell if they’re worth your time and money?Once upon a time, a company was ‘online’ if it had a basic website. That time, of course, is long past. Instead, a brand’s presence needs to be highly distributed across different online channels and modes. A brand may or may not have a bricks and mortar location, but it certainly has a website, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, one or several blogs, and a Pinterest board or Springpad (in which my company is an investor), for starters…

It can be hard to turn your nose up at anything that’s offered for free. But are hospitals doing more harm than good when they give out free samples of brand-name baby formula to mothers of newborn babies?

The folks at Public Citizen have fired off letters to more than 2,600 hospitals around the country, urging them to stop including these samples in new mothers’ discharge bags, calling it unethical and a violation of good public health policy.

A number of hospitals in the U…

If you believe success is simply making (or having) a lot of money, you may be setting yourself up for failure.I’m often amazed at how many people define success as making (or having) a lot of money.It’s very strange, because many of the people who think this way are harried, stressed and, frankly, pretty miserable.Read more: 10 Questions That Create SuccessThe way I see it, everybody’s definition of success can be mapped on a simple grid, with one axis being the amount of money that you have and the other being the amount of happiness in your life, like so:The way a lot of people think, success should be defined as follows:To my mind, however, a much more sensible definition of success is:There are two reasons why this definition is better…

Back in December, a U.S. Appeals court gave the thumbs-up to telecommunications companies working with the National Security Agency to monitor phones and email. Phone companies are also apparently totally cool with selling access to your phone activities to other law enforcement agencies willing to fork over pre-set prices.

Forbes, drawing from documents requested by the American Civil Liberties Union, reports wiretaps cost this much at each provider:

* T-Mobile: $500 per target…

Can your small business really succeed against the big guys? With these social media tactics, you can be fierce, even if you’re small and scrappy.The biggest companies always seem to have the upper hand in advertising and marketing, with their substantial budgets and progressive research-and-development. However, in light of on-going economic woes, small businesses can develop the No. 1 skill to give them a knock-down competitive advantage. Namely, social media.”Competition? What competition?” says Jim Lupkin, founder of Summa Social…

1. SportsFanLive

SportsFanLive functions as a digital hangout for sports nuts of all stripes. Members can create profiles and add friends on the site, as well as consume content tailored to their sports and teams of choice.

They can also earn points by posting opinions and weighing in on debates. Plus, users can search for the nearest sports bar where like-minded fans will gather for the big game.

The site was founded in 2008 by David Katz, who previously ran Yahoo! Sports…

Since all of Europe and South America takes a vacation today, I spent an extra 15 minutes reading the economic news. The back of today’s New York Times Business Day section has an advertisement by a great company that offers software to enable Marketing to ‘manage social engagement.’ Think about that for a minute. The company and the product do not matter here - it is a terrific company and as to the product: it is not a part of the point we should explore (they have super products)…

Sometimes Netflix is able to peek deep into your soul and tell you exactly which movies you’ll want to watch next, and other times it suggests Power Rangers Samurai. The company is now offering a behind the curtain to explain how it plays matchmaker with you and all the lonely movies out there.

According to the Netflix Tech Blog, which brags that 75 percent of everything people watch is due to one of its recommendations, you can blame some of its screwier suggestions on the poor tastes of other members of your household…

Are you wondering how to visually enhance your Timeline Facebook page?This article provides five actionable tips you can employ now.The Visual OpportunityWhen Facebook moved the navigation into the left column and added the Photostrip, I wrote how you could optimize your Facebook page for visual branding.And when Timeline was rolled out for personal profiles, I also wrote how you can customize your cover photo and profile picture.With each new overhaul of Facebook pages, there have been increased opportunities for brands to use imagery to better promote their offerings and create visual interest, and Timeline for pages is no different…

Have an empty role to fill? Here’s why internal promotions usually do better than external hires.The world is full of smart and capable people with enticing resumes. When you have an empty position to fill, your inbox fills up with impressive sounding pitches from these folks. No wonder you’re tempted to snag some of this talent for your business. But if you have an in-house candidate who might be able to fill the role, new research suggests they’ll probably perform better for less money than those fancy-sounding external candidates…

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
During Labor Day weekend in 2011, Activision drew more than 10,000 gamers to a massive debut event for their latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise, a full month before the game’s official launch. The event consisted of two major warehouses and 1,000 Xboxes — in addition to a Kanye West performance and a real-life paintball “warzone…

By most accounts, Internal Revenue Service auditors aren’t much fun to meet with. Even if you’ve filed your taxes with impeccable precision, facing an audit can be nerve-wracking, so you’re best off making sure you aren’t tossing up any signs that draw attention to yourself.

