Twitter lacks 'clear long term vision' says new CEO

London, Twitter, the microblogging website, currently lacks a clear long-term vision, new CEO has admitted.

Dick Costolo, formerly the chief operating officer of Twitter, took over as the company's chief executive officer last month.

"I am working on clarity around that at the moment. I am currently trying to define what Twitter's purpose is in the long term. We will be able to be more specific on that answer in the near future," the Telegraph quoted Costolo, as saying when asked for his long term vision of the company's purpose.

Jack Dorsey, Twitter's co-founder and chairman, added that it was difficult to try and define Twitter's function and purpose, as so many of its uses had been defined by its users over the past four years.

"It is hard to speak about Twitter's vision without factoring in how much of its purpose has been defined by its users over the years. Users came up with so many parts of the service, such as the 'hashtag' [which allows people to link to a subject or an event] as so many people use it in so many different ways.

"Twitter needs to continue being a good listener and recognise that the service has been redefined by lots of people, tweet by tweet, but also come up with its own priorities," he said.

His other areas of focus, as well as defining Twitter's long-term game plan, are ensuring that the service can successfully scale globally, from a technological point of view and prioritising the key countries to expand within. (ANI)

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Online bargain-hunting spreads beyond Cyber Monday

Early discounts may have taken some of the shine off Cyber Monday but the key online holiday shopping day is still expected to attract bargain hunters who may not have had their fill over the weekend.

Cyber Monday -- a term coined five years ago for the day many people return to work after Thanksgiving and make online gift purchases on their computers -- remains a prime shopping day online. But its novelty has now been partially eclipsed by e-commerce promotions earlier in the season, including on Thanksgiving itself.
Retailers from BestBuy.com to Walmart.com and Staples.com have even opted to offer Cyber Monday deals one day early, on newly coined "Cyber Sunday."The key is versatility, online experts say, as well as making sure shoppers heading to the Web always find something to inspire them to click on a sale.John Thompson, senior vice president and general manager of BestBuy.com, said Cyber Monday remains a "really viable marketing concept," but smart retailers must offer choice.

"There's demand out there, but you have consumers spending their time differently," he said. "If you don't have one group that shops early, you'll have those who say 'I'll enjoy my Thanksgiving and those same deals or as-good deals will be there Cyber Monday.'"Marketing firms say tactics have changed in luring consumers to buy online. Whereas in prior years a full email inbox of online deals awaited those back at work on Monday, the offers now increasingly come on Black Friday if not before.Disneystore.com, for one, had a "record sales day" on Thanksgiving, according to Jim Fielding, president of Disney Stores.U.S. online sales were up 33 percent on Thanksgiving this year, according to web analytics firm IBM Coremetrics.

Just as many promotions are sent via email on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, as on Cyber Monday, according to Responsys. And half of retailers planned to send email on Cyber Sunday as well as on Thanksgiving, the interactive marketing firm found.PayPal, the online payments unit of eBay, said its first holiday spike in payment volume came on November 15. On Black Friday, total payment volume, or the total value of goods sold, rose 27 percent versus last year. Online deals will continue throughout the holiday season. Amazon.com, the largest online retailer, said its Black Friday deals would last all week, while Target.com and eBay have set up daily deals through December.

BEST DEAL?

Despite the e-commerce selling season that now extends before and after Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving is still a prime focus of retailers.Nine out of ten retailers planned to offer a promotion for Cyber Monday, Shop.org and BIGresearch found in a survey. That was more than the nearly three-quarters of respondents in 2007."Retailers have built it into the consumers mind: 'Here's the day you'll get the best deal,'" said IBM Coremetrics' Chief Strategy Officer John Squire.Although some experts say the top online sales comes later in the season -- analytics firm Comscore, for one, found 2009's heaviest spending day fell on Dec 13 -- Squire said Cyber Monday was the best-performing day, with a 30 percent jump in U.S. online sales.

"You will see a similar type of gain on Cyber Monday (this year)," said Squire. "The big treat is what happens on Cyber Sunday for those retailers who give those deals."Bullishness in advance of Monday was evident as Amazon shares closed at an all-time high last Wednesday leading into the Thanksgiving weekend, accompanied by options trading at over twice the average daily level.On Tuesday, comScore raised its forecast for U.S. online holiday spending for the second time, saying it now expects an 11 percent rise over the 2009 holiday.The new spending outlook should bring total holiday e-commerce spending to $32.4 billion, comScore said.Online sales, while still growing, make up a mere 7 percent of the overall U.S. retail pie, according to comScore.

