Monthly Archives: August 2009

The results of Bringing Social Security to the Online Community poll were released today, highlighting the vulnerabilities and concerns of social community members around cyber security and the precautions that they are taking or need to take to protect themselves. The online survey conducted by AVG and the CMO Council reveals that while the social networking community has serious concerns about the overall security of public spaces, few are taking the most basic of steps to protect themselves against online crimes.
The survey shows that while the majority of social networking users are afflicted by web-borne security problems, less than one third are taking actions to protect themselves online. Participants indicated concern over growing phishing, spam and malware attacks, and nearly half of those surveyed are very concerned about their personal identity being stolen in an online community.

The survey was conducted online during the second quarter of 2009 and gathered responses from a random sampling of more than 250 consumers. According to the poll results, despite widespread use (86 percent) of social networks at home and/or at work, most fail to perform the following basic security measures on a regular basis:

Changing passwords (64 percent infrequently or never)
Adjusting privacy settings (57 percent infrequently or never)
Informing their social network administrator (90 percent infrequently or never)
“As social networking populations grow globally and the proliferation of niche social networks and mobile offerings extends the reach of social communities, the threats and vulnerabilities are escalating accordingly,” said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. “More frequent breaches and outbreaks on popular social sites are a testament to the need for a more preventative mindset and threat-alert culture among community users.”

Despite the apparent security risks and dangers of engaging in social networking sites, respondents identified several common practices that could cause harm to unprotected users:

21 percent accept contact offerings from members they don’t recognize
More than half let acquaintances or roommates access social networks on their machines
64 percent click on links offered by community members or contacts
26 percent share files within social networks
As a result of this widespread proliferation of links, files, and unsolicited contacts, users have experienced high levels of breaches and threats:

Nearly 20 percent have experienced identity theft
47 percent have been victims of malware infections
55 percent have seen phishing attacks
“The fact that users understand the risks, and yet are failing to take the basic steps to protect themselves presents an interesting challenge to companies, like AVG, that are working to create a safer cyber community,” said Siobhan MacDermott, Head of Public Policy, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, AVG Technologies.

According to MacDermott, AVG hopes to reverse this trend on familiar turfs such as Facebook and Twitter. “Our Data Snatchers campaign is a viral effort that will not only get consumers thinking about their personal security but will also provide them with simple tools to do something about it when they are in the spaces that make them feel the most vulnerable.”

MacDermott said that the Data Snatchers campaign is about combining sound technology with safe practices while enjoying the social computing experience. In addition to encouraging users to take advantage of AVG’s free security offering at http://avgfree.com, MacDermott encourages users to follow Six Simple Steps to Stay Secure:

1. Do not accept pop-ups or prompts for software, unless you are armed with web scanner software such as AVG’s free LinkScanner, which checks each site for infections prior to access.

2. Do not ever provide, post, or submit any confidential personal data (e.g., SSN, banking details, medical records). Social networking sites do not require this sort of information to join, unless you are online dating or paying monthly.

3. Change your password at least once a month. Do not change it if you are prompted to. This can be a third party malicious link.

4. Do not let friends, peers, coworkers, etc. access their social networks on your computer, nor yours on their machine. Others could introduce infections to your computer through unsafe practices, or your login security could be compromised via cookies saved on your computer.

5. Never auto save your password information, and clear your history at least once a week.

6. Do not accept friend requests or request friends that you personally do not know.

A full summary and presentation of the survey results and implications is available at avgnews.com.

