Apple patent suggests using accelerometer and gyroscope to stabilize video recordings

Apple patent suggests using accelerometer and gyroscope to stabilize video recordings | Ubergizmo window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({ appId : '139683546053659', status : true, // check login status cookie : true, // enable cookies to allow the server to access the session xfbml : true // parse XFBML }); }; (function() { var e = document.createElement('script'); e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js'; e.async = true; document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e); }()); Network:Ubergizmo English, French, SpanishUberphones Subscribe to RSS Ubergizmo ReviewsMobileGamingAndroidAppleComputersGadgetsConceptsPhoto/VideoEvents |  Jobs Home > Apple > Apple patent suggests using accelerometer and gyroscope to stabilize video recordings Apple patent suggests using accelerometer and gyroscope to stabilize video recordings Tyler Lee 09/29/2011 07:37 PDT

Let’s face it, when taking videos or photos with your phone, your hands will naturally shake and it will be hard to beat the stability that a tripod brings to the table. A newly published patent from Apple has revealed how the Cupertino company has plans to one day make use of the built-in accelerometer and gyroscope to compensate for shaky video recordings.

The patent suggests that while stabilization software isn’t new, the processing usually takes up too much resources, which could end up draining the battery really quickly. In addition, current algorithms may generate incorrect estimates therefore not really improving the video at all.

Thanks to gyroscopes and accelerometers found in newer smartphones, the data that it generates will be added to the algorithm, helping improve its efficiency. As we mentioned earlier, the stabilization process could be resource draining, which is why Apple’s solution would be to selectively control the motion stabilization feature, correcting only where it has been deemed necessary by measuring it against a pre-set threshold.

With the iPhone 4’s camera currently favored by many amateur photographers, could this patent also help bring aboard budding videographers who would rather not invest in an expensive video camera, instead relying on just their iPhone?

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Sales Presentation Training on How to Increase Sales Using Features and Benefits Effectively

When I'm presenting sales presentation training I'm amazed at how many people can't use features and benefits effectively. With sales training to understand real features and benefits they can quickly see how to increase sales and make more money.  If you are one of the people that don't understand how to use features and benefits, then that's great news. It's great because you can expect a big increase in your results when you add this sales presentation training to your sales skills. It gets to the very core of why people buy, and that they want the benefits of the product or service, not the features.

Definition of Features and Benefits   So let's start with a working definition of both features and benefits: A Feature is what the product or service does, how it works, what it looks like, the mechanics of it. A Benefit is what the features do for the customer. A feature of this sales presentation training is the information it will give you to add to your sales skills. A benefit of that feature is the extra income you can earn as a result of the additional sales you will close. Every feature can have lots of benefits. Many features can have the same benefits. The information you'll find on this page is a feature. The benefits are endless and they all result in you gaining something.

How to increase sales using features and benefits   At some point in your sales process you ask the customer some questions to establish what they want. These wants are usually expressed by the customers as benefits. Saving money, feeling safe, and looking good, are all examples of benefits. None of these are features. In your sales presentation your aim is to present a sales proposal that gives the customer what they want. What they want are the benefits, not the features. The features are just the tools that supply the benefits.   If a customer wants a car that is cheap to run they don't want a boring sales presentation on the technical features of the engine and its fuel consumption. They want a presentation on the benefits, and in this example that is how it saves them dollars. Yes, you will include some features of the fuel economy system in your sales presentation, but only the few that are directly related to the main sales benefit that you are presenting. Focus on the benefit of cost effective motoring and only use the features of the car to support how the benefit is delivered.   This sales training can be just a simple change of your viewpoint on features and benefits. Many sales people are experts on the features of their product, and we all like talking about topics we are experts on. The benefits customers want can be unique to each individual and not as easy for sales people to talk about. This is where sales presentation training is important. To learn how to increase sales with a great presentation you must learn how to focus on the benefits not the features.  

A quick sales presentation training technique   Try this quick sales presentation training technique and see if you understand the relationship between the buyer's needs, the product features, and the sales benefits.   Choose a common need or want that your customers express when you are selling to them. Now select the feature or features of your product that can give them that what they want. When I'm giving sales presentation training it's at this point that the delegates start presenting. Don't, you will only be presenting features and that's not what the buyer wants to hear. Add another link to the chain and now select the benefits of those features that will match the buyer's needs and wants. This is how to increase sales when presenting.   It may sound something like this: You said; saving money, compared to what you currently pay out for fuel each month, was important to you. (Customer want) This car has the latest fuel saving technology that will give you 60 miles to the gallon around town. (Feature) That means you will fill up once every ten days instead of once a week as you currently do. So let's look at what you'll save over a typical year. (Benefit)   Add some agreement gaining at the right places and you've got the bases of a great sales presentation, with effective use of sales training on features and benefits. Sales presentation training is all about showing the customer a sales proposal with benefits that match their wants.  It's an important part of your selling process, and investing in more of these sales skills is how to increase sales and make more money.

I'm Stephen Craine, a working sales manager and trainer. The sales presentation training above comes from the training and coaching I give to my working sales teams. We rely on these sales skills to achieve targets and keep our jobs. This is not classroom training that only works in role play situations, this is real sales training developed in live sales situations with real customers. You can see more sales presentation training on my website at http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com/sales-presentation-training.html

The website is packed with free sales training, sales tips, and if you really want to know how to increase sales there are workbook training courses you can download and start using today. To visit the site and click around the pages, open http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com and get real sales training proven by working sales professionals.

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Motivation Techniques on How to Motivate Employees Using Sales Team Training and Free Web Resources

Motivation techniques and how to motivate employees is an area many sales managers find difficult and time consuming. They find it easy to present and supply sales team training on selling skills, but what about motivation techniques. To motivate a sales person you need to offer a regular boost of self motivation. It can take time to constantly find new and refreshing ideas, and give different angles and perspectives on how to get into the most effective selling state. The sales motivation techniques offered here will give you a sales training and motivation program for your sales team using a minimum amount of time. It uses the free resources available on the Internet and it won't cost you a penny. It also gets your team involved from the start and asks them to contribute as the idea grows in size and benefits. 

