CRM Update – Apr 18 : 2:15 pm

A look at the critical traits that every startup CEO needs to develop. First in a five-part series.Despite all the cultural emphasis on ‘making it to the top,’ fewer than 1% of employees actually manage to attain an executive level position. For entrepreneurs, of course, the situation is dramatically different: By virtue of being the founder of a company, many become instant CEOs–well before they gain the experience needed to succeed. When that happens, it’s time to take stock and look at the traits you possess or can reasonably gain that will help you grow into a great leader…

If you’re looking to maintain your privacy online then you could sign up for a VPN service. But which one? There’s a lot of choice, and if you’re a networking novice then figuring out which service is right for you can be a real challenge.
But that’s where Spotflux comes in. This interesting new VPN service comes packed with useful functionality — encryption, ad-blocking, antivirus and more — yet really couldn’t be any easier to configure.
We downloaded and launched the client, for example, which walked us through a simple setup process…

Do you find that you never have time to read the articles you discover online? In the past you may have turned to Read It Later to bookmark a site so that you can refer back to it later, but now there is a new analogy to work with. Read It Later has been re-launched as Pocket, so you can now ‘pocket’ those stories you don’t have time to read right now and save them to your online account ready for when you have more spare time.
The rebranding is more than just a change of name; there are also new features that you can take advantage of as well as a redesigned interface…

Research from Satmetrix reveals small and midsized companies lag behind large businesses in customer experience management (CEM) initiatives.

The Global Innovation Series is presented by BMW i, a new concept dedicated to providing mobility solutions for the urban environment. It delivers more than purpose-built electric vehicles — it delivers smart mobility services. Visit bmw-i.com or follow @BMWi on Twitter.
We’ve all been through it before in one way or another: While spending some time cruising around your community, you spot some unsightly graffiti, a broken manhole cover and a blown-over chain link fence on public property…

If you’re a PC user looking for a free tool to both download and convert video between a large number of different formats, you’re well covered, with the likes of Freemake Video Converter offering all the tools you need. But what if you’re a Mac user?
Free video downloading and converting tools, such as MacTubes and Handbrake exist, but you end up mixing and matching to get the functionality you want. Not any more: now Mac users can get all these features in a single free tool, called Adapter 1…

More than ever, people are using Twitter, Facebook and other social media sources to learn about what’s happening in the world as traditional news outlets become increasingly less relevant to the digital generation.
American forces’ raid on Osama Bin Laden, Whitney Houston‘s death, the Hudson River plane landing — these are just a few of many major news stories ordinary citizens broke on Twitter first. Professional journalists, meanwhile, use Twitter all the time to break news quickly before writing up full articles…

Attempting to move the industry behind click-throughs and impressions, Google on Wednesday introduced a plan to measure online advertising that it hopes will become the industry standard.
Dubbed Brand Activate, the plan is designed to “reimagine online measurement for brand marketers,” according to a blog post from the company. The idea is that with better metrics, marketers will feel more comfortable allocating more of their money to online advertising. “We believe that the industry’s significant investment in brand measurement efforts can substantially grow the online advertising pie, for all,” the post continues…

Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. Today, we’re looking at three particularly interesting stories.
Yahoo Plans to Drastically Decrease the Number of Online Properties
In order to return to profitability, Yahoo must focus on what works, and drop the unnecessary load – that, at least is the new direction the company is heading in. “Yahoo has been doing way too much for too long and was only doing a few things really well,” said Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson…

When you buy a car and opt to get the basic, no-frills stereo, the really rad sound system isn’t also included somewhere in the vehicle, just waiting for you to plunk down some money to activate it. If that were the case, the car-maker has to know that buyers are going to be tempted to figure out how to turn that better system on without forking over the cash.

Such is the current situation with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Street Fighter X Tekken, which was shipped with not only a mouthful of a title, but also, lurking locked somewhere on the disc, $20 worth of “downloadable” content to which the buyer has no access…

Most of what you need to know about corporate management you can learn either from Sun Tzu’s Art of War or from the 1995 film, The Usual Suspects. Everyone loves a film where the villains win, and everyone has a lurid respect when there is a dark underside to the victors. Since the rise of Pinterest no one reads anymore, so forget Art of War and focus on Suspects to understand how your CRM strategy gets derailed. With all of the twists and turns of who killed whom and who the robbers were, the overly confident Customs Agent Kujan, who could be any CIO, thinks that he is in control of the interrogation of the suspect, Verbal…

Your employees can achieve greater things with your help than they can alone–if you give them a chance.Mr. Miyagi and Daniel Larusso. Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot. Dadabhai Naoroji and Mahatma Gandhi. History (OK, and the box office) is full of examples of people who have accomplished tremendous feats—far more than they could have done alone—with the help of mentors.That’s why I find it odd when I see CEOs spending so little time mentoring their employees. You may not find it in the required curriculum of a fancy MBA program but mentoring is crucial to business success…

Are you looking for some creative social media marketing ideas from businesses?Look no further.This article highlights seven mini case studies of businesses that have stood out by implementing innovative social media marketing practices.You’ll find inspiration for your social media marketing efforts here.So let’s dive in!#1: SharpieSharpie is the permanent marker company. Through social media and other marketing efforts, this company has taken an ordinary commodity and turned it into a common noun…

Julie has a secret evil twin with the same name. That’s the only possible explanation for why her favorite store, J. Crew, has decided to split her reward points between two different accounts, neither of which receives enough points to get actual rewards. She wrote to Consumerist not only to complain, but to find out whether there are other customers experiencing the same problem.

