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Blackstone, Bain to lead Alibaba’s bid for Yahoo: sourcesReuters
Private equity firms Blackstone Group and Bain Capital will lead a bid for the whole of Yahoo Inc after agreeing …
Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Energy-Business-Roundup-Coal-wscheats-814671498.html
The parent companies of American Airlines and its regional affiliate American Eagle are filing for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection.
American Airlines Parent AMR Files Bankruptcy; Horton Is CEO
American Airlines parent AMR Corp. filed for bankruptcy after failing to secure cost-cutting labor agreements and sitting out a round of mergers that dropped it from the world’s largest airline to No. 3 in the U.S.
With the filing, American became the last of the so-called U.S. legacy airlines to seek court protection from creditors. The Fort Worth, Texas-based company, which traces its roots to 1920s air-mail operations in the Midwest, listed $24.7 billion in assets and $29.6 billion in debt in Chapter 11 papers filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.
“It’s painful but probably necessary,” John Strickland, an aviation analyst at JLS Consulting in London, said in a telephone interview. “They will have to go through the whole process that their peers have gone through.”
Job and flight reductions are likely in the future as AMR seeks to trim expenses and leave bankruptcy in less than 15 months, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Tom Horton said yesterday. Normal flight schedules will continue on American and its American Eagle regional unit for now, along with the airline’s frequent-flier program, the company said. A spinoff of American Eagle, which already had been delayed from this year into 2012, is on hold, Horton said.
American’s cost structure compared with other airlines had become “untenable,” said Harvey Miller, the company’s bankruptcy lawyer, at a court hearing yesterday in Manhattan. The airline “fought ferociously” to avoid filing for bankruptcy, and now planned to use the court process to turn around its business to become a profitable global airline, Miller said.
At the hearing, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane approved American’s requests to pay employees, continue its customer programs, and pay what the company said are vendors that are critical to maintaining its operations.
American said in court papers that it needed permission to pay $50 million in claims from critical vendors. Miller said the company will later request approval to pay an additional $35 million in claims.
“We are talking about an emergency and the survival of this company,” Miller said about the request. “We have to operate this airline and assure customers that when they book on American, that flight is going to be there and that flight is going to depart on time.”
Horton, 50, most recently AMR’s president, replaced Gerard Arpey yesterday as chairman and CEO. Arpey, 53, opted to retire after the board asked him to stay, Horton said. Arpey will join Emerald Creek Group LLC, a private-equity firm founded by former Continental Airlines Inc. CEO Larry Kellner, on Dec. 1, the firm said in a statement.
Arpey supported the bankruptcy filing, Horton said. Arpey decided to leave after concluding that AMR would be better served with new leadership “because it was going in a different direction,” Tom Roberts, an attorney at Weil, Gotshal Manges LLP who represents AMR, said in a telephone interview. “It was his decision because he had been the one that had been leading the charge for so many years to avoid bankruptcy.”
AMR doesn’t plan to seek so-called debtor-in-possession financing to fund operations during bankruptcy, Horton said at a news conference at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
AMR’s board voted unanimously Monday night to file for bankruptcy after considering options for months, Horton said. AMR was determined to avoid Chapter 11 as air travel fell and losses mounted after the 2001 terrorist attacks, even as peers used bankruptcy to shed costly pension and retiree benefit plans and restructure debt. Rival carriers later combined, giving them larger route networks that were more attractive to lucrative corporate travel customers.
ADP Says U.S. Companies Added 206,000 Workers in November
Companies added more workers than anticipated in November, easing concern the job market is stagnating in the third year of the U.S. recovery, according to a private report based on payrolls.
The 206,000 increase was the biggest this year and followed a revised 130,000 gain the prior month, Roseland, New Jersey- based ADP Employer Services said today. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for an advance of 130,000.
A pickup in hiring will make it easier to sustain the recent gain in consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. Overall payrolls rose by 122,000, still not enough to cut the jobless rate from 9 percent, economists in a Bloomberg survey projected ahead of a Labor Department report due in two days.
“Things are getting better for the economy,” said Robert Brusca, chief economist at Fact Opinion Economics in New York, who projected a gain of 160,000. “It means the news we have on Christmas shopping and on an increase in consumer confidence may have some validity.”
Last month’s initial ADP figures showed a 110,000 gain, while the Labor Department’s data two days later showed an increase of 104,000 in private payrolls for October.