How it worked for my sales teams

The objective is to build a list of free online sales training and motivation resources available on the Internet and use them in an ongoing motivation program. You probably have some links saved in your favourites list. Your sales team will have some as well.  As a starting point imagine if you had a list of links to all those sales and motivation websites you already know about, all in one easy to access place. This is how I started when looking at how to motivate employees in my sales teams. Then we added all the other sites we came across that had effective sales training or good motivation techniques.

How to put these motivation technique sinto action today

Here's how to put this sales team training into action with your sales teams. First, build the list of good quality links to websites. Present the idea of building an Internet based training and motivation resource to your sales team. Show them a few examples of websites that you use for sales training and information. Ask them to submit their own. Get them to go through their favourites list on their PC's, log into their search history, and ask them to click around the Internet to find new and interesting websites. Get them involved, show them the benefits, and ask for their feedback.

Decide where to keep the list of links

Decide upon the best place to keep your list of sales and motivation websites. You want somewhere that is easy to access, will be remembered, and is accessible by all the sales team. It must also be somewhere that the information and new links can be added regularly. If your organisation has a company intranet then that may be a good place to start building your sales training resource. Shared drives and folders are another good place to park the list of links. You might think of other ideas such as sending it out in a company newsletter, or simply emailing the list to your sales team on a regular basis.

Add some information to each link

To make this list of sales team training and motivation links effective, add a brief description to each link. It only needs a few comments to indicate if the link is about motivation techniques, sales training, or product and industry knowledge. Ask your team to add these comments when they submit a new link to be added to the list. You could take this further and add a rating system from 1 to 5 on how effective and useful they think the website is.

Keep the list updated

Keep the list updated and over time you will build an enormous resource of sales training and motivation techniques. The more comprehensive the descriptions and comments about the website are the more effective and useful your list will be. Think what could happen if you expand and develop the use of this free resource. What if you included more people within your organisation and expanded the topics covered by this list of websites. As long as the list is separated into categories for each topic, and perhaps even a contents page written, it will remain useful and effective.

Add a motivation training schedule

Once we brought all these great website links together we set certain times of the week to make the best use of these motivation techniques. Motivation training works best in short bursts with specific objectives. There a certain times of the week when a quick burst of motivation, a new sales training idea, or examples of proven marketing techniques, are most effective.

Monday morning after a weekend break 15 minutes on a good website, with short sharp self motivation techniques, can get you into a selling state. Friday morning we have found clicking on websites with time management, or prospecting tips, which can be used the following week, can have a great effect. When you have a tough day facing difficult objections and can't close sales, then a sales training site is a good way to finish the day. These are examples of how we use these sales team training motivation techniques. You can adapt them, develop them, and find how to motivate your employees using a list of good Internet links. The sales team have bought into the idea because they helped to build the list. 

I'm Stephen Craine, a working sales manager and trainer. If you like the motivation training techniques offered here then my advice is to take that first action today. You know what will happen if you put it off and leave it for later, it just will not get done and you'll miss out on the benefits of these techniques. Take one step towards creating your list now, and also think about where you are going to store it. It only takes one person to start this list rolling and others will soon join in and want to share the resource. So let me offer you these first links and descriptions to start your sales team training and motivation list of web pages and free resources on the Internet.
http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com

The home page of my sales training website for all sales people, self employed and small business owners, and sales managers.
http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com/sales-training-free.html

Free sales training that you can use today and start using to increase your sales results. Sales training on: Basic sales training for people new to sales. Sales training on using a sales process. How to make sales appointments. Simply copy and paste the above links and descriptions and you have started your list of sales training and motivation techniques for you and your sales team. Mail these first 2 links out to your team and let them know about the free training resource you are starting. Add the links to your company intranet, shared drives or folders, or send out a regular update by email. This could be the start of something big and you will get the credit.

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Close More Sales by Using Sales Closing Skills to Get the Prospect to Buy Now

To close more sales you need to add just one important sales closing skill to your selling process. This selling technique is a final motivator that influences the buyer to take action now and agree to the sale. Use this sales skill and you will increase sales and earn more money.

Think of time when your sale followed a smooth process with no major sales objections that you couldn't answer. You gained agreement throughout the sales presentation and then added a nice closing question. But the buyer still didn't commit to buying from you now. They haven't said no, but they will not give you a yes now. They give you weak reasons why they want to think about it, or call you back. If you start pushing them for a decision now it could become confrontational and you may lose any chance of gaining the business in the future. So what went wrong, where was the mistake, and how do you avoid these vague objections to commitment in the future?

The answer is to include a reason for the buyer to take action in your sales presentation and motivate them to buy from you now. Often the only thing stopping the sale is getting the buyer to take one last step and say yes. The reason it's difficult is that often the buyer has no reason to buy now from you. Unless they have their own reasons for needing your product or services now, there is no urgency for them to sign on the dotted line. So you need to add a sales closing technique to give the buyer that one last push and see the benefits of buying now. You can also use any consequences of not buying now that are linked to your sales proposal. Negative consequences can be a much stronger motivation to take action than positive benefits.

Take some down time and write a list of all the possible reasons that you could give to a buyer that would motivate them to buy from you now. Include negative consequences of putting off the commitment to a sale and think how you can paint pictures of two future scenarios. One should be of the consequences if they don't buy and one of future benefits of taking that small step and making a decision to buy. The most common benefit used in all sales markets is price. It is also the most used negative consequence used to push buyers into buying. This is when there is a price offered but only if the prospect buys today. Many sales people, and marketing adverts, use a believable reason why the buyer will save money by signing on the dotted line now. Spare capacity on vehicles or workload, a bulk buy of limited stock, or an imminent change that will raise the price in the near future.

