Full Name: Benjamin Michael Heinemann

Birthday: January 29

Where have you lived? Minneapolis, MN; San Diego, CA; and now Chicago, IL

What did you do before coming to No Limit? I started as an Mac Specialist for Apple and then moved to greener pastures at Roepke, a small boutique Public Relations Firm in Minneapolis

If you could have any superpower, what would you choose?I would be able to play Jedi mind tricks to convince reporters to write about my clients!

What is your biggest accomplishment? My first bi-line in a magazine

What’s your dream vacation? Pompeii, Italy in the summertime to explore the ruins.

Who are your top three favorite musicians? Radiohead, Elliot Smith, Sufjan Stevens

If you were stuck on a desert island with one album, what would it be? Illinois by Sufjan Stevens

Favorite food: Pasta!

Favorite Movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Favorite TV Show: Lost

If there was a movie made about your life, what’s the title and who would play you? “Don’t Tell my Dad” with Mary Kate Olsen as the lead.

Favorite Viral Video: Sh*t Fashion Girls Say

Crowdsourcing is still a new concept, but it’s one on the rise. Originally coined in 2006 in a Wired article by Jeff Howe, crowdsourcing is the process of drawing upon a group of people to complete a task or tasks. Kickstarter is taking the concept one step further–crowd funding.

Have you ever thought “I would love to see the original Grimm Fairy tails turned into an animated series?”  If so, you should know about Kickstarter. At it’s very core, Kickstarter allows the average Joe on the street to become a venture capitalist by contributing relatively small amounts of cash towards the completion of an assortment of projects. Projects have fundraiding “goals” and an associated time frame within which they are expected to reach that dollar amount.

The beauty of Kickstarter is that it allows people with great ideas to skip what is typically the most difficult step in making their concepts a reality–financing. Game developers and directors can use normal people like you and mean instead of going through publishers or producers. Likewise, inventors with innovative ideas can find the money they need to produce functioning prototypes and begin the transition to large-scale production.

Kickstarter also makes it easier to find financiers by offering multiple levels of commitment, typically ranging from very affordable ($10) to extravagant ($1,000). Backers, as contributors are known, don’t leave empty handed. Each level of commitment has it’s own reward which can be a free product, sponsor credit or even a working 60-watt burning laser. In addition, backers are reimbursed if the project fails to reach it’s goal by the predesignated deadline.

Concepts like Kickstarter are so fascinating because they foster innovation and give us opportunities to benefit from ideas we may never have heard about. I, for one, am excited to see what technological and cultural changes come from future crowd funding projects.

A Blog Post By:Brian Diggelmann (@briandigg)

Brian is a marketing coordinator and is dedicated to breaking out of his losing dart game slump.

Want to be more Twitter-famous than Lady Gaga? That’s the goal of Fame, a fun new “lottery” built on the Twitter API that wants to give one random person 24 hours of Twitter-fame daily. Every person that joins Fame will automatically follow the one user that is selected daily at 12pm ET, and once a new one is selected, everyone will automatically unfollow the old user and follow the new one. It’s no $640 million, but at least your chances are better.

As a heavy Twitter user, this is a pretty exciting game for me. Not only is there the prospect of reach a broader audience with my tweets (if only for a limited time), but there’s the opportunity of finding interesting new people to follow. Some of the winners so far have been great, and others not so much; however, I think I can deal with an annoying person in my feed for one day as long as I keep finding some great new follows.

Unfortunately, the only ways to keep following a person once their Fame ends are to either favorite a tweet of theirs, or re-follow them later. Also, as this game starts to snowball into Lady Gaga proportions, the quality of tweets people entering and winning may see a decline. At that point I may have to make like a hipster and start hating on it.

I’m not entirely sure what I’d do if I won. To start, I’d probably promote a work-related thing or two (without being tacky about it), and of course I’d show some love to any projects that my friends are working on. Other than that, I’d try to have fun with it and put on a good show.

If you’re interested, join here! And if you win, don’t forget the little guy.

What would you do with your 24 hours of Twitter Fame?

A Blog Post By:Evan Connors (@evcon)

Evan is a Digital Producer and has already bought his Braves post-season tickets.

If you have not heard of Google+, you’re not alone. Although the social media platform, boasting different ‘circles’ to separate your social and professional life, experienced record initial numbers, 26 million to be exact, the growth was quickly stunted.

Steve Yegge, a senior engineer at Google, publicly posted a critical analysis of Google Plus, describing the platform as a “complete failure.” Here are four reasons why the over-hyped and over-publicized platform mounted to nothing more than a few engaging commercials during the Super Bowl.

Exclusive Party
Google Plus began as an invite-only site that was over advertised and over exposed, which explains the initial and short-lived growth. The exclusivity of the Google Plus party has web surfers begging for invites, and when their wish was finally granted the party was more of a dry basement gathering and nothing to sit on but a musty couch covered in the ever-recognizable Google logo.

