Thursday, January 27, 2011

Foursquare for Brands without Physical Locations - Click here http://bit.ly/haudia for full article

Foursquare is a highly popular location-based social service. Users install a Foursquare app on their mobile device and "check in" at places they visit. These could be schools, restaurants, grocery stores, train stations or even major intersections. These check-ins are published to a user's friends, both so people who are in the same place at the same time can find one another and also so people can find interesting recommendations based on what their friends are doing.
This has turned out to be a great application for businesses to market themselves, and Foursquare users tend to appreciate the timely and relevant information about local companies. For example, a business may offer a 10 percent discount to a user who has checked in at their business. Not only does this encourage people to check in and make a purchase, but it provides free advertising. Users who check in at nearby locations are notified of a "special nearby". That also helps drive business.

However, since Foursquare is deeply rooted in location-based services, it has been difficult for companies without physical locations to establish themselves on the site. If a user is having a Coke, for example, they can't check in as drinking the soda. Now, Foursquare is offering mechanisms to participate and gain users' attention, even if you don't have a physical address, by creating pages on the site. The pages provide information about the business and show a new feed provided by the brand instead of a history of check-ins, as are shown on user pages. Users can follow brands, which has many of the same effects as friending a fellow Foursquare-er. Brands can list places that offer their products or relate to their brand. They can also post tips at locations, just like regular users, and these tips will be seen by anyone who follows the brand when they check in.But why would users want to follow a brand? Is it worth it just to see updates from that company? For many, it isn't, but there is a feature that will bring a lot of visitors to a brand: the ability to offer custom badges. Badges are one of the top motivators on Foursquare, and brands that offer them will attract users by adding to their badge inventory and giving something new to strive for.

Facebook's Language Choices Cause Problems - Click here http://bit.ly/fvl8Kl for full article

Click here http://bit.ly/fvl8Kl for full article

Facebook, the world's most popular social media networking site, has drawn attention recently for some controversial and offensive language suggestions that appear in users' profile information. On the Facebook profile page, all users are able to specify their city and state locations, phone number, birth date and language. The social networking site has an autofill function to suggest popular terms based on user input.

An article from TechCrunch.com revealed that Facebook produced language choices such as "nigga slang" when users typed in their language information on their Edit Profile page. Some tweets about the appearance of "nigga slang" were found, and the discovery upset members of the Facebook community who consider the racially charged term to be derogatory and offensive. Since the discovery, which coincided with Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, "nigga slang" has been removed so that when users type it in, the Save Changes box remains inactive.  

It is unlikely that the suggested term was intentional and more probable that the suggestion appeared because of user-generated content. Based on information gathered from user input, search terms pop up based on frequency. Thus, this instance could be attributed to search statistics gathered by Facebook.
Other, less controversial options still remain, including: Franglais (a combination of French and English), IMing (instant messaging), Pig Latin (On'tday askway), a rather poetic Spanish phrase, Universal Language of Money, and my favorite, This is America, I speak American.

(If you still wish to offend, "White-bred Eponics" is still available.)

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Beware of Twitter Worm - Click here http://bit.ly/fuBKzg for full article

Click here http://bit.ly/fuBKzg for full article

Those shortened links so popular for micro-blogging platforms such as Twitter can hold hidden dangers, according to MSN's Technolog.

According to Suzanne Choney, one shortened link making the rounds on Twitter takes users who click on it to a fake anti-virus site for "Security Shield" software. Once there, visitors are urged to download anti-virus protection that is actually a malicious worm.

A worm is a sub-class of a computer virus that travels from computer to computer without needing any human help. It takes advantage of file or information transport systems on computers and can result in your own computer sending out hundreds or thousands of copies of itself to all of your contacts, and then to all of their contacts, and so on. This can result in it using up too much system memory and bandwidth, causing servers and computers to stop working.

In this case, the worm appeared a month ago, as well, using Google's URL shortener, "goo.gl".

Shortened links, used because of Twitter's 140-character limit on messages, are not, in themselves, malicious, and blocking the domain can create false positives, according to Adam Wosotowsky, principal researcher at McAfee Labs. Because goo.gl is associated with Google, blocking the domain could be frowned upon by Google, permitting the spammer to keep abusing the site.

At NewMediaPlus, we prefer Bit.ly, which also gives users the ability to customize links and track activity.

Twitter is working to remove the malware links and reset passwords on compromised accounts, according to a company spokesman. If you have found your account posting these links without your knowledge, the best thing to do is change your password. And, of course, if the link shows up in your own Twitter feed, don't click on it.

The New HTML5 Logo - Click here http://bit.ly/fYllxZ for full article

Click here http://bit.ly/fYllxZ for full article

Whether you're an Apple "fanboy", Web developer, geek or just a casual technology enthusiast, it would be tough not to know about the recent news regarding Flash versus the open standards movement. Spurred largely by the emergence of mobile platforms such as the Android OS and new devices like the iPad, there's been a renewed focus on cross-platform Web performance. That means giving developers the tools they need to create lean, powerful websites and applications without having to worry about royalties, licenses and closed-source technologies.

Widespread HTML5 adoption across the Web seen by many as the best possible way for that to happen.

Though many have heard of HTML5, few actually understand what it is and what it entails. Call it a marketing problem, if you will.

In an effort to rectify that lack of brand identity and awareness, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a standards organization, has unveiled a new HTML5 logo to spread awareness of the technology. Created entirely with open-source, cross-browser HTML5 and CSS3 to show users just what it can achieve, the logo relies on no proprietary technologies whatsoever and is freely available under a generous Creative Commons license for use on any site that wishes to display it. Webmasters can advertise their adherence and commitment to open standards by flying the HTML5 flag on their home pages.

Supporters see the new logo not just as symbol and a rallying point for proponents of open standards, but also as a creative way to brand the standard and promote it in the public eye. New ways of displaying rich graphics and media, such as Ogg, WebM, SVG, WOFF and PNG will eventually replace older formats like Flash video and proprietary audio codecs. HTML5 will play an important role in this transition, as it allows Web designers to create sites that render the same, regardless of which browser the end user works with. The new HTML5 logo itself is available for download at the W3C site in both PNG and SVG image formats, and it is also selling stickers and T-shirts to further the visibility of the standard as much as possible.

