Popularity of e-readers increases

Tweet

The Pew Internet and American Life project reports that the number of U.S. adults with an e-book reader doubled from 6% to 12% between November 2010 and May 2011 (the report also notes that tablet ownership is growing much more slowly).  We wonder how much that figure might increase with the introduction of four new Amazon Kindle devices yesterday, including the Kindle Fire tablet.  

In a true sign of the times, IKEA is introducing a new, deeper version of its popular  “BILLY” bookcase  and offers glass doors for its bookshelves to cater to those customers who use these products to display more trinkets and fewer books. 

See also:

• Kindle vs. Nook vs. iPad: Which e-book reader should you buy? (there's a great video on how to set up a Nook to borrow books from your local public library)
• The transformation of the book industry: Disappearing ink
• E-readers and magazines: It's still good to have gatekeepers
• eBook Sales Up 167% in June
• Booktrack Create Soundtracks for eBooks
• Textbook Developer Adds YouTube Videos to E-Books
• As Textbook Formats Multiply, New Services Help Students Compare Options
• Amazon Working on a Netflix for Books

Social Media: Marketing your business with YouTube

Tweet

You may have heard about the viral success of videos from Old Spice, Gillette, Blendtec and IKEA on YouTube, each with millions of views to date.  More and more, companies are looking to online video as a way to market their goods and services while also providing entertaining and informative content to consumers that stands apart form their competition.  Posting videos to YouTube is ideal for businesses large and small. The service is free and your videos can live online as long as you'd like, so a small initial investment to produce a video can result in long term returns.  An additional benefit to posting videos to YouTube - you don't have to worry about bandwidth issues on your own website - you can simply embed the code for your desired YouTube video and it will play on your website!

Some tips to making YouTube videos work for your business:

• Investing in expensive equipment to produce a video is simply not necessary - YouTube videos are just 320 x 400 pixels.  We recommend that you invest in a user-friendly video camera for under $500.
• Proper lighting while recording is important and doesn't have to be expensive.  (Read Bill Moyer's video lighting secrets for your home studio.)
• Choose a descriptive user name - this will become the name of your YouTube channel and you will not be able to change it.
• Be sure to include your website URL in your video.
• Videos must be under 10 minutes in length - but your video does not have to be that long!
• Give a good deal of thought to your choice of video name, your video description and the keywords you associate with your video, you want search engines to be able to find your video so chose keywords that best fit your business offerings and niche.
• Let your contacts know about your YouTube channel, notify them via email or on a social network such as Facebook or Twitter and be sure to post the URL on all your marketing materials and include the link in your email signature.
• Interact with other YouTube users - comment on relevant videos and subscribe to other channels in order to drive some traffic to your channel.

For more tips on making your YouTube videos a success, check out Social Media Examiner's 16 Tips for Successful Online Video Marketing.

Let us know if you are using online video to market your business, leave us a comment below with the URL for your videos.
...
See for yourself why the videos from Old Spice, Gillette, Blendtec and IKEA went viral!

Old Spice


Gillette


Blendtec


IKEA

This week's tech tips and news

Tweet

Here's this week's roundup of helpful technology tips and interesting news!

TECH TIPS

• Email:

How to use the “Send to” feature in Windows 7

Three New Tricks for Gmail’s Priority Inbox

Controlling Amazon E-Mail

Email links – the devil is in the detail! – How to check the destination of links in your email before following on them

• Eliminate Spam from Search

• Google Chrome Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts

• Automatically back up your flash drive

• Music fans:

Album Reminder Keeps Track of Your Favorite Artists So You Don't Have To

Finding the Missing Music in iTunes

Install iTunes 10 Without the Extra Bloatware

 

TECH NEWS

• Internet Explorer 9:

The Register’s review of Internet Explorer 9

No Planned Support for IE9 on XP

• Social Media:

Social Networks Exhibit Senior Appeal

Twitter Tweaks Website to Show More Photos, Video

Courier App Easily Uploads Your Files To Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and More

• Customer Loyalty:

How to Get Loyalty Card Prices Without Loyalty Cards

How Your Likes Are Turning Facebook Into the 'Loyalty Card of the Internet'

• Gamers Better at Fast Decision-Making - Maybe all those hours kids spend playing games aren't wasted!

Is Social Media right for your business?

Tweet 2.6 million users "checking in" on FourSquare

27.9 million+ bloggers in the US

Facebook has over 103+ million users (including 300,000+ business pages)

Nearly 106 million people "tweeting" on Twitter

143.2 million unique viewers on YouTube in June 2010 alone!

These numbers are staggering! More importantly, they represent the number of people that are a potential audience for your business if you use one of these sites. But is social media the right avenue to engage with your current clients and promote your brand to gain new clients?

While a social media strategy may not be right for every business, there are many that can positively measure the impact of a Facebook page or Twitter account on their bottom lines! Erik Qualman gives some great examples of businesses (large and small) that had great success using social media in his video Social Media ROI: Socialnomics. The New York Times also tells us some success stories of small businesses who saw a great return on investment from their Twitter marketing efforts.

If your company has a small (or non-existent) ad budget, social media may be the answer. Most social networking sites are free to use so for only the cost of your time, devoting a few minutes a day to "tweet" on Twitter, post an informative blog relevant to your product/service or share interesting links or photos on Facebook can result in increased exposure for your company and increased sales. So are you ready to embrace social media for your business?!

NMC has gone social, follow us on Twitter and "like" us on Facebook)