Social Media Ukraine

Blogger Dynamic Views - 7 ways to express your blogging nature

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:17:00 +0000

Dynamic Views - is a new innovation from Blogger team which allows to transform your blog into compelling and dynamic web experience.

Visitor can choose from seven different views to display text and photos differently. For example, if blog has lots of photos you can use Flipcard or Snapshot. If blog is more text-heavy, then Classic, Sidebar or Timeslide may be preferable. Here’s a quick description of each of the new views, along with links to some of our favorite blogs where you can check each of them out in action.

Classic (Gmail): A modern twist on a traditional template, with infinite scrolling and images that load as you go
Flipcard (M loves M) - Your photos are tiled across the page and flip to reveal the post title
Magazine (Advanced Style) - A clean, elegant editorial style layout
Mosaic (Crosby’s Kitchen) - A mosaic mix of different sized images and text
Sidebar (Blogger Buzz Blog) - An email inbox-like view with a reading page for quick scrolling and browsing
Snapshot (Canelle et Vanille) - An interactive pinboard of your posts
Timeslide (The Bleary-Eyed Father) - A horizontal view of your posts by time period

Google 13th Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:04:00 +0000

On September 4, 1998 two friends Larry Page and Sergey Brin (a hewing of mine btw :) filed for incorporation of Google Inc. Two years earlier the Two launched search sevice BackRub, which later was renamed to Google a play on the mathematical figure, “googol,” which represents the number 1 followed by 100 zeroes.

Since then Google has become a synonym of the Internet with billions of people using it everyday. Today Google a household name and one of the world largest corporations. So the meaning behind its name seems to be logical.

Join Social-Media-Ukraine in wishing Google a Happy Birthday!

Test your mind - read encrypted message!

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:17:00 +0000

If you can read this you have a strong mind:

7H15 M3554G3 53RV35 7O PR0V3 H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5! 1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5! 1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG 17 WA5 H4RD BU7 N0W, 0N 7H15 LIN3 Y0UR M1ND 1S R34D1NG 17 4U70M471C4LLY W17H 0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17, B3 PROUD! 0NLY C34R741N P30PL3 C4N R3AD 7H15. R3 P057 1F U C4N R35D 7H15...:) !!

(provided by our Facebook friend Elizaveta :) Thanks!

Testing the Power of Facebook! Reply with simple comment!

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 08:33:00 +0000

Being inspired by one of the most proactive networkers Barry Wills to reach all his connections, I decided to embark on my journey and personally cheers with all my friends online!

To find out more about my network and see what are common interest I send out simple message "Testing the Power of Facebook" so if it happens that you can see this message please reply with a simple comment and "like".

Hope to see your reply :) Thanks!

Best commercials of all time

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 07:38:00 +0000

Emmy Best Commercial Nominees 10-11

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 07:25:00 +0000

Best Social Media Tools TweetDeck & HootSuite - install or not?

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 08:10:00 +0000

Social Media became a part of our daily lives with posts, updates and various forms of content shared by everyone. Today we find news, connect with friends, learn and work with a great help of social networks. To make socializing easier some bright minds bring to us tools such as TweetDeck and HootSuite which are undoubtedly a great creation of human mind.

Both these tools aimed to streamline your social media experience as well as to make it easier and more straightforward. Personally at SM Ukraine we like TweedDeck very much and been using it for a while managing all clients' social presence with Twitter, Facebook (+pages) and LinkedIn accounts. However we always were on watch for another great tool which is HootSuite.

In one of our surveys among our friends we found some division between these two mines of social wisdom, so we decided to find out about your experience with these tools, what tool do you use? and what you like most about it?

Let us start with TweetDeck

1. Interface - it's just amazing and very stylish!
2. Customization - you can do practically anything with accounts and columns
3. Popular feature - allows to immediately identify what is popular in your social stream
4. Multiple Twitter accounts

Areas for growth

1. Online version - while TweetDeck supports all popular platforms we think it might be useful to equip it with online version
2. Multiple accounts for other networks - while we praised multiple Twitter account feature as a great we would love to see same for other social accounts, at this time there is no support for multiple Facebook, LinkedIn and other accounts.

What do you like most about Hootsuite?

Google +'s Circles - the coolest feature?

