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vineri, 1 iulie 2011

#AskObama at the First Ever Twitter @Townhall at the White House

Your Daily Snapshot for
Friday, July 1st, 2011

#AskObama at the First Ever Twitter @Townhall at the White House

The White House is all a-Twitter about an exciting event that's happening next week. On Wednesday, July 6th at 2pm ET, President Obama will answer your questions in the first ever Twitter Town Hall at the White House, and you're invited. Tweet your questions about jobs and the economy using the hashtag #AskObama.

Learn more and get involved.

West Wing Week: "Magic Mountains and Volcanoes"

Welcome to the West Wing Week, your guide to everything that's happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. This week, The President spoke about innovation in Pittsburgh, PA, visited an advanced manufacturing facility in Iowa, held a news conference in the East Room and welcomed champion soccer and basketball teams to the White House. That's June 24th to June 30th or "Magic Mountains and Volcanoes."

Watch the video

What is the Best Time of Day to Tweet Graywolf's SEO Blog

What is the Best Time of Day to Tweet

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 10:39 AM PDT

Once you have gotten past the hurdle of getting followers on Twitter, chances are good that you will want to know what is the best time to push out your content-marketing tweets or commercially-oriented tweets. I recently came across a tool that analyzes your Twitter followers and tries to give you some statistics to help you find the best time to send out those tweets.

The key is to find a way to balance being on Twitter, being involved in your community, sharing links, and meeting your content marketing goals…

Before I dig into this topic, I want to address any concerns from the social media unicorns and rainbows crowd. Just because you know when your tweets are going to reach the highest audience doesn’t mean that’s the only time you should be on Twitter. This is social media, and it requires you to be social at some point. There are exceptions: big brands and news accounts can operate in broadcast only mode but, for most accounts, community interaction is required if you want to get the greatest value out of Twitter. That’s not to say that you should spend all day on Twitter. That’s rarely cost effective. The key is to find a way to balance being on Twitter, being involved in your community, sharing links, and meeting your content marketing goals.

If you visit the website Tweriod.com, it will ask you to authenticate your account (pretty standard at this point). Then it will analyze your last 5,000 followers and come up with information about when they are online. It gives you quite a bit of data, but I’ll highlight the most important bit in this graph.

Online Follower Graph from Tweriod.com

There are two important points I want to bring up. First, it’s only analyzing my last 5,000 followers. Since I’m just shy of 15K followers at the time this post was written, that means 2/3 of my networked isn’t being analyzed. Second, the oldest 1/3 of the people following me is probably the section of my followers I interact with the most. This may or may not be something you need to take into consideration for your account.

To be honest I don’t know what causes that spike on Monday nights, so I’m going to say it’s a data anomaly and ignore it since it’s not my peak time anyway. It doesn’t come as a huge surprise to me that the people who follow me are at their peak from 11-6 EST. I’ve been involved in Internet marketing for a long time, and people have been shopping/browsing/interacting while they are supposed to have been working for as long as I can remember.

The two high points of 11am and 4pm did surprise me a little, as I typically get more conversation around 1-2pm, but it’s not out of left field. Now, if I were going to use this data to push out a commercial message, I would use a Twitter scheduling tool like Hootsuite or Bufferapp and schedule my tweets for 11-ish AM and 4-ish PM the same day or subsequent day depending on the tweet’s importance. Social media experts tend to look down at repeating tweets, but it works.

I don’t recommend that you blindly follow one source of data though. Bufferapp and Hootsuite also come with reporting tools to let you know how many clicks and retweets you got. However, if you really want to get more reliable data, I would suggest adding hashtags to your url before shortening it. Using hashtags gives you a much more accurate result. Use hashtags, not querystring parameters, and make sure you have the canonical tag in place to lessen the chance that a search engine will screw something up. For more info on using hashtags, read this post on URLs, social media and campaign tracking from Joost de Valk.

