entertainment coupon: February 2013

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Make sure your California divorce attorney knows estate planning ...

There is a great deal of overlap between estate planning and family law. ?So much so that, if you?re seeking a lawyer in either area, you should make sure you have one with experience in the other area of law.

Take your divorce lawyer. ?Why would knowledge of estate planning be important? ?Well, for starters, your divorce is going to end at some point. ?And because divorces often take much longer than we?d like, we are often exhausted after they?re done, and have no desire to do any other kind of planning or work on the whole divorce issue. ?But once the divorce is done, this is when the really critical aspects of your financial life and future come into play. ?You need to change your beneficiaries on your retirements and life insurance. ?You need to change and update your will and estate plan, your powers of attorney, and the guardians for your children. ?A divorce lawyer without estate planning experience is not necessarily going to make sure you?re properly advised on these issues.

Conversely, let?s look at your estate planning attorney. ?First, in blended families (where one or both spouses have children from a prior relationship), there are specific estate planning issues that overlap with family law. ?In addition, it?s important to know whether either of the spouses has separate property. ?Separate property is property that either spouse owned prior to the marriage. ?If either has separate property, then putting the property into the trust without a separate property agreement transforms the property into community property?.and this could make the owner spouse quite upset should the couple eventually decide to divorce.

These are just a few of the small issues that overlap, and there are many more. ?So many that it would be detrimental to you and your family ? not to mention your financial future ? to consult with an attorney who lacks knowledge and experience in one of these areas.

Need more information?? Getting a divorce and overwhelmed with all the information you need to know???Click here?for my FREE ?Divorce 101? 7-Day e-Course plus FREE 7-page Report, ?Things they don?t tell you about divorce in California (and everywhere else!)?

Need even more help??Schedule an online appointment here?or click here for?California Divorce Made Easy!

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Source: http://christinamcpherson.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/make-sure-your-divorce-attorney-knows-estate-planning-and-your-estate-planning-attorney-make-sure-they-know-family-law-too/

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Sequestration Shovels Money to the Russians

A widespread opinion is that the sequestration?the blunt whack of $85 billion from the national government?s budget?was, as UPI puts it, ?a dumb idea when it was created and it?s a dumb idea now.?? But the sequestration may be far dumber than most realize.? To save money, this budget bash is about to gush over three quarters of a billion dollars from America?s space budget directly into the coffers of the Russians.? Penny wise and billion dollar foolish.

How does this astonishingly self-defeating cash transfusion to Moscow work?

?View from the International Space Station of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft as the station's robotic arm moves Dragon into place for attachment to the station. May 25, 2012.? Caption courtesy of SpaceX. Photo: NASA

NASA has a little-known but crucial project called the Commercial Crew Program.? In the days of the Space Shuttle it cost roughly $37,500 per pound to get an American astronaut into space.? Let?s say that you are that astronaut.? Adding in all the oxygen, food, water, and equipment it takes to keep you alive, that?s close to $82.5 million to get you into orbit.? Which is the price of flying the entire population of Pittsburgh to LA and back with tickets from cheapoair.com.? But if America can get that cost down, it can make space as accessible as, well, airline trips from Pittsburgh to LA.

This is where the Commercial Crew Program comes in.? In the Program, three private companies are competing to deliver US astronauts to the International Space Station. Those companies are Boeing, Sierra Nevada, and Space Exploration Technologies (better known as Space X).? All are under contract to meet performance milestones on a timetable that would deliver US astronauts to the International Space Station by 2017 or sooner.

SpaceX Dragon Capsule berths to the International Space Station, October 10, 2012. Credit: NASA

And so far, things look promising.? SpaceX has already built the rockets it takes to get to orbit and has put them into regular commercial use.? What?s more, SpaceX has designed a Dragon Capsule capable of putting seven humans into space, and has launched two of these capsules, orbited them, and brought them safely back to earth. ? But that?s not all.? On launch number two, the Dragon Capsule carried a load of NASA cargo, docked with the International Space Station, uneventfully transferred its 1,200 pound load, took on 1,673 pounds of used hardware, supplies and more than a ton of scientific samples from the Station packed in a GLACIER (General Laboratory Active Cryogenic ISS Experiment Refrigerator) freezer, and brought that crucial payload to earth.? SpaceX plans its third launch of the Dragon capsule with 1,268 pounds of crew supplies and scientific equipment for the International Space Station Friday, March 1^st, the day the sequestration is scheduled to take effect.

