Happy Friday, Everyone! If you're a Parks & Recreation fan like us, then you already know that Ron Swanson can always be counted on for sound advice. A life coach if we ever saw one. In the video below, Ron introduces us to the "Swanson Pyramid of Greatness". You might want to bookmark it for those times when you need a little motivational pick-me-up. Happy Weekend and don't forget: Fish for sport only; fishmeat is practically a vegetable.
Moat--The Search Engine for Ads
While plenty of us tend to avoid ads while we're searching the web, the folks at Moat are doing just the opposite. Moat lets you search brand names to see all their ads across the web. It's a great way to quickly see all the different campaigns for a particular brand and would be pretty handy for advertising students or perhaps getting ready for a meeting with a publisher or even a job interview. Here's an example of what a search on Mini Coopers brings up:
In addition to ad search, Moat also offers ad analytics helping advertisers understand how users are interacting with their ads using heatmap technology. You can see an example of their technology here.
IDC Tech Talk: Epsilon Email Breach
Many of us were hit by the Epsilon email breach. In this IDC Tech Talk Phil Hochmuth, Research Manager of Security Products, and Michael Versace, Global Risk Analyst, discuss the recent breach. Phil delves into how personal information is becoming a new currency among cyber criminals and highlights the need for more security around access to this information. Michael discusses the impact and on the financial services industry and how this attack could further breach the security of financial institutions.
Common Craft Explanations Made Fun
At the Texas Library Association last week I had the pleasure of meeting Lee and Sachi LeFever from Common Craft. Those names might not sound familiar, but I just bet that you have seen their work. Those short explanatory videos with the paper cut outs that explain complex things "in plain English" - yep, those are from Common Craft. The Lee founded Common Craft in 2003 and now both Lee and Sachi work to create these 3 minute educational videos that seem deceptively simple. Their first video, RSS In Plain English has been viewed 1.6 million times on YouTube. Lee is the voice of the videos. He comes up with the outline and Sachi is the detail oriented part of the team. She fleshes out the script and then Lee begins the sketching and filming and Sachi does the editing.
Common Craft videos are really cute, but the trick is that the LeFevers know how to explain! They are so good that Google hired them in 2007 to explain their newfangled Google Docs product. Google Docs changed the way people thought about sharing documents and they needed Common Craft to explain that new way of thinking. That is exactly what Common Craft does so well. They take a foreign concept and create a story around it so that we understand what it means, and more importantly, what it means for us personally and why we should care. Plus they are memorable - I still think of camping whenever I think of wikis because of their Wikis In Plain English video.
Common Craft still does custom corporate videos and now they are also creating more educational videos and offering subscriptions for libraries and classrooms. So if your library or your company has some 'splaining to do, look no further than Common Craft.
Happy Tax Day!
So are your taxes in and your refund spent? Or, are you one of those people finishing that up at midnight tonight? According to the IRS, as of Friday, April 1 over 89 million people had already filed their taxes. 85% of those folks filed online and the majority of them used a tax professional to help them out. You won't be surprised to learn that 84% of those early birds were getting an average refund of $2,922. Even if you didn't get a refund this year, some companies are trying to make your Tax Monday a little nicer. Kiplinger has compiled a list of great tax day deals for you. My favorites are the free chips and queso deal from California Tortilla, because "you have to pay the big cheese", the $10.40 entrees and tax relief drink specials from McCormick & Schmick's, and a free appetizer or dessert from Chili's with a coupon on their Facebook page. Bally's is also offering free workouts today and deals on 2 year membership packages and current members can sign up for a free personal trainer session. So take advantage of the offers and enjoy your 2011 tax day!
Casual Friday: A Google a Day!
A Google a Day is the new game from Google. It's trivia with a search twist. You aren't expected to know the answer, you have to Google for the answer. The cool thing is that the answer can't be found with just one search - that would be way too easy. The answer can only be found by answering one piece of the puzzle and then using that information to lead you to another piece of puzzle until you finally find the answer. You know, like real research! Don't worry about spoilers, Google thinks of everything. You play the game on a day old archived version of Google called Deja Google. They describe it as "a wormhole inspired time machine that searches the Internet as it existed before the game began."
This could be a great teaching tool or just for fun because we like solving puzzles! Take a break today and check it out.
Social Media Map
Trying to keep up with all the social media platforms available can be pretty overwhelming. Luckily the folks over at Overdrive Interactive make it easy for us with this great Social Media Map. You can download the map for free after providing some basic information and the downloadable PDF comes with live links.
