Greek politicians reach a deal on austerity measures needed for a new bailout, officials say, as eurozone finance ministers gather in Brussels.
Selected by mwmarketing
-
Most Topular Stories
-
Greece leaders agree cuts package
BBC News - Business9 Feb 2012 | 6:24 am -
German Court Upholds Previous Ruling, Says The Reworked Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N Can Be Sold
TechCrunch9 Feb 2012 | 5:36 amMark one up for Samsung. After months of legal and PR battles, the South Korean company is finally able to sell and market their iPad clone in Germany. Just don’t call it an iPad clone anymore. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N (pictured left) is slightly different from the iPad — but that’s all that matters. Samsung released the Galaxy Tab 10.1N late last year. This version features a silver boarder around the screen’s black bezel. The speakers were also relocated in a stereo configuration and now flank the screen. The original GalTab 10.1 was a blatant iPad ripoff. This… -
Twitter to Get First Look at Several New York Fashion Week Collections
Mashable!9 Feb 2012 | 6:35 amIt worked for Burberry, so why couldn’t it work for us? So seems to be the thought process of several prominent U.S. fashion labels during New York Fashion Week, all of which are planning their own takes on the “Tweetwalk” Burberry debuted at its womenswear show in September 2011. The London-based fashion house made headlines when it posted photos of every look from its Spring/Summer 2012 collection on Twitter seconds before they appeared on the catwalk. The initiative generated a huge amount of interest on Twitter — so much so that both “#Burberry” and “Christopher… -
Huntsman, former presidential candidate, joins Ford's board
Automotive News Breaking News Feed9 Feb 2012 | 6:22 amJon M. Huntsman, former Republican presidential candidate and ambassador to China, has been elected to Ford's board of directors effective immediately, the company said today. -
FIGHTING THE ELEPHANT - Ray William Johnson Video
Most Viewed7 Feb 2012 | 7:21 pmFIGHTING THE ELEPHANT - Ray William Johnson Video THANX FOR SUBSCRIBING TO MY VIDEOS!! :D MY TWITTER: https://twitter.com/RayWJ MY FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/raywilliamjohnson MY GOOGLE+ http://Gplus.to/RayWJ STORE: http://www.raywj.com/shop/ WEBSITE: http://raywj.com =3 Tshirt Girl: http://twitter.com/TheKylaLeon EQUALS 3 IN SPANISH: http://www.youtube.com/IgualATres ********************************************************************** Here are the links to the full reviews of the content discussed in this video. Please don't harass the video creators or send them hate-messages.
-
BBC News - Business
-
Greece leaders agree cuts package
9 Feb 2012 | 6:24 amGreek politicians reach a deal on austerity measures needed for a new bailout, officials say, as eurozone finance ministers gather in Brussels. -
Ofcom targets switching slammers
9 Feb 2012 | 5:59 amOfcom proposed new measures to prevent consumers being switched from one phone or broadband service to another without their consent. -
Holiday protection to be expanded
9 Feb 2012 | 5:20 amUp to six million UK holidaymakers will get extra protection from 30 April if an operator collapses. -
ECB leaves euro rates unchanged
9 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amThe European Central Bank leaves its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.0% at its latest monthly meeting. -
Bank injects £50bn into economy
9 Feb 2012 | 4:51 amThe Bank of England agrees to extend its quantitative easing programme by £50bn to give a further boost to the UK economy.
-
TechCrunch
-
German Court Upholds Previous Ruling, Says The Reworked Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N Can Be Sold
9 Feb 2012 | 5:36 amMark one up for Samsung. After months of legal and PR battles, the South Korean company is finally able to sell and market their iPad clone in Germany. Just don’t call it an iPad clone anymore. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N (pictured left) is slightly different from the iPad — but that’s all that matters. Samsung released the Galaxy Tab 10.1N late last year. This version features a silver boarder around the screen’s black bezel. The speakers were also relocated in a stereo configuration and now flank the screen. The original GalTab 10.1 was a blatant iPad ripoff. This… -
Oracle Buys Talent Management Solutions Company Taleo For $1.9 Billion
9 Feb 2012 | 5:05 amOracle this morning announced that it is acquiring cloud-based talent management solutions provider Taleo for $46 per share or roughly $1.9 billion, net of Taleo’s cash and debt. Taleo’s solutions basically help organizations attract, motivate and retain human capital, and will service to boost Oracle’s Public Cloud offering. The transaction is expected to close in the Summer of 2012. Here’s how Oracle pitches the buy: Together, Oracle and Taleo expect to create a comprehensive cloud offering for organizations to manage their Human Resource operations and employee… -
Glam Media Cooks Up Newest Content Vertical With Foodie.com
9 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amGlam Media, one of the largest publishing and advertising networks on the Web, is debuting its newest branded vertical—Foodie.com. As its name indicates, Glam’s newest vertical is aimed at covering all things food, and features a combination of content from food critics, bloggers, chefs, restaurateurs and other “food influentials.” For background, Glam’s various publishing verticals have a reach of 200 million unique monthly visitors globally, and is particularly popular amongst female audiences. Glam Media has more than 2,500 publishers organized across multiple… -
Clusterpoint Secures €1m From BaltCap To Scale Its Database For Clouds
9 Feb 2012 | 4:44 amBaltCap, a leading venture investor in startups in the Baltics region, has signed a €1 million investment in Clusterpoint, an enterprise software startup created by Latvian programmers and backed by seed investors in the UK and Baltics. Clusterpoint has built a database platform designed for cloud computing infrastructure which they claim is highly scalable. They are competing against open source solutions such as MongoDB. -
Live from Riga – TechCrunch Baltics meetup #TCBaltics
9 Feb 2012 | 3:37 amWe’re running the first ever TechCrunch Baltics meetup today with a mini-conference and pitch contest in the lovely city of Riga, Latvia. The Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are tiny countries, but punch above their weight in terms of their technical prowess. Estonia in particular was made famous as being the base from which Skype was developed, and now the rest of the region is coming alive with startups and accelerators. You can find the agenda here. Up to 8 selected Baltic startups will pitch to a jury and audience that includes many key investors in the region and…
-
Mashable!
-
Twitter to Get First Look at Several New York Fashion Week Collections
9 Feb 2012 | 6:35 amIt worked for Burberry, so why couldn’t it work for us? So seems to be the thought process of several prominent U.S. fashion labels during New York Fashion Week, all of which are planning their own takes on the “Tweetwalk” Burberry debuted at its womenswear show in September 2011. The London-based fashion house made headlines when it posted photos of every look from its Spring/Summer 2012 collection on Twitter seconds before they appeared on the catwalk. The initiative generated a huge amount of interest on Twitter — so much so that both “#Burberry” and “Christopher… -
DebtEye Changes Name to SpringCoin — An Intuitive Debt Management Tool
9 Feb 2012 | 6:22 amDebtEye announced Wednesday it is now SpringCoin, a learning-focused financial planning website that gets more intuitive as you use it. John Sun, CEO of San Francisco-based SpringCoin, started the business under the name DebtEye in February 2011. It was one of the start-ups at the notable Y Combinator start-up incubator and funding machine founded by Harj Taggar. SpringCoin helps customers meet financial needs and figure out how to pay off their debts by improving their financial literacy and by creating goals. “There’s a mentality that this stuff (finance) is above them and… -
Google Wants a 2.25% Cut of Every iPhone Sale
9 Feb 2012 | 6:06 amLooking to earn back some of the $12.5 billion it’s spending to buy Motorola Mobility, Google sent a letter to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers looking for a maximum 2.25% cut of sales for phones that use Motorola’s technology, including Apple‘s iPhone. The letter, which went out to the IEEE on Wednesday, outlines Google’s position on Motorola patents if and when the proposed takeover is executed. (Reports say it could happen next week.) Most striking was Google’s insistence on continuing to enforce a 2.25% fee on iPhones based on the… -
NASA TV Goes HD … Finally
9 Feb 2012 | 5:48 amNASA Wednesday upgraded the broadcast channels it operates to high-def. The two NASA TV channels, one for the public and the other for media, will switch to HD formats on Feb. 17 — or about five years after HDTV went mainstream in the U.S. The upgrade to NASA TV’s Public Channel (channel 101) affects the most people. The channel is carried by many cable and satellite providers, NASA says, and shows coverage of the agency’s missions and events as well as documentaries and archival programming. The Media Channnel (channel 103) is for local, national and world news… -
Today’s Top Stories: Google’s Cloud Storage, iPad Rumors
9 Feb 2012 | 5:36 amWelcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. Today, we’re looking at three particularly interesting stories. Google to Launch Cloud Storage Service [REPORT] Google plans to launch a cloud storage service similar to Dropbox, according to a report by WSJ. Google’s service will be called Drive, and it will let users store and share photos, videos and other documents in Google’s cloud, say sources familiar with the matter. iPad 3 Might Come With Different Screen and Thicker Case A…
-
Automotive News Breaking News Feed
-
Huntsman, former presidential candidate, joins Ford's board
9 Feb 2012 | 6:22 amJon M. Huntsman, former Republican presidential candidate and ambassador to China, has been elected to Ford's board of directors effective immediately, the company said today. -
Ford's Booth, Kuzak set to retire on April 1
9 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amFord CFO Lewis Booth and global product development chief Derrick Kuzak -- key architects of the automaker's recovery -- will retire on April 1. -
Chrysler in talks to form financing JV, sources say
8 Feb 2012 | 1:41 pmChrysler is in talks with banks to create a financing joint venture that would help the automaker build on its recent sales momentum, sources say. -
ANALYSIS: Prius C shrinks in size, price
8 Feb 2012 | 12:25 pmToyota is enlarging the Prius family by adding a vehicle that is smaller and lower-priced than the original Prius. The Prius C -- the C stands for 'city' -- is based on the subcompact Yaris platform. -
Opel losses mount, GM seeks union-backed cuts
8 Feb 2012 | 11:40 amGeneral Motors will report a loss of more than $300 million at its troubled Opel unit next week, as the U.S. automaker races to cut costs that can win the backing of its German union, people familiar with the situation said.
