Millennials – the generation born between 1980 and 1995 – use online resources, but that’s only one stop in their search for answers when they’re ready to make decisions.
So says Karen Albritton, president of Raleigh-NC-based communications agency, Capstrat.
Capstrat research uncovered some surprises about the often stereotyped Millennial generation. Albritton will discuss the research and what it means to marketers at the Internet Summit next week at the Raleigh Convention Center.
“For the first time,” Albritton says, “a generation is always able to find someone who already made a decision they’re considering, from buying a TV to going to work at a certain type of job.”
Their most trusted source of information at major milestone decision points – buying a a car, a house, an appliance – is first person experience from someone they know, such as friends or family.
Their second most trusted source would be from anyone who has already “been there and done that,” even if its an anonymous source online, Albritton says.
“They’re very social decision makers. They consider first person experience from someone they don’t know as more important than third party sources such as Consumer Reports.”
That means they might read a review or report by someone with shaky grammar and spelling and still find it relevant to them.
They value face-to-face
One finding of the Capstrat research that is a bit surprising is that while the Millennials “Are very digital people, they value face-to-face contacts. A lot of brands are seeing the value of having millennials do certain things online then brining them into a store or organization to connect.”
Albritton says marketers can do a lot of things online to make a later face-to-face connection smoother. Those include such things as having them fill out basic form information for a loan application online so a sales person can focus on selling and not administrative functions in person.
CarMax, for instance, let’s consumers do more and more of that sort of thing online, she notes.
The Capstrat research suggests “They should love the mobile recommendations from friends type of thing.”
In fact, if they’re in a strange city, they’re more likely to go on Foursquare and see what friends have said about a good place to eat rather than asking the hotel concierge.
What does all this mean?
“It means we have to get way smarter at reaching the social influencers millennials go to. You have to reach the people who influence their decisions. They will seek it in a lot of places and you have to show up there.”
Kabbage chairman Marc Gorlin will speak at the Internet Summit Nov. 15-16 at the Raleigh, NC Convention Center.
Remember those cartoons where an alien approaches a fire hydrant or a telephone pole and says, “Take me to your leader?” Turns out it’s not bad advice for startups seeking funding, says Marc Gorlin, chair of Atlanta-based Kabbage.
Kabbage, which provides working capital to online merchants, nabbed a $17 million B round in August led by Mohr Davidow Ventures and its investors include BlueRun Ventures, David Bonderman, founder of TPG Capital, and Warren Stephens, CEO of Stephens Inc., and the UPS Strategic Enterprises Fund.
So Gorlin understands the venture dance. He’ll discuss “The things VCs never tell you about raising money” at next week’s Internet Summit in Raleigh, NC, where he’ll be one of dozens of digital media, marketing and entrepreneurial thought-leaders participating.
And one of the first items on his list of things for entrepreneurs to consider when seeking venture capital is to the right person immediately.
“No firm where we went in through anyone but a senior partner went anywhere,” Gorlin says of Kabbage’s own experiences in finding venture backing. “If you get a meeting with a principal or associate, the odds of it going anywhere sink to infinitesimal levels,” he says.
While Gorlin’s slide presentation uses humor to make its points, the points are serious.
He’s Just Not that Into You
For instance, his “He’s Just Not that Into You,” section warns that “No means no, maybe means no and soft yeses mean no.”
Nevertheless, Gorlin says, persistence is the key. “Never stop trying,” he says. He’ll point out how many times big investors said “no” to investing in a company before they said “yes.”
Gorlin has solid advice for entrepreneurs. He suggests not pitching the most important venture capitalists on a potential list first. “You’ll get better,” he says.
Know your market
One of the most important things for entrepreneurs to do to prepare for a pitch to a VC, he says, “Is to know your market.”
It’s also a good idea to know your VC. “Take people they invested with out to dinner. Talk about the terms they got.”
Gorlin also suggests, “Don’t be afraid of venture capitalists and their pedigrees. Don’t make them smarter than you.”
But if you do get some discouraging comments, don’t think you’re alone. Gorlin says that one firm told the now quite successful Kabbage, “Your management team is weak and not smart enough to make this work.” Uh huh.
He’ll share more of the actual comments Kabbage received during its fund-raising process, stories, facts and other solid, if funny, advice direct from the digital fund-raising trenches.
Internet Summit is near capacity, so if you’re going, better register soon. During its own fund-raising process, Kabbage presented at TechMedia’s Southeast Venture Conference. The 2012 SEVC in Tysons Corner, VA, is set for Feb. 29.
Many marketers see key word research as a preliminary to search engine optimization, but it is actually fundamental to all marketing channels, says Ron Jones, president and CEO of Symetri Internet Marketing and author of Keyword Research for Search, Social and Beyond from Wiley Publishing.
Jones has been an avid proponent of the Search Engine Marketing industry by hosting and speaking at seminars and conferences. Additionally Ron has served on the Board for The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPRO) and is also one of the authors for the SEMPO Institute Insiders Guide and Advanced courses.
Jones, one of the legion of Internet thought-leaders and digital media gurus participating in next week’s Internet Summit at the Raleigh, NC Convention Center Nov. 15-16, will discuss how to expand thinking about keyword research and how to use it for competitive traditional marketing, branding and other channels.
“Part of it involves the buying cycle – when people will use certain key words. Part of it is about user intent as it applies to key word research,” he says.