I haven’t been receiving rewards from J. Crew recently and I chalked it up to simply not spending enough, but when I went to the site, I found that’s not the case…

The economic recovery may be dragging, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be successful. Here are our favorite tips from the experts.While the economy has been showing a few signs of recovery, it’s pretty clear that we’re in for a long period of lackluster growth.With this in mind, here are seven tips from top sales gurus for selling in a weak economy.1. Don’t Focus on Your FearYou may be worried about the economy, your job, and everything else, but you can’t let those worries rule your thoughts and actions…

Men build networks. Women build relationships. What’s the difference, and how to do it.Part of my work involves figuring out why some women succeed and others do not. Yet I’ve worked mostly with men in my career, and I’ve always heard that men have bigger, stronger, bolder, and all-around better networks than women. So when I meet wildly successful women, especially in the male-dominated tech industry, it seems only natural to ask them about the importance of their networks. These women often answer me by talking about relationships…

Reserve on the Web, cancel on the Web. Wouldn’t that make sense? Mike thought so, and he didn’t see anything indicating otherwise when he made his Super 8 reservation. But somehow, his reservation for one night turned into a two-night reservation after he canceled it because he was supposed to call the motel directly to cancel. Who knew that canceling a reservation could have the opposite effect?

I booked a room at this Super 8 on a Monday for the upcoming Thursday night. I ended up not needing the room so I cancelled on Wednesday which, per their website and the confirmation email I received, would result in no charge as I cancelled before the 4:00PM Thursday deadline…

Hi guys, Do you know if i can add extra parameter and assign it to a GA custom variable..? I have 6 Omniture campaign parameters and I need to match each of

Being the weakest performer in the company or performing a service that’s utterly dispensable is dangerous to your continued employment, especially in a weak job market. But working hard and being good at what you do is potentially dangerous as well, especially if your bosses are insecure, paranoid, and just not a good as you are. To people who think this way, having a bright future within the company makes you a threat. Your future endangers theirs.

Over at Five Cent Nickel, Jeffrey Steele explains the phenomenon, using the example of a talented employee named “Ned…

Perhaps the man who stripped naked at the Portland International Airport security checkpoint last night just figured he was saving the TSA the step of having to pat him down for concealed items?

According to KATU-TV, around 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the man took off all of his clothes at the TSA checkpoint at PDX, apparently in protest of what he views as harassment by the agency.

The man managed to get all the way down to what the good lord gave him, in full view of other travelers, at least one of whom was on-the-ball (no pun intended, but why not?) and snapped the above photo…

Etsy is among the leading retailers of artistic goods, including vintage and handmade art items. The site has been grabbing lot of attention with its wide range of exclusive and, often bizarre, craft items. Shoppers at Etsy include conservationist art lovers and the younger, hip shoppers.
Etsy is essentially an online fair of crafts & arts where people making handmade goods are allowed to set-up shop. There is little to doubt about the domination of Etsy in this niche of online retail, with its 800,000 sellers and nearly 15 million members…

Whatever you do, other airlines, please don’t follow the leader. Delta Air Lines just pushed through an airfare hike for domestic flights, and if their plan works, other airlines will follow suit and that increase will go into effect across the board. Sort of like when the popular girl tells everyone else they have to wear the right scrunchies or be ostracized.

This is the sixth attempt this year to push prices up, this time by about $10-$20, says the Chicago Tribune. Thus far only three hikes have been successful…

Daily dealers can now provide scheduling solutions to merchants
Setster.com believes it has now solved a major problem faced by daily deal companies. Under current situations, merchants that use daily dealers to offer their specials often find themselves in a bind when it comes time to cover the additional flow of customers created by the deal. Lack of coverage creates a plethora of problems some of which evolves the generation of negative feedback for both the deal company and the merchant.
The gorilla in the deal space, Groupon, solved that issue by buying an established company that offers a scheduling solution…

If Apple lives up to its promise, you’ll be able to build apps yourself–no coding required.Let’s face it. Most of us aren’t terribly technical–present company included. I may know my way around a computer and an iPhone, but coding? I’ve met people who can code better with one hand than I can with two.Good thing one need not hold a degree in computer science to do some pretty cool and “techie” things. The power of user-friendly tools to create websites, original content, and apps is only growing…

Within 24 hours of Fireflyfestival.com launching, we had well over $1 million in ticket sales. Here’s exactly how we broke into the music festival business.Within 24 hours of Fireflyfestival.com going live we had well over $1 million in ticket sales. We also had press coverage in the New York Times and more than 100 other media outlets worldwide. At Camp Red Frog—what we call our headquarters—we broke out the champagne, gave hugs, and felt a palpable excitement in the air.We knew it was the start of our next chapter, of something special…

New solutions let marketers track customer sentiment in videos and more

With 100 days left before the Games begin in London, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) launched an online athletes’ headquarters designed to serve as a social media platform enhancing the digital connection between fans and competitors.
The Olympic Athletes’ Hub aggregates the verified social media feeds of more than 1,000 current and former Olympians. It will post content directly from their Facebook and Twitter accounts and incorporate a gamification layer incentivizing fans to interact with the site…