I’ve come across a great real-time information advantage when monitoring competitors for clients – it’s called Workstreamer. Workstreamer is a business listening platform that delivers a competitive information advantage to business professionals.  And...it's free!

If you can relate to any of the following – you need Workstreamer:  

1. You want to know when someone is talking about your company in a public forum (online).
2. You want to stay on top of your competitors. Keeping your enemies closer.
3. You want to know when your biggest customers are making moves in the marketplace.
4. You're always looking for new ways to arm your salesforce with competitive information. 

Listen to your competitors (or even your own company/business) so you can be in the know, before anyone else. 

Best,

Denice MacDonald 

[Information and logo courtesy of http://www.workstreamer.com/]

The publication Biology of Belief - Unleashing The Power  Of Consciousness, Matter And Miracles is groundbreaking work in the field of new biology, and it will forever change how you think about thinking.  

Through the research of Dr. Lipton and other leading-edge scientists, stunning new discoveries have been made about the interaction between your mind and body and the processes by which cells receive information.  

It shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology, that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our thoughts. Suffice to say – you are what you think. 

Using simple language, illustrations, humor, and everyday examples, he demonstrates how the new science of Epigenetics is revolutionizing our understanding of the link between mind and matter and the profound effects it has on our personal lives and the collective life of our species. 

Want to learn more? Try out an excerpt from the book here or go to Amazon to purchase the book.

About the Author

Bruce Lipton, Ph.D. is an internationally recognized authority in bridging science and spirit and a leading voice in new biology. A cell biologist by training, he taught Cell Biology at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine, and later performed pioneering studies at Stanford University’s School of Medicine. He has been a guest speaker on dozens of TV and radio shows, as well as keynote presenter for national conferences. 

Best

Denice MacDonald

Corporate blogs have become the hub for many social media intiatives. And, anyone who has a vested interest in a corporate blog knows it takes time and effort to produce a great blog - especially if it is the cornerstone for most of your corporation's social media content.

Here are my 'must-haves' for a successful corporate blog:

Blogger shows enthusiasm for his/her blog. If it's written to fill space, I can tell. I’m only interested in blogs that surprise, delight, amuse and inform offering a unique view into your organization.

The blog is well written. I read certain blogs because I not only enjoy reading them, but I’m truly getting information that is important to me – in a style of writing that is more conversational and with the bloggers point of view (good or bad) in mind.

The blog has links to other blogs, newsfeeds or other relevant information. I want to know that this blog is going to get me the next relevant click of information. I love resources, links back to other blogs and creditable information so that I can understand the bloggers opinion or slant.

The blog is updated regularly. There’s nothing worse than finding a great blog only to find out that the blogger blogs on a sporadic basis. I want a blog to be committed to me, the reader, by providing ongoing, updated content – especially if I have subscribed to their feeds.

The blog embraces comments and feedback. I welcome an opportunity to comment on content and provide my opinion on topics. More sophisticated blogs allows sign in and the ability to post comments making the blog very interactive and viral in nature. Corporations can reply (in kind) - especially to diffuse any negative connotation about the organization or its products and services.

The blog is properly tagged and categorized. Make it easy for me to move around your blog, clicking on other categories or relevant tags.

Great Blogging Resource at Amazon:

The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil

More Great Bloggers:

The Rules Behind Creating a Great Blog by Tom Hung, ProBlogger

27 Tips for Building a Kick-ass Blog by Ahmed Bilal

What Makes a Great Company Blog by Mack Collier

Best

Denice MacDonald

Here it is – the future of a website redesign strategy – the marriage of three critical components: cloud services, social media and web content management (WCM). Take a look at Newsweek.com who recently launched a total site redesign incorporating these significant platforms to stay ahead of the pack while enticing visitors to come back for more. 

Perfect Case Study 

Newsweek.com proves an important and timely case study for any organization that is in the process of a site redesign or redeployment. Reason simply, websites will now require strong metrics reporting, easy maintenance and extensibility as well as monetization and social integration in order to flourish. Such is the case for Newsweek – a publication and media outlet that has been floundering in recent times.

“The technology allows the business to grow in ways that had been holding it back,” says Geoff Reiss, vice president and general manager of Newsweek Digital. He explains that Newsweek created amazing content over time, but because of the way it was published and organized, “less than 15 percent of that content was discoverable through organic search.” The relaunch of Newsweek.com meant the reintroduction of about 70,000 items of content that had effectively been lost to site visitors. 

