Facebook Age Demographics Posted 7/11/2009

According to a report in March of 2009, Inside Facebook noted that there were more Facebook users 26-44 than 18-25 today. And in a separate report, they also noted that Facebook is seeing massive increases in adoption among users 35-65. In fact, the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is still women over 55.

Fast forward to today - looking at the 70 million-plus users from the U.S. on Facebook - and you've got a remarkable statistic: over one-third of Facebook's users are over the age of 35. And about half of that group is in the 45+ age range.

To read more on the article you can visit the full link here: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/03/25/number-of-us-facebook-users-over-35-nearly-doubles-in-last-60-days/

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	In Depth Twitter Analysis Posted 7/6/2009

A fantastic report released by Sysomos providing a in depth stats and reports. 

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	CruiseNow.com leading the charge in online cruise travel companies. Posted 6/26/2009

I am proud and pleased to announce the launch of CruiseNow.com.  Working with John Keen and his staff was such a pleasure and we look forward in working with him again in the future.


 

In this video, we take a quick look at CrusieNow.com, a site we just launched where users can search and book cruises. The site is unique in the amount of quality video describing everything from the destinations to the cruise ships themselves, as well as weekly webisodes.





CruiseNow.com is the next generation in online cruise travel companies.  We pride ourselves on our ability to combine the latest in technology with good old fashioned customer service.  It’s important to us that our customers realize that while we utilize the most modern online systems like CruiseText, CruiseReviews and Edutainment Videos we are still a business dedicated to that person to person contact and customer service.  We encourage our customers to call our reservation center and work with our Personal Cruise Guides.  They really are the best cruise agents in the country! 





As you can see in the image above the company was founded by two industry veterans, John Keen and Jeff Nickerson.  Both men work every day in the business and are intimately involved in its ongoing success.  John Keen is a pioneer in the online cruise industry, having cofounded Cruise Outlet which was one of the very first national cruise companies to start doing business on the internet in the mid 1990’s.  He later founded CruiseDeals.com which quickly became one of the fastest growing travel businesses on the internet.  He sold that business to the Carlson Company, which is one of the largest privately held companies in the United States.  Some of their brands include Friday’s restaurants, Regent hotels and Carlson Wagonlit Travel.  Jeff Nickerson is also an industry veteran having worked as a sales manager with Royal Caribbean and also with CruisesOnly in the development of their travel technology.  He later joined CruiseDeals.com and was the driving force behind its meteoric growth.   They took their knowledge and experience and started a new breed of online cruise companies, CruiseNow.com!

 

CruiseNow.com is founded on many of the same guiding principles as the past, but this time they improved on them!  Those principals are as follows:

Incredible staff  - CruiseNow.com only hires the best of the best.  Our Personal Cruise Guides and Care Guides are focused on you.  We make sure that you are satisfied from pre booking until you return home from your vacation.  We treat our staff like family members and expect them to treat our customers the same.

Amazing Cruise Values - Because of our size and reputation, CruiseNow.com has access to the absolute best cruise values in the industry.  We make sure our customers get the best deal on their vacation.  The bottom line is nobody gets a better deal than we do.

Faith – Both cofounders are men of faith and it’s important to us to make sure we operate our business in an ethical manner that honors God.  We also try and follow that golden rule.  Do unto others……

Customer Focused – We understand that no business is successful without taking care of their customers.  We are knowledgeable about the industry and provide our clients the best advice and best price.  In addition we are here for you – before, during and after your cruise.

Innovative – The team here at CruiseNow.com is committed to stay ahead of the technology curve.  We are constantly improving our website and internal processes to make your experience more enjoyable and productive.  We understand that using technology to educate and inform our customers will only make their experience with us more rewarding.

Have Fun – We sell cruises!  What’s not to love about this job?  Our goal here at CruiseNow.com is to make sure our employees have fun working here AND customers enjoy working with us.  We take what we do very seriously, but always want to make sure everyone (including you) is having a good time!  Life’s too short. ;-)

Thanks for taking the time to learn a little more about us here at CruiseNow.com.  We always promise to treat you like family!