Stock-index futures extended gains after the Federal Reserve and five central banks lowered interest rates on dollar swaps and China cut banks’ reserve requirements. The contract on the Standard Poor’s 500 Index expiring next month climbed 3 percent to 1,232.5 at 9:03 a.m. in New York.
The projections for November ranged from 95,000 to 200,000, based on the estimates of 44 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Goods-producing industries, which include manufacturers and construction companies, had an increase of 28,000 workers, today’s figures showed. Employment in construction rose by 16,000, the most since November 2006, while factories added 7,000 jobs.
Service providers took on 178,000 workers.
Companies employing more than 499 workers added 12,000 jobs. Medium-sized businesses, with 50 to 499 employees, took on 84,000 workers and small companies increased payrolls by 110,000, ADP said.
Another report today showed employers announced fewer job cuts this month, according to figures from Chicago-based Challenger, Gray Christmas Inc. Job-cut announcements dropped 13 percent in November from the same month in 2010.
Economic growth in the U.S. and other advanced economies “has been proceeding too slowly to provide jobs for millions of unemployed people,” Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen said in a speech at a San Francisco Fed conference yesterday. She called for “urgent” international action to combat a “dearth” of global demand.
Yellen said the central bank has leeway to spur the U.S. recovery and reduce unemployment by buying more assets or clarifying its plan to sustain record-low borrowing costs.
Fed officials have differed this month over whether additional stimulus may be needed to reduce unemployment more quickly. Policy makers next meet Dec. 13 in Washington.
Macy’s Inc., betting consumer spending will be sustained during the November-December holiday shopping season, was among companies that added staff. The second-biggest U.S. department- store chain said it was stepping up hiring of mostly part-time employees by 4 percent for the period.
Earnings growth is allowing some businesses to hire. Williams-Sonoma Inc., a retailer of high-end home goods, raised its annual profit forecast and will “continue to look for a few key jobs” in online sales, Chief Executive Officer Laura Alber said in a Nov. 17 conference call with analysts.
Companies remaining cautious include DirecTV, the largest U.S. satellite-TV provider, which this month said it will cut back on spending in 2012 to prepare for any slowdown in the economy.
The Labor Department’s report, to be released on Dec. 2, may show private payrolls rose by 146,000 in November, according to the Bloomberg survey median. Overall hiring, which includes government jobs, may have climbed after rising 80,000.
The ADP report is based on data from about 337,000 businesses with more than 21 million workers on payrolls. Macroeconomic Advisers LLC in St. Louis produces the data with ADP.
Yahoo could be taken over.
Silver Lake Group Said to Bid $16.60 a Share for Yahoo Stake
A group of investors led by private- equity firm Silver Lake offered to buy a minority stake in Yahoo! Inc. for about $16.60 a share, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Silver Lake, working with Microsoft Corp., venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, offered to buy convertible preferred securities equal to a 10 percent to 15 percent stake for as much as $3 billion, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the bids made this week are private. The price was lower than an offer made by private-equity firm TPG Capital, two people said.
Silver Lake’s bid values Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo at $20.6 billion, about 6 percent higher than its market value at yesterday’s close. Under Silver Lake’s proposal, Yahoo would be able to distribute at least $5 billion to shareholders in the form of a special dividend or a share buyback, said the person. Yahoo, exploring strategic options after ousting Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz, aims to wrap up the deal by the end of the year, people said.
“The offer is disappointing,” said Hamilton Faber, an analyst at Atlantic Equities LLP in London with a “neutral” rating on Yahoo shares. “Investors who’ve been buying Yahoo recently were hoping for a significant premium and a takeout of the full company, and this falls short on both counts.”
Spokeswomen for Yahoo, Silver Lake and Canada Pension Plan declined to comment.
Yahoo directors are likely to discuss offers at a board meeting scheduled for today, one person said. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., aiming to buy back the stake in itself owned by Yahoo, is monitoring the situation and may still enter the bidding, one person said.
Yahoo gained 1 cent to $15.71 at the close in New York. The shares have declined 5.5 percent this year.
While Microsoft failed in 2008 to acquire all of Yahoo, it aims to use a minority holding to safeguard its 10-year Web search agreement with the company.
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, forged the partnership under Bartz to provide search technology to Yahoo sites. The deal was aimed at helping both companies vie with Google, the leader in U.S. search-related advertising.