Keep in touch with AVG

For up-to-the-minute news on the latest cyberthreats:

Subscribe to AVG Chief Research Officer Roger Thompson’s blog at http://thompson.blog.avg.com/
For general AVG updates:

Join our Facebook community at www.facebook.com/avgfree
Follow AVG on Twitter @officialavgnews.com
Register at www.avgnews.com
To download AVG’s free LinkScanner product:

Visit http://linkscanner.avg.com/
About the CMO Council

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global industries. The CMO Council’s 4,500 members control more than $120 billion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing and sales operations worldwide. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include over 12,000 global executives across 90 countries in multiple industries, segments and markets. Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The Council’s strategic interest groups include the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE), Brand Management Institute, and the Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience (FAME). www.cmocouncil.org

About AVG Technologies

AVG is a global security software maker protecting more than 80 million consumers and small businesses in 167 countries from the ever-growing incidence of web threats, viruses, spam, cyber-scams and hackers on the Internet. AVG has nearly two decades of experience in combating cyber crime and one of the most advanced laboratories for detecting, pre-empting and combating Web-borne threats from around the world. Its free, downloadable software allows novice users to have basic anti-virus protection and then easily upgrade to greater levels of safety and defense when they are ready. AVG has nearly 6,000 resellers, partners and distributors globally including Amazon.com, CNET, Cisco, Ingram Micro, Play.com, Wal-Mart, and Yahoo!

www.avg.com

Tweet! Tweet! Twitter subscribers can now receive instant updates regarding the lowest current mortgage rates for fixed-rate mortgages, jumbo mortgages, FHA mortgage and adjustable-rate mortgages. As an industry-leading direct mortgage lender and mortgage broker, Total Mortgage Services is able to offer unparalleled industry-leading pricing as well as a diverse product mix that is able to meet the needs of any type of borrower. The creation of a Twitter account represents another step forward for Total Mortgage’s web marketing initiative.

“In the past two years, we’ve made a concentrated effort to increase awareness of the Total Mortgage brand through web marketing techniques such as search engine optimization and social networking,” says John Walsh, founder and president of Total Mortgage. Twitter provides us an innovative channel for providing real-time mortgage rates and broadcasting other developments in mortgage industry,” says Mr. Walsh.

Although the Total Mortgage Twitter account has only been in existence for a few months, the company has already amassed hundreds of followers. Instant updates or “tweets” made by Total Mortgage include topics such as current mortgage rates, opportunities for mortgage refinancing, and mortgage “Frequently Asked Questions,” to name a few.
Links to Total Mortgage’s blog “Mortgage Rates and Trends” on Twitter have also kept subscribers abreast of the most recent developments in the mortgage industry. These content-rich mortgage blog articles cover a wide array of topics, ranging from open market operations performed by the Federal Reserve to developments surrounding the FHA Mortgage Loan Modification Program.

“Getting a mortgage loan is a major financial commitment,” says Mr. Walsh. From the standpoint of the borrower, having the most relevant mortgage rates and industry analysis is absolutely crucial to making the most well-informed decision when purchasing a home or refinancing. Through Twitter, Total Mortgage can continue maintaining its commitment to offering exceptional customer service by empowering our borrowers with insightful, invaluable information.”

Readers can follow Total Mortgage on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/totalmortgage or on the company’s blog, “Mortgage Rates and Trends” at http://www.totalmortgage.com/blog.

Total Mortgage Services, LLC, provider of some of the nation’s lowest current mortgage rates, is an industry leading direct mortgage lender and mortgage broker, having funded over $4 billion in mortgage loans since 1997. Licensed in over twenty states, Total Mortgage offers a variety of products and programs including fixed-rate loans, adjustable-rate loans (ARMs), jumbo loans, FHA mortgages and more.

On August 29, 2009, Boulevard Mall becomes the first shopping center in Western New York to launch the social networking website, Shoptopia. Shoptopia is a national social shopping networking website designed to connect Boulevard Mall shoppers with others who share their passion for shopping, as well as retailers and other community groups.

Shoptopia bridges the gap between online and traditional retail shopping, allowing members to enjoy the benefits of online shopping while reconnecting them with the enjoyment of an in-store shopping experience. Shoptopia members share insights, product reviews and their passion for shopping, across a community of fellow shoppers, while receiving special discounts and incentives that can be redeemed at Boulevard Mall merchant locations.

