Podcasts about simply measured

Join host Nataraj as he sits down with Aviel Ginsberg, the founder of Simply Measured (acquired by Sprout Social), managing director at Amazon's Alexa Accelerator, general partner at Founders Co-op, and now co-founder of Foundations, a shared workspace and accelerator designed to bolster Seattle's VC ecosystem.About the Episode:This episode explores Aviel's journey through the Seattle tech scene, from his arrival during the 2007 recession to his current venture. He discusses the evolution of Founders Co-op, their investment strategies, and the challenges faced by startups in the Pacific Northwest. Aviel shares insights into his investment philosophy, emphasizing the importance of founders' motivations and the long-term vision for their companies.Aviel also delves into the creation of Foundations, a community-driven space aimed at connecting founders, investors, and mentors. He discusses the need for such an anchor in Seattle's ecosystem and how it addresses the unique challenges faced by startups in the region. The conversation touches upon the changing landscape of venture capital, the impact of large language models, and the future of Seattle's tech community.About the Guest and Host:Aviel Ginsberg: Co-founder of Foundations, founder of Simply Measured, managing director at Amazon's Alexa Accelerator, and general partner at Founders Co-op. → LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/avielginzburg/→ Website: https://seattlefoundations.org/Nataraj: Host of the Startup Project podcast, Senior PM at Azure & Investor. → LinkedIn: / natarajsindam→ Twitter: https://x.com/natarajsindam→ Email updates: ⁠https://startupproject.substack.com/⁠→ Website: ⁠⁠⁠https://thestartupproject.io⁠⁠⁠Timestamps:[00:00] Introduction[00:30] What is Foundations?[00:51] Aviel's journey with Founders Co-op[01:21] Navigating the 2007 Recession[03:22] Early days in the Seattle tech scene[03:36] Transitioning from employee to founder[06:46] Founders Co-op's current focus[08:16] Evolving investment thesis[08:45] The art of investing in founders[10:47] The importance of people over product[11:07] Investing strategies and FOMO[14:23] Deal makers and breakers[14:36] The motivation of founders[16:47] De-risking entrepreneurship and motivation[18:56] The rise and fall of first-time funds[20:18] Exaggerated opportunity sizes[21:16] The realities of early-stage investing[22:20] The distortion of valuations[22:57] Winners bias and trillion-dollar companies[23:13] The illusion of constant growth[26:37] The Ally acquisition and Microsoft Viva Goals[27:50] Was the acquisition a fund returner?[28:32] The Clubhouse story[29:23] The importance of knowing when to sell[30:20] The trend of secondaries[30:50] Incentivizing founders[31:25] The future of secondaries[32:50] The vision behind Foundations[38:33] What else does Seattle need?[39:05] The need for pre-accelerators[40:38] Lack of pre-seed funds[41:02] Accessing Bay Area capital[42:41] What are you consuming?[43:14] Podcasts, books, and movies[44:31] What do you wish you knew about investing?[44:39] The long feedback loops of investingSubscribe to Startup Project for more engaging conversations with leading entrepreneurs!→ Email updates: ⁠https://startupproject.substack.com/⁠#startupproject #seattle #startupecosystem #venturecapital #founders #foundations #simplymeasured #founderscoop #amazon #alexaaccelerator #techstars #innovation #entrepreneurship #podcast #youtube #technology #investing  #davidishim #readai #ai #artificialintelligence #meetings #productivity #hybridwork #remotework