The most popular articles at any given time aren’t from the vault, though-they’re stories, video and images linked to on social networks like Digg, Facebook and Twitter and on MSN. Reiss calls Newsweek.com a “peak-driven site. When we produce a piece of content that hits in the marketplace,” he says, “it really hits. We need to be able to serve hundreds of thousands of consumers an hour.” Moreover, traffic isn’t predictable or necessarily tied to events. 

Lastly, Newsweek Digital is using Amazon cloud services to accommodate surges in traffic caused by increased use of social technologies – a marriage made in heaven. 

Take a test drive of Newsweek.com ‘stories’ section and see how some of their strategy can help your organization. 

Source Excerpt:

Newsweek.com redesign fuelled by social media, Amazon cloud and WCM by ZDNet 

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Now that I’m an avid traveler, it has become increasingly important that I find the best travel, hotel or car deal. I routinely use Expedia, CheapTickets and even Priceline. Now, with the intro of KAYAK , I can maximize one-stop-shopping to all these sites by allowing KAYAK  to do all the work.   

        This is how it works     .     .     .     .     . 

KAYAK is a travel search site. Everybody knows what a search site is, and everybody knows what a travel site is. KAYAK is like both, but it’s different in some important ways. 

Like a search site, they can help you find what you want. What makes them different is that they’re specialized. Their tools are made to deeply understand things like airfares and hotel stays. And like a travel site they have flights and hotels. But they’re very different from most travel sites because they don't actually sell plane tickets, hotel rooms, or anything else. 

KAYAK  helps people find the best travel choices easily by searching the data from hundreds of travel sites at once. KAYAK  lets you compare options, and when you find something that fits your budget and tastes, you book it where you want: at the airline site, from the hotel, or from a travel agent. 

OK, now you’re wondering how they make money. It’s all advertising. Just like you can watch (most) TV shows for free, you can use KAYAK  all you want, free. 

KAYAK  has local websites in eleven countries including US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, India, and Spain, and offer free mobile apps for the iPhone, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry. 

Just for fun - check them out for your next travel destination.

Best,

Denice MacDonald 

Technology experts and stakeholders say they expect they will ‘live mostly in the cloud’ in 2020 and not on the desktop, working mostly through cyberspace-based applications accessed through networked devices.

Pew said, "the number of cloud users has grown; there are 500 million people sharing friendships 'in the cloud' on Facebook, and many millions are using the cloud every time they access a Hotmail or Gmail account for e-mail, store browser bookmarks online, maintain a blog on WordPress, or store, link to and view videos and photos on YouTube, Hulu and Flickr."¹ 

Cloud Computing Comparison Guide from Focus Research 

Now you can easily choose the best cloud computing solutions for your company with this comparison guide from Focus Research.

Learn the specific differences between eight of the leading cloud-computing vendors and see which will fit your specific business needs.

Download the Cloud Computing Comparison Guide to get side-by-side comparisons of multiple topics including:

• Support Options
• Security Features
• Bandwidth and storage solutions
• Scalability 

Note: You will need to complete a simple form to get this guide – but well worth it.² 

Related Post: Cloud Computing: The Here and Now 

Resources and Excerpts taken directly from:

1.  The Future of Cloud Computing from Pew Internet

2.  Cloud Computing Comparison Guide from Focus Research

Best,

Denice MacDonald

With the social media craze in full action, how do you keep ahead of the pack relative to the best social resources? 

Below you will find my top picks that will help your organization connect social media to business initiatives – including the last resource on building influence while maintaining your brand reputation. Enjoy! 

Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel

This is the first book to integrate digital marketing, social media, personal branding, and entrepreneurship in a clear, entertaining, and instructive manner that everyone can understand and apply. 

Buy it at Amazon

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     . 

Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuck

Cash in on your passion! The social media revolution has changed the way we live our lives and conduct our business. Learn how Crush It will give you the tools to take advantage and WIN.  

Buy it at Amazon 

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .    

Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

Use the web to build influence, improve reputation and earn trust. 

Buy it at Amazon 

Denice MacDonald

You’ve completed several highly charged e-mail campaigns and have come up short on conversion and high on complaints. Where to you go for help? You can use Return Path’s Sender Score Monitor tools to figure out how reputation is affecting your individual campaign results. 