That means if a consumer types “camera” into a search engine, he is likely at the beginning of the buying cycle and using broad search terms. If he types in Canon EOS Rebel, he pretty much knows what he’s looking for, has done research, and the chances are high he’s ready to convert and buy.
“He’s probably looking for price and availability,” says Jones. “So understanding which key words people use gives you insight into their intent,” he notes.
Using Google Analytics and looking at the bounce rate for key words bringing people to your site can reveal the relevance what they found has to what they were looking for, Jones says. “If they bounce quickly, it suggests the relevance of the key word to the page they landed on is a mismatch.”
That means, he adds, “You should make sure your upfront messaging matches the content you have on your landing pages.
Then, you should further analyze to determine not only the key words driving people to your site, but also which ones drive conversions for you.
Whenever strategy is important – in war, games, and marketing, timing may not be everything, but it is critically important. And, it is crucial to maximizing your social media marketing efforts, says Adam Covati, founder and CTO of Argyle Social.
Argyle, Covati notes, “Does a lot of original research.” He is one of dozens of digital media and marketing thought-leaders participating in the upcoming Internet Summit Nov. 15-16 at the Raleigh, NC Convention Center. He’ll talk about measuring, managing, and monetizing social media.
Get everyone on the same page
His first piece of advice is to “Get everyone in marketing on the same page. Use the same platform. Aggregate your efforts in one place and use consistent web analytics or third party tools. Once you’re organized, you can really measure things and then you can figure out how to do more of what’s working.”
Argyle Social recently conducted research on how to time social media posts strategically to maximize engagement. It collected the results in an infographic Covati will discuss in more detail at the Internet Summit. Among the findings: marketers usually post to Twitter, Facebook or other social media outlets when they’re at work rather than when their audience is listening.
One strategy Covati suggests is to repost items. “We found that if you get it out there multiple times via multiple channels, you get about the same click-through rate each time. You reach different crowds on a Monday, on weekends, on evenings. So we might take one article and post it multiple times over a month.”
The infographic itself provides a good deal of insight into social media timing:
Nowadays, nearly all of us do online research before buying anything of consequence. But how often do we actually buy online? Take a guess. If you guessed more than 6 percent, you missed the mark.
Brendan Morrissey, CEO of Netsertive, a Research Triangle, NC-based company selling a platform that connects national brands to local channel marketing.
Prior to founding Netsertive, he was VP of Business Development at Motricity, an interactive marketing technology company serving media, entertainment and mobile carrier clients.
Before that he was a VP at Los Angeles based startup GoldPocket Wireless, whose technology platform connected media firms and brands with mobile carriers and consumers, where he helped drive rapid growth leading to its successful acquisition by Motricity.
He is one of dozens of digital media and marketing thought-leaders participating in theInternet Summit , the largest digital marketing event in the Southeast, at the Raleigh, NC Convention Center Nov. 15-16, which still has a limited number of seats available.
Most commerce still occurs in local markets
“We’re 15 years into the consumer Internet, but lots of people don’t realize that most retail commerce still happens in local markets,” says Morrissey. He points to what he calls “the three 90s.”
While 90 percent of people use online search, online reviews and so on to research before buying a product or service, 90 percent of consumers still buy most items within 50 miles of their homes, and 90 percent of retail sales still occur over brick and mortar retail counters.
One problem that raises for online marketers is that even when working with 100 percent of the information available, you might know that a given consumer clicks your ad, hits your site and looks at specific products. But when that same consumer finally goes to a retail store to buy, how to you attribute that sale to online marketing?
Online discovery absolutely necessary
“Only now are we seeing deep pockets of expertise on how to connect online discovery with local consumer sales offline,” Morrissey says. “Most marketers are still trying to apply the old rules of e-commerce and old measurements such as click through rates or conversion rates.”
He notes that it’s absolutely necessary for retailers to be online so consumers can find them. “People don’t use the Yellow Pages anymore,” he says. They discover merchants or services online.
“Yet,” he says, “figuring out a return on investment (for online marketing) is tricky. As soon as the consumer leaves the web site to visit the store, you can no longer connect him to what brought him there.”
But, “You have to get there,” says Morrissey, even more so now with mobile coming on like the railroads that once steamed across the nation changing commerce. “People want to be targeted based on the device they carry and the location they’re at with a message that makes sense for what they are doing there.”
Tracking digital connections to offline sales
There are ways to track those digital connections, though.
“You can try to hook people with special offers and coupons with tracking codes. You can make it easy for someone online to contact you for more information about that new washing machine – but not with 19 required fields on a form. You can connect online discovery at the product level – tell me where I can get one within 20 miles from my house.
He adds, “You can have a process in your local offline business. Ask customers where they learned about you.” That can be useful even if a business only does it by tracking 30 days at a time a couple of times a year. “That’s enough to know if your online marketing is driving any business.”
Few businesses are doing that with any rigor, he says.
Netsertive, founded in 2009, works with small to medium-sized businesses with $2 million to $20 million in annual revenues, to bring national brand advertising to local markets with dealers and retailers selling their brands.
It’s similar to the “Co-op” advertising that puts advertisements for national products in local media outlets such as magazines and newspapers.
Morrissey will elaborate on this at the Internet Summit.
Donna DeMarco, Co-Founder, Vice President, Viddler, Inc.
