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Vol 1, #15, June 23, 2009 |
IGLOO extends social software solutions to the desktop The new Desktop Client from IGLOO Software allows users to share local files as easily as they share links on the internet. By integrating key document centric features into the IGLOO Community Platform, members are now able to share files from their personal computers quickly and easily with other members in their online community. This new feature marries the flexibility of web-based social software with the power of the desktop, allowing users to seamlessly and securely save and download documents right from the desktop directly to their IGLOO online community. Key features of this exciting new application include the ability to:
Business users working within an online community or social network powered by IGLOO Software can now upload and preview desktop-stored files and add social context to them. This includes social tools such as commenting, rating, broadcasting, tagging and sharing. Users can also monitor all activities around community files by selecting to receive automatic notifications when a file is updated or changed--giving them a dynamic way to collaborate around important community content. The Desktop Client also supports full audit trails, version control and check in/out functionality; adding robust content management and social networking features right to a user's desktop. The Desktop Client's ability to connect social software to the familiar desktop environment will help organizations roll out fully integrated technology platforms and overcome the cultural and technical barriers they typically encounter when implementing social software. “In this emerging market, it is imperative to extend web 2.0 social software tools to familiar business applications such as Microsoft Office, email and mobile devices if you want drive end user adoption,” says Dan Latendre, CEO of IGLOO. “The Desktop Client moves social software beyond the web browser, giving traditional business users a more familiar experience when participating in an online community or social network setting.” Top of Page Hype, created by and exclusive to FabulousSavings.com, is the new one-stop shopping resource for finding the latest and hottest products online. Consumers can get information on new and trendy media-featured products, as well as learn where to shop and how to save with trusted, retailer-approved coupons. Through an interactive interface, each day Hype provides consumers with information on 12 of the latest products on the market and matches them with an exclusive coupon offer. In addition, Hype Categories make it simple to navigate through all of the newest products and keep consumers in the know about the latest product launches from their favorite designers, brands and retailers. "Hype is what every shopper wants," said Founder Michael Yack. "It's a resource that saves time and money on the biggest names and newest products out there. We don't ask for any membership; we just want to continually make shopping for the hottest products online easier and more affordable." Hype is not just for consumers. FabulousSavings.com has opened this service to retailers, brands and designers who would like another media outlet during a product launch. Each of the 12 products receives its own page that includes a write-up, images and coupons to merchants that sell it, helping to create extra buzz. The resource is an additional service that FabulousSavings.com provides to retailers that are a part of their program. Top of Page Display ads increase consumer spending, study A new study by the Online Publisher’s Association (OPA) found that consumers who are exposed to display advertising are more engaged and more likely to spend money online. “The Silent Click: Building Brands Online”, conducted by comScore, assessed 80 of the biggest branding campaigns across 200 of the most trafficked sites and analyzed consumer behaviors of those internet users who were exposed to display advertising. Over the period of one month, the study measured three consumer actions: searches conducted related to the advertisers’ brands; site visitation, the traffic driven to the advertisers’ site and consumer spending, the e-commerce transactions related to the advertisers’ brands. For consumers exposed to brand display ad campaigns, the research found that:
“Marketers recognize that consumers are spending nearly 40 per cent of their media time online, making it an ideal place to deliver their brand messages. To date, measuring a brand campaign meant relying on the click, a metric more appropriate for direct response advertising. In order to understand the value of the audiences that display advertising attracts, our study helps marketers think about real behavioral measures designed to move the needle,” said Pam Horan, president of the Online Publishers Association. “The findings suggest that measuring consumers exposed to an advertiser message in terms of their search activities associated with that brand, their visitation to the advertisers’ site and finally their e-commerce and retail spending activities, is a smart formula for getting an important view into display ad effectiveness.” Top of Page Flyerland.ca extends reach nationally “Consumers are thinking about how to save money. Whether it’s by cutting back, or finding the best deals, consumers are feeling empowered to make the most of every dollar they spend,” says Debbie Frye, General Manager at Flyerland.ca. “These partnerships will allow us to give Canadian consumers more of what they already love - flyers, coupons and deals.” According to comScore, online coupon advertising is one of the fastest growing market segments online. And with more than 80 per cent of major Canadian retailers making their flyers available at Flyerland.ca, consumers are able to find deals that are specific to their location. “The pace of growth is exciting as people hunger for ways to save," says Candy Hodson, Senior Vice-President of Marketing at Black Press. “Through partnerships with leading, high-growth companies like Flyerland.ca, we are able to offer great value to our readers while showcasing some of our best advertisers.” Flyerland.ca has more than 100,000 registered members and is averaging 10 million page views each month. Top of Page Import Google Analytics Goals into AdWords On Wednesday Google announced that users can now import their Google Analytics Goals and Transactions into their AdWords account to use as conversion actions. This lets users track campaign ROI and optimize their account for conversions directly inside the AdWords interface. In the past users have had to install a separate tracking code to make use of this feature but now all that is needed is a Google Analytics account and a Goal that receives traffic from AdWords. Benefits of this feature include using the Goals and Transactions with Conversion Optimizer, an AdWords