3 Ways to Amplify Small-Business Marketing with Crowdsourcing

3 Ways to Amplify Small-Business Marketing with Crowdsourcing

BY SUSAN GUNELIUS 

Don’t have time or money to do all of the marketing you’d like? Why not get your customers, consultants, freelancers, experts, writers, and more to help you? That’s what crowdsourcing is, and it’s a great way to enhance small business marketing efforts. By tapping into the “crowd” (particularly the massive online crowd), you can jumpstart your social media and content marketing efforts, extend your brand reach, and amplify your messages through word-of-mouth marketing.

Crowdsourcing initiatives for marketing can be grouped into three distinct categories, which are described below along with easy ways to get the crowd involved so your messages spread wider and your brand and business grow faster.

1. Crowdsourcing for content marketing

One of the easiest and most effective ways to leverage the reach of the crowd is through content marketing. Brands like The Huffington Post and American Express OPEN Forum grew exponentially thanks to crowdsourcing. Both tapped into the crowd of industry experts and invited them to write free content for the websites. In exchange, writers received free links back to their own sites and an opportunity to get in front of larger audiences than they could reach on their own.

Related: From Intern to Venture-Backed Entrepreneur With a Little Help From Big Data

You can do the same thing by inviting customers, authors, business partners, and anyone else who could benefit from free cross-promotion or simply would enjoy having a place to publish their opinions online to write content for your business blog. You’d be surprised how many online media organizations and large businesses use crowdsourcing for content publishing.

Keep in mind, content can come in many forms, including reviews, comments, images, video, and more. For example, Skechers launched a crowdsourcing marketing initiative that tied into its rewards programs. Members of the Skechers rewards program earn points not just from purchases but also from content they publish on the Skechers website such as product reviews and answers to questions from other customers. Crowdsourcing for content marketing can tie in seamlessly with small business loyalty programs, too.

2. Crowdsourcing for social media marketing

To leverage crowdsourcing for social media marketing, invite customers to pin content to your pin-boards on Pinterest or share pictures and videos on your Facebook Page. For example, encourage people to share pictures of themselves using your products! If you prefer Twitter, set up a public Twitter account using a tool like Group Tweet, which enables 100,000 people to tweet to the same account, and invite people to publish tweets related to your business, products, industry, and so on to that account.

Related: Connecting Nonprofits With Pro Bono Help

You can even turn the process of sharing content into a contest where the person who publishes the winning photo or video or publishes the most content gets a prize. Big brands do this very successfully all the time. For example, Heineken used fan-generated content as part of a campaign related to its 2012 Olympic Games sponsorship for a Facebook promotion. It’s easy, affordable, and very effective for small businesses, too!

3. Crowdsourcing for design

Need a new logo or another type of marketing design? Use a site like Crowdspring or 99 designs to get design submissions from a crowd of individuals with varying levels of expertise and an endless amount of creativity. Need a picture that you can use on your blog, website, or marketing materials legally but can’t find the right one without paying more than you can afford? Post your request on Koi.io (formerly FotoKoi) and let the crowd of photographers help you. You can even tap into the crowd for a new slogan using Slogan Slingers where founder Rich Davis explains, “Most slogan projects cost between $50 and $900.”

Believe it or not, crowdsourcing for logo design and other marketing design projects is very common. From the local pizza business in Pennsylvania that used Slogan Slingers for a new slogan tailored to the shop to the U.S. Department of the Interior which used crowdsourcing for a new logo design via Crowdspring, the practice of turning marketing needs over to the crowd is becoming more and more popular.

Bottom-line, there are many ways to leverage the crowd to assist you with directly and indirectly promoting your business. Don’t be afraid to get creative and always encourage your audience to engage with you and join the conversation. Don’t ask them to promote your business. Instead, ask them to share brand stories and experiences. The power of the crowd comes from allowing them to take control of the conversation and the brand experience. Let them make your brand their own so they become loyal and vocal brand advocates that extend beyond a single crowdsourcing initiative.