-
Most Viewed
-
FIGHTING THE ELEPHANT - Ray William Johnson Video
7 Feb 2012 | 7:21 pmFIGHTING THE ELEPHANT - Ray William Johnson Video THANX FOR SUBSCRIBING TO MY VIDEOS!! :D MY TWITTER: https://twitter.com/RayWJ MY FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/raywilliamjohnson MY GOOGLE+ http://Gplus.to/RayWJ STORE: http://www.raywj.com/shop/ WEBSITE: http://raywj.com =3 Tshirt Girl: http://twitter.com/TheKylaLeon EQUALS 3 IN SPANISH: http://www.youtube.com/IgualATres ********************************************************************** Here are the links to the full reviews of the content discussed in this video. Please don't harass the video creators or send them hate-messages. -
LINDSAY LOHAN AS TALENTED AS PROP 8 IS CONSTITUTIONAL!!
7 Feb 2012 | 2:52 pmLINDSAY LOHAN AS TALENTED AS PROP 8 IS CONSTITUTIONAL!! Check out today's SourceFed!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWIosqbTnzc&list=PL8F30E917C5D2E4D4 FACEBOOK: http://on.fb.me/mqpRW7 TWITTER: http://Twitter.com/PhillyD Philly D OFFICIAL APP: http://bit.ly/aIyY0w ---------------------------- ALL of today's Stories: Motorcycle Circus Crash: http://gizmo.do/wtFsMD Lilyhammer Netflix Launch: http://gaw.kr/yIhQQb Machete Sequel?? http://bit.ly/x8GcAC New Spiderman Trailer: http://chzb.gr/zL5dwi Best. Bet. Ever: http://bit.ly/wuK5Pf Lindsay Lohan Photos: http://gaw.kr/xAWWoc Jessica… -
Minecraft - The Tourist - Part 1, The Basilica
7 Feb 2012 | 2:13 pmMinecraft - The Tourist - Part 1, The Basilica The boys have a much needed holiday in France, but they fall asleep on the tour bus and things... er... well, they take a turn for the worse. As usual. ♪ Music from Kevin Macleod "Agnus Dei X" "Chromatic Fantasia" "Spring Thaw" http://www.incompetech.com https://yogscast.com/showthread.php?46450-ADV-PUZ-THE-TOURIST-an-amazing-adventure-in-PARIS Editing by Hannah: http://www.youtube.com/yogscast2 ● Yogscast Gear: http://yogscast.spreadshirt.co.uk/ ● Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/yogscast ●… -
God Bless America Trailer HD
7 Feb 2012 | 11:41 amGod Bless America Trailer HD Starring: Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr, Larry Miller, Melinda Page Hamilton, Geoff Pierson Director: Bob Goldthwait Studio: Magnet Releasing Genre: Comedy / Drama Rating: NR Running Time: 1 hour 39 minutes Release Date: May 11, 2012 Official Site: http://www.facebook.com/godble... SYNOPSIS: Loveless, jobless and possibly terminally ill, Frank has had enough of the downward spiral of America. With nothing left to lose, Frank takes his gun and decides to off the stupidest, cruelest and most repellent members of society with an unusual accomplice: 16-year-old Roxy,… -
Giants Parade FAIL. What Giants player do you want to see? ... SANCHEZZZZZZZZZ!
7 Feb 2012 | 9:34 amGiants Parade FAIL. What Giants player do you want to see? ... SANCHEZZZZZZZZZ! Girl says the Giants player she wants to see is Sanchez ... SMH SHE FOLLOWS IT UP WITH SAYING PEYTON LMAOOOOO DISGRACEFUL. I guess when you win the Superbowl everyone becomes a fan. From: WHYTEWUNDER Views: 849447 682 ratings Time: 00:26 More in Sports
-
Reuters Video: Most Popular
-
Ban urges Syria talks
8 Feb 2012 | 9:05 pmFeb. 9 - The U.N Secretary General appeals for an end to civilian deaths as Syrian forces step up their bombardment of the city of Homs. Paul Chapman reports. -
Under water in Peru
8 Feb 2012 | 4:48 pmFeb. 8 - Thousands are forced to evacuate their flooded homes as torrential rains cause swollen rivers to break their banks in Peru. Deborah Lutterbeck reports. -
Ugly secrets of fashion business
8 Feb 2012 | 3:48 pmFeb 8 - Runway models say the beautiful world of fashion comes with ugly labor conditions, prompting the creation of a workers' rights group ahead of New York Fashion Week. Bobbi Rebell reports. -
Video captures Santiago subway derailment
8 Feb 2012 | 11:42 amFeb. 8 - No injuries were reported after a subway train in Santiago derails and crashes into an apartment building. Rough Cut (no reporter narration) -
Putin warns against interference in Russia
8 Feb 2012 | 11:17 amFeb. 8 - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says the world faces a growing "cult of violence" and Moscow must not let events like those in Libya and Syria be repeated in Russia. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.
-
@ProBlogger
-
6 Powerful Guest Post Tactics that No One’s Talking About
9 Feb 2012 | 6:05 amThis guest post is by Tom Ewer of Leaving Work Behind. Guest posting is a hot topic amongst startup bloggers. It is one of the most widely-adopted blog promotion strategies in existence, and has been made perhaps even more popular by the success of “serial” guest posters such as Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing. His “blitzkrieg” strategy may come across to some as a triumph of quantity over strategy, but nothing could be further from the truth. He understands the key concepts that we will be exploring in this post, and executes them in a highly effective manner. Whilst… -
How to Succinctly Report a Blog Issue to Tech Support
8 Feb 2012 | 6:07 amThis guest post is by Matthew Setter of Malt Blue. How often do you find it happening to you? You discover an issue with your site, or one of your community members emails you to tell you about it, and soon you start to see tweets about it too. Maybe it’s as simple as an error message that detracts from the professional appearance of your site. Perhaps the contact form doesn’t send messages to your contact email address. Or is it that the whole site just displays as a blank page, otherwise known as the white page of death? You’re not a programmer, a software engineer or a seasoned… -
Make Your Blog Load Faster than ProBlogger: Part 2
7 Feb 2012 | 12:05 pmThis guest post is by Devesh of WP Kube. A few months ago, I wrote a guest post here called How to Make Your Blog Load Faster than ProBlogger. Today, I’ll go into some more detailed advice to help you speed up your site even more. If you’re a blogger, you already know about the importance of blog loading speed, and the role it plays in search engine rank and marketing your blog. But if this is new territory for you, here are three quick reasons why you need to speed up your blog: Google includes website loading speed as an important metric in their ranking algorithm. If you want… -
How I Beat my Best Month Ever by Doing Something Good, Better [Case Study]
7 Feb 2012 | 6:04 amMid-December 2010: on my photography site, we launched a new campaign—our first ever 12 Days of Christmas promotion. The result was my biggest month of earnings ever up to that point. The idea was simple: offer discounts on 12 products over the 12 days leading up to Christmas. I used a mix of my own ebooks and products from other photography sites with affiliate commissions. The result was massive. Not only did we see some great revenue generated, it created some lovely buzz on the site. Due to the success of the 2010 campaign, in mid-December 2011 we launched our second 12 Days of… -
Six Steps to Make Sure Your Site Is Ready to Go Viral
6 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amThis guest post is by Nancy Sathre-Vogel of Family on Bikes. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Surely Google Analytics was confusing my site with another, way more popular site. There was no way my visitor numbers could be so high! And yet they were. One of my posts had taken off and was spreading like wildfire. Those viral post phenomena that happen to others were now happening to me. The first day, 17,000 visitors came to my website. The next day we topped out at 56,000. Readers were coming in droves. It was exciting. It was exhilarating. My site, viral! Wow! And then I took a…
-
BBC News - Technology
-
Ofcom targets switching slammers
9 Feb 2012 | 5:59 amOfcom proposes new measures to prevent consumers being switched from one phone or broadband service to another without their consent. -
CNN man off air for Beckham tweet
8 Feb 2012 | 6:03 pmCNN suspends a political analyst for sending tweets during the Super Bowl that sparked a homophobia outcry. -
VIDEO: A380 wing crack checks to be extended
8 Feb 2012 | 4:30 pmAircraft maker Airbus has been ordered to check all A380 superjumbo planes currently in service after cracks were found in wing components. -
Groupon reports unexpected loss
8 Feb 2012 | 2:32 pmIn its first set of results as a public company, Groupon reports an unexpected loss of $42.7m (£27.0m), when a small profit had been expected. -
Cisco sees profits rise over 43%
8 Feb 2012 | 2:32 pmUS technology giant Cisco says rising quarterly sales show that its cost-cutting plans are bearing fruit.
