Dot.com craze produced the number of newly minted millionaires, but many of them are lost almost as quickly as it got. Now maybe some of them regret that they did not spend more dollars on the real thing. I remember a classmate who was holding 550.000 shares of the company insider, which he helped found, a manufacturer of Internet components.
The company entered the public with a price of about $ 16 per share, and over the next few months, abruptly soared to a peak of about $ 120. For the price of our friend, was worth approximately $ 66 million. Do you think he retired and plays golf three times a week, but in fact he works 9 to 5, like most of us. Almost all of his shares were restricted for sale within the stellar rise and fall of stocks, so that he could not make a profit, which would enable him to become rich.
The only evidence that remained of his fleeting wealth - a house for 5 million in a suburb of Boston, which he bought for cash. Now he makes enough to keep house and pay taxes on it, but he could not afford to buy it today. The lesson here is that the fantastic profits, you can fuck in the stock market - just a lot of numbers in a computer Statement if we can not spend it. Some traders in Forex apparently believe that their goal - the accumulation of a large number of digits in the account. But they quickly get bored if the electron does not gain continues to accumulate with ever-increasing speed.
If you sell at a profit, it is useful from time to time to spend money on something tangible - whether it's a box of Cuban cigars or a vacation with his wife in Rio de Janeiro, or a new chair for your office. It will remind you that the blood, sweat and tears shed in transactions not in vain.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Why Integrating Social Media With Traditional Media Is Hard?
Integrating social media into your existing media — advertising and public relations, is challenging. But, without integration across platforms you risk diluting your brand, wasting marketing efforts, and lower sales.
Since integrating social media with your traditional media is so important, let’s take a look at why it’s so hard.
While this difference may seem obvious, it makes a huge difference in your communications.
With social media you can’t just talk about yourself, you have to share more personal information about the people involved, and you need to create content that’s valuable to your network.
You have to engage your audience in social media so developing tactics to get them involved are critical.
People talk back in social media and sometimes you don’t like what they have to say — this creates a blending of social media and customer service that requires a mechanism for addressing complaints voiced on your social networks.
Contests or other tactics that give rewards to folks “Like” you or share your content. For instance, Social Media Examiner was running a contest for folks who Tweeted about their Facebook Summit with the winner getting admission to the event. This ensures your attracting folks who are part of your target audience rather than random followers who just want to win something.
Support a cause your audience supports. This worked for Purina. They gave away a bowl of dog food to animal shelters for every person who “Liked” their Facebook fanpage and gave a bag of dog food for everyone who blogged about the charitable project.
Acknowledge folks, people love being recognized and, if you fail to thank them for their support, they'll stop supporting you. For instance, Guy Kawasaki responds personally to everyone who writes on his Facebook wall — so does Mari Smith, although she has a little help from her staff. I make a habit of responding to every comment on my blog, every +1, every RT, and thank folks for every share of my content (except those who rip off my content).
Bean counter types don’t like these squishy metrics — they want ROI. But remember, traditional media are great for creating immediate sales increases, but they’re expensive and their value erodes quickly once the campaign is over. Social media is like a slow burn — it smolders forever creating a steady heat over an extended period of time. It’s also harder to link social media efforts directly with sales.
Traditional media comes from older folks with broadcast and PR expertise. Or an advertising agency.
These folks don’t speak the same language or understand each other very well. And, they may not work together well — they may even be in different building or cities. This makes collaboration and integration of social media and traditional media difficult.
Since integrating social media with your traditional media is so important, let’s take a look at why it’s so hard.
Why Integrating Social Media is so Hard ?
1. The platforms are different.
Traditional media are one-way communications where you talk at your market, while social media is a two-way conversation where you talk with your market.While this difference may seem obvious, it makes a huge difference in your communications.
With social media you can’t just talk about yourself, you have to share more personal information about the people involved, and you need to create content that’s valuable to your network.
You have to engage your audience in social media so developing tactics to get them involved are critical.
People talk back in social media and sometimes you don’t like what they have to say — this creates a blending of social media and customer service that requires a mechanism for addressing complaints voiced on your social networks.
2. You need to give them something to link with you in social media.
Remember, you’re not paying for programming they’ll enjoy — like a TV program — so you need to “pay” your followers something to get them to listen to you. What kinds of motivation work in social media:Contests or other tactics that give rewards to folks “Like” you or share your content. For instance, Social Media Examiner was running a contest for folks who Tweeted about their Facebook Summit with the winner getting admission to the event. This ensures your attracting folks who are part of your target audience rather than random followers who just want to win something.
