Juggling Instructions

1. Start with two balls, one in each hand. Throw a ball from one hand to the other in an arc type toss.

2. When the ball reaches its highest point throw the next ball in a similar arc such that their paths do not cross.

3. Continue juggling until you are comfortable. Then start with two balls in your strong hand and the last ball in the other hand. Using the same directions above throw one ball from your strong hand up in an arc. When the first ball reaches its peak, toss the ball from your other hand. When that ball reaches its peak toss the third ball. At this point you should have already caught the first ball. Continue in this pattern throwing the balls back and forth.

4. A tip: when you do start with three balls, don’t worry so much about catching the balls as focusing on throwing them at the right time in a nice arc.

Statistics that will blow your mind

Apple’s 2008 Fiscal Q4 was one of the best quarters in Apple’s history posting revenue of $7.9 billion and net profit of $1.14 billion. A total of 6,892,000 iPhones and 11,052,000 iPods were sold during the quarter…which is more iPhones than every previous quarter combined (6.1 million) and the most iPods ever sold in a non-holiday quarter.
www.technologyexpert.blogspot.com

August 26, 2008 Mark Zuckerberg founder and CEO of Facebook announced they had hit a huge milestone: 100,000,000 people around the world are now using Facebook. www.facebook.com

Blogs allow millions of people to easily publish and share their ideas, and millions more to read and respond. They engage the writer and reader in an open conversation, and are shifting the Internet paradigm as we know it. There are over 175,000 new blogs every day and bloggers update their blogs regularly to the tune of over 1.6 million posts per day…or over 18 updates a second. www.technoratimedia.com

A web server survey for October 2008 indicates that there are 182,226,259 websites online, which reflects growth of 948,000 over September 2008. www.newsnetcraft.com

Q. How many emails are transmitted daily around the world?
A. About 1.2 billion are sent from non-spam sources. If you count the spam/phishing ones, it’s about 75% more…or 2.1 billion daily. www.wikianswers.com

It is estimated that YouTube consumed as much bandwidth last year as the entire Internet in 2000; and that over 13 hours of video are uploaded every minute. In March of this year, bandwidth costs were estimated at approximately $1 million a day. In April of this year, there were more than 83 million videos on YouTube. www.wikipedia.org

Can you juggle!?

???

1-800-GOOG-411

http://www.google.ca/goog411/

The First Interactive Election in History

With the flurry following the election results of the past week, it's no wonder that many industry insiders are pointing out the importance of social media in Barack Obama's campaign. These snapshots of social media stats, taken Nov. 3, 2008, show the figures behind each candidate's online standing:

Facebook

Obama: 2,379,102 supporters
McCain: 620,359 supporters

Obama has 380% more supporters than McCain

MySpace

Obama: Friends: 833,161
McCain: Friends: 217,811

Obama has 380% more supporters than McCain

YouTube

Obama: 1792 videos uploaded since Nov 2006, Subscribers: 114,559 (uploads about 4 a day), Channel Views: 18,413,110
McCain: 329 videos uploaded since Feb 2007 Subscribers: 28,419, (uploads about 2 a day), Channel Views: 2,032,993

Obama has 403% more subscribers than McCain
Obama has 905% more viewers than McCain

Twitter

Obama: @barackobama has 112,474 followers
McCain: @JohnMcCain (is it real?) 4,603 followers

Obama has 240 times more followers in Twitter than McCain

[Stats taken from the Web Strategy Blog by Jeremiah.]

Even just glancing at these statistics make it clear that Obama dominated the social media stratosphere. And given that the 2008 election had a record turnout, with media coverage that looked more like the Oscar pre-show, it seems clear that using this kind of platform grants access to a wide, diverse group of individuals who are ready and willing to listen.

There's a lesson about the future of interactive marketing in all this. The success of the Obama campaign, and its seamless integration of social media with other, more traditional campaign tactics, serve as a excellent reminder of the growing importance of social media, and how many companies must learn to embrace these new trends if they want to get their message heard, like Obama...or be left behind surrounded by unheard, mixed messages like McCain.

It’s a celebration!

Applecore Interactive has successfully passed the QMI external audit and has been officially recommended for ISO 9001:2000 certification!

