Here is an interesting article on what can be with public information on social networking sites. Like using web analytics internet entrepreneur Pete Warden used public data (your "info" from your Facebook) to track locations of users and locations of their friends. Check out the cool visualization and full article here.

While Google's effect on the American telecommunications industry is already large, its dealings with China and recent decision to relocate outside the Great Firewall (losing hundreds of millions of customers in the process) have had much greater ramifications. In addition to the serious respect they will earn by being one of the first giant multinationals to pull out of that market for ethical reasons, Google will find themselves a place in history as the company that brought the issue of censorship to the attention of mainstream China. There is a strategy for cold warfare which encourages civil unrest on enemy soil, by spreading censored information. The Fax Machine kick-started the fall of the Soviet Union, and today unfiltered, anonymous Internet services cost $5 a month. Article here.

This article was useful for me in writing my individual research paper in showing how internet user-generated content is not always good for marketing. Businesses are losing control about what consumers have to say about their products due to the growth of social networking. Dell and other companies are creating websites to receive feedback from consumers and future ideas before they send it out into the world of social networking. Responding to consumer complaints is very critical for companies because negative conversations can spread quickly online. The article finishes up by giving six recommendations to companies on how to respond to bad conversations about their brands in social media. Very reliable source, businessweek.com

To read the full article click here

Startups often bootstrap, meaning they minimize costs as thoroughly as possible to offset necessary expenses. Today, startups utilize social media for real results, such as customer service through Twitter, building communities and tribes and building awareness, product marketing, and staying organized. Social media helps businesses connect with users to keep it 'real', transparent and authentic. The focus on building communities increases revenue but the costs are minimal. Staying organized is also extremely important, and the increase in freeware helps businesses stream internal workflow.

Read the full article here.

Lately, Google has been looking to expand into the services industry, and has been accepting applications to determine where to launch a pilot fiber network. They have already received over 600 applications, and are starting to narrow them down into candidates for inclusion in the first experimental version. While there's no guarantee that Google can avoid the pitfalls and challenges faced by existing ISP's, it cannot be denied that many eager Google fans are already lining up for the chance to be their customers. Full article here.

There are numerous reasons to use email marketing as part of your business strategy. Some reasons include increased profits, repeat consumers, and increased customer feedback. The open rate of marketing emails is around 10%, which explains why Microsoft sends around 20 million emails monthly. The reach of email marketing is seemingly infinite cutting down barriers left and right. Also emails save paper reducing costs by 78%. Another advantage to email marketing is measurability by analytics and beacons. Email marketing saves time on message delivery and provides for faster responses. Most importantly email marketing is simple enough that most anyone wit a computer and the internet can do it.

Click here for the full story

Semantic search has the potential to replace Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky Button" with a much more effective and potentially disruptive "Find It Now Button". Imagine being able to find the exact product you are searching for on the very first click, and for that item to be located near your workplace, in the brand, price range, color and size you request and for the store to be open during your lunch hour and accept American Express. If semantic search becomes a reality you'll find a product online fitting those exact custom parameters in 10 seconds. Gone will be the days of sifting through multiple sites and webpages to find information trapped in advertisements, online inventories, maps and FAQS. When this next round of search innovation takes hold it could be a dream for web marketers who are used to having to push products out to customers and wrangle with SEO and page rankings just to be found online.

Read more about the future of semantic search.

Google is going wide with their "Remarketing" feature, which allows advertisers to reach users who visit their website after they leave. The feature uses "remarketing lists," or rather a list of website visitors that a company would like to reengage. Visitors are followed as they browse the internet via a Google cookie, and then are re-targeted on other websites with compelling messages to get them to return to the advertised site. Advertisers can run several Remarketing campaigns at once, for a variety of products or offers.

This program has been in a trial run since March of 2009, and has became popular with companies seeking to boost brand awareness, drive sales and increase their clicks. All advertisers need to do to use the Remarketing feature is to check the "Audience" tab on their Adwords account page. Concerns about user privacy emerge, because Remarketing collects a wealth of browsing information from consumers. Time will tell whether or not this feature is successful in boosting website traffic and clicks for advertisers.

Click here to learn more about Google Remarketing.

Blackbaud is a company that specifically caters towards nonprofit organizations aiding them with "services for fundraising, financial management, website management, direct marketing, business intelligence, prospect research, consulting, analytics, etc. " (Marketwatch.com) Recently they have expanded into helping nonprofit companies with the web presence. They want to improve their clients websites, branding, and supporters engagement. They plan on doing this by using email marketing to retain and gain supporters, created superior online fundraising tools, and online event management/ registration features. The goal for the companies is to be able to provide a better experience for their online users in a cost effective way.

Read full article here.