-
Holy Kaw!
-
The content marketing explosion [infographic]
9 Feb 2012 | 4:44 amVia Blue Glass Interactive. Marketing infographics. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
8 historical figures who ate disgusting things
8 Feb 2012 | 11:26 pmBefore you read this article, you may have thought your dog had the grossest eating habits ever. But Fido's penchant for poo is nothing compared to some of these sickos highlighted in Cracked. For example, Victorian scientist William Buckland: He didn't just stop at the meat of animals, either. While on a visit to St. Paul's Cathedral, a strange mark was found on the floor. A debate broke out as to what the stain could possibly be, at which point Buckland got on his hands and knees, licked the stain and confidently announced it to be bat piss. But the craziest thing Buckland ever did, at… -
5 explanations of why teenagers act the way the do
8 Feb 2012 | 11:22 pmUnderstanding the teenage mind could be a life's work. For those of you who don't have that kind of time, however, Mental Floss gives five things that could explain the mind of the teenager. For example, parents, have you ever wondered if your teenager is somehow getting dumber? Parents of teens often wonder what happened to the bright child they used to have. How can someone go from getting A’s to getting C’s when they seem to be doing the same amount of work? Once again, changes in the brain are to blame. While the merits of IQ tests are debatable, scientists used to think IQ… -
Surviving the loss of a star employee
8 Feb 2012 | 11:16 pmSome groups have stellar members who carry the team. That's all well and good until that member leaves. Then what? This Smartblog video will help you answer that question: Full story at Smartblog on Leadership. Top news for leaders. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Disneyland circa 1957 [video]
8 Feb 2012 | 11:14 pmThis video was shot in 1957, less than two years after Disneyland had opened. The footage is newly restored and ready to take you to the happiest place on earth as it was in its early days. Full story at Mental Floss. All the top Internet videos in one place. Permalink | Leave a comment »
-
Twitter Blog
-
Post-Bowl Twitter analysis
6 Feb 2012 | 1:06 pmThe results are in: People love to share the experience of watching the Super Bowl with millions of other viewers from around the world. Whether it’s cheering for your team, commenting on the halftime show or discussing the ads, it seems you have a lot to say about this annual tradition—and you’re using Twitter to say it.Here’s a fun fact: in 2008, Twitter’s largest spike in Tweets per second (TPS) during the Super Bowl was just 27. Three years later, fans sent 4,064 TPS, which was the highest TPS for any sporting event at that time.This year, the TPS peak was 12,233 Tweets. The… -
Roar of the crowd: Super Bowl on Twitter
2 Feb 2012 | 11:34 amFrom @TimTebow leading the Denver Broncos to a shocking overtime win (and a new record for sports-related Tweets per second: 9,420) to San Diego Chargers receiver @ericweddle1’s sideline Tweets from the Pro Bowl—we watched all of the NFL post-season’s most memorable moments come alive on Twitter.And while the @Giants and @Patriots’ rematch and halftime show play out on TV, the national conversation is happening well beyond your den: it also happens on Twitter. Follow your favorite NFL players, coaches and commentators during the game, or just search for #SuperBowl to see how everyone… -
Tweets still must flow
26 Jan 2012 | 11:25 amSee below for an update.One year ago, we posted "The Tweets Must Flow," in which we said,“The open exchange of information can have a positive global impact … almost every country in the world agrees that freedom of expression is a human right. Many countries also agree that freedom of expression carries with it responsibilities and has limits.”As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for… -
Hack Week @ Twitter
25 Jan 2012 | 12:20 pmHack Week is one of the ways we actively promote innovation through experimentation around the company. This week, a wide range of folks here are taking time away from their day-to-day work to collaborate and develop ideas that they are passionate about. Get comfortable with uncertainty; it leaves room for inspiration. #hackweek— benji shine (@bshine) January 24, 2012Employees across the company have formed nearly 100 teams to work on a variety of projects. Some are developing ways that could make Twitter even easier to use; others are testing out a new feature or tool that people might… -
Twitter Translation Center adds Right-to-Left Languages
25 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amBeginning today, right-to-left languages are now available for volunteers to translate in the Twitter Translation Center, starting with Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu. The Twitter Translation Center takes a crowd-sourced approach to translating and localizing Twitter for people around the world. More than 425,000 volunteers contribute to the Translation Center, and to date have helped make Twitter available in 22 languages. With their help, these will be the next four.As we prepare to add Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu to Twitter, we’ve developed new ways to ensure that Tweets and hashtags…
-
Entrepreneur Update
-
Four Questions to Ask Before Setting a Price
9 Feb 2012 | 5:03 amBefore you figure out your pricing, figure out your business. -
Three Ways to Extend the Battery Life of Smartphones and Tablets
9 Feb 2012 | 4:00 amConsider these options for extending the battery life of your mobile devices. -
Fashion Mogul Christopher Burch Talks Business
9 Feb 2012 | 2:00 amAs Fashion Week kicks off, we sat down with the man behind brands like Tory Burch and Monika Chiang to find out what it takes to make it in the business. -
Seven Ways to Kill Your Meetings and Unleash Productivity
8 Feb 2012 | 12:08 pmDespite studies showing that meetings are a colossal waste of time, they remain common. Here's how to collaborate while cutting back on meetings. -
The Danger of Being Franchisee No. 1
8 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amSure, it's a thrill to get in on the ground floor of a hot new concept. But it's risky to invest in an unproven business model. Here are questions to ask.
-
Auto Express: News
-
SsangYong to reveal Juke rival
9 Feb 2012 | 4:44 amSsangYong XIV-1 concept seen at Frankfurt will inspire the firm's new Juke rival -
Chevrolet Cruze Station Wagon
9 Feb 2012 | 3:28 amNew Chevrolet Cruze Station Wagon debuts at the Geneva Motor Show with new 1.7-litre diesel -
Chevrolet Cruze Estate
9 Feb 2012 | 3:28 amChevrolet Cruze Estate revealed for the first time ahead of its debut at the Geneva Motor Show -
Kia Track'ster unveiled
8 Feb 2012 | 8:30 amNew hot hatch Kia takes on Ford Focus ST with a 247bhp 2.0-litre turbocharged engine and four-wheel drive -
BMW Family Activity Sports Tourer - BMW Family Activity Sports Tourer
8 Feb 2012 | 3:36 amOur spies have caught the front-wheel-drive BMW FAST family car in cold-weather testing
-
Top news for Digg Business Newsroom
-
Facebook rolling out lightbox photo viewer globally by end of week
8 Feb 2012 | 12:54 pmFacebook is rolling out its lightbox photo viewer to all 840 million of its users by the end of this week, according to a spokesperson for the company, who confirmed the deadline to VentureBeat in ... -
Work At Home Without Feeling Isolated - The Consumerist
9 Feb 2012 | 6:09 amThose who work at home tend to make office drones jealous of their supposed freedom, but there's also a downside to telecommuting. Everyone needs social interaction on some level, and working from home severely limits workers' opportunities to connect with others. Here are some tips -
The Staggering Cost of a Bad Hire
8 Feb 2012 | 6:42 pmEveryone has worked with someone who simply didn't belong in the workforce at one time or another. These are the people that cost companies more in many cases than they bring to the table. -
DVDs Are Dying, and There's Worse News Ahead for Hollywood
9 Feb 2012 | 6:21 amDVDs -- and even their more modern Blu-ray siblings -- are gradually fading to black, as VHS and LaserDisc did before them. Movie studios have seen this coming for some time. Problem is, it's part of a bigger trend they may not be able to overcome. -
Jobless Decline Masks Drop in U.S. Labor Force
8 Feb 2012 | 8:31 amThe unemployment rate’s unexpected drop to a three-year low has overshadowed a less-positive labor- market development: fewer Americans are looking for work.
