Technology by Donald Schwartz

09:29 pm | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment

Marketer's Guide to Semantic Web: Solving Social Media Measurement

http://threeminds.organic.com/2008/10/solving_social_media_measurement.h... It's one of the toughest marketing challenges of recent times... how do we measure the success of social media? I see countless posts everyday where someone says they have it figured out, or that it will never be figured out, but nothing quite measures up to the need. How do you measure the success of a human conversation? Well, we start with what we CAN measure. We can measure reach. How many people are viewing, clicking, watching, downloading, etc? We can also measure exposure or buzz. Are people talking about us in the blogosphere? What are they saying about our brand? But it's inside those walled gardens, that everything interesting is happening... how strong is the community? Are they active? Are we changing their minds? Changing their actions? How do they feel? It's the tough nut of the new marketing conversation, but what if there was a way to crack it? MEASURING THE MESSAGE You have an important message that you want to get out about your brand. You've been trying to filter it into the conversation, build media elements around it, but you wonder if it is really resonating? Are people talking in the community and are they spreading that message out the web? In that situation, how useful is a tag cloud of user conversation? It gives us a spattering of words. It's impressionistic art when what we really need is a photo-realistic rendering. Semantic technology is able to pull together connections between words and phrases. How often is keyword "x" said in the same breath as keyword "y"? Measurement tools should be moving away from the tag cloud, and be giving us something more in like a concept map meets tag tree. We will be able to immerse ourselves in the trends of the real conversation, not just the keyword of the day. Next, there is the dilemma of message velocity, how far is my message traveling and how fast. Sure, that's an easy thing to do when you are measuring a viral video or widget, but what about a conversation? Just look at Powerset... "what movies is Johnny Depp in" and "films starring Johnny Depp" will give you the exact same results. Semantic technology builds on meaning, not keywords. And so it doesn't matter if your followers say "the new Challenger is going to be awesome" or "Dodge's new muscle car looks rad", semantic buzz tools will track how far your message extends. MEASURING THE TONE Sentiment analysis is a increasingly popular tool in the marketer toolbox. It's often used for general web buzz monitoring and what isn't clear is how much of it is based on semantic technology. Keywords have a limit to their usefulness, and often in campaigns we find ourselves trying to guess how consumers will describe our products in order to set up these buzz tools. Semantic technology will change that. We shouldn't be searching for words, we should be searching for meaning. The next generation of sentiment analysis will look at the entirety of a comment or an article, it will look at the person it came from and the person it was directed to, and it will use natural language processing and analysis of meaningful relationships to determine "good" from "bad". Likely we will have whole new categories created as the software becomes smarter... "constructive criticism", "general trolling", and "disappointed enthusiast". It won't be perfect, but it will be a whole lot more useful. MEASURING THE CONNECTIONS So we've measured the influence of your message on your consumers and how they've spread it. We've measured the way they feel, the tone of the conversation. And that's a great success measure for the campaign, for the goals of that quarter. But what about the long-term goal of social media? What about building a community of loyal enthusiasts? What about creating a relationship with your customers? That is where companies like Chat Mine are starting to come into play. The measure the connections between members of the community AND between people and concepts. Then, they analyze the strength of those relationships. It's important to measure both of those angles. While some social applications will generate a lot of "friending" and thus person to person relationships, others will encourage ongoing conversation. Two people might never have officially become "friends", they may talk every single day online about off-roading and Jeep. They are connected by a concept, a shared interest, a shared love. And that perhaps is the strong social measurement of all... has your brand united a community together in passionate conversation? WHAT WILL THE FUTURE HOLD? I hope you have enjoyed the series as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please revisit at any time to comment. Tell me what you think about how the semantic web is going to effect social networking, search and discovery, and online privacy. Marketers... I would love to hear from you as you start to implement these new technologies that will make online ads more relevant and make social media easier to measure. With the push for Data Portability, we are moving towards a more open social world. I've said it before, but I really believe this to be true... in the future, the only social network will be the social graph. We are opening the floodgates. And for online marketing, it will be the difference in row boating from lake to lake to navigating the uncharted seas. It's finally time to go exploring and the semantic web will be our compass. Marta Strickland Editor, ThreeMinds http://threeminds.organic.com

