Women’s Network Group held their mid-year annual conference in San Francisco and this year’s theme, “Growth in the Age of Social Networks,” attracted Internet, law and retail firms throughout the Bay Area.
Julie Davis, Aon Corporation, was the luncheon keynote and she explored, with the audience, risks that social network firms face. Reports indicate that Facebook has over 225 million people, Twitter over 8.8 million and LinkedIn over 30.1 million. But the market is much broader. “It now includes over 500 social media sites and many of those firms need assistance in better understanding their exposures and managing their risks,” reported Davis. Davis highlighted their unique challenges, including emerging threats in data breaches, various sources of liabilities, privacy and security exposures. She reviewed how insurance carriers quantify the risks and highlighted insurance coverages and risk management tools to help manage the exposures. Her keynote luncheon concluded with a unique glimpse of future changes in social media and additional corporate risks that may be on the horizon.
“Drawing on a wealth of experience from all of the participants, the California Women’s Mid-Year Conference was a success. Social media is a growing area and we are excited to have such a great audience,” stated Anna Smith, President, California Women’s Network.
For more information about the conference, please send an email inquiry to Anna Smith, California Women’s Network, at [email protected]. For additional information on risk factors for social media firms, please contact Julie Davis, Aon Corporation.
About the Luncheon Keynote Speaker:
Julie K. Davis has been with Aon Corporation (AOC) for fifteen years. Her business mission is to help innovative industries manage their business risks. She is the recipient of Chicago Innovation Awards and an Insurance Innovators Award, a finalist in the annual Stevie Awards for Innovation of Best New Product / Service, recognized by I-Street Magazine in their annual “Women in Black” Awards and recently named Who’s Who for Entrepreneurial Work in the Insurance and Risk Management Field. She attended the University of Texas and Rice University. She can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 408-439-2654.
About the California Women’s Network:
This women’s association is designed for leaders of new or rapidly growing companies with less than 1,000 employees and leaders of autonomous business units in larger organizations.
Contact: Anna Smith, President, California Women’s Network Group, [email protected]
This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com
Team Saxo Bank had another successful Tour de France with Fabian Cancellara winning the opening time trial stage as well as two other stage wins, and two riders in the top five in the overall competition rankings including a second place for Andy Schleck who also won the youth competition. This led to a high increase in online mentions, specifically on micro-blogging site Twitter.
Saxo Bank, the team’s main sponsor and a consistent winner of industry awards itself, launched www.saxotakingthelead.com prior to the Tour, a new and unique concept combining video, audio and text into a free website for cycling fans. The website helped accelerate Google searches to new highs for the online bank in Denmark, where the bank is headquartered and, also, in Luxembourg, the native country of the two Schleck brothers, as well as in France, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.
The news reference volume also rose during the Tour’s initial weeks when Team Saxo Bank’s Olympic Time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara won the Tour’s Yellow Jersey and kept it until the seventh stage of the Tour.
Statistics show that this year’s Tour de France became a Twitter-revolution for Saxo Bank, with an increase of tweets of more than 50% compared with before the Tour. Also, according to Nielsen Company BlogPulse research, the number of blog posts mentioning Saxo Bank quadrupled during the event.
Saxo Bank’s entry into the world of sport sponsorship was confirmed in June 2008 when its joint CEOs signed an agreement with Riis Cycling A/S. The agreement meant that Saxo Bank became co-sponsor of Team CSC, in time for Team CSC Saxo Bank to participate in the 2008 Tour de France.
In July 2008, Team CSC Saxo Bank won Tour de France. Other wins in 2008 contributed to building Saxo Bank’s brand in key markets, such as France, Switzerland, Italy and Spain. On 1 January 2009, Saxo Bank became the sole main sponsor of Team Saxo Bank. The duration term of the contract is three years.