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	Hulu Desktop Posted 5/29/2009

The popularity of watching Video and Television online is growing at a phenominal rate. Just ask the folks at Youtube.com or Hulu.com

This week, the folks at hulu released Hulu Desktop for Mac/PC.  Here is a brief summary from the Website at: http://www.hulu.com/labs/hulu-desktop

Hulu Desktop is a lean-back viewing experience for your personal computer. It features a sleek new look that's optimized for use with standard Windows Media Center remote controls or Apple remote controls, allowing you to navigate Hulu's entire library with just six buttons. For users without remotes, the application is keyboard and mouse-enabled. Hulu Desktop is a downloadable application and will work on PCs and Macs. It will initially launch as a beta product during which we plan to gather and incorporate user feedback to improve the service.

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	Top 5 Reasons Entrepreneurs Will Succeed In This Recession Posted 5/4/2009

Author: Josephine Nicholas, Chief Operating Officer of Published Daily .

#1 – Entrepreneurs Are Free and Unhindered

“The upside to the massive amounts of layoffs we are seeing is that men and women who felt stuck in certain positions and afraid to go out of the box to pursue their dreams are now free – if not forced – to pursue their passions,” Josephine says.  “The economy has forced people to reevaluate their priorities, reassess their skills and pursue entrepreneurship without being held back by a job to which they feel tied down.

#2 – Recessions Give Birth to Recession Babies

“Many of the largest companies in the United States were founded during a recession.  Companies like Burger King, Hyatt, FedEx, Microsoft, and CNN – all those companies were started by entrepreneurs during some of the toughest economic years in our country’s history,” says Josephine.  Taking this factual data, it is safe to say that at least one of the “next big things” is sure to come from this chapter in our country’s history.

#3 – Entrepreneurs Instill Trust in Skeptical Consumers

According to a recent survey, 68% of executives say that large corporations make a generally or somewhat positive contribution to the public good.  Yet, only 48% of consumers agree.  In another widely recognized survey by Edelman, it is clear that consumer trust in businesses in general is 50% lower than last year.  “These are staggering numbers,” continues Josephine.  “One of the main reasons that entrepreneurs start their own company is to get rid of the ‘corporate America’ mentally they can’t stand.  Most entrepreneurs work very hard to earn the trust of each individual client as they create unique solutions to the needs of the marketplace.  Consumers recognize this effort and respond to it with their dollars.  In an economy where consumers are extraordinarily wary of ‘corporate America’, they are sure to give more business to the entrepreneurs who give them personalized attention and contribute to the public good with their creative efforts.”

#4 – Changing Markets Demand Innovation 

According to the famous economist Joseph Schumpeter, an entrepreneur is someone who is willing and able to convert a new idea or invention into a successful innovation.  “The current recession has caused a significant shift in the needs and wants of consumers across the board.  In any industry, an innovative entrepreneur who identifies and addresses this shift creates an unbeatable connection with consumers,” says Josephine.   

#5 – Boosts Local Economies 

“The American Public is very community-oriented, and they band together, especially during tough times. Look anywhere throughout the US, and you’ll see that local businesses and entrepreneurs are hailed as heroes by their communities.  They provide local jobs and inspire confidence in the economy,” says Josephine.  “The heart of the American Dream is realized and moved forward every time an entrepreneur reaches inside, takes the risk and creates their company.  Local economies respond to that in a way that almost resembles magic.”  

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	Twitter grows 1,382% year over year Posted 4/7/2009

Source:
http://mashable.com/2009/03/16/twitter-growth-rate-versus-facebook/

The latest numbers from Nielsen Online indicate that Twitter grew 1,382% year-over-year in February, registering a total of just more than 7 million unique visitors in the US for the month. Not only is that huge growth in one year, but in one month as well, as in January, Twitter.com clocked in with 4.5 million unique visitors in the US, meaning the service grew by more than 50 percent month-over-month.