Elegant, beautiful and simple at the same time, the new HTML5 logo will hopefully open up the eyes of entrepreneurs and e-commerce business owners to the possibilities that lie unexplored within the HTML5 standard. Other open-source, non-proprietary technologies also will become increasingly popular in the near- and long-term future. Ultimately, closed-off systems and technologies will atrophy and die in the process. Consumers and Web surfers will be the biggest beneficiaries of the switch, as they'll get a far more rewarding and hassle-free Web experience in the process.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Use Social Media to Connect or Risk Disaster - Click here http://bit.ly/edclZI for full article

Click here http://bit.ly/edclZI for full article

Nowhere is it more obvious that the world is changing in ways that are almost too fast to keep up with than in the area of marketing. Traditional brick-and-mortar businesses were able to drag their feet for years before capitulating to the fact that they had to have a Web presence in order to keep their doors open. That same reluctance is being seen today in the attitude of many that it is not necessary to establish relationships with their target audiences through social media.

The attitude was wrong then about the need for websites, and it is even more wrong today about social media marketing. Those businesses that refuse to listen to the predictions about the necessity of connecting with their customers and prospects through the various types of new media place their continued success, if not their very existence, at risk.

However, it is not enough to simply set up a Facebook account or hire someone to blast out several tweets throughout the day. Marketing is no longer a one-way street. Customer and client relationships have evolved into a level of communication that now requires that businesses listen as well as disseminate information and enticements. This is a significant shift, and one that has the potential to catch traditional marketers off balance.

An excellent example of the failure to listen, and the resulting consequences, was when United Airlines refused to listen to musician Dave Carroll after baggage handlers were seen tossing guitars around as they were being loaded, and Carroll's guitar was damaged. After not being able to get the results he wanted from United, Carroll wrote a song about the experience and posted a video on YouTube.

The video went viral and the rest is history. United took a huge hit in customer relations and has since gone to great lengths to turn that around by employing ways to listen to their customers and target market.

Something similar happened when a grandmother, Mona Shaw, got so frustrated by poor service from Comcast that she took a hammer into their local office and started smashing computer monitors. Comcast quickly got the message and set up an entire department dedicated to customer service through the use of Twitter. Few things do more to defuse angry complaints than an almost instant response from someone ready to listen.

The future of successful marketing will be in finding ways of connecting with customers and developing ongoing relationships rather than constantly bombarding them with "buy now" messages. Social media marketing provides the vehicles, but it will be up to each business to take advantage of the opportunity, and NewMediaPlus is happy to help your business with this and other concerns.

Click here http://bit.ly/edclZI for full article

Does Facebook Find Roger Ebert's Face 'Abusive'? - Click here http://bit.ly/ieTc0h for full article

Click here http://bit.ly/ieTc0h to view full article

I rarely agree with film critics. As a matter of fact, I tend to consider a bad review by critics to mean that I'll probably enjoy the movie. But, I'd never consider censoring a film reviewer, whether I disagreed with him or her regularly or not.

Why, then, is Facebook calling the content on world-famous Roger Ebert's blog "abusive content"?

To be fair, the subject matter to which Mark Zuckerberg objects has nothing to do with Ebert's opinions on the silver screen (ones which I nearly always disagree, being of the mind that Ebert lost touch with the American public years ago). Rather, it was a blog entry about how one of the pair who made "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" household phrases recently got a prosthetic jaw after losing his to thyroid cancer.

While I rarely agree with Ebert's cinematic tastes, I applaud his courage in not only writing about his two-year ordeal but also in posting (non-graphic) photos of himself sans lower mandible, a photo which also appeared on the cover of Esquire magazine a year ago.

According to a Facebook (and, isn't that business name ironic in this context?) spokesman, the world's largest social media networking site is looking into the matter.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Searchmetrics Raises $6.75M C-Round Financing to Expand Globally - Click here http://bit.ly/gWgibo for full article

Click here http://bit.ly/gWgibo for full article

For Internet entrepreneurs and small business owners with an online presence, detailed and accurate information about their marketing efforts is often crucial to their long-term success. Search engine algorithms from the likes of Google and Yahoo are evolving non-stop, making it difficult to keep abreast of technological changes, and even more difficult to craft a well-planned SEO strategy to rank high in organic search engine results pages.

When it comes to the dissemination of mountains of data and complex Web analytics that could have a major impact on your e-commerce efforts, Searchmetrics is probably your best best.

This German software-as-a-service (SAAS) provider has been doing just that for years, and is about to get a lot better thanks to a new round of funding.

Headquartered in Berlin, Searchmetrics offers software tools that help businesses analyze their return on investment when it comes to online marketing expenditures. Its flagship, Searchmetrics Suite, not only helps businesses get a clear picture of how they're doing, but also suggests possible alternatives to their current game plans.

In other words, Searchmetrics helps businesses effectively and efficiently allocate capital and resources to get the most out of their online marketing and advertising campaigns.

Though the company is doing well, an injection of some fresh capital would help it move on to the next level and expand operations to attract more high-profile, corporate customers.

That funding has come through in the form of $6.75 million raised by a collective of investors comprised of Iris Capital, Holtzbrinck Digital and Neuhaus Partners. This ought to raise Searchmetrics' profile enough to garner even further funding if it can continue to draw attention from satisfied, enterprise-level customers and early adopters. Searchmetrics has a clear-cut expansion strategy for 2011, with a slew of new features aimed at convincing marketers to use its ever-improving software.

In the coming years, greater and greater resources and man-hours will be devoted to data-mining, analytics and so forth. In fact, Web analytics and statistics are one of the few areas of the economy that is booming, despite the current recession. Ultimately, analytics and tracking can make the difference between success and failure for many businesses as the global online economy becomes more tightly integrated and competitive.