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Many experts agreed that Google + circles feature provides what Facebook failed, separation of personal and work social lives. While Facebook has some severe limitation on segregating friends. It’s very difficult to separate friends into family, school friends, work, etc..

If you want to separate the two, you have to use the page feature. Which looks a lot like one person – two accounts.

With Google + circles feature you organize friends into different circles or groups which which gives you full control on what to share and with whom to share.

Will this be a main selling point of Google + in race with Facebook? Join our LinkedIn discussion.

Google + Updates - Friend Annotations to the +1 Button

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:44:00 +0000

Google added friend annotations to the +1 button, so now you can list of friends and contacts who clicked +1 button for the page. Google has also unveiled new code for the +1 button that will display the faces and names of friends that have used the +1 button. This feature works much like how the Facebook Like button, displaying how many people have +1′d the page and which friends have +1′d it.

The changes are small, but they will likely make the +1 button even more sticky. The search giant will need to do more though to compete with Facebook’s button, which has become standard on millions of websitesacross the world.

What are Social Media topics you would like to hear on seminar?

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:28:00 +0000

Social Media is today's buzzword, even buzzwords as there are so many topics to discuss. However, it's practically impossible to cover them in the one session, so with the view to organize the one, we'd appreciate your insight in comments as to what is the hottest today (according to your opinion).

1. Social Media Analytics
2. SM Applications
3. SM Mobile
4. SM for Business
5. SM success stories
6. SM Measurement
7. SM tools

It's just what came to me with the first thought, so please throw your variants as well. Join our discussion on LinkedIn.

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Ukraine

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 08:11:00 +0000

This list was prepared due to 20th Anniversary of Ukrainian Independence! Before start reading please check video below featuring absolutely unique performance of sand animation master - a Ukrainian wonder-girl Kseniya Simonova during Anniversary Celebrations.

Ukraine is a unique country with rich history and traditions, the country is a homeland for world's ancient civilization and has 98% of education literacy boasting 6% of world's engineering mind with only 1% of population, there are many truly wonders that can be found only in Ukraine, so we decided to start a series of articles dedicated to revealing interesting facts about Ukraine, here we'd like to present first series.

1. Ukraine was a motherland for one of the world's most ancient civilizations Trypillian Civilization Neolithic archaeological culture which existed between 5500 BC and 2750 BC on the territory of modern Ukraine.

2. Ukraine is a 4th educated nation in the world: 99.4% of Ukrainians aged 15 and over can read and write. 70% of adult Ukrainians have a secondary or higher education.

3. Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is a unique monastery complex located in Kiev, the monastery has a unique system of underground passages "Caves" which size is like small towns with streets. The monastery is included in UNESCO world heritage list and visited by more than 43 millions of tourists from all over the world.

4. The country is the 8th most popular tourism destination in Europe. Ukraine attracts more than 20 million foreign citizens every year (23.1 million in 2007). Visitors primarily come from Eastern Europe, but also from Western Europe (6.3 million) and USA and also Canada.

5. The Arsenalna metro station шт Kyiv is the deepest one in the world, buried 105 meters underground. This was one the first stations built in Kyiv in 1960, next to parliament. In the tunnel going from Arsenalna there are secret shelters, built back in the Soviet times, for the Communist Party elite.

6. McDonalds near Kyiv railway station stands the third-most visited McDonalds in the world. The fast-food restaurant frequently makes it into the top 5 most crowded establishments on the planet. Last year, the McDonalds there served more than two million orders.

7. The world’s heaviest aircraft is An-225 Mriya is created by the Kyiv-based Antonov design bureau. The plane was designed to airlift space shuttles and rocket boosters, however is now carrying oversized payloads.

8. Ukraine owns the biggest manganese ore in the world – 2.3 billion tons or 11 per cent of the planet’s deposits. The country also has plenty of iron ore, counting for 7 percent of the world’s deposits.

9. With only 1% of world’s population Ukraine has 6% of the world’s scientists. As of July 2009 there were 900 different universities in Ukraine

10. Ukrainian Cossack hetman Pylyp Orlyk in 1710 created what is now argued to be one of the first world’s constitutions. The document he published on the date of his erection as hetman was an incredible progressive document for the time. Orlyk’s constitution was a treaty between the hetman, the Cossacks andthe whole Ukrainian populations, stating rights and responsibilities, and also establishing a democratic standard for the separation of powers in government between the legislative, executive and judiciary branches.

