CiCi's Blog

CiCi's "Social Media" is published on Epoch Times社群媒體的商業威力

2009-08-01T20:41:00.000-07:00

時代趨勢

Social Media
社群媒體的商業威力

作者 Cici Li

消費者今日碰到的是連珠炮式的廣告轟炸。每個人一天可以接觸到5,000個以上廣告。營銷專業人士曾問過這個問題，在當今環境下，甚麼是最有效的推銷方式﹖我的答案是「社群媒體」(Social Media)。

社群媒體可謂是最新型的媒體形式，且已漸成為最受歡迎的媒體。它是由消費者驅動的媒體平臺，是品牌對消費者、消費者對消費者的雙向對話。不管你是否參與這個社群媒體，人們都會藉由這樣的平台談論你的品牌。

作為一位社群媒體的專家，我建議所有行業都應上這類媒體平臺。你可能爭論你企業的消費群不在這類平臺上，為甚麼你要上那去呢﹖首先想想，開發新的消費群對你有利無害；其次、藉此可建立、可擴大、可強化你的品牌知名度；第三、它牽引成千、甚至上萬的人拜訪你的網站。第四、它建立了消費者對你品牌的忠誠；第五、它不會花費你任何一分錢。

根據尼爾森研究(Nelson Research)指出：
-- 93%的消費者希望能在網上接觸到與他們有關的產品品牌；
-- 89%的消費者表示他們會對提供網站訊息的品牌忠誠；
-- 社群媒體的流通量正以每月10%的成長速度增加；
-- 去年社群媒體使用群中，成長速度最快的年齡層是35-49歲。

現在經常使用Facebook和YouTube的社群媒體人數已超過2億，Twitter是增加最快的社群媒體，擁有1,200萬活躍使用者(active user)，LinkedIn則約有3,500萬活躍使用者。

全球電腦直銷業龍頭戴爾（Dell）的總裁就非常支持網上社群。今年6月11日，戴爾公司宣稱他們透過Twitter跟隨者點擊到戴爾網站購買產品的，近兩年銷售額300萬中，最近6個月進帳的就佔了100萬美元。

當你知道有多少名人政要、公司總裁(尤其財富500大企業的總裁)，都使用社群媒體與人們互動時，你會感到非常驚訝！美國總統奧巴馬就是其中的一個。

你是否已在社群媒體的平台線上﹖也許你公司正在評估行銷計畫，打算導入最新的行銷元素。毫無疑問的，社群媒體改變了行銷公司一貫的作業模式，消費者的參與已經是行銷運作中不可或缺的一環。
(本文作者Cici Li是位社群媒體顧問專家，其專屬網站www.meiyicicili.com)

10 affordable ways to increase web traffics and make money by Social Media Consultant CiCi Li

2009-07-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Having a fancy business website doesn’t necessarily mean it will automatically turn into web traffics. In comparison, having an elegant business store, customers will not know about it if you don’t promote it.

If you don’t already have a website, I would suggest you to create one. Business website is your business store on the internet. Perhaps you may ask yourself, why is my business store so important? It’s important because that is where your customers gather—to learn, browse, touch, feel, and buy your products.

Below are 10 affordable ways to increase web traffics and make money:

1. Search Engine Optimization: You don’t have to pay a cent and still be search engine optimized within organic search. You can use Google Adwords as a tool in picking keywords. The goal is to be on the first page of organic search. My tricks in picking keywords are:
- Clearly descript your business, specific and relevant
- 2-4 words in length
- Volume is greater than 100 and less than 5000 for new businesses

2. Be on social websites, including Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Linkedin, and anything else that is relevant to your business and target audiences. These social sites also help with Search Engine Optimization. Each of the website is a little different from one another. The way of engagement is also different. I will be talking about each in detail in the future.

3. Create YouTube Account. There are 200 million potential customers on YouTube. It’s the second largest search engine. People love YouTube videos, as long as your video is informative and interesting. Video is the solution in making your products alive online. You can make your own video blogs or hire a professional to develop and create your marketing videos. Rapid Eye Digital is a video production company that I trust for their creativity.

4. Be on your local business networking sites such as Meetup and Biznik. Make sure that you also attend the networking events to meet all your potential clients and pass out your business cards in person. And, remember to follow up after the event.

5. Create a blog and update it regularly with relevant keywords. People like to interact with people more than a machine. It also educates and adds value to your potential clients.

6. Submit press releases with relevant keywords. They are great tools for branding and building traffic. Believe it or not, consumers trust the press more than advertisement.

7. Submit your site and blog on online directories to boost search engine ranking. You can use Ping services to do this. Ping services allow you to automatically notify directories and search engines that your site has been updated. The bigger your ping lists the higher the chances of receiving traffic from those sources.

8. Post on forums regularly. It is free and you only need to allocate a little bit of your time. If it is permitted, link to your site or blog. Other people on the forum are very likely to check out your site.

9. Use Craigslist and other free online classified ad services to reach thousands of potential customer and remember to post a link to your site.

10. Write an e-book and give it away for free. Make sure to include your website and product links. When you write a book, you instantly become an expert!

Business Video Production: SilkMotion is the new Rapid Eye Digital

2009-07-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

We had thought for a long time that the name SilkMotion was not the right image for our company. So when ownership of the company changed, we set out on a renaming journey. Four months later we emerged as Rapid Eye Digital.

Lots of thought and research went into our name. On the surface we wanted something that sounded young, energetic, hip, and a little dark. We tested our name against available domains and company listings. Acronyms were an important part of our process as well.

Rapid Eye Digital has several symbolic meanings for us. First, rapid eye movement is associated with a dream state of the body and a moment of ultimate creativity. Rapid eye also relates to the interpretation of multiple frames being played in order that allows us to understand animation. On a more basic level, rapid refers to our commitment to deliver quality work in an efficient manner. Eye reinforces our production of visual communication. Digital simply clarifies that our work is done all digitally using the latest technology.

Finally, R.E.D. is the acronym for our company. This relates to the very popular RED HD video camera. It also became the name for our logo and mascot (discussed in our next blog).

Please visit our new website at www.rapideyedigital.com.

Promote Your Business with Social Media by CiCi -Social Media Expert

2009-07-16T16:26:00.000-07:00

In today’s world, consumers are bombarded by advertising. Each single person interacts with more than 5000 advertising every day. The question has been asked by marketing professionals— what is the most effective way of marketing in today’s world? I believe that social media is the answer.

Social media is the latest form of media and has gradually become the most popular form of media. It’s consumer driven in social media platforms. It’s two way conversations between brands to consumers and consumers to consumers. Whether you want to participate in social media or not, people are talking about your brand.

As a social media expert, I would recommend any business to be on social media platforms. You might argue that your target audience isn’t on social media. Why do you have to be on there? First, it will never hurt to acquire new target audiences. Second, it builds, expands, and reinforces your branding. Third, it drives tons of traffic to your website. Forth, it builds brand loyalty from consumer engagement. Fifth, it doesn’t cost you a cent, and the list can go on and on…

According to Nelson Research, 93% of the consumers expect brands to engage with them online; 89% say will be loyal to brands that do so; social media traffic is growing at 10% every month; the largest growth in social media users last year came from the 35 to 49 years old group.

There are more than 200 million active users on Facebook and YouTube. Twitter has become one of the fastest growing social media platforms, 12million active users. LinkedIn has about 35 million active users.

Dell’s online community initiative is strongly supported by CEO Michael. On June 11th 2009, Dell announced $3 million sales from twitter followers who clicked through its posts to its websites to make purchases. The company, which has posted to Twitter about two years and tracks the sales with proprietary software, made more than $1 million in the past 6 months.

You’ll be surprised who else are on social media—Fortune 500’s CEO, celebrities, government officials, even Barack Obama – our president!

Are you on social media yet? Maybe it’s time for you to reevaluate your marketing plans and incorporate the latest trend of marketing. Social media has changed the way marketing firms work. Consumer engagement is the new generation of marketing.

CiCi Li
Social Media Consultant
www.meiyicicili.com

10 Ways to Find People on Twitter

2009-07-12T12:13:00.000-07:00

1. Twitter People Search – Twitter’s built in people search isn’t the greatest way to find people on Twitter, but it’s probably where you should start. Twitter searches the “real names” people enter in their bio fields, but because there isn’t much accompanying bio information and because Twitter doesn’t have any sort of requirement to use your actual name, that can make it a bit difficult to find people, especially those with common names. It also makes it hard to verify that the people you find are actually who you’re looking for. Still, it’s a good place to begin your search.

2. Tweepz – Because the biographical information Twitter collects is minimal, no Twitter people search engine can improve on Twitter’s that much. Third-party site Tweepz does an admirable job, though. Tweepz lets you limit searches to specific parts of Twitter’s user information (like name, bio, and location), filter results by follower/following numbers, location, and other extracted terms, and greatly improves on the layout of the search results.

3. TweepSearch – TweepSearch lets you search by Twitter name or location, or search a specific username to get a list of all friends and followers. However, if the “indexing” number listed on their main page is accurate, they’re crawling about 600,000 less Twitter user profiles than Tweepz.

4. TwitDir – TwitDir is another search engine, but if the crawling stats are accurate, it’s well behind the curve, searching about 3 million fewer users than Tweepz. Still, it’s not a bad people search engine, and has some helpful “top” lists if you’re concerned with who the most popular or prolific people on Twitter are (then again, they’re also not that up-to-date — the site doesn’t seem to know who @aplusk is, for example).

Directories

5. Twellow – Your best bet for finding like-minded Twitter users might be to use a directory, and Twellow is certainly one of the most complete. Nearly 6 million Twitter user profiles are indexed in Twellow and placed into a huge number of categories. You can search the entire lot of profiles, or confine searches to a single category. Twellow also operates a local directory called the “Twellowhood.”

6. WeFollow – Created by Digg, founder Kevin Rose, WeFollow is a Twitter user directory that organizes people by hashtags. WeFollow is user-generated and anyone can add themselves by tweeting @wefollow with three #hashtags that describe them.

7. Just Tweet It – Just Tweet It is another user created Twitter directory. It’s not quite as well organized or easy-to-use as Twellow or WeFollow, but it is certainly large enough that you should give it a browse when trying to locate people in your interest areas to follow.

Recommendations

8. Twubble – Twubble recommends people to follow by spidering the people you’re already following and recommending users that they’re following. The idea is that the people you’re following are interesting to you, so if more than one of them are also following another person, that person might also be interesting. Of course, that means that Twubble can’t be your first stop when finding people to follow — you already need to be following some people for the service to work.

9. Twitterel – Twitterel attempts to find people you might be interested in following by doing keyword searches of tweets. The service can update you by email, direct message, or @reply when it finds new people it thinks you might be interested in following. It’s kind of like Google Alerts for Twitter follow recommendations.

10. Who Should i Follow? – Enter you Twitter username into Who Should i Follow? and the service finds users who are similar to those you’re already following. The site doesn’t disclose information about how it works, but in my experience it is pretty accurate at finding users whose tweets are similar in content to your followers. The results can be filtered by how popular the people are, and how close they are to a specific location.

BONUS: Mr. Tweet – Mr. Tweet is a very popular Twitter app that lets you give and receive recommendations about Twitter users. The app also provides more helpful statistics about users, such as tweets per day or the percentage of tweets containing links. To get the most out of Mr. Tweet, consider installing the Firefox plugin, which gives you access to statistics and user recommendations while you’re browsing Twitter.

Source: http://mashable.com/2009/07/02/twitter-people

11 Business Benefits of Using Facebook Applications

2009-07-11T19:14:00.000-07:00

11 Business Benefits of Using Facebook Applications

Branding - Facebook can be a great resource for generating brand awareness. Facebook is becoming popular amongst various age demographics and can be a create interception point for building your relationship with you consumers and prospects.
Customer Engagement - Using Facebook applications can be a great way for communicating promotions, contest and events. Again it is another interception point that can be leveraged to entice consumer engagement with your brand, your products or your service.
Drive Web Traffic - Facebook can act as a portal point for driving traffic to your site and other online properties.
Reputation Management - can be a useful tool for seeing what users are saying about you and your brand.
New Customer Acquisition - Facebook provides an opportunity to find consumers you may have not otherwise discovered.
Lead Generation - Similar to the previous point is that Facebook can act as another potential lead gen tool that can be used to qualify leads. Reviewing potential prospects' profiles may help you build a relationship with your prospects and aid in the lead generation qualifying process.
Client Retention - provides another potential interception point to build the relationship with your consumer.
Access to the social world and it’s inherent value - aka the cool factor. You never know who is using Facebook. Consider the following scenario: a potential prospect could be doing research on your brand or organization and may use Facebook to see if you have a presence there. Then they see that you have a Facebook profile and see a number of positive posts about your brand. This in turn can shape their sphere of influence and could end up being one of many deciding factors as to why the prospect selects you over another vendor. The perception that Facebook is "IN" and the fact that you are using Facebook could help influence their perception of your brand. Having said that, there are still may who are anti-Facebook so it could also affect the perception about your brand. The fact remains is that Facebook continues to gain popularity and it is not going away anytime soon.
The Viral Effect - Take word Of mouth to a whole new level. Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd... Facebook is attracting quite a crowd.
Feedback Mechanism - Using Facebook and the various applications available can help you understand consumer behavior based on the sharing of content and commentary on the social networking site.
Build Business Use Cases - Facebook can provide you with an opportunity to build successful business cases as you target specific vertical markets with specific business objectives.

http://www.marketing-jive.com/2007/09/11-business-benefits-of-using-facebook.html

What is strategy?