Home

SwanTech Sound

BlackBerry 10 Keyboard – Vivek Bhardwaj Gives us the Scoop [VIDEO]

It’s no secret that BlackBerry fans love their keyboards, and for BlackBerry 10 we wanted to make sure that the typing experience is unmatched. Who better to show us around the keyboard than Vivek Bhardwaj, our Head of Software Portfolio and demo man extraordinaire!

He explained that we not only wanted to design the keyboard to be BlackBerry visually, but also to show the thought we've put into innovations in touch screen typing. At BlackBerry Jam Americas he told me that his favorite feature was the ability to switch between languages. Now, he’s got a new favorite – the space bar  We’ll let him explain:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Basically, if you miss hitting the space bar as you type, the keyboard is designed to recognize that and automatically add spaces between your words when you hit it next. This allows you to keep your train of thought and keep typing without having to go back and add spaces. Typing without interruption? Count me in.

And for those of you who love a physical keyboard, we’ll have both full touch and QWERTY models for BlackBerry 10. Let us know what you think of the BlackBerry 10 keyboard below – are you going to go QWERTY or full touch?

Blackberry - 10 Keyboard Video

Visit - SwanTech Sound

Home

7 Truths about Customers No Retailer Wants to Admit

7 Truths about Customers No Retailer Wants to Admit

By Chip Averwater

"The customer is always right" is a mantra that business owners hear over and over again. Of course, this way of thinking doesn't always hold water. Sometimes customers are just plain wrong. But if you don't want your retail store to join the estimated 95% of failed ventures, you'd better figure out quickly that even when the customer is wrong, he's right. It's a retail truth that you simply have to come to terms with if you want a successful store.

Retail doesn't get rave reviews. Most shoppers agree that the typical retail experience isn't good. Why can't retail rate better satisfaction? One theory is that consumers experience retailing almost daily and become highly discriminating in their standards. Also, consumers often see excellent examples of particular aspects of retailing individually, but rarely does any retailer get it all right at once. And finally, retailers who do manage to get it all right are too expensive to be competitive.

Be-backs don't come back. Customers say, "I'll be back later to purchase this!" to extricate themselves from the situation without disappointing the salesperson. When a customer says this, ask if you've shown her the correct product, answered her questions, and provided enough information  Keep asking questions and providing information. With persistence, maybe you'll convince your be-back to come back.

Happy customers come and go; unhappy customers accumulate. Dissatisfied customers have long memories and look for opportunities to warn others away. It's usually worthwhile to actively look for unhappy customers, open a dialog, and try to make up with them. Often, a little attention turns them into equally vocal advocates.

Complaints are signs our customers want us to do better. When a customer complains, it often means many others feel the same way but don't bother to tell us. One complaint represents an opportunity to improve service to all of your customers.

Low prices won't excuse poor service. Retailers must find a balance between service and price that appeals to customers. Sometimes a cheaper price with lower service works out, but often it leads to disappointment and dissatisfaction. Never believe the rationalization that poor service doesn't matter if your prices are low enough.

"Take it back where you bought it" alienates customers. Occasionally, you'll encounter a customer who asks for help with a product he purchased elsewhere. The customer is coming to you because they are unhappy with the competitor's transaction. Do you really want to send them back?

You don't see your competitors' happy customers. Remember that the complaints you hear about the competition aren't a balanced picture. Only dissatisfied customers come see you; satisfied customers are happy and have no reason to go elsewhere.

When you admit these truths are out there, you can begin to implement ways to keep your customers happy, keep them coming through your doors, and most importantly, keep them buying from you!

Chip Averwater is a retailer and chairman of Amro Music Stores in Memphis, TN. He has been a featured speaker on retailing in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia, and is the author of Retail Truths: The Unconventional Wisdom of Retailing.

