Annual campus recruitment programs in the IITs – the premier educational institute of India got a big bump when Facebook offered one of its students a Rs 70 Lakh job offer. The student in question, who gives his name as DKS — he is to graduate from the school of computer science and engineering at IIT-Kharagpur in 2011 and doesn’t want his full name to be revealed — has received a ‘‘ join-us’’ post from the website.

On the offer letter, officials from IIT-Kharagpur said Facebook offered a starting salary of $90,000, a relocation bonus of $10,000 and a one-time signing amount of $25,000 to the 21-year-old from Jamshedpur. But on the Kharagpur campus , students said DKS had also been offered ESOPs and the entire offer translates to about Rs 1.7 crore.

This news comes as a testimony to the change of power in the world. Internet industry is quickly becoming the most lucrative one and taking precedence. A few years ago, it would sound insane for anyone to work for a website, let alone a social networking site. But internet entrepreneurs have transformed the internet into an amazing medium which has the powers to change the global economy.

What are your views on this news about IIT students placed via campus recruitment in Facebook? Share it below.

Myspace has virtually surrendered to Facebook with a partnership agreement. The partnership terms are quite clearly the last thing that Myspace should have signed up for. But the internet business is a weird world, the Myspace-Facebook partnership sounds more like a joint party thrown by Manchester City and Manchester United – in other words, extremely improbable. Myspace and Facebook have been competitors since eternity.

Myspace Facebook Partnership

The reason why this partnership agreement is more of a surrender rather than a partnership is:

• Facebook users will now be able to push all their Facebook status updates to MySpace. So your Facebook stream will appear on your MySpace profile.
• Now all existing MySpace users can “log in with Facebook”.

After these partnership Terms, TechCrunch humorously quoted -

“Now all MySpace has to do is figure out how to get at least some of those users to hang out at MySpace occasionally, not just at Facebook.”

Myspace Facebook Partnership

The partnership was signed between MySpace CEO Mike Jones and Facebook VP of Partnerships and Platform Marketing Dan Rose. The word is that MySpace was a little more than embarrassed that Facebook did not make someone more senior available for the event.

As soon as TechCrunch released an article over the “formal surrender ceremony” of MySpace, MySpace chief executive Mike Jones responded that it just reflects MySpace’s new focus.

If you ever plan to begin a business, you will realize the desperate need for funds right from Day one. You need the initial cash to setup the basic requirements for your startup.  This is where pre-angel funding comes into play.

Before I get into the concept of pre-angel funding let me talk Angel Funding. Angel funding is also known as Angel investment.

Angel Investment

What is Angel Funding?

Angel funding is the capital that is provided to a start-up for kick starting its business. There are angel investors who provide capital to start ups based on their business plan. If the business plan is quite strong and seems to be a profit making venture then an investor would be ready to invest in the startup.

In return, the angel investor receives a part-ownership or share in the company. Thereby, he earns profits via startup investment.

A  prime example of this kind of funding can be seen with the start of Facebook. When Facebook hit a brick wall with its expansion plans it was Peter Thiel (Founder of Paypal) who came to their rescue by offering them millions of dollars of funds for expansion.

Why are these investors called as Angels?

These investors are no less than angels. More often than not, these investors pump money into a startup at a time when they are low on funds or need to expand rapidly to capture a market. The Facebook story is a prime example. Another good example is that of Google, the first funding for Google as a company was secured on August 1998 in the form of a $100,000USD contribution from Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Back then Google was not even yet incorporated. So we can see here that these are two companies that are standing where they are today because of the belief of their Angel investors.

What is Pre-Angel Funding?

This brings us back to Pre-angel funding. Before an angel investor actually begins to trust your business startup you need to show some progress. Unfortunately, even the “some progress” of a startup needs money. This money comes from pre-angel funding and this comes from your family and friends.

The pre-angel funding is more of loaned out money and you need to pay it back to them. Unlike, angel investors who acquire  a stake or part-ownership to your company.

Let me know any questions or views below. Thanks!

