Wednesday 16 April 2014

3 Strategies for Improving Your Facebook Ads

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Facebook plays a large role in many businesses' marketing strategies. Although business pages on the social networking site may have once been just a simple brand extension and a place where companies could connect with customers, it has become a dynamic advertising platform that can produce the same types of results as search engine optimization.
"Before last year, Facebook was all about what happened on Facebook," said Bob Buch, CEO of social advertising firm SocialWire. "Ad campaigns were about buying likes. In 2013, there was a major shift, and Facebook began tapping into direct-response advertisers [and marketing] products to custom audiences. This transformed their ability to drive traffic off-site."
Paid Facebook ads can be a huge source of traffic that ultimately leads to sales, but only when they're properly planned and executed. Buch advised social marketers to keep these three things in mind when planning Facebook ad campaigns:

Think of Facebook campaigns as search campaigns

Buch said companies should plan a Facebook campaign the same way they do SEO keyword campaigns. For example, a shoe company might purchase the keywords "riding boots" to have their ads appear to individuals searching for that term, rather than wasting money on untargeted ads that are unlikely to convert to sales. The same concept should apply to Facebook ads. When creating campaigns, you can work with a third-party partner to create a custom audience of people who have made purchases that are similar to your product or service.

Keep your ads fresh

Running the same campaigns for your products and services over and over again will quickly get old to your Facebook audience, and that could make them hide your ads from their newsfeed. Keep customers interested by updating pictures and copy for your ads.

Remember that customers don't come to Facebook to buy

When people Google a specific product or service, it's generally because they intend to purchase that item. But when people log on to Facebook, they're not there for the ads; they want to connect with their friends. The goal of any successful Facebook ad campaign is to grab potential customers' attention enough that they will either go back and Google your product later or, better yet, click through to your website right from Facebook.

Apple Prepping Sensors That Predict Heart Attacks

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We now know that Apple held closed-door talks with Tesla, a meeting of two innovative companies that hints at a number of possibilities. But buried in that same report from the San Francisco Chronicle is the news that Apple may also be preparing to release a heart-attack prediction device.
According to the report, Apple is developing sensor technology that would be able to predict heart attacks. The effort, led by audio expert Tomlinson Holman, the inventor of THX and 10.2 surround sound, will reportedly focus on the sound blood makes as it travels through a person's arteries.
However, in order for Apple's supposed sensor to monitor the sound of a person's blood, that device would likely have to be worn on a person's body. Therefore, this new information directly points to the continued rumors of an upcoming Apple wearable device, commonly referred to as the iWatch.
The iWatch implications of the San Francisco Chronicle report are further backed by last week's news that Apple hired medical-device expert Marcelo Malini Lamego. What's more, a report in January claimed that Apple is also working on new health-focused apps for iOS.
If this new report regarding Apple's heart sensor research pans out — barring a surprise move by the company to enter the medical scanner bed industry — Apple's rumored iWatch will turn out to be far more broadly impactful than anyone could have guessed.

Saturday 12 April 2014

5 Things Super Lucky People Do

Do you feel lucky? Here's a clear-cut approach for improving your luck today.


"The Luck of the Irish" is an American phrase that comes from the days of the gold rush in the 1800s.  Intolerant Americans figured the Irish people weren't smart enough to find gold, and blamed their success on being lucky rather than skilled. In reality, America's early immigrants have time and again proven themselves to be hardworking and smart enough to generate their own good fortune consistently.
So often I have witnessed people excuse their own inadequacies by crediting the success of others to luck.  Salespeople I know disparage their more successful competitors as lucky. If those salespeople would make as many calls or work as many hours as their competitors, they would realize that their probability of closing is fairly equal. The competitors are simply swinging the bat more often.
The truth is that seemingly lucky people are opportunists. They do the things that allow them to take advantage of the world around them. For them, it's not about being in the way of good luck or bad. It's the actions they take to get what Jim Collins refers to as a high return on luck whichever way the pendulum swings. Follow these five tips and you can be as lucky as anyone, no four-leaf clover or rabbit's foot required.
1. Play to your strengths. So much time and energy is wasted trying to do things you probably don't do very well. Author and Inc. columnist Lewis Schiff learned from his survey of incredibly wealthy people that they got that way by focusing only on what they do best. Everything else you can delegate, or you could find a partner to compensate for your weaknesses. That way, you will shine where you excel and attract opportunity. Good things come to those who emanate success.
2. Prepare in advance. Unlucky people often get that way because they're reactive and unprepared for whatever comes. People who have stored food and water in their basements aren't lucky to find themselves prepared when disaster strikes, they used forethought to make sure they had what they might need just in case. I personally scoff at this horrible recent trend of disparaging business plans because things change constantly. The point of a business plan isn't to follow it no matter what, it's to establish a structure for smart decision making that allows you to succeed no matter what the future might bring.
3. Start early. Some people seem to have more hours in the day. I myself don't need more than six hours of sleep and am constantly finding ways to be more efficient. I use that extra time to start my projects well in advance. My rewards aren't dependent upon the time of day that I take action. (This column is being written at 3 a.m.) But it does matter that I'm beginning to explore projects I expect to complete months or years from now. So many people only want to put their energy into things that provide immediate gratification. The most fortunate people I know are the ones who planted seeds early and now reap that harvest of happiness.
4. Connect with as many people as possible. The key to success is access to opportunity. Access comes from influence. If you're influential, people will come and bring opportunities to you. The bigger your following, the more powerful your influence. The only way to build a big following is to provide value to many people. You have to provide the sort of value that will cause people to spread your thoughts far and wide, attributing credit to you when they do. Are you creating that kind of value? If not, figure how you can.
5. Follow up. Opportunities often come and go because people don't respond in a timely manner. I'm always amazed when people ask me for something and I respond only to never hear from them again. Three months ago, a young woman asked me if I hire interns or assistants. I replied immediately saying I'm always willing to consider hiring people who bring value to my work. I asked her how she thought she could enhance what I could do. I never heard from her again. Perhaps she now considers herself unlucky that opportunity doesn't come her way. I believe that following up is often more powerful and impressive than the act of initiating.
May you be so lucky to have people in your life that follow up.