Return Path’s monitoring suite provides real-time feedback on how your campaigns actually fare in the inbox. It also tells you why a campaign failed. For example, if you see that the campaign generated a high complaint rate, you should take steps to stop complaints by making sure subscribers understand what to expect from you and that you are sending e-mail that is of benefit to them.   

This includes segmented content by audience type, relevant and noteworthy links to resources or other valuable information along with other interactive functionality. 

Lastly, poor infrastructure hurts your reputation because it makes you look like a spammer. Or, at the very least, it makes it appear as if your system has been or could be compromised by hackers effecting both open rates and credibility. 

Resources: 

Sender Score Lookup (free) - A Sender Score is a measure of e-mail sender reputation.

Reputation Rules Series (free subscription) – Four week e-mail series on how “E-mail is a Relationship”.

Reputation Monitor - With Deliverability tools and services from Return Path, more of your e-mail can reach the inbox-which means more responses.

Webinar and Events – Includes both hosted and industry events.

More about Return Path: 

Since 1999, Return Path has helped some of the world’s most successful companies use email more effectively. Return Path began with the notion that there was a better way to do things: that email marketing didn’t have to be a war between marketers and consumers, that it was possible to do more with less, that the smartest email solutions were the ones that not only impacted your bottom line in the short term but also benefited your reputation for the long term. 

Sources and Excerpts: 

The aforementioned comments are abbreviated highlights from Return Path’s Reputation Rules Series. I highly recommend that you subscribe to this free learning and/or contact Return Path if reputation is affecting your e-mail campaign outcomes.

Best

Denice MacDonald

Compete has recently released Audience Profiles on Compete.com. This free offering allows website owners to gain never before seen insights about their online audiences.  

Audience Profiles allow site owners to look beyond standard demographics and discover the lifestyle preferences, hobbies, and interests of their online audiences. These insights can then be used to create highly targeted marketing campaigns and attract more customers. 

All you need do is go to audience profiles at compete.com and sign up for a myCompete account and copy some simple XL code onto your home page.   

Within a month, you should be able to see some quantifiable data on your web audience – information that will help you create defined messaging and targeted marketing campaigns. 

Compete.com is a ‘must-have’ resource for web analytics, competitor analysis and now, audience profiles.  

To learn more about Compete.com – go here. 

To learn more about the significance of Audience Analysis – go here. 

Best

Denice MacDonald  

Google has a new feature that allows users the ability to leave annotations or notes within in analytics charts, helping to explain sudden spikes or drops in traffic.

Annotations allow analytic users to leave shared or private notes right on the over-time graph in an effort to let users bring intelligence to data.

The Annocation's feature will be available in January of 2010.

To learn more about this powerful new feature before it's official launch, access this YouTube video.

More about "Annotations":

From Google Blog: Holiday Bonus - More Great Features 

From TechCrunch: Google Analytics Gets An Upgrade With Annotations, New API And More

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Twitter creator Jack Dorsey recently gave the first public demonstration of his hotly-anticipated latest venture “Square” – a device that allows its users to make credit card payments through their cell phones.

Square is a card reader about one inch in length that attaches to the headphone socket of most cell phones. 

The device contains a magnetic strip reader that allows a user to swipe a card, which will then coordinate online with card issuers and banks through a mobile application on the user’s cell phone. 

Basically, the Square works very similarly to card swipers that you see in most retail stores.

The device is scheduled to be available for iPods and iPhones in March 2010. 

View the latest "Square" YouTube video from TechCrunch    

Sources: 

After Twitter, Comes Square - By Richard Neil Ilagan, The News Chronicle

Creator Reveals Square Mobile-pay Device - By Barry Neild, CNN

Best

Denice MacDonald

Grooveshark is the most inclusive and fully-featured on-demand music service on the Web. With an unmatched catalog of music, millions of users flock to the site to listen to their favorite artists as well as discover music and share tracks with friends.

Listening to any song instantly, creating playlists to return to later, or simply accessing a quick favorite song are the fundamentals of Grooveshark's offering.

How are they capturing marketshare?

Grooveshark delivers the world's music to the world more easily than any other site online and receives its support from advertising as well as a premium VIP subscription service. In fact, visitors and subscribers can opt out of advertising for $3 per month. 

Also, the much anticipated Grooveshark Mobile applications will further monetize the service and Grooveshark's unique and innovative platform for breaking artists keeps it one step ahead in being a competitive, sustainable and profitable business.