09:26 pm | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment

Marketer's Guide to Semantic Web: Creating More Relevant Ads

http://threeminds.organic.com/2008/10/marketers_guide_to_semantic_we.htm... Has your contextual advertising turned into a contextual nightmare? Maybe you became the butt end of the joke for many blogs creating not the kind of buzz around the brand you were hoping for. Or worse, maybe it has happened and you don't even know it. This is the problem with depending so completely on keywords. Sure, it seems safe to buy a word like "feet" until your ad comes up right next to a story about "severed feet" or a "feet fetish". To quote all the famous infomercials of our time... there has to be a better way!! What if there was a technology that could analyze what is really being said on the page? What if there was something that could analyze words surrounding keywords, could analyze sentiment, and could make sure that this ad placement was a prime opportunity to reach the target, not the front page of the Fail blog? Semantic technology will put our ad in the right place at the right time, delivering the right message to the right user. GIVING YOUR ADS BETTER TARGETING Peer39 is an advertising solution that employs natural language processing and artificial intelligence to determine word meaning, synonyms, topics, and even sentiment of content in realtime. Peer39 gives unique access to its network of publishers, and an approach to contextual advertising that is far smarter than what is currently out there. The proprietary technology called SemanticMatch™ operates in real-time and relies on patented algorithms to ensure relevant and "brand safe" ad delivery. The sentiment piece is what makes it really interesting, especially in the realm of user-generated content such as blogs. While you might not want to put your ad on a blog that rails against your customer service, you might want to put your ad on one that goes off on your competitor. GIVING YOUR PROGRAM BETTER OPTIMIZATION As an author of a blog, I can honestly say that I am not doing all that I should with metadata in order to market Organic. Constantly tagging articles with both meta keywords, descriptions, social bookmarking keywords, etc. can be overwhelming and for many content creators, is a guessing game. Yet, if I ask anyone in our SEO department how to optimize this blog, that would be one of the first things they'd tell me to do. In a time of mass content creation, a startup like TextDigger is going to find an easy audience. TextDigger uses semantic technology to read the content of a web site and auto-generate semantic tags. The benefit of semantic tags over normal tags is that they reflect concepts and meaning. A tag such as "cola" would be tied to the concept of "Coke" and "soft drink", making it even more findable. As more semantic search engines like Powerset and Hakia gain popularity, a semantic keyword is going to offer a more intelligent breakdown of search queries. The TextDigger search engine will ask and learn whether the common query using the word "view" is describing a picturesque scene or a political stance. FEEDING YOUR ADS WITH BETTER CONTENT So we are creating better ad placement and more optimized, findable content... but what about actually creating better ads. Peer39 offers some services akin to Yahoo! SmartAds where ads are assembled on the fly based on the context. But we live in a world where information evolves at an alarming rate, and (let's face it) consumers trust EACH OTHER far more than they trust advertising messaging. So what about pulling smarter content into an ad? What about turning the semantic technology around to analyzing the meaning of the message? That's where the Dapper MashupAds could come into play. Dapper MashupAds are dynamically generated ads that pull in content in real-time. Currently the examples on their site are still limited to the more common idea of pulling in from an advertiser or brand database. But, then you look at the free Dapper service. The Dapper service allows users to create a feed from any website to publish to any platform (RSS, Facebook, iGoogle, mobile). By combining Dapper and MashupAds, you can imagine a dynamically generated ad that scans Yelp and Flickr for the newest (positive) reviews and photos of your restaurant. The power of your brand message being promoted by your consumers can add an otherwise absent authenticity to your marketing message. TAPPING INTO THE SOCIAL GRAPH So semantic technology could do a lot to solve the current problems we have with contextual advertising, but what about behavioral targeting. What about turning semantic camera around and give a good look at the people viewing the page? I have yet to see is a semantic-based advertising technology that taps into the power of the social graph. Now we don't want to get too close to the scary world of Beacon, but I still think that by understanding the interests of the user and what connects them to the online world could be incredibly valuable. We don't need names and address, but imagine this scenario... You are a hotel thats major selling feature is its beautiful golf course. User A comes to the page and the semantic technology can tell that they have strong connections with numerous Facebook friends surrounding the interest "golf". User A is delivered an ad selling the "men's getaway weekend package". User B comes to the same page, but it is noted that while he has many strong friendships, his interest in "golf" is not connected to any. User B is delivered an ad selling the serenity and relaxation of a day of golf. Semantic technology is going to take online advertising to a whole new level of relevance. But what about solving that other big marketing problem? What about creating a more consistent and less time-consuming way to measure the success of social media? That will have to wait until tomorrow. Marta Strickland Editor, ThreeMinds http://threeminds.organic.com

02:27 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Quick intro

Greetings,

 I just discovered Fastcompany and I would like to participate and contribute if I can.