We’ve all see those business site videos in which an executive with a face for radio drones on about some new product release and takes 10 minutes to make a point. Well, we’ve all seen parts of those videos. Most people don’t finish watching them. But do it right and statistics show that video increases site stickiness and engages prospects and customers so that that stay on site longer.
What many people do not realize going into it is that “There is a lot of work involved in creating a video,” says Donna DeMarco, co-founder and vice president of Viddler Inc, which sells an online video platform for businesses. DeMarco is one of dozens of digital marketing and media thought-leaders from Google, Microsoft, ESPN, Yahoo, Buddy Media and many more top brands participating in the upcoming Internet Summit at the Raleigh Convention Center Nov. 15-16.
Her pioneering efforts in website video integration, private viewing, advertising monetization, and video subscription services have been embraced by more than 1,500 businesses, and that corporate base is growing daily. She’ll be presenting during the online video strategy session.
Key elements of good video
One of the key elements of producing a good online video (Viddler does not do production, but does host videos for clients) is to “Pick someone in your company who is charismatic and comfortable in front of the camera,” DeMarco says. “Otherwise, hire a professional. A lot of vendors provide that at reasonable cost.”
If you get the wrong person and offer content similar to a late night TV ad, “No one is going to come to your site to watch that,” she warns.
DeMarco says producing a video is “Marketing 101: provide a short, concise message. Don’t ramble on.”
You do have to think about some production values. “You have to consider basic design things,” she says. “Our designer cringes at the color combinations some people pick.”
Used well, however, video can be highly effective. It can keep visitors on the site, increase brand awareness, and provide valuable analytics data.
Get a mobile strategy
“We have people leaving print and moving to online video advertising,” DeMarco says. In fact, one small newspaper chain took all of its local advertisers and said, we’ll give you a video ad on our web page.” Unlike many struggling newspapers, “They have already made the shift to digital,” she notes. That’s not a bad strategy for other local publications to consider.
DeMarco says companies need to have a mobile video strategy. “Make sure your videos play on mobile devices,” she says. Also, “If you allow people to upload video testimonials, that can be very beneficial.”
Video marketers do have to make a range of decisions about how to present a video once it is ready for prime time. That includes whether it is to be locked down on a given site, the way Gawker does it, or if it can be posted on other sites and link back to the producer’s site.
Also, if a firm is allowing users to upload video testimonials, “A lot of people want to view it first before it goes public,” she says.
If the video producer has enough expertise and skill, “You can set up your own video store to sell that expertise,” DeMarco adds. “We have a couple of clients doing that successfully.”
Google has already had to deal with one of its own employees posting a rant about its redesign of Google Reader that looks as if it were done by someone who never actually uses Google Reader. Now, it has just introduced its new look for Gmail – an equally stark redesign that blinds you with white LED light if you view it on a desktop.
More LED light flooding screen-weary eyes is not something we needed.
This is a classic case of fixing things that are not broken and making them worse in the process. It would be wise for Google to provide a way for users to keep the old looks if they prefer them – and we suspect we’re only one among many who find the changes make things worse rather than improving them.
For one thing, creating such a stark look that glows like something radioactive is not just hard on the eyes, it is if anything, less effective functionally (the appearance, not the features). You could light a room with Gmail open on a desktop screen.
You have to ask, did Google do any usability design testing before making these sweeping changes? Why did the company think them necessary?
Nothing wrong with simple
We just interviewed Marshall Brain, founder of How Stuff Works, who will be doing a session at the upcoming Internet Summit in Raleigh, NC, Nov. 16 on when fashionable design is necessary and when it’s not. Often, Brain tells us, simple works for certain audiences as well or better than all the bells and whistles designs.
Top sites such as The Drudge Report or Craig’s List make do with the most basic sites possible. (Look for our interview with Brain next week. He retired from HowStuffWorks this past summer and is up to new things).
But we’re not dissing the simplicity of Google’s new designs. It’s more human engineering we’re thinking about. What works best. Human engineering is something too many tech companies have ignored to their later dismay.
Years ago, we wrote a story for the late, still-missed OMNI magazine in which a human engineering expert noted that most nuclear power plant control rooms looked as if someone had put all dial, controls and switches in a box, then thrown them against the wall and placed them where they landed. We feel that way about the design of numerous tech devices we have used or tested, from smartphones to tablets and operating systems.
One of the reason’s for Apple Inc.’s great success, as most commentators noted after Steve Jobs recent death from cancer, is of course, its attention to design – and not just beauty, but in a pragmatically useful sense as well.
Google says its Gmail changes include improvements to search and other functions and that may be. But the design changes are almost a backward step.
If they represent the way new CEO and company co-founder Larry Page is approaching things, it does not bode well for Google going forward.
We’re not alone
Now it’s normal for people to dislike change when they’re used to something, and perhaps everyone will just get used to the new look on Gmail, Google Reader and its other products, but we doubt it. We’re not opposed to change on principle by any means. And, generally, we like Google’s products, which we use daily, including both Reader and Gmail.
Famously, one of Google Reader’s former Project Managers Brian Shih post calling the Google Reader design a terrible decision got lots of press.
Peter Smith at IT world reports that the buzz on the Google changes seems universally negative for Google Reader but find the Gmail changes ok. He likes some of those changes.
