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Google's PageRank Is Best Way to Rate Online Influence
2008-11-20 04:41:00 Source: Advertising AgeBy Steve Rubel BusinessWeek recently created a bit of a stir from bloggers such as Ogilvy's John Bell when it reported that Google had created a method for ranking the influence of social networkers. But it might be moot, because bloggers are more influential.Blog readership has quietly grown 300% in four years. Further, blogs strongly influence purchasing decisions, according to a new Jupiter Research/BuzzLogic study. Once again, trust comes into view. Frequent blog readers trust blogs for product advice more than they trust social networks.Influence in the blogging community is built link by link. That's why Technorati's link-authority algorithm, for a time, was the de facto way to measure bloggers. Over time, however, the environment changed. The media started to blog, and bloggers started attracting links from an array of sources, including Twitter and even static corporate sites. Enter Google.To continue reading click here More About: Pagerank , Online
Majority of Kids are Computer Savy
2008-11-17 21:19:00 Source: Marketing ChartsAn overwhelming majority (89%) of all kids age 6-11 in the US spend at least some time doing online activities and - though many of their basic social activities haven?t changed much over the years - they have vastly different communication styles and preferences than older age groups, according to a study from Experian Consumer Research. The Simmons Kids Fall 2007 Full Years Study found that because today?s kids have grown up in the age of online communication, networking, the internet, cell phones, digital music and digital cable, they have had different childhood experiences compared with other generations. This makes them more likely to react differently than their older counterparts to advertising and marketing initiatives.The study also found that while kids may not currently spend much money, they are very likely to influence their parents? purchasing decisions.To continue reading click here More About: Internet , Computer
Google Adds Searching by Voice
2008-11-15 06:42:00 Source: NY Times By JOHN MARKOFFPushing ahead in the decades-long effort to get computers to understand human speech, Google researchers have added sophisticated voice recognition technology to the company?s search software for the Apple iPhone . Google?s voice search software works only with iPhones, but the company plans to make it available to other phones. Vic Gundotra, right, and Gummi Hafsteinsson, of Google, with an iPhone running the voice search. Users of the free application, which Apple is expected to make available as soon as Friday through its iTunes store, can place the phone to their ear and ask virtually any question, like ?Where?s the nearest Starbucks?? or ?How tall is Mount Everest?? The sound is converted to a digital file and sent to Google?s servers, which try to determine the words spoken and pass them along to the Google search engine.The search results, which may be displayed in just seconds on a fast wireless network, will at times include ... More About: Voice , Searching
Broadband factors into real estate decisions
2008-11-13 02:37:00 Source: SFGate.comBy Peter SvenssonAdam and Anita Paulk had a nice home outside Temple, Texas, with a big yard and a 10-minute commute to his job. But in Internet terms, the house was on Slow Lane. There was no high-speed Internet connection available.So the Paulks pulled up stakes in 2005 and built a home in a new subdivision. It was a little farther from his job, but at least it could get broadband."It was worth it," Anita Paulk said, not to hear her husband gripe about the connection anymore.In less than a decade, broadband has gone from a luxury to a must for many people, and for some of them, it has started to influence their real estate decisions. Homes that have broadband are winning out over more-remote ones that don't. Areas with better and faster broadband are becoming more desirable than ones with slower access.Edward Redpath, a real estate broker in Hanover, N.H., said he has seen deals fall through once the buyer realizes a home doesn't get broadband. Across the Conne... More About: Broadband , Estate , Real Estate , Real
Marketers Still Face Steep Web 2.0 Learning Curve
2008-11-13 02:34:00 Source: MarketingVoxThe majority of marketing executives are still in the early, experimental phases of using and measuring social media. 80% have not yet fully integrated the core elements of Web 2 .0 into their marketing efforts, according to a survey from the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), reports MarketingCharts.To continue reading click here More About: Curve , Face , Learning , Marketers
Are You Smart Enough To Work At Microsoft? (MSFT)
2008-11-12 04:28:00 Source: Silicon Alley InsiderBy Eric KrangelIt's the time of the year when companies begin recruiting undergraduates in their senior year for possible future employment. Microsoft (MSFT) is still hiring, and this weekend is challenging students to compete in its College Puzzle Challenge, a test designed to lure talented graduates into applying for positions at the company.So do you have what it takes to work at Microsoft? Try answering the question below. Hint: The correct answer is a single word.Corporate MergersThis memo was found on the sidewalk where one of the alleged criminals was last captured by closed circuit cameras. Understanding more about the order of these mergers may lead us to parent company and hopefully the Rosetta stone.To continue reading click here More About: Work , Smart
Sales and Marketing: Separated at Birth?