Your motivator to buy now doesn't have to be price. It can be any benefit you like, as long as it's a benefit for the buyer, not just you. The bigger the benefit the more it will motivate them to agree the sale. The motivator can be any consequence that the prospect may suffer if they don't sign today. The more believable you make your reasons for the buyer to take action the more effective they will be. Take some time to invest in yourself and add this final sales closing technique to your sales skills. You will close more sales, grow your business sales, and earn more money.

I'm Stephen Craine, I'm a working sales manager and sales trainer. Sales closing skills are a personal favorite of mine and I enjoy seeing the results of good sales closing skills training with my sales teams. You can see the course I use to help my teams close more sales at How to close a sale. I look around the world for effective sales training on all aspects of selling. I use the best techniques with my team and I to share the information on my website which you can visit at http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com.

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Dramatically Increase Sales Conversion Rate Using Education Based Marketing

Is your sales conversion rate acceptable? Would you like to work smarter not harder? Then consider education based marketing instead of the traditional sales based marketing and realize your goal to increase sales.

So what is your sales conversion rate? In other words, if you receive 100 qualified leads, how many sales do you actually earn? Depending upon the industry and your own sales skills, this may range from 5% to 90%. However from my sales coaching experience, I believe the average is probably closer to 1 out of three to five.

What would happen if you could double that conversion rate? Instead of earning one sale with every 5 contacts you now have 2. For the same amount of effort, you have doubled your results. Does that make sense to you?

During the last year, I have been transitioning from sales based marketing to education based marketing. My sales style was always helpful, but I never considered myself an educator unless I was doing sales training. Now, I have embraced this more contemporary model and the results have been exciting.

The traditional way of selling evolves from a sales based marketing approach. Here is the focus is on how quickly you can make the sale. Within this approach are certain No-Nos such as Do not give anything away.

With the advent of technology and the Internet, there is a wealth of free information so the old paradigm of giving stuff away is no longer viable. Now sales professionals must out think the Internet and all that free information.

To change from the accepted and traditional sales based approach is quite easy. All you must do is take the role of trusted educator and advisor. Your goal is not to sell the product or service, but to bring value by educating the potential qualified customer. Of course, you may think this may take more time. Given that most sales are completed between the fifth and twelfth contacts, the time really is not an issue.

So what is the real issue? From my sales coaching experience, the real issue is conversions. How many contacts or leads can you convert into loyal customers? Sales Coaching Tip: If you do not know your sales conversion ratio or percentage, shame on you.

If sales conversion is the 800 pound gorilla in the room, then your sales actions should be focused on improving that percentage. By taking such directed actions, you can begin to close the gaps between leads received and sales earned.

One such action is education based marketing which is probably 180 degrees away from the traditional sales based marketing. Your role is now to educate your potential customers or even centers of influence. By demonstrating your subject matter expertise, you become the go to person when people have questions.

Since educate means to lead out, you now take the role of leading your potential customers out from where they are to where they want to be. Imagine that you are walking side by side with your customers, educating them instead of having to pull or push them to buy your products or services.

Education based marketing extends beyond the traditional research of the marketplace. Some examples of within this 21st century marketing approach include:


Articles
White Papers
Assessments

TAKE ACTION SALES COACHING TIP: Understand the difference between sales based marketing and education based marketing. Revisit your marketing growth action plan and make those course corrections now. Embrace a belief of educating your potential customers first before attempting to sell them. Watch your sales conversions skyrocket; your sales increase; and your piggy bank explode.

P.S. You may be wondering how I know this to be true? Fair question. Since providing a free professional sales profile to qualified potential customers by using a performance appraisal online assessment tool, my conversion rate has increased from 40% to 80%. My qualified potential customers are receiving a tangible product and service while experiencing the benefit of working with me as a sales coach or executive coach.

Take this free sales skills assessment to help you increase sales.

Leanne Hoagland-Smith, Chicago Sales Coach, helps small business owners to C Level executives to achieve their competitive advantage by leaving their comfort zone whether they are from Chicago, Indianapolis to worldwide. If you are tired of poor sales, bad attitudes and truly want to make the current year exceptional, then pick up the phone and call 219.759.5601 to schedule a free business coaching training or sales coaching strategy session to begin to quickly unlock tomorrow's solutions today.

P.S. If you would like to receive Leanne's weekly business column for free, sign up at http://www.processspecialist.com/column.htm

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Using Desktop Sharing Tools to Drive Sales Success

In the traditional sales model, presentations are made in person at the client's place of business. Today, however, rising fuel costs have translated into higher airfares and gasoline prices. As a result, the travel budgets of companies around the world are straining at the seams. Similarly, company executives are recognizing that traditional business travel consumes a significant amount of a salesperson's time, thereby negatively impacting employee productivity. Both travel costs and a salesperson's time increase the cost of on-site meetings, and represent resources that could be better leveraged to generate additional sales. As a result, businesses are increasingly seeking less expensive technological alternatives to on-site sales presentations.

This paper explores computer desktop sharing solutions as a means of leveraging resources to drive sales success. Specifically, this paper addresses four questions:

What is desktop sharing and how does it work?

What are the benefits of desktop sharing?

How can desktop sharing tools be used in sales?

What features should an effective desktop sharing tool include?



Although business travel and on-site sales presentations are sometimes necessary, many on-site pitches can be replaced by online presentations at a fraction of the cost. Effectiveness and efficiency increase, positively impacting both the sales professional's and the client's bottom lines.

Desktop Sharing: A Simple, Innovative, Technological Tool

Desktop sharing is an innovative software program that allows one or more people in remote locations to view the primary user's computer screen. Using a Web-based interface, the user can show others any document or application that is open on his or her desktop.

