NJ Moms Rule When It Comes To Social Media

If one were to draw an avatar-like cartoon of a typical social-media user and consumer electronics consumer, chances are he/she would look like a college student or young professional. That, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, would be inaccurate. Moms rule.

The firm says in a new study that U.S. moms spend an average of $822 on gadgetry each year and account for more than half of their household's total consumer-electronics spending. The study found that moms who post information online about electronics tend to be affluent and interested in technology. Half are early adopters, and one in three has a household income of $75,000 or more.

Among the 64% of moms who told CEA that they read information posted about consumer electronics products and retailers on social networks, nearly two in three said they also purchased an electronic device as a result, and half recommended that friends or family make a purchase. By comparison, 43% of all online adults have done so.

The brief, "Moms and Social Media: Influencing CE Purchases," also said about half of moms surveyed said they decided not to buy a device because of something they read online, and nearly as many said they have exhorted others to do likewise.

Ben Arnold, senior research analyst at CEA, said moms favor social media sites including blogs, message boards and product fan pages to research products and get firsthand product reviews and recommendations.

About a third of moms queried said they have posted reviews, opinions or experiences about electronics products and retailers in the past year, compared to just a quarter of all women online. "Online moms are a particularly important consumer segment, as they are both active on social media sites and possess substantial buying power and influence," said Arnold. "As social media continues to evolve, it is essential for companies to embrace brand evangelists to further extend the reach of their marketing initiatives."

The numbers please: the report finds that 84% of moms visit social media sites like Facebook, versus 74% of all adults; 65% visit social video sites like YouTube versus 56% of adults; and a little under half visit product review sites versus 38% of adults. The biggest gap was 44% of moms who visit blogs versus 33% of adults.

Among the moms using social networking sites, 94% said they go to Facebook most often. About half of moms with social networking accounts say they have over 100 "friends." Of the 111 hours per month moms surveyed said they spend online, 32 hours are on social sites.


Moms also exhibit a wide range of consumer activity on social networks, per CEA. The study found that nearly half got discounts or coupons; about a quarter clicked an ad for an electronics retailer; about the same number became CE retailer fans; 22% clicked on an ad for an electronics device; and 15% became a fan of a product.

And the brief -- whose data comes from an online survey in August this year with a respondent pool of about 990 adults -- found that as "Deal of the Day" sites proliferate, microblogs like Twitter with see mom traffic increase because of time-sensitive offer notifications and sales for electronics.

by Karl Greenberg

Politics goes mobile

In a post-election nationwide survey of adults, the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project found that 82% of adults have cell phones. Of those cell owners, 71% use their phone for texting and 39% use the phone for accessing the internet. With that as context, the Pew Internet survey found that:

• 14% of all American adults used their cell phones to tell others that they had voted.
• 12% of adults used their cell phones to keep up with news about the election or politics.
• 10% of adults sent text messages relating to the election to friends, family members and others.
• 6% of adults used their cells to let others know about conditions at their local voting stations on election day, including insights about delays, long lines, low turnout, or other issues.
• 4% of adults used their phones to monitor results of the election as they occurred.
• 3% of adults used their cells to shoot and share photos or videos related to the election.
• 1% of adults used a cell-phone app that provided updates from a candidate or group about election news.
• 1% of adults contributed money by text message to a candidate or group connected to the election like a party or interest group.

If a respondent said she or he had done any of those activities in the last campaign season, we counted that person in this 26% cohort. Throughout this report we call this group "mobile political users" or the "mobile political population."    

Marketing Email Open, Click-Through Rates Remain Steady

Amid a rapidly changing digital landscape, marketing email open-rates have now remained steady for two years.

That's according to new third quarter analysis from direct marketing agency Epsilon and the Direct Marketing Association's Email Experience Council, and based on billions of emails sent by about 150 brands.

"The economic recovery in the third quarter was pretty anemic, which was reflected in steady open rates and click-through rates," said Yoram Wurmser, director of marketing and media insights at the Direct Marketing Association. "As the holiday shopping season picks up in the fourth quarter, it will be interesting to see whether open rates and click-through rates rise accordingly."

In the third quarter of the year, six of the thirteen reported industries saw an increase in open rates year-over-year.

Year-over-year, open-rate winners included general business products and services; financial services and apparel, general, and specialty retail; and travel and hospitality services.

The losers, meanwhile, included general business publishing and media; consumer packaged goods; consumer pharmaceutical products; general consumer publishing and media; general consumer services; consumer telecom; and general financial services.

The average click rate was 5.4% -- up from 5.2% during the previous quarter -- while the average volume per client increased 10.2% year-over-year.

"The third-quarter summer months are seasonably slow as email marketers ramp up for the holiday season, where we traditionally see a significant peak in volume as well as response rates," said Kevin Mabley, SVP of Strategic & Analytic Consulting at Epsilon.

Epsilon categorized 63.1% of the emails it delivered during the quarter as "marketing messages," which had relatively low open (17.3%) and click (3.6%) rates -- although both increased over the previous quarter.

Due to the nature of the campaigns, service-type messages had the highest open rates (37.3%) while editorial messages had the highest click rates (7.4%). Service messages and editorial messages typically contain highly relevant and targeted information -- i.e., account updates and news, which may be why they perform well.

"Our research shows that transactional messages continue to outperform standard marketing messages given their highly relevant and timely nature," Mabley said. "Transactions and other trigger opportunities are a great way for email marketers to move campaigns to more of an ongoing conversation with subscribers and to reach consumers when they are in the market for a particular product or service."

A Random Quote

“When you stop taking chances You'll stay where you sit You won't live any longer But it'll feel like it”

Bono (1960 – )
Irish music artist and activist
from 'Summer Rain'

comScore Releases First Comparative Report on Mobile Usage in Japan, United States and Europe

comScore Releases First Comparative Report on Mobile Usage in Japan, United States and Europe

Japan Mobile Audience “Most Connected” with 3 of 4 Users Accessing Mobile Media in June

Social Networking Shows Highest Reach among U.S. Mobile Users, While Europeans Text the Most RESTON, VA, October 7, 2010 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a study on mobile usage and behaviors in Japan, the United States and Europe from its MobiLens service. The report examined multiple dimensions of mobile usage including content consumption, demographic comparisons and top social networking brands across markets to provide a comparative look at how consumers interact with mobile media across various geographic markets.

“Mobile media usage continues to accelerate across the globe, driven by advancing technologies and the growing number of content options available to consumers,” said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile. “As we look across markets, dramatic differences in mobile media consumption, brand adoption and user behavior become evident. These differences are even more pronounced than they are for PC-based Internet usage due to the complex nature of mobile – including various device capabilities, operating systems and methods of accessing content. For brands seeking to establish a multi-market presence, understanding usage dynamics across geographies is essential to implementing a successful global mobile marketing strategy.”


Mobile Behavior Varies Across Markets
A cross-market analysis of mobile activities in Japan, the U.S. and Europe revealed significant differences among consumers by geography. Mobile users in Japan were the “most connected” of the three markets, with more than 75 percent using connected media (browsed, accessed applications or downloaded content) in June, compared to 43.7 percent in the U.S. and 38.5 percent in Europe.

Japanese mobile users also displayed the strongest usage of both applications and browsers with 59.3 percent of the entire mobile population accessing their browsers in June and 42.3 percent accessing applications. Comparatively 34.0 percent of mobile users in the U.S. and 25.8 percent in Europe used their mobile browsers, with 31.1 percent in the U.S. and 24.9 percent in Europe accessing applications.

Messaging methods also varied with Europeans displaying the strongest use of text messaging with 81.7 percent sending a text message in June, compared to 66.8 percent in the U.S. and just 40.1 percent in Japan. Japanese users exhibited the highest reach in the email category at 54 percent, while consumers in the U.S. were most likely to use instant messaging services on their mobile (17.2 percent).
Social networking/blogs reached the greatest percentage of mobile users in the U.S. at 21.3 percent, followed by Japan at 17.0 percent and Europe at 14.7 percent. Japanese users were most likely to capture photos (63.0 percent) and watch TV/video (22.0 percent) on their mobiles, while Europeans were most likely to listen to music (24.2 percent) and play games (24.1 percent).

