One trick to be good at social media is using hashtags, from political movements to social trends, the hashtag is one of the most unique ways to connect with millions of people over similar topics through social media. But it can be confusing at first, so the below infographic sets out to remove some of the mystery of the magical #
Source: ServaBid
http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/1/8525309/tesla-energy-elon-musk-battery-announcement
Tesla has finally taken the wraps off Tesla Energy, its ambitious battery system that can work for homes, businesses, and even utilities. The system breaks down into two separate products: the Powerwall is a home battery system, that comes in a 10 kWh version for $3,500, or a 7 kWh model for $3,000, excluding installation and the inverter. The unit is about three feet by four feet in size and six inches thick, and comes with integrated heat management and can fit either on the inside or outside of the wall of your home. The system is connected to the internet — Elon Musk said that the system can be used to create “smart microgrids” — and can be used as a redundancy system, or potentially allow a home to go off the power grid entirely. “The whole thing is a system that just works,” Musk told reporters during a briefing this evening.
The big brother of the Powerwall is what Musk and his team are calling Powerpack — and it’s where things get really interesting. They describe it as an “infinitely scalable system” that can work for businesses, in industrial applications, and even public utility companies, that comes in 100 kWh battery blocks that can scale from 500 kWH all the way up to 10 MWh and higher. “Our goal here is to change the way the world uses energy at an extreme scale.”
In my opinion, this is a big change for people’s life and also a big challenge for traditional resource industry. Elon Musk definitely is the most innovative entrepreneur in Silicone Valley. From PayPal to Tesla car, his extraordinary foresights make him great success in the new businesses. This time, with the Tesla Powerwall, it’s possible to imagine a future where most roofs everywhere have solar panels, and most buildings have some batteries tucked in some corner, and most of the energy we use comes from clean, renewable sources.
A logo represents a company’s brand. It is one of the critical aspects of business marketing. Are you considering a logo design? Then don’t miss out this presentation as it elucidates on the 10 new trends of logo design for 2015. Consult with the experts at SBR Technologies to develop an impeccable logo.
Actually, mobile smart phone marketing is not new to us anymore, but there are more and more marketing opportunities come up from the little device and you definitely should know how to use it as a killer weapon.
http://time.com/3762067/college-acceptance-instagram-high-school/
A recent survey found that 76% of teens use Instagram. The graduating class of 2015 will be the first set of students who were able to capture their entire high school experience — from the first day of freshman to the last of senior year — on the photo-sharing app, which was founded in late 2010. So it makes sense that they would use it to not only to follow friends and celebrities, but to research the next stage of their lives as well.
What factors would you consider to choose school?
In the past maybe they are academic history, location and circumstances surrounding the school. But Now, this may played on Instagram. According to Time’s report, Instagram is becoming a window for United States high school students to understand a real campus.
In the article, Jackson Barnett, a high school student, he is applying for college, because the schools he wanted to apply are all in the East Coast or Midwest where he could not easily go to have a visit. Plus, money and time which is also a very important consideration for him.
His solution is looking on the Instagram, for example, if you want to go to Duke, then you just track #DukeStudents on Instagram, you can see many photographs of everyday life from the Duke students, and this is more real than the school’s official page to demonstrate a real college students life.
Instagram is the most fast growing social app now, and it’s a excellent platform for many business and NGO organizations. Many small businesses already use Instagram as their main promotion and advertising channel, and many of them are benefiting from using Instagram. Now we can see the middle school students learn to use Instagram to choose college, I’m so looking forward to seeing more and more business opportunities on this platform.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mariahsummers/hospitality-industry-elephant-in-room#.nh6AxzB0j
Something is biting into the hotel industry’s profits in New York City, one of its most important markets. It’s bad enough that America’s biggest hotel operators have all discussed it on earnings calls with analysts: Revenue from NYC hotel rooms is falling even as a record number of tourists flood the city.
The story was the same at Starwood. “We did not see a material decrease in the number of international travelers inbound to either the U.S. overall, or New York specifically in the first quarter,” CFO Thomas Mangas said on an earnings call the day before. “We have, however, seen a decrease in the average daily rate in New York from those international guests.” Indeed, the number of international visitors—the heaviest users of Airbnb—hascontinued to climb over the last 10 years, reaching a record high of 11.4 million in 2013. Still, hospitality giants like Marriott, Starwood, Hilton, and Hyatt have found themselves struggling to grow revenue in the city.
When asked what the problem is, they cite issues like “supply growth” and a “strong dollar” as reasons they’ve failed to thrive in the New York City market. But there’s one word they’ve never said when discussing their New York challenges, and it’s becoming an elephant in the room for all four companies. Neither Hilton nor Hyatt have never said the word “Airbnb” on an earnings call, in any context, according to a review of call transcripts. At Starwood, the apartment rentals site has only come up once, in April 2014, when an analyst asked then-Starwood CEO Frits van Paasschen to address the impact it has had on Starwood’s business.