Support a cause your audience supports. This worked for Purina. They gave away a bowl of dog food to animal shelters for every person who “Liked” their Facebook fanpage and gave a bag of dog food for everyone who blogged about the charitable project.
Acknowledge folks, people love being recognized and, if you fail to thank them for their support, they'll stop supporting you. For instance, Guy Kawasaki responds personally to everyone who writes on his Facebook wall — so does Mari Smith, although she has a little help from her staff. I make a habit of responding to every comment on my blog, every +1, every RT, and thank folks for every share of my content (except those who rip off my content).
3. The metrics are different.
In traditional media, you’re trying to sell product so the metrics are sales or return on investment (ROI). In social media, you’re trying to build relationships so metrics are harder to come by. What you’d really like to measure is engagement, but you have to settle for things like # of comments, # of shares (Tweets, +1s, Facebook Likes …), Klout scores (which measure your online influence), and buzz (folks talking about your brand in social media).Bean counter types don’t like these squishy metrics — they want ROI. But remember, traditional media are great for creating immediate sales increases, but they’re expensive and their value erodes quickly once the campaign is over. Social media is like a slow burn — it smolders forever creating a steady heat over an extended period of time. It’s also harder to link social media efforts directly with sales.
4. Social media and traditional media are often handled by different employees or agencies.
Social media is often handled by young folks with technical expertise (such as computer folks) or with a journalism background. Or by a social media agency or consultant.Traditional media comes from older folks with broadcast and PR expertise. Or an advertising agency.
These folks don’t speak the same language or understand each other very well. And, they may not work together well — they may even be in different building or cities. This makes collaboration and integration of social media and traditional media difficult.
5. Integrating Social Media and traditional marketing requires specialized skills.
Integrating social media and traditional media requires a detailed understanding of both platforms and a thorough understanding of the marketing and consumer behavior concepts that underpin success in both platforms. And NEITHER of your social media or traditional marketing team may know anything about marketing and consumer behavior. Hiring someone to brand your products who doesn’t KNOW marketing is like hiring an accountant who never took an accounting class. They can do it, but it isn’t RIGHT.
Social Media Tips & Trends
Social media is all the buzz in small business circles these days. But what exactly do we expect from the medium as small business owners and how do we make it work for us? What follows are a series of articles on tips and trends (what works as well as what doesn’t) that we’re hoping will help small business owners find their way in this perplexing new world.
Are you a highly effective blogger? Yes, blogging is an important part of your social media campaign, so let’s think way beyond just Facebook and Twitter. Here’s a post on the top habits you’ll need to succeed in the highly competitive blogging world out there. Annemarie Cross
What’s your strategy for reaching out and making connections? Make no mistake, the social part of online marketing is not easy. Whether using Facebook, Twitter or blogging, the best laid plans don’t always work. As a result, it’s a good idea to have a backup plan. Basic Blog Tips
Why social media is about more than just connections. If you think you can connect your way to social media success, think again. It’s very important that what you are building is a community, and one with real people you want to connect with and who want to connect with you. Chris Brogan
Social media: A security threat? You may hear lots of positives about what social media can do for your business. But how about some of the negatives? Well, it just so happens some IT professionals are convinced the dangers might outweigh the benefits. smallbiz technology
Social media best practices. Social media has become hugely popular as a PR tool, but how small businesses use it can also be important. What is your business’s philosophy when approaching social media? Have you carefully considered the message you’re sending? gaebler.com
Social media gives small business reach. In the old days you might have had to buy plenty of TV and newspaper advertising to get similar results and even then, you couldn’t target your audience that well. Today, a Facebook presence can do the same or better as those old school alternatives, helping small businesses capture interest and generate fans. Los Angeles Times
Social media for the ecommerce entrepreneur. Social media can be a boon for ecommerce businesses for obvious reasons. With both marketing and sales online, audiences can be moved quickly and easily from marketing message to the opportunity to buy. Here are some tools that make this kind of marketing easier. ecommerce-guide.com
Tools to improve small business social media. You won’t likely be able to ignore the importance of social media to your small business in the coming years, but the key to success in this as in every other aspect of your small business is to work smarter not harder. Here are some tools to give you a hand. The Globe and Mail
Tips
What’s your strategy for reaching out and making connections? Make no mistake, the social part of online marketing is not easy. Whether using Facebook, Twitter or blogging, the best laid plans don’t always work. As a result, it’s a good idea to have a backup plan. Basic Blog Tips
