Herringbone needs your help. We have entered a contest to win a $250,000 small business grant from Chase Bank, which we desperately need to develop the Herringbone solution and create the impact of positive change that we envision.

To get us closer to winning $250,000 and be considered as a finalist, we need 250 votes. Will you help us reach our goal?

If we won this money, we would hire the key people and develop our services and solution. This economy needs productive companies that grow. Please help us do just that!

If you’d like more information about Mission: Small Business℠, here is the link to the press release announcing the program.

Will you please share this email with your networks? Our votes can come from anywhere, and every one counts.

Thank you so much in advance for your support! It is felt and much appreciated!
Happy Midsummer!
Johanna & Team

Instructions for voting:
1. Go to this page: https://www.missionsmallbusiness.com/

2. Login. (It’s easiest to use your FB account.)

3. Search for ‘Herringbone’ in San Francisco, CA.

4. Vote for us!

5. Bonus: Share this on Facebook and Twitter with #ChasetheBone

After almost five years since its launch, Tumblr has more than 42 million individual blogs. When I checked a few minutes ago over 56 million posts have been published – today!

Microblogs and Tumblr might not be any news to you, but why do people like it so much? One of the popular features is the “reblog button.” On the microblog site a Tumblr user can “reblog” other users’ blog posts, which means that in a rapid pace content can go viral and users are always in the loop. A user can also follow other users to make sure she knows what’s happening – an important criterion for the largest user group, which is teenagers and young adults aged 18-24. And of course, the fact that users can customize their own pages doesn’t hurt Tumblr’s popularity either.

Among celebrities using Tumblr, e.g. John Legend and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, maybe President Obama is the most famous one. People are also becoming famous through Tumblr. Seventeen-year-old Taylor-Ruth Baldwin created Hanging Rock Comics with her own comics and illustrations. Taylor-Ruth has over 32,000 Tumblr followers and has been mentioned in various media.

Earlier today, TIME published 30 Must-See Tumblr Blogs that is definitely worth checking out. At the office we like Awesome People Hanging Out Together, which contains photos of celebrities doing just that – hanging out together.

Are you using Tumblr? What do you think about it? Is it only for a younger crowd or will it soon be a household name?

Anna

><(((°>

I am not that everyday-blogger, actually this post is like my third or fourth ever. The reason why I am writing is because I have had the amazing opportunity to do my two-week long internship here in San Francisco at Herringbone.

When the plane took off from Arlanda, Sweden I was totally unaware of how much I would experience, develop and that I would meet so many interesting people in such a short period of time. The weeks I have stayed here in the US, have been the best time of my life.

Me and my two friends and ABB Industrial High School – classmates Emilia and Amanda, who are joining me for this trip, have been invited to a New Years Eve dinner party at a famous Maybeck-designed house, had the luxury of having our own sightseeing-guide taking us all over San Francisco and other places nearby, meeting both successful Swedes and other persons – all so very nice, offering to show us around the city and inviting us to come back and visit. That is one thing that is for sure – that we will come back, and that is soon!

The most astonishing thing about America that have occurred to me, is the way the people are here. When you are walking in confusion down the streets trying to find the way, there is always someone who will stop and ask if you need any help. Since me and my girls not always are the ones with the best sense of orientation we have experienced this for quite many times. Everyone we meet is also so open-minded and spontaneous.

All meetings with the nice and smart people during these weeks have taught us a lot of thought provoking and inspiring things. One is that nothing is impossible, even if you start at the bottom you can find (and fight) your way up. Another is that you should not be afraid to try on new things – if you don’t you are not getting the most out of life.

I will specially keep one sentence said by a really wise man on my mind

“Success, so near but yet so far away. You can almost reach out … and grab it… And suddenly it’s gone … success.”

From a Swede,

Karin Ånger
www.linkedin.com/in/karinanger

People are tweeting movie titles such as “Gone in 60 Seconds” and “No Strings Attached,” and according to Jack Werner (yes, the @Sweden Jack Werner), it all started when Gurgîn Bakircioglu aka @Gurgin, a Swedish radio host googled movie titles before his radio show to describe his mood. He noticed a blog post called ”Describe Your Sex Life with a Movie Title” and decided to start a hashtag. Apparently, the hashtag has been tweeted before, but not to this extent.

Below is a Twitter stream for #BeskrivDittSexLivMedEnFilmTitel using social media tool Twingly. Twingly is founded and based in Sweden and over 150 Twingly partners in 15 countries are using the company’s products for commercial purposes, especially in Europe where it is very popular. Anyone can set up a livestream for Twitter, blogs etc. on her/his website to capture keywords for certain topics or events.

What will be the next Twitter trend from Sweden?

Anna

        ><(((°>

Looking back, there are a few milestones to celebrate. We…

• co-authored “Social CRM for Dummies” (Wiley, 2011),
• doubled the Herringbone team when Anna Sandgren joined in August,
• produced a 60-minute “Michael E. Gerber Origination Dreaming Room” video with partner Vibrant Films,
• performed a social media research project for Novartis,
• was nominated for the Swedish American Annual Achievement Awards 2011,
• exhibited at “Women Rock” – Innovations in Health, Wealth and Technology – presenting Facebook Landing Pages – Variations and Results
• partnered with Stockholm based May&Barrow, specialists in Google Analytics Social Tracking
• created a website for Swedish artist Catrine Näsmark and the “United Statements of America” Exhibition (coming to the US sooner than later),
• partnered with Futura Factory, Edinim Produktion and Xenter to livestream “From Fairyland to Futureland” event in Sweden with Tove Lifvendahl
• live tweeted from “Innovation Sweden” at Stanford University,
• awoke entrepreneurs within, with Michael E. Gerber,
• launched the pre-order campaign for the 25th anniversary, limited edition reprint of “The E-Myth” – one of the 25 most influential business management books per Times,
• wrapped up the year with a Swedish Christmas party with invited friends and partners filled with homemade glögg, ginger cookies and music, and
• had a marvelous time and met many lovely new friends along the way.

