According to a study by Retrevo of more than 1000 randomly selected individuals, it seems as if the consumers interest in Apple’s iPad has dwindled considerably since it was announced back on January 26th.
“As we like to say, it’s the apps that sell smartphones like the iPhone and it could very well be [...]
Consumer Interest in iPad Dwindling? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
The Barnes & Noble Senior VP of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, Mary Ellen Keating, just confirmed to us that indeed some Nook orders were pushed back again. She claims that only a very small percentage of customers will not receive their Nook before Christmas though. B&N apparently offered affected customers both a holiday certificate in case the Nook was a gift and the $100 BN.com gift card we learned about from a commenter yesterday.
It’s hard to feel sympathetic to B&N. The bookseller obviously misjudged customer demand from the start, but inventory and supply management should have seen this latest shipping problem a lot earlier. Our tipster ordered his Nook back on November 12th and saw his order constantly pushed back at the last minute, which was no doubt a ploy by B&N to keep cancellations down to a minimum. All it takes to keep most consumers happy is timely, honest communication, not emails days after the delay is obvious.
Despite several sources reporting that post-indefinite-injunction Psystar was closing their doors for good, the company’s lawyer is claiming Psystar plans on going forward with PC sales — they just won’t be pre-loaded with Apple’s OS X. Psystar plans on selling systems pre-loaded with “other operating systems,” including Windows, as well as selling their “Rebel EFI software” that allows consumers to load OS X on generic PCs.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
To prove that real people really do like their new gum, Trident’s decided to try something unconventional with their latest ad in USA Today. The full-page color spread, headlined “The People have Tweeted,” highlights tweets from users who have digitally shared their enthusiasm for Trident Layers [@tridentlayers].
The ad, included below, ran in today’s USA Today. We’re told that the 10 tweets featured were discovered by the Trident team using Twitter Search, and that all are authentic (i.e. not sponsored). Trident also used Twitter to contact each party to secure their approval, and they communicated directly with Twitter to ensure that the ad followed guidelines.
We don’t know whether or not Trident’s unconventional Twitter ad will influence USA Today’s readers to buy the new gum more so than a typical advert, but it’s definitely an interesting tactic. Using the opinions of online consumers to sell a product is nothing new, but doing so in the world of print, to a mainstream audience, is a little out there, even for the most Twitter-savvy brands.
Reviews: Twitter
Tags: advertising, business, MARKETING, social media, trending, trident, trident layers
Trackle, a personalized web and RSS feed tracker we wrote about earlier this year, is making itself a whole lot more social today with the launch of a real-time search engine on the site that lets you follow other people’s Trackles. Trackle.com’s free web service provides personalized RSS feeds for data such as the latest crime in a user’s neighborhood, fluctuating airline ticket prices, how much a user’s house value is down this week, updated job listings, sports scores and more.
The new search platform within Trackle lets you search for other user’s trackings by keyword. Here’s how it works: people within the Trackle community contribute by setting up alerts for very specific and changing information (they will show up in search when users set up their profiles as public). These alerts are then shared by the community, specific, time-sensitive information, such as information is then posted on Trackle as it happens, in real time. Duplicate requests are removed, so there are no repeated alerts.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Dell plans to slash 16 percent of its 4,500 workforce in Malaysia, which breaks down to 700 pink slips by the end of June 2010. About the same time the job cuts were announced, several price mistakes began appearing on Dell’s website. Coincidence? Perhaps, but as a modern day Spock would say, that s**t ain’t logical (NSFW – language).
The pricing SNAFUs inevitably ended up on deal sites like SlickDeals.net, including a 3.2GHz dual-core Xeon 5060 processor for $10.99, Xeon E3110 for $16.99, Xeon E5450 for $39.99, and a Xeon L5340 for $12.99. We’d go with the Xeon 5060, or maybe one of each at those prices.
Not all of the pricing mistakes worked to the consumers advantage. For example, Dell’s website listed a 120GB SATA HDD for a Dell Studio 1735 at $21,000, a laser mouse at $4,000, and an Inspiron AC adapter for $710. Not a big deal if you’ve ever shopped at an Apple Store.
So what do you think, an honest mistake (several of them), or scorned employees? Sound off in the comments section below!
The presentation of information, whether visual or textual, is always undergoing transition to meet the demands of human consumers and the potential of new technology. Dominate forms of presentation, up until recently, are print and video. New on the scene is digital presentation, which shares characteristics of both print and video, but possesses a technological potential vastly greater. Problem is, the means for presenting information digitally doesn’t necessarily mesh well with either print or video. For digital presentation a new paradigm is needed–something that takes advantage of the strengths of all three delivery methods.