With Searchmetrics' innovative SEO tools, such as keyword analysis and Facebook tracking, the future looks bright for this start-up. As long as it can keep up its momentum and maintain interest amongst marketing professionals, we'll be hearing a lot more from Searchmetrics in the coming year.

Click here http://bit.ly/gWgibo for full article

Friday, January 21, 2011

3 Ways to Improve Your Website's SEO - Click here http://bit.ly/fqgczc for full article

Backlinking (having incoming links to your website) can be a powerful tool to help your company rise up in search engine rankings. That's because search engines such as Google and Yahoo interpret a link between two sites as a virutal recommendation.

Here are three great methods to help get your business onto Google's front page!

Web Directories

This method is straight-forward. A quick Internet search for "Web directories" will produce thousands and thousands of results. A Web or blog directory is bascially an online telephone book, listing website addresses by category and subcategory.

On each directory is usually a Submit Site or Submit a Link button. Click on that, fill in a short form and you're done. Don't get too excited when submitting your site since generating dozens of backlinks in a short period of time will get you into trouble with search engines. You can either lose your ranking, or worse, get your site banned. Adding three to four backlinks a day shouldn't cause any problems. Search Engine Journal posted a useful article, "20 Essential Blog Directories to Submit Your Blog To". Check it out but don't be spammy!

Blogs

Search engines like backlinks from blogs, so just by commenting on a popular blog and leaving a link back to your site in the closing, you can get yourself a quality backlink.

An even better option is to guest blog. Guest blogging is just what it sounds like: you substitute for another blogger on their site. Your name is usually hyperlinked (a backlink!) to your blog, so the more popular the site you write for, the more exposure you get. Guest blogging is a bit tougher to land, but a smart woman I just started following, appropriately named Ann Smarty, has built a community site specifically for guest bloggers, called My Blog Guest. It's a place where guest bloggers can offer their content and blog owners can find good, relevant posts.

Social Bookmarking Sites

I'm not sure why, but social bookmarking sites are a great way for getting more traffic. Social bookmarking sites is a way for users to organize their Web bookmarks and often find new sites of similar content. Start with the more popular bookmarking sites, such as Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon, and use them the way you would Twitter: by saving links to relevant content. You can even leave comments and gain further SEO value, not to mention access to new networks of millions of people from around the world.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

StumbleUpon Tips and Tricks - Click here http://bit.ly/eRs544 for full article

Stumbling. The first time I heard someone say they were stumbling, I thought they were drunk and falling all over themselves. Once, I recommended they grab some sleep and get back to me. I was quickly corrected and told they were surfing the Internet through a new program, StumbleUpon. This program is an ingenious tool for visiting and browsing the Web, letting you only see the content you want.

Unlike regular search engines, StumbleUpon brings users who are interested in the same topics as you to the your page. Needless to say, the advantage to businesses is obvious. To keep attention on your page once it's stumbled upon, there are a few things you need to have: good design, good content and keep your ads to a minimum. Remember, you want to keep people interested in your site past the 10- to 30-second window it takes to skim over your content.

There are plenty of buttons on the toolbar for use.

The StumbleUpon button is self-explanatory. Click this button and you get a new page.

The Thumb Up and Thumb Down buttons are for rating websites you visit while stumbling. You can also write reviews through these buttons.

The Send To button allows you to send the website to your friends, even if they're not StumbleUpon members. Just import your contacts from Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, most of the well-known mail providers and Facebook.

The Review button gives you a quick view of all the reviews of your current page. You can also submit your own review through this button.

The buttons that look like a film reel, a person and a globe are channel buttons. These take you to webpages that match your interests, news items, or a page a friend has given a Thumb Up.

The Favorites button gives you all pages you have marked as a favorite.

The Friends button takes you to your friends list, and even recommends new friends with similar interests.

The last button is the Tool button, which takes you to your account preferences, where you can update topics, report spam and modify your preferences and account.

Advertising through StumbleUpon is possible, but beware. Users are skimming though, looking for interesting pages and articles, so they may only visit your page for seconds. Look into advertising that is based on view rates, not click rates. The more views on your page, the greater the value and the more your advertisements stand to make.

There are numerous ways to attract people to your page, though we don't recommend some of them.

The biggest thing that brings new users to your page is the amount of previous users who have given you a Thumb Up and written reviews on your content. The more reviews and Thumbs Up, the more often visitors will be directed to your page. And, the more friends you have, the bigger the pool of people who can recommend your site to others.

You can submit your own pages, but don't flood StumbleUpon with too many entries or they may be flagged and you could be temporarily or even permanently blocked.

Tagging your website with certain words, like "comedy" or "technology", will also draw more traffic, but be sure your content fits the category.

There are certain websites out there, in particular XXX, that let you sign up and visit other members' sites to write reviews and like their content in return for them doing the same for you. But I am sure this is against StumbleUpon's terms of service (as evidence, StumbleXchange.com has been shut down) so use at your own risk.

Another thing you can do to bring more visitors to your page is become more involved in stumbling yourself. After all, that's the whole point of the site! Write reviews, give thumbs up and down, and recommend other pages. Stumbling is a fun and addictive way to browse the Internet. Make an account and start your journey; you'll never know what you might find!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Pixable Photofeeds Takes the Pain Out of Facebook Photos - Click here http://bit.ly/h2H9Rf to view full article

Do you share photographs with friends and family on Facebook? With over 127 million members in the United States alone, Facebook is the leader in social networking, and more pictures than ever are at your fingertips.

It has become much easier to let everyone see your photos by simply posting them to your profile. However, spending one or two hours poring over someone else's photo albums (or your own) looking for the pictures you want to see can be frustrating. Be frustrated no more: Pixable Photofeeds, which debuted for Facebook users on Jan. 11, promises to make finding photos easier and more productive.

Pixable Photofeeds is an application that sorts and categorizes pictures, as well as "learning" how you look at photos and keeping track of updates and comments from friends. This "WonderRank" technology analyzes the photos you look at and sorts them, allowing you to browse by category or owner and rank them, making your favorite photographs easier to find.

The latest photos, as well as the most popular, are grouped together, and if someone is tagged in a picture, searching for their name will give you all of them, no matter whose profile they are stored under.