In explaining their decision to sponsor the team, Saxo Bank’s founders and co-CEOs, Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen said that, in addition to being one of the world’s most popular and watched sports with an audience of billions of viewers, cycling on this level expresses the same kind of values and attitudes that Saxo Banks identifies with. “Winning and team work, is what Saxo Bank has been about from the outset. Endurance and passion are some of the other features that we have in common. We are proud that we now will have the opportunity to highlight these values and show what sports and business can do together”
About Saxo Bank
Saxo Bank is an online trading and investment specialist, enabling clients to trade Forex, CFDs, Stocks, Futures, Options and other derivatives, as well as providing portfolio management via SaxoWebTrader and SaxoTrader, the leading online trading platforms. SaxoTrader is available directly through Saxo Bank or through one of the bank’s global partners. White Labelling is a significant business area for Saxo Bank, and involves the Bank’s online trading platform being customised and branded for other financial institutions and brokers. Saxo Bank has more than 120 White Label Partners and boasts thousands of clients in over 180 countries. Saxo Bank is headquartered in Copenhagen with offices in Australia, France, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, UK, Czech Republic and the United Arab Emirates.
Twitter TV Live Network a 24-hour TV network headed by Carlton Enoch, CEO of Connection Films is producing the all new Twriddle Treasures game show to be played by Twitter users.
Twriddle Treasures is an interactive game show that uses Twitter as the interface for the game. It gives tweeps worldwide the opportunity to compete for prizes based on their own intellectual genius in solving the Twriddles (riddles) that are posted daily by Twitter TV Live Network on Twitter.com.
There are two phase of the game.
Phase 1. Played daily on twitter.com. Sponsors provide fresh twriddles daily and tweeps guess the Twriddle (riddle) and win prizes; PS3, iPhones, iPods, computers, and a range of gift certificates from stores worldwide and lots more…
Phase 2. Tweeps can elect to go to the next level and be on Twitter TV Live’s on air Twriddle Treasure Hunt by use of the iPhone and iPhone apps and Ustream.com by submitting their twriddle answers for an opportunity to be selected to search for clues to solve the grand Twriddle and win Bonus prizes, which include Vacations, cars etc… and lots and lots and lots of cash. Because the game is not location specific, Twriddle Treasure Hunts will take place in cities all over the world so everyone has an opportunity to play the game.
The official game will begin in September 2009 as one of the show line ups for the new Twitter TV Live Network, which is currently in production with fourteen other television shows including Twitter Unleashed, Lipstick and Coffee and Twitter with the Flow. More information about all of the new shows can be found on the network’s website. twittertvlive.com
About Us:
Twitter TV Live is a Live Network focuses on everything Twitter, with several shows now in production, including Twitter Unleashed, Twitter ‘wit’ the Flow, Twriddle Treasure Hunt and Lipstick and Coffee. If it Ain’t on Twitter, it Ain’t on Twitter TV LIVE
http://www.twittertvlive.com
The Parnassus Group, creators of the world’s first conference series dedicated to the professional uses of Twitter, announced that they will again host the popular “Developer Launchpad” session at their upcoming Twitter Conference in Los Angeles.
“Promising new Twitter-based applications are appearing on a daily basis,” said Steve Broback, Founder of the Twitter Conference. “Our goal is to identify the most innovative and useful services based on the Twitter APIs, and expose them to our audience.”
The first “Launchpad” premiered at the sold-out Twitter Conference in Mountain View, CA in May. At that event, the developers of Flaggpole, Publicitweet, Jobaba, Chatterbox, Tweetfunnel, Twittylinks, and Twittfilter all debuted their new services to the world at large.
Developers are encouraged to submit their projects for consideration. A panel of conference speakers will then confer to select the eight most qualified applications to demo at the conference.
Submissions for the launchpad session will be accepted through Friday, August 21st, or when thirty submissions have been received, whichever happens first. See the full rules and submit your application for review at the twitter conference site: http://parnassusgroup.com/twitterconference/2009/launchpad2009/
Founded in 2004, Parnassus Group provides services to clients and partners seeking to participate in the social media space. We’ve helped everyone from Fortune 500 companies to sole proprietorships in their efforts to leverage technologies like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and more.
Companies should be utilising a hosted social network in order to reap the benefits of improved communication, both internally between employees and externally with their consumers according to Reality Digital, the leading provider of web community software for brands.
An online community can be used to facilitate internal interaction and communication, in an environment where files can be shared and used with ease. A social network presents the possibility for internal horizontal influence, whereby almost every individual within the enterprise enjoy the same level of influence within the network.