What is the role of slogan in social marketing? + Best Slogans Ever Made

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 08:30:00 +0000

Today with Twitter #tags, and Facebook updates being among the main tools in marketing arsenal each message appears as a slogan, isn't it.

Slogans have always been an integral part of every business. Without an effective slogan, effective marketing was impossible to say the least. Slogan was considered a soul of business and its unique identity.

The essence of business and its mission put into 2-3 words. Now, since we’re moving into a more digitally based existence with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter Marketing, the amount of information transmitted is overwhelming and marketers went away from lengthy compositions to short cut-to-the-chase messages.

Today with Twitter #tags, and Facebook updates being among the main tools in marketing arsenal each message appears as a slogan, isn't it. With this in mind we were wondering what is the role slogan carries today? are slogans still important? and how do you use them? As a reminder of those times where companies spend thousands on slogan design we cite some of the best slogans ever made (have your favorite one feel free to name it in comments to this post:

Best Slogans Of All Time:

Just do it. – Nike

Connecting People (Nokia)

Think Small. – Volkswagen

Think Different – Apple

We Love To See You Smile (McDonalds)

Don’t be vague. Ask for Haig. – Haig Scotch Whiskey

Every Little Helps – Tesco

We’re number two; we try harder. (Avis Rental Cars)

When you got it, flaunt it. – Braniff Airlines

Image is nothing. Thirst is Everything

It’s Better Here – Wendy’s

We bring good things to life. – GE

Fly the friendly skies of United

All the news that’s fit to print. – The New York Times

Let Your Fingers Do The Walking. – Yellow Pages

Wotalotigot! – Smarties

It takes a licking and keeps on ticking. – Timex

It takes a licking and keeps on ticking. – Timex

Where’s the beef? – Wendy’s

Have it your way. – Burger King

It is. Are you? – The Independent

M’m! M’m! Good! – Campbell Soup

The Citi Never Sleeps – Citi Bank

When it absoultely, positively has to be there overnight. – Federal Express

Hand built by robots. – Fiat Strada

When you care enough to send the very best. – Hallmark

I think, therefore IBM. – IBM

Grace… space… pace. – Jaguar

Got Milk? – Milk

Think different. – Apple Macintosh

The quick picker upper. – Bounty

Capitalist Tool. – Forbes

Beanz meanz Heinz. – Heinz Baked Beans

Have a break. Have a Kit-Kat. – Kit Kat

When it rains, it pours! – Morton Salt

Toyota & Social Media - new Lexus 2013 GS Facebook Tab

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 06:49:00 +0000

Earlier this month Lexus lounched a special custom tab on its Facebook fan page to live-stream the new 2013 GS reveal ceremony. The 2013 GS tab is a default landing tab onto Lexus's Facebook fan page . The tab already been liked by up to 3800 people and generated a fair amount of buzz presenting car's videos and photos.

The tab also served as a main communication channel for announcing the reveal ceremony with Lexus posted an event on its fan page inviting its fans to attend the live GS reveal. This campaign confirms Toyota growing adoption of social media for its marketing and communication. Together with Ford, Toyota is a leading social media adopter in automobile industry. Since January Toyota has increased its Facebook fan base by more than 10%.
Toyota announced that it plans to develop a private social network for its vehicle owners called Toyota Friend. The network, set to launch in 2012, will be developed with San Francisco cloud-computing company Salesforce.com, and will enable drivers to stay connected with their cars, their local dealers, and each other--using their car.

Toyota’s aggressive social media efforts were helping it to avoid losing the public’s trust in its product during recall crisis. Prior to the recall, Toyota didn’t have a reputation as an aggressive social-media adopter, but with social media proved to be a successful crisis-communication channel Toyota decided to apply the channel across the board.

The new GS 2013 Facebook Tab

Social Media Ukraine Search Story

noreply@blogger.com (Social Media Ukraine) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 10:02:00 +0000

LinkedIn shares plummeted by 40% in 3 days

noreply@blogger.com (Social Media Ukraine) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 09:35:00 +0000

The last 3 days appeared as a nightmare for those investors who bought stakes of leading business-oriented social network LinkedIn. For the last 3 days the company lost 40% of its overall valuation on stock market. The stock which had been trading as high as $112 at the end of last week is in free fall and last night closed at just $73.