R.I.S News

SwanTech Sound

Home

John McAfee, Software Pioneer, Is Arrested in Guatemala

By ELISABETH MALKIN

Published: December 5, 2012

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google+
• Save
• E-mail
• Share
• Print
• Reprints
• 

MEXICO CITY — The antivirus software pioneer John McAfee was arrested in Guatemala City on Wednesday after he slipped over the border from his home in Belize where police want to question him in their investigation of the murder of his neighbor.

Enlarge This Image

Jorge Dan Lopez/Reuters

John McAfee spoke during an interview in Guatemala City on Wednesday.

Related

• John McAfee Plays Hide-and-Seek in Belize(December 2, 2012)

The interior minister, Mauricio Lopez Bonilla, told The Associated Press that Mr. McAfee, 67, had been arrested on charges of entering Guatemala illegally. He said that Mr. McAfee had been arrested at a hotel in the capital and taken to a detention center for migrants who are in the nation illegally.

Mr. McAfee had been on the run for almost a month since his neighbor, Gregory Faull, on the Belizean island of Ambergris Caye was found dead at his home on Nov. 11. Police there cited Mr. McAfee as a “person of interest” in their investigation, but Mr. McAfee disapppeared.

But he did not disappear from the Internet. He kept up a continuous stream of comment on his blog and on Twitter, accusing the Belizean authorities of persecuting him.

On Tuesday, he resurfaced in Guatemala, dressed in a suit, his blond curls dyed dark brown.

Accompanied by his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend, Samantha Venagas, and his Guatemalan lawyer, Telésforo Guerra, Mr. McAfee said that he would seek political asylum in Guatemala. Mr. Guerra, a former Guatemalan attorney general, told reporters at a chaotic news conference outside the Supreme Court that his client was being persecuted because he refused to pay Belizean authorities off any longer.

Mr. McAfee has not been associated with the software company that bears his name since 1994, when he sold it and began to pursue his other interests. He ran a yoga retreat and then built a complex in New Mexico to indulge his hobby of flying motorized ultralight airplanes.

He moved to Belize about four years ago, buying properties on the mainland and on Ambergris Caye. It was there that he clashed with Mr. Faull, who complained about the unleashed dogs that Mr. McAfee kept on his property.

On Nov. 9, several of the dogs were found dead. They had been poisoned.

During his time in Belize, Mr. McAfee had apparently become interested in developing a designer drug called MDPV. He posted extensively about his experiments on a Web site.

But he attracted the attention of Belizean authorities, who raided one of his properties in April. He spent a night in jail, but law enforcement officials found no evidence that he was producing methamphetamine and dropped the charges.

After that experience, though, Mr. McAfee appeared to become increasingly convinced that he was being persecuted by the Belizean government. Officials deny that they are persecuting him.

Mr. Guerra told Guatemalan reporters late Wednesday that since there was no warrant for Mr. McAfee’s arrest and since his client was not a fugitive, he would seek to have his client released and returned to the hotel where he would remain under guard.

www.nytimes.com

SwanTech-Sound

 

UPC History - ID History Museum - Where the history of the UPC lives

UPC - The History of the UPC and Item Identification

With Thank's To 'THE ID HISTORY MUSEAM' For Providing This Information.

There have been times when things come along that really impact our lives. One of the more subtle ones in the past half century is the ability for machines to be able to identify products being sold or in inventory. Although the total effort showed signs of coming about in people's minds almost a century ago with the first creation of a barcode, the concentrated effort occurred in the 1970s and particularly in the early 1970s with the organization of a Committee of Grocery Retailers and Grocery Manufacturers known as the Ad Hoc Committee. This was not a legislated effort. This success came about through the cooperation and agreement among the participants. No government intervention or even government nudging occurred.

This project saved consumers billions of dollars, empowered new industries, focused older industries such as advertising and promotion, through over five billion uses per day. Retailers in food, general merchandise and manufacturers know their markets in more detail and better than ever thought possible.