What does it take to lead a startup through rapid growth while maintaining innovation and cultural integrity? In this episode of North Star Leaders, Lindsay Pedersen interviews Aviel Ginzburg, Partner at Founders' Co-op and co-founder of Simply Measured, to uncover the unique challenges founders face as they scale their companies. They explore the balance between innovation, leadership, and securing investment, with Aviel sharing his journey from entrepreneur to venture capitalist and offering insights on building impactful companies in a fast-paced tech landscape. Listen as they discuss: Founder's Journey: Aviel reflects on his path from co-founding Simply Measured to transitioning into venture capital, sharing lessons learned from building a business from the ground up. Scaling with Purpose: The conversation delves into the challenges of scaling a company, especially when balancing growth with maintaining a strong, cohesive culture. Fundraising Insights: Aviel offers practical advice on securing funding, emphasizing the importance of aligning with investors who share a company's mission and long-term vision. Cultural Integrity: They explore the role of culture in a startup's success, discussing how intentional leadership and clear values can shape a positive, high-performance environment. Leadership vs. Innovation: The conversation highlights the balance between innovative thinking and effective leadership, with Aviel stressing the need for leaders to empower teams and embrace change. Staying Agile in Tech: Aviel discusses the importance of staying adaptable in a fast-paced tech industry, where rapid shifts require leaders to remain flexible and responsive. Long-Term Vision: They reflect on how maintaining a clear, long-term vision can help navigate short-term challenges and guide decision-making in turbulent times. Resources: Aviel Ginzburg on LinkedIn  Contact me to tell me who you'd like to hear as a guest!

In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is B. Pagels-Minor. B. graduated college in 2008 and quickly landed a lucrative consulting job. But when the economy crashed, B. ended up working as a barista and then as a store manager at Target. They entered the role at Target with a lot of confidence. B. quickly learned that leadership isn't about being the smartest; it's about earning your team's respect. If the team doesn't follow you, it's you who will go. After Target, B. faced multiple near-disasters while experimenting with different roles and companies, trying to find what best suited their skills. This mindset of trial and error proved vital in navigating their career journey. B. is a distinguished award-winning product strategist, acclaimed podcast host within the Top 25% on Spotify, seasoned startup advisor, investor, and performance coach. As a highly regarded thought leader in product management and agile technologies, B. has steered international product teams at Fortune 100 and FAANG companies. With over a decade of service as a non-profit director, B. has driven large-scale technological and business strategy transformations across historically complex industries such as healthcare, software, and finance. Throughout an illustrious career, B. has supported revenue generation exceeding $20 billion and delivered exponential investor value. Recognized for a proven track record, B. is an experienced and growth-focused professional known for spearheading the development and execution of business, product, and culture strategies and operating as a qualified financial expert across board roles. Adept at identifying product-market fit and driving efficient scaling, key competencies include business development, product management, safety & regulatory compliance, revenue & margins growth, and cross-functional collaboration. Currently, B. operates in the startup ecosystem as an investor and trusted advisor. B. has helped their startups successfully raise hundreds of millions of dollars and nurtured companies from pre-seed to seed and from seed and beyond. B. was recruited into and led the listening team at Sprout Social and then led the acquisition and integration of a chief competitor, Simply Measured, effectively positioning the company for its final round of funding that ultimately led to a multibillion-dollar exit. B. was then recruited to the team at Apple to help lead the agile transformation for the App Store Developer Tools team and owned the experience and quality of App Store Connect, the front door to the App Store. Under B.'s leadership, App Store Connect was overhauled entirely to dramatically increase the speed and efficacy of various tooling to increase the number of apps submitted substantially and approved each day while increasing the overall satisfaction score of the product by three basis points in 2 quarters. B's success with overhauling the systems led to an opportunity to lead quality of the App Store Connect product, ownership of the App Store Connect App, and ownership of regulatory and compliance programs. B. led the integration of GDPR into the App Store, the overhaul of the App review process to support the Korea and Brazil Age Verification requirements, and also owned the relationship between App Store legal and the App Store team, including being the translator between legal and tech teams due to their experience having attended law school. The overall changes to the App Store improved relationships across critical partners like Microsoft and EA and helped the App Store exceed $60BN in revenue. Later, B. was recruited to lead the product function for finance and membership data for Netflix. Chief responsibilities included SOX compliance and ownership; reporting to finance, audit, and various finance and tax regulators; and principally responsible for helping develop insights to help supercharge Netflix's ability to right size content value and cost. Earlier, B.