“Shoptopia helps us build relationships with shoppers and provides them with information about retailers and promotions that are specifically relevant to them,” said Betsey Bonvissuto, marketing director, Boulevard Mall. “This allows us to enhance the in-store shopping experience by taking our shoppers from online and enticing them to visit the mall. We can communicate with our shoppers in real time about all the different activities and sales promotion that are meaningful to them happening at the mall.”

In celebration of Shoptopia’s launch, Boulevard Mall plans to give the first 200 Shoptopia members who bring their printed Shoptopia profile page to Guest Services at Boulevard Mall on Saturday, August 29 a free $10 gift card, while supplies last. All members will be entered into a drawing for a $250 shopping spree, just for signing up for a free membership now through September 13, 2009. In addition, Shoptopia will award special prize giveaways to shoppers throughout the day on August 29 via a special text message mobile campaign.

Using Shoptopia is simple. Users sign up to create a profile and personalize their shopping preferences. They collect and organize favorite products with Shoptopia Lists, seek the opinions of like-minded shoppers and share a shopping experience with family and friends in the Talk section. Shoppers engage across all major retail categories including, Women’s Fashion, Men’s Fashion, Kids, Gadgets, Health & Beauty, and Eco-Green.

Once users create a profile that identifies their preferences, they enjoy exclusive perks and deals from Shoptopia and Boulevard Mall. Retailers build relationships with customers who frequent their stores and provide these shoppers with the product information and promotions that are relevant to them.

Shoptopia has launched at The Promenade Bolingbrook, Bolingbrook, IL, The Mall at Robinson, Pittsburgh, PA, Charleston Town Center, Charleston, WV, The Mall at Stonecrest, Lithonia, GA, Promenade Temecula, Temecula, CA, Galleria at Sunset, Henderson, NV, Short Pump Town Center, Richmond VA, . Following the launch at Boulevard, Shoptopia will continue to roll out to more than 20 shopping centers nationwide by the end of the year.

About Shoptopia
Shoptopia is an online shopping experience where members can share their love for their favorite brands, discover new products, seek shopping advice from a community of friends, family and peers, and receive exclusive benefits from local shopping centers. Shoptopia is the creation of Mallfinder Network, the leading developer and provider of interactive marketing services for the shopping center industry since 1997. Mallfinder develops and hosts websites, manages e-mail and mobile marketing campaigns, and coordinates the delivery of brand and retailer content. Experience Shoptopia at www.shoptopia.com

About Boulevard Mall
Boulevard Mall is a 934,000 square-foot, one-level shopping center located in Amherst, New York at the corner of Maple Road and Niagara Falls Boulevard. Boulevard Mall is anchored by Macy’s, Macy’s Men’s Store, JCPenney and Sears and includes over 120 specialty shops, restaurants and a food court. For more information, visit www.boulevard-mall.com Boulevard Mall is owned and managed by Forest City Enterprises, Inc., a publicly traded (NYSE: FCEA and FCEB) national real estate company.

Send Your Best (Sendyourbest.com), a newly-conceived online community designed to cheer on friends and family as they achieve milestones, is currently accepting beta testers while prepping for a late 2009 launch.

Created by David Goldman after his close friend, Kathleen was diagnosed with breast cancer, Send Your Best was initially a simple one page website that Mike Coulter built where Kathleen’s friends and family members could express well wishes and give her encouragement. Alternately Kathleen was able to give regular updates to the group that was rallying behind her. With the power of the internet in hand not only did Kathleen receive regular pep talks and ‘atta girls from those closest to her, she heard from people she hadn’t heard from in years and also received hundreds of well wishes from people she’d never met.

“After seeing how much this simple website lifted Kathleen’s spirits and made her battle a little bit easier, Mike and I realized that if this could help her then it could help thousands if not millions of people worldwide,” explains Goldman. “Kathleen is, thankfully, fully recovered and doing well.”

