Business Making Money

Challenge To Graham Henderson: Please Point Out Who Believes Music Should Just Be A Hobby

from the we're-waiting... dept

There's been a bizarre shift lately in the recording industry's attempt to demonize people who believe in embracing new business models and new technologies in the music business. We just wrote about Universal Music's Jim Urie claiming that "copyleft" supporters don't care about art, and along those same lines, Zeropaid points us to Graham Henderson, the head of the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA -- which is almost entirely dominated by foreign companies) going to Washington DC to lobby in favor of more draconian copyright laws.



We had just caught Henderson falsely claiming that the reason streaming music services won't come to Canada is because of the "piracy," there -- even though the same article where he made those claims showed a bunch of streaming music companies who want to launch in Canada, but can't because of the ridiculous licensing demands of the recording industry. It seems Henderson just can't stop making statements that appear to have little basis in reality. In making this push, Henderson, too, has decided to make up a total strawman of an "enemy," in the blogosphere:

"There is a certain set of bloggers out there who think music is nothing more than a hobby, that it should be free. But I think Canadians as a whole are more open to supporting their creative industry and so we're finally at the point where Ottawa is going to act. I refuse to believe that this brand-new digital era is going to make beggars of creators and send them back to the 1800s."

So, here's my challenge to Henderson: prove it. Or, in the parlance of Wikipedia: [citation needed]. Where are these bloggers who "think music is nothing more than a hobby?" I read most of the blogs of the folks I'm pretty sure you're talking about, and I don't know any of them who think that music is nothing more than a hobby (with the possible exception of Suzanne Lainson who is hardly your typical "copyleft" blogger -- in fact, she keeps saying she doesn't pay attention to copyright issues and thinks it's a waste to even pay attention to copyright policy discussions). Most of us, however, have spent an awful lot of time and effort trying to highlight great new ways to make money for musicians, such that we're seeing that musicians are actually able to make more money than they did in the past -- and we celebrate whenever we such news.



Of course, we all know what's really going on. Part of the reason many of these musicians who are embracing new technologies and new business models are making more money than before is because those business models route around the gatekeepers that make up the RIAA and the CRIA. And those companies have a long history of keeping money away from musicians rather than helping them make a living. Most of the bloggers that Henderson is slamming love to see artists making money. They love to see creative new business models that are fan friendly and that allow fans to support artists. We don't believe that music is just a hobby. We think, in fact, that there are many more opportunities for musicians to make money. It's just that, quite frequently, those methods involve not filtering the money through Henderson's corporate masters, where they take an excessive cut.



But, as these industry folks continue to lie to politicians and the press, it's important to keep calling them out. I've still not heard any response on my open challenge to Jim Urie to talk about this publicly, so I'll issue the same challenge to Graham Henderson. Please, point out who these bloggers are, and show me how their reasons for being against your attempt to put forth unnecessary, damaging and ever more draconian copyright laws is because they think that "music is nothing more than a hobby." I'd be perfectly happy to discuss this publicly with Henderson, where we can discuss great new ways to help musicians make more money.



If Henderson can't do that, then it should be clear that he knows he's lying to the public, to the press and to politicians.

26 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Yet Another Study Shows Musicians Making More Money

from the well,-look-at-that dept

We've made the argument repeatedly that saying unauthorized file sharing is hurting the music business lacks evidence. Instead, what we've seen, over and over again, is that more money is pouring into the music business, more music is being produced and (most importantly) that more musicians who embrace this new world are doing better than they would have otherwise. Now, we've pointed to research in the UK, Sweden and the US that have all shown aggregate growth for the music business, with some of the numbers suggesting more money going directly to musicians, rather than gatekeepers.



The latest study, highlighted by TorrentFreak takes a similar look at the Norwegian music market to show very similar findings and (of course) that musicians are, indeed, benefiting:



Like the UK and Swedish studies, this study, covering Norway, found that the aggregate amount going to the industry is up slightly (4% in real terms), mostly thanks to live shows more than making up for the decline in music sales (it's important to note that these researchers appear to have modeled their research on both the UK and Swedish studies, and made only slight changes, which they explain (and justify) in the report. The key finding is that musicians appear to be making significantly more these days than in the past:

Total artist revenues have gone from NOK 208 million in 1999 to NOK 545 million in 2009, which is an increase of about 162%. Excluding state subsidization, the income from 1999 to 2009 has increased with NOK 229 million, or 147%....



According to this, Norwegian artists have seen an increase in all four of their income sources during the past eleven years. This goes contrary to the common belief that artists have seen a decline in income because of the digitalization of the industry.



The loss of record sales because of consequences of the digitalization of the industry has not affected the Norwegian artists in the same brutal way as it has the record companies. Artists earn in general 20% or less from record sales, and a decrease in record sales would most likely be compensated by an increase in one or more of the other three income sources.

Now, it's worth pointing out -- as I learned when I attended Nordic Music Week last year -- that the Norwegian music industry is heavily subsidized by the government, which is one of the four revenue streams discussed above. However, that only represents about 30% of artist revenue in 2009. The largest single component -- again similar to what we've seen elsewhere -- is live revenue, which continues to grow. Even if you exclude state subsidies, the report found that Norwegian artists doubled their income in the past 11 years:

Adjusted for inflation, total artist revenue has gone from NOK 255 million in 1999 to NOK 545 million in 2009, an increase of about NOK 290 million or 114%. Excluding state subsidizations, the increase has changed from NOK 192 million to NOK 386 million, which is an increase of NOK 194 million or 101% This goes to show that the artists themselves, as a group, have seen tremendous more growth than the industry as a whole.

And, yes, there are more musicians out there to split the pie, but the growth rate in the industry has increased more quickly than the growth in musicians.

Since the total number of artists in 1999 and 2009 are available to the authors, it is possible to calculate an average income from music for artists in Norway. With 3200 artists in 1999 the average income from music would be about NOK 65 000. With 4100 artists in 2009 the average income from music is about NOK 133 000, creating an increase of NOK 68 000 or 105%. Adjusted for inflation the income has increased with from about NOK 80 000 to NOK 133 000, an increase of NOK 53 000, an increase of 66%.

Overall, the results, like those in Sweden and the UK, seem to clearly debunk the repeated claims from recording industry folks (and some musicians) that artists are somehow suffering under this new setup. Now, there may absolutely be cases where artists who fail to adapt are struggling, and there's no doubt that some labels that failed to adapt are struggling -- but there's increasingly little evidence that the overall music industry or artists as a whole are suffering. All of the evidence seems to suggest that it's not file sharing that's a problem at all. More money is going into the music business. The only problems are from those in the industry too stubborn or too clueless to adapt to capture the money that's flowing in.

27 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Small Business <b>News</b>: Social Media Survival Guide

Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. These are only a few of the more common tools we think of when we hear the term social media. To grapple with this brand new.

Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our 3DS news of Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month.

Castlevania demo leads PSN update PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Castlevania demo leads PSN update.

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benchcraft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Social Media Survival Guide

Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. These are only a few of the more common tools we think of when we hear the term social media. To grapple with this brand new.

Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our 3DS news of Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month.

Castlevania demo leads PSN update PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Castlevania demo leads PSN update.

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Challenge To Graham Henderson: Please Point Out Who Believes Music Should Just Be A Hobby

from the we're-waiting... dept

There's been a bizarre shift lately in the recording industry's attempt to demonize people who believe in embracing new business models and new technologies in the music business. We just wrote about Universal Music's Jim Urie claiming that "copyleft" supporters don't care about art, and along those same lines, Zeropaid points us to Graham Henderson, the head of the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA -- which is almost entirely dominated by foreign companies) going to Washington DC to lobby in favor of more draconian copyright laws.