So what are the takeaways on this post on Choosing the Best Time of Day to Tweet

Use tools like Tweriod to analyze your followers and find the times for peak visibility.
Be aware of the 5,000 follower limit and any other data that doesn’t make sense.
Look for the intra-day high points and repeat your tweet on the same or following days.
Use hashtags to create unique URL’s for maximum tracking before using URL shorteners.
Based on the data you get, experiment with variations, but don’t make judgements on just one set of data.

photo credit: Photospin

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What is the Best Time of Day to Tweet

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10 New Google Tools, Products and Services Every Business Person Has to Know About

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 07:29 AM PDT

One of the few products Google doesn’t offer yet*

It seems Google wants to inundate us with new tools, products and services these days. Is this a way to divert attention away from all the bad news about antitrust lawsuits, the FTC and the like? I don’t know. In any case, there are lots of new tools to test.

Many of these will have a huge impact on search and the Web as a whole in future.

Others mights seem less noteworthy at first, but they underscore the long term Google strategy which focuses on social, mobile and HTML5 among others.

Either way, I assume that every business person has to know about these tools, as there are plenty of opportunities here and in some cases also pitfalls.

Google+

Google+ is a fully fledged social network that Google has started to compete against Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It consists of several services in itself, including groups, chats etc.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-google-project-real-life.html

http://searchengineland.com/googles-facebook-competitor-the-google-social-network-finally-arrives-83401

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/06/inside-google-plus-social/

Google +1 (button for websites, worldwide in search)

Google +1 is the Google ”like” button. You can now find it in search results, on websites that include the button, as browser extensions and in most Google products (Blogger, Youtube, Shopping Search etc).

WDYL (What Do You Love)

WDYL is a personalised interest hub for Google users that lets you combine most of Google services around your favourite subjects.

http://www.wdyl.com/

Google Web Fonts V2

Google Web Fonts allow webmasters to replace their boring web safe headlines with some more appealing free fonts. Also, the Google Web Fonts are faster than some of the older font replacement techniques. The new version, V2, is far sleeker than the old one. I’m not sure about the user experience though.

http://www.google.com/webfonts/v2

Social interaction tracking in Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics

While many people provided JavaScripts to track Google +1 votes in Google Analytics, the tracking wasn’t easy to use and wasn’t very insightful in most cases. Now Google has not only launched built-in Google +1 tracking in both Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools, but also allows tracking of other social sites such as Facebook, Twitter or Delicious. This requires additional coding though.

http://analytics.blogspot.com/2011/06/1-reporting-in-google-webmaster-tools.html

http://www.google.com/support/analyticshelp/bin/answer.py?topic=1316551&answer=1316556&&hl=en

Postrank (Analytics)

Postrank has been one of the best known tools for measuring the social impact of one’s posts. It also provided a great social media analytics tool. Google has acquired the service and stopped sign ups.

While in Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools, you need some coding to track your social media performance. Postrank just makes you verify your social accounts and lets you add a URL. I hope Google won’t neglect Postrank like they did with Feedburner.

http://www.postrank.com/

Google Offers (Groupon alternative for daily deals)

Google Offers may be the biggest news of all the news services when it comes to business. Google Offers is a Groupon competitor focusing on daily deals.

http://www.google.com/offers/business/

Authorship attribution

In HTML5 you can use so-called microformats to indicate that you’re the author of a posting or article across different websites. Using a meta tag and your Google Profile where you connect your websites and blogs, this will make content creators recognisable across web properties and inside search results.

http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2011/06/highlighting-content-creators-in-search.html

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=1229920&&hl=en

Google Swiffy (tool for converting Flash files to HTML5)

This little tool may have a huge impact. It allows you to convert Flash files to HTML5. I don’t know how good the outcome is, but even the idea of being able to adapt your Flash content to the modern Web is a clear sign of the times.

http://swiffy.googlelabs.com/

Google Sites mobile landing pages

One of Google’s main focuses is the mobile Web. Google Sites, the search giant’s own website editor for starters, has added a mobile option to make these websites mobile friendly.

http://googlemobileads.blogspot.com/2011/06/mobile-ize-your-business-with-google.html

Have you tried these tools already? What do you think about this unparalleled wave of new services Google has been announcing recently? Does Google want to cover our every need on the Web? How do you plan to use these tools for your business purposes?