We are the first company of our kind in Newfoundland & Labrador to receive this designation, and join a very elite list of web design companies across Canada and North America with the ISO 9001:2000 certification.

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ISO (International Organization for Standardization) - http://www.iso.org/
ISO 9001:2000 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9000
QMI – SAI Global - http://www.qmi.com/registration/iso9001/

Ocean View Hotel

Located ideally inside Gros Morne National Park, the Ocean View Hotel (http://www.theoceanview.ca/) was in the process of reinventing itself as the premier accommodations of Rocky Harbour, NL, making the change from motel to hotel and incorporating a complete re branding. With its prime location and excellent record of service, the hotel needed a website re-design that would better reflect their fresh new image. The upgrade involved an elegant, more professional interface, a content overhaul and the development of an online booking system that would ease their guest’s ability to plan their stay.

You can check out the finished product here.

Using Annotations in YouTube Media

YouTube has long been a major centre of social media for organizations.

This year they unveiled Annotations, an interactive way for users to be engaged throughout their videos. Any videos uploaded by an organization contain the ability to display speech bubbles, notes, tags, or links to other YouTube videos as per that organization’s wishes. These Annotations can be dynamically placed anywhere on the viewing area of the movie for any desired duration. This presents a greater ability to inform or reach viewers.

More than just the added benefit of informing viewers, this new service provides the ability for users to completely interact with the video they are watching. For example:


In this video, the viewer is actually able to play the game and select an outcome.

Possibly one of the best features of this added service to YouTube is its ease of control. To edit Annotations go to the Edit video page or My Videos page as shown below and click “Annotations” under the listed video.



This will bring you to a page with four Annotations options, (Speech Bubble, Note, Spotlight, and Pause Annotation), a panel for editing your Annotations, and a preview video.



The owner of the video is able to drag Annotations around on their video, change the duration of the Annotations, and even insert links from that Annotation to a relevant YouTube video, like with the Shell Game video above.

Types of Annotations

Speech Bubble – This should be pretty self-explanatory. It is a speech bubble you can place in a video to make figures in that video look like they are saying something to the audience.

Note – This is for describing the video or providing a tidbit of information relevant to the video.

Spotlight – This works similar to tagging systems in photo galleries. The owner of a video can put a highlightable box over any figures in the video and when the viewer hovers over that box they see who or what is in that frame.

Pause Annotation – This will pause the video for any duration of your choice. A pause timer will appear on the video to allow the viewer to gauge how long the video will be paused for. This can be done to provide time for the viewer to read text or select a link.

Online Video Market Evolves, Begins Morphing Into New 'Storytelling' Device

YouTube and related technologies alerted the marketing world to a powerful new tool that speaks to the heart of what marketing has always been about: the art of conversation between brand and client. Applecore has always operated from the philosophy that in order to mobilize audiences or change behaviour, as a marketer it has to target hearts and minds – cognitive and emotive – simultaneously. Online video has provided us with one of the most effective methods of achieving this.

In a world of keyword clouds and content searches video has been standing in the back row, depending on clever content creators to direct traffic to the magical movie. Video tagging and content-rich descriptions are the beginning of overcoming this minor hurdle. In short, video is changing, video makes for powerful conversation and online video is growing.

At the recent OMMA Video conference in Los Angeles, the following article was released:

A year or so after the online video advertising marketplace emerged in earnest, experts on both sides of the table say it remains a vital but messy, complicated and often difficult-to-evaluate business--although it clearly is the future of what Madison Avenue has historically considered its dominant, persuasive advertising medium: television. Those were the conclusions of speakers and panelists participating in the OMMA Video conference here on Wednesday...

[ Read Entire Article ]

Economic Uncertainty? Grow Out Of It!

Depressed along with the markets? Don’t be—it’s time to grow out of this crisis and into your next opportunity.

At a recent conference in Seoul, Sir Richard Branson said, “There are enormous opportunities when there is a crisis. In a situation like this, it’s absolutely essential to conserve cash. I think companies that do have cash owe it to their country and the people in the company to actually invest that cash in order to grow out of the crisis.”

Obviously our entrepreneurial solutions of the past 8 years got us to this point, so why wouldn’t the same tricks turn things around? The cowardly response is to cut: cut staff, cut training, cut marketing or anything else that would allow only the bare bones of an operation to continue.

