January 27, 2012
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Social Media for Business 2012
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Call them weird, edgy or just plain tasteless, these companies caught our eye as being not your average small business on the market. Here are five companies that are keeping things interesting.
Soccer Collies
Who knew dogs could play soccer? Mark Lukas found this out after his border collie started tossing a ball around the house. The idea hit him and he founded Soccer Collies, a company that pits humans against dogs in a game of soccer. That was five years ago and now Lukas and his two collies, Ms. Z and Bek (after David Beckham, of course), travel around the country doing charity events and entertaining children’s groups on the soccer field.
Lukas says, “My dogs are tremendous; they’ve even scored goals on professional soccer players.”
The company has worked with organizations such as the American Cancer Society, Humane Society of the U.S. and the SPCA.
Ashley Madison
Ashley Madison is a company your partner doesn’t want you to know about—it’s an online dating site for married people who want to have affairs. Noel Biderman founded the company back in 2002 and turned a profit in the first six months. His biggest challenge: making everything anonymous. Unlike Match.com and eharmony.com, users pay for each communication, are never billed under the company name and can quickly delete profiles and related chats.
Biderman says, “I think infidelity saves marriages more than people realize. I can sleep at night knowing that affairs happened before I started this company and will continue long after I’m gone.”
Ashley Madison is in 17 markets and boasts 12 million members. Biderman says the company is expanding internationally and may soon be the most popular global dating site.
CLOO’
CLOO’ is the answer to urban dwellers’ biggest conundrum: where to pee. While it can often be difficult to find a public restroom in a big city, CLOO’ is an app that allows you to find nearby residential restrooms. “We use social media to connect people to friends or friends of friends so that when you have to go to the bathroom, you send a host a notification and they can accept or deny your request,” says Hillary Young, co-founder. Upon entering one’s home, the app, which will launch this spring, transfers a small fee (around $2 or $3) to the bathroom owner.
Young says, “At first people are a little weirded out thinking about a stranger using their bathroom, but you just have to remember that you can see how you are connected to each person…that they really aren’t strangers at all.”
The app will launch first in New York City this spring and expand to San Francisco later in the year.
Sweet Whimsy
Customers were shocked when they walked into Sweet Whimsy last Halloween. That’s because the Long Grove, Ill.-based bakery was serving a new delicacy—bugs. “We did cricket chocolate chip cookies, where we ground up the crickets, and mealworm cake pops—pumpkin spice cake dipped in white chocolate and covered with caramelized mealworms,” says Josh Baubin, owner. Both items (somewhat surprisingly)—sold well. How did they taste?
“You couldn’t taste the crickets because they were ground up, but the mealworms tasted a bit like candied nuts—the only part that grossed me out was feeling their little legs on my tongue,” says Baubin.
Sweet Whimsy plans to sell ant brownies in the spring.
Liquid Money
A while ago, entrepreneur Patrick McCarthy read a study claiming that the scent of money made people work harder. In January he decided to capitalize on that idea by launching His Money and Her Money, two scents inspired by the smell of crisp dollar bills. “The cotton and silk scent of money is used as the base, and we’ve added other fragrances on top of it to make it more attractive,” says Rick West, vice president of sales. McCarthy and West not only hope the scent makes sales teams work harder, but that it will also give clients an inspired outlook in general. The scents are available at a few retail stores and online.
The two fragrances are designed to increase feelings of motivation. Each bottle is wrapped in real shredded dollar bills.
Check your balance, review recent transactions and pay your bill on the go.
Drewry News Network 25 days ago
why would anyone want to promote a "dating people while married" site for? The founder of this site is not doing the right thing. That's wrong…
http://www.drewrynewsnetwork.com/f5/can-commenting-facebook-wall-posts-potentially-boost-search-engine-optimization-savvy-web-marketers-2133.html