Fewer than 1 percent of website visits come directly from a social media URL according to research just released by customer satisfaction analytics experts ForeSee Results.
The company surveyed 300,000 consumers on more than 180 websites across a dozen private and public sector industries. The referring social media sites covered were not just the usual suspects like Facebook and Twitter, but over 40 sites including Flickr, Foursquare, Scribd, Stumbleupon, Meetup and Youtube.
It’s not all bad news for social media marketeers. 18 percent of site visitors (averaged across surveyed websites) report being influenced by social media to visit a website. However, there was considerable variation in the results for different companies.
The social media budgets of marketers is constantly increasing as the survey data to the right shows. Forsee Results’ research showed that the resources companies put into social media and the results they receive vary wildly. Spending more money does not automatically lead to higher numbers of visits to websites, brand awareness or sales.
Promotional emails are also sometimes neglected in favor of the more glamorous social media, in spite of the fact that such emails influence 32 percent of purchases.
Companies themselves seem a bit confused about their objectives when it comes to social media. Internet Retailer Magazine surveyed 400 U.S. companies (19 percent of them retailers) in December 2009 and January 2010. It found that 74 percent of companies wanted social media to drive traffic to their websites, while only 56 percent wanted it to increase sales. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
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There has been a lot of talk as to whether or not social media is the front runner in another inflated internet bubble waiting to burst, leaving users “virtually” friendless and clueless. Will everyone be out of the loop, with no one keeping track of daily deals, happenings or status updates? Warren Buffet confirmed this fear stating that although it’s not as big as the dot com bubble, social media is not long term by any means. However, industry trends and buyer behaviors are stating otherwise.
Facebook has proven beneficial to marketing efforts for B2C companies, but B2B marketing has struggled to find its footing on the platform. That’s where LinkedIn has emerged as the go-to medium for B2B marketers.
A recent study done by BtoB Magazine, showed that when asked “Which of the following social media methods does your company currently use for your B2B marketing (i.e. not personal use)” 72% of B2B marketers said LinkedIn. After reaching more than 100 million users, LinkedIn has solidified its niche as Facebook in a business suit, and B2B companies have taken notice.
The 2011 State of Inbound Marketing (an annual report done by HubSpot, an inbound marketing software company) found that 61% of B2B marketers who participated in the survey acquired a customer through LinkedIn. The targeted and measurable aspect of inbound marketing is what makes it so attractive to smart business owners who are tired of spending money on marketing with no proof that it’s working. Former Chief Marketing Officer of McDonald’s, M. Lawrence Light said, “It no longer makes economic sense to send an advertising message to the many, in hopes of persuading the few.”
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Federal prosecutors deciding whether to try Bonds again
Federal prosecutors are deciding whether Barry Bonds should stand trial again.
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Daily Kos: Fox <b>News</b> ties suicide to Obama speech
But with the other option being to talk about the Republican plan to abolish Medicare, apparently politicizing this young man's death looked a whole lot better to Fox News. Pathetic. (h/t Balloon Juice) ...
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Obama Exclusive: I Was Born in Hawaii and I Don't 'Have Horns <b>...</b>
I thought the president would take a pass when I asked him about Donald Trump's rise to the top of the Republican field in my exclusive interview today. Far from it. He grabbed at the chance with a big smile... ABC News' George ...
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Seas0nPass jailbreak tool has for both Windows and Mac has been updated with the latest untethered exploit to untether the jailbreak on second generation Apple TV, running on the latest iOS 4.3.1 (4.2.1)
For those of you who don’t know, Seas0nPass jailbreak tool is like PwnageTool for Mac, or Sn0wbreeze for Windows, which can can create custom jailbroken .IPSW files for your second-gen Apple TV.
Before you proceed with the jailbreak, you will need the following:
- A Micro-USB cable
- iTunes 10.2.1
- iOS 4.2.1 (Based on iOS 4.3) for Apple TV
- Seas0nPass
All download links are posted at the end of this article.
Step 1: Download and launch Seas0nPass.
Step 2: Now select “Create IPSW” option to build your own custom jailbroken 4.3.1 firmware for Apple TV.