Personally, we’ve already send comments to Google via its feedback button telling them how much we dislike the Gmail changes. How about you? Have you experienced Google’s new look? Do you find it better? Worse? Neither?
Jamie Beck, Cisco's program manager, who will be at the Raleigh Internet Summit Nov. 15-16.
By Allan Maurer
So, you go to your marketing webinar on time and sit there with nothing happening waiting for the presenters to manage signing in. As the minutes tick by, the number of attendees on the sidebar drops steadily.
“This may sound elementary,” says Jamie Beck, services program manager at Cisco, “but make sure you have 30 minutes in front of a webinar to systems checks.”
Beck says he has been on webinars where they spend the first ten minutes dealing with people having a problem dialing in. “I’ve seen it happen in a webinar with 100s of people. It is a pain for attendees if you spend even the first three minutes fooling with that. You’ll see people dropping off. So make sure your presentors are there well ahead of time.”
That’s one of the webinar best practices and strategies Beck will discuss at the Internet Summit at the Raleigh, NC Convention Center Nov. 15-16. Beck is one dozens of digital media thought-leaders presenting at the event, which is the largest digital media happening in the Southeast.
Offer a chance at a gift
Another best practice, he says, is to offer an incentive beyond the content to attract attendees.
“You may think your content is great, but I’ve seen webinars where you end up with two people from 500 invites. Offer people something as an incentive.” Cisco, for instance, will give those who attend a chance to win a flipcam.
“Some of the biggest webinar failures I’ve seen, including one where I was a keynote speaker and had a compelling message, didn’t offer anything but the content. So unless you have people locked into the content, offer a $25 Amazon card or some other incentive.”
Devise a compelling invite
Most webinars are promoted through email campaigns, and a regular text email is not very compelling, Beck says. “You should have compelling information – four or five bullet points – in a nicely designed email, including photos and/or graphics.”
That might be a problem for those without staff skilled at that or an agency. If that’s the case, Beck says, “You can make sure your message is clear and concise. Don’t go into information overkill. If people have to read through four paragraphs they’ll never make it to the webinar link.”
Instead, if you want to supply more information, “You can have a link off the webinar site with a lot of information,” he suggests.
Provide the presentation materials
Finally, Beck says, make sure you offer those who attend access to any presentation materials such as PowerPoint slides or white papers. People can do screenshots anyway, so whatever is presented can’t be kept private. “Make it available,” Beck says. “It’s another piece of incentive.”
Beck says he’s still working on his Internet Summit presentation, “kicking ideas around in my head.” In addition to best webinar strategies, he plans to offer a list of webinar technology available, both free and paid so that “it doesn’t sound like a sales pitch for Cisco’s Webex.”
RALEIGH, NC – The design and usability of a major company’s web site requires ongoing, daily attention to meeting visitor expectations and then getting them where they want to go via the easiest route.
“It is a science and an art,” says Sherry Bastion, Lenovo’s Web Creative Director. “You want to create a digital experience that builds brand loyalty and sales. Your site online has to be your ambassador.”
The intensive five-session pre-conference program will examine ways to create those digital experiences that feed brand loyalty and spark sales, using web design as a strategic tool, maximizing the impact of content, and finally, designing relevant and useful mobile apps.
Bastion will conduct the initial session focusing on how to design a web site to keep visitors engaged with your company’s products so that they come back again and again.
Eliminate outdated, boring, uninspiring content
Because the site has to act as the company ambassador, “You have to eliminate outdated, incorrect, boring and uninspiring information. “You want visitors to think, ‘What a great company.’ Part of that is understanding what people want to find on the site and making it easy to find.”
That sounds easy enough, but she adds, “You never know what people will want when they come to the site. Are they there to learn more about a product? Your company? You have to help them through all these decision trees.”
Also, she says, “There is a certain corporate tone you want to develop to give the brand a consistent look and feel and says, ‘This is a quality brand, a quality product.’ It gives you the information you need without wasting your time.”
Get visitors excited
Trying to force people down some pre-ordained path “is not good,” she says. “They should be in charge. Try to give them the experience they are seeking. If they’re coming to learn about a specific product and the only thing they get is a photo and a list of specs, it doesn’t help them understand why they should buy your product over a competitor’s. It’s bland. It doesn’t get them excited.”
And getting visitors exciting and engaged is what works.
Lenovo uses a variety of content to achieve that. “We show them 360 degree views of products so that they get a sense of what it looks like virtually. We give them customer reviews, because they like to know what others think of it.”
Even negative reviews, we asked. “We don’t filter anything,” Bastion says. “We also provide forums for any kind of social interaction and for people to engage, whether they are bad mouthing or praising us. There are no secrets and we don’t try to hide anything. It is important for visitors to see third party quotes and reviews.”
All of this is a daily, ongoing effort. “We look at the metrics,” Bastion notes. “We look at what people are clickin gon, what they do on the side. We ask them to do surveys. We try to constantly improve the experience, bringing in what they want and getting rid of what they don’t.”
She asks, “Are you putting things where people are apt to look?” Eye-tracking and usability studies may help there, she suggests.
Everyone has to work together
One of the challenges in a large company in particular is that “You have people focused on usability, on design, on content, and they can’t exist in a vacuum. They all have to work together.”
Even with assiduous attention to details, Bastion says keeping a site optimized is a full time job with surprises.