From my personal perspective, I think it is a really big challenge for the hotel groups, just like the shock Uber gives to taxi industry. Especially for those economic hotels focusing on young people, they would lose more customers because of Airbnb. According to the call transcripts. Airbnb, already has about 16,000 New York listings, and is expected to cross the $500million revenue mark by the end of this year.
http://recode.net/2015/03/20/tinder-swipes-right-on-its-new-ceo-former-ebay-exec-chris-payne/
Tinder is a popular swiping-mode dating app. Recently it hired former eBay executive Chris Payne served as CEO, Tinder former CEO and co-founder Sean Rad will continue to serve as directors of the company. According to Payne LinkedIn resume, he was previously senior vice president of eBay North America, responsible for operations, before joining eBay he had worked in Microsoft and Amazon.
This early March Tinder launched a senior paid version Tinder Plus in United States and Britain, but in this version, the age-based pay structure is controversial. In the United States, if the user is over 30 years old, the membership fee is $ 19.99 per month, but if you are between 18-29 years old, the membership fee would be just $ 9.99. It it more exaggerated that in the UK, you have to pay 14.99 pounds per month to be the Tinder Plus member if you are over 28 years old, but only paying 3.99 pounds as long as you are between 18-27 year old. Tinder Plus got pretty poor user responses, it currently rated only 1.5 star points in the App Store.
Before the introduction of the paid version Tinder has no profit model, the paid version does not seem to be very successful now. Tinder does not disclose the specific number of users in total, but it claims that there are more than 1 billion times swipes every day, which reflects a large user base, and how to transfer the huge user into cash is a big problem for Tinder. It is said that Chris Payne once was Paypal’s CEO candidate, so maybe that’s the reason why Tinder want him to be the CEO, I hope he can help Tinder to figure out a better profit model.
You can now help NASA find new asteroids. At South by Southwest today, the space agency released its asteroid tracker desktop software, produced in conjunction with asteroid mining company Planetary Resources in an online competition. The software, which will run on any standard Mac or PC, will accept images from a telescope and run an algorithm on them to determine which celestial bodies are moving in a manner consistent with an asteroid. You can download the software here.
The new algorithm is the main achievement here — it’s said to be able to identify 15 percent more asteroids in the asteroid belt (located between Mars and Jupiter) than previous solutions. The algorithm can not only identify possible asteroids, but attempt to match them to currently known near-Earth objects (NEOs). With the free app, any amateur astronomer can analyze images taken from their own telescopes. Possible new matches can also be sent to NASA for the agency’s databases.
The new algorithm should prove especially useful to NASA as it struggles to keep on top of all of the NEOs that swirl around Earth. With a more efficient algorithm, the agency should be able to better keep track of asteroids that may be a threat to Earth. It will also be able to scout for possible candidates for future asteroid missions. That work will also be of particular interest to Planetary Resources, which hopes to mine asteroids some day in the future.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/15/8219933/help-nasa-discover-new-asteroids-with-this-free-app
It’s a big day tomorrow for enormously Apple fans. The upcoming special Apple event on PDT 10am tomorrow morning. The main focus is the Apple Watch. This time, Apple changes the world again.
We already knew there are lot of new features on the Apple watch, it can work seamlessly with you iPhone, saving your hands out of tapping on your iPhone all the time. Apple Watch is designed to keep you more efficient, organized, and productive, it’s also made to keep you moving. Because being active is vital to living a healthy life. It can replace other waistbands for jogging. And you can wear it all the time.
Another huge attribute is you can use Apple Pay via your Apple watch, and paying will be easier with an Apple watch than an iPhone. According to the executive from Apple, Apple Watch’s health sensors know when the device is strapped to your wrist and when it’s off your person. According to Cue, Apple is taking advantage of that data to simplify the payment experience. You will, however, need to confirm a payment by tapping the button on the side of the Apple Watch. For iPhones like the 5 and 5C, which lack Touch ID, you’ll simply have to use a PIN code to pair the devices and unlock the Apple Watch. Or you can type that PIN into the Apple Watch itself.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/13/us-uber-byd-idUSKBN0M92KU20150313?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews?ref=www.36kr.com Uber Inc said on Friday it struck a deal with Chinese automaker BYD Co Ltd to test a fleet of electric cars for its drivers. The test program, which kicked off a few weeks ago in Chicago and could eventually expand to other cities, is the Silicon Valley startup’s first attempt to focus on an electric vehicle, said Uber spokeswoman Lauren Altmin.”We’ve seen interest in the program already from current and potential Chicago partners (drivers),” Altmin said. For BYD the deal with Uber could be a step toward the long-held goal of selling its cars to U.S. consumers. The company, whose name stands for “build your dream”, is a major automaker in China, but its e6 vehicle has thus far only been used in pilot programs in the United States. The e6 is larger than many other electric cars, however, and is being used in London by chauffer service Thriev. BYD gained Warren Buffett’s backing in 2009 and announced plans to sell its e6 electric car in the United States the following year. Since then, BYD’s U.S. business has focused mainly on electric buses for public transportation.
MKT 248 Spring 2015 