Monthly Archives: August 2009

Room Candy Games is excited to launch the Open Beta of StripPRS™ for the Facebook social network. The premise of the game is simple – players dress up their avatars and challenge their friend(s) to a round of paper-rock-scissors. As the game title suggests, the losing player’s avatar will strip down to his/her undies!

“With any free-to-play games, especially social games, launching the game is just the first step in development,” explained Linny Cendana, founder and CEO of Room Candy Games. “We look forward to getting feedback from players of the Open Beta to help us decide which features to add and improve upon for Version 1.0 of StripPRS.”
Players can easily install the app at http://apps.facebook.com/stripprs after they log onto their Facebook accounts. During the Open Beta period, Room Candy Games encourages players to provide their feedback on the game through the app’s message board/forum, or to contact the company with any comments/suggestions at support(at)roomcandygames.com.

For more information about StripPRS™, please visit www.stripprsgame.com.

About Room Candy Games
Room Candy Games, LLC, is a game publisher focused on the “new” generation of casual gamers. The company’s mission is to introduce games that will appeal to the underserved female market but are also gender neutral. Room Candy Games’ upcoming product slate includes iPhone® and iPod® touch games, social games for social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, and free-to-play online browser based games. For the latest news on the company’s games, please visit www.roomcandygames.com.

In conjunction with the 19th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the U.S. Department of Labor has re-named and re-launched its disability resources Web site to Disability.gov. Formerly called DisabilityInfo.gov, the site offers comprehensive information about programs, services and assistive technology to better serve more than 50 million Americans with disabilities, their family members, veterans, employers, educators, caregivers and anyone interested in disability-related information.

The new Web site (http://www.disability.gov) integrates content from 22 federal agencies and will be managed by the Labor Department. The former DisabilityInfo.gov site was revamped with social media tools to encourage interaction and feedback, and new ways to organize, share and receive information. Visitors can sign up for personalized news and updates, participate in online discussions and suggest resources for the site. New features include a Twitter feed, Really Simple Syndication feeds, a blog, social bookmarking and a user-friendly way to obtain answers to questions on such topics as finding employment and job accommodations. Additional tools will be added during the months ahead.

“Far more than just a directory of federal resources, Disability.gov is a meeting ground for Americans to learn, respond and communicate about a wealth of critically important disability-related topics,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “The new site has been vastly enhanced to provide more information in as efficient and interactive setting as possible.”

The site is organized into 10 subject areas: benefits, civil rights, community life, education, emergency preparedness, employment, health, housing, technology and transportation. By selecting a category, visitors are directed to useful information on federal and state government programs and services, news and events, grants and funding opportunities, disability services, assistive technology and more.

“The Department of Labor is pleased to be the managing partner of Disability.gov and to help advance the independence and full participation of people with disabilities in the workforce, the classroom and their communities,” said Kathleen Martinez, assistant secretary for the Labor Department’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP).

Disability.gov contains thousands of links to reliable disability resources and information from its federal agency partners, as well as educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and state and local governments — as well as links to assistive technology.

ODEP is leading a 21st century federal response to the historic underemployment of people with disabilities. In collaboration with other government agencies, public and private employers, and additional stakeholders, ODEP facilitates the development and implementation of innovative policies and practices necessary to achieve a fully inclusive workplace. ODEP’s work primarily falls into three categories: employers and the workplace; workforce systems; and employment-related supports, which include education and training, health care, reliable transportation, affordable housing and assistive technology. For more information, visit http://www.dol.gov/odep.

U.S. Department of Labor releases are accessible on the Internet at http://www.dol.gov. The information in this news release will be made available in alternate format (large print, Braille, audio tape or disc) from the COAST office upon request. Please specify which news release when placing your request at 202-693-7828 or TTY 202-693-7755. The Labor Department is committed to providing America’s employers and employees with easy access to understandable information on how to comply with its laws and regulations. For more information, please visit http://www.dol.gov/compliance.