A white label social network also improves communication with the consumer fan base in the outside world, providing a wider platform for the delivery of brand messages and other content. On a broader scale, the social network serves as a focal point for a business online, improving customer engagement and brand awareness through the medium of the internet.
Robert Proctor, Head of EMEA for Reality Digital, commented: “Companies should see a social networking platform as a method of internal communication as well as a way of successfully engaging and delivering campaign messages to its consumers. Enhanced internal communications greatly improves productivity, meaning that the company will benefit from the network directly as well as profiting indirectly through commercial results such as sales.”
Reality Digital’s Opus platform offers the potential for a high quality social network, incorporating all of the latest networking innovations such as high definition video content, and mobile upload capabilities to facilitate the latest generation of user generated content.
The platform comes ready to be customised to integrate the look and feel of any brand, regardless of size, providing an extended level of flexibility that allows for further creative additions. All of the technology is managed by Reality Digital, meaning that brands can be sure that both internal and external communications will always run smoothly through the network.
To find out more about how social media can improve your prospects, please visit RealityDigital.com
Membership numbers of the business social networks are exploding. This is supported by a recent survey revealing that it is senior business decision-makers who are the dominant users of social media.
The research was carried out in the US, but given the worldwide membership growth figures for the business, or professional, social networks, it is likely that these findings are also relevant for Europe.
Key Facts
• The 3 principal social networks used for business purposes are market leader LinkedIn, Germany’s XING and Viadeo, a French-owned website.
• Research from Anderson Analytics and Greenfield Online carried out in May of this year and reported in Mashable revealed that:
o “The largest percentage of social network users are business users (31.8%) which correlates to a segment of 35 million users with an average age of 33 and an average income of $56k.”
o Anderson Analytics also revealed in an earlier report on LinkedIn that, 66% of the members are “decision makers or have influence in the purchase decisions” and that for individual members “the greater the number of connections the greater the likelihood of higher personal income”.
• Principal uses for all of the professional networks remains building a contact base, generating new business leads and recruitment.
LinkedIn
• LinkedIn is by far the biggest of the three, with 43 million members across 200 countries in May 2009, more than a 50% increase in membership levels since March 2008. In addition to the basic level membership there are three premium level memberships providing access to a range of services such as Inmail (allowing members to contact people outside of their network), introduction requests and the opportunity to view up to 700 results per search. Premium membership starts at $24.95 a month right up to $499.95 a month.
XING
• XING has over 7.5 million members (up 31% on 2008) and is available in 16 languages.
• Advantages of the XING network are listed as XINGJobs, more than 26 thousand specialized groups and over 90 thousand live networking events a year organized by members for members. The Headquarters are in Hamburg with local offices in Barcelona, Istanbul and Milan. Premium membership, starting from 4.95 Euros a month, provides messaging access to all members, the opportunity to enhance your profile with work samples and references and access to additional company information.
Viadeo
• Viadeo has 8.5 million members (a 50% increase in membership since April 2008). The head office is in France, with subsidiaries in Italy, Spain, UK, Mexico, India and China (through the acquisition of tianji.com in 2007).
• Viadeo positions itself as a global company with a local development strategy. Most of its members are not international business leaders but people who do business within their own city or region with members they know and trust. 90% of their professionals do business locally and 15% of the members class themselves as entrepreneurs. Members have an average of 50 contacts as members put quality, activity and interactivity before volume.
• Viadeo offers dedicated recruiting tools for HR companies and for business and alumni associations it has developed a specific platform called Communities, a private space to communicate and interact with their own members.
• Premium membership, starting from 5.91 Euros a month, provides access to all member profiles, the opportunity to see who has checked your profile, unlimited connection requests and the opportunity to place ads and create events.
Social Networking Developments
• Whilst there still appears to be some uncertainness as how to achieve the desired networking and lead generation results from these networks, a number of new companies have sprung up to provide advice on how to connect, build your profile or generate a group made up of your target audience. One such example is Linked:Group, who have set up and now administrate some of LinkedIn’s largest groups, including Group Linked HR with more than 150,000 members.