CPA bidding tool that has been proven to help advertisers get more conversions from AdWords. Top of Page SOS1.tel connects travellers to emergency servicesSOS1.tel is a new .tel domain to help people get near-instant access to emergency services worldwide from any device connected to the internet, including mobile phones. Developed by KFA Technologies, SOS1.tel is aimed at travellers visiting other countries this vacation season. "SOS1.tel is probably the most ambitious .tel site ever created so far," says Francois Amigorena, founder of KFA Technologies. "It gathers the emergency phone numbers of 134 countries worldwide and takes full advantage of the competitive edges of .tel technology." Travellers now simply need only to memorize SOS1.tel to be able to access contact information on PCs or mobile devices to the relevant emergency services in the country they are in, simply by typing it into the browser. .tel domains are not websites, which means that the data sent back is very quick and also low cost to access. SOS1.tel lists more than four hundred emergency phone numbers (police, medical, fire, sea rescue, etc.) and other contacts in three languages (English, French and Spanish), all accessible via a simple an intuitive navigation tree, making emergency help just a click away. Top of Page DMAs adds social media category The 2009 Digital Marketing Awards will feature a new “Excellence in Social Media” category for the first time. “The DMAs are all about rewarding the best digital marketing in the country,” says Marketing executive publisher and editor-in-chief Christopher Loudon, “creative work that demonstrates innovation and industry leadership by leveraging the interactive environment to the fullest.” This year’s DMA jury will be co-chaired by Adrian Capobianco, president of Quizative Inc. and Mike Kasprow, vice-president and creative director at Trapeze. The winners will be honoured on November 11, 2009 at a gala at the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto. Top of Page Winning Brands expands social media strategy The appointment of MHConnect to manage Winning Brands’ on-line presence signals that the popular new stain remover and multi-cleaner will become a vigorous adopter of internet mass collaboration strategies. With this social media appointment, Winning Brands is organizing itself to deliver information about their product on a massive scale through collaboration with its growing number of enthusiastic consumers. A mass collaboration model by Winning Brands is intended to harness the growing volume of consumer testimonials that are already appearing on the internet and to tap into “collective intelligence” for enhanced corporate performance. “Our goal is that Winning Colours Stain Remover becomes the world’s favourite stain remover and multi-cleaner,” says Winning Brands CEO Eric Lehner. “In the past, this goal would be preposterous for such a young company. However, mass collective communication is becoming a fact of life amongst consumers with a common interest. Most businesses still lag behind this curve because they do not systematically internalize the knowledge that emerges from consumer interest groups. Young brands, even start-ups, can accomplish much more today with interested consumers who communicate directly with each other about a product they like.” “Being involved with a new and iconic brand as it develops is the opportunity,” says Marc Hill, Principal of MHConnect. “What we do with Winning Brands will affect thousands of people initially and then eventually millions. A popular new product like Winning Colours Stain Remover naturally lends itself to conversation. How we foster discussions around consumer experiences will be important. My role will be to apply Winning Brands’ corporate culture to its on-line presence. We will start with the basics and grow through stages of implementation. We want to move toward the leading edge of this new communications environment – it’s a big undertaking.” Top of Page ScoreMobile app now free for BlackBerry Sports fans can now get up-to-the-minute scores and stats, as well as live blogs, previews, recaps and more with the free ScoreMobile application for BlackBerry. Score Media launched the app last week, teaming up with Budweiser to bring users their favourite sports information in real time. “With an average 10 million page views per month, we’ve been very successful connecting with sports fans,” says Dale Fallon, Director, Mobile for Score Media Inc. “This application has been built from the ground up for Blackberry smartphones and we are delighted to be bringing the unique ScoreMobile experience to the BlackBerry community.” Top of Page Email security just got more interesting E-mail messaging security software company Vircom has released a new version of their modus line of products. New technology has been added to reduce both spam and false-positives, both issues that can lead to considerable end-user productivity loss. And with new legislation that calls for mandatory data encryption of all personal information being implemented in several jurisdictions, Vircom's integration with PGP Universal Gateway is key to being compliant with laws that affect business conduct. “We are pleased with our new partnership. There are several benefits for our customers,” says Jean-Marc Robillard, director of product management. “They can purchase the integrated package through their channel sales representative, or leverage their existing PGP encryption gateway if they already have it, to centralize all their encryption requirements.” With this new release, Vircom is also adding backscatter spam protection, a redesigned end-user quarantine report that decreases junk mail management overhead, and auto whitelisting, which ensures messages from trusted users never becomes improperly categorized as spam, or false-positives. “Since spam levels continue to rise worldwide, we’ve added foreign language support for our Sieve scripting engine, which controls email policies, as well as optimized protection from blended threats such as web url script injections,” says Robillard. The PlatinumPlus remote monitoring service allows customers to offload their network monitoring to Vircom, while they maintain direct control over their site-specific settings. CBC's Falcon Cam surpasses a million hots The Falcon Cam webpage from CBC that broadcasts the daily lives of a family of peregrine falcons in Winnipeg has logged over one million page views since its launch on May 18. The weekday average for the popular site is 50,000 page views. The stars of the webpage are Princess and Trey, a pair of peregrines that have been nesting for the past few years on the 13 th floor ledge of the Radisson Hotel in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The project is a partnership between CBC Manitoba, Shaw Cable Systems and the Peregrine Falcon Recovery Project. Top of Page |
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