IDC Tech Talk: Media Tablets & Business Application
IDC recently started a series on YouTube called "IDC Tech Talk". In the following video they discuss media tablets, specifically the iPad, and how they're being used in a business environment. They also discuss enterprise vs. personal use and the impact tablet use is having on usage of other devices such as netbooks and laptops. While IDC is typically available only through a subscription service, these videos are a great preview of the type of information you'll find in some of their reports.
bizologie Favorite Apps: Flex Search Mobile Research App
One of our new favorite apps is Flex Search from Dynotes Mobile Technology. Flex Search combines all the places you like to search all in one place. You can search Google, Bing, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Wolfram-Alpha, YouTube, Flicker, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook all without switching between different apps on your phone. You can also search images and Webster's Dictionary & Thesaurus from inside the same app. Once you've got your results, you can even share it directly from the app to Twitter or Facebook. Flex Search is available free in the iTunes AppStore.
Who's Buying What Where
Who's buying what? Find out with the Euromonitor International data visualization of world spending. The Who's Buying What? map provides the country's average spending per person on clothing, household goods,alcohol & tobacco, recreation, and electronics.
- Norwegians spend by far the most on recreation - $4,242 per person per year - yes even more than the US!
- In Brazil they spend the most on alcohol & tobacco
- Pakistanis spend the least amount on recreation and electronics
- People in Columbia and Indonesia spend most of the dollars on household goods
Casual Friday: Career Advice from Your Favorite TV Shows
Once in a while, we at bizologie are called upon to give career advice. So today we thought we'd gather a few tips from some of our favorite career men and women. Below you'll find everything from resume tips to salary negotiations to presentation tips. And here you'll find some helpful advice from everyone's favorite career gal, Joan Holloway, on workplace attire. And remember "no crying in the breakroom. That's what your apartment is for." Happy Friday, y'all!
FedEx + Me My Story: Austin
Everyone has heard the FedEx lore: "FedEx started with nothing but one really smart undergrad, one really good term paper and one really big dream." Now they are helping other small start-up companies with the FedEx + Me program piloted in Austin. The FedEx + Me My Story: Austin project spotlights companies that exemplify Austin's innovative spirit. Each round the 5 companies that get the most votes are spotlighted in a professionally produced video promoting their business. On May 18, one deserving participant will be awarded the grand prize of a $5,000 grant to help them grow their business.
They are posting videos from round 3 soon so check back and there are a couple more rounds of voting left for new companies. Here's one of the videos:
Love to see FedEx supporting entrepreneurs in Austin, can't wait to see what city they pick next!
Ad Spend Forecast
According to new eMarketer reports, US spending on major media will continue its slow recovery from the recession. Total ad spending won’t come back to 2007 levels in the next few years, but TV ad spending is making a better-than-average comeback and will surpass 2007 spending levels by 2012. TV still retains the greatest share of US major media ad spending, at 39% and is expected to keep that hold through 2015. This means the increases in online ad spending—set to grow from 15% to 26% of the total by 2015—will come at the expense of print.
Online already represents the second-biggest advertising medium after television, after surpassing print newspaper ad spending in 2010. By 2013, online ad spending will be greater than print spending on both magazines and newspapers combined.
Even though online advertising is projected to increase its share of US major media ad spend, overall spending on digital, including internet and mobile, still hasn't risen to match consumption patterns. The internet took up 25% of adults’ daily media time in 2010, but received just 19% of US ad spend. Mobile is also behind. It claims 8% of media time, but most of that is devoted to communications activities marketers are not looking to interrupt.
QR Codes–Are people using them? Do I need one?
QR codes (quick response codes) are everywhere these days--on products, on real estate listings, even on buildings. But how effective are they? Are people using them? It turns out, we dig QR codes. According to Mobio Identity Systems, QR scanning growth exceeded 1200% in the last half of 2010. Women make up the majority of scanners with 64% and while we mostly scan things to gain more information about a product or service, payment scans accounted for 5% of all scans. Starbucks uses QR codes for their mobile payment app. I'm patiently awaiting the day when I can pay everywhere with my phone. According to JumpScan, 57% of Facebook and Twitter users say they've scanned a QR code at least once and iPhone users represent the bulk of scanners with 68%. MGH recently published a QR usage and interest survey. You can read the full survey here, but here's a breakdown of their usage statistics for QR codes:
So if you want to join the cool kids and make your own QR codes, check out Kaywa or JumpScan. And if you need a QR reader for your phone, there are several available. QR codes might even help your library run more smoothly. The Orange County Library System in Orlando is using them to offer discounts at the Friends' bookstore and to offer patron access to a map of the library. Pretty Cool.
Are you using QR codes for something cool? Let us know about it in the comments. Happy Scanning!
