tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74263052512050617772024-03-05T04:01:55.195+00:00Multi Channel Marketing Blog.A look at how we can combine, old, new and emerging marketing techniques and technologies. By incorporating marketing channels like Email, Social Media, NFC, Mobile, and others can be a perfect complement to any company marketing strategy.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-31791946929693530462013-04-07T16:44:00.002+01:002013-04-07T16:44:59.194+01:00Vine introduces the #hashtag to its features.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkNeWxg-H4qkMkx76keHUj5Qbr3HeW4CQv2032xRxpijWJjZqJA35TrlGxevbMfAjRKliOymgpvYlcl8OZkyQeDv02yfjxmgJbD1UUZ-hwutTiLHYwb77O7SUmn_Qtjs8mnGb-UU_cnMAp/s1600/vine_logo_lrg_green.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Vine introduces the #hashtag to it's features." border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkNeWxg-H4qkMkx76keHUj5Qbr3HeW4CQv2032xRxpijWJjZqJA35TrlGxevbMfAjRKliOymgpvYlcl8OZkyQeDv02yfjxmgJbD1UUZ-hwutTiLHYwb77O7SUmn_Qtjs8mnGb-UU_cnMAp/s1600/vine_logo_lrg_green.png" title="Vine introduces the #hashtag to it's features." /></a></div>
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<b>What is Vine?</b><br />
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Vine is a short video service that lets you create and share up to 6 seconds of video. The Vine app is currently only available on iOS.<br />
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Vine enables you to shoot a full 6 seconds of video instantaneously, or you could use it in a time lapse scenario and start it and stop it as many times as you wish, until you have recorded the full 6 seconds.<br />
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Only last week <a href="http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/03/29/vine-launches-web-embeds-updates-ios-app-to-share-others-videos-via-twitter-and-facebook/">Vine released a feature</a> where you can embed your video on the web. They also released a new iOS update where you can share to Twitter and Facebook or Embed the code into a webpage or blog.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPdlp-mwZP6DTlZMIBXsgohLSvN_1UyzS5mcwUUacACnp1HOOEqJBOTCQUoDKjUlB-wq2z6vf9qfOGEn2uzzVLYRB4ROnRgvqjCKgSJ8XdMZ80bjWPqhwUwFVmaikoGdyAVnXmiAgKiyAA/s1600/vine_ios_embed_inv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPdlp-mwZP6DTlZMIBXsgohLSvN_1UyzS5mcwUUacACnp1HOOEqJBOTCQUoDKjUlB-wq2z6vf9qfOGEn2uzzVLYRB4ROnRgvqjCKgSJ8XdMZ80bjWPqhwUwFVmaikoGdyAVnXmiAgKiyAA/s640/vine_ios_embed_inv.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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If you select the Embed button it opens up your email client and attaches a link to the embed code where you can send this link to your email address. Click the link in the email to open up the Embed Post page. On this page you can select whether you want a simple or postcard layout, then select which size you want from 600px, 480px or 320px, copy the embed code at the bottom and paste into the code of your website or blog.<br />
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So it was only a matter of time before <a href="http://vine.co/blog">Vine</a> joined the party with another great feature, the trending hashtag.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi80xA_Oj5xlKmTPcrPrpE3wjgKs2iZZYMZ28LpJFuyAuosI7DrJ5Bhjf0n1z-_DfmCv6CGcju8QWYM4SJ96GVGaU9zczFjJU-nhmQQk0KvabSFiSIR9b1BifG83TnfO_OuBeyVxfsBueiP/s1600/vinehashtagdesign.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi80xA_Oj5xlKmTPcrPrpE3wjgKs2iZZYMZ28LpJFuyAuosI7DrJ5Bhjf0n1z-_DfmCv6CGcju8QWYM4SJ96GVGaU9zczFjJU-nhmQQk0KvabSFiSIR9b1BifG83TnfO_OuBeyVxfsBueiP/s1600/vinehashtagdesign.jpeg" /></a></div>
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Vine said on Friday that it wanted to make it easier for users to explore and discover content like popular posts and hashtags. The hashtag was reinvented by Twitter and since their inception a whole host of other social networks have introduced them as part of their features too, including Facebook, Google+ and Instagram.<br />
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Hashtags are a great way to find what is popular on any social network, they even show up in the main search engine results.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuyf9xFeNR1DfSoJt0odpB_bcIBO5MFmeRebZOfNSdZtzvPgvbo19rTRO5o8CKo_mBBNOs8QlUHeVdvmtZsGXZa309sWk3zSLQuA4wyWypS5-1PT29uJP2GW-cEqofHHiIzungtmdgsH3v/s1600/vine_hashtags.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Vine app trending hashtags" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuyf9xFeNR1DfSoJt0odpB_bcIBO5MFmeRebZOfNSdZtzvPgvbo19rTRO5o8CKo_mBBNOs8QlUHeVdvmtZsGXZa309sWk3zSLQuA4wyWypS5-1PT29uJP2GW-cEqofHHiIzungtmdgsH3v/s640/vine_hashtags.PNG" title="Vine app trending hashtags" width="426" /></a></div>
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Let's not forget too that Twitter bought into Vine even before it's launch to the general public, but decided to leave it as a separate entity. So there is a lot of influence from within Twitter and Twitter knows what works best for them.<br />
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Individuals and companies alike are finding great uses for 6 second shorts. Brands are using Vine as part of their marketing strategy, here's one from Cadbury's UK as part of their Easter campaign.<br />
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<iframe class="vine-embed" frameborder="0" height="600" src="https://vine.co/v/bwXTe5K2HvT/embed/simple" width="600"></iframe><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js"></script></div>
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Trending hashtags will almost certainly make it easier to find and discover interesting stuff.<br />
Do you use Vine, what do you like or dislike about it, is there something missing that you would like to see them introduce in the near future? Let me know your thoughts below.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-80423108145284749882013-04-05T16:13:00.000+01:002013-04-05T16:13:02.509+01:00LinkedIn launches the mention feature.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
LinkedIn announced yesterday on the company blog that it will be releasing a new feature similar to that of Facebook's tag a friend or company page. So far i don't have the feature enabled but LinkedIn's new "mentions" feature was beginning to roll out to all English speaking members as of yesterday, with a gradual roll out globally thereafter.<br />
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When you write a status update and want to include one of your connections in the post, start typing the first few letters of their name and LinkedIn will auto suggest those with the same name from your first degree connections only. It also has real time benefits because once you mention a connection they are instantly notified of the mention.<br />
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Even though you can only mention first degree connections in a status update post, you can mention other members. But only if they are engaged in a conversation in the comments section of a public post on the LinkedIn homepage that you wish to comment on.<br />
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It's a feature that has been a longtime coming. Twitter started the trend a few years back by using the @ symbol before the name, then Facebook followed suit some years after. LinkedIn believes that by using mentions in your status updates or comments, it will help you start up a conversation with your network.<br />
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View the slideshow from LinkedIn below.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="356" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/18120841" style="border-width: 1px 1px 0; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px;" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="427"> </iframe> <br />
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<strong> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/linkedin/linked-in-mentions-step-bystep" target="_blank" title="Start a Conversation with Mentions on LinkedIn">Start a Conversation with Mentions on LinkedIn</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/linkedin" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a></strong> <br />
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Do you see this as becoming a popular feature on LinkedIn? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-56751613327477380042013-03-24T19:05:00.000+00:002013-03-24T19:05:35.347+00:007 Responsive Web Design Templates For Wordpress.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Are you finding that your website is getting more and more visitors from mobile devices lately?<br />
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I should think you probably are. We have entered the era of the connected device and it has become necessary to design your web presence for viewing across multi-screen resolutions, browsers and devices. Unlike an expensive app this is where responsive web design comes in to its own, you build once and it can be viewed seamlessly on any screen. These days Tablets and Smartphones have become the most popular devices for viewing web content, with an estimated 1.2 billion devices to be sold in 2013 alone.<br />
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It is critical for marketers and website owners to get their content seen by as many sets of eyes as possible, so by not having a flexible and responsive website could mean that their website will have a higher bounce rate. If your site has been built for viewing on a desktop or laptop device then it will be very difficult to navigate the site on a smartphone or tablet. Your visitors dont want to be pinching and zooming in to read your content better, they want the content to adapt to their screen resolution, making it easier for them to read without all the hassle. When you build your website, whether it's a single web page or a multi-page website you should aim for the best end user experience possible, because most will abort if they find it frustrating to navigate.<br />
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See how these 7 beautiful multi-purpose responsive website design templates for Wordpress could help your website attract more visitors and keep them on your site longer.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">1. <a href="http://themeforest.net/item/avada-responsive-multipurpose-theme/full_screen_preview/2833226?ref=carmarthenboy67">Avada</a></span> is a fully responsive multi-purpose business website theme. Customisable to suit your business requirements. Loaded with options: Unlimited colours, 500 Google fonts, 6 slider options, boxed or wide page layout and much <a href="http://themeforest.net/item/avada-responsive-multipurpose-theme/full_screen_preview/2833226?ref=carmarthenboy67">more...</a><br />
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<a href="http://themeforest.net/item/avada-responsive-multipurpose-theme/full_screen_preview/2833226?ref=carmarthenboy67"><img alt="Avada multi-purpose business website theme" border="0" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-w1hGxf4zFNcdnJ_PlA6zWpQ3uQff19pKnpUML6N45RE1hRGEJi1U5Rjp_sf_32B_znq-HE774Qe-jr9o36NOlp-BU8pCgNnX6ABtgnYxCLgP2ZAOPsVgxMSxADHS3y8QvzyNxmknR8xN/s640/Avada.jpg" title="Avada multi-purpose business website theme" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">2. <a href="https://wrapbootstrap.com/theme/scribo-responsive-wordpress-theme-WB08818M4?ref=carmarthenboy67">Scribo</a></span> is a fully responsive multi-purpose Wordpress theme built on the popular Twitter Bootstrap framework. Features include 20+ shortcodes, Lightbox image effects, a drag and drop page builder and even <a href="https://wrapbootstrap.com/theme/scribo-responsive-wordpress-theme-WB08818M4?ref=carmarthenboy67">more...</a><br />
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<a href="https://wrapbootstrap.com/theme/scribo-responsive-wordpress-theme-WB08818M4?ref=carmarthenboy67"><img alt="Scribo multi-purpose responsive wordpress theme" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ_GOx8vRjt6z781pJU0ZWHPgF_ZeHyLVuH2EDc6dYg117_Vrff17UT3FLDJkpVSsgqfG2RM5Ji53ywiV0kwAewBGqhXH-_oVp4GvLf9X53X774IXAFbrzjOBpkzM0JJ_abNfXXjiPQCh8/s640/Scribo.png" title="Scribo multi-purpose responsive wordpress theme" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">3. <a href="http://www.mojo-themes.com/item/black-premium-multipropose-wordpress-theme/?r=carmarthenboy67">Black</a></span> is a clean multi-purpose responsive Wordpress theme. Features include social media icons, unlimited sidebar, 2 blog templates, unlimited colours and<a href="http://www.mojo-themes.com/item/black-premium-multipropose-wordpress-theme/?r=carmarthenboy67">more...</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.mojo-themes.com/item/black-premium-multipropose-wordpress-theme/?r=carmarthenboy67"><img alt="Black is a premium, responsive Wordpress theme. " border="0" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu4UVTTXN5fhaETdrAN9xKps03xtZBisSQNRKIdgab3MTx337eR6Whe5jnXl2uUR2-_s_xVi0A5lIWW3XoCenrJF76l_ML47pdhjOGikZcPukzacfyQOVkaqxBruQRYwrey5Ah2EPTSCFo/s640/Black.png" title="Black is a premium, responsive Wordpress theme. " width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">4. <a href="http://themeforest.net/item/construct-multipurpose-wordpress-theme/full_screen_preview/2979247?ref=carmarthenboy67">Construct</a></span> has a ton of awesome features including a selection of 8 homepage layouts, a total of 7 sliders and a multitude of portfolio and blog layouts. That's just some of the fantastic options find out <a href="http://themeforest.net/item/construct-multipurpose-wordpress-theme/full_screen_preview/2979247?ref=carmarthenboy67">more...</a></div>
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<a href="http://themeforest.net/item/construct-multipurpose-wordpress-theme/full_screen_preview/2979247?ref=carmarthenboy67"><img alt="Construct is a responsive, business wordpress theme." border="0" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQmufaCiiICK_7RkveRlTXkD9iJJWaFDCKkVNMfINljO3r51GzVpo1Is9Yba5Loa_oGfYF_wkhhY3a_fnZcV4t_-JKAuDwejtVwkhhVQtZ6m3OGoFhujFwg1L7kqRuPd8GXhMoY3EiXzXe/s640/Construct.jpg" title="Construct is a responsive, business wordpress theme." width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">5. <a href="http://www.obox-design.com/themes_page.cfm?theme=knead&afId=6DCA7A79">Knead</a></span> is a responsive portfolio theme featuring service listings and a minimal design. Features include a widgetized homepage, 2 colour schemes a portfolio section and <a href="http://www.obox-design.com/themes_page.cfm?theme=knead&afId=6DCA7A79">more...</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.obox-design.com/themes_page.cfm?theme=knead&afId=6DCA7A79"><img alt="Knead responsive portfolio theme." border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF9eeqgZPvmyAUyupstOH9sge40i3wsKaL1QT0eHQFoc3ovKyKl7EoaejQGCPpfyGu35e7_E0pBUJHDhr1rbRyW-IwUCgbfsIreP1Sh2Y4-7lTYw28phTLG7aLL5m6tzs8UePu4Aa67-sT/s1600/Knead.jpg" title="Knead responsive portfolio theme." /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">6. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=128165&c=ib&aff=244277%22%20target=%22ejejcsingle%22%3E%3C/a%3E">Hardy</a></span> is a fully responsive minimalistic portfolio theme. Specifically designed to put your best work up front and center, by displaying your projects in big customisable sections on the home page. Features include custom widgets, Google web fonts, section backgrounds, button shortcodes and <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=128165&c=ib&aff=244277%22%20target=%22ejejcsingle%22%3E%3C/a%3E">more...</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip_ojb-7ly1ouOmIyE6D3oVVyi4-z2hxJOpsi9C7U_M__4cml4rP9Trci0ksEk5-Jb9EWTlelaJBiV1onf3dWjLb3SfLeWk0jojlfC7o2lo4baXTGaYI3qKneeMtXAPaEFY_XJlQmzuiWU/s1600/Hardy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip_ojb-7ly1ouOmIyE6D3oVVyi4-z2hxJOpsi9C7U_M__4cml4rP9Trci0ksEk5-Jb9EWTlelaJBiV1onf3dWjLb3SfLeWk0jojlfC7o2lo4baXTGaYI3qKneeMtXAPaEFY_XJlQmzuiWU/s640/Hardy.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">7. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://themify.me/member/go.php?r=15004&i=l7%22%3E%3C/a%3E">Bizco</a></span> is a professional theme targeted at business and product based websites. Features include threaded comments and custom menus, 4 homepage and footer widgets, 6 predefined theme skins and <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://themify.me/member/go.php?r=15004&i=l7%22%3E%3C/a%3E">more...</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://themify.me/member/go.php?r=15004&i=l7%22%3E%3C/a%3E"><img alt="Bizco responsive Wordpress theme." border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcA6r_LjBqMIfG6UFGlyLtWj_snn6TPAQptU8HKkY6o08VO-H0e5XB5ckCzgYMzcO6jU7Sq6DPcE_nG_XQYxWZSQRnrJUmsDce8kH3cVbn6iTXKTcZSsHAd7qjEAjNrNKiXHag49Whkg1E/s640/Bizco.jpg" title="Bizco responsive Wordpress theme." width="552" /></a></div>