• LinkedIn has generated another new phenomenon, the LION’s (LinkedIn Open Networkers) who contrary to the stated intention of the network (where connections should be based on personal recommendations and trust), choose to connect to as many people as possible, even if they are perfect strangers. Some of the biggest “LION’s” now have more than 30,000 connections. A list of LinkedIn’s top 50 “most connected” is available at http://www.toplinked.com/top50.html. For those who want rapid access to a large network, it is possible to pay for access to the 43,000+ open networkers and their connections. (http://www.toplinked.com/). This phenomenon hasn’t appeared in the European networks such as Viadeo, where the emphasis is on building tight, close networks of trusted members.
• Highly-targeted advertising to selected professional profiles has been made possible with the networks offering tailor-made advertising formats.
Marco Corsaro, Managing Director of 77Agency who represent the largest business network in Europe, Viadeo, said “77Agency is proud of having been selected by leading business social media network Viadeo to manage some of their acquisition activities. Viadeo is a great platform and it is great that Linkedin is facing some fierce European and worldwide competition.”
EventMingle announced today it has added support for Twitter in their popular online social networking platform for the tradeshow industry. Twitter is a free social messaging utility and micro-blogging service that enables users to send and read messages known as Tweets. These Tweets are text based and limited to 140 characters each making it perfect for event participants to comment about the event.
EventMingle is the first event-based social networking community to add support for Twitter. The implementation goals were:
Allow all members of the EventMingle community to monitor all of the tweets being sent about the event, without having to create a Twitter account themselves.
Allow event participants who have Twitter accounts to increase the number of people who are following them by listing their name, company name and title along with their Twitter name in a roster on EventMingle.
All event participants who use Twitter before, during and after the event can have their Tweet added to a message board on EventMingle simply by adding a special hashtag EventMingle creates and promotes on the site. EventMingle monitors the hashtag in real time and updates the message board on EventMingle.
“It’s a clean and elegant implementation by our EventMingle engineering team to support Twitter. During our beta test phase the last 3 months EventMingle participants have been getting into Twitter. They send Tweets during keynote and breakout sessions, they discuss the food and venue and more. One person sent a Tweet inviting people to meet him in the lobby of the bar for a drink and to his surprise over 100 people showed up.” Said Jim Harrer, co-creator of EventMingle.
Mr. Harrer went on to say, “Adding support for Twitter is just another example of our commitment to improve our social networking platform. Our team enjoys pushing the envelope by focusing on adding features EventMingle participants will use which is why we enjoy such a high opt-in rate time and time again.”
EventMingle Twitter support is now out of beta and available in our EventMingle Tradeshow Edition.
About EventMingle
EventMingle is the first Web-based, online social networking technology designed to cater to the tradeshow industry. EventMingle enables attendees, exhibitors and speakers to collaborate online prior, during and after the event. EventMingle improves networking among all participants while helping participants create an “action plan” prior to leaving for the event. EventMingle was launched in December 2005.
EventMingle is a wholly owned subsidiary of Specialty Match Network, a privately owned company based in Bend, Oregon. See http://www.SpecialtyMatch.com For more info about EventMingle, contact Jim Harrer, 949-607-0980. Follow EventMingle on Twitter @EventMingle.
The future of e-commerce is “social commerce” as online shoppers, particularly younger generations, are heavily influenced by social media and Web 2.0 technologies, according to a new “Future of Commerce” report from Hill & Knowlton.
“Online retailing is being profoundly impacted by the integration of social media into what historically has been a transactional experience,” said Joshua Reynolds, worldwide technology practice director, Hill & Knowlton and co-author of the report.
Key factors influencing behavior from the Future of Commerce report include:
Experience counts – 83 percent of respondents said “personal prior experience” has the greatest impact on where they choose to shop online. Trailing behind experience were the following sources: “family member” (48 percent); “friend” (44 percent); and “an online offer or ad from the online store itself” (43 percent).
Social media is “Word of Mouth 2.0” for younger generations – Younger generations are predominantly influenced by social media channels: 27 percent of Gen Y are influenced by an “online community or blog” compared to 19 percent of Gen X and only 9 percent of Baby Boomers.
Traditional media remains universal driver of influence – Traditional, offline media remains the most effective vehicle for reaching mass audiences: 19 percent of all survey respondents were influenced by an “article in a newspaper or magazine” and 12 percent by “radio or broadcast TV program.”
