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Following The Trends: Internet Levels Playing Field For Small Businesses (BtoB Online)
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Posted: 08/05/2010
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Thanks to the Internet, small companies having difficulty competing with large companies for customers are in luck. Despite the fact that search query results are crowded, small business owners can take steps to maximize their online presence via search and social media by following a few simple tips. For instance, by updating business listings or creating new ones for companies and choosing social media networks wisely, marketers can integrate the increasingly important localization of their product or company. Becoming “vertical” is also key, since doing so means companies participate in many social sites, as is getting one-to-one with customers by paying specific attention to exactly what products they prefer.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Formatting Plain Text E-Mails for Dynamic Delivery (Internet Evolution)
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Posted: 04/01/2010
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Not all programs recognize html, so it’s important to remember that you don’t always have to have fancy formatting to get your message across. There are tips you can use to maximize your plain text emails. Plus, there are actually many benefits to sending plain text e-mails. First, leave formatting plain text to last and finally, test your format across multiple platforms. Steps in between include: prioritizing key content in the first few lines, cleaning up your format and making sure links don’t get lost in the crowd. Plain text allows subscribers to read your email even on their cell phones and smartphones. They are also much more likely to get through all the spam filters on the Internet than html email, and therefore can be read by more subscribers.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
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FranchiseOpportunities.com Increases Own Opportunities (BtoB Online)
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Posted: 02/18/2010
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In an effort to increase its leads in finding potential franchise owners, FranchiseOpportunities.com changed its usual e-mail marketing tactics. Rather than sending the standard monthly e-mail newsletter highlighting six or seven franchises to all 100,000 of its prospects, the company now sends out targeted e-blasts. These e-blasts, which are sent to specific, smaller groups of prospects, highlight a single franchise (based on prospects’ industry, geographic location, available liquid capital, and net investment capabilities), and provide a direct link to the franchise owner’s page. E-blast copy is also more action-oriented. “It’s all about semantics—taking an active voice that uses language our prospects use,” said Garth Snider, president of FranchiseOpportunites.com. An increase in leads resulted. “From 2008 to 2009 we have increased the number of leads coming from e-mail campaigns by 50% to 75%,” Snider said.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business
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From Business Revolution to Evolution in 15 Minutes (Harvard Business)
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Posted: 12/17/2009
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Struggling to create a breakthrough in your business strategy? The solution is as simple as turning the revolutionary into the evolutionary. It may sound like a slow process, but with the “15 minute competitive advantage” individual progressive steps occur quickly. As you build your business, each new lesson learned and experience gained (every 15 minutes) evolves into a step toward progress. Scott Cook, founder of Intuit, advises business owners “to turn business concepts into hypotheses to test fast.” Akin to rapid prototyping, this kind of “hypothesis testing” doesn’t require radical change when based on success markers like: Trial-able, Reversible, Familiar and Congruent with future directions, among others. The process gently leads consumers to the next level of business evolution without forcefeeding revolutionary new ideas before they are primed for mass consumption.
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Industry:
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business
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From Buzz to Buy: Social Commerce and Word-of-Mouth Marketing (ClickZ)
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Posted: 04/01/2010
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There’s a new buzz in town: social commerce skilfully links customers to customers online and then bridges them into commercial connections... driving customers to transition from "buzz" to "buy." The ultimate goal for delivering a meaningful and measurable social commerce program is to integrate all marketing activities into one streamlined campaign, blending social programs like Facebook, Twitter and company blogs with more traditional programs like in-store, direct marketing and mobile advertising. Building a social commerce program entails the following: (1) give your customers a venue for creating user-generated content; (2) expand your customer-voice from the outside-in and (3) leverage customer feedback in all your marketing initiatives. The challenge then is to deliver meaningful products and services that meet your customers’ needs.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Fuel Your Facebook Fan Page In 4 Easy Steps (Ecommerce Times)
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Posted: 07/22/2010
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Marketers may successfully be racking up the fan numbers on their Facebook Fan Pages, but they are ultimately failing to establish long-term relationships with customers in the process. Companies shouldn’t lose hope, however, because the code to successfully reaping rewards on Facebook lies in four critical steps. According to an E-Commerce News article, in order to retain customers, marketers need to “1) develop a strategy; 2) create a solid presence; 3) motivate [their] fans to take action; and 4) use Facebook to amplify other campaigns, promotions and marketing activities.” Committing to the management of their Facebook walls after business hours, considering brand contribution cadence, and asking if they are doing what their fans want will also aide companies in amping up their fan totals.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Get Rapid Results with Lightweight Code Review (TechWeb, Dr. Dobbs Portal)
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Posted: 03/31/2009
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Ready to learn everything you need to know about peer code review in the shortest amount of time? With so many code review techniques available, your team can weigh the pros and cons of each method to discover an effective solution that matches the team's existing culture and the goals of your organization. Eliminate the vulnerabilities of your code by implementing these proven, time-saving tips to uncover those tricky little bugs that often escape even the most thorough peer reviews. This simplified, modern approach to code review removes cumbersome steps from traditional review processes to help you achieve measurable results that ultimately improve the integrity of your code.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Get The Most Out Of User Experience On Your Website (New Media Knowledge)
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Posted: 07/22/2010
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Are you aware of what users really experience on your website? Monitoring your website performance has hit a new level of complexity since Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) are more frequently being incorporated into Web pages. Knowing how your browser interacts with RIAs is crucial to discovering how fast your Web page renders. To get an accurate result, use a real browser. Why is this important? Browser emulators are far less sophisticated at interacting with Web pages than real browsers and only real browsers can accurately track information in various situations. Real browsers also accurately capture client time – when actual page element execution is taking place. Ultimately, using a real browser with RIAs lets you know that your end-user is getting the best experience possible on your Web page.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
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Get The Scoop: Ben & Jerry’s Launches Sweet Twitter Campaign (Promo Magazine)
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Posted: 09/16/2010
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This summer there was a new way to get the latest scoop, and this time it wasn’t breaking news – it was free samples of ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s. Led from destination to destination by consumer tweets via Twitter, the “Scoop Truck” went on a sampling tour of New York City in June and July. While the initial campaign plan left one weekday open to a virtual “see-which-way-the-tweets-blow-the-truck” kind of spontaneity, by the end of the nearly two-month tour nearly half of the sweet stops were those requested by the 3,000 local followers the tour handle @benjerrytruck amassed. Responses to outgoing tweets yielded anywhere from five to 100 responses. Although followers will still be able to get the latest scoop through Twitter and view images of the happy samplers on Flickr, the next tour is aimed Boston, where stops will be announced primarily via Facebook.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Getting Social with Adobe Flash Platform Services (InformationWeek)
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Posted: 10/22/2009
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Adobe partnered with Gigya, a social media management platform, to launch Flash Platform Services, to add more sociability and measurability to developers creating Flash applications. The service’s three core principles: Distribution, Collaboration, and Social, aim to take Flash viral and social in the online distribution of Flash applications over platforms like Web, desktops and mobile devices. Available later this year, users will be able to “Flash” forward with the service that enables them to share, collaborate and facilitate real-time application distribution, tracking, and monetization to get one solid application that can ultimately deploy over 70 social networks and services. 98% of PCs with Internet connections are equipped with Adobe's Flash software, but applications are not always installed.
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Industry:
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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We cut through the clutter of the web to highlight innovation and forward-thinking. The best stories from leading publications – hand selected and organized to provide you a single point of access.
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