Announcing Benchmark. The Social Media Summit in New York City

Brands, Media and Technology Converge For a One Day Social Media Summit, May 9th 2012 at the Metropolitan Pavilion

New York City, New York (PRWEB) March 22, 2012

http://www.benchmark-nyc.com @benchmarkny The voice behind the Banff World Media Festival, nextMEDIA and History Makers International announce a new international event to its existing line up, “Benchmark,” taking place May 9, 2012 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City.

Benchmark will bring together brands, agencies, technology providers and executives within fortune 500 companies responsible for implementing social media programs and policies for their organization to collaborate in highly interactive and open forum.

“We really want to do something different with Benchmark, create an interactive, open discussion with executives who are already seeing success in social media and allow plenty of room for networking and idea sharing” Mark Greenberg COO, Achilles Media said. “ROI is very hard to achieve in the traditional sense with social media. This is a new space for commerce that needs a new mindset, and Benchmark is coming at the perfect time to cut through the clutter and set some standards for us all.”

Benchmark aims to clarify this space, offering campaign case studies and proven strategies for making a profound brand presence as well as profiling the tools and systems needed to effectively track and measure your efforts across platforms.

Benchmark already has an impressive speaker line-up including.

Frank Cotignola, Category Insights Manager, Kraft Foods

Britta Schell, Director of Digital Strategic Insights, MTV

Matthew Knell, Social Media Director AOL

Robert Harles, Global Head Social Media, Bloomberg

George Smith, Sr. Manager Social and CRM Strategy and Execution, PepsiCo

For a full list of speakers, sponsorship information or to register, visit http://www.benchmark-nyc.com

About Achilles Media

Benchmark is produced by Achilles Media Ltd., an international business-to-business media and facilitation company serving the media and investment industries. Achilles Media communities include: the Canadian Innovation Exchange (CIX), the Banff World Media Festival, nextMEDIA World Events, History Makers International, Small Business Summit and nextSPORT. For more information, visit http://www.achillesmedia.com.

Scott Benzie
Benchmark
416-921-3171 228

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

Want Twitter Travel Deals? TripTwit Does the Heavy Lifting for You

When Naveen Thattil found a $40 round-trip flight between New York City and Austin on Twitter, he felt as though all of the stars had aligned in his favor.

“I happened to be looking at my Twitter stream that day and the airline I happened to be following happened to tweet a deal,” he says.

Luck, however, is an inefficient way to monitor travel deals, and the experience inspired Thattil to build an algorithm to replace it.

His product, TripTwit, allows users to set email alerts for travel deals by destination, brand or origin city. After launching without fanfare in December, the site has gained more than two thousand users since launch — mostly through SEO efforts (Thattil’s trade) and word of mouth.

Here’s how it works: At sign-up, users indicate where they’d like to go and where they’re based. They can also name brands (airlines, hotels, cruise lines, car rentals) that they’re particularly interested in. TripTwit uses this criteria to pull deals from Twitter that might interest them, and emails them a daily list of Twitter offers. The lists look like this:

TripTwit finds deals by monitoring Twitter conversation surrounding them and determines the type of deal using linguistic analysis. It’s mostly an automated process and supports its minimal costs through Google ads.

Other methods for finding Twitter travel deals, such as discovering and following sites that frequently tweet deals or searching for a hashtag require more effort. Sites like Wanderlisting curate Twitter accounts likely to tweet travel deals, but not deals themselves, and other sites that have taken a stab at curating Twitter deals don’t personalize them for you.

TripTwit, on the other hand, has managed to create something that works like a Google alert for Twitter travel deals.

“Most people I talk to outside of the tech space, they’re kind of unaware that there are travel deals on Twitter,” Thattil says. “With this, you don’t need a Twitter account, and you don’t need to worry about following people or monitoring Tweets.”

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Teens Are Sending, Receiving 60 Texts a Day

Teens are texting more than ever — and their thumb-crunching habits are showing no signs of slowing, according to a new study.

A new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project revealed that the amount of texts sent and receive each day among teenagers has jumped in the past few years, especially among boys, older teens and African-Americans.

The study looked at the behavior of nearly 800 teens ages 12 to 17 during a three-part survey between April and July 2011 and a series of focus groups involving 57 people ages 12 to 19.

Teens on average are sending and receiving 60 texts each day, up from 50 in 2009. The increase is being led by older teens ages 14-17, who went from a median of 60 texts a day to a whopping 100 two years later.