Time Magazine’s MoneyLand recommends avoiding these moves that place “audit me” signs on your rear end:

* Math errors. Make sure your calculations make it look as though you made or owe less than you actually did…

ClothingJ.Crew: [Men's Shoes] J.Crew Unisex Suede Shearling-Lined MacAlister Boots for $42 + $9 s&hJoe’s New Balance Outlet: [Men's Shoes] New Balance Men’s 470 Running Shoes for $30 + $5 s&hJustice: [Apparel] 40% Off your Entire order w/ Coupon 765Delia’s: [Apparel] 15% Off your Entire order w/ Coupon DDE15A

Computers and Electronics

Electronics-Expo: [Electronics] Teac Double Auto-Reverse Cassette Deck $149.95 + $14.99 shippingTigerDirect: [Electronics] Polaroid A800 8MP Digital Camera (Refurbished) $41…

Let the games begin
Constant Contact, Incorporated (NASDAQ ticker symbol: CTCT) is revamping its CRM and email platforms. The company has sought the help of Fanplayr, a company specializing in gamification. The goal for Fanplayr is to incorporate gaming and social media into Constant Contact’s campaigns.
Daily Deal Media has had several discussions regarding the role of gamification in creating a more interactive environment between customers and businesses. Rick Jensen, Senior VP, chief sales and marketing officer at Constant Contact expresses our opinions in a recent statement: “These tools are all proven to help small businesses win customers and build successful relationships with them…

Lenovo has revealed a new 9.7-inch tablet called the IdeaTab S2109.
The device sports a unibody, 8.9mm-thick case and a 9.7-inch 1024 x 768 IPS screen.
It also has a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera (but no rear camera), quad speakers on the back, a micro-HDMI jack, a microUSB slot and a microSD memory card slot.
The CPU that powers the device as well as memory storage capacity haven’t been revealed, but we know that the device will come with the lastest version of Android, 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich…

Most entrepreneurs don’t realize the art of storytelling can help you succeed int he start-up world.Storytelling is a timeless human tradition. Before the written word, people would memorize elaborate stories full of morals that shaped cultures for generations. Today, kids can barely sit through class, but spend hundreds of hours devouring Harry Potter books. We are wired for communicating through and learning from stories.Unfortunately, storytelling has become a lost art in many businesses. This is especially detrimental to start-ups, because failed attempts to effectively pitch and present information to potential investors, customers, and partners can quickly result in the end of the business…

Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the 182nd anniversary of the birth of photographer Eadweard J. Muybridge.
Muybridge was born April 9, 1830 in Kingston upon Thames, England, but he emigrated to the United States at the age of 25, and spent the majority of his life there.
He was known for his photographs of the West, especially of the Yosemite and San Francisco, and later for his work on animal locomotion and an invention called the zoopraxiscope, an early device for displaying motion pictures…

Have you ever planted a seed in expectation of growing a wonderful flower or tomato? Yeah, I’m betting you have. Since the dawn of time, educational facilities have required children with no knowledge or desire of agriculture to plant and grow things.
Well, since we’ve established that you understand how planting a seed and watching for growth works, I’m going to assume that you know the general truth of not planting a seed and then never attending or checking on it ever again…

As the holiday brought out the best in people, reveling in their Easter eggs and double feasts this weekend, there was still plenty of digital, tech and social news breaking all over the world. That’s why we were here having tons of fun finding all the coolest stuff we could, all weekend long.
And find stuff we did, with dozens of Easter eggs both digital and of the chicken ova variety, videos galore, and more gadgets than you can shake a stick at. And revolving around all that? People interacting with each other, taking social media up a notch with the new darling of the Android community, Instagram, along with lots of other useful and powerful tools we discovered…

Doing branding or blind surveys used to be a real hassle because you’d have to recruit an expensive panel.  But that’s not the case anymore.  You can actually run a terrific blind survey by using the QuestionPro social media sharing feature.
This feature has been around quite a while, but it doesn’t get much use — mostly because we’ve been trained to think of blind branding surveys as beyond our budget or our reach.  But if you or your company have invested time and effort into developing an active social media community inside your industry or area of expertise, then this is where your investment really pays off…