Free web hosting for nonprofits
The good folks at myhosting.com saw our post on GuideStar and wanted us to tell you about their awesome service for nonprofits. myhosting.com believes in giving back to the community and reciprocating to organizations and groups that help contribute to the greater good. They established the myhosting.com Non-Profit Web Hosting Endowment which donates free web hosting and email to:
- Registered Non-profit groups and organizations
- Organizations making positive contributions to their communities
- Educational or Governmental organizations providing for the greater good
Help us spread the word by letting any nonprofits you work with know about the myhosting.com program.
Casual Friday: Google, YouTube & Wolfram Alpha April Fool's
Google has been entertaining us on April Fool's Day since 2000, skipping only 2001 and 2003. Their first April Fool's hoax in 2000 was Google Mentalplex which promised search results if we simply projected a mental image of what we wanted to find. My favorite of the Mentalplex FAQs is: "Does MentalPlex violate my privacy?
- While MentalPlex does have the potential of probing your deepest darkest secrets and desires, this information is only used in aggregate and rarely sold to advertisers unless they ask very, very nicely"
Knowing what we know about Google +1, this seems almost true. My favorite was Google Romance from 2006. "Those who generally favor the 'throw enough stuff at the wall' approach to online dating might find it useful to employ our Batch Profile Uploading option." bizologie co-founder April Kessler is from Kansas, so Google's decision in 2010 to change their name to Topeka was her favorite.
Today Google brings us GMail Motion:
And YouTube celebrates 100 Years:
And Wolfram Alpha changes its name:
Google's +1 is active--Do you "like" it?
Google just launched their new +1 service which allows you to "publicly give something your stamp of approval". Or in Facebook terms, "like" it. Right now it's still part of Google Labs and you have to opt-in to try it out, which you can do here. I gave it a spin today and there are some cool and not-so-cool things about it. It all depends on how comfortable you are having your name publicly associated with the links you choose to endorse. And "endorse" is a good word since your +1's can be used in Google Ads. So it's important to have your Google Profile set up with the right privacy settings so that you can make sure your Picasa Web Albums and the like aren't available to just anyone. That said, I like that once you've opted in, you'll have a new tab on your Google Profile keeping track of all the links you've +1'd along the way. Do we say +1'd now instead of "liked"? So hard to keep up. You can choose to make your tab public or not, but either way it's a nice handy list to refer back to:
The video below will tell you a bit more about how it works and you can read more about it on Google's +1 Page. Tell us what you think about +1 in the comments section.
Smartphones and Retail Shopping
A new study by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies shows that smartphone owners use their phones while shopping to compare prices, find other store locations and check for discounts. The study of over 1,400 consumers shows over half of consumers are using their smartphones to enhance their shopping experience. According to their research both genders equally use smartphones while shopping, but women look more for discounts while men look more for reviews. About 2/3 of smartphone owners under 35 use the phone while shopping, but only 1/3 of owners over 50 do. Surprisingly, not that many people are making purchases with their smartphone yet - only about 25%. And, the most common purchase transaction made via the phone is for entertainment (music, movies, TV) - followed by banking. You can download a free copy of the report by providing some basic contact information.
bizologie Favorite Apps: Business Card Reader
If you're like us, you collect a fair amount of business cards while attending conferences. They get thrown into your purse or laptop bag and then maybe, eventually entered into your contacts. The Business Card Reader app for iPhone helps you get rid of all those cards and import them easily to your contact list. You simply take a photo of the card and the app scans it and enters the data into your contact list automatically. The app supports several different languages and is available in the app store for $2.99. You can see it in action in the video below:
C200: The Committee of 200
The C200 is an exclusive membership association of 400 of the world’s most successful women entrepreneurs and corporate leaders representing over 100 industries in the US, Europe, Asia, Canada and Latin America. C200 members employ more that 2.5 million people and generate more than $200 billion in annual revenues. C200 co-sponsors one-day Outreach Seminars for women MBA students. Seminars rotate among the nation's top business schools, and at the seminar they award C200 Scholar Awards to enterprising first year women MBAs enrolled at the hosting school. At the Outreach seminar held in Austin with the University of Texas McCombs School of Business the day was about empowerment and success of women. Lynn Utter the President and COO of Knoll North America served as the keynote speaker and kicked off the program by discussing her work and how she took a big risk with the support of her family to make a major move to Knoll to take on more responsibility and lead an entire organization. The program focused on entrepreneurship, leadership, climbing the corporate ladder, business negotiations, and being a successful women in business. Here are some words of wisdom from the day:
- There is nothing wrong with being ambitious
- Get an expert to do what you can't
- Hire people smarter than you
- No matter what the offer, negotiate
- Be passionate about what you do
- Know more about your company/industry/competitors than anyone else
- Reward innovation and the money will follow
My favorite quote of the day was from Gay Gaddis President and CEO of T3. Gay's mother used to tell her that "a kick in the pants is step forward." Thank you ladies for inspiring us all!