Startups, whether internet based or not need a name. This is where this post will come in handy for you. Choosing a great name for your startup which will help you with online presence is an uphill task. Entrepreneurs should focus on choosing such a name for their startup that can help them brand easily on the web. You cannot ignore the web anymore. The name of your startup must be able to create a brand online without conflicts.

So here are 5 practical tips to name your startup so as to to suit the internet.

Try to convey what your company is about: Your startup name should be able to give a hint to others at what it is about. Totally made-up names like “Xerox” etc. may be used but using words that are present in the English vocabulary will make it easy for other to remember your company. This is the first fundamental step to choose a name for your startup so it can perform well online.

Make sure you get the “.com”: Pretty obvious, and yet not so. There are many entrepreneurs who would settle for a “.net” or “.org” along with their startup name. This is an absolute no, you need to get the “.com” extension for your startup’s name, so choose accordingly. The reason is that most people would type in your company name and hit “Ctrl+Enter”. So be careful about this.

Brand Your Startup Online

Make sure you get the trademark: Getting a domain name registered under your name and earning a trademark right for it are two different things. So when you get a “.com” extension domain name that suits your startup make sure that you also get the trademark for that name so as to avoid conflicts with another brand that is already using it!

The Facebook Page should be available: 500 million users on Facebook, that is one Facebook user for every 14 people. Check on Facebook that your Facebook fanpage user is not taken. Try visiting http://facebook.com/yourname and see if there’s something there.

The Twitter handle must be available: Last but not the least, the Twitter handle must available. Period. Don’t play with hyphens or numbers. It is your brand and you need a simplistic Twitter handle that flatly represents your company name. That is the way to go.

Once you check on these points, an entrepreneur can finally be sure that his chosen name for the startup can be active on the internet as well. Which is becoming increasingly important each day.

Mark Zuckerberg has truly made it to the top of the hate list of many traditional entrepreneurs. Just as they were coming to terms with the wave to take their business online, Zuckerberg hits them with Facebook. And all of a sudden the social media scene becomes an unavoidable aspect of entrepreneurship.

I could throw a few numbers to show you how quickly social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are growing but then I am sure most of you are already aware of it. It has been covered in newspapers, magazines and many publications.

This new rage of social media marketing on Facebook requires the following out of an entrepreneur:

• Create a Facebook fan page for their business.
• Promote it via blogs and (or) Facebook ads.
• Post latest updates, offers regarding your business online.
• Interact with your fans.

The task of connecting with your customers online has become a necessity rather than a choice. Because the internet marketing offers you the following distinct advantages to better your competition:

• What your customers think about you.
• What customers think about your competitors.
• Understand trending of your customer demands.
• Connect with your customers personally thereby creating higher loyalty.

Due to these factors, traditional entrepreneurs who tend to ignore social media tools like Facebook and Twitter take a bad beating. Because their more adaptive competition gets all the connection with the customers at these social hubs. This is why social media marketing has become a nightmare for entrepreneurs who like the old-school way of working.

Another serious issue many traditional entrepreneurs face with social media tools is the deficit in technical knowledge and the way these social tools work. For example, if you need to customize the Facebook  fan page with new tabs then you need to be adept at Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language).

Social Media and Entrepreneurs

In the end what needs to be understood is that Social media marketing is a real-time method to connect with people. And entrepreneur have a much higher chance to grow faster than they expected using these social media tools. It can be worth the time and money you may invest into your social media campaigns.

The Social Network is dubbed as the “Facebook” movie is a film about the finding of Facebook and about its smug founder Mark Zuckerberg. The movie charts the history of the website from its launch by Mark Zuckerberg and his best friend at Harvard University. It goes on to track the legal battle between Zuckerberg and his friend and three other fellow students at Harvard who claim he stole their idea.

Promo: The Social Network

The movie is a poor contribution to the man who has changed the rules of social media, The Social Network ends off by giving viewers a totally wrong impression about the real Mark Zuckerberg. This movie begins with Mark Zuckerberg’s girlfriend dumping him which creates a devious, sex-obsessed, desperate-for-the-attention-of-a-woman guy and thereon goes to find Facebook. While in fact, he had a girlfriend during the whole time.