Normally delivering cargo to orbit costs NASA roughly $10,000 per pound, a lot less than delivering people.? But SpaceX?s Dragon Capsule and Falcon 9 can cost an estimated $2,500 per pound, a galumphing 75% savings. What?s more, SpaceX?s head, Elon Musk, has stated that his goal is ten dollars per pound.? Yes, you read that right: ten dollars a pound to orbit.? Which would bring the cost of putting you into orbit along with the oxygen, food, and water necessary to keep you alive down to $22,000.? Not exactly the cost of an airline ticket from Pennsylvania to LA.? But within the range of reality for a business traveler, researcher, space colonist, or asteroid miner.

Artist?s conception of Sierra Nevada Corporation?s Dream Chaser. Illustration courtesy of SNC Space Systems

What would sequestration do to this cost-reduction drive?? And how do the Russians get into the act?? There?s another government blunder that?s been hidden from you and me, hidden in plain sight: America?s space gap.

Ever since the retirement of the Shuttle in 2011, America has been unable to launch astronauts into orbit on American launch vehicles.? Yes, there is currently no American craft, no matter how modest, that can put humans into space.? At a time when even the Iranians are launching monkeys.? Embarrassing, right?

As NASA administrator Charles Bolden told a NASA audience in Huntsville, Alabama, on February 22^nd: ?Budget sequestration will slow NASA?s effort to start a commercial space industry to take astronauts to the International Space Station on American spacecraft.?? The gap between America and Russia, which can still launch astronauts, will not close.? The gap is going to get bigger.? Anybody who thinks this is no big deal ? it?s a big deal.?

Artist conception of the Dream Chaser docking with the space station. Picture courtesy of SNC Space Systems.

Despite this space gap, the United States has obligations to the fifteen countries it seduced, kidnapped, and recruited into a $35-100 billion project, the vastly underutilized International Space Station. The International Space Station is an incredible achievement, a historically monumental construction on a par with the pyramids and the Parthenon. And to fulfill our obligations to our partners, we are committed to sending roughly 56 more astronauts to the station.? Which leaves us with a problem.? How do we send our men and women to space when we have no launch vehicle capable of carrying humans?

Artist conception of Boing?s commercial crew vehicle docking with space station. Illustration courtesy of Boeing.

It?s simple. We rely on a nation some of whose media outlets, believe it or not, still portray us as the enemy:? Russia. Yes, Pravda.ru, which has been described as ?the largest news and analytical Internet-holding in Russia,? says week after week that the USA is a degenerate and murderous nation.? With headlines like the current ?Killing Russian Children Not a Tragedy for U.S.?

Only a few months ago, the Russians charged us $55.8 million a ticket to send a single astronaut to space and to bring her back on their Soyuz rockets.? But since they have no competitors to drive down the price, the Russians have hiked the fare by 12% to $62.7 million dollars per ticket.? And the price could go up farther.

Here?s where the ability of the sequestration to turn the saving of a penny into the loss of a billion comes in. Inside sources at NASA say that the sequestration will only cut $25 million to $30 million from the Commercial Crew contracts.? By government standards, that sounds like a mere piffle.? Right?

But through the magic of cumulative blunders, that tiny loss of money will turn into a torrent.? It will delay the Commercial Crew Program for roughly two years.? And every year we go without our own access to space, we are forced to pay another $350 million to $400 million to the Russians. In fact, on March 14, NASA reached an agreement to pay Russia $753 million for twelve round trip tickets to our station in the sky.? That?s three quarters of a billion dollars.? And if the U.S.?s period without American vehicles stretches out, that figure will increase. Think about it.? $753 million or more siphoned from the American space program and used to underwrite Russian research and development and Russian leadership in space.? When Russia?s Sputnik went up in 1957 and shocked the USA, the idea of underwriting Russian space development and crippling ours would have been unthinkable.

Nearly as bad, the Commercial Crew Program works by paying the three competing companies only when they meet milestones. Until then, these firms have to advance their own cash. ? They work ?on the come.? If these companies have factored the government payment into their projections of cash flow and if they reach their milestones, the government?s refusal to pay up can bankrupt them.? Or seriously set them back.? This is NOT the way to encourage American ingenuity, American entrepreneurship, and American job creation.? It makes the American government, the government that represents you and me, a bad business partner.?? A deadbeat.

Concludes Dave Dunlop, head of the International Committee for the National Space Society and a member of the group I run, The Space Development Steering Committee, ?No wonder recent polls show that colonoscopies are more popular than Congress.? ? Or, as percussionist Ralph MacDonald once advised, ?Don?t stop to pick up the pennies when the dollars are flying over your head.?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=4d7cd0042f3898850f4994d946c9046f

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Jose Aldo-Anthony Pettis featherweight championship fight back on

Over the weekend, UFC president Dana White said featherweight champion Jose Aldo was refusing to take a fight with Anthony Pettis, the lightweight who was scheduled to fight Aldo in August. As Kevin Iole wrote, Aldo told White he didn't think Pettis had earned the title shot.

The fight is back on. Andre Pederneias, Aldo's manager, told SporTV in Brazil (with translation from our friends at Yahoo! Brazil) that Aldo will take the fight, with one condition:

?I had a meeting today (Monday) with Jos? Aldo, who said: ?I?m going to end with this clownery. People are saying that I?m running, so they are going to see who will run from who when the time comes. If you enjoy a brawl, you can buy the pay-per-view on August 3 and that's what you are going to watch because heads will roll?. At that moment I called Dana White to agree with the fight, but on one condition: after that fight, the winner gets a title shot at [lightweight]?.

White confirmed that the fight is on.

Yes Aldo vs Pettis and it's for Aldo's UFC 145lb title

? Dana White (@danawhite) February 26, 2013

ESPN is reporting that Aldo will get his wish, and that if he beats Pettis on Aug. 3, he will get a shot at the UFC lightweight belt. Benson Henderson is currently the title holder, and will fight Gilbert Melendez in April.

This means the UFC lightweight belt has a clear path for 2013. Pettis was supposed to be the next lightweight contender, but pushed for the Aldo fight because he didn't want to wait until the Henderson and Melendez fight was over.

Are you looking forward to seeing Aldo possibly fight for the lightweight belt? Speak up in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.

Boxing video from Yahoo! Sports:

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/jose-aldo-anthony-pettis-featherweight-championship-fight-back-163108872--mma.html

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Valibation: The Disease of Always Being on Your Phone (NSFW)

If you have 20 minutes, you should watch Valibation. It's a short film directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson (he's done a Harold and Kumar movie but this is nothing like that) that shows how being addicted to your phone can turn into a disease where the phone actually becomes a part of you. It's dark, it's weird and it's revealing—would we want our phones to be a part of us? That's not an automatic no, right? More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ks3-n91ZhTI/valibation-the-disease-of-always-being-on-your-phone-nsfw

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BP executive testifies at Gulf oil spill trial

Lamar McKay, former president of BP America and current chief executive of BP's Upstream unit, left, leaves Federal Court after testifying in New Orleans, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. McKay, who was president of BP America at the time of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, became the first BP executive to testify at the federal trial intended to identify the causes of BP's Macondo well blowout and assign percentages of blame to the companies involved. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Lamar McKay, former president of BP America and current chief executive of BP's Upstream unit, leaves Federal Court after testifying in New Orleans, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. McKay, who was president of BP America at the time of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, became the first BP executive to testify at the federal trial intended to identify the causes of BP's Macondo well blowout and assign percentages of blame to the companies involved. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Lamar McKay, former president of BP America and current chief executive of BP's Upstream unit, leaves Federal Court after testifying in New Orleans, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. McKay, who was president of BP America at the time of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, became the first BP executive to testify at the federal trial intended to identify the causes of BP's Macondo well blowout and assign percentages of blame to the companies involved. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? A ranking BP executive testified Tuesday that the London-based oil giant and its contractors share the responsibility for preventing blowouts like the one that killed 11 workers and spawned the nation's worst offshore oil spill in 2010.

Lamar McKay, who was president of BP America at the time of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, became the first BP executive to testify at a federal trial intended to identify the causes of BP's Macondo well blowout and assign percentages of blame to the companies involved.

Rig owner Transocean and cement contractor Halliburton also are defendants at trial, which opened Monday.

A plaintiffs' attorney pressed McKay to agree with him that BP bore ultimate responsibility for the blowout, but McKay insisted that managing the hazards of deepwater drilling are a "team effort."

"I think that's a shared responsibility, to manage the safety and the risk," said McKay, now chief executive of BP's Upstream unit. "Sometimes contractors manage that risk. Sometimes we do. Most of the time it's a team effort."

McKay also defended BP's internal probe of the spill, which outlined a series of mistakes by rig workers and faulted decisions by other companies but didn't assign any blame to BP's upper-level management.

"I think it was a substantial investigation," McKay said. "I think we've learned what we can from the accident and we're trying to put those things into practice right now."

McKay, whose testimony will resume Wednesday, called the disaster a "tragic accident" resulting from a "risk that was identified."

It wasn't the first time McKay testified under oath about the spill. He appeared before Congress less than a month after the explosion.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier is hearing the case without a jury. Barring a settlement, Barbier will decide how much more money BP and other companies owe for their roles in the disaster.

McKay's testimony followed that of an expert witness for people and businesses suing the company. University of California-Berkeley engineering professor Robert Bea testified that BP PLC didn't implement a 2-year-old safety management program on the rig, which exploded on April 20, 2010.

"It's a classic failure of management and leadership in BP," said Bea, a former BP consultant who also investigated the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill and New Orleans levee breaches after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

BP has said its "Operating Management System" was designed to drive a rigorous and systematic approach to safety and risk management. During cross-examination by a BP lawyer, Bea said the company made "significant efforts" to improve safety management as early as 2003.

However, the plaintiffs say BP only implemented its new safety plan at just one of the seven rigs the company owned or leased in the Gulf at the time of the disaster.

Bea said it was "tragic" and "egregious" that BP didn't apply its own safety program to the Deepwater Horizon before the Macondo well blowout. Transocean owned the rig; BP leased it.

BP lawyer Mike Brock said the company allows contractors like Transocean to take the primary responsibility for the safety of rig operations as long as the contractor's safety system is compatible with BP's ? an arrangement that Brock suggested is a standard industry practice.

In his May 2010 congressional testimony, McKay said BP's Operating Management System is "as good as anyone."

"I know of nothing that points me in a direction that we have deficiencies" in the system, McKay said.

As he questioned Bea, Brock recited a long list of steps that BP took to improve safety, citing them as evidence that the company wasn't "cutting corners" on safety.

A plaintiffs' lawyer showed Bea a transcript of a deposition of Tony Hayward, BP's CEO at the time of the disaster. Hayward was asked if the blowout could have been averted if BP had implemented the safety management program in the Gulf.

"There is possible potential," Hayward responded. "Undoubtedly."

Bea said BP's "culture of every dollar counts" was reflected in a May 2009 email sent by BP well team leader John Guide: "The DW Horizon embraced every dollar matters since I arrived 18 months ago," Guide wrote. "We have saved BP millions and no one had to tell us."

"Financially, BP had the resources to effectively put into place a process safety system that could have prevented the Macondo disaster," Bea testified.

BP has already pleaded guilty to manslaughter and other criminal charges and has racked up more than $24 billion in spill-related expenses, including cleanup costs, compensation for businesses and individuals, and $4 billion in criminal penalties.

Plaintiffs' attorney Robert Cunningham read portions of the plea agreement as he pressed McKay to say how much responsibility BP takes for the catastrophe. Cunningham noted that nothing in the document assigns blame to specific BP executives.

"That is not written in there. That's true," McKay said.

Two BP rig supervisors, however, have been indicted on manslaughter charges for the workers' deaths and are awaiting a separate trial.

"There were some misinterpretations and mistakes made" on the rig, McKay said.

One of the biggest questions facing Barbier is whether BP acted with gross negligence.

Under the Clean Water Act, a polluter can be forced to pay a minimum of $1,100 per barrel of spilled oil; the fines nearly quadruple to about $4,300 a barrel for companies found grossly negligent, meaning BP could be on the hook for nearly $18 billion.

___

Follow Kunzelman at https://twitter.com/Kunzelman75

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-26-Gulf%20Oil%20Spill-Trial/id-90308b2bacf24ccdac5979bc3fb3928a

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Advanced breast cancer edges up in younger women - Herald Online

CHICAGO ? Advanced breast cancer has increased slightly among young women, a 34-year analysis suggests. The disease is still uncommon among women younger than 40, and the small change has experts scratching their heads about possible reasons.

The results are potentially worrisome because young women's tumors tend to be more aggressive than older women's, and they're much less likely to get routine screening for the disease.

Still, that doesn't explain why there'd be an increase in advanced cases and the researchers and other experts say more work is needed to find answers.

It's likely that the increase has more than one cause, said Dr. Rebecca Johnson, the study's lead author and medical director of a teen and young adult cancer program at Seattle Children's Hospital.

"The change might be due to some sort of modifiable risk factor, like a lifestyle change" or exposure to some sort of cancer-linked substance, she said.

Johnson said the results translate to about 250 advanced cases diagnosed in women younger than 40 in the mid-1970s versus more than 800 in 2009. During those years, the number of women nationwide in that age range went from about 22 million to closer to 30 million - an increase that explains part of the study trend "but definitely not all of it," Johnson said.

Other experts said women delaying pregnancy might be a factor, partly because getting pregnant at an older age might cause an already growing tumor to spread more quickly in response to pregnancy hormones.

Obesity and having at least a drink or two daily have both been linked with breast cancer but research is inconclusive on other possible risk factors, including tobacco and chemicals in the environment. Whether any of these explains the slight increase in advanced disease in young women is unknown.

There was no increase in cancer at other stages in young women. There also was no increase in advanced disease among women older than 40.

Overall U.S. breast cancer rates have mostly fallen in more recent years, although there are signs they may have plateaued.

Some 17 years ago, Johnson was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer at age 27, and that influenced her career choice to focus on the disease in younger women.

"Young women and their doctors need to understand that it can happen in young women," and get checked if symptoms appear, said Johnson, now 44. "People shouldn't just watch and wait."

The authors reviewed a U.S. government database of cancer cases from 1976 to 2009. They found that among women aged 25 to 39, breast cancer that has spread to distant parts of the body - advanced disease - increased from between 1 and 2 cases per 100,000 women to about 3 cases per 100,000 during that time span.

The study was published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

About one in 8 women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime, but only 1 in 173 will develop it by age 40. Risks increase with age and certain gene variations can raise the odds.

Routine screening with mammograms is recommended for older women but not those younger than 40.

Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the American Cancer Society's deputy chief medical officer, said the results support anecdotal reports but that there's no reason to start screening all younger women since breast cancer is still so uncommon for them.

He said the study "is solid and interesting and certainly does raise questions as to why this is being observed." One of the most likely reasons is probably related to changes in childbearing practices, he said, adding that the trend "is clearly something to be followed."

Dr. Ann Partridge, chair of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's advisory committee on breast cancer in young women, agreed but said it's also possible that doctors look harder for advanced disease in younger women than in older patients. More research is needed to make sure the phenomenon is real, said Partridge, director of a program for young women with breast cancer at the Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

The study shouldn't cause alarm, she said. Still, Partridge said young women should be familiar with their breasts and see the doctor if they notice any lumps or other changes.

Software engineer Stephanie Carson discovered a large breast tumor that had already spread to her lungs; that diagnosis in 2003 was a huge shock.

"I was so clueless," she said. "I was just 29 and that was the last thing on my mind."

Carson, who lives near St. Louis, had a mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation and other treatments and she frequently has to try new drugs to keep the cancer at bay.

Because most breast cancer is diagnosed in early stages, there's a misconception that women are treated, and then get on with their lives, Carson said. She and her husband had to abandon hopes of having children, and she's on medical leave from her job.

"It changed the complete course of my life," she said. "But it's still a good life."

----

Online:

JAMA: http://jama.ama-assn.org

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/breast/index.htm

Source: http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/02/26/4649441/advanced-breast-cancer-edges-up.html

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5 Social Media Marketing Strategies for eCommerce Websites in the ...

eCommerce Websites Social media has revolutionized the way we use the internet, and how we consume information. Consumers are no longer the silent majority, and media companies are no longer the gatekeepers of information.

Small businesses can now engage in back-and-forth communication with consumers without traditional media as an intermediary, and this gives the modern eCommerce site an opportunity it?s never had before. Here?s how you can take your eCommerce site to the next level.

Strategy #1 ? Understand Why People Use Social Media

A recent study suggests that people use social media to:

Communicate
Express themselves
Pass the time
Entertain themselves

These are roughly the same reasons that people use the internet in general, except that people do not use social networks for a fifth and very important purpose: information seeking. This is important, because it also means that people are not using social networks to find information about companies, products, or services.

The study concluded that the main reasons people use social networks are to pass the time and to entertain themselves. For this reason, companies should focus most of their social media efforts on using entertainment to build customer retention and acquisition.

Companies can also leverage those who use social media to communicate or express themselves by building an online community to keep conversations going.

Strategy #2 ? Build Relationships With Influencers

Since most people use social networks to entertain themselves and a smaller number of people use them to express themselves, it is often these expressive people who are the most influential people online. Many of them also have blogs or personal websites that they further use as an outlet for their expression.

It is these people who you should focus most of your efforts building relationships with. Since it is rather strange for an eCommerce site to try to build a relationship with an influencer, it?s often a better idea to use personal profiles to do the connecting. On Twitter, it?s better to create several individual profiles that link back to the brand account, and use those individual profiles to build relationships.

There is also no reason to confine the discussion to social media. Many influencers have email addresses listed on their blogs so that you can contact them directly. As long as you start the discussion off by offering value (not asking them for something), this is often much easier than you may think.

Once you have built relationships with influencers, getting attention on social networks is relatively easy.

Strategy #3 ? Be Shareable

It is unlikely that very many people will voluntarily share product pages on your eCommerce site. They are much more likely to share fun and interesting blog posts, videos, and images. This should reinforce the idea that social media should not be thought of as a sales channel. It is far more useful as a ?first touch? channel and as a customer retention channel.

Since it is rare that a social encounter with your brand will coincide with a need for your product, your primary focus should be on brand image: building trust and familiarity so that you are first on the consumer?s mind when the need does arise.

What is shareable?

Novel information that is interesting, surprising, and unique
Anything that makes people laugh
Anything cute or that gives people ?warm and fuzzy? feelings
Beautiful images (these do especially well on Pinterest)
Posts that reinforce a worldview (sometimes this means taking a side)
Content that comes in bite size chunks that are easy to absorb

Strategy #4 ? Go Where the Community is

All too often, businesses get caught up in social media as a place, instead of social media as an idea. The savvy marketer realizes that Facebook is not necessarily the place to focus all of their efforts, even though it is the largest social network. In the post-television world, marketers need to move past thinking about volume, and consider targeting instead.

The first question online marketers should be asking is where their community is. No matter what industry you are in, there is a place online where a conversation is happening about that subject. Your first job is to find that community. It could be a Facebook discussion group, but it could just as easily be a forum or message board. That may sound old fashioned, but if it is where your target audience is, it?s where you should be.

That?s not to say you should neglect a more general audience. A strong online community consists of a hardcore following that often exists in a more obscure place, like a forum, followed by a mainstream audience on a place like Facebook or Twitter.

Your primary goal as an online community builder should be to figure out how to leverage these communities in order to build a hardcore following of your own, which then spills over into the mainstream outlets. This means interlinking all of your various online presences and transforming your main site into a home base for all of them.

Remember, social media is not a place. It is a revolution in the way that online discourse takes place. The most important thing to understand about social media is that it allows two-way communication. If you are making conversations happen, you are succeeding, no matter where that conversation is happening.

Strategy #5 ? Understand Conversions Directly From Social Media Rarely Happen

Consumers don?t use social media to interact with you. They use it to entertain themselves and interact with their friends. You don?t want to use social media as your primary means of communication with consumers.

Let me say that again. You don?t want to use social media as your primary communication tool with consumers.

Social media is for casual contact. Social networks are noisy and consumers never see every message sent their way. Networks like Facebook actually filter results based on who and what users interact with the most, and so brands rarely show up prominently in their streams.

The advantage of social media is its ability for certain messages to spread virally. People pay more attention to something that has been shared by their friends than they do to an advertisement. Leverage this fact to build new followers, but transition that following over to email. People don?t necessarily read all their email, but most of them at least see every message in their inbox. This isn?t true for social media.

Again: the advantage of social media is the fact that your followers will share messages with their friends. But ultimately, you want those followers to subscribe to your newsletter, go directly to your site, and see you in channels other than social networks.

Social Media is Old News

If there is one thing to understand about social media in the year ahead, it?s the fact that it is no longer just mainstream, it is old news. Businesses who are involved in social media need to understand that it is not shiny and new anymore, and they can?t succeed just by being there. Many consumers are getting fed up with ads and commercial activity on their social networks, and they have very little tolerance for businesses that don?t ?get it.?

Use social media to entertain and build relationships with influencers, and transition that influence over to a channel that you control. Be shareable to expand your reach. Don?t waste time trying to ?sell? on social networks.

Image Credit: Shutterstock / Evgeny Karandaev

Pratik Dholakiya is a Lead SEO Strategist at E2M Solutions, a company that specializes in advanced link building services. Pratik has studied recent Google algorithm changes (Panda & Penguin) very closely and performed insightful research to come up with a legitimate strategy that works in post panda/penguin era. You can contact him on twitter @DholakiyaPratik or by email.

Source: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/5-social-media-marketing-strategies-for-ecommerce-websites-in-the-year-ahead/59757/

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Marriage group will 'take out' GOPers who support same-sex unions (Star Tribune)

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Horse meetup found in technical writer's blog post | ffeathers

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://ffeathers.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/horse-meetup-found-in-technical-writers-blog-post/

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