We had just caught Henderson falsely claiming that the reason streaming music services won't come to Canada is because of the "piracy," there -- even though the same article where he made those claims showed a bunch of streaming music companies who want to launch in Canada, but can't because of the ridiculous licensing demands of the recording industry. It seems Henderson just can't stop making statements that appear to have little basis in reality. In making this push, Henderson, too, has decided to make up a total strawman of an "enemy," in the blogosphere:

"There is a certain set of bloggers out there who think music is nothing more than a hobby, that it should be free. But I think Canadians as a whole are more open to supporting their creative industry and so we're finally at the point where Ottawa is going to act. I refuse to believe that this brand-new digital era is going to make beggars of creators and send them back to the 1800s."

So, here's my challenge to Henderson: prove it. Or, in the parlance of Wikipedia: [citation needed]. Where are these bloggers who "think music is nothing more than a hobby?" I read most of the blogs of the folks I'm pretty sure you're talking about, and I don't know any of them who think that music is nothing more than a hobby (with the possible exception of Suzanne Lainson who is hardly your typical "copyleft" blogger -- in fact, she keeps saying she doesn't pay attention to copyright issues and thinks it's a waste to even pay attention to copyright policy discussions). Most of us, however, have spent an awful lot of time and effort trying to highlight great new ways to make money for musicians, such that we're seeing that musicians are actually able to make more money than they did in the past -- and we celebrate whenever we such news.



Of course, we all know what's really going on. Part of the reason many of these musicians who are embracing new technologies and new business models are making more money than before is because those business models route around the gatekeepers that make up the RIAA and the CRIA. And those companies have a long history of keeping money away from musicians rather than helping them make a living. Most of the bloggers that Henderson is slamming love to see artists making money. They love to see creative new business models that are fan friendly and that allow fans to support artists. We don't believe that music is just a hobby. We think, in fact, that there are many more opportunities for musicians to make money. It's just that, quite frequently, those methods involve not filtering the money through Henderson's corporate masters, where they take an excessive cut.



But, as these industry folks continue to lie to politicians and the press, it's important to keep calling them out. I've still not heard any response on my open challenge to Jim Urie to talk about this publicly, so I'll issue the same challenge to Graham Henderson. Please, point out who these bloggers are, and show me how their reasons for being against your attempt to put forth unnecessary, damaging and ever more draconian copyright laws is because they think that "music is nothing more than a hobby." I'd be perfectly happy to discuss this publicly with Henderson, where we can discuss great new ways to help musicians make more money.



If Henderson can't do that, then it should be clear that he knows he's lying to the public, to the press and to politicians.

26 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Yet Another Study Shows Musicians Making More Money

from the well,-look-at-that dept

We've made the argument repeatedly that saying unauthorized file sharing is hurting the music business lacks evidence. Instead, what we've seen, over and over again, is that more money is pouring into the music business, more music is being produced and (most importantly) that more musicians who embrace this new world are doing better than they would have otherwise. Now, we've pointed to research in the UK, Sweden and the US that have all shown aggregate growth for the music business, with some of the numbers suggesting more money going directly to musicians, rather than gatekeepers.



The latest study, highlighted by TorrentFreak takes a similar look at the Norwegian music market to show very similar findings and (of course) that musicians are, indeed, benefiting:



Like the UK and Swedish studies, this study, covering Norway, found that the aggregate amount going to the industry is up slightly (4% in real terms), mostly thanks to live shows more than making up for the decline in music sales (it's important to note that these researchers appear to have modeled their research on both the UK and Swedish studies, and made only slight changes, which they explain (and justify) in the report. The key finding is that musicians appear to be making significantly more these days than in the past:

Total artist revenues have gone from NOK 208 million in 1999 to NOK 545 million in 2009, which is an increase of about 162%. Excluding state subsidization, the income from 1999 to 2009 has increased with NOK 229 million, or 147%....



According to this, Norwegian artists have seen an increase in all four of their income sources during the past eleven years. This goes contrary to the common belief that artists have seen a decline in income because of the digitalization of the industry.



The loss of record sales because of consequences of the digitalization of the industry has not affected the Norwegian artists in the same brutal way as it has the record companies. Artists earn in general 20% or less from record sales, and a decrease in record sales would most likely be compensated by an increase in one or more of the other three income sources.

Now, it's worth pointing out -- as I learned when I attended Nordic Music Week last year -- that the Norwegian music industry is heavily subsidized by the government, which is one of the four revenue streams discussed above. However, that only represents about 30% of artist revenue in 2009. The largest single component -- again similar to what we've seen elsewhere -- is live revenue, which continues to grow. Even if you exclude state subsidies, the report found that Norwegian artists doubled their income in the past 11 years:

Adjusted for inflation, total artist revenue has gone from NOK 255 million in 1999 to NOK 545 million in 2009, an increase of about NOK 290 million or 114%. Excluding state subsidizations, the increase has changed from NOK 192 million to NOK 386 million, which is an increase of NOK 194 million or 101% This goes to show that the artists themselves, as a group, have seen tremendous more growth than the industry as a whole.

And, yes, there are more musicians out there to split the pie, but the growth rate in the industry has increased more quickly than the growth in musicians.

Since the total number of artists in 1999 and 2009 are available to the authors, it is possible to calculate an average income from music for artists in Norway. With 3200 artists in 1999 the average income from music would be about NOK 65 000. With 4100 artists in 2009 the average income from music is about NOK 133 000, creating an increase of NOK 68 000 or 105%. Adjusted for inflation the income has increased with from about NOK 80 000 to NOK 133 000, an increase of NOK 53 000, an increase of 66%.

Overall, the results, like those in Sweden and the UK, seem to clearly debunk the repeated claims from recording industry folks (and some musicians) that artists are somehow suffering under this new setup. Now, there may absolutely be cases where artists who fail to adapt are struggling, and there's no doubt that some labels that failed to adapt are struggling -- but there's increasingly little evidence that the overall music industry or artists as a whole are suffering. All of the evidence seems to suggest that it's not file sharing that's a problem at all. More money is going into the music business. The only problems are from those in the industry too stubborn or too clueless to adapt to capture the money that's flowing in.

27 Comments | Leave a Comment..

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Small Business <b>News</b>: Social Media Survival Guide

Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. These are only a few of the more common tools we think of when we hear the term social media. To grapple with this brand new.

Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our 3DS news of Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month.

Castlevania demo leads PSN update PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Castlevania demo leads PSN update.

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Small Business <b>News</b>: Social Media Survival Guide

Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. These are only a few of the more common tools we think of when we hear the term social media. To grapple with this brand new.

Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our 3DS news of Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month.

Castlevania demo leads PSN update PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Castlevania demo leads PSN update.

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Small Business <b>News</b>: Social Media Survival Guide

Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. These are only a few of the more common tools we think of when we hear the term social media. To grapple with this brand new.

Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our 3DS news of Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month.

Castlevania demo leads PSN update PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Castlevania demo leads PSN update.

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personal finance money management

If you are having a tough time understanding the nitty gritty of your mortgage, like the total interest you’ll end up paying and the monthly payments you’ll need to make, then you might as well use this simple web based tool called the AmortizationLoanCalculator.

It asks you for the principal loan amount, the loan term and the annual interest rate and returns a table that’s an amortization schedule showing your periodic payments, what part of it is going towards paying the principal and the interest, and the overall interest you pay in the lifetime of the mortgage.

As you can see in the above screenshot, the table is pretty easy understand. The C Prin and C Int stand for cumulative principal and cumulative interest respectively.

Features

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• Enter the principal amount, loan term and annual interest rate.
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Check out AmortizationLoanCalculator @ amortizationloancalculator.net/index.php (By Abhijeet from Guiding Tech)

The summer after my first year of graduate school I went back for the last extended time to my parents' home in Washington DC. Joe Pechman, IIRC, got me a desk at the Brookings Institution. And I spent the summer reading as widely as I could and having coffee with Edward Bernstein.