2008-11-09 23:44:00 Whether you believe it or not, one is nothing without the other, and here are four steps to merge them.Source: EntrepreneurBy Mark StevensI hear this question a million times over, and I scratch my head in wonderment every time: "To achieve the growth we are targeting, do you think our company needs to focus on marketing or sales?" The question perplexes me because it makes me wonder why so many otherwise smart businesspeople fail to see that marketing and sales are inexorably linked. You can't focus on one without the other; what's more, they must be tightly integrated and reinforced.The question arises from the fact that most marketing people dislike salespeople. They don't understand selling and, even worse, have a disdain for it. They build "beautiful and creative" bridges to nowhere. They expend big budgets. They vie for the dubious honor of being named Agency of the Year. They compete to recruit hotshot creative directors. But increasing sales? That's not on their head-in-... More About: Marketing , Sales , Birth , Separated
Building a Better Twitter
2008-11-09 04:03:00 Source: BusinessweekBy Douglas MacMillanIn March, engineers at the music software startup Fuzz Artists began designing a tool that would help independent musicians distribute their songs virally, online. But in between coding sessions, Fuzz Artists Chief Executive Jeff Yasuda found developers frittering away their time on microblogging site Twitter . Then it clicked. "They said, 'That's it! Let's do Twitter for music,'" Yasuda says of the team. Within months, Fuzz put together a site called Blip.fm that, like Twitter, lets users send short, 140-character blog postings to friends. But unlike its predecessor, Blip.fm also lets users append full, streaming songs to their posts. The result is a kind of online radio station where groups of friends with similar tastes in music can take turns selecting songs and attaching them to personal comments. Yasuda is part of a vanguard of entrepreneurs spurred on by the success of Twitter, the pioneering microblogging service that boasts... More About: Building
Windows 7 Will Let Microsoft Track Your Every Move
2008-11-07 23:32:00 @import "/css/wm_blog.css"; webmonkey Your source for daily web development news --> @import "/css/wm_blog.css"; Source: Wired By Scott Gilbertson From FireEagle to iPhone apps that use your current location, everyone it seems is racing to get on the geo-aware software bandwagon. So far most geo-aware features have been opt-in and offer reasonable privacy controls (FireEagle is a good example of this), but Microsoft ?s upcoming Windows 7 plans to offer developers location tools at the operating system level and the company doesn?t seem to think users care about control or privacy. Before you freak out at the thought that Redmond will soon be tracking your every move, keep in mind that the new features will be disabled by default. That?s the good news. The bad news is that if you turn the geo features on, there are very few controls available and, yes, Mic... More About: Move , Track , Windows 7
US News & World Report to abandon print for the web
2008-11-06 04:18:00 Source: Breitbart.comUS News & World Report , long the number three newsmagazine in the United States behind Time and Newsweek, has become the latest US media outlet to abandon print for the Web.The move to become an Internet-focused publication was announced to US News employees in a memorandum on Tuesday from management of the magazine."We're accelerating this transformation in response to our rapid growth online where our audience is now about 7 million uniques a month and growing," US News president Bill Holiber and editor Brian Kelly said in the memo."For all of you who have worked so hard to make this transition possible, say good-bye to Web 2.0 and welcome to Journalism 5.0," they added.Like other US magazines and newspapers, US News has been losing readership and advertising revenue to online media for years.To continue reading click here More About: Magazine , Print
Propelled by Internet, Barack Obama Wins Presidency
2008-11-06 02:12:00 Source: WiredBarack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States Tuesday night, crowning an improbable two-year climb that owes much of its success to his command of the internet as a fundraising and organizing tool.Obama won 52 percent of the nation's popular vote, and had a 338-163 advantage in electoral votes Wednesday morning, thanks to victories in several swing and traditionally Republican states. The results are a stunning and hard-won victory for a candidate who began the race as a relative newcomer to the national political stage, and ended it as first African-American to win the White House."I was never the likeliest candidate for this office," Obama said in an acceptance speech in Chicago Tuesday night. "We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign ... was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give five dollars and ten dollars and twenty dollars to this cause."Both Obama and Republican rival John M... More About: Internet , Presidency
