Social Networking & Businesses

Social networking sites can be very effective as a direct marketing relationship building/maintenance tool for businesses. They are also a great way of getting customer feedback. They shouldn’t be thought of in terms of traditional advertising. Though the results are not to be expected in short term, you’ll reap your rewards over the long haul in terms of customer relations.

Businesses can create pages on Facebook of which people can become “fans.” When they do, your businesses icon becomes a part of their profile page, thus exposing your brand to their network of friends.

Once someone becomes a fan of your page, you can communicate with them through updates, you can invite them to events, they can comment on your profile and you can even let them upload photos and/or video to your profile. Fans can hold discussions amongst themselves on your page. Page owners have ultimate control over what user generated content can appear on their profile.

Businesses should get to know the social network within which they are planning to set up shop before actually doing so. Open an account, explore, use the network as you imagine your customers would use it. Examine how people behave on the site. What type of conversations are they having? How do communications flow through the site.

Once you feel you have a grasp of how the network works, ask yourself if you have the ability and the commitment to update content on your page frequently, how you plan to communicate with your customers through it, and, most importantly, how you plan to market your presence there. Too often, people set up shop and then do nothing with their presence there. That is worse than not being there at all. If you’re not prepared to be an active participant on the site, don’t do it.

Future of Journalism & the internet

The main question hanging over the print media industry is whether the newspaper format, will live another 100 years? I would answer yes and no. As a transfer medium: no; as a creative medium: yes. Paper will be replaced as the transfer medium – by electronic paper. As a function, the newspaper is indispensable. On account of journalism. The Internet is not the new newspaper. It is a genuinely new medium. Not just a new transfer medium, but a new creative medium, too. This means that the Internet will establish itself alongside the media already on offer, not replace them.


There is a key difference between globalized Internet journalism and newspaper journalism. They have entirely different functions. On the Internet, I get faster access to more information about something I already know I am interested in. If I want to learn something about a specific illness, I go to the Internet. A few links later, I am on a special medical site, and a few seconds later a search engine has found the right doctor for my ailment. In the newspaper, on the other hand, I learn about things I did not even know I might be interested in. I wanted to read something about backache and ended up reading a text about holidays in Hawaii. The newspaper has breadth, the Internet has depth. The newspaper works horizontally, the Internet vertically. The second essential difference is that on the Internet, the user guides the journalist. In the newspaper, the reader is guided. The Internet has turned the hierarchy on its head. It is selflessly anti-authoritarian in character, profoundly democratic. Newspapers, by contrast, are confidently authoritarian.


Is this the future? Yes. It is part of the future. But what does it mean for newspapers? Do they have to become fast food, consumable on demand? Do they have to try to become like the Internet? I think not. Newspapers must focus on their own strengths, and that means being a horizon medium, creating and satisfying wishes and interests which readers did not even know they had. As in the past, this remains the newspaper's future, regardless of whether it is delivered on paper or electronic paper. One thing I am sure of is that the future of newspapers is digital.

Political Campaigns & the Internet

Blogging, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Online Donations, and Online Organizing and Communications are Key Aspect of Political Campaigns

In last year's mid-term American election, the Internet has proven to be the necessary tool for campaigning on all levels. Campaigns have developed sophisticated Internet tools to enhance their campaigns, targeting young and web-savvy voters.

Americans have embraced the Internet to connect to the political process. Online campaigning has revolutionized political communication, grassroots activism, supporter outreach, and fundraising. "With so many close elections this year, the Internet has played a pivotal role in fundraising, organizing, and get out the vote efforts," said Alexis Rice, Project Director of CampaignsOnline.org and Fellow at the Center for the Study of American Government at Johns Hopkins University. "Campaigns have embraced Internet strategies to stay competitive."

Blogging has become an essential part of political campaigns, with campaigns, special interest groups, and national political parities not only creating blogs, but hiring paid bloggers to write on their behalf on "independent" blogs. Campaigns utilized their own blogs to present their messages and brought supporters together to form a new online community. Campaigns have also reached out to bloggers in a similar way they have always reached out to the mainstream press, sometimes even giving bloggers more access to their campaigns than mainstream press.