The creative mind looks for opportunity.

Internet marketing offers a creative way to thrive in a crisis. Search engine marketing allows you to say exactly what you want to say to whom you would like. You reach a highly motivated person looking for your solution. and can additionally measure every result and change mid-stream if it fails to show results. If they don’t play, you don’t pay.

Invest in your website’s content management system (CMS) : By creating a CMS you take control of your content. No delay at the marketing department, the designer, the printer or publisher. You say what you need to say immediately. The cost? Only your time.

Online video has become the tool of the masses. Created with any variety of technology—a cell phone, a pocket camera or, if you like, a high definition camcorder with studio lights— and edited on the fly. Continue the brand conversation with your audience in the social web-o-sphere – on your website, YouTube, Facebook, Google Video. The opportunities are endless.

If you're worried about rivals poaching your clientele, you have an advantage: you already know your customer. Continue the conversation online through e-marketing. You control this distribution channel and the cost is minimal. All these online marketing endeavours are measurable, they are flexible, lean and nimble.

Still asking ‘why?’ Maybe you should try asking ‘Why not?’

In tough economic times, you’ll see some of your competition disappear. That’s only natural: in Branson’s words, the best always survive in a crisis. It is time to find the ‘E’ in creative, and outlast them all.

Using Social Media to Reach People Who Don't Use Social Media

1. Develop Relationships with People Who Bridge The Gap Inside Other Organizations

You may want to target senior executives, older people or others who just aren't very likely to read your blog posts, Twitter messages, etc. but chances are - those people have co-workers, family and others in their lives who would.

2. Use Web 2.0 Tools to Learn About Real Life Public Events

There may or may not be relevant events in your field that are attended by non-social media users and are listed on sites like Upcoming.org and Eventful.com. It's worth a look and worth subscribing to the RSS feeds for those searches.

3. Make Your Blog an Email Newsletter and Promote it Elsewhere

If your target audience doesn't read blogs or participate in social networks, they probably do like email. This is an easy thing to do and can prove quite effective for non-technical audiences if framed in a non-threatening way.

4. Look Harder, Your Audience Probably is Using Social Media That You Aren't Aware Of

There were 5 billion videos watched on YouTube just by people in the US in July. There are people in your industry using LInkedIn, we guarantee it. Where are people talking about you or your industry online?

5. Use the Internet to Make Yourself Smarter In Real Life

The best way to use social media to reach people who don't use social media is probably just to use social media to kick more ass. You may be the only person in a meeting that reads blogs (unlikely, really) but that doesn't have to be what people notice; the fact that you know more, sooner, about your shared interests (as a result of reading blogs) well will be a big help.

[ Read Entire Article ]

How tough times will boost online marketing

Kelsey Group, a search and directory research firm, is predicting a boom in online marketing by home- and trade-services businesses. Today, just 33% of these businesses have Web sites, but Kelsey says that will nearly double by 2010. "Web sites will be viewed as a cost-effective alternative; a channel that didn't make sense in a booming market will fast become a necessity," the firm said in a news release. It suggests home-services businesses pay attention to consumer referral and community sites like Angie's List and ServiceMagic.

[ Read Entire Article ]

The Five Biggest Digital Marketing Cliches

Once upon a time -- say, 2002 -- digital spending was a negligible portion of total marketing budgets and we lived in a world where few marketers would dare go "beyond the banner." Fast-forward to 2008, and in some cases we have the opposite problem. Digital spending is still too low, but in the spirit of wanting to appear current, some marketers have rushed to embrace any and every new digital tactic.

This has resulted in a scenario where some digital tactics are dangerously close to "jumping the shark." Everyone is doing them, so they're not original anymore. They generally are not done well (i.e., in a way that builds brand equity, awareness or sales), and they may be so commonplace that rather than making a brand seem current or hip, they have the opposite effect.

Here are my top five:

The Social Network Page
The offense: In 2006 every brand had to have a MySpace page; now they have an equally urgent need for a Facebook page. The result is usually the equivalent of an online ad hidden within the vast reaches of a social network, adding little value to consumers or the brand.