Send Your Best is not only geared towards those who are fighting illnesses like cancer but also to anyone working toward a milestone be it an educational goal, a marathon and so on. The scope of cheerleading Send Your Best can provide is as wide open as its users are creative. Unlike other social networking sites where you create your own page, with Send Your Best your friend or family member creates a page for you. Designed to put people in contact with others dealing with the same struggles and triumphs, Send Your Best also connects those who need help with those who are there to give it. It’s safe to say that everyone can use a support network at some point in their life.

Send Your Best Team

David Goldman

A professional photographer with over 13 years of working in the music, celebrity and advertising worlds, Goldman is the founder of Send Your Best. Not long after relocating to New York in 2005 from Los Angeles a very close friend of his was diagnosed with stage 3 advanced breast cancer. No longer living in LA and feeling somewhat helpless as to what he could do to help his friend David came up with the idea of Send Your Best. Originally for his friend, it quickly became clear through all the positive feedback and great support gleaned from the site that it would be a crime if he did not do everything in his power to make it a reality for anyone in need.

Eythor Ernstson

A software and marketing professional with 10 years of experience in entrepreneurial and startup environments, Ernstson is a partner of Send Your Best as well as the lead web designer for the site. Born and raised in Iceland, Ernstson moved to the US to explore opportunities but ended up settling in Toronto where he and David struck up a friendship. After a few brief conversations, Ernstson realized the potential that Send Your Best has on positively impacting people and joined the effort to make it a reality. Aside from working on Send Your Best, Ernstson runs a consulting firm out of Toronto and Huntsville, Alabama.

Mike Coulter
An LA-based Art Director and Web Designer, Coulter is a co-founder and the lead web developer for Send Your Best. He was born outside of Baltimore and after graduating from Penn State in 1985 with degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering Coulter moved to California. Passion intervened and Coulter sidestepped engineering for his love of music and dreams of becoming a rock star. His band Lifter was signed to Interscope Records in 1993 and released one record. Mike found a permanent home in the film industry as an Art Director for television commercials co-mingled with a second career in web design and development. He lives in Eagle Rock with the love of his life, his dog Calvin.

Adopt-a-Pet.com launches “TwitterACritter” campaign with help from Kevin Nealon, Alyssa Milano, and others

Adopt-a-Pet.com, North America’s largest non-profit pet adoption web service, announces the official launch of TwitterACritter, a new social media campaign that uses Twitter to spread the word about adoptable pets in shelters.

On the campaign web site, www.TwitterACritter.com, pet lovers can select one of the 130,000 homeless dogs, cats, and other pets listed on Adopt-a-Pet.com and tweet a link to that pet’s information.

“TwitterACritter is a fun, easy way for people to actively save the life of a shelter pet, even if they can’t adopt one themselves or afford to donate,” says Abbie Moore, executive director of Adopt-a-Pet.com. “Homeless pets are powerless to promote themselves to potential adopters, so it’s up to those of us who love animals to lend a hand, and a set of thumbs, and tweet about them. In these difficult economic times, when so many pets are being relinquished to shelters, they need our help more than ever.”

Already the campaign has gotten a boost from several celebrities who have participated and encouraged their Twitter followers to do the same. Since the TwitterACritter feature became available two weeks ago, Kevin Nealon, Alyssa Milano, Denise Richards, Kristin Chenoweth, and several other celebrities have taken up the cause and tweeted links to shelter pets listed on Adopt-a-Pet.com. According to Moore, “In each case, immediately after the celebrity’s tweet, hundreds of their followers tweeted homeless pets as well. . . and their followers tweet, and so on and so on. The celebrities create an avalanche of compassion.”

“The bottom line is that if enough people see a shelter pet, that pet gets adopted. There is no better way to expose shelter pets to as many potential adopters as possible than through Twitter,” continues Moore. “It’s no exaggeration to say that a single tweet can save a life. Imagine the impact it would have if everyone tweeted just one critter a day!”