Select Mobile Behaviors in Japan, United States and EU5 (UK, DE, FR, ES and IT) June 2010 Total Mobile Audience Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Percent of Total Mobile Audience
	Japan	United States	Europe
Total Audience: 13+ yrs old	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Used connected media (Browsed, Accessed Applications or Downloaded Content)	75.2%	43.7%	38.5%
Used browser	59.3%	34.0%	25.8%
Used application	42.3%	31.1%	24.9%
Messaging Usage
Sent text message to another phone	40.1%	66.8%	81.7%
Used major instant messaging service	3.3%	17.2%	12.6%
Used email (work or personal)	54.0%	27.9%	18.8%
Social Media/Entertainment
Accessed Social Networking Site or Blog	17.0%	21.3%	14.7%
Listened to music on mobile phone	12.5%	13.9%	24.2%
Took photos	63.0%	50.6%	56.8%
Captured video	15.4%	19.2%	25.8%
Watched TV and/or video on mobile phone	22.0%	4.8%	5.4%
Played games	16.3%	22.5%	24.1%
Financial Information
Accessed bank accounts	8.0%	9.4%	7.1%
Accessed financial news or stock quotes	16.1%	10.0%	7.2%
Retail/Travel
Accessed online retail	7.2%	5.5%	4.1%
Accessed classifieds	4.2%	6.6%	4.2%
Accessed travel service	3.3%	4.7%	4.1%
Other
Accessed maps	15.7%	16.0%	10.8%
Accessed traffic reports	12.6%	8.2%	5.9%
Accessed weather	34.1%	22.3%	13.7%

Mobile Media Usage by Demographic Segment
A demographic analysis of mobile media users across markets showed that mobile media consumption was more balanced across age segments in Japan when compared to the U.S. and Europe. In the U.S., 25-34 year olds were 44 percent more likely to access mobile media than an average mobile user, with 18-24 year olds 39 percent more likely. In Europe, 18-24 year olds represented the most-connected segment, 54 percent more likely to be mobile media users, while persons age 25-34 were 35 percent more likely.

The U.S. and Europe also showed greater gender disparity among mobile media audiences. Females were 9 percent less likely to be mobile media users in the U.S., while females in Europe were 16 percent less likely.

Mobile Media Usage in Japan, United States and EU5 (UK, DE, FR, ES and IT) by Demographic Segment June 2010 Total Mobile Audience Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Connected Media Audience Index*
	Japan	United States	Europe
Total Audience: 13+ yrs old	100	100	100
Male	102	110	116
Female	98	91	84
Persons Age:
13-17	114	130	133
18-24	117	139	154
25-34	114	144	135
35-44	111	117	103
45-54	105	85	78
55+	80	39	57

* Index = % demographic segment / % demographic base*100

Top Mobile Social Media Brands
Across markets, local and global brands showed varying levels of adoption by mobile audiences. In all three markets, the top mobile social media brand mirrored the top PC-based social networking brand with Facebook leading in the U.S. and Europe and Mixi leading in Japan. Local brands Gree and Mobage Town were the #2 and #4 most accessed social networking brands in Japan. Twitter was the only brand to be ranked in the top four in all markets.

Top Mobile Social Networking/Chat/Blog Brands in Japan, United States and EU5 (UK, DE, FR, ES and IT) by Audience Size June 2010 Total Mobile Audience Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
Japan	United States	Europe
Mixi	Facebook	Facebook
Gree	MySpace	YouTube
Twitter	YouTube	MSN / Windows Live / Bing
Mobage Town	Twitter	Twitter

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and the preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

Contact:
Sarah Radwanick
Senior Analyst
comScore, Inc.
+1 206 268 6310
press@comscore.com
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What Does 'Buy Local' Mean To Consumers?

To consumers in the U.S. and elsewhere, "buying local" isn't a top priority in and of itself, according to a new study from Communispace.

Instead, localism becomes an important part of a product's overall value proposition when it is perceived by consumers as a means of obtaining "a high-quality, cost-effective, safe and reliable product," sums up Manila Austin, director of research for Communispace, which employs private online customer communities to generate brand insights for marketers.
 
The firm used a multi-method online approach to explore the meaning of "buying local" to nearly 1,000 consumers from the U.S., Canada and eight other countries in regions around the globe.
 
The research confirms that consumers often see local origin or purchasing as a way to get certain product benefits, such as freshness, geographic convenience or good customer service, not just as a way to "do good." It also shows that consumers seek a sense of personal and civic connection to products, brands, manufacturers and retailers.
 
Other findings:

• Local is contextual. The definition of local changes depending on the country and the consumer's home setting (urban, suburban or rural, for instance), as well as on the individual's own buying needs and personal priorities.

• Local isn't just about food, or ecological altruism. Local purchases of many types of products and services strengthen ties to family and neighbors, as well as contributing to the community and the economy at-large by generating jobs and tax revenue.

• Connection is key. In a commoditized world, local buying can connect consumers to an authentic experience and ground purchasing decisions in a sense of history, tradition and community. Brands have an "enormous" opportunity to create this sense of connection by sharing their "stories" and history, as well as establishing roots in local communities, stress the researchers.

• Local is becoming a mainstream criterion for purchasing decisions. Consumers have a heightened awareness of how products are made and are taking a more holistic view of their purchases, the study confirms. They are considering "pre-point-of-sale" factors such as the origins of products' raw materials, where products are manufactured, and their carbon footprints.

Based on the research, the report offers several recommendations for marketers:

• Establish local roots. No matter how large the company, it can and must create a local presence -- not only through an operational presence and hiring practices, but by contributing to local schools and other causes and sponsoring community events.

• Flex to the context. "Most important, companies must remember to be flexible and consider the unique needs of the local community, wherever they are in the world," the report emphasizes. Brands must adjust their messaging, corporate giving and even manufacturing/distribution strategies within different markets.

• Focus on transparency and education. Companies need to be honest and open about their successes and challenges, and teach employees about the product's value proposition and life cycle so that they can, in turn, educate the customer.

• Don't let local stand alone. Promote the practical, tangible advantages of your product or service, in addition to appealing to altruism.

NJ Supreme Court To Consider Bloggers' Argument That Shield Should Cover Comments

The New Jersey Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal by life coach and blogger Shellee Hale, who argues that a state appellate court wrongly determined that she wasn't a "journalist" for purposes of the state's shield law.

Hale, who criticized the software company Too Much Media on a message board, argues that she was acting as an "internet reporter investigating corruption" at the time she posted her comments on the message board, and therefore is entitled to protect the identity of her sources.

New Jersey's reporter shield law broadly allows journalists to keep their sources' identities confidential. But the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey ruled that Hale could not claim the benefit of that law because she wasn't a journalist. "Defendant has produced no credentials or proof of affiliation with any recognized news entity, nor has she demonstrated adherence to any standard of professional responsibility regulating institutional journalism, such as editing, fact-checking or disclosure of conflicts of interest," the court wrote.

The lawsuit grew out of allegedly defamatory posts by Hale on Oprano, which calls itself "the Wall Street Journal for the online adult entertainment industry." In one post, Hale hinted that Too Much Media engaged in "fraudulent, unethical and illegal uses of technology," according to the appellate court's opinion.

Too Much Media sued Hale for defamation and attempted to discover the identities of people who provided her with information. She unsuccessfully argued to the trial judge and appellate court that the state's shield law gave her the right to protect her sources' identities.

After losing in the appellate court, Hale asked New Jersey's highest court to consider her case.

Her lawyer, Jeffrey Pollock, argues that the lower court's decision could put all online journalists at risk of losing the benefits of the shield law. "If the court were to decide that people writing on the Internet, for the public's benefit, who cite confidential sources are not entitled to the shield law, you are going to have a big problem with freedom of the press in the future."

Too Much Media's lawyer, Joel Kreizman, counters that Hale wasn't acting as a reporter in that she didn't publish news on her own blog or on a Web site affiliated with a news organization. "She participated in an online conversation. That's not reporting," Kreizman says. "Even if you're a reporter working for a recognized newspaper, that doesn't mean you can go outside your newspaper, on a chatroom, and just defame people," he adds.

by Wendy Davis

What ads do moms want to see on mommy blogs?

When mothers read mommy blogs they are focused on many things, but not themselves. A new survey from rich media solutions provider Unicast sheds light on which ads they like, and those ads they expect to see, while browsing mommy blogs.