2009-06-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

Johnson and Scholes define strategy as follows:

"Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long-term: which achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfil stakeholder expectations".

In other words, strategy is about:

* Where is the business trying to get to in the long-term (direction)

* Which markets should a business compete in and what kind of activities are involved in such markets? (markets; scope)

* How can the business perform better than the competition in those markets? (advantage)?

* What resources (skills, assets, finance, relationships, technical competence, facilities) are required in order to be able to compete? (resources)?

* What external, environmental factors affect the businesses' ability to compete? (environment)?

* What are the values and expectations of those who have power in and around the business? (stakeholders)

Strategy at Different Levels of a Business

Strategies exist at several levels in any organisation - ranging from the overall business (or group of businesses) through to individuals working in it.

Corporate Strategy - is concerned with the overall purpose and scope of the business to meet stakeholder expectations. This is a crucial level since it is heavily influenced by investors in the business and acts to guide strategic decision-making throughout the business. Corporate strategy is often stated explicitly in a "mission statement".

Business Unit Strategy - is concerned more with how a business competes successfully in a particular market. It concerns strategic decisions about choice of products, meeting needs of customers, gaining advantage over competitors, exploiting or creating new opportunities etc.

Operational Strategy - is concerned with how each part of the business is organised to deliver the corporate and business-unit level strategic direction. Operational strategy therefore focuses on issues of resources, processes, people etc.

How Strategy is Managed - Strategic Management

In its broadest sense, strategic management is about taking "strategic decisions" - decisions that answer the questions above.

In practice, a thorough strategic management process has three main components, shown in the figure below:

Strategic Analysis

This is all about the analysing the strength of businesses' position and understanding the important external factors that may influence that position. The process of Strategic Analysis can be assisted by a number of tools, including:

PEST Analysis - a technique for understanding the "environment" in which a business operates

Scenario Planning - a technique that builds various plausible views of possible futures for a business

Five Forces Analysis - a technique for identifying the forces which affect the level of competition in an industry

Market Segmentation - a technique which seeks to identify similarities and differences between groups of customers or users

Directional Policy Matrix - a technique which summarises the competitive strength of a businesses operations in specific markets

Competitor Analysis - a wide range of techniques and analysis that seeks to summarise a businesses' overall competitive position

Critical Success Factor Analysis - a technique to identify those areas in which a business must outperform the competition in order to succeed

SWOT Analysis - a useful summary technique for summarising the key issues arising from an assessment of a businesses "internal" position and "external" environmental influences.

Strategic Choice

This process involves understanding the nature of stakeholder expectations (the "ground rules"), identifying strategic options, and then evaluating and selecting strategic options.

Strategy Implementation

Often the hardest part. When a strategy has been analysed and selected, the task is then to translate it into organisational action.

Source: http://tutor2u.net/business/strategy/what_is_strategy.htm

2009-06-26T13:43:00.001-07:00

Restaurant Marketing Plan http://ping.fm/75zLd

Restaurant Marketing Plan

2009-06-26T13:41:00.001-07:00

Does your restaurant need a restaurant marketing plan?

Or is it enough that people come because the food and service are good. Certainly, if your tables are full every day, you probably don’t need one (unless, of course, you’d like to make a bigger profit). Simply put, a restaurant marketing plan is a plan for success.

If you agree that you need a restaurant marketing plan and are able to write one, we don’t have to convince you of its importance.

But before you sit down to write it, keep in mind that a restaurant marketing plan has to cover much more than the 4P’s taught in Marketing 101 – product, price, place, and promotion.

Restaurant marketing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Great marketing is about solid operational execution, effective positioning and the cumulative results of marketing inside the four walls of your restaurant and in the immediate trading area – not taking over the airwaves.

Effective restaurant marketing must be built on a foundation of fact and knowledge about the market, your competition, your customers, financial history, marketing history, the industry, and outside forces that will impact your business.

Be sure you’re keeping track not only of overhead and income, but know the answers to questions about business progress:

What percentage of your business is new vs. repeat? For example, instruct your serves to at least ask the very simple question, “Have you been here before?” These first-time customers will establish their opinion of your restaurant during this first visit.

How often do existing customers return? Frequency is generated by developing enduring relationships and loyalty among customers. It’s easy to imagine how much business would increase if customers who come to your restaurant once a month, returned once a week. And QMG and you know there are many ways of increasing loyalty and frequency, without spending money on media.

What’s your check average? Check averages can be built through price increases, suggestive selling programs, effective internal merchandizing, and through add-ons or upgrades to name but a few techniques. If the check average shifts up or down dramatically, be sure you know why and make it a part of your restaurant marketing plan.

Do customers primarily visit alone, in twos or in groups? Whatever the number, you’ll want to devise programs that encourage customers to bring more of their friends with them for each visit. Examples of programs include bus drivers eat free, birthday clubs and refer-a-friend tactics. Encouraging party size turns customers into advocates and enlists them as part of your sales-building team.

Knowing all you need to include in a restaurant marketing plan is vital, but how much should you budget for marketing? A typical restaurant should allocate 3% - 6% of sales to marketing. It’s also a good idea to allocate this money proportionally to your sales volume. Meaning, if July is your busiest month, you should spend a proportionate amount on your restaurants marketing budget in that month.

One of the most common marketing mistakes is not spending money when business is good. Fish where the fish are biting. If your location depends on seasonal business, like at a ski or beach resort, it’s obvious you should promote when the potential customers are in town.

All the money in the world can’t bring in people, if the people aren’t there. Likewise, if your location is not convenient for a happy hour crowd, don’t throw away money trying to build one. Marketing can’t change behavior; it can only influence existing behavior. Spend your marketing dollar where it will have the best return for your restaurant.

Source: http://www.quantifiedmarketing.com/learning_center/restaurant-marketing-plan.php

2009-06-25T12:06:00.001-07:00

Learn to cook chinese food with video - shrimp 遺風大蝦http://ping.fm/8E58b

2009-06-25T12:05:00.001-07:00

Learn to cook chinese food - shrimp 遺風大蝦 http://ping.fm/1xMzS

2009-06-24T18:38:00.001-07:00

ACN's Video Phone - never missing a moment again http://ping.fm/VYag9

ACN's Video Phone - never missing a moment again

2009-06-24T18:36:00.001-07:00

I recently spoke to Mack Ao, partner of ACN. He introduced ACN’s video phone to me. I have always been a huge fan of "video", whether it's video education, video blog, or video phone. I believe that video is one of the most effective ways in communication and education.

ACN is the largest direct selling telecommunications provider in the world, providing the latest communication technology—video phone. It allows customers to use the internet to call anyone, regardless of their phone service. Customers also get enhanced features such as:

- The innovative ability to see the person you are talking to
- See your callers up close and personal by connecting the video phone to a large screen television or computer— very useful for corporate phone conference.
- Light sensor automatically adjust to the light in the room
- Digital photo frame
- Auto redial, three-way calling, caller ID, call forwarding, and call waiting

With this video phone, no matter where I am, I will never missing a moment. What is your opinion on this video phone? I would love to hear.

www.myacn.com

2009-06-23T12:59:00.001-07:00

Check out my new blog about food: www.foodparadisetv.com

50 Social Sites That Every Business Needs a Presence on

2009-06-18T13:14:00.000-07:00

If your business limits its online presence to advertising banners and blogging, it's missing out. The Internet provides powerful networking opportunities that allow users to effectively target their audience by logging on to social sites like LinkedIn, Digg and more. Take advantage of these tools by asserting your company's presence online and reaching more potential customers, business partners and employees.

Social-Media/Social-Bookmarking Sites

Share your favorite sites on the Web with potential clients and business partners by commenting on, uploading and ranking different newsworthy articles. You can also create a member profile that directs traffic back to your company's Web site.

Reddit: Upload stories and articles on reddit to drive traffic to your site or blog. Submit items often so that you'll gain a more loyal following and increase your presence on the site.
Digg: Digg has a huge following online because of its optimum usability. Visitors can submit and browse articles in categories like technology, business, entertainment, sports and more.
Del.icio.us: Social bookmark your way to better business with sites like del.icio.us, which invite users to organize and publicize interesting items through tagging and networking.
StumbleUpon: You'll open your online presence up to a whole new audience just by adding the StumbleUpon toolbar to your browser and "channel surf[ing] the Web. You'll "connect with friends and share your discoveries," as well as "meet people that have similar interests."
Technorati: If you want to increase your blog's readership, consider registering it with Technorati, a network of blogs and writers that lists top stories in categories like Business, Entertainment and Technology.
Ning: After hanging around the same social networks for a while, you may feel inspired to create your own, where you can bring together clients, vendors, customers and co-workers in a confidential, secure corner of the Web. Ning lets users design free social networks that they can share with anyone.
Squidoo: According to Squidoo, "everyone's an expert on something. Share your knowledge!" Share your industry's secrets by answering questions and designing a profile page to help other members.
Furl: Make Furl "your personal Web file" by bookmarking great sites and sharing them with other users by recommending links, commenting on articles and utilizing other fantastic features.
Tubearoo: This video network works like other social-bookmarking sites, except that it focuses on uploaded videos. Businesses can create and upload tutorials, commentaries and interviews with industry insiders to promote their own services.
WikiHow: Create a how-to guide or tutorial on wikiHow to share your company's services with the public for free.
YouTube: From the fashion industry to Capitol Hill, everyone has a video floating around on YouTube. Shoot a behind-the-scenes video from your company's latest commercial or event to give customers and clients an idea of what you do each day.
Ma.gnolia: Share your favorite sites with friends, colleagues and clients by organizing your bookmarks with Ma.gnolia. Clients will appreciate both your Internet-savviness and your ability to stay current and organized.

Professional-Networking Sites

Sign up with these online networking communities as a company or as an individual to take advantage of recruiting opportunities, cross-promotional events and more.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a popular networking site where alumni, business associates, recent graduates and other professionals connect online.
Ecademy: Ecademy prides itself on "connecting business people" through its online network, blog and message-board chats, as well as its premier BlackStar membership program, which awards exclusive benefits.
Focus: Focus is a business destination where business professionals can help each other with their purchase and other business decisions by accessing research and peer expertise. Most importantly, Focus provides open, quality information for all businesses that is freely available, easily accessible, and community powered.
YorZ: This networking site doubles as a job site. Members can post openings for free to attract quality candidates.
Xing: An account with networking site Xing can "open doors to thousands of companies." Use the professional contact manager to organize your new friends and colleagues, and take advantage of the Business Accelerator application to "find experts at the click of a button, market yourself in a professional context [and] open up new sales channels."
Facebook: Facebook is no longer just for college kids who want to post their party pics. Businesses vie for advertising opportunities, event promotion and more on this social-networking site.
Care2: Care2 isn't just a networking community for professionals: It's touted as "the global network for organizations and people who Care2 make a difference." If your business is making efforts to go green, let others know by becoming a presence on this site.
Gather: This networking community is made up of members who think. Browse categories concerning books, health, money, news and more to ignite discussions on politics, business and entertainment. This will help your company tap into its target audience and find out what they want.
MEETin.org: Once you've acquired a group of contacts in your city by networking on MEETin.org, organize an event so that you can meet face-to-face.
Tribe: Cities like Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, New York and Chicago have unique online communities on tribe. Users can search for favorite restaurants, events, clubs and more.
Ziggs: Ziggs is "organizing and connecting people in a professional way." Join groups and make contacts through your Ziggs account to increase your company's presence online and further your own personal career.
Plaxo: Join Plaxo to organize your contacts and stay updated with feeds from Digg, Amazon.com, del.icio.us and more.
NetParty: If you want to attract young professionals in cities like Boston, Dallas, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Orlando Fla., create an account with the networking site NetParty. You'll be able to connect with qualified, up-and-coming professionals online, then meet them at a real-life happy-hour event where you can pass out business cards, pitch new job openings and more.
Networking For Professionals: Networking For Professionals is another online community that combines the Internet with special events in the real world. Post photos, videos, résumés and clips on your online profile while you meet new business contacts.

