The financial community has been slow to adopt social media. One big fuzzy gray zone has been compliance. But that process is evolving. Last week, a National Examination Risk Alert went out that called into question the Facebook ‘Like’ button. Testimonials: …The term “testimonial” is not defined in Rule 206(4)-1(a)(1), but SEC staff consistently interprets that term to include a statement of a client’s experience with, or endorsement of, an investment adviser. Therefore, the staff believes that, depending on the facts and circumstances, the use of “social…
Selected by zackmiller
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Most Topular Stories
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Getting people to ‘like’ you online – endorsement?
New Rules of Investing22 Jan 2012 | 5:52 am -
U.S. Plans to Sue Banks Over Bonds
WSJ.com: US Business8 Feb 2012 | 7:38 pmFederal securities regulators plan to warn several major banks that they intend to sue them over mortgage-related actions linked to the financial crisis. -
Concentrating on Petrobras Projections
WSJ.com: Markets8 Feb 2012 | 6:44 pmPetrobras sits on an important oil discovery and Brazil's government wants it to play the leading role in developing the resources. So much for diversification. The worry is if profit and cost projections prove too rosy. -
Asia shares fall on Greek debt delay
Financial Times - US homepage8 Feb 2012 | 7:43 pmFailure to agree on bail-out terms hits regional stocks as Chinese inflation accelerates -
Traders fired, suspended over LIBOR probe: FT
Reuters: Business News8 Feb 2012 | 6:32 pm(Reuters) - More than a dozen traders and brokers in London and Asia have been fired, suspended or put on leave by their employers as part of a probe into the alleged manipulation of global lending rates, the Financial Times reported.
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New Rules of Investing
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Getting people to ‘like’ you online – endorsement?
22 Jan 2012 | 5:52 amThe financial community has been slow to adopt social media. One big fuzzy gray zone has been compliance. But that process is evolving. Last week, a National Examination Risk Alert went out that called into question the Facebook ‘Like’ button. Testimonials: …The term “testimonial” is not defined in Rule 206(4)-1(a)(1), but SEC staff consistently interprets that term to include a statement of a client’s experience with, or endorsement of, an investment adviser. Therefore, the staff believes that, depending on the facts and circumstances, the use of “social… -
Build a financial website for a fraction of the cost (or, 1 resource web designers would like to keep secret)
16 Jan 2012 | 10:04 amAdvisors ask me all the time about their websites. Most of the time, they’re asking for help in terms of optimizing their site’s performance: capturing more leads, driving new prospects, expanding their reach. To be honest, building a website for most advisors (for most people, really) is an utterly overwhelming process. Why building a website is overwhelming It’s human nature: when we don’t quite understand something, we seek professional help. That’s why your clients seek out your advice, right? I’m guilty as charged, too. Here — and on my… -
The right way to ask for referrals (and why so many advisors bungle it)
2 Jan 2012 | 6:45 amAsking for referrals isn’t easy. Alll the data show that as professionals, we are sitting on gold mines of referral value (!), just ready for us to unlock it to build a super practice. Clients should be lining up, checks in hand, begging — pleading! — for us to manage their portfolios. Yeah, right. The truth about referrals in the financial business The truth is that very few of us are able to fully leverage referrals. Why is that? Have you ever asked yourself that? If it’s so easy – all you have to do is ask! — why aren’t we all managing $40B like… -
Use LinkedIn to network and prospect – with Wayne Breitbarth
20 Dec 2011 | 5:47 amLinkedIn is such a powerful tool for researching prospects and networking with professionals, I’m always surprised when I meet advisors who aren’t using it. Oh, and it’s free. Hard to beat that. Wayne Breitbarth, the author of The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success, joins me to discuss the power of LinkedIn and how financial and investment advisors can quickly get on the platform and begin getting real value out of the business social network. Make sure you listen to the whole recording because Wayne takes aim at my own LinkedIn profile (connect with me here) and dismantles… -
10-step checklist for seminars that will energize your practice
13 Dec 2011 | 4:45 amIf you’re been running successful seminars to help prospect for your business, you know how hard it is to get everything right. From getting your list, to creating engaging invitations, to finding a facility, to RSVP’ing your guests. It’s a lot of details and processes. That works in our favor — getting a good event off the ground isn’t easy, so if we can do it, that’s something our competitors can’t. While it sounds easy to do a good marketing event, the truth is few are able to them well consistently. Prospecting seminar checklist Here’s a…
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WSJ.com: US Business
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U.S. Plans to Sue Banks Over Bonds
8 Feb 2012 | 7:38 pmFederal securities regulators plan to warn several major banks that they intend to sue them over mortgage-related actions linked to the financial crisis. -
Banks Near $25 Billion Pact on Foreclosure Probe
8 Feb 2012 | 7:36 pmGovernment officials are on the verge of an agreement worth as much as $25 billion with five major banks, capping a yearlong push to settle federal and state probes of alleged foreclosure abuses by lenders. -
UnitedHealth Revamps Payments
8 Feb 2012 | 7:21 pmEfforts to change how Americans pay for health care are gathering momentum on a national scale as UnitedHealth, the largest U.S. health insurer, becomes the latest carrier to say it is overhauling its fees for medical providers. -
UBS to Claw Back Bonuses
8 Feb 2012 | 7:18 pmUBS notified employees it will take back part of the bonuses due to its best-paid investment bankers this year because of the trading scandal last year that put the unit into the red for 2011. -
Caesars Shares Surge on Debut
8 Feb 2012 | 7:17 pmShares of Caesars Entertainment zoomed higher on their first day of trading, up 70% in the afternoon.
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WSJ.com: Markets
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Concentrating on Petrobras Projections
8 Feb 2012 | 6:44 pmPetrobras sits on an important oil discovery and Brazil's government wants it to play the leading role in developing the resources. So much for diversification. The worry is if profit and cost projections prove too rosy. -
Foreign Deal on Tax Dodging
8 Feb 2012 | 6:40 pmThe Treasury Department and the governments of five European nations reached broad agreement Wednesday on a proposal to prevent U.S. taxpayers from dodging taxes through foreign accounts. -
U.S. Plans to Sue Banks Over Bonds
8 Feb 2012 | 6:25 pmFederal securities regulators plan to warn several major banks that they intend to sue them over mortgage-related actions linked to the financial crisis. -
Caesars Shares Surge on Debut
8 Feb 2012 | 6:20 pmShares of Caesars Entertainment zoomed higher on their first day of trading, up 70% in the afternoon. -
Cisco's Profit Up Amid Restructuring
8 Feb 2012 | 6:17 pmCisco reported a big jump in profit, its first such gain in a year, as the company's turnaround plan seems to be having positive effects.