Cantor Plans to Hire 200 Next Year as Layoffs Ravage Wall Street
Cantor Fitzgerald Co. plans to add at least 200 people next year in an expansion that defies a wave of layoffs at the investment bank’s competitors.
“There are unbelievable opportunities as the financial industry is deleveraging from the very large debt and real estate bubbles,” Chief Executive Officer Shawn Matthews said in a telephone interview.
The firm expanded 20 percent this year, boosting headcount in areas including credit trading, leveraged loans and fixed- income sales by more than 200. Wall Street banks are firing staff after a combined 41 percent decline in investment-banking revenue in the third quarter at JPMorgan Chase Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley. The cull has claimed 200,000 jobs this year.
“We are looking to build out our sales and trading businesses in both debt and equity,” said Matthews, who is based in New York. “There are a lot of qualified people looking for an alternative to the traditional financial services model that has made many banks act more like massive hedge funds.”
U.S. lawmakers passed the Volcker rule last year as part of the Dodd-Frank Act to restrict banks from making bets with shareholder money. In Europe, banks are unloading real-estate and infrastructure loans to meet regulators’ requirement for a 9 percent core capital ratio earlier than planned. Lenders have pledged to cut assets by more than $1 trillion within two years.
The capital rules, designed to prevent a rerun of the 2008 financial crisis, are being adopted as banks struggle to contain losses on sovereign debt that dim the prospect of an economic recovery. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development cut its 2012 global growth forecast to 1.6 percent from 2.8 percent on Nov. 28.
“The European Union will have a hard time to remain intact,” Matthews said. “A few countries will need to drop out of the EU for it to be long-term viable. The repercussions of this will affect us for at least a decade.”
The firm, majority owned by its staff, is interested in “bolt-on” acquisitions from banks looking to reduce their overseas and non-core businesses, Matthews said.
“We haven’t seen significant sales yet as people are still trying to work out where we stand in the macro environment,” he said. “Banks will start selling a lot more assets next year, including some of their units.”
Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 of its 960 New York staff in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. It now employees about 1,400 people worldwide.
The firm, founded in 1945 by Bernie Cantor and John Fitzgerald, hired David Pichler this month in New York from Gleacher Co. as co-head of credit fixed-income. Jason King and Jason Caamano joined from UBS AG in June as managing directors for the risk arbitrage and relative value team.
Article source: http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2011/11/business_news_amr_all_shook_up.html
Planning your family’s winter break? Looking for holiday-themed events and activities? We’ve got you covered with our new Holiday Happenings calendar, which offers a family-friendly activity for every day December. Plus, we’ve managed to snag some deals for our readers—12 to be exact. That’s one for every day of Christmas (that’s how the song goes, right?), and one-and-a-half for each day of Hannukah (yay, Judaism!).
Every deal is a great one, ranging from a discount on snacks at the John Hancock Observatory café to deals on some of the month’s hottest shows such as The Addams Family, The Joffrey Ballet’s Nutcracker and Goodnight Moon, to name a few. We’ve picked three of our favorite deals to get you started—you can thank us for playing negotiator (cue William Shatner) in the new year.
Ballet Chicago’s Nutcracker Sweets Party, at the Athenaeum Theatre on December 10 and 17, features a veritable flurry of fun for wannabe Claras and toy soldiers. The 12:30pm event includes cookie and ornament decorating, photo ops with the Sugar Plum Fairy (squeel!), doll tutu-making and how-to instructions for the ever-elusive perfect ballet bun—all for $25. And if you whisper the keyword TOC Kids upon arrival, you’ll receive a special Nutcracker-themed gift.
If you’ve never been to the Hideout, you’re missing out. It’s one of the most Chicago-y of all Chicago venues. And if you’ve never taken your kids to the Hideout’s annual holiday panto (December 16–18, now in its 5th year), they’re definitely missing out (we’ll reserve judgment of your parenting skills for when they’re teenagers). This British import features a cast of real characters: women playing men, a slew of animal characters and men playing women (Chicagoan and Welsh heartthrob Jon Langford stars this year as Cleopatra: Queen of the Denial). Mention TOC Kids at the show for a free screen-printed poster while supplies last.
Finally, for a great daytrip to Schaumburg, skip Ikea and head to the LEGOLAND Discovery Center. The center’s Holly Jolly Holidays celebration (December 9–January 1) features photo ops with your favorite blockheads, an Eskimo LEGO set, group activities, festive decorations and a chance for dad to finally play out his deepest childhood fantasies. (Besides growing up to be an astronaut, of course.) It will be easy on your pocketbook, too: Mention TOC Kids at the box office on December 12 and receive $10 admission.