When Unicast surveyed 1,700 Power Moms for its 2010 Back to School Survey they found that saving money is still front of mind for the vast majority (80%) and ads that promise to lessen the strain on the household's purse strings are welcomed. No surprises there.

However, the survey did throw up some interesting findings.

Advertisers will be pleased to learn that only 6% of Power Moms "hate" online ads. In fact, over a third (35%) really like them or find them helpful.

But before you get too excited, a word of warning. Don't bother advertising products for mom on mommy blogs.

It was clear from the survey that moms put their kids, and their family's stomachs, first. When asked what ads they want to see on mommy blogs they responded as follows:

- 69% like ads for groceries
- 49% want ads for children's clothing
- 42% want ads for children's toys/games
- 41% want ads for children's entertainment
- 39% want ads for baby items.

Less than a third of Power Moms were interested in seeing ads for products for themselves such as beauty products, clothing, entertainment or travel.

"With these insights, marketers can better leverage ad campaigns across the web and specifically with mommy blogs - a highly trusted resource for millions of parents," said Bryan Hjelm, VP of Product and Marketing for Unicast.

"Not engaging with these blog publishers means ignoring an active and devoted audience of prime consumers: Power Mom readers preparing to shop."


by Helen Leggatt

NJ Police Create Facebook Perp Walk

Here's another one for the "bound to happen eventually" file: It seems police in the town of Evesham, N.J., have begun posting mug shots on the police department's Facebook profile, in a move that is basically designed to publicly shame miscreants ranging from drunk drivers to car thieves and worse. Equally predictable is the wave of criticism this has elicited. Some of these are good points, but I think there is a way to post photos without hurting anyone unjustly.

First of all, lawbreakers forfeit some (though not all) of their privacy in breaking the law. While the right to privacy still protects important information like their social security numbers and health histories, it does not cover their basic identity -- meaning their name, address, and likeness. Police stations and courts are public places, so the very act of being arrested and hauled in front of a judge reveals their identity to anyone who cares to inquire. Furthermore, public shaming of transgressors is an established practice -- many local newspapers already feature a "Police Blotter." If it happens that online social media is a more effective medium for shaming the transgressor by reaching a larger public audience, well, all the better, right?

The only problem I can see with this approach is the potential for posting a mug shot of someone who was wrongly arrested -- but frankly that is a pretty big problem. It's easy enough to figure out whether someone has been driving under the influence, but what about cases where a person is falsely accused of a serious crime to tarnish their reputation? And of course police also make honest mistakes (e.g., Buffalo police arresting the wrong suspect in the shooting which left four people dead last week).

In light of these facts, it seems inappropriate to indiscriminately post arrest photos -- as the Evesham police appear to be doing -- as it goes against the spirit of the rule that suspects should be considered "innocent until proven guilty." A safer approach might be to post mug shots once the suspect has confessed or been convicted of the crime, or at least waiting until they have been charged.

So what about law enforcement posting "wanted" photos of suspects on social media sites? This strikes me as a qualitatively different from what the Evesham police are doing. A fugitive at large could inflict further harm on the public, and in my view this outweighs any concern over damage to his or her reputation if he/she should happen to be innocent. By contrast, a mug shot depicts someone who is already in custody, meaning there is no immediate utility in posting it for all to see.

NJ Attorney General Warns Against Social Media Scams

Stupid is as stupid does, mama always said. I'm not quite sure what that means, but I have a feeling it has something to do with giving money to people you don't know online.

The rise of social media has been accompanied by all sorts of exciting innovation by clever crooks, for example burglars spying on social network users to figure out when they'll be away from home. But social networks are even better-suited for con men and identity thieves, who exploit the inherent sense of trust and affection between friends to scam unsuspecting users. That's according to New Jersey Attorney General Paula T. Dow and the state's Acting Consumer Affairs Director Thomas R. Calcagni, who say they have seen an increase in the number of social media scams on Facebook or other sites, often using hijacked accounts.

The NJ officials' statement warns against one common approach in which scam artists hack into a user's account and access their address book, then send messages pleading with their friends to wire cash because they are stuck in some foreign country. To make it extra-alarming, they might construct elaborate stories about being robbed, getting sick, or having an accident in some place that is nice to visit, but not somewhere you'd really want to stay. They can even throw in details like the names of spouses or boyfriends/girlfriend and various kinds of biographical information to make it extra-convincing -- all gleaned from the user's profile, of course.

Dow stated: "People lower their guard when someone they know from a social networking site needs their help. Rather than sending an email to random people, these thieves have learned they can improve their chances by hacking into social networking accounts and then directing pleas for money to the account holder's list of friends." Common tricks used by criminals trying to hack into social network accounts include anything which requires you to paste a URL into your browser, quizzes, polls or contests asking for personal information like your social security number, credit card number or bank account information, requests to update Flash or download a new program, and anything that asks you link to another page and invites your friends there.

Okay, I don't want to be too harsh here because I imagine the criminals can go to great lengths to present a convincing come-on, and they're taking advantage of good-natured, trusting individuals. But trust is overrated, and there is a right way and a wrong way to be good-natured.

First of all, if someone sends me a serious message over a social network, my first instinct would be to ask why they didn't send me an email or call. If they are sending the message to my email address (having located it in an online address book) I would be somewhat more inclined to hear them out, but it would be pretty easy to confirm that they are who they say they are, by asking questions like "where/when did we meet," "when's the last time I saw you," or something else -- not on their profile or anywhere else online -- only they would know. I'd also try calling them and sending messages to their other email accounts seeking confirmation of the story.

And after I finally confirmed they were real, then -- and only then -- would I tell my friend in Turkish prison to go hit up someone else cuz I blew it all in Vegas last week. Good luck and godspeed, voyager! P.S. send a postcard.

Is Social Optimization the New SEM?

As Facebook reaches 500 million users, Twitter reaches 20 billion Tweets, and U.S. consumers devote close to a quarter of their online time on social networks, it is little wonder firms are seeking to optimize these networks.

Even less surprising: an industry has sprung up to help them do so. Called "social optimization" many of these providers are defectors from the search space. Gigya, for example, shifted its business model late last year when it realized publishers like Huffington Post and USA Today were getting more traffic from social referrals than from search engines (via Portfolio). "It became obvious to us that there is an addressable market of at least tens of thousands of online businesses who are willing to pay at least tens of thousands of dollars for both the technology and service for social optimization, in the same way they have paid for search optimization," CEO Dave Yovanno told Portfolio. He maintains that optimized the right way, social could be the top source of traffic for businesses.

Another convert is ShareThis. CEO Tim Schigel tells Portfolio that social marketing will drive an increase in display advertising because of the way it can segment audiences. "With search, you’re only able to get to people when they’re searching," he said.

Facebook Questions and Social Search

Social networks, for their part, are actively taking steps to hijack search traffic, facilitating this trend even faster. One example is Facebook Questions, which launched in beta last week. People use it to ask - and answer - such questions as 'who makes the best pizza in Manhattan' to 'which is better for an eight-year-old - Wii or Xbox?'

In the long run, Facebook Questions could have a significant impact on the emerging category of social search, Evan Bailyn, founder of FirstPageSage told TechNewsWorld. "Question like these tend to make up a tremendous portion of searches. With Facebook in the picture now, I would guess there would be enough data to increase search traffic by hundreds of millions of queries. "It is going to give them a big slice of long-tail search — and a leg up on Google as well."

Social Media marketing services

AOL Launches 'Political' Campaign

Campaigning for political ad dollars, AOL on Thursday debuted an online destination for campaigns, advocacy groups, and companies interested in targeting constituencies online. The AOL Advertising Politics hub connects to Ad Desk for Politics and Display University, both of which were designed by AOL to educate and enable political marketers to more easily purchase display advertising.

For the push, AOL Advertising has expanded its Political and Issue Advocacy team to include seven dedicated team members focused on evangelizing the importance of display advertising in the political community. The team includes Rena Shapiro, who recently joined AOL from Google, where she created their political team in 2007.

"As more campaigns and issue advocacy groups begin to understand the power of the Web, AOL's original content and advertising technology puts us at the forefront of political online advertising," said Shapiro, director of political and issue advocacy accounts.

