The On-Going Conversation

Innovation in Healthcare with a Jeopardy Champion

Watson, the computer that defeated elite Jeopardy players in February is re-thinking domination, by helping diagnose and treat patients.

Read the full article via Mashable

The American Mind

I consider myself to be fortunate and cannot imagine being born anywhere else in the world. As an American, I realize that I take many elements of my life for granted. Among these are my personal freedom, education, public infrastructure, clean drinking water, the ability to find a satisfying career and the relatively safe communities that we have to choose from.

But we didn’t do anything to enable our success – we just happened to be born in a place that values liberty and the capacity to become anything that you want. At least it seems as though this particular mantra has been communicated to us since we were young.

This approach has a tendency to create a population that remains motivated and even helps maintain a degree of optimism. Obviously this frame of mind isn’t present throughout the world, especially in countries that are classified as underdeveloped. Within a country that is classified by this terminology, it can be challenging to cultivate happiness and a degree of optimism. Citizens don’t envision more fulfilling days, because they grow accustomed to the reality that they experience on a daily basis.

It can be hard to understand another perspective and way of life, especially if you haven’t experienced it for yourself. This seems to be the case for a majority of individuals that live in the United States. We cannot actually fathom the reality in opposing countries that are less fortunate than us. We can only imagine what it would be like, but will never have to face such dire circumstances. Even though we cannot fully understand what it would be like, that doesn’t excuse us from at least trying to permit growth and prospective success in such places.

As a result, I believe that more developed countries have an obligation to help enable success in underdeveloped nations. It could either be financially, democratically or even emotionally. Less fortunate countries and individuals want to feel as though they aren’t alone in the lingering chaos.

However it can be tough to decipher if assistance will truly benefit an underdeveloped country. If the support happens to be economic, it can be difficult to guarantee that the monetary help won’t be utilized in selfish ways, by manipulative individuals. Who knows, it may not even reach the individuals that truly need it.

They may not even have the ability to drink fresh water and shower on a daily basis. Many remain rural and don’t consist of public transportation and urban development, making citizens to some extent stationary. This limits their potential for job opportunities, unless they are employed within the place they directly live. With this in mind, more fortunate countries should even consider commencing businesses in such locations, which will hopefully help provide stability and opportunities for personal economic growth.

If they do incorporate business in such a place, they need to make sure to not take advantage of the situation. They must provide considerable wages that can benefit citizens, who happen to be on the low end of the socioeconomic spectrum. The work must also be safe and ethical, without potential for health issues and prospective concerns that may occur because of the work itself.

Organizations may also need to provide transportation to and from work. Not to mention, external assistance can even help create a safer environment within particular communities. People in ominous circumstances may potentially resort to crime, which generates unsafe neighbors in devastated areas. This can be another area for interaction by more fortunate countries, which may have resources to provide heightened security.

All in all, I cannot help but question if developed nations have an obligation to facilitate success in such countries. We have extensive resources and seemingly unlimited opportunities for citizens to flourish from. At times our resources even seem quite unnecessary, especially considering they have been ingrained in our lives since youth. Take the time to consider those that are less fortunate, who need assistance – assistance that we merely take care granted on a perpetual basis.

A Housing Market Update

According to the Case Shiller Index, a record number of foreclosures are expected to continue pushing home prices down next year in Americas’ most populated cities. Cleveland reported the most substantial decline from last month at 3%. Surprisingly, Las Vegas and Washington DC were the only cities to report gains in the housing market.

Job Search Tips in a Challenging Economy

It has become increasingly important for prospective employees to set themselves apart from the competition. Regardless of where the candidates are in their work timeline—they could be recent graduates, well-established career professionals or those looking to transition into a new career; it really doesn’t matter. 

We all in a sense need a little guidance to calm the storm of the economic conditions that we are currently facing. To some extent, I would even say the environment has arguably become more turbulent in recent months, especially with the large influx of potential individuals that are fiercely seeking employment.

Moreover, with more and more individuals battling in the job search arena, one must do all they can to showcase their talents, goals, ambitions and overall experience. I understand that it may be extremely tedious and time consuming, but we have all went through it at some point in our lives.

When you are unemployed, everyday seems to be a constant degree of uncertainty. You always seem to possess ambiguity about your future economic stability. It can also be vague and challenging to build a foundation, without having a clear vision of what the future will hold. That is why you have to plant a seed with prospective organizations, based on the infrastructure that you have already worked to establish.

This groundwork could consist of past work experience, education, volunteer opportunities and a network of individuals that you can harness. Never underestimate the power of your social networks; your connections may be more than willing to help and may even recommend you to specific positions within their company. Start the conversation and who knows, someone may be able to help you out along the way.

All-in-all, it has become increasingly necessary to establish division and separation from your competition, especially in the obfuscating job market. Without taking the initiative and responsibility on yourself, the period of dormancy may be extended and the perils of being unemployed may continue to linger on.

Personally, I think it is arguably the worst feeling the in the world—exerting all your energy and transparency for a job opportunity, and then finding out after all your hard work that they decided to pursue another candidate.

This is why you need to do what you can to set yourself apart from the opposing vultures trying to isolate the opportunity from you. With this in mind, you must showcase your skills that are applicable and pertinent to the opportunities you are striving for. Without having a clear vision of why you think you are qualified—you may potentially convey that in the interview. This could all be due to a lack of confidence and clarity about your experience and overall credentials.

As a result, job seekers need to remain confident. They also need to understand that they will eventually find an opportunity they love. It may be challenging to continue pursuing a job prospect, but don’t give up; there are good days ahead.

