Monthly Archives: September 2009

This week on Get Real, The Real Estate Investing Show for the Rest of Us, the spotlight was turned to one of the hottest topics in popular culture, social networking. Twitter and Facebook have quickly become common lexicons in conversations throughout the US. With the explosion in their usage many businesses have found it hard to ignore the potential that lies in these online giants.

Hosts Judson Voss and Allison McArthur shared tips for real estate investors to increase their business’ effectiveness by utilizing these sites, in particular Twitter. “One of the most powerful things Twitter provides for new investors is a way to network with local industry professionals without having to speak in person.” said Judson. He went on to explain that many new investors are intimidated by the thought of having to speak with realtors and ask them to provide real estate offerings that may be good investments. Twitter and other social networking sites provide a way to reach out without having to pick up the phone or meet in person at first.

Allison explained, “By searching locally for realtors, attorneys, accountants, mortgage brokers and other investors you can network with literally hundreds of other people without having to go across town to meetings.” This increases the efficient use of your time while still making this important connections to build and support your real estate investing business.

Future episodes of Get Real will include more useful tips for building and creating social networks to help small real estate investing businesses.

To learn more about social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook and how to invest in real estate visit http://www.real-estate-investing-club.com

Sterizon LLC, a leading wireless data collection and direct marketing solution provider, pleased to announce the release of its Social Media Marketing product wiTweet. wiTweet enables businesses to tap into Social Media Marketing by getting their customers to follow the business on Twitter.

Customer’s signup to follow the business on Twitter using Sterizon’s flagship product Sterizon wiZit – a portable, wireless, handheld WiFi device while they are at the place of business. The enrollment is instant and effective immediately. Twitter gives the business the ability to reach broad consumer base on the internet at no cost for marketing and advertising purposes.

“Our customers in restaurant, service and hospitality industries are looking for an effective and simple solution for Social Media Marketing. With Sterizon wiZit’s integration with Twitter, we are able to offer Social Media Marketing along side Email and Mobile Marketing in one integrated solution.” said Subba Ayyagari, Co-Founder of Sterizon.

For more information about this product, please visit http://www.sterizon.com.

About Sterizon
Sterizon LLC is a technology leader in wireless data collection and direct marketing service products for businesses. The company offers businesses suite of integrated products for building long lasting and profitable customer relationships using Email, Mobile and Social Media Marketing. Sterizon LLC is a privately held company with offices located in Metro Atlanta, GA and Jacksonville, FL. To learn more, please visit www.sterizon.com or call 404-704-0796 or on twitter @sterizon.

Sterizon, Sterizon wiZit and the Sterizon Logo are trademarks of Sterizon LLC.

About Twitter
Twitter is a social messaging service which connects people over multiple devices including mobile texting (SMS), instant messaging (IM), web browsers, and hundreds of third-party applications due to a popular programming interface for developers. Founded in 2007, Twitter asks everyone “What are you doing?” and routes the short answers in real-time between contacts around the World.

Twitter, and the Twitter Logo are trademarks of Twitter, Inc.

Online ad network Chitika this week broke down over 123 million impressions across their 60,000+ publisher network and determined that the overwhelming dominance of search engines is facing little, if any, threat from social networks. Despite predictions that social media will replace search engines as Internet users’ primary method of finding information online, a breakdown of the numbers shows that isn’t the case.
For charts and supporting data visit: http://chitika.com/research/2009/social-vs-search
Google, Search Engines Leading the Way
Chitika broke down the top 65 referral sites across their network for seven days in September, and compared the results to the same data from seven days in July. Unsurprisingly, in September Google leads the world with 76.13% of all referrals, followed by Yahoo! (7.34%), Bing (5.20%), AOL (1.24%) and Ask (0.84%) in that order. As a genre, search engines as a whole encompassed 97.82% of all referrals, and search engines accounted for all of the top 5 individual sources.
Social Media Far Behind, Led by StumbleUpon
The top non-search referrer is StumbleUpon, classified in this study as a social network, with 0.27% of all referrals. Facebook, arguably the highest-profile social network, ranked 17th in September with 0.06%. Microblogging social network Twitter came in at 47th in with 0.02%. Social networks accounted for 0.55% of all referrals, less than the #5 search engine Ask.com sent by itself.
Changes Over Time: Bing Dropping, Twitterers Become Link-Blind
Looking at September’s numbers vs. July, it appears that several interesting things are happening: for one, Twitter users appear to be becoming link-blind. Since July, Twitter has plummeted from 24th on the list with 0.05% of referrals to its current spot, 44th, with 0.02%. At the same time, Microsoft’s much-heralded decision engine Bing has lost market share, both overall and within the search engine ecosystem. Bing in July held 5.84% of all referrals (6.35% of the search engine market). In September, that number has dropped to 5.20% overall (5.68% of search engine traffic).
As for genres of incoming links, between July and September search has seen a minor increase in its dominance, while social media has increased its share of referrals from 0.47% to 0.55%. The increases seem to have come at the expense of traffic from video sites and Internet Service Providers, both of which saw their share drop.
In all, it would appear that while social media is increasing in its ability to generate outbound traffic, those increases are not at the expense of search engines, which continue to increase their referral dominance.
About Chitika
Chitika, Inc. is an online advertising network and research firm, leading the way in intent-based advertising and search engine insights. With over 60,000 sites and 2 billion monthly impressions, the Chitika network is the pulse of the online world. For more information, visit http://chitika.com
Follow Chitika on Twitter – http://twitter.com/chitika