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Financial Times - US homepage
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Asia shares fall on Greek debt delay
8 Feb 2012 | 7:43 pmFailure to agree on bail-out terms hits regional stocks as Chinese inflation accelerates -
Pension fund urges female director for Facebook
8 Feb 2012 | 6:52 pmCalifornia State Teachers’ Retirement System also wants the group to increase the size of its board and to split the role of chairman and chief executive -
Chinese inflation jumps to 4.5%
8 Feb 2012 | 6:37 pmChinese inflation jumped in January, breaking a streak of five straight monthly declines, due to rising food prices ahead of New Year -
US banks near historic deal on foreclosures
8 Feb 2012 | 6:18 pmRegulators are expected to announce a nearly 50-state settlement, worth up to $39.5bn, that would resolves allegations that five leading banks systematically abused borrowers -
Groupon debuts results with surprise loss
8 Feb 2012 | 4:32 pmThe daily deals company disappointed investors with its first quarterly financial results since it went public
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Reuters: Business News
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Traders fired, suspended over LIBOR probe: FT
8 Feb 2012 | 6:32 pm(Reuters) - More than a dozen traders and brokers in London and Asia have been fired, suspended or put on leave by their employers as part of a probe into the alleged manipulation of global lending rates, the Financial Times reported. -
Groupon disclosure, growth concerns hit stock
8 Feb 2012 | 6:07 pm(Reuters) - Groupon Inc shares slumped Wednesday as the daily deal company's first quarterly results since it went public stoked concern about limited disclosure and slowing growth. -
Diamond removes CEO, CFO after walnut payment probe
8 Feb 2012 | 5:34 pm(Reuters) - Diamond Foods Inc removed top management after a probe by its audit committee found that the company improperly accounted for payments to walnut growers, sending its shares down 40 percent in after-hours trading. -
Mortgage deal nears as holdout states join
8 Feb 2012 | 5:32 pm(Reuters) - California and New York, two big holdout states in a $25 billion mortgage settlement, are expected to join the deal, smoothing the way for an announcement on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter. -
Greek party leaders fail to sign off on bailout
8 Feb 2012 | 4:33 pmATHENS (Reuters) - Greek political leaders failed early on Thursday to sign off on a tough reform and austerity program, the price of a new international bailout for the nation, but Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said they would try to strike a deal within hours.
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DealBook
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States Negotiate $25 Billion Deal for Homeowners
8 Feb 2012 | 6:37 pmMore than two million Americans could benefit from at least $25 billion in mortgage relief from the nation's biggest banks as part of a broad government settlement to be announced as early as Thursday. -
Barneys, Debt-Laden, Is Weighing Restructuring
8 Feb 2012 | 6:11 pmDespite recent sales gains, the New York fashion retailer has hired advisers to help manage an unwieldy debt load that is to mature this fall. -
Zuckerberg Takes Control, You Get $100
8 Feb 2012 | 4:20 pmA group of Facebook shareholders were paid $100 apiece for ceding voting control of their stock to Mark Zuckerberg, the company's co-founder and chief executive. -
P.&G. Ready to Re-Evaluate Pringles Deal
8 Feb 2012 | 3:59 pmThe comments come after Diamond Foods announces that has ousted its top two executives and will restate two years of financial earnings amid questionable accounting practices. -
Groupon Posts Loss of $9.8 Million
8 Feb 2012 | 2:00 pmThe fourth-quarter loss, disclosed by Groupon in its first financial report as a public company, disappointed investors, who drove its shares down sharply in after-hours trading.
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Random Roger
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Hussman on Recession Probabilities
8 Feb 2012 | 5:19 amCullen Roche excerpted John Hussman discussing why he (Hussman) is still in the recession camp, he thinks it is the most likely outcome, and why a 25% decline for equities is likely.Hussman is commonly believed to be a permabear. For purposes of this post we'll set that question aside. He has been bearish for quite a while and over short bursts of time the performance of the Hussman Strategic Total Return Fund (HSTRX) has lagged the market considerably but longer term he has delivered a result that I believe is consistent with managing for a full cycle result not a quarterly or even annual… -
How and When to Sell
7 Feb 2012 | 5:18 amA few comments came in over the weekend asking for my take about when to sell a stock. This is a multi dimensional topic with a lot of variables for each dimension but I will try to cover a lot of ground. Keep in mind this is what we do for client accounts, you may want to do things very differently. I can't say what is right for you, only what we believe is best for our clients. Most of these will be examples of trades we've done and why.The easiest (for me) one first. If something we own gets a takeover offer or goes up a lot because the market thinks a takeover is coming we are selling the… -
Understand the Moment
6 Feb 2012 | 5:11 amWe all have our own philosophies on how we deal with life or our process for making decisions including investment decisions. Part of my make up is to try to live in the moment or realize that life is about the journey more so than the destination. Another aspect to living in the moment is understanding the moment.As some readers may recall I am a huge sports fan and I am from Boston. By the time the Red Sox had won their first world series of the decade in 2004 the Patriots were already the Patriots and I commented to my brother (more of a sports fan than I am) the extent to which we were… -
The Big Picture for the Week of February 5, 2012
4 Feb 2012 | 5:18 amAfter 22 trading days so far this year the S&P 500 is up 6.94%. Anyone may have a bullish outlook or bearish one but right here right now the market is rallying and seems like it has a good head of steam behind it.About two months ago I posted about my belief that we could be in for a range busting rally. At 1344 the SPX is not there yet but is getting closer--to be clear I am thinking big rally that goes quite a bit higher but does not last. For now this theory is not yet wrong, it is too soon to say correct.There are two points to this post. One is to clients that if big rally that then… -
Vanguard on Allocation
3 Feb 2012 | 5:20 amIndex Universe posted some comments from Vanguard on their thoughts about portfolio construction looking out over the current decade. The headline was Stick to Allocation Strategies and from the standpoint of not giving up on equities, I agree completely. I've said before that for people who have learned they just cannot handle the potential volatility with equities fine, just understand the tradeoff of needing to save more.For those who can generally handle equity volatility I do believe in sticking to their asset allocation, making changes as appropriate for getting older or unexpected…
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footnoted.com
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Slicing into an employment agreement from Coventry…
8 Feb 2012 | 7:56 amEmployment agreements are like cooking – a combination of science and art that result in a dish that some may find tasty (executives) while others (perhaps investors) find a little harder to swallow. Consider, for example, the new Amended Employment Agreement that Coventry Health Care, Inc. (CVH) just gave to its chief executive, Allen F. Wise; the agreement was filed with the SEC along with this 8-K on February 6. The agreement extends Wise’s job through December 31, 2013 and creates the possibility that he could be more than $15 million wealthier by the time the agreement ends. -
Down $100 million, but not entirely out at Nabors…
7 Feb 2012 | 7:38 amEugene M. Isenberg is getting a lot of attention — and deservedly so — for giving up the $100 million that his employer, Nabors Industries (NBR), owed him for naming another man chief executive of the company Isenberg had run for a quarter-century. That give-back is remarkable, as with most things involving Isenberg, Nabors and compensation. But there are a few details that have been mostly overlooked in the coverage, including what could prove to be years of gainful employment for Isenberg and lifetime health-care for him and his wife. It doesn’t begin to add up to what… -
Has HP learned a lesson about time and money?…