Image Credits: Career Realism — June 22, 2009

The Importance of a Social Media Strategy

Social media continues to become increasingly connected to business and the way in which it is conducted. Despite the juxtaposition of social media and social businesses, the phenomenon remains relatively new and wasn’t even part of the picture ten years ago. As a result, it can be challenging to decipher what is to come and where the world of social media is headed.   

Regardless of the implications, I am intrigued by the possibility of what’s to come and where the trends will ultimately lead. However, even with excitement there comes a degree of obfuscation. One can never truly predict the course of time and we will have to wait to see where the developments in digital technology occur.

Nonetheless, social media has already brought about innovation and has even changed over time to become more user-friendly. Individuals now have the convenience of updating one aggregate site, which will post a message on a collection of different social environments.

Who would have thought this could become a reality in the digital world, especially considering the social media advent is to some extent, still in its youth? Even though it may seem unexpected, the ability to cross-post is evident and I don’t believe it’s going anywhere in the near future; at least as far as I am concerned.

For example, I facilitate posts with HootSuite and Ping.Fm, which allows me to maximize efficiency, by taking less than five seconds to express my ideas on approximately fifteen social websites, simultaneously. In my case, the updates generally include Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo, Orkut, Digg, GoogleBuzz, Delicious, Friendster and LinkedIn, just to name a few.

 Social media has also continued to become more interconnected. This means that most platforms have the option of syncing with other sites. I even have the option of connecting my blogs to HootSuite as well, which can create a haven for news aggregation, information and continual communication.  

Moreover, social media junkies can continue to update their status and post a message on as many networks as they would like. This can even be more beneficial for businesses; they can have one individual responsible for social marketing and allow that individual to do it with utmost convenience and efficiency.

HootSuite even allows you to schedule messages periodically. This means that businesses can determine a network strategy and post messages automatically, regardless of the time of the day. With this in mind, organizations can specifically target messages to individuals that are time-sensitive and relevant to the business itself.

The reason this is so important, is because social media doesn’t necessarily influence sales or participation; it is more of a vehicle to increase recognition, awareness, web-influence and potentially SEO (search engine optimization).

Business can also establish credibility, integrity and a degree of trustworthiness, merely by interacting with a niche portion of the population on-line. Obviously, it needs to be in a positive and helpful manner, to yield the results that companies are striving for. Nonetheless, a companies’ approach is generally dependant on their particular organizational mantra and overall goal structure.

All-in-all, businesses should consider commencing a social media strategy, if of course they haven’t already. The strategy doesn’t necessarily need to be perfected from the onslaught either. Through time and social participation, businesses can literally generate a social prescription for the company, which speaks from experience and contains a frame of reference for comparison.

Basically, this prescription will become a remedy for the company and involve a transformation, once businesses have an understanding of the landscape they are working with. Just remember, there isn’t necessarily an incorrect way to conduct social marketing – just give it a try and see what happens. There are no rules to abide by and the conditions are still relatively new.

 

Twitter : @RJSchoenefeld

Contributing Blogger on Social Email Marketing

Linked-In : http://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanschoenefeld

Delicious : http://delicious.com/ryanschoenefeld

Social Marketing Forum : http://www.socialmarketingforum.net/profile/RyanSchoenefeld

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The Nature of Social Media Measurement

Unless you have the budgets to use the best web analytics, social media management and social media measurement apps in town and, even better, to couple them with CRM, marketing automation, email marketing etc., it’s often less obvious to find the best way to combine and integrate solutions that enable you to couple online analytics with social media metrics and analytics. And I’m not even talking about customer data. Of course there are several ways to include specific social media metrics within a “free” platform such as Google Analytics. And, yes, there are some free or, at least affordable, social media management solutions that enable you to combine the typical engagement, interaction and other features they offer with Google Analytics. But there is no “ideal” combination. The reason is simple: it depends from what you want to achieve. Take this blog for instance. Our aim is to inform, share and engage, it is not a corporate or “branded” blog that ultimately wants to generate leads. If, however, you are a business and want to combine the data about the interactions people have with your blog and web site, data from other digital channels such as email, social media monitoring and social engagement metrics (starting from simple things such as the number of times a post is tweeted, bookmarked or “liked” and how much clicks these tweets etc. generated), you’re in for a quest. Again, if you don’t have the budgets. Or in other words: when the investment in decent solutions, can hardly result in a positive ROI for your activities, even in the long run. I recently started looking at all possibilities that exist and solutions that don’t exist yet but are in private beta. It is a diverse landscape and integration is not obvious. On top of that, many vendors have their own methodologies to track and calculate engagement and integration with web analytics is often missing. As a simple blogger a lot also depends from the blogging platform you use. What will Google and the social networks do? Undoubtedly the market will evolve. What will Google Analytics do for instance? And, obviously, what will the social networks themselves do? We know what Facebook has been doing and since end of last week we also know a little about what Twitter might be up to. The company has acquired Trendly, a cloud hosted web analytics application from Smallthought Systems. With the acquired technology and team, Twitter wants to provide data and enable businesses to filter the Twitter signals that matter to them from the endless stream of tweets, noise and clutter. Good news: it seems that integration with Google Analytics is foreseen. Trendly: not for you and me (yet?) However, it doesn’t look as if you, me and small businesses will be able to use it to have a better and more integrated view on all online channels. Because for now, the acquisition should be seen in the perspective of Twitter’s promoted tweets advertising solution and will thus benefit the advertisers and media planning people. It seems that the promoted tweets ad solution receives positive feedback from both advertisers and Twitter users. But it also looks as if all the others will have to keep testing and using other ways to have a better analytical view on Twitter in the overall online picture. For all those that try to find an optimal solution for small budgets, like us: let us know what your findings are. We will gladly share ours once we have finished our exploration. Source: Social Email Marketing