Through its Politics hub, AOL is promising to help political marketers determine how best to structure their online campaign, whether they are looking to use display advertising to help fund raise, build name recognition, organize their field operations, persuade voters, respond in real-time to negative press or competitive messaging, get out the vote, and educate voters about the issues relating to the race.

"AOL has positioned itself to be the go-to resource for political marketers needing to reach their constituencies," said Jeff Levick, president, AOL global advertising and strategy. "Our Politics hub lets campaigns and issue advocacy groups take their messages directly to voters and key influencers."

Earlier this year, a Supreme Court ruling lifted restrictions on political ad spending from corporations, so companies can now join campaign and issue advocacy groups in influencing voters online.

Meanwhile, the Presidential race of 2008 as well as the 2009 Scott Brown race in Massachusetts clearly showed the impact that spending online can have on a campaign's outcome.

Like any campaign, however, AOL faces its fair share of competition in the political sphere. The Washington Post, for instance, recently unveiled its answer to Politico. PostPolitics.com is led by Chris Cillizza, who writes the paper's The Fix blog, and aggregates political stories and blog posts from across the Post newsroom.

AOL's Ad Desk for Politics is a 'how-to' guide for political targeting in Ad Desk, AOL's display advertising platform. Its Display University, meanwhile, is a microsite to help marketers build their first campaigns and improve existing ones.

Yahoo Strikes Ad, Content Deal With Gannett

Yahoo Friday announced a new advertising and content partnership with Gannett that will allow the media company's newspapers and TV stations to sell Yahoo inventory as part of their digital ad offerings.
Under the agreement, Gannett's 81 newspapers and seven of its broadcast sites nationwide will be able to package Yahoo ad space with their own online inventory using Yahoo's APT platform for delivering targeted display ads. Gannett will also provide editorial content across Yahoo properties including the home page through the initiative that will roll out starting this quarter and continue into 2011.
The deal builds on the newspaper consortium Yahoo launched in November 2006 and now encompasses more than 800 members including The San Jose Mercury-News, New Haven Register and The Dallas Morning News. To date, the consortium has sold more than 40,000 ad campaigns onto Yahoo totaling more than $100 million in sales to date, according to Lem Lloyd, vice president of channel sales at Yahoo.
"It's really in the last 18 months that we've gotten this up and running," said Lloyd, acknowledging the time it has taken to get local newspaper ad sales forces up to speed on its APT system and selling advertising into Yahoo. With the Gannett alliance (which doesn't include USA Today), he added that Yahoo is now working with partners that represent 75% of the country's newspaper circulation.
The APT allows local newspapers to target consumers according to geographic, demographic and behavioral factors in ads that appear on Yahoo properties from mail to sports to news. "So now Gannett's thousands of local representatives can put together digital ad solutions that involve newspaper and broadcast assets plus Yahoo," said Lloyd.
And with local advertising accounting for about half of the $245 billion in total U.S. ad spend, Yahoo is keen to capture a bigger slice of the pie by teaming up with local media outlets. While applauding the deal, Gordon Borrell, president of local media research firm Borrell Associates, said Yahoo may find it especially challenging to work with Gannett's TV stations, since the TV industry is even less accustomed to selling digital inventory than newspapers.

"Television hasn't been as threatened by digital as newspapers, and so hasn't reacted as aggressively in adapting," he said, adding that TV stations typically have smaller ad sales staffs than newspapers to begin with.
Borrell also noted that Yahoo's newspaper consortium overall has been slower to roll out than expected. "We've heard from a number of clients that implementation has been a bit slow, so they're still holding onto the excitement of the deal -- but there are so many newspapers that wanted to jump on, it has left many waiting [for training and technology] and that's led to unmet expectations," he said.
Lloyd, however, emphasized that that on-the-ground training is a key part of the Gannett deal. "It's not our goal to work with every local media co. out there," he said. "We're more about strategic relationship and putting muscle behind that deal to make it work. This is a big commitment from Gannett and from us."

By Mark Walsh

AVP NIVEA TOUR BELMAR OPEN 2010 - - June 25th to June 27th

5th Ave and Ocean Ave in Belmar, NJ 07719. Belmar is one of the most popular beach destinations on the East Coast and has been a popular stop on the AVP Tour for several years.

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7 Social Media Truths You Can Ignore and Still be Successful

By Rich Brooks

There are a lot of social media experts out there—including the ones who claim there’s no such thing as a “social media expert”—and they’re telling us how social media works, how it doesn’t work, and how we all must behave in the social media arena.

Much of this advice is framed as “universal truths” that every business must follow. Unfortunately, a lot of it is based on the expert’s personal experience. And that may not be appropriate for you. Even the most well-intended advice is often off the mark when it comes to your business.

There’s nothing wrong with sage advice, but when guidelines become rules, they need to be scrutinized.

What follows are some of the oft-quoted “rules” that you need to question as you use social media for your own business.

Claim 1: Social Media Has Changed Everything
Balderdash. Yes, we’ve got shiny new tools, and consumers can give more public, vocal feedback on your products and services. However, leads still need to be generated, sales need to be closed and invoices need to be sent; no business survives otherwise.

Furthermore, networking didn’t start with LinkedIn. Before there was social networking there was real-world networking. And you know what? It came with drinks and hors d’oeuvres, so it wasn’t all that bad.

In fact, arguably the best book on social media marketing predates social media marketing: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Go and (re)read that book; everything he talks about is still true today, it’s just that now it happens on Twitter.

Claim 2: You Can’t Sell in Social Media
This statement is the mantra of early adopters who remember “the good old days” of social media, before Facebook had ads and all the spammers realized how powerful and inexpensive the medium could be.

It’s well-documented that Dell has sold million of dollars of PCs and accessories through Twitter promotions. Local coffee shops use Twitter to take orders that are ready when you arrive or promote themselves using location-based apps like FourSquare or Gowalla. (In fact, if you’d like some advice on how to sell in FourSquare, check out Why Foursquare Drives Business.)

Now this doesn’t mean that you should go out and spam everyone you can reach through social media. In fact, that’s probably a quick way to lose followers and even get banned from popular networks. However, when you put the right message in front of the right person in the right social medium, sales happen.

Claim 3: You Have to Stay On Message
This is preached by many of the most successful social media experts out there. But you know who stays on message? Politicians and boring corporations. If you don’t count yourself in either group, then staying on message isn’t for you.

I’ve bonded with people over my love of Phineas & Ferb, photos I’ve uploaded to my personal Flickr account, and my fear of a zombie apocalypse.

In fact, my interest in zombies is so well-known that friends tweet me zombie news and I’ve even received several zombie-themed gifts at events. It seems strange, but the undead have helped build my network.

While that may not lead to direct sales—Google Analytics still doesn’t list “zombies” as a traffic source—it has helped me make new connections and opened up new opportunities that have led to business.

While zombies may not be your cup of tea, sharing your interests—whether it’s gardening, cooking or skydiving—will attract like-minded people to you and help build your network.

As Chris Garrett says in his post “How to Boost Your Personal Brand with Social Media”:

Using light humor, being kind, sharing about more than just your work—including your interests—allow people to connect with you on a human level as well as a business and technical level.

Claim 4: You Need to Have a Lot of Followers
When I asked my network about expert advice they disagreed with, the focus on developing a large following was the most often cited.

There are two types of experts who talk about social media as a numbers game. The first is the social media “guru” whose Twitter bio promises to teach you how to get hundreds of new followers a day, but is somehow stuck at 17 followers himself.

The second is the social media evangelist who is almost always on message and has a business model that requires a large number of customers to succeed. For her, a lot of it is about the numbers.

And in defense of this particular piece of advice, the bigger your network, the more people you can reach. All things being equal, that’s a good thing. If you ask a question and you have few followers, expect few answers. If you have hundreds or thousands of followers, expect a lot more responses.

There’s also the matter of “social proof”: without anything else to go on, we often “trust” someone with a lot of followers, or who gets a lot of comments on his blog or video. Twenty-five thousand followers can’t be wrong… right?

But beyond that, social media is not an arms race. It’s better to have 100 followers with whom you regularly engage than 10,000 who never pay attention to you.

Some people spend each day following as many new people as they can, then unfollowing those who don’t follow them back in 24 hours to free up space for more new followers. What kind of return on investment are they getting for that behavior? When your followers are following 20,000 people, how much attention is being lavished on you?

