FACEBOOK

According to the article, Understanding what Facebook apps really know,

Do Facebook apps sell you out?  Yes, it's a problem if developers are going behind Facebook's back and selling user data. 

Do third-party apps on Facebook really have access to loads of personal information?
Many of them do, if you give them permission. If you're concerned about who has access to your information, make a habit of thinking before you click.

The Wall Street Journal's investigation found that many app developers have been selling or transmitting those user IDs to outside companies which are data-collection or advertising firms with their own databases to which they can match up public Facebook profile data to bigger compendiums of personal information.

"Any time you go to any retail site on the Internet, any hospitality site, any restaurant site, any number of sites, and you put in your information--your name, your address, your e-mail address, where you live, those kinds of things...unless you opt out, then someone's likely to sell that information and then you're going to be subjected to all kinds of advertisements."

--Scott Vernick, attorney

How can I best be in control of what's getting shared with third-party applications?

You aren't using SuperPoke anymore, so why are you still permitting it to access your data? You can turn this off pretty easily through Facebook's new application dashboard.

·         Account drop down menu

·         Privacy Settings

·         Applications and Websites

You should check this application regularly.  I went in and I couldn’t believe all the applications I was giving access to.  It literally took me 10 minutes to delete all the unwanted ones.

Identity Theft

Online ID theft is the fastest growing ID crime.

The FTC reports that 3.2 Million U.S. citizens are victims of identity theft each year.  This costs consumers and businesses about $52 billion annually.  Victims spend an average of 30 hours restoring their credit.  37% of Americans believe that online is the most dangerous.  (Roberts 318)

Criminals are using our digital identity; IP addresses, user names, date of birth, Pin # and social security numbers.   They can phish and spoof online to lure a victim; you can get a SPAM email or pop up sent from a trusted company.  With Phishing lures they can have you validate an account or update your personal information.

According to the FBI.gov, Tips to avoid internet fraud:

• There should be no reason to give out your social security number of driver’s license
• Don’t give out your credit card number online unless the site is secure and reputable.  Sometime a tiny icon of a padlock appears to symbolize a higher level of security to transmit data but this is not a guarantee it is a secure site.
• Before using the site check out the security/encryption software it uses
• Obtain a physical address
• Check with the BBB
• Don’t judge a company by their website.  Flashy websites can be set up quickly
• Purchase items online with a credit card, because you can often dispute the charges if something goes wrong.
• Keep a list of all your credit cards and account information along with the card issuers contact information

Spyware

Spyware software raises a host of privacy, security, and functionality issues for even the most savvy computer users. Installed on your computer without your consent, spyware monitors or controls your computer use. It may be used to send you pop-up ads, redirect your computer to unwanted websites, monitor your Internet surfing, or record your keystrokes, which, in turn, could lead to identity theft.  According to our text, (Roberts 317), Spyware is often placed in the process of receiving a free download.  73% of internet users do not read user agreements.  78% of users say they understand spyware.  You can make changes in your internet behavior to prevent unauthorized downloads:

·         Stop opening email attachments unless you are sure the document is safe

·         Stop visiting sites that you think may download unwanted programs

·         Stop downloading software

·         Stop downloading music or video files from P2P networks.

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy notice is a description of a site’s privacy practices.  It must be located in a single, readily identifiable place on the site. The privacy policy must be accessible by a single link or icon. A 2005 survey found that:

·         Only 42% of the 464 corporate web sites examined scored “good” for their policies toward sharing of collected personal data.

·         72% scored “poor” for their policies toward reusing personal data for marketing purposes.

·         23% of companies had policies that were considered “good” for allowing users to destroy personal information stored on corporate databases.  Roberts (312)

How many of you actually take the time out to read the privacy statement of the website you visit?  How many of you knew they even existed?

I sat down and actually read the privacy statement for SPAM, located at the very bottom of the page in a light font.   I think that the following would be of interest to the consumer when visiting a site:
• Consent to all of the information they are obtaining. If you are not reading the privacy statement you don’t know what they are up to when visiting a site.
• Personal information obtained when visiting the site; credit card information, name, name address, information sent to them by your web browser
• How they use your personal information obtained; they use it to provide products,  to display personalized advertising when you visit, to contact you with special offers and other information they believe will be of interest to you.
• Where they are sharing your information and with who.  They share personal information with companies and organizations that perform services on our behalf, within Hormel Foods.  They may store the personal information we collect through our site in a central database, your personal information may be transferred to a company that has acquired assets of Hormel Foods.

Customer Service

What do consumers want?

• Timely response to inquiries 45%
• Informative content 22%
• Communication with a real person 17%
• Product displayed clearly and prominently 14%
• Product displayed clearly and prominently 14%
• 24-hour availability 14%

According to (Roberts 227)

How do you turn a frustrated customer into a loyal one?  EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE.  The lack of satisfaction is costing companies.  If you train your employees to handle frustrated customers you will gain loyal customers in the end.  You will create more goodwill than if things had gone smoothly in the first place.

Companies who train employees to listen to customers and change attitudes so complaints are viewed as opportunities for positive change, not as reasons to be defensive.
The long term goal is customer retention, not short term cost savings.  The eventual outcome was a four-step process:

1.       Apologize and take ownership of the problem.

2.       Respond quickly

3.       Assure the customer that the problem is being resolved

4.       Do it by telephone.  Personal contacts were deemed important in retaining the customer.

Excellent customer service ice needs to be delivered by the entire organization not just a single department. (Roberts 235)

Website Grader

ZipRealty was rated 99/100.  Edinarealty.com was also rated 99/100.  So very comparable to its competitor. Hubspot based its grading on: Website Grade, MOZ Rank, Google Indexed pages, traffic rank, blog grade, inbound links and del.icio.us bookmarks.

