Tag: internet
10 Interesting Social Media Facts
Social media plays a huge role in our lives, whether we like it or not! To honor our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts, ABCey compiled a list of the most interesting social media fun-facts. Enjoy!
1. Half of all smartphones connect to Facebook every hour of every day!
2. 20% of Google searches every day have never been searched before. Which begs the question: what the heck are you searching??
3. The most optimal photos (ones that get the most likes and repins) on Pinterest are photos of salad.
4. “Earlybird” is the most popular Instagram filter, yet 47% prefer #nofilter.
5. The average LinkedIn user is a male college graduate.
6. Twitter handles more search queries per month than Bing and Yahoo combined!
7. Links about sex are shared 90% more than any other link. (Doesn’t its inclusion on this list say it all?)
8. 53% of people on Twitter recommend products in their tweets, which is important because most people trust recommendations from friends versus the 14% of people who trust advertisers. Social media is more important to business than you’d think!
9. 7% of Americans have never heard of Facebook. We don’t know how this happened.
10. More than 350 million users suffer from Facebook Addiction Syndrome.
Want to channel some social media yourself? Tell us what you think of this article with a comment here or on Facebook & Twitter!
Startup Monday: TaskRabbit
Startup Monday is ABCey’s weekly post that features some of the best and brightest companies in the Bay Area. They are often companies that we have our eye on or have worked with in the past that we would like to share with the friends and followers of ABCey Events.
Let’s face it: in any given day, you have 100 things to do and no time to do them. That’s where TaskRabbit and its team come in!
TaskRabbit is a service connecting those with extra time on their hands and busy people in need of a helping hand. First, post your task on the site and state the maximum amount you would pay someone to do it for you. Each task is performed by a skilled and trustworthy TaskRabbit that you choose to most adequately perform your task. The TaskRabbits can do just about any chore or errand from doing your grocery shopping, assembling tricky Ikea furniture, or picking up a couch you bought on Craigslist.
In February of 2013, TaskRabbit launched an official dashboard for businesses, which account for roughly 35% of its business. This service focuses on temporarily staffing companies to do odd jobs in an efficient and reliable way. The site also has a mobile edition for iPhone and iPad that allows you to add instructions with a voice recording, attach images, and pinpoint your location with ease. Just imagine how much this service would come in handy while you’re planning an event!
Would you use TaskRabbit to help you with your errands? Let us know in a comment or catch up with us on Facebook and Twitter!
Tech Tuesday: Tout!
Tech Tuesday highlights the best and brightest ideas in the tech world. ABCey would like to recognize these up and coming companies for their innovative ideas and ability to think outside the box!
If you really want to wow your social media followers, stop typing that status update! We’re in an age where we can share our lives in real-time, and there’s no better way to do that than with Tout.
Here’s how it works: using the Tout smartphone app, shoot a short 15-second video. After uploading your video to Tout, the app makes it super easy to share with your friends. Tout was designed to be a form of social media and to make it easy to share footage with the user’s other existing social media networks. You can tweet it, post it, use the blog widget, and more!
Everyone seems to be touting Tout! When you visit the homepage, you have your choice between subscribing to the Wall Street Journal, ESPN, or celebs like Shaq. This social media network is great for news junkies who love getting up-to-the-minute updates around the world. Of course, it’s also cool to post a video of your cat sleeping.
Have you used Tout? Tell us what you think! Send us a comment below, a Tweet, or visit out Facebook!
Startup Monday: Instacanvas
Startup Monday is ABCey’s weekly post that features some of the best and brightest companies in the Bay Area. They are often companies that we have our eye on or have worked with in the past that we would like to share with the friends and followers of ABCey Events.
Instagram’s filters and effects can make anyone with a camera look like a talented photographer. And, with the help of Instacanvas, that Instagram of your breakfast could be hanging on the wall of someone’s living room!
Instacanvas is an online service that allows people to buy and sell real-life prints of Instagram pictures. Instagram users can create a profile and choose which photos they want to feature in their gallery. The gallery is then published on the website for consumers to peruse and purchase.
