Why are Brands Shutting Their Facebook Stores?

Why are Brands Shutting Their Facebook Stores? - Eager to monetize the large followings they had built on Facebook, many large brands set up shop on the social network for the first time last year.

Now many of those Facebook stores are closing.

A Bloomberg report this weekend pointed out that Gap, J.C. Penney, Nordstrom and GameStop have all opened and closed shops on Facebook within the past year -- undermining expectations that the social network will become a major revenue driver for retailers over the next decade.

“We just didn’t get the return on investment we needed from the Facebook market, so we shut it down pretty quickly,” Ashley Sheetz, VP of marketing and strategy at GameStop, told Bloomberg. “For us, it’s been a way we communicate with customers on deals, not a place to sell.”
GameStop opened a store on Facebook in April 2011, and closed it six months later.

“There was a lot of anticipation that Facebook would turn into a new destination, a store, a place where people would shop,” Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research, added. "But it was like trying to sell stuff to people while they’re hanging out with their friends at the bar.”

The End of F-commerce?

Still, none of this proves that social networks don't have potential as sales channels. It may be that retailers simply haven't harnessed the power of these platforms in the right way.

In most cases, retailers have entered the f-commerce market by importing their online catalogs and making them available for purchase in a Facebook app. The experience is nearly identical to shopping on their websites, with two major differences: 1) Shoppers can complete their entire browsing and checkout experience without leaving facebook.com; and 2) the Facebook apps tend to work more slowly.

In other words, consumers have little to no incentive to shop via these Facebook apps.

Others simply have not dealt in enough volume -- offering, say, just one item for purchase each month, or discounting one or two items for a short period.

Although these efforts have generated a fair amount of PR buzz, most of these companies are losing money on these efforts because development costs are so high, says Maureen Mullen, director of research and advisory services at luxury research and consulting firm L2.

Or the problem may be Facebook's competition. If spending time on Facebook is akin to spending time with your friends at a bar, Pinterest is more like heading to a craft fair, Forbes's Jeff Bercovici points out -- you're there to browse and to shop, and brands are finding the platform worth investing in.

Facebook, at present, isn't built for that kind of shopping experience. But it could certainly build Pinterest-like tools to make it that way.

At the very least, Facebook has become an important traffic driver to retailers' websites. For instance, 1.9% of traffic to Burberry's website in September 2010 came from Facebook; a year later, 29.1% of site traffic was from the social network, Mullen wrote in an email to Mashable.

"[Burberry is] using the platform to drive traffic at a fraction of the cost of what it would have to pay on Google and other search engines. In addition a significant portion of that traffic and resulting sales is likely incremental," she added.

Mullen also pointed out that half of shoppers are logged in to Facebook while they shop on third-party ecommerce sites, which lets retailers "capture the massive amount of user data Facebook has," she says. Brands such as Smashbox and MAC are also incorporating friend recommendations within their ecommerce pages.

In other words, it's too soon to lament the demise of F-commerce. What we do know is that replicating retailers' ecommerce sites is not the way to go about generating revenue via Facebook, at least for now. ( Mashable )

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Expert advice on how to be happy

Expert advice on how to be happy - We all have days when we feel less than gleeful. But if your mouth is constantly turned down, there are lots of practical things you can do to get happy

When was the last time you had a really good laugh? If you're struggling to remember, it could be time for a mood makeover. The good news is there are easy, practical steps you can take to improve your outlook. Experts believe that it's not what happens to you that counts but how you deal with it. In other words, you choose the quality of your experiences.

"The first step to getting happy is to identify what's making you unhappy, because it's not always immediately obvious,'' says UK-based psychologist and relationship expert Dr Rina Bajaj. "Try keeping a diary for a week and note down your ‘unhappy' triggers.'' This will also give you an indication of what you need to change. Is it your job? Your weight? Your bank balance? Try to see the triggers as small hurdles you need to overcome - make an achievable plan to tackle each one.