6 Feb 2012 | 8:04 amAfter Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) filed its proxy on Friday, news organizations from coast to coast published articles about the compensation that CEO Meg Whitman and the other top executives received last year (see here and here). Each exec got a total compensation package of $9 million or more; and we noticed that former chief executive Léo Apotheker got $30.4 million – a number respectably in the middle of our prior estimate of what he would walk away with. (See our post on the Worst Footnote of 2011 for details.) And yet (other than a nod in passing from CNNMoney here) another well-paid… -
A Super Bowl for more than players & advertisers…
3 Feb 2012 | 8:12 amGame day is almost here, and thanks to the Super Bowl advertising sweepstakes, the event is probably as big a deal for corporate America as it is for sports fans. But a stroll through companies’ public disclosures shows that the Super Bowl looms large for executives and companies in other ways as well. Television networks and station owners, of course, are full of references to the big game, either because they scored big with advertising sales in years when they carried it, or because they’re missing revenues from previous years in which they did. And for other reasons: As of… -
A Choice Hotels check-out gets a little simpler…
2 Feb 2012 | 7:12 amFifteen months ago, we took Choice Hotels (CHH) to task for tearing up a departing executive’s carefully crafted severance terms in favor of an ad-hoc arrangement that the company admitted it wasn’t actually obliged to pay. As it turned out, that executive faced insider trading allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission a few months later, which she settled without admitting or denying anything. When it comes to disclosure and executive exits, however, we’d like to think someone over at Choice Hotels was paying attention: An executive vice-president is being…
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SIFMA SmartBrief
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Hurry to Register for SIFMA's Muni Bond School - 1st of 10 sessions is Monday
8 Feb 2012 | 4:43 amStay ahead of the competition by attending the Muni Bond School, presented by the Municipal Bond Club of New York and SIFMA. -More- -
MSRB issues notice on bondholder consents
8 Feb 2012 | 4:43 am-More- -
ISDA and SIFMA ask judge to suspend position limits rule
8 Feb 2012 | 4:43 amISDA and SIFMA asked a federal judge to suspend a Commodity Futures Trading Commission rule that limits commodity speculation -More- -
Bernanke defends Fed's efforts before Senate committee
8 Feb 2012 | 4:43 amFed Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the central bank's efforts to reduce unemployment and control inflation. -More- -
FinCEN demands anti-money-laundering programs from nonbank lenders
8 Feb 2012 | 4:43 amThe Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is requiring nonbank mortgage lenders to develop anti-money-laundering plans and fil -More-
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The Financial Services Roundtable SmartBrief
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Republican FDIC nomination could accelerate financial appointments
8 Feb 2012 | 6:24 amPresident Barack Obama's appointment of several nominees for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. -More- -
Jobless rate underscores weakness, Bernanke says
8 Feb 2012 | 6:24 amAlthough the jobless rate has dropped in the last five months, the 8.3% rate continues to be a drag on the economy, Federal R -More- -
Rule requires anti-money laundering programs for nonbank lenders
8 Feb 2012 | 6:24 amThe Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is now requiring nonbank mortgage lenders to set up anti-money laundering programs a -More- -
Banks are prepared financially for mortgage-fraud settlement
8 Feb 2012 | 6:24 amBank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial are not likely to suffer if a $25 billion settleme -More- -
Framework for more secure code designed to stop hackers
8 Feb 2012 | 6:24 amPoorly written applications for online banking and mobile services have made financial firms ripe for cyber-attacks, but bank -More-
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JD Supra Securities Law
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SEC Grants Additional Registration Relief to Certain Special Purpose Vehicles Created by Registered Advisers
8 Feb 2012 | 4:57 pmContributor: K&L Gates LLP [View: Profile | Documents] -
Supreme Court of India’s Vodafone Judgment: Implications for International Investors
8 Feb 2012 | 4:50 pmContributor: White & Case LLP [View: Profile | Documents] -
MSRB Cautions Underwriters Against Providing Bondholder Consents -- Client Alert February 2012
8 Feb 2012 | 2:15 pmContributor: McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC [View: Profile | Documents] -
Regulatory Watch List for 2012: The Shifting Landscape for Hedge Funds and Other Private Funds
8 Feb 2012 | 2:03 pmContributor: Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP [View: Profile | Documents] -
Responding to Comprehensive Financial Fraud Enforcement Efforts
8 Feb 2012 | 11:51 amContributor: K&L Gates LLP [View: Profile | Documents]
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I Will Teach You To Be Rich
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Where I’ve been for the last two weeks
7 Feb 2012 | 8:11 amAfter a month of hyper consumption of caffeine, sleeping 4 hours/night, and a team around the world that outperformed any team I’ve ever worked with, the Dream Job launch is complete. Here’s a PDF with 50+ pages of uncensored feedback from new Dream Job students talking about why they joined my new course on finding your Dream Job: “Why I joined Dream Job” (PDF, no opt-in required). The course was an instant IWT bestseller, and it’s closed to new students now. Soon, I’ll share some of the marketing lessons behind the launch. I’m doing my traditional… -
What I think of information addicts
22 Jan 2012 | 7:04 pmI’ve spent a lot of time thinking about giving away free material vs. charging for it. Here’s a recent 1-hour interview where I talk about free vs. paid material, including how I went from charging $4.95 for my first ebook to $12,000 for my most recent course. I also did another interview on the psychology of monetization, too, where I cover more academic psychological and marketing theory. This is for the true psychology/marketing nerds, so I reveal some gems that only they would appreciate. Based on the kinds of emails I get, I assume about 80% of you are huge huge nerds. So, let’s… -
What The Pros Know About Networking That You Don’t
20 Jan 2012 | 9:57 amWhen I was on the Today Show a couple years ago, I sat down to prep a few minutes before air time. About 45 seconds before we went live, Meredith Viera came onto set. She took one look at the topic sheet, then reached out to shake all of our hands. In the next 30 seconds, she asked a couple questions to get to know us, and then we started the segment. What was fascinating was that, within those 30 seconds, she was so personable that we instantly felt a connection to her (“Wow, she’s so friendly!”). And I realized that the masters — like the world’s top TV anchors, politicians,… -
How to use Natural Networking to connect with anyone — including the exact email scripts
18 Jan 2012 | 8:36 amHow many of us have heard career experts telling us to “go out there and network”? What does that actually mean? They never seem to specify. So we end up going to 1 or 2 pointless networking events, which actually turn out to be a bunch of unemployed people looking for jobs, until we realize the pointlessness of random networking. We stop going. But we keep hearing about the importance of our network, and we hear about how most jobs are found through personal contacts. Pretty soon, it becomes clear to us that it’s WHO you know, not WHAT you know. But we have no idea how to actually turn… -
How to write a resume that wins
17 Jan 2012 | 10:31 amLast night, 3,000+ IWT readers from all over the world tuned in, live, to learn the inside techniques to craft a winning resume. These are the same techniques I used to get jobs at Google, Intuit, and many other companies. Attention jackasses: These are not my curtains. I’m not 78 years old. I was at a hotel. I had nothing to sell. I just wanted to show people that — instead of blaming the economy, or believing that “I don’t have enough experience” is a valid excuse — they could take their Dream Job search into their own hands. Here’s what attendees had to say:…
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eMarketer Articles and Blog Posts
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Article: Consumers Indicate Limits to Future of Ereader Market
7 Feb 2012 | 8:01 pmConvergence with tablets and a ceiling on consumer interest slow ereader growth -
Article: UK Ecommerce to Defy Tough Economy in 2012
7 Feb 2012 | 8:01 pmBusiness will be driven by tighter budgets, social elements and mobile devices -
Article: Does ‘Liking’ a Brand Drive User Loyalty?