Study: LinkedIn Users Have Higher Incomes
2008-11-06 02:10:00 Source: Media PostAccording to one independent study, LinkedIn does appear to be all that it's cracked up to be. Nearly 60% of the professional-focused social network's users have high personal incomes and hold executive-level or consultant positions, according to a new study from market research firm Anderson Analytics."I strongly believe marketers need to go where consumers are in order to listen to and observe them," said Tom Anderson, Anderson Analytics' founder and managing partner. "This survey showed that online social networks are not only a way for professional groups to stay connected, but powerful tools for business as well."The study shows a strong correlation with personal income and profession and the use of LinkedIn. Users with personal incomes between $200,000 and $350,000 were seven times more likely than those below that level to have over 150 LinkedIn connections.To continue reading click here More About: Study , Higher , Linkedin
What Marketers Can Learn From Obama's Campaign
2008-11-06 02:08:00 Source: AdAgeBy Al RiesBy Change -- and Positioning -- You Can Believe inNov. 4, 2008, will go down in history as the biggest day ever in the history of marketing. Take a relatively unknown man. Younger than all of his opponents. Black. With a bad-sounding name. Consider his first opponent: the best-known woman in America, connected to one of the most successful politicians in history. Then consider his second opponent: a well-known war hero with a long, distinguished record as a U.S. senator.Obama owns the 'change' idea in voters' minds.Barack Obama had a better marketing strategy than either of them. "Change." Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels was the master of the "big lie." According to Goebbels, "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."To continue reading click here More About: Campaign , Learn , Marketers
10 Ways to Make Press Releases More SEO Friendly
2008-11-05 04:38:00 Source: MashableBy Sarah Evans, the director of communications at Elgin Community College (ECC) in Elgin, Illinois. She also writes a PR and social media blog.On an average business day, more than 2,000 press releases are distributed by the five leading wire services in the United States ? Business Wire, Marketwire, PrimeNewswire, PR Newswire, and PRWeb. What can you do to set your press release apart from the pack and allow your target audience to find you? Implement the use of search engine optimization, or SEO.To put it simply, when someone Googles you or your company, where do you show up in the search results?SEO allows you to:? Garner media coverage? Create quality keyword anchor backlinks for your website. (Check out: Creating Website Backlinks and Anchor Texts)? Rank in Google and Yahoo News for your keywords? Bring content to your audienceWhile the use of SEO leads to increased visibility and ultimately more views of press releases, it is imperative to remember that you wri... More About: Press , Press Releases , Make , Friendly
Thinking by design
2008-11-04 17:01:00 Source: BrandweekBy Todd WassermanWhen Whirlpool launched its KitchenAid Series II line of appliances in 2007, the company was taking a bigger-than-usual gamble. Whirlpool's designers didn't just imbue the Series II?a refrigerator, microwave, range, oven and dishwasher?with the kind of sleek, industrial look popularized by TV foodie shows; the appliances shared distinctive design touches like responsive black touch display panels and bow-shaped chrome handles?clear indications that each appliance was meant to be part of a set.That may sound simple, but in fact it broke with industry orthodoxy. Conventional wisdom holds that consumers buy stuff like this piecemeal, most often as a "distress purchase" when the old one breaks down. So why did Whirlpool spend a lot of its own money to create a uniform look when most consumers wouldn't care? The company's approach to advertising was similarly counter-intuitive: The brand advertised the whole line at once.Usually, ads for refrigerator... More About: Design , Thinking
Jim Stengel Promoting Purpose-Based Marketing