Desktop sharing is initiated when the presenter invites others to participate in a session. The presenter begins the session, and participants join via the Internet, using a unique session ID. During the session, the presenter's screen - including mouse movements, documents, and applications - is visible to the participants. The participants simultaneously interact with the presenter by phone or audio conference call.

The Benefits of Desktop Sharing

By delivering sales presentations online, desktop sharing allows sales professionals to increase the effectiveness of their presentations while leveraging their time to reach more clients and prospective clients.

Through the use of desktop sharing technology, sales presentations are amplified with visual components. The instantaneous, real-time delivery of documents, slides, or software applications allows for better communication and increased flexibility in addressing the specific needs and concerns of the customer.

As a Web-based tool, desktop sharing enables the sales professional to make a presentation instantly to anyone, anytime, worldwide. Because a session can be accessed by anyone with an Internet connection, traveling to a customer's place of business isn't necessary. This not only represents a significant savings in travel costs, but also a tremendous savings of time, allowing the salesperson to exponentially increase the number of sales presentations he or she can initiate.

Desktop Sharing in Sales

Lead Generation

Many companies have found that desktop sharing quickly becomes a critical tool to generate leads.

Breaking Down Geographic Barriers: As part of the salesperson's repertoire, desktop sharing provides sales professionals with the ability to schedule online meetings with larger groups of prospective customers, regardless of their geographic location. Web conferencing allows companies to gather leads in new markets without incurring the travel expenses associated with reaching these prospective customers.

Passive Lead Generation: Companies can, through their websites, offer visitors the opportunity to register for informational online meetings or for the launch and demonstration of a new product or service. Potential customers self-select as leads through the registration process. The data collected from registrants and from those attending the online meeting can be used by the company's team of sales professionals to convert leads to customers. When a company archives their informational meetings and educational seminars on their website, potential customers can register to download or listen to the information, which generates additional passive leads.

Existing Customers Become New Leads: Desktop sharing allows new products, services, or specials to be shown in order to upsell or cross-sell existing customers. Current customers make excellent prospective customers for new products, and desktop sharing enables a salesperson to upsell or cross-sell without having to make an on-site sales call.

Educational Seminars Hook Prospects: Online meetings can also be utilized as a non-sales marketing tool to present live educational seminars to potential customers, who then become qualified leads. In contrast to online meetings that introduce a company or a specific product or service, the topic of an educational seminar serves to address a common challenge faced by the company's potential customer base. For example, a company that provides shopping cart software might hold an educational seminar on cost-effective marketing techniques to drive traffic to e-commerce sites. The information gleaned from the attendees of these lead generation seminars can be passed on to the sales team, which can convert sales by using the collaboration features offered by desktop sharing.

Qualifying Leads

When marketing tools, such as white papers, recordings of product demonstrations, and customer testimonials, are posted on a company's website, potential customers self-select by downloading or accessing the materials. This process begins the selling process prior to a sales team member contacting a prospect.

Similarly, an online meeting utilizing desktop sharing technology can drive prospects to download or access supplemental materials that can further pique their interest and speed up the sales cycle.

Sales Calls

Desktop sharing is most useful during sales calls, and represents a tremendous savings of resources. The salesperson can invite one or more prospects to a presentation or project demonstration, regardless of the geographic locations of the potential clients, thereby saving both time and travel expense.

Presentations and Product Demonstrations: By enabling prospects to view the sales professional's computer screen, desktop sharing allows the salesperson to easily present information about the company and its products and services. The salesperson can also turn over control of the desktop to a participant, allowing him or her to try the product or browse through various parts of the presentation. This hands-on experience gives the prospect a clear understanding of the benefits of the product or service.

Building a Virtual Bridge: When some members of a potential client's company can attend an in-person meeting but other key personnel cannot, desktop sharing allows those who can't be physically present to participate in the meeting to attend from a remote location.

Cold Calling: During cold calls, the sales professional can quickly initiate a desktop sharing session and invite the prospect to review the company profile and view slides or other information about the product or service.

Immediate File Sharing: During an online meeting, desktop sharing allows the sales professional to provide potential customers with any material they may request. This capability communicates efficiency and a commitment to customer support.

Closing the Sale

Desktop sharing is a powerful tool for closing sales and shortening the length of the sales cycle and increasing revenue streams.

Document Collaboration: Desktop sharing streamlines the process of working on proposals and contracts, since it allows both the salesperson and the client to modify proposals together in real time.

Team Leader Involvement: A salesperson's upline or supervisor can sometimes be instrumental in closing a sale. Desktop sharing solutions enable sales team leaders to join a sales presentation without ever leaving the office, thereby enhancing the interaction and increasing the client's level of satisfaction.

Client Authorization: When a sale hinges upon the go-ahead from a potential client's higher-level manager, desktop sharing solutions can smooth the way to closing the deal by allowing managers to attend meetings without ever leaving the office. In addition, the flexibility inherent in the tool makes it possible to initiate or reschedule a presentation at a moment's notice.

Customer Support

Once the deal is closed, desktop sharing tools can be utilized to enrich the relationship with the customer.

Transitioning to Customer Support: Desktop sharing can become a bridge to provide the customer with the support needed to implement the company's product or service. For example, desktop sharing can be used to introduce the company's customer support team and walk the customer through the support services offered.

Follow-Up Meetings: Desktop sharing can also be utilized to conduct follow-up meetings, during which the sales staff can stay in touch with new customers. A series of weekly conferences, for example, can go far in demonstrating a company's commitment to their new clients.

Customer Retention: Similarly, desktop sharing can be incorporated as a way of keeping in regular contact with existing customers. Inviting customers to educational seminars, new product launches, and company news events are just three of the ways that desktop sharing can help ensure customer satisfaction and pave the way for future sales.

Features of Effective Desktop Sharing Products

There are a number of desktop sharing solutions in the marketplace. To ensure maximum accessibility and security, you should consider a number of factors when selecting a desktop sharing program.