In just two or three years...

Grocery store shopping changed from stores resembling this prior to 1973	Into Scanning stores with much lower checkout profiles by 1976 that looked like this:

PLEASE VISIT My Booth at Digital Designs UK On Bonanza, FOR SOME GREAT FESTIVE BARGAINS.

Be Sure to Mention that 'Analyzing Financial Markets'blog, Linked you There, and you will Receive a 25% Discount on any purchase you make at Digital Designs Booth. Thank you for visiting my blog, Please call back soon for even more Discounts.

The Wii U is a bit like a giant Nintendo DS

The TV is the top screen. The Game-pad is the touch capacities bottom screen. The Game-pad even packs the same freakishly long feature list as the Nintendo DS. It's got touch and stylus support, a camera, a microphone, a gyroscope and accelerometer… all the usual suspects.

But the Wii U also combines many of the best parts of the Wii - including Wii Remote support and the eShop.

But does all this make for a good console, or just a dust collector?

The Hardware

Nintendo has never been in the business of making the most powerful consoles, and the Wii U likely won't buck this trend.

The Wii U has 2GBs of DDR3 SDRAM, one is dedicated to the OS and system functions, while the other is dedicated to gaming.

The processor is an IBM Power multi-core processor, but its specificities and true power is still under wraps. Fortunately, the GPU isn't. It's a fully capable AMD Radeon-based High Definition GPU. Depending on which version you get, the system comes with 8GBs of storage or 32GBs of storage, both of which can be expanded via SD cards or external hard drives.

Unfortunately, without knowing just how many cores the processor has or what its clocked at, it's hard to tell just how powerful it is. But the power of the device is secondary to the new ways you can game with it.

The Wii U's appeal will rest in its first-party software and the novelty of the Wii U Game-pad.

While the Wii U has a fairly solid launch lineup, none of the current software is genre-defining, like Mario 64 or Halo (with the possible exception of Nintendo Land, maybe). That means early adopters will doubtless pin their hopes on the Game-pad, in much the same way Does it deliver?

Yes and no.

While the Game-pad is an exciting controller that offers all the features you want and then some, it comes with its caveats.

The Game-pad is light and ergonomic. It's only around 1.1 pounds, lighter than an iPad (1.4lbs), and it has comfortable ridges and grips. But it also feels a bit cheap. Shaking it audibly rattles the face buttons, and the triggers aren't analog, unable to gradually accelerate in driving games or fire faster or slower in shooters by holding them at various degrees.

The Game-pad's 6.2" display adds game-play mechanics we’d only seen in Nintendo handhelds, and still may also underwhelm tablet owners who are used to higher quality displays. Its resolution is only 158ppi - about the same resolution as the first iPhone - and doesn't support multi-touch. But the Game-pad is more than the sum of its parts - and each part is a new gaming possibility.

Images of Facial recognition systems

A facial recognition system is a computer application for automatically identifying or verifying a person from a digital image or a video frame from a video source. One of the ways to do this is by comparing selected facial features from the image and a facial database.

It is typically used in security systems and can be compared to other bio-metrics such as fingerprint or eye iris recognition systems

raditional

Some facial recognition algorithms identify facial features by extracting landmarks, or features, from an image of the subject's face. For example, an algorithm may analyze the relative position, size, and/or shape of the eyes, nose, cheekbones, and jaw. These features are then used to search for other images with matching features Other algorithms normalize a gallery of face images and then compress the face data, only saving the data in the image that is useful for face detection. A probe image is then compared with the face data. One of the earliest successful systems is based on template matching techniques applied to a set of salient facial features, providing a sort of compressed face representation.

Recognition algorithms can be divided into two main approaches, geometric, which looks at distinguishing features, or photometric, which is a statistical approach that distills an image into values and compares the values with templates to eliminate variances.