Niche Social-Media Sites

Consider linking up with one of these social-media sites to narrow down your business's target audience. You'll find other professionals, enthusiasts and consumers who are most likely already interested in what your company has to offer.

Pixel Groovy: Web workers will love Pixel Groovy, an open-source site that lets members submit and rate tutorials for Web 2.0, email and online-marketing issues.
Mixx: Mixx prides itself on being "your link to the Web content that really matters." Submit and rate stories, photos and news to drive traffic to your own site. You'll also meet others with similar interests.
Tweako: Gadget-minded computer geeks can network with each other on Tweako, a site that promotes information sharing for the technologically savvy.
Small Business Brief: When members post entrepreneur-related articles, a photo and a link to their profile appear, gaining you valuable exposure and legitimacy online.
Sphinn: Sphinn is an online forum and networking site for the Internet marketing crowd. Upload articles and guides from your blog to create interest in your own company or connect with other professionals for form new contacts.
BuzzFlash.net: This one-stop news resource is great for businesses that want to contribute articles on a variety of subjects, from the environment to politics to health.
HubSpot: HubSpot is another news site aimed at connecting business professionals.
SEO TAGG: Stay on top of news from the Web marketing and SEO (search-engine optimization) industries by becoming an active member of this online community.

General Social-Media Sites

The following social-media sites provide excellent opportunities for businesses to advertise; promote specials, events or services; and feature published, knowledgeable employees.

Wikipedia: Besides creating your own business reference page on Wikipedia, you can connect with other users on Wikipedia's Community Portal and at the village pump, where you'll find conscientious professionals enthusiastic about news, business, research and more.
Newsvine: Feature top employees by uploading their articles, studies or other news-related items to this site. A free account will also get you your own column and access to the Newsvine community.
43 Things: This site bills itself as "the world's most popular online goal setting community." By publicizing your company's goals and ambitions, you'll gain a following of customers, investors and promoters who cheer you on as you achieve success.
Wetpaint: If you're tired of blogs and generic Web sites, create your own wiki with Wetpaint to reach your audience and increase your company's presence online. You can easily organize articles, contact information, photos and other information to promote your business.
Twitter: Is a social networking and microblogging service that allows you answer the question, "What are you doing?" by sending short text messages 140 characters in length, called "tweets", to your friends, or "followers."
Yahoo! Answers: Start fielding Yahoo! users' questions with this social-media Q&A service. Search for questions in your particular areas of expertise by clicking categories like Business & Finance, Health, News & Events and more. If you continue to dole out useful advice and link your answer to your company's Web page, you'll quickly gain a new following of curious customers.

Job Sites

If you want to secure high-quality talent during your company's next hiring spree, you'll need to maintain a strong presence on popular job sites like the ones listed below.

CareerBuilder.com: Reach millions of candidates by posting jobs on this must-visit site.
The Wall Street Journal's CareerJournal: The Wall Street Journal's CareerJournal attracts well-educated professionals who are at the top of their game. Post a job or search résumés here.
CollegeRecruiter.com: If your firm wants to hire promising entry-level employees, check CollegeRecuriter.com for candidates with college degrees.
Monster: Post often to separate your business from all the other big companies that use this site to advertise job openings.
Sologig: Top freelancers and contractors post résumés and look for work on this popular site.
AllFreelance.com: This site "offers self-employed small business owners links to freelance & work at home job boards, self-promotion tips" and more.
Freelance Switch Job Listings: Freelance Switch is the freelancer's online mecca and boasts articles, resource toolboxes, valuable tips and a job board.
GoFreelance: Employers looking to boost their vendor base should check GoFreelance for professionals in the writing, design, editing and Web industries.
Yahoo! Hot Jobs: This site is often one of the first places that job seekers visit. Post open opportunities and check out informative articles and guides to gain insight on the hiring and interviewing process.
Guru.com: Build your company's repertoire with top freelancing professionals by advertising projects on this site, otherwise known as "the world's largest online service marketplace."

The original source of this article is InsideCRM.com, part of the Focus network of sites.

http://www.focus.com/fyi/marketing/50-social-sites-every-business-needs-presence/?tfso=3338

My interview with Murray Newlands

2009-05-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

1. Tell me about your Blog?

It’s a personal blog, coming from both personal and professional perspectives. I write about things that I encounter in real life, including news, marketing and social media knowledge, technology, business, fashion, and gourmet food. I started blogging because it plays an important role in social media.

2. What is the biggest tip you would give to a newbie blogger?

- Your blog represents who you are. The blog should be consistent with your real life image.
- Don’t forget that people find your blog and articles on search engine. Be sure to be search engine friendly – include relevant keywords on your blog title and description. Also, include keywords in title, body, and tag of the article.
- Blog is 2nd final destination next to your website. It links your website and all other social networking websites together – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Digg, and etc.

3. Where do you see growth in the blogging field?

Blog plays an important role in social media, marketing, advertising, sales, and PR. Personal blog is a very powerful tool. Consumers believe in individual’s voices and messages more than businesses’. I also like video blogging because it communicates my messages better than texts alone.

4. What new ideas are advertisers coming up with to take advantage of new trends?

Social media is media by people. It’s consumer driven. It’s two way conversations. It’s cross functional – marketing, advertising, sales, customer service, and PR. Traditional media is slowing down, and social media is growing at 10% per month. Consumers expect brands to engage with them online. Consumer engagement is the key!

5. What is one thing about you that not many people know?

I was recently hired by NTDTV as social media consultant and the host of a new TV show. I will be introducing restaurants and gourmet foods in Greater New York Areas. This show will soon be on NTDTV, Epoch Times newspapers and on the web, and many of the social networking websites.

6. What are your contact details (email, company, blog, facebook, myspace, forums, etc)?

cici@meiyicicili.com
http://www.meiyicicili.com

7. What events do you go to?

I like to attend marketing related and social networking events. For example: SVPMA, SVAMA, BMA, NYAMA, IAB, and some Meetup events.

8. How do you prefer to communicate?

E-mail is the best way.

9. What is one thing people can do for you?

- I’m a marketing and social media consultant. I’m always looking for business leads, referrals, and business ideas.
- As the new host of Gourmet in New York. I would like to be introduced to more restaurant owners in New York. Please contact me if you are interested or have anyone in mind.

Thank you Murray for conducting the interview! http://www.murraynewlands.com/index.php/2009/05/an-interview-with-cici-li-marketing-professional-at-meiyicicilicom/

Learning, and Profiting, from Online Friendships

2009-05-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting article from Business Week:

A question: If you have 347 followers on the Twitter microblogging service, what are the chances that they'll click on the same online ad you clicked on last night? Advertisers are dying to know. Or, say you and a colleague exchange e-mails on a Saturday night. Can managers assume that you have a tight working relationship? Researchers at IBM and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are investigating.

Friendships aren't what they used to be. We now have tools, from e-mail to social networks, to keep in touch with people who a decade ago would have drifted into distant memories. Practically every hand we shake and every business card we exchange can lead to an invitation, sometimes within minutes, for a "friendship" on LinkedIn or Facebook. And unless we sever them, these ties could linger for the rest of our lives.

What do these relationships say about us and the people in our networks? Companies armed with rich new data and powerful computers are beginning to explore these questions. They're finding that digital friendships speak volumes about us as consumers and workers, and decoding the data can lead to profitable insights. Calculating the value of these relationships has become a defining challenge for businesses and individuals.

Marketers are leading the way. They're finding that if our friends buy something, there's a better-than-average chance we'll buy it, too. It's a simple insight but one that could lead to targeted messaging in an age of growing media clutter.

The second arena for study is inside companies. Businesses such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM are researching employees' relationships with an eye to quickening the flow of knowledge and the generation of ideas within their ranks. One team at IBM Research, studying anonymous data of Big Blue's consultants, concluded that employees who forged tighter e-mail connections with their boss brought in on average $588 more in monthly revenue. This is early-stage research, but the goal is to distill patterns of successful communication and replicate valuable links throughout the company.

For most of us, the business value of networked friends is tied to a third area, personal opportunity. In addition to companionship, friends online represent a turbocharged Rolodex for entrepreneurs and job seekers inside and outside companies. These collections of contacts expand social horizons, keeping us in touch with more people who can provide ideas, answers, business leads, and even legal advice. Those who master these connections stand to win a big edge: the connections and brainpower of a large team.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_22/b4133032573293.htm

Gourmet in New York - Cross Media Package

2009-05-20T13:55:00.001-07:00

Gourmet in New York is a brand new 10 minutes television show on NTDTV, once per week, hosting by CiCi Li. The host will visit restaurants and introduce gourmet foods to Chinese audiences in Greater New York Areas.

The package included:

NTDTV

30 seconds TV ad , 2 times
Video listing on NTDTV.com
8 minutes on location talk show, 1 time , do not repeat

Epoch Times

Online classified ad listing, 1 month
Online banner ad, 1 month
1 article online
4 newspaper ad space, 1/16 page, 1/week, 1 month
1 newspaper article, do not repeat

Social Media Marketing

Build web presences on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, blogs
Engage and build meaningful connection with consumers

(1st time charge is $3000, if continue - $1500/month. One month free If subscript for 1 year.)

Please give me feedbacks, suggestions, ideas for this show. I’m brainstorming, researching, and collecting data. If you are a restaurant owner, would you pay $3000 for this package?

Social Media Expert - What is social media?

2009-05-19T16:18:00.000-07:00

Social Media Expert - How to use twitter for business

2009-05-15T13:37:00.000-07:00

(English Version)

(Chinese Version)

Twitter focuses on what is happening now. People follow the sources most relevant to them, from breaking world news to updates from friends with 140 words.

How to use Twitter for business:

- Relevant keywords in “Bio” and “What are you doing?”
- Drive traffic back to your website with title + keywords + website link
- Engage followers with @Replied and Direct Message
- Search tool: search for relevant topics and people
- Tweetburner.com: shorter URL
- Tweetlater.com: automatic direct messages
- Twollo.com : automatic follow your target audiences with keywords
- Twitter phone app
- Twitter app on Facebook

Three Screens, One Question

2009-05-11T10:47:00.000-07:00

By Sam Zises

How Will Audiences Consume Content In The New World?

There is no denying the overwhelming new media landscape that allows users to consume media in more places than ever. In the recently released "Three Screen Report" by Nielsen, they outline some key trends and insights into video viewing across tv, web and mobile. Below are some of the notable facts:

Except for the teenage years, viewing of traditional television increases with age; the use of video on the Internet peaks among young adults while viewing mobile video is highest in the teen years.
Men continue to watch video on mobile phones more than women, and women continue to watch video on the Internet and TV more than men.
The work day (M-F,9am to 5pm)continues to be primetime for Internet video.

While each screen does present its own financial woes, according to Manish Bhatia, President of Advanced Digital Services at Nielsen, "...Most consumers know or care little about bandwidth issues and business models. For them, it is the viewing experience that counts, and they will continue to go to the ‘best available screen’ for content. At home, big plasma wins. On the road, the laptop often is the screen of choice. And when literally on the move, they go mobile."

Also according to Mr. Bhatia "...Nielsen data shows that most people prefer the same source of programming, no matter what the medium. In other words, fans of CNN on cable are most likely to visit CNN.com." However, due to the financial structures of the tv medium, there may be a point in time when consumers decide to "...cut the cord and move to the Internet," says Mr. Bhatia.

Below are some of the concerns that Mr. Bhatia rasied in his article.

Because cable TV subscribers pay for channels they don’t necessarily watch - and prices go up as more content becomes available - some may eventually decide to cut the cord and move to the Internet. As a result, deals between cable operators and content producers will need to shift to payments based on viewing rather than carriage. In that case, cable operators might sell more (or all) ad inventory, or cable networks may pay a percentage of their ad dollars to operators.
Internet users who regularly stream or download huge files generally pay the same monthly fee as those who check emails once or twice a day, and perhaps visit a few web sites. Clearly, the former costs an ISP much more than the latter. If distribution costs continue to decrease, the point is pretty much moot. But if and when the cost line rises higher and faster than that of revenues, the industry may need to consider selling the internet access in “bands” or “tiers”.
While providing streaming video or TV on mobile phones is still in relative infancy, most companies are already charging an extra monthly fee for delivering such content. Adaptation by consumers and further advances in technology will drive any changes in the business model.