In order for clients and potential clients to embrace participating in a multimedia sales presentation, there cannot be any barriers to accessing the technology. From a technological perspective, this means that the desktop sharing product should enable participants to connect through corporate networks, firewalls, and proxy servers. They must also be able to connect using a variety of operating systems, such as Windows, Mac, and Linux. Similarly, customers should not be required to install software in order to participate in sessions.

In order to facilitate spur-of-the-moment presentations, participants should be able to connect using any Internet browser and without having to register or submit any personal information. The desktop sharing interface should be intuitive and easy to use.

From the presenter's perspective, a desktop sharing tool should allow him or her to show his or her computer screen without first having to upload the content to a presentation server. Likewise, he or she should be able to hide confidential screen areas and have the ability to pause transmission in order to browse through confidential files. In order to facilitate discussion, the participants should be able to highlight items on the presenter's screen.

Finally, a desktop sharing solution should have strong security features. Transmission should be encrypted to the best practices standard, and connections to individual sessions should be made using unique, random session IDs.

Leveraging Resources to Boost Revenues

With tight travel budgets and time at a premium, using innovative tools to conduct remote sales presentations can leverage both your time and the time of your clients. Desktop sharing solutions can reduce routine business travel costs and increase productivity. The result is the ability to reach more prospective clients and an acceleration of the sales cycle. When sales presentations can start with a click of the mouse and reach customers and potential customers around the world, the result is an increase in the bottom line.

Mark Patrick Zondler is responsible for software development and global operations at http://www.BeamYourScreen.com, a software company that develops simple, easy-to-use, secure business communication tools for small and medium-size enterprises. Mark developed the technological vision for BeamYourScreen.com and defines the long-term development plan. He has several years experience in developing and operating Internet software systems. Prior to BeamYourScreen, he co-founded Allegro Solutions, a Singapore-based software firm specializing in dynamic price negotiation and online auction systems. Mark also worked in the consulting divisions of IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He studied business administration in Germany, Singapore and France.

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Using Business Cards For Sales and Marketing Literature

One of the most effective means of bringing your products and services to market is your business cards. Business cards are the most effective marketing tool because they can to be carried anywhere you go. As a simple material used for campaign and advertising they carry a powerful marketing feature that persuades and keeps your clients in tact. They are used to impart important information to customers and are a very inexpensive way to promote a sales campaign. In today's market, business card printing can be printed in cheaper rates and discounted prices. By using a state of the art printing service full color business cards are discounted and have never been cheaper. Your cards can be simple yet impressive depending on the print quality, the card stock and finish chosen for advertising your business products and services.

Even though they are just a small piece of paper, a 2" x 3.5" size business card has the power to gain the attention of those receiving them. At the end of a presentation, they are the last material you give your clients or potential customers. By using a state of the art printing service full color business cards are discounted and have never be cheaper. Therefore you have to make them attractive and appealing enough for your customers to keep. There are several factors you need to consider in order to achieve this goal. The first is design. You need to have an eye catching good graphic design or artwork. Colors are important as you want to increase your chances of getting the attention of the beholder. And then, there is the important element which is the content. Your content should reflect what important information you want the reader to remember. Whether it is the vital information about your company, such as name, address, and contact information or a sales message, you need to project to your customers that you stand out from your competition.

You separate your company from others by impressing them with your design as well as the quality of your card. Be sure to chose a sturdy durable and long lasting card stock such as 14 point or the extra heavy 16 point. You want a card stock that will endure wear and tear. Many printers offer these stocks at no additional cost. Next, be sure to chose a finish that will produce a stunning and brilliant card such as a glossy UV coating or a "Wow Factor" effect such as a spot UV or use metallic colors. Chose a online printing company that will give you different options of paper, finish and Wow Factor printing effects so that your choices are widened. Using spot UV coating and metallic colored ink effects can create inexpensive yet impressive print attention getter for advertising your businesses, products and services.

With the many printing services offered online, you can significantly search the web and look for online printers offering cheap business card printing. However in choosing for your printer see to it that although cheap printing of business cards is offered, the quality of the card stock has the best weight and feel. Whether you pick a glossy UV coating or a Wow Factor special effect to add to your card, you must keep in mind that your card represents you and your company or service. To be sure, the impression you send is expressed in the quality of your business card.

There is no doubt that business cards are one of the most effective means of bringing your products and services to the market. They are among the simplest marketing tools and yet have "more bang for your buck" than any other advertising, sales or marketing literature to keep you in contact with your customers. These cards are the cheapest marketing tool that can easily reach a targeted audience, be carried and given out at trade shows, networking and meetings. They can easily be kept by your customers for future reference and use. Using a business card that stands out from the crowd can help your business to get more and faster response from the receiver.

In order to meet the goals you have for a successful business card that can be used as a sales and marketing tool, you should look for an online commercial printer that provides printing service that offers choices. In choosing the right company for your printing projects, you have to be observant enough to choose good quality, service, and product as well as a cheap price.

Doug Graves has been working in the printing industry as an expert sales and marketing executive for over 20 years. Presently head of sales and marketing, he is now also using his years of experience as a consultant and freelance writer for Color Printing Pros, a top online printing services leader. They are committed to the best valued QUALITY and SERVICE and CHEAP PRICES while providing unique Wow Factor effects so you will standout and be noticed. Check them out!

Tired of getting lost in the crowd-Want to be more than just plain plain vanilla - Add the Wow Factor to your advertising, sales and marketing color printing. For free samples and more information about the Wow factor and how to get it, go to: http://www.colorprintingpros.com.

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Teaching About the Election to Elementary Students Using Literature and Technology

Teaching about the election can be an interesting process. Of course the best way is to hold a mock election, or even better, a school election with children running for various offices. As with all curricular areas, experiencing the learning by participation cements the concepts.