Kia Motors America (KMA) today lets loose the paw-tapping, music-loving hamsters seen in its recent advertising campaign and unveils its “Go Hamster Go!” Facebook(R) application and continues launch momentum of the uniquely styled all-new 2010 Kia Soul urban passenger vehicle. Go Hamster Go! marks Kia Motors’ first-ever augmented reality game and first Facebook application. Demonstrating leadership in the online space, the Kia Soul application allows passionate fans the opportunity to have fun with the captivating vehicle using the popular, head-bobbing hamsters. The application is available now on the Kia Soul Facebook Page, www.facebook.com/kiasoul, through the ‘Go Hamster Go!’ tab.

The interactive application places any Facebook user with a Webcam-enabled computer into the game, allowing them to race against the clock in an augmented reality experience with the Soul ad campaign hamsters. Using facial recognition technology, the player controls the competition with his or her face using a virtual magnet that “connects” to his or her forehead. The object of the game is to grab a hamster with the magnet as it comes off of a conveyer belt and place it into a Soul as an onscreen clock ticks down.

Each hamster wears a colored t-shirt mirroring a Soul paint color (Java, Alien Green, Molten, etc.), and when the player successfully drops a hamster into a Soul, the car turns into that color and drives away, while the next empty Soul arrives. The exit window lists the final score as well as the many exciting personalization options the user managed to add to the Soul. Users can post their scores on a Soul leader board as well as challenge friends to compete and beat their scores.

“Soul’s energetic personality is a natural fit for this application and helps keep the vehicle top of mind with fans,” said Michael Sprague, vice president, marketing of KMA. “With a significant number of Facebook fans, the Kia Soul continues to be popular in the social media space, and we feel that this is the perfect platform to launch such an application as it hits Soul’s target demographic in a fun and interactive way.”

The application was created by digital marketing agency Total Immersion in association with marketing agencies Initiative and David & Goliath.

About Kia Motors America

Kia Motors America (KMA) is the marketing and distribution arm of Kia Motors Corporation based in Seoul, South Korea. KMA offers a complete line of vehicles through more than 630 dealers throughout the United States. For 2008, KMA recorded its 14th consecutive year of increased U.S. market share. Kia Motors subscribes to a philosophy of building high value, high quality, safe and dynamic vehicles. Kia Motors prides itself on producing vehicles that are exciting and enabling and evoke the Kia tagline “The Power to Surprise.”

Kia Motors America is the “Official Automotive Partner of the NBA.” Information about Kia Motors America and its full vehicle line-up is available at its Web site – www.kia.com. For media information, including photography, visit www.kiamedia.com.

Facebook (R) is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

Today INQ Mobile took the next step in its mission to bring easy-to-use mobile internet to the mass market with the launch of two new 3G Social Mobiles complete with internet-based Twitter and media sync capabilities.
The new phones offer high-spec functionality without the hefty price tag – shaking up the market by giving operators a unique proposition – a 3G social mobile with the speed, usability and suite of applications capable of driving data usage in the mass market.

The INQ Chat 3G is the company’s first qwerty-style phone, while the compact INQ Mini 3G expands the range and provides an entry-level social mobile ideal for the price-sensitive prepay market. They complement the award-winning INQ1.

For the two new phones, Twitter joins the suite of communications applications that INQ has already woven into the heart of its social mobiles, which include Facebook, Skype and Instant Messaging.

Working closely with the Twitter team, INQ has developed an authentic Twitter application for both its new Social Mobiles. After the initial log in, Twitter will be ‘always on’. Consumers can send tweets and retweet via the internet rather than using SMS. With the INQ Chat, a specially designed Twitter widget will deliver Twitter updates straight to the home screen.

The INQ Chat 3G was developed in response to consumer and operator demand for a qwerty-style keypad device from INQ. It has a new email client developed by INQ that incorporates free push Gmail – removing a cost for push mail typically borne by operators or passed on to consumers. The INQ Chat 3G comes complete with the expanded suite of INQ applications: Facebook, Skype, email, IM and Twitter.

The INQ Mini 3G is a slimline Social Mobile that offers Twitter, Facebook, IM, Skype and web-based email services like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail and Gmail. It brings the usability that INQ is known for to a new form factor. Like the INQ Chat, the INQ Mini offers impressive capability at a fraction of the price of other application-rich devices.

Both phones have plug and play HSDPA modems enabling high-speed wireless broadband on PCs and Macs.