“You have to check your ego at the door. People change. What worked yesterday may not work tomorrow. You have to constantly let customer interactions tell you what’s working and what’s not.”
Attendees at the 2010 Internet Summit at the Raleigh Convention Center. The RCC promises a "Super Connection" able to handle the large crowd expected for the 2011 event Nov. 15-16.
Tired of trying to nab an Internet connection at tech events? One thing attendees at Tech Media’s 2011 Internet Summit can look forward to Nov. 15-16 is a high speed ”Super Connection” for wireless access to the Internet at North Carolina’s Raleigh Convention Center. So, they’ll be able to tweet, blog, and stay connected from the opening keynote to the final event.
For the thousands of gamers and spectators at the Raleigh Convention Center and the millions watching online, the recent Major League Gaming tournament that swept through the city last month went off like one of the carefully orchestrated Call of Duty maneuvers performed by the expert competitive gamers on hand.
But, as any gamer, IT expert or convention center marketing and sales team will tell you, there is so much more to the action than what you see on the screen.
For the IT crew at the Raleigh Convention Center, delivering an up to the minute, competitive and exciting experience for not only the gaming gladiators on the massive expo floor but the millions watching online meant developing creative solutions to meet both power, networking and A/V needs.
Major League Gaming puts on multi-million dollar productions in cities all over the country every week. To do that, they have to know their host venues can provide the strong IT backbone they’ll need to put on their show without a hitch.
No backbone. No Major League Gaming.
Gamers at the Raleigh Convention Center Major League Gaming Event. How many venues have enough wireless bandwidth for that?
Similarly, as the host venue for the Internet2 and Internet Summit conferences, our system has to go above and beyond what a typical convention center offers. For Internet2, that meant creating a super high speed fiber connection over multiple blocks to connect the conference to Raleigh’s fiber-optic point of presence (courtesy of MCNC).
The result is a connection at speeds of 10 gigabits per second.
These connection speeds recently allowed an innovator who invented an online communications system free of any lag or buffering to host a duet of classical musicians.
A violinist performed in the convention center while a cellist performed at Northern Illinois University — in perfect unison.
“As the way we meet and learn changes, we’re also focused on ensuring that meeting goers can access the Web from everywhere and anywhere at the convention center,” says Dave Chapman, RCC’s IT director.
“Whether it is a meeting of 20 or 2,000, meeting planners can be confident that their attendees will be able to access the Web and the information they need wirelessly. It’s all part of what our team thinks of as “Super Connection.”
“And by “team,” we don’t just mean us lovable geeks in the IT office.”
He adds, “Everyone — from sales staff to docents to convention center directors — are now to some degree on the tech team. It’s key that we all understand at least the basics of our tech-savvy customers’ expectations, and be able to participate in the process of finding solutions or at least communicating those solutions to the client.”
Planners saw the need for advanced wireless connections
The annual Tech Media Internet Summit draws a large number of attendees. This year they will hear from more than 120 digital media thought leaders.
Tech prowess is now an important differentiator in a crowded market. The designers of the convention center in Raleigh anticipated this dawning age of Super Connection.
From the miles of internal multi-mode and single-mode fiber to the beefy Cisco network hardware to the fiber data connections to multiple carriers including AT&T, Time Warner, TW Telecom, and MCNC, RCC can deliver on needs large and small.
For MLG, delivery meant syncing up the hundreds of gaming systems, monitors, speakers, headsets and controllers so the competitors could throw down in their virtual worlds all while their glories and defeats were broadcast all over the real world.
It also meant ensuring play by play, hit by hit and magical spell by magical spell could be broadcast by on-hand color commentators.
So, as you grab a hold of that controller and practice for next year’s tournament or look around for a venue to host your next tech conference, you can rest assured that RCC can put you and thousands more online, the RCC experts say.
The 2011 Internet Summit is the largest ever, with 120 digital media and Internet business thought leaders presenting over the two-day event.
TechMedia’s Internet Summit is bringing 120 digital media, marketing and business thought leaders to the Raleigh, NC, Convention Center Nov. 15-16, but discounted early registration for the event, which is shaping up as the largest ever, ends today, Friday, Oct. 14.
With more than 75 individual presentations, 5 forward looking panels, and keynotes by NY Times best-selling author & ‘Social Media King’ Gary Vaynerchuk andGowalla co-founder Josh Williams the event promises to give your business savvy a boost.
Over 120 industry innovators and thought leaders from prime brands like Google, Microsoft, ESPN, StumbleUpon and many more, will be on hand to share their insight, spark new ideas, and expand your understanding on issues and topics that matter to you.
The Internet Summit expects nearly 2,000 attendees at Internet Summit 2011 making it the largest Digital, Media & Tech Conference in the Southeast — offering you unparalleled opportunities to connect and network with your peers and business colleagues.
By 2013, the smart phone applications market is expected to surpass $15 billion, up from $1.94 billion in 2009, according to research2guidance. The surge will be attributed to the dramatic increase in the amount of smart phone users, which should top 1 billion in 2013.
Plenty of companies are benefiting from this increase in attention, like Glu Mobile makers of original games like Beat It! And Brain Genius toNetSuite who gears its applications towards financial and customer management needs.
The smartphone/tablet app market is easier to break into for startups and provides a quicker route to revenue than many other tech opportunities. We reported on the Atlanta startup, Khush, which has a smartphone app that adds music to your voice when you sing a tune.