Other ideas for teaching about the election include:

For Kindergarten and Grade 1

Read a book about an election and discuss the elements of election. Books I choose to use are "Duck for President" by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin (2004) and "My Teacher for President" by Kay Winters and Denise Brunkus (2008.)

After discussing the election process we make campaign posters. Students use a drawing program on the computer (I use KidPix) and type "Vote for ______" in huge letters. They add decorations to complete the poster. We print in color and staple to construction paper. Hanging this campaign poster on their bedroom doors will remind them of what they learned about the election.

For Grades 2 and 3

I read an election book such as "Pete for President" by Daisy Alberto (2004). We discuss election procedures but also emphasize telling the truth during the election process. During the story there is a page where there is a debate. I stop the story, have two kids join me up front, and simulate a debate. Sometimes I even tell one of the students to make outlandish claims about what he or she would do if they were to win. We finish reading the book and then discuss ways that students can improve the school.

The second graders make campaign posters just like the younger students but they add four ways they can make the school/world a better place. Examples might be: Eliminate bullies from the playground, Pick up Litter on the Playground, Be Nice to All People, Help Raise Money for New Library Books, etc.

In Grades 3 through 5

As the children get older I begin to teach about the electoral college. The best book I've found for this is "Grace for President" by Kelly Dipucchio and Leuyen Pham (2008.) After reading this story I send the students to explore an online simulation game at the Scholastic News website.

Grade 6: By the time students are in grade 6 they are ready to explore the issues of the candidates. To do this I ask the students to choose six issues to research on the websites of the candidates. The information that they gather can be presented in any manner; for instance, a 2-column display comparing the issues or using an organizing software such as Inspiration to create a web of information.

Overall, the more concrete examples you can give to students about the election will assist them in learning about the process that we embrace within our country.

For more information, samples, and a list of websites, download a free packet of Election materials at http://technologylessonsforteachers.com

Kathy Cothran is an elementary media specialist committed to helping teachers turn toys into learning tools. Her vast teaching experience ranges from preschool through Master's level education classes.

For years Kathy has been a "Gadget Girl." She loves technology! Tie that to her extensive teaching background and she has been able to interest, invigorate, and inspire children and teachers to use technology in a rich, exciting manner.

Interested in ways that toys can become learning tools? Visit http://turningtoysintotools.com

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Dissertation Help: Using EndNote for Tracking and Organizing Literature for Your Lit Review

Doctoral students frequently need dissertation help in tracking and organizing literature. It is a daunting task - after all you will likely read on average three articles a week for over a year in order to accumulate the substantial understanding of your topic on which to base your expertise. While all of these will not be used in the final review of literature, it is likely that you will need to have about 75 peer-reviewed articles referenced in Chapter two.

This article discusses EndNote as a database through which you will be able to build a robust library, one that allows you to notate, sort and later recall for writing the vast quantity of ideas you are collecting, for later use in your lit review.

First Step - collect quality articles. Most universities track the relevance and scholarship of a review of literature through whether and to what extent your chapter references peer-reviewed work. Not all books are peer-reviewed, but many by reputable houses such as Sage, Pearson, McGraw Hill, Routledge, etc. will be. Check the publishing house for details. The same is true of journal articles and here you can check the front flap or the guidelines.

Second Step - take clear notes and be consistent as to what fields you put them in. EndNote had four or five useful fields for entry at the bottom of the database. Let's use the abstract field as an example. Many students would cut and paste the authors abstract here which is fair enough, however authors' abstracts vary widely as to the types of information they include. More rigorous journals use a format I have come to like, which involves stating the purpose, scope, methodology, findings, conclusions, limitations, and contributions of the work. I would recommend that, whether you put it in the abstract field or not, that you list this information in one consistent field in the data base.

However you use your fields ALWAYS be sure to note what was of interest to you when you chose this article. You will likely be writing "a donkey's age" later (as they say in Ireland) and you will be dismayed by how much you forget.

Third Step - Sort your lit into groups. EndNote has the groups function in the left hand column. AS you begin to see subtopics of interest, start a group and sort what you have read that fits under this subtopic into the group. EndNote makes it easy you just click and drag.

Fourth Step - Attach your PDFs or cut and paste the significant portions of the work. When you are writing there will be cases when you want to go back and drill deeper into the ideas of one or more authors. Perhaps you come to understand a subtlety and want to go back to see if your ideas hold up. Here you will need to be able to get to the original work. Since many online databases deliver work in PDF format, EndNote makes this easy - reference/attach file menu, browse to your work and link it in.

Since it is possible that you may move computers during your dissertation process, it will be helpful to place all your EndNote PDFs in one file - that way you can re-establish the links as necessary.

These four steps will help you build the robust and accessible library that you need. Work the process and keep your reading and notating level to at least three articles a week and you will soon be ready to come back to your library and use it as a tool for writing. That will be the subject of another article in this series.

There are other helpful resources for the student starting the doctoral process. General dissertation headings and a video explain the logic of the three chapter proposal. Go to http://www.doctoralnet.com/ to download a free e-book- Dissertation Help: Facts and Questions.

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Facebook Marketing Review - A Third Party Review of Using Facebook Marketing

Facebook is fast becoming the most popular website in all of internet land. Roughly more than 500 million people are registered Facebook users. Currently Facebook is the number 2 ranked website on the internet. Facebook is a worldwide phenomenon; hence as a business owner you have access to the entire world in terms of accessibility to markets. Here are some quick Facebook facts:

- 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day

- Average user has 130 friends

- People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

- There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)

- Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events

- Average user creates 90 pieces of content each month

- More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month

- More than 70 translations available on the site

- About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States

- Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application

- Entrepreneurs and developers from more than 190 countries build with Facebook Platform

- People on Facebook install 20 million applications every day

- Every month, more than 250 million people engage with Facebook on external websites

- Since social plugins launched in April 2010, an average of 10,000 new websites integrate with Facebook every day

- More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook, including over 80 of com Score's U.S. Top 100 websites and over half of com Score's Global Top 100 websites

- There are more than 250 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices

- People that use Facebook on their mobile devices is twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users

- There are more than 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products

Very few people realize the powerful value of Facebook as a means to market to literally millions of people. Most people use Facebook to connect with friends and family. The most successful internet marketers out there are using the immense power of Facebook to build their business.