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Leaked US cables reveal sensitive diplomacy

WASHINGTON – Hundreds of thousands of State Department documents leaked Sunday revealed a hidden world of backstage international diplomacy, divulging candid comments from world leaders and detailing occasional U.S. pressure tactics aimed at hot spots in Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea.
The classified diplomatic cables released by online whistle-blower WikiLeaks and reported on by news organizations in the United States and Europe provided often unflattering assessments of foreign leaders, ranging from U.S. allies such as Germany and Italy to other nations like Libya, Iran and Afghanistan.
The cables also contained new revelations about long-simmering nuclear trouble spots, detailing U.S., Israeli and Arab world fears of Iran's growing nuclear program, American concerns about Pakistan's atomic arsenal and U.S. discussions about a united Korean peninsula as a long-term solution to North Korean aggression.
There are also American memos encouraging U.S. diplomats at the United Nations to collect detailed data about the U.N. secretary general, his team and foreign diplomats — going beyond what is considered the normal run of information-gathering expected in diplomatic circles.
None of the revelations is particularly explosive, but their publication could prove problematic for the officials concerned. And the massive release of material intended for diplomatic eyes only is sure to ruffle feathers in foreign capitals, a certainty that prompted U.S. diplomats to scramble in recent days to shore up relations with key allies in advance of the disclosures.
The documents published by The New York Times, France's Le Monde, Britain's Guardian newspaper, German magazine Der Spiegel and others laid out the behind-the-scenes conduct of Washington's international relations, shrouded in public by platitudes, smiles and handshakes at photo sessions among senior officials.
The White House immediately condemned the release of the WikiLeaks documents, saying "such disclosures put at risk our diplomats, intelligence professionals, and people around the world who come to the United States for assistance in promoting democracy and open government."

It also noted that "by its very nature, field reporting to Washington is candid and often incomplete information. It is not an expression of policy, nor does it always shape final policy decisions."
"Nevertheless, these cables could compromise private discussions with foreign governments and opposition leaders, and when the substance of private conversations is printed on the front pages of newspapers across the world, it can deeply impact not only U.S. foreign policy interests, but those of our allies and friends around the world," the White House said.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley played down the spying allegations. "Our diplomats are just that, diplomats," he said. "They collect information that shapes our policies and actions. This is what diplomats, from our country and other countries, have done for hundreds of years."
On its website, The New York Times said "the documents serve an important public interest, illuminating the goals, successes, compromises and frustrations of American diplomacy in a way that other accounts cannot match."
In a statement released Sunday, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said, "The cables show the U.S. spying on its allies and the U.N.; turning a blind eye to corruption and human rights abuse in 'client states'; backroom deals with supposedly neutral countries and lobbying for U.S. corporations."
Their release — the first in a series of planned releases over the next few months — "reveals the contradictions between the U.S.'s public persona and what it says behind closed doors," Assange said.
The documents were again available on the WikiLeaks website Sunday afternoon. The site was inaccessible much of the day, and the group claimed it was under a cyberattack.
But extracts of the more than 250,000 cables posted online by news outlets that had been given advance copies of the documents showed deep U.S. concerns about Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs along with fears about regime collapse in Pyongyang.
The Guardian said some cables showed King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia repeatedly urging the United States to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear program. The newspaper also said officials in Jordan and Bahrain have openly called for Iran's nuclear program to be stopped by any means and that leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt referred to Iran "as 'evil,' an 'existential threat' and a power that 'is going to take us to war,'" The Guardian said.
Those documents may prove the most problematic because even though the concerns of the Gulf Arab states are known, their leaders rarely offer such stark appraisals in public.
The Times highlighted documents that indicated the U.S. and South Korea were "gaming out an eventual collapse of North Korea" and discussing the prospects for a unified country if the isolated, communist North's economic troubles and political transition lead it to implode.
The Times also cited diplomatic cables describing unsuccessful U.S. efforts to prod Pakistani officials to remove highly enriched uranium from a reactor out of fears that the material could be used to make an illicit atomic device. And the newspaper cited cables that showed Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, telling U.S. Gen. David Petraeus that his country would pretend that American missile strikes against a local al-Qaida group were from Yemen's forces.
The paper also reported on documents showing the U.S. used hardline tactics to win approval from countries to accept freed detainees from Guantanamo Bay. It said Slovenia was told to take a prisoner if its president wanted to meet with President Barack Obama and said the Pacific island of Kiribati was offered millions of dollars to take in a group of detainees.
It also cited a cable from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing that included allegations from a Chinese contact that China's Politburo directed a cyber intrusion into Google's computer systems as part of a "coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws."
Le Monde said another memo asked U.S. diplomats to collect basic contact information about U.N. officials that included Internet passwords, credit card numbers and frequent flyer numbers. They were asked to obtain fingerprints, ID photos, DNA and iris scans of people of interest to the United States, Le Monde said.
The Times said another batch of documents raised questions about Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his relationship with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. One cable said Berlusconi "appears increasingly to be the mouthpiece of Putin" in Europe, the Times reported.
Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Sunday called the release the "Sept. 11 of world diplomacy," in that everything that had once been accepted as normal has now changed.
Der Spiegel reported that the cables portrayed German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle in unflattering terms. It said American diplomats saw Merkel as risk-averse and Westerwelle as largely powerless.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, meanwhile, was described as erratic and in the near constant company of a Ukrainian nurse who was described in one cable as "a voluptuous blonde," according to the Times.
The Obama administration has been bracing for the release for the past week. Top officials have notified allies that the contents of the diplomatic cables could prove embarrassing because they contain candid assessments of foreign leaders and their governments, as well as details of American policy.
The State Department's top lawyer warned Assange late Saturday that lives and military operations would be put at risk if the cables were released. Legal adviser Harold Koh said WikiLeaks would be breaking the law if it went ahead. He also rejected a request from Assange to cooperate in removing sensitive details from the documents.
In a session Sunday with a group of Arab journalists, Assange said, "The State Department understands that we are a responsible organization, so it is trying to make it as hard as it can for us to publish responsibly."
He called the Obama administration "a regime that doesn't believe in the freedom of the press and doesn't act like it believes it."
The New York Times said the documents involved 250,000 cables — the daily message traffic between the State Department and more than 270 U.S. diplomatic outposts around the world. The newspaper said that in its reporting, it attempted to exclude information that would endanger confidential informants or compromise national security.
The Times said that after its own redactions, it sent Obama administration officials the cables it planned to post and invited them to challenge publication of any information they deemed would harm the national interest. After reviewing the cables, the officials suggested additional redactions, the Times said. The newspaper said it agreed to some, but not all.
Also Sunday, the Pentagon released a summary of precautions taken since WikiLeaks published stolen war logs from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since August, the Pentagon has changed the way portable computer storage devices such as flash drives can be used with classified systems, and made it harder for one person acting alone to download material from a classified network and place it on an unclassified one.
___
Associated Press staffers Anne Gearan in Washington, Juergen Baetz in Berlin, Don Melvin in London, Angela Doland in Paris, Robert H. Reid in Cairo, Brian Murphy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Mark Lavie in Jerusalem and Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