How much of the realities of your business do you want your audience to see? The truth is, there are benefits to baring it all.Especially when you're a startup, showing your trials and tribulations endears your brand to viewers. It feels raw and real and trusting. It's a way to build an audience of dedicated fans. And in this episode, we're learning about this kind of radical transparency from Jeremy Clarkson.Known in the car world for his shenanigans and quick wit on the show The Grand Tour, Jeremy Clarkson is now learning how to farm on his new show, Clarkson's Farm. He's doing what we call “building in public,” and showing viewers what it's really like to grow a farm from the ground up. That's one of the things we're talking about this week on Remarkable with the help of our special guest, Co-Founder & SVP of GTM Strategy at Passetto, Sidney Waterfall.Together, we talk about the benefits of building in public, using comedic tropes to add humor to your marketing, and transitioning your audience to a new POV. About our guest, Sidney WaterfallSidney Waterfall is the Co-Founder and SVP of GTM Strategy at Passetto. She's a sales and product-led B2B SaaS Marketer that transitions marketing teams from MQL's to revenue. Prior to her current role, Sidney served as SVP of Growth at Refine Labs. She has also previously held marketing roles at Ally.io, Trupanion, Simply Measured, Microsoft and Verizon.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Clarkson's Farm:Build in public. Show the real, raw moments with your audience as a way to be transparent and build trust. Sidney says, “Share your experience to connect with your audience and become relatable. [Jeremy Clarkson] was known in the car world. He has a huge audience. He's trying something else. So he's like, ‘I'm just going to show the real raw moments.' And they do on the show. They show exciting moments, they show frustrating moments. I think that is becoming more popular in the B2B space. People are sharing their journey of building a company or building a product or using a product, and they're being a little bit more transparent with the ups and downs of that, even when they're marketing to a certain ICP.” She adds, “I think that helps content really resonate with people and that helps people build audiences and brands build audiences through that type of strategy.”Add humor by using comedic tropes. Sidney says, “Good writing or copy stands out with a bit of humor. And wit is very effective.” Ian adds, “There's a comedic lesson there any time you have a fish out of water. You take someone who knows nothing and put them with a bunch of people who know lots of stuff.” It's like how Jeremy Clarkson doesn't know anything about farming and he's surrounded by farmers trying to help him work his land. Viewers are also learning while watching the show, so it's a great way to edutain as well.You can transition your current audience and acquire new audience members from a new POV or a new niche. Jeremy Clarkson will draw viewers from his previous show, The Grand Tour, to his new one, Clarkson's Farm, because he's built a name for himself. And he'll also gain new viewers who are interested in the concept of his new show. So some will have been interested in cars, some in farming or homesteading, others in Jeremy Clarkson as a personality. Sidney says, “This is applicable to my current situation of going from one brand that was very well known with a huge founder brand, and now standing up another company underneath that same founder.” She says, “We have an incredible audience to use and leverage. So really positioning our founder's brand as multiple businesses. And he's talking to a different level of audience than he previously was. So from his content strategy, we're changing up who the content is targeted for. And then on the side of that, it's like, ‘Okay, how do we build the brand of Passetto outside of the founder at the same time as we start to scale so that people in the market know the difference between Refine Labs and Passetto?'”Quotes *”One of the things that I thought you did so well at Refine Labs was naming the problem with something specific. To say, ‘Dark social is the thing that is happening. And here is how you go attack it.'That is the part of thought leadership that just frames the audience so quickly into solve and learn mode, and is super important. You have to find the thing that's going to resonate, and be easy to say and easy to understand.” - Ian Faison*”[Jeremy Clarkson] is definitely the main character, what kind of makes the show. And I relate that to marketing as, like, that's the founder brand, or like, that's like the face of the company or the spokesperson. And he's been able to take his massive audience and transition some of that over, but also acquire a new audience into his brand. But he's still being very true to himself, his personality and his character. It's like rinse and repeat what he was doing over in the automotive space in this new space.” - Sidney WaterfallTime Stamps[0:55] Meet Sidney Waterfall, Co-Founder & SVP of GTM Strategy at Passetto[2:28] About the Creation of Clarkson's Farm[4:01] Jeremy Clarkson's Farming Journey[7:50] Showing the Realities of Farming[20:39] Marketing Lessons from Clarkson's Farm[24:12] Using Comedic Tension in B2B Marketing[25:46 How to Transition Audiences with a New POV[27:50] Building a Brand Outside the Founder[28:47] Sidney's Content Strategy and Execution[36:00] The Importance of Thought Leadership[40:40] Sidney's Favorite Content Projects and How She Proves ROI[46:51] Sidney's Advice for Other Marketing ProfessionalsLinksConnect with Sidney on LinkedInLearn more about PassettoAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Today's guest is Sameer Kazi, President of ActiveCampaign, who is responsible for guiding the core operations and helping prepare the company for its next growth phase. We discuss how ActiveCampaign is helping businesses grow by scaling their customer experiences and data points from the Customer Experience Automation Impact Report. I learn how communicating via one channel just won't cut it. All brands still need to be taking an omnichannel approach — 99% of those surveyed agree companies grow faster by using multiple channels beyond email marketing alone, and 93% report using their website as an engagement channel to supplement their email marketing efforts.  We also discuss how CXA + social media is the sweet spot for B2C: Nine in 10 (89%) B2C businesses using CXA also leverage social media to share information with existing and potential customers. We talk about how this omnichannel approach helps improve customer experiences by sending the right message at the time it's going to be best received by existing and potential customers.  Highly relevant communications are critical to a great customer experience: Nearly 80% of CXA users agreed that the technology helps them send highly relevant communications, leading to greater retention and customer acquisition. Customer loyalty depends on whether each buyer feels a brand is speaking directly to them and communicating with them based on their own personal wants and needs.  About Sameer Sameer is a deeply experienced software executive and operator with global P&L and public company experience helping growth stage & mature SaaS businesses scale revenue and operations. Sameer is also co-founder and Managing Director of Operating Capital, an investment firm focused on helping operating teams at B2B SaaS companies win through capital, operating best practices and by leveraging our global talent and industry network. Prior to ActiveCampaign, Sameer served as CEO and board member of Cheetah Digital, interim CEO and Executive Chairman at Simply Measured (acquired by Sprout Social), board member at Emarsys (acquired by SAP), and as EVP at Salesforce.com and ExactTarget (acquired by Salesforce in 2013 for $2.5B).

