Monthly Archives: October 2009

evocos, a leading provider of event and delegate management applications, today launched their new Facebook Fan Page. Aimed as an additional medium in which the company can keep in touch with its customers and partners, the Facebook page will act as a platform to communicate with fans and operate as a resource point for those in the event management industry.
The evocos Facebook page is open for everyone, and can be viewed here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/evocos-Event-Managem…. The Fan Page will feature images, videos and latest news about evocos and the event management sector. Fans of the page can also browse and register for any evocos hosted events as well as participate in any of the online discussions.
Kate Oxton, Marketing Manager for evocos, explained the reason behind this latest marketing move: “The introduction of the official evocos Facebook Fan Page was made in an effort to further develop ties to the industry and to stay connected with current and future customers. Facebook has a worldwide reach and joining means that we can further extend our relationship and position within the online community.”
Oxton continues: “The site will help develop stronger online relationships with individuals who want to learn more about evocos, the event management industry, and the use of event and delegate management software within the sector. The number of businesses utilising Facebook as a platform has largely increased in the last 12 months. evocos sees this as an opportunity to create awareness of the brand and as a medium through which we can communicate to potential or existing customers.”
The evocos Facebook page will be supported by the evocos Twitter profile @evocosEvents, together they will provide a source of ongoing information to the event management community.
About evocos
evocos event & delegate management software is part of the portfolio of solutions from Silverbear Ltd. In the past year alone evocos event & delegate management software solution has created over 7000 events, managed approximately 75,000 delegates and has taken over 50,000 online bookings. evocos event management software ensures customers are able to seamlessly manage their events; gaining huge cost and efficiency benefits.

Residents of NYC, Atlanta, Miami and San Francisco already have lifestyle website Social Diva™ (www.socialdiva.com) to keep them in the know and enhance their social lives. Now women in Los Angeles (http://los-angeles.socialdiva.com/) and Everywhere (http://everywhere.socialdiva.com/) can join the ranks of Divadom with Social Diva’s new website.

Redesigned by award winning agency Digital Surgeons, Social Diva has been enhanced both on front end usability for its customers and in the back end info structure for rapid growth.

“Social Diva Media is a classic email business that has so many interesting extra facets which makes it exciting for us to work with, as it is a true lifestyle business”, says David Salinas, CEO of Digital Surgeons. “Not only does Social Diva mainly utilize email marketing, they are hosting offline events, selling books and a digital music CD.”

“Besides finally being able to serve the Los Angeles area, we are delighted with the new site. It not only looks fantastic but the functionality and the back end tools will allow us to scale our growing business quickly,” says Peg Samuel, CEO and Founder of Social Diva Media. “This is exactly the direction we needed to go in this competitive market and we are happy to be working with Digital Surgeons on execution and strategy.”

The description of a Social Diva Member is independent and social; accelerated lifestyle; internet active; marketing, media, high-tech, corporate, fashion & industry professionals; 21-40 years old; upscale income group 100k+ median HHI; 90% Women, 10% Men; 75% single, 25% married; high entertainment and self-care spending; attentive to on site promotions and grass-roots marketing messages; fun-seeking and adventurous; fashionable and trendsetting; reads music industry or lifestyle magazines; listens to current music; goes to art galleries, restaurants and special events – influencers.

About Social Diva™ Media

Social Diva Media www.socialdiva.com is an email newsletter and lifestyle company. Social Diva has been featured on E! News, MSNBC, Fox Live News, ABC World News, Good Day New York, Entrepreneur, Redbook, Star, WWD, Lucky Magazine, AM New York, and TBS’ Sex and the City as a NYC and Atlanta Trendsetter.