Likewise, if you’re following tens of thousands of people, how many can you truly engage with? The rule of diminishing returns is at work here.

Claim 5: You Need to Have a Lot of Comments on Your Blog
Nothing gives you a warm feeling like posting a blog that garners a lot of comments. It’s nice to know that your work is having an impact.

That being said, comments aren’t clients. They may make you feel good, but they don’t impact your bottom line. In fact, focusing on comments can be detrimental to your business. I know of businesses that quit blogging because they weren’t getting many comments on their blog. They stopped creating new blog posts that would have increased their online visibility and generated more online leads.

If comments are your business goal, then blog about politics, religion or American Idol. If growing your business is your goal, then focus on whether your blog appears in the search engines and delivers warm leads to your website.

Claim 6: You Can’t Measure Social Media ROI
Of course you can. There are “soft” numbers, like how many people viewed your last YouTube video, how many people subscribe to your podcast, and how influential your blog is according to Technorati. It’s also easy to know how many Facebook friends you have, how many people follow you on Twitter, and how often your most recent blog post has been “dugg.” (Keeping in mind that not all friends or followers have the same importance and social media is not an arms race.)

There are also “hard” numbers, like the traffic social media and blogs send to your website, and how much of that traffic converts into business. If your contact form asks “How did you hear about us?” you may be seeing more people respond with “I follow you on Twitter” or “Your video came up in a Google search I did.”

As you can see from the graphic above, most of the non-search traffic to our site came from blogs (our own and those of other companies) and social media sites where our company and employees are active.

Claim 7: You Have to Be on Facebook (or Twitter, or Have a Blog…)
There’s only one reason to use a specific social platform for business: your audience is there.

There’s no platform that’s right for every company. If you’re using social media to grow a business, you need to focus on the sites and applications that are already being used by your target audience.

You should still reserve your “handle” on as many social media sites as you can, for two important reasons:

It protects your brand and keeps someone else from using “your” handle.
What seems like an unimportant platform now may grow into a popular place where your audience hangs out.
The important thing to remember is that there’s no one rule that’s right for every company. While much of the advice you hear might be solid, it may not be appropriate for your business. Just because it worked for someone else doesn’t mean it will work for you.

Except for this one rule…

One Rule Worth Following
Provide value. That’s it. In social media it’s all too easy to unfollow, unfriend or unsubscribe from someone who’s not providing value. Every tweet, status update, blog post, video, or check-in should provide value to your audience.

Value means different things to different people. Your value may be in creating thought leadership blog posts. It might be in always posting links to great resources. Or it might be creating irreverent, sarcastic or even off-color commentary on what’s going on in your audience’s lives. The key is to just keep providing that value to your audience.

Now it’s your turn. What social media advice have you heard that you feel is completely off base, or has been the key to your success? Please add your thoughts in the comment box below…

NFL thinks outside the box with New Jersey Super Bowl in 2014

Reporting from Irving, Texas -- NFL owners, historically resistant to change, bundled up Tuesday and took a step into the great wide open.

At the annual May meetings, they voted to award a Super Bowl to the New York area, sending the February 2014 game there and turning back bids by Tampa and South Florida. It was a historic moment because there has never been an outdoor Super Bowl in a cold-weather city. The game will be played at the soon-to-open, $1.6-billion home of the Giants and Jets in East Rutherford, N.J.

"We wished for it, we got it, and now we've got to do the work," said Giants co-owner Steve Tisch, after waiting nervously through four ballots, with the New York-New Jersey bid finally edging Tampa by a simple majority. South Florida, which just played host to the Super Bowl, was eliminated after the second round.

In a larger sense, the league's willingness to try something new — a risk not everyone agrees with — is reflective of Commissioner Roger Goodell's push to be innovative in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Consider some of the changes that have taken place since Goodell took over for Paul Tagliabue in 2006. The Pro Bowl was rescheduled for the Sunday before the Super Bowl to give that all-star game more exposure. Overtime has been changed for the postseason, increasing the likelihood that both teams will have a possession in the extra period. There's a very realistic possibility that two meaningless exhibition games will be replaced by regular-season games. Division rivalries have been pushed to the end of the season to give teams incentive to play hard all the way through their schedules.

The draft has been moved to prime time and is now stretched over three days. The scouting combine has become a made-for-TV event. International games are a staple of the regular season. The league has put a renewed emphasis on player conduct and concussion studies. The umpire has been moved from the defensive to offensive side of the ball to protect him. Hand-held devices soon will be commonplace in stadiums to keep fans apprised of games around the league.

Goodell is not directly responsible for all of these things — he didn't have a vote on the rules changes or location of the Super Bowl, for instance — but league insiders say he is relentless when it comes to pushing the envelope to best position the league and maximize revenue streams. That's vital for a game that's going to have an increasingly difficult time coaxing fans off their couches and into stadiums.

"I feel very strongly that we cannot be complacent in what we do," Goodell said. "We have to continue to find ways to grow the game, to reach new fans, to continue to provide quality. That's what the NFL represents.

"So innovation is a big part of our initiative, whether it's the Super Bowl in New York, the changes we've made to the draft, or changes we've made to the Pro Bowl, we're going to try to find new ways to reach our fans and to make sure we're bringing them the highest quality entertainment."

Tisch called that one of the "signatures" of Goodell's young tenure as commissioner.

"There are a lot of people who are going to be fighting for that dollar that's going to be spent on sports and entertainment," Tisch said. "You've got to take some chances. The public wants to see something new."

OT rule tabled

Owners tabled the discussion of expanding the new postseason overtime rules to the regular season. There was strong momentum among many people in the NFL to do that in March, when the playoff rules were put in place, but for the moment that has dwindled. There will be no such changes to regular-season games this fall.

Roethlisberger talk

Goodell said he will issue a decision "within the next week or so" about when Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger can rejoin the Steelers. The quarterback has been suspended for the first six games of the season for violating the league's personal-conduct policy, and the commissioner hasn't allowed him to participate in team activities, pending evaluations.

L.A. stadium talk

Although it's very preliminary, the concept of a stadium in downtown Los Angeles next to Staples Center gets a thumbs up from Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. He called the plan's backers, businessmen Casey Wasserman and Tim Leiweke, "so credible and so substantive" and said the idea "makes a lot of sense for downtown Los Angeles." That said, the City of Industry stadium proposal is at least a year ahead of that and has the significant advantage of all the necessary land entitlements.

By Sam Farmer

5 Keys to Integrating Search and Social Media Marketing Campaigns

By Avelyn Austin And Renée Revetta
The relationship between search engine optimization (SEO) and social media can no longer be ignored. Integrating your SEO efforts with social media marketing can be accomplished by sharing links and, ultimately, using social profiles to attain higher organic rankings. Here are five keys to integrating your search and social media marketing campaigns:

 

Key 1: Know the basics of how search engines work.

Search engines use robots to scour the web, collecting data as they move through websites via links. The robots then pass that information to indexing servers, where it’s processed and ranked. Two main ranking elements for SEO are content and inbound links.

 

Key 2: Understand how social media affects SEO.

As consumers continue to demand the freshest news and content, search engines will incorporate more social media updates within organic search engine results. These updates currently appear at the bottom of the first results page as “Results from people in your social circle for … [your query].” Searchers can see content from individuals they're connected with via social networks. Additionally, search engines will soon likely integrate public Facebook updates into results pages, and already do so for more open networks like Twitter.

 

Key 3: Determine which social profiles your company needs.

Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have generally been accepted as the most popular social sites across industries. However, for SEO, creating a corporate Google Profile and Buzz profile is increasingly important with the impending release of "caffeine," the new Google search algorithm. Your company should also create a YouTube channel and Flickr account for multimedia content — but try to also host that content on your own website.

 

Key 4: Learn to monitor social media efficiently.

Programs like TweetDeck, HootSuite and Seesmic make sharing content and links across Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook simpler. To monitor networks for inbound linking opportunities and reputation management, search columns for keywords or hashtags are extremely helpful. Additional monitoring can be done through Twitter Search and TweetBeep, while an overall online presence can be surveyed with tools like Trackur, Google Alerts or SocialMention.

 

Key 5: Use social media to increase organic rankings.