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Have you incorporated responsive web design into your website yet? If not why, what is holding you back? If you have great, are you seeing visitors stay on your site longer? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-47666617425485649932013-02-24T16:05:00.003+00:002013-02-28T17:40:42.811+00:00PayPal Here, not quite here yet but it is on it's way to Europe.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Paypal have recently announced that the new European version of their mobile payments product Paypal Here, will soon be available as early as this summer in the U.K and other European countries soon after.<br />
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The difference between the European version and the <a href="http://snavski.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/paypal-making-big-push-in-mobile.html">U.S version</a> is that you no longer require a triangular card reader that plugs in to the jack port of your mobile device, instead you use a separate card reader that is about the size of your mobile device. To make a payment the business owner opens up the PayPal app installed on their mobile device and they enter the amount to be charged to the customer, the customer then inserts their credit/debit card into the card reader and enters the amount charged and confirms with their pin number. See how easy it is to accept mobile payments with a video from Paypal.<br />
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Transaction fees for the U.K market will be slightly higher than the U.S market, with fees starting at 3.4% plus 20p for monthly transactions up to £1,500 as compared to a 2.7% transaction fee for U.S merchants.<br />
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Other mobile payments providers have already launched similar products in Europe, including <a href="http://izettle.com/">iZettle</a> and <a href="http://payleven.co.uk/">Payleven</a>. With <a href="http://squareup.com/">Square</a>, <a href="http://mpowa.com/">mPowa</a> and <a href="http://sumup.co.uk/">SumUp</a> also battling to become the dominant mobile payment provider in multiple countries.<br />
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What do you think of Paypal's new European product will you sign up for it or do you already use another mobile payments provider? Let me know in the comments below.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-20822371292404312382012-07-19T19:55:00.000+01:002012-07-19T19:55:45.458+01:00What to do when you see a QR Code. (Infographic)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
QR Codes have become very popular and are a great way to bridge a brands offline content with their online content. Everytime you open a magazine or a newspaper these days i guarantee you will find one in there somewhere. QR stands for Quick Response and a QR code can be encoded with a URL, a persons contact information, a link to like a brands Facebook page and <a href="http://snavski.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/scanning-qr-code-will-take-you-to.html">much much more</a>.<br />
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So if you don't know how a QR code works here is a little infographic to explain what to do when you see one next.<br />
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<a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/117445502753266186/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://media-cache-ec6.pinterest.com/upload/117445502753266186_gcTaOk2a_c.jpg" /></a><br />
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Source: <a href="http://infographicjournal.com/how-a-qr-code-works/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">infographicjournal.com</a> via <a href="http://pinterest.com/snavski/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Martin</a> on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" style="color: #76838b; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></div>
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A QR codes use is only limited by the person who encodes it's creativity. Checkout this link it's a neat idea by the Catalan Government railway to help improve literacy by the <a href="http://snavski.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/what-novel-use-of-qr-codes.html">national reading plan</a>.
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What is the best use of a QR code you have seen? Tell me in the comments.</div>
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-16062033308897252422012-07-16T21:03:00.001+01:002012-07-16T21:03:58.783+01:00LinkedIn's New Homepage Design On It's Way To All.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Not so long back we had the iPad app redesign and now LinkedIn is rolling out a new desktop homepage design to it's 160+ million users.<br />
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In a blog post released today by product manager Caroline Gaffney states that the redesign is a more modern design and is simpler and easier to navigate.
The news feed will be a continuous stream so no need for clicking see more or waiting for more updates to load when you reach the bottom of the page.<br />
The top of the newsfeed will show relevant content such important updates and news articles recommended by LinkedIn for you.<br />
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The redesign also shows how many interactions there are to each update in the news feed such as how many liked and shared the post and how many comments it has generated.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeDBv8EPpyFWrMH0sEw29dS-fK_LSSBFFsAcmyaY4dy9XLY3QgpECiX6tK6jzq1_4XaMfpSvGk_no0UspB5yT886YFTwCFRcchDJnZ5ob1ayJ8FMIlQVsuAfjNj2_AFA8KL-CCnqvz8kaf/s1600/linkedin_new_homepage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="LinkedIn New Homepage Design" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeDBv8EPpyFWrMH0sEw29dS-fK_LSSBFFsAcmyaY4dy9XLY3QgpECiX6tK6jzq1_4XaMfpSvGk_no0UspB5yT886YFTwCFRcchDJnZ5ob1ayJ8FMIlQVsuAfjNj2_AFA8KL-CCnqvz8kaf/s640/linkedin_new_homepage.png" title="LinkedIn New Homepage Design" width="393" /></a></div>
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It is less busy and does look easier to navigate but for how long? Caroline goes on to say "This is just the beginning of many more exciting, new features we plan to bring to the Homepage to offer more customisation and functionality this year.</div>
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Some are already saying that it is looking a lot like Facebook and Google+. Personally i think Facebook has become far too busy and i prefer the simplistic design to Google Plus and LinkedIn. What do you think of the new LinkedIn redesign? Let me know in the comments.</div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-54126536083668560022012-07-15T20:47:00.001+01:002012-07-15T20:47:20.835+01:0014 Tips To Get More Likes On Your Facebook Page<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">You've created yourself a Facebook fan page so now what? The next thing is to encourage people to "Like" your fanpage and to be part of your Facebook community. The age old saying "build it and they will come" doesn't quite work these days unless your company is a well known brand. So below are 14 tips to help you get more likes and engagement on your company fanpage.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">1. When you are starting out the easiest and best way to get some likes is by asking your friends and family to like and your page. This will help expand your reach because your friends friends will see that he/she liked your page and quite often their friends will follow suit and like your page. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">2. If you have a website or blog make sure that you create and install the Facebook social plugin "Like Box", visitors can like your Facebook page without leaving your website or blog.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJLABsoUsCM411SGg2GgEGQVUVtWWA70bcQgeV0WPoLRwDWdO6jiEuT-RYskVRIOHxbB3T6y0XBrmibDjPKts7ODZEfHF5FaFuDhVnswZljXrS70_xaDpVFmnvqVOmNKn7qCeoHWKb8bFF/s1600/Like+Box+config+image.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Facebook Like Box Social Plugin" border="0" height="625" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJLABsoUsCM411SGg2GgEGQVUVtWWA70bcQgeV0WPoLRwDWdO6jiEuT-RYskVRIOHxbB3T6y0XBrmibDjPKts7ODZEfHF5FaFuDhVnswZljXrS70_xaDpVFmnvqVOmNKn7qCeoHWKb8bFF/s640/Like+Box+config+image.png" title="" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">3. Run a competition or sweepstake, this can greatly increase engagement and likes. Make sure that the competition abides by Facebook's terms and conditions though. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php">See part E about Promotions</a></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">4. If you're on LinkedIn (and if you have a business you should be) add your Facebook page as one of your 3 website links.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">5. Be sure to add your page Facebook page URL to all of your outgoing email, include it in your signature.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">6. Include your page URL to all your business paperwork such as letterheads, business cards, flyers etc.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">7. Put a sign up in your business premises stating that you are on Facebook, make sure it can be easily seen by as many people as possible. The sign should include the Facebook logo which is easily identifiable and a few words such as "We are on Facebook like us on facebook.com/yourcompany".</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">8. Ensure that all your offline print advertising includes your Facebook page URL, because smartphone users can connect to your fanpage there and then. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">9. Ask questions regularly, this can help you segment your fanbase further. For instance if you are a fast food restaurant the Facebook insights tool will not tell you which ones like pizza or which ones like burgers, so you could ask a question using the Facebook ask a question app. To ask a question simply click on the "Event, Milestone +" tab toward the top of your homepage and this will show you a drop down menu as image 1, select Question then type your question. You can either press post if you want random answers or you can select to add answers in a poll, just click on "Add Poll Options as image 2 and add your answers as in image 3. If you don't want others to add other answer options remember to unselect the tick box "Allow anyone to add options" as in image 3. </span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigHxxuA8KmLJz868gnMXePmWhotx4_jmiVzMC2gvpiTyagTG76sIqSQd359anXZrF7NGDirn1vTCWUqq2BIvDWrFqKxImv632jg8d0aOuvShjuZK5UPetSAcSX5__4TkWhkpktDcYgzNYl/s1600/FB_ask_questions.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Facebook ask questions tab" border="0" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigHxxuA8KmLJz868gnMXePmWhotx4_jmiVzMC2gvpiTyagTG76sIqSQd359anXZrF7NGDirn1vTCWUqq2BIvDWrFqKxImv632jg8d0aOuvShjuZK5UPetSAcSX5__4TkWhkpktDcYgzNYl/s640/FB_ask_questions.jpeg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Facebook Questions - Image 1</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRY8dbXGJppExhw-5kU7Sr2a2SZIfzv4SVFIAuaxkZnP8FJQl96j8VdaU0lz9wfPgcOWIIhXkAlAYD0t-hHXJXE45UQKVZ1hCrNOtzJjZg_90WpJslCJHLre4GvdtiB9s5XGmlXdQca-7I/s1600/FB_ask_questions3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Facebook ask questions tab" border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRY8dbXGJppExhw-5kU7Sr2a2SZIfzv4SVFIAuaxkZnP8FJQl96j8VdaU0lz9wfPgcOWIIhXkAlAYD0t-hHXJXE45UQKVZ1hCrNOtzJjZg_90WpJslCJHLre4GvdtiB9s5XGmlXdQca-7I/s640/FB_ask_questions3.jpeg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Facebook Questions - Image 2</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv7mg70wgQEnngewccbQAn3TLqvwo_inGRdJP2jWA7LwLjj29VIyj4UsgwfzUR6zzCQWNq3Xd43wbjBeJyvit8la3FqLGYFmbFAkIlN7LFYvzzIXAWahvUfPJqHsBcyfuIlMjm6kIGrF3R/s1600/FB_ask_questions2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Facebook as questions polling version" border="0" height="371" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv7mg70wgQEnngewccbQAn3TLqvwo_inGRdJP2jWA7LwLjj29VIyj4UsgwfzUR6zzCQWNq3Xd43wbjBeJyvit8la3FqLGYFmbFAkIlN7LFYvzzIXAWahvUfPJqHsBcyfuIlMjm6kIGrF3R/s640/FB_ask_questions2.jpeg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Facebook Questions - Image 3 </td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">10. When you post to your blog, post a link to it on your Facebook page too.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">11. Invest in</span><span style="background-color: black;"> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/about/ads/">Facebook advertising</a> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">12. Upload a video explaining exactly what your Facebook fanpage is all about and what they can expect to receive in their news feed from you. Don't forget to mention that they have to like your fanpage first to get your information on their newsfeed.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">13. Posting relevant and great content will keep fans interested and will encourage them to share and like your posts.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">14. Include a like button and a link to your Facebook page in your weekly or monthly HTML newsletter.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">These are simple and easy to implement and will help you gain more likes for your fanpage. Let me know in the comments if they work for you or if you have any other ideas so i can add them here.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-74769712487134234392012-06-27T23:01:00.001+01:002012-06-27T23:01:25.891+01:00Want to change the name of your Facebook page? Now you can.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
On wednesday Facebook announced that they were going to make it easier to change the name of Facebook pages or Fan Pages as they are also known. Previously page administrators with less than 100 fans were only able to change the name of their page by submitting a request to Facebook. Now you can change it yourself, but only once and if you have less than 200 fans. If you need to change it again for whatever reason you must then submit a request to Facebook.<br />
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To change your Facebook pages username follow these steps:<br />
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<li>You must be signed in as the administrator account </li>
<li>Go to the page you wish to change</li>
<li>At the top of the page select the "Edit Info" drop down box and select "Update Info"</li>
<li>Select "Basic Information" as below and click on "Change Username" as highlighted below</li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZxF9RPcERqaT8oBxt_KOqR4vFQyYVjMvLHXZo4u0cGLHk7vVFi9cA_CPHj3gpkQczQJUZ-jiyRMWA7H4fM7f_N5M-l2cEyeNVnLff6JUAsZkojeGFBxUUUvYJ5x0vCAQbx6BGy8slilpm/s1600/Change+FB+Page+Username.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="facebook pages username change" border="0" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZxF9RPcERqaT8oBxt_KOqR4vFQyYVjMvLHXZo4u0cGLHk7vVFi9cA_CPHj3gpkQczQJUZ-jiyRMWA7H4fM7f_N5M-l2cEyeNVnLff6JUAsZkojeGFBxUUUvYJ5x0vCAQbx6BGy8slilpm/s640/Change+FB+Page+Username.png" title="" width="640" /></a></div>