7 Feb 2012 | 8:01 pm59% of consumers have ‘liked’ a Facebook brand page in the past 6 months -
Article: Viewers in China Share Online Video by IM and Weibo
6 Feb 2012 | 8:01 pmSocial sharing tools help satisfy the country's growing hunger for online video -
Blog: eMarketer Webinar: Cashing In on Mobile Shopping
6 Feb 2012 | 8:01 pmMobile shopping is becoming more widespread as consumers use their mobile devices to shop in stores. A small but growing portion of shoppers are even purchasing via their devices, indicating [...]
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ReadWriteWeb
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Daily Wrap: January's List of Apps You Need to See and more
8 Feb 2012 | 6:00 pmDan Rowinski rounds up the best apps, in our opinion, of January 2012. This and more in today's Daily Wrap. Sometimes it's difficult to catch everything that hits tech media in a day, so we wrap up some of the most talked about stories. We give you a daily recap of what you missed in the ReadWriteWeb Community, including a link to some of the most popular discussions in our offsite communities on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ as well. Sponsor New iPhone, iPad and Android Apps for January 2012 In what is surely a labor of love, Dan Rowinski combs through the mass of apps released… -
Stop Saying "Finally"
8 Feb 2012 | 5:50 pmFIIIINALLY! Google released a Chrome beta for Android! GODDDDD. What took them so long? All the Ice Cream Sandwich users have been waiting, like, FOREVER! Finally, Tweetbot for iPad came out. I've only been asking them for, like, EIGHT MONTHS! Jeez. Apple fiiiinally released iTunes Match after a whole month, and it didn't even work right! Listen to how this sounds. How do we, the tech bloggers, get away with headlines like this? Where do users get off complaining impatiently about updates to a service that costs them $2.99? Or a free service? Let's have a reality check. Remember how awesome… -
10 Ways to Win Over Writers
8 Feb 2012 | 5:00 pmAs a PR person, product developer, CEO or whatever, you're probably more interested in getting noticed by the media than developing a relationship with a particular writer. That's one way to go about it. Then there's that old-fashioned "building a relationship with a real person not a robot" idea. You know, treating people like people and taking the time to get to know them. Oh right, yeah, forgot about that. Writers, like artists, are sensitive to ideas and people. But not every writer will get you or your product - and in the tech world as in any world, each writer has their own… -
Nginx Continues Growth, Adds Commercial Offerings
8 Feb 2012 | 4:30 pmAccording to the Netcraft Web Server Survey for February 2012, Nginx was "the only server to experience a non-negligible market share increase this month" by picking up 0.27 percentage points. Good news for the upstart Web server, just as the brand-new company behind Nginx takes the wraps off its commercial packages. Nginx has had quite the growth spurt over the past year. In February of last year Nginx had 7.57% of the market, or about 21 million domains hosted with Nginx. Microsoft had 20.04%, or about 57 million. Apache was at 60.10%, with more than 171 million domains. Sponsor… -
Do Your Users Get You? Test Them With Solidify
8 Feb 2012 | 3:59 pmZURB launched yet another handy design application to help anyone test Web products they're working on. This one is called Solidify. It takes care of one of the most annoying parts of building an interface: testing clickable prototypes. Solidify lets you build a working test of your design and give it to users to see if it makes sense to them. It also gives you analytics on how your testers performed. Along with the new app, ZURB opened a new apps page showcasing all the great Web design helpers it has made, many of which we've covered on ReadWriteWeb. ZURB's tools let you make simple…
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Mashable!
