HMH Acquires Ebook Assets from MeeGenius

hmh_logo_detailHoughton Mifflin Harcourt announced that it has acquired select ebook and technology assets from MeeGenius, an ebook subscription service for children ages two through eight years old. MeeGenius is an app and subscription service that offers mobile access to hundreds of classic children’s stories, MeeGenius originals and content from authors around the world, enhanced with interactive digital features such as read-along word highlighting, audio playback and story narration. The service also offers partner content from Sesame Street, Dr. Seuss and P.D. Eastman. In 2013, Scholastic named MeeGenius to its list of “Best Children’s Reading and Book Apps.” The MeeGenius assets will serve to further bolster HMH’s offerings outside the classroom, which is a key area of growth for the company. [Press Release] Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Acquires eBook and Technology Assets from MeeGenius, Strengthens At-Home Digital Content Offering for Early Learners Acquisition includes more than 700 interactive eBooks for kids ages 2-8 BOSTON – August 11, 2015 – Global learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) has acquired select eBook and technology assets of MeeGenius — an eBook subscription service for children aged up to eight years old. The acquisition marks the Company’s latest investment in high-quality digital content for parents and young learners and supports its ongoing strategic focus on the direct-to-consumer market. Available in both iOS and Android, the award winning MeeGenius app and subscription service offer mobile access to hundreds of classic children’s stories, MeeGenius originals, and content from authors around the world, enhanced with interactive digital features such as read-along word highlighting, audio playback, and engaging story narration. “MeeGenius provides a combination of beloved children’s stories, and interactive tools that support literacy development and give families a smart array of digital books in one comprehensive offering,” said CJ Kettler, Executive Vice President and Chief of Consumer Brands and Strategy at HMH. “As HMH continues to expand its portfolio of digital consumer products, the incorporation of these MeeGenius assets further strengthens our content offerings beyond the classroom.” Created by parents and entrepreneurs Wandy Yeap Hoh and David Park in 2010, MeeGenius transforms mobile devices into expansive digital libraries for young learners. The service is currently available online at meegenius.com, and via the App Store, Google Play, Amazon and the Nook Store. “When we developed MeeGenius five years ago, our goal was to offer a quality mobile experience for young readers and their families,” said Wandy Yeap Hoh, Co-founder and CEO of MeeGenius. “We are thrilled that our creation is now joining one of the world’s leading providers of educational media and look forward to watching our eBook assets become an integral part of its growing digital content offering for children and families.” As a leading global learning company, HMH is well positioned to create educational and entertaining content that extends beyond the classroom and meets the needs of young learners, parents and families at home and on the move. Across multiple channels and formats —from mobile apps and web portals to eBooks and paperbacks — HMH provides engaging and inspiring content that parents can trust.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Acquires EBook And Technology Assets From MeeGenius, Strengthens At-Home Digital Content Offering For Early Learners

learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) has acquired select eBook and technology assets of MeeGenius — an eBook subscription service for children aged up to eight years old. The acquisition marks the Company's latest investment in high-quality digital content for parents and young learners and supports its ongoing strategic focus on the direct-to-consumer market. Available in both iOS and Android, the award winning MeeGenius app and subscription service offer mobile access to hundreds of classic children's stories, MeeGenius originals, and content from authors around the world, enhanced with interactive digital features such as read-along word highlighting, audio playback, and engaging story narration. "MeeGenius provides a combination of beloved children's stories and interactive tools that support literacy development and give families a smart array of digital books in one comprehensive offering," said CJ Kettler, Executive Vice President and Chief of Consumer Brands and Strategy at HMH. "As HMH continues to expand its portfolio of digital consumer products, the incorporation of these MeeGenius assets further strengthens our content offerings beyond the classroom." Created by parents and entrepreneurs Wandy Yeap Hoh and David Park in 2010, MeeGenius transforms mobile devices into expansive digital libraries for young learners. The service is currently available online at meegenius.com, and via the App Store, Google Play, Amazon and the Nook Store. "When