Popular recognition algorithms include Principal Component Analysis using eigenfaces, Linear Discriminate Analysis, Elastic Bunch Graph Matching using the Fisherface algorithm, the Hidden Markov model, and the neuronal motivated dynamic link matching.

Software

• Google's Picasa digital image organizer has a built in face recognition system starting from version 3.5 onwards. It can associate faces with persons, so that queries can be run on pictures to return all pictures with a specific group of people together. Picasaweb.com has also been providing a similar feature to its users.
• Sony's Picture Motion Browser (PMB) analyses photo, associates photos with identical faces so that they can be tagged accordingly, and differentiates between photos with one person, many persons and nobody.
• Facebook includes face recognition technology
• Windows Live Photo Gallery includes face recognition

DEALING WITH DEBT!

What is a credit history?

 



Your credit history is a detailed history of all your debts and is tracked by credit ratings agencies in the UK.

These agencies compile your credit history by gathering information from various places such as your payment history, credit limits, high and low bank balances, how much of your available credit you use and even changes in your address and work history.

This information is compiled to give you a score which can then be used in turn by lenders to work out if how much of a risk you represent if they lend you money. As soon as you possibly can you should start to build a credit history by opening a savings account, paying your bills on time and not using more than 30% of your available credit on your cards.

If for any reason you do get a bad credit rating then it is not forever. You can clean up your credit history by managing your debts and then you can "re-age" your credit history after seven years. This depends on you keeping your finances in order. There are lenders that will lend to people with bad credit histories, however you will find it easier to find a loan at better rates if you have a good credit history.

How do I get a bad credit history?

There are many different reasons you may have a bad credit history which can make it difficult to borrow money when you need to.

Understanding how your credit history is compiled will help you to avoid situations which may result in you earning a negative credit history. There are simple things you can do to keep your credit history clean:

Keeping your credit history clean

• Do pay your bills on time - avoid making late payments on any debts.
• Do not miss payments or default on a debt - this includes your council tax
• Do pay credit card bills off in full at the end of the month
• Do monitor your accounts for identity theft
• Make sure you fulfil financial contract or commitments as failure to do so may be reported to credit reference agencies.
• Where possible do not change address or job too frequently as this can affect your credit history
• If you have defaulted on any debts make sure you clean up your credit history as soon as possible by honouring your repayment schedules
• Avoid bankruptcy

Looking for a bargain this Holiday Season. Look no further, Go To >>

SwanTech-Sound

 

 

Home 

 

New iPhone apps worth downloading: Scratch Hard, This Day in Classic Rock, Where's My Water? update

Posted November 20, 2012 6:00am by Phil HornshawTags: Fresh Apps, new apps

Get ready for this weekend’s intense shopping with Scratch Hard, another deal-finding app that adds a few lottery-style discounts you can unlock from digital scratch cards. This Day in Classic Rock gives you a little break from thinking about turkey and 5 a.m. sales with its classic rock trivia, and an updated Where's My Water? now has new brain-busting puzzle levels.

Scratch Hard (Free)                          

What’s it about? Scratch Hard finds local deals and sales and compiles them on your iOS device. It also includes special scratch-off offers that you can redeem.

What’s cool? With Black Friday and Cyber Monday fast approaching, Scratch Hard can make it easier to find the best deals at local stores. You can use it to plan out your shopping trip ahead of time, which is particularly useful if you plan to start at 5 a.m. The app’s scratch cards, which are like digital lottery tickets, might result in additional savings on some items, adding a degree of unique fun to all that deal-searching.



Who’s it for? Power shoppers who want to get the most out of every sale and every store.
What’s it like? TGI Black Friday and TGI Cyber Monday are a pair of deal-finding apps that seem particularly effective for the week’s upcoming shopping extravaganza.