"Just as the transfer of energy from one place to another can produce new forms of power, shifts in consumer activity across the three screens will generate new opportunities. The challenge in both instances is to find the most effective ways to harness them." (Bhatia, Nielsen.com)

Source: http://www.contenttocommerce.com/content-to-commerce/2009/4/15/three-screens-one-question.html

The New Twitter- Flutter

2009-05-05T14:37:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of Flutter? Could this be the next big thing? Check out this video! HAHAHAHA.....

14 Tips for a Good Video Blog

2009-04-29T12:07:00.000-07:00

Why a video blog?
This is a question you should ask yourself before grabbing up a webcam.
- Video is cool and carries with it a newness that is appealing.
- A video blog allows you to post a running log of your thoughts and information on YouTube –a multi-million viewership.
- You can combine audio, moving visuals, and a more direct human connection through video blogs. All of these elements are proven to increase retention rates of what you say.

Video Blog Tips
Having produced over 250 educational web videos for Silkroad Institute, I had to tackle many obstacles and learned a lot in the process. My goal was to make web learning appealing and even fun. Here are some tips from what I learned:

1. Only do video if it is the medium that best communicates your message. Could you just as easily write an article on your blog? Why paint a picture exactly as you see it when you could just take a picture?
2. Use props, text and picture graphics, locations, costumes, lighting, music, and guest appearances on your video blog. It is a video, make use of the possibilities.
3. Entertain your audience. It is proven that people learn better when they are entertained.
4. Quality is important (See my tips below) – don’t make your viewers suffer through a poorly done video. Eventually, they will tune out.
5. Looks matter. I’m sorry for the hard truth. Hollywood doesn’t hire beautiful people because they want to be cruel but because those people captivate the audience and are appealing to look at. You don’t have to be a model, but you have to dress nice, comb your hair, put on makeup, clean your teeth, etc. If you aren’t camera-friendly, consider narrating your video blog over a graphical presentation of the information.
6. Be interesting. Your goal is to make your viewers want to watch and come back for more. If you are camera-shy or monotone, video blogging is NOT for you. DO NOT read from a script. It makes you look distracted and that you don’t know what you are talking about. The most successful video bloggers I’ve seen are outgoing, talented, and captivating in such a way that you can’t look away.
7. Speak clearly. If we can’t understand you because you talk too soft or have a strong accent, then find someone else to do your blog or just write an article instead.
8. Be creative, be creative, be creative. Don’t add to the endless array of crap on the web that just impedes the search for quality information. Reward your audience for tuning in. Try broadcasting from different locations relevant to your topic of the day.
9. Hire a designer to create a title screen for you, topic bars, or informative graphics. Video blogs are a marketing investment. Sometimes a little money can go a long way.

Quality Tips
As you might have read in my previous blogs, I don’t believe we have to suffer because “it is only a web video”. Quality DOES matter.
1. Buy a quality web or video camera. Present yourself professionally. Make sure the camera is stabilized and not jostling around.
2. Buy a quality microphone. Make sure the volume is loud enough. Most recording software has a meter that visually shows the volume level it is recording at. Make sure the levels are high enough that you will be heard but not so high that it is clipping out.
3. Lighting makes all the difference. The easiest way to get good lighting is to shoot in a bright, naturally lit environment with fairly even lighting. If you can afford a good lighting kit, your results will be even better.
4. Backgrounds are important. Make sure you stand out from the background and that everything behind you is purposely there. Your boxers hanging over the side of your bed is NOT professional.
5. Have a video expert or friend film you or help with the editing.

Remember, you may have the best content in the world, but if no one wants to watch, the information is wasted. Do your part in respecting the benefits of web video and inspire the masses.

By SilkMotion Team

10 affordable ways to bring in traffic to your site

2009-04-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

(English Version)

(Chinese Version)

Today, I would like to introduce 10 affordable ways in bringing tons of traffic to your site.

1. Create YouTube Account. There are 200 million potential customers on YouTube. It’s the second largest search engine. People love YouTube videos, as long as your video is informative and interesting. Do not make infomercials!

2. Be on as many social media sites as you can possibly manage, including Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Linkedin, and anything else that is relevant to your business and target markets. It’s always helpful to hire a specialist to manager these accounts – to interact, maintain, and build relationship with your potential clients.

3. Be on your local business networking sites such as Meetup and Biznik. Make sure that you also attend the networking events to meet all your potential clients and pass out your business cards.

4. Create a blog and update it regularly with relevant keywords. People like to interact with people instead of a machine. It also educates and adds value to your potential clients.

5. Submit press releases with relevant keywords. They are great tools for branding and building traffic. Believe it or not, consumers trust the press more than advertisement.

6. Submit your site on online directories to boost your search engine ranking.

7. Post on forums regularly. It is free and you only need allocate a little bit of your time.

8. Use Craigslist and other free online classified ad services to reach thousands of potential customers.

9. Use Google Adwords campaign for pay per click. Be sure to pick relevant and specific keywords.

10. Write an e-book and give it away for free. Make sure to include your website and product links. When you write a book, you instantly become an expert!

Web Video @ Higher Standards

2009-04-28T14:37:00.000-07:00

Web video is booming. Companies are adopting new marketing methods in search of the perfect viral video to push their brand. Demand for content is on the rise from consumers and retailers. Social networking is at its highest point ever. Its at this point that we should be asking, where do we want this to go? Its time to reevaluate this medium and push past the cliches. Its time for web video set to higher standards.

Hulu launched just recently and has grown rapidly with the clear distinction from YouTube because of its higher quality content and “TV-like” video quality. The site lets you view high quality versions of popular TV shows, Films, and commercials. You can even cut out a clip from those shows and email it to a friend or post it on your blog. My biggest frustration on YouTube is that there is no distinction between “real” content and “fake” copies. If you go to search for a movie trailer you like, you get the real version plus 20 other home-made irrelevant copies.

The issue here is quality. The success of Hulu suggests that there is an audience demanding higher quality for web videos. Web video deserves respect and has a lot to offer. But respect means holding it to similar standards that you would demand from a TV show or commercial. Would you watch a movie that was filmed by an amateur and filtered through a plug-in-play “editing” software? Would you live in a house that was designed and engineered by a person with no engineering or architecture background?

Now this isn’t to say there is no value in home-made video. I started making videos when I was 10 on a home video camera and would have loved an outlet like YouTube to spread those productions out to the world. It can be a wonderful means of expression.

My desire is to see more distinct outlets to showcase professional video on the web. This is a call for an awakening that it is not okay to promote your serious business with a low-quality video because “its only a web video”. I’d like to see the web as an outlet to be inspired and network with other talented video artists; a venue for young artists to be seen and show the world their amazing creations.

Ben Young
CEO / Head of Production
SilkMotion Studios
www.silkmotion.com
www.silkmotion.com/blog

Is the Coolness of Twitter Important?

2009-04-22T11:12:00.000-07:00

I read an interesting article today about the trend of Twitter –How Twitter Might Be More Popular and Less Cool by Chris O’Brien. I agree with his point but would also like to add some of my perspectives.

Twitter isn't just about being cool or lame. That factor might be important to some people but definitely not me. To me, twitter serves as search engine, live news outlets, and free marketing campaigns tool. In addition, it connects me with professionals around the world and next door, celebrities, and even the US congressmen and president!

I’m a marketing professional. I develop and implement marketing campaigns, and twitter has always been a part of my marketing strategies and plans. I see more target markets and opportunities as Twitter becomes more popular and increases in demographics.

Please let me know your thoughts too!

Below is Chris's article:

For the past year or so, the über-hip-geek types have been telling everyone who will listen that they absolutely, positively have to get on Twitter — yesterday.

Even I have succumbed at times to the cultlike trappings of Twitter, stopping just short of handing out pamphlets at the airport. Just ask my wife, although she has resisted joining the Twittersphere despite my daily pesterings.

But Friday, Oprah signed up for Twitter. Traffic to the service spiked 43 percent, according to Hitwise. That comes after Twitter grew from less than 2 million users to more than 10 million over the past year.

This raises a troubling dilemma for all those early adopter types: If everyone is using Twitter, will it still be cool?

For those who carefully cultivate an image as digital pioneers, the answer may well be no. And according to studies of consumer behavior conducted by researchers at Stanford University and the Wharton School of Business, there's a good chance those folks will move on in search of the next new thing.

Over the past several years, Jonah Berger, an assistant professor of marketing at Wharton, and Chip Heath, a professor of organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, have been exploring how popularity can affect the perception of certain products. Essentially, they study the science of cool.

In papers published in 2007 and 2008, the pair found that consumers might abandon certain products when too many people started using them, or, when the wrong kinds of people started using them.

"We often use these services not just for their functional value, but because they also communicate something about ourselves," Berger said. "But things that communicate identity can lose value when they no longer communicate the meaning we wanted them to."

In this case, being on Twitter might indicate that you're part of an exclusive club of early adopters. That's cool.

But once 20 million people start using it, well, then you're just part of the crowd. And when you tell someone you're on Twitter, it's no big deal because, hey, it seems like everyone's on Twitter.

In their research, Heath and Berger found that certain people used products to define themselves as outsiders who don't follow the crowd. In those cases, once these people learned that the majority of people preferred a product, they would shun it. In one study, the pair asked consumers their favorite types of cars and clothes. Later, they went back and fed these people information indicating their choices were embraced by the mainstream. They found that these people then changed their preferences. Cool had become uncool.

Just as bad is when the wrong types of people start using a product that someone feels is central to their identity, Berger said. We've seen that sort of thing when it comes to Facebook. When all those college-age users saw their moms and dads get on Facebook, well, then it became one big bag o' lame.

"It was a badge of honor being in a small set of people who knew what was going on," Berger said. "But once a whole flood of outsiders start adopting it, say because they just happened to read about it in the New York Times, then there's a chance you might get confused with these latecomers."

People commonly experience this when it comes to music. You discover an obscure band, and then start raving about how great they are. Then that band becomes popular, and you're left muttering about how you liked their early stuff. You move on to finding the next band no one has ever heard of.

All of this doesn't mean that Twitter is necessarily doomed to become associated with lameness. Apple has successfully managed to maintain the perception among its fanatical users that they are still somehow outsiders, or part of a select "other" even as devices like the iPod have become ubiquitous. Berger noted that the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ad campaign has helped cultivate that continued notion of outsider coolness.

As for me, I'll continue to use Twitter even though I'm no longer part of an exclusive club. I'm at peace with Twitter being discovered by the masses. And it's OK that Oprah and I now share one common interest, though I'll strive to cap that at one. I'll have to find other ways to maintain what small sliver of geek cred I might still have.

Which reminds me. Have you heard of FriendFeed yet? It's so much better than Twitter. Seriously, you should be on it, like, yesterday.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/portal/opinion/ci_12194049?nclick_check=1&_loopback=1

10 Reasons to use Tokbox for Video Conferencing

2009-04-21T17:48:00.000-07:00

I always pay close attend to the latest web 2.0 technologies, especially video related news, software, and tools. I came across Tokbox today and think that it’s very cool – multiple users can be in the same chat room, which differentiate itself from MSN and Skype messages.

Why use Tokbox for video conferencing?
By Tokbox

There may be lots of people offering video conferencing out there, but TokBox is a little bit different and here’s 10 reasons why…

1. It’s free. Of course.
2. It’s super easy to use. You don’t have to download anything and we make it easy to start and join a call
3. You can easily have 20-25 people in a multi-party call. Have a call with 1 person or more. It’s up to you.
4. Everyone can use it. Tokbox works with both Windows and Mac as well as all major web browsers (Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer).
5. You don’t have to sign up. Only the person initiating a conference call needs to have Tokbox account (which is free and takes seconds to set up)
6. It’s easy to get people on the call. Tweet out the unique URL for the call to your Twitter followers or send it via email. People simply click on the link and join the call
7. You can share a YouTube video or SlideShare presentation and watch it together
8. You can send links or text information at the same time as being in a call
9. You can embed it on your site. Take our video call widget and embed it wherever you want people to be able to video conference with you
10. It’s really fun to see everyone in their “Brady Bunch” square

The most important question is *what* can you use video conferencing for? Yes, it can be for work. Saving on business travel expenses in these tough times is obviously a good thing. But there are hundreds of other reasons to get a group together on TokBox.

