More and more we see a trend for small business developing marketing campaigns using social media as their central tool. Social media levels the plain field for small business with a minimum cost investment. We see social media is here to stay.

 
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This is a dated and largely unhelpful metric because every request for any file is counted. Although it sounds useful, in actual fact it gives you little actionable information. If you have a page containing four images, one request for that page is counted as five hits. To increase your hits, you can add images to the page!

Due to the misleading nature of the metric, few people use it seriously, and the term “Hits” is often incorrectly used in conversation and the media when what they actually mean is to describe traffic in general,  or specifically visits or page views.

- Excerpt from the book ProBlooger

 
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This is great for your business website or blog, it eliminates the need for visitors to open a new tab or window to research information. The links open without having them leave your page!

Their video explains it all.

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The changes go into effect for all Facebook Pages on March 10, which gives you four weeks to preview the new format and switch over at any time before then. Below is a map of the new features, followed by an additional summary of the changes, many of which we expected:

1-Photo strip above the Wall (with the most recent photos you posted or tagged) TIP: To optimize your photos size them to 96x67px in order to fit in the space provided and plan for them to be in random order.
2-Tabs move over to the left panel, in the form of a list (maximum of 6 above the fold)
3-Profile picture reduced from 200 x 600 pixels to 180 x 540
4-Blurb box that was below the Page picture moved to info tab
5-Pages can Like other Pages, not just favorite them
6-Featured Pages and Admins
7-Page category
8-Choice for Wall posts between “Everyone” and Page posts only
9-Mutual Friends and Interests section
10-Ability to interact on Facebook as your Page
11-Ability for admins to post and comment around the site under their Page’s alias
12-News feed of updates from Liked Pages
13-Pages can now feature iFrame tab applications
14-Email notifications when users post or comment
Note, very important: You can preview the new layout but once you upgrade, there is no way to revert back to the old design.

Photo Strip Instead of Tabs Above the Wall
The replacement of tabs with the photo strip at the top adds a dynamic, colorful element that will significantly improve the look of the average Facebook Page. The photos are drawn from the most recent ones you posted to your Wall and those you tagged, but does not include photos posted by fans. Users can hide undesirable photos. The new left nav placement of tabs also allows for longer tab names.

Expanded Functionality For Fan Page Admins
By enabling Fan Page admins to comment in the name of the page itself and to interact with other Fan pages, Facebook has finally made it possible for brands to truly engage in tremendous interactive engine which powered its growth among individuals. Your power as a page administrator is increased in a number of other ways, including the ability to set filters on your Wall so that visitors see relevant posts first, and to view all the content and get notices whenever someone posts to your wall.

Preview the new look by clicking preview at the top of your Page before making the changes, as you will not be able to go back once you’ve made the update.

Finally, you should review the new policies. While many applications like Flash will now function better on your Page, Facebook’s restrictions require you to limit their functionality until a user interacts with it.

Original Article
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They have the option to migrate to wordpress.com, a great option. I guess this social network from Microsoft has not been doing great.

There explanation:

Our customers have asked for richer blog functionality including an integrated statistics system, continuous saving of drafts and improvements to spam-fighting technology. To deliver the best possible blogging experience, we are collaborating with WordPress.com to provide their free service to you. For those of you that already have a blog on Windows Live Spaces, we will make it easier for you to get started while helping you move what you’ve already built up on Spaces.

The timeline:

Starting the end of September, 2010, when you visit your Windows Live Space you’ll be given the opportunity to upgrade your blog by migrating it to WordPress.com and to download your content to save for later.
As of January 4th, 2011, you won’t be able to make changes to your Spaces blog, but you can continue to review past posts, download your content to save for later and upgrade your blog to WordPress.com.
On March 16th, 2011 Windows Live Spaces will close and you will not be able to access or migrate your blog on Spaces.

For live spaces it was time to upgrade or step aside. There services can connect to about three docen social networks and update the stream. I guess the blogging feature was not being used much since then.  Only the future will tell if this was a good decision.
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Its not only links you can select on YouTube, you can now change the story line or ending of a video by changing the title of the video. It kind of beats the Old Spice Man campaign, in that multiple endings are already created.

YouTube Interactive Publicity

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Videomaker reports:

A team at the University of Tokyo has found that using titanium oxide could mean discs with storage capacities more like hard drives. The best part? The material is cheaper than what’s used in the likes of Blu-ray discs.

The group determined that titanium oxide would be ideal for disc manufacturing by the way it reacts to light. At room temperature the material can switch between metal and semiconductor states, which makes it “promising as a material for a next-generation optical storage device,” according to the University of Tokyo’s Shin-ichi Ohkoshi, a chemistry professor.

