paintingmyreality-blog1

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Refurbished Laptop Battery

Is buying a refurbished laptop battery worth it? This is what some laptop users are wondering as they aim, just like everybody else, to save money.

Many computer vendors claim that these previously used "reconditioned batteries" have most, if not all of their power capacity restored.

And this has attracted consumers who are presented with opportunities to snap up these batteries at prices that are much lower than that of new laptop batteries.

Regrettably, the reality is that refurbished laptop batteries are just about worthless. Sure, it is technically possible to recondition used notebook batteries but the cost of doing so is greater than making new ones.

Read: Why Bending Over Backwards to Satisfy Moms is Good Business    

Refurbishing notebook batteries has to be done by highly skilled technicians and there are few manufacturers (mostly in Japan) who can do this. By the time the used laptop batteries are shipped to Japan, reconditioned and then ship back to North America -- the cost of the batteries would be high.

So given these prohibitive costs, how can "refurbished laptop batteries" be sold at such rock bottom prices? Simple -- these batteries are not actually refurbished. They are simply previously used batteries that are pulled from older notebooks and sold cheaply.

Normally, lithium ion batteries that comes with modern day laptops are capable of about maximum of 600 to 800 charge/discharge cycles. This means they last about 1½ to 3 years and in some cases 4 years.

Unfortunately, no ones knows how many charge/discharge cycles remain in a used laptop batteries. In fact, when it comes to estimating how much useful life is left, vendors assume the worse. They tend to provide warranties for only 3 months.

Even more unfortunate is the fact that some vendors couldn't honor the warranties. Their margins and volumes are so low, they couldn't afford to provide replacement batteries.

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Why Bending Over Backwards to Satisfy Moms is Good Business

Whether you offer B2B services to small businesses or household products, if moms are part of your target market, offering significant discounts to moms can be an effective way to promote your business.

Moms use social media more frequently and are more likely to have a Facebook page than the general population. Satisfied moms are more likely to strong brand advocates. They are more likely to recommend brands using social networking sites, more likely to talk about brands they follow on Facebook, more likely to link to a brand ad and more likely post to a brand ad according to Statista, among many others market research companies.

Also Read: SXSW: How IBM Uses B2B Social Media

What this means is that the same amount of money spent promoting your product or service to a mom yields more potential for positive word-of-mouth online than the same amount of promotional dollars spend on other demographics.

You can offer popular blogs (check their Google PageRank to give you an idea of how much traffic the blog is getting) that target moms special promo rates and product samples. The key is to provide information that moms find useful and offer them an incentive to try your product or service.

Your company will benefit from learning ways to effectively market to moms. This can involve targeted branding messages, mom-centric contests and promotions, setting up focus groups, and offering resources to moms.

Moms have so many purchase options, so you need to go that extra mile to make sure they are satisfied. How you do this will depend on your marketing strategy and the product or service you are offering. For example, if you are a small business consultant (such as myself!), you could offer potential clients a complimentary online branding audit to demonstrate your skills.

In the spirit of this post, I’m offering a 30 percent discount to mom-preneurs (until November 30) that own small businesses on all of my online consulting services including customized packages.

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SXSW: How IBM Uses B2B Social Media

Adam Christensen is the social media manager at IBM and we spoke at the SXSW Interactive Conference in Austin TX about IBM’s implementation and uses of B2B social media.

IBM focuses their social media efforts on getting their employees talking outside the firewall to surface their expertise. The idea is that the best way to represent the brand is to showcase its people and their knowledge. Many of their social efforts began internally as a way for employees to learn from others and collaborate, and some of the internal tools even became products offered to the marketplace.

Read: Fear of Commitment in B2B Social Media

There is a video platform where any employee can upload internal videos and podcasts. They have also done work externally by changing the corporate stereotypes of B2B video. And for those getting started, Adam recommends getting started in social media by proving success on an internal pilot project. Follow Adam on Twitter at @adamclyde.

Thanks to Ryan Boyles, part of the IBM WebSphere Software team, for connecting me with Adam.

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Fear of Commitment in B2B Social Media

As more B2B companies plot out their social media strategies there is a fear of commitment in the back of everyone’s mind. This is not just a reluctance to commit time and resources, but a reluctance to fully embrace social media and understand that it is a long term prospect. You can’t start a blog and abandon it in a few months when you run out of things to write about. If you create a Facebook page or a Twitter account, you must keep up the flow of content to those communities.

One approach to overcoming this fear of commitment is to think about it as community building rather than content creation. Each platform represents a community, actually a subset of the total community of people who are interested in your business or organization. They might be customers, prospects, partners or employees. Once you start conversing with these communities, you cannot let these conversations go dark. What would happen if you stop talking to your neighbors and you never appear to be home? They would think you moved away or don’t care anymore. There is nothing worse in business than communicating to your customers that you don’t care about them. Well, except for shutting down, turning off the lights and going home. Your competitors are waiting for these opportunities, or even the perception of these events. And with the social web, it is easy for them to get their message out to your community.

