Feb
8
Presenting: 10 of the Smartest Big Brands in Social Media
digg_url = ‘http://mashable.com/2009/02/06/social-media-smartest-brands/’;
digg_title = ‘Presenting: 10 of the Smartest Big Brands in Social Media’;
digg_bodytext = ‘Samir Balwani is a social media marketer who helps businesses create effective web strategies. You can follow him on Twitter and get his newsletter.\n\nAs we battle a global recession, corporations are looking for new ways to sell their achat de viagra en ligne products and engage their consumers. Many have turned to the Internet, with Social Media in particular, to market’;
Long island boat show
Samir Balwani is a social media marketer who helps businesses create effective web strategies. You can follow him on Twitter and get his newsletter.
As we battle a global recession, corporations are looking for new ways to sell their products and engage their consumers. Many have turned to the Internet, with Social Media in particular, to market their goods. Let’s take a look at 10 companies that have done a phenomenal job of taking advantage of social media platforms.
1. Blendtec Blends it on YouTube
Who doesn’t know about the “ download drama movies;Will It Blend” series on YouTube? Created by George Write, the marketing director of Blendtec, the campaign was low cost and instantly became a hit. In the video, Tom Dickson the CEO of Blendtec, attempts to blend objects in their blender. This simple idea led to a “five-fold increase in sales”.
Blendtec leveraged YouTube’s subscriber base and tried something fun and original. The campaign was a success and continues to entertain and sell.
Lesson: Social media marketing doesn’t always need to cost a lot of money. Creating funny, original video and leveraging an already large user base can be used to increase sales.
2. Burger King and the Sacrifice Facebook Application
Recently, Burger King has really been pushing the envelope with their marketing. They first started with whoppervirgins.com, then entered the social space with the “sacrifice ten friends” facebook application. The campaign quickly went viral and was adopted by over 20,000 users, sacrificing 200,000 friends for free whoppers.
Sadly, the application was shut down as quickly as it started by Facebook, citing privacy concerns. Regardless, the application was beautifully built and the idea was perfect. Burger King built in the ability to share it, the incentive to use it, and added just enough humor to make the campaign a hit.
Lesson: Successful and viral campaigns don’t just test out social media, they jump in it. Pushing the envelope can create the buzz that makes your campaign memorable.
3. Starbucks Asks for Your Advice
Social media isn’t only about using existing websites, but sometimes creating your own. To get a better handle on consumer feedback, Starbucks did just that with “My Starbucks Idea.”
The site allows users to submit suggestions to be voted on by Starbucks consumers, and the most popular suggestions are highlighted and reviewed. Starbucks then took it a step further and added an “Ideas in Action” blog that gives updates to users on the status of changes suggested.
By empowering their exceptionally web savvy consumer, Starbucks strengthens their campaign to add a personal touch to coffee.
Lesson: Thinking of ways to build your company are great, but directly asking your consumers what they want, is better. Acting on that information and doing it publicly is key to the success of this campaign.
Starbucks has also embraced Twitter, you can see their stream at @Starbucks.
4. Sun Microsystems and the CEO Blog
Want your blog to really make a splash? You could learn a lot from Sun Microsystem’s CEO blog. Jonathan Schwartz’s blog received about 400,000 hits a month (in 2006).
It’s not the number of hits that make his blog a social media success, but the openness on it. Positive and negative comments are allowed, and even the most inane are approved. Transparency from the highest position in a company trickles down and increases trust from consumers.
Lesson: Social media is a culture of transparency and honesty that must be embraced, leading by example is one of the best ways to introduce it to a company. Few things are better than a CEO that blogs or uses twitter.
Sun Microsystems also has a network of blogs, friends on
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Feb
7
Scary, But the Usual: U.S. Will Release Hardened Black September Terrorist to Freedom
By Debbie Schlussel
The story of Khalid Duhham al-Jawary is a familiar one.
