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Experience Project

         The Experience Project is a network where people can connect with each other based on things they care about [the interest graph] rather than being based on who you know [the social graph] i.e. Facebook. It's a place where people can share their thoughts on experiences about everything from global warming to scuba diving to honey harvesting. Not too long ago, brands started to contact the company to see if they could get in front of the site's users who were part of communities that supported causes the brand also backs. A lot of brands [Sony, Haagen-Dazs, and American Express] are moving largely towards cause marketing where they highlight their commitments to certain causes to gain customers and increase loyalty to their brand.

Not too long ago, the Experience Project launched BroadCause, which is a site that highlights all of the brands' cause related campaigns. Today BroadCause launched a new feature that allows charities and non profits to manage their projects and campaigns online. The Experience Project hopes that the increased involvement of non profit organizations and charities will lead to more cause related marketing efforts by other companies.

Currently, most brands are advertising on Facebook because they can find the specific audience they want to target and advertise directly to them. The brand however, has to solely rely on the fact that a person "likes" them because they deeply care about them and we know that this is often not the case. Someone may ask a friend to "like" something because they can benefit in some way however, the person may not care about the brand at all leading to a waste of advertising dollars. And this my friends, is how the Experience Project hopes to differentiate themselves. Their motto being..

Life is full of experiences. What are yours?

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T3 Presents the World's Hottest Gadgets

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Jay-Z's new lifestyle site with his company SC l Enterprises that covers everything from music to fashion to tech to sports. 

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Foursquare: Pages Gallery

                                                                   Follow pages to get expert tips near you. Foursquare pages let people and organizations create collections of tips. Follow your favorite brands, partners, personalities, to uncover tips form them when you check in, and maybe unlock a special badge or two.

Today Foursquare launched their Pages Gallery, which is filled with the different company pages who are using Foursquare. There's 1,323 brands on the Foursquare network, but they aren't always easy to discover. Foursquare is trying to address that issue and through it, you can follow everyone from the Wall Street Journal to Zagat to Red Bull. The WSJ has partnered with Foursquare to help you explore New York and offers tips around the city. Zagat + Foursquare is for all you foodie lovers where users can benefit from Zagat's expertise and Red Bull claims that it's the only Foursquare account that gives you wings. Go figure. 

This new feature includes a simple tool for browsing through pages and finding them by popularity because they're trending or new and if they're popular with your friends. Brands have been using Foursquare in a big way for some time now and it's not necessarily about linking people back to your site or your products, but rather creating a new location-based product with which you can connect your brand to your friends and your followers. 

Check out this article that has 5 examples of brands (Bravo, Zagat, MTV, New York Magazine, The History Channel) who jumped on the Foursquare band wagon a while back and is using it in a big way. 

Do you use Foursquare and follow brands' pages? Do you find them useful?

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The Sketchbook Project

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In the city of Tarragona, Spain, castellers gather every two years to see who can build the highest, most intricate human castles. It requires astonishing strength, finesse, and balance. Not to mention courage.

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What are the BEST industries for starting a company right now?

         1. Confectionary [candy]

2. iPhone Apps

Apple launched its App Store last summer and sales in the first month topped $30 million

3. Health Care Technology

4. Beer, Wine, and Liquor Wholesale

5. Software as a Service

The industry is expected to produce $8 billion in sales by the end of this year and $16 billion by the end of 2013

6. Home Health Care

7. Yoga Products and Services

Americans spent $5.7 billion on yoga products, equipment, and clothing in 2008

8. Technical and Trade Schools

9. Fast-Casual Dining [i.e. food trucks]

10. Green Construction

Is expected to more than double from $49 billion today to $140 billion by 2013

11. Niche Business Consulting [nation's fastest growing industry]

12. Education Technology

The recently passed federal stimulus bill allocated $650 million to the education technology industry

13. Temporary Staffing Firms

14. Government Services

15. Accounting Services

16. Repair Services

17. Self Improvement

Americans spend more that $11 billion a year on self-improvement products and services..over the next 3 years, self help is expected to grow 6.2% annually

18. Energy

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Dig installation - NYC, Storefront for Art and Architecture

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Introducing Google's "+1" button

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In Other Gift Card News..