Eric Rauchway:

Keynes’s conference and Morgenthau’s dream: Keynes looks arrogantly at the camera. The qualities of authority, brilliance, and suavity, which Keynes had in personal abundance, were if not lacking then widely distributed among the American delegation: on substantive matters Morgenthau deferred to his assistant Harry Dexter White, who had a better grasp of economics than Morgenthau, and on matters requiring tact White deferred to his assistant Edward Bernstein, who was less likely to say “shit” in public than White. Keynes meanwhile was everywhere, radiating influence from his room at the center of the Mount Washington Hotel, chairing the committee to charter the World Bank but also frequently leading the discussions on the International Monetary Fund; starting informal seminars on economic theory with the delegates he respected and making racist jokes at the expense of those he did not; lining up the best of the hotel wine cellar to host a dinner marking the five hundredth anniversary of an understanding between New College Oxford and King’s College Cambridge. Although suffering from a cardiac ailment that would at length kill him, under the ministrations of his wife and amid the stimulus of the discussions he exhibited extraordinary energy. Keynes disliked going to America, explaining himself, and Jews: yet one night after dinner at the New Hampshire conference he got so excited about the prospect of illustrating a concept to Morgenthau that he charged precipitously up the hotel stairs, giving himself a heart attack that was erroneously reported as fatal in some of the international papers....

ad Keynes fallen prey to his own heart and perished on the hotel stairs, Keynesianism would have survived him and Bretton Woods would have been established as a system anyway.... Bretton Woods would have survived Keynes because Keynes had already won the war of ideas... by 1944 his complaints had become the common foundation for a functional peace, and other ideas he had developed over the subsequent quarter century—about monetary policy, about regulating exchange rates, about the important role an international fund could play in permitting national governments to respond effectively to economic crisis—had adherents throughout the world. But in part Bretton Woods would have survived Keynes because... its underlying assumptions could have been, and indeed were, derived from other intellectual and political traditions.... Morgenthau came from an American tradition—a farm tradition, a free-trading tradition, a Democratic party tradition—to which these ideas about the management of money came readily. And given the need to get an eventual Bretton Woods agreement through the United States Congress, the compatibility of the international system with the Democratic party tradition mattered at least as much as the persuasive powers of a British sybarite—or so Dean Acheson found as he piloted the legislation through the Capitol.

Thus if we want to understand how Bretton Woods happened and why it worked, we need to understand not only the intellectual revolution of Keynesianism and its effects on the policymaking world, but also the American political tradition to which mid-century Democrats were heir, a tradition older than the New Deal...

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The American Spectator : Good <b>News</b>

Hard to avoid the good news these days. A few days back we learned that the war in Iraq was over. Well, sort of, anyway. The President explained that U.S. troops were done with combat but would remain in a support and advisory capacity. ...

Scripting <b>News</b>: Angelgate in a Nutshell

Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...

Artnet <b>News</b>: Gang assaults Turkish galleries. Plus, Miami <b>...</b>

ARTNET NEWS. Gang assaults Turkish galleries. Plus, Miami Sculpture Biennial, Prospect 1.5 New Orleans, more.

The American Spectator : Good <b>News</b>

Hard to avoid the good news these days. A few days back we learned that the war in Iraq was over. Well, sort of, anyway. The President explained that U.S. troops were done with combat but would remain in a support and advisory capacity. ...

Scripting <b>News</b>: Angelgate in a Nutshell

Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...

Artnet <b>News</b>: Gang assaults Turkish galleries. Plus, Miami <b>...</b>

ARTNET NEWS. Gang assaults Turkish galleries. Plus, Miami Sculpture Biennial, Prospect 1.5 New Orleans, more.

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The American Spectator : Good <b>News</b>

Hard to avoid the good news these days. A few days back we learned that the war in Iraq was over. Well, sort of, anyway. The President explained that U.S. troops were done with combat but would remain in a support and advisory capacity. ...

Scripting <b>News</b>: Angelgate in a Nutshell

Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...

Artnet <b>News</b>: Gang assaults Turkish galleries. Plus, Miami <b>...</b>

ARTNET NEWS. Gang assaults Turkish galleries. Plus, Miami Sculpture Biennial, Prospect 1.5 New Orleans, more.

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The summer after my first year of graduate school I went back for the last extended time to my parents' home in Washington DC. Joe Pechman, IIRC, got me a desk at the Brookings Institution. And I spent the summer reading as widely as I could and having coffee with Edward Bernstein.

Eric Rauchway:

Keynes’s conference and Morgenthau’s dream: Keynes looks arrogantly at the camera. The qualities of authority, brilliance, and suavity, which Keynes had in personal abundance, were if not lacking then widely distributed among the American delegation: on substantive matters Morgenthau deferred to his assistant Harry Dexter White, who had a better grasp of economics than Morgenthau, and on matters requiring tact White deferred to his assistant Edward Bernstein, who was less likely to say “shit” in public than White. Keynes meanwhile was everywhere, radiating influence from his room at the center of the Mount Washington Hotel, chairing the committee to charter the World Bank but also frequently leading the discussions on the International Monetary Fund; starting informal seminars on economic theory with the delegates he respected and making racist jokes at the expense of those he did not; lining up the best of the hotel wine cellar to host a dinner marking the five hundredth anniversary of an understanding between New College Oxford and King’s College Cambridge. Although suffering from a cardiac ailment that would at length kill him, under the ministrations of his wife and amid the stimulus of the discussions he exhibited extraordinary energy. Keynes disliked going to America, explaining himself, and Jews: yet one night after dinner at the New Hampshire conference he got so excited about the prospect of illustrating a concept to Morgenthau that he charged precipitously up the hotel stairs, giving himself a heart attack that was erroneously reported as fatal in some of the international papers....

ad Keynes fallen prey to his own heart and perished on the hotel stairs, Keynesianism would have survived him and Bretton Woods would have been established as a system anyway.... Bretton Woods would have survived Keynes because Keynes had already won the war of ideas... by 1944 his complaints had become the common foundation for a functional peace, and other ideas he had developed over the subsequent quarter century—about monetary policy, about regulating exchange rates, about the important role an international fund could play in permitting national governments to respond effectively to economic crisis—had adherents throughout the world. But in part Bretton Woods would have survived Keynes because... its underlying assumptions could have been, and indeed were, derived from other intellectual and political traditions.... Morgenthau came from an American tradition—a farm tradition, a free-trading tradition, a Democratic party tradition—to which these ideas about the management of money came readily. And given the need to get an eventual Bretton Woods agreement through the United States Congress, the compatibility of the international system with the Democratic party tradition mattered at least as much as the persuasive powers of a British sybarite—or so Dean Acheson found as he piloted the legislation through the Capitol.

Thus if we want to understand how Bretton Woods happened and why it worked, we need to understand not only the intellectual revolution of Keynesianism and its effects on the policymaking world, but also the American political tradition to which mid-century Democrats were heir, a tradition older than the New Deal...

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If D.C. Can Leak, Why Can&#39;t WikiLeaks? « Liveshots

WASHINGTON -- Pentagon leaders seemed unfazed by classified revelations published in Bob Woodward's.

ICM And WME And CAA <b>News</b>… – Deadline.com

ICM's talent department signed Emmy nominee and TV standout (Malcolm In The Middle) Jane Kaczmarek, who had been represented by WME. She's managed by Adena Chawke and Lisa Wright at Greenlight Management. Also joining ICM from WME is ...

Dallas Cowboys <b>News</b> &amp; Notes - Blogging The Boys

News & Notes about the Dallas Cowboys for Thursday, Sept. 23rd.

If D.C. Can Leak, Why Can&#39;t WikiLeaks? « Liveshots

WASHINGTON -- Pentagon leaders seemed unfazed by classified revelations published in Bob Woodward's.