Keeping track of friends is simple; Pixable can notify you when they comment on or are tagged in a photo, or when they upload new ones. Using an interface that is symmetrical and easy to navigate, thumbnails are paged through to find what you are looking for.

It's obviously a new application, so more features are sure to follow, but it is a solid concept and already makes keeping track of your friends photos more fun.

Being the most popular social network on the web, more than 750 million photos were uploaded on Facebook over New Year's weekend alone, so keeping track of the photographs you want to see is becoming increasingly more difficult and time consuming.

With seemingly everyone having a picture phone or Web camera, the trend toward "picture networking" is sure to increase. Composing photobooks, videos and mosaics are also some of the things that can be done with this new tool.

Pixable Photofeeds is certainly an application whose time has come, and it promises to be at the forefront of this networking trend.

Paper.li Will Revolutionize Social Media Marketing - Click here http://bit.ly/eQJytO for full article

It's a good thing that the organized people in the world have taken a look at Twitter and Facebook and invented a recap service such as Paper.li for those of us who muddle through tweets and posts without processing them in an orderly manner.

Making sense of random posts, in addition to extracting nuggets of information useful to our daily lives, are skills most people are too busy to develop. This organization of information is useful to the small-business owner for two reasons: it's free and he can do it himself. Those two things create a pathway to the world for the small-business owner, one he searches for religiously and exploits for his benefit when he finds it.

How Paper.li Works

The smart small-business owner will have Facebook and Twitter accounts with which to maximize his social contacts to promote his business. She will log into her Twitter account, and then register under Paper.li. The user interface is easily navigable by simply answering its questions. She will click on "Create A Paper", then click on three questions: "Are you being followed?", "Tagged?" and "List?".

When those are answered, Paper.li will collect tweets from her and others and organize them under any one of many categories, such as Business, Arts and Entertainment, Business Arts and Entertainment, Technology and so forth. But, you need a catchy name for your paper. You can also follow other people's papers and tweet on them.

Paper.li is software peculiar to Twitter and Facebook, meaning the small-business owner doesn't have to make an expenditure for yet another software package he doesn't understand and will have to hire someone to teach him how to use.

The owner just logs on, creates his paper, then spins it the way he wants. People have begun using the service to spin their own papers in such subjects as work groups, trade shows and brands. If the small-business owner can tie all that into his own company, he can watch his product or service explode into different areas.

The small-business owner can bet the first dollar she made that her competition is maximizing the same opportunities. What a boon to her company if she can create a paper read by gabazillions of people in four languages, chock full of her views on different aspects of her business, such as green operations, hiring practices, outsourcing, marketing techniques she invented herself, and a hundred more innovations she has made! Success breeds success, they say, and sharing all that knowledge will help someone else devise an idea of her own and make a business out of it, thereby supporting the economy and helping other people, ad infinitum.

Time

Saving it, making it, using it wisely, spending it, sharing it. Time is precious to everyone, and small-business owners need it for so many things.

Investing time in new technological marketing ideas, especially when they're free, isn't just about the marketing. Paper.li gives business owners the chance to give the "out with the old, in with the new" adage a spin around the block. It's a digital world, now, when all things analog are falling by the wayside. Those who can dive into the Web and come up for air holding the prize gain more than just recognition.

The small-business owner who takes the time to investigate new technologies and makes the time to use them, will profit from speaking what has already become a universal language, netting a clientele base that will return again and again. Paper.li is making the language easier to understand for all who speak it.

Check Out the Numbers

Paper.li was started last summer and already has 2 million users. It is published in four languages and currently has over 140,000 papers published in 200 countries. That's a powerful lot of tweets to filter, gather into categories and then publish.

Paper.li is working on expanding into multiple devices, such as iPads and iPhones, so the small-business owner can publish his paper wherever he happens to be. Paper.li is also looking to expand into other geographical areas, as well.

Now, do the math. For the small-business owner, this expansion means more people on more devices reading her paper and clicking on her products or services. If she has a Facebook page set to public, the same service can be applied, reaping unbelievable results.

The moral of the story is that organization is a good thing, showing business owners the way to better customer relationships and the resultant business. Since not everyone has the time to organize their social networking, a Swiss company has done it for them with a bang.

All tweets and Facebook posts are gathered, analyzed for relevancy, and then categorized. The small-business owner can spin his own paper to focus on his business, thereby garnering the attention of literally millions of people worldwide. Soon, he will be able to reach the man on the street peering into his iPhone or iPad and do business. The small-business owner now speaks a universal language, and can take the time to "talk" to other people about his business.

As Aretha Franklin put it, to give this company its "propers"; it saw a problem and moved to fix it. Its idea is going to be cloned by others, and possibly improved upon, making the numbers discussed above explode.

Because the technology exists, it can be utilized to make beneficial programs for small business, in particular. Growth is possible through marketing using the technology, something the inventors might not have thought of, but which the small-business owner can use to her advantage. So, kudos to the Swiss geniuses who built a new road paved with possibilities!

Monday, January 17, 2011

SeeClickFix Takes Community Involvement to Whole New Level - Click here http://bit.ly/gj8eIW for full article

Imagine driving to work and noticing a malfunctioning traffic light tying up traffic. You flip open your phone, report it online and continue along your way. On the way home, you see that the light has been repaired and traffic flow has returned to normal. There is also a news van at the corner reporting on the city's quick response. With SeeClickFix, this sort of rapid response to problems can become commonplace.

Civic engagement facilitated by social media Web tools is a new and effective approach to address daily problems at the local level. SeeClickFix is an innovative company out of New Haven, Conn., that is working to empower people in small but significant ways by giving them an online voice to help improve neighborhoods through direct participation.

Utilizing the three principles of empowerment, efficiency and engagement, this company has successfully applied the tools of social media to develop more involved citizens who have the opportunity to directly affect their communities with the click of a button.

Simply by signing up for free, users can access information on the SeeClickFix website about their surroundings, report problems and monitor the resolution of previously reported issues. People can also comment on submitted reports submitted, upload photos and add to conversations in many other ways.