6 Ways to Score a Job Through Twitter

Twitter has become a great resource for just about anything, including jobs. From industry chats to Twitter accounts dedicated to posting vacancies, there are a ton of resources for landing a gig.
We've already chronicled how to get a job through Facebook and YouTube, and now we're taking a look at the job hunting process on Twitter.
We spoke with nine Tweeters who have landed jobs through Twitter to get their top tips for success on the platform. Below you'll find a guide to their job hunt strategies on the microblogging service.
If you've also been successful in finding a position via Twitter, let us know about your experience in the comments below.

1. Tweet Like an Industry Expert
Words to tweet by: You are what you tweet. Keep in mind that everything you tweet lends to -- or takes away from -- your online persona. Whether or not you're searching for a job, make sure your Twitter stream represents you as a professional individual that has important and unique thoughts to contribute. Your goal should be to become an industry expert -- or at least tweet like one.
Share links that are relevant to your followers, adding commentary to the latest industry news. This shows that you're keeping up with industry trends and gives potential employers a look into what you read and care about, which will help them to envision how you may fit into their company's work environment.
If your commentary on Twitter is interesting enough, you may have employers knocking on your door. Christa Keizer, a recent intern at Cone, a strategy and communications firm, used Twitter during her job search to " relevant, industry-related tweets on a daily basis to establish credibility." After commenting on one of Cone's blogs, Marcus Andrews, the New Media Associate at Cone, tweeted to Keizer, thanking her for her comment and asking her about her summer work plans. A few tweets and an interview later, Keizer was hired.
Kate Ottavio, an account executive at PR agency Quinn & Co., had a similar experience. Prior to working at Quinn, she ran her own PR firm. One day, Allyns Melendez, HR Director at Quinn, started following Ottavio on Twitter -- she waited for Ottavio to follow back, and then asked her if she'd like to move to New York, where Quinn is headquartered. Little did she know, Melendez was looking for a new hire for the real estate division of the firm. Melendez had first searched for "PR" and "real estate" on LinkedIn, where Ottavio's profile popped up.
Although Ottavio wasn't looking for a job at the time, her Twitter strategy had always been to "represent myself as a knowledgeable and reputable PR professional. I tweet about 10-20 times a day about anything from personal experiences to Mashable articles to PR blog posts." Loving the opportunity that Quinn presented her, she promptly accepted.