This Day in Classic Rock ($2.99)

What’s it about? Classic Rock Magazine’s official new app includes a ton of information about the genre, geared around bringing historical updates to you each day.
What’s cool? If you want to know more about classic rock bands, This Day in Classic Rock fulfills daily your quick fix for information. It also includes a couple of cool additions, including a trivia game and a classic rock quiz to test your fandom. There also is a huge number of Song Notes articles covering 50 different tracks, where you can read and learn more about the music and the people who created it.
Who’s it for? Obviously, this one’s specifically for people who really dig classic rock.
What’s it like? For more music quiz action, give Trivia Tunes a go. Classic Rock Radio brings music from the genre your way by using your device’s streaming capabilities.
Advertisement: Ten Giggly Gorillas from Wasabi Productions offers a complete sensory reading experience and with text highlighting, positive social / moral lessons and 100% family-friendly features, it’s an excellent choice. It’s also on SALE this week for $0.99 (usually $2.99) so why not download today to enjoy with your 2-6 year old!

Where's My Water? update ($0.99)

What’s it about? Physics puzzler Where's My Water? requires players to use touch controls to dig through the earth and make a path to move water through pipes belonging to Swampy the Alligator.


What’s cool? There are lots of smart puzzles found in Where's My Water? already, requiring players to turn water into steam or freeze it into ice in order to complete them. Now, Disney is offering additional free levels every week – three of them, to be exact. But you need to log into Where's My Water? each week and download the levels, or you’ll miss out on them forever. If they’re as diverse and challenging as the levels already available in the game, they’ll definitely be worth the effort.
Who’s it for? Though it’s geared toward kids with its cartoon mascot, Where's My Water? is brainy enough to appeal to puzzle fans of all ages.
What’s it like? The Phineas and Ferb-themed spin-off Where’s My Perry offers a similar puzzle experience, and for a similar feel, try Cut The Rope: Experiments.
Download the Appolicious Android app



Stock Market

Date : 26-SEPT-2012

Telefónica Spanish Stock MarketLast Change Today´s Range Volume

time:17:35


10.71 €

-0.53 11.09 - 10.70 23,570,057

Pct.Chng. Annual Range Capitalisation (mill. €)

-4.67% 15.96 - 7.90 48,718.71



[1d
5d
3m
6m
1y
2y]

Number of Telefónica shares trading on the market: 4,551,024,642

Telefónica in other Stock Exchanges



Last Change Pct.Chng. Time High Low

TELEFONICA S.A. (ADR NY)* dol 13.67 -0.60 -4.20% 19:03 13.82 13.64

TELEFONICA ADR (LIMA)* dól 13.55 -0.66 -4.64% 18:13 13.58 13.55

TELEFONICA (ARG) pes 88.80 0.00 0.00% 18:50 0.00 0.00

* ADR=1 share.



Professor Stephen Hawking reflects on Paralympics 2012

Professor Stephen Hawking reflects on Paralympics 2012

10 September 2012 Last updated at 23:40 

Hundreds of thousands of people have lined the route of a victory parade through London to cheer Britain's Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Competitors were also honored with a flypast over Buckingham Palace, the day after the end of the 2012 Paralympics.   News-night's Stephen Smith spoke to Professor Stephen Hawking, who reflected on how society's attitude to disabilities has changed.

Paralympics opening ceremony attracts 11 million

A peak audience of 11.2 million watched Channel 4's broadcast of the Paralympic Games opening ceremony in the UK, giving the broadcaster its biggest audience for more than 10 years.

An average 7.7 million tuned in to see Wednesday's four-hour show, which featured appearances from Sir Ian McKellen and Professor Stephen Hawking.

Some 500 people complained about adverts interrupting the event.

Channel 4 said the ads were necessary to fund its coverage of the Games.

According to Stuart Cosgrove, Channel 4's director of creative diversity, the complaints were not "in any way comparable to the levels of support that we've had for the fact that we've invested significant amounts of money to bring the biggest ever Paralympics to television".

In an interview with BBC live, he said the broadcaster made "a lot of effort to reduce the number of adverts that we'd normally play in prime time within its programming".