With social profiles created, your company's site listing should appear on the first page of results for branded queries, along with your company’s Twitter account, Facebook page and other social profiles — ultimately allowing your company to dominate the first page of branded results. Finally, social media profiles will allow you to quickly distribute content to more individuals, who in turn may create additional inbound links, increasing link popularity.

 

BusinessWeek’s B.L. Ochman said it best in a blog post last year: “For companies, resistance to social media is futile. Millions of people are creating content for the social web. Your competitors are already there. Your customers have been there for a long time. If your business isn’t putting itself out there, it ought to be.” At minimum, companies who wish to have a comprehensive SEO campaign should do the following:

• choose keywords wisely;
• add keywords to website content;
• engage in quality link-building efforts; and
• engage in social media by creating a corporate blog and Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Buzz profiles.

Visit for SEM Programs.

Salesforce.com: Chatter Overview Demo Video

5 Steps to Build a Twitter Marketing Strategy

By Lee Odden

So you want to succeed with Twitter eh? Before you run off and chase shiny butterflies and little blue birds, take a seat and collect yourself. Then read the following tips on creating a potential Twitter marketing strategy that will help you become more productive and successful using Twitter for business.

 First things first. Who are you trying to connect with?

1. Describe your target audience on Twitter. If you’re not an active participant on Twitter, then research. Do the homework and write it down, including Twitter handles of actual target users. If you’ve been able to go so far as develop a persona that represents your customers that spend time on Twitter or social media sites in general, that’s even better.

 The first step in scoring is knowing all about the goal.

2. What outcomes are expected from Twitter participation? Besides being able to say you have 50,000 followers, of course. Incidentally, we experiment with Twitter accounts and those that have a substantial number of followers do not always result in the the most retweets and web site visits. This is important in the fans/friends/followers game. It’s not how many connections you have, it’s who you’re connected with that determines the propagation of tweets, spread of links, traffic, etc.

It’s essential to know how success with Twitter will be measured. If it’s just follower counts, heck those could probably be purchased. (Which TopRankMarketing does NOT recommend) However, that would be a fake network without effect.

Where does Twitter fit in?

3. Where does Twitter fit within your overall online marketing strategy? Is Twitter meant to be a customer service tool? Brand monitoring? Monitoring for sales opportunities? Promotion of other corporate social activities? (ie blogging, Facebook, YouTube, Etc) Does it support some other communications function?

 As a communications and social networking tool, Twitter can connect with customers, prospects, journalists, employees, candidates, investors and marketing partners. Understanding where Twitter fits within the overall mix of online marketing and communications will help with: allocating monitoring and engagement resources, establishing a working social media policy, workflow management and reporting. You may very well find a number of synergies available through Twitter, such as connecting with journalists and bloggers for PR purposes but also encouraging link usage when citing the company to assist with SEO efforts.

Twitter is a tool and only as useful as the tactics you use.

4. A firm grasp of the first three steps really needs to be addressed before useful tactics should be implemented. If all you do is focus on Twitter popularity tactics without addressing a plan for reaching other goals (hopefully being popular isn’t the sole goal) then the investment in time and effort becomes more like guesswork.

First and foremost for tactics, the Twitter page needs to be designed and optimized. If a business has the expectation to be perceived in a significant way, then the Twitter page needs to avoid looking insignificant. Tweets need to be diverse, yet follow a theme that is consistent to the messaging and audience goal. Kudos to customers and offering tips are great but alone are not going to attract followers fast.

There are a few tactics with Twitter that are almost always a good idea regardless of the audience, goals and overall plan:

• Having a persona or target profile in mind, research Twitter users and follow them.
• Associate the Twitter account with something else that is social, such as a YouTube Channel, Facebook Fan Page and/or a blog.
• Make an effort to link to a small number of high quality and creatively written resources, daily. Mornings are best. Brand these with a hashtag like #yourbrandtips, where “yourbrand” is the brand within your company that this Twitter account is focused on. It could also be a behavior or action. Ex: #niketips or #runningtips.
• Schedule a #yourbrandtips Twitter event every month, two weeks or weekly. This would be run like #blogchat where a real person from your company hosts a chat on Twitter about survey topics. Ideally there would be influential guests involved so that their tweets attract new followers to your brand’s Twitter account. The company should really post their twitter handle everywhere their web site address is posted.
• Find a way to ask followers questions, then use those answers in blog posts, which are promoted via the business twitter account.
• Create a Twitter list of a segment of the target audience. One list for each segment. Then solicit followers asking for recommendations of people that belong in the “segment one” list or “segment two” list. Ex: ”librarians” or “network administrators”. Mention that anyone who retweets a link to the list can get added to that list – provided they belong. Lists must be relevant and managed to be of any use. Promote lists with Listorious.com.
• Use #FollowFridays or #FF to recognize people that retweet the brand’s Twitter content the most. Also mention influential Twitter accounts that you have had some connection with. They might retweet the #FF and expose the brand Twitter account to new audiences.

Measure twice, Tweet once.

5. Measurement with Twitter can be tricky such as identifying referrers via various URL shortening services, but it’s the most important. By “measurement”, I also mean monitoring on an ongoing basis, not just counting outcomes or KPIs. Followers is just one dimension. Based on what the brand is trying to achieve, a mix of data points and measurement tools should be implemented. Some example metrics:

• Tweets published
• Retweets & potential reach from those retweets
• New targeted Twitter users that are followed by the brand’s Twitter account
• New followers of the brand’s Twitter account acquired
• Direct traffic from Twitter to brand’s web pages. URL shortening services should be used like bit.ly
• Mentions of the brand in Tweets without links
• How many lists the brand Twitter account is included in
• What new Twitter users has the brand’s Twitter account added to it’s own organized lists?
• How many engagements or discussions the brand’s Twitter account has with other users
• Connections (follow, retweet, @message, DM) with targeted Twitter users

Example Tools:

• search.twitter.com
• social media monitoring like socialmention.com, trackur.com, scoutlabs, Techrigy SM2, Radian6
• Web analytics
• bit.ly
• cotweet.com, hootsuite.com, tweetdeck.com

Obviously, there are many other tools for Twitter out there, including overall social media marketing campaign management tools such as: Wildfire, Objective Marketer, Spredfast, SocialTalk, pop.to and others.

Sure, you can “experiment” with tools like Twitter and find your specific strategy as you go, but you could also find productivity and valuable connections a lot sooner (as well as effective time and resource management) if you create a plan that addresses who you’re trying to reach on Twitter, what goals you hope to achieve and a plan for getting there. Make no mistake, there will always be a component of on-demand and real time or opportunistic marketing with Twitter. The platform is still so new that the community is finding new and innovative uses every day. You might find new uses too, so don’t get too committed to a single focus in your Twitter efforts. Be flexible, curious and willing to participate.

Some tactics are always a good idea and some will reveal themselves as you develop your Twitter network and participate with the community. Measuring success on Twitter has everything to do with goals, so make sure you’ve spent at least a little time figuring out where Twitter fits in with your overall online marketing strategy and then what tools make the most sense to use when measuring success.

Yahoo further integrates Facebook into e-mail app

Sunnyvale, Calif.—Yahoo Inc. has added a new feature to its e-mail application, allowing users to update their Facebook status directly within Yahoo Mail. The service will be rolled out gradually in “select markets,” according to Yahoo.

To use the service, Yahoo Mail users must link their Yahoo and Facebook accounts from within Yahoo Mail. After that, users can type a message within the mail application that will appear automatically on Facebook, Yahoo Mail or both. In return, Facebook profile photos that link to Facebook will be displayed within Yahoo e-mails.

Last month, Yahoo provided a way to import Facebook friends’ e-mail addresses into Yahoo Contacts.

2 Lawmakers Urge NJ Gov to Join Health Care Suit

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Gov. Chris Christie says he'll wait for assessments from his attorney general and health commissioner before making any decisions on whether New Jersey should join other states in the lawsuit challenging health care reform.

State Assembly members Dave Rible and Mary Pat Angelini, both Republicans representing Monmouth County, are urging Christie to join 14 other states challenging the constitutionality of the federal health care reform bill signed into law by President Barack Obama last week.

Rible and Angelini say a mandate that all citizens should buy health insurance is in violation of the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Christie says he hopes to have his Cabinet members' assessments by the end of the week and will make a decision soon after.