Campaigns continue to depend on online donations and are utilizing e-mail and blogs to rally and communicate with their supporters and solicit donations.The use of social networking tools, like Facebook.com and Myspace.com, has become a new way to connect and get involve young voters in campaigns. Also, the video site, YouTube.com has become a place for campaign ads and video highlighting campaign activities.

"In the 2006 election, the Internet has again proved its power; showing it is a place to organize, inform, and raise funds easily," said Rice.

Of course nothing would beat the presence of the candidates to be present at a campaign event such as a rally speech. To show sincerity and clarity in their presenting what they can offer the people and such, being there physically would be a must. Therefore the internet has its limits Has Singapore started using the internet as a campaigning tool?

News ML?!?!

You must be wondering what NewsML is.

NewsML is an invented word, which combines "News" and "XML". As special XML-format the transmission standard NewsML is specialised in the application of news exchange. NewsML is to deliver content automatically and in a multimedia way from content providers to customers. In this, there are respectively own description fields for source, date, author, title and other classifications. NewsML was adopted by IPTC (www.iptc.org) in October 2000. In the IPTC working group were almost all important content suppliers - above all the German and international news agencies.

Essential for XML/NewsML is the quantum leap towards HTML. Whereas the time-honoured HTML only displays contents, XML structures these contents similar to a database. With XML the site description language is completed by the integrated structuring of data. Only by this information or news can be automatically processed.

However, data are often differently structured for each task and each customer and are therefore differently implemented in XML. Thus news have been stored and transmitted in different formats. For each connection of individual information sources special conversion regulations were necessary. The standardised NewsML-format now offers a real platform-independent exchange of news and is organised in such a way that it fulfils almost all conceivable demands on a standard for the exchange of news. In contrast to the NIFT-standard (a slightly out-of-date industry standard for the exchange of news) NewsML is particularly prepared for the multimedia age.

The special features of NewsML

Core of the NewsML are NewsItems, which can contain different media formats: texts, graphics, video etc. Since NewsML is media independent it is not only suitable for the transmission of TV-news but also for simple texts - in the same format. The NewsItems can be provided with meta information, which makes it possible for applications to understand the relationships between the NewsItems. By this, content can be distributed fully automatically - without any revision of editors or programmers.

All news are categorised in the NewsML-standard according to a general definition. For special tasks - like implemented by the NetFederation for one of their customers - this general catalogue can be adapted in a compatible way.

In detail NewsML offers the following advantages:

• The transport of different media formats is possible
• Updates and updating pursuance of news are facilitated
• The archiving and distribution of news is facilitated
• There are mentioned relationships between NewsItems, which for example can be used for the personalisation
• The structure of news consists of individual text parts, which are related to each other
• Text modules of news can be variably displayed or cut out (for certain stages of confidence)
• Duration of validity, topicality and priority of news can be transmitted
• Through the platform-independent exchange of news the distribution to technologically different formats and channels is possible

Solutions to Privacy Invasion

• Spyware, cookie, pop up blockers

Real-time protection, on-access scanning, background guard, resident shield, autoprotect, and other synonyms refer to the automatic protection provided by most antivirus, antispyware, and other antimalware programs, which is arguably their most important feature. This monitors computer systems for suspicious activity such as computer viruses, spyware, adware, and other malicious objects in 'real-time', in other words while data is coming into the computer (for example when inserting a CD, opening an email, or browsing the web) or when a file already on the computer is opened or executed, in other words loaded into the computer's active memory.This means all data in files already on the computer is analysed each time that the user attempts to access the files. This can prevent infection by not yet activated malware that entered the computer unrecognised before the antivirus received an update. Real-time protection and its synonyms are used in contrast to the expression "on-demand scan" or similar expressions that mean a user-activated scan of part or all of a computer.

• Platform or Privacy Preference (P3P)

The Platform for Privacy Preferences Project, or P3P, is a protocol allowing websites to declare their intended use of information they collect about browsing users. Designed to give users more control of their personal information when browsing, P3P was developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and officially recommended on April 16, 2002.

