Researching Your Market.

You can and should use Twitter in your market researching efforts, as the twitter tools available to you are free (which is always good) and also very effective. Each business has a target market that it should be aiming for, but due to a lack of understanding from business owners and managers they often fail in their efforts to connect with that market. This is due in part to not fully understanding the overall needs of their market.

Twitter helps you to hear what your potential customers are asking for, you can understand the problems they have to deal with on a daily basis, and perfect an action plan for getting them the help they want. in other words, with a bit of research on twitter your business can come across as a dream come true for struggling consumers

The very first time that you meet a new contact via Twitter, it is always a good idea to try and create the right kind of relationship from the outset. they way to do this is by thinking like your customer thinks. how would they like to be treated? You only purchase from people that you trust. Your potential customers will all be behaving in exactly the same way as you do. Therefore it is important whilst using social marketing that you gain your customers trust. You can improve you r chances of this happening by doing whatever it takes to get to know your potential clients well and be friendly with them.

One very good tip here, is to limit your advertising tweets to around maybe 10% of your overall twitter output, and allow the rest to be friendly, helpful and informative with no obvious immediate financial benefit to you should someone be tempted to click upon any link contained within the tweet. doing this will definitely help to improve not only your relations with current followers, but also improve your chances of growing twitter follower numbers.

It is also of benefit to you to share the content of any other sites, blogs or social networking sites on your twitter account, if they demonstrate your expertise in your target market. You would want to demonstrate your skills on twitter by continuing to post high quality content on all your other sites, even on places such as YouTube and article sites. all these other social networking sites will help you to show that you have valuable knowledge to offer – knowledge that your customer will want.

There are many discussions regarding tools that work with Twitter and that will automatically examine all the content you have on these other sites and then update your twitter account with the information, thus informing all your followers of the content you have made available elsewhere. Ping.fm being one good site to check out – and also consider twitterfeed, both free options that should not be dismissed in your marketing efforts and will post to a variety of sites in addition to your twitter account.

Another site I would like you to consider is twitcam.com. if you have a twitter account, you have a twitcam account and can login with your twitter details. This service, as you might be able to guess from the name, allows you to connect a webcam to your computer and stream live video on your twitter page and have a chat with your twitter folowers. You can no doubt imagine this to be very useful in marketing, and is something else to be considered.

Whatever options you choose, with a higher quality output, you will get a higher number of visitors clicking upon links to sales sites and other places that can make you money

Twitter Marketing – Market Research on Twitter

How you can get VERY rich during times of economic turmoil, even if you don’t have a lot of money to invest…Watch the Video

The latest iPhone 5 from Apple is just around the corner and consumers are already hyped to purchase the next gen device. Although there are plenty of rumors of the unique features and specs of the upcoming iPhone 5, what really makes Apple devices stand out is the loyalty and satisfaction of its customers. Consumers are highly satisfied with Apple devices and this one the reasons why they are willing to wait for a long time just to get a hold of Apple’s latest devices.

Through customer support, Apple is able to put the interest of the customer above theirs. almost always, customers are satisfied after Apple’s support call with Apple, but such is not the case for companies such as HP or Dell. Apparently, what makes Apple unique from the others is that it considers customer support as a scoring point, rather than considering it as a liability as other companies would.

User experience is not limited to the device itself, but Apple makes sure that it is able to cater to the problems of the customer. Apple believes that a business operation will be successful by meeting the expectations of the customers. for instance, for every customer complaint, Apple sees to it that there is a corresponding solution right away.

For the iPhone 5, the most expected information about it concerns the release date and screen size. Many are curious whether or not Apple will compete with bigger display devices, especially with the latest Samsung Galaxy S3 featuring a 4.7-inch display.

Moreover, some of the anticipated features of the iPhone 5 include the A6 quad-core processor, improved battery life, 4G LTE compatibilities, better Siri, NFC technology, and more storage capacity. As for the release date, the iPhone might be released in the second half of this year. Apple might also introduce it in the Worldwide Developers Conference to be held on June 2012.

