Visit twestival.com if you want to know more

Photo courtesy of our very own Kavish Patel 

In contrast, a recent survey in NZ conducted by the CAANZ Digital Leadership Group and Nielsen found that 84% of businesses surveyed planned to allocate less than 5% of their organisation’s marketing budget on social media activities in 2010. 

It's a wide world of opportunity so as a start point CMO.com have published a one page guide to some of the opportunities available. Just click on the image below to be taken to a pdf version or if you want some more info then click on the links below to go to CMO.com or the CAANZ DLG site:

http://www.cmo.com/social-media/cmos-guide-social-media-landscape

http://digitalleadershipgroup.co.nz/

Square allows merchants to use their smart phones to accept credit cards where ever they are, as long as you have an internet connection.

This is how it works:

Square's innovation is a small adapter that plugs into the audio imput jack of any smart phone. After setting up an online account, you can use this adapter to accept credit card payments for anything. Square eliminates receipts, gives rewards and even donates a penny from every purchase to a cause of your choice.

To find out more visit click here

Also you watch the video below for a demo of Square

This changed yesterday when Google screened a 60 second commercial during the 2010 Super Bowl. I guess if you're going to start using offline - why not start off with the biggest, most expensive slot in TV?  The ad is quite engaging but is not new; it has already had 1.2 million views virally as a YouTube video as one of a whole series of "stories" ads.   

Many observers including Danny Sullivan of SearchEngineLand - http://searchengineland.com/hell-freezes-over-google-airs-super-bowl-a-35476 - are putting it down to increased pressure from Bing as Microsoft finally finds it's feet to mount a real challenge to Google's vast user base. 

Cyberbullying is becoming an increasing problem online especially with increasing traffic to social media websites like Facebook, Youtube, Bebo etc .

To address this growing concern, YouTube, the National Crime Prevention Council, and Circle of Respect recently came together to create a YouTube “video” telling people to “think before they comment.” The video also informs viewers to report cyberbullying at the YouTube Safety Center.

 click on pic to view advert

Also users with an additional app installed on their device (available via iPhone), can aim their camera towards the building and be greeted with an augmented reality layer over the building, showing a more interactive display of the building’s stores, their sales/promotions, and even showing tweets from within the building.

See Video below

The Twelpforce has around 1,000 Best Buy employees which will answer product questions, troubleshoot technology challenges and solve customer service issues, all from the comfort of the users’ keyboard or mobile phone all via Twitter

Smart way to create interaction and engage with the audience especially if the audience is coming to you for help rather the brand hounding the audience.

Check out the great advert below:  

Enjoy!

 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10619399