With the debut of Apple’s iPad this month, the digital book reading experience comes a bit closer to that of reading an actual printed volume. Whereas devices such as the popular Kindle present pages in black and white, the iPad displays realistic representations of actual pages that even turn as if they were made of paper.
Click here to read the Los Angeles Times’ in-depth comparison of the iPad versus the Kindle.
Our friends over at Graphic Language have just debuted the beta version of NewHomeFeed.com. This powerful marketing tool is sure to be a hit with new-home builders and the marketing companies that support them because it streamlines the entire process of uploading, updating and managing new home listings.
In the past, a home builder that wanted to promote one of its communities or homes on 10 different listing websites would have to input then upload the same information 10 separate times. With NewHomeFeed.com, the information gets input once then sent out to the selected websites simultaneously. Updating listing information is just as easy. NewHomeFeed.com users make the change once, then with the click of a button that change goes out to all the sites that listing is on.
NewHomeFeed.com also features powerful reporting tools that compare site-by-site performance, allowing you to evaluate and optimize your online media dollars.
Currently the beta version is free. Home builders interested in registering for a free trial can do so at NewHomeFeed.com. The next enrollment for approved beta trial users begins May 1, 2010. Check it out, and tell them red rocket LA sent you.
Companies maintain Twitter accounts because it allows them to connect with their customers instantly. But what happens when a customer complains about a defective product or an unpleasant service experience? Is 140 characters really enough space to address their concerns? Probably not, so be sure you have a customer relations support team in place that can work to resolve the customer’s issue, otherwise the whole situation could get bigger and more vocal than it needs to be on Twitter. That’s Erik Sass’ take on the situation. Read his article in MediaPost Blog here.
Tired of carrying around those cumbersome, wallet-busting gift cards? Target wants to ease your burden by allowing you to keep their gift card right in your smartphone. The big box retailer just announced that customers can now access their gift cards right from their smartphones by presenting the digital bar code to the cashier at time of checkout.
Clearly this is a big step forward in m-commerce (as in mobile commerce) and a likely look at the shape of things to come. “There’s been such rapid growth in m-commerce in the last two years,” Ben Rushlo, senior manager of Internet technologies at Keynote, based in San Mateo, Calif., told Marketing Daily.
Read Sara Mahoney’s article in Marketing Daily for more info.
Each year, American Express sponsors The Customers’ Choice Awards to honor retailers who deliver top-notch customer service. For the third year in a row, L. L. Bean took first place. Check out this year’s other winners as just announced at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show.
From an early age, we’re taught that misspellings are a no-no. In school, they can lower your grade. In the professional world, they can mean missing out on an opportunity. But when it comes to your URL, you might want to consider registering one or several misspellings of your domain. Why? Because unlike your fifth grade English teacher, many of us are poor spellers.
Case in point: I have a friend who can’t spell his way out of a paper bag. One day he asked me to check his spelling on something and I came across the word “braw.” When I told him he spelled “bra” wrong, he replied, “Oh, did I leave off the ‘w’?”
He’s not the only one out there, which is why we need to anticipate how they might misspell our company names when doing a Google search.
For example, if your company is named Lemon Anchovies, we’ll assume your URL is LemonAnchovies.com. But you might also consider registering LemonAnchovees.com and maybe even LeminAnchovies.com. The cost of registering additional domains is little in comparison to the business potential of grabbing new customers. And really, just because they can’t spell, that doesn’t mean they can’t spend.
Facebook recently announced its new privacy enhancements that may just make our information less private. Although there are new controls that allow you to limit who sees your personal information, posts, photos, etc., the change that’s causing blow back is due to a new category, called “publicly available information,” that is beyond users’ control. This new category includes a person’s name, picture and city, the list of their Facebook friends and the Facebook pages they have endorsed. As a recent LA Times editorial observed, “The friends list is particularly sensitive, privacy advocates note, because of the amount of personal information that can be gleaned from knowing a person’s associates.”
Why did Facebook do this? According to the LA Times, it’s simply good business. For them, not necessarily for you. Read the Op-ed piece here.
The food trucks are taking over LA and we love it! Especially since we’ve partnered with many of them to bring traffic, prospects and PR to our client’s TLofts development in WestLA. The trucks stop by TLofts Monday-Friday, so come out and sample some of this gourmet street food. This link will take you to the weekly schedule.
For a primer on all the great truck food, check out this video from the folks at WunderBlog covering their recent truck tasting tour. Their first stop is at TLofts.
LA Food Truck Tour from Terry Wunder on Vimeo.
Trade shows are a great way to build business, network, and experiment with new cocktails. But they do require your time and money, so it makes sense to try to get the most out of your investment. In a recent post on Skyline Tradeshow Tips, Michael Flavin highlights five key strategies for increasing the effectiveness of your trade show participation.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch intends to block Google’s search spiders from indexing his News Corporation’s sites. As has been widely reported, Murdoch believes the time is right for people to begin paying for online content. He also feels that content aggregators have been getting a free ride by “stealing” content and it’s time for this practice to stop.
In this interview with Sky News’ David Spears, Murdoch explains the thinking behind his position.