In addition to being a valuable resource for community members, local government agencies and news outlets, small businesses also can benefit from following the reports to improve available services and resolve issues more rapidly. SeeClickFix improves transparency and increases accountability of government services to the communities they are entrusted to provide for. Local news media also have the opportunity to check the website for potential story leads, reporting on issues that impact people's daily lives. In short, the implications for creating more healthy and interactive communities are profound.

By providing a Web-based tool to allow citizens to report non-emergency issues that affect their surroundings, people are more likely to be consistently engaged in what is happening around them and be more invested in the outcomes. Also, given its simplicity, getting involved no longer requires attending a meeting or going to a government office to report an existing problem. Now, it's as easy as see, click, fix!

TagMan Raises $2.3M in Latest Round of Funding - Click here http://bit.ly/dSzT4s for full article

London- and New York-based TagMan, a start-up with an innovative tag management system for online marketing, just completed a round of Series A funding, having raised nearly $2.3 million.

Greycroft Partners, a venture capital partnership, led the round, which also included Cambridge Angels and iNovia Capital. This most recent round of funding gives the start-up nearly $5 million in total investments. Cambridge Angels, along with the London Business School, had spearheaded the previous round.

TagMan, which markets itself as the "first tag management system" and has already established itself in both Europe and North America, will use this recent investment to launch the third version of its software, as well as expand and strengthen its infrastructure. The new infrastructure will allow TagMan to develop newer technology, support its continued flux of e-commerce clients and continue to innovate on behalf of its clients and their partners.

The TagMan system has particular appeal to advertisers and marketers managing extensive online ad campaigns. Prior to TagMan, there have been systems to track the performance of Internet ad campaigns, but all of them had shortcomings in terms of efficiency, productivity and reliability. This system, which allows digital advertisers to insert code into the website via the ad itself, has overcome many of these faults.

These tags, also called codes or pixels, are essentially pieces of computer code that track and serve visitor and browsing data. TagMan's clients, Virgin Atlantic and Subaru being two of the most notable, simply have to embed a small, customized section of JavaScript onto the advertisement or webpage where they want to track the information. The client can then view and manage all of that information from TagMan's Web-based user-interface.

TagMan is also expanding its board and has recently announced the additions of Seth Brody, Shaun Gregory and John Taysom. Gregory, the media director at O2, will serve as the board's new chair. Brody, the former general manager and group vice president of Orbitz Worldwide, represents Greycroft. Taysom represents Cambridge Angels and is the founder, director and chief investor of Advertising.com and a number of other online ventures.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Checking In Brings Us All Closer Together - Click here http://bit.ly/iczadX for full article

Social media has not only becoming a popular way of talking to friends and family, but also of letting people know what we're doing, where we're doing it at, and who we're doing it with. No, nothing like that; I mean the art of the check-in.

What is a check-in? In general, it is a way of telling others where you are, what you're doing and what you like. These are usually location-based apps, such as Foursquare or the new Facebook Places, that allow sharing between the user and the people who are following her.

For example, let's say that I head out to a new restaurant for lunch. Using, say, Foursquare, I can let my friends, family and followers know where I am, the name of the restaurant, and whether I like the food. Some applications, such as Yelp, even allow me to write up a review of the place and rate it for other Yelp viewers.

Restaurants and shops aren't the only things that people can check into. Miso, normally known as a type of soup in Japan, is now a downloadable app for people to share what TV shows they watch. Mobile users can download Miso to either their iPhone, Blackberry or Android phones, see what their friends or others are watching, and then watch or follow those same shows.

So, what is so important about checking in everywhere? Well, for those who do use location-based apps, there are five reasons: games, serendipity, sharing, diary posting and receiving deals. Technology has brought us closer, maybe sometimes a bit too close, to each other in ways we never expected. All of these five reasons are tied into the idea of wanting to know about each other; to know about our friends, our family and even people we don't actually know.

Check-ins are more than just wanting to know what would be good for dinner. New applications, like GetGlue, Philo and Tunerfish, let you find out what people think is worth watching while eating that dinner. Apps are out to help you figure out what brand of dish soap and even electronic store is going to give you the best deals.

We may be over-sharing, but when you think about the potential of these apps, it's good business getting consumers to your products through the most valuable and oldest form of marketing: word-of-mouth.

Click here http://bit.ly/iczadX for full article

MySpace Cuts Nearly 500 Employees - Click here http://bit.ly/gvx3xc for full article

With Facebook's utter dominance of the social networking scene, people have wondered whether MySpace could thrive or even continue. Those paying close attention to MySpace have read of its decreasing revenues, which come exclusively from advertising. Traffic also has been down considerably, and the company laid off a large number of workers about 18 months ago.

But, it seemed that MySpace was confident of its own future when news came out recently that it had renewed its deal with Google for both search and advertising, a deal which dates back to 2006. Coupled with its recent addition of a mobile site and apps, and its exciting new look, the news made it appear that MySpace was moving forward.

Now comes a report from PaidContent that MySpace has cut almost 50 percent of its staff. Five hundred employees now find themselves out of work.

News Corp. Digital Media originally paid $580 million for MySpace in 2005 when it bought Intermix Media, MySpace's parent company. Earlier this week, News Corp. put MySpace up for sale after reporting a quarterly loss of $156 million. There has been no news of any interested parties. Previous sales of dot-coms in trouble have come at a loss, at times up to 99 percent.

MySpace has faced some public relations problems over the years. Cyberbullying was talked about often in the news last year, and as a site that still boasts 30 million unique monthly visitors, MySpace was often mentioned. As those who grew up posting their own photos to MySpace and other social networking sites enter adulthood, there also has been talk about how people may have regrets about making their personal lives so public.

It has been alleged by an atheist group and MoveOn.org that MySpace discriminates against them. And, MySpace and other social networking sites have been in the news after parties publicized on the sites, sometimes without the host's knowledge, resulted in violence or property damage.

MySpace users' security also has been frequently compromised from spyware, phishing and spam, though MySpace is hardly the only site of its kind to suffer these woes.