Step 3: Now wait for Seas0nPass to download all the files required for creating custom firmware.
Step 4: When prompted by Seas0nPass, connect your Apple TV using a micro-USB cable (leave power disconnected), and hold-down both the ‘MENU’ and ‘PLAY/PAUSE’ buttons for 7 seven seconds.
Step 5: iTunes should now open automatically to start the restore process.
Step 6: iTunes will confirm the restore when complete. Once done, your Apple TV will be fully jailbroken, untethered on iOS 4.3.1.
Once complete, remove the USB cable and connect the HDMI cable.
Once you are done with the jailbreak, you can install the following apps on your jailbroken 2nd-gen Apple TV:
- How to Install XBMC Media Center on Apple TV 2G [Guide]
- Plex Has Been Ported to Jailbroken Apple TV 2G ! [VIDEO]
- How to Install NitoTV Weather and RSS App on Apple TV 2G [Jailbreak]
- Apple TV 2G Gets Web Browser and Last.fm Apps via aTV Flash [Video]
- Exposed VNC Server Plugin Enables Remote Access On Apple TV 2G
Required download links are as follows:
Download iOS 4.3.1 (4.2.1) for Apple TV
Download iTunes 10.2.1 for Mac OS X
Download Seas0nPass for Mac OS X
Download Seas0nPass for Windows
You can follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook fanpage to keep yourself updated on all the latest iPhone jailbreaking and unlocking releases.
Seas0nPass jailbreak tool has for both Windows and Mac has been updated with the latest untethered exploit to untether the jailbreak on second generation Apple TV, running on the latest iOS 4.3.1 (4.2.1)
For those of you who don’t know, Seas0nPass jailbreak tool is like PwnageTool for Mac, or Sn0wbreeze for Windows, which can can create custom jailbroken .IPSW files for your second-gen Apple TV.
Before you proceed with the jailbreak, you will need the following:
- A Micro-USB cable
- iTunes 10.2.1
- iOS 4.2.1 (Based on iOS 4.3) for Apple TV
- Seas0nPass
All download links are posted at the end of this article.
Step 1: Download and launch Seas0nPass.
Step 2: Now select “Create IPSW” option to build your own custom jailbroken 4.3.1 firmware for Apple TV.
Step 3: Now wait for Seas0nPass to download all the files required for creating custom firmware.
Step 4: When prompted by Seas0nPass, connect your Apple TV using a micro-USB cable (leave power disconnected), and hold-down both the ‘MENU’ and ‘PLAY/PAUSE’ buttons for 7 seven seconds.
Step 5: iTunes should now open automatically to start the restore process.
Step 6: iTunes will confirm the restore when complete. Once done, your Apple TV will be fully jailbroken, untethered on iOS 4.3.1.
Once complete, remove the USB cable and connect the HDMI cable.
Once you are done with the jailbreak, you can install the following apps on your jailbroken 2nd-gen Apple TV:
- How to Install XBMC Media Center on Apple TV 2G [Guide]
- Plex Has Been Ported to Jailbroken Apple TV 2G ! [VIDEO]
- How to Install NitoTV Weather and RSS App on Apple TV 2G [Jailbreak]
- Apple TV 2G Gets Web Browser and Last.fm Apps via aTV Flash [Video]
- Exposed VNC Server Plugin Enables Remote Access On Apple TV 2G
Required download links are as follows:
Download iOS 4.3.1 (4.2.1) for Apple TV
Download iTunes 10.2.1 for Mac OS X
Download Seas0nPass for Mac OS X
Download Seas0nPass for Windows
You can follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook fanpage to keep yourself updated on all the latest iPhone jailbreaking and unlocking releases.
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Editor’s note: This discussion about the superphone platform is one of the five themes we will be focusing on at the VentureBeat Mobile Summit, on April 25-26. We’ve carefully invited the top executives in mobile to discuss the biggest challenges of the day, which, if solved, can lead to much faster growth in the industry. And at our enterprise session, we’ll have top executives around the table from a number of companies, including Verizon, AT&T, Cisco, Salesforce, Box.net, and more. (If you think you should be part of the discussion, you can apply for a ticket.)
