Scratch my back? Website launches as a marketplace for professional favors

Congratulations, you’ve just made a new network connection on LinkedIn. Now what?

Sure, you can celebrate the expansion of your professional network with a little fist-pump, but are you really getting anything out of that connection? Favo.rs launches Wednesday to help ensure that you build more lasting relationships from your new business contacts.

The site can be likened to a marketplace for networking, where users barter for professional favors in exchange for status, points and … Continue Reading

Zynga IPO mints a new multi-billionaire: Mark Pincus

Zynga founder Mark Pincus (pictured far left) will benefit the most from his company’s planned initial public offering, according to Zynga’s SEC filing.

The company, the creator of massively popular social games like Farmville and CityVille, has yet to specify the price and number of shares for the offering. But the prospectus contains enough information on Pincus’ ownership stake for us to do back-of-the-envelope math on his pending worth, as well as that of other … Continue Reading

4 must-have social-media dashboards for your business

While big brands and agencies have the luxury of resources and money, local businesses don’t. What they need is a social-media dashboard — an all-in-one, Web-based monitoring tool for Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites where customers hang out — that can optimize their online presence, engage with users and manage social campaigns. But that tool needs to meet three criteria: cheap, easy to use and automated. With that in mind, here’s a list of … Continue Reading

Can Sprout Social survive in crowded social monitoring market?

Sprout Social, a social media management and monitoring tool for businesses, today announced its official unveiling and public availability to all businesses. The company announced in May that it won backing from Groupon founders Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, through their recently launched investment fund Lightbank.

Sprout Social gives customers a single Web-based dashboard to manage and grow all their social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn, and Foursquare. The tool monitors the web for social brand mentions … Continue Reading

Xing integrates with ZoomInfo, in move to overtake LinkedIn

Sprout Social, a social media management and monitoring tool for businesses, today announced its official unveiling and public availability to all businesses. The company announced in May that it won backing from Groupon founders Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, through their recently launched investment fund Lightbank.

Sprout Social gives customers a single Web-based dashboard to manage and grow all their social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn, and Foursquare. The tool monitors the web for social brand mentions … Continue Reading