* Image by missha

© SEOptimise - Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. 10 New Google Tools, Products and Services Every Business Person Has to Know About

Seth's Blog : "Why wasn't I informed?"

"Why wasn't I informed?"

Information is tricky. Sometimes it's delivered to you. Often, you need to go find it.

There's no blame in not being aware of something you had no idea you ought to be looking for. If you've been using the same brand of aftershave for five years, you're forgiven for not Googling it regularly to find out if it contains a carcinogen. That's information we'd like to come find us, not something we need to be on the alert for.

On the other hand, I'm stunned when someone enters new territory without doing a modicum of research. Consider the yutz who goes on vacation to a foreign land, only to discover on arrival that they're in the middle of monsoon season (happens every year around this time!) or that there's a civil war going on.

Or perhaps the small businessperson who launches an expensive marketing campaign without investing a few hours in reading up on what works and what doesn't.

Or the email novice who forwards an incredible email to her entire address list without checking Snopes first.

The rules are now clear: no one is going to inform you, but it's easier than ever to inform yourself. Before you spend the money, the time or the attention of your friends, look it up.

• Email to a friend •

joi, 30 iunie 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Managing Director of Sovereign Ratings at S&P on Possible US Debt Downgrade to "D" Default if Debt Ceiling Not Raised
Corn, Soybean, Wheat Futures Plunge on Crop Report; Inflation, Interest Rate Outlook
Obama-Pimco Fear-Mongering Duet Chants More Sour Notes
Weekly Unemployment Claims Exceed 400,000 12th Consecutive Week, Exceed 420,000 Nine out of last 10 Weeks

Managing Director of Sovereign Ratings at S&P on Possible US Debt Downgrade to "D" Default if Debt Ceiling Not Raised

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 03:34 PM PDT

John Chambers, managing director of sovereign ratings at Standard & Poor's, talks about the outlook for U.S. lawmakers to reach an agreement to raise the debt limit and avoid an S&P downgrade of the sovereign top-level AAA ranking on the U.S. to D.

Select Quotes

If any government doesn't pay its debt on time, the rating of that government goes to D
We are talking about the sovereign rating of the US government
If you get to the situation where the government hasn't paid its debt, you will have very serious disruptions throughout the money markets, in the repo markets, the foreign exchange markets and the bond market.
It will be much more chaotic than September 2008 [collapse of Lehman].
This also supports our view this will not happen. The policy makers will understand that.
They [the government] can prioritize payments and that would not be a default by definition. However, you would have to contract payments in a massive way overnight. And that would have a very sharp negative fiscal impulse to the economy
Government has raised the debt ceiling 78 times, many times at the 11th hour but later on the month of July, Democrats and Republicans will reach a compromise.

It is interesting to see the statement "policy makers will understand". We are talking about Congress here.

One could equally say "we are talking about the S&P raters here".

Either way I am hoping there will be no compromise. The more government spending is cut, the better off taxpayers will be.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Corn, Soybean, Wheat Futures Plunge on Crop Report; Inflation, Interest Rate Outlook

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 10:14 AM PDT

Grain futures are sharply lower across the board as traders had positioned themselves for shortages because of Midwest flooding and increasing demand from emerging markets and China.

Instead, corn stocks were 11 percent bigger than analysts expected and a bumper crop could be on the way according to the report.

Please consider Grain markets plunge on US acres, stocks

The U.S. corn supply is far larger than thought and a bumper crop could be on the way, the Agriculture Department said on Thursday in a report that shocked traders and shoved grain markets sharply lower.

Farmers defied expectations by planting significantly more corn acres despite rain and floods, and sky-high prices curbed demand which left June 1 stockpiles 11 percent larger than traders had predicted.

The dramatic turnaround from fears of bare-bones supplies could signal comfortable supply levels for the coming year and ease fears about high world food prices.