GoldenNetworking.com celebrated its nine-month anniversary in style, with the participation of Chinese executives, businessmen, professionals and entrepreneurs, during its first ever China Happy Hour, past Monday, at Johnny Utah’s. Pictures of this reception (and many others) can be found on GoldenNetworking.com’s website. China Happy Hour attracted professionals from companies as diverse as Apparel Resources, Buckingham Hotel, Carriage Hill Partners, Deutsche Bank, GMAC Real Estate IPG, HBO, ICBC, JPMorgan Chase, Kee Global Advisors LLC., Le Parker Meridian, Manhattan Apartments Inc., NYC Department of Small Business Services, Roslyn Classic Enterprises, Warburg Realty, Whitestone Communications and Win-Holt Equipment Group, among others. They all enjoyed getting to know one another and exploring potential partnerships and avenues of cooperation.

China Happy Hour was GoldenNetworking.com’s first reception on China, before its highly expected China Leaders Forum 2009, on October 8th; China Leaders Forum 2009 will examine the challenges facing Chinese companies now expanding abroad and how to overcome the obstacles there, as well as the threats and opportunities posed to multinationals by the present wave of Chinese globalization.

Founder Edgar Perez manages GoldenNetworking.com on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=39041844214) and Twitter (@GoldenNetworkin) to promote business/social networking receptions among both new and old friends. Explore http://www.goldennetworking.com to tap into a “Linkedin meets Meetup” world for the professional “on the go who wants to be in the know”.

NDS, the leading provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, today announced that DEN (DEN Networks Limited), a leading Indian digital cable TV operator, has launched two innovative services on the NDS MediaHighway® platform. DEN has recently launched an interactive TV micro blogging application, Blog.telly, after the launch of its 24×7 music service in January of this year.

In partnership with NDS, DEN is delivering an appealing and ever-increasing combination of broadcast and interactive digital television applications to its Indian cable TV viewers.

NDS’ market-leading MediaHighway® now offers DEN subscribers the ability to use Blog.telly to comment on popular discussion topics across four categories: News Views (current affairs), Movie Masala (movies), Gup Shup (TV, soaps and celebrity gossip) and Sports Mania. Comments can be posted via SMS or directly on the website. As well as being an option for subscribers to share their thoughts on TV content, Blog.telly will provide DEN with information and feedback on their subscribers’ likes and dislikes which can be used to determine future programming.

DEN’s recently launched music service offers real-time, non-stop music content to its cable TV subscribers. Viewers can play, navigate, preview and manage the multi-lingual music content of their choice.

DEN relies on an end-to-end solution from NDS, including NDS VideoGuard® conditional access system (CAS), NDS Media Highway® set-top box software and an advanced NDS electronic programme guide (EPG).

Mr. Anuj Gandhi, CEO, DEN, said: “The launch of these additional services further improves the entertainment experience for our digital cable viewers in India. This would not be possible without our technology partnership with NDS, which enables us to deliver such advanced services.”

Ms. Sue Taylor, NDS Senior Vice President and General Manager Asia Pacific said, “We will continue to work with DEN to provide world-class solutions and localised support in India, enabling them to deliver interactive entertainment services to their subscribers.”