The INQ Mini 3G and the INQ Chat 3G represent a new design direction for the company; both can be customized with a range of seven coloured backs.

The INQ Chat 3G and INQ Mini 3G applications can be updated over the air – a unique feature essential to keep pace with how online applications change and consumer usage evolves.

INQ is also introducing seamless media syncing between its devices and PCs or Macs. The software, powered by doubleTwist, syncs music from iTunes and WMP straight to your INQ mobile and, unlike most other sync solutions, doesn’t require the customer to give up using their favourite media player on their computer. The new mobiles from INQ will also be able to sync video and photos.

INQ’s ground-breaking platform was built from the ground up for the mobile internet and offers unprecedented integration throughout the handset. Popular internet applications are not simply bolted on (as they are with proprietary systems which are primarily voice and text) – but embedded within the underlying software, delivering benefits such as native messaging and an address book that consolidates phone contacts with those from relevant applications.

This allows INQ to remove many of the cumbersome steps that have made using these services on ordinary mobiles frustrating or time-consuming. INQ phones multi-task, so key applications like Facebook, Skype, IM and email are ‘always on’ and accessible with one click from the home screen; a log-in to any application is required only once.

Frank Meehan, INQ’s CEO, said: “We build phones that focus specifically on what people want to do most on mobile, and deliver it at a price point that’s easy for consumers and profitable for operators. We have completely broken the vice grip hold that high-end smartphones had on great mobile internet experiences, and made them available to everybody.”

“With the INQ Chat 3G, we’ve reinvented the qwerty for consumers by creating a fantastic social mobile. With the INQ1, we were blown away by how much consumers were writing just using the standard 12 keys – 30% of them were regularly sending emails. So we know that a keypad will go down a storm.”

INQ Mobile launched in 2008 to give consumers high-quality yet affordable mobile internet, and enable carriers to stimulate data usage across their customer base. The company recently released data detailing device usage on UK and Hong Kong networks that show usage patterns typically seen only on high-end smartphones. An average of 65% of INQ users use Facebook regularly, 30% use their INQ frequently for email, and Windows Live Messenger activity is three to four times greater than on comparably priced 3G phones. In February 2009, INQ1 won ‘handset of the year’ at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The INQ Chat 3G and INQ Mini 3G will be available in Q4 2009.

A new service by Germany based startup SumtnSumtn puts Twitter-conversations on any website. SumtnSumtn allows to send tweets right from any website while surfing the web. All previously written Tweets on that page are shown in a simple threaded view. This makes discussing page-content “onsite“ possible and you get to meet interesting people along the way.

The startup, founded by three college-students in June 2009, creates more conversations and discussions among the visitors of a website. This happens directly onsite with the help of Twitters messaging-network. All tweets are aggregated into the SumtnSumtn-sidebar making content-related dialog possible. Users get to see what others tweeted about the page and can message them back. This way SumtnSumtn connects Twitterers with same interests, who wouldn’t have met otherwise.

Website-providers get more attention for their content and thus more traffic through Tweets and discussions in the Twitterverse. These messages also help positioning in “old-fashioned“ search engines as well as visibility in real-time search results.

This service requires no registration or installation. The SumtnSumtn-sidebar is simply launched by clicking a bookmarklet which you can drag into the bookmark-bar.

SumtnSumtn is now available to any internet user. Co-founder Tobias Anton (@tobias_a) points out: “We intentionally beta-tested with power-users of Twitter to get the best possible feedback. Feedback as ‘the tool is a necessity’ and ‘great idea for tweets from a webpage’ tell us, that we have created a useful application“.

Especially interesting for blog-owners and website-providers is the upcoming widget. The widget helps to create even more dialogue by offering the service to all of their visitors. “An average of 10 people clicked through to the website where the message was sent from in our private beta. This shows that our widget creates more traffic for the sites which will use it“, says co-founder Aike Sommer (@aikej).

The startup welcomes any sort of cooperation-request and interest of possible investors.

SumtnSumtns mission is to connect Twitterusers on websites and bring them together, to show them who else visits and tweets on the websites one likes, to help them make new friends.
Web: www.sumtnsumtn.com

Melbourne IT, a Top 5 global domain name registrar and the #1 digital brand management company worldwide, has been selected by social networking and micro blogging provider Twitter, to manage its domain name portfolio.
Twitter.com, the powerful communication platform that connects the world with information in real-time, continues to grow in popularity in both the consumer and corporate worlds, having evolved from a site where friends can stay connected and access information as it happens, to a key brand marketing tool.