"American producers stepped up," [USDA's] Vilsack told Reuters Insider.

At the Chicago Board of Trade, corn for July delivery was down 10 percent, or 72 cents per bushel, at $6.26 in morning trade, and deferred contracts were locked down the limit of 30 cents per bushel. The July contract is in its delivery period and trading without limits.

July wheat was down 8 percent, or 49 cents, to $5.92-1/4. July soybeans were down 1 percent, or 19 cents, to $13.15-1/4.

Red-hot demand from corn exporters, livestock feeders and processors had been expected to consume every bushel grown in 2010 and eat into reserves, but the higher stocks number was a sign that demand has been rationed.

"We planted more acres than the trade had thought earlier in the year because we sent the signal to plant," said analyst Don Roose of U.S. Commodities. "The other thing was, we did find a way to slow down usage."

The USDA said the corn stockpile was 3.67 billion bushels on June 1, and it pegged plantings at 92.28 million acres. With normal weather and yields, a record-large crop could be harvested.

The soybean stockpile was 4 percent larger than anticipated by analysts, although plantings were 2 percent smaller. The soybean crop would still be the third-largest on record, but supplies are expected to run tight for another year.

Wheat stocks were 4 percent larger than traders expected and plantings were down marginally.

The USDA reports imply that corn growers would harvest 13.5 billion bushels of corn, which would be a record, and 3.2 billion bushels of soybeans, which would be the third-largest on record. Both estimates are Reuters' calculations and assume normal weather conditions and yields.

A mammoth crop would fatten the corn stockpile to nearly 1 billion bushels, but soybeans would run tight through fall 2012.

Grain Futures

December corn was limit down 30 cents. However, front month contracts are in delivery warning period and there is no limit. Those playing front-month contracts on expectations of a lousy crop report were massacred.

Corn Daily Chart

Inflation Outlook

With crude prices falling and corn hammered, expect the next set of CPI figures to be tame.

Bear in mind I do not consider prices to be a valid measure of inflation. Oil rising because of peak oil has nothing to do with inflation. Nor does rising grain prices based on flooding. Nor does demand from China have anything to do with inflation in the US.

Thus, this plunge has nothing to do with inflation or deflation either.

Inflation and deflation are monetary phenomena. As far as inflation goes, these price movements are noise. However, for those who think price is what matters, prices are headed down.

Interest Rate Outlook

If oil and food prices continue to drop, ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet may change his tune on rate hikes. Of course Trichet will be out of the picture soon as his term expires in October.

In the US, the Bernanke Fed got another signal to keep rates excessively low.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Obama-Pimco Fear-Mongering Duet Chants More Sour Notes

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 09:11 AM PDT

The Obama-Pimco fear-mongering duet is chanting the same sour notes again today. This time the spotlight is on the president.

Bloomberg reports Obama Assails Republicans as Gulf in U.S. Debt-Limit Talks Remains Wide

President Barack Obama accused Republicans of siding with corporate jet owners over children and the elderly in deficit negotiations and compared Congress's work ethic unfavorably with that of his pre-teen daughters.

Obama's comments underscored the distance between the White House and Republicans on talks to cut the deficit and raise the government's debt limit as Standard & Poor's warned it would downgrade U.S. debt to junk status in the event of a default and the Senate canceled its July 4 recess to continue talking.

"The yellow light is flashing," Obama said yesterday during a news conference, warning of dire consequences if Congress doesn't raise the borrowing limit before Aug. 2, when the Treasury Department projects it will no longer be able to meet all its obligations.

"This is a jobs issue," he said. "This is not an abstraction. If the United States government, for the first time, cannot pay its bills, if it defaults, then the consequences for the U.S. economy will be significant and unpredictable."

If the U.S. misses a payment on its debt because Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling in time, Standard & Poor's would cut the U.S. credit rating from its sovereign top-level AAA ranking to D, the last rung on its scale, said John Chambers, chairman of the company's sovereign rating committee.