2008-11-03 03:14:00 Source: WSJby Thom ForbesAs Marketing Daily blogged back on Oct. 17, Jim Stengel, the widely respected, 25-year Procter & Gamble advertising veteran, is opening a new venture Monday that will promote "purpose-based marketing," which he says is about defining what a company does -- beyond making money -- and how it can make its customers' lives better. He is also writing a book, with the working title "Packaged Good," that will expand on the idea.Stengel tells Suzanne Vranica that Pampers was able to gain market share a few years ago through a repositioning that utilized the concepts of purpose-based marketing. It started to offer parenting advice from experts and also did research on why babies don't sleep -- a study that eventually yielded a design change in Pampers to give them a more cloth-like feel.There are skeptics, such as Jack Trout, about the "touchy-feely" approach in these tough times, but Stengel maintains "you can communicate value and build emotional equity at th... More About: Promoting , Purpose
Election Not Over Yet
2008-11-03 03:09:00 Source: American Journalism ReviewLet's hope all these pollsters know what they're doing.Otherwise, journalism is in for a very bad hangover.The tone of the coverage of the presidential campaign is certainly understandable. But it's also unsettling.The polls strongly suggest that the Democrats are in for a very good day next Tuesday. Barack Obama is comfortably ahead of John McCain in the national tally. Obama is also ahead in many key swing states and even in some red states. He's playing offense, McCain is playing defense.Polls also indicate that the Democrats are likely to increase their margins over the Republicans in the Senate and House by significant margins.The result is coverage that basically says this contest is all but over.To continue reading click here More About: Research , Election
The Tivo Box Is Dead. Long Live Tivo.
2008-11-02 01:21:00 Source: Wired Blog NetworkBy Meghan Keane Tivo made a name for itself with a set-top box that performed magic: at the touch of a remote you could pause the present, slip into the past or leap over ads into the future. Now, the future of the company which defined the DVR is likely to depend on dumping the magic box altogether. The eleven-year-old DVR company was so universally loved on its entrance into the marketplace that it got to date a character from "Sex and the City." And yet Tivo?s stock has been languishing at or below $6 for months, it has only a 10 percent share of the DVR market and its market cap ($619 million) is so low that any one of our nation?s beloved moguls could buy the company for some loose pocket change. Tivo, a company known for innovation and user satisfaction, has yet to prove its dominance in the marketplace. Under Tivo's new CEO Tom Rogers, the company has been hard at work coming up with advertising solutions, partnering with cable companie... More About: Live , Dead , Long
SmartyPig: Higher Savings, Wiser Spend, Over 'Net
2008-11-01 22:46:00 Source: MarketingVoxObserving how the economy has affected discretionary spending, a service called SmartyPig aims, with a friendly face and soothing pink motif, to help users save ? and pass savings on from online retailers.The site launched this year. Its modus operandi is to help users build online savings goals for major purchases, including travel, electronic devices and gifts for the holidays. A high-yield savings account passes a 3.9% APY onto customers, which can also earn up to 6% in savings from major retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, Home Depot, Hyatt, Macy's, Marriott, Overstock.com, and Pottery Barn.The model's ideal for an economy like this one. American consumers increasingly confine their discretionary spend to the internet, hoping both to save gas and find deals.To continue reading click here More About: Website , Higher , Savings
Why You Should Make Your Product for Early Adopters
2008-11-01 03:42:00 Source: FastCompanyBy Robert Scoble "Are we solving a problem that everybody has or are we building a product for Robert Scoble?" Ouch! That may sting a bit, but that statement -- written by Dare Obasanjo, a Microsoft programmer and tech blogger -- nails the emerging meme that early adopters are overrated and hurt the companies that woo them. It's no secret, of course, that I am one of these early adopters, or "passionates," who eagerly embrace new tools and evangelize for our favorites. But leave me out of it. This idea that the tech industry should focus on the larger group of "nonpassionates" to the exclusion of passionates is ridiculous. Passionates are a new product's best friends. Scan the history of every advance in computing and communications, from the desktop computer to instant messaging to digital phone service, and you'll find a group of enthusiasts who loved Apple, ICQ, and Skype -- and ultimately got everyone else into the game. If Facebook had launched trying to... More About: Product , Early , Make
Microsoft Pushes Ad Model for Silverlight Web Video