ICM And WME And CAA <b>News</b>… – Deadline.com

ICM's talent department signed Emmy nominee and TV standout (Malcolm In The Middle) Jane Kaczmarek, who had been represented by WME. She's managed by Adena Chawke and Lisa Wright at Greenlight Management. Also joining ICM from WME is ...

Dallas Cowboys <b>News</b> &amp; Notes - Blogging The Boys

News & Notes about the Dallas Cowboys for Thursday, Sept. 23rd.

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If D.C. Can Leak, Why Can&#39;t WikiLeaks? « Liveshots

WASHINGTON -- Pentagon leaders seemed unfazed by classified revelations published in Bob Woodward's.

ICM And WME And CAA <b>News</b>… – Deadline.com

ICM's talent department signed Emmy nominee and TV standout (Malcolm In The Middle) Jane Kaczmarek, who had been represented by WME. She's managed by Adena Chawke and Lisa Wright at Greenlight Management. Also joining ICM from WME is ...

Dallas Cowboys <b>News</b> &amp; Notes - Blogging The Boys

News & Notes about the Dallas Cowboys for Thursday, Sept. 23rd.

Making Money Online Forum

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Mobile payments are the logical extension of online shopping; a way for customers to buy what you have while they’re on the go. But the technology has some added perks that make it a powerful purchasing tool for small businesses.

There are a lot of resources and articles out there telling businesses to pay attention to location-based networking or to maximize their social media presences, but there is a lack of information on the monetary benefits of these investments. Mobile payments, however, are a great way for businesses to make money.

It should be noted, there are two related fields of mobile payment: First, using your phone as a credit card in-store, and second, paying while on the go. We’ll be focusing largely on the latter.

Below is just a selection of reasons that small businesses should care about mobile payments. Add your voice to the comments below: Is this just another fad? Are mobile payments still years away? Why has North America been so slow to adopt?

It’s Going to be Everywhere/>

We already use our phones for everything: Calling, texting, surfing the web, video chats (thank you, Phone), and updating our social networks. class='blippr-nobr'>Societyclass="blippr-nobr">society, by and large, has grown accustomed to using phones for daily activities. Why shouldn’t instant purchasing be added to that list?

Total worldwide mobile payments stood at USD $68.7 billion in 2009, according to a study from Telecoms Market Research. That number is predicted to rise by more than 800% in the next four years. Simple, DIY credit card processing solutions, like the Complete Credit Card Solution and Square, have already hit the iPhone market, and more services are expected in the future for all platforms.

Social Impulse/>

Phones are inherently social, and advanced functions like geo-location are making it easier for users to connect with others in their networks to share consumption habits and recommendations. Location-based services, for example, enable users to recommend their favorite restaurants, shops and others venues. And group buying sites like Groupon have expanded the possibilities for quick, social purchases.

By adding a mobile payment option, small businesses can capitalize on these peer recommendations with a purchase. Rather than direct your customers to an online shop site or have them note it down for later, they can instantly buy your product.

Mobile payments take advantage of impulse purchases; essentially when you buy something based on spur-of-the-moment decision making. class='blippr-nobr'>Impulseclass="blippr-nobr">Impulse buys are usually associated with emotional reactions to a product. They are partly why ringtone sales have been so successful. Like a tone? You can often download it instantly with just a couple clicks, no secondary sites necessary. Make sure your customers are able to buy your product the instant they want it.

Micro-Transactions/>

The real heart of small business mobile payments is the micro-transaction. Paying less is generally better than paying more. People are also more willing to pay frequent small payments rather than throw down a lump sum. Using ringtones as an example, more people would pay $1 for several ringtones than shell out $5 in one go for five ringtones.

Small business can follow this trend by selling less-expensive goods online, as smaller goods could be a real hit for the mobile payment crowd. Customers can more easily rationalize those smaller purchases and drive more sales to your business.

Another perk for biz owners is that mobile transaction fees are usually less than credit card fees. Sales through mobile could save you a small amount on every purchase.

Customer Data/>

Mobile payments enable merchants to collect data in much the same way as your everyday credit card purchases. Adding mobile payments to your business can help keep track of customer phone numbers, buying histories, and any other necessary information. Having this extra source of data about customers and their purchasing habits will enable you to offer more targeted and relevant deals, discounts and products to specific purchasers.

Collecting data can be a bit tricky, since it gets into privacy rights and issues (e.g., Facebook privacy concerns), so make sure your business is aware of how you can and cannot use customer information.

Regardless of your purposes, whether it be data, profit, or social loyalty, mobile payments are definitely an area for small businesses to watch.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- HOW TO: Choose the Best Workspace for Your Business/> - 5 Winning Social Media Campaigns to Learn From/> - 10 Emerging Social Platforms and How Businesses Can Use Them/> - 10 Free WordPress Themes for Small Businesses/> - 8 Funding Contests to Kick Start Your Big Idea

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, photo_smart

For more Business coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Businessclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Business channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

United Nations general assembly – live | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Barack Obama, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Nick Clegg are among the world leaders in New York for the United Nations general assembly. Follow live updates here.

Real Estate <b>News</b>: Existing Home Sales Rise - Developments - WSJ

Here is a look at real-estate news in today's WSJ.

Dallas Cowboys <b>News</b> &amp; Notes - Blogging The Boys

News & Notes about the Dallas Cowboys for Thursday, Sept. 23rd.

robert shumake

United Nations general assembly – live | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Barack Obama, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Nick Clegg are among the world leaders in New York for the United Nations general assembly. Follow live updates here.

Real Estate <b>News</b>: Existing Home Sales Rise - Developments - WSJ

Here is a look at real-estate news in today's WSJ.

Dallas Cowboys <b>News</b> &amp; Notes - Blogging The Boys

News & Notes about the Dallas Cowboys for Thursday, Sept. 23rd.

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Mobile payments are the logical extension of online shopping; a way for customers to buy what you have while they’re on the go. But the technology has some added perks that make it a powerful purchasing tool for small businesses.

There are a lot of resources and articles out there telling businesses to pay attention to location-based networking or to maximize their social media presences, but there is a lack of information on the monetary benefits of these investments. Mobile payments, however, are a great way for businesses to make money.

It should be noted, there are two related fields of mobile payment: First, using your phone as a credit card in-store, and second, paying while on the go. We’ll be focusing largely on the latter.

Below is just a selection of reasons that small businesses should care about mobile payments. Add your voice to the comments below: Is this just another fad? Are mobile payments still years away? Why has North America been so slow to adopt?

It’s Going to be Everywhere/>

We already use our phones for everything: Calling, texting, surfing the web, video chats (thank you, Phone), and updating our social networks. class='blippr-nobr'>Societyclass="blippr-nobr">society, by and large, has grown accustomed to using phones for daily activities. Why shouldn’t instant purchasing be added to that list?

Total worldwide mobile payments stood at USD $68.7 billion in 2009, according to a study from Telecoms Market Research. That number is predicted to rise by more than 800% in the next four years. Simple, DIY credit card processing solutions, like the Complete Credit Card Solution and Square, have already hit the iPhone market, and more services are expected in the future for all platforms.

Social Impulse/>

Phones are inherently social, and advanced functions like geo-location are making it easier for users to connect with others in their networks to share consumption habits and recommendations. Location-based services, for example, enable users to recommend their favorite restaurants, shops and others venues. And group buying sites like Groupon have expanded the possibilities for quick, social purchases.

By adding a mobile payment option, small businesses can capitalize on these peer recommendations with a purchase. Rather than direct your customers to an online shop site or have them note it down for later, they can instantly buy your product.

Mobile payments take advantage of impulse purchases; essentially when you buy something based on spur-of-the-moment decision making. class='blippr-nobr'>Impulseclass="blippr-nobr">Impulse buys are usually associated with emotional reactions to a product. They are partly why ringtone sales have been so successful. Like a tone? You can often download it instantly with just a couple clicks, no secondary sites necessary. Make sure your customers are able to buy your product the instant they want it.