Obama cast the differences in moral terms. "Before we ask our seniors to pay more for health care, before we cut our children's education," he said, "it's only fair to ask an oil company or a corporate jet owner that has done so well to give up that tax break that no other business enjoys."

House Speaker John Boehner rebuffed him, saying in a statement issued soon afterward that Obama "is sorely mistaken if he believes a bill to raise the debt ceiling and raise taxes would pass the House. The votes simply aren't there, and they aren't going to be there."

Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican who last month dropped out of a bipartisan group of senators trying to reach a deficit-reduction deal, said on PBS's "The Charlie Rose Show" on June 28 that it is increasingly likely House Republicans won't act on the debt limit by the Aug. 2 deadline.

"If we don't have major changes to entitlements, I don't see how you get that vote through the House," Coburn said.

Obama Sings the Pimco "Unpredictable" Note

Obama is singing the same tune as Pacific Investment Management Co. LLC Chief Executive Officer Mohamed El-Erian who said "We would be in the land of the unpredictable if lawmakers fail to reach an agreement to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling".

Like the president, El-Erian is singing his book. For details, please see "Land of the Predictable": Pimco CEO Warns U.S. Debt Default Might Have "Catastrophic" Effect

As noted previously, president Obama is a hypocrite.

President Obama's Hypocrisy

Inquiring minds just may be interested in knowing Obama's track record on debt ceilings when he was Senator Obama.

The Obama administration is warning of catastrophic consequences if Congress does not increase the debt ceiling, the legal limit on how much the federal government can borrow, but Barack Obama held a different view on the issue as a senator in 2006.

Five years ago, then-Sen. Obama (D-Ill.) voted against raising the debt ceiling and even spoke about it on the Senate floor before the Republican-controlled Senate voted 52-48 to increase it.

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure," Obama said on March 16, 2006. "Leadership means that 'the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit."

Failure of Leadership

I remind the president "The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."

Expect Duet to Grow to Mormon Tabernacle Choir Size

As we approach the deadline, expect the duet to grow in size. To be fair, there are a more than a handful of fear-mongers already. Ben Bernanke wants Congress to do something about the deficit, just not now. So does the IMF. Other Fed governors have chimed in with similar statements already.

Yellow Light is Flashing

I agree with the president that a "yellow light is flashing". The president however, does not understand the meaning. The light is flashing because the time to do something about the budget deficit is now.

Please disregard the self-serving fear-mongering of president Obama and Pimco CEO El-Erian. Americans deserve better, and the way to do that is to act responsibly on a deficit-reduction package now, not 10 years from now.

Phone your Congressional representative and let them know what you think.

Click Here For Congresional Phone And Fax Numbers

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Weekly Unemployment Claims Exceed 400,000 12th Consecutive Week, Exceed 420,000 Nine out of last 10 Weeks

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 07:10 AM PDT

The labor market remains stuck in the mud since April second, the last time seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims fell below 400,000.

Initial Unemployment Claims For 2011

Please consider the Department of Labor Weekly Claims Report.

In the week ending June 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 428,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 429,000. The 4-week moving average was 426,750, an increase of 500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 426,250.

The recovery is now 2 full years old. Yet, the 4-week moving average of weekly claims remains an elevated 426,750.

4-Week Moving Average of Weekly Claims

The 4-week moving average of weekly unemployment claims is at or above recession levels.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

vineri, 1 iulie 2011

#AskObama at the First Ever Twitter @Townhall at the White House

What is the Best Time of Day to Tweet Graywolf's SEO Blog

What is the Best Time of Day to Tweet Graywolf's SEO Blog

So what are the takeaways on this post on Choosing the Best Time of Day to Tweet

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Seth's Blog : "Why wasn't I informed?"

"Why wasn't I informed?"

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joi, 30 iunie 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

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vineri, 1 iulie 2011

So what are the takeaways on this post on Choosing the Best Time of Day to Tweet

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More Recent Articles

joi, 30 iunie 2011

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