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5. Then change current username to new username as shown below. Remember you can only do it once, if you want to change it again you must submit a request to Facebook and there is no guarantee that they will do it. So make sure it's the name you want. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV7Bg0uqRqoGGgG7idQa0SADIqIOQyCUI_zqSlK-yu9zX82auqKcU-QsdlVKBjVKUZ6HeOIhRI8I-Ya8249Bm8anCjAQssM1fMXHLfqFEGJ2_Iked2-jGG8yRyir8c3v62DGlqBkrg54CK/s1600/Username+Change.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="facebook pages username change" border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV7Bg0uqRqoGGgG7idQa0SADIqIOQyCUI_zqSlK-yu9zX82auqKcU-QsdlVKBjVKUZ6HeOIhRI8I-Ya8249Bm8anCjAQssM1fMXHLfqFEGJ2_Iked2-jGG8yRyir8c3v62DGlqBkrg54CK/s640/Username+Change.png" title="" width="640" /></a></div>
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6. Select "Check availability" and that's it your done.</div>
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If you found this information helpful please share it.</div>
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-51093979779826045652012-06-21T11:05:00.001+01:002012-06-21T11:05:40.899+01:00Infographics, Why Are They So Popular?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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An infographic or information graphic is a visual representation of information, statistics, data and knowledge.<br />
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Infographics have become more popular since the birth of the internet, although they have been around long before the internet was invented going back as far as the caveman days, such as cave paintings and more recently in the form of maps.<br />
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The popularity of infographics is down to the fact that a picture paints a better picture of information and is easier for the brain to digest. Below is an infographic showing us what infographics are.<br />
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<a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/117445502753071601/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://media-cache-ec1.pinterest.com/upload/117445502753071601_mzoiwW14_c.jpg" /></a></div>
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Source: <a href="http://infographiclabs.com/news/what-is-an-infographic/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">infographiclabs.com</a> via <a href="http://pinterest.com/snavski/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Martin</a> on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" style="color: #76838b; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></div>
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If you want to see more infographics, head over to my <a href="http://pinterest.com/snavski/">Pinterest page</a> where you can follow any of my boards.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-87073406837941957612012-06-20T18:37:00.000+01:002012-06-20T18:37:05.514+01:00PayPal reveals it's POS app for in-store retailers.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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PayPal has started to ramp up it's <a href="http://snavski.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/paypal-making-big-push-in-mobile.html">mobile payments again</a>. This time PayPal released it's point of sale (POS) app to bricks and mortar retailers last month called <i><b>PayPal In-store</b></i>. Partnering with the retailer <a href="http://www.aurorafashions.com/">Aurora Fashions</a> stores first, and with technology partners <a href="http://www.btexpedite.com/">BT Expedite</a> who are the retail solutions division of BT and <a href="http://www.eagleeye.com/">Eagle Eye Solutions</a> a world leader in mobile coupons and vouchers.<br />
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The technical solutions that provide the interface between Paypal and the retailer was developed by Eagle Eye solutions, this also included the payment authentication platform and apps.<br />
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Cameron McLean the managing director for PayPal Uk says "The PayPal In-store app marked the start of a quiet revolution in the way we shop on the high street, and Eagle Eye Solutions and BT Expedite helped us move very quickly to enable retailers to take mobile payments in-store, without the need to rip out and replace their existing POS systems.<br />
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PayPal In-store can also be accepted by any other BT Expedite retailers that are running the 6.X POS system.<br />
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PayPal have released this video below demonstrating how easy it is to use the new PayPal In-store app:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/43526666" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> </div>
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<a href="http://vimeo.com/43526666">PayPal PoS Trade Show Final Cut</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user1054205">Newspepper</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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The mobile payments industry is getting quite bloated with all the competition, PayPal, Square, Intuit, and many many more. Do you think that there will be one that will conquer all or do you think that the market is big enough for them all? Tell me your thoughts below.</div>
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-78110837590356665392012-06-07T08:45:00.000+01:002012-06-07T08:45:07.957+01:00UK E-commerce Is Gathering Pace, But Is The Future Mobile<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The e-commerce business to consumer (B2C) market in the UK is going from strength to strength according to <a href="http://www.emarketer.com/AboutUs/Welcome.aspx" target="_blank">eMarketer</a> who publishes data, analysis and insights on digital marketing, media and commerce.<br />
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B2C sales in the UK topped $109 billion (about £71 billion in english money) in 2011 and is expected to top $124 billion (£80 billion) in 2012.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxpLXA87ZMMbfh-CdcrhMFtEGRICV4I3SUrM3pJxJsVs0rQwNAh_UKvY_P_y_K25TiYMGeBq3GXXMvCH1rMBm5rAVcdJOmjd1_VZjpkbRWv9EqhyphenhyphenGZmRqAFe_Jak8rQ_XbKFeKYZmUOjX4/s1600/UK_B2C_ecommerce_sales+2010-2016.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="UK B2C Ecommerce Sales 2010-2016 Chart" border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxpLXA87ZMMbfh-CdcrhMFtEGRICV4I3SUrM3pJxJsVs0rQwNAh_UKvY_P_y_K25TiYMGeBq3GXXMvCH1rMBm5rAVcdJOmjd1_VZjpkbRWv9EqhyphenhyphenGZmRqAFe_Jak8rQ_XbKFeKYZmUOjX4/s320/UK_B2C_ecommerce_sales+2010-2016.gif" title="eMarketer UK B2C Ecommerce Sales 2010-2016 Chart" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chart Image Credit - eMarketer.com</td></tr>
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Retailers are now using multichannel's to keep up with the ever demanding consumer. Some are now offering "click and collect" services, allowing the consumer to select and reserve goods online and collect them from their nearest store, while others are offering premium next-day delivery for the same price as a 3 day service.<br />
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In this day and age with some high street stores closing and many are struggling to keep their head above water it is important that the retailer is in touch with consumer shopping habits. Mobile has become a very important tool in the tech-savvy shoppers arsenal. The always on the go and connected shopper now has the tools at hand to make a better and informed decision on a potential purchase.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicrrmKdlNs_KPB9FELZqBQ7Np5MREDrW0xOV-Xt5hzHgPL2hatoCk834lIZ8-vfI56zOjHKVQgxKw3YFchvKd5hLy-mXAB8YvvjJfDJIhdOsDpj0bXotY1pNidyQjMQDLbqXdzLgnjQJ-P/s1600/In-store_mobile_shopping_activities_of_UK_mobile_internet_users_jan2012.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="In-store Mobile Shopping Activities of UK Mobile Internet Users Jan 2012 Chart" border="0" height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicrrmKdlNs_KPB9FELZqBQ7Np5MREDrW0xOV-Xt5hzHgPL2hatoCk834lIZ8-vfI56zOjHKVQgxKw3YFchvKd5hLy-mXAB8YvvjJfDJIhdOsDpj0bXotY1pNidyQjMQDLbqXdzLgnjQJ-P/s320/In-store_mobile_shopping_activities_of_UK_mobile_internet_users_jan2012.gif" title="eMarketer In-store Mobile Shopping Activities of UK Mobile Internet Users Jan 2012 Chart" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chart Image Credit - eMarketer.com</td></tr>
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As you can see by the graph above 34% of shoppers compare competitor prices on their mobile device whilst in-store, while others are seeking product reviews online or asking friends advice on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. 5% end up buying an item through their mobile device, these figures are expected to grow exponentially as smartphone adoption grows further in the UK.<br />
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Jonathon Brown, head of online selling at John Lewis told the Guardian newspaper at the end of 2011 "Mobile has reached a scale now where all retailers must take it seriously."<br />
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What are you doing to keep up with the always on and connected consumer? Let me know in the comments below.<br />
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-29999008374686939742012-06-06T12:31:00.001+01:002012-06-06T12:31:05.383+01:00June 6th 2012 the internet will change forever.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As of today June 6th 2012 the internet will change for the better. <br />
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Since the internet was born back in 1983 it has been running out of space. There are so many devices connected to the internet these days, serveing 2.5 billion people and 11 billion devices. When you connect to the internet your device requires an IP address, this identifies each device and helps it to communicate with other devices on the internet.<br />
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We have up until now been running on IPv4 which has only space for 4.3 billion addresses, so in order for the internet to be able to grow the Internet Society has introduced IPv6 before we run out of space. IPv6 has enough space for (wait for it) 340 Trillion, Trillion, Trillion addresses.<br />
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So as of today IPv6 will be switched on for participating websites, Internet Service Providers (ISP) and network hardware providers and it will gradually be rolled out to the masses over time.<br />
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Some people may need to upgrade their routers or download upgraded operating system software.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-Uwjt32NvVA" width="560"></iframe>
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<a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/117445502752984396/" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="880" src="http://media-cache-ec5.pinterest.com/upload/117445502752984396_hz7LaEOV_c.jpg" width="248" /></a></div>
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Source: <a href="http://blogs.orange-business.com/connecting-technology/2012/06/infographic-why-the-connected-age-needs-ipv6.html" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">blogs.orange-business.com</a> via <a href="http://pinterest.com/snavski/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Martin</a> on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" style="color: #76838b; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></div>
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Welcome to the future of the internet!</div>
<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-21208749648441039932012-06-04T14:50:00.003+01:002012-06-04T14:50:42.662+01:00Reading NFC Enabled Outdoor Advertising Trials Results.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Back in March 2012 JCDecaux, Kinetic and Zappit teamed up to <a href="http://snavski.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/is-city-of-reading-ready-for-delights.html">trial near field communication technology</a> in the city of Reading, UK.<br />
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<a href="http://www.jcdecaux.co.uk/" target="_blank">JCDecaux</a> is the largest out-of-home advertising company in Europe, <a href="http://www.kineticww.com/" target="_blank">Kinetic</a> is the world's largest planner and buyer of out-of-home media and <a href="http://zappit.co/">Zappit</a> is a provider of QR codes, NFC and mobile payment technology.<br />
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Reading was chosen because David McEvoy marketing director of JCDecaux said "our research shows us that Reading is one of the most tech-savvy towns in the UK with a higher number of mobile phone and smartphone owners than the rest of the country.<br />
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There were 12 advertising partners across various industries H&M, Vaseline, ITV2, EA Games, Lynx, Magnum, lucozade Sport, Morrisons, Mercedes, Toni & Guy, Universal DVD and Universal Special Projects.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUJBNrVSDLI6ePH_tsZ38llYDpPfp1XUhn4Z9wWEUlHLuyR15ekk1ohGqt0OgkHiKf5vZmpgmUyXVt1czxb26QO5lxmUv8j1N0UZRM6QA11fJ7YHkfIpOG8FOeHmMh-iaC_k_DjDQA0OP5/s1600/reading-nfc-posters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Reading NFC Trials" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUJBNrVSDLI6ePH_tsZ38llYDpPfp1XUhn4Z9wWEUlHLuyR15ekk1ohGqt0OgkHiKf5vZmpgmUyXVt1czxb26QO5lxmUv8j1N0UZRM6QA11fJ7YHkfIpOG8FOeHmMh-iaC_k_DjDQA0OP5/s320/reading-nfc-posters.jpg" title="Reading NFC trials" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image credit: nfcworld.com</td></tr>
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Posters were positioned at 6 sites which included the Oracle shopping mall and bus stops across the town, more than 3,000 people scanned the posters getting access to content such as mobile discounts, video trailers and competition entry. 78% were overwhelmingly positive about their experience and ease of use was a big factor in it's success over the 4 week trial period.<br />
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Download conversion rates for video content stood at 28%, rising to 49% when the content was new or previously unseen. Vouchers attracted new customers and performed better when the NFC site was situated nearer the advertisers store. Redemption rates rose from 7% to 18% across the 4 week period.<br />
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Research found that 87% of people with NFC enabled phones are likely to repeat the experience whilst 80% of non-NFC enabled phone users would like to use the technology in the future.<br />
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Richard Brooke, Communications Buying Manager at Unilever said:<br />
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"As one of the UK's largest advertisers it's important that we continually explore the emerging digital world to get a glimpse into the future of marketing - and even play our part in shaping it. The Reading trial gave us the perfect opportunity to experience this way of opening conversations with our consumers through four of our brands - Vaseline, Toni & Guy and Magnum - and we're pleased that the results proved to be so positive. The four-week trial showed that we can successfully combine the out-of-home channel with mobile technology to create a richer and deeper engagement with our consumers."<br />
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Have you used NFC technology before, if so how was your experience and would you use it again? I'd love to hear some of your comments below.<br />