SocialVibe (www.socialvibe.com), the leading social media utility that empowers people to benefit their causes by engaging with brands, announced the program “Click 4 Good” today. Expanding real world trick-or-treating online, Click 4 Good is a virtual neighborhood on SocialVibe (www.socialvibe.com/click4good) comprised of houses representing charities, each of which aim to bring relief to those in need.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20091026/LA98369)
Partnerships with charity: water, Stand Up 2 Cancer, Keep A Child Alive and The Surfrider Foundation give millions of users the opportunity to provide relief around the globe without donating their own money. By visiting a house within this virtual cul-de-sac, contributions will be made to fund efforts by the following organizations:
charity: water: Provides clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations.
Stand Up 2 Cancer: Aims to urgently move cancer research forward by advancing technology available to scientists and clinicians.
Keep a Child Alive: Provides life-saving anti-retroviral treatment, care and support to children and families whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.
The Surfrider Foundation: Dedicated to protecting and preserving our world’s oceans, waves and beaches.
Each time a visitor clicks on a virtual house, a donation is made on their behalf to the corresponding charity. SocialVibe users can share their impact with friends on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, bebo, myYearbook and other social properties. For every visitor who earns a treat, a real social impact will be made.
“Social Networks are a powerful platform for social change by empowering millions of users to encourage their friends to get involved,” said SocialVibe CEO Jay Samit. “Through Click 4 Good, the focus of Halloween shifts from sharing candy to virally being able to share with those in need.”
“I am very excited about Click 4 Good shifting the focus of Halloween from candy to relief for those in need,” says 17 year-old SocialViber user Haley Proehl of Reno, Nevada. “I have trick-or-treated for UNICEF in the past, but I am excited about SocialVibe making it easy for me to help out multiple charities!”
Click 4 Good will be live through November 1. To find out more and start trick-or-treating for good, please visit www.socialvibe.com/click4good.
About SocialVibe
SocialVibe (www.socialvibe.com) is the leading social media utility that empowers people to benefit their causes and communities by engaging with brand sponsors and sharing branded content with their social graph. SocialVibe recognizes that in social media individuals hold the key to generating attention and influence that brands need. Through SocialVibe’s advertising model, brands have a unique way of interacting with individuals and accessing the content they create. Ranked by Quantcast among the top 200 US web sites, SocialVibe raises money for charities through the extensions of the SocialVibe utility onto sites like Facebook, MySpace, bebo, myYearbook, Twitter, WordPress.com and Blogger.com. SocialVibe is backed by venture capital firms Redpoint Ventures and JAFCO Ventures.
Learn more: www.socialvibe.com
About charity: water
charity: water is a non-profit bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. 1 in 6 people on the planet don’t have clean water to drink. Dirty water and a lack of basic sanitation kills 4,500 children every day. charity: water is trying to change that.
Learn more: www.charitywater.org
About Stand Up 2 Cancer
Stand Up 2 Cancer is launching a new movement to attack cancer once and for all by pushing promising scientific breakthroughs to the finish. Cancer takes one person every minute. One life in a moment. SU2C is calling on the public to help take matters into our own hands, investing in a revolution that will change the way scientists and clinicians work to understand and treat these diseases. Stand Up 2 Cancer is more than a rallying cry. It is a galvanizing force created to urgently move cancer research forward.
Learn more: www.standup2cancer.org/
About Keep a Child Alive
Keep a Child Alive is dedicated to providing life-saving anti-retroviral treatment, care and support services to children and families whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India by directly engaging the global public in the fight against aids. Keep a Child Alive is committed to direct action, and remains small and bureaucracy-free so that their speed of response is never hampered. KCA offers a very real solution to the problem, all on a personal scale. Since its inception in 2003, Keep a Child Alive has saved more than 50,000 lives. They currently provide funding to 8 clinical and orphan care sites in 5 countries: India, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda.
Learn more: www.keepachildalive.org
About The Surfrider Foundation
The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit, grassroots environmental organization dedicated to protection and enjoyment of our world’s oceans, waves and beaches. Founded in 1984 by a handful of surfers in Malibu, California, the organization has grown to over 50,000 activists and 80 chapters across the world.
Learn more: www.surfrider.org