Khush CEO Prerna Gupta is among 120 top digital gurus presenting at the upcoming Internet Summit in Raleigh, NC, Nov. 15-16.
There are also niche markets emerging, Vringo, Inc (NYSE Amex: VRNG) recently unveiled its Facetones application via Verizon V CAST Apps. This application creates an automated video slideshow using friends’ photos from social media websites and photo sites and then plays this video slideshow as the phone rings.
Applications are making their way into traditional areas of business as well, The Allstate Corp., which operates in most facets of insurance allows users of their applications to do everything from get policy and claim information to pay their bill and receive accident support.
According to a semi-annual survey, CTIA found that there are 327.6 million wireless subscriber connections, an increase of 9 percent from mid-year 2010, when that number was at 292.8 million. Of that number, 95.8 million are smart phones and wireless enabled PDAs. For the first time, the number of wireless subscriber connections has surpassed the U.S. population.
Jack Krawczyk of StumbleUpon is one of the presenters at the upcoming Internet Summit in Raleigh
StumbleUpon, which lets users find web sites they might like based on those they surf, has hit a record 20 million users and 1 billion stumbles a month, according to the company.
The company says the user growth is due to new features, mobile use, according to VentureBeat.
If you haven’t tried it, StumbleUpon is fun and will likely show you sites you’ll enjoy. We’ve found new sites using it, although it’s one of those things we don’t use during work hours much. It can be addictive.
StumbleUpon, bought by eBay in 2007, then sold back to its founders after two years, raised a $17 million funding round in May.
For some inside insight into StumbleUpon marketing, you can hear Jack Krawczyk, senior product marketing manager of StumbleUpon, along with 120 other top presenters at the upcoming Internet Summit in Raleigh, NC, Nov. 15-16.
Krawczyk is responsible for the product marketing development of advertising and partnership solutions. Focused on Paid Discovery, StumbleUpon’s social media marketing platform, Krawczyk has been working closely with marketers to understand how to better engage brand promise with consumers who are in the mindset of discovery.
TechMedia’s Internet Summit is bringing 120 digital media, marketing and business mavens to the Raleigh, NC, Convention Center Nov. 15-16, but discounted early registration for the event, which is shaping up as the largest ever, ends this Friday, Oct. 14.
With more than 75 individual presentations, 5 forward looking panels, and keynotes by NY Times best-selling author & ‘Social Media King’ Gary Vaynerchuk and Gowalla co-founder Josh Williams the event promises to give your business savvy a boost.
Over 120 industry innovators and thought leaders from prime brands like Google, Microsoft, ESPN, StumbleUpon and many more, will be on hand to share their insight, spark new ideas, and expand your understanding on issues and topics that matter to you.
The Internet Summit expects nearly 2,000 attendees at Internet Summit 2011 making it the largest Digital, Media & Tech Conference in the Southeast — offering you unparalleled opportunities to connect and network with your peers and business colleagues.
Johan Wibergh, Sony Ericsson EVP, head of business unit networks
A new report shows that doubling the broadband speed for an economy increases GDP by 0.3 percent.
The report was conducted jointly by Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC), Arthur D. Little and Chalmers University of Technology in 33 OECD countries, and quantifies the isolated impact of broadband speed.
A 0.3 percent GDP growth in the OECD region is equivalent to USD 126 billion. This corresponds to more than one seventh of the average annual OECD growth rate in the last decade.
This Ericsson study also shows that additional doublings of speed can yield growth in excess of 0.3 percent (e.g. quadrupling of speed equals 0.6 percent GDP growth stimulus)
Both broadband availability and speed are strong drivers in an economy. Last year Ericsson and Arthur D. Little concluded that for every 10 percentage point increase in broadband penetration GDP increases by 1 percent.
Growth stems from direct and indirect effects
This growth stems from a combination of direct, indirect and induced effects. Direct and indirect effects provide a short to medium term stimulus to the economy. The induced effect, which includes the creation of new services and businesses, is the most sustainable dimension and could represent as much as one third of the mentioned GDP growth.
“Broadband has the power to spur economic growth by creating efficiency for society, businesses and consumers,” says Johan Wibergh, head of Business Unit Networks, Ericsson. “It opens up possibilities for more advanced online services, smarter utility services, telecommuting and telepresence. In health care, for instance, we expect that mobile applications will be used by 500 million people.”
During a keynote speech at Broadband World Forum 2011 in Paris, Wibergh said: “We expect a huge increase from the current estimate of around 1 billion people with broadband access to about 5 billion in 2016, most of whom will have mobile broadband. Connectivity and broadband are just a starting point for new ways of innovating, collaborating and socializing.”
Erik Almqvist, director at Arthur D. Little, says: “Until now there has been an absence of hard facts investigating the effects of broadband speed on the economy. This unique empirical study may help governments and other decisions makers in society make more correct tradeoffs and policy choices.”
Results support polices that recognize broadband importance
“These results have been derived using rigorous scientific methods where the direction of causality, data quality and significance levels have been appropriately tested,” says Erik Bohlin, Professor at Chalmers University of Technology.
“The results of this study support governmental policies that recognize and promote the importance of broadband.”