Bottomline, these guys are awesome and you need to check them out! 

Features – see how unique and differentiated Grooveshark is relative to other music on-demand sites 

Free Stuff – all types of wallpaper from Abstract to Shark wallpaper free for download

Join Now – fast, easy and worth it!

Best,

Denice MacDonald 

[Source info and company background taken directly from Grooveshark]  

According to Wikipedia, a review site is a web site on which reviews can be posted about people, businesses, products, or services. These sites may use Web 2.0 techniques to gather reviews from site users or may employ professional writers to author reviews on the topic of concern for the site.

Just for fun, I have compiled a list of review sites for your use and review. Not only can you use these sites personally, but there certainly is a plethora of learning and insight relative to functionality and user interaction. This learning can be translated to both business and consumer web sites. In particular is the wide use of mobile technology.

MOVIES:   Rotten Tomatoes

Fresh or rotten, this site sums up what all of the critics are saying about most every movie and DVD. From ratings to polling’s, you can insure that this site offers ‘transparent’ critiques. 

RESTAURANTS:     Yelp!

Yelp is the fun and easy way to find, review and talk about what’s great – and not so great – in your area. the site includes restaurants, shopping, nightlife and more. By setting up a profile, the site will automatically serve up content that is important to the user - including mobile alerts and content. 

SHOPPING:     RedPearl

RedPearl provides ratings, rankings, and reviews for thousands of web sites including the top sites in over 100 shopping categories. The site is extensive and includes ratings for anything from baby to garden supplies to travel gear. There is definitely something for everyone at this site.

FAMILY FOCUS:     Pluggedin Online

Plugged In is a Focus on the Family publication designed to help equip parents with the essential tools that will enable them to understand, navigate and impact the culture in which they live. Site includes reviews and ratings on TV, DVD, Music and Movies available online and by mobile alerts. 

MUSIC:     MSN Music

MSN Music includes concerts in your area, latest music releases and access to ratings on all types of music genre. The site also includes timely music news, a dedicated blog and mobile downoads. 

Enjoy!

Denice MacDonald

Online holiday retail sales will grow 8% this year to $44.7 billion, predicts Forrester Research Inc. That would represent a continued shift of shopping to the web, as the National Retail Federation has forecast total retail sales will decline 1% this holiday season.

So, before you go online to shop, check out these great 'coupon' websites that provide discounts and promo codes for top retailers like Old Navy, Target, Kohls and as well as computer giants such as Dell.   

RetailMeNot: Coupon Codes [Above]

FatWallet: Online Coupons 

DealCatcher: Free Online Coupons

MyCoupons.com: Grocery Coupons and Online Coupons

Deal of Day: Coupon Codes

The Bargainist: Coupons & Coupon Codes

Dealnews: Online Coupons 

Now - get out there and start shopping!

Best,

Denice MacDonald 

My colleague James Davidson just forwarded a Google Wave invite to me – what an amazing application.   

Google Wave, accessible through Google Browser Chrome, is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. 

To make sense of it all, Mashable has compiled a complete user guide offering key information, definitions, and links related to the launch of Google Wave.  

This in-depth guide provides an overview of Google Wave, discusses the terminology associated with it, details information on Google Wave applications and goes over ways to keep you informed. Get it here: Google Wave – A Complete Guide by Mashable  

YouTube also has several abridged videos on how Google Wave works along with key attributes. 

Google Wave is closed to the public and available only to developers. Google plans on opening the service to the public at some point later in 2009. If you are interested in getting on the list for an invite, you will need to go here and sign up. 

Best

Denice MacDonald                                                                         View YouTube Video

According to AMR Research -- web content management isn’t just about building and managing a web site anymore. It’s about engaging customers and collaborating more efficiently with partners.

To prove this point, AMR Research recently released a white paper: “Evolved Web Strategies, Part 1: The Web as a Vital Artery for Strategy and Growth”.

The piece, written by Jim Murphy of AMR, states that organizations will need to examine four streams of change when devising a web strategy and choosing technology providers: strategic, pervasive, engaging, and responsive. 

1. Fatwire
2. Oracle
3. Interwoven
4. Vignette
5. Sitecore
6. SDL Tridion
7. Ektron
8. EMC
9. IBM
10. Microsoft 

Upcoming

AMR intends to provide a follow-up white paper wherein they will look at the pervasive web and the providers that will help companies meet impending challenges. 