[ Read Entire Article ]

Why you can't afford to stay dumb about SEO

Entrepreneur Anita Campbell, who launched a media and information service, says her business success depends on customers finding her Web site, so she has had to become an expert in search-engine optimization. Even if you hire SEO consultants it pays to learn the basics, she says. At the same time, don't be afraid to spend money on Web professionals to improve your marketing and sales. She wishes she had.

[ Read Entire Article ]

How Much Do Top Bloggers Make?

The media world is changing and its jobs are changing too. The rise of the blogger is an often-told story, but are the lucky few bloggers who do it for a living well paid? We did a survey to find out.

We asked 20 top-tier tech bloggers and social media consultants to tell us how much they get paid, by the post, by the hour or by the month - however their rates are set. Half of them told us, on the condition that we wouldn't disclose who they were or where they worked.

The end result is an anecdotal overview of what some of the top tech bloggers and social media consultants are making. These aren't the founders of big blogs, these are their employees and people who get work writing, doing trainings or consulting for tech companies.

There are a handful of people in tech blogging that make even more than this but the vast majority of people who get paid to blog get paid far less. To be honest we have no idea what it's like outside the Web 2.0 world. (Honestly, is it raining?) We hope that no one will be too angry with us if these numbers lead their employees to feel newly shortchanged and protest. These folks are at the top of their field.

[ Read Entire Article ]

Corporate Blogging for Self Defense

I have recently been discussing with clients and the blogosphere why it is important for companies to author blogs.

This evening, in lieu of the last week of economic turmoil on Wall Street, I did a quick search on Google for the term, "CEO".

The top articles returned were very negative in nature. What can a company do to counter the onslaught of negative press and foster an image of customer service and relations?

Step one: set aside a tiny amount of your marketing or public relations budget to start and maintain a blog.

Step two: discuss relevant corporate issues and bring your customers and concerned interests one step closer to the board room.

[ Read Entire Article ]

Windows 7: Microsoft's secret weapon against Google

October 27, 2008 (Computerworld) With the first public alpha release of Windows 7 due today at the Microsoft PDC2008 conference, the outline of the new operating system is taking shape. What you won't see when that alpha comes out is the way that Microsoft will try to use Windows 7 as a Trojan horse in its war against Google.

Google's domination of the search market continues unabated, but Microsoft hasn't given up on it. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently said that his company is willing to lose "5% to 10% of total operating income for several years" to fund its ongoing attempt to make inroads into the search market. Much more than search is at stake. Google wants to replace Microsoft's desktop-based applications, such as Office, with its cloud-based applications, such as Google Docs.

So where does Windows 7 come in? What new features can Microsoft possibly introduce that will help it overtake Google in search and retain its domination of productivity software such as Office?

Microsoft's secret weapon in Windows 7 is not what features the operating system has, but instead what features it doesn't have. Microsoft is stripping Windows 7 of some of Windows' best built-in applications, and it's making them available only as downloads on its Windows Live site.

[ Read Entire Article ]

Avalon Dental

Found in the bustling centre of the Avalon Mall, local dentistry office Avalon Dental (www.avalondental.ca) wanted to increase their online presence by developing a welcoming, informative website. The challenge lay in creating a website that matched their state-of-the-art facilities, which included designing their logo, as well as developing an appointment request system, a functional Q&A and a comprehensive list of services. The result was an intuitive, streamlined interface that was easy to navigate and put the focus on what mattered: their business.

Have a look at what came out of our collaboration.

Ever wonder if your website is what is considered “user-friendly”?

Ever wonder if your website is what is considered "user-friendly"?

Well, this simple checklist should be right up your alley. Tackling key points like website navigation, content, branding, and testing, it’ll give you great insight into how to make sure your online home has a lasting impact on its users.

Interact with us if you’re ready to take the next step in maximizing your user experience and virtual relationship!

Attention Internet shoppers: Retailers are sharpening their hooks

Shoppers, start your search engines! You are about to be presented with a whole range of new websites, products and systems designed to get you shopping online.

E-commerce is growing by leaps and bounds, in Canada and internationally, which is one of the reasons why next week, world leaders in e-commerce will gather in Amsterdam for the first Global e-commerce Summit. In fact, in a tightening economy, e-commerce is seen by many as a way to keep people shopping by offering convenience and, ideally, lower prices.