Businesses are scrambling to find the best way to utilize social media, while the United States federal government and DoD has been a leader in implementing social media initiatives. “New and emerging social media and Web 2.0 tools are revolutionizing the way we communicate with our Citizen-Soldiers and Airmen, their families, and the American people. These tools allow deployed forces to maintain close contact with loved ones, allow our recruiters to more easily reach their audience, and are transforming the way we share our message and allow our publics to share their thoughts with us. They also challenge our IT and operational security. We must find a way to balance these competing imperatives,” says General Craig McKinley USAF, Chief of National Guard Bureau. General McKinley and other advocates of social media initiatives will speak at the Social Media for Defense & Government in Washington DC, 20 – 22 January 2010.
The security of social media is a controversial topic. The exposing of unnecessary information from communication from the battlefield to the Internet is a top security issue. Social media forums make it easy and convenient to share information to the vast pubic. On the other hand, these same qualities make social media a powerful tool for communicating with soldiers, their families and the American people. IDGA’s Social Media for Defense & Government will focus on the improvement of internal and external communications and include other decision-makers and influencers who will share case studies on how social media benefits the DoD and government enterprise.

IDGA is as a non-partisan information-based organization dedicated to promoting innovative ideas in public service and defense. IDGA brings together speaker panels comprised of military and government professionals while attracting delegates with decision-making power from military, government, and defense industries. IDGA events are well-researched, uniquely tailored topics that keep delegates abreast of operational and industry advancements and provide a forum to gain access to influential representatives and professionals from the aforementioned industries. http://www.idga.org

With Twitter being accessed from mobile devices to a greater extent than other social media, Twitter users also use social media more in such locations as cars, restaurants and restrooms, according to a survey conducted by Crowd Science (www.crowdscience.com) with its advanced research platform for online audience measurement.

One-in-ten Twitter users (11%) admitted to accessing social media while driving during the preceding 30 days, compared with just 5% of other social media users. And 29% of Twitter users said they had accessed social media from cars at some point in the past, compared with 13% of non-users.

“Twitter is more of a mobile media phenomenon than other social networks, so these results, while a little disturbing, are perhaps not so surprising,” noted John Martin, CEO of Crowd Science. “And even though checking updates outpaces tweeting by almost two to one, the bottom line is that either type of activity takes a driver’s attention away from the road.”

Indeed, Crowd Science found that only a quarter (27%) of Twitter users tweet daily, while nearly half (46%) check updates daily. In addition, 24% of Twitters users have never tweeted, or have ceased doing so.

According to the survey, some 40% of Twitter users access the service via mobile at least sometimes (compared with 32% for Facebook users, for example), and 8% use mobile all the time (vs. 3% for Facebook).

In addition to the greater usage while driving, the survey also found that over the past 30 days, twice as many Twitter users as non-Twitter social media users (8% to 4%) had accessed any social media from a theater during a movie or live performance. During the same period, 17% of Twitter users vs. 12% of non-Twitter social media users had accessed social media from a washroom or toilet. And nearly three times as many Twitter users as other social media users have accessed social media from restaurants (31% vs. 12%).

Summary Graphics Online
http://pub.crowdscience.com/Twitter-Summary.pdf

Reluctant Users
Crowd Science also surveyed the attitudes of Twitter users, finding a significant number to be reluctant social media users, who use the applications because friends and contacts do (17%) or because stopping or reducing its use would be damaging to their social status (15%.).
Almost one-third (32%) of Twitter users feel they spend too much time using social media, nearly a quarter (22%) say they’ve written things on social media that they’ve later regretted, and 16% report that they often neglect important activities to spend time on social media.
Yet exactly a quarter of Twitter users say social media is their favorite leisure activity (compared with 14% of non-Twitter social media users).

Other survey results include:
– 41% of Twitter users prefer to contact friends via social media rather than telephone, compared with 25% of non-Twitter social media users, and 11% (vs. only 6% of those not using Twitter) actually prefer social media over face-to-face contacts. Indeed, 14% of Twitter users said they have revealed things about themselves in social media that they wouldn’t under any other circumstances. Then again, 8% admitted to “frequently stretching” the truth about themselves online.
– More than twice as many males than females (32% to 15%) access Twitter primarily through a third-party application. Overall, 43% of Twitter users employ a third-party application at least some of the time, and 26% as their main mode of access.
– Twitter users tend to be older than non-Twitter social media users (54% over 30 years old, vs. 42%), twice as likely to be self-employed or entrepreneurs (18% vs. 9%) and to be planning to start a business during the next six months, and more tech-savvy (24% vs. 15% “buy gadgets/devices when they first come out,” 48% vs. 30% have created a website, and nearly four of ten (37%) currently maintain a blog, twice as many as non-Twitter social media users).

