Does your company allow linkedin at the office?

With the vast number of social networks and the potential for wasted time, many companies resort to a flat "no social networks" policy, but does your company make an exception for linkedin?

Tech Crunch Reports Massive Growth for GroupMe

SOURCE: Tech Crunch

TechCrunch reports today that start-up GroupMe is helping micro-networks send 1 million texts a day.  Read the full article by Erick Schonfeld: GroupMe Is Now Sending One Million Texts Every Day

Egyptian's social revolution went to texting when their government shut off Facebook, Twitter, then the internet.  Keep it off the road, but texting could just change the way your company communicates and GroupMe is making it possible, for free.

Compare Electronic Mailbox Services: Zumbox vs Volly

		ZumBox	Volly
status		live	beta, not ready for consumers
user accounts		Every physical address	Anyone
user cost		free	free
setup		physical mail varification	opt-in
selling points		electronic mail box and filing system	secure digital delivery system
junk mail		only varified mailers	only varified mailers
marketing mail		yes	yes
Payment Program		No	Yes, ACH or Credit Card
monitoring		TRUSTe and VeriSign	TRUSTe and VeriSign
Compliance		PCI, HIPAA and BITS	PCI, HIPAA and BITS
security		requires physical mail confirmation	only approved businesses and services
widget		desktop alerts	no
app		no	no
funding		Venture Captial, including Michael Eisner, the former CEO of Walt Disney and Rick Braddock, the former CEO of Priceline.com	pitney bowes
Launch		Dec-08	Jan-11
Benefits		no risk of fraudulent communications spoofing your app	convenience
API		Yes	Not yet (planned api and developer community)
Lawsuit		Win	Loss
mobile		mobile.zumbox.com	TBD
storage		upload up to 500 docs/month	TBD

5 Reasons Why Electronic Mailbox Services will Fail

1. Contrary to the arguments, it IS one more password you have to remember and it IS one more site you have to visit.  Plus there is no APP yet.
2. Consumers are NOT asking for a different way to receive electronic statements.  There is not the dramatic rush to e-statements as hoped, and for those that choose to receive statements electronically, email is doing the job just fine. 
3. Not every mailer has signed on, but anyone can setup EFT payments through their online banking account.  And this has been around since the dawn of online banking.
4.  It is just a way for companies to send you SPAM as “Approved Senders” and not get rejected by your spam filter.  Plus, they know even more about you because of the collection of data and your “preferences”.  I am all for targeted messages, but be honest with your intentions.
5. Companies will not sign on until there is a critical mass of users, and users will not sign up until they have a significant number of statements that they can handle in their electronic mailbox.  The Chicken or the Egg applies here, too.

BONUS REASON: Web innovation has not come from big companies, (Remember: google has failed at social media) and start-ups can go broke trying to wrestle on the marketing side with the 800 lb gorilla.  One will fail to focus on the user experience because they are more concerned with shareholder profits, and the other will not be able to offer enough incentives and deals to entice mailers, due to shallow pockets (even though $27 million in VC sounds pretty good). 

Mayor Bloomberg on Zumbox in New York

NY City joined Newark and San Francisco as planned government customers of Zumbox.  Mayor Bloomberg sited in his speech that a motivating factor for adopting Zumbox was that the public has "become technologically comfortable" and the benefit of waste reduction.

Subliminal Advertising (sort of) on GrooveShark

Web on-demand-radio service GrooveShark has added another space for advertising, and this is a first.  Not a pop-up ad or a banner, but a full page flashing ad that shows up when you are listening to certain songs and scrolling.  I am not judging it good or bad, just identifying a new way to present ads.  I definitely paid attention, but grooveshark needs a method of convincing me to buy music.  I can listen to deadmau5 for free and if he is getting significant royalties for the airplay, maybe it is worth the advertising.  Watch the video and take the poll on the right asking if you think subliminal web ads are creative or annoying.

GroupMe Connects Web and Mobile with QR Code

www.groupme.com/android

The new year's hottest start-up, GroupMe, shows off a QR code on-site to promote its new Android app and connect web to mobile.  This is a perfect application for QR codes that makes sense and makes it very easy to find the .  The story from December on Groupme's blog promoting free stickers for guerilla promotion begs the question if GroupMe will distribute QR code stickers anytime soon.

Started in the summer of 2010, the company is based on a simple concept of chat rooms for texting.  After a few rounds of financing, the start-up has secured over $20 million in VC money.  They are focused on creating awareness for the FREE service, further developing the user experience, and solidify a profitable business model. My personal experience with groupme was positive.  I found a bug in group setup, sent an email to support@groupme.com, got a response within a few hours, and the bug was fixed.  Check out this new mobile application and see how the text service can change the way you communicate. www.groupme.com