<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-49837649190379684522012-04-19T19:23:00.002+01:002012-04-19T19:23:25.208+01:00What a novel use of QR codes.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We are seeing more and more uses for <a href="http://snavski.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/scanning-qr-code-will-take-you-to.html" target="_blank">QR codes</a> coming about, since they are becoming more popular and are almost seen on a daily basis, on the TV, in newspapers, magazines and on-line. I came across this article that had been shared on LinkedIn about the Catalan Government Railway, who have put up posters advertising the first chapter of a book for free by scanning a QR code.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7EzPTXUtNIuHMJerNPAt0uLZhY9NSerwTPLs_2N6sraQujwD8-fc6YVeOpVFRPfOBXbfW9UYJ-LUo1nwaCZpR8eAzoYUIYWZld0PUQZPAurUUjzHTUJrZ2Z-MQTCMZV5KU8AUTWouzGSp/s1600/Spanish_QR_Code.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="Spanish Book QR code" border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7EzPTXUtNIuHMJerNPAt0uLZhY9NSerwTPLs_2N6sraQujwD8-fc6YVeOpVFRPfOBXbfW9UYJ-LUo1nwaCZpR8eAzoYUIYWZld0PUQZPAurUUjzHTUJrZ2Z-MQTCMZV5KU8AUTWouzGSp/s320/Spanish_QR_Code.png" title="Scan QR Code for the first chapter of a book" width="320" /></a></div>
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This was aimed to help improve literacy by the National Reading Plan. </div>
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It's a great idea, usually when you embark on a train journey, you want something to occupy your time a little during the journey. So what better way to relax a little and read the first chapter of a book and if you like it, you can buy it through your smartphone and get lost in the rest of the book while the world whizzes by.</div>
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What other great uses of QR codes have you seen out there? i would love to hear about them. Tell me in the comments below :)</div>
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-2989344331906606072012-03-23T19:24:00.002+00:002012-03-23T19:26:27.539+00:00The social landscape guide for marketers (Infographic).<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
For all us marketers social media is a must and knowing which ones to use that give us the best ROI for our marketing spend can sometimes become a bit blurry. There are lots of new services coming online daily and many considered to be the next big thing, but keeping up and engaging with your existing networks can be a challenge in itself. Learning to use a new service is very time consuming and can be a total waste of time but if the site takes off the benefits can be huge.<br />
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There are still 8 networks from <a href="http://www.cmo.com/social-media/2011-cmos-guide-social-landscape" target="_blank">CMO's 2011 Guide to the social lanscape</a>, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon and Flickr. This year for an unknown reason tumblr has been replaced by delicious but if you see last years guide tumblr still has it's benefits.<br />
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5 networks have been added to this years guide to the social networks from the good folks over at <a href="http://cmo.com/">CMO.com</a>, they are in no particular order:<br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="http://slideshare.net/" target="_blank">SlideShare</a> - as the name suggests is a slide sharing service, share Powerpoint, PDF, Keynote or Open Office presentations in file format. Slideshare attracts around 58 million unique visitors a month.</li>
<li><a href="http://plus.google.com/" target="_blank">Google+</a> - is Google's latest venture into social media and the search giants competitor to Facebook. They recently announced it has over 100 million registered users and growing faster than Facebook did in the same time period since its launch.</li>
<li><a href="http://quora.com/" target="_blank">Quora</a> - a question and answer service edited by its community of users. </li>
<li><a href="http://instagr.am/" target="_blank">Instagram</a> - a free photo sharing application currently only available on iOS, although the Android version is in private beta testing.</li>
<li><a href="http://snavski.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/some-pinteresting-reasons-why-everyone.html" target="_blank">Pinterest</a> - the biggest social network of 2012 thus far, Pinterest is a content sharing service allowing users to Pin images and videos to virtual pinboards.</li>
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So here we have an infographic of the 14 hottest social networking sites and their ratings in 4 categories, customer communication, brand exposure, traffic to your site and SEO.</div>
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<a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/117445502752584355/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="CMO's Guide to the social landscape" border="0" src="http://media-cache2.pinterest.com/upload/117445502752584355_GWLR8msw_c.jpg" title="" /></a></div>
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Source: <a href="http://www.cmo.com/social-media/2012-cmos-guide-social-landscape?cid=" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">cmo.com</a> via <a href="http://pinterest.com/snavski/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Martin</a> on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" style="color: #76838b; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></div>
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What's your take? Which networks do you find work best for you or is it missing from this list, let us know what you think in the comments.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-90389885897111999862012-03-18T23:52:00.002+00:002012-03-18T23:52:31.708+00:00PayPal making a big push in the mobile payments industry.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The mobile payments industry is on fire at the moment and PayPal has been working hard ramping up its mobile payments offerings. On Thursday it launched it's mobile credit card payment processing competitor to <a href="http://squareup.com/" target="_blank">Square</a> called "PayPal Here" currently only available in the US, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHi7gFBGoj-gMu2wK_vO4OMuxRVLY1YaXH8Q6UcStvaHAXTLssmlLYMOzZz7pPZNF-fri8z1S8BPHijU1P2XuPU4YNlCHZwB7OYPkE4PblzLYch6V_kFjpGWuiclPc-SgdiDWaZRmwQA68/s1600/squareup_image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHi7gFBGoj-gMu2wK_vO4OMuxRVLY1YaXH8Q6UcStvaHAXTLssmlLYMOzZz7pPZNF-fri8z1S8BPHijU1P2XuPU4YNlCHZwB7OYPkE4PblzLYch6V_kFjpGWuiclPc-SgdiDWaZRmwQA68/s1600/squareup_image.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Square Credit Card Reader</td></tr>
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Square founded by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Dorsey" target="_blank">Jack Dorsey</a> has until now been the leader in the mobile phone payment processing market, and currently processes up to $4 billion of transactions annually from over 1 million customers and is currently only available in 50 US states. The mobile payments industry is one of the fastest growing mobile markets and <a href="http://juniperresearch.com/" target="_blank">Juniper Research</a> reports that the mobile payments industry will be worth a whopping $170 billion by 2015, up from $60 billion in 2011.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgev4ANhP7ipHfYKI-Pq4T9GjdejayJeYXq5KPjRskSPkJkmvRn7rdI_4KJpYfifLvsSet1-kzN_N_f1IWd0XxZPV3N9PKXFYY6Ywf309iXOuOhCr_hwNU6XZVIu30nMf9bGDVncChSoUC0/s1600/paypal_here_mobile_card_reader.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgev4ANhP7ipHfYKI-Pq4T9GjdejayJeYXq5KPjRskSPkJkmvRn7rdI_4KJpYfifLvsSet1-kzN_N_f1IWd0XxZPV3N9PKXFYY6Ywf309iXOuOhCr_hwNU6XZVIu30nMf9bGDVncChSoUC0/s1600/paypal_here_mobile_card_reader.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PayPal Here Credit Card Reader</td></tr>
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PayPal launched in 1998 and in 2002 it was acquired by the online auction marketplace <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal" target="_blank">ebay</a>, since then it has become the de facto in online payments with over 100 million customers in 190 countries. So it is a natural progression for PayPal wanting to be #1 in the mobile payments industry. Will it topple the current leader Square who have been processing credit card payments through mobile devices since 2009, (which is a long time considering the pace at which the mobile market is moving) only time will tell.<br />
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The mobile credit card reader makes it easier for sellers of services and goods to accept and process payments on the go through the Apple iOS and Android mobile devices, more devices will be added in the near future. PayPal and Square offer both their readers for free with no set up fees, but whereas Square charges 2.75% per transaction PayPal will charge 2.7% per transaction.<br />
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There are 3 things you will need to accept payments though: 1) a PayPal account 2) a card reader for your mobile device and 3) the PayPal Here app installed on your mobile device. Watch a brief demo video of the PayPal Here service below.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/x5woIGSOLGk" width="560"></iframe></div>
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I should think PayPal will begin to roll out to other countries over the next few months and i'm looking forward to seeing it become available in the UK, i think it will become widely used here, if you'll pardon the pun. </div>
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If your one of the lucky ones in one of the countries where it is available and you get a chance to use it, either as a seller or buyer please let me know in the comments below i would be keen to hear about your experience.</div>
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-25563739729924281512012-03-11T18:29:00.000+00:002013-03-25T21:00:57.129+00:00Google Plus for Business, reasons why your business should have a page. (Infographic)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Google+ (Google Plus or G+) is the new social media network from Google. It launched back in June 2011 and since then it has amassed over 90 million users and still growing at an astonishing rate.. Below is an infographic created by <a href="http://www.blueglass.com/" target="_blank">Blueglass</a> for <a href="http://www.chrisbrogan.com/" target="_blank">ChrisBrogan</a> that outlines every reason why your business should have a page setup on the newest social network from the giant that is Google. Some fantastic information and a few marketing tips to get you started.<br />
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<a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/117445502752527837/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="2439" src="http://media-cache-ec2.pinterest.com/736x/a1/e5/b3/a1e5b345a7b1a203780cdfb73cf0e10e.jpg" width="236" /></a></div>
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Source: <a href="http://www.chrisbrogan.com/gplusinfographic/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">chrisbrogan.com</a> via<a href="http://pinterest.com/snavski" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Martin</a> on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" style="color: #76838b; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></div>
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If this has helped you to make your mind up about Google+ please share, thanks :)</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-31362736415261423052012-03-01T22:07:00.002+00:002012-06-04T12:44:04.399+01:00Is the town of Reading ready for the delights that NFC has to offer?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
March 5th will see the launch of a 4 week mass NFC advertising trial in the town of Reading in the UK.<br />
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NFC is an abbreviation of Near Field Communication and is a form of contactless communication between an NFC tag and a device like a smartphone, tablet or point of sale payment system. An NFC tag is a wireless radio frequency electromagnetic field contactless system (based on the existing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_identification" target="_blank">Radio-Frequency Identification</a> or RFID tag) that transfers data between the tag and a wireless device.<br />
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<a href="http://www.jcdecaux.co.uk/" target="_blank">JCDecaux</a> the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-home_advertising" target="_blank">out-of-home advertising</a> giant will bring NFC "touchpoint" tags to 325 bus stops and poster locations in and around the town, including the Oracle shopping centre.<br />
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Shoppers and public transport users will be able to interact with the posters through <a href="http://snavski.blogspot.com/2012/02/scanning-qr-code-will-take-you-to.html" target="_blank">QR codes</a> and NFC tags, enabling them to get exclusive access to content such as discount vouchers, preview video trailers of new DVD's or TV shows and can enter competitions. There are 12 brand participating in the trial, H&M, Vaseline, ITV2, EA Games, Lynx, Magnum, Lucozade Sport, Morrisons, Mercedes, Toni & Guy, Universal DVD and Universal Special Projects.David McEvoy marketing director of JCDecaux UK says "Our research shows us that Reading is one of the most tech-savvy towns in the UK with a higher number of mobile phone and smartphone owners than the rest of the country. This puts Reading at the forefront of interactivity at bus shelters and so we really hope people will try it out and enjoy accessing the entertainment and special offers available through their smartphone".<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUJBNrVSDLI6ePH_tsZ38llYDpPfp1XUhn4Z9wWEUlHLuyR15ekk1ohGqt0OgkHiKf5vZmpgmUyXVt1czxb26QO5lxmUv8j1N0UZRM6QA11fJ7YHkfIpOG8FOeHmMh-iaC_k_DjDQA0OP5/s1600/reading-nfc-posters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUJBNrVSDLI6ePH_tsZ38llYDpPfp1XUhn4Z9wWEUlHLuyR15ekk1ohGqt0OgkHiKf5vZmpgmUyXVt1czxb26QO5lxmUv8j1N0UZRM6QA11fJ7YHkfIpOG8FOeHmMh-iaC_k_DjDQA0OP5/s400/reading-nfc-posters.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Credit: Image from <a href="http://nfcworld.com/">nfcworld.com</a>)</td></tr>
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Same as QR codes there are many uses for Near Field Communication technology and many believe that NFC will eventually kill off the QR code, personally i think the two can survive together. Smartphone makers are now shipping handsets that are already NFC enabled and for those with an older phone a SIM card that turns any phone into an NFC phone: Morpho and INSIDE Secure present <a href="http://www.morpho.com/actualites-et-evenements/presse/a-sim-that-turns-any-phone-into-an-nfc-phone-morpho-and-inside-secure-present-simply-nfc-revolution?lang=en" target="_blank">"SIMply NFC-Revolution"</a>.<br />
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Recently at <a href="http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/" target="_blank">Mobile World Congress 2012</a> (MWC) in Barcelona, mobile phone makers Blackberry (RIM) showcased a Porsche 911 which had an NFC tag integrated into the vehicle. The users phone is then able to be paired automatically with the in-car system simply by touch. Watch the video below from RIM with their vision for cars of the future.<br />
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Other car manufacturers are looking into how they can use NFC technology, <a href="http://www.bmwgroup.com/bmwgroup_prod/e/nav/index.html?http://www.bmwgroup.com/bmwgroup_prod/e/0_0_www_bmwgroup_com/home/home.html" target="_blank">BMW</a>'s research and development team are looking into many ways they can integrate NFC with their cars.<br />
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Some Mc'Donalds fast food outlets are already using NFC for contactless payments, simply wave your credit card over the point of sale terminal to pay for your food.<br />
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There are some exciting things on the way for near field communication technology and i for one can't wait. Pop back here regularly for more posts on NFC developments and other news about new and emerging technologies. Get all new posts and updates to your inbox, follow my blog by entering your email address in the box at the top right hand corner.<br />
