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Jeffery Cole, Center for the Digital Future at USC - published at Transformation2011

Amplify’d from community.microsoftadvertising.com

Here is a brief recap Jeffery’s key digital Boomer behaviors: - Boomers are the first generation ever to take the digital technology completely into “older” age. They will be online in “television penetration” type numbers. - In 2007, Boomers used mobile phones mostly for calls whereas teens used them for texting. Also, Boomers rarely used the internet for entertainment whereas teens used the internet for mostly entertainment. Today, those two differences are basically gone. - The heaviest users of social networking are over the age of 50. They also find the most value in communities beyond Facebook for their interests such as how to learn to play chess. - Boomers have the greatest overall trust in the content on the web, including the advertising and they care greatly about the source of the information they are receiving. - Boomers are the heaviest users of email putting them at the center of the web experience. And they use email for everything: reaching out to friends, to their health care providers, to do business, etc. - They spend more money online than any other age group. - Gaming isn’t just for teens. Boomers game just as much as their kids with casual games like poker, solitaire, soduku, and crosswords. - As the heaviest newspaper readers, Boomers will need to find a new place to go in the next five years as the end of the printed newspaper approaches. Read more at community.microsoftadvertising.com

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Jump of 1200% between June and December 2010
50% have heard or seen, 24% have scanned a QR code.
Which OS is scanning the most? 68% iOS (iPhone) 26% Android 4% Blackberry
And many more

Amplify’d from 5.mshcdn.com

See more at 5.mshcdn.com

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It's a never-ending story. Stay relevant alone won't keep your readers to slightly disappear. Click rates drop even from most active subscribers

Amplify’d from blog.mailchimp.com

After about 4 months, your average click rate for your average email subscriber drops to less than 1%. We could talk about ways to keep people engaged longer, like sending more frequently (I think Mr. Zarrella recommends this in his presentation), sending less frequently, engaging with people on alternate channels (like Twitter and Facebook), and on and on. But 9.5 billion emails tell you something. You’ve basically got 4 months to entertain, delight, sell, and make your point to subscribers. More importantly, you need to do something awesome enough to keep feeding in new subscribers, because the churn might be faster than you think.

See more at blog.mailchimp.com

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My twitter life as @bph has become much richer again and much more conversational, once I un-followed a few hundred people. I now follow about 800 down from 1400. Interestingly enough my own follower count stayed stable at ~1700. So don't be afraid to shed some of the less relevant noise you have to deal with.

Amplify’d from blog.feedblitz.com

The thing is, my attention is limited. I need to focus it on clients, prospects, industry news and the non-work stuff that floats my boat. So I am very, very discriminatory (in that, I make informed choices) about whom I follow, just as I choose carefully which blogs to subscribe to. There's more than enough noise in my Twitter stream as it is with the few people I do give my attention to; I am therefore very careful about whom I add. I also don't unfollow very much, precisely because I take care about the people I add in the first place. I'm not saying I'm a guru or super special and that if I follow your Twitter stream then somehow you are extra blessed; I'm just saying that when I do follow it's interesting enough for me to keep up with. That's it. Nothing more. Read more at blog.feedblitz.com

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Your website and your blog is the central communications hub for your message, ideas and communication. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are only more means to get traffic to your site and expose more people to your company, your mission, your voice and engage with them, after you wrote something. You have to deliver relevance content and "Feed the Beast" - a play on words, as all the connections with the Interwebs are handled via feeds and apis... Share you knowledge and you will be ahead of the curve and much more visible to the world, then 90% of your competition.
And Blog engines, self-hosted or shared hosted have the best features to "Feed the Beast". And you can measure, what is the current interest of your growing readership. Measure it, not to get frustrated but to focus your topics more to your audience. Google Analytics helps a great deal and it's free.

Amplify’d from technobabble2dot0.wordpress.com

A common mistake people make is that people live in a “field of dreams” world whereby they think that simply blogging about a subject will make people come and visit. Blogging is great for telling prospects about what you are selling but it does not bring people to your site.

In fact a blog is a focal point and acts as a base of operations for communications. Even though you may use Twitter and Facebook there still needs to be landing point – a place that people end up when they click on the link.

What’s more a blog can also address questions or concerns your audience find important. By all means people use amplification tools like Twitter and Facebook to draw their attention to your blog post, but the thoughts reside in one place.