As of now, you can turn an Instagram print into a canvas, framed print, 3D prism, greeting card, or iPhone case! More products are in the works, such as wearable art. Can you imagine people walking around with your art proudly displayed on their phone case?
Instacanvas is a compelling startup because it combines social networking and e-commerce to create a product that benefits both the producer and consumer. The photographer receives around 50% of the profits from the purchase and retains all rights to his or her product. That’s big news for someone who is casually sharing their photos with their Instagram followers!
Do you think your snapshots are gallery worthy? Share your thoughts with us in a comment or on Twitter and Facebook!
5 Creative Ways to use Social Media at your Next Event
People have been using social media to spread the word about their events for a while now, and ABCey thinks it’s time for a make-over! Follow our fun and effective tips that use technology to make your next event the very best it can be!
1. Facebook Invitations with a Twist | Creating a Facebook event is so blah. Spice it up with a picture of you and the event details and tag your friends! These pictures combine the personal and creative feel of a handmade invitation with the accessibility of social media.
2. Share What You Want | Using apps like the Scan & Add app from Gift Registry 360 allow you to update your gift registry at any time. If you see something you like, scan the barcode with your phone! The item will automatically appear on your registry and shared with your guests.
3. Use a Photo Booth that Tweets | Guests will have a blast with Keshot, a photo booth that uses an iPad for guests to sent their photos at your event to their personal social media accounts. You can also customize the photobooth background to your event’s specific needs, like adding a corporate logo. Everyone loves to share their photos online, so make it fun for them!
4. InstaContest | Have guests send their best photos of your live event to your event’s personal Instagram page. Your guests will vote with their “likes,” and the winner can receive a special party favor during the event! This is a great way to keep guests interested in the party and appreciate your beautiful decorations!
5. Tap a Thank-You | Instead of sending another e-card, use Felt, an iPad app that sends your hand-written cards to all your friends. Use the app to write or draw inside the card template and address the envelope. The card comes from the printer with your personal messages ready for delivery. This app is perfect for large events because it eliminates hand cramping after 500 thank-you notes!
How can you use social media for your next event? Let us know in a comment and on Facebook and Twitter!
ABCey’s Weekend Line-Up 6.13.13-6.16.13
If you and dad need some time away from the Father’s Day BBQs, take him to one of the events on ABCey’s Weekend Line-Up! From liquor-themed carnivals to street festivals and every tech event in between, ABCey’s here to amp up your family time this weekend!
1. San Francisco Craft Spirits Carnival | Saturday, June 15th | 1 p.m.-5 p.m. | Fort Mason Festival Pavilion | This is one carnival you definitely don’t want to miss! Try some of the local Bourbon, Whiskey, Tequila and other spirits available for unlimited sample along with your admission. And yes, those are technicolor trapeze artists, that’s not the absinthe talking!
2. GigaOM Structure 2013 | Wednesday, June 19th-Thursday, June 20th | 7 a.m.-6 p.m. | Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF | From cloud to concept, this year’s theme will track how the real needs of businesses are driving IT construction and development. Speakers include representatives from Google, Amazon.com, and Revlon and startups and tech trailblazers will be recognized during presentations.
3. California Music Industry Summit | Friday, June 14th- Saturday, June 15th | 8 a.m.-5 p.m. | Laney College Theater, Oakland | Attention all music lovers and aspiring rock stars! This Friday, you’ll finally get your shot at stardom when hundreds of people from the music industry come out for a day of workshops, exhibits, and networking. Independent artists from all across America come to sing their hearts out and build relationships with others in the industry. Think of this as American Idol without the catfights.
4. North Beach Festival | Saturday, June 15th- Sunday, June 16th | 10 a.m.-6 p.m. | North Beach District, San Francisco | Take dad to San Francisco’s Little Italy this weekend for Tony’s Pizza and the North Beach Festival. Enjoy the summer sun and bay breeze as you wander through the craft stands and chalk art adorning this charming area of the city.
5. Bloomberg Next Big Thing Summit | Monday, June 17th- Tuesday, June 18th | 7:30 a.m.-9 p.m. | Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay | This hunt for the “next big thing” brings together entrepreneurs and investors to examine the impact of technology and business on innovation and the human experience. Talented journalists, businessmen, and analysts are sure to give conference-goers great insight into forward-thinking strategies for the tech industry’s future.