With a decade or so of experience under their belts, retailers are now working to improve the online shopping experience in at least four ways -- product, price, service and payment -- and in so doing entice more Canadians to spend their money at online stores.

Online shopping, for Canadians, has often meant cross-border shopping. Many of the bigshopping websites were American, and we had to deal not only with shipping issues but also customs formalities.

U.S. retailers have begun to respond by setting up shop here. One example is Newegg.com, an online retailer of electronics and household appliances. Their all-Canadian website, Newegg.ca, went live this month.

[ Read Entire Article ]

Google Earth brings virtual tourism to iPhone

SAN FRANCISCO--Google already has customized some of its Web sites for display on the iPhone, but now the company also dived headlong onto Apple's highly regarded mobile phone with a full-fledge application, a handheld version of its Google Earth geographical software.

Google Earth lets people virtually fly around a 3D view of the world made from satellite and aerial imagery mapped onto the planet's mountains and valleys. The iPhone version reproduces this core experience, downloading imagery from Google's servers as the perspective shifts and dotting the map with landmarks, photos, and other information.

"The idea of having Earth on a mobile device is something people dreamed of back to the Keyhole days and before," said Peter Birch, Google Earth's product manager, referring to the satellite imagery company Google acquired in 2004. "This is the first opportunity we've had to be able to deliver a great experience."

[ Read Entire Article ]

Google for Webmasters Tutorial: Ranking

Ten Common Objections to Social Media Adoption and How You Can Respond

Steve Outing wrote a very good article at Editor and Publisher on Friday about the need for cultural change inside the newpapers around the US (found via the wonderful CyberJournalist.net). That article got me thinking that people in many different industries probably hear many of the same objections to new, social media and online tools. ("It takes too much time, conversations online are insipid" etc.)

I decided to make a list of the Top 10 Objections to New Online Tools and What You Can Say in Response. I surveyed my nearly 1300 friends on Twitter and got all kinds of thoughtful replies.

Below is that list; I hope you'll find it useful and leave comments helping to extend the conversation further. In my mind I'm thinking of everything from RSS and wikis to Twitter, Facebook and blogging. Online tools that leverage social connections.

Last month we wrote about an initiative called The Working Group where people trying to bring about innovation in big companies. Many readers probably know about Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang's fantastic blog, where he explains social media in a business context, often in a format you can take directly to the boss. There are lots of different resources available online to help the intrepid early adopter and I hope this list will be one of them.

[ Read Entire Article ]

A Guide to Business Development 2.0

At least once each day I get a call from someone trying to sell me outsourced development services. It's difficult to not be frustrated with these calls and it is increasingly hard to be polite, because they come so frequently. Yet, more than frustrated, I am just puzzled. Does this tactic still work? Who in this day and age would give business based on a cold call? These companies could definitely use a dose of business development 2.0.

Because of these calls, for a while I have been thinking about the impact of the modern age on business development. In the good old days, it all boiled down to the salesmen with the big rolodexes who could close the deal. But clearly, the rules have changed. How does business development work this days? What makes sense and what does not? In this post we take a look.

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Is Your Snazzy New Site Cloaked in Invisibility?

Imagine spending millions of dollars to come up with an amazing product, then cloaking it for invisibility. Perhaps the U.S. military can find good reason to do that, but for any company hoping to capture major market share, invisibility is tantamount to business suicide.

So why is it then that so many bleeding-edge, ultra-cool websites -- products in and of themselves -- are designed to be invisible to search engines and ultimately potential customers? Why is it that companies spend oodles of money to end up with a site that can only be found by employees, friends and family?

I'm a believer that "findability" is a usability issue. If your site can't be found by a motivated user in search of your product or service, it is a WOI (Waste of Investment), the opposite of ROI (you should know what that stands for). If a potential customer can't find it, it's useless to him or her. And if it's useless to a customer, well, you get the picture.

So why are many sites cloaked? The only reasons I can think of is a lack of knowledge about best practices for search or negligence on the part of creatives who believe designing for visibility somehow restricts doing great work. I know the latter is exactly opposite of the truth. Designing for visibility doesn't restrict creative excellence, it enhances it.

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