Elsewhere in the social networking space, Facebook continued to widen its lead on MySpace, with a total of 65.7 million unique visitors versus 54.1 million for its increasingly distant competitor. Meanwhile, the recently re-launched Bebo, which now plays in the social networking aggregation game, is showing some promise, growing 40 percent from last year to register a total of nearly 3.2 million US visitors in February.

The competition that most are now focused on, however, is that between Facebook and Twitter. While Facebook remains several orders of magnitude bigger, its recent move to a real-time homepage and its overhaul of Facebook Pages is seen by many as a move to thwart Twitter’s continued growth. It will be a few months until this shows up in the numbers and gives us some sort of indication as to whether or not that strategy is working, but for now, both networking sites are enjoying tremendous growth.

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	Social Media & Blogs ranks above personal e-mail Posted 4/7/2009

Source:
http://en-us.nielsen.com/main/news/news_releases/2009/march/social_networks__

 

Now visited by over two-thirds (67 percent) of the global* online population, “Member Communities,” which includes both social networks and blogs, has become the fourth most popular online category – ahead of personal email. It is growing twice as fast as any of the other four largest sectors (search, portals, PC software and email), according to The Nielsen Company’s“Global Faces and Networked Places,”a comprehensive report published today revealing the new global footprint of social networking.

“Social networking has become a fundamental part of the global online experience,” says John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen Online. “While two-thirds of the global online population already accesses member community sites, their vigorous adoption and the migration of time show no signs of slowing. Social networking will continue to alter not just the global online landscape, but the consumer experience at large. This study explains why.”

According to the Nielsen report, Facebook - the world’s most popular social network - is visited monthly by three in every 10 people online across the nine markets in which Nielsen tracks social networking use. Orkut in Brazil has the largest domestic online reach (70 percent) of any social network in these markets.

The report, available today, provides insights into the changing size and audience composition of the global social networking audience and the increasing share of Internet time for which it accounts. The report also analyzes how the major players are faring and what advertisers and publishers can do to take advantage of the social network phenomenon.

Other key findings include:

• One in every 11 minutes online globally is accounted for by social network and blogging sites.
• The social network and blogging audience is becoming more diverse in terms of age: the biggest increase in visitors during 2008 to “Member Community” Web sites globally came from the 35-49 year old age group (+11.3 million).
• Mobile is playing an increasingly important role in social networking. Nielsen found UK mobile Web users have the greatest propensity to visit a social network through their handset, with 23 percent (2 million people) doing so, compared to 19 percent in the US (10.6 million people). These numbers are a big increase over last year – up 249 percent in the UK and 156 percent in the US.

Social networking isn’t just growing rapidly, it’s evolving - both in terms of a broader audience and compelling new functionality,” says Alex Burmaster, author of the study and Communications Director across EMEA for Nielsen Online. “We felt compelled to analyze the state of the social networking market globally and consider what implications this has for our publisher and advertiser clients.”

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	QuakeLive open beta sets new high standards for Web Browser gaming Posted 2/25/2009

As an old school gamer born in the Atari 2600 era, Quake III Arena came out during my gaming glory days back in 1999/2000. I have played countless hours and have many fun memories with this classic game. Recently, I had the pleasure of playing this during the closed beta for a month before the beta opened public yesterday.

The thing that is most impressive in playing the game is massive information architecture Web development that went into this project. Basically the id software development team crammed around a 500MB install package from the original Quake III to a 6.8MB plug-in for your Web browser. How was it done?? I have no clue and the infrastructure portion has to be massive!

Quake Live runs on a slightly updated version of the id Tech 3 engine, but the focus remains on usability rather than major graphical upgrades. Among other usability changes,Quake Live has a new, more streamlined HUD. While the game is free, Quake Live will be backed financially by in-game advertising from IGAWorldwide. IGA Worldwide is the leading dynamic in-game advertising network. Once a QUAKE LIVE player account has been created, an intuitive and engaging web site becomes each players’ unified interface for joining online games, practicing privately against computer controlled opponents, finding and communicating with friends, and monitoring match scores, leaderboards, statistics, and awards. Joining the perfect game is always one click away, as QUAKE LIVE’s skill matching system automatically suggests a selection of matches based on each individual player, using factors like skill, and connection quality. Plus, since the game is accessed and delivered entirely through the web, players can login and play from anywhere - with all of their personal game settings, custom controls and friends as close as the nearest web browser.