we developed MeeGenius five years ago, our goal was to offer a quality mobile experience for young readers and their families," said Wandy Yeap Hoh, Co-founder and CEO of MeeGenius. "We are thrilled that our creation is now joining one of the world's leading providers of educational media and look forward to watching our eBook assets become an integral part of its growing digital content offering for children and families." As a leading global learning company, HMH is well positioned to create educational and entertaining content that extends beyond the classroom and meets the needs of young learners, parents and families at home and on the move. Across multiple channels and formats — from mobile apps and web portals to eBooks and paperbacks — HMH provides engaging and inspiring content that parents can trust. 1 of 3 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt acquires select eBook, technology assets of MeeGenius MeeGenius is an eBook subscription service for children aged up to eight years old with iOS and Android apps available BOSTON, Mass – August 11, 2015 — Global learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) has acquired select eBook and technology assets of MeeGenius — an eBook subscription service for children aged up to eight years old. The acquisition marks the Company’s latest investment in high-quality digital content for parents and young learners and supports its ongoing strategic focus on the direct-to-consumer market. MeegeniusAvailable in both iOS and Android, the award winning MeeGenius app and subscription service offer mobile access to hundreds of classic children’s stories, MeeGenius originals, and content from authors around the world, enhanced with interactive digital features such as read-along word highlighting, audio playback, and engaging story narration. “MeeGenius provides a combination of beloved children’s stories and interactive tools that support literacy development and give families a smart array of digital books in one comprehensive offering,” said CJ Kettler, Executive Vice President and Chief of Consumer Brands and Strategy at HMH. “As HMH continues to expand its portfolio of digital consumer products, the incorporation of these MeeGenius assets further strengthens our content offerings beyond the classroom.” Created by parents and entrepreneurs Wandy Yeap Hoh and David Park in 2010, MeeGenius transforms mobile devices into expansive digital libraries for young learners. The service is currently available online at meegenius.com, and via the App Store, Google Play, Amazon and the Nook Store. “When we developed MeeGenius five years ago, our goal was to offer a quality mobile experience for young readers and their families,” said Wandy Yeap Hoh, Co-founder and CEO of MeeGenius. “We are thrilled that our creation is now joining one of the world’s leading providers of educational media and look forward to watching our eBook assets become an integral part of its growing digital content offering for children and families.” As a leading global learning company, HMH is well positioned to create educational and entertaining content that extends beyond the classroom and meets the needs of young learners, parents and families at home and on the move. Across multiple channels and formats — from mobile apps and web portals to eBooks and paperbacks — HMH provides engaging and inspiring content that parents can trust.

What Your Future Marketing Department Looks Like

Save the pretty picture people for children's books. You're marketing department needs to put points on the board. We've come back from the future (ok, not literally) and these are the people we found in the best marketing departments. MARKETING LEADER Who They Are: This is the fearless leader of your marketing department. You know, the Director of Marketing, CMO, Marketing Manager, Hero of the Day or whatever your organization calls this person. What They Do:Their job hasn't changed much, but to be a great marketing leader in the future you'll need to be crazy about your industry in addition to being crazy about marketing. Believe it or not, these days people that know nothing about tennis can still be the marketing leader of an organization in the tennis industry. Not so in the future. Here's why. Business across the board has never been so competitive. Many times, the difference between growing a business or not comes down to who wants it more. Especially in the marketing world where budgets continue to soar. Devising a unique, larger than life strategy to drive leads and sales is where the marketing leader makes their mark. It's getting harder and harder to do that without loving the product so much that you wear it on your pajamas. MARKETING TECHNOLOGIST Who They Are: The world is full of ways to describe people that are half-decent at marketing and above-average with computers. They don't have a degree or a whole lot of quantifiable experience to warrant their titles since the industry is relatively new. Think about it, you don't really need a degree or proof to call yourself a 'Digital Marketing Expert' so that