When Instagram was sold to Facebook for $1 billion, investors at Andreessen Horowitz walked away with $78 million: a 312% return on a $250,000 investment. When an article in the New York Times suggested that the venture capital firm should have gotten more, co-founder Ben Horowitz fired back with a blog post defending the firm’s decision to invest more money in an Instagram competitor called PicPlz.
Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews. 
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Twitter Promotes Patent Peace with Innovator’s Agreement (paidContent)
In a first among major tech companies, Twitter is taking steps to ensure that its patents don’t become fuel for future intellectual property wars. Twitter Blog It is a commitment from Twitter to our employees that patents can only be used for defensive purposes. We will not use the patents from employees’ inventions in offensive litigation without their permission. parislemon Hopefully other startups large and small will follow Twitter’s lead here. It would be really excellent if larger companies (*cough* Yahoo *cough*) did as well, but it’s hard to see that happening given the current state of things. This is a movement that will have to start from the ground up. AllTwitter Those “in the know” when it comes to patent law seem to approve. VentureBeat The Innovator’s Patent Agreement will take effect later this year; you can read the whole thing on GitHub. Read more
We’ve put together a list of five Tumblr tips to help you plan, set up and run your Tumblr blog for maximum success.
Moustaches get all the attention and it’s just not fair…for beards, that is. Ke$ha wants to give beards the attention that they deserve and so she’s launched her very own Tumblr dedicated to beards, just in time for Decembeard!
Blogging has come a long way since its beginnings in the ‘90s, with over 156 million public blogs in existence as of February 2011. Everyone is blogging, from moms to techies to artists and politicians, and a fun infographic from Flowtown examines the blogging ecosystem.
Thinking about starting a blog? Before you even think about sitting down to set up your blog and write your first post there are several questions you need to ask yourself. These seven important questions can help you determine whether you’re on the right track, how you should proceed and whether you should even be starting a blog at all.
I’m knee-deep in launching a new blog. This will be my tenth (non-personal) blog launch/re-launch in six years. Each time I do it, I seem to forget (and re-learn) the pain that’s involved. Getting a blog off the ground is far from easy, and keeping it alive is even harder. Of the 10, five are alive and well, if in different hands, two are dead and two should be if they aren’t. For the tenth, it’s still too early to tell, but everything looks better than it has with my other launches.
A new infographic from KISSmetrics reveals not only the pros and cons of posting during both high and low activity hours, but also pinpoints the best time to post to your blog.
Earlier this week I expressed my Tumblr grievances. Well now the tables have turned. That’s right – I’m a born again Tumblr enthusiast. Find out why after the jump.
You didn’t really think you could get a free lunch, did you? Well, you can still get your money’s worth.