A few recommendations I would make on ZipRealty.com would be:

·         Make the web content readability level down to a little lower level.  Right now they are at graduate level.  The content should be made simple so that the majority of the target audience can understand it.  You don’t need to be at graduate level to purchase a home.

·         Use headings.  No headings and sub-headings were found to help readers.  It is a good idea to use headings to help signal to the search engines what the web page is about.

·         Domain Info shows “stability” when looking at your page.  The domain is to expire in 5 months.  You should register because many spam sites are often registered for short periods of time.  It is only about $10-20 per year.

Email Marketing

Email Marketing

Email marketing offers marketers a fast, flexible, and highly controllable way to reach potential customers. But it is important not to become known as a spammer.  In order to avoid becoming a known nuisance you need to be sure and obtain permission from your customer before you send out any type of mass email.  You can get permission by:

Opt-out:  This type of permission is usually obtained by registration forms.  The receiver is not aware of the agreement to become a member on the list.

Opt-in: This type of permission has been chosen to receive further information.  This shows interest in the product.

Double opt-in: This type of permission the visitor signs up for further communication and then also accepts an email confirming interest.

Confirmed opt-in: This type of permission is granted by the visitor usually by checking a box.  Then they receive an email confirming registration.

To be in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act your emails need to:

Include your name and email address.

Don’t be deceitful or mislead

You need to provide an op-out method

Your email needs to be identified as an advertisement and include your companies’ physical postal address.

Your email may be sent out in good intentions but if these things are not complied with you can face serious fines up to $16,000 per email.

Social Media

Many of us are getting sucked into the Facebook/ Twitter gossip; this could be a good thing for marketers.  According to the article, The Continued Rise of Blogging, Social networks and blogs will continue to increase; by 2014 they predict that 60% of internet users will blog at least monthly. Consumers now have more communication tools at their fingertips than they did a few years ago.  Blogs are becoming an important influence in the mainstream media.  It is predicted in the near future that blogs will become one of the media channels.  Twitter and Facebook are helping consumers express themselves online.  As a consumer you are going to take into consideration what your friends are saying about a product or service and you are able to comment on their thoughts.  Marketers are using this media to advertise and offer an incentives for promoting their product online; cash, coupons even free products.

Jeep

Jeep.com does a great job on being informational, engaging in customer interactivity, offering personalization and customization on their website.  This will help create value for the customer. The more marketers learn about their customers will help them develop more focused strategies and targeted promotional efforts. Jeep.com also grabs the readers’ attention and makes reason for the visitor to return.  On the site you are able to customize your own Jeep by filtering; price, MPG, Horsepower, seats & towing capacity.  You are also able to search vehicle purchasing incentives by zip code; on the same page they list out the dealers in that zip code.

Jeep.com also offers quick access to news links and current Jeep events.  They also offer a nice page for owners “Why Should You Create an Account?”

• Add/Verify your Owner Profile
• View and print your vehicle's service history
• View your vehicle's Owner/Warranty manuals & user guides

• Request/manage newsletter emails
• Find specific help with your vehicle
• Schedule service at your local dealer
• Find offers on parts & vehicle service

Who wouldn’t set up an account? 

Twitter

The history of the internet has gone from an unknown to a mass market phenomenon. The use and behaviors have several important implications for marketers. (Roberts 113)

According to the online article, Tweeter’s new advertising opportunities, Twitter will let marketers target people based on the companies and brands they follow.  Suggesting ads you might be interested in is the next logical step.  They are also looking into some real-time advertising where marketers can quickly customize, create and target ads based on the trend of the moment.

The possibilities are endless when using the internet to market, what will they come up with next?

Google it

Google is a phenomenal landing page, when you are in need of some information you no longer search for it, you “Google” it.  Google.com is simple, uncluttered, precise and lacks all the advertising pop ups.  Google advertises tactfully and does it without invasive advertising.  Google has become a trusted site that is a very powerful search engine that brings you the most real and relevant information.  Google has a bunch of business tools for companies to interface with Google.  For example; St Scholastica you now access your email through a Google server.  While other companies are looking into having Google the search engine of their company intranet.

Twins website review

My first impression of this site is that it is very busy and cluttered with a ton of advertisement; Chevrolet, Toyota, Evony, mlbtv, blackberry etc. A video of Ben Revere’s life story starts without you clicking on it, I found this very annoying. Every couple of minutes the video would play all by itself. Once I clicked on another link the speed to the next link was fairly quick but I had a hard time finding my way back to the home page.

Besides that it does have a lot of helpful information at your fingertips, schedules and replays of previous games, target field information, when the next game is and you can even find restaurant advertisement/deals that are close to target field; buy a $50 gift card for half price.

Online shopping 2010 holiday season

Online retail sales amounted to 143.2 billion in 2005 (Roberts, 5). What will it be this holiday season 2010? The internet continues to evolve and retailers need to look at the drivers of the internet economy. According to the online article, What Retailers Need to Know About Online Holiday Shopping, our economy poses some challenges this holiday season. According to emarketer.com; a survey was conducted in July 2010 by BIGresearch and it revealed that consumers plan to use the internet to save money on holiday gifts this year. They will do more comparison shopping and researching on the internet before buying online or in stores.
Consumers are:


• 64% spending less on everyone
• 42% only buying gifts on sale
• 36% doing more comparison shopping
• 22% doing more research online before buying in store
• 21.6% doing more shopping online


The markets that are created in this electronic world are about convenience and communities of interest (Roberts,18). Managers will need to use strategic planning along with the value chain concepts to be successful this holiday season. Retailers should stay up to date with changes and pricing taking place on popular search engines like Google.  Retailers will need to think about what they price promote and the timing of promotion.  Electronics will be in high demand.