The article that I read stated that social media is a partner, not a threat, to e-mail marketing because it provides new avenues for sharing and engaging customers and prospects. By maximizing the e-mail and social media connections the two channels help each other by offering the opportunity for marketers to create deeper connections. Ten businesses were surveyed in a study for the article and it found that about four businesses that integrated e-mail and social media was one of their most important initiatives for 2010, just after improving e-mail performance and targeting and growing opt-in lists. The survey also found that one fourth of the businesses had already implemented an integrated strategy. Another survey that was conducted said social media helped to expand the reach of their e-mail content and 78% said social media helped to increase brand awareness.

To view article click here .

So you still have to go to one site to check your email and then another for Twitter and yet another for Facebook? Who has that kind of time!? Not anymore, now you can use multiple plug-ins right in your email client to interact with all of your social media sites. What client you use decides exactly what features you can add.

For example, if you use Google Mail you can add a nifty plug-in called Xoopit. This lets you integrate all your images and videos from your Gmail to places like Flickr and YouTube. You can also share it through Facebook or your blog.

Okay, so maybe you're the one person that doesn't have Gmail and you use Microsoft Outlook. With Outlook you can add OutTwit, which sounds pretty much like what it does. It adds a toolbar that allows you to send new posts to Twitter as well as read and reply. To keep all of your precious Tweets organized you can add a folder called Tweets (of course).

There are plenty more fun and functional plug-ins that could help you be a little more organized and thrifty with your time.

For all plug-ins, check it out here.

Facebook announced recently that they are working on a way to create a place function its website. This feature will allow people to check in at different places and come up as a status update on the page. I think this will become a great marketing tool for all the companies everywhere. This will be free advertisement for all companies and open a whole new group of possible clients just because their names will get out more. I think that the power of a community model will open up new word for consumer business. What do you think?

Read article: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/26/facebook.location/index.html

Chinese people really hook in a virtual games, especially the "Happy Farm" where people can create their garden nutrient the soil and plant their own vegetables. this social games is a great ideas because it not only educates people but also teach the young generation about cultivation.
to read more about this article click here

Email marketing is one of the fasting changing areas of Internet marketing and it's hard to keep up. Not everyone can, but they don't necessarily need to. To see the future of e-mail marketing, marketers must look to social networking. Not everyone has a Facebook and Twitter account, but nearly everyone has an email address. The point being, social networks need email and conversely, because social networking is the present and future, emailing needs to become more social. This article lays out how to interconnect the two and make for success in the changing world of e-marketing.

An email relationship between you and your customer is an ongoing effort. The three main tips in to engage your email subscribers are: "Make your subscribers feel safe and welcome," Building relationships is about trust, interaction, feedback, and strategy," and "Ask and track what subscribers think and need." What you really want to do is to really establish a legitimate relationship with your customer to make sure that they read and actively engage in your email offers.

Article: Read full article
Source: http://www.gather.com/


Facebook is in the process of implementing a web-based Email system that (is rumored) to have the potential to have a great effect on email marketing as it is today. They are calling it "Project Titan". It is said it will be a major competitor to popular email services today, like Google's Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. The article provides some perspective of the changes it will have on how email marketing is done and how, if used correctly, will help enhance your email marketing campaigns. However, I feel the hype about Facebook's Titan project is just that: hype. The article goes a bit far, in my opinion, as to say that it has the potential to make users drop services like Gmail or Yahoo! Mail. It seems more Apple's iPad: people were more excited cause of the hype rather than the actual product, which turned out to be a much bigger version of the iPhone. What do you think?

Tim Ferriss, world-famous leader of the lifestyle design movement, focuses on creating high impact results in the most efficient way possible. In this video, he focuses on how to sell globally, the three kinds of media exposure, personal experiences in become a bestselling author, and how to increase website conversion by 80%. Tim also uses case studies from his entrepreneurial friends to ensure consistent results.

Tim's blog post is here.

An Interesting web page that goes over how email marketing can benefit your company. The article goes over the many advantages that are associated with email marketing as well as providing examples of how email marketing can help your company target your product more efficiently to consumers.The article also explained how email marketing can entice consumers to buy your product through promotions and discounts, as well as going over how email marketing is a very cost effective marketing solution for companies that is able to reach consumers on a more personalize level.

Can E-mail Marketing Help Your Business?

K-Mart committed a mortal sin recently: ticking off their customers. They had posted a coupon on their website that touted $10.00 off of the customer's next $20.00 purchase but forgot one crucial element: proper restrictions. The coupon was originally only meant for a certain number of stores, but putting something on the internet is probably the surest way to get a message out, loud and fast. Apparently K-Mart was trying to get themselves back out there in the market by sending these special coupons to large metropolitan areas, but didn't mention any restriction and probably had a bit of a negative effect in the long run.