Bonnier R&D, which is affiliated with Popular Science, and the design firm BERG are collaborating on a new paradigm for the humble magazine, something they’ve dubbed the “Mag+”. The Mag+ retains the visual qualities of a glossy, color magazine, while adding a new way of accessing and consuming content. For example, articles run in ‘scrolls’, rather than pages, and are placed side-by-side (called a “mountain range”), letting readers ‘swipe’ their way through content. Basic hyperlink technology is included, referred to as ‘heating up’ words and pictures, allowing access to the web for additional information.
In deference to expectations, the Mag+ strives to retain the ‘look-and-feel’ of a magazine, including content access and delivery in issues.
Bonnier R&D says the Mag+ concept “…uses the power of digital media to create a rich and meaningful experience, while maintaining the relaxed and curated features of printed magazines. It has been designed for a world in which interactivity, abundant information and unlimited options could be perceived as intrusive and overwhelming.” They also acknowledge there is much more to be learned about the digital reading experience.
Bonnier and BERG’s Mag+ joins existing prototypes developed by Sports Illustrated and Wired.
Image Credit: Bonnier Publishing
Make Styled Note box, Alert box, Help box, Tip Box, Important Box in your posts using classes for Thesis Users.
Style commentators last blog post as displayed by the CommentLuv plugin. This plugin is also compatible with Thesis.
If you’re using WordPress as a CMS, you may have set up static pages for both a front page (e.g. “Home”) and a page to list your latest blog posts (e.g. “Blog”). The plugin allows you to add categories as links in a submenu.
The Taxonomy List Shortcode plugin adds a shortcode to your WordPress installation which enables you to display multiple unordered lists containing every term of a given taxonomy. The list can be displayed in one to 5 columns – custom styles are provided.
With Revisionary in place, the meaning of the “edit_others” capability shifts to grant revision submission rights if the owner lacks the corresponding “edit_published” / “edit_private” capability.
Web Worth Blog Value Calculator
Web Worth Blog Value Calculator is a plug-in that gives you a nice tidy widget to display your blog’s current estimated value in dollars. This information is displayed to you and your visitors to demonstrate just how much hard work you have put into your blog
Website owners can add a bit of HTML to their head that says where their oEmbed provider is located. This allows consumers such as WordPress to embed things from their website without WordPress specifically knowing about their website before hand.
This is a plugin toolkit that helps developers write plugins faster. It consists of several classes which handle common tasks:
Tabbed interfaces are the most common on newspaper type website where they can save a lot of vertical space and make it look less cluttered.
Provides an interface with Online Leaf, which helps to reduce the amount of energy required to browse the internet, by making websites greener.
Add geocoding and Google maps to your WordPress blog
The plugin has option to add Google, Bing, Yahoo’s Webmaster and Analytics code. Single click sitemap submission to Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.
The Google Maps Store Locator Plugin for WordPress empowers web developers & web site owners to easily manage and display any set of important stores, products, or other locations on their website in an easily searchable manner. Uses Google Maps.
Twitter style Twitter Goodies Profile Widget + Twitter Goodies Search Widget + Twitter Integration (wp to twitter) plugin. All in One plugin for Twitter Goodies.
Tis the season for Apple patents, with both hyper-reality 3D displays, and a dynamic music and video system for better battery life on the iPhone and iPod.
First up, the hyper-reality 3D display — perfectly timed for the Avatar hype as well, we’ll note — involves changing the perspective of 3D object on the display to [...]
This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
Sam Decker is chief marketing officer of Bazaarvoice, the market and technology leader in hosted social commerce applications that drive sales. You can follow him on Twitter @SamDecker.
By now, most companies realize their customers are their most valuable advocates – and when their customers share their credible opinions via reviews, it increases sales of their products and services and deepens brand engagement. The majority of large brands now offer some type or ratings and review system on their sites, because consumers now expect to be able to read and contribute peer reviews before making purchase decisions – so much so that some 82% of consumers say they find reviews “extremely valuable or valuable,” according to a recent survey. If all you’re doing is offering rating or review functionality, you’re likely not getting the maximum benefit.
If you already have a ratings and reviews system in place – or if you haven’t yet taken the plunge – there are several steps you can take to improve the effectiveness of your consumer reviews programs.
Why Ratings and Reviews?