I am an author, inventor and product developer. I am intimately familiar with advanced technology and innovationand received my first patent just out of high school.

I hold over twenty patents from simple toys to green tech to radar based navigation. I run a small product development company by the name of Vorelco and after over a quarter century of business we boast a flawless business record.

Our clients range from inventors to the fortune 50. and we design products in every major category from comsumer electronics to medical, dental, green tech, advanced robotics, Aerospace, dispensing, loss prevention, vending, and scientific instrumentation.

I can be of help in the areas of...

1.    I.P. development from patent prosecution to entire portfolio development.
2.    Product development from ideation through prototyping and validation.
3.    Product safety from regulatory compliance prescreening to final certification.
4.    Manufacturing strategies including Asia, Mexico and the U.S.
5.    Affordable marketing strategies specializing in QVC, HSN, Infomercial.

I love what I do and if anyone here needs a helping hand with an issue I am always available to lend a helping hand completely gratis.

 All the best,

<a href="http://www.vorelco.com">Jack Durban</a>

02:38 pm | 0 recommendations | 1 comment

PerfSpot.com and OpenSocial: FriendVouch http://www.friendvouch.com

PerfSpot is launching new development - FriendVouch..

With 25 million members on PerfSpot.com and 4 billion monthly ad impressions on our Spot200 network, PerfSpot.com is in prime position to launch our premier digital ad platform on PerfSpot.com and OpenSocial: FriendVouch http://www.friendvouch.com.

www.FriendVouch.com  shall be live October 29th - 30th.

This Platform will connect more than 200 Million Open Social members together to network and engage with service providers worldwide.

In FriendVouch there are 3 players involved:

Influencers – Entrepreneurial PerfSpot.com member whom propagates offers they find valuable to friends, family, and their network.

The Vouched – Individuals accepting recommended offers from Influencers

Brands – Provide offers and services at their own price to connect to new vouched users.

For the Influencer:

Easy sign up - Sign up is quick and simple, especially if you have a Perfspot account. If you currently have a Perfspot account, you can use your existing log in information.

Browse the latest opportunities from your favorite brands - There are hundreds of categories to browse. You can even search geographically, by payout amount or by keyword.

Find opportunities that your friends and family may be interested in - If you know your best friend is looking to take a cruise to Jamaica, search the travel packages section to find a great deal on that trip.

Call your friend to tell them about the offer and get permission to submit their information. Getting permission is a very important step! If you do not have permission from your friend to submit their information, do not submit their information!

Once you've submitted their information, FriendVouch will call your friend to verify that they are interested in the opportunity. We then send out an email with three quick questions for your friend to answer.

Every 30 days we will send you your payout. The more friends and brands you connect, the more money you earn. As your reputation goes up on the site, you will be allowed to submit more contacts.

If you own your own business, you can sign up as a Brand and start a campaign.

Vouched:

A vouched member simply gives permission to their friends to be contacted about a particular offer, receives a call from FriendVouch, and is transferred directly to the appropriate brand or verified as interested.

For the Brand:

Secure sign up - we get everything set up from the start so as soon as you start receiving contact information, or "vouches" you can start getting in touch with potential customers. 

Create a campaign for your product or service. If you offer more than one product or service, you can set up multiple campaigns.

You can begin, edit and end a campaign at any time - if you aren't having much success with a specific campaign, try editing the text or adding a picture to draw more attention to the offer.

Manage incoming Vouches - You never pay for information that isn't valid. We double verify all vouches, but if you aren't happy with a vouch simply use our Vouch manager to return a Vouch with a short explanation on why it was bad. You can also use the vouch manager to download all of the contact information, or have it forwarded to an email address. We are also capable of integrating your incoming Vouches with your existing contact management system.

If I am not available, please contact Kirk, my assistant, at Ext: 6854 or ktoun@perfspot.com.

You’re invited to update me with an appropriate time for a call to explore this opportunity further.

 Best regards, Svetlana

10:57 am | 0 recommendations | 1 comment

Introduction

I just joined this group and would like to introduce myself. My name is Joel Simpson, I am VP of Advanced Business Concepts, Inc., which is an IT consulting company located in MA and FL. I am also an Officer in the Army National Guard. I graduated from Massachusetts Maritime Academy with a B.S. in Engineering.

I joined LinkedIn to network for my business and learn from others on how to grow the business and also help others who may have questions that I can answer.