From email notifications and social networks to household chores and current events, the world moves faster than ever, and our attention is pulled in dozens of directions each day. Staying focused and in the moment is a major struggle that can impact our relationships with our colleagues, our customers, our loved ones, and even ourselves. In this episode, Lucy Hitz, Director of Content at Ally.io (now part of Microsoft), shares her advice on how marketers can stay “radically present” each day, whether navigating a company acquisition (Lucy's been through two!), understanding ever-evolving buyer personas, or balancing a career with a new baby.Guest Bio:Lucy Hitz is Director of Content at Ally.io, an OKR software that helps businesses turn goals into results. In October 2021, Ally was acquired by Microsoft, marking the second major acquisition in Lucy's career (so far!). Previously, Lucy was Head of Marketing Communications at Simply Measured, which was acquired by Sprout Social. When she's not building industry-leading content strategies, Lucy is busy doing yoga or spending quality time with her new baby.Key Takeaways (up to 5): How can you truly understand and reach your marketing personas? Lucy reminds us that personas are people, and the best way to connect with them is by taking the time to lead with empathy. We explore ways to ensure your content resonates with and stays true to your audience.We discuss how setting objectives and key results (OKRs) can help you be more present in both your personal and professional life.Lucy shares her experience going through two major acquisitions, one by Sprout Social and another by Microsoft, and how they taught her to be “radically present.”

