Square Register iPad Application Launches Square the developer of the mobile credit card payment solution, has this week launched a new iPad application. Which has been created to enable you to transfer your iPad in to a fully functional register. Allowing you to replace your desktop monster with a more streamlined solution. Watch the video after the jump to see the Square Register iPad application in action. As well as enabling you to process credit card transactions, the Square Register iPad application also enables you to view statistics and interactive charts with about your business. The Square Register iPad application also allows you to connect it to a cash draw or receipt, as well as allowing customers to easily tip. “Square Register is the simplest way to accept credit card payments, and has all the features you need to create an elegant experience at your counter.” For more information and to signup for the new Square Register iPad application jump over to the Square website. Source: Square
10 Ways to Humanize Your Brand on Social Media Joe Chernov is the VP of Content Marketing for Eloqua. He is responsible for creating, distributing and measuring content that increases awareness and drives demand. Marketers are suckers for a catch phrase, from “join the conversation” to “think like a publisher.” Now, thanks largely to Facebook Timeline for brand pages, the new marketing slogan has quickly become, “humanize the brand.” Humanizing a brand simply means trying to interact with each customer on a personal level. 1. I recently asked Alfredo Tan, Senior Director of Facebook Canada, if the company distinguishes between business and consumer brand pages. 2. In Smart Business, Social Business, author Michael Brito writes, "while many organizations are trying desperately to humanize their brand, they are failing to understand that they need to humanize their business first." Take Maya Grinberg, a social media manager with social commerce platform Wildfire Interactive. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Want to prove your brand is human? 8. 9. 10.
The next big prophet: A social network soothsayer At some point in the spring of next year, a San Francisco startup is going to start demoing a product that’s designed to predict the future. Today, Klout is perhaps best known as a social media monitoring firm. Its “Klout Score,” which measures how important or influential a Twitter account is, has become one of the most popular metrics of its kind, as more and more users look to expand their reach on social media. But the company is trying to take that concept a little further. Instead of measuring how big a user or topic is on social media right now, Klout is trying to develop algorithms that predict social media trends – which seemingly irrelevant Tweets, videos or web pages are viral hits in the making. “Predictive social media is really interesting to us,” says Joe Fernandez, chief executive officer of Klout. There’s an argument to be made that, in the online world, 2012 will be the year of the social soothsayer. Klout is far from the only company doing this sort of work.
Meten wat Facebook voor jouw website betekent - Blog Met de Facebook Comment Box kwam er een nieuwe manier bij om Facebook op je website te implementeren. Er is nu de Like knop om een website of fanpagina leuk te vinden, nog een Like knop om een artikel te delen met je vrienden en het nieuwe Facebook reactieformulier. Hoeveel van deze Facebook plugins je ook daadwerkelijk implementeert, is afhankelijk van jouw strategie en doelstellingen. Maar om te evalueren of de plugins ook een meerwaarde betekenen voor jouw website zijn cijfers onmisbaar. Wat is immers de impact van een Facebook Like? Zorgt een reactie via de Facebook Comment Box voor extra bezoekers? Tot nog toe was het zeer moeilijk om cijfers te vinden die een antwoord geven op deze vragen. Met de vernieuwde Insights komt Facebook met een oplossing om het effect van hun social plugins te kunnen evalueren. Hoe activeer je Facebook Insights voor jouw website? De implementatie is net zoals bij de Facebook Comment Box relatief eenvoudig gehouden:
What do consumers want from social? A study from the CMO Council of 1300 consumers and 132 senior marketers revealed a profound difference between what consumers want from brands in social media, and what marketers think they want. The study is 31 pages long and worth a read, but being the social people we are, we’ve done it for you. The report comes to a startling conclusion, but also includes a great deal of interesting data: The bottom line is that consumers want more—more experiences, more engagement, more rewards, and more reasons to connect with each other and brands through social media. What’s in a like? For marketers: For consumers: The other important question is what do fans expect once they’ve become one? That 60% of consumers say they like a Page to interact with other consumers underlines how a Facebook Page should be a community rather than just a Page: The infographic below showcases some of the other key stats which this report has highlighted.
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SnapTags: Will they kill QR codes? I remember a time when truncating the UPC bar code on the cover of a magazine was a huge coup. Taking the huge, lumbering code, which took up too much real estate on the cover of a publication, was bothersome and affected the design space. Cutting the bar code by half, in height and width, was celebrated as a major advance in the much-needed item used for scanning the price by, at best, only half the retailers, seems so petty and foolish now. When printers discovered you didn’t need to place the codes on white boxes, we rejoiced at not having the little lines popping out on what were beautiful covers, interrupted by alien chunks of absurdity. When we discovered that we could play with the bar codes, making fun little designs and jokes; we wondered why something so simple had escaped us for so long. Not long ago The QR Code appeared and changed instant information access via a scanner. As always, technology marches on. Have you incorporated QR codes into your marketing yet?