2. Use Twitter Hashtags
There are lots of ways to use Twitter hashtags to get a job. Here are a few types of hashtags to get you started:
Job Listings: You can find general job advice and lots of listings through hashtags like #jobs, #recruiting, #jobadvice, #jobposting, #jobhunt and #jobsearch. To narrow it down, though, seek out more specific hashtags, such as or #prjobs or #salesjobs.
Industry Conferences: Most conferences these days have their own hashtags -- when a relevant industry conference is approaching, get active with attendees using the hashtag. Whether you're attending the conference or not, you can contribute to the conversation. Many conferences also have live streams, so it's as if you're attending anyway! Live tweet panels and speeches that you're interested in and connect with other tweeters along the way. By using Twitter for networking within your industry, you'll increase your chances of getting hired down the road.
Job-Related and Industry Chats: Getting involved with industry chats is a way to show your industry in a particular field and represent yourself as a knowledgeable person. Check out this Liz (Pope) Schmidt, now the media and research manager at Sevans Strategy, attested to the power of industry Twitter chats: "I began participating in #Journchat, created and hosted by Sarah Evans [owner of Sevans Strategy, a public relations and new media consultancy]. Although I had known Sarah from a past virtual work experience, I was able to reconnect with her through Twitter. I mentioned her in several tweets and participated in her online discussions. Soon after, based on a direct message conversation with Sarah on Twitter, I came on board at Sevans Strategy."
Besides scouring job search hashtags, job seekers can also follow Twitter accounts dedicated to posting job openings, use Twitter search to find postings or keep an eye out on the Twitter streams of companies they might want to work for.

3. Connect with Recruiters and Current Employees
Don't be afraid to research the companies that you want to work for to find out who currently works there and who is involved with recruiting. After all, while you're searching for a job, recruiters are scouring the web at the same time looking for pertinent information about job candidates. Interacting with current employees and active recruiters is an easy way to learn more about a company and its job opportunities.
Take Connie Zheng's word -- she's already been hired for two jobs through Twitter. "I got my PR internship at Text 100 using Twitter, as well as my entry-level position at Burson-Marsteller using Twitter," she explained. She advises job seekers, "Use Twitter as a research tool to identify who the appropriate HR person or recruiter is at the desired company."
Shankar Ganesh, a student at the Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology and Research Academy in India, recently landed a marketing consulting internship at business apps provider Zoho Corporation by connecting with a technologist employed by the company. "I wanted to spend my summer as an intern at Zoho, so I approached employees using Twitter," he recounted. "I showed them what I had done previously and my website for credibility. My interest was forwarded to Zoho's HR team, and we got in touch." Soon after, he was offered the internship.
Even if a company isn't hiring, it's a good idea to stay in contact with recruiters and employees. When a position opens up, it's likely that you'll be one of the first to be contacted, said Alison Morris, an account coordinator at The CHT Group, a strategic communications firm based in Boston. Morris told us how she landed her current position on Twitter:
"In April 2010, Ben Hendricks, Senior VP at The CHT Group, and I began corresponding about corporate communications and social media's role in the corporate environment. Much to my dismay, CHT was not yet hiring. In June, after a few months distance, Ben sent me an email to let me know the agency was hiring and that he wanted me to apply. Still looking for a job, I sent over my resume, and about a week later, I was employed."
Keep an eye out for socially savvy companies like CHT -- it also recently hired Marissa Green as an account coordinator through Twitter and is now looking for a spring intern, with Twitter being one of its main recruiting outlets.

4. Build a Relevant Network
A lot of successful Twitter job stories actually end with the punchline, "I wasn't even looking for a job." In many cases, these lucky new hires just found interesting opportunities serendipitously, which makes sense given that it's Twitter we're talking about.
Twitter is all about networking, so build a network that makes sense for you. You'll find that a lot of the opportunities that are presented to you are simply organic. Here's an anecdote along those lines from Marketing & Communications Manager for digital agency ChaiONE, Meghan Stephens:
"Through Twitter, I am connected to other marketing professionals, digital creatives, community stewards, and new media experts -- simply because those are the types of people that I enjoy interacting with and learning from... When it came time to look for a job in the technology sector, all I did was turn to those who I already gained inspiration from. When glancing through my stream, I saw a job link posted by my now-boss that sounded immediately like what I was looking for. I read through the description, realized I already knew the company through another connection made on Twitter, and sent in my resume."