Also Read: Biotechnology's Movers and Shakers

The more planning you do on the front end of your social media communications will help you succeed.

   Make sure that you start with a social media strategy that maps onto your marketing or communications plan.

   Make sure everyone understands the goals of the plan and why you are pursuing this strategy.

   Create a content strategy and editorial calendar that tracks major events like product releases and trade shows. Consistent, relevant content will grow your community.

   Dedicate a bit of time each day to interacting with the community. The more you interact, the more it will grow.

Understanding what you are committing to will make it easier for everyone to commit to the social media plan. What fears are keeping you from embracing social media?

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Biotechnology's Movers and Shakers

The city of Denver recently hosted The North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference. Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic disorder that affects more than 30,000 people in the United States. Cystic Fibrosis characteristically causes a thick secretion to occur in the lungs which over time causes airway obstructions, repeated lung infections and ultimately destruction of the lung. Genentech a biotechnology company provided more hope for patients of this disorder and other similar disorders. In an abstract presented by Dr. Michael Konstan of the LeRoy Matthews Cystic Fibrosis Center at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital of Cleveland, Ohio, Pulmozyme tested in a two year clinical study did improve lung capacity immediately and decreased the rate of decline of lung function in cystic fibrosis patients. *

Another study conducted by the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh have located a protein molecule called interlukin-23 that is present in cystic fibrosis patients and critical to the development of inflammation of a bacterium which is present in patients. Apparently this inflammatory response is not shut off, exacerbated by protein interlukin-23 and other cytokines which results in lung damage. Again, biotechnology is on the cutting age.

Read: Refurbished Laptop Battery  

In a separate study presented at a conference in Florida, conducted by the University of Sheffield School of Dentistry and Medicine, Lynne and Colin Bingle presented a paper on the discovery of two proteins whose presence and unique distribution are in the airways of patients with cystic fibrosis. Knowledge of these proteins is derived from the Human Genome Project. However, the implication of the unusual distribution of these proteins in patients with cystic fibrosis has a wide range of applications in treating patients with life threatening lung disorders.

According to Dr. Bingle, "We've shown these proteins to be expressed in places like the upper airways, nose and mouth, where many bacteria and infectious agents are found," These tiny molecules are thought to be part of the first line of the body's defenses against infectious agents.

The Sheffield Study, The Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Study dovetails well with the work conducted by Genentech, the United States' leading biotechnology research center located in San Francisco.

Genentech is only thirty years old, but it is a senior fellow in the field when it comes to research and design of targeted molecular drug applications. Their bailiwick is disorders and diseases of the hopeless. Unfathomable as to specific origin, except for the outcome, which always led to a crippling and degenerative death. Thanks to their work and in conjunction with the Genome Project, the unfathomable are now discoverable.

Genentech's multi function organization includes the development of bio Oncology drugs Avastin, used in certain types of lung cancer. Herceptin used in term types of breast cancer. Rituxan used to treat non Hodgkin lymphomas, diffuse B-cell CD-20 incidences. Genentech is also a leading developer of drugs to treat asthma, growth hormone disorders, macular degeneration and other tissue and growth repair maladies.

Genentech has alliances and working agreement with other biotechnology companies and public institutions in all parts of the world. Their long standing working relationship with Tanox a bio therapeutic company relating to the commercialization of Genentech's asthma drug Xolair culminated in a buyout recently of Tanox.

Genentech houses 700 scientists, their focus is on disease which are in the following three areas: Oncology, Immunology and Tissue Growth and Repair. The scientific activity includes molecular biology, protein chemistry, bioinformatics and physiology. Parenthetically, protein, receptors and cells to talk to one another, it is called "signaling."

I was first introduced to this company and others around the world in 1995 when attended an open meeting of executives, scientists and others at the National Institute of Health. The gist of the conference was to place on display the status of various theories of cell and micro biology research and a prospective.

In attendance were smaller labs around the world and I recall meeting a fascinating scientist from Sweden whose main focus was the impact of stress, in creating malfunctioning receptors and cell anomalies. In turn he was researching the use of stressors to reverse the process by in effect fooling the maladaptive cell to get well.

At the time I viewed it as a great Sci. Fi novel equipped with a gnat's eyelash submarine navigating its way around the various teeny weenie parts of the human body, seeking out and destroying or tricking proteins and other matter to relieve man of all disease and infirmity.

I discovered however that the film had already been made, not well, but had already been done. So, I went on. Genentech, on the other hand and the others are the real deal, no glitz, no special effects, just plugging into the marvels of the human body. ***