TechJournal South
Header

Three techniques for telling better business stories

May 21st, 2012
Patricia Fripp

By Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE Everybody loves a good story. No matter what our culture, we grow up knowing that hearing a story is somehow a reward. Stories are how we learn values and our family’s legacy.  When we go to school we discover that stories are a way to make history come alive. In ...

How you can get started in online video marketing

May 21st, 2012
Online video

Online video is rapidly becoming as essential to businesses as a mobile strategy, but how to begin? David Twigg of Online Marketing Consultants says it’s simple: face the camera and tell your story. Last week comScore produced their US Online Video rankings and US Online Video Ad Property rankings, which showed that 181 million American ...

Companies concerned about employees using cell phones while driving

May 21st, 2012

The number of commercial fleet operators that have adopted written policies pertaining to employee use of cell phones while driving on-the-job has increased 29% in the past year – from 62% to 80% – according to the second annual survey of more than 900 transportation and fleet professionals conducted by ZoomSafer. “The year-over-year results of our ...

Employees admit they’ll call in sick to watch sports (infographic)

May 21st, 2012
Kronos

Employees around the world have, to varying degrees, called in sick to work over a sporting event, according to a global survey by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated and conducted by Harris Interactive. Whether they stayed home to watch it on television, attended it live, played the sport themselves, or needed a day off after staying up late ...

Small business, big impact! (infographic)

May 21st, 2012
SMB infographic

Small businesses are the backbone of economic health in America. They’re where the jobs are created. Startup small businesses also introduce much of the innovation that keeps American business ahead of the world. Entrepreneurs are also often socially conscious and donate a significant amount to charitiy.

Half of US businesses looking at recurring revenue offerings

May 21st, 2012
Aria

Nearly half of all businesses in the United States (47 percent) currently have, are in the process of developing or are investigating recurring revenue offerings, according to the results of “The Anatomy of a Recurring Revenue Business” report, from Aria Systems, a provider of cloud billing and subscription management solutions. Of US companies with interests in offerings that generate recurring revenue; ...

Spending for wireless services fuels telecom revenue growth

May 21st, 2012
cell phone tower

The US telecommunications industry continues to expand as business spending for wireless services fuels industry revenue growth, says a new market research report from Insight Research. Insight estimates that all US businesses will spend $154 billion for telecommunications services in 2012 and business spending on wired and wireless calling will grow to $184 billion by ...

Social media could shape the the 2012 presidential race

May 18th, 2012
Obama

The most significant poll to date on the impact of social media in the 2012 presidential race reveals that almost 70 percent of likely voters believe the race will be heavily shaped by social media platforms. The survey also finds that the Internet is deepening its role as a major factor in what promises to ...

Gamification will be more embedded in daily life by 2020

May 18th, 2012
gamification word cloud

By Allan Maurer Way back in the late 1980s, I wrote an article for Science Digest magazine about the US Army’s use of video games to train tank crews and gunners. Since then, “gamification,” the use of game-like elements in education, training, marketing, wellness and even scientific discovery, has advanced steadily. You’re likely to see ...

Big data use more important to most brand marketers than Facebook

May 18th, 2012
33 Across

Three-quarters of the brand marketers and agency reps surveyed by  33Across, operators of the largest social and interest graph in the world, reaching over 1.25 billion users, say that the rest of the web is more important to them than Facebook advertising. The survey also points out the increasing importance of big data – all that information about ...

Viewers engage in seven different types of social TV activities

May 18th, 2012
TV

Have you engaged with social media or services while watching TV? While fairly nascent, social TV and co-viewing trends are growing rapidly, representing a shift in TV viewing from a lean-back to a lean-forward experience, according to Viacom’s ”Social TV: Viewers C’s The Moment” study exploring the social TV phenomenon through the lens of the viewer. ...

Confidence on US economy rises sharply among execs

May 18th, 2012
Pwc

Confidence about the US economy’s 12-month outlook rose sharply this past quarter among executives surveyed for PwC US’s Private Company Trendsetter Barometer.  Sixty percent of Trendsetter executives voiced optimism (up 21 points from the prior quarter), with just 8% expressing pessimism; the remaining 32% were uncertain. For a while there earlier this year we saw one or two ...

Business use of hosted & cloud services grows, price a major factor

May 18th, 2012
JD Power

Among business data customers, 18 percent are leveraging remote offerings, such as hosted and cloud-based services, up from 12 percent in 2011, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2012 Business Data Satisfaction Study(SM) released today. The report says price is a major factor in the data service provider selected, as it is in just ...

Telecom industry expanding as wireless services fuel growth

May 18th, 2012

The US telecommunications industry continues to expand as business spending for wireless services fuels industry revenue growth, says a new market research report from Insight Research. Insight estimates that all US businesses will spend $154 billion for telecommunications services in 2012 and business spending on wired and wireless calling will grow to$184 billion by the close of 2016, ...

Why did GM drop its Facebook advertising?

May 17th, 2012
Facebook

On the eve of Facebook’s initial public offering (IPO), the markets are contemplating why auto manufacturer General Motors decided abruptly yesterday to terminate advertising on Facebook. WordStream Inc., a provider of search engine marketing software and services, has released new research comparing the value of Facebook advertising to Google’s Display Network. That’s the portion of ...

Which cities have the most social media savvy businesses?

May 17th, 2012
Frisco

Topping the list of most social small business cities in the U.S. on the just released Radius Social Small Business Report: San Francisco and Los Angeles, as West Coast cities overall ranked higher than their East Coast counterparts. New York ranked #7, while other major East Coast cities, such as Boston, and NC Research Triangle cities ...

Most IT pros view social media sites as a security risk

May 17th, 2012
InformationWeek

A large majority – 86 percent – of IT pros surveyed by InformationWeek’s 2012 Strategic Security Survey view social media sites as a security risk. Malware infection via malicious links, however, ranked as the top threat. Fully half of the 946 respondents to the survey cited identity and password management as the most valuable security ...

I don’t need no stinking Timeline

May 17th, 2012
Allan Maurer

By Allan Maurer Facebook users don’t much care for its Timeline feature, which it touted much the way Steve Jobs did the first iPad. A new study from Attensity, a provider of social analytics and engagement applications, says the results of its analysis of public reaction in social media to the new Facebook Timeline format for profile pages, ...

Private equity firms increasing employment at portfolio companies

May 17th, 2012
McGladrey

Amid difficult economic conditions, private equity firms have become increasingly focused on improving strategy and operations at their portfolio companies as a means of creating value, according to the  McGladrey LLP, fourth annual survey of private equity (PE) executives. In fact, nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of firms reported that they have generally increased employment at their ...

Local mobile and online ad spending expected to double in five years

May 17th, 2012
BIA Kelsey

According to BIA/Kelsey’s Media Ad View reports, local advertising spending will experience a compound annual growth rate of 2.6 percent between 2011 and 2016, with revenues climbing from around $132 billion to more than $150 billion. BIA/Kelsey, adviser to companies in the local media space, expects spending to increasingly shift from traditional media and direct advertising to digital alternatives. ...