5. Start a "Hire Me" Campaign
After seeing a job posting for HeadBlade, a men's grooming company that makes products specifically for guys that shave their heads, Eric Romer immediately set up a website, Twitter page, Facebook Page and YouTube account all in the name of nabbing the job.
'The posting for 'Interactive and Social Media Marketing Manager' was tweeted from the HeadBlade Twitter account, which I had been following for several months," explained Romer. "I have been a die-hard 'HeadBlader' using their products religiously since 2005, so this was literally a dream job."
"While there were several channels used, Twitter was by far the most effective getting on HeadBlade's radar," said Romer. "I received a call from a company rep within 48 hours of my initial blog posting, and flew from Indianapolis to L.A. within 10 days for an interview."
While a full-out campaign of this nature may not be the best strategy for every job opportunity that comes along, this type of passion is what really stands out in the job recruiting process. If you encounter your dream job, go all out.


6. Take It Offline
Three simple words: "Let's get coffee."
Once you've gained a certain level of dialogue with a potential employer, an in-person meeting can really boost the relationship.
DJ Waldow, director of community at Blue Sky Factory, said that he landed his job at the company through connecting with Blue Sky Factory's CEO Greg Cangialosi on Twitter. After initially "stalking" Cangialosi on Twitter, Waldow began engaging with him. Eventually, all of the tweets lead to an in-person meeting, which Waldow feels really sealed the deal. He wrote of the experience:
"The transition from online to in real life is critical... All of the loose connections you’ve made with that person are suddenly solidified when you put the name/avatar/tweets together with a face. Nothing can replace this. Nothing."
Your Tips
With the increasing popularity of Twitter, more and more job seekers and recruiters are turning to the social network to find leads. We suspect that a sizable number of Mashable readers have used Twitter in some way to find a job. If so, let us know about your experiences in the comments below.
Social Media Job Listings
Every week we put out a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we post a huge range of job listings, we've selected some of the top social media opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

Lady Gaga to sign off Twitter for charity

Alicia Keys and Lady Gaga take charity work seriously, and they're going offline to prove it.
Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Usher and other celebrities have joined a new campaign called Digital Life Sacrifice on behalf of Keys' charity, Keep a Child Alive. The entertainers plan to sign off of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter on Tuesday, which is World AIDS Day. The participants will sign back on when the charity raises $1 million.
"It's really important and super-cool to use mediums that we naturally are on," Keys said in a phone interview from New York last week.
For the campaign — which also includes Jennifer Hudson, Ryan Seacrest, Kim and Khloe Kardashian, Elijah Wood, Serena Williams, Janelle Monae and Keys' husband, Swizz Beatz — celebrities have filmed "last tweet and testament" videos and will appear in ads showing them lying in coffins to represent what the campaign calls their digital deaths.
"It's so important to shock you to the point of waking up," Keys said. "It's not that people don't care or it's not that people don't want to do something, it's that they never thought of it quite like that."
The campaign, she said, puts the disease in perspective.
"This is such a direct and instantly emotional way and a little sarcastic, you know, of a way to get people to pay attention," said Keys, who has more than 2.6 million followers on Twitter.
The foundation, which began in 2003, will accept donations through text messages and bar-code technology, which is featured in the charity's Buy Life campaign. Raised efforts support families affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.
"We're trying to sort of make the remark: Why do we care so much about the death of one celebrity as opposed to millions and millions of people dying in the place that we're all from?" said Leigh Blake, the president and co-founder of Keep a Child Alive.
"It's about love and respect and human dignity," she added.
Keys said recruiting celebrities was difficult because of scheduling, but "once I got people on the phone and I was able to paint the concept for them, everybody was in."
Not one person said no, Keys recalled.
"I have a feeling that Gaga is going to raise it all by herself," Blake said. Lady Gaga has more than 7.2 million followers on Twitter, and nearly 24 million fans on Facebook.
"She's got a very, very mobilized fan base and that's beautiful to watch I think (and) she's able to draw their attention to these issues that are very important, you know, and that people follow it and act."
Keys is hoping more people — both famous folks and non-celebs — get involved once the new initiative launches: "It just doesn't have to be just because you're a celebrity or something like that. It can be anybody."
Keys, 29, married rapper-producer Swizz Beatz in July. The two had their first son, Egypt, last month. The Grammy winner said that though her life's getting busier, being a mother and wife makes her want to help others even more.
"As a human being, you deserve to have a chance at life," she said.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us