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Have you used NFC technology yet, what was it for and how was your experience? I'd love to hear from you, leave a comment below.</div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-69339996756461746262012-02-12T16:17:00.000+00:002012-02-13T08:11:35.188+00:00Some Pinterest...ing reasons why everyone is talking about Pinterest.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img border="0" height="81" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Zu9renWs1KmBwItkGu6acViaCkwUi-3b4izDJtAXt4IrNc7DNQU7nFsNwGnrG_95PIn9JvxAlCcGvhN7R2pWsoPwVOmXB2NhXL3RkX494KaX_EbBzKgb99TpJh7gdfrHbOcHBQeH_nsx/s320/Pinterest_Logo.png" width="320" /></div>
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<b><a href="http://bit.ly/xBWfKp">Pinterest</a></b> is the hottest website around at the moment. The company launched back in March of 2010 and quietly gathered traction until the last quarter of 2011 where it has attracted the masses and grabbed global attention. Time listed it as one of its top 5 social media websites of 2011.<br />
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Described by some as a social network or a social commerce site and by others as a social bookmarking site, i suppose it is all of those and more, but the company describes itself as a <b>"virtual pinboard"</b> that lets you organise and share all the beautiful things you find on the web (or in the real world). Users can browse and create online bulletin boards for categories such as Art, Diy and Crafts, Food and Drink, Travel and Places amongst others. User demographics are 80% women versus 20% men, aged between 25-44 (55% of group, 30% are aged 25-34 and 25% are aged 35-44 ). Most popular amongst its user base are recipes, wedding items and other topics like humor and photography. Although more recently due to the sites global attention, more men and brands are signing up for the service, so the current demographics will change dramatically in the coming months.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7SwLfsTIMAWtJCZgTLZI5IABCGEwECdzRvMohB1I18PHyND7IMznVbx-iZCCL9ePLG6rkezkloL8jLIe14m3rlbDToD-djOylNsbluKwIzzc_Y_0gcvqyV9XRQ-5dpUi6q6qm9983sKYB/s1600/pinterest_screenshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7SwLfsTIMAWtJCZgTLZI5IABCGEwECdzRvMohB1I18PHyND7IMznVbx-iZCCL9ePLG6rkezkloL8jLIe14m3rlbDToD-djOylNsbluKwIzzc_Y_0gcvqyV9XRQ-5dpUi6q6qm9983sKYB/s400/pinterest_screenshot.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Credit Pinterest)</td></tr>
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Facebook have recently added the Pinterest app to it's functions (along with 59 other new apps) and is certainly a contributing factor to its phenomenal success. Thus enabling Facebook's 845 million users to share content like their favourite food, recipes, clothing, music and much more to their Facebook page. Currently there are about 2.7 million who are logging in to Pinterest via Facebook.<br />
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Lets take a look at some more information and stats doing the rounds on the internet. <a href="http://bit.ly/z885vt" target="_blank">Shareaholic</a> a leader in the content sharing field reports that Pinterest is referring more traffic than some of the big boys, Google+, Linkedin and YouTube but to name a few.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCixBTTJV0xTaPhzzLwq8wVcftMzK9wmc9CL5eZUFHjzolMlVjQx9kYo7pFbPoBtDJAT8_5C_O8_hMOlXBGmBDDTVM8UXBjpCJwJEZyQhewjbGD1KkdZ4ocncAyshJJurcIqV9NomQihLD/s1600/Shareaholic+referral+traffic+report+Jan+2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCixBTTJV0xTaPhzzLwq8wVcftMzK9wmc9CL5eZUFHjzolMlVjQx9kYo7pFbPoBtDJAT8_5C_O8_hMOlXBGmBDDTVM8UXBjpCJwJEZyQhewjbGD1KkdZ4ocncAyshJJurcIqV9NomQihLD/s640/Shareaholic+referral+traffic+report+Jan+2012.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Credit Shareaholic)</td></tr>
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Pinterest's user base grew from 1.2 million in August 2011 to over 4 million in December 2011. Comscore reports that the site is the <span style="font-size: large;">fastest independent growing site EVER</span>, with 11.7 million unique visitors in January 2012 making it one of the top 10 social networking and forums websites.<br />
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This infographic below from <a href="http://bit.ly/zFxFlY" target="_blank">Monetate</a> shows how Pinterest has become a big player in the social commerce referral world. It raised $37 million in funding last year and has an unconfirmed valuation of around $200 million, so it is a site to take notice of. All of this and almost 2 years after it's launch you can still only sign up by invite only!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVu8GQm7WZI8mzNT9oeKBEYW-L5scJTwrCuwxwIU0f3tr1lTTg7FwOHKS091hfDM5upilh799rEFm8tM6OoRf7-8EOVfM7uw8jxqjEF0MCOSi47hVGZcZU8T2mPiO7kcU9FBvKQ6oq3QG/s1600/Is-Pinterest-The-Next-Social-Commerce-Game-Changer-monetate-infographic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVu8GQm7WZI8mzNT9oeKBEYW-L5scJTwrCuwxwIU0f3tr1lTTg7FwOHKS091hfDM5upilh799rEFm8tM6OoRf7-8EOVfM7uw8jxqjEF0MCOSi47hVGZcZU8T2mPiO7kcU9FBvKQ6oq3QG/s1600/Is-Pinterest-The-Next-Social-Commerce-Game-Changer-monetate-infographic.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Credit Monetate)</td></tr>
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Undeniably the figures speak for themselves, Pinterest is on fire at the moment but can it keep it up? Well i think the answer is yes, Pinterest will soon be releasing the API for developers to build on top of it and venture capitalists are eager to invest in new start-ups looking to monetise off the back of it. Retailers are starting to flock to Pinterest as brands are able to set prices for products they have on their pinboards (much like a product catalogue), which in turn is driving a lot of traffic back to the retailers site.<br />
Although it means that Pinterest is not fully capitalising on that, however they are generating some revenue by adjusting and tracking links attached to user generated pins. It uses a service called <a href="http://bit.ly/x7BqlZ">Skimlinks</a> to add <a href="http://bit.ly/ym2PdB">affiliate marketing</a> links to products. Skimlinks has a network of affiliated retailers, so when a link is clicked and directs the user to the retailers site and the user make a purchase, the retailer will pay a share of the revenue to the affiliated network, who then pays the publisher. It is a very common and widely used tactic for publishers of sites looking to monetise their content, much the same as banner ads and texting programs.<br />
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Some brands are seeing huge traffic driven to their sites from Pinterest, such as American company <a href="http://bit.ly/ypeu9v" target="_blank">ideeli.com</a> which has seen a rise of 446% in traffic over the last 6 months.<br />
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Want to jump on the bandwagon? Create your own pinboards and start pinning your favourite items.<br />
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<b>How do i get started on Pinterest?</b> i hear you say!<br />
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You don't need an account to view peoples boards, but you do need to sign up for an account to become a member to pin and create your own boards. So to sign up head off over to <b><a href="http://bit.ly/xBWfKp">www.pinterest.com</a></b> and "request an invite" by filling out the request form <b>(for instant access you can login through Facebook or Twitter).</b><br />
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If you have requested an invite, you will soon receive an email inviting you to sign up for an account, click on the link in your email and sign up by creating your profile. The main features on Pinterest are:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipyV3tS5_HothWDnbjPDoXXfLxNarmpxe7B-NJYQjsY_8EputFuyIYhBG0mR2xgMYKFWldFriWdjPrmc3JDoqBqRVqcvkCj0VcnkiCyX_JIeIthMueb5sVKEBvVGv8jxNhfdGHlu3EU1Rq/s1600/Pin_It_button.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipyV3tS5_HothWDnbjPDoXXfLxNarmpxe7B-NJYQjsY_8EputFuyIYhBG0mR2xgMYKFWldFriWdjPrmc3JDoqBqRVqcvkCj0VcnkiCyX_JIeIthMueb5sVKEBvVGv8jxNhfdGHlu3EU1Rq/s1600/Pin_It_button.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Image Credit: Kerry Jones on Blueglass.com)
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<b style="font-size: x-large;"><u>Pin</u></b><br />
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A Pin is an image that can be added to Pinterest from another website using the "Pin It" button, or you can upload an image from your computer (or mobile phone if you have the Pinterest App installed).</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Board</span></u></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnbKsE38D7OADV__LM0UQiDNppeyZL5l6vaZTRQCR5LIH190cdp-xs9CZbr8sYe5uT9vRfm3xvK-UePI3tE7KNlwLABOac4yStcy48gpzWaulXk1Hb9-pA2QTY1gxIS0L-R23CROHRpVyR/s1600/pinboards.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnbKsE38D7OADV__LM0UQiDNppeyZL5l6vaZTRQCR5LIH190cdp-xs9CZbr8sYe5uT9vRfm3xvK-UePI3tE7KNlwLABOac4yStcy48gpzWaulXk1Hb9-pA2QTY1gxIS0L-R23CROHRpVyR/s400/pinboards.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Credit Kerry Jones on Blueglass.com)
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A Board is a set of Pins and a Board can be created on any topic, such as weddings and events, cool people, or beautiful images captured in photography. There is no set limit to the amount of pins in a board.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Repin</u></b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYwlEewmNisBAjatZYnttdY3R10yORoW3d3GKFVgGxLN66721dPjDVRQ_hJIh0ejl1l9PTu1DCa3WzXZnVMjKWu0vFdnUXE3308-q3QjeyW5Y3I-8QvbnnSsHpWo7xpnHwJCClLEzAEwSa/s1600/Repin_image1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYwlEewmNisBAjatZYnttdY3R10yORoW3d3GKFVgGxLN66721dPjDVRQ_hJIh0ejl1l9PTu1DCa3WzXZnVMjKWu0vFdnUXE3308-q3QjeyW5Y3I-8QvbnnSsHpWo7xpnHwJCClLEzAEwSa/s320/Repin_image1.png" width="205" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Image Credit: Kerry Jones on Blueglass.com)
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVpkWOYaCHefaG0NVfej0VslBIlIoNCEl8JFS_XkVxijtn-pRyjGIckmCp8I4wt1pSDSy_W_5AWyfBhM6nIKseiFh7YMBBIWflNrrsTeI2R545IWZRMj1gD4X1o05Wg8NFV0kenRHKVFiH/s1600/Repin_image.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVpkWOYaCHefaG0NVfej0VslBIlIoNCEl8JFS_XkVxijtn-pRyjGIckmCp8I4wt1pSDSy_W_5AWyfBhM6nIKseiFh7YMBBIWflNrrsTeI2R545IWZRMj1gD4X1o05Wg8NFV0kenRHKVFiH/s320/Repin_image.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Image Credit: Kerry Jones on Blueglass.com)
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To Repin is to find an image on Pinterest that you like and repin it to one of your boards and add your own description to it. When you repin someone else's image the original pinner will also get credit, as repins always maintain the original source link.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Like</u></b></span></div>
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If you Like a Pin it doesn't save to any of your Boards but just adds the pin to your profile's Like section.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Follow</u></b></span></div>
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To Follow means that you can either:<br />
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1. Follow the user of a Pin<br />
2. Follow the Board of that Pin or<br />
3. If it is a Repin you can Follow the original pinner.<br />
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If you sign up using Facebook or Twitter to login then you will see which of your friends are already using Pinterest.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Share</u></b></span></div>
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When you want to Share a Pin click on the image and it will open up a larger box and to the right of the image is where you can share via:<br />
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<li>The Facebook "Like" button</li>
<li>The Twitter "Tweet" button</li>
<li>Embed the link on your website or blog</li>
<li>The email button</li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIc98BooPIHCyLT1VTFSteUZV6IClBGTpGz6l8iiOQfimJWiSBadIoq7AmaCYUyXYEm4XHpsd0Sfk5QmLV_aDBmJuVJCmlaWgGT12r76cbISKTSDvg6PkwvK5T_e9vnteV-OEeDTm1LLKh/s1600/how_to_share.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIc98BooPIHCyLT1VTFSteUZV6IClBGTpGz6l8iiOQfimJWiSBadIoq7AmaCYUyXYEm4XHpsd0Sfk5QmLV_aDBmJuVJCmlaWgGT12r76cbISKTSDvg6PkwvK5T_e9vnteV-OEeDTm1LLKh/s400/how_to_share.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Image Credit: Kerry Jones on Blueglass.com)
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<u style="font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold;">Comment</u></div>
You can Comment on any Pin by either hovering over the Pin and clicking the Comment button in the top right corner of the Pin box or by clicking on the Pin and commenting on the large pop up box.<br />
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Now you've learnt the basics head over to Pinterest and <a href="http://bit.ly/xRss4Q">learn more...</a><br />
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Once you've joined and created your profile, let me know what interesting stuff you find on there? Tell me what you think of it or leave me a link to your Pinterest profile in the comments below.<br />
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I'm just getting started over there myself, you can find me at <a href="http://pinterest.com/snavski">pinterest.com/snavski</a><br />
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Happy pinning everybody :)<br />
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-77746214777046049132012-02-02T08:30:00.000+00:002012-02-12T00:02:19.605+00:00Scanning a QR Code will take you to another dimension.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Have you seen any of these black square boxes around recently, have you wondered what they are?<br />
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Well for those of you who don't know what it is, it is a QR code otherwise known as a <b>two-dimensional barcode </b>or<b> 2D barcode</b>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_UpuUKgbsSRNIsNIlAAOOKVGJm1prwijILhQ0Mfi_uhyphenhyphenPPEtO8g8Ab8iuHJ5DXG66PxEV34y1Tt2ct9388wlN7LP1r4kOWaT2NjNXQiOSXA32oX4NahVcIIW-_cCOM823qRby_dC2Jqq7/s1600/twitter_snavski.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_UpuUKgbsSRNIsNIlAAOOKVGJm1prwijILhQ0Mfi_uhyphenhyphenPPEtO8g8Ab8iuHJ5DXG66PxEV34y1Tt2ct9388wlN7LP1r4kOWaT2NjNXQiOSXA32oX4NahVcIIW-_cCOM823qRby_dC2Jqq7/s1600/twitter_snavski.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scan My QR Code To Get Daily<br />
Marketing News And Updates.</td></tr>
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<b>So WHAT is a QR code? </b>QR stands for "Quick Response" which basically means they can be scanned and decoded at high speed. They have been around since 1994, and were originally created by <a href="http://bit.ly/yplRpH" target="_blank">Denso Wave</a> (a subsidiary of Toyota) to track motor parts, but only since the adoption of Smartphones have they found their true potential in the mobile marketing industry.<br />
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Many businesses large or small and across a multitude of industries are using them to bridge their offline print marketing efforts with their online marketing campaigns. </div>
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Today QR codes are all abuzz and are being used almost everywhere. An article by Chantal Tode of <a href="http://bit.ly/z8m8m8" target="_blank">Mobile Marketer</a> reports that in the US 2D barcodes used in magazine advertising rose by 617% in 2011, and recent research by <a href="http://bit.ly/zsDykT" target="_blank">Charterhouse</a> found that 51% of their marketers plan to use QR codes in the next 12 months. Scanlife the worldwide leader in mobile barcode scanning apps, reports that 2011 saw a 300% growth over 2010 and a massive 1000% growth over 2009. In Q4 of 2011 there were more scans than in 2009 and 2010 combined, they also signed up 3,000,000 new users in the same quarter. </div>
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QR codes are scanned with a users smartphone camera but require a barcode scanner or reader to decode it (If your smartphone doesn't come with a reader pre-installed then you can download one at <a href="http://bit.ly/ybBA8J" target="_blank">QRPal</a>, <a href="http://bit.ly/xQoBSb" target="_blank">i-nigma</a> or <a href="http://bit.ly/zzhupU" target="_blank">Scanlife</a>).</div>
