Scientists at Midwestern University have found that use of Facebook decreases the GPA or grade point averages and people tend to spend few hours on working as compared to the non-users of Facebook. Two researchers Aryn Karpinkski and Paul Kirschner conducted the experiment on 219 students and continued their observance on the group for consecutive two academic quarters. They gathered the necessary data on GPA and correlated it with use of Facebook and the result was thus found.

Use of Twitter, the microblogging site, has been found to promote the real life social connection actively. Research conducted on 317 Twitter users show that they find it as a mean to increase the satisfaction of the users to stay connected with more people. It is not just a place in the web where people come and interact with each other. It is rather a medium through which people use to satisfy the need to connect with people.

The email usage has been found to the major among all the interactive internet usage and 94 % of the online people indulge in email activity. A research institute, Radicati Research, has recently revealed that corporate end users receive almost 110 email messages every day.  Research and survey has seen that despite several vices of email usage like spam mails and overload of email in inbox, enterprises hinge on the same in fear of losing the benefits if they abandon the use of emails. Instead the enterprises have been found to use advanced strategies that will make their information search easier through email rather than dropping the use of email completely.   
The older or senior citizens were once marked as people who happen to resist the innovation of IT. But this conventional belief has now been contradicted by researcher Tracey E. Rizzuto, who has found older people are responding positively about the use of IT in workplace.

The finding show that internet usage has both ill and wise effects on the people and it acceptance is growing by each passing day.

Today the market has changed a lot and especially the consumers have gone through a radical change in terms of their preference and their analytical power. The modern pool of consumers demands more than a stunning and catchy logo as they wish to experience the difference in terms of feel, personality and usability. The brands are flourishing in the market now and even the smallest companies are making thoughtful logos for brand building. Amidst the rat race a company has to provide something else and different that can keep them aside from their contenders.

The website of a company has substantial importance and it is an online manifesto that offers every business a scope to expand on web. Hence, it can be our center of focus where branding can be done through a stunning logo design and placing it on the website’s home page.  If I take the case of Amazon then I can explain my point clearly. Amazon offers access to users to almost all the books available under the sun. The navigability of their site and the user-friendly features and shopping cart features has made it win the rat race of e-stores to day let alone the smooth payment and punctual delivery system. Now if we take away the logo of Amazon what difference it makes? Perhaps very little as users identify Amazon with the stock of books, smooth site navigability and the on-time delivery more then its logo.

Branding is like jig saw puzzle where one of the tessellating pieces in logo design but there are various other pieces that make up the branding together. I still wonder why log received to much fame.

Email marketing by now has become a common mean for marketing and most companies use this method to draw attention. But being a common concept of marketing doesn’t imply that it is a boring way to draw customer attention or it is antiquated now and you need a fresh marketing method. Being a little meticulous in the process can make this marketing mean a sure win strategy for many.

Just few days I found an email for job application where the mail was addressed to someone else. I immediately recalled those online companies who do this blunder very often. Usually a catchy headline makes people click on promotional mails and the moment they see someone else has been addressed it doest takes few seconds to throw it off in trash.

My personal experience of bungled email marketing is many and of late I came across a mail where a company announced for a new show on automobiles. I was intrigued  by the auto show and quickly signed only to find that I done have time to reach it anymore as hardly 2 minutes is left for the show to start. I could not leave my home right away and it is for sure that will prefer stay off from any email that comes from the respective company. This mistake is counting numbers as many companies go for email marketing of their shows or concerts at the eleventh hour. It is always advisable to do this marketing with enough time in hand.

Good email marketing will consider personalizing to that extent where a recipient will feel the email as an important letter to go through. It is better to drop the style of writing “dear Sir/Madam” and writing the name instead. This gives personal touch to it and much of attention can be obtained through it. Besides, a company using email marketing option must give an authentic link that allows a recipient to sing off from the newsletter and other promotional mails of a company. You may find it to be setback for your business as you are digging your own grave by offering a way to exit to your customers. But at the end of the day, this link will imply how much value you offer to your customer’s time.