means there's a lot of them. These people are the digital marketing doctor, lead magneto, content marketer, social media superhero or online marketer. Whatever you want to call them is up to you....you know who they are when you hear them vomit buzzwords or add you on LinkedIn. What They Do:The digital world is evolving quickly. As businesses get smarter they'll expect more from their digital/tech-savvy resources in the marketing department. The modern day digital and social media 'specialist' will be vetted out for marketing technologists - people that have professional experience in IT as well as in marketing. Unlike the traditional 'online marketing guy/gal' these people have advanced academic degrees to go with their proven ability to generate leads and opportunities for a business - online or off. Further, in a previous life, they were an IT analyst or a developer before taking the plunge into marketing. They use their machete-like intellect to cut down even the toughest buzzwords and translate tech-talk into meaningful information. Most publicly traded companies already have a marketing technologist on staff primarily to make sure that the apps, tools and services marketing invests in gets utilized appropriately. Consider the Marketing Technologist as the catalyst between the unwanted, but totally-needed, arranged marriage of your IT and marketing departments. STORYTELLER Who They Are:The storyteller knows your business and can film, shoot (with a camera...not a gun), write, design and talk the language of your employees and your customers. They may get some direction on what stories to tell from the marketing technologist and the marketing director, but don't be mistaken. These people take the strategy down field. Depending on the size of your organization you may have several storytellers on your team (eg; a videographer/photographer, blogger or two etc;). What They Do: Can you win business without publishing helpful content regularly? Sure. Just know that you'll lose a lot of business to your competitors that do. Most marketing departments are doubling-down and betting more money on tactics that build a following of visitors and users out of their website, blog, social media and other places. The problem is people don't care about you if all you're doing is bragging about how much business you've won or if all your content is press releases about you. They want to see you prove your expertise over time with meaningful solutions to problems and publishing those solutions on weekly intervals. That's why you need a storyteller. OPPORTUNITY GENERATOR Who They Are: Half publicist, half evangelist. The opportunity generator is primarily focused at getting your company and its information on the radar of the right people and in the right media outlets. This would be everything from connecting with other businesses in your industry to communicating with customers. What They Do: The opportunity generator is the voice of your organization. They aren't afraid to get down and dirty and post on things like forums, Facebook groups and blogs so you stay top of mind among professionals in your industry. They'll troll comment sections respond to reviews, comment on related blog posts and keep your business front-of-mind. While the rest of your marketing department remains untouchable in an ivory-tower (or probably home office) somewhere, these people are out on the picket lines championing company efforts, moving your industry forward and chatting with customers, media and other stakeholders. The Opportunity Generator also nominates your people for industry awards, guest blogs, interviews and quotes for news stories. All of this work is aimed at helping get the amazing stories your storytellers put together in the right hands and seen by the right people. THE BUILDERS Who They Are: This is your agency partner. What They Do: Let's be honest, it's going to be impossible for your department to keep up with the rate at which technology changes. There is far too much technology in the world today for your department to keep up with. Nor should you! Marketing departments don't need to hire designers, coders or developers. Those are necessary skills your department needs to leverage, but they require a huge investment that isn't going to directly affect your bottom line. Instead, hire an agency that has the skills you need and keep them accountable to staying at the forefront of those technologies. Maybe it's an agency with a great background in Salesforce, maintaining Shopify stores or using Carcal to manage car deliveries for a car dealership. Your department is responsible for devising the strategy, providing the content, making sure it gets implemented properly and tracking performance. The agency you work with can assist with anything and everything else. If your marketing department still spends a lot of time debating Comic Sans vs. Times New Roman or colors on a banner it's time for a change that you shouldn't need to go back to the future to see. This ebook shows how to rebuild your marketing department and hire a Marketing Technologist.