StrongMail Systems, Inc., a leading provider of online marketing solutions for email and social media, and Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX), a global information solutions leader, today announced Equifax Social Influencer, a social media-powered customer acquisition solution, the first initiative of a newly formed strategic partnership between the two companies.
Unique to the industry, Equifax Social Influencer combines StrongMail’s Influencer viral marketing solution and strategic services with Equifax’s data services and analytics expertise to enable email marketers to expand their reach with highly targeted referral programs based on the recipient’s social influence, demographic profile, economic status and other relevant factors.
“We know how businesses can use data to identify and motivate their best customers to become brand advocates. StrongMail’s Influencer tool offers the best direct social marketing tool we have seen,” said Michael Hall, Senior Vice President and GM of Equifax Direct Marketing Services. “By combining StrongMail’s social media marketing technology with Equifax’s extensive customer information solutions, we are able to offer Equifax and Strong mail clients a truly unique and compelling marketing application for helping leverage a marketer’s retention efforts and expand them to highly valuable acquisition programs.
Leverage Strategy, Data and the Social Web to Expand Reach with the Right Audience
With Equifax Social Influencer, email marketers now have a comprehensive solution for leveraging their most influential and qualified customers to build their list exponentially with like-minded consumers. Each engagement is designed to address a company’s unique objectives with a customized referral program that motivates a targeted audience to share their network through direct integration via email, blogs and popular social networks like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
Equifax Social Influencer is a multi-stage engagement consisting of the following components:
Strategy session to define program objectives and identify social motivators
Multiple creative treatments for testing and optimization
Target-creation based on social activity and Equifax demographic, financial, lifestyle and purchase behavior data
Advanced testing program to define the most effective creative treatment
Program deployment with real-time tracking and optimization
Analysis of program performance to determine key influencers for re-marketing purposes
Monthly summaries of campaign performance with optimization recommendations
“Equifax’s leadership in data and analytics made them a natural fit for the targeting components of Equifax Social Influencer,” said Sam Cece, CEO of StrongMail. “By using Equifax’s consumer data suites, we are able to not only identify potential influencers but to determine which of those influencers represent networks that are financially capable to convert based on a specific offer. No one else provides this level of insight.”
Proven Technology, Proven Results
StrongMail’s Influencer technology has already been proven as a highly effective customer acquisition tool, and the added targeting available with Equifax Social Influencer will only serve to make these referral programs more effective. Mint.com recently used StrongMail Influencer to socially enable an existing referral program, resulting in a 20 percent increase in program reach and 8,000 new members. Zecco, an online brokerage firm, has also reported that its Social Influencer referral program is performing 267 percent better than any other new customer acquisition channel.
Availability
The Equifax Social Influencer customer acquisition program can be purchased directly from Equifax or StrongMail.
About Equifax Inc.(www.equifax.com)
Equifax empowers businesses and consumers with information they can trust. A global leader in information solutions, we leverage one of the largest sources of consumer and commercial data, along with advanced analytics and proprietary technology, to create customized insights that enrich both the performance of businesses and the lives of consumers.
With a strong heritage of innovation and leadership, Equifax continuously delivers innovative solutions with the highest integrity and reliability. Businesses – large and small – rely on us for consumer and business credit intelligence, portfolio management, fraud detection, decisioning technology, marketing tools, and much more. We empower individual consumers to manage their personal credit information, protect their identity, and maximize their financial well-being.
Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Equifax Inc. operates in the U.S. and 14 other countries throughout North America, Latin America and Europe. Equifax is a member of Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500® Index. Our common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EFX.
About StrongMail Systems, Inc.
StrongMail’s online marketing solutions for email and social media enable businesses to reach, engage and influence their target audience using the most powerful channels available to marketers today. StrongMail gives email marketers the control and support they need to improve campaign performance, boost deliverability and lower costs, while also leveraging the power of social media to extend the reach of their campaigns and brand to new audiences. Combining an easy-to-use email marketing application, high-performance delivery system, viral-marketing tool, social media integration, and a wide range of deliverability, strategic and supporting services, StrongMail makes it possible for companies with all levels of resources and expertise to take advantage of its proven solutions. Headquartered in Redwood City, CA, StrongMail’s clients include global leaders across virtually every industry. To learn more about StrongMail, please visitwww.strongmail.comor follow us online atwww.twitter.com/StrongMailorwww.facebook.com/StrongMail.

