You might have heard the story of TOMS shoes. During his participating in the second season of the Amazing Race, company founder Blake Mycoskie witnessed the poverty experienced by children in developing countries. Growing up so poor they walked barefoot, to play, do chores, and go to and from school. This exposed to numerous cuts on the feet and infections transmitted through prolonged contact with the soil. So how do you solve a problem like this?
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When interacting online, there are several methods businesses (and some individuals) can use to signal to one another that they really are who they claim, and that their intentions are legitimate. Through the use of correct signaling, any business can help alleviate concerns that consumers might have about engaging with them online.
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I’ll give you an abstract thought for the day. It’s one that I don’t know the answer to, so you’re free to make up your own mind. Back when the depression was just starting, IBM kicked off their “Smarter Planet” marketing campaign, claiming that it was the opportune time to makeover the world in a new, analytics drive network.
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The internet has version. Yup, it’s true! Don’t let anyone tell you different. Although no one agrees on the exact definitions of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, there are general evolutions in the way the Internet is used and adds value to everyday life that help us distinguish the two.
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Does your company have a corporate policy on employee use of social media? If you have over 15 employees and still don’t, you might want to consider sliding a clause or two into your next revision of the employee handbook, just to be on the safe side.
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While Apple may have the largest number of Apps out of any smartphone manufacturer, developers are finding good reasons to start exploring what the competition has to offer. And I don’t just mean because of the plethora of reasons Steve Jobs is giving them with the ridiculous restrictions on what developers can and cannot use to create new software. Consider the following:
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This weekend I received and incredibly polite email from a woman named Leslie Joy. She had seen a post I’d made on the Outright entrepreneur community mentioning virtual assistants. To my surprise, she showed incredibly follow through my visiting my website and sending me a message, letting me know a bit about her, and that if I had any questions about hiring a VA I could discuss it with her, so when I was ready to I would be a few steps further ahead. Wow! Talk about proactive! That’s the type of attitude I love…
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Are you a software development business that’s trying to cook up some advanced, plant-saving analytics? If so you’re in luck. IBM (short for I Blame Microsoft) is taking a similar move to that of their arch nemesis, and creating a program to connect entrepreneurs with support, access to funding, and (you guessed it) IBM technology to power their designs.
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On the surface it’s a simple question: why do you blog? As in, why do you bother to pay for hosting, write regularly, and give away (for free) whatever original thoughts and ideas that flutter into your head? It’s a question I get asked fairly regularly, usually by friends and family. Most don’t understand why I feel the need to dedicate 5-10 hours a week writing blog posts when there is a scarily-good chance that nobody else will ever read them, let alone quote me from years later.
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I’m not the only one who hates the new Facebook changes. Popular technology site Lifehacker just had two really good posts on how to protect your information on Facebook.
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Facebook appears to be returning to its old ‘Stalkerbook’ roots. I have never encountered an organization that is so eager to share your personal information with everyone they can! From a marketing perspective, I get it, it’s important to have good personae to design your products and services for. If accurate, that’s valuable information most companies would pay any amount of information for. As a consumer, however, setting up a Facebook account could soon mean waiving important constitutional rights for privacy.
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One marketing heuristic is that the typical redemption rate of coupons is only 1-3%. That is, if you send out 100 coupons, only one to three will be redeemed with a purchase. Over the last ten years, coupon usage has also been in decline. I imagine it’s because there’s forces at work in companies that are, but shouldn’t be, competing: the pressure to have high margins, and the pressure to have sales growth.
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True fact about the Internet: people still don’t appreciate being Rick Rolled.
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Similar to other article-gathering services like Google Knol or About.com, Squidoo operates under the assumption that everybody knows something worth sharing. It’s a noble idea, one that I’ve come to really embrace. Crowd-sourcing ideas and knowledge, first made popular by Wikipedia, has really changed the way the world operates. So what sets Squidoo apart? Two things as far as I can tell.
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I don’t know about you, but these damn interwebz keep getting tangled up in my privacy. Trying to suck me back in even after I venture out into the ‘real’ world. Seriously though, with a (relatively) new string of location-based social media apps and sites, it’s not surprising. Between Foursquare, Gowalla, and Google Latitude it its becoming more and more difficult to slip off the radar and get away. The temptation to let everyone know your business is stronger than ever, telling them where you are and what you’re doing nearly every minute of the day.
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