So much of what happens in the startup world comes from serendipitous moments, random interactions that lead to fresh insights and new collaborations. And so much of that has traditionally happened at events, meetups, coffee meetings, and other in-person gatherings. Two years into the pandemic and remote work, what are the implications? That's our first topic on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, with entrepreneur, software engineer and investor Aviel Ginzburg, general partner at Seattle-based seed-stage venture fund Founders Co-op. The former Techstars Managing Director for Amazon's Alexa Accelerator, Ginzburg was co-founder of social analytics platform Simply Measured, acquired by Sprout Social in 2017. Before that, he was one of the first software engineers at Appature, which was later acquired by IMS Health. We also dive into NFTs, crypto, Web3, and the Metaverse, getting his take on each as an investor and entrepreneur (and longtime World of Warcraft gamer). We discuss how he and Chris DeVore, the Founders Co-op managing partner, are looking to differentiate themselves from other VCs and investors at a time when so much funding is sloshing around. And we take a look at our newly published list of unicorn companies in the Seattle area, which include some of Founders Co-op's portfolio companies, as well as one big one that got away.  With GeekWire's Todd Bishop and John Cook. Edited by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aviel Ginzburg is a General Partner at Founders' Co-op and former Managing Director of the Alexa Accelerator. In 2010 Aviel co-founded Simply Measured, one of Founders' Co-op's first investments, and was later backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Trinity Ventures, and MHS capital. When Simply Measured sold to Sprout Social at the end of 2017, Aviel transitioned into his current role as General Partner. Aviel is one of the most intelligent, sincere, and colorful investors I know.

I'm the CEO at Siftrock. I joined as ex-post-facto co-founder in Oct 2016. I'm passionate about all things related to SaaS marketing and sales. Previously founder and CEO at Simply Measured in the social analytics space. Also a BOD member at Bizible - leader in b2b marketing attribution.

Growth isn’t just about demand generation. It’s about customer success. Ultimately, your current customers determine the future of your company. That’s at least what Adam Shoenfeld thinks. Drift agrees. Adam’s company Siftrock was recently acquired by Drift, where Adam now works as GM of Siftrock, under the Drift umbrella. Before Siftrock, he’s founded various SaaS companies (Cheddr Media, Simply Measured)., and, most importantly, he prefers breakfast meetings. He’s seen way too many companies who just don’t get it: Instead of investing in their current clientele, they invest in lead generation and demand gen. He came on the show to share why he thinks differently.

Click to Listen - You'll be surprized! Join Matt this week with his guest, Adam Schoenfeld, CEO of Siftrock, Inc.  Adam explained, "When you send emails, marketing emails or prospecting emails on the sales side, you get a lot replies back. Auto replies, bounce backs, out of office messages and of course real people sometimes raising their hand or asking questions. Typically, what we've found is that marketers and marketing office folks handle that manually. So, we built some machine learning that works for all those replies, figure out what they are and then help you take action. Whether it's cleaning up your database when somebody's left the company, that's really kind of a classic example. You get that "no longer with company" response. Or servicing a new lead for the sales team when you get a referral or correctly routing a human response so that you can take action. So all those things that we do by basically more intelligently managing the reply emails that come back to your marketing campaigns." Matt then asked about list hygiene, "Let's talk a little bit about that related to database hygiene.  People are moving all the time, we've heard that B2B database can deteriorate at a rate of three to five percent per month. Not even per year, per quarter. So to have some of that auto updated for you is significant, not just for the efficiency of your list, but for keeping yourself off of spam, block list and more." Adam was on top of this. "Deliverability is a big thing and then making sure you're getting to the right person with the right phone number, and the right email address as all that stuff's changing around. Those email replies have a lot of information that can help with that. Automating this and integrating into the major marketing platforms like Marketo, HubSpot, Eloqua et cetera saves so much time over manual processing of this information. This isn't the whole solution to keeping a clean and updated database, but it can be a big piece of that sort of broader initiative everybody's thinking about right now." Adam's Mount Rushmore of Sales, Marketing, Start Ups: "I'll give you a couple CEOs that have influenced me either sort of from afar or more directly. Dave Hersh, who's CEO of Jive and who is an investor in Simply Measured has influenced me a lot. While we haven't interacted a ton, maybe once at year we sit down in person. Every one interaction has just been so impactful. I'm huge fan of Gainsight right now, I think they're the gold standard in B2B marketing and Nick Mehta there is incredible. I'd put him on the Mount Rushmore. I'm going to give a shout out to my co-founder Chris Hundley because he built this company on his own and actually closed business as a technology-centric guy. I think that's just an incredible feat to build a sustaining business all at once on your own."

