News.me for iPhone Makes Friends the Editors of Twitter & Facebook News.me launched its free iPhone app this morning, which introduces Facebook integration, a saved offline reading list that syncs with the iPad app and Instapaper, and new, simple social dynamics of its own. It digests the links shared by Twitter and Facebook contacts, checks Bit.ly for their popularity, and presents a list of the top news stories in a clean, readable environment. And now, within the News.me network, there is also a menu of simple, text-based reactions: "Ha!" "Wow" "Awesome" "Sad" "Really?" You can also write your own. News.me has undergone several transformations, from an in-house New York Times experiment to a standalone Flipboard competitor on the iPad. Personal review time: I have such an established workflow for reading news that I never expect to get much out of a social filtering app like this. I didn't use the News.me iPad app, but I liked it. I follow lots of news people on Twitter, several are on News.me, and I can follow them within the app.
brand driven innovation Can News.me become the Instagram for news? We’ve written before about the overwhelming tsunami of content that digital media represents, especially the firehose that comes from Twitter and Facebook, and how this makes it even more imperative that users have some kind of filter or curation system. News.me is one of the services that is trying to solve that problem, but it wants to do more than just filter and recommend: the startup’s new iPhone app is designed to be like an Instagram for news — in other words, a smaller network of friends and connections with whom you want to discuss the latest headlines or events. The question for News.me is whether that’s what news consumers want, and even if they do, whether they won’t just use Twitter or Facebook instead. News.me has an interesting history: It started as a skunkworks project inside the New York Times — an attempt on the part of a couple of NYT developers to come up with a way of filtering Twitter based on a user’s social network.
The Brand Building Power Of Personalization Some time ago, I checked into a hotel in Hong Kong. The receptionist handed me a bunch of business cards. They weren't the hotel's business cards but my own, complete with my phone and fax numbers and contact details while staying at the hotel. It was a gesture that kind of made me feel special. I know we can all be cynical and see through this ploy, but it works. Time after time, when evaluating what makes service unique, I conclude it comes down to two simple factors: attention to the individual and a personal twist. A while back, I wrote a post on how important it is to personalize a brand's dialogue with the customer. Dutch marketing journal Tijdschrift voor Marketing published some hot-off-the-press data showing the personal touch can be even more effective than anticipated. According to their article, if you simply begin a missive with "Dear X" (inserting the recipient's name), the response rate will be 42 percent. Here's a simple example. Let's be honest. Sponsored By: Brand Aid
News.me Is Building A News Social Network Within Its New iPhone App News.me, the news service developed in The New York Times’ R&D labs and incubated at betaworks, is launching its iPhone app today. A bit unusually, the part of the app that you’ll use first may actually be the least interesting. In some ways, the new app is just a redesign of what News.me was already offering through its iPad and email products — a list of news stories, pulled from your Facebook and Twitter streams, then curated based on signals from Twitter and bit.ly, and presented with the context of the initial tweet or Facebook comment. I’ve played with the app, and as a straightforward, curated newsreading service, it’s already pretty useful. But it sounds like General Manager Jake Levine has bigger ambitions. To make things easier, you don’t even have to come up with a smart remark of your own. Ultimately, it’s the News.me Reactions social network that will be “defensible,” he says. You can download the app here.
How to curate content: The best ideas, resources, and tools | Aaron Hoos Have you ever walked into a restaurant and been unsure what to order because there are so many options? People can become overwhelmed by choice to the point where they cannot easily make decisions or act. A similar thing is happening on the web today. There is so much content out there on the web, and even more is pouring in daily. (I should know… I’m writing a bunch of it). Enter content curation. Different sites are approaching content curation in different ways: Google is constantly tweaking its algorithm and in a way, they are very much in the content curation business. Just to clear the air for those of us who see ourselves as content creators: I think there is still room for that. So how do you curate content? First of all, you should download and read Seth Godin’s ebook Everyone Is An Expert. Once you’ve done that, watch this video. Next, read this “content curation 101″ blog post by Beth Kanter, which is one of the best examples of content curation I’ve seen. About Aaron Hoos
Hands-on: News.me's iPhone app filters your friends' timelines for news Keeping up on the news items that your friends share on Twitter or Facebook can sometimes be a full-time job—especially if you have a full-time job and can't afford to stay on top of the interesting items your friends are linking to all day. Sure, you might add a couple to your Instapaper queue for later, but even just the act of digging through mountains of daily-life status updates for news from your friends can be a chore if you actually care about the links that they're sharing. Enter News.me, an online service that combs through your social network feeds and filters out the cruft to bring you a list of the most important news stories shared by the people you follow. Its genesis in 2011 was an idea out of the New York Times R&D lab that eventually bloomed into a full-on service. And on Thursday, News.me launched its first iPhone app along with a few new service improvements in hopes of capturing the attention of the news-consuming smartphone crowd.