If the claims hold up, these new “super discs” would hold 1,000 times more than a DVD, which themselves hold an average of 5 gigs. That means we could be looking at discs that can store 5,000 gigabytes, or five terabytes.

The icing on the cake is that the titanium oxide material is cheaper than what’s used in Blu-rays, meaning that you might not have to pay $25 to $35 for a single movie. “You don’t have to worry about procuring rare metals. Titanium oxide is cheap and safe, already being used in many products ranging from face powder to white paint,” the professor commented.

Source
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When it comes to websites, small business owners tend to fall into one of two camps:

• The first are those whose website is vital, and they integrate it into their overall business. They look for the latest and greatest trick, they understand SEO, they blog and post and all the rest.

• The other group are those folk who know they need to have a website, pay it lip service, and either have a site (albeit an unexceptional one) or, horrors, no site at all.

If I were to tell you that the majority of small businesses fall into the second camp, you wouldn’t be surprised, would you? We have all seen what too many small business websites look like: With the look and feel of something out of 2002 or so, they have few, if any, Web 2.0 tools and act essentially as an e-Yellow Page ad.

Given that, it is not surprising that many small business people find their website to be a pain in the rear, a necessary evil, a chore to be handled, rather than what it should be – their MAIN window to the world, a profit center, an e-billboard, a marketing brochure, and a sales tool all rolled into one. But for too many small business owners, it is not that. Instead, their site is not only boring, it is difficult to update, and although they may want a nicer or more robust site, the imagined costs and effort make it seemingly prohibitive.

But it need not be, redoing your site with WordPress can change all that.

As you may know, WordPress is a popular program that many people use to blog. It’s popular because it is easy. But what you may not know is that WordPress can also be a very powerful and affordable website creation tool.

(Confession: Two years ago, wanting to redo my own site, I received bids as high as $75,000. Sticker shock led me to rethink the project, and my assistant extraordinaire, Vivian, convinced me that we should use WordPress. It turned out to be a very smart business decision. I love WordPress.)

Creating a website with WordPress is surprisingly easy. There are literally hundreds of themes to choose from, and most are free. These themes can be completely customized and installed quickly. You can see some of the best themes here.

The advantages of using WordPress for your business website are many:

The look: As indicated, there are tons of WordPress themes out there, so finding one that fits your business is easy. That it will be Web 2.0 enabled, and have the look and feel of something very now makes it all the more attractive. Slideshows, flash movies, blogs, video, advertising spots – all are a part of various WordPress themes, or easily integrated.

No longer need you be stuck with a site that is bland, blah, or mediocre.

The cost: Most WordPress themes are free, and those that are not cost less than $100, generally. Customizing your theme, if desired, is easy.

CMS: A CMS, or Content Management System, is what most small business people need but don’t have; that is why they need to go to their webmaster whenever their site needs updating. Not so with WordPress. The WordPress CMS is simple and intuitive. It is designed to make adding or changing content to a site a breeze.

SEO: SEO is built into the WordPress dashboard. Below the spot where you post a new article is an “All in One SEO Pack.” It asks you to give your keywords, tags, excerpts, and so on. WordPress does the rest. The result is that you get URLs that are indexed right, full of keywords, and are friendly to search engine spiders.

Suddenly, SEO is a snap.

Participation: Adding visitor comments to your site is always great, and with WordPress, visitor participation is integrated through comments and trackbacks.

Support: Because WordPress is open source software, there is a very large community of people out there who can help you.

Ease: Installing a standard WordPress site is quick and easy. Even a custom one can be done in short order. 1 and 1, GoDaddy, and other web hosts know how to add WordPress sites easily.

Bottom line: If you have been thinking of redoing your site, give WordPress a good look. You will be glad you did.
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There email (you get one by default when you get the internet service) can now connect to your social network accounts like twitter and facebook (Microsoft does the same with Live mail).

If you got to http://telmex.com/apps/ they have a store with more than 50,000 apps for free download. Applications for PC, MAC, Linux and Mobile.

One of there more interesting apps is a 24 hour professor. Kids who are in school and our having trouble can get assistance for free on school topics.

Source Article (Spanish)
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But the Flash Player has yet another Ace up the its sleeve, Augmented Reality. AR has many uses when it comes to directions, presentations and games. And now it does not need any other special plugin but the Flash Player, and since its in 99% of all machines installed, we should be ready for some great AR applications and examples.

AR applications can now be developed with ActionScript, all thanks to T-Immersion. Bellow is a video to explain more about this exiting technology, Augmented Reality.

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