How to Send A Beer to Your Friends Using Twitter and Magic
That’s right. With the recent roll-out of Tweet-a-Beer, you can literally send a beer as a gift using Twitter!
Well not physically, but it’s the next best thing.
Once you’ve set up, all it takes is a quick tweet @yourfriend using the Tweet-a-Beer app and you can send a beer.
How does Tweet-a-Beer it work?
The Tweet-a-Beer app is run by Chirpify, an ecommerce platform that serves to connect your Twitter and Paypal accounts. Once all three accounts are linked, you simply use the Tweet-a-Beer app to send a beer as a gift to anyone you please.
No, the gift doesn’t have to be beer. You are actually sending a $5 gift to your friends Paypal account, but both myself and Tweet-a-Beer suggest that the money is indeed used for beer (provided you are 21 of course).
Enough, tell me exactly how to send a beer!
1) If you do not already have an account, you first need to sign up for Paypal.
2) From your mobile device or computer, go to http://tweet-a-beer.com.
3) On the home page, click “Buy a Round” (you can’t miss it).
4) You will see the screen below. Simply fill out the information to create a Chirpify account.
5) You are then directed to the screen pictured below. Type in your Paypal login information to give Chirpify access to your account (you will have to scroll to the right on your phone to see the log in screen).
6) Congratulations you are now ready to send a beer using Twitter!
7) If you are not redirected, just go back to http://tweet-a-beer.com (the site is the app) and once again click the “Buy a Round” button.
8) Type in your intended recipient (@nuphoriq) in the form as pictured and click next step.
9) If you want to be fancy you can add a reason or location to your tweet. If not click “Send Beer Money” and you are done!
Now what?
A word of warning: your new-found ability to send a beer through Twitter may be dangerous (to your wallet). I recommend not using the app after having more than a couple beers yourself as my own research has proven that users of the Tweet-a-Beer app may be overly generous.
I also recommend you send your first beer to @nuphoriq…. Or at least follow us.
Enjoy!
Post By: Michael Larson
Think Beyond the Computer Screen
While at the Inc. GrowCo conference in New Orleans, I was able to hear from one of my favorite brands, Warby Parker.
Founder Neil Blumenthal’s speech taught me a lot! I think that the most important takeaway as a marketer and integrated marketing communications fanatic was about integrating consumers on and offline experiences. Warby Parker reminds us that technology can only take our product so far, and that sometimes we need to think beyond the computer screen.
When they created a web-based eye glass company, they originally only created a virtual try-on center where people could upload photos. Then, after a little bit of time, and slow consumer response, they took a step back and thought, “I wouldn’t buy glasses that way.” Hence, their offline counterpart and at- home try on program was born.
As a Warby Parker eyeglass wearer, let me say thank you for bringing the online try- on home. What I liked on a virtual try-on was definitely different from what I liked at home. Even in an ever-more virtual world, it’s important for brands to take a step back and put themselves in the consumers’ shoes. As the Warby Parker case shows, there are just some things that technology can’t replace … like trying on glasses.
Always wonder what you have looked like in the most fashionable glasses? Go ahead – now it’s your turn to try a pair online or at home thanks to the Warby Parker online/offline experience.
Make sure to follow @WarbyParker AND @nuphorIQ on Twitter!
Post By: Jamie Pritscher
Feast Your Eyes Catering Q & A
Harley Blaisdell from Feast Your Eyes Catering
Question:
Can you work with a website that is already done?
Answer:
Yes and no. If your website is already properly designed, and follows the rules of marketing necessary to do its job, then slight additions and adjustments will work. However, in my view, very few caterers have such a “proper” website currently, so the wisest thing to do is to retool it completely. Remember, your website has less than four seconds to capture enough attention from the person seeking catering information – less than four seconds to “stop” them in their tracks before they move on to then next Google listing. You need to stop them before you can sell them! I promise that the nuphorIQ team and myself can help you create a unique, hard-selling website.
Romanize Your Website
Alright Catersource fans, it’s finally here: the one and only presentation on how to “Romanize” your website. Not a caterer? Not a problem. The presentation touches on a variety of topics like the value of a website, 3 seconds to impress searchers, content that sells, search engine optimization (SEO) and social media. Take a look, and let us know if you have any questions. We are more than happy to help you bring your website to the next level.
Post by: Brian Ottosen
5 Ways To Tap Advertising Funding
If you’re a start-up business, learn how to tap into Advertising funding from this Mashable article.
Post by: Tim Walter
The Internet- Deconstructed
The Future of the Internet
We all heard the terms Web 2.0, social networking and cloud computing as well as many other terms associated with the Internet. These terms have been in existence for the past few years. But what about the next generation of the Web? When is Web 3.0 coming? To answer that question we have to fully understand what Web 2.0 is. Having a good understanding of the concept of Web 2.0 allows us to have a clearer idea of where technology might take us tomorrow.