Unfortunately, many states have restricted the efforts of municipalities to create their own, higher-speed broadband networks due to lobbying by commercial providers, which make substantial contributions to state legislature political campaigns that seem to have paid off. It paid off most recently in North Carolina, where the Republican controlled state legislature passed such a bill restricting municipal broadband efforts despite the fact that seven NC cities had the lowest download speeds vs. price nationally.)
This study is the first of its kind in that it quantifies the economic impact of increases in broadband speed in a comprehensive scientific method using publicly available data.
Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina are viewed as having the best business climates among the 50 states, according to a new survey of U.S. corporate executives.
The poll pinpointed California, New York and Illinois as the U.S. states with the least favorable business climates.
Conducted by Development Counsellors International (DCI) every three years, the “Winning Strategies in Economic Development Marketing” survey has tracked trends in economic development since its inception in 1996.
“With the battle for business more intense than ever, states and their economic development organizations need to pay close attention to the results of this survey,” said DCI President Andrew T. Levine. “Whether accurate or misguided, perceptions about a location’s business climate often play a crucial role in site selection decisions and where companies invest money and create jobs.”
Half the firms to make relocation decisions
Nearly half (46%) of the 322 corporate executive who responded to the survey indicated that their firm would make a location decision in the next 24 months – whether a move, expansion or consolidation of a manufacturing plant, offices, distribution center or other facilities. More than half (51%) said that they would outsource a portion of the site selection process to a real estate broker or site selection consultant.
Texas was the clear-cut favorite among the respondents to the survey, with 49.4% naming the Lone Star state as having one of the most favorable business climates in the nation. North Carolina ranked second with 27.8%; South Carolina has 14.3% of the votes.
Texas and North Carolina have consistently landed in the top spots since the survey began more than a decade ago.Texas has held the #1 ranking since 1999, while North Carolina has been #2 since 2002. South Carolina, Tennessee andFlorida have frequently traded top positions in the survey and 2011 marks the return of South Carolina to the #3 slot.
Low operating costs a top concern
When asked why they selected the states they did as being best for business, the corporate executives frequently cited low operating costs and a pro-business climate. In the 2008 survey, more executives pointed to the availability of a strong workforce than they did in 2011.
For the fourth consecutive time, California was deemed as having the least favorable business climate, with 70.5% of the responses. New York was named second most frequently with 46.5%, followed by Illinois (24.4%) Taxes, high costs and “anti-business climate/regulation” spurred most of the negative opinions.
The comprehensive survey also asked a series of questions to divine the most effective economic development marketing tools, the leading sources of information that influence executive perceptions of a community’s business climate and the most important factors in business location decisions.
DCI conducted the survey online, polling a random selection of C-level executives at U.S. companies with annual revenues of$25 million or more. The survey was augmented by 250 location advisors/consultants.
Windows 8 is grabbing good press across the net for the features disclosed at the Windows Build Conference earlier this week. With the exception that it still doesn’t work right with the drivers for some of our equipment, Windows 7 was certainly an advance over Vista and XP. We particularly appreciate its fast loading time compared to Vista, which, it sometimes seemed, would grind on and on for interminable lengths.
Windows 8 will boot in about 8 seconds, due to a new method that puts the kernal session to sleep rather than shutting it down completely so that it needs to completely reboot. Eight seconds! Now that’s an improvement we like.
Here’s a video demo of the quick startup:
Other features in Windows 8: it provides an Android like touch and swipe method with a picture password for unlocking your PC, as opposed to the text password used now.
The lock screen will display your battery information, time, instant messages and email you missed while away, and upcoming calendar events. Here’s a slideshow Windowof all the changes.
UNC Chapel Hill launching Virtual Digital Humanities Lab
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will launch a new virtual Digital Innovations lab that will encourage collaborative, interdisciplinary and innovative digital humanities projects.
Brett Bobley, director of the Office of Digital Humanities at the National Endowment for the Humanities, will give a free public talk Oct. 10 to celebrate the kickoff of the Digital Innovation Lab, which will be affiliated with the American studies department in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences. Bobley will speak at 2 p.m. in the University Room of Hyde Hall, home of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, located off East Franklin Street.
The Digital Innovation Lab will encourage the production of digital “public goods”: projects and tools that are of social and cultural value; can be made publicly available; are scalable and reusable; and/or serve multiple audiences. One immediate focus will be the use of large-scale data sources – maps, newspapers, city directories, public records – by scholars and the public in understanding the history of communities. The lab, accessed at http://digitalinnovation.unc.edu,
was created with a startup grant from the college.
“Digital technologies have the potential to transform how our faculty in the humanities ask questions about the world, engage with local communities, create learning environments for our students and collaborate with partners within and beyond the University,” said William L. Andrews, Ph.D., senior associate dean for the fine arts and humanities in the College.
The lab will build on the nationally funded digital humanities work of its UNC co-directors and co-founders – Robert Allen, Ph.D, and Richard Marciano, Ph.D. Allen is the James Logan Godfrey Distinguished Professor of American studies, history and communication studies. Marciano is a professor in the School of Information and Library Science and affiliated professor in American studies and director of Sustainable Archives and Leveraging Technologies (SALT).
Cloud storage firm Zetta lands $9M round
Sunnyvale, CA-based Enterprise cloud storage provider Zetta today announced that it has raised $9 million in its third round of funding, bringing the total funding to $31.5 million. Both existing investors Foundation Capital and Sigma Partners participated. Funds from this new investment will be used for sales, marketing and product development that will help the company increase market share of its award-winning cloud backup services in the small-to-medium business (SMB) market.