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Twitter Comedy: How to Be Funny in 140 Characters
8 Feb 2012 | 7:37 pmComedy is king on Twitter. Professional humorists and armchair standups alike have amassed legions of followers that hang on every 140-character quip. Twitter humor is a brand-builder, a great writing exercise, and if you’re really good, it might even land you a job (but probably not, so settle down). So, what does it take to get laughs at this 24/7 digital cocktail party? We asked some of the funniest tweeters around for their tips on cracking wise in the one-liner Renaissance. 1. Start by Being Funny in the First Place Bill Corbett knows a thing or two about landing short quips. He's… -
Check in at Walgreens and Receive Tweet Deal Coupons [VIDEO]
8 Feb 2012 | 7:22 pmWalgreens is tweeting mobile coupons to customers who check in on mobile apps including Foursquare, Yelp and Facebook — letting customers in on deals while they shop. The retailer is taking advantage of knowing who is in one of its 8,000 national locations. It is one of 40 companies currently using LocalResponse technology, which aggregates more than 1 billion checkins per month. January check-in tweet deals at Walgreens included discounts on Halls cough drops coupon, flu shots and Energizer batteries, according to AdAge. LocalResponse is a check-in aggregator that collects publicly… -
‘Walk Off the Earth’ Gets 50 Million YouTube Views in a Month [VIDEO]
8 Feb 2012 | 7:02 pmMeet Walk off the Earth, the ultra-talented quintet that turned its version of a sleeper hit into a viral phenomenon on YouTube and earned itself a record deal. The Canadian indie band posted a video covering Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” last month, and it has since been viewed on YouTube nearly 50 million times. The clip shows the band playing on a single guitar. One strums the guitar while the others tap and pluck along. Now the band — which has been together for nearly six years — has earned itself a record deal with Columbia Records. The captivating… -
DKNY Takes Top Honors at Fashion 2.0 Awards
8 Feb 2012 | 6:41 pmAfter nabbing four of the eight awards handed out at last year’s Fashion 2.0 Awards, apparel brand DKNY was once again recognized for its use of digital media, taking home awards for Best Twitter and Best Blog by a Fashion Brand. The honors are well deserved. DKNY’s Twitter account and Tumblr blog, both of which are run by Donna Karan International SVP of Global Communciations Aliza Licht, are entertaining, informative and exceptionally on-brand. The Twitter account features, among other things, live blogs of CW show Gossip Girl each week, and frequently engages in conversations… -
Connected Cars: How to Accelerate Mainstream Adoption
8 Feb 2012 | 6:20 pmSteve Tengler is a user experience (UX) director at Altia, Inc. He spent over 20 years in automotive design at OnStar, Nissan and Ford. Every so often, the media tells us about an automotive manufacturer on the cusp of delivering wireless, cooperative systems. The reader immediately thinks of Knight Rider, and wanders through a fantasy of connected car heaven. However, this type of news is often miles from accurate; connected car offerings in the near-to-distant future are a different reality. This article examines the delays behind that “nearly done” automotive technology, and analyzes…
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@ProBlogger
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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… -
How to Handle Criticism: a Practical Guide
5 Feb 2012 | 12:03 pmImage by Stuart RichardsAs bloggers, each of us has to deal with criticism. Blogging is a very public activity—almost all of us has the goal of gaining readers to our blogs—and the more people you reach, the more likely it is that you’ll hear criticisms. “You’re wrong…” “How can you say that? You don’t know what you’re talking about.” “I couldn’t disagree more…” “This is the last time I read this blog!” These are just some of the criticisms bloggers regularly face—I’ve received versions of…
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Copyblogger
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The “New” SEO Secret Weapon
8 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amIf you have a web site, you may have noticed one of two things about the traffic you get from search engines. Your search traffic may have dried up overnight, with once-healthy streams turning into a sad little trickle. Or you may have noticed a nice, steady improvement as you’ve climbed higher in the SERPs (search engine results pages), while other sites that used to outrank you suddenly evaporated. There’s a super-secret new ingredient in SEO. It was always a factor, but it’s become even more important recently, as the Google team relentlessly declares war on what they see… -
8 Quick Tips for Writing Bullet Points People Actually Want to Read
7 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amIt’s a Twitterized world, we’re just living in it. Blog posts, Tweets, quick videos, Google+, the Facebook Timeline, and tens of thousands of images pinned to digital boards are flying past us faster than we can read them. Faster than we can even scan them, depending on the time of day. What does this mean for writers trying to cut through it all? At least two things that I can think of: You’d better know how to write a compelling headline You’d better know how to write bullet points that grab (and keep) your reader We’re not telling you to keep your copy short. -
7 Crucial Tactics for Writing a Wildly Successful Guest Post
6 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amWe all know that guest posts grow blogs. But not many people realize that tactical guest posting grows careers. Most bloggers I see pump out these articles while reciting the mantra “quantity over quality”; there’s no real strategy and there are no real long-term benefits. In this post I am going to show you the seven crucial tactics for writing a radically successful guest post. Done right, these strategies will get you more email subscribers, coveted Google ranking positions, and a big head-start on your content marketing goals. Who am I to teach you about guest blogging? -
7 Smashing Social Media Marketing Links
4 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amThis week on The Lede … What really works on Twitter One thing social media copywriters should never do 9 productive social media hacks A reminder of the power of the original social media If you just can’t wait for The Lede every Saturday, and you want even more practical, useable links than the seven we highlight here every week, follow @copyblogger on Twitter. It’s painless. Really. // 9 Social Media Hacks You Need to Embrace Now Mr. Baer makes a good case that though social media is inexpensive in monetary terms, it can get good and costly when it comes to spending your… -
Whether You Call it Blogging or Not, Online Content Still Rules
3 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amWhat if most of the business world stopped blogging tomorrow? Would you stop as well? No, if that happened, you’d find yourself sitting on the opportunity of a lifetime. Social networking sites would explode with likes and retweets and pins and +1s of your original content all day long. This is why the annual “blogging is dead” claim is so dumb. Even if it were true, your continued content production would dominate the web in every way. So, instead of worrying about the latest claimed trend or alarming decline of the moment, stay the course. Original content creation is the…
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Logic+Emotion
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Will The Real Social Business Experts Please Stand Up?