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Once scanned the user could be taken to a calender event, a persons contact information, an email address, a location on a map or perhaps a URL link. The web link could be to a video of a new product on your website, a new game, or how to video. Maybe it could take the user to your online sign up page, or one of your social networks such as your Facebook or Twitter page.</div>
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Above is my QR code and when scanned it will take you to <a href="http://bit.ly/qsAOIi" target="_blank">my Twitter page</a>, where you'll find me tweeting about new developments and technologies that can be used in the marketing world.</div>
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Below are just some interesting ideas and some real life uses for QR codes across a variety of industries. </div>
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<b><u>Any Business:</u></b> </div>
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<li><b>Business Cards:</b> Scan for a persons contact information and save to your contacts list. Can include name, company address, telephone number, email address, company website.</li>
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">Film Industry:</u></div>
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<li><b>Movie Rental: </b>Attach one to the DVD outer case and once scanned a trailer of the movie is played. How many times have you got a movie home only to find that the film wasn't what you expected. </li>
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<u><b>Entertainment Industry</b><b>:</b></u> </div>
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<li><b>Concerts:</b> Bands are using QR codes to direct users to their website where fans can purchase the bands latest music CD, buy merchandise like t-shirts or watch videos of previous events. Others are directing fans to their social networks where fans can interact with the bands in real-time, how cool to be able to watch a live video from behind the scenes or even chat live to the band.</li>
<li><b>Festivals:</b> Direct users to a map so they can find their way around the grounds.</li>
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<u><b>Retail Industry</b><b>:</b></u><b> </b></div>
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<li><b>Mobile Coupons:</b> Your out shopping at your favourite store and you notice that the item you like has a price tag with a QR code on it, when you scan it you get a mobile discount coupon to redeem at the point of sale. </li>
<li><b>Store locator:</b> You see an advertisement in a magazine, scan the barcode and it takes you to a map of your nearest store and opening times, which in turn uses your smartphone's GPS to find your location. </li>
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<u><b>Food and Drink Industry</b><b>:</b></u> </div>
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<li><b>Restaurants:</b> Put them on your food menu's, when the user scans the QR code it could take them online to images or more information about the food they want to order. It could be nutritional information, even when dining out customers are still counting those calories. Or maybe if you have a family of diners in, the barcode could direct the user to a game for the kids to play online, so they don't get bored whilst waiting for their food to arrive. Would you like to see your food being cooked perhaps, scan to watch your food being cooked live via a webcam link.</li>
<li><b>Wine Producers:</b> Include them on your label and direct the user to your website where they can watch a video of the wine production process. Or scan to purchase and reorder more cases direct from the supplier.</li>
<li><b>Delicatessen:</b> You can even wear your QR code as part of your social media marketing plans. Print one on your t-shirt or your apron and direct the user to your business's Facebook or Google+ page.</li>
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<b><u>Hospitality Industry:</u></b></div>
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<li><b>Hotels:</b> When your guests have checked into their room they will want to know what is available to them at the hotel or in the locality. Instead of having the usual bunch of leaflets and brochures in the room, just leave a postcard with a QR code on it and instructions how to scan it. Once scanned it could direct your guests to the hotels mobile concierge service. Restaurant and bar opening times, menus, interesting things to do and see nearby or if they want to go further afield taxi rank numbers.</li>
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<u><b>Automotive Industry</b><b>:</b></u> </div>
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<li><b>Car Sales:</b> In your print marketing include a QR code that directs users to your web page for a video or images of the car that you are selling. Maybe you want to grow your <a href="http://snavski.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html" target="_blank">mobile marketing</a> database? Include one on your direct mail flyer and when scanned it could open the users text messaging feature, with a keyword and shortcode number already pre written ready for the end user to send and opt in to your mobile marketing campaign.</li>
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<u><b>Real Estate Industry</b><b>:</b></u> </div>
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<li><b>Estate Agents:</b> Imagine a couple of house hunters are searching for houses for sale in a particular area of town that they like, there's this one that catches their eye, on the "For Sale" sign there is a QR code and when they scan it, it takes them online to images and more information on the property. All this without contacting or even visiting the estate agent, but if they like it that much they can call you for a viewing. </li>
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The list of uses for QR codes are endless and i will touch on them a bit more in future posts. Remember be creative, use them in all your marketing campaigns online and offline and give the end user a great experience. We've listed some important tips to help you achieve that great user experience, and that you should apply to your QR code marketing campaign.<br />
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<li>Since QR codes will be scanned by a Smartphone make sure that if directing the user to a web link, it is optimised for mobile viewing. If it directs to a full desktop website it will almost certainly be slow to load and hard to navigate, the user will have a bad experience and will probably not return.</li>
<li>When printing in magazines or placing on any surface, remember that it must be on a flat surface and in close proximity to the users smartphone. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">eg</span> not on the centre seam of a magazine, or out of reach of the user etc.</li>
<li>If you can, make sure there is wi-fi connectivity for the user, especially if you are using QR codes at live events.</li>
<li>Make it easy for the user, don't send them round the houses to get to point A. Keep it simple!</li>
<li>Test, test and test again before you release your QR code campaign to the masses, make sure that you are happy with your experience scanning it.</li>
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If you've scanned a QR code before, why did you scan it and was the end result worth it? I welcome your comments.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-28590622486530949222012-01-24T21:46:00.000+00:002012-01-24T21:46:56.888+00:00How to use Facebook for sports clubs and sports associations.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Over the weekend i watched my nephew play rugby, it was a good game and my nephews team were the victors. For those of you who know me on a personal level, you will know that i am a big fan of rugby union and, back in the day i also played (social) rugby for the same club many years ago. For those of you who don't know me, now you know a little more about me. Anyway now i digress!<br />
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Whilst following my nephew's rugby career, i have visited many clubs in and around North Wales and the North West of England. During my travels one thing that i noticed is that many of these smaller clubs don't have any presence (or at least don't advertise the fact that they are) on social networks. There are many benefits for using social networking sites for the club, it's members, it's players, it's supporters and it's sponsors.<br />
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So i set about creating a post to highlight some of the advantages to sports clubs, and why they should have an active and engaging social network presence. In this post i will explain some of the ways you can use <b>The Social Network</b>, <b>Facebook For Sports Clubs</b>. Facebook is THE worlds most popular social network with over 800 million (and counting) registered users.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2pakU_x2GLYX92PTox-m7GdZqU1Hl0ZScVTEncNxVJHCL4XEcfEo3l-pD9-yzgrIUqub9SScDO0Ws2GHzez5skHC6hATPdX0fDqWTupLOW37fonABb1VZ1A1v5-r1iPK73nUoqLIUDvqQ/s1600/facebook-logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2pakU_x2GLYX92PTox-m7GdZqU1Hl0ZScVTEncNxVJHCL4XEcfEo3l-pD9-yzgrIUqub9SScDO0Ws2GHzez5skHC6hATPdX0fDqWTupLOW37fonABb1VZ1A1v5-r1iPK73nUoqLIUDvqQ/s320/facebook-logo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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In future posts i will touch on the advantages of having a social presence on other social networks such as <a href="http://twitter.com/" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="http://plus.google.com/" target="_blank">Google+</a>, <a href="http://tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Tumblr</a> and <a href="http://flickr.com/" target="_blank">Flickr</a> amongst others.<br />
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If your club is not on Facebook, it darned well should be! Below are some great reasons why you should sign up for a Facebook page.<br />
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<li>Grow your fan base, encourage people to "Like" the club page. Give them a good reason to become a fan of your page, perhaps by posting information on your page that they might not normally hear about the club anywhere else.</li>
<li>The ability to communicate and engage with fans of the club at anytime no matter where they are in the world.</li>
<li>Maybe you have an up and coming event? Before you would normally tell people by word of mouth or put up a poster in the club to let people know but, perhaps not everyone would hear about it or notice the poster. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=217491148274837" target="_blank">Facebook lets you create and invite people to an event</a> and also leaves a notification about the event on the invitees page. Much more effective than the traditional way and when an invite is sent out the invitee can respond with "Join", "Maybe" or "Decline" the event. Giving you a rough guide as to how many might be attending.</li>
<li>Use the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/help/facebook-questions" target="_blank">Facebook Questions feature</a> to create a poll, ask your fans who their favourite player is or who they think was the man/woman of the match.</li>
<li>You can also use Facebook as a sales funnel to sell your wares, maybe the team has a new kit this year, drop a mention to your Facebook fans that the new kit is out and available for purchase now. Although don't over do it with the sales pitches, you might come across as too pushy. </li>
<li>On match day, post regular updates to your page and keep fans that couldn't make it to the game engaged with the match scores and final results. </li>
<li>Promote your match or club sponsors, let your fans know how much they have sponsored the club and how the money will be put to good use by the club. It's a great way to advertise on behalf of your sponsor and will give them another reason to continue it's sponsorship with the club.</li>
<li>Post team photos or match pictures to your page and ask fans to comment on them or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=124970597582337" target="_blank">tag</a> themselves in them.</li>
<li>Don't forget people are mobile these days and take their mobile phones with them everywhere and Facebook currently has over 350 million mobile subscribers. So when fans arrive to watch the game if they have a smartphone ask fans to check in by using the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/about/location" target="_blank">location feature</a> to let people know where they are. This can encourage their friends to come along too.</li>
<li>Your Facebook page will become a hub for the club community. A place where they can find up to date information about the club and can interact with other members of the club's community.</li>
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One of the biggest (if not the biggest) sports club in the world <a href="https://www.facebook.com/manchesterunited" target="_blank">Manchester United FC</a> has a presence on Facebook and it's official Facebook page currently has over 21.6 million fans, where the club are constantly engaging with their fans through photos, videos, questions, match updates and much more.<br />
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<a href="http://facebook.com/manchesterunited" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM598jTjC06J6yMbaHFuUXOFTku8ot4eEfobBdTeJIwGTZ2XwBi4znjxjZeWVNEY3getuZ_9zcgKhLxLBhdH6RMxthS0BJbHMAn4GWOo2Cti0FxtdqxM5Mv80zXQgomxfYfYqHYmzItiWD/s320/man_utd_find_us_on_facebook_image.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Is your club on Facebook yet? If your club hasn't started using social networking yet then it's time you hopped on board and give your fans something special.<br />
There are many reasons why a club or association doesn't have a social networking presence. Social networking won't work for our sports club, its too time consuming, too costly. Some quite simply don't know how to go about setting up a page, although some do set up a profile page but then think it is okay to leave it and think people will just like their page anyway. Not so, you must engage with your fans otherwise they will soon unlike your page because of a lack of interesting content. Do you think Manchester United FC would have so many fans if they didn't post anything on their page? The answer is a big fat NO!<br />
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If you're thinking about setting up a Facebook page and don't know how to go about it, or require some advice on how you can engage with your fans on your page then get in touch. Just tell me a little bit about your sports club or sports association and please, make sure to leave some contact details and quote the code <b>FB4SC</b>.<br />
If your quick, i am offering the first 3 lucky clubs who contact me before 31st January 2012, a <b>FREE Facebook profile page setup and a FREE 20 minute consultation</b>.<br />
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If your sports club or association is already on Facebook, tell me in the comments if you use any of these ways to engage with your fans or are you using other ways?</div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-34902563757798291952011-08-27T15:24:00.008+01:002011-08-27T18:26:08.706+01:00SMS and its role in the future of mobile marketing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;"></span><br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 31px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;"><a href="http://memeburn.com/wp-content/uploads/Texting.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #f3f3f3; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #444444; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-38165" src="http://memeburn.com/wp-content/uploads/Texting.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; border-width: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 650px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px;" title="Texting" width="650" /></a><br />