Companies competing with Apple look forward to iPhone 5′s launch not only to compete with it, but also to follow its unique features. however, competitors must first try to do everything to the best interest of the consumers.

How the iPhone 5 Differs from Competitors

Differences between the chief executives of AT&T Mobility and Sprint became clear with remarks they made at the CTIA Wireless conference in New Orleans this week. One seemed to be a techno-Pollyanna, while the other was a downer in comparison.

Ralph de la Vega, who leads AT&T’s mobility division, expressed his enthusiasm for things to come. He said that the mobile Internet had reached a “tipping point,” and that he was excited about Digital Life, a new Internet-based home security system that AT&T is developing. He also shared a rather optimistic prediction that mobile payments would replace the wallet by next year.

“I think it’s time for the smartphone to replace the wallet,” he said during a roundtable discussion of telecom executives.

Mobile payments have yet to catch on in the United States. Companies have had difficulty proving to consumers that mobile payments are safer and more convenient than paying with cash or a credit card. and in order for mobile payments to become commonplace, there has to be some cooperation among the phone manufacturers, carriers, mobile payments providers and store merchants. Mr. de la Vega seemed to believe the stars were already aligning.

“The reputation of our industry has dropped to the lowest of any major industry,” he said. “Even the cable and oil industries rate higher with consumers than we do. That’s a bummer.” He said that gaining trust from customers is crucial for carriers now, because smartphones are becoming a critical tool that people use for payments, to monitor their health and handle bank transactions.

The Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit group that focuses on technology laws, would agree with Mr. Hesse about the issue of trust. It said privacy is the major tradeoff with mobile payments, because they can expose data to more parties than traditional credit cards do, and because they could lead to more telemarketing and spam. Technology companies offering mobile payments will need to gain consumer trust by baking strong privacy controls into their services, the group says.

But perhaps it’s not surprising to see such contrasting outlooks between these carriers. Mr. de la Vega’s AT&T usually reports healthy profits, while Mr. Hesse’s Sprint is digging itself out of a hole.

AT&T and Sprint Chiefs Display a Difference in Moods

apart from the released HTC one X , the smart phones world are filled with the speculation of Samsung Galaxy S III and Apple’s next generation iPhone (may be iPhone 5). according to the reports at the time being, both the two devices are highly feature-rich, may be just as people expected, they are , therefore, considered as the best weapons of the two manufacturers in the smartphone battlefield.

the release of HTC one X leave little room for Apple’ s iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S III, it is said to be the biggest rival of the latter two forthcoming super smart phone. AS for HTC one X is talked about before, here I will not talk much about it any more.   Fans of both iPhone 4S and Galaxy S2 are pay close attention to the improvements in the next generation phones —-iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III, and the two manufacturers are too trying their best to add awesome features to their upcoming handsets to keep the interest of consumers high. HTC one X, he first quad-core phone with Nvidia’s Tegra 3 processor running at 1.5GHz, seems to make the job much tougher. for more information about HTC one X, you can turn to the blog

Samsung Galaxy S III vs. Apple iPhone 5 Processor:if the expectation become true, Galaxy S3 will be the real King of the smart phone. It  is expected to pack a quad-core, Exynos 4212/ Exyos 5250, 2 GHz/ 1.8 GHz processor with 2GB RAM, the processor, the RAM are the best the history ever witness then. On the other hand, Apple iPhone 5 is reported to ship with a faster 1.2-to-1.5 GHz quad-core A6 chip with probably 1GB or more of RAM.

Operating System: according to the reports and rumors now, Galaxy S III is probably to apply Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Google’s latest mobile operating system. On the other hand, iPhone 5 may come with Apple’s upgraded operation system——iOS 6.0. the performance of the two is unknown now, so, we have to wait and see which is better.

display : Galaxy S3 is rumored to come with  a 4.8 inch, full HD 1080P resolution display with 16:9 aspect ratio. as for iPhone 5, according to the recent reports, Apple is planning apply the current 3.5-inch screen to the next iPhone. the device is expected to sport Quantum Dot LED curved glass edge-to-edge display with 1280 x 720 resolutions (367ppi).

Camera: Samsung Galaxy S3 is rumored to pack a 12 megapixel 4000×3000 pixels camera along with features like autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection and image stabilization features. A 2 megapixel secondary camera is also likely on cards.

iPhone 5 is highly rumored to feature an 8 megapixel or even 10 megapixel camera and the possibility of taking pictures in the panorama mode. Rumors also suggest that the iPhone 5 will have a 2 megapixel front-facing camera for video chatting.

Network and Connectivity: Expectation of the two features in the two devices are the same. they are expect to 4G LTE, come with the near Field Communication (NFC), even Bluetooth 4.0.

Video: Both are expected to support 1080P videos, but the formats may limited to several common formats such as h.264. Mp4 and the like, so, if you love watching videos on phones, you’d better get an   Movie Converter for Mac or  AVCHD Video Converter to convert videos to MP4 for playback on the phones.

Samsung Galaxy S III vs. Apple iPhone 5 – Best Multimedia Solution

By STEPHANIE ZIMMERMANN szimmermann@suntimes.com April 19, 2012 5:16PM

THE FIXER HAS SAVED YOU

Updated: April 20, 2012 2:31AM

dear Fixer: Sprint heavily marketed a program for unlimited 4G Internet service for $59.99 per month if you signed a two-year contract. it was by far the best deal at the time, so I signed up.

That was in December 2010. Things went well until this past December, when I got a bill for more than $400.

I called Sprint, and they claimed that they had changed the terms of the contract. they also claimed that by putting a notice in the October billing statement, they had fulfilled their legal obligation to notify consumers.

I have filed complaints with Illinois Attorney General, the Federal Communications Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to no avail. I believe Sprint’s actions amount to bait and switch. they are abusing consumers and not providing what they marketed.

Sprint should be held to its promise of unlimited 4G service until my two-year contract expires, just as I have agreed to make payments for the two years.

Can you please help me to get Sprint to honor a legal contract and to own up to their side of the contract — and can you please assist in getting consumers to understand that it is NOT fair for a company to change the terms of a contract halfway into it, when they have locked you into a two-year agreement.

Ken Loebel, Geneva

dear Ken: you told the Fixer you were blown away by the increase in your monthly Sprint bills. you never saw it coming because you pay your bills over the phone through Sprint’s payment service and never saw the notice tucked into your October statement.

you felt that Sprint’s efforts to publicize this huge change in their terms paled in comparison to their marketing of that fabulous $59.99 price.

Before you came to the Fixer, you had complained to Sprint on more than one occasion and they responded by issuing you a couple of credits totaling $622.93. they also offered to let you out of the remaining year of your contract without having to pay the $200 early termination fee.

But you felt they should stick with the $59.99 price they had promised you. you told us you feel it’s dishonest for a company to entice a customer with one price and then offer to dump him after they find someone else who will pay a higher amount. you are not the only consumer who feels this way, judging by the pile of online gripes about this change in Sprint’s billing structure.

We tried to get Sprint to hold up their end of the bargain, with no luck. Sprint won’t go back to the $59.99 unlimited data price for you.

Spokeswoman Candace Johnson added: “Sprint makes every effort to ensure the satisfaction of our customers. in October, we changed our unlimited 4G mobile broadband plan to a capped plan. Customers were sent notices with their bills of the coming change to their plans. Customer satisfaction is a top priority at Sprint and we will continue to make every effort to listen to their concerns and take appropriate action.”

Johnson did say their offer still stands to let you out of the contract without paying an early termination fee, should you decide to drop them and find another carrier — but you still think this is morally wrong.

The Fixer had to squint to read the fine print in your original contract, which says “we may make changes to the terms of conditions … from time to time and will provide you notice.” This reminds the Fixer of those credit card contracts which, also in the finest of fine print, would say something to the effect of: “We reserve the right to change your interest rate at any time, for any reason.”