“We are very pleased to be working with Twitter, as a rapidly growing company that has vastly extended the reach of social networking,” said Theo Hnarakis, CEO and Managing Director of Melbourne IT. “Companies with a significant Internet presence recognise the value Melbourne IT Digital Brand Services delivers, as a leading provider of digital brand management and protection services.”

According to a recent report from global information and media organisation The Nielson Company, unique visitors to twitter.com increased more than 10 fold year-on-year from 475,000 in February 2008 to 7 million in February 2009, making it the fastest growing site in the Member Communities category for the month.

Melbourne IT’s Corporate Domain Management solution allows companies to optimise and effectively manage their domain portfolios, enabling complete control of every aspect of domain name management, including Domain Name System (DNS) Management, to protect against infringement and malicious web attacks.

About Melbourne IT

Melbourne IT Limited (ASX:MLB) is a world leader in the supply of innovative and scalable online solutions, including digital brand management, critical hosting, messaging and collaboration and domain name management services to organisations of all sizes, from small businesses to major international enterprises globally. Melbourne IT was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1999 and has a network of 18 offices across 10 countries around the world.

www.melbourneitdbs.com

Underneath all the hype about Twitter, evidence is emerging that it can bring genuine value when used in the business environment, particularly for the younger generation. Business-to-business industry researcher AIIM found that 27% of 18-30 year-olds agree that Twitter is an important rapid-feedback tool for business use, compared to only 7% of those over 45. Users feel it gives them unprecedented access to answers from experts, and they find it useful for running mini polls, sharing opinions during conferences and events, and making contacts whilst travelling. In total, 34% of the survey population has a Twitter account.

The survey also found that business users of Twitter are much more engaged than personal users, with half of the business users actively contributing and posting, rather than merely following. As regards following, 55% of users feel it has given them a useful insight into other professional’s lives and businesses. However, even among committed users, there is a concern that Twitter might steal too much of their time, with 74% using it during working hours.

“We’ve been tracking the rapid growth of Enterprise 2.0 – the business use of social media – for a couple of years,” comments Atle Skjekkeland, VP of AIIM, “but Twitter has grown much faster than anything we’ve seen before. It seems to me that Twitter brings back such quick answers from any expert community that it cannot fail to have a lasting place within the general business toolbox.”

The AIIM survey, which polled 788 respondents, indicates that LinkedIn is twice as popular as Facebook for business networking, with over 50% of participants having an account. Two thirds feel that professional networking on the web is vital to their career progression – even more so in the current difficult times. Pressure is growing on IT departments to replicate social networking tools within the work environment, with a third expecting to use the same type of networking tools with their business colleagues as they do with friends and family, and 71% finding it easier to locate knowledge on the web than it is to find it on internal systems.

The AIIM research report is entitled “Collaboration and Enterprise 2.0: work meets play or the future of business?” Part of the AIIM Industry Watch series, the report is free to download from the AIIM website, www.aiim.org.uk. It is underwritten by Allyis, Ektron, EMC Corporation and Oracle.

About the research

The survey was taken by 789 individual members of the AIIM community between May 11th and May 26th, 2009, using a Web-based tool. Invitations to take the survey were sent via e-mail to a selection of the 65,000 community members.

About AIIM

AIIM (www.aiim.org.uk) is the community that provides education, research, and best practices to help organisations find, control, and optimise their information. For over 60 years, AIIM has been the leading non-profit organisation focused on helping users to understand the challenges associated with managing documents, content, records, and business processes. Today, AIIM is international in scope, independent, implementation-focused, and, as the representative of the entire enterprise content management (ECM) industry -including users, suppliers, and the channel – acts as the industry’s intermediary.

About Allyis

Allyis views collaboration solutions as foundational platforms that are instrumental in supporting business operations. We work with clients to develop solutions that incorporate Enterprise 2.0 tools and technologies such as blogs, wikis, tagging and profiling to help drive collaboration, build community, foster knowledge-sharing, streamline work processes and empower decision making.