Where is Everybody?
This is social media, and although 43 million users sounds like a significant amount, Zuckerberg has 750 million at his estate across the street and it continues to grow. Talk about social.

Sitting in a Circle
Google Plus gives the ability to organize your connections. Separate your friends from your coworkers, your family from your past significant others, your acquaintances from your neighbors. You can even create your own circles such as ‘High School’ or ‘People I Never want to Speak to Again.’ Only problem is, they may be able to see where they stand in your social realm. This does not mean the title is visible, but if you’re only seeing your connections’ public posts, you are most likely labeled an acquaintance.

Time Check
The largest factor turning users away from Google Plus is the time needed to build a profile, organize circles, and really just waste time on the site. The majority of users have already spent seven+ years developing an internet presence, building and fostering relationships, joining groups, and becoming fans of pages, so why would they move from a platform that is fulfilling all of their needs and entertaining their interests? They wouldn’t and they didn’t.
The irony of this situation is that Google is a generally carries a positive connotation, but when they added a ‘+,’ the reaction was anything but, positive.

A blog post by:
Liza Rush

Liza is a Social Interactor at No Limit and newest member of the Buzz Factory.

Full Name: Elizabeth Marie Rush
Birthday: October 23
Where have you lived: Cleveland, Ohio, and Chicago, Illinois
What did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to wear beret and be a painter
Guilty Pleasure: Watching Project Runway
Favorite food: Sushi
Favorite Movie: You’ve Got Mail
Favorite TV show: Mad Men
What superpower would you want? I’d like to be able to read people’s minds
What did you do before coming to No Limit? I wrote for two Chicago publications and made save the dates for my friends.
Biggest accomplishment: My sister-in-law is having a baby in May and I’m excited to be an aunt.
Who is your favorite musician? My top three are Miike Snow, Fiona Apple and Frank Sinatra.
Queso fountain or burrito tree? Burrito Tree
What’s your dream vacation? I’d like to go to India during the holiday Holi.
What’s the last book you read? Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
What’s your favorite viral video? Probably Sophia Grace from Ellen.

One such avenue is our webinar series, the Virtual Franchising Roundtable. What started off as a few experts and franchising executives getting together online to talk trends and best practices has evolved into a tool to not only educate potential franchisees but also connect interested entrepreneurs with the industry leaders who can set them on the road to owning a business.

The webinar series has led to multiple entrepreneurs contacting featured brands for more information and a few of our speakers have even signed deals with attendees. Check out this recording of our March 1 webinar on Five Characteristics of a Great Brand:

Want to get involved in the VFR series? You can like our fan page on Facebook and connect with our group on LinkedIn. If you’re interested in participating in the series (either as a speaker or attendee), contact Brian for more information.

Birthday: July 30

Where have you lived? Chicago, IL and Columbus, OH.

What did you want to do when you were a kid? Underwater archaeology because it’s a mixture of scuba diving and history all put into one.

Favorite action figure: Snake Eyes from  G.I. Joes

Favorite movie: city of god it’s a portuguse film about kids in brazil.

Favorite actor: Edward Norton

What superpower would you choose for yourself? To be able to breathe underwater

Biggest accomplishment: I’d have to go with getting my senior thesis published. I wrote it on Soviet hockey and expressions of masculinity and presented it in front of the history department and many influential Chicago historians.

Favorite TV show: Breaking Bad

What’s the last book you read? A Stephen king novel called The Dark Tower

Favorite food: I like Asian food. I’m a huge fan of Mongolian beef.

Queso fountain or burrito tree? Queso Fountain

Who would you Nascar sponsor be? Probably Playstation 3.

Favorite viral video: The “I like turtles” kid

A Blog Post By: Keri Lyons (@kerilyons)
Keri is a Social Interactor at No Limit and watches entirely too much TV.

and By: Brian Diggelmann (@briandigg)
Brian is a Marketing Coordinator at No Limit and is a connoisseur of bold flavors, you guys.

Full Name: Brooks Elizabeth Wylie

Birthday: July 14, which is also Bastille Day.

What cities have you lived in? Minneapolis, MN, Madison, WI, Chicago, IL and New York City, NY

If you could live anywhere, where would it be? Australia. I’ve never been there but I would love to live there.

What did you want to be when you grew up? A dolphin trainer.

What’s your biggest accomplishment? Finishing the Twin Cities marathon (26.2 miles) with my dad.

Guilty pleasure: I’m obsessed with The Bachelor.

What’s your favorite food? Cheese in general. Anything with cheese in or on it.

Favorite movie: My favorite girlie movie is The Notebook. My favorite serious movie is The Shawshank Redemption.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Time travel. I would go to back to the 60′s, or when King Henry the VIII was around. Pretty much everywhere.