Article source: http://timeoutchicagokids.com/things-to-do/76669/we-have-december-covered-with-great-events-special-discounts
November 30, 2011
London, UK (RPRN) 11/30/11 — As a marketing service Marketing Quotes recognises the value in creating unique and valuable content that people will want to link to for the sole purpose of resource.
For any business, their website is a resource, a shop window that has the potential of attracting in tens of thousands of potential customers, but very few of these shop windows successfully do just this. Most are small shops tucked away in a back street that have no way to attract potential customers, why – because they are not making use of web content.
In years gone by, the phrase ‘Content is King’ was the golden rule; produce enough new content on your website and your SEPR will grow and grow. However, things have changed, search engines do consider content, but consider more how valuable that content is. They do this by measuring how popular the content is, the more popular a page/website is, the higher up on searches it will appear.
This is done by the number of inbound links a website has, from a variety of sources (the more trustworthy the sources are (news websites, government websites, trade bodies etc.) the more powerful the links are.
Below are a few pointers to creating good link bate - that will naturally attract visitors.
Planning
The first thing to do when creating content on a website is to consider ‘why would people want to link to me’. Planning the website content will ensure that a correct strategy is formed, and a good SEO plan is created naturally. SEO is all about a careful step by step process that takes time (as opposed to a quick wave of a wand).
Create Interesting Content
Once you have planned your strategy of linkbuilding, you need to consider what sort of content you can offer. Consider why people may link to your web page/website in the first place (as a resource, useful hints and tips, good video’s, regular blog that provides relevant information etc.). You can then create fresh well written content that people will want to read and share.
Lists are a good idea of content (top 10 best films, top ten sales approaches etc.)
Problem solutions are another good content idea (fixes for software, cooking tips or industry related problems).
Industry resources are another good source of content that will generate links.
One thing to remember is to give a little, but not to give a lot. No magician gives away their secrets, they inspire and create interest, but leave people guessing and wanting more. Link bate content needs to provide solutions, but not answer the entire question.
Use Relevant Keywords
Keywords play an important role in the SEO process. Search engines consider what keywords a website uses, and then what keywords are used by websites that are pointing to the site – if they match then the website moves up the search ranks for a particular keyword or phrase.
Use A Title That Creates Attention
Whenever you pick up a book, you look at the title, whenever you see a film preview, you want to know the name of the film. The title needs to capture the attention of the audience, to make them want to spend a few seconds of their day browsing your relevant information.
All SEO companies advise keeping titles short, sharp and informative in order to ensure that visitors will continue to read.
Make Use Of Social Media And Web Resources
The internet is a very wide and diverse place; consider that more or less all links can be achieved without paying much money at all.
Consider new websites, sites such as online resources, they do not pay for links; they make use of networking and newsrooms.
Once you create a good piece of content, the next job is to share the news. Send a link to a PR agency that focuses on online PR, share the link on social media networks and website forums. Indeed most PR companies do charge to help with marketing; many can help with online work for a very affordable price.
Social media is playing a larger part in the world of networking, SEO and business interaction; initially social media was designed for file sharing, dating, swapping pictures and a place for young people to interact. Now it has developed into a much broader community of worldwide businesses talking, selling and communicating 24 hours a day. This is a great platform to share unique content that can be linked to by tens of thousands of potential customers for free.
Make The Content Look Nice
The last tip is down to the aesthetic look of your content; if it looks nice, people will want to read it.
This is more about the website design of your site, does your website look nice, simple to navigate, clear, fresh, modern and inspiring?
There are lots of websites around that have fantastic content and great resouces, but due to the look and feel of the website, people just do not want to stick around and spend time browsing.
Websites need to look good, not just to search engines, but actual humans that visit and read the website during their busy days.
It is well worth getting a couple of website designers to give your site the once over, to give it a fresh lease of life in order to ensure that your content is not wasted and is keeping people interested and coming back to your website for more.
Article source: http://rushprnews.com/2011/11/30/link-bait-can-still-help-with-seo
Tis the season…to wrap up budgeting and forecasting for 2012. As the year begins to draw towards a close, the hope is that your search engine marketing initiatives have an upward trend attached to them. According to MarketingSherpa’s 2011 B2B Marketing Advanced Practices Handbook, SEO ranked as the fourth most effective B2B marketing tactic.