- Get the friends together for a party. A virtual wedding shower, a birthday party, or just a toast to Friday
- Learn a foreign language. Chat with your instructor and your classmates
- Fan of a particular TV show? Connect with your friends online & discuss the episode in real-time.

http://www.tokbox.com

Marketing with Web-Video: I Heart YouTube

2009-04-13T15:17:00.001-07:00

By Eero Johnson

As a producer of video content, YouTube and I have had a long relationship. While I do love YouTube for all sorts of reasons, it hasn't all been wine and roses.

On the one hand, YouTube has made video on the web a must have for any business. A simple video can increase your web traffic, boost your page rank, increase market share, remind customers of your business and build brand equity. The number of internet users looking for video is increasing daily and a good video is still the closest marketing tool you have to actually stepping into someone's living room or office and demonstrating your product or service. Essentially, YouTube has made my work as a video producer much easier.

On the downside, YouTube has taken production value into the basement by encouraging anyone to upload any video onto the internet. While this slapdash approach works if you want to show how funny your dog looks dressed in a tuxedo, it is far less appropriate for a business to use these same standards in hopes of gaining the trust and respect of their customers.

With the myriad of options on how to approach your web video, I want to share a few things I consider essential to starting on the right track. Obviously, this topic could fill a text book. My hope is that this article will give you a framework to brainstorm from, and perhaps whet your appetite for future, more in-depth articles.

WHAT SHOULD MY VIDEO BE ABOUT?

At the beginning of every production, start with one, simple question: "Who is my audience and what do I want to tell them." Try to be as simple and specific as possible, as this answer is the glue that will hold the rest of your video together.

In this age of social marketing, there is an additional consideration. Your customers watch video on the web for a number of reasons: to laugh, to learn something, to be entertained or to find out about a topic of interest. You will note that "to be sold" did not make the list. Remember, your customers are only a mouse-click away from leaving your site. Your video must not only "sell", but should offer the viewer enough substance that they enjoy watching, even if they are not ready to make a purchase right away. Your video is part of a larger relationship.

Don't let this discourage you from offering a simple "video handshake." A greeting by you or your spokesperson, why you are in business and how you can make the viewers life better, accompanied by a tour of the office and your product or service, can make a compelling video to someone genuinely interested in learning more about you.

PRODUCTION QUALITY

Just because someone in your office has a video camera, does not make them qualified to find the images, rhythm and narrative to turn prospects into customers.

Unfortunately, I'm seeing more and more poorly thought out videos in the push to just "get something out there before it's too late." The video world is crammed with slide shows and talking heads that, while perhaps interesting 2 or 3 years ago, are not nearly compelling enough to make an impact today.

This does not mean you need to call the production team from Lucas Films. The entire point of web video marketing is that it can be simple, effective and relatively inexpensive. You simply need the expertise to create a strong, well-paced video to get your message out there in a way that supports your company image. You don't want to be seen as amateur and unreliable.

WHAT DO I DO WITH THIS VIDEO?

So you made a video? Congratulations! Essentially, your marketing budget for this video is now . . . free.

Once your video is on the web, it has the potential to reach thousands of customers and be passed from one viewer to another at the click of a mouse. You can email it to your mailing list and upload it to numerous websites. And, as we are still in the early days, there is a chance that your business may still be one of the few in your area using web video.

While search engine optimization of your video and optimization for compression are outside the scope of this article, this is an additional area that needs to be handled properly. Be sure you or your producer is aware of the best practices for web video compression and search engine optimization.

HOW DO I START

An easy way to start is to call your local video producer (Google: "video production" and your city). Most will have video samples on their site and many will offer a free consultation to help you assess your budget, needs and resources.

What to wear for a Fashion Job Interview?

2009-04-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

By 39thandbroadway.com

That is pretty much the sentiment we have received by email over the last few weeks. It seems many newbies are getting ready for their fashion industry debut, while at the same time, fashion veterans are back on the job hunt due to the recession. Many online websites will give fashion advice for job interviews that is completely outdated and not appropriate for the fashion industry. For example, About.com gives the above picture and description of what a typical women’s interview outfit should be. Now while the fashion industry is pretty flexible on what to wear, the above outfit is definitely not recommended, especially for those of you in the creative departments. So once your resume is perfected and your portfolio is of mind blowing quality, the next hurdle is figuring out what to wear to your interview. Now in any industry deciding on an appropriate outfit can be stressful but in the fashion industry it can be truly ulcer inducing. We’ll let you in on a little secret about your wardrobe; it’s not that serious. Contrary to popular belief, the fashion industry is not full of gorgeous size zero girls parading around in couture outfits. The reality is, it’s a business like any other and you will mostly be judged on your abilities i.e. your portfolio/resume, your experience, and your salary requirements.

If you are interviewing for an accounting, sales, production, sourcing, or any other non-design/art related department then a simple conservative look is perfectly acceptable. Even a more casual ensemble is appropriate as long as you are well groomed and put together. For those interviewing in the more creative departments dressing fashionable is key. The first step is to tailor your look to the brand you are interviewing for, if it’s a young edgy brand, dress young edgy, if it’s classic and tailored follow suit, and it’s not unheard of to wear jeans when interviewing at a denim company. If you are new to the industry or interviewing for a lower level position, do not worry if you don’t have high-end designer duds for your interview. Nobody expects a 23 year old to be wearing Prada! One of the emails we received asked us, somewhat tongue and cheek, if when interviewing for an assistant designer position she should steal a Balenciaga bag and a pair of Louboutins in order to be taken seriously. To this, one of our contributors replied, “Whenever I see recent grads dressed like that I can’t help but think, spoiled little rich girl. Is she going to give me diva attitude when I’m having her cut swatches and make copies at 9pm at night?” So, long story short, this is real life not a Hollywood movie. Dress fashionably, which often means, well styled, not necessarily designer labeled.

For those apparel and graphic designers most fashion forward outfits are perfectly acceptable for an interview. The only traditional “interview rule” that we agree applies to the fashion industry is: do not show too much skin, so basically, no cleavage, no micro-minis, no short-shorts. A good rule of thumb is, if there is any way your outfit would cause your father or grandmother to call you a hussy, you need to change. We decided to post some pictures (from streetpeeper.com) of appropriate interview outfits for the more creative departments. Just remember the biggest factor in choosing what to wear is what company or designer you are interviewing at and what position you are applying for. We have picked a couple random people and labeled them according to what position they could be applying for.

Promoting Your Business: Online Marketing Videos

2009-04-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

Lately I’ve come across statements claiming that multimedia content for online marketing videos can be created by just about anyone, using a regular video camera and some easy-to-use software. Without a doubt, some companies can successfully deliver certain messages using basic video editing programs and equipment, but is the do-it-yourself approach right for your business?

First, let’s acknowledge the obvious benefit of making your marketing video in-house: filming a quick demo yourself won’t take up the same amount of resources hiring a professional would. In addition to keeping costs low, it also might speed up the process since you will have total control over the pace of the project, which adds to the appeal of forgoing professional video production services. Some even claim that the homemade quality of a promotional web video adds credibility to its message and makes the audience more likely to receive it without the conditioned, often negative response that traditional media evokes. But does this simplified video production process work for everyone and does it deliver the results decision makers hope for?

Some non-profits, for example, are almost expected to operate on a tight budget, so they have the luxury of not having to worry about the quality of their camera or their video editor’s skill level. There are probably a few other types of organizations that can get away with lower quality video presentation. The rest of us may or may not be so lucky, but before you decide which group you belong to, you need to carefully evaluate your position.

Understand that a web video or a demo reflects your own sense of quality and establishes your status. What type of image do you want associated with your company and who exactly are you trying to impress? A professionally made video, that (hopefully) reflects sophisticated skill and vision of the production team, can help you create a solid image to compliment your brand, and is therefore a worthy investment that can go a long way.

Success is attractive. It's a magnet for more success. Hiring a team of professionals to work on your web video or product demo can have a huge influence on how your company is perceived by the public. By the way, perceived success works just as well as actual success, as long as you can back it up –you know what you bring to the table is valuable and you stay in business for the right reasons. A high quality video presentation of any kind demonstrates your resourcefulness and taste and has the potential to establish your company as a legitimate and substantial force in the market. Put simply, people are likely to take you seriously.

Low-budget video production may save your bucks today, but tomorrow it can cost you some potential business. On the other hand, spending thousands of dollars on a video marketing campaign that fails to make your company stand out is just as unreasonable. So choose your video producer carefully. Anyone can pick up a camera and press “Rec” (some can even manage to convince you to pay for it), but bringing innovation to the process and producing results that reflect talent, creativity, and technical skill is something a few can accomplish.

Marketing videos are a great way to increase brand awareness, but before you decide to join the popular trend and add your own video to the stream of online marketing multimedia, I suggest you evaluate your decision carefully. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should, so just because web videos are becoming popular (and “but all the cool kids are doing it”), doesn’t mean you get points for trying. Participation alone can actually do the opposite of earning you credit. Not that I’m trying to discourage participation. Making use of new tools and ways to market your business is essential to staying competitive and relevant, but adding video content to your marketing strategy is worth your time only if it’s done right.

Questions to ask yourself before you make a decision:
What type of video presentation are my ideal clients expecting from my company? Will the level of quality of my company's presentations meet/exceed these expectations? What type of video presentation makes sense for a company like mine (consider its caliber) and, more importantly, for the kind of company it strives to be? What kind of image does my company need to have in order to get the attention of our target customers and earn their confidence and, subsequently, their business? Can the videographer I hire offer fresh ideas and unique approach to make my company’s online videos stand out among competition? Etc.

By Tatyana Vinogradova
Marketing Communication Manager
SilkMotion Studios
www.silkmotion.com

Internet Video Sites

2009-04-07T12:27:00.000-07:00

A Resource Guide from Video Production Tips.

The internet has hundreds of sites related to video. Online video is one of the biggest segments of the internet and it is growing every day.

The following alphabetized list will help you find the online video service you need.

AtomFilms.com: Known as Atom Films for the past decade, Atom specializes in quality comedy. They are in partnership with Comedy Central and MTV so this site is well-funded. The majority of videos posted to this site are well produced, but they don’t have to be big budget. Atom is searching for good undiscovered comedic talent, so content rules over high-dollar production value. They just don’t want videos of kids lighting their farts on fire.

Blinkx.com: A video search engine that holds over 18 million hours worth of video. One of the webs largest and most sophisticated search engines, blinkx has partnered with over two-hundred media outlets including public and private video production entities with massive libraries. If a video exists on the web, you can probably find it using blinkx.

Blip.tv: (No commercials) One of the higher quality internet video sharing sites, Blip wants to provide viewers with video experiences that are “less boring” than standard TV. They describe their videos as hip, unusual and personal. A good site for viewers and producers of quality content. Blip provides easy access to additional distribution beyond their site.

Blog.com Not thought of as a video sharing site, blog nonetheless displays lots of videos. (Any video on blog dot com is actually hosted by You Tube.) Since most blogs are text only, a video blog can stand out with minimal competition on blog.com. Blog dot com features free and paid services and has international language translation.

Blogger.com In addition to being a huge platform for plain old text blogging, blogger hosts millions of videos. You can tap into the vast selection of blogger (Google and You Tube) and automatically post keyword-related videos to your site on auto pilot. (This requires an extra widget to be installed.)

BoFunk.com BoFunk features videos aimed at the teeny-bopper crowd who like to giggle at things that mere adults do not find funny. If watching a zit explode in close-up is your idea of entertainment, Bo Funk is your dream come true.

Brightcove.com Not just a video sharing site, Brightcove provides a video content management system for business. Brightcove clients include many large media companies such as Time-Warner and The Wall Street Journal but they also work with many small to medium companies. A syndication service and advertising partners are part of the Brightcove package.

Clashorama.com: Clashorama brings friendly competition to Internet Video. Viewers can create contests between any videos they want. Clashorama takes viewer ratings to a whole new level. Lots of goofy videos, but also plenty of serious topics and well-made videos. Good site for viewers and producers alike.

ClipShack.com: A site aimed at ordinary people who want to share goofy videos with their family and friends. This is not a site for business oriented videos, although they will be accepted.

Clipta.com: A multitude of online video services in one site. Their biggest service is a comprehensive video search engine. The clipta site also functions as a video sharing site where you can make a few bucks if your videos get a lot of views. Clipta also features a forum on all subjects related to online video.

Dailymotion.com A wide-ranging video sharing site covering everything from extreme sports to politics. Daily Motion is a good site for business owners because they have a category specifically for videos that promote products and services. This has turned Daily Motion into a good resource and online community for business owners.