About Ektron

Founded in 1998, Ektron is committed to providing revolutionary, scalable Web content management and authoring solutions. From enterprise level deployments to single sites, CMS400.NET ships with a wide array of functionality, including social networking, Web 2.0, SEO and synchronization tools. Headquartered in Nashua, N.H., Ektron has more than 20,000 customer implementations worldwide, including LG, Sony and Johnson & Johnson. For more information, visit: www.ektron.com.

About EMC Corporation

EMC Corporation is the world’s leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organisations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. The EMC Documentum family of enterprise content management solutions provides a comprehensive, fully-unified software platform to manage and leverage content in a cost-effective, controlled manner, providing secured access and re-use across the enterprise.

About Oracle

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world’s largest business software company. For more information about Oracle, please visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com.

Subscribe to AIIM RSS feeds at http://www.aiim.org/feeds.

WorldFriends Networks, one of the world’s leading international social networking services, today announced that it has launched Trips & Cities – a new feature that enables users to input and share their journeys, follow friends’ adventures and make new friends with people at past and future travel destinations.

In just 14 days after Trips & Cities was launched, WorldFriends users have already logged over 2,000 different trips, demonstrating how Trips & Cities opens up an exciting new dimension of utility and growth for WorldFriends.

Trips & Cities allows users to input their travel destinations and route onto an interactive map that can then be used to connect with friends, other travelers and locals interested in meeting up or sharing information about a particular site or region. The feature also includes new city pages for every city on the planet, allowing users to connect with local residents and other travelers in the region, solicit advice from previous travelers, and get the latest in local news.

In summary, Trips & Cities is a one-stop online solution for users’ social traveling frustrations. The feature, with its mapping application and city/regional pages, helps users connect with locals and learn about the hippest local spots and hangouts, arrange to meet up with friends and fellow travelers in the area, and when their trip is done, keep track of friends’ travels and immediately begin planning their own next adventure.

“Since WorldFriends’ inception, so many members have written thank you notes to WorldFriends for helping them find great new friends during travels to new places. With this new Trips feature, we make it easier than ever for both sides to meet. We’re very excited to see 2,000 trips in the first two weeks; this encourages us to keep expanding the travel dimension of WorldFriends,” said Dominic Penaloza, founder and CEO of WorldFriends.

About WorldFriends Networks

WorldFriends Networks is the world’s leading multi-lingual travel and language exchange community. WorldFriends Networks offers people a high quality environment in which to enjoy ‘internationally minded’ socializing, and to meet new friends with common interests, especially in the areas of travel, culture and language learning. WorldFriends Networks aims to promote global harmony by easing language barriers and culture barriers, resulting in greater cross-culture communication. Over 2 million people from 237 countries, including more than 130,000 language teachers, have registered as WorldFriends Networks members, and use WorldFriends Networks to meet new friends in cities they travel to, to find language exchange partners, penpals and teachers, and to meet other internationally-minded people. WorldFriends Networks already offers service in five languages: Japanese, English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean.
For more information please visit http://www.worldfriendsnetworks.com/.

To experience Trips & Cities please visit http://www.worldfriends.tv/.

Starting today, Nintendo DSi™ owners have even more ways to share their experiences with friends and family. Using an Internet-connected Nintendo DSi system and the Nintendo DSi Camera application, Facebook members can take pictures with either of the system’s two cameras and upload their photos directly to their Facebook profile. This function will be available after 5 p.m. Pacific with a free downloadable system update.
While reviewing pictures they’ve stored in the Nintendo DSi Camera album, which includes photos taken by users and manipulated using the built-in interactive lenses, users can simply tap the Facebook icon on the system’s touch screen to instantly transmit photos to the user’s Facebook profile. The user’s system must be configured to a wireless broadband Internet connection for the transmission of photos.

“Facebook and Nintendo DSi build on the trend of personalization that is so important to consumers,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “We’re giving people the tools to express themselves in creative new ways and show off the results to their friends and family on Facebook.”

Nintendo DSi has sold more than 1.7 million units in the United States alone, according to the NPD Group. The third iteration of the world’s best-selling portable video game system includes photo- and voice-manipulation features that allow users to customize their experiences like never before.