With the The Social Network, internet entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg gets the Hollywood treatment, where reality and fiction blurs lines. In the movie, Zuckerberg is portrayed as a socially-awkward, insecure and an ego-maniac. This may have come from the smug image that he maintains.

David Kirkpatrick the author of “The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World” claims the movie is only 40% true,

“Zuckerberg is unbelievably confident and secure. And he is not snide and sarcastic in a cruel way, the way Zuckerberg is played in the movie,” he says.

The Social Network has already grossed $23 million in its opening weekend.

Related Post: Top 7 Movie Every Entrepreneur Must Watch

Although agreed, he is a geek, with the founding of Facebook, Zuckerberg has clearly proved that he has a much better understanding of the social dynamics in colleges and schools than anyone else out there. Hollywood has no obligation to portray the truth about a person, however, it is important we all know that Mark Zuckerberg is actually a remarkably successful, ambitious human being, and one that I think all of us could probably learn a little from.

Related Post: Love or Hate Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Is Here To Stay

Social Media is the latest buzz to create traffic to one’s blog or website and indeed, many have shown that it can be a successful model for good amount of traffic. However, what we don’t know is that which of the social media’s are those that cannot be ignored. While some social sites can be ignored or neglected. If you are a blogger who is looking for a professional way to generate traffic i.e. generate traffic for free then these social sites are a must to be updated.

List of 8 Social Media Sites That Cannot Be Ignored By Bloggers:

1) Technorati – Technorati Authority, Technorati ranking – they all matter a lot, to advertisers and also to the visitors. This can boost your reputation apart from generating huge amount of traffic. Always try to get your site voted as a Technorato Favorite – it is totally worth it.

2) Twitter – I really don’t need to tell you much about the capacity that Twitter has to improve your traffic. So don’t ever ignore Twitter. Put all your post updates on Twitter.

3) Digg – The most popular place to post all your links for webmasters, I love Digg personally. The pure ease of updating and the volume of traffic that Digg generates is awesome. Never forget this social media to promote your blog.

4) StumbleUpon – StumbleUpon is another smart way you can promote your posts, but it requires you to be a little active. If you can be an active Stumbler on StumbleUpon then it is another traffic gem.

5) Facebook – Facebook is becoming a growing presence on most blogs,with many bloggers generating fans for their site via placing the Facebook widget on their blog pages. Sharing your posts on Facebook can get you traffic, but need not always be targetted.

6) Mixx – A popular social site, where you can give in your links. It has a very interesting feature of creating your own custom page that displays only the most popular content that currently is linked by Mixx.

7) Delicious – Another social media site which is similar to Mixx, StumbleUpon and Digg.

Yahoo Buzz – It has been found to be effective by some. Although some find it not that much effective. But if you have a group/network of peers who blog then you can get updates your friends and see what they buzzed up – vice versa.

Whethere you want to use all of these social medias to promote your blog or use a few of them, make it a point not to totally ignore the potential that they have. Atleast ensure that all your blog updates are posted on at least three of the above mentioned sites.

We all know the huge controversy that Facebook was able to stir up on the internet. Facebook made a huge dent on Facebook users sentiments with their Privacy Policy – which was too difficult for normal mortals like us to understand. The smug-faced Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was not much help either. In fact, a few of his comments infuriated a lot of Facebook users – and that is a lot considering Facebook has around 400 million active users.

Mark Zuckerberg is the young entrepreneur and one of the youngest millionaires the world has seen. It is tough to imagine that Facebook started from his dormitory room. He has never been a favorite among most people as he has always been termed arrogant and callous. When the Facebook privacy policy rift started, Mark Zukerberg was directly targeted for such complications in the user privacy policies. Right from the start of Facebook, its privacy policy has always been an issue. But it was not until now that it really began to face the heat of controversy.

The users finally turned out victors, as Facebook (read, “Mark Zuckerberg”) made a major overhaul to make the privacy policy simple and easy for users to understand. Mark  Zuckerberg was thrown a lot of dirt during the last few days of raging protests against Facebook.