Micro-Transactions/>

The real heart of small business mobile payments is the micro-transaction. Paying less is generally better than paying more. People are also more willing to pay frequent small payments rather than throw down a lump sum. Using ringtones as an example, more people would pay $1 for several ringtones than shell out $5 in one go for five ringtones.

Small business can follow this trend by selling less-expensive goods online, as smaller goods could be a real hit for the mobile payment crowd. Customers can more easily rationalize those smaller purchases and drive more sales to your business.

Another perk for biz owners is that mobile transaction fees are usually less than credit card fees. Sales through mobile could save you a small amount on every purchase.

Customer Data/>

Mobile payments enable merchants to collect data in much the same way as your everyday credit card purchases. Adding mobile payments to your business can help keep track of customer phone numbers, buying histories, and any other necessary information. Having this extra source of data about customers and their purchasing habits will enable you to offer more targeted and relevant deals, discounts and products to specific purchasers.

Collecting data can be a bit tricky, since it gets into privacy rights and issues (e.g., Facebook privacy concerns), so make sure your business is aware of how you can and cannot use customer information.

Regardless of your purposes, whether it be data, profit, or social loyalty, mobile payments are definitely an area for small businesses to watch.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- HOW TO: Choose the Best Workspace for Your Business/> - 5 Winning Social Media Campaigns to Learn From/> - 10 Emerging Social Platforms and How Businesses Can Use Them/> - 10 Free WordPress Themes for Small Businesses/> - 8 Funding Contests to Kick Start Your Big Idea

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, photo_smart

For more Business coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Businessclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Business channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

robert shumake

United Nations general assembly – live | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Barack Obama, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Nick Clegg are among the world leaders in New York for the United Nations general assembly. Follow live updates here.

Real Estate <b>News</b>: Existing Home Sales Rise - Developments - WSJ

Here is a look at real-estate news in today's WSJ.

Dallas Cowboys <b>News</b> &amp; Notes - Blogging The Boys

News & Notes about the Dallas Cowboys for Thursday, Sept. 23rd.

robert shumake

United Nations general assembly – live | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Barack Obama, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Nick Clegg are among the world leaders in New York for the United Nations general assembly. Follow live updates here.

Real Estate <b>News</b>: Existing Home Sales Rise - Developments - WSJ

Here is a look at real-estate news in today's WSJ.

Dallas Cowboys <b>News</b> &amp; Notes - Blogging The Boys

News & Notes about the Dallas Cowboys for Thursday, Sept. 23rd.

why internet marketing

Just try. Tech won’t bite.

mknell:

Most of the value created in digital today is from the perceived (and often overblown) difficulties in actually creating things.  

Websites, ads, blogs, whatever.  Acronyms like HTML, AJAX, PHP, FBML, etc are made to sound scary, especially by agencies who like to make a buck off of selling you services that prevent you from ever having to “get your hands dirty” with this “nasty code stuff”.  This is a very large reason why digital agencies get business - because most business folks can’t “speak geek”.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t legitimate reasons for using agencies, especially when there really aren’t any people capable of doing things digital within your organizations, but even in those cases “speaking geek” you call “BS” when people claim they can’t do something you need them to do, because you can understand what goes into it.

I always try to tell Marketing and Product folks who work in digital to at least take an course in HTML/CSS, or JavaScript, or something that actually allows them to get under the “hood” of the Internet.   Understanding technology ALWAYS helps.

Of the people give these things a try, 9 times out of 10 realize they aren’t as difficult as perceived, or whoever sold it to them says it is, and they all up more empowered over the success of their products and services.  A lot of time they find it to be a fun exercise.

“Speaking geek” allows Product people/Marketers to become the glue that holds projects together.

In my 13 years of digital experience in just about every type of role imaginable, I’ve spent my time in the space between Marketing/Product and Tech.  I’ve found dozens of really smart people who just couldn’t communicate what they wanted, and tried to help them reach their goals.  In that time, I’ve found three things that remind the same no matter what the company is:

- Developers like to develop and build, but often have great ideas about better ways to solve problems that they can’t communicate (through political channels, or just not in a “non-geeky way”) to marketing/product people.

- The marketing/product people don’t always know what they want, and even if they do, this miscommunication makes it really difficult to explain in a geeky enough way to make it crystal clear to the developer what they REALLY want.

- This miscommunication ends up causing the deliverables to be different than expected, and requires a phase in the project where things are normalized.  And this is where a lot of time is lost on projects and launch schedules.

I genuinely believe that people are too defined in particular roles to be extensible (You’re just a *project manager*, you have to do A, B and C.  Or you’re an *analyst*, so you can only do X, Y and Z).  At the the end of the day, GOOD IDEAS come from anywhere, and product people need to understand and embrace that.

Being able to understand the guts of the Internet really helps to solve this problem, because now you can (pardon the cliche) “walk a mile” in another person’s shoes.  You can see in their mind the problems they are looking at, the issues they see during the project, and, most importantly, be able to communicate with the entire team on terms everyone can understand.  Teams learn best from each other when small groups of different disciplines work closely together, and the more the non-tech person can get out of those informal conversations, the better everyone feels about their knowledge.   When you’re on that level playing field. people are also more willing to give you the benefit of a doubt as a Product person, simply because they know you are trying to help. 

There are a wide array of resources available for individuals to learn technology.  Try one.  It’s not as difficult as you might think.

Well said.

Susan Payton is the President of Egg Marketing & Public Relations, an Internet marketing firm. She blogs at The Marketing Eggspert Blog. Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing.

So you paid attention to what everyone is saying and you created a Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook Page for your business. You’ve got your press release links, photos and videos … but no one seems to care. What are you supposed to do now?

You’re on the right track, so congratulate yourself. A lot of small business owners don’t even bother to create a page — they’re simply not “on” Facebook.

But it’s all about where your customers and future customers hang out. And with people spending more than 700 billion minutes per month on this social networking site, it seems pretty apparent that your business needs to be hanging out there too.

Let’s review your Page. Go ahead, pull it up. Your Facebook Page should contain all or most of these:

• Links to your blog posts
• Links to related articles (whether they’re yours or not)
• Videos
• Photos
• Discussions

This type of content is key in getting people to “Like” your page, and contributes to its overall success. And how do we define success? By getting people to interact and leave comments on your Facebook Page, as well as travel from the page to your company’s website and, of course, buying your product.

Facebook Pages Need Attention

If you neglect your Facebook Pages, they will die. If you use Facebook, you’ve probably stumbled upon a company’s page with no conversations going on and no recent posts. I’m guessing you didn’t click “Like” on that page. An unattended Facebook Page leaves a negative impression of the company — don’t let yours fall by the wayside.

The more you pay attention to your Page, the more positive results you’ll see. Cathy Nguyen, President of LeatherandBags.com, has seen great results from her Facebook Page, but admits she could do more.

“Although I have a Facebook Page, I’m not utilizing it to its fullest potential because of time. I try to update when I can and should probably try to engage more often,” said Nguyen. “Utilizing Twitter, blogs and e-mails has worked, but then again, I’m not doing it frequently.”

People are used to passive marketing. In the old days, you could pay a magazine or billboard company to create an ad for you. Then you sat back and waited for sales to hopefully pour in. But those days are gone. Whether it’s you or someone else at your company, you need to dedicate someone to social media strategy.

Creating a Facebook Strategy

Maybe we put the cart before the horse in creating the Page without a clear-cut plan. That’s OK. Let’s develop a plan together. First, decide why you want a Facebook Page. Is it because everyone else is doing it? Or because you understand the value in connecting with customers who spend time socializing on Facebook?