Girls are still the most active texters, sending and receiving a median of 100 texts a day compared to boys sending 50. However, boys are texting more than they were just two years ago — in 2009, they sent about 30 each day. African-American teens are also texting more, up to 80 each day from 60 in 2009.

Of the entire group, 75% of teens said they actively text, and one in four say they own a smartphone. Not surprisingly, voice calls are down.

Texting is by far the most popular way for teens to communicate. While 63% of teens say they text every day, only 39% said they make calls on their phones on a daily basis or send messages through social networking sites (29%). In addition, 35% said they socialize face to face outside of school. The big loser in teen communication is email, with only 6% of teens using it as a means to communicate with friends.

However, the study found that those who text more frequently are more likely to talk on the phone with their friends.

Do you think texting will ever replace phone calls? As teens get older, do you think they will eventually embrace email? Let us know in the comments.

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

42 Things To Do On Twitter Besides Tweet Spam & Coupons

One of the number one social media questions I hear from business leaders is “what should I tweet?”

It’s funny because most business owners start a business because they have a passion for something or at minimum have an interest in it enough they believe they can make some money providing such a service or product.  However, when it comes to sending a 140 character tweet they struggle with it.

Many are use to the days of  the long corporate brochures  and matching websites where they can hire a writer to craft every word to perfection. However, times have changed. Conversations are now real time. They are immediate and happening 24/7.  Such a scenario puts many business owners and leaders in the spotlight without them really knowing what to do.

If you are one struggling with “what to tweet” I encourage you to go back to the reasons you started your business. Focus on your audience, clients, partners and community. Get in their head and do your best to understand what it is they need. What do they want to talk about? How can you personally help them? How can your business help them meet their goals and objectives?

Below is a list of 42 things you can do on Twitter besides tweet coupons or promote your business all day long.

42 Things to do on Twitter Besides Tweet Coupons & Spam!

1. Share relevant content that will provide value to your followers.

2. Join or host a tweet chat.

3. Social listening. Listen and watch others in your community, industry leaders, competition, partners, and clients.

4. Use hashtags to start a new community around a specific topic, event, business or cause.

5. Share inspirational content such as quotes or scripture. Did you know quotes are the #1 retweeted content on Twitter?

6. Share a song.

7. Have a conversation and talk to people. Yes, I know it sounds crazy but you can simply just talk like you do in real life! 

8. Welcome new businesses online who you know have just joined Twitter.

9. Share local events from your local news channels.

10. Share good deals from some of your favorite businesses.

11. Support your clients. Check out their tweet streams frequently for information you can help them share.

12. Thank someone via twitter for commenting on your blog.

13. Ask a question that starts dialog.

14. Support causes and charities.

15. Obtain support for your favorite cause or charity.

16. Share other people’s content such as blog posts and tweets.

17. Start a movement.

18. Share tips that can help your target market.

19. Develop an editorial calendar of tips and conversation points. It will help you particularly on the days when you have a writing or brain block.

20. Make new friends.

21. Share a photo. You can incorporate sites such as TwitPic, Instagram, Flickr and Pinterest.

22. Ask a question

23. Create a poll and gather input from your twitter followers.

24. Share an upcoming event.

25. Share content and key nuggets of information and quotes live from an event.

26. Find old friends.

27. Share a funny or touching video

28. Share an idea and gather feedback.

29. Share a new design or logo and ask for input.

30. Ask for feedback when launching or testing new website, blog or even Facebook timeline.

31. Show appreciation and advocacy for those in your community.

32. Wish someone Happy Birthday or any other holiday that is appropriate.

33. Share kids event photo and funny happenings.

34. Share a daily wisdom tweet.

35. Create themed days for morning or evening content. If you can inspire your followers, they may return daily to see what you have to say. For example, Monday could be Marketing Monday, Twitter Tuesday, Wacky Wednesday, Facebook Friday etc.

36. Gather opinions and wish lists for blog posts you can write that will help your followers and readers.

37. Create a Twitter list to keep track of industry experts, clients or simply your favorite tweeters.

38. Check out the Twitter lists of your community, clients, partners and even competitors to find good Tweeters to follow.

39. Cheer someone up.

40.  Tweet when you check into your favorite restaurant using Foursquare.

41. Talk about people who spam coupons (joking.)

42. Tweet this post!

What do You Tweet About? 

So tell me, what do you tweet about? Do you struggle with what to tweet or do you have a rapid tongue that never runs out of things to say? Was there ever a time you struggled with how to get a Twitter conversation started? What tips can you share to help others who may be new to Twitter or still feeling tweet challenged?