         "Experiential Gift Cards," which fall under the $300 billion gift industry rather than $91 billion gift card industry, are just recently coming into existence in the U.S. Companies such as Smartbox, Cloud9 Living, Xperience Days are becoming more popular because they allow creativity for the giver and flexibility for the recipient. Smartbox offers gift-card boxes that range from $49 to $369 and can be found at stores including Duane Reade, Sam's Club, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and online at the Barnes and Noble's website. The box comes with a gift card and a book with options at the price point given to the recipient. For example, the Zagat Smartbox Table for Two has 50 choices for $99 in NYC. Some other box options include upscale getaways in the Great Lakes (35 choices for $369) and adventures like white-water rafting and surfing in California (100 choices for $69). Cloud9 Living on the other hand sells its experiences online. Both supply gift experiences to a variety of the credit-card industry's reward programs.

Why are "experiential gift cards" gaining in popularity?

People aren't looking for 'stuff' anymore, they're looking for experiences. It's the new bragging rights. Status is out, social capital is in...You can post pictures of your African-safari experience, but you can't put up a picture of your Mercedes. That's tacky. - Susan Menke, VP - behavioral analyst at Mintel

It's not the things that make you happy, but rather the experiences you have. It seems like giving gifts, no I mean experiences, will be more fun and that much more rewarding because you'll be creating an experience for the recipient which will turn into a memory and memories last a life time.

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Is Quibids giving EBay a run for its money?

                            Quibids is the largest and one of the many "penny auction" websites that have come into existence in the past year. The site attracts people  to the site by promising expensive, big ticket items at unbelievably low prices. 

How it works:

Each bid is worth a single penny and you are only allowed to put in a single bid at a time. You are able to purchase a 1 cent bid for 60 cents. When you decide what item you would like to bid on, you watch the time and are able to place bids. Every bid that is places by the auction participants will increase the cost at which the item is sold by 1 cent. The catch is, every time someone places a bid, it increases the time that the item is will be on sale, which depends upon the item. At the culmination of the auction, the total cost of the item equals what the item sold for plus the amount of money you had originally spent on your bids. Still, iPads worth $500 might go for as low as $20 and $1500 TVs are selling for $200. Does it sound too good to be true?

If you have the time and more importantly, the patience, Quibids might be more favorable than EBay to some.  Has anyone tried Quibids and lucked out with some amazing deals? We'd love to hear some testimonials.

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BIG BANG BIG BOOM (wall-painted animation). blublu.org

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How to Optimize a Google AdWords Campaign for Your Business.

           One of the most effective ways to advertise on the internet today is through Google AdWords [you can check out the advertising tool here]. The ads are based on the highly targeted key words you choose for the advertising campaign and you only pay for the advertisement when your ad is clicked. Too often though, businesses are not seeing much traction with their campaigns or more importantly, not turning the clicks into sales. The goal for any company is of course to turn an interested click into a repeat customer.

While it is important to continue your regular SEO efforts to rank high in organic search, using Good AdWords for a campaign can definitely help your business. Here is some advice to increase traffic to your company's site:

1. Focus on one campaign at a time

2. Lock in your budget

3. Use the tools provided by Google AdWords

4. Don't buy ads in areas where you are getting a top-five link already

5. Use terms that are unique to your offering

6. Don't worry about appearing at the top of every search; being in the top 3 is still valuable

7. Use it as a real time and intelligence tool - launch a quick campaign to see how people respond

8. Remember, paid search can lift other traffic i.e. direct traffic and organic traffic 

9. Figure out a way to build relationships with the people who click through to your site to convert them into returning customers

10. Use a real time analytics tool [such a Woopra] to monitor traffic patterns

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GiftRocket

        The $100 billion gift card industry has just gotten bigger with GiftRocket, which allows gift givers to send gift cards to anyone via email for any thing, at any venue, regardless of whether the retailer sells its own gift cards.

How it works...

The giver picks a specific place in a specific region via the GiftRocket website which is sourced by Yelp's business listings. The giver builds the "gift certificate" by filling out a few key details, i.e. amount, recipient name and personal email, and pays for the gift with his/her credit card. The recipient is notified of his gift via email and when he visits that specific place, he can hit redeem on his smartphone to cash in his "gift card." GiftRocket then locates the recipient and approves the request by automatically depositing the money in his/her PayPal account. 

The only issue we can see is that some people are not ready to exchange instant freebies for PayPal deposits. But hey, it's the thought that counts right?

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Last post about LinkedIn here

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http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

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BlogDash launched their ebook today to educate people on the vast world of blogging and when approached correctly, can drive real traction for your brand.

You can download the ebook for free. All they ask is that you tweet about it or post it to your Facebook wall, which is conveniently linked up to the download button.