Why social media is about more than just connections. If you think you can connect your way to social media success, think again. It’s very important that what you are building is a community, and one with real people you want to connect with and who want to connect with you. Chris Brogan
Trends
Social media: A security threat? You may hear lots of positives about what social media can do for your business. But how about some of the negatives? Well, it just so happens some IT professionals are convinced the dangers might outweigh the benefits. smallbiz technology
Social media best practices. Social media has become hugely popular as a PR tool, but how small businesses use it can also be important. What is your business’s philosophy when approaching social media? Have you carefully considered the message you’re sending? gaebler.com
Social media gives small business reach. In the old days you might have had to buy plenty of TV and newspaper advertising to get similar results and even then, you couldn’t target your audience that well. Today, a Facebook presence can do the same or better as those old school alternatives, helping small businesses capture interest and generate fans. Los Angeles Times
Tools
Social media for the ecommerce entrepreneur. Social media can be a boon for ecommerce businesses for obvious reasons. With both marketing and sales online, audiences can be moved quickly and easily from marketing message to the opportunity to buy. Here are some tools that make this kind of marketing easier. ecommerce-guide.com
Tools to improve small business social media. You won’t likely be able to ignore the importance of social media to your small business in the coming years, but the key to success in this as in every other aspect of your small business is to work smarter not harder. Here are some tools to give you a hand. The Globe and Mail
Monday, October 10, 2011
How I Uncovered Twitter’s Trending Topics “Secrets”
Some people asked where I got my information from for the article “Six Secrets About Whether Twitter Censors Trending Topics” at the Buffer Twitter Tools and Twitter Management blog. I have written this post to address that.
99% of the “controversy” about Trending Topics that I've seen is of two types:
They think it didn't trend, but it did—they simply missed it when it did;
They don't understand why popular topics don't keep trending. If they did, Trends would be mostly things like “love,” “hate,” “Justin Bieber,” etc. Trending is about more than just simple popularity.
(In other words, most “controversies” are based on misinformation.)
I’ve relied on three sources of information for determining how Trending Topics are calculated/. By combining information from these three sources, I’ve come to certain conclusions. Some conclusions are clearly true; some are only possibly true.
I’ve then taken the conclusions and looked at the information again, to see if it helps gain further insight into the source information.
1. Info from Twitter explaining how trending topics are calculated.
1.Sometimes a topic doesn’t break into the Trends list because its popularity isn’t as widespread as people believe.
2.Sometimes, popular terms don’t make the Trends list because the velocity of conversation isn’t increasing quickly enough, relative to the baseline level of conversation happening on an average day.
3.Topics break into the Trends list when the volume of Tweets about that topic at a given moment dramatically increases.
4.Twitter Trends are automatically generated by an algorithm that attempts to identify topics that are being talked about more right now than they were previously.
5.The Trends list captures the hottest emerging topics, not just what’s most popular.
1.The following behaviors and others like them could cause your account to be filtered from search or even suspended…Repeatedly Tweeting the same topic/hashtag without adding value to the conversation in an attempt to get the topic trending/trending higher.
2.The most important thing is to make sure your Tweets are genuine thoughts or impressions and not attempts to insert yourself into a trend. Everyone who clicks on the trending topics should be able to see real people’s ideas and links to further relevant information.
2.The…algorithm only accounts for interesting peaks: sudden increases that mark an emerging trend.
3.Twitter used to rank popularity by volume, but changed the algorithm.
4.…the Bieber effect; becoming part of the constant background noise like love, hate, Christmas [etc.]
…would clearly be popular primarily in the U.S., e.g. use slang primarily popular in the U.S.
…trend worldwide, so location data is irrelevant.
When the algorithm was first introduced, Justin Bieber fans made an enormous effort to create a volume of tweets higher than anything they had previously achieved when they saw that their usual efforts didn’t cause trending. Despite having a very organized network that was repeatedly successful in creating high tweet volumes of his name before, they were unsuccessful afterwards. It can’t only be “lack of novelty” that caused the topic to trend, since it is possible. It appears to have been “the same people saying the same thing” not being counted highly.
Twitter says, in the same article, “Topics break into the Trends list when the volume of Tweets about that topic at a given moment dramatically increases.” but also says “Sometimes a topic doesn’t break into the Trends list because its popularity isn’t as widespread as people believe.” The first quote indicates that “volume” is required, the second that “widespread” popularity is required. The implication is that “widespread” does not mean the same thing as “volume.” Volume would be a count of tweets, but “widespreadness” would be a count mainly of people, or variations in geographic area with the same trending area. This is admittedly not definitive, but considering in particular point #2 above, this seems to be the case.