Why I'm Betting on PR With a start-up budget, there's only room for one item on my marketing plan. Here's why I chose a public relations strategy. Photo courtesy of Flickr user Charlie Llewellin FITiST chose a PR strategy to get off to a faster start. As a start-up, I have a single line item on my marketing budget: PR. PR gets a bad rap. Things have gotten so bad that the PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) is currently undertaking a "redefinition" of PR. Having left a big corporate job to build a start-up , I dream of one day building a budget from the bottom up, with multiple line items. That's why my marketing budget has only one line item. This is notable for two reasons. As consumers we look to media to help define what's new, what's cool, and what's important. As a young entrepreneur, I ultimately don't know what business I am going to be in. I strongly believe in building a brand via brand loyalists. Historically, great PR resulted in media coverage across traditional mediums (print, TV, radio).
Five New Facebook Facts A lot of folks have been really upset the about the recent Facebook changes. However, after watching the recent F8 keynote, the impact is going to be so much more than just the ‘look and feel’. Facebook has made some major changes and the implications are going to be far reaching and important for marketers to pay attention to. Provided below are a few key takeaways from the keynote. They’ve added verbs When Facebook first launched it was mostly about connections between people. Updates in the new system could be, ‘Mike is ‘cooking’ ‘toast’. You don’t have to just like a book you can just read a book. Connections over time Keeping track of your ‘actions’ is pretty cool, but wouldn’t be cool if you could track that activity over time? And, when you post updates it’s going to keep track of your activity around your nouns, verbs and milestones providing you with the ability to look at ‘reports’ around specific terms. Spooky? Lightweight Stream This is both good and bad. What do you think?
Facebook grew 7 users per second all of 2011 [Special Infographic] At Socialbakers, we started a nice tradition of bringing you Facebook Yearbook Infographic, which maps growth, top ranks of countries, brands, public figures, and most checked-in places and pinpoints interesting social media statistics. The Facebook statistics of age distribution shows the fastest growth in marginal age ranges of young people and elderly (more than 50%) which indicates Facebook penetration to grow in these groups as well. Remarkable fact is that more than a half (55%) of total Facebook users are (only) in top 10 countries led by USA, Indonesia, India and Brazil. Top 10 Facebook brands increased by 69% and the top public figures gained 213 million of new fans, which represents growth of more than 107%.
Has Facebook cracked f-commerce? “People don’t come to Facebook to shop” is the common belief. A number of companies have given up on f-commerce and thousands more haven’t even tried because of this axiom. So why then is Facebook launching Facebook Gifts, a way for users to buy their friends physical goods directly from News Feed, Timeline and mobile? Facebook may very well be a party, not a shopping mall. But the company has realized that sometimes people need to bring gifts to the party. How well this will work remains to be seen, but it’s important to distinguish what Facebook is doing from the failed efforts of companies that previously tried to sell things on the social network. These companies found opportunity in impulse buys and optimized the flow from discovery to checkout. Facebook has integrated Gifts in the birthdays section of its homepage and in the publisher on friends’ profiles. Facebook will likely further optimize the design of Gifts to help users find the right product for their friend faster.
7 Essential Steps for a Successful Social Media Campaign Successful social media campaigns require careful strategy to generate the type of feedback, interaction & sales you're seeking. In other words, if your followers, friends & connections are just skimming what you post, that's not enough; that alone is certainly not doing your business any good. Actively engaging your network will help maximize conversions. Would you like to learn more? STEP 1: Designate Who Works What NetworksAvoiding the annoyance of double contacting is worth the time it takes to organize who handles which branch of your business's successful social media campaigns. When several people reply to the same person or question, it's annoying & amounts to overkill. Be concise, consistent & know your niche. STEP 2: Narrow Down Which Networks Your Target Market Uses Most New social media networks are popping up all the time. A few tools to dial you into what's hot on the social network: Google Blog Search, Bloglines, Twitter Search, Technorati & HubSpot's Hubfeed. Connect:
5 Tech Trends to Watch in 2012 2012 promises to be a very busy year in all things digital, but, as with any annum, there will be just a handful of big, memorable trends. Here, I’ve collected five such movements that are likely to make a big impact in our technologically-enhanced lives. Augmented Reality It’s now in games, location apps, business cards and coffee shops and could start showing up in cars and even eyeglasses. Augmented Reality, which puts a virtual view on top of your real world, is really just a cool way of saying, “Reality with Style.” Instead of simply viewing your apartment through your phone, you’re playing Star Wars Arcade Falcon Gunner on top of it. According to a report from Visiongain, 25% of all app downloads will feature some sort of augmented reality. The Micro-Payment Economy App manufacturers are not the only ones who can make money selling tiny wares and incremental upgrades. Sites like RedBubble do everything for the artist; all they need to do is upload the content. Mobile Chip Wars
The business case for Facebook, in one sentence What is the most-debated question in social media today? One candidate is, “Should my company have a Facebook page?” The tension comes from several angles. It could be due to: The company is not culturally-ready to deal with comments from real people.The company has whacked-out expectations about how sales will increase once they have a Facebook page.Their social media guru, Timmy from Accounting, has set their marketing strategy.They are doing it because their kids told them it would be cool. So how do you decide if a Facebook page should be a priority for your company? “Come waste time with me.” Think about it. So, do you have a business that people want to waste their time with? Here are examples of organizations that would be fun to waste time with: Now of course there are exceptions, but I think as a general rule, keeping this business case in mind will be a pretty good predictor of a company’s ability to connect with people on Facebook. Marketing through Facebook is difficult.