People were talking about your company last month on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Digg, Technorati, and the list goes on. Social media is here to stay. Make a plan, or better yet âEUR” work with someone who can help you with this plan, and put it into action. DonâEUR t be a laggard -your customers are expecting a social media presence from you.

1) Use It! Top companies such as Starbucks, Dell and Ford use social media to connect, communicate and market to their customers. Creating stellar content for your marketing materials is great. But great content doesnâEUR t distribute itself. It needs vehicles for people to pass it along, discuss it, blog it and tweet it, which is where social media comes in.
2) Locate the exact people you want to talk to: Companies can select specifics âEUR” moms of teenage children, young professionals, people looking to buy a new car. Learn how to search for people based on their age, location and preferences. For example, a wedding planner could look up everyone in the area that is recently engaged!
3) Foster the Trust: You know your customers have choices when it comes to where they do business. You also know customers buy from people they like and trust. Social media marketing is the way to connect and build relationships.
4) People are taking about your brand and your company. Be a part of the conversation. You can keep a close eye on the ongoing online conversations about your dealership âEUR” blogs, posts, tweets and more. ItâEUR s important to then enter the conversation to listen and participate. You make your customers feel connected to you and your dealership.
5) Blog Like Crazy: Blog about your new employee. Blog about next monthâEUR s special. Even blog about the companyâEUR s history. Lots of business owners think that they cannot blog, but they are wrong. Existing blogger sites âEUR” Blogger.com, GoingOn.com or WordPress.com âEUR” offer customized templates, to get you started.
6) Make it Easier: Use programs like Tweet Deck to set up Twitter messages in advance, just one time a month. Use PingFM to distribute a message that you only have to type in once. Use WordPress to create a customized blog with the same design as your website.
7) Let Them See You: Photos, videos and podcasts. They are free to create and upload; they only cost you time. What is better for a future customer to see than a current customersâEUR happy, smiling testimonial on your website? Set yourself apart from the competition by making your pages active and engaging; include MP3s of your top employees talking about their favorite parts of the company.
8 Know When ItâEUR s Happening: Set a Google Alert for a search engine. It will send you an email every time something gets indexed with your name. You need to know what people are saying about you so that you can participate. Listen first. Then, add thoughtful comments.
9) Do It Often: The social media pages and profiles that come up highest on the search engines are the ones who are most active. Spend time 3 times a week sending updates, making creative posts and sharing news. DonâEUR t have the time? Hire a social media firm!
10) Know the benefits: Social media is cost-effective marketing! You can use LinkedIn to send the message that you are hiring new employees and use Twitter to send out quick messages about short specials. By staying involved in social media, you show your customers that you are transparent, authentic, up-to-date and most of all, you are a real person!
Social media and social networking arenâEUR t going away any time soon. The major players and the types of social sites may change, but this is a new medium that professional marketers are trained how to adjust to. DonâEUR t be left behind.

About Virtual Assist USA

Virtual Assist USA is the fastest growing virtual assistant firm in the country. Busy business owners outsource tasks to us such as marketing, phone/email management, social media, search engine optimization, bookkeeping and web design. We add value to companies by saving them up to 30% on the cost of an employee and bringing our technical and creative expertise. http://www.pittsburghvirtualassistant.com

Facebook and The Nielsen Company have formed a strategic alliance designed to leverage Facebook’s global consumer base and Nielsen’s marketing research capabilities. Their first venture is called Nielsen BrandLift and it provides Facebook users with the option to join in on polls which measure their attitudes and purchasing intentions from the display advertising that appears within Facebook. Nielsen Brandlift will be firstly launched in the US and then roll out around the world. This new joint venture is Facebook’s second major attempt at leveraging its consumer base for marketing purposes after ceasing using its contentious advertising platform called Beacon.

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and Kaixin001, the largest and fastest-growing social networking site in China, are joining forces with a three-year partnership to develop innovative mobile applications that will help millions of users access the site wherever and whenever they want.