GetMiro.com: A non-profit site dedicated to preserving net neutrality. Net neutrality is important in keeping the Internet a free and open platform for everyone. From the beginning, no one has “owned” the internet. Naturally, many of the world’s communications conglomerates do not like that fact. “We the people” are embarrassing too many fat cats with our commentaries! If the internet becomes regulated the way some corporations would like, the little guy will lose. So please support net neutrality.

GoFish.com: Dedicated to the youth market, 6-17. Go Fish claims 6.3 million unique visitors.

Hulu.com: Hulu is a site that offers internet video viewers a more traditional TV viewing experience. This is not a standard video sharing site where anyone can upload, it’s for viewing professional produced movies and standard television programs seen before on cable. This is a United States only website.

IFilm.com: Owned and operated by Spike-TV, this is internet video for the macho male. Babes and cars dominate the viewing selections at iFilm. Search by bikini, bizarre, fetish and more!

Joost.com: Joost is trying to merge cable television with the internet. Viewers can watch thousands of movies and TV shows for free by downloading the Joost player. (It’s free.) Some of the content is current, premium channel cable hits like HBO’s “Weeds.” Joost has a huge library of ready to watch on demand professionally produced programming.

JumpCut.com: An online, remote production facility that is an awesome resource for internet video producers and small business owners. (Or big business owners.) With Jump Cut, you can use their video and their video editing software on their servers as you sit in your office. They supply stock footage and the ability to edit using their simple, over-the-web video editing interface. Jump Cut also gives you a platform to host video contests for your customers. Now that’s cool. Jump cut also provides help with distribution of your video to an email list.

KickLight.com: Kick Light is a web service that lets you add clickable links, or KICKS as they call them, to your video. Kick Light is free to use.

LiveLeak.com: Live Leak is searching for quality journalism with a mission of providing an alternative to the mainstream press. Liveleak adamantly rejects marketing videos unless they are labeled as such. Live Leak features citizen journalism from all over the world and does a great service helping people to communicate the reality of their lives without the corporate media filter. Live leak also has hot chick videos. Oh well. We’ll say that makes their programming diversified.

Lulu.com: Lulu is a great resource for video producers who want to sell their content. Customers can buy and download your videos or get them mailed on DVD disc. Lulu is an online publishing house for not only video creators, but authors and musicians too. Lulu can help you create a web “store front” and help you get an ISBN number.

Market7.com: Market 7 is a website that helps video producers and their clients communicate more easily. With a market 7 account, a video producer and their clients can share files, scripts and other necessary tools.

MegaVideo.com: A great site for both content producers and viewers alike. Mega Video’s goal is to replace You Tube as the #1 video sharing site, but they have a way to go. Mega video features a reward system where you earn points the more your video is viewed and you can redeem the points for free membership or cash.

Mevio.com: The offerings on Mevio are higher quality than some internet video. Mevio features lots of continuing serials and character-driven entertainment. Mevio videos are more like what you would see on traditional TV with professional production values, although certainly most of them are relatively low-budget. Mevio claims to have over one-million hours of quality internet video entertainment, which is enough to keep you occupied for 41-thousand years.

Motionbox.com: Motion box is aimed at people who primarily want to share personal videos with family or friends. Viewers do not randomly select videos to watch, you as the content provider choose who gets to see your work. Basic membership is free, but that only allows you 30 minutes worth of video storage. If you need more than that, yu pay $30 a year, which isn’t bad for secure hosting.

Photobucket.com: This is a huge site well known for housing millions of photos and videos for people to share with friends, family and strangers world wide. Photo Bucket is the largest photo sharing site in the U.S. and is among the top fifty largest sites on the web.

RealPeopleRealStuff.com: If you’re looking for a place to show videos to promote yourself, this is a good choice. This website is seeking videos that show every day people and their products, services, and ideas.

Revver.com: Revver is a great site for viewers and content producers alike. Revver shares advertising revenue with content producers by placing a software tracking code on each video so you can keep up with viewership as it goes viral. Keyword driven contextual advertising is placed on videos by Revver and proceeds are split.

StupidVideos.com: As the name implies, Stupid Videos specializes in amateur clips that make somebody look stupid. Lots of people falling down, no documentaries. Although this site has a large audience, it’s not a serious one and the demographics skew young. With the right video though, this site can get you a lot of eyeballs.

www.TrafficGeyser.com: If you want maximum saturation for your videos, you need Traffic Geyser. A paid distribution service that saves you tons of time uploading video. With Traffic Geyser, you can instantaneously zap your video creation out to fifty or more video sharing and social networking sites. Upload your video to Traffic Geyser once and it’s sent out to every account simultaneously.

www.TubeMogule.com: Tube Mogul is a video distribution service. You upload your video to Tube Mogul and they shoot it out to about a dozen sites simultaneously. Saves tons of uploading time and so far, this service is FREE. They also have great analytics to track your viral video creation.

Ustream.com: An incredible service that allows you to broadcast live with audience interaction via real time text chat. Unbelievably, this is still free. Ustream will host a replay of your live video program when it’s over so you can grow your show’s audience and utilize your content in a variety of ways.

Vimeo.com: Vimeo can best be described as a generalized video sharing site hosting videos of all kinds, from one-shot cell phone quickies to professionally produced programs. Vimeo boasts over half a million members and 5,400 new videos daily. Compare that to 60,000 daily submissions for You Tube.

vSocial.com: A GREAT site for business owners, vSocial provides a platform for you to distribute viral, word-of-mouth campaigns and have them tied in with extensive social networking communities. Vsocial offers both paid and free hosting services. It’s much easier to get your business noticed on a site like vSocial than You Tube.

YouTube.com: The Big Daddy of all Internet video sharing sites. Owned by Google, You Tube gets 60,000 submissions a day and it’s easy to get lost in a pile that huge. You Tube no longer accept any video longer than 10 minutes. Viewers can not download them, although you can choose to allow embedding. You Tube does not yet have a way for you to sell your video.

Veeple.com: Veeple is an online video hosting service that allows you to add clickable links and other interactive objects to your video. Veeple is great for online video marketing. The interactive spots help you monetize your video in new ways. You can also embed PDF documents and auto responder forms.

Interactive Digital Billboards Controlled By Phones

2009-04-03T15:08:00.000-07:00

Toshiba is testing interactive digital billboards controlled by mobile phones. This is an interesting inversion of the Minority Report-style ads that capture biometric information about you whether you like it or not.

Toshiba set up an interactive digital billboard in Tokyo last weekend that allowed YouTube users and passersby with mobile phones to play video games on a larger screen than usual. Take a look at the video below to see how it looked.

This experiment is a variation on the personalized graphic advertisements portrayed in the 2002 movie Minority Report. In the film, people are assaulted with intrusive advertisements that are personalized based on biometric information taken without their consent using covert sampling methods.

This model has been widely adopted in experimental ad trials; see NTT Billboards Are Watching You Look and Smart Sign Watches You Drive By for examples.

This Toshiba experimental interactive digital billboard sets up a new paradigm; why not directly engage the user in an experience that they enjoy? This seems like a natural way to advertise games.

This article is written by Technovelgy.com
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=2209

Working Women Fashion - Dress to Network by Workchic.com

2009-04-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

Working Women Fashion — Every Encounter Counts

Tips on how to avoid overdressing or underdressing at everything from job fairs to barbeques
by Joyann King

Got a lunch date with a friend who knows a friend who has a friend who is hiring? Did the boss invite you to join him at the Yankees game? Schmoozing at a gallery opening? If your calendar is chock-full of potential networking opportunities, it’s time to make an appointment with your closet as well.

Networking outside the office is your best chance to meet new people beyond your corporate circle who can help promote your career. It’s also a no-man’s land when it comes to the dress code. Networking is not an interview, and once outside the office, the strict rules of the dress code no longer apply. You’re left on your own to overdress and look like you don’t belong or underdress and look like you’ll never belong.To help you dress properly for the occasions you might encounter on the job search, here are some common networking scenarios as well as some stylish solutions for women facing each event.

Reminder: Dress for success every day, no matter what’s on the agenda — you never know who you will run into on your lunch break!

A job fair
Attending a job fair is basically like speed interviewing. You should be dressed for the possibility of in-the-moment interview. In others words, wear a suit. A dress is appropriate as well, when paired with a tailored jacket. Choose shapes that work for your body. Stick to a flattering palette of black, navy, gray or cream. Keep jewelry delicate, but carry a chic tote. (It’s not fashionable to schlep a canvas bag full of resumes!)

Lunch with a connected friend
Your old college buddy wants to do lunch and might be bringing a big-time player in your industry along. A business associate wants to get your thoughts over lunch on a new venture he’s considering. Whatever the circumstance, lunch can be a tricky style situation. You want to be dressed to impress, but too formal sends the impression that you are too eager and don’t respect the social aspect of the meeting. In other words, the goal is to play it cool while looking casually sharp. My rule is wear business casual with an emphasis on the casual. Wear your favorite separates, like a slim pencil skirt and printed blouse. Avoid looking staunch by ditching your jacket, close-toed shoes, and oversized work tote. Opt for pretty heels and a smaller handbag — no resume required!

A conference or seminar
A gathering of top industry professionals or a business seminar is a great way to network with names with whom you are probably familiar but have yet to meet face-to-face. With an opportunity to zero in on specific industry influencers, it is key you make a good first impression. Your look for these opportunities should be business casual, with an emphasis on business. Use this opportunity to wear a flattering shift dress in a rich color. Closed-toed heels and a sleek tote will ensure you look professional. Bring a tailored jacket or cardigan with you in case you get cold.

Tickets to the big game
What to wear when drinking beer and eating nachos with the boss while watching his favorite sports team? In such a casual environment as a sporting arena, dressing with a business purpose in mind is tricky. The key to looking relaxed yet professional is choosing the right fabrics and showing the appropriate amount of skin. Although you might usually grab a tank and shorts for game day, when networking is on the agenda, opt for a little less skin. Try cotton shorts with at least a 5-inch inseam, and tuck in an airy button down in linen or chambray. Wear flat sandals, no flip flops.

Increasing Popularity of Web Videos.

2009-03-31T17:47:00.001-07:00

Here are some numbers for you:

There were 7.5 million web video viewers on Hulu on December 08.
There were 20 million web video viewers on Fox Interactive Media on December 08.
There were 85 million web video viewers on YouTube on December 08.
There are 300 million web video viewers worldwide now.
There will be 1 billion web video viewers worldwide by 2012.

Do you watch web video? Are you one of them?

Getting Personal With Web Video Campaigns

2009-03-31T16:58:00.000-07:00

Interactive, Tailored Video Is Key

By Naj Kidwai

As the online video industry evolves, advertisers are constantly evaluating the most effective methods to successfully reach their desired audience and increase the breadth of their brand engagement. Yet despite their best efforts to innovate, agencies still defer to producing the same static, linear video creative that results in a very passive online experience for the consumer.

It's time for online brands, publishers and their agencies to abandon the outdated TV model of blasting out mass video messaging and deliver a more personalized online experience to their customers.

The industry needs a new approach to creative—one that provides agencies different options for narrative structures based on consumer feedback. The tools and technology exist, and the bandwidth is available, so agency creative executives need to take the leap of faith and start building ads that are more authentic, engaging and personalized for the individual consumer.

By re-evaluating the basic concept of content creation, agencies will benefit from more effective targeting capabilities that will translate to better conversion rates and increased return on investment from their campaigns.

Agencies use current targeting capabilities–such as geographical and behavioral methods–to deliver ads with more relevance, but they are still serving a linear ad to a mass audience with a one-size-fits-all approach.

But what if it were possible to involve the consumer in the creation of the ad? Make the online experience more dynamic and interactive. Give consumers control over the content they consume by asking for feedback about what content they want to watch or types of offers they want to receive. That brings targeting down to an individual level.

Some brands have already started to experiment with various forms of interactivity. Samsung's "Follow Your Instinct" campaign this past summer used the annotation feature on YouTube led consumers to choose from different content segments to watch throughout the ad. According to a recent survey, we may see more campaigns like this in the future. The PermissionTV 2008 Digital Marketing Survey, announced in December, found that nearly 60 percent of respondents consider interactive video experiences to be the next evolution for online video.

The future of online video ad creation lies in the ability to create thousands of different ad variations that can be assembled in real-time based on the expressed interests of each consumer. These personalized video campaigns can already be done today by segmenting and tagging video content during the initial campaign planning stages, and then assembling and delivering the ad to each consumer based on their preferences and user profile data.

The production process of a typical personalized video campaign consists of three basic steps:

Campaign Development: During the campaign planning stage, video clips are segmented, tagged and categorized based on the goals of the ad campaign.