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Why Google+ is good for business

Google+ is good for business if you really work your profile and engage your audience. Just building a profile out is better than nothing but you have to use it if you want it to help grow your business. Let’s not forget that your profile will rank fairly high for your company branded search queries assuming your company name is somewhat unique. This is a great infographic from the folks at BlueGlass and Chris Brogan.

Let’s break down some of the juicy numbers from this data to get you salivating a bit:

• 90 million users on Google+ currently
• 80% of users engage on a weekly basis
• 60% of users log in every single day

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More people getting news on mobile devices

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The good news for the news industry: Smart phones, tablet computers and social networks are bringing people back to traditional print and broadcast news outlets.
The bad news: The firms behind those technologies, especially Google and Facebook, may be better poised to make money from news stories than the companies that gather the information, according to a study released today.
The annual Project for Excellence in Journalism report, which examines emerging trends that represent both "a threat and a promise" for the news industry, even suggests that profitable tech companies like Facebook might one day buy a struggling newspaper to ensure the flow of stories.
"Facebook and other social media are additional distributors of content, but they are also rivals for advertising revenues," the report said. "The new tablets, smart phones and other mobile technologies represent new ways to reach audiences, but they are also a new wave of new technology that news companies need to react to."
Newspaper and broadcasting companies have struggled for more than a decade to deal with declining revenue from a shift of eyeballs and advertising dollars to the Internet.
"The new wave threatens to shift the media landscape out from under them once more," the report said.
About 23 percent of all U.S. adults now get their news on at least two devices, a combination of smart phones, tablets and PCs, according to the project, which is part of the Pew Research Center in Washington.
About 36 percent prefer to go directly to a news organization's site, while 32 percent access news through search engines and 29 percent use an aggregation service like Flipboard.
More than half of smart-phone and tablet owners now use those devices to get news, compared to 32 percent of those who own laptops or desktops.
That trend is significant because about 44 percent of adults now own a smart phone, while tablet ownership, driven by Apple's market-leading iPad, has grown by about 50 percent to about 18 percent of adults since last summer.

New opportunity

"The dramatic rise in use of mobile devices is proving to be a boon to the news industry, and that is something of a surprise," said project director Tom Rosenstiel. "It really represents a new opportunity for news organizations."
The report is based on interviews with 3,016 people in January, but also examines data from comScore, Localytics and the Newspaper Association of America.
The data suggest mobile-device owners spend more time on news stories, a contrast with the more quick-hit news consumption style popularized by online-only sites.
"Not only are people going to traditional sources, but they are reading in depth," Rosenstiel said.
Moreover, mobile devices are bringing back younger audiences, a demographic that seemed lost to older news organizations.
"In the early '90s, there was a real question whether younger people would consume news at all," Rosenstiel said. "Technology has brought in new audiences that would never have been there otherwise."
The audience for news websites grew by 17 percent in the past year, and network TV news audiences grew for the first time in a decade.
But only online sites and cable TV experienced ad revenue gains. Revenue was flat for magazines and down 3.7 percent for network TV news, 6.7 percent for local news and 7.6 percent for newspapers.
And although more than 100 newspapers this year are expected to join 150 dailies already trying to generate revenue from some form of digital subscriptions, the industry can't compensate enough for the 43 percent decline in print circulation and advertising revenue since 2000.
Meanwhile, Rosenstiel said, 68 percent of online advertising last year was controlled by five tech companies - Google, Facebook, AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo - "and that number doesn't even include the power of Apple and Amazon."
The report even suggests that in the future, a tech company like Facebook might want to buy a traditional media outlet like the Washington Post to protect the flow of news that helps them build traffic.

Growing closer

Rosenstiel said his organization wasn't trying to suggest such a deal, but noted that tech and news companies are already growing closer.
Facebook, for example, has forged partnerships with companies like the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal to use a Social Reader app to direct readers to stories, while YouTube is paying Reuters to produce original news shows. And earlier this month, former Facebook executive and co-founder Chris Hughes bought New Republic magazine.
"The technology has become more friendly for these news organizations in the last year, and that's only going to grow," Rosenstiel said. "The question is, can the news industry this time around take better advantage of the opportunity than it did in the first 15 years of the digital age?"