For many of us, B2B SEO now includes some component of social media marketing. Even though social media was only the tenth most effective B2B marketing tactic in the chart above, 66% of organizations with a formal SEO process were integrating social media into their overall SEO strategy (see chart below).
While most will agree that social media delivers value outside of SEO, it is up to B2B marketers to demonstrate that value to executive teams, particularly when budgets are proposed in the new year.
As you’re planning for 2012 marketing initiatives, here are four ways to make sure that social media strategy, which helps improve SEO and beyond, stays on the budget in the new year.
At least one of the benchmarks used when evaluating social media campaigns must be in relation to lead acquisition. The chart below shows an example of a clients Google Analytics report, highlighting a select group of conversion rates, based on third party referrals where social media campaigns were initiated.
What is not noted in this data, but should be considered is the level of sales-readiness in a lead being sent via social media. We are working with many of our clients more on developing specific benchmarks highlighting the type of leads, and their place in the sales funnel.
For example, white paper requests or embeds of an infographic are much different conversions than webinar registrations or demo requests, as it pertains to the ability of a sales professional to initiate contact and potentially close a deal.
The point is that while leads via social media initiatives might not lead to immediate ROI, there is value in building an ever expanding contact list, which may convert (or help support) more sales-specific content marketing initiatives down the road.
The ability to acquire links through social media initiatives should certainly be a priority, and a benchmark that can help support the value of social media moving forward.
Networking connections built in Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as social bookmarking sites such as Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg, can open the door to site owners or marketers for various online publications.
Simply noting links acquired via social media outreach or networking initiatives is a first step. Below is a screenshot from RavenTools Link Manager tool, but even notation in Excel would suffice.
As the year draws to a close, re-evaluate the sources of inbound links, to determine whether social media marketing played a part in link acquisition.
While ranking well for the brand may not be an important KPI for general B2B SEO success, growth in brand based keyword search referrals might make sense for social media.
Why? Generally speaking, brand based keyword referrals should have higher conversion rates and traffic performance metrics.
Take a look at a comparison between branded and non-branded keyword referral traffic and conversion rates for one client (year to date metrics):
Building brand awareness over time through social media, by way of a consistent growth in keyword traffic, makes sense when evaluated in combination with site conversion goals.
The chart below highlights how we have grown this same client’s overall branded search referral traffic, in part through social media initiatives.
Finally, new visitor traffic plays a role in benchmarking social media campaign performance. As long as visitor performance metrics, such as bounce rate, time on site, etc. are consistent with other channels, the percentage of new visitors to a website, via social media campaigns, is something worth noting.
Growth in quality new visitor traffic through social media initiatives infers that your campaigns are opening up doors and new areas of visibility for the organizations overall Web presence. The hope is that this traffic in turn can be developed into more qualified returning visitors and lead nurturing opportunities.
Hopefully, these recommendations prove to be valuable, but I would love to read your thoughts and perspective via comments below as well. How are you benchmarking social media performance this year and into 2012?
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
Related Topics: B2B Search Marketing
Article source: http://searchengineland.com/4-recommendations-for-benchmarking-b2b-social-media-performance-this-year-102159
It’s almost that time of year when everyone goes crazy for deals. That time of the year when people spend hours shopping online. This is the time of year when a lot of new Advertisers enter the space, this means that you as a PPC manager or Agency have to step up and go above and beyond to get the top clicks. Getting the top clicks isn’t’ the hardest thing to do if you have a large budget, but if you are on a penny pinching budget, some of the tips below should help you to make the most out of this holiday season.
According to Peter Haubold of Microsoft there is a 40% increase in impressions from Thanksgiving till Christmas. People are searching for more gift related searches then ever before during the holidays. Search queries like “flat screen tv” and related searches. This will help you get into how people search and buy on the internet. It will help you know more “How people buy” on the internet. Once you know how people are buying you can craft your ad text to what they want to hear.
Offer a deal during the holidays. Nothing helps buyers more then a deal. Why do you think Groupon is doing so well, they are a deal site. Having something like “free shipping” or “50% off everything today only” something that will cause people to purchase without even thinking! Even if you have to pretty much give away something for free to 5 people and are “out of stock” this will get millions of clicks to your website. If your page is good enough to convert people even if the “deal” is over or finished you will get millions of low cost clicks to your site that should convert very well.