Aviel Ginzburg is a Managing Director of the Alexa Accelerator here in Seattle, Partner at Founders Co-op and Co-founder of Simply Measured. We talk about the founding of Simply Measured, what it’s like to be a new dad, and how to survive high-stress work while having a baby. As always with other founders we will talk about his startup story and touch a little bit on what it’s like to be a venture capitalist. Lastly, he will share some tips on traveling with your little ones. Let’s jump right in it! Simply Measured Alexa Accelerator Founders Co-Op Startup Weekend

Lauri Nilo is the social media manager for Simply Measured, a social analytics platform that helps marketers understand data which allows them to create actionable social media campaigns. The company was recently acquired by Sprout Social, a social media management and analytics platform. Nilo served as a intern at the Gonzaga Student Publications during her time as an undergraduate student at Gonzaga University. She increased their blog readership by 1,141 views in that time span. After graduating from Gonzaga, she was a marketing and events intern at the Seattle Met before interning with Simply Measured and later getting hired full time as their social media manager. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurie-anne-nilo/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/LaurieNilo

Join Matt this week with his guest, Adam Schoenfeld, CEO of Siftrock, Inc.   Adam explained, "When you send emails, marketing emails or prospecting emails on the sales side, you get a lot replies back. Auto replies, bounce backs, out of office messages and of course real people sometimes raising their hand or asking questions. Typically, what we've found is that marketers and marketing office folks handle that manually. So we built some machine learning that [inaudible 00:02:50] all those replies, figure out what they are and then help you take action. Whether it's cleaning up your database when somebody's left the company, that's really kind of a classic example. You get that "no longer with company" response. Or servicing a new lead for the sales team when you get a referral or correctly routing a human response so that you can take action. So all those things that we do by basically more intelligently managing the reply emails that come back to your marketing campaigns." Matt then asked about list hygiene, "Let's talk a little bit about that related to database hygiene.  People are moving all the time, we've heard that B2B database can deteriorate at a rate of three to five percent per month. Not even per year, per quarter. So to have some of that auto updated for you is significant, not just for the efficiency of your list, but for keeping yourself off of spam, block list and more." Adam was on top of this. "Deliverability is a big thing and then making sure you're getting to the right person with the right phone number, and the right email address as all that stuff's changing around. Those email replies have a lot of information that can help with that. Automating this and integrating into the major marketing platforms like Marketo, HubSpot, Eloqua et cetera saves so much time over manual processing of this information..This isn't the whole solution to keeping a clean and updated database, but it can be a big piece of that sort of broader initiative everybody's thinking about right now." Adam's Mount Rushmore of Sales, Marketing, Start Ups: "I'll give you a couple CEOs that have influenced me either sort of from afar or more directly. Dave Hersh, who's CEO of Jive and who is an investor in Simply Measured has influenced me a lot. While we haven't interacted a ton, maybe once at year we sit down in person. Every one interaction has just been so impactful. I'm huge fan of Gainsight right now, I think they're the gold standard in B2B marketing and Nick Mehta there is incredible. I'd put him on the Mount Rushmore. I'm going to give a shout out to my co-founder Chris Hundley because he built this company on his own and actually closed business as a technology-centric guy. I think that's just an incredible feat to build a sustaining business all at once on your own."

"90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text." [Sources: 3M Corporation and Zabisco] We continue with our theme of “Creating Content” as a sales professional. Today we focus on how to create an InfoGraphic. Visual content drives engagement. In fact, according to research conducted by Simply Measured, just one month after the introduction of Facebook timeline for brands, visual content — photos and videos — saw a 65% increase in engagement. You can take advantage of this same approach as a sales professional by creating your very own InfoGraphic to illustrate your knowledge and expertise while helping simplify complex topics for your target audience. We provide three tips on how to create and share an InfoGraphic to elevate your status as a thought leader and go-to-specialist in your field. If you want to take advantage of the power of visual content to improve your sales prospecting game, then you will want to listen to this episode.