As a member of Facebook there are several inherent advantages which you can take advantage of. Facebook users are allowed to post notes, make groups, syndicate content with thousands of friends and add videos.

How can you use Facebook to grow your business?

Below are the steps to create a lasting and powerful marketing influence on Facebook. The four steps are:

1. Create a fun and compelling profile page

2. Create a group with your name in the title

3. Create a fan page with your picture and name

4. Add 25 targeted friends a day

Business success is all about building relationships. As such, the most important resource on Facebook is people. Therefore, one of the most important aspects of your Facebook marketing campaign is the number and type of friends you have on Facebook. There are many people with very few friends on marketing. On the other hand some people have a lot of friends but these friends are non-targeted friends. It is important to remember that you should never add no more than 5 friends within 5 minutes on Facebook in order avoid the risk of Facebook banning your account.

For your Facebook marketing strategies it is important to bear in mind that people only want to do business with people they know, like and trust. I encourage you to create a fun and compelling profile page. It is important to be as real as possible and inspiring on your profile. Make your profile attractive to others and focus on connecting with people who visit your profile.

To further increase the level of targeted friends you acquire in Facebook, you will want to join targeted groups. Join groups related to your niche or the type of audience or group of people you are seeking to target. In addition, when you begin joining these groups the other group members will begin to add you as a friend.

The third step to increasing your brand and get your Facebook marketing activities is to create a group of your own. To brand yourself as a leader online, you will want to brand yourself by placing your name in the title of the group. In addition, be sure to associate your face with your group. There are several advantages of building your personalized group on Facebook such as: unlimited number of people in your group, ability to message all your group members, and the ability to create invites for business opportunity events.

As with all other forms of marketing, the key is to position yourself as a leader in your niche. You should aim to brand yourself as subject matter expert in your particular niche. Focus on the value you would like to add to your target market which helps you to be highly responsive and enable you to proactively meet the needs of your following on Facebook.

After you've built your brand on Facebook as a leader in your niche, established good relationships with your friends and provided tons of value to your prospects, you should then seek to introduce your prospects to your business opportunity.

Kelvin Augusta is one of the top Network Marketing Coaches online, who combines a unique style of online relationship building, social media, and old school, traditional prospecting techniques to create a powerful combination of up front growth, duplication, and massive success. If you want Kelvin's formula for massive online success, visit MLM Internet Secrets

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How to Receive 20-30 MLM Leads Per Day Using Facebook

Is Facebook just another social network? NO. It is the granddaddy of all social networks, the definitive social network. By far the world's most popular social network, Facebook has just about as many members as the United States has citizens! A real network marketer will have a Facebook to capitalize on the veritable treasure trove of MLM leads.

The power users of the network are those who know the secrets of Facebook and us them to generate 20 to 30 leads every day by leveraging their presence on the network. Facebook provides you with access to so many people that you can grow your business exponentially.

Want to harness Facebook for your own revenues? Here are the tips that the power users employ to generate leads using Facebook.

Correctly Use Facebook as it is Meant to Be Used

Like all social networks, Facebook is meant to do one thing: social networking. Do not view Facebook as only a marketing tool. People join Facebook because they want to connect with old friends, form relationships, keep up with college buddies, or find dates. Being someone's marketing target is never the reason anyone joins Facebook. Use Facebook properly. Make friends. Form relationships. Even find dates but the most important thing is never become a marketing nag.

Have Fun and Add Value

Use Facebook to enhance other people's life. Have fun and socialize, that's why people join Facebook, to be social and have a good time. You can send marketing messages, of course, but you don't want this to be what defines you. Make sure that you are enjoying Facebook. The primary focus of Facebook is not business activity. It's more like a hangout for friends. If you enjoy the social outlet nature of Facebook, your relationships can translate purely social to business.

Connect with New Contacts

When you get new subscribers or make new connections on other venues, find out if that person is on Facebook. If they are, send them a friend request and jot them a personal note. The "thinking-of-you-and-wanted-to-get-connected" gesture can make them a warm lead quickly.

Now that you have their connection, you have exposure to them. When you post an article, upload a video or make some type of business move, all of your connections learn about you. People do not find this annoying. Your friends and connections will be appreciative that you are just staying active and sharing information.

Facebook will surprise you with its value. This simple social networking site is a hotbed of leads, prospects and marketing activity.

Understanding and employing these key components is just the beginning. Watch the free Facebook Training video and start getting over 20 MLM leads per day using Facebook.

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A Beginners Guide to: Using Facebook for Social Media Marketing

Welcome to this beginner's guide to setting up FaceBook for Social Media Marketing. In this article, I'll illustrate how a beginner can set up Facebook to raise the profile of their organisation. I assume you already know how to use a computer, connect to the Internet, and use a browser.

Introduction

Unless you've been living on a desert island for the past decade, you'll have heard of Facebook. It's used by millions of people the World over and it's a great way to connect with others.

This fact has not been lost on Marketers and Advertisers and they've moved to Facebook in their droves. Social Media Marketing, as it's become known, is a hot topic. Do it right and your organisation will benefit massively. Do it wrong and you'll disappear off the site like you never even existed.

What is Facebook?

Before talking about how to use Facebook for Social Media Marketing (SMM), it's important to take a moment to clearly understand what Facebook is. Facebook is an Internet based social networking application accessed via an Internet browser. The important element here is that it's for social networking. It's not designed for marketing or advertising (unless you want to pay Facebook to carry an ad for you). Abuse this fundamental viewpoint at your peril.