Have different ad text for each day, I know this is a pain in the butt but during the holidays CPC competition will heat up and new competitors will be bidding on terms that you have dominated for the past 11 months. Changing your ad text daily will help people understand their questions. Ad text should appeal to the holiday shoppers intent and how they buy things online. This will not only help improve your CTR but will help you convert more people. Get into the heads of your searchers. Write text that they would love to read during the holiday season. Make sure to also organize these ads into tightly themed AdGroups.
Be specific in your ad text. Put numbers in there that let people know exactly what you are selling and the price that they will get it for. This may increase or decrease your CTR depending on if you have a good deal or not but should help you to not get unwanted clicks. Numbers stand out and let searchers know exactly what you’re offering.
Segregate your Brand Keywords into one AdGroup, I can’t say this enough. Many people have their campaigns set up with their branded terms scattered throughout their different campaigns. This is a huge mistake. This will make all your AdGroups look like they are converting much better then they actually are. By separating them into their own campaign, it will reduce your CPC cost for that keyword, improve your quality score for the campaign, and help you better know your metrics. You will not be able to see your unbranded terms and how they perform on their own. This will allow you to check out all the different keywords that you are bidding on and see if they are actually converting. These should all be organized into tightly themed AdGroups as well.
Best of luck to everyone during the holiday season. I would love to know additional tips and tricks that you have used in the past to get more traffic that converted during the holiday season.
Article source: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/holiday-ppc-checklist/37084/
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DENVER – A Denver marketing agency is focusing their attention on teaching businesses how they can be more savvy with using mobile marketing and social media to benefit their company.
Heather Lutze is the CEO and author of “Thumbonomics” which is a guide to mastering social media sites like blogging, You Tube, Twitter and more.
“I think most business owners today feel all thumbs when it comes to social media. [They ask] ‘does that apply to my business? Can I really get a real return on an investment from Twitter or You Tube?’ The answer is absolutely yes!” Lutze said.
Her goal and the goal of Thumbonomics is to educate people who are unfamiliar with social media and help them understand a completely different but new and successful way to market themselves and their business.
“I think a lot of people think you can’t say anything meaningful in 140 characters, but you absolutely can. I think that one thing business owners tend to forget is that Twitter is a search engine. There’s a search box right there on the interface,” Lutze said.
Lutze admits, it takes time to set up the marketing tools, but says if people are willing to invest their time in this type of advertising, it could payoff.
“The most important thing is…use keyword phrases that are always being searched. Then once you figure out how those searchers are thinking, you can show up to them 140 characters at a time. Building a plan around those phrases is absolutely key.” Lutze said.
Lutze also suggests companies using their own video channel on sites like You Tube to market themselves and their company.
“You tube has really become a force to be reckoned with. Every minute, 24 hours of video is being uploaded. So, what I want companies to think about is, as you innovate for 2012, and be mindful that your customers are on You Tube and on Twitter!” she said.
“Companies should pool together video about what they do, how they do it and make it ‘find-able,’” she said.
Smartphones play a huge role in online marketing. Her book says ‘This is how people stay connected. They buy here; they talk here, search here and live here.”
She says this is where all types of businesses are growing and in order to have a successful business, you better get on the bandwagon now.
“Thumbanomics is all about people on their smartphone and how to learn to communicate and live day-to-day on their smartphones and that includes vide,” Lutze said.
(KUSA-TV © 2011 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
What’s this?Paid Distribution
Article source: http://www.9news.com/news/article/232941/222/Thumbonomics-A-roadmap-for-social-media-and-mobile-marketing
LAW
Randy Gori, of Gori Julian Associates P.C. in
Edwardsville, was certified as a member of the Million Dollar
Advocates Forum, a prestigious group of United States trial
lawyers. Membership in the Million Dollar Advocates Forum is
limited to attorneys who have won million and multi-million dollar
verdicts, awards and settlements. Gori specializes in asbestos
litigation, benzene litigation and personal injury.
EDUCATION
Two Southern Illinois University Edwardsville staff members were
recently awarded the Center for Racial Harmony in Swansea’s
Phenomenal Women Award. Lora Miles, SIUE associate vice chancellor
for student affairs, and Kathleen Thimsen, director of SIUE
Community Nursing Services at the East St. Louis Center and
instructor in the School of Nursing, received the honors.
Miles was recognized for her work with the development and
implementation of the SIUE Student Success Center. She also serves
on the Student Success Advisory Council, which is working to
develop a University Retention program that will focus on
under-represented student populations.