Microsoft Integrates Foursquare Into Bing Maps; Turns Attention To Signals

Microsoft plans to deliver new tools in Bing Maps powered by mobile location service Foursquare. The Redmond, Wash. company's Silverlight technology will pull in the data.

Bing has begun to pay more attention to real-time, social and location-based data signals that can provide depth to search queries that serve up tips, comments and other information.

Enhanced location-based services and a variety of other features will become available during the next few months, as Microsoft continues to invest more in its mapping platform. Not just information from "maps" that show location, but a "canvas where you can visualize search data," Adam Sohn, Bing director for the Online Services Division, told MediaPost Thursday. "The concept is related to the notion that there's real data and information behind each search that often gets disaggregated from its physical context."

People searching for information on Bing will finally begin to see the fruits of labor from separate deals inked with Facebook and Twitter last year to deliver real-time data.

The ability to deliver real-time information based on a variety of signals means giving people who search for a particular news source, such as The New York Times, access to connect not only to the main site but to links of the most popular trending stories based on information shared across the Web. Sohn says it's a new way to generate traffic from the search engine to the publisher's site.

Microsoft also plans to enhance Quick Tabs on Bing, moving the tabs from the left rail to the top of the page. The feature aims to deliver results based on what the search engine believes represents the intent of the person searching on the query. The change also represents a new look for the user interface and hopefully a more intuitive way to search.

Bing's focus on "curating content," rather than "cataloging Web sites," supports Forrester Research Principal Analyst Shar VanBoskirk's vision for the future of search. "Think about a search engine as a concierge pointing you to answers you need, instead of presenting lists of sites that have content that matches your query," she says.

VanBoskirk points to the side and the top navigation capabilities. The features allow users to drill into categories of content related to their search without having to do a subsequent search, or click through to pages to see if the content matches their needs.

"I think the other enhancement that really illustrates this shift is the creation of comparison answers and domain task pages," VanBoskirk says. "These are literally aggregations of content, links, images, video specifically to answer the most commonly search goals associated with different topics. Instead of having to scout through multiple pages, content sources, using multiple queries, Bing curates all of what they think the searcher is after into one page."

Thursday marked the beginning of Bing's spring release. Microsoft will experiment, test and roll out these features during the next several months.

AOL To Launch Patch.org; Commits Millions To Revamp Local Strategy

AOL plans later this week to launch patch.org, a charitable foundation intended to improve the quality of life in underserved communities. It is part of a move by the recent Time Warner spinoff to focus on local markets, advertising and editorial content to become every community's online newspaper, Jon Brod, executive vice president at AOL Ventures, told attendees at the BIA/Kelsey conference in San Diego Monday.

Brod laid out AOL's strategy, which will allow patch.org to partner with community foundations. "This is a charitable foundation with all profits being returned to communities we serve," he says. "We believe local information is the most important and helpful information people want and need. And we are committed to filling this need in society without regard to economic status."

Pointing to AOL's commitment to invest up to $50 million this year on local initiatives, Brod says Patch.org ties into AOL's focus on local content that bridges the gap between real-life offline neighborhoods and online communities. It follows the company's push to hire local journalists to write and post community news.

Today, Patch supports 41 communities in four states, up from five markets when acquired by AOL in June 2009. The initiative cost roughly 4.1% of what it takes to run a like-size daily newspaper when you strip out ink, print, and distribution. Brod says as more people migrate to online, AOL believes the project will become profitable.

The concentration on community also means focusing on mobile and Mapquest. The mapping technology will get a complete makeover, including user interface, employee support, and rebranding to give the mapping tool a new look and feel. "Mapquest, quite candidly, has been under-resourced during the past several years, but despite that it has remained a massive brand," Brod says.

Evidently, Mapquest sits at the nineteenth-largest property on the Web with 46% market share and 40 million monthly unique users, according to Brod. However, he declined to provide specifics on local advertising opportunities and skirted questions on specific technologies that might allow AOL to go head-to-head with mapping tools from Google and Microsoft, or geo-tagging tools from Twitter and others.

AOL also plans to revive the City's Best brand in 25 markets between July and September 2010. City's Best is an eight-year-old brand that AOL stopped funding in the end of 2008. The site features the best entertainment options in each city. It will combine professional editorial with consumer opinions that will allow community members to vote for the best in each city.

When asked how this differs from AOL's failed efforts to roll out Digital City, Brod says the billions of dollars spent online by consumers today, along with the penetration of smartphones in the market, and the use of much more sophisticated technology will make work today what didn't work in 1995.

In New Jersey, the For-Sale Signs Are in Bloom

MAPLEWOOD

“GET ready for the block party! Great neighborhood!” That is how an agent named Heather Gilheany verbally baits the hook in her listing for 156 Oakland Road, a three-bedroom one-bath colonial built in 1925.

“Selling the neighborhood,” explained Ms. Gilheany of Coldwell Banker. “That is what we always do — sell not just the house, but the neighborhood.”

But it so happens that on this particular block of Oakland Road, and in the immediately surrounding three or four blocks, for-sale signs abound. While the agents are busy “selling the neighborhood,” someone just driving by might be forgiven for wondering whether the entire neighborhood was for sale — lock, stock and barrel.

Last week there was a for-sale sign in front of No. 157, and one at No. 160 on the opposite side of the street.

There was another at 66 Burnett Terrace around the corner, two on the same block of nearby Highland Avenue, two on contiguous blocks of Plymouth Avenue, and so on. In all, there were a dozen signs within a roughly four-block area, although in some cases, houses were already under contract and the signs were being kept up during the attorney-review process.

This neighborhood of 75 to 80 houses is sometimes called the Tuscan section of town, after the local Tuscan Elementary School. The houses were mostly built in the 1920s and 1930s. The price range on those for sale was $425,000 to $599,000, except for one, a larger house at 104 Plymouth Avenue, which was recently listed for $674,900.

In Maplewood over all, there are 126 active listings, out of 5,541 owner-occupied homes, according to Patricia Ross, a Coldwell Banker agent, who says she has lived in town all her life and sold real estate there since 1984. She found the number high but not unusually so. And she noted that many residents moved from one house to another within Maplewood over the course of their lives.

Ms. Ross has a listing for a three-bedroom one-bath Tudor at 93 Midland Avenue, two blocks from Oakland Road. It has been on the market for five months at an asking price of $459,000. She declined to discuss the situation of the sellers or to say whether she was contemplating a change in strategy as more houses are put on the market this spring. But several agents selling neighborhood houses, in some instances on behalf of heirs, said that they were pressing sellers to cut asking prices because of the growing inventory.

Robert Northfield, another Coldwell Banker agent, said it was “very important for the Realtor to take sellers around to see the competition, take them to open houses so they can understand how best to price theirs.”

Mr. Northfield, who has the listing for 104 Plymouth Avenue, said he thought the presence of two houses for sale side by side, or several on a block, could be a good thing in some ways. “It helps generate traffic,” he said. “The neighborhood sells itself, and each house has a unique character and will find its own buyer.”

He said 104 Plymouth would attract a “totally different” buyer than other houses in the neighborhood, but he would be happy to have other agents “piggyback” on the open houses he schedules there — because attracting home shoppers is positive however it occurs.

On Oakland Road, No. 160 — the largest of the three for sale, and at $549,900 the most expensive — was under contract a couple of days after the first open house on Feb. 28, said Jessica Keefe, the selling agent.

“There were five offers,” said Ms. Keefe of Coldwell Banker in Montclair, “four over asking price.”

The five-bedroom house last sold in 1998 for $200,000, according to Zillow.com. Ms. Keefe said the owners had put in a new kitchen and bath, and “made the product sparkle” before putting it on the market last month.

“Fresh towels in the baths, beautifully decorated family room and first floor, a pristine basement,” were all part of the packaging, she said.

“They had already bought another house in Glen Ridge,” Ms. Keefe said of the sellers, “which was also a multiple-bid situation. They looked very carefully at the multiple listings for homes in their neighborhood, and in setting the price, we thought about the best way to create a perception of value. That’s what it’s all about.”

There are, of course, larger market forces at work right now in all neighborhoods, no matter their size or status. Real estate specialists included the following:

¶Spring is traditionally the most popular time to show and sell a house, coinciding with better weather and the rhythms of the school year.

¶As the national recession eases, a “shadow inventory” is emerging: some homeowners who put off trying to sell are starting to try now.