The company which only went public in May at the price of $45 (this doubled in the first days trading) has seen a huge fluctuation in it’s share price and although many are still making a profit on their initial stake there will be many who bought in last week at a high after seeing all the positive news and have now been stung badly.

Internet Population in Ukraine - analysis

noreply@blogger.com (Social Media Ukraine) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 08:35:00 +0000

Internet Population in Ukraine

According to local analytic firms the whole population of Internet users in Ukraine varies between 7.6 to 9.6 million.

With 51% of men and 49% of women Ukrainian users approximately spend 11 hours 26 minutes browsing Internet in month.

85% percent of users utilize Internet on a daily basis with geographic prevalence in the following order:

Kiev (Capital) - 41%
East (Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Donetsk) - 26%
West (Lviv) - 10%
South (Odessa, Krim) - 16%
Rest - 7%

Breakdown of Audience by Age:

Top Popular Websites

Why Social Media Good for your business?

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:23:00 +0000

Facebook EdgeRank - how it works?

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 08:24:00 +0000

There's been a lot of buzz around Facebook Edge Rank - an algorithm for ranking Facebook updates for their relevance to a particular user. Every time you login to your Facebook page you see a timeline of updates on the screen with the most recent news on the top, that’s when you have selected most recent on the corner of the news feed.

When you select the Top news you get a altogether news feed from your friends based their EdgeRank. While its not something related to page rank of websites that Google uses for ranking still it might be useful to know how it works.

What is EdgeRank?

EdgeRank is Facebook’s new algorithm that decides which posts/updates in Facebook appear in the users’ “Top News” stream. Working around three criteria (affinity, weight and time), the algorithm tailors the stream according to what content it deems most appropriate for each individual user. There are numerous factors that are believed to contribute to an EdgeRank score, which are briefly outlined below.

How Does EdgeRank Work?

The Facebook news stream for each individual user is now divided into two streams: “Top News” and “Most Recent”. The “Top News” stream is the default stream when users log into Facebook and, it seems, about half of Facebook users go on to click to view the “Most Recent” news having first accessed their Facebook account.
The EdgeRank algorithm affects the “Top News” stream, whereas the “Most Recent” section delivers the vast majority of user posts in chronological order from the user’s friends and chosen fanpages. Since “Top News” is the default setting, the EdgeRank algorithm conducts this customisation on behalf of the user, ordering the posts that are displayed according to three main criteria:

1. Affinity (u): Based on how often the user and the user’s friends interact with
content from the Page that is publishing the content.
2. Weight (w): Each type of content is weighted differently for each user based
on the user’s past interactions with each type of content.
3. Time (d): The age of the post.

How does EdgeRank Assign Scores?

The EdgeRank algorithm assigns a score to each individual post and page. The
following points summarise a number of deductions and predictions regarding the
way that EdgeRank works and its impact on news feed content:

1. Linking to other parts of Facebook/the web using the native embed link tool in Facebook will not result in a post being penalised - but linking to the same place more than once using the embed link tool will result in significantly less impressions for the future posts linking to the same place.
2. Links from Facebook posts to other places within the Facebook environment are viewed preferentially in terms of EdgeRank when compared to links to external sites, and will result in a post having a higher visibility (i.e. more eyes will see it). However, links to external sites do still offer some benefit in terms of EdgeRank scores against posts with no links.
3. The more frequently a fan clicks on posts from a particular page in their newsfeed, the more likely that fan is to see that page's wall content in their news feed in the future.

How do we React?

So, here are some suggestions, for best practice in optimising Facebook posts to increase a post’s potential EdgeRank score:

• Do not post multiple instances of the same link
• Use specific calls to action and share triggers (e.g. clearly flagged links, invitations to post content)
• Invite fans to contribute their own content (e.g. uploading photos or videos etc).
• Do not ‘over-post’, and maintain a steady stream of content

Pros & Cons of Outsourcing Social Media

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 09:51:00 +0000

It’s one thing to sign into your Facebook account to see what your friends are up to. And completely another to create a resultant social media strategy for your business!