7 Feb 2012 | 10:23 amStop what you're doing and check out this thread (on Google Plus of all places) started by Francine Hardaway. She started it off with a simple question. "Who are the best experts in social business?"What followed was a robust discussion on what social business is, isn't and who's driving the agenda forward in the space both in thought and action. If you're interested in the emerging definition of social business (aka the convergence of enterprise 2.0 and social media) I highly recommend you taking a look. Some of my favorite thoughts:"the thread that social business is not the same as social… -
People, Places & Events
3 Feb 2012 | 11:01 amA few significant events happening over the next few months—here's where I'll be: Chicago: February 6th, Social Media Club, An Interview With Richard EdelmanOur I'll be interviewing Richard Edelman our CEO in our new office space as we host the Chicago Social Media Club. We will be discussing this Year's Trust Barometer findings. If you can't make it to Chicago, we will be live streaming video the interview at 5:00 CST. London & New York: February 13-16, Social Media Week Our London office is hosting a panel titled "Social Business In Action". A topic I'm very passionate about—then… -
How To Be A Social Media Self-Righteous Jerk
1 Feb 2012 | 4:28 pmThe scale above shows the many stages one has to go through in order to become a bona fide self-righteous jerk in social media. Still, there are many people who aspire to reach this peak, but fall short in executing against it. Given this observation, I thought it would be worthwhile to piece together a few best practices which will ensure your status as a social media self-righteous jerk (or SMSRJ). In no particular order: 1. Join The Klout GestapoAll social media SMSRJ's know that Klout is simply evil incarnate and requires a organized force to take on this evil axis of influence wherever… -
Launching a Social Command Center (Without The Center)
27 Jan 2012 | 8:05 am"Social command centers" are all the rage today and it's not without some merit. Many organizations now find themselves in a real-time business environment where news travels faster than sound, and information is set free. As a result, some forward thinking companies have put "monitoring" in place either in-house or in combination with partners. This isn't enough. And to make matters worse, I've seen companies make the classic mistake of buying a tool BEFORE putting any thought into the design that goes into effective monitoring and response, forgetting the 3P's (People, Process, Platforms). -
Trust Shifts From Institutions To Individuals
23 Jan 2012 | 9:44 pmToday I had the opportunity to present to academics and industry experts from the international poultry industry (you can listen to a re-cap via a short podcast from "Agwired" here). During the presentation I was able to share some results from the recently released 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer, in which the overarching theme is a general skepticism toward institutions such as government and big business with signs of hope when it comes to empowered individuals. A Person Like YourselfIn last year's study, it was the expert and even the analyst who enjoyed some degree of trust from the public…
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chrisbrogan.com
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Throw Away the Maps
6 Feb 2012 | 1:30 amPeople judge us by the path they’ve seen us walk before. They can’t anticipate our future steps. We, ourselves, look to how things have been, what seems to be the lay of the land, without realizing that the maps are not the territory. Want to succeed at work? Then don’t try to do your job. Instead, work towards something larger, more meaningful, and something that blends your convictions internally with your best ability to help others externally. Want to create something new? Then throw away the old, or maybe join two disparate old things together into something new. The… -
The Next Social Networks
5 Feb 2012 | 1:30 amThe rage in social networks right now is Pinterest, partly because it’s probably the first social network that has a much higher adoption rate by females than males, and partly because it’s an interesting concept: somewhere between visual social bookmarking and scrapbooking. What also might not be immediately obvious is that it’s just “easier” to interact there. In that way, Pinterest has something in common with Instagram, which is community around photos. What I’m interested in, though, is Gentlemint, which I keep calling “Pinterest for… -
Learn From Adele – Build Your Platform
3 Feb 2012 | 1:30 amJacq and I just watched Adele Live At The Royal Albert Hall (amazon affiliate link), and though every song was just wonderfully done, I found myself fascinated by what Adele was doing in between each song. Because even though most people would be interested in hearing her belt out her amazing repertoire of hits, what I took away from the performance was Adele’s real magical ability: the ability to resonate with her audience. What Adele Could Teach You About Impact I’m writing something about this right now for my upcoming book with Julien Smith, but I had to share some of the… -
Rob Gokee is a Musical Wizard
2 Feb 2012 | 8:05 amI had such a great experience working with award winning musical composer Rob Gokee. We did some musical work together, and the process was so amazing. Rob helped me create my theme song for Shhh! The Secret Show. So anyhow, he and I sat down to do an interview, and it’s a bit long, but it’s totally worth it. We talk about what collaboration feels like at a distance, what it takes to get music like this made for your own show, and a lot more. Rob’s a hero to me, and has been part of the community for a while. I was so fortunate to have worked with him. Can’t see the… -
Build Your Platform – Start
30 Jan 2012 | 1:30 amThe following is part ONE of a series called Build Your Platform. If you find it interesting, please consider subscribing for free to get the rest of the series. This post is long. You might want to bookmark it for later. The age of social media oversaturation is upon us. People are declaring Twitter bankruptcy to go along with their email bankruptcy. They cite not wanting to start on yet another social network as their reason for not getting more involved with Google+. And just as soon as you start getting into Pinterest, you hear about Path, but wait: there’s Gentlemint, which is…
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Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad
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The Naked Blog: Dress Up Your Words
8 Feb 2012 | 4:13 amWhat can you learn about blog writing and content marketing from the theater? As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve attended local theater productions, including performances on The Naked Stage. (Photos courtesy Stuart Miles) If you’re not familiar with this kind of theater format, the actors read their lines, sitting on stools, dressed in black, without benefit of costumes, scenery, makeup, or movement. Hence the name, Naked Stage: the presentation is devoid of any of the usual visual aids. There’s a narrator to explain the scenes and movements, including sounds, which… -
5 Ways to Get Readers to Respond
1 Feb 2012 | 4:43 amYou spend a lot of time writing content on your blog but if the only comments you get are from people looking for free marketing, maybe it’s time to revise your content strategies. Here’s a guest post from Chris Peterson at Straight North integrated marketing services in Chicago. 1. Your Blog as an Interactive Tool When it comes to effective Web content, it’s no longer enough to post simple text with a graphic. Online newspapers learned that the hard way, but bloggers are discovering ways to use the Web as a means for two-way interaction – increasing the relevance of a blog… -
4 Content Marketing Goals for a Coach Website
26 Jan 2012 | 5:21 amHow should content marketing be used on the home page of your website? What makes good website copy? More specifically, if you’re a professional service provider, like an executive coach, a consultant, a lawyer, health care or financial adviser… how do you create a website that attracts clients and gets potential new leads? No matter what business you’re in, your content must achieve four things. Here are four goals for your online content: Connect immediately (by speaking to your readers’ challenges or problems) Answer questions and educate (by suggesting… -
A Checklist for 2012 Content Marketing Plans