Muslim Palestinian terrorist easily comes to America and stays. Muslim Palestinian terrorist plots to blow up New York City and finally gets caught. Muslim Palestinian terrorist gets relatively short prison term and will soon get out. Muslim Palestinian terrorist will either get deported to plot yet more terrorist attacks from overseas a la Fawaz Abu Damra or get to stay here and live amongst us in freedom.
But read about who this guy is and ask yourself why this Black September Islamic terrorist will get to go free. Ask yourself if we should ever give this guy another breath of fresh air in freedom.
khalid duhham al-jawary: america will soon free mass-murdering terrorist
Oh, and one other thing: Black September, the P.L.O. faction that carried out the Munich Olympic massacre of Israeli athletes in 1972, is named for the 1970 mass slaughter of 10,000 plus Palestinians by . . . JORDANIAN Muslim Arabs (with King Hussein atop them), not Jews. (Its leader, Abu Iyad, was, at the same time,Yasser Arafat’s deputy.)
he built three powerful bombs - bombs powerful adequacy to kill, maim and destroy - and put them in rental cars scattered thither municipality [new york city], near israeli targets.
The plot failed. The explosive devices did not detonate, and Jawary fled the country, escaping prosecution for nearly two decades - until he was convicted of terrorism charges in Brooklyn and sentenced to 30 years in a federal penitentiary.
But his time is up.
In less than a month, the 63-year-old Jawary is expected to be released. He will likely be deported; where to is anybody’s guess. The shadowy figure had so many aliases it’s almost impossible to know which country is his true homeland. . . .
An Associated Press investigation - based on recently declassified documents, extensive court records, CIA investigative notes and interviews with former intelligence officials - reveals publicly for the first time Jawary’s deep involvement in terrorism beyond the plot that led to his conviction.
Braveheart
Government documents link Jawary to Black September’s murderous letter-bombing campaign targeting world leaders in the 1970s and a botched terrorist attack in 1979. Former intelligence officials suspect he had a role in the bombing of a TWA flight in 1974 that killed 88 people.
“He’s a very dangerous man,” said Mike Finnegan, the former FBI counterterrorism agent who captured Jawary. “A very bad guy.” . . .
On Jan. 12, 1973, Jawary flew to Boston via Montreal and then to New York City. He began scouting targets for a terrorist attack.
He picked two Israeli banks on Fifth Avenue and the El-Al cargo terminal at Kennedy Airport.
Possibly working with two or more people, Jawary rented three cars and assembled three bombs consisting of large containers filled with gasoline, propane tanks, plastic explosives, blasting caps and batteries, according to FBI and federal court records.
Two of the bombs used alarm clocks, but a third employed a sophisticated electronic-timing device commonly referred to as an “e-cell,” said Terence McTigue, who worked on the New York Police Department’s bomb squad. It was twice as powerful as the other two bombs.
On March 4, Jawary - and possibly others - readied the cars in anticipation of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir’s visit to the city.
Each car contained a Hebrew-language newspaper with propaganda from Black September - the terrorist organization that carried out the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics just months earlier - tucked inside.
But the bombs failed to explode. They were discovered after the two cars on Fifth Avenue were towed, and the FBI learned about the third car at JFK and notified police.
McTigue disarmed the e-cell bomb at JFK. . . . McTigue also recognized something else as he examined the car bomb: a plastic explosive called Semtex from Czechoslovakia. It had been used in scores of letter bombs sent around the world the previous year, targeting Jews and Israelis and even US Secretary of State William Rogers. One had killed an agricultural counselor at the Israeli Embassy in London, and another mangled the hands of a 26-year-old postal worker in The Bronx.
McTigue knew those letter bombs. He had handled them. The letters had pressure-release firing devices and were the work of Black September, Palestinian guerrillas believed by intelligence officials to be controlled by Yasser Arafat. . . .
The FBI beg …
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Feb
7
Feb
4
An academic whose estimates of civilian deaths during the Iraq war sparked controversy has been criticised for not fully levitra online Portugal co-operating with an inquiry.