Simon & Schuster and Hotels.com to Offer Ebooks to Travelers

[Press Release] SIMON & SCHUSTER AND HOTELS.COM TEAM UP TO OFFER BESTSELLING EBOOKS TO TRAVELERSNEW YORK, August 19—Simon & Schuster and Hotels.com® are joining together to promote the joy of reading and make life on the road or on vacation that much more pleasant for travelers. Beginning today, Hotels.com customers who book a minimum two-night stay in selected US destinations through the US site will have the opportunity to download one of seven free ebooks from Simon & Schuster. Bestselling titles at launch include MR.MERCEDES by Stephen King, THE GLASS RAINBOW by James Lee Burke, THE WHITE QUEEN by Philippa Gregory, CRAZY LOVE YOU by Lisa Unger, I AM PILGRIM by Terry Hayes, YOU by Caroline Kepnes and THE ASCENDANT by Drew Chapman. New titles will be added and rotated within the program periodically. “Business and pleasure travelers spend a great deal of time reading on the road and are an ideal audience with whom to share great new books,” said Liz Perl, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer of Simon & Schuster. “We are excited to join together with Hotels.com to help their vast customer base ‎discover their next great read.” The Simon & Schuster and Hotels.com ebook offering is powered by Glose, an interactive social reading platform. Customers can instantly download and store ebooks on laptops, tablets and smartphones for both iOS and Android. In addition, ebooks read using Glose feature the ability to store links, notes, videos, and photos in ebook margins, one-tap text highlighting, and shareable text annotations for an engaging reading experience with fellow Glose users. Simon & Schuster, a part of CBS Corporation, is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all ages, across all printed, electronic, and audio formats. Its divisions include Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Simon & Schuster Audio, Simon & Schuster Digital, and international companies in Australia, Canada, India and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit our website at www.simonandschuster.com

How Much Should Your Content Marketing Really Cost?

Businesses interested in leveraging the many benefits of content marketing seem to have an ever-growing list of solutions and content strategies to choose from. They can hire freelancers, outsource their content to an agency; or they can even onboard and train their own in-house teams. With so many options, it can be hard to decide which is best for you. Understanding how each of these solutions can best align with your overarching business goals, budgeting restrictions and the needs of your customers is a necessary step before you promote your brand with a content driven strategy—especially when on a tight budget. While many of these strategies can prove successful for a variety of business models, not every tactic is going to be effective for your specific company needs. Learn how to identify the content needs of your business and about the pros, cons, and costs associated with multiple content marketing solutions to better inform your budgeting decisions. Identifying Your Content Needs According to the Content Marketing Institute, only 21% of marketers say that they can successfully track their ROI from content marketing. The key to a successful content marketing effort is the ability to measure and trackyour return on investment, so don’t be one of the 80% of marketers that can’t tell whether or not they’re succeeding. To combat this lack of understanding and to have a stronger understanding of which content marketing solution will be most effective for your business, you should alwaysinform your content decisions based on the the needs of your target audience—your customers. Customer Happy Start by researching your audience’s interests as they relate to your brand. For example, you can ask your sales team about customer interactions. What are their pain points? Why are they interested in your products or service offerings? What are common questions that they ask of your sales team? Additionally, research your product reviews, ask for customer feedback directly, survey your clients, perform keyword research within your market, and analyze your customers through social listening to have a stronger grasp of their typical personas. Informing your content strategy with data provided by your customers can ensure that you’re appropriately focusing your content budget to serve the needs of your customers and not frivolously spending on tactics that don’t align with your goals. Budget For Your Goals & Fill Gaps When Necessary Once you’ve established the needs of your business, you can begin budgeting for your content marketing strategy. There are a wide range of prices that you can expect to encounter when performing your search; however, as a general rule of thumb, you can expect to get what you pay for, as proven professionals and agencies understand what successful content campaigns are worth. Hiring Internal Content Marketing Specialists (Low: $48,000-$72,000/yr; Med: $72,000-$104,000/yr High: $104,000-$150,000+/yr) Hiring a content manager or team of professionals to work full time, is often a more expensive initial route to take, especially when you take into account training time, but if you have the resources, this could be the most cost-effective investment for your long-term content marketing goals. The costs associated with internal hires is primarily dependent on their years of expertise, track record of success, and your geographic location. If you’re a tech firm in San Francisco hiring a content strategist onsite, you can expect to pay a professional with 5-10 years of experience right around six figures each year whereas hiring a less experienced content marketer in a