Everyone that joins Facebook MUST create a profile. It can be a Business Profile or a Personal Profile but you are only allowed one profile.

Creating multiple profiles is a violation of Facebook's Terms of Use and can result in all of your accounts being terminated.

I emphasise the above statement because it's really important. If you spend some time carefully crafting your online persona, it can be devastating to have it all taken away.

Business Profile or Personal Profile?

Facebook has only two primary profile types. A Business Profile or a Personal Profile. The personal profile gives you full access to all the features in Facebook. The business profile gives you access to administer your Pages and ad campaigns only. This is from the Facebook FAQ:

Business accounts are designed for individuals who only want to use the site to administer Pages and their ad campaigns. For this reason, business accounts do not have the same functionality as personal accounts.

Business accounts have limited access to information on the site. An individual with a business account can view all the Pages and Social Ads that they have created, however they will not be able to view the profiles of users on the site or other content on the site that does not live on the Pages they administer.

In addition, business accounts cannot be found in search and cannot send or receive friend requests.

Deciding upon whether to create a Business or Personal profile is a big topic on it's own. But, in short: If you intend to do Social Media Marketing, I strongly urge you to create a personal profile.

Security

Now you've created a personal profile. the very first thing you'll want to do is to check your Privacy Settings by selecting Account > Privacy Settings from the menu at the top right of the Facebook page. Take some time to work through these options before you start to use Facebook.

For example, one of the default settings is that your Family and Relationships are public. I'd suggest that you might want to limit this to friends only.

As another example, you may well want to keep some of your contact information, ie: your home phone number, private.

Completing Your Personal Profile

Once you've created your personal profile, Facebook gives you lots of hints on how to complete your personal information. Most of it is great advice and well worth following. Remember, what you're trying to do is setup your online persona. It will reflect you and your business. Let this guide your actions as you add information and photos.

Your aim is to have as complete a profile as possible so that your own friends will recognize you and will befriend you on Facebook. You'll also want your profile to be engaging enough so that you can make new friends online.

Adding Friends

Once your profile is ready, it's time to add some friends with whom you can communicate. Again, Facebook helps by offering to search through your eMail, Instant Messenger, Skype and other accounts to create a prospective friends list. Select 'Find Friends' from the menu at the top right of the Facebook page, next to the Account menu option you selected earlier.

You'll be presented with a list of contacts that also have accounts on Facebook and you can choose who you'd like to add to your friends list.

Adding current friends is the best way to get started with Facebook. Later, I'll show you how to add other friends.

The Wall and the News Feed

Facebook can be confusing at first so for now, I advise that you limit yourself to two main views when using it, the Wall and the News Feed.


The Wall. When someone first visits your Facebook page (or you visit theirs), the default view is the Wall. The Wall is a place to post and share content with your friends. The visibility of the items posted depends upon your Privacy Settings (see above, under Security).

News Feed. The News Feed is a constantly changing list of stories from friends and Pages (more later) that you follow on Facebook. It's only visible to you.

To get to your News Feed, choose the 'Home' menu option at the top right of your Facebook page.

To get to your Wall, choose 'Profile' from the menu at the top right of your Facebook page and then select 'Wall' from the menu at the top left of the page, just under your profile picture.

Using Facebook

Now you've set it all up, I suggest using Facebook for a while and getting used to it. Start some conversations and join in others. Write on peoples Wall or comment on what they've said. For now, it's not so important what you say (but remember that this is your online persona for you and your business so do apply caution) but it is important that you get some practice using Facebook.

And so, to Business...

Now that you've got to grips with the basics, it's time to create a Page for your business. To do this, go to your 'News Feed' page and select 'Pages' from the menu on the left side of the page. If you can't see that menu option, click on the 'More' button and it should then appear.

You should now see a button titled 'Create Page'. Click on that and then follow the simple directions.

The team at Facebook have written a number of documents that will help you create your Page. You can download the manual on creating Pages or visit facebook.com/FacebookPages#%21/FacebookPages?sk=app_7146470109 and follow a number of useful links from there.

Your Business Page

Once your page is created, visit it and you'll see a series of steps to get you started. At the top of the list is a button to 'Suggest to friends'. This is where setting up a personal profile (as opposed to a business profile) really helps you. Basically, Facebook will send an invite to any of your friends that you select, asking them to 'Like' your page. This is important because once you have 25 'Likes', you can get a custom URL for your Page that is then easier to find, pass on to others and even use on your business stationery.

Why is a Business Page Important?

The primary reason for creating a business Page is to separate your business life from your personal life. Many business users don't like to mix their personal and business life. While they may be very happy to share some information with friends and family, they may not want that same information made known to their business contacts.

Once you've created a business page, you can invite your business contacts to 'Like' your business page and communicate with them there. This way, you can enforce a separation between you the person, and your business.

Note also that you can add other users as administrators on the business page thus reinforcing the fact that the business Page is a separate entity from individual users.

If Facebook is for Social Networking, How Can I do Marketing?

Earlier, I said that Facebook is a social networking site and that you should abuse this notion at your peril. What I meant by this was that users do not log on to Facebook to suffer interminable advertising messages or to be marketed at. They come online to socialise. If you try and push your business on them, they will desert you.

But, with over 500 million active users on Facebook, there's a very good chance that some of them will be interested in what you have to offer. The 'trick' is to find who those users are, engage with them, provide them with content of value and then promote your product in the right way. I've come across a great phrase that sets the standard for how to do that via Social Media Marketing:

Seduce, don't molest.

However, the topic of actually doing Social Media Marketing on Facebook is large enough to warrant a whole series of articles on its own so I'll cover that in future articles.

About the Author

Derek Davidson runs WebGate International a UK based company that provide Gold Service website hosting Sign Up for GREAT articles on doing business on the web and Social Media Marketing.

(c) Copyright - Derek Davidson. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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