Thimsen was acknowledged for her involvement with community
gardens in East St. Louis. Thimsen spearheaded the Jones Park
Re-Beautification Project. The project focuses on uniting the
community and promoting education of health nutrition, diet,
lifestyle and exercise.
PUBLISHING
Pres. Barack Obama and U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson named
Collinsville resident-headed Concordia Publishing House as a 2011
recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Bruce
Kintz, of Collinsville, is CPH’s president and CEO. The Baldrige
Award, which recognizes successful performance strategies, will be
presented to CPH in a ceremony in Washington, D.C., next year.
Article source: http://www.stltoday.com/suburban-journals/illinois/business-news-siue-staff-receive-awards/article_d499facd-a2ad-5e03-ac3c-dd6b272c2c55.html
BRITVIC FIGURES SHOW CONSUMER WEAKNESS – Britvic’s annual results show that Irish people drank 18 million litres less of Britvic products – which include brands such as Ballygowan, 7Up, Club and MiWadi – than in the previous year.
Britvic blamed a weak economy and a poor summer for falls in the volume and value of drink sales in Ireland. The volume of Britvic drinks sold in Irish pubs fell by 8.7%, while take-home volumes were down 2.2%.
Total revenue for the Irish business dropped by almost 10% to £162.8m.
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NOTHING NEW FROM EURO TALKS – AHEARNE – A meeting of euro zone ministers last night concluded with news that the European Financial Stability Facility will be boosted – but we do not know by how much. The International Monetary Fund will also move centre stage, with speculation that the European Central Bank will lend it money to pass on to distressed countries.
First reactions are not good – Tokyo stocks lost 0.5% this morning amid renewed worries over the European debt crisis.
NUI Galway economics professor Alan Ahearne who was adviser to the former Finance Minister Brian Lenihan during the negotiations on the Irish bail-out, said what emerged last night was not new, and had not previously impressed markets.
He said there was only one institution with the money to help Italy and Spain – the European Central Bank. But Professor Ahearne said that even ECB action would be only a temporary solution, and it would take many years to create the institutions necessary for fiscal union in the euro zone – such as euro bonds and a euro finance minister.
He said politicians should express their commitment to taking such measures, which would give the ECB a route to act more decisively.
Asked about reports that business were making contingency plans for a euro break-up, he said it made sense for firms to do this, but such a break-up would be devastating for the economy and businesses.
The economist added that there was little that could be cone now to keep the euro area out of recession in the first half of 2012.
Article source: http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1130/mibusiness-business.html
I really do regret not seeing Brock Lesnar take the WWE by storm during my last wrestling sabbatical.
But then again, when I happened to catch WrestleMania XX and heard 20,000 people booing their throats hoarse, I didn’t see what the big deal was because I had never become emotionally invested in “The Next Big Thing.”
He debuted the night after WrestleMania X8 and was headlining the next “Granddaddy of Them All” the following year. That’s pretty damn impressive in its own right. Even more impressive was Lesnar’s athleticism, nearly unfathomable for a man his size.
So when he climbed to the top rope in his main event match against Kurt Angle, it didn’t seem all that insane especially considering the rumors that he had nailed the shooting star press during his days with Ohio Valley Wrestling.
Granted, I’ve seen this clip before but I didn’t watch it when it happened so it still counts. Also, it’s my column so I make the rules. As suggested by Cagesider mountaineer101, here is Lesnar’s defining WrestleMania moment.
I’m sure the big guy would appreciate this piece too seeing as how he doesn’t remember it.
My first thought is, “Holy crap, he’s going up top.” The second is, “Man, Angle is reeeeally far away.”
Sure enough, old Sergio turns out right and Lesnar lands nearly squa’ on his head. Thankfully, his massive neck that’s bigger around than my waist helped prevent any lasting damage.
And that’s what makes this moment awesome. It’s not that Lesnar missed the jump, that sucks and is very scary. It’s that he managed to — with the help of Angle — patch together a quick finish despite being out on his feet.
Hoss.
If you have any ideas for something that made you say “that was awesome!!!” pass it along. Make sure to include either your name or your SBNation handle — whichever you’d like to be used — and you’ll get a shout you out if your idea is used! Contact me at sergio.hernandez.tx@gmail.com.
Article source: http://www.cagesideseats.com/2011/11/29/2596928/brock-lesnar-shooting-star-press-that-was-awesome
