Social media has infiltrated every aspect of our lives. Although it retains its primary function as a platform where mates can get together and talk about their likes and dislikes, it is also a brand-infested pool of self promotion and general product marketing. But how are brands and businesses failing to engage with one another?1. Failing to understand where they are in the B2B buying cycle When a brand is looking for a product or service, it has to go ...

He was adopted and resented the rejection by his birth parents, but abandoned a daughter of his own born out of wedlock. Steve Jobs was a complicated man as it turns out."The saga of Steve Jobs is the Silicon Valley creation myth writ large: Launching a startup in his parents' garage and building it into the world's most valuable company. He didn't invent many things outright, but he was a master at putting together ideas, art, and technology in ...

I recently introduced myself to someone and when I explained that I'm a User Experience Designer, his eyes lit up and he said "Ah, you’re the usability guy." "Yeah, kind of" I responded. He looked at me, confused. "What’s the difference?" he asked.For apps and websites, usability refers to how easily your site visitors can complete a given task e.g. filling in a checkout form. In the emerging markets particularly, usability is still a differentiator. This is why the savvier ...

From the cold and slightly wet heart of Paris, Memeburn is gearing up for one of the biggest tech conferences of the year, LeWeb.LeWeb is a gathering of key industry players, from executives to influential pioneers, focusing on "key issues and opportunities in the web marketplace".This year's star-studded line-up is headed by Google's former CEO and now Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt. Tech industry bad boy, Sean Parker, of Napster and Facebook movie fame, will also be here as ...

A sickly feeling crawls up my spine as my iPhone refuses to reboot. Damn you Apple, damn you for making it so difficult to Jailbreak iOS 5.0.1. Three days and a hundred reboots later, the Cydia icon happily nests on my iPhone's desktop, the sign of a successful Jailbreak. For hackers, it seems that no wall is too high too climb and no version of iOS is too tricky to crack.Jailbreaking iOS 5.0.1Apple is proud of its latest iOS, especially ...

Millions of Beijing residents are going online to vent their anger over thick smog that has blanketed the Chinese capital in recent days.Conditions in the already polluted city have become so bad that hundreds of flights in and out of Beijing’s main airport -- the world’s second busiest -- have been cancelled. Health fears have been raised with the US embassy ranking Beijing's air as "very unhealthy".China’s popular microblogging platforms, called weibos, have been at the forefront of ...

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSEDMemeburn together with Penguin are giving away three copies of the new Steve Jobs biography, written by acclaimed biographer Walter Isaacson. Want to win a copy? To stand a chance of winning, see below for more details.How to enter: Tweet @memeburn and your favourite Steve Jobs quote. Use the hashtag #MEMESTEVE. Please note that you MUST be following Memeburn on Twitter to qualify for the competition.The competition runs for two weeks, from today.TweetAbout Steve Jobs: The Exclusive BiographyFrom bestselling ...

Want something you've created to go viral online? If you plan on starring on the video, it’s not going to be easy. Not everybody has the time to get hit by a buck while out on a bike ride, or rescue a calf from an irrigation canal, or fall painfully off a skateboard.There is, however, another way. Be warned, though, it involves cats. It’s an almost universally accepted truth that the internet loves cats. Ceiling Cat, Basement Cat, Monorail ...

Surprisingly not through a check-in at Facebook’s Palo Alto office, founders of location-based service Gowalla announced that they are winding down the location-sharing service and joining Facebook."We're excited to announce that we'll be making the journey to California to join Facebook!" Josh Williams, a co-founder of the Texas-based company said in a blog post.Facebook confirmed that Gowalla co-founders Williams and Scott Raymond and other members of Gowalla would join Facebook's design and engineering teams in January.As is the norm with ...

A new study has revealed that Facebook and Twitter played no significant role in organising riots that rocked cities across the UK earlier this year.The is a collaborative effort by UK newspaper the Guardian and the London School of Economics, called "Reading the Riots". The study casts doubts on a number of popular perceptions around the riots, particularly around the role of social media."Contrary to widespread speculation that rioters used social media to organise themselves and ...