Daily Archives: July 2, 2009

AOL Canada today announced the launch of its new homepage, http://www.aol.ca, which lets consumers access multiple e-mail accounts and social networking services from a single online destination. The new AOL.ca homepage will also be opened to third-party services and content, providing consumers with new customization options while offering advertisers new opportunities to tap into an increasingly engaged audience.

The improved homepage is part of the ongoing strategy from AOL’s publishing division to expand globally, including the launches in Canada of women’s lifestyle site That’s Fit (http://www.thatsfit.ca), which focuses on improving body, mind and relationships, and AOL Music blog Spinner Canada (http://www.spinner.ca), which showcases exclusive content on the Canadian music scene.

The new homepage’s design and features have already proven a success in the U.S., with the relaunch of the AOL.com homepage in September 2008 growing 23% in unique visitors, 34% in total page views and 61% in total minutes consumed year over year,* and the AOL.ca page builds on the success of the recent UK beta launch of the AOL.co.uk homepage. Today’s launch in Canada will feature the same new tools as in the U.S. and UK, allowing users to further personalize and control their online experience, from display and design to navigation, news feed options and social media.

“With today’s Internet ever-expanding and consumers engaging in multiple social networking platforms, it is essential that their experience on the Web is both personalized and integrated,” said Edward Kwan, Senior Director of AOL Canada. “The launch of the new AOL Canada portal follows the tremendous successes we’ve experienced in both the U.S. and the UK, enabling exciting new opportunities for the Canadian market. In terms of advertising, Platform-A Canada will now have the capability to expand its reach across more relevant and media-rich content and channels.”

Some of the innovative features added include AOL Canada users being able to check their Google Mail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, in addition to their AOL Mail e-mail accounts, as well as staying in touch with their online buddies via AOL’s AIM service. From the AOL.ca homepage, users will also be able to post status updates to multiple social networks, and access profile activity information, including new friend requests and mail notifications, from services such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, AIM, Bebo and other third-party sites in the future.

AOL Canada’s new homepage offers advertisers ad formats and capabilities including rich media options and content integration opportunities.

In support of the new launch, Pepsi is the primary sponsor of a homepage takeover on June 29 and 30, promoting their Project Breathtaking campaign. This includes 100% ownership of the new 300×600 and 408×80 ad placements.

Other new AOL.ca homepage features include:

* Customized backgrounds with multiple new designs from which to choose;
* Ability to add any customized links to the homepage so users can more easily access their most frequently visited sites;
* Users can drag and drop to reorder channel navigation to suit personal preferences;
* Users can add RSS feeds and personalized categories to get content from their preferred external sites.

The new AOL.ca homepage advances AOL Canada’s strategy of connecting people with their passion points by opening up to third-party content and services, providing consumers with new customization options and creating new opportunities for advertisers to tap into an increasingly engaged audience. For more advertising information, go to http://www.platform-a.ca.

* comScore Media Metrix, May, 2009.

Peopleclick, Inc., the leading global provider of talent acquisition and workforce compliance and diversity solutions, announced today at the Society of Human Resource Management Annual Conference and Exposition in New Orleans, LA, the unveiling of Peopleclick Reach. A comprehensive social networking integration package that helps HR professionals leverage Web 2.0 technologies, Peopleclick Reach gives organizations the necessary tools to expand their referral network and extend their company brand.

With new channels of communication continuously being introduced into the market, Peopleclick Reach helps HR professional embrace Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook®, LinkedIn® and Twitter to find qualified candidates through social and professional networking sites. Peopleclick Reach includes integrations with these sites, and provides comprehensive training that will help organizations increase employee referrals and brand awareness.

The key capabilities of Peopleclick Reach include the following:

Extends an Organization’s Referral Network – With Peopleclick Reach, a job posting listed on an organization’s career site can be forwarded to a network of friends with just a few clicks, making it easy for employees and others to refer their friends to an organization. A majority of organizations are finding new hires by employee referrals, and these are almost always from connections made through online networks.
Extends an Organization’s Employer Brand – By having a corporate presence on networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, an organization will be reaching potential candidates where they are spending much of their time. Peopleclick Reach offers clients training and a best-practice approach to creating their own company profile on their chosen social networking sites. When a company’s networking site is interesting and valuable, visitors are more likely to share the page with their friends, which easily extends the reach of an organization’s employer brand.
Training and Consultation – Since there are many ways to integrate social networking into an organization’s sourcing strategy, it helps tremendously to have training and consultation included. Peopleclick Reach includes training and consulting to help educate and assist an organization with employee adoption, while teaching team members how to measure their success using social networking technologies.
“Today, it is no surprise that social networking sites are significantly changing an organization’s recruitment strategy,” said Ginny Gomez, SVP of Product Management and Marketing at Peopleclick. “By embracing these technologies, an organization will be able to not only increase their sourcing strategy, but also deliver an engaging, positive brand experience and maximize their web presence. With guidance from the Peopleclick Research Institute (“PRI”), Peopleclick Reach provides comprehensive consultation services so that organizations can add social networking to their talent acquisition plan in a compliant manner.”

