“I’ve definitely been hard on digital advertising,” admitted David Karp. In a fireside chat at the TechCruch Disrupt in New York City on Monday, the founder and CEO of the micro-blogging site Tumblr lamented that “the state of digital advertising is uninspiring.” His solution? “Telling stories that resonate with people to create customers,” he said.
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. Click here to receive the Morning Social Media Newsfeed via email.
Source: Facebook’s IPO Show to Hit the Road May 7 (Reuters) The roadshow for Facebook’s initial public offering is scheduled to start on Monday, meaning the company’s shares should begin trading on May 18, a source familiar with the process said on Tuesday. Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has mostly operated in the background during Facebook’s closely watched journey to public markets, will be involved in the roadshow, another source said. Mashable However, Zuckerberg will only be present for some of the roadshow, sources said. COO Sheryl Sandberg will handle the rest, along with CFO David Ebersman. San Francisco Chronicle Numerous details remain unknown, especially the range where the Menlo Park company expects to price its stock. MSN Money Some are beginning to question whether the social networking giant is worth the investment. Revenue growth is a major issue for investors, according to Boston University professor N. Venkat Venkatraman, chairman of the Information Systems Department of BU’s School of Management. “Other [investors] will focus on Facebook’s monetization machine and question if Facebook could create and maintain the growth in revenue and profits,” Venkatraman said in an email. Read more
Today Tumblr CEO David Karp bid farewell to his friend and mentor John Maloney, who is leaving Tumblr after serving as the company’s president since September 2008. In a blog post this morning, Karp described how he met the UrbanBaby founder in New York City and how he’s had an impact on Tumblr ever since.
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In Facebook Deal, Board Was All But Out of Picture (The Wall Street Journal)
On the morning of Sunday, April 8, Facebook Inc.’s youthful chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, alerted his board of directors that he intended to buy Instagram, the hot photo-sharing service. It was the first the board heard of what, later that day, would become Facebook’s largest acquisition ever, according to several people familiar with the matter. AllFacebook Zuckerberg negotiated with his Instagram counterpart down from an original $2 billion offer, asking Systrom whether he thought Facebook could one day be worth more than $200 billion, roughly the size of Google. Systrom agreed to the one percent or roughly $1 billion in stock. SocialTimes Normally a deal like this takes several days, if not weeks, to complete, and usually involves more lawyers and bankers than were present during the negotiations. Gizmodo It was a bold strategy, and one that smacks of the kind of approach a small start-up might take. It’s not, however, the way most people might expect a multi-million dollar public organization to conduct business. TechCrunch This just in: According to multiple sources close to the company, Facebook is eying an IPO on May 17th — depending on whether the SEC agrees that all the reams of paperwork (including those concerning its recent acquisition of Instagram) are in order. PRNewser The Ad Age Digital Conference continued Wednesday with a presentation from David Fischer, Facebook’s VP of business and marketing partnerships, whose presentation could be boiled down to this: “Your brand needs an always-on strategy.” Read more
Despite the growing pains, such as several infrastructure issues over the last few months, Tumblr has persevered and continued to grow. If you look at the numbers, going from around 20 million views a day to 250 million views in less than a year. That’s quite a bit of growth to accommodate. We are talking 500% growth, more than doubled since October 2010.
CNN anchor Rick Sanchez, who got his own CNN show based on his prolific use of social media, is going Hollywood.
Sanchez has been asked to moderate a panel at the Recording Academy’s Social Media Rock Starts Summit ahead of this weekend’s Grammy awards.
The panel includes Digg CEO Jay Adelson, Pete Cashmore, founder and CEO of Mashable, Courtney Holt, president of MySpace Music and Tumblr founder David Karp.
This afternoon’s conversation, held at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, will spotlight the intersection of music and the digital space focusing on the evolution of social media and how it has radically changed the way music fans consume and share news and information about their favorite artists.
Actor Jared Leto, who will also participate on the panel, will be on Sanchez’s CNN show “Rick’s List” today. Leto spent part of his youth in Haiti — his parents were missionaries — so expect the two to talk about the situation there.
> Update: Leto won’t be on CNN, after all. But he is still part of the panel which is being streamed on CNN.com.
> Update 2: Turns out Leto did make it for his interview on Sanchez’s show. As did Jody Whatley.