It is clear to see however, no matter how smug or arrogant Mark Zuckerberg remains, it is highly unlikely that Facebook will be affected. People are in love with this powerful social media website which is radically changing the way people are connecting and finding old friends. Internet marketers and companies are all realizing the power of Facebook as a promotional and branding tool.

So whether you love or hate Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook is here to stay and the 400 million users will only increase with time!

Are Zynga and Facebook going through a rough patch in their mutually profitable relationship? We all know about the Apple-Adobe divorce – but now the internet is buzzing with this news about Zynga and Facebook calling it quits.

Zynga is the developer of the very addictive games like Farmville, Mafia Wars, YoVille etc. The biggest game partners for Facebook – has 82.4 million active users – this is the number of players who are very active and play it on a regular basis. Apparently, Zynga plans to start its own social gaming site called Zynga Live. This news was apparently delivered to Tech Crunch by an anonymouss top official from Zynga.

The reason for this fall out is apparently the 30% charge that Facebook levies on Zynga whenever one spends money Farmville credits or Mafia War credits to buy decorations and such for their game. Rumors state that Zynga plans to move away from Facebook to keep the whole revenue for itself.

Facebook and Zynga had been negotiating on Facebook Credits and the talks turned for the worst. As the relationship soured, Facebook threatened to shut off Zynga’s feed and to shut down games. In retaliation Zynga has begun preparation to move out completely from Facebook – may be even in the upcoming weeks. And Zynga CEO Mark Pincus talked about the plans of launching Zynga Live.

If it is considered for a moment, then does Zynga really think the 82.4 million active users will move over to play at Zynga live. I doubt it. The partial reason for the success of games like Farmville and Mafia Wars is that it allows players to co-ordinate with their friends as “neighbors” – and players enjoy the integration of their close friends in their game. If Zynga independently hosts its social gaming site – I very much doubt whether the user base will follow them over to this new website.

At the same time, it is hard to avoid the fact that Zynga games have in fact been one of the key reasons why Facebook has been able to get so many page views. Many users log in to their Facebook account only because they want to take care of their farms or run their Mafia family.

You can read more at TechCrunch.

How do you think that this move will affect either of the two internet companies?

It is an interesting trend to watch on the internet these days – there are so many internet startups that are mushrooming daily that it has become difficult to track the rate at which new internet entrepreneurs are entering the World Wide Web.

Internet has easily become the most desirable place for business for the opportunistic entrepreneur. The world-wide reach given by the internet and relatively low cost of starting up have become attractive parts of the online business. Even businesses that are thriving in the offline world are creating their presence on the internet.

However, the challenges faced by internet entrepreneurs are totally different than from the entrepreneurs who make their business offline. This requires an internet entrepreneur to have a distinct set of skills to adapt to the challenges online.

One of the biggest challenges that are faced by internet entrepreneurs is the rate at which obsolescence occurs online. Internet is such a rapidly evolving and competitive environment that technology, software, social media and opportunities can be at an all time high in one moment and be totally forgotten the next day.

This requires the internet entrepreneur to learn quickly and unlearn even faster. Staying in the comfort zone can be perhaps the most fatal mistake that he can make. For example, earlier the promotional methods for a conventional internet marketing agency included paid reviews, buying advertisement and maybe a few press releases. Hardly did anyone imagine the advent of the powerful social media. Twitter so quickly took grasp of the social media marketing that many quick and smart internet marketers were able to boost their online income 100%. At the same time, many internet marketers who failed to realize the fact that Twitter had taken over the internet marketing techniques with a storm – lost a lot of customers to the new breed of fast learning and quick-to-act internet marketers. Suddenly, they realized with a jolt that old marketing techniques are just not good enough any more. What happened was that, many failed to adapt to the pace of development and shift of power to Social Medias.

Perhaps, the latest rage is the Facebook fan page – small blogs to big corporate are all taking their brand online to Facebook. This can be considered another challenge for many internet entrepreneurs to keep up with the rate at which the internet grows. Becoming an internet entrepreneur is lucrative – but it requires a whole new level of crazy acclimatization to the pace of development online.

What are your thoughts on this? Let me and the readers know below.