‘Bieber Fever’ at TechCrunch Disrupt

By Julie Tangen
Today at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York, we listened to Justin Bieber’s manager, Scooter Braun, talk about the megastar’s use of Twitter. Bieber has nearly 3 million followers, making him one of the most-followed people. Braun noted that it is actually Bieber doing most of the tweeting. It shows his fans that the same person who was talking to them before his enormous stardom, is still talking to them now.

Technology companies can take a lesson from this—establish a dialogue with your followers and allow them to be part of your success, never forget those who have helped you get where you are today, and be authentic!
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Web 2.0 and the Apple/Adobe Slugfest

By Joanna Kulesa
HTML5 is the new "low-hanging fruit," or maybe it's the new "locked and loaded". God I hate valley speak.  In any case, you'll be hearing a lot about HTML5 in the coming months. It even plays a role in the Great Apple/Adobe Divorce. 

Steve Jobs got the ball rolling last month by blasting Adobe for being "lazy" with their Flash technology, saying that apps written for the iPhone and iPad using Flash tools don't work properly on Apple hardware. He's banned Flash technology on Apple's mobile devices, pointing to it as a security risk and resource hog. Apparently some ex-Adobe engineers agree with him. Jobs feels that open web standards, such as HTML5, are the way of the future.

Adobe's CTO, Kevin Lynch, spoke last week at the Web 2.0 Expo I attended, and likened Apple's policy to the development of railroads in the 1800's. Back then companies were using different gauge rails for various sections of a route, making it necessary to unload cargo to a different train when you came to a section your train couldn't run on. That analogy, in my opinion, is unfortunate at best. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has gone to a web site only to be notified that I need to stop what I'm doing and install the latest version of the Adobe Flash Player. That experience sort of feels like...um...unloading a train.

The bottom line is that Apple has its proprietary OS and hardware, while Adobe has its proprietary web software. To some extent, they are both calling the kettle black. But as long as Apple can keep turning out shiny gadgets that everyone "must" have, they're safe. Adobe is not in as solid a position; open-standard Web technologies such as HTML5 will almost certainly replace Flash someday.

Of course, Flash isn't going away anytime soon; it's too entrenched. Adobe released a new version of the Flash development app last month and is developing its next Flash Player. Get ready to unload more trains. Now, I'm off to pick up my shiniest new gadget, an iPad with 3G.
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News Snacking at 140 Characters and Trending

By Tami Casey
Last week the Twitter world was abuzz with the news that HP had acquired Palm Computing. I noticed the first tweet at about 1:07 pm PT @siliconAlleyInsider broke the news. Seconds later, the floodgates opened with an outpouring of tweets on the topic. Then about 20 minutes after the first tweet, something interesting happened. The tone of some tweets changed. Sure people and news outlets were still tweeting about the acquisition, but now there was a new type of tweet in the mix—the “stop, I already know HP acquired Palm tweet.” In just under 20 minutes, the twitterverse had tired of the news.

As a self-proclaimed news junkie, this fatigue disturbed me. Other than an occasional tweet with a link to the press release there was only the one fact distributed in the tweets—HP had acquired Palm. It really wasn’t a story yet as many of the basics weren’t yet disseminated and even the Wall Street Journal took about 10 minutes to get out its basic story. But by the time the WSJ piece hit, the news had already been tweeted to a large audience. Soon the journalistic news stories started to hit providing more depth. But something strange happened; I didn’t click. The news felt old and dated—after all it was 30 minutes ago.

As I pondered this lack of desire to read more about the acquisition, I realized that this was happening far too often. I had a daily habit of getting the Twitter version of the news—or maybe on a good morning scanning the headlines of a news aggregator site. I was consuming my news without digesting at 140 characters at a time. It was initially satisfying, but ultimately left me empty.

So I’m asking readers to stop and take a look at how they are consuming news and to fight the urge to “snack” and “nibble” away at news. Go for more depth, actually click the links and read the content. Sure you won’t be able to cover as many topics, but you’ll have more depth of knowledge. I’m going to take the plunge because what do I actually know about the HP acquisition? Really I know nothing about it at all.

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Tanaya Cook Volunteers with Surf For Life

By Julie Tangen
In our fast-paced lives it is often difficult to find extra time to dedicate to ourselves, let alone for others. However everyone here at Kulesa Faul recognizes the value of giving and finds the time to support various charitable affiliations. I’m pleased to say that our very own Tanaya Cook recently returned from Central America after donating a week of her time to a non-profit organization called Surf For Life. The charity is committed to enabling volunteers to participate in meaningful social and economic development projects that help those less fortunate. Tanaya’s particular mission benefited an indigenous population known as the BriBri tribe located on the Talamanca reservation in Costa Rica. She participated in various community projects—from preparing food to building bridges—to support the cause.