19 Jan 2012 | 3:23 am2012 Content Marketing – how did we get here so fast? I’ve been reviewing my 2011 blog posts, email broadcasts, videos, and taking stock. I hope you’re doing the same, so you’ll get an idea of what’s needed for your own business in 2012. (Photo courtesy Rawich/FreeDigitalPhotos.net) Here’s a checklist for reviewing your 2011 content marketing results so you can know where to spend your time and energy in 2012: What were your most effective blog posts in terms of numbers of page views? Which posts generated the most comments? What email promotional… -
Content Marketing Tasks: Practice Makes Progress
4 Jan 2012 | 4:15 amIf you’ve spent your career avoiding certain marketing tasks because you don’t think you’re any good at them, you struggle each time you try, and you end up with weak results, take heart. Persistence has been touted by poets for a reason. Your brain learns a lot each time you try something, even if you fail. If you stop trying, you’ll walk away with nothing. If you persist, however, the rewards are huge. Example: public speaking. Many small business owners and entrepreneurs including many of my clients love the chance to get up and speak. The larger the group, the…
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Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog
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What Business Bloggers Can Learn from Hobby Bloggers
6 Feb 2012 | 6:15 amThis is a guest post by Linda Dessau of ContentMasteryGuide.com While business bloggers have the ultimate goal of attracting prospective clients, hobby bloggers have a whole other set of motives. Here are just three of them, along with some ways you can apply them to your business blog: Free Your Passion Hobby bloggers have the liberty to indulge in deep exploration of their passions, wherever that journey takes them. In an earlier article about what happens when artists call their art a hobby, I noted how that "means freedom from the creative constraints that might be involved once you… -
Six Essential SEO Strategies for Bloggers
27 Jan 2012 | 6:20 amBloggers can never get enough advice about SEO. This is a guest post by Chrisian Arno at Lingo24. Six Essential SEO Strategies for Bloggers When a blog forms part of your marketing strategy, you need to be confident your words will reach the right people. With search engines constantly refining their algorithms, not to mention the huge amount of information competing for your readers, this can seem like an impossible task. Here are six strategies that can help you regain your confidence with SEO.Do Your ResearchIf you are someone who dashes off blog posts when inspiration strikes, slow… -
Blogging Without Dates - The pros, the cons and meeting in the middle
6 Jan 2012 | 6:45 amThis is a guest post by Linda Dessau of ContentMasteryGuide.com In his October 2011 post about why you no longer need a blog (in the traditional sense), John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing predicts that soon our content will "no longer be consumed in chronological fashion." When Jim Connolly of Internet Marketing Jam explored the question of why people remove dates from their blog posts, in the end, he came to the conclusion that for his blog, the benefits far outweighed any risks. What are the pros of blogging without dates? What benefits did Jim Connolly see? People were spending more… -
Pitching to bloggers - the do’s and don’ts of blogger pitching
22 Dec 2011 | 6:25 amThis is a guest post by Kristy Shaw of Punch Communications. Pitching to bloggers… the do’s and don’ts of blogger pitching Life as a PR has certainly changed over the last few years; with the rise in popularity of blogs it has meant having to adapt the way I pitch to different types of media. Bloggers can be just as influential as many print publications and therefore should always be on PR agencies radars. Pitching to bloggers is a world away from traditional pitches to journalists; there are many more things to take into account. For example, in contrast to traditional media… -
Two Tips for Generating More Leads on Your Business Blog
19 Dec 2011 | 6:55 amRecently I joined the Social Media Biz School as an instructor. In the video below, I share a couple of the business blogging tips to give you a taste of the kind of strategies, tactics, tips and tools you'll be learning in the free 27 minute webinar on demand: How to Generate More Leads with Social Media... [Can't see the video in your blog reader? Click here to watch on YouTube.] You can get instant access to the free webinar here. Your instructors are: Viveka von Rosen (LinkedIn), Lori Gama (Twitter), Andrea Vahl (Facebook), Lou Bortone (Online Video) and me (Blogging). Get…
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Liz Strauss at Successful Blog
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Can You Find Success Following a Firing?
8 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amOne of the most challenging situations a person can find themselves in is trying to secure a new job after they’ve been terminated from a previous position. While there is hope of locating employment following a termination, the odds are definitely lessened for such individuals, who must fight through the stigma of being removed from a company. The bottom line is resiliency and the ability to best explain away why you were let go. For those individuals who have to deal with such a situation, keep several things in mind: Deal with reality – It is never easy when the pink slip arrives and… -
Five Delegation Thinking Traps that Trip Almost Everyone Who Wants to Scale Up
7 Feb 2012 | 5:39 amScaling Up Requires Pushing Down Lower-Level Tasks In the companies I worked with and for, product development schedules were cyclical, with seriously tight deadlines at certain times of the year and a more relaxing pace when those deadline had been achieved. To even out this ebb and flow of deliverables, we would hire freelancers, off-sire staff, and development groups. Even the most entry-level full-time people were managing and influencing the performance of someone else. The ability to influence another person’s performance in positive ways affected how quickly employees could grow… -
Does Your Business Style Connect or Make People Cringe?
6 Feb 2012 | 5:43 amGet Serious Attention In Amanda Valenti’s recent guest post here about Common Writing Mistakes, she made many important points that I encourage small businesses to take to heart. If spelling, grammar, and homophones are not your strong suites, find someone who can edit what you write. It IS worth it because Amanda is absolutely correct – these types of errors will cost you visitors and business. There is something more serious you must be aware of as well and that is what kind of image you are presenting to the world. Specifically, what you consider acceptable regarding profanity,… -
Beach Notes: After the Storm
5 Feb 2012 | 7:11 amby Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh After the storm, creative thinking … With all the driftwood on the beach after recent big storms, some people see debris spoiling the usually pristine sands. Others see a gift for creativity. What do you see when everything goes pear-shaped and plans fall apart? Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh -
What to do while you are waiting
5 Feb 2012 | 1:00 amMany people have to wait a long time for something to happen. Tom Petty was right: The waiting is the hardest part. It’s easy to become impatient, especially when we cannot see any signs that anything is happening. It’s like the seed germinating within the earth. Although there may be millions of chemical reactions going on beneath the surface, from topside, the soil resembles a mute brown plane, keeping its own counsel. Maddening. The urge to dig up the seed to check on its progress is almost overwhelming, and yet, in order for the seed to bear fruit, we must trust that the process is on…
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Brian Solis
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Meet the Mother of All Processes
8 Feb 2012 | 10:32 amGuest post by John M. Bernard, author of the new book, Business at the Speed of Now, and Chairman and Founder of Mass Ingenuity. Imagine going to work in one of Henry Ford’s factories a century ago, proud that management referred to you a “hand” or a “hammer” or maybe even a “wrench.” The labels reflected Ford’s emphasis on automation and management’s view of laborers as mere cogs in the machine. Screw this nut onto that bolt; weld this strap to that frame; do it over and over and over again until your brain froze with boredom. Of course, management needed workers to get the… -
