Eliminate Fake Work in Your Organization | trainingmag.com

Fake Work is an insidious problem dwelling in almost every organization—large or small. We define it as work that is not linked directly to the strategies of the organization. Simply, Fake Work is any work that is not aligned with and directly linked to organizational strategy. It’s the wasted effort, wasted energy of hardworking, dedicated people who could have been executing work of value and helping get results that truly matter.

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Eliminate Fake Work in Your Organization | trainingmag.com.

Is Internet Radio the future of Newspapers?

“Five years from now, internet radio will be the predominant leader in radio.”
-Jennifer Bertetto Trib Total Media

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has launched an Internet Sports Talk Station. Trib Total Media, the parent company of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has announced the debut of sports talk on Trib Live Radio.

The new internet sports talk station features a number of Pittsburgh sports media personalities and athletes including former Penguins player Chris Tocchet and former Steelers cornerback Deshea Townsend.  Trib Total Media VP and COO Jennifer Bertetto says more shows are being planned to make the station a 24-hour operation.

Internet Radio is Here!

Behold the future of Internet Radio Listening.

Contour Internet-connected digital radio from Pure

The new Contour Internet-connected digital radio that Pure previewed at the Consumer Electronics Show.

This player comes with Pure’s Clearsound technology which, the company said, ensures clear dynamic audio, higher volume levels and, what everyone is waiting for…low power consumption. The Contour also features the company’s Flow technology, “using Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet wirelessly and access thousands of Internet radio stations, podcasts, a library of unique Pure Sounds as well as stream music stored on a home computer or network storage device.”

Producers of Internet audio content can pin their ears back and go for it because companies like Pure have created the much needed distribution beyond PC devices. Once the prices for these devices come down to earth,  listenership to the wide and creative variety of Internet programming should explode.

Next issue for programmers is separating from the very crowded Internet space and grabbing a loyal audience.

Stay tuned…this is a very exciting time to be a leader in Media and Communications!

Mike

Is your Business advertising and PR keeping up with Consumers?

Forrester: Americans Continue To Adopt Digital Lifestyle

Largest Annual Consumer Survey Offers Insight For Consumer Market Research Professionals

Cambridge, Mass., September 2, 2009 . . . Americans of all ages continue to adopt a digital lifestyle according to the largest annual survey of consumers’ technology adoption and attitudes by Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR). “The State Of Consumers And Technology: Benchmark 2009, US” is a graphical analysis of Forrester’s North American Technographics® Benchmark Survey, 2009 (US, Canada) of nearly 48,000 respondents. A rich data asset for Consumer Market Research professionals’ product planning and go-to-market strategy assessments, the survey includes more than 1,400 data points and data on 378 US brands. It is the largest ongoing survey in the world to explore consumer attitudes, ownership, and use of technology.

Highlights of the report include:

• Devices. High-definition televisions (HDTVs) and home networks were two of the fastest-growing consumer technologies in 2008. Over the next five years, nearly 39 million US households will get their first high-definition set and more than 30 million homes will add network connectivity. Forty-four percent of US households have a laptop, and the average American family owns two personal computers.
• Media consumption. While media consumption among all Americans is split evenly between new and traditional media, on average, consumers younger than 40 spend almost 2 hours a week more with new media than they do with traditional media.
• Mobile. Four in five US households now have a mobile phone; families with older children have nearly three mobile phones per household, the most of any age segment. Eight percent of consumers own a smartphone.

“US consumers are making an inexorable transition to an all-digital, Internet-powered world,” said Forrester Research Principal Analyst Charles S. Golvin. “The Internet pervades all aspects of Americans’ lives, from how we shop and buy, how we communicate, how we entertain ourselves, and how we seek out information to how we manage our personal relationships. While today these digital activities are constrained to the home and the office, in the next several years consumers will increasingly rely on a ubiquitous Net that is instantaneously accessible on a wide variety of devices, from mobile phones to laptops to new form factors such as eReaders.”

This is the 12th annual Consumer Technographics Benchmark mail survey. This year, Forrester performed a life stage analysis of the data that looks at technology adoption of singles and families, both young and old.

“The breadth of the survey, in conjunction with its sample sizes, allows Consumer Market Research professionals to examine and trend the behaviors and attitudes of even the most niche target markets,” said Forrester Research Consumer Insights Analyst Jackie Anderson.