Would your dad like to go to one of these events? Let us know in a comment or on Facebook and Twitter!
10 Ways to Stay Fashion Forward
When fashion and technology team up, only good things can happen. Really, really good things, like making Pinterest and Instagram shoppable, giving you access to other people’s closets, and creating a sweater that changes color depending on your mood. Try to resist the urge to shop while you read ABCey’s top ten favorite online fashion services!
1. LookMazing | Have you ever seen the most impossibly chic woman strutting around Union Square and wondered, where did she get that?! LookMazing lets you browse through everyday people’s looks and, if you see something you like, just click the picture and you’ll see just where everything comes from. If you’re one of the impossibly chic, you can upload your own pics and share your lookbooks and wishlists with everyone!
2. Fashion + Tech SF | If you’re interested in learning the ins and outs of how the fashion and tech industries fit together, you have to attend a Fashion + Tech SF workshop. Besides hearing from knowledgable entrepreneurs and professionals in either business, these events are huge networking opportunities. Job-seekers and passionate individuals are always welcome to the meetings, so check the schedule on their website. ABCey would love to learn more from this innovative organization!
3. Sensoree | Who knew fashion and technology could combine to be so contentious! This clothing line creates wearable technology that connects the inside of your body, like your electromagnetic energy, with the outside world. Not convinced? The design, which showcases your body language through an interactive light display, was created to aid Sensory Processing Disorder. Learn more here.
4. Boutiika | Boutiika brings the fun and adventure of discovering the cutest little boutique to the web, but with a twist. Local shops share their latest merchandise on this site and shoppers can select what they like, but not buy. Boutiika strives to preserve the personal experience of going into the store itself, so they tell the store to reserve your selections when you have time to come in. It’s like being your own personal shopper!
5. Stylend | Stylend is a location-based app that brings together the woman with the brimming closet and the woman who needs a dress for that restaurant opening she forgot about. Dresses, accessories, shoes, and more are available to rent and browse in your city. The app is fairly new, so our advice is to share your closet to get the ball rolling!
6. 52Grams | Following someone chic on Instagram is so much more fun when you know where they buy their clothes! 52Grams can turn any follower into a fashion leader with their online lookbook made from user’s own Insta’s. This site seems like an excellent social media tool for up-and-coming designers and bloggers and is definitely worth a visit.
7. Just Fab | Justfab.com has constructed their business to connect consumers to producers more directly in order to keep their products inexpensive. By joining this free service, you can select any shoe on the site for $39.99 each. JustFab.com as a company is growing like crazy: in the last few months, they’ve acquired Fab Kids and The Fab Shoes. This is a company to watch out for… and to shop with!
8. Threadflip | We all have that beautiful bag we bought three years ago and have neither worn nor been able to part with. Threadflip lets you turn your closet into a boutique and cleanse your room of all clutter while selling your things to someone who’ll actually use them. And when you’re staring at the open space in your closet afterwords, head back to the site and browse the pre-loved items other users are selling! At ABCey, we just can’t stop snatching up these deals!
9. ShopInterest | Re-pinning a photo on Pinterest turns into clicking “add to cart” with ShopInterest. This site is a way for businesses and resellers to create their own website with a Pinterest-like interface. All items are buyable, show the price on the photo, and can be shared with users on Pinterest. Finally you can remove that “Wanted” pinboard and actually buy these products!
10. MySaleTable | Can it be possible that some genius created a website just for boutique sales? Yes, yes it is. MySaleTable brings the sales to you online where you can browse tons of discounted merchandise. Boutiques upload pictures and details of the products they want to put on sale, and you can either buy them online or reserve them for store pick-up. Never miss a great deal again with MySaleTable!
What do you think: are these services fashion forward enough for you? Tell us in a comment or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter!
Tech Tuesday: Ninja Blocks
Tech Tuesday highlights the best and brightest ideas in the tech world. ABCey would like to recognize these up and coming companies for their innovative ideas and ability to think outside the box!
