American Airlines Wi-Fi Widget Goes Mobile - PR Newswire (press release)

FORT WORTH, Texas, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- American Airlines today launched its latest customer convenience tool, the mobile Wi-Fi Widget, which allows customers to easily identify Wi-Fi equipped aircraft while on the go.

Now available for use on any Internet-equipped mobile device, the Wi-Fi Widget enables customers to easily identify Wi-Fi equipped flights within 24 hours of departure. Launched on AA.com in November 2009, the widget provides customers the ability to check if their flights are scheduled with a Wi-Fi equipped aircraft.

"We know our customers are mobile by definition, and having information they want and need on the go can simplify and enhance the travel experience for them," said Rob Friedman, Vice President – Marketing. "The Wi-Fi Widget has been a customer favorite since it launched on AA.com, and now we're excited to see this functionality more accessible to our customers wherever they are in their travel experience."

To check for Wi-Fi access on your next flight, simply visit aa.com/wifiwidget on your mobile device within 24 hours of departure. Once on the site, enter your flight number or select your departure airport from a drop down menu to find out in seconds if your flight is scheduled to be Wi-Fi equipped.

While on board a Wi-Fi equipped flight, customers can make hotel or car reservations, check their AAdvantage® accounts, book additional flights and more – with complimentary inflight access to AA.com®. Customers can also enjoy full access to the Web, VPN, social networking sites and e-mail access for as little as $4.95 per Gogo® Inflight Internet session.

Wi-Fi is now available on American flights within the continental United States on all Boeing 767-200 aircraft and select MD80 and 737 aircraft. In August 2008, American became the first U.S. airline to launch the Gogo service. Since then, thousands of customers traveling on American aircraft have enjoyed onboard Wi-Fi service while flying throughout the United States. For more information on American's Inflight Internet offering please visit www.aa.com/wifi.

About Gogo

Gogo®, powered by Aircell, turns a commercial airplane into a Wi-Fi hotspot with true inflight Internet access. Passengers with Wi-Fi enabled devices, such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs, can surf the Web, check e-mail, instant message, access a corporate VPN and more. For more information about Gogo, please visit www.gogoinflight.com. You can also follow 'gogoInflight' on Twitter (www.twitter.com/gogoinflight) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/gogoinflight).

About American Airlines

American Airlines, American Eagle and AmericanConnection® serve 250 cities in 40 countries with, on average, more than 3,400 daily flights. The combined network fleet numbers more than 900 aircraft. American's award-winning website, AA.com®, provides users with easy access to check and book fares, plus personalized news, information and travel offers. American Airlines is a founding member of the oneworld® Alliance, which brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business, enabling them to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own. Together, its members serve nearly 700 destinations in more than 130 countries and territories. American Airlines, Inc. and American Eagle Airlines, Inc. are subsidiaries of AMR Corporation. AmericanAirlines, American Eagle, AmericanConnection, AA.com, We know why you fly and AAdvantage are trademarks of American Airlines, Inc. (NYSE: AMR)

AmericanAirlines®  We know why you fly®

Current AMR Corp. releases can be accessed on the Internet.

The address is http://www.aa.com

SOURCE American Airlines

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Is A Facebook Events RSVP Widget Imminent? - AllFacebook

As we alluded to yesterday, we are expecting (or at least hoping) Facebook to roll out a revamped events Platform .

With that Platform we are also expecting Facebook to offer event products that enable even producers to expand their marketing efforts beyond the Facebook website.

If Facebook rolls out a new events service, as we expect, that offering could include an events RSVP widget, something which we’ve previously suggested would be an incredibly useful feature. Most significantly, it would help turn Facebook into a central events Platform for all event promoters. An open Platform would also ensure that users continue to engage with Facebook, despite the soon-to-be-released Google Me which Google is hoping to use to take on Facebook’s growing influence.

While Google is probably too little, too late, an open Facebook events platform could most definitely ensure the company’s continued success. While we can only guess what Facebook is preparing to announce, the inclusion of a Facebook events RSVP widget would be extremely valuable. Imagine if the next time you wrote a post about your upcoming party, you could just quickly embed a button which says “RSVP Now!” That single feature would change the online events space permanently.