Paralympics coverage online

There were no ad breaks during the creative element of the ceremony, he continued. But he admitted there were three during the athletes' parade.

"Those breaks were taken at strategic moments where we maximized where we thought we could take legitimate advertising breaks to generate the revenue that pays for the entire coverage," he said.

"It was a very hard call because we were making choices about what we thought the viewers wanted to see. On balance we decided the viewers wanted more extensive coverage of the Paralympics.  

"We're doing 150 hours on Channel 4 from breakfast to midnight. We thought the vast majority of people, 95% of people in the UK, accept that big sporting events have to be paid for."

Viewing figures on Channel 4 on Wednesday hit 11.2 million around the time The Queen entered the stadium at 20:45 BST.

They began to tail off from 22:00, with an average 4.3 million watching by the end of the ceremony at midnight.

'400% increase'

Cosgrove said Channel 4 was providing a "400% increase" in coverage compared with the BBC during the last Paralympics in Beijing.

During that opening ceremony in 2008, an average of 2.2 million viewers tuned in to watch on BBC One.

Last month a peak audience of 26.9 million people watched the Olympic Games opening ceremony on BBC One.

Averaging 22.4 million viewers, it was the UK's 13th most-watched programme ever.

THE LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS ARE HERE.

London - 2012 Olympics

Are you part of it?



Facebook shares fall 10pc in after-hours trading on maiden results

 

Facebook shares slumped to a record low after the social network site's first results as a public company showed its growth has slowed.

Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook in a Harvard dorm room.

By Richard Blackden, and Andrew Trotman

11:20PM BST 26 Jul 2012


The Californian company had been under intense pressure to deliver strong results given the almost 30pc drop in its share price since the $104bn (£66bn) flotation in May.

Although revenues climbed 32pc to $1.18bn in the second quarter, beating analysts' estimates, it failed to convince investors who had seen saw revenues climb 45pc in the first quarter. At the same time its spending on sales and marketing more than tripled to $392m in the period.

As had been forecast, the cost of share-based pay plan for employees saw Facebook report an overall loss of $157m for the quarter. But as founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg made an appearance on the company's conference call with Wall Street analysts on Thursday night, the focus was squarely on how quickly the social network site will be able to drive revenues.

"They've got a real business there," said Daniel Ernst, an analyst at Hudson Square Research. "It's just not growing as fast as it used to."

Mr Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's highly-regarded chief operating officer, were at pains to stress that the company had introduced several initiatives to squeeze more revenue from a base of users that grew 29pc to 955m by the end of the quarter. That included the launch of advertising known as "sponsored stories" in the newsfeeds that Facebook users get when they access their accounts. By the end of June, they were generating about $1m a day in advertising, with half of that coming from mobile devices, said Ms Sandberg. Total advertising revenues rose 28pc to $992m in the quarter.



The ability of users to recommend, or "like", products to other friends on the site has always been seen as a potential goldmine for Facebook. Having long resisted taking Facebook public, Mr Zuckerberg did so at a time when millions of people are now using a mobile device, rather than a PC, to access the web. A central concern of investors is whether Facebook can make enough money from advertising on mobile devices, and the 28-year-old billionaire admitted that "there are a lot of challenges". However, he denied reports that Facebook was consdering building its own phone, arguing it "wouldn't make much sense for us".

Having sold shares at $38 each on May 17, they tumbled as much as 12pc to $23.75 in extended trading in New York. David Ebersman, Facebook's chief financial officer, said that "we are disappointed how the stock is trading".

Amazon shares also tumbled on Thursday night after the world's largest internet retailer's second-quarter profits fell short of Wall Street's estimates. Profits dropped to $7m in the period from $191m in the same quarter last year as Amazon stepped up spending on warehouses and its Kindle Fire tablet lost market share.