To learn more about TwitterACritter and to see photos of celebrity participants, visit http://www.TwitterACritter.com. You can follow the campaign at http://www.Twitter.com/TweetACritter

About Adopt-a-Pet.com:

Adopt-a-Pet.com (formerly 1-800-Save-A-Pet.com) is North America’s largest non-profit pet adoption website, helping over 8,000 animal shelters, humane societies, SPCAs, pet rescue groups, and pet adoption agencies advertise their homeless pets to adopters for free. Adopt-a-Pet.com displays photos and descriptions of adoptable pets to over 1.5 million people seeking to adopt a pet each month, and is funded by the passionate pet lovers at Purina and North Shore Animal League America. Aside from being able to adopt a dog or adopt a cat, Adopt-a-Pet.com visitors may now also adopt a rabbit, horse, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, farm-type animals and other small pets.

Faculty Focus, a website for higher education professionals, today announced results of a survey on Twitter usage and trends among college faculty. The survey of approximately 2,000 higher education professionals found that nearly one-third (30.7 percent) of the 1,958 respondents say they use Twitter in some capacity. More than half, (56.4 percent) say they’ve never used Twitter.

The findings, available in the downloadable report Twitter in Higher Education: Usage Habits and Trends of Today’s College Faculty, show relatively strong adoption rates among higher education professionals. On the other end of the spectrum, the results also reveal a large number of faculty question the value of using the micro-blogging service in an academic setting.

Key findings of Twitter in Higher Education: Usage Habits and Trends of Today’s College Faculty include:

21.9 percent of respondents say they are “familiar” or “very familiar” with Twitter.
Of those who use Twitter, 21 percent say they “frequently” use it to collaborate with colleagues; 15.6 percent do so “occasionally.”
Of those who use Twitter, 7.2 percent “frequently” use it as a learning tool in the classroom; 9.4 percent do so “occasionally.”
71.8 percent of current Twitterers expect their usage to increase this school year.
20.6 percent of current non-Twitter users say there is a “50/50 chance” they will use Twitter as a learning tool in the classroom in the next two years.
12.9 percent of respondents say they tried Twitter, but stopped using it because it took too much time, they did not find it valuable, or a combination of reasons.
Depending on how they answered the question “Do you use Twitter?” respondents were asked a unique set of follow-up questions. The 20-page report released today provides a breakdown of the survey results by question, including comments provided by survey respondents when available. The comments further explain how they are using Twitter, why they stopped, or why they have no interest in using it at all.

Although the majority of faculty do not currently use Twitter, their reasons are varied. Many questioned its educational relevance and expressed concerns that it creates poor writing skills. For others the reasons boiled down to the simple fact that they either don’t know how to use Twitter, or don’t have time to use it.

“One of the more interesting findings from the survey is the high percentage of faculty who use Twitter, even if they’re still experimenting with the best ways to incorporate it into their courses,” says Mary Bart, content manager for Faculty Focus. “What also became quite apparent was how strongly Twitterers and non-Twitterers feel about the technology.”

The majority (55.9 percent) of people who took the survey are professors or instructors, with another 4.3 percent who designated themselves as online instructors specifically. Nearly one-fourth (23.6 percent) are academic leaders, such as department chairs and deans. Sixteen percent selected their role as “other” and this included individuals in faculty development, academic advisement, instructional design, marketing, admissions, assessment, and library services.

The survey was conducted in July and August 2009. An email invitation to participate in the online survey was distributed to Faculty Focus subscribers, as well as to select in-house lists of higher education faculty and administrators. Faculty Focus also notified its Twitter followers of the survey via http://twitter.com/facultyfocus.

To access the full report: Twitter in Higher Education: Usage Habits and Trends of Today’s College Faculty visit http://bit.ly/4cjCh0 or http://www.facultyfocus.com/.