-
Top news for Digg Sports Newsroom
-
Penalty minutes and how they can help you in fantasy hockey
9 Feb 2012 | 5:42 amIn the world of daily fantasy hockey, goals and assists get all the glory (as they should). When you’re setting up your rosters, your mouse gravitates to the men high on the leaderboard. After all, that’s where the points come from. Mostly. -
35 Greatest High School McDonald’s All Americans Ever
9 Feb 2012 | 5:47 amFor the 35th Anniversary of the McDonald's All-American High School Basketball Game, check out the 35 greatest players to ever play in the event. -
Duke's Austin Rivers Breaks UNC's Heart at the Buzzer [VID]
9 Feb 2012 | 6:20 amDoc Rivers’ son Austin Rivers provided another great chapter in an already storied rivalry. -
Watch live England press conference
9 Feb 2012 | 5:08 amLIVE VIDEO: WATCH reaction from Wembley as the FA give their reaction to Fabio Capello's resignation -
Hot Reporter Strips in Times Square
9 Feb 2012 | 5:39 amMaria Menounos of "Extra" recently lost a Super Bowl bet fellow correspondent AJ Calloway. Menounos, a longtime Patriots fan, bet Calloway that if New England lost, she would strip down to her bikini in Times Square. Fortunately for all of us, she lost.
-
Influential Marketing
-
The Best And Worst Of Super Bowl Marketing Strategy 2012
6 Feb 2012 | 1:40 amI couldn't help but feel sorry this year for anyone who only watches the Super Bowl ads for entertainment. Perhaps the most defining feature of all the ads this year was how uniformly uncreative and dated they were. Marketers turned to old and obvious gags like girls in bikinis and dogs (lots of dogs) to try and carry their ads. The result was a very disappointing collection of ads for anyone who loves marketing and the hype of Super Bowl advertising. Still, there is plenty of marketing to learn from all the efforts this year, so let's get started in breaking down the strategy behind the ads… -
What The Amish Paradox Can Teach You About Marketing
3 Feb 2012 | 4:01 amLast year on a trip back to the US from South Africa, I picked up a magazine about a topic I knew very little about. It is of the common tricks I use to learn about different industries outside of the ones I work directly with – and in this case, the magazine I ended up with was called Farmer’s Weekly. The content was as you would expect, advice for farmers on techniques, information about regulations that will affect their industry and ads for tractors and things like that. In the middle of the issue I picked up was a feature article about what the author called the “Amish Paradox”… -
The 4 Principles Of Delusional Economics
27 Jan 2012 | 4:59 amWhen it comes to economic theories, there is plenty of fascination in the business world around how to explain what drives business and purchasing activities. Behavioural economics, the field of economics concerned with examining why people behave the way they do when it comes to their purchasing behaviour, is hot right now. Bestselling books like Freakonomics and Predictably Irrational dig deep into the psyche of people to try and explain seemingly illogical actions. My own upcoming book called Likeonomics, to some degree, looks at a similar theme of why we do business with people and… -
FinnAir, Republic Day & Why Celebration Is The Best Marketing Strategy
26 Jan 2012 | 8:28 amA few weeks ago it was my birthday. The day before on a Saturday morning, my two boys came leaping into our room very excited to wake me up. It wasn't so much about my birthday, unfortunately, as it was about getting ready to do their favourite thing on a Saturday morning: going to IHOP for pancakes. And when there is a birthday involved, it is an even bigger deal. Your birthday is a celebration there. They bring over at least 6 of the wait staff to sing their own version of the birthday song to you. You get ice cream for breakfast (what kid wouldn't love that?). People love celebrations -… -
Honda Masters The Art of Marketing Timing
23 Jan 2012 | 6:44 pmEvery year at the start of the new year there is something that most of us do without realizing it. It is related to making new year's resolutions, but it is more about sequencing your long term goals into the order in which you want to achieve them. One example might be saying to yourself, "I want to be married and then have a kid before I turn 35." Life is full of these little promises. So full, in fact, that often we make them to ourselves without even thinking. It raises an interesting marketing question as well. What would it take to get a customer to reevaluate the life sequence they…
-
MarketingVox News & Trends
-
Top News: Google's cloud storage service | GigaOm buys PaidContent | Groupon's earnings
9 Feb 2012 | 5:28 amCloud Services: Google near launch of cloud storage service. Social Media: Google Social is exploding online. Skimlinks is the real story behind Pinterest’s success. Publishing: GigaOm buys PaidContent.org. Ecommerce: Groupon shares decline after Q4 loss. Retail: Google may open retail store at European headquarters in Dublin. Mobile Computing: Protesters target Apple stores in 'ethical iPhone' campaign. Google: We want 2.25% of the iPhone sticker price. Privacy: Privacy warriors sue FTC [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/marketingvox/rss/~4/fdiduvxIEWI"…
-
HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog
-
The History of Marketing: An Exhaustive Timeline [INFOGRAPHIC]
9 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amEver since people have had something to sell, we’ve been marketing. But the effectiveness of those marketing methods have waxed and waned over thousands of years, and as consumers and their technologies advanced at a more and more rapid pace, marketers have had to change their game. At one time, cutting edge technology was limited to just a small segment of the population – and these advancements were slowly rolled out to the masses over decades (and even centuries!). Now, adoption rates are faster than the speed of light and more widespread than ever – and it’s… -
How to Score Your Leads So Sales Works the Hottest Prospects
8 Feb 2012 | 1:47 pmThe good news about inbound marketing is that it can help you attract high volumes of leads. The challenge then becomes, how do you separate the good, quality leads from the people who are just starting to look around? That’s where lead management, and specifically, lead scoring comes in. With lead scoring, you can attach values to each of your leads based on their professional information and the behavior they’ve exhibited on your website. For example, you would likely rank a vice president-level lead who has spent time on both your products and pricing page higher than an… -
A Marketer's Complete Guide to Launching Mobile Apps
8 Feb 2012 | 10:02 amAccording to former CEO of AppVee and AndroidApps Alex Ahlund, the average cost to develop a mobile app is $6,453 -- and the cost can skyrocket to as much as $150,000 depending on the complexity of the app. Wherever you fall on that spectrum, the money and resources you dedicate to conceptualizing and developing a truly great mobile app can all be put to waste if you don't orchestrate a proper mobile app launch. In fact, in December 2011, the 1 millionth mobile app was pushed to market. To give you an idea of just how quickly these mobile apps are being released, at the end of 2010, there… -
How to Attract the RIGHT Social Media Followers for Your Business
8 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amThe benefits of an extensive social reach are clear, but how do you attract the right followers for your company? As with most inbound marketing, relevancy can make or break the effectiveness of your strategy. So to ensure you have a social media following that helps you advance your marketing objectives, start by identifying a set of core topics that reflect the interests of people who typically become your customers. If you're a HubSpot customer, you can use the Keywords App and the Social Media Prospects App to help with this. For example, we at HubSpot would choose the… -
Why User-Generated Content Is More Important Than You Think
7 Feb 2012 | 11:33 amA certain group of consumers has been gaining attention from marketers recently, because of the strong role they play in the purchasing decision; these power purchasers are known as Generation Y. Whether they're part of the target audience to which you sell or not, this group is worth considering as part of your inbound marketing strategy because there's a strong likelihood they either will become part of your target audience in the future, or because they already influence your target audience now. Let's break down who these power purchasers are, some of the interesting demographics and…
-
Online Marketing Blog
-
Good Content Marketing vs. Great Content Marketing: Learn the Difference From Joe Pulizzi #OMS12
9 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amIf you are part of the online marketing or content marketing industry you have undoubtably heard of Joe Pulizzi (@juntajoe) and his company the Content Marketing Institute (CMI). Joe has been a member of the content marketing community for over a decade, and has made it his mission to help brands create quality content and distribute that content through multiple online channels. This was my first time seeing Joe speak and he made it a great interactive experience, and was of course wearing his trademark Orange. I enjoyed the history that Joe shared with the audience as well as his… -
Innovative Search Features Drive Engagement – Paul Vallez #OMS12
8 Feb 2012 | 3:30 am"Google taught us how to search." - Paul Vallez Paul Vallez admits that when he started at HP less than a year ago he had just come from Ask.com and was pretty cocky about what he knew. Vallez also shares that he wasn’t very open to new ideas and wanted to step into his new position at a big brand and immediately demonstrate value. What was his approach? 75% Cocky 25% Open to new ideas In Vallez’s presentation he identified what he called “3 Key Learnings” that he shared with the audience for improving the way that your search strategy is implemented for… -
#Optimize This: Online Marketing Summit 2012 Presentation
6 Feb 2012 | 7:21 amI’m headed to (hopefully) sunny San Diego today for the annual Online Marketing Summit conference where I’ll get to present on one of my favorite topics: Optimization. Of course, if you read Online Marketing Blog very often, you’ll know my definition of optimization is a bit different than traditional SEO. My post last Thursday “Are You Optimized?” touched on this. The competition for attendance during the breakout sessions at OMS is really tough during the time slot I’m scheduled for. SAP, Wider Funnel and SAP are all presenting at the same time as… -
Online Marketing News: Facebook IPO, Harmonize with Google+, Pinterest Dominates Traffic
3 Feb 2012 | 4:55 amFacebook in Numbers: Prior to the IPO The big news in social media and business this week is Facebook’s new IPO. This infographic from statista and creative commons shares some very interesting figures about Facebook, before it goes public. Highlights include: In 2012 Facebook is expected to reach: 90% of U.S. Social Network Users & 60% of Internet Users. Assuming a valuation of $100 billion, Facebook would be work 67 to 100x’s it’s estimated 2011 net income. The Social Media Buzz “How to Harmonize Google+ With Your Other Social Platforms” Search Plus has placed even more… -
Essential Shifts in Online Marketing: Are You On Board? Are You Optimized?