2008-10-31 21:05:00 Source: AdAgeBy Michael LearmonthMicrosoft 's next target in its bid to spread adoption of its new Silverlight video format: Madison Avenue. The comapny is reaching out to advertisers and publishers offering to bankroll technology costs in order to propagate its new video format Silverlight, which it introduced over the summer as a competitor to Adobe's Flash format.NYMag.com's web series 'Where's Rogan?' makes use of Microsoft's Silverlight video format which uses product placements in the videos to trigger advertising around the player. The first deal: an eight-episode web series, "Where's Rogan?" on New York magazine's NYMag.com spoofing the fashion industry that is sponsored by Continental Airlines, Olay and Tresemme. Product placements in the video trigger advertising around the player, an innovation Microsoft is trying to get other video publishers and Madison Avenue excited about. The series is getting promotion in New York magazine and on NYMag.com.To continue readin... More About: Video , Model
comScore Launches Extended Web Measurement
2008-10-31 20:59:00 Source: MediaWeekBy Mike ShieldscomScore says it has found a solution to an increasingly challenging proposition in the digital media business--how do you track the audience for content that travels all over the Internet?The metrics firm has announced the launch of comScore Extended Web measurement, a product that promises to provide publishers and advertisers with the ability to track content across mulitiple third party sites, such as videos, social media applications, widgets and photos. At the same time, comScore?s Media Metrix service will begin offering gross rating point data for online ads?the equivalent to the traditional media world?s standard GRP metric--which should allow advertisers to better evaluate cross media campaigns.But while GRP data should help make online advertising more translatable to some, the big win for comScore in its race against Nielsen Online and other third party Web metrics contenders is being first in the industry to provide a solution to the grow...
The business of avatars
2008-10-31 20:57:00 Source: ForbesThe first thing the "New Xbox Experience" wants is your soul, or at least a cartoon caricature of it.Pick out a virtual Barbie doll from a slew of hip-looking avatars, then delve into the nitty gritty of customizing little details--from the shape of its nose to the style of its footwear. This is the new face (and body) gamers will present to the online Xbox 360 community. And come Nov. 19, when Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) releases the software update containing the console's much-needed facelift, you and all your online 360 friends will pop up as avatars, too.To continue reading click here More About: Business , Avatars
Beyond Youtube
2008-10-30 22:37:00 Source: WSJType "home improvement video" into a traditional search engine and you're likely to get clips of the TV show starring Tim Allen, how-to segments on lawn sprinklers and video of groundbreaking ceremonies of a new Lowe's in Derby, Conn. Now, some video search engines are creating new tools that make it easier to search and sift through the results.Traditional search engines depend on video publishers to add tags and keywords -- called metadata -- to the clips before they are uploaded to the Web. But a lot of videos lack detailed metadata, making it hard for search engines to automatically categorize the content. Worse yet, some videos may be tagged incorrectly -- sometimes intentionally, a practice known in the industry as "tag spam." A video tagged with "Olympics" that is actually a clip of a political attack ad is an example.To continue reading click here More About: Youtube
LinkedIn Adds Apps
2008-10-30 22:36:00 Source: Online Media DailyLinkedIn is the latest social networking site to to offer third-party applications to its users. As befitting a site for professionals, the first batch of nine apps released are all about business, not throwing sheep.They include a "reading list" app from Amazon, a file-management tool from Box.net and a travel-tracking app from Tripit. Not just anyone can put up applications on LinkedIn. Developers and companies have to go through a careful screening process before their apps are approved. External ads aren't allowed either.To continue reading click here More About: Linkedin
Obama's Secret Weapons: Internet, Databases and Psychology