Gilbert Burnham said in the Lancet medical journal in 2006 that 650,000 civilians had died since 2003 - a figure far higher than other estimates.
A polling association in the US said Dr Burnham had refused to supply “basic facts” for its inquiry into his work.
It did not comment on the accuracy of his conclusion.
The American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR)began investigating Dr Burnham’s work in March 2008 after a complaint by one of its members.
His research was based on a survey of Iraqi households and concluded that by July 2006 about 655,000 Iraqi civilians had died as a result of the US-led invasion.
The Iraqi government does not keep precise records of civilians killed and neither do US forces, but in 2006 cialis pries the Iraqi health ministry estimated that between 100,000 to 150,000 civilians had died.
The AAPOR’s executive council said in a statement carried by the Associated Press news agency: “When asked to provide several basic facts about this research, Burnham refused.”
It said it wanted to know the wording of questions asked and instructions and explanations given to respondents.
“Dr Burnham provided only partial information and explicitly refused to provide complete information about the basic elements of his research,” said Mary Losch, chair of the association’s standards committee.
She added that Dr Burnham’s refusal to co-operate “violates the fundamental standards of science, seriously undermines open public debate on critical issues and undermines the credibility of all survey and public opinion research.”
Non-members
A spokesman for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where Dr Burnham works, said they were disappointed AAPOR had said he violated the code of ethics.
However, the spokesman pointed out to AP that neither the researcher nor the school were members of the association.
The level of civilian casualties in Iraq has been a controversial issue ever since the US-led invasion of 2003.
For Dr Burnham’s study, researchers spoke to more than 1,800 families comprising 12,800 people, comparing mortality rates in selected areas before and after the invasion.
Its conclusion was undermined by allegations that the number of people surveyed was too small and that the authors may have inflated the figures for political reasons.
The Lancet said it had no comment.
Michigan city area schools
The independent Iraq Body Count, which counts only confirmed deaths, currently has a range of between 90,556 and 98,850.
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Feb
4
Ginnifer Goodwin
ginnifer goodwin plays the character who most needs the advice of he’s just not that into you. gigi waits quest of the phone to toll and concocts reasons to “run into” people she’s waiting to hear from. of course there’s a hollywood ending, but goodwin had to stall for time the now she would be okay,” goodwin said. “that is what we often see in movies, and that is what i bump into uncover incredibly unexciting that’s what was so refreshing about this script.as gigi learns to stop overanalyzing things and read the common sense signals, the film is careful not to force its lessons on the audience. “the script is so balanced. it’s so subtle. i don’t think that the declaration could have been so powerfully imparted if it wasn’t so subtle, because life is subtle and that’s what makes it so tie-able.the 30-year-old star - who indigent up with actor chris klein in december (08) following a two-year romance - admits she has had some miserable times as a single woman goodwin reveals that she often falls for men who don’t reciprocate her feelings - and embarrasses herself by continuing to pursue them she says, “i humiliate myself on a everyday basis and… i have commonly gone after the wrong fellas, i have often chased people who are not calling me back and making excuses for that, and i thought it was time that we, you know, get these messages out there.
Jesse lee peterson
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Feb
3
New Study May Help Solve Mystery of TMJ Jaw Pain
for millions of people with mysterious pain of the jaw region, there may be help on the way. researchers at the
Double bird strike game
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Feb
2
From the Editor’s Desk — A review live and in color
Anyone who has read this column more than once or twice can probably guess that I’m a frustrated athlete. A lack of talent has a way of limiting one’s ambition in that regard.
But I’m also a frustrated sportscaster, and spend much of my time rolling my eyes at the stupid things announcers say because in my dreams, I know I could do better than those dopes.