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Intouch Solutions announces social sharing widget - PharmaLive.com (press release)

Intouch Solutions announces social sharing widget

Overland Park, Kan. (September 21, 2010) – Intouch Solutions® Inc., a digital marketing agency servicing the pharmaceutical industry, announced today the launch of its share»send»save product, a social sharing widget designed especially for the heavily regulated pharmaceutical industry. With this regulated environment as its focus, share»send»save offers a key feature that other social sharing widgets do not: control over the content that is shared. The share»send»save widget enables the sharing of content through social networks, sending links via e-mail, and saving or bookmarking information to Web browsers.

Recent events in the pharmaceutical industry — including a letter the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent to a major pharmaceutical company concerning the use of a social sharing widget — have heightened awareness of the need for control over how social sharing applications work on pharmaceutical-sponsored websites. Pharmaceutical companies must work diligently to control messages around their products to ensure drug advertising is responsible and in compliance with FDA regulations.

The share»send»save widget provides enhanced control in a number of ways:

Allows site owners to choose what channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are active Enables consistent sharing of only specified content and images across channels Ensures the same content is shared across channels Provides the option of an interstitial “you are leaving this site” disclaimer Keeps standard metadata intact for optimal search engine optimization Shares a shortened URL Sends secure e-mails that can include detailed safety information Offers enhanced tracking, analytics and customization options

share»send»save does this without collecting personally identifiable data or displaying third-party advertising, which can be a problem with the free tools currently available.

“Social sharing is important for any industry, and pharmaceutical marketing is no exception. The difference is the special challenges this industry faces when it comes to regulation of content and promotion,” said Faruk Capan, CEO, Intouch Solutions. “There are many ways to share content on a site, but few solutions offer site owners the ability to control how that content is shared. This innovative tool helps provide our clients peace of mind.”

Statistics show that 47 percent of American social media users are on branded pharmaceutical websites to learn about health care or pharmaceutical products¹. Including share»send»save on a website empowers visitors to share approved content to social connections, spurring online conversations without exposing site owners to unnecessary risk.

About share»send»save

Developed by Intouch Solutions for the pharmaceutical industry, the share»send»save sharing widget gives users the ability to share content on social networks, send site links to friends or colleagues, and save websites to their browser bookmarks. Unique features allow pharmaceutical companies to capture the power of social marketing without sacrificing brand integrity, sharing incorrect information, or taking other unnecessary regulatory risks.

For more information about share»send»save, including its privacy policy and terms of service, please visit www.sharesendsave.com For background on the risks of social sharing within the pharmaceutical industry, see the Intouch Solutions analysis on its blog at http://tiny.cc/socialsharingrisks

About Intouch Solutions

Founded in 1999, Intouch Solutions® Inc. is a privately-held, full-service pharmaceutical digital marketing agency headquartered in the Kansas City area with a branch location in Chicago. Intouch specializes in high-quality, cost-effective, custom digital solutions for the pharmaceutical and health care industries. Contact Intouch at getintouch@intouchsol.com or visit them on the Web at www.intouchsol.com.

¹ROI Research, “S-Net: A Study in Consumers’ Use of Social Media (Wave III)” commissioned by Performics, provided to eMarketer, June 8, 2010.

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For Marketing, Twitter Crushes Facebook - PC World

Facebook makes up 78 percent of traffic among all social network sites and micro-blogging site Twitter accounts for 5 percent, but on average "tweets" with embedded links get 19 clicks while Facebook's shared links only get three clicks, according to a study by SocialTwist.

The marketing firm, which offers viral social media marketing campaigns, analyzed more than a million shared links through its Tell-a-Friend widget that lets people share information on Websites. SocialTwist measured success by a clickthrough rate, a term for the number of clicks on a link that takes a user to a specific destination.

 

The survey yielded other surprises, such as that MySpace still has 15 percent of social media market share.

If you're using Twitter or Facebook to reach out to customers, here's what each service has going for and against it.

Twitter Pros:

165 million registered users

There are 165 million registered users and 100 million messages sent a day from Twitter, according to Bloomberg. Never mind that Twitter execs hope to get a billion users without a real plan -- that's all bravado anyway -- there are still millions of users out there

New Twitter Layout is Better

The new Twitter interface offers a split-screen and view pane that lets users share video and photos from at least 16 different media providers like Flickr, YouTube, and TwitPic. Now, instead of repeatedly tweeting a message in the hopes of attracting attention from different people at different times, a business can share a video of its new developments and know there's a good chance that someone might see it in Twitter's detailed pane.