About Faculty Focus

Faculty Focus, a resource from Magna Publications, is a website dedicated to the academic issues at the forefront of higher education today. Developed for teaching professors and academic leaders, the site features innovative strategies, best practices, and fresh perspectives for creating a better teaching and learning environment. Visit http://www.facultyfocus.com/

Tewspaper, an online newspaper without writers, has launched with coverage of five major metropolitan cities – Baltimore, Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. Tewspaper scours social media websites such as Twitter and filters messages down to breaking news. One of the local sites, Baltimore News, brings algorithmically filtered news to people in Tewspaper’s home town.

Tewspaper is neither endorsed nor sponsored by Twitter or other social media websites; the company uses publicly available APIs to connect with social media sites and find relevant data. One of Tewspaper’s innovations is a system of filtering through the obscure and finding the relevant news on social media sites. For example, Twitter alone has over 2 billion messages, and is growing by thousands of messages per minute. Tewspaper makes it easy to find out what is happening now, in an organized, succinct, and accessible fashion. It is an ideal way for the Internet generation, who text and tweet, to view the news at their rapidly moving pace.

“We began by limiting the news to trusted authorities on Twitter. From there, we are working on an algorithm that can find additional breaking news from anyone on Twitter and other websites as it happens,” said Jared Lamb, the creator of Tewspaper.

Another obstacle Tewspaper had to overcome was the limited content it could locate for each story. To solve this problem, the website automatically matches images to related stories. Tewspaper determines the optimal image to display for every story based upon the author, subject, headline text, date, links, and other context.

Canpages Inc., Canada’s fastest growing local search firm, announced today the acquisition of GigPark, an online social media platform which allows users to find local businesses and service providers through recommendations from friends as well as make recommendations themselves.
The acquisition will enable Canpages to integrate user recommendations into its online local search platform, Canpages.ca. Additionally, it will allow Canpages to add a social media layer to its online and mobile products, connecting users with its advertisers through recommendations from friends and others.
“Online recommendations, especially those from a user’s social networks, are increasingly important when choosing which local businesses to buy from,” said Olivier Vincent, President and CEO of Canpages. “With the acquisition of the GigPark, we are thrilled to be the first local search and directories publisher in North America to embrace social recommendations in a relevant way.”
GigPark was founded in 2007 by Pema Hegan and Noah Godfrey. Both Hegan and Godfrey, along with GigPark’s Director of Technology, Paul Dowman, will join the Canpages team in Toronto.
The acquisition will also allow Canpages to incorporate GigPark’s functionality and content into its ImmersiFind platform-the company’s online search and SEO-enabled publishing technology that it licenses to directory companies around the world. There are currently 15 directory publishers globally licensing the platform, which totals more than 1,500 advertising consultants that sell into the ImmersiFind network. In less than one year since ImmersiFind’s launch, Canpages has become the leading licenser of online local search technology in the world.
“Our acquisition of GigPark is another example of Canpages’ commitment to delivering the best local search experience to Canadians and ImmersiFind customers,” said Vincent. “Canpages is already Canada’s fastest growing local search company and with the addition of GigPark, we are one step closer to becoming a global leader in local search online.”
The GigPark acquisition represents another milestone for Canpages, which has grown its online presence at Canpages.ca from 300,000 unique visitors per month to 3.5 million and more than tripled its number of employees from 200 to over 700. Additionally, in less than one year Canpages has also expanded its reach from 2 million to over 8 million homes and businesses across the country.
About Canpages Inc. and Canpages.ca
Canpages is the largest independent local search and directories publisher in Canada. Its website, Canpages.ca features a national residential and business database and more than 3.5 million unique visitors come to visit it every month with their local search requests. With 84 publications and over 85,000 customers, Canpages reaches more than 8 million households and businesses across Canada. Headquartered in Vancouver, Canpages employs 700 people and has offices in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. For more information visit: www.Canpages.ca.