“By applying scientific sampling techniques to Crowd Science’s unique open research network, we’re able to undertake these kinds of real-time qualitative surveys that provide real value to publishers, advertisers and other industry observers,” said Martin. “In the days ahead, we’ll also be releasing a comparative analysis of Facebook users vs. MySpace users.”
The Crowd Science study on Twitter and other social media users was conducted across more than 600,000 visitors to multiple websites within the Crowd Science open research network. The survey, targeting social media users age 12 and up, was conducted August 5-13, 2009.

About Crowd Science:
Crowd Science was formed by experts in online market research and audience measurement with a mission to “raise the bar” in the measurement of online populations. Their goal is to help web properties understand all facets of their audience, including the impact of marketing and outreach efforts on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, through rigorous, verifiable interactive research. The company has developed an advanced platform for audience measurement and real-time survey research.

Orbius, Inc today announced the launch of Version 3 of its white label social website platform for small to mid-sized organizations. The Software as a Service (SaaS) based platform enables non-technical community managers to create, update, manage and govern organization and user content on an intuitive, fully hosted, ‘drag and drop’ Web 2.0 environment.

Orbius removes the risk of launching a branded social network by providing governance capability not found in public social networking sites and platforms. Orbius allows Community Managers to govern the context of organization and user content and communications at a page and application level. Community Content can be separated from Member Content which allows User Generated Content to have the proper context and control by the Community Manager.

The platform allows for quick and easy building of a search engine optimized website using rich content management tools and on-demand expansion. The platform includes core features such as a blog, calendar, discussion forum, image gallery and a twitter feed. As content and comfort build, managers are able to easily add in advanced membership and community features, including Ask an Expert, private groups, chat, newsletters and surveys.

Orbius is an ideal solution for small to mid-sized organizations as it offers an affordable and professional private label social network with comprehensive features and flexibility. Monthly license and hosting fees range from $100 for a basic plan to $500 for the premium plan.

The Orbius platform also provides a unique opportunity for PR agencies, Social Media consultants and website developers to provide their clients with professional configuration, setup and design services and community management services on the Orbius platform.

More information about the Orbius platform and our Social Marketing Partner program can be found at http://www.orbius.com.

About Orbius

Founded in 2007 by an experienced enterprise software development team, Orbius has emerged as the only Software as a Service based Social Website Platform that enables non-technical community managers to create, update, manage and govern organization and user content. The Orbius platforms allows an organization to start with a search engine optimized website or application that non-technical personnel can easily manage, expand on-demand into a broad suite of interactive communication and community features and govern the context of organization and user content and communications at a page and application level.

Orbius is based in Malvern, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia. For more information, email Orbius at [email protected]. For sales and partner information email [email protected] or call 484-913-9000 ext 1. http://www.orbius.com. Follow Orbius on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Orbius.

The following comments were delivered today by Dr. Benjamin Ola. Akande, dean of Webster University’s School of Business & Technology, to introduce Twitter creator, co-founder and chairman Jack Dorsey as the University’s “Success to Significance 2009 Person of the Year.” The event was presented by Webster’s School of Communications and School of Business & Technology.