Start an AlphaGraphics Franchise Opportunity, AlphaGraphics Franchise for Sale | FranchiseDirect.com Are you looking for an opportunity in our Printer, Copying & Sign Franchises section? Here are a few opportunities in our Printer, Copying & Sign Franchises section that may interest you. Printer, Copying & Sign Franchisessection... Minuteman Press Join the largest and #1 rated digital printing & graphics franchise, where every other business is a... Minimum Cash Required: $30,000. SIGNworld SIGNworld - a cut above. Need Financing? The following franchises are registered with the SBA--streamlining the funding process--helping you need to start your franchise that much quicker! If you have news, it will be aggregated and/or curated The Pew Research Center has come out with a massive new report on the state of media as part of its Project for Excellence in Journalism, and it comes to a number of conclusions about where the industry stands — including the fact that Twitter and Facebook are still driving a fairly small amount of traffic to media outlets (although this segment is growing quickly) and that tech giants like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft control almost 70 percent of online advertising. But one other thing that becomes clear from the Pew report is just how big a role aggregators of all kinds — both human and machine-powered — are playing in news consumption. Despite the growing evidence to the contrary, many newspaper companies and other traditional media outlets still seem to think the vast majority of their audience comes to them directly and prefers to read their content above all other sources. Aggregation is a way of life for more news consumers Social sharing is both an opportunity and a danger
Innovation key to growth of mobile money on the continent Details Published on Tuesday, 13 November 2012 13:30 Published by Andrea Ayemoba Hits: 941 The future of mobile money in Africa lies in its ability to innovate and transcend beyond its current offerings, said Khaled Mikkawi, CEO of MTN Rwanda on Tuesday. He was speaking at AfricaCom 2012 in Cape Town. Mikkawi said relationships with third party developers were important to enable and increase access to innovative financial services such as merchandise payments, online payments and insurance solutions. A GSMA report on mobile money adoption shows that mobile money is Rwanda’s fastest growing telecommunication service. Mikkawi said MTN Rwanda’s focus now is to grow the penetration of the service, particularly in geographically isolated areas. “Mobile money is a strategic service for MTN,” said Mikkawi. Already, an increasing number of mobile money subscribers are using the service for non-airtime transactions. “There are 14 000 villages in Rwanda and each one needs to be covered. www.mtn.com
How To Track Topics On The Web It's easy to get obsessed with the super-fast, real-time cycle of online news. But don't forget that the Web is a massive treasure trove of information about any topic. With just a bit of work, you can set up tracking and get regular updates about topics you're passionate about. In this how-to article, we share our tips on topic tracking. Google Alerts Let's forget the 'S' word for a minute: Social. Go to Google News and input your search. Select the type of results you'd like and the email delivery frequency. Interestingly, you can create an alert for "everything" - which includes not just Google News, but Google's all-powerful search index. If you use an RSS Reader or personalized start page (such as Google Reader or My Yahoo!) Social Options If you want a more social approach to topic tracking, Google+ and Twitter are your best bets. 1. Search for your topic in Google+ (Google's social network, which you get automatically with a Google account). 2. 3.
Zain Africa Challenge Sample Questions Sample Game Questions The following are sample game questions from the National Qualifying Tournament games to help the students, coaches & liaisons at the universities learn what type of questions are asked and how they are constructed: Season 2 (2007-2008): Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 Game 4 Game 5 Season 3 (2008-2009): Game 2 Game 3 Game 4 Game 5