2 Feb 2012 | 7:21 amIs your company adaptable? Is your marketing optimized? I think most online marketers get the fact that marketing and communications on the web is a fast changing place and that most companies are structured to move at a slower pace than the digital world is evolving. Take for example, the notion of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It’s been around for about 15 years or so and in just the past few months Google has made the most significant changes ever. Despite the crystal clear focus towards search integration with social, many companies and digital pundits are still skeptical about…
-
Social Media Marketing
-
Foursquare in Context
29 Jan 2012 | 8:11 pmIf you're a regular user of services like Twitter or Foursquare, you've undoubtedly been met with skeptics and naysayers who wonder aloud, "Why would I want to tell anyone what I'm having for lunch?" or "Why would I care if someone is having a ham sandwich?"Fair enough, but the inquisitors fail to take into account the all-important factor in any conversation, whether it's in person or online: context.Context is what allows us to make sense of much of the world around us. "He's so bad!" could have two very different meanings, depending on the the rest of the conversation surrounding it. With… -
Social Media and Travel
26 Jan 2012 | 9:37 pmIf you're like me, you spend a good deal of time on the road. Whether it's at an airport, on a train or in a car, you're mobile and your digital life is mobile too.The pervasiveness of tablets and smartphones (in addition to the already ubiquitous laptop) is growing daily. Just this week, Apple announced that it sold 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads in the fourth quarter of 2011 alone. It means that more of us are doing things on the web (or mobile web, as the case may be) while we're on the go, and there are certain things those of us in the digital world look for when we travel -… -
Revealing a New Ford in a New Way
13 Dec 2011 | 6:00 pmFord Motor Company has been at the forefront of social media for some time. The Fiesta Movement, the Explorer reveal on Facebook, Doug the Spokespuppet, Ford Social (formerly known as The Ford Story) and being the first brand on Google+ all stand as examples of Ford's success that spans from clever campaigns to a daily commitment to engage.Ford played a significant part in how the automotive industry thinks about social media (and in some cases how large companies think about social media) and now, as we near the 2012 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), at Ford we have an… -
Infographic: 5 Companies That Are Rocking Social Media
29 Nov 2011 | 8:47 amThis infographic was created by Voltier Digital, a content marketing agency based in Florida, specializing on the creation and promotion of impactful content marketing campaigns for businesses of all sizes.We all know the usual names of companies that are doing well in social media. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the lesser-knowns and why they've had success, either on an ongoing basis or with some one-off efforts that stood out.And since infographics are all the rage, what better way to look at them? Of course, for SEO purposes, I've listed them here as… -
Twitter Business Guide
7 Oct 2011 | 8:53 pmI was recently introduced to a compact guidebook for businesses trying to get a sense of Twitter. The microblogging site that allows you to update in no more than 140 characters at at time is deceptively complex and nuanced - especially for a newcomer.This short guide, entitled Twitter Business Guide: Communication and Marketing was written by Jean-Christophe Barré and Dr. Andreas Schroeter and in just 32 pages covers some of the things that may be keeping you and your business away from this platform. For someone who is new to Twitter, this e-book will prove a helpful compass as you…
-
Social Media B2B
-
The B2B Social Media Book as a Social Network
7 Feb 2012 | 4:26 amNow that the Kindle version of The B2B Social Media Book has been out for about six weeks, we’ve noticed something interesting. One feature of the Kindle is that highlighted passages not only show up in everyone’s version of the electronic version, but the most popular ones show on the Amazon website. This tells us (as authors of the book) which ideas most resonate with readers. But it also tells readers which ideas were noted by other readers. This builds some social proof for the ideas (“I can like this passage because others did”), but it also starts a community, or… -
Drive B2B Channel Sales With Social Media Content
6 Feb 2012 | 5:03 amSocial media works best for B2B companies when people connect directly around topics they are passionate about. Connections work even better when no one in the group is pushing a particular agenda. This allows the focus of the communications to be around joint learning, which draws crowds, versus thinly disguised sales pitches, which drives everyone toward the metaphorical door. There is no group better to foster these learning discussions than a company’s channel partners, especially for those companies lucky enough to have built out strong channel partner programs. Channel partners know… -
5 B2B Social Media Tactics Inspired by Facebook’s IPO
3 Feb 2012 | 5:34 amNow that Facebook has officially filed for their initial public offering, what does that mean for B2B marketers? Many IPOs bring a needed infusion of cash to companies, but according to their submitted documents, Facebook already has profits to the tune of $1 billion. 85% of their revenue comes from advertising. That means they encourage users to share information about themselves and Facebook uses the data to target users with advertising. Here are some ways you can better leverage the platform to reach your B2B prospects and customers now that Facebook will have to answer to public… -
Social Media Supports Changing B2B Buying Landscape
31 Jan 2012 | 4:58 amB2B marketers understand that they are operating in a different environment for a variety of reasons. These include a tighter economy, more rigor around business decision-making and the growing importance of social media in all B2B industries. Two recent charts with survey data from Marketing Sherpa show a changing landscape of B2B transactions. The first shows the change in average deal size from 2010 to 2011. More than half of the deals closed by B2B companies are under $10,000, with the largest number of them (32%) between $1,001 and $10,000. This indicates that many of the larger deals,… -
12 Revealing Stats About B2B Social Media Marketing
26 Jan 2012 | 5:30 amArticles about B2B social media marketing adoption often paint a rosy picture of the current landscape, but when you dig in deeper, there are many challenges in effectiveness and understanding the results. In a recent survey of 5,000 B2B marketers from all industries, Penton Marketing Services found some pretty revealing statistics. Click the link for the full report (registration form required). 1. 81% of B2B Marketers find online marketing moderately to extremely challenging. 2. 77% of B2B Marketers said their websites are not that effective at generating leads. 3. 60% of B2B Marketers have…
-
SmartBrief on Social Media
-
Do you worry that Facebook will start charging brands for Facebook pages after its initial public offering?
8 Feb 2012 | 9:29 am-More- -
Twitter under fire over Brazilian traffic-stop tweeters
8 Feb 2012 | 9:29 amBrazilian authorities are suing Twitter over accounts that publicize the locations of police roadblocks and speed traps to he -More- -
Interested in writing for SmartBlogs?