It’s too bad the consumer never gets a loophole that big. Readers, what do you think Ken should do? should he accept the offer to get out of his contract, or try to fight on? We’d love to hear your opinions; please email the Fixer at szimmermann@suntimes.com.

see the Fixer speak in Schaumburg

the Fixer will talk about how to avoid common rip-offs and save money from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Schaumburg Township District Library’s central location, 130 S. Roselle Road, Schaumburg. the program, funded through a financial education grant, is part of the library’s celebration of Money Smart Week. To register, go to stdl.org and click on “events” or call the library at (847) 985-4000 for more information.

Sprint changes terms, prices — in the middle of the contract

Apple iPhone 5: 10 Most Prevalent Rumors about new Features (Page 1 of 2 )

Apple hasn

Fox urine is a chemical that simulates the urine of a fox that is used as pest deterrent by farmers, gardeners, homeowners and others that will benefit from this useful agent. Fox urine repellent is not a pesticide nor a poison but only a deterrent. The concept of this pest deterring agent is to simulate the odor of the fox urine so that rodents and other animals that are natural preys of the fox will be able to smell it and avoid the area wherein it is applied.

It is an odorless and non-poisonous chemical, either in powder or liquid form, applied in areas where these pests are known to habitually infest – farms, gardens, poultry, warehouses, and even your homes.

Fox urine application is truly beneficial to those who use it. To list a few:

1. Higher farm yield – be it vegetables, fruits or grains, farmers who applied it in their farms experience abundant harvests. this is an expected outcome with the absence of natural consumers like rodents and rabbits.
2. Healthier and greener lawn – With the absence of moles and other burrowing rodents, your lawn will be healthier and subsequently, greener. Burrowing rodents, which are not a direct threat to the grass themselves, in search of worms and insects will burrow under your lawn and in the process destroying and disturbing the root system of the lawn. using and applying urine in their holes and around your lawn will greatly help.
3. Nut-free roof gutters – Chipmunks may be cute and generally harmless, but sometimes destructive to properties. They often stash nuts and acorns in any crevices they can use and that include roof gutters. these can clog up gutters and when rainy season comes, rain water will overflow and may find its way into attic or other parts of your roof and could rot your roof and ceiling and other wooden parts of your house. Urine can be of much help in this situation.
4. Environment-friendly – Fox urine is neither a poison nor a pesticide, therefore, you will not be killing these rodents and other animals but only drive them away from your farms, gardens and homes. It is only a deterrent and is biodegradable. It is not hassle-free but also guilt-free, knowing that you do not kill just for profit and comfort. In addition fox repellent is 100% natural and biodegradable. It won’t harm animals and yet it will still protect your home, lawn and garden.

A Few Benefits of Fox Urine

Apple Iphone 4 is now the most preferred digital camera on Flickr.com.The statistics show that the Iphone 4 have over 4600 daily users and on second place comes Canon Eos 5D Mark ll.You can read more in the article we have added from appleinsider.com below

ITProPortal. Apple’s iPhone now the digital camera of choice among consumers. Apple Insider. That beat the second-place Canon EOS 5D Mark II as well as the Nikon D90 Canon EOS REBEL T2i and Canon EOS 7D. when tracking solely smartphone use on Flickr the statistics show complete domination by Apple. The top four smartphones for picture Flickr’s Digital Camera of Choice iPhone. All things Digital. You say camera I say iPhoneTECH.BLORGE.com. iPhone Leads Consumer Preference Among Leading Digital CamerasMobile Marketing Watch. all 10 news articles.…Source

Read more about the Apple Iphone camera here

Apple Iphone 4 – The Most Preferred Digital Camera On Flickr

Nobody hit Friday night’s multi-state Mega Millions jackpot, making tomorrow night’s drawing worth a mega $363 million! The winning ticket will be worth an estimated $259.8 million in cash. Purchase your tickets by 7:30 p.m. tomorrow night for your chance to win big!

This is the third-largest Mega Millions jackpot in history and the largest since January 4, 2011, when the jackpot was $380 million. The largest jackpot in Mega Millions history was a $390 million prize, won in March 2007 by two players in new Jersey and Georgia. The Colorado Lottery began selling Mega Millions tickets in May 2010, giving Colorado residents the chance to score big jackpots four nights a week. The Jackpot game is sold in 42 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

Mega Millions drawings are held on Tuesdays and Fridays at 9 p.m. MDT. Mega Millions has a starting jackpot of $12 million and other prizes ranging from $2 to $250,000. To play, consumers choose five numbers from 1 to 56 and one Mega Ball number from 1 to 46. Players that match the five numbers and the Mega Ball win the jackpot. Players can also opt to spend an extra $1 for a “Megaplier” option that will multiply their non-jackpot prizes by 2, 3 or 4 times, which would make a $250,000 prize an even $1 million.

Proceeds from the Colorado Lottery’s games – MatchPlay, Mega Millions, Cash 5, Scratch, Lotto and Powerball – stay in Colorado to improve the quality of life in the state. The Lottery has returned more than $2.3 billion to the state of Colorado since it was established. Through great Outdoors Colorado, the Conservation Trust Fund and Colorado State Parks, the Lottery has provided funding for new trails, precious open space and wildlife protection. For more information, visit www.coloradolottery.com.

Mega Millions jackpot climbs to $363 million

In a complaint filed on March 6 (available on Scribd via the WSJ’s Law Blog), a new York man alleges that the assistant Apple squeezed into his iPhone 4S does not work as advertised. Frank Fazio is suing Apple in a California federal court seeking restitution and damages, and not at all surprisingly is hoping to represent a class of consumers who are, or who he imagines might be, unhappy with Siri too.

Fazio alleges that he bought an iPhone 4S in Brooklyn for $299, and that he did so after having been “exposed to Apple’s representations regarding the Siri feature. Plaintiff would not have paid the price he paid for the iPhone 4S, if he had not seen these representations.”

If it sounds a bit odd that Fazio is claiming to have been “exposed” to misrepresentations, rather than clearly saying he “relied” on them, then you may not be familiar with how California’s Unfair Competition Law works. (Disclosure: I represent clients who have been sued under the UCL, although sadly for me and my firm, we do not represent Apple.) Prior to 2004, there was no requirement that there be any connection at all between the plaintiff and whatever evil he or she was claiming to attack. after some highly publicized bogus lawsuits, the law was amended that year to require a plaintiff to prove such a connection (i.e. actual reliance on a misrepresentation). but let’s just say that some California judges seem not to have noticed that amendment, or at least they require so little of a plaintiff that it might as well never have happened. Not all by any means, but some. And so you still get complaints like this, which allege almost no facts about the plaintiff.

Why did mr. Fazio buy the 4S, exactly? did he want to “make appointments,” “find restaurants,” or “learn the guitar chords to classic rock songs,” as he says the commercials promise will be possible? did he need Siri to show him “how to tie a tie”? which of these were important to him personally, if any? He doesn’t say. nor, unsurprisingly, does he say exactly how Siri failed him:

Promptly after the purchase of his iPhone 4S, Plaintiff realized that Siri was not performing as advertised. For instance, when Plaintiff asked Siri for directions to a certain place, or to locate a store, Siri either did not understand what Plaintiff was asking, or, after a very long wait time, responded with the wrong answer. … Upon information and belief, Plaintiff’s problems with Siri are not unique ….

That’s it? Pretty generic. What about the classic rock songs?

Evidently Fazio claims he was lulled by the commercials into thinking that Siri would be able to do anything he asked her to, without fail, which of course is nonsense. Siri has worked amazingly well for me, and that’s based on actual experience, not “information and belief.” (That’s legalese for “I’m alleging this but am also letting you know I haven’t actually looked into it yet.”) How many chances did Siri get before he “promptly” gave up on her?  Just those two?

On information and belief, he detected the alleged problem “promptly after the purchase” because his lawyer had told him to expect it.

You have to wonder if Siri will suddenly become especially good at finding things in the Northern District of California (San Jose Division), especially things that federal judges might need. but don’t do it, Siri. It’ll just look bad.

Lawsuit Claims Siri Doesn’t Know What She’s Talking About