Write down five goals for your Facebook Page. They might be:

• Create awareness of our brand on Facebook
• Get 10,000 “Likes” by year-end
• Have at least 5 comments or shared items each week
• Make Facebook one of the top 3 referrers of traffic to our site
• Get 2,000 entries to our Facebook contest

Once you have these goals, break down the tasks required to achieve them. If you want 10,000 people to click “Like” on your page, you’re going to have to expand your contacts through your profile. Post your page link on Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter, your blog, your e-mail and everywhere else. If you want interaction, you need to post insightful and thought-provoking questions and comments. Decide how regularly you need to post (I suggest at least 3 days a week).

Now determine who will handle these tasks. It might be one person or several. If it’s you, post the tasks to your calendar so you don’t forget to do them. In time, updating your Page will become second nature.

Ginger Anderson, who handles the Facebook Page for Scripps Health in San Diego says that when she started handling the page, all it did was push health news. Now the Page offers a mix of news, useful articles and videos that frequently get comments and questions from the 900 plus San Diegans who follow the brand.

“Our intention is to build relationships within the San Diego community (specifically with current patients and employees) and position Scripps as a trusted leader in healthcare,” said Anderson. “We receive the most comments on the posts that are general and applicable to a wider audience as opposed to disease-specific. We try to balance serious health news with fun, general health and wellness related content along with stuff about San Diego life (again, making sure it’s not always about us).”

Practical Tips

Just updating your Page won’t make it fabulous — that will take a little work from you. Here are a few tips to make your page more searchable and appealing.

• Title: Some say the title is the most important part, so make sure your title is descriptive of your business and unique on Facebook.
• FBML: Facebook Markup Language helps you create a custom landing page for your Facebook presence. If you want to promote a special event or direct attention to a particular product, this is a great way to do it. Don’t run screaming when I say that this code can make your page better. It’s not complicated, but if you don’t want to deal with it, hire someone to help.

• Photos and Videos: Don’t underestimate the power of photos and videos. Even if you don’t sell products, you can still add photos to spice up your page. If you’re a dog groomer, take “Before and After” photos of those precious pet makeovers. A realtor can add photos of the houses on the market. A services firm can post pictures from the office to help visitors feel more connected to the staff.

  For videos, why not shoot a tutorial on getting the most out of your products? An office tour? There are applications you can install within Facebook that will let you pull photos from places like Flickrclass="blippr-nobr">Flickr. This can save you the trouble of uploading them in two places.

• Questions: The jury’s still out on Facebook Questions, a recent addition to the site. But by asking questions through your Page, you can start discussions that will spread beyond just the people who follow your business.

Once you’ve put together your strategy and have worked on it a bit, give it three months. Then analyze your results and decide: Is Facebook helping your business?

More Facebook Resources from Mashable:/>

- 10 Fascinating Facebook Facts/> - 10 Cool Facebook Status Tips and Tricks/> - How News Consumption is Shifting to the Personalized Social News Stream/> - How Online Retailers Can Leverage Facebook’s Open Graph/> - 5 Useful Facebook Trend and Search Services

For more Business coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Businessclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Business channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad



Scripting <b>News</b>: What kind of <b>news</b> system...?

And it's not okay that they're making a bid for exclusivity on the role of News System of the Future, and they can't even keep their servers running properly. Either you deliver the benefit of being the sole provider, or sorry (to ...

Homosexual advocacy group not legitimately Catholic, military <b>...</b>

After receiving a letter from the group Catholics for Equality urging a change to the “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy, the Archbishop for Military Services responded, saying that the archdiocese's position is “clear.

Facebook Making Changes to <b>News</b> Feed, Requests, Bookmarks to <b>...</b>

After the changes take effect, people who do not play games will no longer see news feed stories from friends who do play games — same goes for any other third-party app. Because news feed stories were a main way that people found games ...


robert shumake


Scripting <b>News</b>: What kind of <b>news</b> system...?

And it's not okay that they're making a bid for exclusivity on the role of News System of the Future, and they can't even keep their servers running properly. Either you deliver the benefit of being the sole provider, or sorry (to ...

Homosexual advocacy group not legitimately Catholic, military <b>...</b>

After receiving a letter from the group Catholics for Equality urging a change to the “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy, the Archbishop for Military Services responded, saying that the archdiocese's position is “clear.

Facebook Making Changes to <b>News</b> Feed, Requests, Bookmarks to <b>...</b>

After the changes take effect, people who do not play games will no longer see news feed stories from friends who do play games — same goes for any other third-party app. Because news feed stories were a main way that people found games ...





Just try. Tech won’t bite.




mknell:







Most of the value created in digital today is from the perceived (and often overblown) difficulties in actually creating things.  




Websites, ads, blogs, whatever.  Acronyms like HTML, AJAX, PHP, FBML, etc are made to sound scary, especially by agencies who like to make a buck off of selling you services that prevent you from ever having to “get your hands dirty” with this “nasty code stuff”.  This is a very large reason why digital agencies get business - because most business folks can’t “speak geek”.




This isn’t to say that there aren’t legitimate reasons for using agencies, especially when there really aren’t any people capable of doing things digital within your organizations, but even in those cases “speaking geek” you call “BS” when people claim they can’t do something you need them to do, because you can understand what goes into it.




I always try to tell Marketing and Product folks who work in digital to at least take an course in HTML/CSS, or JavaScript, or something that actually allows them to get under the “hood” of the Internet.   Understanding technology ALWAYS helps.




Of the people give these things a try, 9 times out of 10 realize they aren’t as difficult as perceived, or whoever sold it to them says it is, and they all up more empowered over the success of their products and services.  A lot of time they find it to be a fun exercise.




“Speaking geek” allows Product people/Marketers to become the glue that holds projects together.




In my 13 years of digital experience in just about every type of role imaginable, I’ve spent my time in the space between Marketing/Product and Tech.  I’ve found dozens of really smart people who just couldn’t communicate what they wanted, and tried to help them reach their goals.  In that time, I’ve found three things that remind the same no matter what the company is:




- Developers like to develop and build, but often have great ideas about better ways to solve problems that they can’t communicate (through political channels, or just not in a “non-geeky way”) to marketing/product people.




- The marketing/product people don’t always know what they want, and even if they do, this miscommunication makes it really difficult to explain in a geeky enough way to make it crystal clear to the developer what they REALLY want.




- This miscommunication ends up causing the deliverables to be different than expected, and requires a phase in the project where things are normalized.  And this is where a lot of time is lost on projects and launch schedules.




I genuinely believe that people are too defined in particular roles to be extensible (You’re just a *project manager*, you have to do A, B and C.  Or you’re an *analyst*, so you can only do X, Y and Z).  At the the end of the day, GOOD IDEAS come from anywhere, and product people need to understand and embrace that.




Being able to understand the guts of the Internet really helps to solve this problem, because now you can (pardon the cliche) “walk a mile” in another person’s shoes.  You can see in their mind the problems they are looking at, the issues they see during the project, and, most importantly, be able to communicate with the entire team on terms everyone can understand.  Teams learn best from each other when small groups of different disciplines work closely together, and the more the non-tech person can get out of those informal conversations, the better everyone feels about their knowledge.   When you’re on that level playing field. people are also more willing to give you the benefit of a doubt as a Product person, simply because they know you are trying to help. 




There are a wide array of resources available for individuals to learn technology.  Try one.  It’s not as difficult as you might think.







Well said.





Susan Payton is the President of Egg Marketing & Public Relations, an Internet marketing firm. She blogs at The Marketing Eggspert Blog. Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing.

So you paid attention to what everyone is saying and you created a Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook Page for your business. You’ve got your press release links, photos and videos … but no one seems to care. What are you supposed to do now?

You’re on the right track, so congratulate yourself. A lot of small business owners don’t even bother to create a page — they’re simply not “on” Facebook.