- standard for communications to users a website's privacy policy

- compares site policiey to user's preference or to other standards such as FTC's FIP guidlines or EUS Data Protection Directive

- Works through user's web browser

A Very Simple Video.

enjoyyy

Google Adsense

Google AdSense is an auction based advertising system so your advertising revenue (or CPMs) will automatically go up if more advertisers choose to target your website.

The system, in simple English, works like eBay. You (the website owner) are selling ad space and the buyers (in this case, advertisers) are competing against each other to grab that space. The bid amount will therefore increase as more buyers enter the auction process thus benefiting the seller (you).

Increase your Site’s Visibility on the Google Ad Network

Advertisers are using tools like DoubleClick Ad Planner to determine which websites on the Google Ad Network they should target and you therefore need to ensure that your website is both visible and discoverable in these tools.

For instance, here’s a public listing of my blog on Ad Planner. This report is like a marketing brochure that you are handing out to an unknown number of prospective clients daily through Google and therefore it always should have updated information.

Advertisers can see the type of ads that are accepted on the site, the traffic details (pulled from Google Analytics), the topics that are covered by the site (categories) and other information that will help them quickly decide whether or not they should include the site in their campaigns.

Step 1. If you have not added your website to Google Webmaster Tools yet, do that first. Sign-in to Webmaster Tools using your Google Account and add the site URL.

Step 2. Once your site is verified, go to the Publisher Center of Google Ad Planner and include the site to your Ad Planner profile. If you have just added your site to Webmaster Tools, it may not immediately show up in Ad Planner.

Step 3. Finally, click the “Edit Site Info” link to assign a good description and relevant categories to your site. Google will automatically present a rough estimate of your site’s traffic to advertisers but you can give them a more accurate picture by allowing Ad Planner to use data* from your Google Analytics account.

Microsoft Surface Technology

The Anti-PC

The name Surface comes from "surface computing," and Microsoft envisions the coffee-table machine as the first of such many device.Surface computing uses a blend of wireless protocols, special machine-readable tags and shape recognition to seamlessly merge the real and the virtual world — an idea the Milan team (the code word for the name of the project), refers to as "blended reality." The table can be built with a variety of wireless transceivers, including Bluetooth, WiFi and (eventually) radio frequency identification (RFID) and is designed to sync instantly with any device that touches its surface.

One of the key components of surface computing is a "multitouch" screen. It is an idea that has been floating around the research community since the 1980s and is swiftly becoming a popular product interface — Apple's new Iphone has multitouch scrolling and picture manipulation. Multitouch devices accept input from multiple fingers and multiple users simultaneously, allowing for complex gestures, including grabbing, stretching, swiveling and sliding virtual objects across the table. And the Surface has the added advantage of a horizontal screen, so several people can gather around and use it together. Its interface is the exact opposite of the personal computer: cooperative, hands-on, and designed for public spaces.

If it seems as though the Surface machine sprang up out of nowhere, that's only because Microsoft has been unusually secretive about it. Early designs of the table were displayed around the room as evidence of the product's long development cycle; rejected shapes included "squashed white egg" and "podium." Steven Bathiche, research manager for the project, has been involved since the beginning (in 2001) when he and fellow researcher Andy Wilson first dreamed up the idea of a tabletop computer. Bathiche spoke about the Milan project's evolution with the evident excitement of a man who's had to keep the most important thing he's ever done a secret for six years. "We've gone through several generations of this machine," he said. "The first was a proof-of-concept called T1, and we just hacked it into an IKEA table."

To have this technology as part of the e learning process in the future would be very helpful in my opinion. According to the Bloom's Taxonomy which divides educational objectives into three dimension (cognitive, affective & psychomotor), this technology would help tremendously in these aspects and objectives in helping to aid in learning processes. Even better, it might get children to be more hands-on and participative in the classroom and thus enriching their learning experiences.

E-marketing- How to make it a sucess?

One of the key ways to make any business a success is to know and classify your consumers.

Classifying Consumers

1) Psychographic/ Lifestyle profiles

- Usually uses external factors (in the models) to predict behaviour

- Combines demographic and psychological data

- Divides market into groups based on social class, lifestyle and/or personality characteristics

- It is usually empirically derived through broad and contrived e.g. clarita’s Prizm profiles.