Research shows that being kind to other people makes us feel happier, too

Focus on yourself

"It's important to focus on your own life and goals rather than comparing yourself to others,'' says Dr Bajaj. "There's always someone who is financially/physically/socially different to you. You have to address your own needs.''

If you struggle to get any ‘me time' and feel you have to put everyone else's needs before your own, this could have an impact on your happiness. "You might feel that you have to put everyone else first, or get to the bottom of your to-do list before you treat yourself to five minutes of ‘me time', but actually everyone will be happier if you are too,'' says happiness expert Lynda Field. "You need time to recharge and relax if you want to feel good.'' Set aside time every day to do something that gives you pleasure - whether it's reading, having a pedicure, or just sitting in the sun with an iced tea.

Don't skimp on relationships or downtime

According to American scientists, people who spend time having deep conversations with friends or family are more likely to be happy. So make sure you get together with your nearest and dearest for a proper catch up as often as possible.

Burning the candle at both ends will have a negative effect on your mood, so it's important to eat a healthy, balanced diet, and also to get plenty of sleep. In fact, according to the British Mental Health Foundation, people who have trouble sleeping are more likely to have relationship problems, and feel lethargic, unmotivated and grumpy. So make sure you create sleep-friendly conditions. Switch off the TV, computer and your mobile, take a warm, relaxing bath, and get to bed 30 minutes earlier. Having a regular bedtime every night, keeping your bedroom cool and dark, avoiding caffeine after 3pm as well as rich foods before bedtime could all help you get a better night's sleep. And never read or work in bed.

Care for body and mind

Meditation is an excellent mood booster - in fact Canadian scientists have found it can be as effective as antidepressants in preventing a low mood. Simply sit in a quiet space, relax, and close your eyes. Become aware of your breathing - as you breathe in say ‘breathing in' and the reverse. It can take a while to get the hang of it, but try it for 10 minutes every day this week. The more you practise, the more relaxed you'll feel.

Regular exercise plays a key role in being happy. "When you exercise at moderate to high intensity for over an hour, endorphins are released into the brain and dopamine levels increase,'' explains personal trainer Dan Roberts

"Essentially these are happy chemicals. They improve mood and give a sense of well-being. This is why exercise is prescribed and recommended to those suffering from anxiety or depression.

Longer term, exercise can also help with your self-esteem - particularly if you're suffering from poor body image. "Do exercises that are fun- sports, dancing, new classes, new workout routines, give yourself fitness challenges - it doesn't matter what.''

Finally, don't forget that you get back what you put out. Research shows that being kind to other people makes us feel happier, too. "Try speaking to the checkout person at the supermarket, starting a conversation with someone new, or helping a neighbour carry in their shopping,'' says Lynda Field.

‘Life is so much better now'

Rima Shah, 38, admits she used to be a ‘glass-half-empty' person, until she discovered the power of positive thinking.

"After graduating from university in 1994 I struggled to get my career off the ground - I had a succession of jobs but I felt as though I was always several steps behind my friends who had all gone on to start building successful careers.

This had quite a negative impact on my self-esteem and I started to fixate a little on the "glass half empty" side of things. Then I lost both my sister and three grandparents, who I loved dearly, within the space of two years, which was incredibly hard to cope with.

But after hitting rock bottom I realised that the only way was back up - facing up to what was wrong with my life and making changes.

From that moment I decided to change into a ‘glass half full' girl. I got out of a bad relationship that was going nowhere, I started to do yoga and spend more time on me and the people I care about.

I also started my own business as a complementary therapist. The changes I made would not have been possible if I had remained in my negative mindset, and I really do believe that it is my positive thinking which has driven me to do most of what I have achieved over the last seven years.

My business is now doing well, I have an amazing family and group of friends, and overall I know how lucky I am. Rather rather than fixate on negatives I have chosen to see the silver lining or the positive slant.

