Randi Zuckerberg Leaves Facebook, Starts Own Company

Facebook Director of Marketing Randi Zuckerberg, the sister of founder Mark Zuckerberg, has decided to leave Facebook to start her own company.

Zuckerberg’s new company, RtoZ Media, will focus on helping companies become more social. “My goal is to launch my own innovative programming and work with media companies to develop their programming in new, and more social ways,” Zuckerberg said in her resignation letter.

The former Facebook marketing director will draw from her experiences developing the company’s marketing strategy and its popular live video channel, Facebook Live. She was recently nominated for an Emmy for her work with Facebook Live. (Mashable recently teamed up with Facebook Live for its SXSW coverage.)

In a phone call with Mashable, Zuckerberg said that she thinks of the move as a “natural extension” and had been considering the move “for a really long time.” With the success of Facebook Live and the Facebook-Obama town hall, she saw an opportunity to start her own company.

“I had the momentum to do it now,” she said.

The news, first reported by Kara Swisher at AllThingsD, will come as a shock to the Silicon Valley establishment. Randi Zuckerberg has been a pivotal figure in Facebook’s growth, and her departure will create a void that not even her brother will be able to fill.

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An Early Overview of Google+ as a Content Marketing Platform

Ramon Ray the Smallbiztechnology.com Team

• An Early Overview of Google+ as a Content Marketing Platform
• Polycom’s Video Collaboration Solutions for Small Businesses
• The True Cost of Employee Mobile Devices
• What the UK Cell Phone Hacking Means for You
• 5 Social Media Management Platforms To Choose From

Rex Hammock of Hammock Inc. released his e-brief (free download) evaluating Google+ as a potential content marketing platform and “business” social network. Google+, if you haven’t yet heard, is Google’s new social network, which offers a variety of features that would be useful to conducting business. Hammock outlines how Google+ is different from other social networks, and what that could mean to small business.

Hammock said in the e-brief that Google+ could really position itself by focusing on the aspects of social networking that appeal to business executives. Facebook Pages, for example, has never done well for business-to-business services, and Facebook has that association as a place to goof off rather than conduct business. However, Google+ still isn’t Facebook, which may not necessarily be a good thing.

Hammock also said that social networking for business should mean increasing productivity and efficiency. Google+ has the ability to do that, especially with features like Sparks and Hangouts (really don’t like that name) that could be used to make business more productive and more efficient. For those who want to utilize social media for business purposes, Google+ could cut into that time that’s now split among Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Hammock also remarked on an early drawback for Google+ and business users: no support for Google Apps for Business. Granted, Google announced that Google+ will have business pages before the end of the year, but it’s not the same as integrated with all those wonderful apps. This lack of of support also initially alienates the employees at three million companies who have Gmail accounts, but not the type that works for Google+.

To conclude, Hammock offered six predictions for Google+. To learn more about Google+ as a business tool, please feel free to download the e-brief at the top.

1. Google+ will be a big success as a business-oriented product – even an enterprise employee-to-employee product.
2. Google+ will attract adult consumers who think having a Facebook account is ridiculous.
3. Google+ won’t have much impact on Twitter or LinkedIn.
4. Google+ is a bigger threat to Facebook than any other social networking player, but more so in the business-to-business area than in the consumer area.
5. Google+ will be a big hit with small businesses.
6. Google+ has the opportunity of being the most open social network if it allows users to be part of the Google+ network using their own identities, not the identities that Google owns and controls.

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