Got your attention there, didn’t I? Using the ‘F’ word almost always does. The free service that I mention is provided by none other than you. You can make some great copy for your business even if you don’t believe for a single moment that you can. Imagine that…free copy whenever you want it, personalized to your business and of a high quality. But just how do you go about doing so?

Observe the customers

Talk to your clientele and ask them to talk to you about your business. Find out how your customers view your product/service and this itself can give you a part of your copy. I think the best way to do this is to use it in a small questionnaire hosted on Google Docs. Also mention that any responses can be used for any purpose, don’t forget that!

Weed out the non-buyers

Anyone that is not a buyer, but still responds to the questionnaire should be ignored as their responses might be unrepresentative of your audience. You can use their response to target others, but not your target audience.

Eliminate the definite buyers

The point of copy is to get someone to say “yes” where they might have said “maybe” or “no” previously. If someone is already a buyer, they don’t need to be convinced at all. So weed out the sure-shot buyers as well.

Copy paste away to glory

Understand what motivates your customers and you will be able to sell better to them. Use their words from the survey and you will seem more believable and personable.

Tailor the comments

Rephrase the comments and generalize as much as you can, making it more relevant for your target market. Don’t be too fancy with your language and just try to use your customers words as far as possible, that’s all there is to it. It really is that simple to come up with great copy.

Based in Portland, Oregon, the company has pored over data related to more than 11,000 campaigns and looked at metrics such as click through rates, cost per click and cost per fan spread over 4.5 billion impressions and 2.2 million clicks. That’s a lot of clicks no matter what you say. Unsurprisingly, advertisers got barely any bang for their buck in 2010 comparative since ad prices rose on the back of a wave of popularity. Let’s just compare the average click-through rate of web advertising on Facebook in 2009 compared to 2010. In 2009, this was 0.063% at 27 cents a click, which was better than the 0.051% click through rate of 2010 at 49 cents a click. What savvy marketers can take away from this is that the cost of advertising on Facebook is rising all the time, so act now and avail of lower rates that are bound to change soon.

Comparatively, the cost per thousand impressions (which is to say the fee Facebook charges to display an ad 1,000 times) was 17 cents in 2009, which doesn’t compare to the 25 cent average of 2010. The cost per fan on Facebook was $1.07 in 2010 and though no figures are available for 2009, it is safe to assume that this too has risen in cost. Interestingly, the findings from WebTrends reveals that the older we get, the likelier we are to open ads on Facebook. Perhaps it is that we are less guarded as we get older or that we are more naïve technologically, less questioning of things? Geographically however, there is no linkage between your location and the likelihood of you clicking through on an ad. There is, however, one exception to the rule and that is Hawaii. The click through rates for Hawaii is half that found in almost every other state. But then, this is Hawaii we’re talking about and they perhaps have lot better things to do than hang around on Facebook and click through ads. I know I sure wouldn’t bother much with Facebook if I were in Hawaii!

You can compare cyber-criminals to safecrackers of yore in that they have plenty of tools at their disposal to crack into your account. If you give out critical information to do with your bank accounts thanks to phishers, you have only yourself to blame. Using that information, cyber-criminals can easily take the money out of your account or sell that information to other criminals who can then use it to plot global domination. Okay, maybe not global domination, but definitely your downfall. But online banks are a great tool to use, so be prepared and safe rather than sorry later on.

Train your employees

Teach your employees how to guard critical information such as bank details or email user names and passwords. Find someone who can educate them if you can’t do so.

Fasten the hatches

Secure all entry points into your systems, such as PC’s, files, servers and all networks. Consumer solutions are not the best option, so turn to business solutions instead.

Use dedicated PC’s

When using online banks, use a dedicated PC to access these accounts. Use it solely for banking and nothing else. No web browsing and no e-mail. And certainly no file sharing!

Talk to your bank

Your bank will gladly tell you how to protect yourself based on its systems. Familiarize yourself with safety protocols and processes and look at the way you can safeguard against any losses in the future.

Your website needs to be “sticky” in a way and users need to want to return to it on a regular basis, investing their time, effort and interest in constantly returning to the website. You don’t have to make your website the next best thing since sliced bread, but a concerted effort on your part to look for targeted traffic could see your number of visitors soar on a daily basis.