Please join me in welcoming Tanaya back from her journey and watch for her blog post (and possibly a few pictures) coming soon!

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Making the world a better place, one app at a time

By Julie Tangen
Did you know that if each household reduced energy consumption by 20 percent, the U.S. would save over $32 billion a year and carbon emissions would be reduced by 187 mega tons (equivalent to taking 40 million cars off the road for one entire year)?

I'm feeling especially environmentally conscious today because our new green-tech client, People Power, just launched a way for developers to build smart, environmentally friendly applications for household electronics and devices. Interested in a lawn system that saves H20 by automatically knowing when to (and not to) water? How about a central air system that you can control from your iPhone? People Power makes ideas like this possible by teaming with a community of developers and leveraging open source technology. If you can dream it, you can now build it into your home!

To learn more about reducing energy consumption, saving money and reducing your carbon footprint, visit People Power online at www.peoplepowerco.com

Also, I hope you'll join me in supporting People Power's "Unplug for Earth Day 2010" Facebook campaign. Check out the GreenX Calculator that shows how much CO2 you will keep out of the atmosphere by pledging to unplug on April 22.
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Social Media Week 2010 - San Francisco

By Tami Casey

The first week of February is Social Media Week and this month’s activities took place in six cities--from Berlin to Sao Paulo to right here in San Francisco. Festivities included a day long session at the Presidio, several panels and sessions and a variety of social gatherings attended by hundreds of people, including those new to social media, social media practitioners and our local and often world renowned experts.

Having attended several of these activities, an area of particular interest to me was the subject of measurement in social media. While there are many tools and strategies to help measure the impact of social media, the key to successful measurement begins with identifying⎯at the corporate level⎯why you’ve engaged in social media in the first place. Is the goal to build your brand? Reach influencers? Boost sales?

After defining your purpose and beginning measurement, how do you then analyze the data in a meaningful way? If you’re a start-up or smaller company, it’s probably a lot more manageable. But what if you’re at Accenture and want to know the impact of Tiger Wood’s negative publicity on your brand? At that point, you need tools to help analyze, understand and act on this tsunami of information.

The bottom line on measurement in social media? Know your purpose and then monitor, measure and react in ways that make sense based on your objectives and your business. Don’t rely on one tool. Take a look at free tools such as Google Alerts, Trendrr, Socialmention, Twitter’s search feature and BoardTracker. You’ll likely be able to combine tools so that you are monitoring what is most important to your company. If you need something more robust then look to the paid tools; there are a number of affordable options such as Filtrbox, eCairn, ScoutLabs and of course there are several high-end solutions such as Radian6.

If you’re looking for more information on how to put social media to work for your business or want to mingle with the social media-minded, visit the Social Media Club at www.socialmediaclub.org to find a meeting near you.
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P.R, Tom Petty and Dating a Celebrity?

By Scott Lechner
I was listening to Petty’s Free Fallin’ on the way in to the office this morning and that song always fills me with a feeling of success. I have Jerry Maguire to thank for that as this is the song Cruise belts out in his car after signing (or so he thinks) the future first round draft pick of the NFL. The song was extra poignant his morning when it was announced Kulesa Faul’s client of four years, KACE Systems, was acquired by Dell.

At Kulesa Faul we work with an eclectic mix of clients—public companies, startups, established players—and all are great. However, I’ve found that there’s a different, sharper-edged mix of anxiety, energy, and pride working with startups. It’s sort of like dating a celebrity. Super exciting at the beginning, and it takes a few months to understand the wants and needs of both parties. Through it all the startup has its eyes on the prize and it’s the our job to do whatever we can to help get them there. Like the lucky one dating the superstar, we also need to match the ambitions and energy of the startup in order to push them to the pinnacle of their success.

“Success” is a relative term and varies from company to company. For some it is getting acquired, going public or continually taking market share from the big boy. Same with a celebrity. The significant other supports them through the hardships and professional growth until the celeb reaches their own pinnacle⎯a Super Bowl win, a Grammy or an interview with Letterman. Once that success is reached, both parties breathe a huge sigh or relief, and bask in the pride that the years of hard work have brought. We worked so hard to get that startup, that celebrity, to where they needed to go, and now the world is at their fingertips. Makes one feel a bit like they are Free Fallin’.

What’s next? Who knows, and that’s fine with us. It’s been a great ride with KACE and we look forward to working with Dell as a team. Another happy client! That’s success for us.
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