Article.

Today on the internet, news and gossip floats around anywhere, and most of the time it is free. This has posed a huge problem for print news sources such as a magazines and newspapers. To combat this struggle, VIVmag's is making an attempt to cross the bridge and bring magazines into the digital age as well. They have teamed up with Apple, and have created a completely digital magazine specifically designed for the iPad. On the iPad, customers would be able to access normal magazines articles in formatted like any other machine, the twist is that with these different pages and articles, the fact that they move. The video I have included is a more detailed description of what they are doing and what their first, finished magazine is.

Though many may believe that the rise of social media will be the end of email marketing MarketSherpa's 2010 email marketing benchmark report shows that not only has email marketing not decreased but is increasing along with social media.

Ajay Goel's article shows us that the best strategy is not one or the other, but to combine the two. He lists a number of ways we can improve relations with our customers in terms of social media and email marketing. The list includes showing personality though email by having them signed by real people, emphasizing community over product, listening to their feed back and keeping their online social community alive.

For more information check out the article here.

As many of you I'm sure are aware, Google and Viacom have been going at it for some time in court. Finally on Friday March 19th both parties speak out about what's been going on. Check out this article from The Wall Street Journal for more about what going on. It will be interesting to see what happens as Google welcomes the threats from one of the worlds largest media providers, and as Viacom fights for what they believe is strictly theirs!

Macy's and Sears have decided to use social media to better reach out to their target market for prom. Sears is doing this in order to "make a more personal connection with [them]," said Sears rep Tom Aiello.

Macy's has added a Prom 2010 page to their Facebook fan page and set up a Twitter hasttag, #prom2010, so that customers can tweet about the in-store promotions. Sears a microsite called "The Ultimate Prom Experience" that can serve as a one stop shop for girls to want to pull the perfect look together for prom. Visitors to the site have to option to link their findings to Facebook and/or Twitter.

Social media is the way to go when majority of their target market are on these sites longer than do on their homework. The constant exposure to these brands would increase the likely hood of these teen girls to shop at those department stores instead of the others ones out there.

To read the full article click here.

Goggle announced on Monday 3/22 that it has stopped censoring search results in China although Chinese government has been very clear that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement. Goggle has the gut to fight for its users in order to provide them Internet freedom and access to information.

It is also interesting to see how a big company like Goggle has the power to influence a country. If Goggle survives, China's online market will be completely open to the world. If Goggle failed, even like Goggle,a huge internet provider, will loss a tremendous amount of potential users. This risky move will be carefully monitored by the world. We never know when the Chinese government will kick Goggle out of the country.

See full article, click here

Last month Google said it plans on starting an ultra-high-speed broadband network covering as many as 500,000 users. Google has said other providers have made good progress in expanding and improving high-speed internet access but there is still more to be done. Case Western Reserve University also has a fast growing service that could be as big as Verizon, AT&T, and possibly Google. Google and Case Western are pushing Verizon and AT&T as well as Comcast to step up their research and create faster services. Google could easily make their way to the top of the broadband service list someday, but they have made it clear they are in no rush.

For further reading click here

Twitter's strategy on making sustainable revenue is questionable at best as the site, offering a very basic service, doesn't allow for many ways of creating an income. There is no subscription fees, advertising or any other sort of means.

The name BrandFolium would not sound familiar to many, yet it is this group, which came up with perhaps a very palpable way of doing business via twitter. The website offers a geo-specific marketing feature, allowing marketers to pay bloggers registered with BrandFolium, to advertise their products or services on twitter. Quite ingenious and even though approved by FCC rules for bloggers it is quite questionable.

Twitter has a no advertising policy, yet it seems as if such means of advertising are becoming inevitable, as they have already begun spreading via Digg and Facebook. For now there is no word on Twitter's position, however, it wouldn't be surprising if they would start enjoying a slice of the cake.

Click here for the full article via cnet.

This article is short but has good advice if you are a web developer. It offers quick information on what you should consider when developing a site.

Search engines perform a site review to determine the sites overall ranking. If the search engine determines your site is over optimized it can result in a lower position. Search engines look for a variety of unnatural behavior which can include pages that have identical page titles and H1 headings, too many non-contextual internal links on your site, having pages with great visual experiences above the fold, and not finding text until well below the fold. The moral of the article can be summed up from the cliche, more is less.

To view the full article, click here

Social Networking sites are popular all over the world. Why is this popular and how do companies benefit from it? The research gives you some surprising findings.