TimThumb, Host Gator and Absolute (External) URLs - Click here http://bit.ly/f4CHBi for full article

If you’ve ever played with or developed an advanced WordPress theme, you surely have come across the wonderful timthumb.php PHP script. It was developed specifically for WordPress and makes the dreaded task of image resizing a real joy.

"TimThumb is a simple, flexible, PHP script that resizes images. You give it a bunch of parameters, and it spits out a thumbnail image that you can display on your site," according to BinaryMoon.

It does exactly what it promises to do and the results are simply magnificent. It's definitely comparable to ImageMagick’s powerful shell options.

Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world, and now and then, we have to be creative to overcome certain obstacles.

I recently encountered two of these obstacles: Host Gator hosting and WordPress's use of absolute URLs when adding new images to the media library. When combined, instead of a pretty resized image, you get an ugly error message telling you that the resource/URL is not available or that you don’t have access and have been reported to the FBI. (Okay, maybe not quite that bad but darn close!)

In this instance, it has nothing to do with permissions (which could be an issue, as well). The reason for the error is TimThumb’s effort to resize an image referenced by an absolute URL (starting with http://www...).

In my case, the URL was on the same server but Host Gator’s settings prevented TimThumb from accessing it.

Here’s a simple solution that costs you five seconds and will save you a lot of frustration: When referencing an image inside your page or post that might require resizing for various display purposes, change the location of the image from a URL to a path (I am using an absolute path to circumvent issues with relative paths, as those depend on your folder structure).

Before: http://www.mydomain.com/wordpress/images/myimage.jpg
After: /wordpress/images/myimage.jpg

Take it from a (WordPress) developer: incorporate this practice into your content development and you will save yourself a lot of time and headaches.

5 Tips for Basic Photoshop - Click here http://bit.ly/gQstjI for full article

If you're just starting out in graphic design and manipulating photos for your business, here are some tips that should help you keep things under control. Photoshop is a huge program and does almost anything you can think of ... and that's the program's problem (if it has one).

Palettes

Limit the number of palettes or windows displayed on your screen. You could fill an entire other monitor with them if you chose, and I used to do just that, but it's just not necessary. Keep your Layers, Swatches, Info, Character and History palettes open and pull up the others as needed.

The Brush Tool

Master the Brush tool. It is the most basic tool Photoshop has, so learn it inside and out. Play with it. Vary the brush sizes and shapes. Learn the difference between hard and soft edges, levels of opacity and the different effects of each of blending mode.

Swatches

Save your favorite or most used colors as swatches. Swatches are great for quickly picking a color, but I like to store my most used colors in the pallet so I'm not having to constantly sample parts of the image or open other files where my colors exist to import them.

Layers

You can never have too many layers! I always create a new layer for every object; it's just easier in the long run. It gives you the ability to make certain parts visible while hiding others, and makes organizing things into groups possible.

Saving

Save multiple versions of your files. I'll save a file as a new version of itself rather than just hit Save all the time. It's useful to be able to change ideas without losing your previous work. And, then I'm able to go back an idea or two if I want. You'll need a large hard drive but layered Photoshop files are worth keeping around.

Click here http://bit.ly/gQstjI for full article

Facebook's Threaded Posts a Blessing and a Curse - Click here http://bit.ly/f5mQFR to view full article

As you are engaging in the major social media outlets, mainly through Facebook, and trying to provide high quality and insightful content for your targeted audience, you may start noticing that your impressions, slowly but surely, seem to be on a decline. You're answering questions, expanding your reach and trying to keep your audience engaged with your posts. Still, with all this work, you aren't making the same impact as before.

Are you using any Facebook applications to release your content? As we know, everyone is releasing new or improved applications daily. Facebook's release last year included "threaded comments" as a new way to receive and share content that's relevant to you. If you and a friend post the same content, it now appears as a single post, with your post as a follow-up, essentially turning the two posts into one.

This update was quickly capitalized by Farmville, Happy Aquarium and many of the other Facebook games and applications. At the time, these apps were requiring players to keep adding more friends, and their involvement, to advance through the games. The games were programmed so that when a player allowed the application to post on her wall, it caused users who weren't playing to be slammed with unwanted content.

Facebook responded to the ensuing complaints and enabled the threaded content into the apps. This was a godsend for people who don't like seeing all the requests and postings from games they have no desire to be involved in (myself included), but a disaster for the players.

Companies noticed the problem and began to capitalize on it. One in particular, Buddy Media, released its own software for social media clients. This software allowed clients to give their target audience meaningful content without having to learn all of Facebook's applications and procedures. Companies such as Target, ABC and others began using the software to increase their fan base but they, too, were subject to the same threaded content feature.

The posts that rolled out after the "threaded content clause", as we'll call it, were grouped in the news feed and users were given the option to see more. This was Facebook's method to prevent users from seeing posts that they might deem as spam.

But, when all the companies such as Buddy Media began to have to follow the threaded content clause, it ended up hurting their clients' visibility. When you expand a post from a certain app, you can see that posts from different brands are lumped together. The information isn't necessarily related to any of the other brands, and the threaded-content update prevents it from being seen.

This brings us to some key questions. Do threaded content posts still amount to an impression within your Facebook community? Could a new content application bring new impressions and new ways to reach your audience? Most Facebook users now use the mobile application, or other platforms such as Motorola Blur, to access the site and news feeds. Are these apps affected by the threaded content clause?

Advertising and brand management on Facebook can only be effective if the messages are visible to their targeted audiences. Keep this in mind when you are searching for applications that you think may increase your impressions. There are ways to boost your presence on social media platforms; just be wary of anyone offering up an easy fix. Instead, seek out knowledgeable professionals.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Arizona Shooting Suspect Used Social Media to Spread His Message-Click here http://bit.ly/hkkmtc to view full article

Jared Loughner, the 22-year-old suspected shooter of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, was probably not entertaining notions of Internet superstardom as he publicized his anti-government ideas on various social media platforms. Yet, his digital footprint has left a deep imprint on law enforcement and the media. Both entities are poring over Loughner's current and defunct webpages for clues as to the mindset of the young man who is currently in custody.