¶The federal tax credit program for first-time buyers expires April 30, and many buyers are trying to beat the deadline.

Focusing more tightly, though, real estate agents in northern New Jersey said a concentration of for-sale signs was often the result of sociological change, rather than change of season or economy.

“I think what happens is a natural progression,” said Perri K. Feldman, an agent based in the Keller-Williams office in Summit. “People move into a neighborhood when their children are young, and then when everyone is older, and their children have stopped boomeranging back home, one decides to put their house on the market.

“Then, all the nosy neighbors come to the open house,” Ms. Feldman continued. “And they start to chat back and forth: ‘Oh, did you hear that the house on the next street over sold, and it went pretty fast? Oh, and this neighbor and that neighbor are putting their houses up, and the other one is thinking about it.’

“And pretty soon, they start calling me, because, well, they’ve been thinking — and it’s time.”

NJ mocks MD budget

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie took a swipe at Gov. Martin O’Malley’s budget in a recent address, saying that Gov. Martin O’Malley’s $13 billion spending plan relies on “borrowing to cover current obligations” and “in doing so they are piling one problem on top of another, reducing the creditworthiness of their state, and creating a crisis that will be larger in the future.”

True Maryland is undergoing tough times. The state faces a $2 billion budget hole that O’Malley plugs using a combination of cuts and one-time accounting maneuvers. O’Malley borrows about $350 million from account that collects state income taxes to cover operating costs, a move that raised some eyebrows but did not impact the Maryland’s top credit rating.

Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown stressed that point when we asked his opinion. “Maryland has a triple- A bond rating,” he said. “We don’t take that for granted.” He also said the state’s borrowing, saying that debt is plowed back into Maryland’s economy. State financed construction projects, he said, represent 16 percent of Maryland’s construction industry.

Some on the Senate Budget and Tax Committee are not so sure and are considering major cuts to O'Malley's budget. But, regardless of the in-state budget discussion, is Maryland even in the same league as New Jersey?

A call to Fitch revealed that NJ's GO bonds just got a AA- rating in December. Also state now faces $10.7 billion hole in its $29 billion budget, according to Christie. “It is a massive deficit,” Christie told his legislature. “The largest deficit of any state in America.”

New Jersey Walmart restricts access to PA system after 'all black people leave' announcement

After a racist announcement was made
over the public-address system at a
Walmart in southern New Jersey, the store
has vowed to change its access to the
system.

Shoppers at the Washington Township store
were shocked Sunday night when a voice
came over the retailer's public-address
system announcing: “Attention, Walmart
customers: All black people, leave the
store now.”

The store says it will be reduce the number
of phones that have access to the public-
address system.

Investigators are zeroing in on two dozen
phones in the store where the racial
announcement may have originated.

The Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office
said that not all of the phones are in the
view of security cameras, and some are
accessible to the public.

WITH NEWS WIRE SERVICES

N.J. Court Rules Gmail User Accused Of Libel Can Remain Anonymous

Upholding the right to send anonymous emails, a New Jersey appellate court has rejected a request to unmask a Gmail user who accused a student of underage drinking.

The court ruled that although high school student Alexandra Zubowski alleged she was libeled in the email, she didn't submit an affidavit stating the email's content was false. Without such a document, she had not presented a solid enough case of defamation to be able to unmask the sender, the court ruled.

Zubowski and her parents sued after a Gmail user sent an email to her school alleging that she wasn't living up to promises of good conduct that she made as a member of the school's "Heroes and Cool Kids" program. The email, signed by "a concerned parent," included photos from Facebook of Zubowski and other students. One showed Zubowski standing in front of a ping pong table with plastic cups and seven beer cans on top of it.

The school forwarded the email to the police, who investigated but declined to press charges.

Zubowski sued the anonymous author for libel and a judge ordered Google to provide information about the IP address associated with the account. Zubowski learned that the Internet service provider was Optimum Online; that company notified the customer about the subpoena, after which the author moved to quash it.

A trial judge in Bergen County, N.J. agreed with the author and quashed the subpoena.

The appellate court upheld that decision earlier this month, ruling that "no reasonable factfinder" could conclude that the email was false. Not only did Zubowski fail to deny that she had engaged in underage drinking, but the anonymous author also presented several other Facebook photos that, according to the court, showed her "holding and drinking alcoholic beverages."

Courts in New Jersey have said that people have the right to speak anonymously online, and therefore can only be unmasked if libel plaintiffs show they have a potentially valid case and if their interest in suing outweighs the speakers' First Amendment interests in keeping their identity secret.

Zubowski argued that those requirements only apply when people seek to unmask anonymous online authors who post in a public forum, and not to senders of emails, which she called a "private communication" similar to physical letters.

She argued that the court should simply decide whether she had alleged sufficient facts to proceed on the libel case without then weighing that against the sender's right to anonymity. But the appellate court said it didn't have to decide whether to balance Zubowski's right to sue against the speaker's right to remain unknown because Zubowski hadn't made out a potentially valid defamation case.

"We consider all of the photographs in conjunction with plaintiff's failure to present any certification of her own, or from any other witness, certifying that she was not consuming alcoholic beverages on the occasion that is depicted in the original photograph," the court wrote. "Having done so, only one conclusion can be drawn: plaintiff has not presented prima facie proof that [the sender's] statement was false."

Twitter Turns on Its Geolocation Feature and It's Opt-in

Twitter March 11 switched on its long-awaited location-sharing feature and made the service opt-in. Twitter's geolocation feature, which works for Mozilla Firefox 3.5 and Google Chrome on Windows, tags users' tweets based on where they are tweeting from. The way Twitter has done this should endear it to privacy hounds that get nervous about location-sharing services. Facebook, meanwhile, is set to launch its own location-sharing service for its 400 million users. The leading social network would do well to follow Twitter's flexible approach to location.

Twitter March 11 switched on its long-awaited location-sharing feature and made the service opt-in.

Twitter's geolocation feature tags users' tweets based on where they are tweeting from. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and his team believe this additional layer of context will make Twitter a richer network. See Stone's example of why this is useful:

"Let's say I'm at my office and I hear a loud boom. It sounded serious, so I search Twitter for 'boom.' Among the first results could be someone who tweeted 'Boom go the fireworks!' This could be anywhere in the world. However, if that person had activated the new tweet location feature then the neighborhood data under the tweet would read, 'SoMa.' Now I know it's just fireworks going off in my neighborhood."

What the cool technology integration users get to see is that the key tweet word "SoMa" is linked to a Google map to let users explore the area some more. The point is that Twitter can now not only help its roughly 70 million users discuss what is happening, but where.

This is a concept that will be explored to the hilt at South-by-Southwest in Austin, Texas, this coming week. ReadWriteWeb's Marshall Kirkpatrick said at least 25 companies will be making location-related announcements at SXSW this week.

Tweet by location works for Mozilla Firefox 3.5 and Google Chrome on Windows. To use the tool with older versions of these Web browsers, users will have to download the not-yet-defunct Google Gears app.

To get started, users may navigate to the How to Tweet Your Location Web page on Twitter and enable "Add a location to your tweets" in Twitter's account settings page. Twitter client applications will then be able to tag a tweet with exact location.

To tweet with location on a per-tweet basis after Location has been enabled, users must click the crosshair icon below the update box on the left. Users will then be asked to let Firefox "Remember Your Location." Double check to make sure "Remember for this site" box is checked and click "Share Location."

Location will then show below the update box. Of course, users who want to turn this off can click the "x" next to their location. This turns off Tweet With Your Location on a per-Tweet basis. Location will not be shown until users re-enable it by clicking the crosshair icon.

To disable Tweet With Your Location entirely, users must go back into accounts setting and uncheck the Add a location to your tweets box. Users may also delete specific tweets with location data, or remove all location data from all of your tweets by clicking the "delete all location data" button on the settings page.

This can take up to 30 minutes, but note that it does not guarantee the information will be removed from all thirdparty application's copies of the data or results from search engines such as Google or Microsoft Bing.

The way Twitter has done this should endear it to privacy hounds that get nervous about location-sharing services. Google recently discussed this issue -- the creepy factor associated with location-based services -- in detail with eWEEK.

Facebook meanwhile is set to launch its own location-sharing service for its 400 million users. The leading social network would do well to follow Twitter's flexible approach to location.