Black Tie

Daria

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 13:00:20 +0000

Love does not ‘complete’ you, it ‘expands’ You.

admin — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 03:00:52 +0000

6 Surefire Ways to Capture More ‘Likes’ on Facebook : Technology :: American Express OPEN Forum

admin — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:07:51 +0000

Facebook ‘likes’ are quickly turning into currency for credibility. The more ‘likes’ your business has, the more seriously consumers will perceive your company. Extra bonus: every time someone ‘likes’ your page, each of your updates shows up in their news feed, thereby providing them constant reminders of your brand.

So how can you pump up your ‘likes’ to Apple Inc. and Gap levels (2.7 million and 1.4 million, respectively)? Follow these tips and you’ll soon be on your way.

Tag, Tag, Tag

In late January, Jill Homiak, founder of Presenza, a wrap top designer in Alexandria, Virginia, posted this to her company’s Facebook wall: ‘Who else is excited that Sofia Vergara is the new CoverGirl?!?!’ She tagged the word CoverGirl by putting an @ before the ‘c’, thereby alerting CoverGirl to the post. Her plan worked; it not only caught the attention of the cosmetics brand, but the brand ended up ‘liking’ her comment.

“By ‘liking’ my comment, it showed up on their Facebook page, which is ‘liked’ by more than 1.7 million people,” says Homiak. “It gave us huge visibility and we attracted more ‘likes’ in the process.”

Donate to Charity

PaySimple, a cloud-based accounts receivable provider out of Denver, Colorado is taking a touchy-feely approach to attracting ‘likes.’

“We are taking part in a month-long philanthropy campaign where, for every ‘like’ we receive, we will donate $1 to Kids Are Heroes, a non-profit that inspires volunteerism in children,” says Sarah Jordan, the company’s director of marketing, adding that the company is hoping to bring in around 200 likes and, so far, is up 40 from last month.

If you’re inspired to try this but aren’t sure what charity will resonate with your customers, Jordan recommends the trial and error method to see what brings about the most interest.

Host a Giveaway/Contest

On New Year’s Day 2011, Marc Joseph’s Facebook business page had around 3,200 ‘likes.’ Today, it has more than 42,000.

How’d he do it?

“I’ve been doing giveaways every month since January 2011 on Facebook and it has worked beautifully,” says Joseph, CEO and president of DollarDays International, Inc., a wholesale distributor out of Scottsdale, Arizona. “In addition, we really engage with our customers online and ask them what kinds of giveaways they want, which inspires even more attention and comments.”

Contests are also great ‘like’ drivers. Just before Christmas, Brina Bujkovsky, founder of The Younique Boutique in San Marcos, California, offered a free hanging quilt as the prize of a contest asking followers to describe their happiest holiday memories on her business’s Facebook page. The contest worked—her ‘likes’ went from 100 to more than 800 in just two weeks, she selected the winner at random and then asked them to post photos of the quilt once they received it—attracting even more ‘likes.’

Create a Splash Page

A splash page is a gate to one's Facebook wall and usually contains colorful graphics describing a company, promoting products or sales. Louis Hernandez, Jr., CEO of The Motor Bookstore, a car manual retailer in DeBary, Fla., uses his splash page to capture ‘likes.’

“A splash page asks the visitor to ‘like’ your page before seeing your wall contents,” he says. “You can bypass this, but the majority of visitors will follow instructions.”

Reward re-posts

In an effort to get the word out about her harp performance business, Merry Miller turned to Facebook in a creative way: she asked followers to do the work for her.

“I inspired my base to re-post a link to my love CD by offering to play a wedding for free to the person who got the most likes on my link,” she says. “I captured 100 likes in the first day.”

Get personal

Facebook users hate a hard sell. Endear your business to followers by posting on personal topics such a popular sports games and how you feel about the weather. Michael D. Haaren, co-founder of Rat Race Rebellion, a work-from-home job board out of Annandale, Virginia, posts about his obsession with Nutella and gets tons of feedback as well as ‘likes.’

