Girls In Tech

A few weeks ago, Mashable put out an article on how to customize real life treats via the Internet. Among them: mix your own chocolate bar, smoke your own jerky, create your own pet-food, shoes, handbags, shirts. And the one that stuck out the most to me (other than the jerky): customize your own jewelry.

Say what?

Every girl likes diamonds right?

And boys (in many cases) are the ideal deliverers.

Thanks, pop culture. It’s because of you that I have this grossly generalized fantasy in my head:

Girl meets Boy.
Boy is smitten.
First date.
First kiss.
Move in.

“Dear Boyfriend,

When you propose, it will preferably be on a cruise to Costa Rica.

Think that’s too cliché? I’ll ask again when our mouths are full of lobster, and we’re riding a horse named Steve through the rainforest.

But most importantly, I would like you to present me with a 10 carat, princess-cut diamond in a platinum  setting . . . or was it a marquise in white gold with two emeralds on the side. Or maybe I . . .

On second thought. Don’t propose until I consult my jeweler to find out what the heck it is I want.

Love, your adoring, baby darling, shmoopie.” Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: bling, CAD cam, customize, designers, Developers, gemvara, jewelry, mashable
Posted in All Chapters, China | 1 Comment »

Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement yesterday about the changes being made to Facebook’s privacy structure, it looks like #privacy is about to have yet another run as the trending topic du jour. Well, that and that couple that crashed the White House dinner — as Demetri Martin would say, they’re like the herpes of hyped up news stories. Scheming social climbers aside, privacy is one of the web’s biggest concerns. As girls in tech, we talk about it all the time. Are our identities safe? Are our personal and professional brands secure? Are the kids in our lives making smart choices when they surf?

Months worth of memes have been made out of relatively minor changes to Facebook’s privacy policies in the past, and the comments are already piling in to the Mashable Article discussing this most recent development. It’s easy to understand why people get so worked up over what happens to their information on the internet. From cookies that track our every click to the fact that between docs, mail, maps and search, google knows more about you than your parents probably do, it’s clear that there’s plenty of reasons to make even the sanest surfer paranoid about what they post. As the product manager at a growing user generated content site, I deal with difficult decisions having to do with privacy all the time. What our decision making process always comes back to is a simple question: what would we want someone else to be doing with our data? Nine times out of ten, the answer is simple: give the user as much control over their content as you can.

Of course, as a user, it’s up to you to take advantage of that control. Fortunately, there are as many tools to track the people tracking you as there are mistresses in Tiger Woods’ skeleton closet. There’s google privacy dashboard, which allows you to see all the data points that google’s got about you. You can also set up a google alert that will let you know when new content about you is indexed by the search engine’s spiders. Keotag lets you put in a key word, and see what people are saying about it everywhere from Technorati to Twitter. And, Boardtracker lets you do the same sort of thing across multiple comment boards. Which means you can post your complaints about the new Facebook privacy policy today, and see all the trolls’ responses tomorrow.

It ain’t exactly privacy per se, but it’s pretty powerful stuff nonetheless.  At the end of the day, I strongly believe that the best privacy policy on the web is still the one you set up for yourself by watching what you post, where you post it and what gets said about it after you leave. However, if that’s too complicated for you, then just remember this simple rule: if you’re going to crash a White House dinner, don’t post photos of your uninvited self shaking hands with the president on Facebook. Unless, of course, your personal privacy policy involves a camera crew from Bravo and a hefty chunk of reality show change. In which case, I’ll see you on Thursdays at 10 in my living room.

Tags: facebook, mashable, Obama, privacy, salahi, social media, social networking, zuckerberg
Posted in Los Angeles | 1 Comment »

Let’s face it. One look at Gary’s Guide and it’s pretty clear even in the summer time people can get “evented out”.   Never fear, I have compiled a list of the most valuable event marketing sites on the web that can help you break through the clutter, create buzz and drive ticket sales.

5) Bernardo’s List - The bi-coastal list of  who’s who in venture, media, and business.   What started out as an email to friends grew in both reach and influence.  Looking for the right exposure for your next event?   Bernardo offers free posting on his site and cost-effective ad sponsorship in his newsletter, all for the cost of 1 ticket, with the minimum being $25  and a ceiling price of $100.  Of course, Bernardo has a soft spot for start-ups and like many, lives and breathes by  word of mouth marketing.  If you have a large event but can’t afford paid exposure, he is  willing to negotiate if you ask nicely.

4)  Mashable – Yes, this one should be a no-brainer.  I don’t think we need to number crunch how many visitors trail their Event Guide every day looking to get the inside scoop on conferences, workshops and festivals happening globally.  Tamar Weinberg is the go to gal for ensuring that your event gets listed.  A couple of important tips:  1) be sure to give at least 2 weeks notice 2) if the tickets are priced at more than $75, expect to offer a “Mashable reader” discount.

3) Eventlet -  It’s Gary’s Guide 2.0.  This site, which launched a few months ago, integrates your event with several social media and micro-blogging platforms.  The option to sign up using your Twitter account makes it one less username and password to have to remember.  The site is very intuitive, easy to upload free events and targets the tech and digerati crowd.

2) Happn.in - Another newly launched site, this one focuses solely on the hot micro-blogging sphere.  The site essentially tracks what people are talking about, by city.  With over 185,000 followers, that’s a lot of chatter!  Advertise your event through a “sponsorship” - for a small fee and you can advertise an event that will get tweeted to all the followers of  the city of your choice, once per day.  Did I mention Jay Boice, founder of this hot site is also test friendly?   Yes.  This dynamic site  great exposure to people who are specifically looking to find out what is “happn.in” in their city.

1) Good old-fashioned email – Never underestimate it’s power.  Dedicated emails about an upcoming event are a sure fire way to conversion.   Your audience has opted-in and poised to hear about the latest events.  One smart acquisition strategy is to run a “refer a friend” promotion that encourages them to sign up and then be eligible for the companion discount.

Cheers to your next successful event!

Tags: bernardo's list, eventlet, free event guides, happn.in, local events, mashable, online event guides, word of mouth marketing
Posted in New York | No Comments »