smaller market could come in around the lower end of these ranges. To have a stronger idea of how much you should plan on investing, check what other companies are spending for similar talent with career sites such as Glassdoor,Indeed, and PayScale. Additionally, the content marketers worth hiring ideally have a long list of skills that can be applied to a few different marketing functions, impacting how high their salary should be. Some of the skillsets you should look for are: content marketing strategy, copywriting, digital marketing, search engine optimization, graphic design, video production, in-depth social media know-how, paid advertising campaign experience, HTML/other coding languages, lead generation, email marketing, inbound marketing and other more niche skills that align with your business needs. A content marketer doesn’t need to have all of these to succeed in-house, but should have overlapping expertise in a few of these areas. Outsourcing to a Content Marketing Agency or Consultancy (Low: $1250-$2500+/mo; Med: $2500-$7500+/mo; High: $10,000+/mo) A strong content marketing strategy often includes a healthy mix of content types, some of which can be accomplished in the short-term with your day-to-day team, but other in-depth content types, such as case studies, ebooks, white papers, and video can take much longer to develop—and heavily tax your on staff resources. Not to mention, your team might not have the expertise to come up with a content marketing strategy in-house in the first place to understand what content types to invest in and why. For more in-depth specialty projects where your company lacks the time or resources to complete efficiently or for managing your day-to-day content marketing needs, outsourcing to an agency or consultancy can be an excellent solution. Content marketing agencies often boast a breadth of service offerings ranging from graphic design to SEO and can offer packages that encompass many of your needs. Additionally, the best agencies employ a staff of professionals with mixed backgrounds and expertise which can better ensure that your projects are covered from all angles. A content marketing consultancy, much like Honigman Media (shameless plug), focuses solely on content marketing and another area or two, offering specific expertise to apply to your company’s workflow, as opposed to the agency model that often provides services in many different areas to be your one-stop shop for marketing. The goal of a consultancy is to partner with clients in one key area with a specialized expertise, which in this case would be content marketing. While this knowledge is generally a benefit for most businesses, before hiring any content agency or consultancy, be sure that their packages and service offeringsalign well with your overarching business goals, as you shouldn’t be paying for additional services that you don’t need. For short term projects or individual content needs such as a single white paper, you can expect to pay towards the lower/middle end of this range. For complex strategies or national content campaigns, you’ll likely be at the higher end of the range. Contracting with Freelancers & Copywriters (Low: $50-$250; Med:$250-$500; High: $500-$3000+/content type e.g, article, eBook, whitepaper, etc.) This is where pricing can get a bit more complicated as experience level, quality of work performance, and timely service can greatly affect the cost. Fortunately, there are a few tips and areas you can search to better identify exactly what you should be paying for your content needs. If you have a tight budget or want to explore more inexpensive options, you can start by searching websites such as Upwork, Elance, and sometimes find local talent through Craigslist . These sites have job posting boards that host a large selection of professionals located throughout the world. On Upwork and Elance, you can publish your content needs with a proposed budget and wait for freelancers to apply, or seek out talent that specifically aligns with your project and budget requirements. If you have specific content needs that require precise attention to detail, a quick project turnaround, or specific industry knowledge, to receive optimal results, you should start looking towards professional content marketers that specialize in your needs—copywriters, web coders, graphic artists, etc. While higher end freelancers may cost more than those on an Elance or Upwork, they tend to have more experience, can deliver services across a few different specialities and are more likely to form ongoing relationships with your organization for a long-term partnership. For some freelance needs, such as content writing or social media management, professionals will charge monthly retainers or have packages that guarantee a set amount of work. This is often so they can take the time to understand your business objectives and audience needs to create a stronger course of action for their work and better their chances of succeeding with your project together. Monthly retainers typically cost between $2500 and $5000 and include four to ten pieces of long-form content, daily content distribution in the case of social media management or ongoing content strategy. Before hiring any freelancer, you should ensure that they have the appropriate skillset to perform your needs. Research their past work history, ask them about similar projects that they’ve completed, and ask them to justify their costs. You may find a great deal with competent but budget-friendly professionals that only have lower prices in hopes of building a stronger portfolio, but adversely, you may find that low-cost options are a nightmare to work with—sometimes correcting their work takes more time than doing it yourself. By asking a series of