Football pool sheet
The other day, as we were watching figure skating on TV (I enjoy it; so shoot me. What am I supposed to do, watch more hard-hitting stories about how Larry Fitzgerald is good at catching footballs?), I was wondering what it would be like if my regular activities — writing this column, for instance — had accompanying play-by-play. I imagine it would be something like this, courtesy of NBC:
Tom Hammond: Up next is Bill Fonda, editor of the Marshfield Mariner, Scituate Mariner and Duxbury Reporter. He has been on the job two years, but has been a little inconsistent in recent weeks.
Sandra Bezic: That’s right, Tom. A few months ago, he wrote an in-depth column on race in our society drawing on his vacation in Philadelphia and the book “Nixonland,” but some of his efforts haven’t been up to his standards. His confidence hasn’t been what it normally is.
Scott Hamilton: His first move will be a story from his past … oh, he fell flat on that one.
Bezic: And I’ve heard him tell that story so many times before! It’s one of his favorites. Next up is a self-deprecating joke.
hamilton: he got it!!!!!!!!!!!!! bezic: he always tries so hard!
Hamilton: This could be the toughest move of the column, relating the self-referential stuff to a larger point … ohhhhh…..HE HELD ONTO IT! I wasn’t sure he was going to be able to pull that one off.
Bezic: He’s really starting to pull the column together now. Oh, a little stumble on that joke there. It seemed kind of forced.
Hamilton: EXCELLENT RELATING OF HIS STORY ABOUT HIMSELF AND A HISTORICAL EVENT TO SOMETHING GOING ON TODAY!
Bezic: As his column ends, he has a lot to be proud of, in spite of the poor beginning, awkward middle and stumble there at the finish.
Hammond: Let’s see what the judges have to say … sixth-best column of the week. Probably one that readers will forget by the time they reach the next page, if not sooner.
bezic: what a performance! hammond: let’s go to andrea joyce with bill now. andrea? joyce: berate us about the column.
Fonda: Well, I had that screw-up at the beginning. I can’t believe I blew that one. But I didn’t give up on the column. I could have put another column there or written my thoughts on various subjects, maybe made a Red Sox joke or two, but I decided to go for it instead. It just wasn’t my night, I guess. Actually, I really kind of stunk out the joint.
joyce. great job. promote to you, tom.
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Jan
31
NEW DELHI, India (CNN) — Five newborn babies receiving treatment for a skin ailment at a government hospital in north India died after a fire broke out Saturday, authorities said.
Surinder Singh, the medical superintendent of the Rajendra hospital in the Punjab state, told CNN that all babies were less than two weeks in age.
Gulli
"It appeared to be an electric short circuit (that caused the fire)," Singh said.
The incident happened at around 4 a.m. (5:30 p.m. ET), according to hospital authorities. Hospital staff were able to save five other babies, three of whom are now under treatment for burns, according to Singh.
The babies were all being treated for neo-natal jaundice, the yellowing of the skin that sometimes occurs in newborns. The newborns were in the phototherapy unit, a place that treats skin ailments with light therapy.
Punjab’s deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said an inquiry has been ordered into the hospital fire. In a statement, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh expressed sadness over the newborn deaths and announced assistance of around $2,000 for each bereaved family.
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Jan
29
Hip-Hop Rumors: The Truth Behind Jay-Z’s New Song! Yung Berg Is BACK!
disclaimer: all content within this section is pure rumor and mainly have no factual info outside of what the streets have whispered in our ear. infer from on movies downloads. today’s rumors! the circadian two cents is it me or is there a renewed cult being formed? the snuggie has infiltrated our lives and homes. not my home, but it would earmarks of that this is the dumbest thing ever. click here for my mini-opinion piece on the cult cialis of the snuggie. there is a video too. click here for that…(read more)
Nbc columbus
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Jan
28
Parade magazine columnist Brady dies at 80
ostentatious display.comuntil his death on monday, james brady continued to write his weekly celebrity column with a view parade and his column Compra Viagra on media cialis online Portugal on forbes.com, which debuted on january 19, 2006. brady’s last pedestrian way column, featuring kevin bacon, will be in the february 15 conclusion.
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