Ad Creation: The video segments are assembled using a storyboard technology platform that creates thousands of different ad variations, which are personalized based on viewer interaction and user profile data. The platform enables contextually targeted ads based on a number of different profile variables, including geographic location, date/time, language or viewer input about what they want to watch.

Real-time Delivery: The technology instantly delivers a video ad that directly reflects the user's interests and behavior. Consumer reactions are measured for the advertiser and used to optimize future content.

Agencies that can leverage existing video assets or create new content to produce customized video experiences that better engage and relate to the individual viewer, will deliver much better conversion rates for the brand. Since consumers are engaging with content that is highly relevant at a time when they are involved in the buying process, personalized video campaigns can typically deliver double the conversion rates and 50 percent better brand awareness than static linear campaigns, while delivering a much higher ROI.

The industry needs a reality check. The current model of trying to turn a profit by monetizing linear video just isn't working. Brands, publishers and their agencies need to embrace the power of personalization and improved targeting to build more relevant consumer experiences and improve their online video ROI.

Naj Kidwai is CEO of Real Time Content, a leading provider of personalized video ad technology based in New York City.

http://adage.com/webvideoreport/article?article_id=134344

The Best Way to Build a Twitter Account? Step by Step, Hubspot.

2009-03-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

You signed up for Twitter, added a short bio, uploaded an avatar and are Tweeting regularly, but still nobody's following you.

Now what?

The way most Twitter users (especially new ones) build a base of Twitter followers is by following people themselves. Lots of people follow-back people who follow them, so by going out and following people you should be able to accumulate a lot of followers.

The graph below shows the number of users in each bucket (the red line) and the average number of followers the users in each bucket have (the blue line).

The red line indicates that most users aren't following a ton of people, which is expected given that most users aren't Twitter-addicts. The blue line, however, tells a more interesting story: People who follow lots of people tend to have lots of followers themselves.

Let's look at little closer at the follow-back assumption. The graph below shows the distribution of Twitter users at each following to follower ratio.

We see that most users have close to a 1:1 ratio of following to followers, meaning that many users follow-back those that follow them.

So does that mean you should go nuts and follow tons and tons of people? To answer that question, let's look at how your following/follower ratio is related to the number of people that follow you.

The graph below shows the average number of followers of users based on their ratio. A ratio of 0.5 means that you follow half the number of people that are following you, and a ratio of 2 means you follow twice as many people as are following you.

This shows that users with a low following to follower ratio tend to have a high number of followers. That means that if your goal is to build a Twitter account with lots of followers, and we assume these factors have some sort of causal relationship, you should try to keep your ratio near or under 1 (following the same number of people as follow you or less).

Conclusion

The data shows that the best way to build a robust Twitter account is via a stepped approach. Follow a few people (a few of them will follow you back), then follow a few more. Don't go crazy following thousands of people. Do it slowly and build up your followers gradually.

Download Twitter for Marketing Webinar: http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-webinars/twitter-archive/

How to Wear your Basic White Blouse by Workchic.com

2009-03-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

You know you can simply wear this blouse with your basic trousers or with denim on Fridays. Accessorize it with a necklace as above or wear it alone. But, what else do you do with it? How do you wear this blouse to the office with other pieces? Would you ever consider wearing it with a printed skirt?

Tuck the blouse into the skirt and wear it high waisted. Just make sure the length is appropriate for your office environment. Finish off the look with a wide belt and necklace. The necklace should be worn under the top not over, so leave a button or two open without being overly revealing. If your feeling uncomfortable wear a white cami underneath the blouse. Finish the look with black peep toe pumps.

The nice feature on this dress is the tie back empire waist which will help keep the layered look clean and tailored. Try wearing your hair up or pulled back with larger earrings. Finish up this fresh Spring look with comfortable ballet flats.

While we’re sure you know you can layer a blouse underneath a sweater or vest in the winter months, when the weather is a little warmer or uncertain you can also layer a blouse underneath a t-shirt or light printed top.

Of course you can wear this look with jeans for a casual office, but for business casual follow this outfit through with all of our instructions. With a lighter more flowy top like this, tuck in the blouse. If you chose a more casual t-shirt you can leave the shirt tails hanging down. Accessorize with a chic and distinctive watch. This look is also a great opportunity to start wearing your new Sandals.

You can wear your basics in more ways then you think. Try adding these looks from Dillard’s into your work wardrobe and build your outfits around that basic white blouse. For more professional offices add a blazer to the first two looks. As we said the last look can be worn with denim for casual offices. Otherwise you should have some pretty solid Business Casual looks lined up. So Start Shopping!

www.workchic.com

New Shopping Experience –Shop with Video

2009-03-27T12:04:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of Shopflick? Shopflick is an online shopping community where designers sell and promote their clothing with video. They provide consumer a unique online shopping experience that isn't elsewhere. Consumer watches products come to life through videos—product features, details, and stories that go way beyond still images.

Personally, I was really excited to learn about Shopflick. I shop online a lot. I like it because I can shop at anytime and anywhere. On the contrary, I dislike it because I can’t “experience” the clothing. With video, it solves most of my concern. It feels like having a personal fashion expertise assisting me throughout my shopping experience.

If you haven’t check out Shopflick, do it now. www.shopflick.com

Nailing Your Interview Outfit with Workchic.com

2009-03-25T17:37:00.000-07:00

Let’s face it times are tough out there. That means less jobs and more competition. You remember the old expression — make a first impression without even saying a word? Well why not do that with your interview outfit! We’ll teach how to do this while keeping your look professional. Even if you are interviewing in a casual office environment you don’t want to cross the line between casual and unprofessional. Here are a few of our suggestions that will add some excitement to your interview attire.

The right jewelry can make your otherwise predictable interview suit impressive and memorable. Try delicate gold hoops when wearing your business suit instead of pearls to modernize your basic jewelry. Wear a necklace with soft color beads to highlight your neckline. We took these pieces and added them to a more corporate business interview outfit below.

If you are going for a more business casual or even casual look at your interview remember you can still wear lightweight tweeds and wool, linen or silk blends, and even boucle. Texture whether it is in a jacket or pants can add a personal touch and keeps your look seasonal. For the look below we paired a cotton jacket, silk blouse, and a belt to add more interest to the outfit. You can layer on a chunky cuff bracelet or scarf to accent the look. Top the outfit off with a fun tote that has a fun contrast color and really ties the whole outfit together.

You can see that no matter what type of interview you are going on the use of shoes, accessories, and even a scarf can help make a lasting impression. Have fun creating your own signature look and best of luck from Workchic.com!

Reference:www.shopittome.com

Get Your Startup Fired Up with Microsfot BizSpark

2009-03-25T14:32:00.000-07:00

Microsoft BizSpark is a global program designed to help accelerate the success of early stage Startups by providing resources with no upfront cost to enroll.

For Technology Startups

BizSpark is uniquely designed to accelerate your success by providing fast, affordable access to current, full-featured Microsoft tools and technologies, plus production licensing for hosted solutions. For support, BizSpark unites a global community of technology and entrepreneurial experts who can guide you through the hurdles of growing a new business.

For Network Partners

BizSpark can help provide Startups in your organization fast access to valuable technology-based benefits, at no cost to your organization — a highly attractive offering that supports and advances innovation!

For more information please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark

The future of television network

2009-03-25T11:36:00.001-07:00

I attended “TiE: Future of Television and Market” yesterday. The speaker was Christine Heckart, the general manager at Microsoft TV. She shared how the television industry is changing with TV moving to the internet and there are numerous business opportunities being created. People in the US watched 14.3 billion online videos in December 2007, growing at a rate of 45% per year. The landscape is shifting, so the question is how do we become a part of this great opportunity?

Personally, I have never had a TV ever since I went to college. I never needed one because I can watch everything online. My internet is fast, my PC screen is big enough, and I don’t need anything fancier. The best part is that I can watch them anytime without the interruption of commercials.

How do we become a part of this great opportunity? Um…from a marketer and personal view point, here are my thoughts:
- Realize that internet marketing is important.
- Online video marketing can be done more effectively compared to TV commercial because you can measure and target your audience.
- Shift your advertising campaign from TV commercial, prints, and build board to the internet.
- Use blended models to diversify your advertising campaign.

Moon Festival Animation

2009-03-24T16:53:00.000-07:00

By SilkMotion Studios

Are you a creative entrepreneur but just can’t focus on business? Help is on the way….

2009-03-24T09:48:00.000-07:00

I spoke to Susan Rancourt last week and decided to feature her on my blog. Her passion on consulting, coaching, and training is truly inspiring. She has over 30 years of Senior Management experience in Silicon Valley, Fortune 500 companies.

Some Scenarios that she can help you with:
• You’re a creative entrepreneur but just can’t focus on business
• You have no idea how to increase your sales - nothing seems to work
• You know your business can grow but you have no idea how to market your services
• You know you need to pay attention to the numbers but avoid it
• You’re stuck in your current job and dream of transitioning to your ‘real love’ but you’re worried and hesitant
• Your business is doing pretty well but you dislike the ‘business end’
• You’ve been laid off. Now what?
• You’re moving from the W2 world to the 1099 (contractor) world and have no idea how to manage your business
• You need to restructure your relationships with your key partners
• You’re scrambling to survive in this economy and really need help
• You wish you had an experienced business ‘partner’ with whom to strategize
• You’re thinking of selling your business and need help strategizing your negotiations with potential buyers
• Your accounts receivables are falling past due
• You just can’t grasp the financials your accountant sends you
• You’re about to be reviewed by your boss and want to prepare
• You dream of having an experienced, sophisticated business ‘coach’

For more information please visit: www.susanrancourtbusinessconsulting.com
You can also contact Susan directly at: srancourt@mac.com

Free Inbound Online Marketing Kit

2009-03-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

Download the Inbound Marketing Kit to learn how to get found by more potential customers online.

The Inbound Marketing Starter Kit includes 4 how-to videos and an instructional e-book:

* Video: Rethinking Marketing: Inbound Marketing to Grow Your Business
* Video: Combine SEO, Blogging, Social Media for Marketing Results
* Video: PR in a Social Media World
* Video: Marketing in a Recession
* e-Book: Getting Found Online - Learn how to get found online in the search engines, blogosphere, and social media sites (10 pages)

For more information please visit: http://www.hubspot.com/inbound-marketing-kit/?source=email-20090323

Have a laugh on Friday afternoon... Haha...

2009-03-20T15:18:00.001-07:00

By Ben Young

Entrepreneur Trek Stanford University March 21-22

2009-03-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

EntrepreneurTrek Foundation is a non-profit that enables young entrepreneurs through education and networking. They offer a 2-day intensive program designed to help entrepreneurs of tomorrow network and sharpen their tool kit for securing funding or seeking a job or internship in the startup space. It offers entrepreneurs the opportunity to explore their areas of interest, learn about emerging technologies and network with fellow entrepreneurs, business mentors, and potential investors through a wide range of innovative activities, such as:

Home Incubation — for promising (top pitches) ideas at local residents’ home and garage
Funding Boot Camp — how to build management team, develop IP, pitch to investors, etc.
Startup Mentoring Service — valuable mentoring service from experienced, successful entrepreneurs
Business Plan Pitch — opportunity to pitch in front of potential investors
Women entrepreneurship — teaming up with women entrepreneurs from all walks of life
Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries — teaming up with entrepreneurs from developing countries
Networking Round Robin
- Fellow entrepreneurs and hot/up-coming startups
- Venture capitalists and angels
- Companies that seek business and technical leaderships

For more information please visit: http://www.entrepreneurtrek.org/

DIRECTV App Trial for iPhone

2009-03-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

Only limited number of users will be selected.
If you are interested, submit your information ASAP:
http://www.iamanedgecutter.com/Projects/iPhone/default.aspx

Get Motivated Seminars, San Francisco March 24th

2009-03-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

The GET MOTIVATED Seminar is an action-packed, fun-filled, explosive, exciting, inspiring, skill-building business event that is world famous for its mega-watt superstar speakers and spectacular stage production. It will give you proven strategies to sharpen your business skills, ignite your motivation, accelerate your effectiveness and increase your income.