Source: www.idsoftware.com  

Also, if any 352 staff members are up for some dueling, CTF or Team DM afterhours, add “352Jaxx” as a friend :).

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	Jacksonville Infomation Technology Council, Web 2.0 Presentation Posted 2/24/2009

This morning, Geoff Wilson President of 352 Media group spoke to the Jacksonville Infomation Technology Council on the topic of "Web 2.0". With around 60 people in attendance, Geoff addressed various topics as Google search rankings, Rich Content, Blogging, Twitter, Facebook and how each Web 2.0 piece works well together.  The presentation was very well recieved and loved the fact in how Geoff related each Web 2.0 component to a Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream flavor.

Above:  Geoff provides facts to the JITC group on how Video messages make a significant impact to your Web site.

About the JITC:
The Jacksonville Information Technology Council of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce is a forum for information technology professionals to exchange information, explore new ideas, develop partnerships, educate the IT community and contribute to the success of our members.

Geoff Wilson, President/CEO of 352 Media Group and Travis Webb, President of the Jacksonville Information Technology Council representing Robert Half Technology.

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	5 ways to make Social Media Matter to Skeptical CEO's Posted 2/23/2009

I wanted to share a great article I read today by Lois Kelly.

1. Make meaning, not buzz: “talk” marketing isn’t about superficial buzz that sizzles fast and fades fast. The goal is helping people make sense of information through conversations. The more meaningful the conversations, the faster people are able to connect to your organization,product or service. This shortens sales cycles and helps employees more quickly buy into change. For companies selling a considered product or service, which is most business-to business companies, professional service firms, pharmaceutical , health care and educational organizations, the goal is making meaning, not buzz making..

2. Listening leads to innovation: Conversations are at least 50% listening, perhaps much more. Marketing’s purpose today isn’t just pushing out information and producing things; it’s listening and bringing ideas back into a company. Ideas that can spark innovation, influence product development, pinpoint ways to get access to and attention from decision makers. Listening is a new strategy, and it happens through conversations whether those conversations are face-to-face or in online communities and social networks.

3. Points of view are more interesting than your products: Unless you’re Steve Jobs talking about the iPhone people don’t want to talk about your products or capabilities; they can look that up on the Web. What they do want to talk about are your points of view about the industry or category. What common mistakes do you see? What are one or two emerging trends do you believe may upset business as usual? In what area are most people wasting money and don’t even realize it? What “best practice” do you think is a waste of time? Points of view jumpstart meaningful conversations and distinguish your organization on more than products. And every CEO has those points of view to share with their organization, with customers, with media, and with employees. So share those interesting views. They’ll get talked about.

4. Nothing to talk about is why people don’t talk: The reason everyone in a company is often telling a different story -- or not saying much at all -- is that they don’t have anything interesting to talk about. Elevator statements, product messages, and mission statements are, let’s face it, pretty boring and not something that makes you want to get together with a prospect, or an analyst. Nor is it something employees want to talk about when they get together with company partners and agencies. Take your points of view and set them free. Share them with everyone in the company, and encourage them to talk about the ideas and what they hear from the resulting conversations. People will remember and talk about fresh points of views that get people to say, “Gee, that’s interesting. Tell me more.” But they’re not going to talk about messages and value
props.

5. Measure involvement vs. awareness: the new measure of marketing effectiveness is
involvement. The more involved people become with your ideas, your sales reps, the more vested they become in those ideas and people. More importantly, involvement is the prerequisite to action, whether that action is changing your mind, asking for an RFP, or making a decision to buy. The objective is to engage people in conversations that get them involved with you and you with them.


Lois Kelly is author of Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word of Mouth Marketing and a partner in Beeline Labs. She blogs at http://blog.foghound.com.

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