Launched in March 2008, Kaixin001 already has more than 50 million subscribers in China and among Chinese speakers across the world, and is attracting about 200,000 new registrations a day.

With subscribers now mainly accessing the website via their PCs, the cooperation between Ericsson and Kaixin001 will bring new applications that will allow users to manage their virtual space, interact with friends and stay updated on their online communities, all via their mobile devices – anytime, anywhere.

Future services could include real-time uploading of photos and videos from mobile phones, SMS alerts on a favorite celebrity’s activities, and location-based services, such as checking if friends are nearby.

This builds on Ericsson’s portfolio partnership agreements with social networking service providers. Under the agreement, Ericsson will not only work with Kaixin001 to develop innovative mobile applications, but will also create opportunities for Kaixin001 to cooperate with other social networking services, telecom operators and advertising agencies at home and abroad.

Cheng Binghao, President of Kaixin001, says: “We are very excited to be partnering with Ericsson to bring our users fun, innovative and easy-to-use mobile applications that will let them take the Kaixin001 experience wherever they are, whenever they want it. This partnership will open new revenue streams and allow us to take our leading social networking site to the next level.”

Mats H Olsson, President of Ericsson Greater China, says: “We are proud to be partnering with Kaixin001 to explore the unlimited business opportunities within the multimedia and internet segments. Ericsson has a superior multimedia offering in a world where telecom, internet and media industries are converging.”

SimplyTweet 2.4, the iPhone Twitter Application adds new features and bug fixes. This is an update to their full featured Twitter application for iPhone and iPod touch. SimplyTweet combines a fast, simple user interface and a rich set of features. It supports advanced functionality such as mentions and direct messages push notifications, themes, photo search, and photo and video posting to sites including TwitPic and Posterous.

SimplyTweet is a full featured Twitter iPhone Application that has builtin support of push notifications for new mentions and direct messages. It is developed by MotionObj, run by independent software developer, Hwee-Boon Yar who is based in Singapore. SimplyTweet 2.4 has been approved by Apple and is now available on the iTunes App Store for both iPod touch and iPhone.

Some of the new features added in SimplyTweet 2.4 include:
* Multiple drafts
* Swipe menu is now customizable with retweet and favorite options
* Option to disable landscape mode

SimplyTweet features:
* Fast and simple user interface
* Supports all common Twitter usage including viewing of timelines, tweet, reply, retweet, direct messaging, search, favorites, blocks
* Push notifications for new mentions and direct messages (like text messaging alerts)
* Customized timelines with saved views (groups)
* Conversation view
* Themes
* Import accounts from HootSuite
* Multiple accounts support, with quick switch support
* Landscape drafting
* Landscape built-in browser
* Text and URL shrinking
* Notes for accounts
* Photo search
* Updating of user profile including profile picture
* Picture and video posting to sites such as TwitPic and Posterous

Requirements:
* iPhone or iPod touch with OS 3.0 or newer

Pricing and Availability:
SimplyTweet 2.4 is $4.99 (USD) exclusively through Apple iTunes App Store in the Social Networking category.

ahoy-ahoy.net , the first seafarer’s social network optimized for the maritime broadband connection, has been named the winner of the 2009 Seatrade Middle East & Indian Subcontinent Award in the Technical Innovation category. The awards presentation was held in Dubai. The award was presented by Captain Jitendra Misra, Chairman at the Institute of Chartered Ship Brokers to Mr. Asad Salameh, President of World-Link Communications.

Originality, imagination and practicality are the foundations on which ahoy-ahoy is built. Its chat room allows the crew to communicate, in real time, with family as well as the home office. Also, companies can use its news feeds to send their latest information, training materials and newsletters to the crew.

Ahoy-ahoy is a secure, private and accessible network for the crew to communicate. It has been conceived as a sea leave without the sea pass, where the seafarer can have his family reunion and play chess. Because of its very nature, ahoy-ahoy enhances the seafarers’ multicultural experience allowing them to keep in touch with friends and peers around the world. And, the crew can finally read news from their own country, in their own language, in real time and for free.