Remember that Nintendo DSi features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Nintendo DSi features such as the new integration with Facebook Connect technology, visit www.NintendoDSi.com.

About Nintendo: The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii™, Nintendo DS™ and Nintendo DSi™ systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System™, Nintendo has sold more than 2.9 billion video games and more than 496 million hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii, Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi, as well as the Game Boy™, Game Boy Advance, Super NES™, Nintendo 64™ and Nintendo GameCube™. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known, household names such as Mario™, Donkey Kong™, Metroid™, Zelda™ and Pokémon™. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company’s Web site at www.Nintendo.com.

Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

Nowadays social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn etc are receiving a lot of attention from the current generation as they allow them to create a profile, view others’ profiles, make contact with people around the globe, visit forums and build their own network based on a number of different criteria. You can now create a buzz like those social networking sites among people by starting a smart networking site using our iSocial application.
Although our Isocial team has developed the perfect script to launch a smart social networking site, some of our valuable customers have faced minor troubles when using the script. In order to help our customers, we have fixed the issues in the iSocial script in a fairly short period of time and released it as a brand new version named iSocial 1.0.5.
CSS will allow you to control over different elements like links in your website. In the new version of iSocial, our developers have fixed the CSS issue in both the member and admin side and help you save a lot of time, particularly when maintaining a large site.
We know that photo capturing is one of the favorite features of networking people but many competitors are failed to incorporate the feature currently. With our latest version of iSocial, you can use this opportunity to pull away users from your competitors’ site by offering photo capturing feature. iSocial in now integrated with one of our hot running scripts known as Mugshot, a photo capturing tool. Starting today, your users can capture pictures of themselves like a professional using their webcam and share them with their friends and family.
One of the main features in iSocial is the Facebook connect. In the previous version, some of our customers felt some difficulty while logging into the iSocial site using their Facebook account. From this moment, they can sign in the iSocial site smoothly using their Facebook account.
Also our developers have made a lot of changes in the admin and member side of iSocial and released it as a new version.
“We are very excited to release this new version to the marketing world. We hope this brand new version will turn our enquiries into sales” said Ms, Sheerin, the vice president of Agriya.
Agriya Infoway is a Chennai based Web Development Company that sells scripts that can be bought by webmasters to build sites under various categories. It is currently offering a new version of iSocial 1.0.5.

As marketers search for ways to evaluate the effectiveness and value of social media in their marketing programs, Zocalo Group, a division of Ketchum and Omnicom Group, today unveiled its Digital Footprint Index (DFI), a new social media diagnostic tool developed to improve a marketer’s ability to understand, measure and accelerate where and how brands are discussed and recommended across all social media channels. The benefit of the DFI to marketers is that it helps recalibrate social media marketing programs midstream to more effectively and efficiently drive word of mouth and recommendation where consumers are active and engaged online.

Unlike other social media measurement tools that focus only on quantity and sentiment, the DFI, developed in conjunction with the Department of Marketing at DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, is a multi-dimensional measurement methodology that makes it easy for marketers to:

— Pinpoint where and how consumers engage and interact with the brand;
— Identify the social media channels consumers use to interact with the
brand;
— Determine how well consumers understand and share the brand’s message;
— Gauge the impact social media marketing efforts have on the growth of
earned conversation;
— Understand how a brand compares to key competitors using social media;
and,
— Track progress over time.
“Social media is a highly effective avenue to reach, engage and influence consumers to drive word of mouth and ultimately recommendation,” said Patrick Rooney, partner at Zocalo Group. “As marketers search for ways to evaluate the effectiveness and value of earned social media, the DFI helps them make better decisions by providing a full understanding of the interaction and impact of their social media efforts.”

A brand’s DFI is a single benchmark score that is tracked over time to measure the effectiveness of a brand’s social media efforts, as well as its success relative to competitors. The Index measures three dimensions of a brand’s earned online presence:

— Height: the quantity of conversation and content about a brand across
all social media channels, including blogs, forums, social networks,
microblogs, picture sharing sites, video sharing sites, document sharing
sites and bookmarking sites
— Width: the level of consumer engagement, interaction and sharing across
all channels
— Depth: the level of message saturation and sentiment/tone
“Marketers want to understand how and where they are being discussed online, especially in relation to paid digital efforts,” said Paul M. Rand, president and CEO of Zocalo Group. “Unfortunately, there is no industry standard for measurement, and while quantity and sentiment are important metrics, the real story is in how consumers interact with the brand in different channels, and which of those is most effective in driving word of mouth and recommendation.”