Done correctly, ratings and reviews deliver a significant increase in sales; one third of retailers reported an 11-20% overall increase in conversions as a result of adding reviews to their sites, while consumers are willing to pay up to 99% more for a 5-star rated product than for a 4-star rated product.
But engaging in a conversation with your customers isn’t just a way to generate sales; having reviews on your site also boosts SEO traffic and page views, increases average order value, lowers returns, reduces customer service calls, and results in more satisfied customers overall. What’s more, companies can analyze ratings and review trends to improve overall marketing strategies, improve customer service, and fine-tune merchandising.
1. Integrate Reviews with Your Login System
Ask people to register or log in to post a review. While some companies see this as a barrier to generating a critical mass of reviews, we’ve found that requiring registration does not have a significant impact on the number of reviews created (though it does tend to improve the overall quality of reviews), and the value of linking reviews to a customer profile is enormous. When you know who is writing reviews, what they are saying, what products they’ve reviewed, what products they’ve purchased, etc, you can use this information to segment messages to that person and to see overall trends that will lead to better marketing decisions. What’s more, when you require registration to write reviews, you can see who is writing the most reviews and reward frequent reviewers with badges, discounts, and other incentives.
2. Mine Your Data
You can tell a lot about your business by reading and analyzing reviews. In fact, review content can positively impact every function of a business if you collect data in the right way. Analyze the content of reviews, ratings and opinion trends, and the number of reviews for certain products, then compare this data to web analytics, CRM, and purchase data to get a complete picture of how your merchandising mix and overall marketing programs are performing. Make sure multiple teams – technology, product design, marketing, sales, management – have access to this data, so they can use it to improve their business results.
3. Integrate Ratings and Review Content into Marketing
Don’t just leave ratings and reviews on your website, put them to use in all of your marketing materials. You can include top-rated products and snippets from positive reviews in search ads, e-mail campaigns, circulars and catalogues, and on in-store banners. Integrate with Facebook and Twitter, allowing reviewers to automatically share their reviews to these and other social networking platforms, virally spreading your brand’s review content across the web. One of our customers, Office Depot, included top-rated products in its paid search campaigns and saw a 156% increase in ROI on that campaign vs. its traditional paid search ads.
4. Motivate the Community
Research has shown that even one review on a website will instantly drive up conversion on that product. But, of course, the more reviews your site has, the bigger the impact. To encourage people to post ratings and reviews, offer sweepstakes and prizes to reviewers, give badges to top reviews or list their names on a leader board, and promote participation in the review program on all of your marketing materials. You can also implement Ask & Answer type services, where people ask each other for purchase advice, or invite people to discuss their personal stories with your brand, products and services. The more content your customers create about your brand, the more your sales will increase.
5. Remember to Moderate
You want to encourage people to be open and honest in their reviews – a good mix of positive and negative reviews is credible and authentic – but you don’t want to leave rants and irrelevant reviews up on your site. Make sure you work with a reviews provider that offers full moderation (using humans to scan reviews, not just fallible natural language technologies), or task people in-house to moderate reviews.
If someone writes a flamingly negative review, perhaps due to a customer service mishap or a defective product, you don’t have to leave that review on your site – but make sure to reach out to that person offering customer support, as well as with a mitigating gesture like a discount.
6. Don’t Forget About Ratings
While it’s the review content that really counts – some 80% of people value the narrative review content more than the star-rating in making purchase decisions – ratings are still crucial. We’ve found that products with star ratings receive on average a 120% higher click-through than those that don’t have ratings, which means ratings are the “eye candy” that pull people in to seek more information on a product.
7. Push the Participation Chain
You need to keep people engaged with your brand over the long term, so encourage participation in your reviews platform by promoting the program through social channels like Facebook and Twitter. Think in terms of building a “participation chain” that cultivates user involvement, where each action builds upon the one before through sharing. By lengthening and deepening customers’ participation on your brand site, participation chains improve brand opinion, increase sales, and make customers more likely to recommend a brand to their friends.
By seeing ratings and reviews for what they really are – an integral part of your entire business strategy, and not just a widget on your site – you’ll be well on your way to attaining maximum value from consumer-generated content.
More business resources from Mashable:
- Mashable’s Social Media Guide for Small Businesses
- 4 Ways Social Media is Changing Business
- HOW TO: Use Twitter Hashtags for Business
- 5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
- 6 Must-Follow Steps for Selling in Any Economy
- 5 Easy Social Media Wins for Your Small Business
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Barghest
Reviews: Facebook, Twitter, iStockphoto
Tags: engagement, List, Lists, ratings, reviews, tips
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