We wish you all a wonderful and successful 2012!

Join the E-Myth 25th Anniversary Celebration!

Johanna & Anna

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The Swedish-founded company Spotify has been a huge success, especially this past year with the US launch. Spotify recently started rolling out the 0.8.0 version, which includes updates and new features such as:

• Spotify Apps

This is a really good one. Spotify Apps are integrated apps inside Spotify such as Billboard Top Charts, Top10, and Soundrop, which help you discover even more music. My favorite is the “Rolling Stone’ app with playlists from the magazine’s own editors. You find the different apps in the sidebar to the left – “App Finder.”

• Spotify Radio

Spotify Radio has been updated and has a new cool look and users can choose from a variety of stations and tracks. It’s possible to skip as many tracks as possible. You can also create your own stations based on your favorite tracks, just drag them to the “Radio” in the left sidebar.

• ‘What’s New’

This feature has been updated as well and the user can e.g. see playlists and top tracks near her/him.

• Predictive search results

• Playlist search

• New “Buddy List”

• Add to Favorites

• Full-screen support for OS X Lion

If your account hasn’t been updated yet, make sure to fix that here.

To celebrate Spotify’s success and the new year that is upon us, I created a playlist. Get it here! Yeah… it might be a little cheesy, but 2011 has come to an end and a new year with new opportunities is about to begin. It’s time to wrap up unfinished business or to leave certain things behind us and start out fresh. It’s an opportunity to start over and become a better you. And make sure not to waste any time!

Anna

        ><(((°>

The quite controversial Jack Werner was the first curator to tweet and the news made it to publications such as Time, Mashable, and all over the world.

Another interesting Twitter occasion was created by Swedish Stockholms Stadsmission, which built a paywall on Twitter. During one week (December 14-21) famous Swedes tweeted under the @betalvaggen handle and all the money raised went to help homeless people. With the words “People who are homeless can’t fill their stomachs with Facebook likes. Retweets will not keep them warm at night,” followers were encouraged to donate 25 SEK (about $3.50) each. Among the celebrities tweeting were well-known Swedish characters such as author Susanna Alakoski, TV-profiles Felix Herngren and Gry Forsell, and pop singer Niklas Stromstedt. Find more information here.

Both campaigns are proofs of how Twitter can be a tool for innovative marketing techniques. When it is for a social cause, such as @betalvaggen, it makes it so much better.

Anna

><(((°>

Of course there are a few tricks to help you:

• Escape to the mountains. Lake Tahoe is only a few hours away.

• Visit a nearby IKEA store. Their assortment is nothing to write home about anymore, but you can still find sill, glogg, cheeses etc (IKEA branded nowadays).

• Light candles/fireplaces. California might be in more southern latitudes, but it still gets dark and pretty cold in the evenings.

• Decorate your house/cubicle/desk.

• Go ice-skating at Union Square or/and Justin Herman Plaza at the Embarcadero.

• Do something nice for someone. Even if you don’t have a lot of time you can spare a few hours to help someone needy. For example, through Little Brothers – Friends of the Elderly you can visit a lonely elder, since many of them spend the holidays alone.

• Watch Christmas movies. Elf and Love Actually are a must. “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear” which leads me to:

• Listen to Christmas music. At Herringbone we created a Spotify Christmas 2011 Playlist. You can find it here.

What do you do to get into the Christmas spirit?

Anna

        ><(((°>

If you haven’t read my earlier blog post about Podio or if you’re not in the know, Copenhagen-based Podio is an online work platform for businesses with hundreds of specialized and flexible work apps with messaging, tasks, reporting, workflow and contact management.

The Europas took place in London as usual and 500 attendees where met with a recorded welcome video by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. Twenty two expert judges who chose their favorites from 400 entries picked the winners and there where about 40,000 public votes.

London is the Mecca of technology in Europe and where most of the nominated startups are based, but increasingly more and more startups are from other European locations, especially the Nordic countries and Germany.
Silicon Valley: Watch out for some fierce competition from Europe!

And hey, all students out there! Podio is not only for businesses anymore. It offers its services for free for students and student groups. Manage all your school work in one place. Check it out here.

-Anna

This was my last day attending Innovative Sweden. I’m sad it’s over, but happy to have had the chance to listen and learn from so many interesting speakers, been introduced to so many great innovations, and met so many fascinating and intelligent people.

Today’s topic was gamification and I have to admit that when I arrived at Stanford University this morning I had World of Warcraft and Lara Croft in mind. Now I now that gamification is so much more than that. E.g. Karin Ryding and Bobbi Augustine Sand from Ozma told us how they used gamification for change management. By using Ozma’s WeProject, staff at four Swedish hospitals were encouraged to change behaviors and communicate about power consumption.

Karin and Bobbi Augustine also had the audience participate in a workshop where their Gamification Implementation Chart was used. I can see many uses for this chart at Herringbone. Get it yourself here.

Good luck to the Swedish Institute and Innovative Sweden as you promote Sweden and Swedish innovation throughout the World. Next stop: Toronto, Canada, January 23-February 12, 2012.

-Anna

All my photos from Innovative Sweden are on Facebook.
Couldn’t you attend Innovative Sweden? Or is there a session you would like to see again? Check out Innovative Sweden’s Bambuser channel.