My favorite equation in mathematics is the original equation, one from which all other equations evolve. In my opinion, it is the holy grail of mathematics. The irrefutable law of mathematics. It is the convention in conventional wisdom. 1+1 equals 2. May I dare suggest to you that this universal truth may become something of our recent past? The reason: Twitter.
Twitter has successfully created a new equation which states that, 1+1 equals countless possibilities.
1+1 is equal to 3, to 300, 3 million. It is equal to the power of the written word — 140 characters, succinct, precise and concise. Twitter is equal to the possibility to make a difference, to be a contributor to society for the greater good of mankind. Twitter is becoming the definitive equation of our time not just for its simplicity but also for its exponential potential of increase.
One of the ways in which we verify the overwhelming impact of a product and an idea is when it becomes a verb, a part of our lexicon.
Much like Google, Twitter has become a universal descriptor for sharing ideas in a concise format that speaks to universality, democracy, immediacy and transparency.
Twittering is a conversation between two people yet the definition of two is singular, infinite and boundless. Twittering has become a language unto itself. Words and symbols strung together in a deliberate order to create spontaneous, and sustained, bursts of ideas.
Twitter has in effect dismantled the constraints and boundaries of time and space between us. It is an enabler of ideas that has empowered the young and the young at heart to share and stay connected.
Twitter has fundamentally transformed the way we talk and listen to one another; the manner in which we inform each other and has extended and strengthened the power of the written word.
If I were to state the impact on society in 140 characters or less, I’d tweet “Twitter is to our generation what Guttenberg’s printing press and Bell’s telephone was to theirs.”
In just three short years, Twitter’s 40 million users have made it a public forum for the discussion of politics, business, culture, news, celebrity, gossip and idle chatter.
People are tweeting to raise money, to recruit talent, to make government more responsible, to find and distribute news, to discover knowledge, to build personal or business networks, or to just kill a little time with friends and family.
In the new book by Shel Israel, entitled Twitterville, the author makes a convincing case that Twitter’s worth is not only the ability to broadcast short messages, but also the ongoing and transformative conversation that these tweets can ignite.
You know, every generation produces individuals who come along and make life better for those around them. They are notable individuals who rise from small and big places. They come from humble beginnings, unrecognizable even while in our midst. They are innovators, doers, ordinary people who enable others to achieve what has never been done before. The new math is Twitter.
With its home campus in St. Louis, Webster University (www.webster.edu) is a worldwide institution committed to delivering high-quality learning experiences that transform students for global citizenship and individual excellence. Founded in 1915, Webster offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs through five schools and colleges, and a global network of more than 100 campuses. Its 20,000-plus student population represents almost 150 nationalities. The University’s core values include excellence in teaching, joining theory and practice, small class sizes, and educating students to be lifelong independent learners, fully prepared to participate in an increasingly international society.
Since opening its first campus overseas in Geneva in 1978, Webster has become a recognized leader and innovator in global education, with an international presence that now includes campuses in London; Vienna; Amsterdam and Leiden, the Netherlands; Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu, China; and Bangkok and Cha-am, Thailand. Webster also has educational partnerships with universities in Mexico and Japan.

TypePad (http://www.typepad.com), the premier blogging service, today announced an integration with the popular invoicing service, FreshBooks (http://freshbooks.com). The integration allows TypePad small business owners to take customer orders directly from their blog and automatically create FreshBooks estimates and invoices.
The integration is powered by FormSpring (http://formspring.com), an online data collection and management application. FormSpring empowers customers to build custom forms for lead generation, quote requests, surveys, event and contest registration and much more.

“Small businesses spend a lot of time and money getting prospects to visit their websites, but it’s all wasted if the prospects leave without contacting you,” says Sunir Shah, Chief Handshaker at FreshBooks. “By making it easy and obvious to place orders from TypePad websites, the FreshBooks widget for TypePad will close more customers for small businesses.”

TypePad users can create a FreshBooks widget by opening a FormSpring account, creating a customized form using the drag and drop form builder and then integrating the form on the blog with a simple click.

“With small businesses increasingly using TypePad blogs as their sole web presence, it’s important to work with partners like FreshBooks to provide business-specific functionality to our bloggers,” says Claire Alcock, product marketing manager at TypePad.

The TypePad services team (http://www.typepad.com/one/typepad-services.html) is already saving time and effort as a result of using the FreshBooks widget. “Customers interested in our Blog Power Launch and Tune Up services can fill their contact information directly on the blog, and their data is entered automatically into FreshBooks. Now we can invoice much more efficiently once the service is complete, saving time for the customer and the TypePad team,” says Alcock.

FreshBooks, TypePad and FormSpring are all members of The Small Business Web (http://thesmallbusinessweb.com), a collaboration of small business software providers that are integrating to make life easier for businesses.

To learn more about the FreshBooks widget for TypePad go to http://community.freshbooks.com/addons/view/typepad_order_forms/.

About TypePad

TypePad is Six Apart’s premier hosted blogging service. Launched in 2003, TypePad now hosts millions of blogs by professionals and small businesses, from published authors to designers, artists and entrepreneurs. Known for its beautiful designs and intuitive, easy-to-use interface, TypePad is preferred by the most influential voices on the social web. Learn more about TypePad at http://www.TypePad.com.

About Six Apart

Six Apart Ltd. is a leading social media software and services company and maker of the TypePad premier hosted blogging service, the Movable Type social publishing platform, and Vox, a free blogging service for friends and families. Six Apart Media provides advertising solutions for leading brands and influential bloggers and Six Apart Services offers a wide range of web site development services dedicated to helping publishers and corporations thrive in today’s social media landscape. Founded in 2001, Six Apart is a global company with its headquarters in San Francisco, and offices in Tokyo, Paris and New York City. For more information, visit the Six Apart corporate web site at www.sixapart.com.