MYARTSPACE.com, the premier online social network for the contemporary art world, has announced the launch of MYARTSPACE.tv, a site providing live, 24-hour per day streaming contemporary art and music.

Catherine McCormack-Skiba, the founder of MYARTSPACE and CEO noted “With our incredibly rich collection of contemporary art from our 60,000 artists we represent, we have a unique ability to launch rich and interesting new art services to the viewing public. MYARTSPACE.tv allows people to enjoy very high-quality, curated contemporary art in their web browser 24 hours per day. The diversity of work is also unique, with artists from over 116 countries being represented in our community.”

The live streaming fine art service is combined with a music playlist constructed on Playlist.com. The service is interactive. Clicking on the art as it streams by allows art appreciators to learn more about the artist and purchase work from them.

Brian Skiba, Chief Technology Officer at CatMacArt Corporation, the producers of the MYARTSPACE site notes “This is a first step in an interesting new direction for contemporary art, and the way in which an audience can interact. Ultimately we see specialty fine art channels being rolled out – for photography, sculpture, mixed media, painting. We also see a variety of platforms and devices from which we can leverage including high-definition television, the iPhone, and other internet-connected devices. And finally, we’ll work towards availing dedicated channels for museums and galleries to offer a means of attracting a broader, younger audience to the contemporary art world.”.

The stream art service is available free at www.myartspace.tv.

About MYARTSPACE:

MYARTSPACE.com, the premier online venue for contemporary art, is one of the fastest growing and diverse communities on the internet. Its members include more than 60,000 artists, collectors, galleries and other art world professionals from across the globe, and it currently has on display hundreds of thousands of pieces of fine art. Membership is free and artist can upload their creative work including images, music and video. Myartspace is created and run by CatMacArt Corporation. CatMacArt Corporation is located in Palo Alto, California. www.catmacart.com.

U.S. consumer advocacy and customer complaints website, www.PissedConsumer.com, takes consumer complaints to Twitter. The new Twitter account broadcasts user comments across the microblogging service. Launching the account is an effort to reach younger consumers who may not conduct as much independent consumer research as older generations.

“The Internet makes researching companies easier for consumers,” says Joanna Simpson of PissedConsumer.com. “But that doesn’t mean that people are using all of the tools available to them. We understand that many consumers today — especially young consumers — are on social media services like Twitter. It’s an environment where they not only can feel comfortable airing their own complaints to friends and followers, but where they go for up to the minute information about their favorite things. They want to know what other people are talking about, and this new account is designed to bring them that while arming them with valuable information that can save them money and spare them an occasional customer service nightmare.”
The new PissedConsumer.com Twitter account is about more than reaching consumers. It also enables companies on Twitter to better track their brand, including consumer complaints and concerns. This will allow real-time feedback gathering, and companies are welcome to visit the articles and comments linked in those tweets to respond on the site. PissedConsumer.com advocates two-sided conversations between companies and consumers.

Due to tweet length limitations, each tweet in the PissedConsumer.com Twitter account feed contains the original article title and links. “The current format offers the best chance of company names being easily tracked for consumer research using Twitter,” says Simpson. “This enables both companies and consumers to know what the initial complaint and all comments pertain to as opposed to tweeting the first few words of each comment.” Twitter users can follow PissedConsumer.com at www.Twitter.com/consumer_press

About PissedConsumer.com

PissedConsumer.com is a premier consumer advocacy group, featuring consumer reviews and complaints in a social networking environment. The company uses online tools to publicize reviews and complaints filed by consumers on the Internet. In addition, the site offers a set of free tools necessary to bring the dispute to a fast and successful resolution, including a consumer complaint letter generator and collection of consumer tips and advice in the site’s consumer advocacy section.