Don’t expect to find the core applications that run the pistons of a business as native apps in Apple’s App Store. With a few exceptions, the future is touch-enabled web applications that will bring a more complete version of a vendor’s feature set to any tablet.
I’ll say it more explicitly: Native apps are for phones, gadgets and games. Touch-enabled web apps are for tablets and broad business applications.
The iPhone’s size has almost necessitated an alternative user experience for business apps, but the iPad’s screen real estate does not suffer that limitation.
The iPad has been in the market for over one year. Conspicuously absent from SmartSheet’s Top iPad Apps for Business lists — produced over the last 8 months by 10 industry watchers — are any cross-business operating apps tackling customer relationship management (CRM), accounting, project management and the like.
Smart software companies are building tablet access into their core products by touch-enabling their existing web applications. For some vendors with form-based solutions, the effort may be fairly simple, for others with rich desktop-class UIs, it is more complex.
Some serious business apps have native tablet versions, but they are either narrow business functions or small carve-outs of their overall solution. Here are some examples:
Some examples of companies with broader business operations applications that are benefiting from the touch-enabled web app approach are:
The key reasons to go native on the iPhone / iPad have been: performance, access to device features (geo-location, camera, etc….), offline support, and most importantly, an entry in the App Store Directory (this will be the only remaining benefit to building native business apps in 12- 18 months).
But the following dynamics in the tablet ecosystem are predicting the demise of that native apps advantage:
Competition Among Tablets Will Dramatically Improve Performance
Intense competition in the tablet market will drive hardware, browser and connectivity performance closer and closer to parity with PCs. Note the step up in hardware power from the iPad to the recently released Motorola Xoom and iPad 2. Vendors do not build native apps for PCs and Laptops any more, and the reasons for that will be just as valid for tablets.
HTML5 Will Erase Native App’s Device Advantage
HTML5 will give browser apps powers that today are only accessible by native apps such as instant on, access to camera, location, and off-line. And, unless it’s a game, most apps require connectivity to be useful anyway. (Here’s a good write-up on this.)
Web Apps Will Outpace and Outreach the Natives (adding features vs platforms)
As more tablets come to market on more operating systems, ISVs will become weighted down building redundant apps for each OS. This will inherently come at the expense of adding more features to a single web app. Inherent in any application development toolkit are its limitations, and Apple’s is no different. Richer experiences are possible with today’s browser development tools.
Businesses Will Favor App Stores that Include “Bookmark a Link” Apps
Apple forbids “pointers” or “very thin wrappers” to touch-enabled web business apps. This benefits Apple, but not business users. There are a host of good business apps that work on the iPad browser, but they’re not present in the App Store. This is slowing the growth of the iPad as a business tool. The marketplace that lists compatible business apps will have a broad audience – one that expects them.
The debate will continue on both the mobile and tablet fronts and it depends on a multitude of factors, but ultimately businesses will choose which approach delivers a more compelling user experience for their specific application. ZDNet reports on three of the key business scenarios prevalent with the iPad, which includes 1) sales people out in the field, 2) executives on an overnight trip, and 3) warehouse managers, retail floor staff, medical staff, and anybody else that needs real access to apps while on their feet.
A tablet untethers the user categories above from a desk if it can handle typically more comprehensive operational business applications that can cover a diversity of business needs. For example, this video shows the owner of a 109-year-old lumber operation bringing automation to the mill floor via the iPad. For this company and the millions just like it, the need for rich tablet-ready business apps is real, but native apps aren’t there yet. Thankfully, there is an app for that. But you’ll have to look beyond the App Store.
Brent Frei is the founder of Smartsheet, an online project management and collaboration tool. He submitted this story to VentureBeat as part of a series leading up to our Mobile Summit later this month.
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One important thing about cities is their sex appeal — their magnetism. Places flourish when they attract people, resources, opportunities, and ideas, and match them to one another. Cities are much more than the built environment of roads and real estate. Cities are about relationships, and whether people have access to opportunities. Cities are one big dating game.