8 Feb 2012 | 9:29 amEveryone knows that SmartBrief aggregates the best content from around the Web, but did you know we also feature original blo -More- Manager, Digital & Social Media Research Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. -
Doritos' bandito baby wins USA TODAY-Facebook poll
8 Feb 2012 | 9:29 amAn ad featuring a grandmother sling-shotting a baby to snag a bag of Doritos won the USA TODAY-Facebook poll of best Super Bo -More- -
10 ways to write headlines that compel your customers to click
8 Feb 2012 | 9:29 amWithout an eye-catching headline, even the best blog posts and announcements can easily get lost in the often-overwhelming fl -More-
-
Social Media Marketing
-
Free Webinar: 2012 Social Media Strategies For Real Estate & Mortgage
19 Jan 2012 | 9:41 pmClick Here for Full View Social Media Strategies in 2012 for Mortgage and Real Estate Professionals– Tuesday, January 24, 2012 Discover How to Harness the Power of Social Media to Make More Money in 2012 Social media can be an inexpensive – yet lucrative means– to generate leads and grow your business. Join us for an in-depth look at how to implement Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media to excel in a “people-driven” economy this year. Join us for a free webinar hosted by Trevor Hammond, Founder and CEO of MFIC Pro:Social Media Strategies in 2012 for Mortgage… -
6 Most Popular Real Estate Social Media Posts
1 Jan 2012 | 7:09 amI hope 2012 brings you much success in all of your endeavors. I want to share with you the top blog posts that received the most shares, interactions and comments throughout the past year along with a few of my favorite new year pictures. photo credit: Shutterstock 12 Essential iPad Apps For Your Small Biz 10 Rockin’ Real Estate iPad Apps photo credit: Shutterstock HOW TO: Setup a Self-Hosted WordPress Blog Top 10 Real Estate Social Media Resources photo credit: Shutterstock Top 7 Famous Failures 7 Tips To Market Your Real Estate Biz w/Social Media in 30 min / Day Here’s… -
7 Tips To Market Your Real Estate Business with Social Media in 30 min / Day
9 Dec 2011 | 10:06 amI know your story…As a real estate or mortgage professional you just don’t have the time to deal with social media. I hear this every day – in fact I’m receiving many requests to start a company that manages social media profiles specifically for real estate and mortgage professionals. Here are 7 Tips To Market Your Real Estate Business with Social Media in 30 Minutes / Day Tip #1 Find Your Clients Favorite Social Media Sites As you attend events or meet new clients be sure to look them up on social networks to connect with them. This will allow you to maintain… -
3 Mistakes To Avoid Using Social Media For Real Estate
5 Sep 2011 | 6:57 pmThis is a great video from Scott Stratten author of Unmarketing. He focuses on things to avoid for Real Estate Agents. Be sure to implement these changes NOW! These sites Santa Clarita Breaking News Twitter & Santa Clarita Breaking News Facebook are a few examples of how to use community based events to draw people to your website. Naomi Trower Real Estate Broker Social Media Strategist Social Media Real Estate Marketing Are you a FAN? http://fb.com/RealEstateSocialMediaMarketing Share this on del.icio.us Digg this! Share this on Facebook Add this to Google Bookmarks Add this to Google… -
HOW TO: Give Your Heart At BlogWorld Expo LA
31 Aug 2011 | 12:00 amHere is my review of Blog World Expo 2010. Be sure to register for the 1st ever Blog World Expo LA 2011! What is the one thing that surprised you while you were at Blog World Expo 2010? For me, it was the few people that actually came to the microphone during the question part of the program and said, “First off, I want to give a personal plug about myself, check out my website blah, blah, blah…” Really? How many times do we have to share that it’s not about you? I thought I would share how to give your heart at events such as these. Then I will share my…
-
Brand Insight Blog
-
Conversion Branding. How to make your website work — on many levels.
17 Jan 2012 | 2:00 pmThere seems to be a trend in website development these days… more and more cookie-cutter, template-driven websites that are wearily one dimensional. The fact is, if you want the maximum return from your website investment, it needs to work on many different levels. Let’s look at what those are: The Functional, Phonebook Level In case you hadn’t noticed, the phone book is fading faster than the first generation Blackberry. Now that we all have a web-enabled computer in our hands at all times, Google is the phonebook of choice. So on the most basic level, your website needs to… -
Incongruity: Breaking through all the babaganoushit.
11 Nov 2011 | 3:58 pmSometimes, one single word is everything. The difference between a marketing home run and a dribbling bunt. I recently ran into a client who was completely fixated on one word in a headline: “Precious.” “Babies are precious, not parking places,” she argued. “Yes, but diamonds are also precious. And what’s more valuable than diamonds?” I countered. By using that one word I exaggerated the value of the free parking and elevated that little product feature to an entirely different realm. It was an effective use of incongruity in advertising, and she just couldn’t get her head… -
Brand authenticity — Keeping it real, honest, genuine and true.
28 Apr 2010 | 2:14 pmI hate buzzwords. Every time a new marketing term shows up on the cover of a book I find myself having to translate the jargon into something meaningful for ordinary, busy business people. Lately, it’s “Authenticity.” Seems “keeping it real” has become a household term. And a branding imperative. In The New Marketing Manifesto John Grant says “Authenticity is the benchmark against which all brands are now judged.” If that’s the case, we better have a damn good definition of what we’re talking about. “Authentic” is derived from the Greek authentikós,… -
Masterful Brand Management
8 Apr 2010 | 10:18 pmIt’s Masters Week — the biggest week of the year in golf, and a tide-turning event for several brands. Most notably, this one: The Tiger Woods logo for Nike Over the last 9 months the Tiger Woods brand has, shall we say, strayed a bit. The “indiscreations” of Tiger’s personal life have cost his brand millions in endorsement deals, and even more in public goodwill. As one sports writer put it, “it’s the most dramatic fall from grace in the history of sport.” For Tiger Woods and company, The Masters represents the perfect venue for a comeback, and an ideal brand affiliation. -
Inspiration For Office And Website Makeovers.
14 Mar 2010 | 12:30 pmMoved into a swanky new office building last week. (Great views of Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top, Three Sisters and the Phoenix Inn parking lot.) The Alexander Drake Building, Downtown Bend, OR As I was unpacking boxes, lifting heavy furniture and contemplating the feng shui, it occurred to me that professional service firms spend a lot of time and money on their office space. And rightly so. For companies with no tangible product to sell, it’s a crucial component of the brand. For instance, when it comes to selecting an ad agency, office space always figures into the equation. The workspace is…
-
Brand Mix
-
In taste, brand matters
19 Jan 2012 | 10:04 amMy latest post is out on MarketingDaily. In it, I talk about the power of packaging to influence taste. Research has show that people are highly sensitive to non-taste cues when they are evaluating the taste of something. As I say in the post: "It’s not just about the product inside. The brand matters because it tells consumers what to expect and influences how they evaluate a product." You may be curious which beer was the "outright loser" in my blind taste test (maybe as curious as I am about why this part of the story was edited out) but, hopefully, your curiosity is now satisfied. -
15 Social Media Tips for the holidays
14 Dec 2011 | 7:28 amHere's my holiday gift to my readers. To be honest, it's a regift, since these social media tips were originally published (in longer form) in the MarketingDaily. There are five tips on basic social media principles and approach and ten tips on criteria for planning social media programs. Principles 1. Be human Social media is about engaging with customers on a personal level, something marketers sometimes forget. In social media interaction, you should be asking yourself: 'What would a human do?' And do that. 2. Don’t overreach Most brands, especially CPG brands, aren't all that engaging… -
Lululemon puts an Ayn Rand stamp on yoga
21 Nov 2011 | 8:50 amLululemon has ridden the wave of yoga's popularity with great success, selling high end yoga clothes and promoting healthy living. So deciding to associate with a philosophy that's the antithesis of what yoga is all about seems a little odd, to say the least. As reported on NPR, the company's new shopping bags feature the question: "Who is John Galt?". And who is John Galt? He's the protagonist of Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged where she laid out her Objectivist philosophy, including the idea that selfishness is a virtue,a very un-yoga-like position. Why this seeming act of… -
Australia's new cigarette law bans branded packaging, tests branding principles
14 Nov 2011 | 8:06 amAustralia has become the first country in the world to ban the branding of cigarette packages. From next July, all packs will look like the one in the picture--they will be a deliberately unappealing olive green color, the brand of the manufacturer will be printed in a tiny, generic font (i.e. no trademarks) and the only images will be graphic health warnings. Thus the Australians are setting up an interesting, real world packaging test. What will happen when the new, generic packaging hits the shelves? The one thing that the government and the cigarette manufacturers agree on is that the… -
Moleskine misstep miffs most-loyals
25 Oct 2011 | 12:20 pmCommitting social media suicide by upsetting your most loyal fans is something of a trend. Netflix blazed a trail. And now it's Moleskine, maker of the "legendary" notebooks so beloved by the designers, following along. With apparently no sense of a design community hot button issue, Moleskine thought it might be kind of cool to organize a competition to design a new logo. In other words, to crowdsource it. That's, to say the least, not going down too well with one-time Moleskine lovers, now turning into Moleskine haters. Here's a comment posted on Moleskine's Facebook page by Seth Johnson…
-
Drew's Marketing Minute
-
The 5 things that will derail your marketing in 2012
8 Feb 2012 | 6:37 amI don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade but the truth is — most organizations’ marketing efforts stink. And they stink for reasons well within the marketing department’s control. If you’re worried that your own efforts might fall short — beware of these five danger zones that can derail you in a blink! Inconsistency: Does your monthly newsletter go out 5 times a year? Does your copy tone/style fluctuate between somber and casual? Are your weekly sales calls happening every week? Inconsistency not only waters down your results but it also… -
Crisis communications – don’t wait to create a plan
6 Feb 2012 | 6:10 amDoes your organization have a crisis communications plan that you could actually put into action at this very moment? All of the hubub surrounding the Susan G. Komen decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood and then their reversal of that decision following a 72+ hour firestorm of public outrage should have scared the bejesus out of you. If an organization as large, powerful and well respected as Komen can get into that much hot water — and is that ill-prepared to handle it then what in the world would happen to you if there was an accident on your job site, if your CFO embezzled… -
Don’t add frill until your core is rock solid
2 Feb 2012 | 6:15 amA couple times a month a cleaning company comes into our house and does a deep clean. Every time I walk into the house after they’ve cleaned… the toilet paper rolls and tissues sticking out of the boxes are folded in some sort of origami art. Sometimes, they leave a truffle on the kitchen counter. I get what they’re trying to do. And it’s a lovely little extra. Unfortunately, I also find things like: Every waste basket in the wrong spot (they’ve been cleaning the house for over a year) The back door unlocked or a window left open A few lights left on… -
What you don’t know about your sales funnel
30 Jan 2012 | 5:56 amWe all think and talk about our sales funnel a lot. We’re always saying things like: We need to keep it full. We need to stay active with the prospects that have been in it for awhile. On average, it takes a prospect X months to move through it. And so on…. But consider the statistic to the right. 60% of your sales efforts are what happens before you have actively put someone into the funnel. In other words — it’s not you who is doing the selling. Who is? Your existing customers The customer who left and is working with your competitors Your vendors Your website… -
What’s your purple goldfish?