Today, mobile marketing is the fastest and most effective way to reach your audience and is an area of intense fascination for marketers and advertisers and users alike.</div><div style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">The mobile revolution is happening and mCommerce is changing consumer behaviour in much the same way eCommerce has. With its high level of consumer acceptance, mobile marketing provides instant communication, since the mobile phone is always on person and always active. There are now far more people in the world who connect through the mobile web than there are connected PC users, and so, one of the biggest current decisions for mobile marketers is whether they should build a mobile site or app, or both.</div><div style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">The question many marketers face is how to adapt to this new channel of communication and how to integrate mobile in their marketing mix. With a range of mobile advertising options, including SMS, mobile app display ads, search ads, rich media, video and push notifications, the landscape can be a bit complicated.</div><div style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">Direct mobile marketing communications can easily be more effective than mobile search marketing. It is targeted at consumers that are open to suggestions about where to go and what to do next.</div><div style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">A study by <a href="http://www.abiresearch.com/home.jsp" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">ABI Research</a> found that consumers worldwide will send more than 5-trillion SMS messages in 2011. Last year the mobile phone industry reached 5-billion subscriptions globally. Out of that, 60 percent use text messaging and 90 percent of all messages written and sent are read within three minutes, with over 99 percent of all text messages read by the recipient — according to a whitepaper on Conversational Advertising by <a href="http://www.singlepoint.com/" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">SinglePoint</a>. These numbers indicate that consumers are comfortable using SMS, which creates a huge opportunity for marketers and brands to potentially use the channel to speak to them.</div><div style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">Though SMS doesn’t get a lot of hype, it works because it provides what all marketers seek, which is a one-on-one dialogue with a customer.</div><div style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">The rise of text messaging can be attributed to its low cost and ease of use. If you have a cell phone, you have the capability to text (no downloads or installations required) and given the level of engagement that SMS provides, its biggest mobile potential is to drive consumers to the mobile web, in-store or online. The texting audience is large and still growing. It has been projected by <a href="http://www.emarketer.com/" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">eMarketer</a> that the growth of the global market for ad support of mobile messaging will reach nearly US$12-billion in 2011, up from about US$1.5-billion in 2006.</div><div style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">SMS certainly isn’t dying as a business communication tool. While C2C SMS communication may be on the decline, B2C SMS is still vital and seeing a positive growth curve.</div><div style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">The immediacy of SMS is currently unparalleled by any other marketing channel. It’s a funnel, in which marketers start with text interaction, optimising their messages to drive traffic by including a link to rich media, video, or other personalized marketing materials (with a simple click-through on the SMS) where users then take the desired action. New innovations have sprung up that allow you to send a link to an entire mobile site packed with graphics, images and forms from inside an SMS.</div><div style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">The response rates which marketers experience via texting campaigns are definitely attractive. With that said, the way consumers use the mobile web is very different to the way it is used in the desktop environment. Most mobile sites being created will never even be viewed, unless stumbled upon by chance. To gain real mobile traction, marketers have the option to use a combination of “link push” via mobile texting technology that incorporates tracking and reporting to act on subscriber-level data and develop a true one-on-one engagement experience.</div><div style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">The mobile revolution will continue to gain steam in 2011, 2012 and what’s certain is that the mobile market represents a tremendous opportunity to extend your reach, brand awareness and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_on_investment" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">ROI</a>. The text message + link innovation is a great way for brands to get started in mobile marketing, especially if used for promotions. It is cheaper and faster to build than a mobile app or entire mobile site, and consumer engagement can be measured instantly. The entire process of creating a multiplicity of targeted, multi-facetted, trackable and manageable campaigns can be done all from within one interface.</div><div style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">With thanks:</div><div style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">Article on <a href="http://memeburn.com/2011/08/sms-and-its-role-in-the-future-of-mobile-marketing/">Memeburn.com</a> and written by <a href="http://memeburn.com/author/wikusengelbrecht/">Wikus Englebrecht</a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;">Image by: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mean-machine/6078011142/sizes/z/in/photostream/" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">MDanielski</a></span></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-56465330341961390342011-05-23T22:01:00.000+01:002011-05-23T22:01:11.819+01:00For Small-Business Marketers, Are Fewer Channels Better?<h3 style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="intro_bold" id="ctl00_EMarketerContentPH_content_ctl00_CenterColumnRepeater_ctl00_CenterColumnPlaceHolder_ctl00_lblBlurb" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 20px;">Increased use of online formats might hurt effectiveness</span></h3><div><span class="intro_bold" id="ctl00_EMarketerContentPH_content_ctl00_CenterColumnRepeater_ctl00_CenterColumnPlaceHolder_ctl00_lblBlurb" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span></div><span class="grey_text2" id="ctl00_EMarketerContentPH_content_ctl00_CenterColumnRepeater_ctl00_CenterColumnPlaceHolder_ctl00_lblBody" style="font-weight: normal;"><div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Finding new customers is the greatest business challenge for small businesses, according to a February 2011 survey by <a href="http://www.bbionline.com/" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" target="blank">Bredin Business Information</a>, and small businesses are turning to a wide variety of online marketing channels to do so.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;">Small-business owners were most likely to say they used websites to find new customers (85.8%), followed by email and search marketing, each used by about three-quarters of respondents. Notably, every online marketing channel showed a dramatic increase in usage between 2010 and 2011.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;">With a confidence interval of ±5%, the survey results can be used directionally to indicate a great level of experimentation among small businesses using digital marketing, according to Bredin.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"></div><h3 style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Online Marketing Tactics Used by US SMBs to Find New Customers, 2010 & 2011 (% of respondents)" border="0" src="http://www.emarketer.com/images/chart_gifs/128001-129000/128001.gif" /></h3><div><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;">But at the same time as small businesses have expanded their use of online marketing, respondents in 2011 indicated they were much less satisfied with the effectiveness of these channels. Website, email and search were rated most effective for customer acquisition, but even these had dropped since the prior year.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"></div><h3 style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Most Effective Online Marketing Tactics for Customer Acquisition According to US SMBs, 2010 & 2011 (% of respondents)" border="0" src="http://www.emarketer.com/images/chart_gifs/128001-129000/128002.gif" /></h3><div><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;">A rush of small businesses to new marketing channels can mean that less experienced respondents are now reporting on the effectiveness of their efforts, which would naturally be lower than those who have been using a channel for many years. In addition, some small businesses could be overreaching by trying to tackle too many channels at once, without the necessary time and resources.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;">“There is a fair amount of learning that has to happen for each small-business owner to know how to use and how to measure online marketing tactics,” Stu Richards, CEO of Bredin Business Information, told eMarketer. “In many cases, businesses are struggling, and there’s an opportunity to educate SMBs.”</div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;">Small businesses surveyed in April by email marketing software provider <a href="http://www.constantcontact.com/" style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" target="blank">Constant Contact</a> also reported that websites and email were highest in effectiveness.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"></div><h3 style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Effectiveness of Marketing Tactics Used by US Small Businesses, April 2011 (% of respondents)" border="0" src="http://www.emarketer.com/images/chart_gifs/127001-128000/127980.gif" /></h3><div><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;">Respondents to the survey were more optimistic about the effectiveness of many channels, especially social media like Facebook.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;">Original source: with thanks <a href="http://emarketer.com/">emarketer.com</a> </div></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-30745825935790338242011-05-17T20:27:00.000+01:002011-05-17T20:27:24.195+01:00HOW TO: Optimize Marketing Materials for Mobile Devices<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474747; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"></span><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #474747; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; color: #474747; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial;"><img alt="" class="alignright size-full wp-image-612525" height="" src="http://6.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/ipad-textbook-360.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: right; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="ipad-textbook-360" width="225" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s no secret that <a href="http://mashable.com/mobile" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">mobile</a> is the future. While <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/business/media/03television.html?_r=1" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">ownership of TV sets in the U.S. fell</a> for the first time ever, <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/comscore/status/34722864498216960" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">smartphone ownership continued to explode</a> — it’s up 60% versus a year ago. Marketers who had traditionally focused on getting their message across through broadcasts on television and radio or in print magazines and newspapers are quickly working to adapt their messages for mobile.</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mobile is a new paradigm. It has its own rules, standards, technologies, and challenges. Here’s how marketers are working with designers and developers to optimize branded materials for these new platforms.</span></div><hr style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; display: block; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 24px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Pare Down</span></h2><hr style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; display: block; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The golden rules of mobile: simplicity, brevity, accessibility. The screens are small, the Internet connections slow and people don’t have a lot of time. The best mobile experiences are those that condense the bigger picture into a bite-sized chunk, friendly for on-the-go consumption.</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Successful mobile websites and applications will do fewer things, but do them better,” says Daniel R. Odio, CEO of <a href="http://http//www.pointabout.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">PointAbout</a>. On mobile especially, it’s important that things ‘just work.’ ”</span></div><hr style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; display: block; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 24px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Purpose-Driven</span></h2><hr style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; display: block; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Think about the use cases for different consumer devices. Nicole Amodeo, director of creative products at the mobile ad platform company <a href="http://www.medialets.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Medialets</a>, stresses three key points for anyone creating content for mobile: “Why, when and where does your consumer use a device?” When exploring answers to these questions, it’s important to allow “your target audience and their particular use cases to dictate the experience, the content, the features and utilities,” Amodeo adds.</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before deciding on a platform for mobile marketing material, think more about what makes the most sense for the user and use cases. For example, does it make sense to create create an app, or phone- and tablet-optimized website?</span></div><hr style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; display: block; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 24px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Mobile Sites</span></h2><hr style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; display: block; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><center><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-464495" height="480" src="http://9.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/npr-ipad-640.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="npr-ipad-640" width="640" /></span><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div></center><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are two key points for designing for mobile: speed and usability. Content on a mobile is commonly created for an “on need” basis. A user browsing for online content on a mobile device is generally searching for something specific, not just casually surfing the web.</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A user will need to gather the data they are after, quickly and easily without having to wait a long time for a page to load on a <a href="http://mashable.com/follow/topics/3g" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3G</a> connection. Therefore, when converting a traditional website into a mobile version, it’s important to make sure a number of things happen:</span></div><ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: url(http://5.mshcdn.com/wp-content/themes/v7/img/bullet_img.gif); list-style-position: outside; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Auto-Detect Mobile Phones</strong>. Mobile-friendly websites automatically detect that users are on a mobile device and then display the appropriate version of the site.