On this week's episode, Amir and Chris discuss how (and if) they'd survive the zombie apocalypse. Plus, our hosts are divided on their choices of coffee brands.  This week's Five Favorites:  1. The NBA will broadcast a game in VR every week this season (The Verge)  2. Pinterest launches service to connect brands with influencers (The Drum)  3. Instagram Stories A Success (Simply Measured)  4. Apple Doesn't Want To Build A Car Anymore --- Just it's Brain (TechCrunch)  5 (HOT TOPIC) STORY Hacked Home Devices Cause Massive Internet Outage (USA Today)  Honorable Mention(s): AT&T to Buy Time Warner (The Verge)  Don't forget to send Amir and Chris YOUR favorite stories of the week using #FiveFavorites! You can also submit your stories at bit.ly/fivefavorites.   

To be successful in business and online, digital and social marketing, you must do more than simply focus on the near term. You must know where you are going and how you are going to get there. In addition, you must understand the larger ecosystem of which you are working within. In the online world, keeping up with trends can be a challenge. Not only do you have to keep your current platforms and content performing, you must also be ready to embrace the changes to come. The only one guarantee we have in the social and digital world is change. Get use to it. Would you like to know this about your peers.... What they are doing to ignite their business using social and digital technologies? What priority are they placing on video and visual focused social platforms such as SnapChat, Instagram etc.? Top social media goals and objectives chosen? What social networks are marketers achieving the greatest ROI? Where do they plan to invest in the future? What social platforms do they plan to spend the most money on for advertising? What forms of content are they creating the most and least? What role will video and live video play in their marketing plans? Most popular social media software platforms? How are they utilizing and implementing influencer marketing programs?  What types of roles are they hiring for? If you would like the answers to these questions you have come to the right place. In the 212th episode of the Social Zoom Factor Podcast I interview Jason Keath, the CEO and founder of the Social Fresh Conference. He partnered with Simply Measured and Firebrand Group to develop "The Future of Social Media" research report.  It digs deep into how brand and marketing leaders are utilizing social media today and how they plan to embrace the new technologies and opportunities in the future. The report is packed with insights even the most seasoned social and digital marketer can leverage and learn from today. Download your copy now and take a listen to the podcast to hear even more details from Jason Keath. As the Founder and CEO of Social Fresh Conference, the longest running social marketing conference, Jason Keath curates some of the smartest voices in marketing. He has trained digital marketers at over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies. He is on the Advisory Board for Internet Week, cohost of the Social Toolkit Podcast and editor of SocialMediaCurrent.com, a daily news source for social media professionals.  Take a listen to episode 212 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast and download the "Future of Social Media Report" to learn the following: Top social media trends Top social media goals chosen by marketers What social networks produced the most ROI in the past year How social media teams are spending their time Most common social media roles being hired for Where marketers are investing their dollars for social advertising What content types are marketers planning to invest in (video, blog posts, infographics, Snapchat stories, whitepapers etc.) Most popular social media software How marketers are using and executing influencer marketing Join me at the Social Fresh Conference in Orlando! I'll be delivering a 90 minute workshop on Pinterest Advanced Strategies & Tactics to Generate More Leads & Real Profits! Check it out and use this link to save $100 off your ticket! Hope to see you there! The event will include speakers from Twitter, RedCross, Economist, Spotify, IBM, Citrix, Full Sail University, and loads more! Grab your ticket & meet me there! Be sure to subscribe to this entire brand new series, "Welcome to the Pay to Play World, Are You Ready?" on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud! Supporting Resources: Future of Social Media Report (download free report)  5 Unpublished statistics on the future of social media  What is a better social media goal? Customer loyalty or brand awareness?  Not using social media software? It may be costing you.  2016 Social Media Predictions  Free webinars: We are also launching a series of webinars and training opportunities to dig even deeper. Sign up here-> Social Profit Factor 