Read more about the report on The Forrester Blog For Consumer Market Research Professionals.

About Consumer Technographics

Forrester Consumer Technographics is the largest and longest-running survey of technology’s impact on consumers. Since 1997, Forrester has surveyed more than 2 million households and individuals worldwide and today provides data and insights on consumers in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. Marketing and strategy professionals rely on Forrester’s Consumer Technographics data for unique insights into how technology affects the way consumers select, purchase, use, and communicate about products and services.

About Forrester Research

Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. Forrester works with professionals in 20 key roles at major companies providing proprietary research, customer insight, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs. For more than 26 years, Forrester has been making IT, marketing, and technology industry leaders successful every day. For more information, visit www.forrester.com.

Why broadcasters need to jump onto the Internet Radio tsunami now!

A new national survey of consumers shows 34% would listen to Internet Radio in the Car!

The survey was conducted by Mark Ramsey Media and VIP Research.  As reported by Media Daily News:

“MRM and VIP found that 34% of those surveyed said they would listen less to traditional local broadcast radio stations — long the dominant drive-time medium for advertisers — if they had access to Internet radio in their car.

Given a choice between having Internet radio in their dashboard or a broadcast radio in their iPod, 58% of all respondents opted for Internet radio in the dash.

This isn’t the only data suggesting Internet radio could pose a threat to traditional radio in drive-time listening. A survey by J.D. Powers released earlier this month found that car-buyers’ favorite audio system feature was the ability to play music file formats of their own choosing, such as MP3 files or iTunes.

Separately, in January, Internet audio service Pandora struck a deal with electronics manufacturer Pioneer Corp. that will allow consumers to bring Pandora’s personalized audio content to their automobiles. Pioneer is manufacturing a multipurpose navigation and media device, priced at $1,200, that will allow iPhones customers to stream the online music service to their car stereos — after they download a new app that allows the devices to link up.”

Read the entire article at Media Daily News

Green Rain Marketing is riding the wave of this huge change in consumer listening habits with www.moneytalknetwork.com, a site providing the best personal finance and consumer advice audio programming and featuring some of America’s best broadcast professionals and some you have not heard of…but will soon!

Green Rain Web properties continue upward growth

In the face of a tough economy, Florida based Green Rain Marketing has found a formula for growing its Web sites.

http://www.FreeBirthday.com and MoneyTalkNetwork.com, GRM’s two premiere web properties, continue to grow in most analytic categories. FreeBirthday.com unique visitors are up 35% on an annual basis while MoneyTalkNetwork.com uniques are up 223%.

“We have been focusing intently on creating organic growth through quality use of Social Networks, better SEO and an Outreach campaign to business users for each site specifically designed to match the site’s theme, goals and objectives,” said Mike Schiano, founder of Green Rain Marketing, LLC.

We’ve launched a Direct Mail marketing program for local businesses called The Birthday Bundle which stands on its own as an advertising medium, while also supporting and driving traffic to FreeBirthday.com.

Schiano added, “The Money Talk Network is quickly becoming one of the Web’s top distribution channels for personal finance audio and education experts, and is becoming very popular among Internet Talk radio listeners. There is very little left on terrestrial radio for consumers seeking legitimate, objective and entertaining Money Talk. In most markets there is only Dave Ramsey during the week and lot’s of local amateurs who pay to play on the weekend radio. We are building a real audio channel at MoneyTalkNetwork.com where listeners can hear long-form talk shows as well as shorter audio-casts.”

About GRM
Green Rain Marketing helps businesses combine traditional media with New Media to maximize ROI, revenue, credibility and visibility by guiding them into the proper channels, the proper creative and the proper budgeting.

Green Rain Web Properties on up-trend

Our hard work is paying off as FreeBirthday.com, GRM’s longest running site, (it was founded in 1999),  is enjoying 67% annual unique visitor growth.

Our newest property, ConstructionjobsinHaiti.com,  is exploding with unique visitor growth of 894% since its February 10th launch, and a 42% return visitor percentage.

Both sites are benefiting from our hard earned expertise and strong commitment to quality content and SEO, as well as an extra focus on building Social Media connections.

We can grow your business using the same techniques.

Mike

Mike Schiano is Managing Partner for Green Rain Marketing, LLC, an Orlando based Media, Marketing and Advertising consultancy.