DURHAM, NC -The company that may put at least some journalists out of work, StatSheet, which sells real-time content automation, has raised a $4 million round of funding led by Court Square Ventures and OCA Ventures, with participation from IDEA Fund Partners and other existing investors.
In conjunction, the company changed its name to Automated Insights to reflect the broad applicability of its innovative technology to data-intensive verticals beyond sports where high content generation costs can make comprehensive coverage prohibitively expensive. The company’s sports offerings will continue to grow under the StatSheet brand.
“We believe this new corporate branding better reflects the long-term potential of our company, and underscores the value of our technology to any vertical with large amounts of structured data,” said Robbie Allen, the company’s CEO and founder.
Automated Insights’ technology transforms vast amounts of raw data into compelling narrative content and powerful visualizations. The content is written entirely by software and can be formatted as headlines, summaries, and long-form articles. In addition, the content can be published cost-effectively at just about any scale via the web, mobile applications, and all types of social media.
“Our technology has worked extremely well with sports, but it is also well suited to verticals such as finance, real estate and weather, or even sales productivity and business intelligence applications. In essence, our technology humanizes big data by automating knowledge and insight so the new name is a perfect fit” added Allen.
Automated Insights’ technology can be seen in action in its StatSheet sports content network. StatSheet currently powers fully-automated, real-time coverage of all 375 Major League Baseball (MLB) and NCAA Division I College Basketball teams via dynamically updated team-centric websites, iPhone and Android applications, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and e-mail newsletters. In September, the company will also launch team-centric sites and mobile apps for all 32 NFL and 244 NCAA Division I College Football teams.
“Automated Insights is revolutionizing the creation of compelling high-quality content and they have proven they can do it at scale through their StatSheet sports content network,” commented Randy Castleman, General Partner with Court Square Ventures. “We are excited to help them continue to grow their sports coverage and apply the technology to new verticals.
“We are thrilled to team up with such a strong management team and experienced investors,” noted Jim Dugan, CEO and Managing Partner of OCA Ventures. “We believe the timing is ideal for Automated Insights’ highly scalable content development solutions.”
RALEIGH, NC – You can still get the Early Bird rate of only $195 to attend the Internet Summit 2011 in Raleigh, NC, Nov. 15-16, but only until August 31.
The Summit promises to be the biggest and best yet. It features:
Keynote by Gary Vaynerchuk, “Social Media King” & NY Times bestselling author
The recent round of UK rioting and violence provided further evidence of the way technology is changing the nature of video broadcasting and journalism. Technology is used to get a stronger sense of reality.
Gone are the days where ‘going live’ necessitated uplink trucks, satellite dishes, frantic calls to satellite coordinators and high costs. Now both professional and ‘DIY’ / citizen broadcasters are taking to the air and getting their stories out live, equipped with little more than their mobile phone and access to a 3G or Wi-Fi network and doing this at a very low cost.
US journalists are only starting to use live streaming sites like Bambuser to broadcast some behind the scenes footage, report live from a sports event, engage with viewers or use live streaming sites as part of a drive to find user generated content.
Hurricane Irene
WECT, an NBC-affiliated TV station for the Cape Fear area of North Carolina, meteorologist Colin Hackman is using Bambuser to respond to viewers’ questions and concerns regarding hurricane Irene.
College Football Season
Currently, Len Clark, a mobile journalism specialist, is preparing to report live from the Notre Dame Football Game on September 3rd. He will be using a variety of emerging media technology to cover the game.
Amongst those are Bambuser – to capture live video, which will then be archived on the Irishmojo.com website, for the audience to watch even after the event. In addition, VeriLocal and Hyperlocal network tools will be used to host “Irishmojo.com”. And Cover It Live – a web based Live Blogging service as well as Twitter and Facebook are part of the tools to communicate with viewers and respond instantly to questions.
Many other media outlets still haven’t been as quick to leverage the advantages offered by emerging media. “In order to be competitive in the future all media outlets need to equip their reporters with services like Bambuser to ensure that every reporter can submit live and exclusive video content instantly,” says Len Clark.
“It’s apparent the modern mobile phone is changing the nature sharing live broadcasts – and will continue to do so. But only some early adopting journalists and the general public are leading the charge, how long will it be before the broadcasting industry catches up?” asks, Hans Eriksson, chairman, Bambuser.
By Allan Maurer
TechMedia’s 
By 2013, the smart phone applications market is expected to surpass $15 billion, up from $1.94 billion in 2009, according to 
TechMedia’s 
Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina are viewed as having the best business climates among the 50 states, according to a new survey of U.S. corporate executives.
Windows 8 is grabbing good press across the net for the features disclosed at the Windows Build Conference earlier this week. With the exception that it still doesn’t work right with the drivers for some of our equipment, Windows 7 was certainly an advance over Vista and XP. We particularly appreciate its fast loading time compared to Vista, which, it sometimes seemed, would grind on and on for interminable lengths.
DURHAM, NC -The company that may put at least some journalists out of work, 
RALEIGH, NC – You can still get the Early Bird rate of only $195 to attend the Internet Summit 2011 in Raleigh, NC, Nov. 15-16, but only until August 31.