Benny Evangelista is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. bevangelista@sfchronicle.com

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/18/BU081NLMUS.DTL#ixzz1pY87Wq9L


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50 (mostly) free social media tools you can’t live without in 2012

A couple years ago, Jay Baer wrote a great blog post called ‘The 39 social media tools I’ll use today’ which was an all-in-one toolkit for social media marketers (and still is).

A lot has changed in the two years since that post was published so here is a ’2012 remix’ featuring 50 (mostly free) tools you can use on a daily basis.

Whether you are just starting out in the social media arena or have been at it for a few years, this will hopefully be a handy resource. So, let’s serve ‘em up!

Listening / Research

The foundations for any social media marketing activity start with listening and in-depth research, ranging from influencer identification to campaign planning.

General listening tools

• Best in class: SocialMention.com – As far as ‘free’ options go, this is a solid as it gets.
• Alternatives: BoardReader.com (discussion board specific), Addictomatic.com (a general listening dashboard) and PeopleBrowsr.com (big data, big insights).

Specific listening tools

Each of the major social media platforms can be interrogated using a combination of specific tools including: FBsearch.us (Facebook), Monitter.com (location-based Twitter search), TagDef.com (Twitter hashtags), YouTube/KeywordTool (YouTube content optimization tool).

General research tools

• Domain / Username Checking:KnowEm.com, CheckUsernames.com, Claim.io (all solid options)
• Alternative Site Research: SimilarSites.com (the most robust website alternative engine), SmilarSiteSearch.com, SitesLike.com
• Blog / Blogger Identification: AllTop.com (online blog ‘magazine rack’),IceRocket.com (use the advanced blog search function for best effect),Google.com/Blogsearch (always improving).
• Influencer Research / Identification: This is a  much-debated topic thanks to the existence of Klout.com, PeerIndex.net, Kred.ly and the like. While these tools are useful to a degree, the listening tools listed above (when used manually), are just as useful.

Another very handy tool is Google’s AdPlanner which can help you determine which online destinations are most relevant to your product, brand or service.

Content Creation / Curation

Publishing / blogging

• Best in class: WordPress.com - The world’s best publishing platform catering to the very big to the very small.
• Alternatives: Tumblr.com, Posterous.com and many more.
• New kid on the block: CheckThis.com - Need a single page website in an instant? This is the tool for you.

Content discovery / curation

There are literally millions of tools and process for discovering relevant content and arranging it online so it can be re-purposed / re-shared. Here as just a few: Bo.lt,Trap.it, YourVersion.com and MyCube.com are all examples of content curation and discovery tools which you can tailor to suit your needs).

If you are looking for specific forms of content, the following tools are useful too:

• Imagery: Stock.xchng (the best place to find free images by keyword) andNew.Pixable.com (A Pinterest-style image aggregator based on your networks and interests)
• Video: en.fooooo.com (video search engine which aggregates results from all the major video platforms)

Engagement

Dashboards

The best engagement dashboards are often a subject of much debate. The most widely used ones include TweetDeck.com, HootSuite.com and SproutSocial.com, but there are a bunch of other alternatives out there too.

Scheduling: BufferApp.com – A simple way to ‘pace and space’ your updates across multiple social networks.

Blog comments

Two of the most popular blog comment management tools are Disqus.com andLiveFyre.com but there are a host of others out there too, includingIntenseDebate.com.

Analysis / Insights

There is definitely no shortage of analytics tools out there, and the free ones pack some formidable power.

Website analytics

• Google Analytics is the king when it comes to free website insights but lots of other tools can play a role too.
• StatMyWeb.com is a great all-in-one tools to get a feel for the performance of any website on the planet and SiteTrail.com/analysis/ can track site performance over a time period.

Social media analytics tools

• Twitter: TweetReach.com is perfect for measuring the impact of a campaign or hashtag and TwitterCounter.com is great for analyising the growth and impact of Twitter accounts.
• Facebook: In addition to the Facebook Insights tools, sites like SocialBakers.comcan give you an idea of page performance outside the ones you manage.
• YouTube: The YouTube Comments Search tool is worth having in your toolkit to assess community sentiment post-upload.

If you are after a social buzz aggregator, you’re not short on choice either with sites like ZoomSphere.com, YourBuzz.com and Unilyzer.com also worth a look.

ViralHeat.com provides great insights too and has a nifty extension that provides you with sentiment on any social network page (as reliably as is technically possible).

While this suite of tools doesn’t take care of absolutely everything on your social media marketing plate, it is a decent starting point and something you can add to…and add to…and add to…

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business