JSB Talks Digital, the podcast for marketers, small business owners and those of you bringing your skills into the Digital Age! Hosted by Joanne Sweeney-Burke, founder and CEO of Digital Training Institute. In this episode: • Twitter introduces 140-second video; • Pinterest acquires shopping app Tote to hire its founders; • I review the 2016 State of Social Marketing Report from Simply Measured; • I speak to Tris Dyer, Head of Social Strategy at Dublin-based agency Leading Social; • My Shoutouts: the Irish soccer fans in France who are breaking the Internet, my first article on Social Media Examiner and BobbyB, my 6-year old son, who’s looking forward to talking Snapchat on my podcast; My featured column: why I spend 20 hours per week producing free content; and • Tweetdeck - the social media tool that saved my working week.

Brewster Stanislaw, Director of Product at Simply Measured, opened my eyes to the importance of dark social. This "undercover" traffic shows up as direct traffic in web analytics and masks the true impact of traffic from social media. It would be beneficial for any business utilizing social media to take a closer look at your analytics and where dark social may play a role. Listen to this episode with Brewster Stanislaw to hear how a cosmetics brand was able to apply more marketing budget after further analysis of dark social and what you can do to reveal dark social's effect at your organization. View the show notes page: http://www.socialbusinessengine.com/podcasts/dark-social-social-marketers-blind-spot

Lucy Hitz is the Content Marketing Producer at Simply Measured, a leading social media analytics provide in-depth measurement and reporting. She shares her thoughts on how B2B marketers can learn from B2C, the most powerful social platforms for marketing, and making marketing attribution more clear. Find out more about Simply Measured: http://simplymeasured.com

Neal discusses an amazing tool that is used by serious social media marketers everywhere, Simply Measured. He’s talking to Ron Schott, the Director of the Professional Services Team at Simply Measured. This tool helps big brands and small companies alike reap the benefits of social media by understanding their analytics and planning future social media campaigns based on the measuring and reporting that Simply Measured provides. The tool also has the ability to track competitors and market sectors, plus so much more. These are the kinds of tools Neal is excited to introduce you to and conversations they’ll be having at the Social Tools Summit in just a few weeks.

Adam Schoenfeld is the co-founder & CEO of Simply Measured, a leading social media analytics and measurement platform used by brands such as Samsung, Microsoft, American Express and Pepsi to name a few. Adam founded Simply Measured in 2010 along with his co-founders Aviel Ginzburg and Damon Cortesi. The company now has over 150 employees and to date has raised $29 million in venture capital funding. Links & Resources Mentioned Simply Measured Adam Schoenfeld - @schoeny Omer Khan - @omerkhan Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to the podcast Leave a rating and review Follow Omer on Twitter Need help with your SaaS? Join SaaS Club Plus: our membership and community for new and early-stage SaaS founders. Join and get training & support. Join SaaS Club Launch: a 12-week group coaching program to help you get your SaaS from zero to your first $10K revenue. Apply for SaaS Club Accelerate: If you'd like to work directly with Omer 1:1, then request a free strategy session.

Adam Schoenfeld is the co-founder & CEO of Simply Measured, a leading social media analytics and measurement platform used by brands such as Samsung, Microsoft, American Express and Pepsi to name a few. Adam founded Simply Measured in 2010 along with his co-founders Aviel Ginzburg and Damon Cortesi. The company now has over 150 employees and to date has raised $29 million in venture capital funding.Links & Resources MentionedSimply MeasuredAdam Schoenfeld - @schoenyOmer Khan - @omerkhanEnjoyed this episode?Subscribe to the podcastLeave a rating and reviewFollow Omer on TwitterNeed help with your SaaS?Join SaaS Club Plus: our membership and community for new and early-stage SaaS founders. Join and get training & support.Join SaaS Club Launch: a 12-week group coaching program to help you get your SaaS from zero to your first $10K revenue.Apply for SaaS Club Accelerate: If you'd like to work directly with Omer 1:1, then request a free strategy session.

Simply Measured is a cool website that has free reports to help you determine where your traffic is coming from. this video helps you understand (not sure why the audio is out of sync, its like a bad Godzilla movie). Check it out at www.simplymeasured.com