It's for the Social-Media Savvy

Twitter, which recently began offering promoted tweets for $100,000 a day, is a different kind of beast than Facebook. If you doubt this, then take a look at who inhabits the "Twitterverse". Just in my followers alone, I count scores of social media professionals. I also watch what they do, because one of the best things about following people is learning how to use Twitter better.

Third-Party Applications

You can use Twitter solely through its Website, or with a third-party client that offers such features as scheduled tweets, searches, paneled views of lists, or other Twitter identities and metrics.

Twitter Cons:

It's a Cocktail Party

A social media maven once told me that Twitter is like a cocktail party. People flitter around, listening to conversations and partaking in ones they find interesting -- but it's off to the next, new thing within minutes. You can't blame users; they have a veritable buffet of information and conversations to follow. Coming back to a cocktail conversation an hour later will get you a lot of "Huh?" and "What?" reactions. That also gets the same response on Twitter.

Security Issues

Although some of the security issues have lessened with the new Twitter revamp, malware can be spread easily when users click on unknown, shortened URLs planted by those looking to spread viruses or download account information.

Dependability

Twitter's Fail Whale, the icon used to explain its down and over capacity, is well-known and derided endlessly. And while its dependability has been better lately, Twitter still has frequent service outages and hiccups.

Facebook Pros:

600 million users

Facebook is now more popular than Google, not really a surprise when you realize that users can not only update statuses and check on friends, but also play games, take quizzes and generally waste a lot of time.

Dependability

Although Facebook apologized last month for a 2.5-hour outage, that's nothing compared to the legendary, frequent appearance of Twitter's Fail Whale.

Tools

Facebook users have been able to use a number of shared multimedia tools from almost its inception, including video, links, photos, quizzes, and news. Twitter only recently began offering video and photos on its site.

Facebook Cons:

General Audience of All Backgrounds

Facebook's "pro" is also its "con". It has so many people on it -- moms, children, grandparents, millennials, and baby boomers -- that it may be hard for businesses to find the right audience without some expert navigation.

The Clicks Aren't There.

While a business can get noticed on Facebook, chances are it will have do so with a broad campaign connecting with a larger numbers of users than it takes to get the same amount of attention on a more focused medium such as Twitter.

More Like a Dorm Than a Cocktail Party

On Twitter, generally people are only interested in what you're talking about in the last half-hour or so. If we take that to be true, then Facebook is like the floor of a college dormitory or a cruise ship, where users may see each other every day but don't become something akin to friends until weeks or months later. It may be a place to bare your soul, but not the place for a hard sell. This is where your social media efforts must be placed for the long-term.

Which to Use?

It's not surprising that Twitter is the tool of choice for many in marketing because it offers more return on investment, less time for more exposure, a quick-hit approach to conversations, a more savvy population, and few distractions from the endless streams of information.

Any businessperson on Facebook should know that it is competing with the same games, quizzes, and attention from loved ones that brought users there in the first place.

Because the two social sites are so different, businesses should know they will have to evolve with each medium and establish campaigns that fit each of the service's strengths.

Reach or follow Barbara E. Hernandez on Twitter: @bhern.

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Tell a Friend Widget and Viral Marketing Gone Wild

Viral marketing is only viral if there is a way in which people can tell their friends about your business. That is where a "tell a friend" widget comes in.

With a "tell a friend" widget, visitors are able to plug in information about their friends, such as their names and their email addresses. This enables their friend to come to your site. They may not have come there otherwise, so it is important to use your visitors to bring in others just like a magnet.

When someone "tells a friend," an email is sent to the friend that says, "So and so wanted you to see this" or "so and so is on this site, you can be too." It is something simple like that. As a matter of fact, you have probably interacted with one of those widgets before. Perhaps you joined a social networking site and a box popped up asking you to tell your friends so that they can be members too. This is the same exact thing and you know that it is something that is very effective.

What this does is this convinces the friend to come to your site and see what you have going on. They can also sign up for newsletters and email updates so that you can market to them. This is a great opportunity for you to grow your list, therefore growing the number of people you can have passing the word around about your business.

So the tell a friend widget is a very valuable tool. Not only are you marketing to the people who visit your site anyway, but you have your visitors bringing others to your site through the tell a friend widget. When these friends start getting your viral emails, they will pass those on. So your regular 10 visitors can turn into 20. You then have 20 people you can market to. That 20 people can very easily turn into 200 if they forward your emails. That 200 can then turn into 2000. The list goes on and on. But when this happens, that is a tell a friend widget gone wild.