You will gain new skills as below:
- How to be Better, Faster, and Different than Your Competition
- The Top 3 Skills High Achievers Must Master
- 7 Ways to Keep Your Customers Coming Back for Life
- Steps to Becoming a Stronger, More Strategic Decision-Maker
- How to Master the Art of Effective Leadership
- Salesperson to Superstar Using the “Slight-Edge Principle”
- 6 “KNOWS” to Get the “YES”
- The 8 Keys to Communication-- and Captivating Public Speaking
- How to Turn Irate Customers into Lifelong Fans
- 5 Easy Ways to Deal with Difficult People
- Power Motivators! What to do When You Don’t Want to do Anything
- 6 Ways to Increase Your Effectiveness
- How to Gain Rapport With Anyone Instantly
- How to Add Fun to the Workplace
- 2 Things You Can Do To “Buy Time” in a Crisis
- 4 Keys to Getting the Edge in Every Negotiation
- How to Get Your Ideas Accepted, Acted Upon and Accomplished
- The Time Management Secrets of High Achievers
- Expert Listening Skills: How to Hear What They’re NOT Saying
- How to Create an “Information Loop” that Puts You in the Know
- Effective Meetings that aren’t Boring Time-Wasters
- How to Hire and Keep Your Employee Dream Team
- 5 Mental Exercises that Give You a Winning Edge
- The Working Person’s Guide to Peak Energy and Performance
- Health and Fitness On the Go
- How to Eliminate Needless Interruptions
- 10 Tools to Make and Manage Your Money
- Strategic Steps for Planning a Comfortable Retirement
- What Most Investors Don’t Know About Investing
- 7 Things You Need to Do to Secure Your Family’s Financial Future
- 3 Ways to Consistently Outperform the Market
- How to Draft a Clear, Concise Blueprint for Success

San Francisco March 24th
San Jose March 24th

The ticket is only $19 for your entire company.

For more information please visit: http://www.getmotivated.com/seminars.aspx

Best Olympic 3D Animation

2009-03-19T14:26:00.000-07:00

By SilkMotion Studios

Need a CFO for your company?

2009-03-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

Larry Tomsic has over 28 years of CFO experience in several industries including real estate development, construction, manufacturing, residential and commercial property management, hospitality, restaurant, real estate brokerage, retail, golf courses, agriculture and technology.

He enjoys the challenge of helping businesses grow and prosper by increasing sales, controlling costs, improving procedures and managing cash flow.

Contact Larry at ltomsic@b2bcfo.com
http://www.b2bcfo.com

Do you know how to order DimSum?

2009-03-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

This video is done by SilkMotion Studios, www.silkmotion.com.
The actress in the video is Shoyi, www.shoyi.com.

Watchmen worth watching by Ben Young

2009-03-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

"With this frustrating economy, why not step out of reality for a bit and into the world of Watchmen. The latest installment to a growing list of superhero movies turns the genre on its head, much like the comic the movie was based on. It centers around the 'real' lives of superheros and explains that even heroes make mistakes.

The movie delivers with excellent visuals and inspiring effects. The twisted narrative fully develops each character without resorting to the typical linear development. The story and script are excellent with some memorable quotes such as, The world will look up and shout 'Save us!'… And I’ll whisper 'No.' I never read the comic so my review is based on just what I saw. I’d be interested to hear what avid readers have to say."

Ben Young
CEO - SilkMotion Studios
www.silkmotion.com

“Spend Less and Save More” or “Spend More and Save Less”?

2009-03-16T14:07:00.000-07:00

I read an article on how Asian governments are prodding consumers to spend more and save less by giving them extra spending money. Taiwan government gives $108 voucher to residents; China gives $30 restaurant and hotel coupons to the locals; Thailand sends $58 checks to low income people; Japan distributes $130-$200 to citizens.

After reading the article, I was curious and wanted to know who else believes in “spend more and save less”. I googled it, and the search results were quiet interesting—about 90% of the results were on how to “spend less and save more.” They were the opposite of what I was looking for.

I understand that the world is facing economic crisis. People are scared of losing their jobs and started to spend less and save more. I don’t think this helps but rather hurts the economy. To boost the economy, everyone needs to be a part of this—spend more and save less. Of course, the government has to play an important role.

Why is body language important?

2009-03-14T14:14:00.000-07:00

What is your definition of success?

2009-03-13T15:01:00.000-07:00

What is your definition of success? To me, learning something new every day is success. How do I do that? Watch a video, read a book, listen to the news, or simply interact with others.

What is your learning style? At Happy About, you can obtain knowledge through smaller, easy wording, and high impact books. Check out www. http://happyabout.info.

They constantly look for great authors. If you are interested please contact Mitchell Levy at mlevy@happyabout.info.

2009-03-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

Do you use online video ads?

2009-03-12T11:02:00.000-07:00

According to Rick Bruner, research director at DoubleClick, “Online video ads are quickly becoming the medium of choice to drive both brand awareness and sales. The results show that there are clear ROI advantages to placing video ads. We expect to see strong growth in the number of companies reaping the benefits of online video advertising in the coming months and years.”

Consider the following for online video
- Click through rate for online video ads are far greater than image ads.
- On average, video ads play two thirds of the way through
- People are more likely to remember the information on a video than a text article
- Visual, entertaining, and interactive
- It is a great way to deliver your content
- It is the number one focus on U.S. retailers in 2009 for product promotion

Reference: http://www.doubleclick.com/insight/pdfs/dc_videobench0702.pdf

Discovering Style by Ben Young

2009-03-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

"What is artistic style? Its the personality of the artist conveyed through the lines, strokes, colors, or subject matters left evident in the final artwork. It is why you pay for professional artistic services over someone with some expensive equipment. It is something I look for if I’m hiring a new designer or editor.

Just like personality, I believe artistic style is a culmination of life experiences, in-born sensibilities, and personal discovery. Many young artists start out copying other artists’ style, which I think is completely valid. Many focus so hard on just getting a composition to work or an object to look like the intended object, that they overlook style. The result is flat. The viewer identifies the object and moves on. But that same object developed with an artistic style grabs you and makes you sense something more. It is like beautifully written prose filled with underlying metaphors and tones. Style reveals something personal about the artist.

I think developing an artistic style is a process and it evolves over a lifetime. In a production, many people work together on conveying a Director’s style. But, there are still stylistic qualities that shine through and in fact many artists are hired for that very reason. It is like hiring a specific actor for a role in a movie. They must fit into a preset character, but it is their style that they bring to the role that gives it depth and appeal.

If you are an artist, look deeper and discover your style. If you are a company, start paying attention to the subtleties of artistic style and find the right artist for your needs."

Ben Young
CEO - SilkMotion Studios
www.silkmotion.com
www.silkmotion.com/blog

Stanford Fashion Society's Charity Fashion Show, May 2nd 09

2009-03-12T09:37:00.001-07:00

On May 2nd, 2009, Stanford University will be host to The Largest Fashion Show on the West Coast. Truly going beyond borders this year, Charity Fashion Show will have moved from Tresidder Oak Lounge into a massive fashion tent that is being constructed on Roble Field. The tent construction and equipment is being overseen by 3 of the Bay Area’s largest event service companies. Within the tent there will be 900 General Admission Seats, 100 VIP Seats, a 70’ white runway (3.5 times the length of last year), height focused lighting with movement capabilities, and sound more powerful than a typical urban club.

Charity Fashion Show 2009 is truly above par. Not just a simple college fashion show, we strive even beyond industry standards. We intend on ending this year as not the Stanford Fashion Show, but an industry go-to event for years to come. Charity Fashion Show has undergone transformations in years past, but this year, we are truly beyond borders.

Tickets for Charity Fashion Show 2009 go on sale beginning in early April for the event on May 2nd, 2009.

VIP and Priority Tickets are by invitation only. Regular Admission seats will be made available on a limited basis to the general public and Stanford community through our website for 15$/seat. Stanford Affiliates will be able to purchase seats online or through CFS Team Members at a discounted rate of 10$/seat.

http://charityfashionshow.stanford.edu/show.html

Hard Times = Opportunity

2009-03-11T11:46:00.001-07:00

"Marketing your business while the economy is down may put your business in line to recover the fastest when the economy goes back up. Sound crazy? I was listening to an interview on CreativeCow.net about growing your business in tough times. They pointed out that many people are cutting their budget for marketing. It is obvious when I turn on the TV, I see less extravagant commercials, less advertisements for companies that used to market all the time.

But lets analyze this. More people are staying home, either out of work, or because they aren’t traveling to save money. That means more people are on their computers, watching TV, or reading a newspaper. These are all great sources for reaching your clients! And your marketing is getting MORE exposure than it typically does. In the interview I mentioned earlier, they commented that the key to success is making your business stick in the heads of your consumers for when the economy improves. Once people feel comfortable buying again, they most likely will be hungry to spend, spend, spend. Hopefully your marketing stuck in their heads, and they’ll be coming to knock on your door.

This also gives you the chance to get out ahead of your competitors. Nick Griffin, editor for CreativeCow.net and owner of Griffin Communications writes in his blog, 'Indeed, case studies from multiple sources show that companies that continue to market actively during downturns often increase their market share and typically come out stronger after the turnaround. Why? Because their competitors take the knee-jerk approach and slash marketing expenditures as a simplistic way to save money. They focus on short-term savings without taking into account the long-term cost. In doing so they, in essence, withdraw from their customers rather than staying engaged.'"

By Ben Young,
CEO of SilkMotion Studios
www.silkmotion.com
www.silkmotion.com/blog

Worldwide recession?

2009-03-10T15:43:00.000-07:00

Global slowdown in industrial production, as of Dec 2008.

- US -7.3%
- Latin America and Caribbean -6.2%
- European Union -10.1%
- Middle East and North Africa -0.9%
- Central Europe and the Balkans -9.3%
- Sub Saharan Africa -1.0%
- Former Soviet Union -10.8%
- Japan -22.5%
- Asia Pacific -9.3%
- China +6.3

Are applications and games on Facebook helpful for your business?

2009-03-09T17:30:00.000-07:00

I attended a social media marketing event last month. During a presentation delivered by a social media marketing specialist, a business owner, who just started using Facebook to promote his business, asked the speaker for his opinion on what should be done with Facebook Application invitations. The speaker replied that such invitations should best be ignored. However, I believe there’s a good reason to disagree with that reply. Many Facebook Applications can be a great source of additional exposure.

Are you familiar with Friends for Sale (FFS), a third party Facebook application? It’s a social networking game, where members can buy and sell each other, increase their virtual value and earn virtual cash. Critics may say it is a silly waste of time, but before you decide whether they are right, let’s look at some statistics.

FFS Facts:
- FFS started in November 2007.
- 2,220,212 monthly active users and counting

My FFS account:
- Out of over 600 of my Facebook friends, more than half of them have installed FFS
- More than 3000 FFS users have bookmarked my FFS page (wishers)
- On 5/5/08 I installed an application to count visitors of my FFS page; on 3/9/09 it counted 44,070 visitors
- I recently embedded a YouTube video; it reached 300 views in 3 days

I understand that there are opportunity costs involved in taking the time to use the application and although FFS brings traffic, it might fail to bring the right kind of traffic and reach your target audience. So, what do you think: should business owners use FB applications to promote their business? How much time, if any, would you be willing to dedicate to using such applications? What is your overall opinion?

Here are other articles about FFS:
http://venturebeat.com/2008/04/25/creators-of-facebook-app-friends-for-sale-raise-round-not-for-sale
http://highscalability.com/friends-sale-architecture-300-million-page-view-month-facebook-ror-app
http://lsvp.wordpress.com/2008/04/26/were-excited-to-invest-in-serious-businessfriends-for-sale

This is the link to FFS application on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=7019261521

Social Media Marketing Event at Standford University

2009-03-09T12:43:00.000-07:00

Beverly Macy sent me a message regarding Gravity Summit Event at Stanford this morning. Please visit: http://www.gravitysummit.com/register/ for detailed information about the event.

By attending or sponsoring the event, you’ll connect your brand with influential university venues, social media thought leaders, industry professionals, and some of the best and brightest social media talent around. It's truly a great opportunity, isn't it? ;)

Contact Beberly at 310.860.4788 if you have any question.

Understanding Personal Styles with Nigel Brooks

2009-03-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

According to Nigel Brooks, understanding personal styles will increase increases the likelihood of success in both social and professional relationships. It is based upon the ability to relate, to build a rapport, and to interact with others by being able to entertain, inform, convince, persuade, and negotiate with them.

For detailed information please visit: http://www.enterpriship.com/marketplace/upsebook.

Contact Nigel at nalb@bldsolutions.com if you have any question.

Where to find me?

2009-03-06T22:05:00.000-08:00

http://www.silkmotion.com
http://www.donnamena.cn
http://stores.ebay.com/Accessories-Kingdom
http://www.youtube.com/user/SilkroadInstitute
http://twitter.com/cicili
http://www.linkedin.com/in/cicili