Bottom line: remember to put the ‘social’ in social media; don’t talk at your consumers. They will just tune out.

via openforum.com

Don’t count the days, make the days count.” – Muhammad Ali

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:24:50 +0000

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Only you can decide who you will be

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:24:05 +0000

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If “try harder” isn’t working for you, try different.

admin — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:14:27 +0000

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Nataliya from Lugansk

admin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:06:54 +0000

I consider myself to be kind and friendly person. I am also sociable and easy going girl. I can say that I have good sense of humor. I can be very funny sometimes I am feminine, intelligent, hard-working, wise and faithful. I think I am trustworthy, caring, understanding and loyal lady. I love my family and my friends. They mean the whole world to me. I always try to be polite to other people. I believe that you should treat people the way you want to be treated. It is my principle. So I prefer to live this way. I am always honest and sincere with people and I do not like when people are disrespectful and lie. I also have another motto in life. It is “Never give up!” I think that if you really want something you should do your best to make it come true. I think that it is right to work hard for what you want. Everything depends on us. And all our dreams can come true. So if you would like to get acquainted with mature and open-minded lady, I’m here!

A Quick Round Up

admin — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:49:37 +0000

The Money Market

This morning (9 am on 2 December 2011) the money markets were at the following levels:

Official cash rate 2.50% (unchanged)

90 day bill rate 2.73 (up from 2.64%)

1 year swap rate 2.74 (up from 2.60)

3 year swap rate 3.08 (up from 2.95)

10 year bond rate 4.07 (up from 3.88)

Kiwi dollar 0.7760 (up from 0.7647)

2011 in Summary

This current year is similar in many ways to 2009. We are still in recession despite what a number of politicians may be saying. The demand for finance has been slow. On a couple of occasions, when we have seen signs of improvement in our economy, events overseas such as the slow American economy and sovereign debt issues in Europe have causes abrupt downturns in world share markets and any confidence quickly evaporated. Our soft commodities, such as dairying, are performing well but some of the benefits have been negated by our strong dollar. This is hurting a number of exporting companies. The Rugby World Cup, although the result was good, failed to provide the economic stimulus that many had hoped for. We end the year on a more positive note, the general election is over and a stable Government can be formed.

A Great Place to Live

It was pleasing to see some positive news released. According to the Mercer 2011 Quality of Living Survey, Auckland was ranked third out of a total of 212 cities, as the best place in the world to live. The two above us were Vienna in Austria and Zurich in Switzerland. Vancouver, which is another favourite, was ranked at number five. The top Australian city was Sydney ranked at number eleven. Wellington came in at a respectable thirteenth. The survey is based on a number of criteria - economic and social factors and others such as access to beaches and parks. The survey noted that Auckland was the country’s commercial capital. And it has a number of characteristics that you would expect in an international city.

Insurance

We have highlighted this issue in a number of previous newsletters. House, and home and contents insurance are continuing to become more difficult to obtain. We do not expect this to change and it will become more expensive. When purchasing a new property, talk to your insurance advisor at the beginning of the process. Insurance companies are asking far more questions and requesting more information such as electrical certificates confirming the wiring is up to standard. The earlier you get on to this, the more time you have to attend to any issues which may arise. The practice of arranging insurance on settlement day is now over.

2012 Crystal Ball

It is always difficult to predict the next twelve months but we believe certain trends are emerging. Interest rates and mortgages are likely to remain at their current levels. They will only increase when economic activity starts to improve, unemployment falls and consumer spending increases. Unemployment is likely to remain at these levels, largely due to restructuring and less new employment in Government departments. The Government has few levers to pull to cut expenditure but one of them is to cut back on the number of civil servants. There will be some additional spending with rebuilding in Christchurch which will be positive for the economy. The sovereign debt issues in Europe will continue to dominate the international economic news. Overall we believe that 2012 will be slight better than this year although we are likely to remain in recession.

christmas_decorations | Flickr – Photo Sharing!

admin — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 21:14:49 +0000

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We must choose the life we deserve and then have the courage to live it

admin — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:53:29 +0000

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