SEO is also vital. New, focussed and relevant content will always be picked up by Google which will in turn bring extra traffic. It is here where the second stage of engagement takes place – directly on the blog. This is often more in-depth and focussed than through other channels like Twitter. How often have we all felt that 140 characters is not enough to give a detailed opinion. Facebook too has its limitations – even though you can write as much as you like, many find lengthy wall posts unappealing – it really is a case of the right message for the right channel. Read more at technobabble2dot0.wordpress.com

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For the corporate world a holistic online approach in own technology environment is the most successful approach. An environment that allows for direct communication but also published relevant information in depth and interconnected makes much more sense for larger organization and companies. Integration of all departments and allow for inter-company exchange of ideas.
Marketing manager are the driving force as to what technology will be used and IT department has much more competent strategic partners now than in the last ten years. Technology, long time now highly involved in business management decision has now arrived in the marketing department. The success of a broader marketing strategy depends mostly on the integration power of various available technologies and processes.

Amplify’d from www.emarketer.com

If a company has used social media, it has most likely also seen success, the study found. Eighty-five percent of companies viewed Facebook as successful, a significant jump from 54% in 2009. Yet Facebook hasn’t matched message or bulletin boards, with 93% reporting it was a successful tactic. foursquare also saw a significant increase in usefulness; it wasn’t even measured in 2009, yet in 2010, 75% of companies reported it was a successful tactic. Read more at www.emarketer.com

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More marketers will measure success with conversions than by tallying fans and followers, positive buzz and a variety of other “soft” metrics. Revenues will see a similar surge in interest.

Asked about social media activities with the highest ROI based on older metrics with less of a focus on the bottom line, CMOs were most likely to say they did not know the return from any channel other than their company’s online community. Even Facebook and ratings and reviews, the two top venues with “significant ROI,” failed to win over more than about 15% of respondents.

Amplify’d from www.emarketer.com

eMarketer estimates four out of five US businesses with at least 100 employees will be marketing on social media this year, and US ad spending on social networks is expected to reach over $3 billion. And according to research from Bazaarvoice and The CMO Club, marketers are planning to change the way they measure the effectiveness of those dollars.

See more at www.emarketer.com

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The most comprehensive list I have seen on this topic. Thank you @oneforty! And the list is suitable not only for those seeking employment. The ideas are easily tranferrable to seeking new business leads and strategic partners or free lance work.

Amplify’d from oneforty.com

Tired of using search engines and massive jobs sites to find a job? Wishing you could find great job opportunities a little easier? Join the club! I have been utilizing social media tools for job searching quite often lately because they help bring possible jobs right to your fingertips rather than searching for hours.

A. Google Reader and Google Alerts: Not only is this tool great for subscribing to blogs, but it can help job seekers subscribe to job listing by keyword and position. This way you aren’t doing a Google search everyday for the same type of position, but the search findings are delivered to your Reader or your inbox. Convenient, easy and free.

(5) Twitter Advanced Search: A great way to search on the platform you already utilize and dig deeper into the job postings that are on Twitter in the past few days. You can do so easily by using hashtags (keywords that people add to their Tweets), search terms, etc. Also helpful to make sure you click “contains links” when deciding on your search, because job postings are more helpful when they click a link to the website posting. Want to know more…check out the quick 3 min video below by Mashable.

F. Blogging: Are you looking into a specific niche/industry? It could be helpful to start a blog on the topics of interest. Therefore, when the hiring manager takes a look at your background and Googles you (which they will do), and sees your blog, he/she will realize you are not just knowledgeable about this industry, but passionate about it too. It is important to manage your online presence and having a blog is a great way to demonstrate your expertise on the content. You can become an individual not only worth hiring, but a must hire. Read more at oneforty.com

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This article on CIO covers great Twitter tools and etiquette:
Know who to follow,
Choose Content of Your Tweets Wisely
Designing Your Twitter Profile and Integrating it Elsewhere
Tweeting it Forward

Amplify’d from www.cio.com

But you must take some steps to be a good Twitter citizen before you tweet yourself into your next gig. We spoke with some career and social media experts on how to utilize Twitter for the purpose of job seeking, and the ways in which you can promote your own interests while helping others at the same time. (As you'll find, you can't do one without the other). Read more at www.cio.com

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Terminate monopolies, preserve an open Internet, regulate last mile providers. Businesses and consumers will benefit from the competition and should have a better choice.