About FreshBooks

FreshBooks is an online invoicing and time tracking service that helps entrepreneurs, freelancers and small businesses in more than 100 countries save time, get paid faster, look professional and focus on what they love to do — their work. Since 2004, FreshBooks has touched over 1,000,000 lives and according to its 2007 customer survey, 99% of FreshBooks users recommend FreshBooks to others seeking an easy, effective billing service. FreshBooks, a service of 2ndSite, Inc., has its headquarters and development center in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

About FormSpring

FormSpring empowers organizations to easily collect, manage and use information online. Launched in 2006, FormSpring’s drag and drop form builder is used by customers worldwide for contact forms, surveys, order forms, event registrations and more. FormSpring serves a range of customers including small business, nonprofit, education, state and local government, and corporate departments. FormSpring is located in Indianapolis and can be reached at www.formspring.com or http://twitter.com/formspring.

A half day Marketing Seminar(http://www.best-net-marketing.com) will be hosted by award winning Abolt Process Service and Abolt Marketing (http://www.AboltProcessService.com) on September 30, 2009 in San Diego, California and via web conference for those unable to make it to San Diego.
The event is entitled “Expanding the Reach of Marketing Through Social Networks *Working with Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook*” and will focus as its name implies on the various methods of social media marketing. Why should you attend this seminar?
• Business owners can learn how to communicate with customers efficiently and build a business quickly, both locally and internationally if needed.
• Educators can learn how to build an efficient network with students as well as with other faculty members in higher education.
• Politicians can learn how to connect with their constituents.
• Religious leaders can learn how to build rapport with their congregations.
• Non-profit organizations organizations can learn how ’cause marketing’ can build donations and gain new volunteers.
• Residents and employees can learn how to stay on top of events and news at work and in the community to become more involved with local activities.
The seminar costs $49 if registered before September 15, 2009 and then will go up to $69. The fee includes a packet of materials that are referenced throughout the seminar.
Abolt Process Service (http://www.AboltProcessService.com) was most recently awarded the 2008 Best of San Diego Award for Process Servers by the US Local Business Association. The USLBA “Best of Local Business” recognized outstanding local business throughout the country. The USLBA identifies companies that they believe has achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category.
If you would like more information please call Abolt Marketing at 866-913-4510, email to [email protected] or visit http://www.best-net-marketing.com

RightNow (NASDAQ:RNOW) today announced that it has completed its acquisition of HiveLive, Inc., an enterprise-class social platform provider, under a definitive agreement previously announced on September 8, 2009.

The acquisition combines RightNow’s on demand customer relationship management (CRM) solution with HiveLive’s innovative platform for customer support, engagement and loyalty, and ideation communities to help organizations maximize every opportunity to deliver great customer experiences.

RightNow believes that by adding the HiveLive platform, RightNow will deliver the broadest social CRM solution in the marketplace and meet customer experience needs of consumer-focused organizations, with market-leading e-service capabilities, a robust contact center solution, and now an innovative social platform.

The HiveLive platform is available immediately and will be tightly integrated into RightNow November ‘09. A demonstration of HiveLive will be featured at the upcoming RightNow Summits in Colorado Springs, Colo.; Gold Coast, Australia; and Brighton, United Kingdom.

Support for RightNow’s Acquisition of HiveLive

“RightNow is again ahead of the Web 2.0 curve for customer service and CRM vendors… RightNow has set a standard for end-to-end channel support including communities.”

John Ragsdale

vice president of technology research for Service Support Professionals Association (SSPA) and ‘Ragsdale’s Eye on Service’ blogger

“[This is] a smart idea… [it] shows RightNow is moving to higher-quality customer interactions. By getting social media, RightNow has the opportunity to delve deeper into customer needs and attitudes which will help improve their customers’ service products.”

Denis Pombriant

founder and managing principal at Beagle Research Group, as quoted in CRM Magazine

“By pulling HiveLive into the CRM process, RightNow is giving real meaning and promising two way value to the notion of socializing CRM.”

Dennis Howlett

ZDNet blogger

About RightNow

RightNow (NASDAQ: RNOW) delivers on demand CRM solutions that help consumer-centric organizations deliver great customer experiences. Approximately 1,900 corporations and government agencies worldwide depend on RightNow to better meet the needs of those they serve. RightNow is headquartered in Bozeman, Montana. For more information, please visit RightNow Technologies.