This week, we’d like to credit a certain San Francisco company for daring to look inside the box for inspiration. Meet the Ninja Block, your new personal assistant.
The Ninja Block has a basic “if this, then that” command feature. If the sensors pick up an event in your real life, like a baby crying, the Ninja Block triggers a tech life reaction, like calling the parent’s cell phone. By programming in a command in the rules app (ex: turn on the light if I play music), this handy device can do almost anything for you.
The Ninja Block works as a medium between the sensors you install and the electronic world. Sensors available for purchase include motion, temperature, humidity, and contact sensors. Ninja Blocks also helps you manage your online social presence by automatically sharing the input the sensors with social media. Don’t worry, it won’t say anything you don’t want others knowing! Its message is one you program in advance in the rules app.
If you’re someone who loves to techify your life and home, Ninja Blocks is the perfect way to do so! ABCey loves this company because it bridges the gap between your online and offline lives and automates how the two interact. We’d love to use the feature that tweets a photo of every person entering the door at one of our events!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RGRIS_Rqiw
What do you think of Ninja Blocks? Tell us in a comment or on Twitter and Facebook!
Top 5 Springtime Apps
When you think about the word “spring”, your first thoughts are probably about flowers, picnics, baseball season, and the Easter Bunny! We can now add Top 5 Springtime Apps (app developers think of everything!) At ABCey, we’ve put together a short list of apps that’ll make your spring more enjoyable, fun, and…efficient.
1. Oh, Ranger! ParkFinder: Take advantage of the great outdoors while it’s still sunny (and before it become unbearably hot)! This app goes above and beyond usual search engines, such as Yelp and Google, in providing important information that can enhance your park experience like nearby attractions, seasonality, phone numbers, and even lodging and concession information if you want to make it an overnight trip!
2. Strava Cycling: We love San Francisco because there are plenty of beautiful trails to bike, like the famous Golden Gate Bridge. While there are hundreds of other fitness apps around, Strava Cycling was made specially for cyclists so you can be confident this app is a worthwhile investment. Strava Cycling provides users with not only more cool places to bike but it also tracks your fitness stats as you explore parts of your city or as work on your own health.
3. Eat St. by Food Network: Here in the city, there are a lot of great places to eat but sometimes, they’re difficult to find because they’re always moving around! Eat St. is a neat app that keeps you updated with the locations of mobile food trucks in North America so you won’t have chase that delicious Korean-Mexican fusion taco again.
4. CraigsPro+: Time to roll up your sleeves, because blooming flowers and bluer skies also mean springtime cleaning is near. CraigsPro+ is an amplified, sleeker version of the virtual ad board, Craigslist. You can use this app to find quick cleaning services (if cleaning really isn’t your thing), sell your old winter coats or promote your garage sale after you’re done.
5. Grill-It!: Pretty self-explanatory, but pretty helpful too! Our mouths all water at the thought of perfectly-grilled steak with the juicy, slightly burnt corn-on-the-cob on the side but let’s be honest, grilling is sometimes harder than it looks. Download this app to get tips and tricks, recipes, and detailed instructions to play host to your next barbecue.
We hope these apps will inspire you to try some fun, new things this spring! What are some of your favorite springtime activities? Would you ever use any of these apps? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter!
Startup Monday: BuzzFeed
Startup Monday is ABCey’s weekly post that features some of the best and brightest companies in the Bay Area. They are often companies that we have our eye on or have worked with in the past that we would like to share with the friends and followers of ABCey Events.
Web content is passed around quicker than the chicken pox in a kindergarten class. We all love to forward the funny stuff we find online, and you’ve probably received a link from BuzzFeed, a fast-growing site that provides millions of people with the most interesting and hilarious content that is being shared at a high rate.
BuzzFeed is a website that combines a technology platform for detecting viral content with an editorial selection process to provide a snapshot of “the viral web in realtime.” It is the leading social news organization, and will provide you with the latest links, pictures, and videos as they are rising to the top of trending lists. The site is rapidly growing and reaches more than 25 million visitors in one month!
Do you use BuzzFeed to share information? Tell us what your favorite social news site is in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter!