This very interesting world map is very fun because it shows the raw power of Facebook. It really is everywhere (except the country that has funded it’s most recent money grab…Russia). Thanks to Vinco!

____________________________________________________

Dear XXXX,

In this economy, good news is hard to come by. Despite this, we’ve seen
positive results with Bing.™ In fact, Bing was the only major search
engine to post growth in internet core searches from June to July.¹ In
addition, Bing Shopping market share has increased 169 percent since
June.²

Many of our search marketing clients, including those using Bing
cashback, are reaping the benefits from these increases:

“Since Hewlett-Packard began using Bing cashback, we have seen an increase in qualified traffic resulting in higher click through rates and over 175% increase in conversion compared to our non-cashback conversion on Live Search.” – Page Hetzel, Interactive Marketing Manager, Hewlett-Packard

We’re working diligently to improve the search experience with new and
innovative features that will help your audience make more informed decisions online. Just over the last several weeks, we’ve added several
new features to help consumers get:

	Easy answers with real-time Twitter results through 1-click access to celebrity, influential, blogger, or top twitterer pages.
	A richer, more organized experience with Visual Search by allowing users to filter search results based on options of interest.

Make sure your adCenter campaigns are taking advantage of the
momentum and performance opportunities that Bing offers. Review your adCenter campaigns today.

Sincerely,
The Microsoft^® Advertising Tea

It’s sadly late but this explanation by Yahoo engineers is quite entertaining.

Getting Started Free Guidebook

One of my favorite emails of any day is from Practical eCommerce.  They have consistently done a great job and staying true to what they do and sharing valuable information with eCommerce business owners.  Today was no exception.  I recommend reading Getting Started in eCommerce, even if you have already started your website because I’m quite confident everyone will learn at least one thing that will save a headache down the road.

20/20 hind sight is something we are all reminded about regularly.  What makes eCommerce fun is the willingness of most business owners to share valuable information so you don’t have to live it to know it.  Little hints and little learnings can save not only money but time, mindshare and most importantly, create a better business.

Take a look at the PDF here.

My favorite recommendation out of the 137 submissions was from Matt McGee at SmallBusinessSEM:

“Many small businesses rely on local customers, so it’s imperative that they find and connect with
local Twitter users. You can use these sites to do that:

• Twitter Advanced Search
• ChirpCity
• Nearby Tweets
• Tweepz

Bonus tip: Since you’re essentially trying to connect with complete strangers, before I go out and
randomly follow local people, I make sure my most recent tweet says something like “I’m going
to look for other Tri-Cities folks to follow on Twitter.” That way, when they get followed by me and
check out my profile, the message explains to them why a total stranger is suddenly following them.”

Jeff Bezos, CEO and Founder of Amazon, also posted a video about why he has long admired Zappos and why he’s so excited they are working together now.  The key points are perfect for any business owner: Obsess about Customers and Think Long Term.  To grow a real business you need customers, and you especially need happy customers if you want to stay in business.  You also need to think long term and if you take on any investment money you need to make sure your investors know what they are getting into and why.

Make sure you have a mission and vision and stick to it….especially if you want to stay in business.

Of course you have and one day we’ll be able to ask the folks at Twitter how it feels.  Until then, we can only imagine.  Check out this beautiful “hockey stick growth” released by ComScore (great article here as well)

The Twitter Hockey Stick

Oprah joined and told her following.  Ashton Kutcher and Larry King had a Twitter war.  You can follow almost any personality on television and restaurants all over the country have the Twitter logo on their menus, ads and billboards.  The growth chart above should remind all of us that television still has an impact:)

Blogs influence women purchase decisions - Blogher

Over the last few weeks numerous reports of emerged talking about the most influential group of online users, Women.  If you are married or no anyone that’s married then you’ve already witnessed or experienced the influence of women.  The studies I wanted to share prove that online and offline are pretty closely connected and what we see in real life will eventually emerge as true online as well.

SearchEngineWatch.com recently reported that women aged 25-54 with at least one child represent almost 20% of the online population.  In addition to some other statistics,  Jessica Hogue, research director, Nielsen Online. on this study said:

“Mom bloggers review everything from beauty products to cars to inkjets, enabling marketers unparalled reach to their target consumers. In an increasingly connected world, moms seek the wisdom of their online counterparts as trusted advisors”

Just a few days ago, another group finished the 2009 Women in Social Media study in which it was discovered that women trust blogs (other women) and their opinions or reviews of products.  Because they are regarded as trusted sources of information, blogs now wield considerable influence on consumers’ purchasing habits, BlogHer said, noting that 45% of survey respondents decided to purchase an item after reading about it on a blog.

A MarketingVox article from Tuesday is fantastic and laying out the study and the results and really reminding all of us that Pay-per-Click marketing, search engine optimization and a great site may need a little social touch if you really want your product, site and service to take off.

JonathanIve.com

You snooze, you lose is a great way to put what happened and was upheld today by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and Jonathan Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of industrial design.  Well apparently someone bought a bunch of JonathanIve.com names and variations a few years ago and rather than paying for these precious names (Apple apparently made low-ball offers that weren’t accepted then decided to go to WIPO for help) they now have no legs to stand on.

Here’s the story and the decision: http://oran.gs/2J

What this teaches us is that perhaps owning your own name.com is worth the $10 per year.  We all have big hopes and dreams of being successful at something and whether it’s a reality tv show, charitable work or having a fan site built about you by a loyal follower who finds that your name.com is available, it’s worth it to start now.

Try GoDaddy or Moniker and good luck.  I hope your name.com is available.