But it’s all about where your customers and future customers hang out. And with people spending more than 700 billion minutes per month on this social networking site, it seems pretty apparent that your business needs to be hanging out there too.

Let’s review your Page. Go ahead, pull it up. Your Facebook Page should contain all or most of these:

• Links to your blog posts
• Links to related articles (whether they’re yours or not)
• Videos
• Photos
• Discussions

This type of content is key in getting people to “Like” your page, and contributes to its overall success. And how do we define success? By getting people to interact and leave comments on your Facebook Page, as well as travel from the page to your company’s website and, of course, buying your product.

Facebook Pages Need Attention

If you neglect your Facebook Pages, they will die. If you use Facebook, you’ve probably stumbled upon a company’s page with no conversations going on and no recent posts. I’m guessing you didn’t click “Like” on that page. An unattended Facebook Page leaves a negative impression of the company — don’t let yours fall by the wayside.

The more you pay attention to your Page, the more positive results you’ll see. Cathy Nguyen, President of LeatherandBags.com, has seen great results from her Facebook Page, but admits she could do more.

“Although I have a Facebook Page, I’m not utilizing it to its fullest potential because of time. I try to update when I can and should probably try to engage more often,” said Nguyen. “Utilizing Twitter, blogs and e-mails has worked, but then again, I’m not doing it frequently.”

People are used to passive marketing. In the old days, you could pay a magazine or billboard company to create an ad for you. Then you sat back and waited for sales to hopefully pour in. But those days are gone. Whether it’s you or someone else at your company, you need to dedicate someone to social media strategy.

Creating a Facebook Strategy

Maybe we put the cart before the horse in creating the Page without a clear-cut plan. That’s OK. Let’s develop a plan together. First, decide why you want a Facebook Page. Is it because everyone else is doing it? Or because you understand the value in connecting with customers who spend time socializing on Facebook?

Write down five goals for your Facebook Page. They might be:

• Create awareness of our brand on Facebook
• Get 10,000 “Likes” by year-end
• Have at least 5 comments or shared items each week
• Make Facebook one of the top 3 referrers of traffic to our site
• Get 2,000 entries to our Facebook contest

Once you have these goals, break down the tasks required to achieve them. If you want 10,000 people to click “Like” on your page, you’re going to have to expand your contacts through your profile. Post your page link on Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter, your blog, your e-mail and everywhere else. If you want interaction, you need to post insightful and thought-provoking questions and comments. Decide how regularly you need to post (I suggest at least 3 days a week).

Now determine who will handle these tasks. It might be one person or several. If it’s you, post the tasks to your calendar so you don’t forget to do them. In time, updating your Page will become second nature.

Ginger Anderson, who handles the Facebook Page for Scripps Health in San Diego says that when she started handling the page, all it did was push health news. Now the Page offers a mix of news, useful articles and videos that frequently get comments and questions from the 900 plus San Diegans who follow the brand.

“Our intention is to build relationships within the San Diego community (specifically with current patients and employees) and position Scripps as a trusted leader in healthcare,” said Anderson. “We receive the most comments on the posts that are general and applicable to a wider audience as opposed to disease-specific. We try to balance serious health news with fun, general health and wellness related content along with stuff about San Diego life (again, making sure it’s not always about us).”

Practical Tips

Just updating your Page won’t make it fabulous — that will take a little work from you. Here are a few tips to make your page more searchable and appealing.

• Title: Some say the title is the most important part, so make sure your title is descriptive of your business and unique on Facebook.
• FBML: Facebook Markup Language helps you create a custom landing page for your Facebook presence. If you want to promote a special event or direct attention to a particular product, this is a great way to do it. Don’t run screaming when I say that this code can make your page better. It’s not complicated, but if you don’t want to deal with it, hire someone to help.

• Photos and Videos: Don’t underestimate the power of photos and videos. Even if you don’t sell products, you can still add photos to spice up your page. If you’re a dog groomer, take “Before and After” photos of those precious pet makeovers. A realtor can add photos of the houses on the market. A services firm can post pictures from the office to help visitors feel more connected to the staff.

  For videos, why not shoot a tutorial on getting the most out of your products? An office tour? There are applications you can install within Facebook that will let you pull photos from places like Flickrclass="blippr-nobr">Flickr. This can save you the trouble of uploading them in two places.

• Questions: The jury’s still out on Facebook Questions, a recent addition to the site. But by asking questions through your Page, you can start discussions that will spread beyond just the people who follow your business.

Once you’ve put together your strategy and have worked on it a bit, give it three months. Then analyze your results and decide: Is Facebook helping your business?

More Facebook Resources from Mashable:/>

- 10 Fascinating Facebook Facts/> - 10 Cool Facebook Status Tips and Tricks/> - How News Consumption is Shifting to the Personalized Social News Stream/> - How Online Retailers Can Leverage Facebook’s Open Graph/> - 5 Useful Facebook Trend and Search Services

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robert shumake


Scripting <b>News</b>: What kind of <b>news</b> system...?

And it's not okay that they're making a bid for exclusivity on the role of News System of the Future, and they can't even keep their servers running properly. Either you deliver the benefit of being the sole provider, or sorry (to ...

Homosexual advocacy group not legitimately Catholic, military <b>...</b>

After receiving a letter from the group Catholics for Equality urging a change to the “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy, the Archbishop for Military Services responded, saying that the archdiocese's position is “clear.

Facebook Making Changes to <b>News</b> Feed, Requests, Bookmarks to <b>...</b>

After the changes take effect, people who do not play games will no longer see news feed stories from friends who do play games — same goes for any other third-party app. Because news feed stories were a main way that people found games ...


robert shumake


Scripting <b>News</b>: What kind of <b>news</b> system...?

And it's not okay that they're making a bid for exclusivity on the role of News System of the Future, and they can't even keep their servers running properly. Either you deliver the benefit of being the sole provider, or sorry (to ...

Homosexual advocacy group not legitimately Catholic, military <b>...</b>

After receiving a letter from the group Catholics for Equality urging a change to the “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy, the Archbishop for Military Services responded, saying that the archdiocese's position is “clear.

Facebook Making Changes to <b>News</b> Feed, Requests, Bookmarks to <b>...</b>

After the changes take effect, people who do not play games will no longer see news feed stories from friends who do play games — same goes for any other third-party app. Because news feed stories were a main way that people found games ...

Money Making Schemes

Director Sion Sono (Strange Circus, Love Exposure, Suicide Club) is back with a new film which has been described as "a true-life serial killer story". Ready to sample your first video taste of Coldfish?

For more imagery hit up the official Sushi-Typhoon website.

Synopsis

"HE’LL MAKE YOU PICK UP THE PIECES

Shamoto runs a small tropical fish shop and leads a boring, but stable life. His second wife, Taeko, does not get along with his daughter, Mitsuko, and this worries him. He also feels somehow unfulfilled and dissatisfied with what his life has become.

One day Mitsuko is caught shoplifting at a department store. There they meet a friendly man named Murata, who helps to settle things between Mitsuko and the store manager. Since Murata also runs a tropical fish shop, Shamoto establishes a bond with him and they become friends; Mitsuko even begins working for Murata and living at his house, to avoid conflicts with her stepmother.

What Shamoto doesn’t know, however, is that Murata hides many dark secrets behind his friendly face. He sells cheap fish to his customers for high prices with his artful lies. If anyone detects his fraud or refuses to go along with his money-making schemes, they’re murdered and their bodies disposed of by Murata and his wife in grisly ways. Shamoto is slowly taken in by Murata’s tactics, and by the time he realizes that Murata is insane, and a serial killer who has made over fifty people disappear, he is powerless to do anything about it. But now Mitsuko is a hostage at Murata’s home, and Shamoto himself has become the killer’s unwilling accomplice!