Top 10 Tech Predictions for 2015


My top 10 technology trends lists cover trends that I think will be important over the next three years or so. As 2014 is now well underway, it’s time to focus on what’s around the corner so we are ready for massive change and newfound complexity.
  1. Data Intensive Applications Will Rule Wireless IP As I predicted a decade ago, IP will eat everything. And I was right. But now, for my next prediction: Wireless data applications will eat IP in less than three years. The size and magnitude of this change is impossible to imagine, but the implications for service providers will hit like a tsunami in 2015.
  2. Mobile Data Congestion is Already a RealityService providers must start to off-load to other wireless technologies like WiFi immediately. They also need to create space for new applications like those used in advanced technologies like robotic surgical operation. Data off-loading, like WiFi itself, is an immediate need for all service providers worldwide.
  3. Applications Must be the Center
    Networks must be redesigned so that applications are the center of the universe. Networks must adapt and adjust traffic needs of the application such as latency, jitter and packet loss absorption to provide spontaneous and ubiquitous coverage across the world.
  4. Data Traffic is Rising By 2015, 91 percent of internet traffic will be video, including HD and 3D video. The current internet is not designed for these needs. We have to design networks, and applications such as CDN, to be able to handle the load effectively and efficiently. Additionally, management of traffic at data centers poses another major challenge for service providers. Data center traffic will exceed five zetabytes in 2015 and 76 percent of that data will stay inside the data center. This demands brand new architectures, much different than the models developed with Layer 4-7 switch in the last decade. In addition, 50 percent of video is for downstream mobile traffic and Over-The-Top (OTT) players like Netflix who make their revenue on the backs of companies like ATT, Verizon and others. These OTT players will command 35 percent of US peak downstream traffic.
  5. Rising Data, Declining Revenue
    This trend, already visible, will continue — and accelerate — in 2014 and 2015. Today data revenue and traffic are disassociated in a data-dominant world. Revenues are beginning to plateau so CXOs must be ready to help CEOs create innovative ways to take revenue away from OTT players starting now.
  6. Cloud Computing Will Plateau
    Cloud computing implementation will plateau by 2015. Technologies such as quantum computing will take their place at the center of our universe for decades to come, and the traditional Moore’s law computing model will be replaced.

    For example, in 1940, computers processed one CPS (cycle per second) every 150 seconds. As computing has improved, we moved up to common PCs like the IBM PS/2, which ran at 250 CPS. When the Cray computer was needed for massive processing, it had only 86 million CPS. By 2015, early quantum computers will handle 38 TCPS, and we will be able to see to the edge of the universe with massive computing at 14B light years away with computers that can handle 8.6 Quadrillion CPS. Computing will finally surpass Moore’s law.

    For you techies: Quadrillion means 10 to the power of 15 CPS performed every second. This number, which blows people’s minds, has profound implications for cloud and other technology. Services will develop that are so massive it is hard to even imagine them. If they are not careful, quantum computing will create real headaches for service providers by 2015.
  7. Knowledge Mining Rules!
    Knowledge mining will replace all data mining and information mining; this will have a huge impact on data retention and compression across the entire enterprise.
  8. The Advent of LTE-A
    LTE-A will finally become reality, with peak speeds of up to 1 Gbps+; LTE-A will compete with FTTH technologies.
  9. New Radio Developments
    New Wireless RAN technologies will use cognitive radios; small sites and femto cells will be history like other technologies.
  10. New Technologies to watch for in 2015:
- Thumb Print Scanners
- Large Mobile Storage like SATA in smart phones
- Fuel cells with battery life exceeding 3-10 days on a single charge
- 3-D printing
- IPv6
- 100 Mbps broadband speed for consumers
- Autonomic computing
- Quantum computing in all types of verticals such as security, surgery and mainly,
robotics
- 50 billion end points including RFIF- and GPS-based devices
- 10:1 ratio of wireless devices to wire line
- Speech-to-speech translation in real time will finally become a reality with
technologies such as quantum computing
- Implantation of “nano computers,” quantum computers which are one hundredth the
size of current PCs and one thousandth the weight of the smallest Laptop and PC in
the world
- Green technology will finally become real and affordable for consumers and
businesses to use, which will lower oil dependency and create jobs beyond what
we have ever seen in the past 100 years
- Wearable Networks: networks that, in case of failure, return to their original state
with no manual intervention
- Intelligent optical chip will finally become reality. Light can be stored on a chip which
will allow massive amounts of optical processing
One final note: The years between 2020-25 will be dominated by machines. Consumers and businesses will live in a robotic world — a scenario eerily reminiscent of the Terminator franchise.