</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Clear Calls to Action</strong>. The most important features of the site should be the at the top of the page and should include clear calls to actions.</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Avoid Mobile-Unfriendly Elements</strong>. The design should avoid mobile-unfriendly elements such as <a href="http://mashable.com/follow/topics/flash" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Flash</a>, large images, video, and complex layouts.</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fluidity</strong>. <a href="http://mashable.com/dev-design" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Design</a> with a fluid layout that will gracefully adapt to a range of typical mobile screen resolutions.</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Touch Interface</strong>. Touch screens don’t have hover states — it’s all about fingers tapping, so don’t build a site that requires users to move their mouse over menus or other elements. Also, make sure links and other clickable elements are big enough to tap with a fingertip.</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Scrolling</strong>. Limit scrolling to one direction — the site should only scroll vertically. Having to manage a page that scrolls horizontally <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and</em> vertically is difficult to navigate.</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">One Window</strong>. Avoid pop-ups and new windows. A user’s entire experience should take place in a single window.</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Simple Navigation</strong>. Simplify your navigation. Typically, a site’s traditional navigation is too complex for a mobile site.</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Clean Code</strong>. Most desktop web browsers allow a lot of leeway when rendering <a href="http://mashable.com/follow/topics/html" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">HTML</a> and will usually display a site correctly, even if the code has flaws. Mobile browsers usually have less room for error, so there is an added value to having clean, simple code.</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Use Alt Tags</strong>. Sometimes images won’t load, either because of issues with the mobile browser or because a user’s connection is too slow. Always include descriptive alt tags for images, in case they don’t appear.</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Label Forms</strong>. Some modern websites embed form labels inside the form field. On mobile, it’s much more difficult to keep track of the fields, and users often make use of “next/previous” buttons built into they keyboard. Without clear labels alongside the form fields, it might be impossible to know what information is supposed to be in which field.</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Escape Hatch</strong>. Sometimes users just need to use your normal site. If possible, always have a link back to the original, unoptimized site.</span></li>
</ul><hr style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; display: block; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 24px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Responsive Web Design</span></h2><hr style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; display: block; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the largest challenges in designing for mobile is the vast amount of devices to cater to. Rather than designing a mobile-specific website, responsive design allows websites to automatically adjust to a devices resolution, orientation and feature set.</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The technology behind responsive websites is a relatively simple mix of CSS and a flexible grid-based layout. The best responsive websites even take into account device rotation, displaying different content depending on if the phone is in landscape or portrait mode. Taken to the extreme, a responsively designed site might even use GPS to display content relative to a user’s location.</span></div><hr style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; display: block; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 24px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Mobile-Friendly Calls To Action</span></h2><hr style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; display: block; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The world hasn’t completely transitioned to mobile (yet). Until that day, one important way to leverage traditional media is to tie it into mobile. What are an ad’s viewers being asked to do, and can they do it on mobile? If an ad is going to be seen by consumers on the go, making mobile-friendly calls to action is important. If an ad asks users to check out a website, make sure the website loads well on a smartphone.</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Embrace mobile technology. Instead of asking users to call a phone number or visit a website, use a <a href="http://mashable.com/follow/topics/qr-code" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">QR code</a> to let consumers quickly learn more about a product or even receive some sort of exclusive content, such as a free MP3 or other product tie-in.</span></div><hr style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; display: block; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 24px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Apps</span></h2><hr style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; display: block; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><center><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-619275" height="320" src="http://5.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/chipotle-app.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="chipotle app" width="640" /></span><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div></center><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes the best way to optimize marketing materials for mobile is to create an app. Users expect apps to complete simple, narrowly defined tasks quickly and easily. Think about how simple many popular mobile apps really are — they do one thing and they do it well.</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The most successful way to market through an app is to create some sort of <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/10/06/branded-mobile-apps/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">branded experience, tool, utility or game</a> that both transmits a marketing message but still provides a level of <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/12/09/branded-app-tips/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">utility and enjoyment</a> for users.</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A fantastic example would be the toilet paper brand <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sitorsquat-bathroom-finder/id293191470?mt=8" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Charmin’s app</a>, which helps users locate the nearest public restroom.</span></div><hr style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; display: block; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 24px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Conclusion</span></h2><hr style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; display: block; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are many design and development tips to keep in mind when optimizing marketing — or, for that matter, any — content for mobile. But it all comes down to leveraging design and technology to keep things simple, clean, fast to load and easy to digest on the go.</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Keep it simple.</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Original post from <a href="http://mashable.com/2011/05/17/mobile-marketing-tips/">Mashable</a>. Article by Ryan Matzner who is a mobile apps and social meida junkie. He's also the Lead Stategist at <a href="http://fueled.co/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fueled</a>, an iPhone & Android app development agency based in New York, NY. Follow him on <a href="http://twitter.com/matzner" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Twitter</a> and read his blog at <a href="http://fueled.co/blog" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">fueled.co/blog</a>.</span></span></div><div><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7426305251205061777.post-84169267528563810282011-05-05T23:03:00.001+01:002011-05-05T23:06:26.676+01:0010 Ways to Find Customers with Mobile Marketing<div class="byline" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><br />
</div><div class="blog-body" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-color: initial; border-style: initial; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; outline-color: initial; outline-width: initial;"><img alt="10 Ways to Find Customers with Mobile Marketing" src="http://www.entrepreneur.com/dbimages/blog/10-ways-to-find-customers-with-mobile-marketing.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left; height: 208px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 20px; margin-top: 5px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; width: 208px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Smart business owners find customers by placing their marketing messages where the most eyeballs are focused. And nowhere are there more eyeballs than on the screens of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">More than two thirds of the world’s population has a mobile subscription, and mobile users are highly active. Facebook <a href="http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">recently reported</a> statistics indicating that over half of its 500 million subscribers access Facebook from a mobile device and exhibit twice the activity level of non-mobile users. The time for mobile marketing is now.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Finding customers with mobile marketing involves either pulling people toward your messages or pushing your messages out. Here are 10 mobile-marketing channels that'll help your efforts: </span></div><ol style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><li style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"><strong style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Text-messaging (SMS)</strong><br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />Pull customers to your SMS messages by asking people to opt-in to your text-messaging list. Use a text-messaging provider such as eztexting.com or motomessage.com to access a short phone number known as a common short code and an opt-in keyword. Then, use the text-messaging service to push periodic text messages out to the people who opt in. <br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" /> </span></li>
<li style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"><strong style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Multi-media messaging (MMS)</strong><br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />MMS messages are like SMS messages, but they can contain pictures, sound and a lot more text. Pull customers in with the same opt-in process as SMS, and then push out multi-media content via your MMS service provider.<br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" /> </span></li>
<li style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"><strong style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Mobile email </strong><br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />Pull customers to your email list with signup links on your website or ask people to text in their email addresses to join. When you push your emails out to mobile users, ask for mobile-friendly actions such as clicking phone numbers instead of links or using the mobile device to show an email coupon at the point of sale. <br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" /> </span></li>
<li style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"><strong style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Mobile search</strong><br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />People searching online with mobile devices are often looking for a nearby product or service. Pull customers to your business by including mobile-friendly maps and directions on your site. Push your location out to new potential customers by asking your customers to check in on their favorite social media service when they visit your physical location so their friends see where they are. <br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" /> </span></li>
<li style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"><strong style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Mobile Internet</strong><br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />Pull mobile visitors to your site by advertising your site's address or by including a mobile barcode -- also known as a Quick Response or QR code -- in your advertising that points to your site. Push messages through your site by formatting content and navigation to be mobile friendly. <br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" /> </span></li>
<li style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"><strong style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Mobile apps</strong><br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />Pull customers to your mobile apps by listing your apps in the app stores and by offering app downloads from your own mobile site. Then, push your marketing messages through the downloaded apps.<br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" /> </span></li>
<li style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"><strong style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Mobile content</strong><br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />Pull customers to content such as videos, images and downloads by providing links and mobile barcodes that activate the content. Push that content by posting to mobile-friendly sites such as YouTube or your own mobile site. <br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" /> </span></li>
<li style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"><strong style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Mobile advertising</strong><br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />Pull customers to your advertising by placing ads on external mobile sites such as mobile versions of newspapers, blogs and other content sites. Push your advertising out by including ads in your e-mails, text messages, mobile content and branded apps. <br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" /> </span></li>
<li style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"><strong style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Voice</strong><br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />Pull customers in by advertising your phone number. Push your messages out by answering the phone or by using Interactive Voice Response systems to answer calls and deliver voice messages automatically. <br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" /> </span></li>
<li style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"><strong style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Capabilities and enablers</strong><br style="outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" />Mobile devices come with built-in capabilities and enablers such as cameras, WiFi, and GPS. Pull customers in by asking customers to use their capabilities. For example, taking a picture of a product and e-mailing it to you for a discount. Push your messages out in reply to people who use their capabilities by using one of the aforementioned nine channels.</span></li>
</ol><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; line-height: 18px;">Posted on <a href="http://entrepreneur.com/">Entrepreneur.com</a> by <a href="http://www.johnarnold.com/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">John Arnold</a> who is a leading marketing expert, author, speaker, trainer and consultant specializing in marketing advice for small businesses, franchises, associations and organizations.</span></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167506094203307562noreply@blogger.com0