I still deeply feel the loss of the people who have gone, but now I smile when thinking of them.

I look at my professional life and sometimes can't quite believe how much I've achieved by myself in such a short amount of time and that I am actually quite good at what I do! My work does involve me having to "help" other people and that would be impossible to do if I was always negative myself.

Overall, I am far less stressed, I'm more sociable, outgoing and confident. My friends and family all say that I look much better and I also feel better.

Life is great and I'm happy and positive about the present - and the future.''

Top tips for instant happiness

1. Make a ‘positives list'. Write a list of all the things in your life that are positive and make sure that it is available for you in the places that you tend to be more stressed, such as work. Looking at this list should help you to feel happier and more relaxed.

2. Identify your negativity triggers. Explore what makes you feel stressed or down. For example, is it in certain situations or around certain people? Writing a diary where you note down events and your feelings in relation to them may be a good first step to trying to identify if there are any changes that you could make in your life that would make you happier.

3. Take a breather (or two). If you're feeling stressed take a moment to stop and breathe. Sometimes, when we are stressed our breathing is out of sync, so focusing on controlled breathing (breathing in through your nose for a few seconds and out through your mouth for a few seconds) can help to restore a good breathing pattern and make you feel calmer and more relaxed.

4. Fake it to make it. Research has shown that smiling can have positive effects on your body and mood whether it is a real or fake smile - your body doesn't know the difference. And just as fake smiling may make you feel happier, fake laughing also has the same effects as real laughter.

5. Surround yourself with happier people. If you have toxic friends who constantly put you down, it could be time to edit your address book. Surround yourself with happier and more positive people and this will likely affect your mindset which could make you a happier person in the long run. ( gulfnews.com )

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Astronauts in Space Safe from Huge Solar Radiation Storm

Astronauts in Space Safe from Huge Solar Radiation Storm - An intense solar flare unleashed the biggest radiation storm in years today (Jan. 23), but astronauts aboard the International Space Station are not in any danger, NASA officials say.

The sun eruption triggered the most powerful radiation storm since 2005 in a wave of charged particles that is expected to hit our planet Tuesday (Jan. 24) at around 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT), according to experts at the Space Weather Prediction Center, which is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

NASA scientists also routinely monitor space weather conditions in order to protect astronauts and hardware in orbit from harmful radiation, and today's solar storm is no exception, agency officials said.

"The flight surgeons have reviewed the space weather forecasts for the flare and determined that there are no expected adverse effects or actions required to protect the on-orbit crew," NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries told SPACE.com.

The solar flare erupted this morning at 0359 GMT (which corresponds to late Sunday, Jan. 22 at 10:59 p.m. EST), triggering a solar explosion known as a coronal mass ejection that sent a stream of charged particles into space. When these charged particles hit Earth they stream down the planet's magnetic field lines to create so-called geomagnetic storms that can supercharge Earth's auroras (also known as the northern and southern lights).

But space weather can also have negative effects, such as interfering with power grids and communications infrastructure on Earth, and disrupting satellites and other spacecraft in orbit.

According to the skywatching site Spaceweather.com, today's coronal mass ejection "will deliver a strong glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on Jan. 24-25 as it sails mostly north of our planet."

In response, NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a geomagnetic storm watch, and the agency's deputy, Kathy Sullivan, said that polar flights are expected to be re-routed. ( space.com )

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Apple jumps into digital textbooks fray

Apple jumps into digital textbooks fray - Jan 19 - Apple Inc took a big jump into the digital textbooks market with the launch of its iBooks 2 software on Thursday, aiming to revitalize the U.S. education market and quicken the adoption of its market-leading iPad in that sector.

The giant consumer electronics company has been working on digital textbooks with publishers Pearson PLC, McGraw-Hill Cos Inc and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a trio responsible for 90 percent of textbooks sold in the United States.