There is no doubts that social media is here to stay. From small businesses to multinationals owners are applying social media to their marketing and customer strategies.

The right social media strategy can not only improve brand visibility and recognition, but it can also have SEO benefits. Working together through the integrated approach they can make your web presence as a main customer touch point and feedback channel.

“Social signals” are now ranking factors in Google and Bing search results and as we all know, a search engine ranking can really make or break a business. The bottom line is that it’s important to have a social media presence. Once a company has accepted that fact, the next step is to decide on how that presence will be created and maintained. Will the social media be carried out by an in-house staff or should it be outsourced? As with anything, there are pros and cons to either strategy.

Perhaps the biggest reasons to outsource social media is to handle the task to professionals while saving time and concentrate on major job.

In order to execute a social media strategy well, it takes more time than is typically expected. Many companies (especially small businesses) simply don’t have it. Their days are already booked doing other important company related tasks. Other business responsibilities should never be sacrificed to spend time on social media marketing. Another reason to outsource is if the company simply has no working knowledge of social media and how it can work for business. Social media marketing is a craft that takes time to learn.

It’s one thing to sign into your Facebook account to see what your friends are up to. And completely another to create a resultant social media strategy for your business!

Sourcing your social media to professionals ensures that it’s being handled properly, not always though. As

there are also some reasons to not outsource to consider before signing up for social media services. First, it results in a lack of authenticity. Social media is about making connections with other people. Followers, fans, and connections may feel betrayed if they found out that instead of following their favorite brand, they are actually following Bob from X Social Media Agency that is posting, tweeting, or commenting on behalf of their favorite brand. It changes the experience. Second, social media agencies don’t have time to learn every detail about each of their clients. If the product or service is extremely niche or specialized and the audience uses lots of complex industry jargon outsourcing might not be the best plan of action. You’d never want to make a mistake or be “caught” by your target audience.

Opinions on outsourcing social media vary, but there is really no right or wrong answer. After factoring in all of the pros and cons, it really comes down to what will be most beneficial, and lucrative, to each individual business.

Social Media Growth in UK

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:20:00 +0000

Does direct marketing work today? Which industries and what about content marketing?

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 08:16:00 +0000

In her recent article about business prospecting Michelle Davidson an editor of RainToday compares traditional prospecting methods with content marketing approach on her example with reaching out potential prospects for her podcast

For most people, prospecting for new clients can be challenging—not to mention intimidating. While I’m not involved in sales for RainToday.com, I face a similar challenge when it comes to finding people to interview on our weekly podcast show.

From Michelle experience the whole process of prospecting in traditional way brings a nerve-wracking experience putting you in the position of chasing and waiting. With the globalization and technology progress direct marketing and business prospecting spread beyond geographical boundaries with millions of remote sales people from emerging destinations give themselves as a local agents. In this environment prospects became snowed under by incessant rains of calls and emails while business prospecting became unimaginably difficult.

From other side, Michelle noted "It’s so much easier when potential interviewees come to me, asking if they can be on our show. They know about RainToday, our podcasts, and me. I don’t need to convince them of anything because they already know about us. The hardest thing is scheduling the interview."

The same can be said for prospecting and business development. If prospects come to you, rather than you having to seek them out, the process is so much easier and less stressful.

I personally experience same working in IT outsourcing industry with prospects being not welcoming to any type of direct engagement, while they very eagerly asking questions with own initiative. I appreciate personal experience of associates from my industry as well as other industries. What is your preferable approach to business prospecting.

Please, join conversation on this topic on Linkedin

41% of UK companies use social media to find new business

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 21:29:00 +0000

A global survey by Regus has shown that 41% of UK firms are using social media in order to increase their business – 8% up from last year.

The study found that more businesses are using social media to connect with existing customers, with 66% of UK survey respondents saying that without social media marking activities cannot hope to be successful.

It was also found that a third of companies used up to 20% of their marketing budget on social media projects, and half actively encourage their workforce to use business orientated sites such as LinkedIn.

Celia Donne, regional director at Regus says: “More and more companies are leveraging [social networking] not only to increase the loyalty of existing customers, but as a successful acquisition tool.