Surprising finding of social networking sites (not including LinkedIn)

• People love to look at pictures and profiles
• Men likes to look at females that they don't know
  
• Females like to look at females that they know

Similar to a search engine BitTorrent uses indexed databases allowing users to download files for free. During the last six years BitTorrent has worked to gain monetary success. The private company has achieved some profits which can be mainly attributed to Google and its partners. Some examples of companies on the partners list are MTV, Paramount, and Warner Brothers. Google has helped BitTorrent by indexing torrent sites and storing them in its huge databases. From there on when you search for a torrent the Googlebot can retrieve these search results in mere seconds. The bulk of the income BitTorrent generates is due to advertising. The ads are placed on heavy traffic torrent sites that receive millions of hits daily. A percentage of the income generated from ads is then given back to BitTorrent. In short even though file sharing is widely illegal BitTorrent is able to make money by Google looking the other way.

Click here for the full article

This article is about Apple's release of its iPad video during the Superbowl. With all other previous videos, Apple kept a very tight control and didn't allow the videos to be posted on any other website besides their own. With the iPad, they went for a different strategy and posted the video in about 100 different places including YouTube. This strategy of using viral marketing was a huge success and the video became the second most viewed video. The article also explores the top 10 videos in the past week.

View the full article here.

Facebook users should be wary of any e-mails they receive advising that their account has been reset and asking for their password. This recent attack on Facebook users is potentially very damaging as it steals your passwords just by clicking on the link. Once the phishing agent is installed, it can actually access any username and password entered on your computer or mobile device.

This is just one of the weekly attacks on Facebook users, who are very appealing to hackers considering there are 400 million users worldwide. Security software vendor McAfee recommends installing their latest version of antivirus protection and never clicking on a link in an unsolicited email no matter how authentic it looks. They don't see an end to these attacks in sight.

Full story here

A study of 1,000 online users shows the responses of those younger/older than age 25 and their experiences with Facebook and Twitter. Almost half of the responders admitted to checking their Fbook or Twitter during the night or as soon as they wake up in the morning. Also a factor, Iphones. When asked if users check Fbook or Twitter before they leave their bed, 28% of Iphone users responded with 'yes,' which is a 10% increase over those less than age 25 and a 20% increase over those who are older than 25.

This article is about how the website Digg has created a successful business model that has allowed them to make revenue. Digg is a social news site where people share content that they have discovered on the internet and other users comment and vote on the post. Digg was faced with the challenge of making a profit until they created Digg Ads in October of 2009. Digg Ads is a system where advertisers submit or sponsor content that goes along with the look and feel of the Digg site. Now after five months, Digg Ads are making up 25%-30% of the company's overall revenue. Another 10% of the company's revenue is generated from other ads that are located in the standard advertising spots on the site. This contributed to the company's success of doubling their revenue and becoming profitable in 2009.

Check out the article here.

Teachers at schools such as the University of Texas and Purdue are using Twitter to get their lecture classes more involved. When class sizes are large, less people seem to participate. Twitter is changing that. Instead of the teacher standing in front of a large lecture hall for 50 minutes, students are encouraged to supplement the discussion with Tweets from their laptops or cell phones. The screen will update live for the teacher to address and talk about further.

An interesting article about the popular Pandora radio. Since the initial creation of Pandora internet radio about 9 years ago the popularity of the user based radio station creator has seen massive growth in the number of users that use the service. About two years ago Pandora radio introduced a mobile version of there internet radio. In the past two years with the ever gowing popularity of smart phones and the inevitable future growth of smart phone pandora mobile has collected about 6million users for the mobile app. This growing popularity has intrigue many large companies to purchase add time or in a sense commercials that would be played to the user after so many songs. Another reason many companies are interested in working with Pandora is that its users play around with the service a lot, creating radio stations, rating songs which companies like target and best buy could look at to see what is popular with the general public and market to them accordingly. Another example of how these companies are advertising to users is Domino's, for example, puts up ads that urge people to call in for a pizza directly from their phones. Other companies are using coupons. Docker's offered a 20% discount if visitors went to the brand's site and entered the promotional code "Pandora."

Not only does this method create a high customer response to the adds retail companies can gain very valuable information from user inputs that they may use to market there product more effectively to them.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_22/b4133052597112.htm

Today, sealed documents in the copyright infringement lawsuit (Viacom vs. YouTube) were made public. YouTube's main defense against Viacom's attack is that Viacom secretly uploaded content to YouTube and publicly complained about it being there. Viacom also tried to buy YouTube a bunch of times, suggesting that the $1 billion lawsuit is an attempt to cash in after the fact.

If this is true, Viacom forced bad PR on YouTube with unethical tactics when they couldn't profit off of them initially in order to steal revenue.

This move is going to cause a backlash of rescinded goodwill against Viacom. The public hates unearthed schemes more than just about anything.