11 Jan 2012 | 11:30 amGet your free copy of Stan Phelp’s book! A few years ago, I met Stan Phelps, another marketing guy, online (I think he commented on my blog and we started chatting via email) and before I knew it — we were friends. He was just dipping his toe into the blogging waters and I tried to be helpful along the way. Fast forward to today, January 11, 2012. Stan’s first book, What’s Your Purple Goldfish*, is being released today. I’ve read it and know you’re going to love it. Really love it. I’m also very humbled to say that Stan asked me to write the…
-
Big Marketing For Small Business
-
10 Tips for Improving Your Business Blog
6 Feb 2012 | 12:50 pmOne thing small businesses are always short of is time – and blogs take a lot of it. Here are 10 practical tips for making your blog more productive without the need for a huge investment of time or money. 1. Add Two Conversion Activities to Your Blog A fatal flaw for any blog is failing to offer readers a way to and a reason for contacting you. You should have two offers: one for browsers, and another for buyers. Browsers are window shoppers, information collectors; they will be interested in free downloads, white papers, etc. Buyers are in the market; they will be interested in special… -
SEO: Agency vs In-House
6 Feb 2012 | 12:36 pmWhen considering your business’s SEO needs, there are a few ways to go and each come with their own set of benefits and faults. Figuring out what is best for you or your company is a good place to start. SEO can either be done through an agency or by your very own in-house team and each provides their very own set of pros and cons. Understanding these is the very first step in guiding you through the SEO process. In-house SEO brings with it the expertise and in-depth knowledge of your industry like no agency, big or small, can master. You are the experts with all of the buzzwords and… -
Internet Marketing 101 Coming to a High School Near You
31 Jan 2012 | 9:57 amInternet marketing continues to be a quickly growing field, making a big impact in school course offerings. Courses in Internet marketing start as early as high school, and students at Utah’s Davis High School are learning to look at websites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in a whole new light. Currently, job opportunities for Internet marketing are one of the few bright spots in a down economy. With more than 2 billion Internet users worldwide, it’s easy to see how companies like Salt Lake City-based PurePPC.com are hiring those with a keen understanding of how to market to consumers… -
15 YouTube Marketing Tips for Your Small Business
24 Jan 2012 | 12:03 pmVideo Marketing on YouTube is a must for small businesses and startups in 2012. YouTube videos are longtail pieces of marketing content that can drive organic traffic to your website for many years to come. Here are 15 tips to know about marketing on YouTube. 1. Anyone Can Do a Video The best part of YouTube Marketing is you do not need to hire models, buy fancy equipment, or have a baller studio. Most of the “highest viewed” videos are shot by a simple cell phone or webcam. Another option for those who are camera shy is to use Powerpoint or a similar program to make the presentation. -
How to Use Digital Marketing to Promote Your Small Business
23 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amThe Internet is the great equalizer, allowing a small business to effectively compete with the 800-pound gorilla in their space. But, there are some fundamental ways to go about setting yourself up for success. Here are five affordable tips to promoting your small business using digital marketing: 1. Build a Quality Website, Use WordPress The best place to start is to launch a website for your business, but not just any website. Create one that is clean, easy to navigate, has good content, and is optimized for search engines to crawl and rank – WordPress is a great place to start. Use SEO…
-
More Than A Logo
-
Contextual Content is King
29 Jan 2012 | 11:58 amNote: This is the first program to air on TV, where people started to see a meaningful need for one of these big boxes in their home over a radio. I've been thinking a lot about content lately, and how we've grown to be so dependent on it. But not only that, it has to be the right content on the right channel in the right moment. Content is no longer king on its own. Rather, it's contextually relevant content that's king. This concept isn't new in the slightest. Just look at the TV. No one could rationalise why they would ever need a TV over a radio for information and… -
Patagonia - Legally Bound to its Purpose
20 Jan 2012 | 11:00 pmFinally, a brand, other than Apple, we can express immense admiration for, or as my flatmate tweeted this week, "open-mouth kiss" - hello Patagonia! Last week, I wrote about its Common Threads initiative, where Patagonia clearly establishes its role/purpose within the global community - "to build useful things that last, to repair what breaks and recycle what comes of its useful life"- then asks its customers to do the same to help accomplish its purpose. Now, Patagonia has asked the government to help it truly live by its purpose without boundaries, becoming California's first Benefit… -
2012 - Let's Say Less and Play More
15 Jan 2012 | 11:00 pmImage Found Here Happy 2012!! I think we're in for another exciting year, and I'm rather pleased where branding is going, maybe slowly, but it's in the right direction...let me explain... With so much distrust and uncertainty - lots of skepticism - towards corporations and advertising, people are more receptive to brands that are consistent in their actions, transparent with information and good to everyone around them. However, a consistent, transparent and good brand cannot be developed through an ad campaign any more. People are too smart and have endless access to information… -
Happy Holidays
11 Dec 2011 | 6:21 amNote: Image from flickr With another year coming to a close and an exciting 2012 just around the corner, I'm going to sign off from my blog while I travel back to Canada to spend some time with family and friends for the holidays!! Thank you for continuing to follow my blog and challenge me to explore my great passion for branding and all that it encompasses and impacts! Although I would have loved to write so much more, this year was very exciting with many adventures, from making the difficult decision to leave Blast Radius, to volunteering in Tanzania for a month and then coming back to… -
The Experience is the Brand
27 Nov 2011 | 4:04 amA couple weeks ago, my flat mate, Roger, made a wrong turn and went to use the map on his Blackberry (having just switched from an iPhone - I should note not by choice), and it was anything but an intuitive experience. This led to an immediate trip to the Apple store, where he bought the new iPhone outright, and will never look back at Blackberry (BB) again. This got us talking about where BB went wrong, and why the once market leader in smartphones seems to be stumbling all over the place. I believe BB lost sight of its core competency - mobile business solutions. Rather than focusing on its…
-
WordPress.com News
-
New Themes: Splendio and Suburbia
7 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amHappy Tuesday! We’ve got two unique free themes for you today, and they are quite a study in contrasts. Our first theme, Splendio, dazzles with an unconventional yet stylish design from Design Disease that pops out of the box — literally. How you use this theme is limited only by your imagination! It comes loaded with features: six widget areas (one in the right sidebar and up to five in the footer), featured header images, and a custom background. In addition, there’s a showcase page template (pictured in the screenshot above) that includes a featured slider for sticky posts,… -
Post Videos from Your iPhone or iPad
3 Feb 2012 | 3:01 amWould you like to post videos to your blog while you’re on the go? Are you interested in a photography theme that’s also video-friendly? Well, look no further, because we have some news for you. The VideoPress upgrade, which allows you to upload and embed your own videos on your blog, now comfortably handles videos from iPhones and iPads. You can shoot vertically or horizontally, and we’ll take care of rotating it for you so that your video looks great when it’s published on your site. If you don’t already have VideoPress on your WordPress.com account, head on… -
New Themes: Currents and Debut
2 Feb 2012 | 12:00 pmToday, I’m excited to introduce the latest additions to our collection of premium themes. Designed by Andy Rutledge, Currents, is a responsive, minimal yet attractive premium theme from WooThemes. Currents is perfect for news driven sites. The phrase, “less is more” couldn’t be more true. This clean and minimal design maximises your reader’s focus on the content. Having said that, the theme is packed with many customization options — a wide featured post slider, custom news areas, six alternative color styles, and more. Together, all of these features help… -
Import from Tumblr in 3 Easy Steps