“As businesses emerge from the downturn they are increasingly reconsidering pre-recession working practices and opting for more flexible, competitive strategies.

“Among these, the use of business social media is proving extremely successful and suited to the fast pace of recovery.

“Particularly in the UK - where one in three social-network users are a fan, follower or friend of a company page or profile - firms should expect to see an increasing proportion of marketing budget being destined to this activity.

Outsource your SEO and Internet Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:32:00 +0000

Search engine optimisation is a broad and complicated field. When starting out, many business don’t have the time, resources or knowledge to implement an effective SEO strategy, but it is important to have a basic understanding of the area. Lay out your goals, and evaluate your company’s budget and capacity, to assess whether you can handle SEO internally. If this is not something your business has the means for, you should start to look for an agency to help you.

Be careful when choosing an SEO agency. Many companies will promise you page one results, but be wary of those that do as it’s not possible to guarantee this.

A reliable SEO agency should have a solid reputation. You first point of call is to ask for references from other clients of the agency. Another way to check an agency’s reputation is via social media. Do some research and check Facebook or Twitter to view comments and testimonials from past clients. A good industry presence is another obvious way to assess an SEO agency. They should also be able to demonstrate the results they have achieved with previous clients.

It’s wise to pick an agency that has handled companies of your size before, and who have dealt with similar industries. Look at its previous experience and then talk to the agency, preferably face-to-face. It is important you discuss with them exactly what your aims are and make sure you fully understand what changes they intend to make to your site. It is paramount that you are happy with any suggestions before work begins.

Questions to ask an SEO agency:

What companies have you worked with before?
What results did you achieve for those companies?
Can I see some references from previous clients?
Can we meet in person to discuss?
What changes do you think you’ll need to make to my website?

Is Inception the Sci-Fi Film of the Year?

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:15:00 +0000

Is Inception the Sci-Fi Film of the Year?

I went to see Inception this weekend, and my experience with it was incredibly quick, 148 minutes run with such speed you never feel the length of this dream-pursuit.

Being incredibly familiar with an idea of Wachowski brothers and their Matrix, this dream-noir knockout stands completely on its own.

With an average score of 8/10 and favorable reviews by most critics the film grossed $21.7 million during its opening day, while Inception’s opening weekend gross of $62.7 million made it the second highest-grossing debut for a stand-alone science fiction film, falling behind Avatar’s $77 million opening weekend gross in 2009.

Rotten Tomatoes ranks Nolan’s mind-crime movie at 87 percent fresh calling it smart, innovative, and thrilling rare summer blockbuster that succeeds viscerally as well as intellectually. Some reviewrs even called it as possibly best Sci-Fi Film of the Year.

Even though, personally I loved this film very much and would welcome a chance to watch it again, I'm just thinking is it real success of the Nolan's idea and great performance of the outstanding cast, or it has something to do with Internet, Social Media and Warner Bros. has spent $100 million marketing the film. I mean there are many other great examples of Sci-Fi mind-blusing masterpieces such as K-Pax, Vanilla Sky, Matrix and others, why there weren't so much buzz and early calls for best film ever .

Your thoughts?

P.S would also appreciate your TOP3 of Sci-Fi films. Here is mine

1. K-Pax,
2. Vanilla Sky
3. Inception

Where is the best place for entrepreneurs - U.S or Europe?

noreply@blogger.com (Sergey Lesnikov) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:47:00 +0000

From ReadWriteStart materials:

Despite today's opinion that Europe provides less entrepreneurial opportunities because of the ballooning debts and unstable currency situation than US the infographic research conducted by Grasshoper suggests that the differences between the regions aren't as great as it might appear.

The infographic compares what it takes to become an entrepreneur in several Western European nations with what it takes in the U.S.

The U.S. leads with entrepreneurial activity as a percentage of GDP: 11.3% in the U.S. as compared to the next closest competitor, the U.K. 6.3%.

It's not that the U.S. has the lowest barriers to starting a business. Sweden, the U.K. and the Netherlands all have fewer barriers, according to the infographic. Nor is it that the U.S. has proportionally more immigrant entrepreneurs.

But the U.S. does have proportionately more entrepreneurs, and according to the infographic, they are among the most optimistic and least fearful. And perhaps this, rather than any legal or economic circumstance, is what makes the difference.