The move pits the maker of the iPod and iPhone against Amazon.com Inc and other content and device makers that have made inroads into the estimated $8 billion market with their electronic textbook offerings.

It could also see Apple shake up the traditional textbook market significantly, changing the emphasis from content to hardware; but publishers said working would be a great opportunity to revive and expand the market.

A promotional image for Apple's new digital textbook service called iBooks 2. REUTERS/Apple

"I give such incredible marks to Steve Jobs and Apple for having this vision and pushing it through the iPad," said Terry McGraw, chief executive of McGraw-Hill. He said he had been talking to Apple's founder Jobs and his team since last June about recreating textbooks as applications. Jobs died in October.

He said having textbooks on iPads will open up the market beyond high school and university students to everyday consumers. "I think without a doubt this will open up a learning agency for anybody and anywhere."

The early plan is to enable students to buy their books directly through Apple rather than through their school districts. The books in the pilot launch are priced at $14.99 each on the iPad, with a range of interactive features.

McGraw confirmed that Apple would take a cut of each sale, believed to be its standard amount of some 30 percent. He said he was "very relaxed" about having to share his profits with Apple, as printing and distributing textbooks accounts for about 25 percent of their cover prices.

Apple also unveiled iBooks Author, a new free application available on the Mac App Store which enables anyone to create a book. It also re-introduced its iTunes U service as a standalone app, with up to 100 complete university online courses from colleges including Yale and Duke.

At an event at New York's Guggenheim Museum, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller and Apple Internet chief Eddy Cue introduced tools to craft digital textbooks and demonstrated how authors and even teachers can create books for students.

The "value of the app is directly proportional to students having iPads," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with industry research firm Gartner.

REINVENTING THE TEXTBOOK

Apple's Schiller said it is time to reinvent the textbook, adding that 1.5 million iPads are in use now in education.

"It's hard not to see that the textbook is not always the ideal learning tool," he said. "It's a bit cumbersome."

IBooks 2 will be available as a free app on the iPad, starting Thursday. High school textbooks will be priced at $14.99 or less, Schiller said.

"You'll see textbooks for every subject for every level," he added.

At the event, the first since the passing of Jobs, Schiller said teachers need help and Apple is trying to figure out how it can do its part.

"In general, education is in the dark ages," he said, adding that education has challenges that are "pretty profound."

Cue told Reuters that young students would be quick to adopt the iBooks 2 technology, which is based on its iPad. But he declined to comment on whether Apple would introduce a cheaper iPads to make the iBooks software available to poorer students.

"Our iPads are very affordable; they start at $499. It's an amazing product with all the capabilities that it brings; that's what we've got and we feel very good about that," said Cue.

Other media and technology companies have eyed the U.S. education market as ripe for some sort of upheaval. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp launched an education business two years ago and hired former New York City Education Chancellor Joel Klein to lead it.

According to Jobs' biography by Walter Isaacson, Murdoch met with Jobs last year and discussed the possibility of Apple's entrance into a market Jobs estimated at $8 billion a year and believed was ripe for disruption.

Shares in Apple dipped 10 cents to $429.01 on the Nasdaq in afternoon trade. ( Reuters )

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Is It a Bad Idea to Friend Co-workers on Facebook?

Is It a Bad Idea to Friend Co-workers on Facebook? How About Your Boss? - It’s nice to have a friendly work environment. But in some cases, work friends shouldn’t be Facebook friends. Why not? A status update published on a Tuesday night can easily turn into office gossip on Wednesday morning. Even worse: co-workers and managers could take you less seriously, you could be skipped over for a promotion and you might find yourself first in line when layoffs occur, all based on your activity on Facebook.

In a new report conducted by my company, Millennial Branding, and Identified.com, we gathered information from 4 million Gen Y Facebook profiles to see how their personal and professional online identities overlap. We discovered that, to some degree, most users limit the details of their professional lives on Facebook. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Gen Y Facebook users don’t list their employer in their profile, some likely out of worries that they could be easily searchable by co-workers — a situation they’d prefer to avoid.