To learn more about Peopleclick and its products and services, or to follow Peopleclick on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, visit www.peopleclick.com.

About Peopleclick

Peopleclick provides software and services that empower companies around the world to find, attract and hire quality people–in less time, with less risk. Peopleclick’s technology, consulting expertise and support give companies the vision and flexibility to strategically manage all of their talent resources–whether they are salaried, hourly or contingent. Founded in 1997, the privately-held company currently serves over 2,000 clients in 214 countries and territories, including 54 of the Fortune 100. Peopleclick products support users in organizations ranging in size from large, multi-national corporations to small and medium-sized businesses. For more information about Peopleclick, visit www.peopleclick.com.

Quickoffice, Inc., the leading global provider of mobile office productivity software, today announced the implementation of live Webinars and new communities on Facebook and Twitter for better interaction with end-users. The Webinars will provide exclusive demonstrations of new feature enhancements and discuss key benefits to mobile professionals using Quickoffice’s line of productivity software. Quickoffice is offered across iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Symbian platforms. Each video Podcast will be archived and available on the company’s Web site and Apple’s iTunes store.
Quickoffice’s products enable customers to access, view, edit and share Microsoft Office documents. The newest product, Quickoffice for iPhone, is the first integrated Office suite to bring Word and Excel editing to the platform. The company also offers each component of the suite as separate applications, for those consumers wishing to purchase just Word or Excel editing, Quickword and Quicksheet, respectively. Quickoffice Files is the file-sharing separate application. To help support the launch of its social media initiatives, Quickoffice is offering its iPhone products at a discounted price. Quickoffice Suite is $12.99 for the first 10,000 buyers, Quicksheet and Quickword are $4.99 and Quickoffice Files is $.99, each for the first 1,000 buyers.

Quickoffice Premier 6.0 is the world’s leading mobile Office suite, shipping on tens of millions of Symbian devices worldwide. Quickoffice for Android, available in the Android Market and embedded on upcoming phones, allows users to manage Word and Excel files. In addition, eOffice for BlackBerry enables native Office viewing and editing, and is compatible with all BlackBerry devices.

Quickoffice also launched a Facebook Fan page, located at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Quickoffice/80930822730. Engaging with consumers on this popular social networking site, the page will include corporate news, product images, video demos, archived video Podcasts, user contests, reviews, a discussion board and other notes frequently updated by Quickoffice executives.

“We are committed to being transparent and open in our communications to customers regarding our upcoming products, partners and overall company direction,” said Alan Masarek, CEO of Quickoffice. “As we bring our product to leading mobile platforms, we are seeing our customers wanting to communicate with us across a multitude of new channels. Quickoffice’s new social media initiatives will ensure we consistently delight our customers with top-notch product updates, provide an open forum for bi-directional communications and provide highly-responsive customer care.”

Customers can also follow the company on Twitter.com/quickoffice. Currently, Quickoffice is hosting a weekly contest, awarding one user a $250 iTunes gift card for tweeting how Quickoffice’s applications have proven useful.

To sign up for the Webinar series, please visit http://www.quickoffice.com/webinars/

Absolute a web marketing company has successfully qualified as a Google Advertising Professional demonstrating its elite status in understanding and running effective PPC campaigns. Absolute can now offer more than its competitors and bring added benefits to its clients.

How do web marketing agencies stand out from the crowd? The market is awash with online marketing companies so agencies have to make sure that they offer more than their competitors and are best in class.

Absolute’s passion for web marketing and the desire to deliver exceptionally high standards for its clients drove it to take the Google Advertising Professional exam. It is an accreditation that has to be earned each year and for which Google sets high standards.

Absolute firmly believes that this professional status provides clients with extra confidence and peace of mind. As a Google Advertising Professional, Absolute can successfully deliver on all aspects of PPC Marketing.

The accreditation covers everything from understanding how to create relevant and granular keyword campaigns to being expert in analysing conversion performance enabling further optimisation to improve campaigns. In addition, professionals are always up to speed on developments as they are required to take the exam every year.

The key benefits for Absolute’s clients is knowing that they have a qualified agency working to yield the maximum return on their spend. Absolute is an agency which gained much of its experience client side so understands the importance of managing budgets appropriately and is driven by the desire to see improvement in its clients marketing efficiencies.

Absolute is a Web Marketing company based outside of London providing fully managed online marketing services such as SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and PPC Marketing, otherwise known as Pay Per Click to a range of clients in the UK.

Absolute’s PPC Management service provides businesses with instant visibility on search engines, targeting customers to an incredibly granular level. Through extensive experience in researching, creating and managing many PPC campaigns across different websites, Absolute understands the technology, can effectively select the keywords to bid on and can implement effective tracking to ensure an impressive return on investment.

For more information concerning web marketing contact Absolute on +44 (0) 1858 419226 or visit the website: www.absoluteinternetmarketing.co.uk