Meanwhile, the murders, without any trace of the bodies, continue unabated. The police have long suspected Murata and try to get information about him from Shamoto; Murata quickly senses the danger and threatens Shamoto not to report anything to the police.

In the end, the conflict between Shamoto and Murata will result in murder, insanity, and an ordinary man being driven to the edge of the abyss."

Cold Fish premieres next week at the Toronto International Film Festival. Check out the trailer, which made its debut over at Twitch Film, below.

Cold Fish - Trailer
Uploaded by dreadcentral. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

- Uncle Creepy

VISIT THE EVILSHOP @ AMAZON!

Got news? Click here to submit it!

Wash it down with raspberry sake in the comments section below!

Submitted by Uncle Creepy on Thu, 09/02/2010 - 11:27pm.

Via Instapundit - Adler on barbering at Volokh takes a pair of clippers to the industry, but gives it a bad cut. Barbers aren't the problem. They are a dying breed. I've a soon to retire family member who is an expert on this topic, from barbershop floor, to state licensing  board.

The licensing regime that is killing men's barbering is driven by cosmetologists and cosmetology boards, as well as public and some private education institutions - often subsidized by taxpayer money. It began in the 70's when blow drying and hair salons became the rage.

Time was, one did a quick stint at a barber school - maybe six months, then served a time as an apprentice under a master barber. But you were still out working and making money within six months from the time you began. And you only had to learn what you needed to

In states, mostly Blue ones, with vast regulatory schemes, you now have to endure two full years of schooling, often at a community college, or public tech school. And you have to learn everything from doing a manicure, to putting highlights in women's hair, and more.

Adler is correct in that it is a regulatory scheme that has done nothing but drastically drive up the prices of men's haircuts and limit competition. However, it is not driven by what one might consider a typical old-fashioned barber. It is being driven by chains of hair salons, in conjunction with government bureaucrats all too happy to regulate anything. And bureaucrats behind mostly public post-high school education programs have a large hand in it, too.

I believe another relative is the last officially licensed barber in one state. After him, everyone is a cosmetologist, whether they like it, want it, need it, or not.

A Compass That Lights The Way - Science <b>News</b>

Instrument senses magnetic field direction optically.

BillBoard - Blogs - The Buffalo <b>News</b>

The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.

Today in automotive <b>news</b> - Beyond The Commons - Macleans.ca

14832311 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww2.macleans.ca%2F2010%2F09%2F20%2Ftoday-in-automotive-news%2FToday+in+automotive+news2010-09-20+15%3A11%3A07Aaron+Wherryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww2.macleans.ca%2F%3Fp%3D148323 to “Today in automotive news” ...

robert shumake

A Compass That Lights The Way - Science <b>News</b>

Instrument senses magnetic field direction optically.

BillBoard - Blogs - The Buffalo <b>News</b>

The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.

Today in automotive <b>news</b> - Beyond The Commons - Macleans.ca

14832311 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww2.macleans.ca%2F2010%2F09%2F20%2Ftoday-in-automotive-news%2FToday+in+automotive+news2010-09-20+15%3A11%3A07Aaron+Wherryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww2.macleans.ca%2F%3Fp%3D148323 to “Today in automotive news” ...

Director Sion Sono (Strange Circus, Love Exposure, Suicide Club) is back with a new film which has been described as "a true-life serial killer story". Ready to sample your first video taste of Coldfish?

For more imagery hit up the official Sushi-Typhoon website.

Synopsis

"HE’LL MAKE YOU PICK UP THE PIECES

Shamoto runs a small tropical fish shop and leads a boring, but stable life. His second wife, Taeko, does not get along with his daughter, Mitsuko, and this worries him. He also feels somehow unfulfilled and dissatisfied with what his life has become.

One day Mitsuko is caught shoplifting at a department store. There they meet a friendly man named Murata, who helps to settle things between Mitsuko and the store manager. Since Murata also runs a tropical fish shop, Shamoto establishes a bond with him and they become friends; Mitsuko even begins working for Murata and living at his house, to avoid conflicts with her stepmother.

What Shamoto doesn’t know, however, is that Murata hides many dark secrets behind his friendly face. He sells cheap fish to his customers for high prices with his artful lies. If anyone detects his fraud or refuses to go along with his money-making schemes, they’re murdered and their bodies disposed of by Murata and his wife in grisly ways. Shamoto is slowly taken in by Murata’s tactics, and by the time he realizes that Murata is insane, and a serial killer who has made over fifty people disappear, he is powerless to do anything about it. But now Mitsuko is a hostage at Murata’s home, and Shamoto himself has become the killer’s unwilling accomplice!

Meanwhile, the murders, without any trace of the bodies, continue unabated. The police have long suspected Murata and try to get information about him from Shamoto; Murata quickly senses the danger and threatens Shamoto not to report anything to the police.

In the end, the conflict between Shamoto and Murata will result in murder, insanity, and an ordinary man being driven to the edge of the abyss."

Cold Fish premieres next week at the Toronto International Film Festival. Check out the trailer, which made its debut over at Twitch Film, below.

Cold Fish - Trailer
Uploaded by dreadcentral. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

- Uncle Creepy

VISIT THE EVILSHOP @ AMAZON!

Got news? Click here to submit it!

Wash it down with raspberry sake in the comments section below!

Submitted by Uncle Creepy on Thu, 09/02/2010 - 11:27pm.

Via Instapundit - Adler on barbering at Volokh takes a pair of clippers to the industry, but gives it a bad cut. Barbers aren't the problem. They are a dying breed. I've a soon to retire family member who is an expert on this topic, from barbershop floor, to state licensing  board.

The licensing regime that is killing men's barbering is driven by cosmetologists and cosmetology boards, as well as public and some private education institutions - often subsidized by taxpayer money. It began in the 70's when blow drying and hair salons became the rage.

Time was, one did a quick stint at a barber school - maybe six months, then served a time as an apprentice under a master barber. But you were still out working and making money within six months from the time you began. And you only had to learn what you needed to

In states, mostly Blue ones, with vast regulatory schemes, you now have to endure two full years of schooling, often at a community college, or public tech school. And you have to learn everything from doing a manicure, to putting highlights in women's hair, and more.

Adler is correct in that it is a regulatory scheme that has done nothing but drastically drive up the prices of men's haircuts and limit competition. However, it is not driven by what one might consider a typical old-fashioned barber. It is being driven by chains of hair salons, in conjunction with government bureaucrats all too happy to regulate anything. And bureaucrats behind mostly public post-high school education programs have a large hand in it, too.

I believe another relative is the last officially licensed barber in one state. After him, everyone is a cosmetologist, whether they like it, want it, need it, or not.

robert shumake

A Compass That Lights The Way - Science <b>News</b>

Instrument senses magnetic field direction optically.

BillBoard - Blogs - The Buffalo <b>News</b>

The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.

Today in automotive <b>news</b> - Beyond The Commons - Macleans.ca

14832311 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww2.macleans.ca%2F2010%2F09%2F20%2Ftoday-in-automotive-news%2FToday+in+automotive+news2010-09-20+15%3A11%3A07Aaron+Wherryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww2.macleans.ca%2F%3Fp%3D148323 to “Today in automotive news” ...

robert shumake

A Compass That Lights The Way - Science <b>News</b>

Instrument senses magnetic field direction optically.

BillBoard - Blogs - The Buffalo <b>News</b>

The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.

Today in automotive <b>news</b> - Beyond The Commons - Macleans.ca

14832311 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww2.macleans.ca%2F2010%2F09%2F20%2Ftoday-in-automotive-news%2FToday+in+automotive+news2010-09-20+15%3A11%3A07Aaron+Wherryhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww2.macleans.ca%2F%3Fp%3D148323 to “Today in automotive news” ...