When cities lose their magnetism, the whole population suffers. The deterioration of Detroit began well before recent auto industry woes; its population plunge was confirmed by the latest Census. Some attribute decline to bad urban redevelopment schemes or corrupt politics that failed to improve schools or reduce crime. "A once-great American city today repels people of talent and ambition," a Wall Street Journal columnist wrote recently. A local leader told him, "It's been class warfare on steroids, and ... so many Detroiters who had the means — black and white — have fled the city."
Cleveland is another shrunken city with significant poverty. In the 1980s, Cleveland Tomorrow, a coalition of major company CEOs, sponsored downtown projects, including a new baseball stadium and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This attracted luxury apartment developments, luring the affluent to the center city and revitalizing it. But inner city ghettoes were barely touched, and the region continued to lose high-wage manufacturing.
There's a tale of two cities within many city borders: one rich, the other very poor. Dubai, a gleaming new city of luxury high rises, is ringed by hidden slums for temporary service workers from the underclass of Asian nations. In New York, the middle class, including young families, cannot afford to live in the city. Baton Rouge has affluent areas with some of Louisiana's best quality-of-life indicators and extreme poverty areas with some of the worst. Other divides include racial and ethnic enclaves that vary in opportunities — for example, minority entrepreneurs with promising business ideas who can't access mainstream sources of capital and support.
Cities should be connectors but can have connection problems. Cities are where all parts of life come together: jobs, health, education, environmental quality. Yet, in most cities, businesses, schools, hospitals, and city services still operate in silos. And the political boundaries of cities don't encompass their true extent or the flow of people, as the Brookings' Metropolitan Policy Center points out. IBM's Smarter Cities Challenge supports efforts to use technology for connected regional solutions.
Interdependence among urban issues makes vicious cycles worse. If there is no action on high youth unemployment or poor educational quality and high school dropout rates, then too many African-American males end up in prison. High crime rates make sections of cities undesirable, and neighborhoods deteriorate. Aging buildings and toxic environments then cause health problems, such as lead poisoning or asthma, which disproportionately affect inner city children. Children in poor health have trouble learning, learning problems are associated with school dropouts, and vicious cycles continue.
Pivotal investments can start virtuous cycles. The transformation of Miami from sleepy southern city to international trade hub and informal capital of Latin America was propelled by investments in a world class airport and a flood of immigrants from Fidel Castro's Cuba. Mayors and civic leaders took advantage of this to attract new businesses and tout Latin connections, as my book World Class describes. But progress stalls if benefits don't reach the grass roots, racial divides persist, and major institutions fail to collaborate. The Miami Foundation's emerging leaders program is designed to deploy diverse younger professionals for major civic projects.
Revitalizing cities requires national urban policy investments and social innovations on the ground. Leadership might come from:
- Enlightened mayors who build public-private partnerships or join Cities of Service, which align the city and non-profits around high-impact goals.
- Business leaders, such as former Miami Herald publisher David Lawrence, who rallied Miami-Dade County to vote for a tax increase (Yes to new taxes!) to create the Children's Trust, a fund to improve life for all children.
- Faith communities, such as Rev. Raymond Jetson's community organizing toward a coalition for "A Better Baton Rouge."
- Financiers, such as Tim Ferguson and Ron Walker, who co-founded Next Street to invest in inner city businesses.
- Social entrepreneurs, such as Hubie Jones, who wants to replicate a birth-to-college educational model like the Harlem Children's Zone in Boston.
- Community foundations with a strategic perspective, seeking integrated solutions across issues such as youth employment, education, health, and green plans.
The best social innovations will connect people and institutions, producing an infrastructure for collaboration. That social infrastructure will increase the sex appeal of cities by going beyond initial attraction to build lasting relationships for lasting improvements.
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Apple releases iOS 4.3.2 for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch | iLounge <b>News</b>
iLounge news discussing the Apple releases iOS 4.3.2 for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch. Find more Apple news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.
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Resident Evil Mercenaries VS. hits iOS <b>News</b> - iPhone - Page 1 <b>...</b>
Read our iPhone news of Resident Evil Mercenaries VS. hits iOS.
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