Loughner appeared in court with a demeanor described as smug, refusing to talk to law enforcement since his arrest, and posing for mug shots with looks that could only be described as manic and disturbing. He has been described by those who knew him as a "ticking time bomb," by news outlets.

Loughner's MySpace page was taken down after being found by professional Internet hunters. His YouTube page features five videos on various topics, including currency, college and the constitutionality of the police force. The videos have been reposted numerous times by other YouTube members, and currently rank among the most watched videos on the site.

The videos have become fodder for the international community, some of whom are using them and the shootings to decry the United States as a trigger-happy nation of paranoid extremists. Former Cuban prime minister called the act "atrocious," while the British press has pontificated that attacks on American politicians are often arbitrary and extremely violent in nature. Many Arab nations were offended that the American media did not label it a terrorist act.

Though one of Loughner's classmates emailed Pima Community College school officials, where Loughner was a student, about his unstable behavior, no action was taken. This despite Loughner's videos having already come to the schools' attention, including one in which he calls the college unconstitutional.

Investigators are currently scouring the Internet for more traces of Loughner's digital footprint, but as of yet, the popular YouTube videos seem to be the central find.

Loughner currently faces five federal charges, for which the sentence could be death. Rep. Giffords is in critical but stable condition and under the close care of hospital staff.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

New Media Must Be Personal, While Old Media is Dying - Click here http://bit.ly/gb3MEO for full article

Old media used to be the small-business owner's best friend. It ran ads for his business and wrote articles about how great he was. He didn't mind that his kids got the comics page before he did, as long as his ad was right and prominently placed. The business owner prospered because all his clients received the newspaper. Today, small- to medium-sized business owners are being stampeded along a path of new technology via new media. It's a digital world, as opposed to analog, and business must change with it.

Many newspapers and other print media are trending toward the digital domain. Old media still exists, although since 2005 over 160 newspapers have closed their doors. But, old media puts its digital focus first, with print coming in second. The New York Times and Washington Post have news sites online as do most magazines.Indeed, even bookstores are selling their wares to be read in new media.

People using iPhones and iPads can access Amazon and Barnes and Noble to read a book while waiting for their doctor or the train. Once, people strode to work with newspapers under their arms; today, people stride everywhere with their faces locked onto their 4G phones and Kindles.

What this means for the small- to medium-sized business owner is that she needs to be online. It is no understatement to say there are more phones in circulation than newspapers. With online ads reaching so many more people, it's no wonder that print media can't keep up. Google AdWords and SEO content blows them away. There are blog posts and forums for every product and service, so there is no shortage of information to keep a consumer from knowing what to buy. For the small-business owner to tap into all that: priceless.

Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, with their "Share" this and "Like" that, are more youth-oriented. If the small-business owner has a service or product the young would appreciate, then having a page on social networking sites will alert them to the fact you have something they need. In addition to this boon is the fact that kids talk and pass stuff around. They'll show all their friends the small-business owner's ad and keywords will fly through the air, making sales happen.

Old media might be dying but new media rocks.

5 Tips to Get the Most From Your Social Media Efforts - Click here http://bit.ly/fYeSJP for full article

Using social media to get the best results is on everyone's list of goals, but have you figured out how to do it? It can be challenging to decipher the best ways to use these new tools.

Here are five tips to help you to get the most from your social media efforts:

Look at It From Your Customers' View
The most successful business owners think about their products, advertisements and services from their customers' vantage point, and your social media engagement should be no different. Your customers, both potential and current, want something in exchange for "liking" you on Facebook or following you on Twitter. Think about providing information, such as tax tips if you are an accountant or discount codes if you sell merchandise online, to entice them to not only make the initial commitment, but to revisit your social media communications.

Use the Right Social Media Tools
Today, social media is a broad term for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and even submit-your-own news-story websites like Digg and StumbleUpon. It is difficult to manage all of them as well as you want, so focus on the tools that your customers are using. If you are an executive recruiter, LinkedIn is where you will find your next CEO, while Twitter may be better for finding bloggers, and Facebook has the lion's share of college students and young adults.

Keep Up the Good Work
Be consistent with your social media use, regardless of what tools you are using. This means sending out quality tweets daily, providing your Facebook fans with regular updates, or being active on LinkedIn's discussion boards.

Provide Value, Not Spam

It is tempting to send out a continual stream of tweets and updates that link to your website. Resist this impulse, as it is considered the social equivalent of spam and is a fast way to lose your audience. Strive instead for a mix of information that provides value to your audience, as well as directing them to your website for additional information.
 
Step Up Your Game
If your Facebook page is getting visitors and your Twitter account is gaining followers daily but your website is not seeing a corresponding increase in traffic, consider providing additional incentives to social media users to visit your site. It could be an exclusive sale, webcast or discount, depending on your product or service.

5 Tips to Get the Most From Your Social Media Efforts - Click here http://bit.ly/fYeSJP for full article

Using social media to get the best results is on everyone's list of goals, but have you figured out how to do it? It can be challenging to decipher the best ways to use these new tools.

Here are five tips to help you to get the most from your social media efforts:

Look at It From Your Customers' View
The most successful business owners think about their products, advertisements and services from their customers' vantage point, and your social media engagement should be no different. Your customers, both potential and current, want something in exchange for "liking" you on Facebook or following you on Twitter. Think about providing information, such as tax tips if you are an accountant or discount codes if you sell merchandise online, to entice them to not only make the initial commitment, but to revisit your social media communications.

Use the Right Social Media Tools
Today, social media is a broad term for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and even submit-your-own news-story websites like Digg and StumbleUpon. It is difficult to manage all of them as well as you want, so focus on the tools that your customers are using. If you are an executive recruiter, LinkedIn is where you will find your next CEO, while Twitter may be better for finding bloggers, and Facebook has the lion's share of college students and young adults.

Keep Up the Good Work
Be consistent with your social media use, regardless of what tools you are using. This means sending out quality tweets daily, providing your Facebook fans with regular updates, or being active on LinkedIn's discussion boards.