Amplify’d from blog.streamingmedia.com

While many have been quick to argue that they don't want the government involved in this disputer, Global Crossing ends the letter by saying that, "the Commission can ameliorate the problems associated with terminating monopolies in today’s Internet and preserve an open Internet without complex and extensive regulation. The Commission need only apply its existing, long-held principles of cost-recovery and safeguards for terminating monopolies in the context of the instant dispute." This topic is a hot debate in the industry right now and each time it comes up, many networking and technical people want to weigh in on how the Internet and peering works or want to explain the complexity of the Internet. But the bottom line is we need more business people weighing in on the topic as the heart of this debate is not about technology or network architecture but rather the impact this could have on business models and consumers. Read more at blog.streamingmedia.com

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How to be a bigger resource to your customers? Learn more from Lee Olden of "TopRankBlog" - in order or priorities or process - about:
1) Blog
2) Newsletters & Email Marketing
3) Media Coverage & Contributes Articles
4) Resource Center
5) Social Networks & Media
6) Events

Notice: Social Media is only on 5th position in order of priorities & focus

Amplify’d from www.toprankblog.com

For small businesses, looking “big” online isn’t so much about appearing as a large company when they’re not. Its about being a big resource for prospects and customers.  As the popularity of content marketing and brands as publishers heats up with large companies, many small businesses still have the advantage of being nimble and adaptive to new ways of engaging customers.  That ability to experiment and implement quickly as well as creatively can be a big advantage. Read more at www.toprankblog.com

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A well thought out mobile website is able to accommodate more phones that Androids or iPhones. They also use QR codes throughout their printed catalogs.

Amplify’d from news.cnet.com

QR codes are all the rage in marketing circles, appearing on Pepsi and wine bottles and Google QR code stickers for businesses' windows. Dremel is using QR codes--the black-and-white checkered area to the lower right of this promotional material--to try to get mobile phone users to explore its product line. Read more at news.cnet.com

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If you are running a restaurant or a store or another cool place and your audience is increasingly mobile, you should look into location based service like Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Place and use their special deal features. Only then will you learn more about your customers and build relationships while they are in your store and shop and not when they pay and the experience is over. Get Social get relevant, build relationships with your customers... Offer them a deal for checkins, advertise your location on those sites.

Amplify’d from www.ignitesocialmedia.com

See more at www.ignitesocialmedia.com

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BTW: Blog post is over 4 years old and from Danmark. Seems it's already mainstream in Europe and Japan. Ah well...

Amplify’d from martinschultz.blogspot.com

See more at martinschultz.blogspot.com

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The whole Twitter Tools environment can be quite daunting, just look at oneforty.com (@OneForty) so any article that briefly explains addtional Twitter service is worth reading. It also expands the horizon in terms of possibilities and different ways to use Twitter.

Amplify’d from socialmediab2b.com

With Twitter such an important social media platform and with so many Twitter tools available, we thought we’d highlight a few that could be valuable to the social media managers in your B2B organization. Here’s a list of 15 tools you may find useful:

See more at socialmediab2b.com

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Well worth watching, updated stats and insights into the world of doing business.
This hits the nail on the head: "The ROI of social media is that your business will still exist in 5 years" Be relevant, be social!

Amplify’d from socialnomics.net

34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands

Do you like what they are saying about your brand? You better.

People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services  than how Google ranks them

78% of consumers trust peer recommendations

Only 14% trust advertisements

Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI Read more at socialnomics.net

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Cost comparison is per user seat. Still need to deal with the headaches, when going private, and balance it with perceived peace of mind regarding security. You definitely will be able to save a ton of money, when getting rid of your own hardware and network. Well worth looking into.

Amplify’d from wikibon.org

Public vs Private Cloud Computing There are as many definitions of cloud as there are technology bloggers. However, the major theme is that a Public Cloud provides IT resources that are provisioned remotely from the consumer and operated by a third party. In a Private Cloud, the infrastructure policies are governed by a single organization where workloads and data can be moved to and from internal and external data centers. Private Clouds provide an organization a single point of control for security, manageability, privacy, audit, compliance and governance. However the business case for engaging in a public or private cloud strategy involves several factors, the most important being business revenue and/or budget. Clic Read more at wikibon.org

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Bases on Dan Zarrella's Science of Twitter study, Lake develops clear explanations what makes a tweet to be retweeted. It's not all that matters but it exposes your stream to other people's followers, and if they find it interesting it's worth spreading is it? Good luck on the Twitter quest.

Amplify’d from econsultancy.com

I have previously described Twitter as “Delicious with opinion, in real time, and delivered to your door”. Follow the right people and the news comes to you: there’s no need to browse the news aggregators. Zarrella found that retweets are about three times as likely to contain a link, compared with a standard tweet. So spread the love and share links, if you want to be retweeted.

There are various factors that come into play, and thankfully there is some data to back up some of these ideas.  Read more at econsultancy.com

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