We also found that the typical Gen Y Facebook user is connected to about 700 friends. But only 16 of those friends, on average, are co-workers.

Even so, are young workers today connected to too many colleagues and prone to sharing so much that it could hurt their careers? Through Facebook, one’s personality, self-image and interests are exposed, and these details can affect how we’re perceived by co-workers and managers.

There’s even reason to be careful about friending people you don’t work with. The data shows that young people are job hoppers. They spend just over two years at their first corporate job before moving on. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average American will have about nine jobs between the ages of 18 and 32. All this job hopping increases the likelihood that a Facebook friend will someday be a colleague at work — perhaps even an in-office rival or the person who decides whether you get a promotion.

Placing friends in certain groups on Facebook is difficult because the status of your connections evolves over time. The smartest approach is to assume that what you’re sharing will eventually be seen by people you work with and to be mindful that your Facebook timeline could give an employer a reason to decide against hiring, promoting or recommending you.

Here is more advice for using Facebook in the least-risky fashion possible:

Don’t friend co-workers you don’t trust. Gen Y is known as a competitive group in the workplace, and especially in the shaky state of the job market, every employee is looking for an edge. So be careful — paranoid, even — about which co-workers you’re friends with online lest a “friend” sabotages your career.

Avoid friending your direct manager. Your boss has a big influence on your career trajectory. He or she helps decide who gets a raise and who doesn’t, and who takes on what projects. Basically, your manager can make your work life wonderful or miserable, and to avoid the latter, it’s safer to keep Facebook out of the equation.

Set your privacy settings and review them regularly. On Facebook’s privacy-settings page, make sure to check the option that allows you to approve all tags, pictures, videos and mentions of your name. This way, you’ll have recourse when a friend shares something that you don’t want your followers to see.

Be smart about what you post. The main picture used in your profile is the first impression people will get of you, so choose wisely. It’s also, obviously, a bad idea to complain about your boss or co-workers or to say anything negative about your employer in Facebook posts. Griping online may feel therapeutic, but it can also hurt your career. With a smart phone, Facebook users can post from anywhere in the world, and they do so instantly and impulsively — greatly increasing the chance that they’ll share something they later wish remained private. What happens in Vegas, or anywhere else, will be forever exposed to the world on Facebook if you let it.

Build your network intelligently. The people you associate with have an impact on how successful you are. If you align yourself with the wrong people and they post hurtful, racist, outlandish or immature comments on your wall, it makes you look as bad as they do. Think twice before adding friends who could tarnish the reputation you’ve worked so hard to build. ( time.com )

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Hundreds Of Rail Passengers Fled In Terror

Hundreds Of Rail Passengers Fled In Terror - Hundreds of rail passengers fled in terror when dozens of deadly snakes were found on a train travelling from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi in Vietnam.

A guard and conductor were checking tickets as passengers got on in the central city of Quang Ngai on Thursday evening - and spotted the live king cobras and cobras under a seat.

People fled the carriage as panic broke out, and the smuggler was able to escape in the chaos.

The reptiles - which are extremely venomous and can kill a human within just 30 minutes - were being carried in four see-through cloth bags.

One passenger, Pham Van An, 20, said: "Some of the snakes were very big, and looked terrifying. Most people ran away. But some people went to look at them and the cobras rose up.

"Then police took the snakes off the train."

Officers handed the snakes over to Quang Ngai province's wildlife protection officers for release into the wild.

Nguyen Van Han, chief of the Quang Ngai Forest Protection Department, was unable to say how many snakes were in the bags, but said they weighed a total of 45kg (99lb).

Authorities believe the endangered creatures - which are protected under Vietnamese law - were to be sold to restaurants in Hanoi.

Earlier this month, Gordon Ramsay was labelled "offensive" by animal welfare groups after eating the still-beating heart of a cobra on television.