About AMR Research

AMR Research provides subscription advisory services and peer networking opportunities to supply chain, sustainability, and IT executives in the consumer products, life sciences, manufacturing, and retail sectors. They are the world’s leading independent research firm focused on the global supply chain and its supporting technologies. 

Best

Denice MacDonald

MacDonald Consulting has just been notified by Surchur, the dashboard to right now, that it has launched a new socially powered search feature to add to an already advanced set of real time search tools. BTW - this is on top of a record month in which Surchur outgrew every one of the independent real time search engines on the web.

The socially powered search feature aggregates information from twitter, digg, other social sites and their own site users to give a view into the hottest websites for a given topic.

You can view the new feature by visiting a sample ‘surch’ for “social networking” at http://surchur.com/all/social+networking. The new ‘popular tab’ contains the socially ranked results alongside the original related feature tabs: blogs, social news, news, video, pictures and products.

Also, Surchur, is asking if you or your organization is interested, you can interview their founder, Todd Hogan -- he’d be happy to give you a web demo of just how powerful the new set of features are – and why Surchur will be driving the next wave in real time search innovation.

About [from Surchur website] 

“surchur.com is the ultimate dashboard to right now. Built by a team that is passionate about what the real time web can offer, we're constantly improving and updating our site. Our latest version takes a giant leap forward with a massive social implementation. User input is taking a much needed front seat in determining what we show. Check it out - we think you'll swoon.” 

I highly recommend that you take a look at this great search tool! 

Best

Denice MacDonald

There’s always been an understanding that IT takes care of the back-end, while Marketing takes care of the front-end relative to web initiatives. But now, the lines of responsibilities are somewhat blurred. 

As an e-business strategist, I now have to be knowledgeable in content management systems (all types including open source, java and .net), e-commerce solutions (SMB and Enterprise) as well as fluent in hosting environments that support diverse applications – including cloud computing. 

Bottom-line, web sites that are being built today require an understanding of various infrastructure components and applications. Reason simply, the technology will inform the marketing strategy and vice versa. The two need to work in tandem.

How do I stay on top of things?

Fortunately I have a superior network to call upon. But, when I need an answer fast, I typically rely on some of these great resources: 

1. Content Management Systems: The Web CMS Report 2010 
2. E-commerce: Internet Retailer  
3. IT and IT Infrastructure: SearchITChannel 
4. IT White Papers/Thought Leadership: KnowledgeStorm -- service of Bitpipe.com 
5. Search Engine Optimization: SEOMoz 
6. Cloud Computing: Vendor Comparisons by InfoWorld 

Feel free to contact MacDonald Consulting should you require a specific resource. 

Best

Denice MacDonald

There’s been quite a bit written about the transformation of the telecommunications industry -- bringing the continued existence of the fixed-landline phone usage into question -- not to mention those costly web conferencing solutions.

Consider Skype as a viable alternative for both.

Skype is software that enables the world’s conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. The big advantage – it’s free to download.

As a business consultant who routinely runs projects virtually, it is rare that I have a chance to make a face-to-face with a colleague or client. Now, with Skype, I have an opportunity to truly be ‘in the room’ without worrying about time or cost. 

Skype Links: 

1. Features
2. Mobile
3. What’s Free!
4. Skype for Businesses 

 [Credit: Skype for content, graphics and links] 

Best

Denice MacDonald

According to Nielsen, Bing is the fastest growing search engine. Although Google still leads the pack with a 65 percent share of searches, Bing’s overall search share rose by roughly 22 percent to almost 11 percent of total searches.  

Bing is not trying to grow expedientially – rather, they are trying to build market share one great application at a time. 

Check Out Visual Search! 

Bing continues to tech-up its attractiveness by introducing a visual search feature. When users perform a search and click the ‘visual’ button (left side of screen), search results are arranged into rows of virtual data arranged into galleries. Because most individuals ‘browsing’ the web prefer graphic images over text, this is an awesome solution. 

Take my recent search for ‘movies’ – I am able to view, visually, movies that peak my interest. Or, I can simply refine my search by ratings, genre and more. The only downside to this feature is you will need to have Silverlight enabled. But non-the-less, after using this feature, you have to admit that it’s a great way to search. 

More on Bing:  

Microsoft’s Bing vs.Google: Head to Head Search Results by SearchEngineLand 

Search Smackdown: Bing vs.Google by TechCrunch 

Best

Denice MacDonald