Things and Stuff

The President and Co-Founder of UPlanMe shares musings on social media, marketing, technology, music and the New York Football Giants... @BrianScottK

[yahoomediastars-blog]

DORA YU

 - UNITED STATES 

Carat

 - San Francisco

[nineinchnails]

I’ve been less than honest about what I’ve really been up to lately. For the last year I’ve been secretly working non-stop with Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder on a new, full-length Nine Inch Nails record, which I am happy to say is finished and frankly fucking great. This is the real impetus and motivation behind the decision to assemble a new band and tour again. My forays into film, HTDA and other projects really stimulated me creatively and I decided to focus that energy on taking Nine Inch Nails to a new place. Here we go!

Trent Reznor, 5.28.13. New NIN album later this year on Columbia Records. (via nineinchnails)

Oh, hell yes!

[jadedpunk-blog]

These 11-Year-Olds Are Metal As Fuck

There is a metal band in Brooklyn called Unlocking The Truth that is made up of three 11-year-olds. They make every band in the nu-metal scene look like total garbage. Not that that was difficult.

These kids have some seriously dope metally riffs and breakdowns. Not sure when they have time to come up with those in between doing homework and…I don’t know, what do 11-year-olds do these days? We have no idea. Play Pokemon?

Yo, little dudes. Wanna play the next show we put on? Offer is on the table. One catch: You gotta show us how to beat this last level on Bioshock Infinite.

Click Read More to see their videos.

Read More

[brianscottk-blog]

And I bring you the "McLovins" of Metal:

[brianscottk-blog]

Click an Email Address and Have it Open Outlook

If you're like me and you're browser of choice is Google Chrome, then upon installation you may have noticed that Chrome has commandeered some of your Windows' processes that you'd prefer were back to the way they were in the pre-Chrome days. 

If you inadvertently accepted the offer to have Gmail set as your default mail handler, you'll now notice that whenever you click on email links (even if you click them within Outlook!) that your Gmail launches.

While I love Chrome and Gmail and many of the fun toys that Google has to offer, my primary email is my work email, and I want Outlook and my work email to be the default.

After (too) much research, I've learned the way to change these settings back to the way you/I/we want them.

First - in Chrome:

Click the "three bars" icon in the top right. 

Choose Settings

Click Show Advanced Settings

Click Content Settings

Go to Handlers. 

Click Manage Handlers. 

Remove Gmail from the Handlers section for Mailto: links. 

Second - in Windows:

Go to your Default Programs (in the start menu). 

Set the Mailto: protocol back to the email client of your choice.

Presto, change-o!

[brianscottk-blog]

Fredric Paul tells ReadWrite that Google+ Lounges offer tube socks and other such "rewards" for people who plop down and bang out a few reviews.

There are about a million things I want to say right now, but I'm just going to keep my mouth shut on this one.

[seanbarkulis]

How To Market Your Local Business Online

Today I published my first book, “How to Market Your Business Online: Get Your Business Known On The Internet, Increase Your Customers & Make More Money!”  With that, I created a presentation which hits on the high-level points and Why it’s so important to have your business optimized on the Internet.  Consider it a freebie to build your local business’s online presence and get more customers.  

Check out the presentation here:

How to Market Your Local Business Online! from Sean Barkulis

[seanbarkulis]

I am proud to announce that today we soft-launched UPlanMe’s Premium Business Solution to simplify how local businesses manage and promote their upcoming specials, sales, happy hours, updates and events consistently across the web.

With UPlanMe’s new technology, we save local business owners...

[brianscottk-blog]

Great article on how not only do local merchants not grasp mobile and hyper-local advertising, but the big agencies still don't get it either.

With it's growing network of national, local, and hyper-local partner network, UPlanMe is at the forefront of the simplification and consolidation of this powerful, emerging marketing opportunity.

[seanbarkulis]

Today I received an unfortunate e-mail from local online news site, Everyblock, that they were closing their doors for good. It’s unfortunate because I recently came across EveryBlock about a month ago as a potential publisher partner for UPlanMe.

Everyblock was sending me great daily...

[seanbarkulis]

The Moment You Find Out Lebron James is Following Your Girlfriend on Twitter

“NO WAY”

[brianscottk-blog]

Adios, X-Pro II!

[brianscottk-blog]

Instagram to World, Go F-- Yourself

According to last night's CNet article, beginning January 16th, Instagram will have the right to sell your photos for profit and not pay you a dime.

Click through the above link for details, but here's one quote that sums it up perfectly:

That means that a hotel in Hawaii, for instance, could write a check to Facebook to license photos taken at its resort and use them on its Web site, in TV ads, in glossy brochures, and so on -- without paying any money to the Instagram user who took the photo.

And then:

Another policy pitfall: If Instagram users continue to upload photos after January 16, 2013, and subsequently delete their account after the deadline, they may have granted Facebook an irrevocable right to sell those images in perpetuity. There's no obvious language that says deleting an account terminates Facebook's rights, EFF's Opsahl said.

Looks like I'll be deleting my Instagram account before the 16th. Anyone else out there as appalled by this as I am?

[brianscottk-blog]

Instagram Bird Poops on Twitter's Face

Effective immediately, Instagram will no longer allow their photos to appear in Twitter streams, says Business Insider in a recent article. 

Now Twitter users will need to click through a link to Instagram to view the photo.

This makes sense at some levels. Facebook owns Instagram and doesn't want to be giving away free valuable content to the enemy. I get it.

But this move is just the tip of the iceberg. Business Insider postulates that a potential outcome of all this is that content providers like Instagram, YouTube, and even the NY Times might start charging a fee to twitter to "carry" their content. Much like ESPN charges Time Warner a fee to carry their network.

Is Twitter turning into the new cable company?

Remember back when posting to Twitter was just about broadening your exposure and increasing your reach in a symbiotic relationship between content-creator and distributor? Is that no longer good enough?

[brianscottk-blog]

"Your email inbox is a to-do list created by other people."

--Chris Dixon

[brianscottk-blog]

I don't understand the need to constantly mess with perfection. Not that iTunes 10 was perfect by any means, but it had some major features that are no longer present in v11, namely "Cover Flow", my previously preferred view. This link to OSXDaily's blog post show's 5 tips for getting iTunes 11 to look as close to v10 as possible. Who's the worst with regards to mandatory feature changes, iTunes, Gmail, or Facebook?

[seanbarkulis]

Todd Wasserman over at Mashable wrote a great article breaking down the irrelevance of social media marketing. The article, “Let’s Face it: Most Social Media Marketing Is a Waste of Time”, points out the mounting evidence that placing your marketing efforts on gaining Facebook likes and...

[brianscottk-blog]

For UPlanMe it was "UrbanDaddied" followed by "Mashabled" and TechStars over Y Combinator, but the results were identical. Great read, and I sadly relate all too well. Thanks for penning this, Vinicius. Couldn't have said it better myself.