2 Feb 2012 | 4:06 amWe’ve recently noticed that a fair number of you have been bringing your tumblelogs over from Tumblr to WordPress.com using one of the variety of Tumblr to WXR conversion tools which exist on the web. We thought you would appreciate an easier way to import your content, so we bring you 3 easy steps to import your content. Authenticate with Tumblr To bring your tumblelog’s content to WordPress.com, head to Tools → Import in your WordPress.com dashboard and look for the Tumblr importer. If you don’t already have an account here on WordPress.com then head over and sign up… -
Chrome Users: Try the WordPress.com Extension
27 Jan 2012 | 11:54 amWant to receive WordPress.com notifications instantly, even when you’re not on WordPress.com? Add the new WordPress.com extension for Chrome and as soon as you get a new follower or a new like on one of your posts, a notification will appear in your browser: Simply click the icon to view your latest WordPress.com notifications: Start following new blogs without visiting WordPress.com The Chrome extension also makes it easy to follow sites from your WordPress.com account by displaying a Follow button whenever you’re browsing a site that has an RSS feed. Clicking the Follow button…
-
WordPress News
-
Year of the Meetup
27 Jan 2012 | 12:17 pmWe hereby declare 2012 as the Year of the WordPress Meetup. You’ll want to get in on this action. meet·up \mēt-əp\ noun A meeting, especially a regular meeting of people who share a particular interest and have connected with each other through a social-networking Web site: a meetup for new moms in the neighborhood; a meetup to plan the trip; a meetup for WordPress users.1 So what is a WordPress Meetup? Basically, it’s people in a community getting together — meeting up — who share an interest in WordPress, whether… -
Internet Blackout Day on January 18
17 Jan 2012 | 3:18 pmWordPress.org is officially joining the protest against Senate Bill 968: the Protect IP Act that is coming before the U.S. Senate next week. As I wrote in my post a week ago, if this bill is passed it will jeopardize internet freedom and shift the power of the independent web into the hands of corporations. We must stop it. On January 18, 2012 many sites around the web — from small personal blogs to internet institutions like Mozilla, Wikipedia, reddit, and I Can Has Cheezburger? – will be going dark in protest and to drive their visitors to sites like americancensorship.org to… -
Help Stop SOPA/PIPA
10 Jan 2012 | 11:18 amYou are an agent of change. Has anyone ever told you that? Well, I just did, and I meant it. Normally we stay away from from politics here at the official WordPress project — having users from all over the globe that span the political spectrum is evidence that we are doing our job and democratizing publishing, and we don’t want to alienate any of our users no matter how much some of us may disagree with some of them personally. Today, I’m breaking our no-politics rule, because there’s something going on in U.S. politics right now that we need to make sure you know… -
WordPress 3.3.1 Security and Maintenance Release
3 Jan 2012 | 1:24 pmWordPress 3.3.1 is now available. This maintenance release fixes 15 issues with WordPress 3.3, as well as a fix for a cross-site scripting vulnerability that affected version 3.3. Thanks to Joshua H., Hoang T., Stefan Zimmerman, Chris K., and the Go Daddy security team for responsibly disclosing the bug to our security team. Download 3.3.1 or visit Dashboard → Updates in your site admin. -
WordPress 3.3 “Sonny”
12 Dec 2011 | 2:58 pmThe latest and greatest version of the WordPress software — 3.3, named “Sonny” in honor of the great jazz saxophonist Sonny Stitt — is immediately available for download or update inside your WordPress dashboard. WordPress has had over 65 million downloads since version 3.0 was released, and in this third major iteration we’ve added significant polish around the new user experience, navigation, uploading, and imports. Check out this short video that summarizes the things we think you’ll find are the cat’s pajamas: For Users Experienced users will…
-
Twitter Status
-
Twitter site issue
22 Jan 2012 | 4:22 pmUpdate: This issue has been resolved. Some users may currently be experiencing site issues; our engineers are working on resolving this issue. -
Streaming Delivery Delay
4 Jan 2012 | 3:11 pmUpdate: This issue has been resolved. Clients of the streaming APIs may be experiencing delivery delays. Our engineers are currently working on this issue. -
Twitter Site Issue
31 Dec 2011 | 7:47 amUpdate: This issue has been resolved. Users may currently be experiencing some site issues; our engineers are working on resolving this issue. -
Twitter Site Issue
14 Dec 2011 | 2:17 pmUpdate: This issue has been resolved. Users may be experiencing an issue with our service; our engineers are currently working on this issue. -
Twitter Site Issue
14 Nov 2011 | 1:40 pmUpdate: This issue has been resolved. Users may currently be experiencing some site issues; our engineers are working on resolving this issue.
-
Business on Twitter
-
How advertising has progressed on Twitter
19 Jan 2012 | 6:15 amIn the beginning there was but one tweet, and no-one could have foreseen the might marketing machine that Twitter would become. Now, with sponsored tweets and third party text ads, it’s easy to forget the innocence of Twitter all those years ago. Or would be, if Mashable hadn’t produced this fab infographic to remind us... [Continue Reading] -
Locomu: A Wholesome Twitter Apps Directory, A guest post by Hemant Sirohi
30 Nov 2011 | 10:11 pmLocomu is an all inclusive Twitter apps directory that brings all the Twitter apps meandering across the web. The long list of apps include popular names which have world wide acclaim as well as the not so popular names which are both useful and meaningful but are not noticeable to the users. Searching applications and tools for... [Continue Reading] -
Twitter: Following More Than 150 People? Big Head!
30 Nov 2011 | 3:12 amBy: Stephen Bray I haven’t thought lots about Twitter recently. I haven’t been using it – or so I thought? There have been lots of reasons for this. Firstly a busy business and family life reduces the time I can devote to Twitter, which can be a distraction. Secondly, I find that once I’m following... [Continue Reading] -
How to organise, promote and share an event using Twitter and other applications
10 Oct 2011 | 7:56 amAlthough we all love social media and the Internet, there’s nothing like a live event sometimes to create a buzz and bring people together. However, there’s nothing like social media and the Internet to promote your event, sell tickets, organise the event, create interest during it and continue the conversation afterwards! I am not a... [Continue Reading] -
Twitter: Is It Time To Shoot The Messenger?
23 Aug 2011 | 7:46 amAt a speech in Kuwait this February British Prime Minister David Cameron stated: ‘The Internet and social media’ is a powerful tool in the hands of citizens, not a means of repression. It belongs to the people who’ve had enough of corruption, of having to make do with what they’re given, of having to settle... [Continue Reading]
-
AllTwitter
-
Twitter Now Employs 833 People, Targets 1,000 By Year End [STATS]
9 Feb 2012 | 12:00 amLast month Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said that the company now employs “about 900 people”. I’ve been tracking Twitter’s staff count pretty closely for a few years now, and while it’s certainly true that Twitter’s hiring spree is on a major uptrend, with some serious growth in the past few weeks, either Costolo rounded up a little, or Twitter themselves are slow to update their own data, because their current roster looks to be set at 833 people. Impressive, for sure – and by my calculations, Twitter should hire its 1000th employee before the end of this year. continued…… -
From New York To San Francisco: The Social Media Salary Guide [INFOGRAPHIC]
8 Feb 2012 | 10:00 pmDo you want to work in social media? You’re not alone. As the business booms, so too does the range of roles and responsibilities within the field. Copywriters, bloggers, specialists, community and PR managers, strategists and marketers – there’s a little of something for everyone. And while it’s certainly true that New York and California are the cornerstones of the social media workforce, the demand for expertise and competence in this industry is now so great that positions are opening up all across America. So, here’s the big question: how well does it pay? continued…… -
BBC Clamps Down On Twitter Use, Tells Journalists Not To Tweet Breaking News
8 Feb 2012 | 9:00 amJournalists for the BBC have been told not to tweet breaking news before they’ve filed a story, as it would slow down the process of getting newsworthy stories into the BBC’s newsroom. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media. -
Twitter Might Be More Addictive Than Alcohol Or Sex
8 Feb 2012 | 6:45 amHow well can you resist your desires? Apparently, if they include checking your @mentions and sending out profound thoughts in 140 characters or less, they’re extremely hard to resist. A new study has been released that suggests that Twitter, email and other online communication is more addictive than cigarettes, alcohol or sex. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media. -
Want To Work At Twitter? They’re Hiring A New VP Communications
8 Feb 2012 | 4:30 amThe rumor mill is churning today over Twitter’s vacant VP Corporate Communications spot, left open when the former VP jumped ship in November. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