Thank you,

Joel Simpson
VP
Advanced Business Concepts, Inc.

02:06 pm | 0 recommendations | 3 comments

How are you using Twitter to market your business?

Twitter has recently received a lot of media attention.  Is it worth the hype?  What examples and best practices can you share with the group re this new social networking technology.

07:19 pm | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment

New software technology that gives you billboard quality exposure to your clients Every Day for less than $1/day

I'm a fairly new real estate agent in Brookline, MA and like most new agents I want to establish great long-term relationships with my clients and remind my friends and acquintances that I'm in real estate business should they think of someone who may need my help. I'm setting up quarterly mailings and e-mailings to keep my name exposed, but of course I'm realizing that I need to be smart about investing time and money into such prospecting as my budget is quite limited. Luckily, I just found a new tool that's perfect for me. It's a new technology (got rolled out in spring 2008, the latest upgrade Genie2.0 was just launched on Aug 12, 2008) that provides its users instant comparison shopping across major shopping, auction and e-Commerce Web sites. It's free for end-users, anybody can download it here www.myshoppinggenie.com/shoppingsmart

What makes it a great tool for me is that I can distribute Genies to my friends/customers as a Thank You gift which they'll love if they ever shop online or just like to find a bargain online and use the price comparison information to negotiate in brick-and-mortar stores, while I get to have my face/logo/message appear on Genie toolbar every time they use Google or any other major search engine. Here's a demo of how Genie works, this technology is very new so it maybe hard to visualize  http://mymarketinggenie.com/shoppingsmart/

I'm spreading the word about this technology to fellow Realtors, my favorite small businesses, practices, local artists, non-profits ... etc and feel free to do the same! It's a great way to build that continuous exposure without being invasive (not to mention how expensive that gets) with a pile of mail or numerous emails which don't always get read anyway. Whereas this is really subtle, but consistent exposure AND you can customize/change your message/logo/photo as often as you'd like: you can advertise a particular listing this week, some promotion or event another week, or just have your photo with a hyperlink to your website

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about it and let me know how you like it. 

More on Genie at www.buyingwithgenie.com

Karina D

demouka@gmail.com

06:14 pm | 1 recommendation | 1 comment

I want to know examples of free business web sites that helped grow your business?

  I have always been told that the INTERNET leveled the playing field for small business owners. Many Business web sites provide free innovative marketing techniques (wg. Google Alert, I want Sandy.com) in hopes that you click on the advertising or that you supply personal data on the free technology site.  Have these sites made money? Will the free sites survive? What other free business tools sites have you used to grow your business?

ELSCPA

www.NewBusinessLearningCenter.com 

11:13 am | 2 recommendations | 5 comments

New Features For Fast Company Dot Com Website - Please Add, Edit, Delete

Hi All:

What features would you like to see on the Fast Company Dot Com website?

• Board Folders covering all topics in what C-serve calls forums. Folders’ categories are hyperlinked. Under each board folder is listed the total number of messages and the time of the last posting.
• A Digest of what is available including the topic name, msg subject header, number of views, name of last poster and date.
• A very understandable individual listing style of each message including its numerical position in the thread, ie. 2 of 21, date and time posted, poster’s name, who replying to and a number coding that can be used as part of a sophisticated bulletin board search.
• Visual Map In Tree Form – see who responded to whom with date and time.
• A Leader Board – called “Top Contributors In This Forum” on SM BZ– changes based on what topic area was being viewed.
• Most Recent Post – some forum bulletin boards have graphic icons to indicate particularly active topics, questions answered, updated since last visit. SM BZ has a legend with icons.
• Tagging – on Small BZ this is called “What Members Are Talking About”
• Filtering – Allows for narrowing of search via drop menu and sometimes includes number of listings per page.
• Fast Search – see Compuserve example. Should be key word at least and should search current and archived posts.
• Track back – useful when FC posts are added to blogs and bulleting boards outside of the FC website. Also applies to posts added from other web sources.
• RSS
• Open ID
• Share - via e-Mail

Digest of What’s Is Available In Each Folder –

Msgs names are hyperlinked as are the number of postings, and the name of the poster

04:47 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

The Jetsons are Here!!

Face to Face video communications for anyone is here now. Live webcasting to anyone anywhere in the world. Live 5 way video conferencing, video emails, video blogging, podcasting and more, all for only $9.95/mo. Now anyone can have the power of a TV station from thier PC and soon thier TV. www.hellophilly.tv or www.gotvideomail.com