Try using a Viral Marketing Widget [http://www.trafficjinn.com] or Tell A Friend Widget [http://www.trafficjinn.com] to drive a boat load of free friend referred traffic to your website facebook style. Dr. Knox Grandison is a full time internet marketer and part time physician and has been for over 10 years.

Wordpress Widgets

What is it?

Although the word widget might look a bit funny it has become a commonly used term, especially among bloggers utilizing the world-famous Wordpress software.

The term 'Wordpress widgets' is applied to any user-friendly sidebar function in Wordpress themes including such elements as search box, meta-tags, RSS feed links, recent posts, categories, etc. which can be arranged by a blogger into the blog's sidebar in any way they want.

The majority of modern Wordpress themes are widget-ready, i.e. users can modify them without having to change the code. You just log in as the administrator and drag the elements you want to the sidebar adding and rearranging them whenever you wish.

Wordpress is in itself a very easy-to-use blogging application, and with the addition of widgets it has become even more user-friendly providing for a most pleasant blogging experience.

Where to find

There are numerous websites offering widget-ready themes for Wordpress, but the most extensive collection of them can be found at the official website of Wordpress. You will be offered a widest selection of blog templates arranged by color, width, sidebars on the left and on the right side, rounded and unrounded corners and so on.

Some of the Most Popular Wordpress Widgets

There are many widgets for Wordpress. You will find some of them more useful than the others and by experimenting with them you can come up with a most useful widget set that will make blogging even more fun. Your choice will depend on your personal needs and taste, but there are certain widgets that are so popular within the blogging community that they've become a 'must have' for almost every blogger.

ExecPHP

It is a text-box widget that allows inserting PHP code into your sidebar.php and executing it by means of an easy click-and-copy operation rather them having to modify it manually.

IM Online

This Wordpress widget allows you to display your online status to your blog readers with the help of instant messaging services such as MSN, Google Talk, Skype and others. Thus you can easily let your readers know when they can contact you.

With the dramatic increase in Wordpress users it has become rather hard to make your blog stand out against thousands of other blogs built with the same platform. However, the addition of widget-ready themes creates a unique opportunity to develop unique blog designs with just a couple of click-and-drag operations.

Dashboard Software - What is It?

Before knowing how to choose the best dashboard software, its better if we know what dashboard is. The foremost dashboard was designed by Mac and the main purpose for designing this was to give an alternative to computer users. This option helped the user to open an application by just a click. It helps you save a great deal of time as well as efforts to search a program you need. With widgets, you can locate the program you need. For instance, if you want to check the international and local weather, or if you are looking for a world clock, WiFi strength, calculator etc. you can use the appropriate widget. Moreover, the dashboard simply hangs about your desktop. You can simply drag and drop the widgets from dashboard if you want to set it. You can also do the opposite. But you should always keep in mind that dashboards are meant only for small programs. It is good if you keep the widgets in the dashboard only. Now you don't have to sit and manually open the programs or applications you wish to run. Just click and its done!

Widgets help you to do all the tasks quickly that are quite tedious and complicated for any user to do it manually. Google search widget is one of the best widgets as it opens the browser and conducts the searches accordingly.

Though there may be several helpful tips to choose the right dashboard software, but you should check your computer as well as the operating system installed in your computer. This will help you to access the software that works for your system. You need to make a sensible selection as it is not as simple as going to the market and picking one that you see. You need to look at it in detail.

You will find a variety of dashboard software to choose from but if you really want to choose one that is perfect for your system, you need to access the work that is regularly done by you. Ask the two important things, do I really need this software? Do I use small programs and applications? If you really need one, then this software will help you greatly. Now you need to check which operating system you work on. Initially, dashboard software was available for Mac systems only, but today a lot of Windows operators are happy as dashboard software can be installed in their systems too. Though you will find dashboard software that operates on both Mac as well as Windows, but you don't have to buy dashboard software if you use Mac. However, dashboard software is already installed for Mac operating systems. But if you don't use Mac, you will surely need dashboard software to save your time and efforts.

Moreover, you should know that there are some widgets that may not be available for Windows as in case of Mac. Most of them are yet to be transferred. And the web developers have assured that all the widgets that are available in Mac, will soon be available for Windows too! You will soon have greater options of widgets in your system too.

Know more about dashboard software for your system at emanio.com.