Most embarrassing moment: The first time I ever snuck out of my house I got pulled over by the police. I was also voted “Got Away with Nothing” in high school.

Queso fountain or burrito tree? Queso fountain. No brainer.

What’s the funniest thing to happen at your previous jobs?: When Dr. Oz pulled a prank on my boss and snuck into her office to hide all the unhealthy Chinese food she had in there.

Whats the last book you read? Bossypants by Tina Fey

What animal would you be? A lion because I’d be the king of everything

Favorite viral video: Flying sloth

A Blog Post By: Keri Lyons (@kerilyons)
Keri is a Social Interactor at No Limit and hates jean shorts.

and By: Brian Diggelmann (@briandigg)
Brian is a Marketing Coordinator at No Limit and is currently planning an inter-office Mario Kart tournament.

You may remember Chad’s excellent review of that app way back in October 2010, where I got a shout-out on the No Limit blog even before I had taken the job. This post will be sort of a spiritual successor to that, now that an early Android build has been out for a few months now and gone through a few iterations.

On the whole, SocialScope is a pretty good looking app by my standards. The home screen is very Windows Phone 7-like with large tiles for jumping to various types of updates such as notifications, photos, videos, check-ins, and more. The feeds themselves are very cleanly laid out and readable.

One of the reasons it looks so attractive is the fact that it gives inline previews of basically any type of media and upload service you can throw at it. YouTube? Check. Native Twitter/Facebook/foursquare pics? Lockerz? Check (ugh). Instagram and Picplz? Double check. This app is a content consumer’s dream.

This app also supports a pretty solid list of networks. Twitter and Facebook are included of course, as well as foursquare and tumblr. What you may not expect to sign in to, but can, is Instagram. That’s right, read and (limited) write functionality are available for Instagram in this app.

You can Like and comment on images in a dedicated stream, but unfortunately uploads are not supported. This can definitely hold me over until they come out with an actual Android app.

While there is plenty to get excited about, SocialScope for Android does suffer from a few bugs, as well as some feature omissions that made the BlackBerry app so great.

It isn’t the most consistent at notifying you of mentions and DMs, at least in a timely manner. The app also tends to forget how to refresh and load the latest tweets. Some glaring omissions as far as features go are no multi-Twitter account support and no ability to post as a Facebook Fan Page. I’m sure those features are in the pipeline, but it’s worth mentioning.

Overall, I’m very optimistic about SocialScope for Android’s potential as a killer jack-of-all-trades social app. However, knowing how the app developers have operated over the last 3 or 4 years, I am not as optimistic about the amount of time it will take to reach that full potential, if at all.

The app still has a way to go to be a daily driver for a large amount of people. For me, it was my go-to app on and off for about two months, but I’ve switched back to TweakDeck. That should tell you where the app stands for now.

If you want to give it a shot, leave a comment below or tweet me and I’ll hook you up with an invite!

A Blog Post By: Evan Connors (@evcon)
Evan is the Digital Producer at No Limit and enjoys bold flavors.

Economic woes coupled with a rise in online social networking popularity has created a playing field where food trucks win. Their recession weapon, you ask? Social media. Here are 5 ways food trucks are using social media to improve their bottom lines:

1. Facebook: For food trucks, having a strong social media presence reigns in importance over print flyers and newspaper placements. “Word-of-mouse” packs just as great of a punch as traditional word-of-mouth marketing. With knowledge of that, food trucks are using Facebook Fan Pages to connect, communicate and build relationships with their customers off the streets.

2. Twitter: Twitter is the golden boy for real-time communication. Tweeting up-to-the-minute truck locations connect hungry customers with their favorite street vendors and foods. As it’s uncommon for food trucks to hold set hours and a location, customers have to get tactical with using social media. Food trucks pose as moving targets; Twitter helps these targets become more hittable.

3. Foursquare: At the end of a treasure hunt there’s usually a reward. Food trucks use Foursquare to provide that reward. Although Foursquare limits badge development to selected brands and campaigns they want to associate with, there are other customer incentives that make checking-in worthwhile. Discounts for first time check-ins, a promo code for repeat customers or a free “x” if you try the day’s special, are all ways food trucks are encouraging their customers to engage with their business.

4. YouTube: Television placements are expensive, making a YouTube video is not. Most recently, food trucks are creating video content to promote their mobile businesses. With camera in hand, social-savvy street-vendors are vlogging and filming food tutorials & customer testimonials to promote their brands and real in customers.

5. Instagram: Food bloggers and amateur food enthusiasts love Instagram. Naturally, the fun photo sharing application has risen in popularity with street-food vendors as well. Food trucks are using Instagram to take and post mouthwatering photos of their daily specials to their Facebook Walls and Twitter feeds.

These are just a few ways social media can be utilized to help promote a growing business easily, effectively and cheap!

What food trucks have you seen that serve up excellent content through social channels?

A Blog Post By: Evan Connors (@evcon)