2008-10-30 22:34:00 Source: WiredDuring a sweltering Friday evening rush hour in early October, Jeanette Scanlon spent two-and-a-half hours with 20 other people waving a homemade Barack Obama sign at the cars flowing through a busy intersection in Plant City, Florida."I got shot the bird one time," laughs the easy-natured Scanlon, a 43-year-old single mother of three and a Tampa psychiatrist's billing manager. "That wasn't the thumbs up I was looking for."Scanlon is one of an estimated 230,000 volunteers who are powering Obama's get-out-the-vote campaign in the swing state of Florida. And while sign-waving is a decidedly low-tech appeal to voters' hearts and minds, make no mistake: The Obama campaign's technology is represented here. Scanlon organized the gathering ? and 24 others since September ? through Obama's social networking site, my.BarackObama.com. Similarly, she used the site's Neighbor-to-Neighbor tool in September to find registered voters in her own neighborhood, so she could canva... More About: Internet , Secret , Databases , Psychology , Weapons
Online Video Market Evolves, Begins Morphing Into New 'Storytelling' Device
2008-10-30 22:31:00 Source: Online Media DailyA year or so after the online video advertising marketplace emerged in earnest, experts on both sides of the table say it remains a vital but messy, complicated and often difficult-to-evaluate business--although it clearly is the future of what Madison Avenue has historically considered its dominant, persuasive advertising medium: television. Those were the conclusions of speakers and panelists participating in the OMMA Video conference here on Wednesday."If you look at how many people are viewing videos online, the industry is monetizing only a small fraction of that," Adam Kasper, senior vice president-U.S. director of digital at Havas' Media Contacts unit asserted during panel of top digital media buyers. "Right now, we're kind of behind the adoption curve, and we're not taking advantage of everything that's out there."Kasper seemed to sum up the consensus among the digital agency executives, but Jason Tsai, senior vice president-group communications... More About: Market , Online Video , Device
Microsoft Enlists Public to Create Latest Ads
2008-10-30 22:29:00 Source: AdAgeBy Rupal ParekhFirst it was Jerry Seinfeld, then it was Deepak Chopra. Now, Microsoft is introducing another star as part of its new consumer ad campaign: you.In its newest iteration, Microsoft's 'I'm a PC' campaign has gone user-generated.Microsoft's "I'm a PC" campaign -- part of Crispin Porter & Bogusky's $300 million marketing ploy to help the computer maker regain some positive buzz lost to competitor Apple -- has launched yet another iteration, this time, going user-generated. Keeping it realThe latest spots are a compendium of consumer-generated content based on "I'm a PC," which began airing last month. The new ads, which began running yesterday, string together what Microsoft calls "real PC users" from around the world who uploaded a video to Windows.com. Additional spots will be created using user-generated content from the site, Microsoft said, meaning that anyone who visits Windows.com and uploads a video has the chance to star in a future ad.To ... More About: Public , Create
ANA Survey Finds Marketers Don't Understand Brand Value
2008-10-30 05:06:00 Source: B2BMore than half of senior marketers (55%) lack a quantitative understanding of brand value at their organizations, according to a study by the Association of National Advertisers and branding agency Interbrand Corp.For those who responded that their brands did not influence organizational decisions, the causes cited included: Incentives do not support the importance of brand (51%), inability to prove the brand?s financial benefit (49%), current branding expertise is not widely accepted (40%) and metrics do not support the importance of brand (39%).To continue reading click here More About: Marketing , Research , Survey , Brand , Understand
The Shopping Secrets Of American Millionaires
More articles from this author:2008-10-30 05:02:00 Source: MarketingDailyBy Sarah MahoneyWhile middle-class problems have stolen most of the headlines in America's economic swoon, millionaires have issues, too. To get a closer look at how the rich are shopping these days, Google recently partnered with Unity Marketing to poll extremely well-heeled shoppers, between the ages of 24 and 64. They found some key differences between the ultra-affluent (earning at least $250,000 annually per household, or $125,000 individually, with a net worth of at least $1 million) and those who earn at least $1 million per year. We asked John McAteer, Google's retail director, to fill us in: Q: What are the biggest misunderstandings that marketers and retailers have about millionaires? A: There's this deep-seated conviction that the wealthy are very idle people--a sort of "ladies who lunch" crowd. They often don't understand just how time-poor their rich customers are--90% of millionaires in our survey work, and often at very demanding jobs.To co... More About: Shopping , Research , American , Secrets 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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