“World-Link Communications is committed to providing shipping companies and seafarers with the very latest in maritime broadband and we are very pleased to bring ahoy-ahoy to the community. This award is testifying our ability to innovate leveraging from our 20 years experience in the maritime industry. Ahoy-ahoy is going to be a central and valuable part of the seafarers’ daily lives”, said Mr. Salameh.

World-Link Communications is proud and delighted to be recognized by the Seatrade Distinguished Judging Panel for their work in bringing innovative, better and more affordable communications solutions to the maritime community.

To join ahoy-ahoy, the Seafarer World, go to ahoy-ahoy.net

For the first time, NASA Twitter followers are invited to view a space shuttle launch in person at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA is hosting this unique Tweetup on Nov. 11 and 12. Space shuttle Atlantis is targeted to launch at 4:04 p.m. EST, Nov. 12 on its STS-129 mission to the International Space Station.

“This will be NASA’s fifth Tweetup for our Twitter community,” said Michael Cabbage, director of the News Services division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Each event has provided our followers with inside access to NASA personnel, including astronauts. The goal of this particular Tweetup is to share the excitement of a shuttle launch with a new audience.”

NASA will accommodate the first 100 people who sign up on the Web. An additional 50 registrants will be added to a waitlist. Registration opens at noon EDT on Friday, Oct. 16. To sign up and for more information about the Tweetup, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/tweetup

The popular practice of embedding shortened URL into Twitter tweets, Digg posts and other social networking communications is being threatened by hackers who use the anonymity of these URLs to hide poisoned web pages. AVG LinkScanner® is the only security tool available today that can detect the presence of these poisoned web pages, because it tests the destination of each URL link in real time and does not rely upon blacklists that become outdated as soon as they’re created due to the ever-shifting locations where the bad guys hide.
AVG LinkScanner® is a free utility which can be downloaded at http://www.linkscanner.avg.com

“The problem with shortened links is that they usually don’t bear any resemblance to the original URLs, which means that users don’t always know what they’re clicking. People click with the intention of going to a specific site, but the link can be easily hacked to send people to a site containing Trojans, spyware, rootkits and other malware instead,” said Roger Thompson, chief research officer at AVG Technologies.

Link shortening services have become popular tools to fit URLs within the 140-word Twitter limit. There are now more than a dozen URL shortening services available, with some built right into Twitter clients and other social networking tools.

Poisoned web pages are the latest way that hackers and spammers deposit malware onto computers in order to steal passwords or recruit computers into botnets. Computers users can get infected simply by clicking on a link, viewing an image, or sometimes just hovering their mouse over a banner. To avoid being caught, the bad guys typically infect a specific web page for less than 24 hours before moving on.

“LinkScanner is the only security tool that can detect the presence of poisoned pages hiding behind shortened URLS,” continued Thompson. “Only LinkScanner can stop people from clicking before it’s too late.”

Keep in touch with AVG

For breaking news, follow AVG on Twitter at www.twitter.com/officialAVGnews
For security news analysis, follow AVG Chief Research Officer Roger Thompson’s blog at http://thompson.blog.avg.com/
Join our Facebook community at www.facebook.com/AVGfree
About AVG Technologies

www.avg.com

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!

http://www.avg.com/linkscanner-solves-critical-social-network-hack

The Gospelville.com site now provides it’s members with gadgets that will allow members to share their Gospel music through other social networks on the internet, bringing other like-minded, believing individuals to share in our community.

Gospelville.com is getting ready to launch their first annual Gospel Music Talent Search using Social Media. A representative of Gospelville says, “Come join our family at today www.Gospelville.com. Here you can share your beautiful musical gifts with the world and help spread the ministry of Christ.”

Your membership at Gospelville is free. Members can get connected to other Believers Nation Wide and will even have an opportunity to use their gifts to help spread the word at Gospelville.com.

At Gospelville.com you can create or design a profile page, connect with other believers, upload pictures, music, videos and much more.