The TV cook was filmed watching the 6ft-long creature being sliced open at his table in a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City for his new series.

Snake meat is a delicacy in Vietnam , and has long been associated with virility and enhanced male sexual performance. A large king cobra can sell in restaurants for around £310.

Traditionally, customers choose the snake they want and then see it killed in front of them. The meal usually starts with a drink made from the snake's blood.

Conservationists say the illegal hunting and trafficking of wildlife for meat is a huge problem in Vietnam as well as in neighbouring China, Laos and Cambodia.

A recent investigation by the Wildlife Conservation Society found 84% of restaurants in one Vietnamese city alone - Da Lat - were illegally selling wild animals.

And a survey carried out by the charity Wildlife At Risk discovered that more than half the people in Ho Chi Minh City had eaten or used wild animal products.

It said snake, porcupine, bear, civet, weasel, fresh water turtle, and monitor lizard were among the most widely consumed wild meats.

In recent years, Vietnam has made a number of large wildlife seizures, but relatively few smugglers have been convicted, and almost none have received the maximum sentence of seven years imprisonment ( skynews )

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Schwarzenegger, Patty Baena and Maria Shriver's Sons Born Six Days Apart

Schwarzenegger, Patty Baena and Maria Shriver's Sons Born Six Days Apart - In 1984, Dudley Moore played a bigamist whose wives, "Micki and Maude," had babies at the same time. In the Schwarzenegger-Shriver-Baena love triangle, Patty Baena and Maria Shriver gave birth to Schwarzenegger's sons within six days of each other.

Schwarzenegger and Shriver have always seemed to be a poster couple. They have a 25-year marriage and four beautiful kids. There have been rumors of flirtations on Arnold's part, but by and large the marriage appeared healthy, especially when you consider the odds stacked against them.

Schwarzenegger and Shriver have weathered years of Kennedy family drama. Shriver is JFK's niece and the daughter of Sargent and Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Then there was Arnold's high-profile movie career and Maria's front-woman post with NBC.

Most difficult of all may be that the couple is on opposite sides of the political coin: she is a strict Democrat while he is a first-water Republican. My husband and I have similar politics, but even our few differences can be hard on our relationship. Polar opposites must make strange bedfellows.

The rock-solid house of Schwarzenegger was recently discovered to have cracks in the foundation, however. After the governor's term of office was up in January, he was back in circulation on the film scene sans wife. Then Shriver moved out of their mansion. Rumors of infidelity surfaced, but nothing specific.

On May 17, the bombshell broke. "Conan" had been in an affair with his housekeeper, Mildred Patricia "Patty" Baena. More than that, the two had a child together. Despite Baena's claims that her husband at the time, Rogelio Baena, was the father, Schwarzenegger admitted to paternity.

Here's where the "Micki and Maude" part comes in. TMZ obtained copies of the child's birth certificate. The document shows that Schwarzenegger's fourth and youngest child Christopher was born to Maria Shriver at the same time his baby mama, Patty Baena was giving birth to their love child.

Baena's child's birthday is Oct. 2, 1997. Shriver's son Christopher Sargent Shriver was born Sept. 27, 1997. The former Mr. Universe's boys are six days apart.

Photos of Baena, with the child show his face blurred to preserve juvenile privacy. However the famous Schwarzenegger grin is still visible. Even in an indefinite image, the child looks like his father.

Reading about the tandem births, I immediately thought of the "Micki and Maude" connection. "Micki and Maude" was a funny, warm movie. After a dust-up when the two women discover each other and their coincident babies, it turns out well. Everyone kisses and makes up after a neat 90-minute wind-up. But it's a movie.

Schwarzenegger has hurt a lot of people by his choices: his wife, his children (especially Christopher and the unnamed son of Patty Baena), Rogelio Baena, and even arguably Patty Baena herself. In real life, adultery and deceit don't dovetail so neatly as they do in movies. ( yahoo.com )

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