What is Web 2.0?
Web 2.0 is nothing more than a marketing term. There are countless definitions of the term, though clearly it indicates progress from an older version of the Web. When Internet first became available massively, websites were nothing more than pages with information linked together. They also took forever to load. Remember dial-up modems? They sounded like a dying robot being savagely beaten with a baseball bat. But this approach was lacking several key components. One of the most obvious components is interaction. You could navigate web pages by clicking on links, but you had no impact on the content unless you created your own website. You also had very limited interaction with other people. E-mail, Instant Messaging and first versions of blogs were the only options for interaction. It was also rather difficult to publish your own content like photos and videos online unless you had knowledge of web development, access to a server and plenty of time. Even then, it was difficult to make your content visible. You could only rely on search engines and e-mail to make your content known.
Let’s socialize!
Web 2.0 is a solution to that problem. But it is important to understand that Web 2.0 was not a sudden shift in approaches and technologies. It was developed over time, and this shift is what we call Web 2.0. We moved from simply browsing to interacting with content and people and sharing content. MySpace came around and revolutionized the way people interact and connect with each other. Facebook took that interaction to the next level and gathered a cool 800 million users worldwide. Twitter allowed people to share short blurbs about anything—from anywhere—to a group of people following you. Youtube made videos easily accessible and easy to post online for free. Now you are able to gather an audience and become instantly famous. We’ve seen tons of Youtube stars. Remember “The Evolution of Dance” or “Charlie bit my finger”? Web 2.0 has brought people closer together. The Internet has become a place for socializing, sharing content, discovering your interests and creating content collectively (Wikipedia).
From a Nobody to a Star in a few clicks
So now, we have our beloved Internet where we spend hours socializing, watching videos and looking at pictures of cats. We can create, share and distribute content to a huge audience. We can become famous by showcasing our talents (remember that homeless man with the radio announcer voice?) or by embarrassing ourselves (Rebecca Black). The Internet allows us to do things we could not even dream about ten years ago.
Look ma! I hurt myself and 10 million people saw it!
Web 1.0 – Boring pages full of information connected through hyperlinks. But hey, e-mail! Web 2.0 – Hey, this internet is cool now! I can talk to all of my friends, connect with my sixth best friend from kindergarten, send grandma a funny picture of a cat, stalk that pretty girl from Bio 101(she asked me for a pencil once so we’re friends now, right?), I can post a video of me jumping from the roof of my house onto the shed but because I do not possess a degree in aerodynamics or structural engineering I fail horribly. You get the picture. Web 2.0 is all about sharing and making things easier.
Web 3.0
Ok, now let’s be selfish for a moment. Let’s forget about all 700 friends you have on Facebook, the 450 people following you on Twitter and the 15,000 comments on your epic failure video. You want the web to work for you! Why do you have to do all the heavy work to make it interesting? Early speculations on Web 3.0 claim that the Internet will become a lot more personal.
Internet! Help me!
Right now, when you need information about pretty much anything you turn to the Internet. You perform your Google searches, visit news websites, Wikipedia etc. But finding the right information can sometimes be difficult and time consuming. Especially when you’re looking for multiple things.
Here’s a scenario: After mustering all your courage and humming the entirety of “Eye of the Tiger,” you finally asked the Biology girl out, and guess what? She said yes. Congratulations! Now you’re sweating like a redneck on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. You have no idea where to take your date. All you know is that she likes musicals, loves go-karts and goes crazy for sushi, so you frantically Google all three to find the best possible places to take her. It takes you six hours of heavy research to find places that are well-rated and within a reasonable distance from each other. That was pretty darn hard. But what if you could just talk to Google like a friend and make him do all the work for you?
Web 3.0 to the rescue!
Instead of researching, what if you could say: “Hey, listen, Google, I need your help. So this girl agreed to go on a date with me, and I want to show her a good time by taking her for a good musical, then to a go-kart track, and finally to get some sushi. But it has to be good sushi, not the gas station sushi-wonder that put me in a hospital for a week.” And poof! Google gives you the very same recommendations you were sweating over for 6 hours. That’s what internet experts call “semantic web”. Internet that doesn’t just look at keywords but actually understands the content and learns things about you. Future search engines will deliver more relevant content to you based on your personality. This means you will be able to find more accurate information faster.
Cool! I want it now!
At this time, it is uncertain when such search engines will exist. Because of the massive amount of information that continues to grow—thanks to our submissions of cat pictures, videos of objects colliding with faces and groins, and the latest update on your blueberry muffin—it is very difficult to assign logical meaning to that content that search engines will be able to interpret. However, it is a promising prospect and with time we will see more improvements to technology that will make our lives even easier.
Post by: Rafal Florzcak