Using proven, leading-edge analysis tools, the DFI reflects the success of a brand’s presence in social media relative to key competitors, and provides a benchmark to track progress over time. A white paper discussing the DFI can be downloaded from the Zocalo Group Web site (Measuring Digital Word of Mouth).

“Marketers now have a robust tool to track how earned consumer conversation leads to brand preference and ultimately sales,” said Suzanne Fogel, chair of the Department of Marketing at DePaul University. “DFI provides the detail needed to understand the dynamics of online consumer conversation from multiple dimensions, and enables analysis that spans from a macro-level down to specific conversations in individual channels.”

The Digital Footprint Index is part of Zocalo Group’s comprehensive online and offline social media Measurement Suite to evaluate, measure and track the effectiveness, impact and value of a brand’s earned conversation across social media channels.

“Zocalo Group continues to lead the industry in innovation and best practices, pushing the boundaries of how word of mouth and social media can help companies engage consumers,” said Ray Kotcher, CEO of Ketchum. “We’re thrilled to bring this best-in-class approach to all of our clients.”

About Zocalo Group

Zocalo Group is a full-service Word of Mouth Marketing agency, seamlessly integrating proven and leading edge disciplines, building programs in Word of Mouth, Social Media, Public Relations, Experiential Marketing, Social Media Optimization and Influencer Marketing. Based in Chicago, Zocalo Group was named the Holmes Report’s 2009 “New Media Agency of the Year” for its work in social media, and was also honored for the 2009 Best Social Media Program by the Business Marketing Association. Zocalo Group is a unit of Omnicom Group, Inc. and Ketchum Public Relations. For more information, please visit www.zocalogroup.com.

About DePaul University

DePaul University is the largest Catholic university in the United States and the largest private, non-profit university in the Midwest. The university offers highly respected, flexible, practical programs of study on two Chicago and four suburban campuses. DePaul encompasses nine colleges and schools, including the College of Commerce/Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, which has earned a No. 2 ranking for its undergraduate entrepreneurship program from Entrepreneur magazine; a No. 9 ranking for its part-time MBA program from U.S.News & World Report and a No. 11 ranking for its marketing program from BusinessWeek. More information can be found at www.depaul.edu.

Sharein officially launches a web browser tool that enables users to share links to their friends, family and customers extremely easily. Sharein is fast and simple. Users can save time by sharing links 60% faster via email. Twitter and Facebook sharing is as simple as two clicks.

Most Internet users dread the hassle of copying long web addresses (URL) so they can share interesting articles or videos. Long URLs are not email friendly as the link can be broken when it is re-shared. And long URLs dramatically increase the chance for typographical errors. Sharein addresses this by enabling automatic link sharing within a single click on any webpage.

Sharein saves time by automatically capturing a webpage’s address (URL), title, and description. Sharein also creates a thumbnail image so your friends can preview the webpage before clicking on it. Sharein provides a huge convenience by saving your most commonly emailed friends, as well as your Twitter and Facebook profile for instant sharing.

“Discovering good content on the Internet has become an increasingly social activity. You are more likely to read an article that was shared to you from a good friend,” says Colin Wong, CEO of Sharein. Before this, Colin worked in Google and was involved in the successful launch of Google’s AdSense products.

“Link sharing is only one half of the story. What happens after you’ve shared a link? What is the impact of your share? How many people did you reach? How many people viewed it? How many people re-shared your link to their friends?” asked Colin. Knowing this information helps you understand how you influence others. Sharein gives social influencers a great tool to help them understand the impact of their shared links. Sharein provides reports and graphs to illustrate reach, clicks and re-shares across email, Facebook and Twitter.

For Sharein, it is about simplicity, easy-of-use and speed. Why share links the hard way when Sharein does all the work for you?

For more information you can view a video tutorial of the Sharein tool at http://sharein.com/tour