2011 Was the Year of the Mobile Consumer, What’s in Store for 2012? Value.
7 Feb 2012 | 10:10 amChris Silva, my colleague at Altimeter Group, released a useful report today that I wanted to share with you here. Mobile is important and I believe you know this. However, when we consider mobile, we often think about the experience when and where it begins. But, we often miss the opportunity to lead a more meaningful journey as it may travel from small screen to larger screens across laptops, desktops and beyond. And along the way, we must now determine our role in this journey to provide information, shape decisions, and influence behavior. In Chris’ report, he reminds us that 2011… -
Season 2 Finale: How Yamaha invests in new customer experiences
3 Feb 2012 | 10:52 amThis is it…the Season Finale! And, what a way to end Season 2 of (R)evolution…. In this episode, Yamaha shares what is by far the most expansive view of disruptive technology’s impact on business infrastructure and culture on the show to date. What you’ll see is a genuine discussion with Jeff Hawley and Rick Williams of Yamaha explore how an already successful business is exploring new opportunities to better define the customer experience before, during and after transactions. It comes down to workflow. Nowadays, it either works for you or works against you. Here,… -
Smartphones, Tablets, PCs, The Devices People Use to Discover Information in Social Media (and when)
2 Feb 2012 | 3:13 pmMy friends over at bit.ly published an interesting graph that reveals the devices as well as the days/times that people use different devices and how and when they consume information. As you can imagine, it’s across the board, but as you can see, there are waves that every device follows, except the desktop. Desktops are of course the devices that we can assume people use during work hours. As such, they are most heavily used on weekdays before noon. Interestingly enough, phone traffic peaks at about the same times, but not to similar effects. What’s also telling is that tablets… -
What’s Love Got to Do with It? The 3P’s of Identity
2 Feb 2012 | 6:16 amGuest post by Allison Cerra, author of Identity Shift With the 2012 Presidential election looming, there’s no shortage of polls to help narrow the field of candidates. I find a recent one from Fox News to be particularly fascinating. Among other questions, Republican primary voters were asked which Republican presidential candidate is most likeable and which they would most trust with a nuclear weapon. While Newt Gingrich scored at the top of the heap in earning the trust vote, he scored only marginally well on the likeability scale. The topic was discussed on the network’s “Fox &…
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Seth's Blog
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How do they know you're not a flake?
8 Feb 2012 | 2:43 amBefore your link gets clicked or your proposal gets read, a busy person is going to triage it to find out if it's even worth glancing at. Since everyone is now connected, the new permeability has created a deluge of noise, and just about everyone worth contacting is taking defensive measures. Do I know this person? Did someone I trust send them over? Where does she work? (Ideo? the FDA? The New York Times?) Has she won an award? Is she famous? Are there typos and is the design sloppy? Are they pestering me? Do I already follow this person online? Does music play when I visit the website? Will… -
Horizontal marketing isn't a new idea
7 Feb 2012 | 2:09 amBut it is the new reality for just about every organization. Vertical marketing means the marketer (the one with money) is in charge. Vertical marketing starts at the top and involves running ads, sending out direct mail and pushing hype through the media. Your money, your plans, your control. It might not work, but generally the worst outcome is that you will be ignored and need to spend more money. Horizonal marketing, on the other hand, means creating a remarkable product and story and setting it up to spread from person to person. It's out of your control, because all the interactions are… -
Who is your customer?
6 Feb 2012 | 2:26 amRule one: You can build a business on the foundation of great customer service. Rule two: The only way to do great customer service is to treat different customers differently. The question: Who is your customer? It's not obvious. Zappos is a classic customer service company, and their customer is the person who buys the shoes. Nike, on the other hand, doesn't care very much at all about the people who buy the shoes, or even the retailers. They care about the athletes (often famous) that wear the shoes, sometimes for money. They name buildings after these athletes, court them, erect… -
In search of a timid trapeze artist
5 Feb 2012 | 2:01 amGood luck with that, there aren't any. If you hesitate when leaping from rope to another, you're not going to last very long. And this is at the heart of what makes innovation work in organizations, why industries die, and how painful it is to try to maintain the status quo while also participating in a revolution. Gather up as much speed as you can, find a path and let go. You can't get to the next rope if you're still holding on to this one. -
Will energy consumption stay private?
4 Feb 2012 | 11:45 amIt's clear that the consumption of energy has external effects that impact more than just the person who is paying for it. Geopolitical, health and economic issues come to the neighbors and nearby citizens of entities that are using a lot of power. It was always straightforward to see who was burning a lot of wood or drove a huge car. It's easy to see when a company has a huge smokestake belching carbon. What happens when sensors make it easy to see how efficient a machine is, how much of a resource is being consumed and how much exhaust is being spewed? What happens when Google maps shows…
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PsyBlog
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Multiple-Choice Tests: Why Sticking With Your First Answer is (Probably) Wrong
7 Feb 2012 | 6:34 amWhat's the best strategy for taking a multiple-choice test? The standard advice for multiple-choice tests is: if in doubt, stick with your first answer. College students believe it: about 75% agree that changing your first choice will lower your score overall (Kruger et al., 2005). Instructors believe it as well: in one study 55% believed it would lower students' scores while only 16% believed it would improve them. And yet this is wrong. One survey of 33 different studies conducted over 70 years found that, on average, people who change their answers do better than those who don't (Benjamin… -
Duck/Rabbit Illusion Provides a Simple Test of Creativity
31 Jan 2012 | 10:06 amAre you creative? Try this simple test... The well-known known illusion above can be seen in two ways: as both a duck and a rabbit. Which do you see first? And if you see one, can you also see the other? Most people see the duck first and can flip between the two representations, but the question is: how easy is it for you to flip between them? Does it require real mental strain, or can you do it at will? Wiseman et al. (2011) had a hunch that the ability to flip between representations is related to creativity. To test this participants were given a simple test of creativity which involves… -
Powerful People Feel Taller Than They Really Are
24 Jan 2012 | 9:05 amExperiment demonstrates how a powerful feeling feeds back into self-perception of height. Language can reveal all kinds of truths about our psychology. Take these expressions: He's the big man on this project. We look up to her. Lady Gaga is huge. He puts her on a pedestal. It's not hard to see the strong association here between size and power that's embedded in the way we talk about the relations between people. The reason why is almost too obvious to bother stating: larger people quite often do have more power. As children our parents, teachers and all our authority figures are taller than… -
Why Stories Sell: Transportation Leads to Persuasion
18 Jan 2012 | 10:10 amPsychological research on persuasion suggests that stories which transport people are more likely to be persuasive. Marketers have known for years that stories are a powerful tool for persuading people. That's partly because stories (unlike statistics) are easy to understand. That's why politicians try to persuade us by telling stories about their vision of the world. They do spout statistics as well, but normally only in support of some kind of grand narrative. We instinctively understand that people resist being told what to do, but will respond to the moral of a story. So we try to… -
The Amazing Power of Regret to Shape Our Future
12 Jan 2012 | 8:41 amWhy people are reluctant to exchange lottery tickets, but will happily exchange pens. Regret might not make a list of the most powerful emotions. It would probably include things like anger, happiness, jealousy, sadness and especially for us English, embarrassment. We tend to think of regret as essentially a backward-looking emotion. We regret things in the past, like not trying hard enough in school, how we treated a friend or the things we said to our partner in the heat of an argument. In this sense you might argue that it's useless: why regret something you can't change? But regret isn't…