Provide Value, Not Spam

It is tempting to send out a continual stream of tweets and updates that link to your website. Resist this impulse, as it is considered the social equivalent of spam and is a fast way to lose your audience. Strive instead for a mix of information that provides value to your audience, as well as directing them to your website for additional information.
 
Step Up Your Game
If your Facebook page is getting visitors and your Twitter account is gaining followers daily but your website is not seeing a corresponding increase in traffic, consider providing additional incentives to social media users to visit your site. It could be an exclusive sale, webcast or discount, depending on your product or service.

Samsung's Wi-Fi Fridge Will Revolutionize Household Management - Click here http://bit.ly/hUChQX for full article

 

Samsung has found a way to take even the simple nature of the refrigerator to the next level. Samsung’s new Wi-Fi enabled fridge has a slew of new features that turn your family’s fridge into a hub for scheduling, writing notes and even just checking or updating your Twitter feed. The variety of features available with Samsung’s Wi-Fi enabled fridge is sure to make running a family household much more efficient.

Here are just a few of the features you can use with Samsung’s new fridge:

The most useful feature on the Wi-Fi enabled fridge is undoubtedly its touch-screen display. Now, the question that most people are likely asking about this device is, when exactly would you need to use a Wi-Fi touch-screen on your refrigerator? Well, there are a number of practical uses that streamline things you and your family do on a daily basis.

First and foremost, the touch-screen can be used to leave digital notes and memos for the people living in your home. What makes this better than a standard marker board is the ability to archive your messages for later use. Imagine getting a call about a schedule change for a doctor’s appointment and making a note on your fridge. Now, you can recall that message at a moment’s notice so you don’t have to worry about forgetting.

The kitchen fridge is also where a family calendar or planner is typically found. The Samsung Wi-Fi fridge has a Google Calender built right into it, making the family’s schedule easy to find. The real benefit is that you can update your digital calendar from anywhere in the world and the changes will be made to the schedule at home. You can be at work, school or just on a laptop computer and make any necessary changes to the Google Calendar, knowing that they will get home to the rest of the family, making any important schedule changes a snap.

The online digital calendar makes keeping track of your family’s comings and goings a snap, and the ability to archive important notes and reminders make Samsung’s Wi-Fi enabled fridge the new centerpiece of household management.

 And, of course, there is always the ability to check and update your Twitter account, letting everyone on your feed know when you’re low on milk.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

3 Tips to Create Social Media Content Strategy - Click here http://bit.ly/gKBebY for full article.

After you have identified your audience and thoroughly developed an understanding of their needs, the next step is to utilize social media marketing in order to increase your customer base.

Although anyone can create a Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn account, it takes more than that to truly take full advantage of the new media that is available to every business.

Create a Productive Workflow

Creating content usually is not the biggest challenge. Instead, reviewing, publishing and sharing the content is usually where troubles arise. One solution is to encourage several individuals to contribute to the information.

Many management systems provide plug-ins or widgets that are used to make  sharing content an integral part of the publication process. When determining the ideal amount of workflow, it is essential to isolate both the functionality and roles of each of the team members, splitting the work between creating, editing and publishing.

Create Productive Engagement with Customers

Two essential aspects of Internet marketing with new media are collaboration and conversation. These will make a company's blogs, posts and updates less boring, make the company appear knowledgeable in its field, and play a part in branding.

When it comes to social networking, communicating above and beyond the initial website can lead to additional conversations between the company and customers. Those customers can contribute meaningful information, share insights and comment on the website and its the information.

You should create a process by which users are able to share feedback with employees, who might find the contained information useful in their line of work.

Although all feedback given by customers should be marked as important, not all feedback is appreciated, particularly when it is negative. It is important that the company have policies in place to deal with unfavorable or even untrue comments.

Create an Effective Analysis and Monitoring Process

Tracking the engagement of users through social media is not a simple process. It consists of monitoring conversation by users about the company, its products and/or services and its brand. Monitoring online media is an important job. It consists of constant surveillance as well as continued analysis of the context.

By reviewing the engagement of users on a regular basis, you can more completely understand your company's audience and its needs. This will ensure that you are able to draw a more widespread customer base and increase the success of your business.

How Business Will Use Social Media in 2011 - Click here http://bit.ly/g1KRWg for full article.

Small- and medium-sized businesses have evolved to meet new challenges and thrive in a constantly changing environment in past years, and this year is no different. While businesses have used social media marketing in previous years, their use of it will grow and intensify in 2011.

Here are some of the key ways that Internet marketing will be used by businesses this year:

The Time for Experimentation Is Over

In the past, small- and medium-sized businesses have gingerly tested out tools such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. However, those experiments were akin to a child poking an unknown food with a fork. This year, companies will begin to use these new media tools strategically. Metrics and tactics that encompass all available social networking tools to generate new business and continued customer engagement all solidify into much more serious use.

 

You Will Hire Your Friends

Or at least the people who contact you via professional networking websites such as LinkedIn. LinkedIn is like Facebook for professionals, and allows businesses to gain a deeper look into who they are considering hiring. You can see not only who a potential employee has worked for, but who they are connected to in your industry, which may be more interesting. Thanks to niche groups based on industries as specific as "real estate investing", small- and medium-sized business owners will know who the most knowledgeable people are in their field and area.

Where You Are Becomes Who You Reward

With the advances in geo-tagging technology in cell phones and smart phones, such as the popular Android-powered Droid and Apple iPhone, customers are demanding more and more location-based information. This means that small- and medium-sized companies will be turning more toward location-based social networking tools such as FourSquare, Bizzy and Shopkick to reward visitors for frequenting their business. This could mean online-only coupons to all who check in or for those who check in the most in a given time period.

Websites will Become Dynamic

Social media blogs have been growing in mainstream popularity, and the growing popularity of news aggregators such as StumbleUpon, Reddit and Digg mean that if a company posts good content on its website, it may be able to garner wide exposure. Essentially, these sites are replacing standard search engine optimization. Social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook also will be used to spread these posts and drive engagement with potential customers.