For more information about PissedConsumer.com, please visit PissedConsumer.com or contact Joanna Simpson at 646-383-3404

Social gaming has quickly become one of the most viral things on the web. Starting on Facebook and now spreading to Twitter, there seems to be a new social game popping up every day. This phenomenon has quickly become old news as most of these viral games offer little to nothing in the way of innovation compared to the dozens before them. Whether you’re playing as a mob boss, a spy, or any number of other things, you still read what happens in your game off the screen. The immersive experience of actually watching the actions in a game unfold hasn’t quite made it to the social graph, until now.

Enter NinjaWarz.com, the debut social game from Broken Bulb Studios based in Scottsdale, Arizona. NinjaWarz is a flash based game that actually brings you into it’s world rather than asking you to read about it. You get to build your Ninja clan with dozens of weapons, upgradable characters, and full animation everywhere you turn in the game. You even get to watch your Ninja clan battle it out in real time with other players’ clans. As your clan wins battles, your gain levels and earn gold and Karma which allows you to continue to buy new weapons, relics, and train your ninjas as well as recruit more. So far, the game is only available on Twitter. But designers of the game say they are working fast to integrate with Facebook Connect.

NinjaWarz has also taken some serious steps to curb the relentless feed spamming that tends to come with the success of any social game, especially on Twitter. The game does not do any posting that’s not user-initiated. Instead it prompts the player to post to their feed only when select actions occur and offers a valuable reward on a per-post basis. If the user elects to post their action, the prompt doesn’t return for some time. “We think that people will be more likely to play our game if they see one good post every few hours rather than a dozen meaningless posts from the same user in 10 minutes,” notes Robert Nelson, CEO of Broken Bulb. So what is this ‘one good post’? When the player elects to do so, NinjaWarz posts a short message detailing the outcome of a battle as well as a link to a flash-based replay of the actual fight. That’s right, friends can actually watch the exact fight that the player saw in the game prior to ever having to sign up for NinjaWarz.

Broken Bulb emphasizes the fact that NinjaWarz is still in an early beta stage and has several more enhancements and game elements in development. There’s even talk of in-game gambling (with virtual currency of course) in a coming update. It’ll be exciting to see how that is implemented. You can sign up for NinjaWarz by going to http://NinjaWarz.com and logging in with your Twitter credentials.

Marketing campaigns that incorporate a brand focused social network are more effective due to the increasing popularity of social media according to Reality Digital, the leading provider of social networking application software for brands and businesses.

Reality Digital have indicated that marketing campaigns that integrate social media activity, such as a social network dedicated to a brand, are far more influential in reaching out to key audiences than those that only focused on media content advertising.

The advantages of using a social network as the hub of marketing activity in both online and offline promotion are numerous, particularly due to fact that the vast majority of consumers have an online presence. According to Reality Digital, the ability to direct consumers to a single point of engagement can make a marketing strategy even more effective.
The use of a central website or network as a focal point also makes it easier to reap benefits from a search engine optimisation perspective too, through the generation of URL’s and keywords that match and compliment each other.

A brand focused video social network such as Reality Digital’s Opus Platform allows fans of a company to interact with the brand in a much more direct way than other marketing strategies allow them to, on a mass level. A social network can also hold user generated content features that can be used as a marketing tool to create and manage competitions based around the brand and the network.

“The use of social networks in a marketing strategy is becoming more and more important in the engagement of consumers throughout a campaign” said Robert Proctor, Head of EMEA for Reality Digital.

“A social networking platform provides the perfect focal point for marketing activity as the brand can unite its audiences within a single community, providing an efficient delivery platform for campaign messaging. These networks can be moderated by the brand too, removing any risk of negative content being uploaded and shared.”

The Opus Platform incorporates a number of cutting edge social networking tools guaranteed to entice users, from basic social network functionality and user generated content capabilities, to a high definition video engine.

For more information on Reality Digital or the Opus Platform, please call 02031 785883 or visit realitydigital.com.