Try to connect

Blogging about events is the bread and butter of any online business. A few clicks, a few paragraphs is all it takes to keep your readers clued in. The idea is to create a stream of content that keeps your readers interested at all times. And it doesn’t hurt to throw in some marketing giveaways into the mix as well. Make your content dynamic and unique, and you can bet your bottom dollar that your users will keep returning.

Build a community

This is the next logical step of trying to build up your website to be all it can be. Building a community is the single most powerful way of reeling in your readers and making sure that they are at all times engaged and on the hook.

Spread the love

Make it easy to share the information that is on the website. Put in links to Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and everywhere else your readers might be looking to spread information to. Don’t make it difficult for them to spread the love.

The results of that were speedy to say the least. The brand new search algorithm was ready and implemented in next to no time and small businesses will have to be very wary of the way in which they deal with their customers if they are to be ranked highly within Google. Being bad never should be good for business, and this is what Google is looking to achieve with its new search algorithm. Of course, Google won’t say what they have changed with the search algorithm and rightly so. If they detailed the inner workings of the algorithmic process, it can easily be gamed by nefarious individuals or businesses such as DecorMyEyes.com.

In essence, the new process looks poorly at businesses that have a poor user experience and then gives them a lower ranking. What this means for small businesses that have a web presence and online businesses is that user reviews and ratings have become more important than ever. So it has basically gone and added this new parameter to its search algorithm and changed the way in which it assesses and presents results to surfers. The owner of DecorMyEyes, Vitaly Borker, claimed that the negative press he got drove on sales, but that is not true. What did drive his sales on was a post in New York Times on him. In fact, complaint sites, didn’t even link back to the business. Don’t make the same mistakes Vitaly Borker did; treat your customers well and they in turn will reward your business. It makes perfect business sense to do so.

If you don’t say what you do clearly or if that information can’t be found easily, people will leave. If navigating your website is a pain, they will leave. If it doesn’t solve their problems or questions, they will leave. No one will spend time trying to figure out what to do with your website; they will simply move on and pick out some other website that does do exactly as they need it to. When a user gets frustrated with your website, they are not going to use a contact form or leave feedback of any sort; they will simply leave never to return. And that is something no online business can afford to let happen.

So just how do you go about defining website usability? There are multiple definitions for this one term, but it should broadly speaking be.

• Quick
• Intuitive and easy to use
• Be helpful and
• Be easy to remember for future use

Does your website tick off all of these characteristics? If so, congratulations. You have created something that will not only please your customers, but also keep the greenbacks rolling for you. The benefits are there to be had for both the user and the provider. Let go of the belief that user feedback will drive your design. Ask your self this. If you were angry at some website or just generally frustrated by it, would you take the time to offer objective criticism of it via a feedback system or would you just leave it never to return? Exactly…website usability can define whether or not your business succeeds. Don’t leave it to chance.

A good business plan will always outline the nature of a company’s intents and business and it is going to outline how it will achieve its goals. These goals that are laid out should be challenging and yet doable. The volume of a business plan will depend on the set of circumstances one finds oneself in, but even if it is lengthy it should exceed no more than 25 to 30 pages. Use simple English without language that is overly intricate and explain technical details as simply as possible. Make sure that even a non-specialist can understand the business plan and that its financial viability and revenue streams are highlighted. Don’t generalize and don’t use jargon.

Critically, your business plan will include an executive summary which sums up your business. This is the highly condensed version of your business plan and is best written last since it is so important. Many potential investors read this and then read on only if they find it interesting. Placed at the front, it should be clear and persuasive, balancing a sales pitch with reality and facts. It should be no more than two pages and cover everything a business has to offer. It should give a background of the business, its services, a market and competitive analysis and if possible a SWOT analysis.

For instance, you can talk about key differentiators of your product or service and what its unique selling point(s) are. Talk about what stage of development the business is at. Is it at an early stage or is your product a tested and ready prototype ripe for mass production? What redundancies might it face? Talk also about legal protection, such as patents and intellectual rights. Talk also about the marketing efforts you want to make and what channels you wish to pursue, as also your distribution plan. Lastly talk about the core management team and what qualities each of them bring to the table. Keeping these factors in mind when you write a business plan will ensure its success at securing investment.