- PRIZM defines every U.S household in terms of 66 demographically and behaviourally distinct types of “segments”, to help marketers discern those consumers likes and dislikes

PRIZM x Hitwise

- Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service

- Each day, Hitwise monitors how more than 25 million Internet users interact with over 500,000 websites across 160 industry categories

2) Decision-stage based

Stages in the Online Purchasing Decision

- Five stages in the consumer decision process:

- Awareness of need

- Search for more information –concept of involvement

- Evaluation of alternatives

- Actual purchase decision

- Post purchase contact with firm—did I do the right thing (Contact of dissonance reduction)

Text book Model –Communication behaviour in each stage of decision process

3) Behavioural pattern based

A) Shoppers: Browsers vs. Buyer

- Buyers: 68% online users

- Browsers: 12% online users; purchase offline

What consumers shop for and Buy online

Big Ticket items:

- $500 plus

- Travel, computer hardware, consumer electronics

- Expanding

Small Ticket Items:

- On average, $100 or less

- Apparel, books, office supplies, software, etc.

- Physically small

- High margin items

- Broad selection of products available

B) Behavioural patterns based: Search based, contextual, technical

- Using search terms, search pages, search choices, tracking search related clicks thoughts

- Using the context of the event. What is purchased, what is browsed for on Wal-Mart or Amazon.com

- Using technical behavioural information: IP addresses, ISP connected from, type of connection: broadband, DSL, etc.

Intentional Acts: How shoppers Find Vendors Online

- 37% of shoppers use search engines

- 33% to directly to site

- 17% use comparison shopping sites

- 15% use product use of product rating sites

- 66% in the US and 103% of residents connect using broadband

- Online shoppers are highly intentional, looking for specific products, companies, services

Why more people don’t shop online

- 44% uneasy about online credit card use

- 42% have concerns about privacy data

- 37% dislike shipping charges

- 33% feel no need to purchase online

- 32% prefer to touch/feel product before purchase

4) Based on the technology’s stage of diffusion

Diffusion is the study of –

- the patterns and processes by which technology diffuses through the marketplace

- All technology follow a predictable pattern of proliferation

- The pattern of adoption when plotted overtime follows a S shape curve (sometimes referred to J shaped curve)

Aspects of the S shape that is important

- The shape of the curve is determined by the exchanges between different adopting segments as the product diffuses

- The S shape curve can be used to classify adopters into various categories

- There generally 5 categories of adopters: innovators, early adapters, early majority, late majority and laggards

Cool Payment Systems!

What do you use to pay when you go to a physical shop to buy say clothes, or groceries? Cash? Credit Card? Or for other times, maybe payments could be made through cheques, stored values like cards, gift certificates, prepaid cards (NETS), smart cards. But in our new age, the internet has allowed us to buy and also sell stuff online. So then how do we pay or receive payment. Lets take a look at some of the e-commerce payment systems.

Credit Cards

• Credit cards are dominant form of online payment, according for around 60% of online payments in 2008

Limitations of online Credit Card Payment Systems

• Poor security:
• Neither merchant no consumer can be fully authenticated
• Cost: For merchants, around 3.5% of purchase price plus transaction fee of 20-30 cents per transaction
• Social Equity: Many people do not have access to credit cards

Digital Wallets

-Seeks to emulate the functionality of traditional wallet

-Most important functions:

-Authenticate consumer through use of digital certificates or other encryption methods

-Store and transfer value

-Secure payment process from consumer to merchant

-Early efforts to popularize have failed (passport)

-Newest effort: Google Checkout

Online Stored Value Systems

- Permit consumers to make instant, online payment s to merchants and other individuals

- Based on value stored in a consumer’s bank, checking, or credit car account

-Paypal most successful systems

-Smart cards: Require physical reader : Mondex

Wireless Payment Systems

-Use of mobile handsets as payment devices well established in Europe, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia (Maxis Fast Tap)

-Japanese mobile payment systems

-Emoney (stored value)

- Mobile debit cards

-mobile credit cards

It is not as well established yet in the U.S but with growth in WI-Fi and 3G cellular phone systems, this is beginning to change; Mobile PayPal

8 Key Elements of a business model and types of E commerce Business models

Before you start any business you should take in consideration to a few pointers to kick start your business properly and make it a successful one.