Twitter does say that the same person “Repeatedly Tweeting the same topic/hashtag … in an attempt to get the topic trending/trending higher” may be filtered out from counting toward the topic. This indicates there is at least one mechanism for counting volume but eliminating some people.
99% of the “controversy” about Trending Topics that I've seen is of two types:
They think it didn't trend, but it did—they simply missed it when it did;
They don't understand why popular topics don't keep trending. If they did, Trends would be mostly things like “love,” “hate,” “Justin Bieber,” etc. Trending is about more than just simple popularity.
(In other words, most “controversies” are based on misinformation.)
I’ve relied on three sources of information for determining how Trending Topics are calculated/. By combining information from these three sources, I’ve come to certain conclusions. Some conclusions are clearly true; some are only possibly true.
I’ve then taken the conclusions and looked at the information again, to see if it helps gain further insight into the source information.
My three sources for information about Trending topics are:
1. Info from Twitter explaining how trending topics are calculated.
Some of what they say is clear, some of what they say makes certain conclusions likely, and some is unclear.
To Trend or Not to Trend… Key quotes:
1.Sometimes a topic doesn’t break into the Trends list because its popularity isn’t as widespread as people believe.
2.Sometimes, popular terms don’t make the Trends list because the velocity of conversation isn’t increasing quickly enough, relative to the baseline level of conversation happening on an average day.
3.Topics break into the Trends list when the volume of Tweets about that topic at a given moment dramatically increases.
4.Twitter Trends are automatically generated by an algorithm that attempts to identify topics that are being talked about more right now than they were previously.
5.The Trends list captures the hottest emerging topics, not just what’s most popular.
About Trending Topics. Key quotes:
1.The following behaviors and others like them could cause your account to be filtered from search or even suspended…Repeatedly Tweeting the same topic/hashtag without adding value to the conversation in an attempt to get the topic trending/trending higher.
2.The most important thing is to make sure your Tweets are genuine thoughts or impressions and not attempts to insert yourself into a trend. Everyone who clicks on the trending topics should be able to see real people’s ideas and links to further relevant information.
An infographic Twitter recommended about Trending Topics. Key quotes:
1.Twitter Trends favor novelty over popularity.2.The…algorithm only accounts for interesting peaks: sudden increases that mark an emerging trend.
3.Twitter used to rank popularity by volume, but changed the algorithm.
4.…the Bieber effect; becoming part of the constant background noise like love, hate, Christmas [etc.]
2. Investigating how the volume of tweets affects topics that have trended
Because it’s hard to know what localization data Twitter is using, I’ve only paid much attention to observations about volume vs. trending for topics, that:…would clearly be popular primarily in the U.S., e.g. use slang primarily popular in the U.S.
…trend worldwide, so location data is irrelevant.
Conclusion
I have seen topics that trended a second time in the same area, so it is not impossible. Of particular note is that this means there is likely something in addition to volume that is not novelty that can cause a second trend. I think that something is new people tweeting about the topic (in addition to sufficient volume).When the algorithm was first introduced, Justin Bieber fans made an enormous effort to create a volume of tweets higher than anything they had previously achieved when they saw that their usual efforts didn’t cause trending. Despite having a very organized network that was repeatedly successful in creating high tweet volumes of his name before, they were unsuccessful afterwards. It can’t only be “lack of novelty” that caused the topic to trend, since it is possible. It appears to have been “the same people saying the same thing” not being counted highly.
Twitter says, in the same article, “Topics break into the Trends list when the volume of Tweets about that topic at a given moment dramatically increases.” but also says “Sometimes a topic doesn’t break into the Trends list because its popularity isn’t as widespread as people believe.” The first quote indicates that “volume” is required, the second that “widespread” popularity is required. The implication is that “widespread” does not mean the same thing as “volume.” Volume would be a count of tweets, but “widespreadness” would be a count mainly of people, or variations in geographic area with the same trending area. This is admittedly not definitive, but considering in particular point #2 above, this seems to be the case.
Twitter does say that the same person “Repeatedly Tweeting the same topic/hashtag … in an attempt to get the topic trending/trending higher” may be filtered out from counting toward the topic. This indicates there is at least one mechanism for counting volume but eliminating some people.
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