Download Free Indian Stock Market, Indian Stock Market 1.1 Download

Download Free Indian Stock Market, Indian Stock Market 1.1 Download

Publisher's description

BrothersoftEditor: Provides current BSE/NSE Sensex value into your Firefox statusbar. Right click to select thestock exchange. It will automatically refreshes after every 30 minutes. you can free download Indian Stock Market 1.1 now.

ISA Guide - A helpful guide to tax efficient savings

What is an ISA and who can have one?

An ISA is a tax efficient way to save and stands for Individual Savings Account. An ISA lets you pay little or no tax on the interest your savings and investments make.

There are two main types of ISA:

• Cash ISAs, which are classed as tax-free (i.e. you are not taxed on the interest earned on UK income)
• Stocks and shares ISAs, which are classed as tax efficient.

Paying money into an ISA is called a subscription. You can subscribe to one cash ISA and one stocks and shares ISA in every tax year, and there’s a maximum allowance you can pay into each one.
ISAs are a good idea whatever your savings goal. With certain types of cash ISAs, you have instant access to your money, making it a flexible way to plan your finances.
Having an ISA is also a great way to save tax efficiently as an additional part of your long term financial planning. Stocks and shares ISAs are intended as a medium to long term investment which means they should be held for at least 5 years.
It’s important to remember that ISA allowance limits apply to everyone on an individual basis, so if you’re married or in a relationship, you can both hold your own ISA, each with the full allowance.
 

To subscribe to an ISA:

• You must be aged 16 or over to hold a cash ISA, or 18 or over to hold a
  stocks and shares ISA
• You must be a resident or ordinarily resident in the UK
• You can only subscribe to one cash ISA in a tax year, which runs from 6 April
  in one year to 5 April the next year
• You can subscribe to one cash ISA and one stocks and shares ISA in a tax year, but there are limits to how much you can save in each ISA – see the following section ‘How much can I put into an ISA’

 How much can I put into an ISA?

As ISA savings are tax efficient, there’s a yearly limit on the amount you can put in. for the tax year from 6 April 2012 to 5 April 2013, the overall limit is £11,280. you can use this allowance in a variety of ways.

 

With an ISA allowance of £11,280, you can:

 

Save up to £5,640 in a cash ISA
or
Save up to £11,280 in a stocks and shares ISA
or
Save up to £5,640 in a cash ISA and put the remainder of the £11,280 allowance into a stocks and shares ISA

If you put less than the full allowance into a cash ISA, you can use the rest of that limit to add into your stocks and shares ISA limit. For example, if you only choose to put £2,000 into a cash ISA, you can put up to £9,280 into a stocks and shares ISA. For the 2012/2013 tax year, the ISA allowance increases to £11,280. This limit may change from time to time.

Making withdrawals

f you withdraw money from your ISA, you cannot reinvest it in the same tax year if your total deposits will exceed your yearly allowance.

For example:

Your Cash ISA yearly limit	£5,640
You pay into your Cash ISA	£2,100
Your remaining tax-free allowance is	£3,540
You then make a withdrawal of	£500
Your remaining tax-free allowance is still	£3,540
Overall possible saving by end of tax year	£5,140

Restoring manufacturing as the heart of our economy!

  Restoring manufacturing as the heart of our economy!

Dunn R. • I believe the key to future manufacturing is rapid development and prototyping based on open source CAD. All tat is left is raw material and file distribution.

I believe this is why the Chinese are after us now as in the future, their labor will be worth nothing. In such a world this is simply just another household appliance.

If you laugh at this, consider the block for a diesel engine has already been produced this way. Some manufactureres have alrady demonstrated complicated moving part systems which are built never to be opened up with the moving parts in situ, this includes gearing systems. 3D pc boards are now manufactured in this way.

All this is possible because of the bubble jet print head modified for various forms of sintering.

The idea thus becomes king and the currency of the future. Distribution of finished goods is not the problem, rather raw materials to feed these units.

There are a few other technologies of interest but I have to stop pontificating and get back to work.

Richard Dunn