8 Key elements of a business model that you need to pay attention to

1) Value Proposition

Define how a company’s product or service fufils the need of customers.

-Examples of successful value propositions

· -Personalization/ Customization

· -Reduction of product search, price discovery costs

· -Facilitation of transactions by managing product delivery

2) Revenue Model

Define how the firm will earn revenue generates profits and produce a superior return on invested capital

-Major types:

• Advertising revenue models: CNN.com
• Subscription revenue models: MATCH.com
• Transaction fee revenue model: EBay, E-Trade, Hotwire
• Sales revenue model: Amazon, LLbean, Gap.com
• Affiliate revenue model: E-pinions, Banner Exchange, Edmunds à sends traffic to another website

3) Market Opportunity

Refers to a company’s intended market space and the overall potential financial opportunities available to the firm in that market space

4) Competitive Environment

Refers to the other competition selling similar products and operating in the same market space

-Influenced by

• How many competitors are active
• How large operations are
• The market share for each competitor
• How profitable these firms are
• How they price their product

5) Competitive Advantage

Achieved when a firm can produce a superior product and/or bring a product to market, at a lower price than most, or all, of their competitors.

-Types of competitive advantage:

• First mover advantage
• Unfair competitive advantage

6) Market Strategy

Plan that details how a company intends to enter a new market and attract strategy

7) Organizational Development

Describes how the company will organize the work that needs to be accomplished

8) Management Team

Employees of the company responsible for making the business model work

-Strong management team gives instant credibility to outside investors

There are many types of e-commerce business models lets take a look at all of them and what are the difference.

Business to Consumer Models

Portal

• Offers powerful search tools plus an integrated packages of content and services
• typically utilize a combined subscription/ advertising revenues/ transaction fee model

E-tailer

• Online version of traditional retailer
• Types include:

-Virtual merchants: Amazon

-Bricks and Clicks: Borders, Wal-Mart

-Catalogue merchants: LL Bean

- Manufacturer- direct: Dell.com, Sony Style

Content Provider

• Information and entertainment companies that provide digital content over the web
• Typically utilizes a subscription, pay for download or advertising revenue model
• Syndication a variation of standard content provider model

Transaction Broker

· Processes online transactions for consumers

· Primary value proposition- saving time and money

· Pay Pal

· Typical revenue model – transaction fee

Market Creator

· Uses internet technology to create markets that bring buyers and sellers together

· E.g. priceline.com & ebay.com

Service Provider

• Offers service online
• Value proposition: valuable, convenient, time-saving, low cost alternatives to traditional service providers
• Visa Now
• Revenue Model: Subscription fees or one-time payment

Community Provider

• Sites that create a digital online environment where people with similar interest can transact, communicate and receive interest-related information
• Angie’s List
• Typically rely on hybrid revenue model

Business to Business Models

E-distributor

• Supplies products and services directly to individual businesses
• Owned by one company seeking to serve many customers

E-procurement

• Creates and sells access to digital electronic markets
• B2B services providers is one type
• Application service providers: a subset of B2B service providers

Exchanges

• Electronic digital marketplace where suppliers and commercial purchases can conduct transactions
• Usually owned by independent firms whose business is making a market

Industry Consortia

• Industry-owned vertical market place that serve specific industries
• Horizontal market place, in contrast, sell specific products and services to a whole range of industries

Private industrial networks

• Digital networks designed to co-ordinate the flow of communications among firms engaged in business together
• Lobbying: influence the government as a group à Public policy access

Business models in emerging E-Commerce Areas

• Consumer to consumer: Provides a way for consumers to sell to each other, with the help of online market maker (EBay)

• Peer to peer (P2P): Link users, enabling them to share files and common resources without a common server (Kazaa, Cloudmark)

• M-Commerce: E-commerce business models that use wireless technologies (EBay Mobile)—To date, m-commerce is a disappointment in the united states however, technology platform continues to evolve