The link between thought leadership and corporate valuation – An analysis of more than 300 traditional news articles covering the industry’s top e-commerce leaders over a year-long duration indicates strong linkage between companies who talk about the industry – and not just themselves – and increased brand valuation. For example, e-commerce companies that discussed macro environmental topics, such as the evolution of e-commerce, scored highest in “brand presence,” perhaps an indicator of the positive impact of establishing a position and maintaining a strong voice in a changing market.
“The most effective way to reach consumers online is with highly-targeted campaigns tailored to engage micro communities that form around common interests,” said Julie Mathis, vice president, consumer technology, Hill & Knowlton. “One-size-fits-all marketing is not a viable communications approach in today’s PR 2.0 world.”
The economy is having a heavy impact on consumer online shopping habits according to the report:
Shopping is down – When asked how consumers have changed their everyday item purchases since the economy has receded, 46 percent of consumers said they shop less overall, whether online or offline. The older the consumer, the less likely they are to shop overall.
Value is key in a down economy – Fifty percent of respondents said they are shopping online more to look for better bargains. And, Gen X and Y are more likely than Baby Boomers to shop online for better bargains in a down economy.
“Our research indicates that online shopping increases in a downturn, providing a potential offset for offline retailers experiencing revenue losses in the downturn,” added Reynolds.
About the Survey
The report was based on a survey of more than 600 U.S. adults conducted by Penn Schoen Berland and Associates and supplemented with research conducted by Hill & Knowlton’s communications experts.
About Hill & Knowlton
Hill & Knowlton is a leading international communications consultancy, providing services to local, multinational and global clients. The firm is headquartered in New York with 80 offices in 43 countries, as well as an extensive associate network. The agency is part of WPP (Nasdaq: WPPGY), one of the world’s largest communications services groups.
The Sage LinkedIn Group, the largest Sage-related group on the popular business social network, today announced the launch of a new website for the group.
The website was built by Hall Web Services, a Sage Preferred Vendor, who developed the site free of charge to help foster the growth of the community. The new site boasts a fresh and simple web design and is powered by WordPress, an open-source blogging platform that allows for ease of management.
“We were happy to work with the group to provide a site that is easy to manage and user-friendly,” said Amanda O’Brien, Inbound Marketing Manager at Hall and Project Manager on the site. “The group’s administrators can easily add articles, upload photos, link to resources on YouTube and show spotlight members. The site is tied in with all of the social networking tools used by the group so that people interested can quickly find the other places they can interact with the group online.”
Interested visitors can now subscribe to the site using an RSS feed, like they would a blog, receive email updates from the site, connect to the group on LinkedIn, as well as follow the group’s Twitter feed. The Twitter feed features updates about the group, as well as news of general interest to the Sage and B2B software reseller community.
With more resources than ever and easier methods of sharing information and connecting with its members, the Sage LinkedIn Group looks forward to continuing to provide a valuable online community for those in the Sage reseller, employee, and alumni community.
About the Sage LinkedIn Group
The Sage LinkedIn Group (sagesoftwarelinkedingroup.com) is LinkedIn’s Largest & Most Active Sage Product Virtual Networking Group. The group is for all Sage VAR’s, employees, Sage alumni or anyone who has an interest in Sage. Its objective is to exchange ideas and expand its members’ network by sharing best practices, tips, techniques and strategies as well as letting members help each other with employment and career opportunities.
Gleedo™, the first ever livesharing application, expanded its open alpha program with the release of Gleedo for Windows Vista® and Windows® XP 64-bit operating systems. Gleedo is free and available for download at www.gleedo.com.
Gleedo is free software that layers live social networking over users’ favorite media. With Gleedo, users may share Internet videos, web sites, photos and music with friends and family in real time, in a private online media room. Chat and talk features allow for live interaction, making users feel as if they are all in the same room.
Gleedo will launch this fall. The open alpha program, announced this month, lets users get an early preview of Gleedo, share with friends as well as provide valuable feedback to the Gleedo development team. Said Mehrdad Nadooshan, CEO of Emerj, Inc. (maker of Gleedo), “We are excited by the great response to our open alpha program. Now we are pleased to further expand our reach within the Windows Vista and XP user communities with the launch of Gleedo for 64-bit operating systems.”
To download Gleedo, visit http://www.gleedo.com/content/download.
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. Windows Vista is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
About Emerj, Inc.
Emerj, Inc. is the maker of Gleedo™, the first ever livesharing application. Gleedo layers live social networking over online and personal media, allowing users to watch – together, live – with friends and family on the Internet. Private equity-funded Emerj, Inc. is headquartered in New Jersey. For more information, visit www.gleedo.com or call +1 800.541.2027.
Amazee is an internet platform that empowers individuals and organizations to initiate and promote their ideas and plans in projects, to find like-minded people and raise funds. Amazee is the global action network! Examples of successful projects on Amazee are: Building an IT learning center in Sri Lanka, planning meetings of internet entrepreneurs in Zurich or ensuring the complete supply with running water in a small South African village.
Amazee is built for globally-minded activists who want to use the web for collective action. Thus their goals become projects on Amazee and these projects come to life.
Each project on Amazee has its online publication medium: the project magazine. Via an intuitive interface users can add a large variety of so called widgets to these magazines. Among many other things there are gallery, blog and event planning widgets which can be combined into a very attractive package. Amazee provides interfaces for the most important online platforms. Projects can be embedded in other places and therefore spread virally – for example on the Iphone or on Facebook.
The collaboration of members in projects on Amazee is being empowered by different state-of-the-art tools such as calendars, discussion boards, polls and chats, event planning modules etc. The networking of users on Amazee happens via projects and common goals. A “Livestream” informs all members about the latest activites and supports a lively exchange among these members.
A few days ago, the German company Trivid launched a new application, the Clipgenerator technology for MySpace. The Flash variant of the practical tool for creating online videos uses the latest technology and allows MySpace users to create their own professional music videos in just a few steps.
First, select your favourite track from the extensive Clipgenerator music pool, which is regularly updated with the latest songs and well-loved classics. Depending on the length of the track, 10 to 15 photos can then be added from any website or the user’s own hard drive to the clip using a simple drag-and-drop function. An integrated image editing tool allows users to edit and optimise the photos first. Finally, the effects and animations tailored to the music by professional motion designers transform the images into a spectacular, personal music video in seconds, which can be posted straight to the MySpace user profile via a dedicated streaming solution.
The incredible speed of the video production is due to the innovative combination of Adobe’s Flash technology and the patented and multi-award winning ClipTemplate Technology from Trivid. The video is created on the fly in Flashplayer 10.
This means even less technically-minded users can use Clipgenerator to create their own high-quality and professional-looking videos using holiday, party or event snaps quickly and easily, and show these off to their friends on MySpace.
The application can be called up directly at the following link: http://www.myspace.com/clipgenerator
About MySpace
MySpace is world’s biggest music platform and an international social network for communication, entertainment and lifestyle. MySpace allows its users to express their creativity and passions via personal profiles, find and communicate with friends, form networks, and discover pop culture. MySpace Germany, Switzerland, Austria has its head office in Berlin and two sales offices in Hamburg and Düsseldorf, and belongs to Fox Interactive Media Germany GmbH. According to the German online research study group AGOF, MySpace Germany registered 4.94 million unique users a month in the first quarter 2009, and logged 746 million page impressions and 55.2 million visits in June 2009, according to the IVW, a German advertising analysis group. MySpace is a division of News Corporation. (NYSE: NWS – News, NWS.A – News; ASX: NWS – News, NWSLV – News)
About Trivid
Clipgenerator™ from Trivid GmbH works with a newly developed patented ClipTemplateTechnology (CTT). The software prepares music tracks so well that the result is equal in every way to today’s professional music videos. Clipgenerator runs online on-the-fly in the Internet browser without the end user having to install any software. The only prerequisite is the use of Flashplayer 10. Users can access their uploaded photos directly, create a high-resolution video in just 2 minutes, publish it in real time, post it immediately in communities and video portals, and share it with friends. The music pool is constantly updated with copyright-protected hits. Clipgenerator technology is currently the only legally protected technology to link private content with copyrighted music to a legal user-generated video.