qualifying questions, you can better identify which freelance services will work best for your business. The Cost of Essential Content Marketing Tools (Low: Free – $100/mo; Med: $100-$1000/mo; High: $1000-$2500/mo) To be honest, this field is the wild west. There are a plethora of tools that your business can use to improve your content marketing in addition to working with talented content marketers externally or internally. For the sake of this article, selections are limited to a few of the more popular options with monthly costs associated. Keep in mind that many of these tools have overlapping features. To find the best options for your business, first create a list of your needs and weigh the pros, cons, and cost of each platform prior to making a decision. Additionally, many of these tools offer trial runs for free or minimal investment. Take advantage of these offers to learn what features you really need and which are just nice-to-haves. Content Distribution & Social Schedule Management Buffer: Can make scheduling even the busiest content calendars much easier to maintain and offers plug-ins to curate content from anywhere on the web. Buffer’s pricing is completely transparent, with no hidden add-ons. Pricing: Free with limited features; $10/mo for one user; $50-$250/mo for larger businesses. Hootsuite: Offers similar features to Buffer but integrates with a few other social channels and also offers basic social listening features. Pricing: Free with limited features; $10/mo for 1-9 users; individual features such as analytics are available at an extra cost; demo needed to negotiate an enterprise solution. SproutSocial: A comprehensive social media management platform that also focuses on CRM, social monitoring, content publishing and team collaboration. Pricing: Free 30 day trial; $59/mo for 10 profiles; $99/mo for advanced features and 20 profiles; $500/mo for advanced and enterprise solutions. Project Management Tools Trello: To do lists, project overviews, and team cooperation are all included in this software. Pricing: Free with limited features; $5/mo for individual use; $3.75/mo per user for business accounts; demo required for specific enterprise solutions. Asana: Color coordination, team integration, and eliminating the need for email are some of the features that have made Asana a top solution for project management needs. Pricing: Free with limited features; cost varied on team size, $21/mo for 5 members; $750/mo for 100 members; consultation required for teams of 100 plus. Basecamp: Helps your team get more organized, a must-do for complicated content marketing campaigns. Similar features to Asana and Trello; try testing them all to find a user-experience with features that your team prefers. Pricing: Free two month trial;project based pricing; $20/mo for 10 projects; $150/mo for unlimited projects; $3000/yr for the comprehensive package. Analytics & Tracking Platforms Google Analytics: One of the most comprehensive web analytics softwares available for free, but can be difficult to integrate with some social media content campaigns—can have a strong learning curve for more complex analysis. Pricing: Free with limited features; $150,000/yr for large enterprises that need an in-depth analytics solutions. Sumall: Cross platform marketing analytics platform that can combine social media, web traffic, and sales metrics into one convenient dashboard. Pricing: Free with limited features; $59/mo for personal or small agency use; $99/mo for full access to features and weekly analysis. Social Listening Tools BuzzSumo: Helps you find not only your best performing content, but also let’s you keep tabs on what your competitors are up to on social media. Pricing: Free 14 day trial; $79/mo for small teams; $139/mo for advanced features; $239/mo for larger teams with advanced features; Enterprise solutions require consultation demo and feature flexible billing. Prices billed annually. Mention: Monitor real time social feeds and react to customer feedback in seconds rather than days. Pricing: Free 14 day trial; $29/mo for personal use; $99/mo for small teams; $299/mo for larger corporations; $799/mo for enterprise solutions. SimplyMeasured: Analytics and social conversation management integrated into one very comprehensive solution. Pricing: Request for free trial; $500/mo for limited needs; $800/mo for mid sized teams; $2000/mo+ for enterprise solutions. Creative Design Software Adobe Creative Suite: Industry standard for creative and design professionals for over 20 years. Pricing model has recently changed to a subscription model and downloaded through the Adobe Cloud. Pricing: Free 30 day trial; $49/mo per user; $79.98/mo per user with included Adobe Stock images; large enterprise solutions require consultation. Canva: Online design solution with intuitive interface for users who aren’t necessarily design professionals. Pricing: Free; paid features are per project such as $1 per stock image used. Piktochart: Easy to use infographic solution with thousands of free templates and icons to choose from. Pricing: Free with limited features; $29/mo for advanced features. All-In-One Content Solutions Percolate: Connects marketing teams, tasks, creative, data and software tools to accelerate productivity, reduce operating costs, and help businesses of all sizes grow their revenue. Pricing: Percolate doesn’t publically share it’s pricing information since their software is fully customized to meet it’s client’s content marketing needs, but you can expect pricing to be competitive with HubSpot; request a demo for more information. HubSpot: Coined the term inbound marketing, responsible for much what content marketing has become today. Their all in one solution is one of the industry standards. Pricing: Varies based on number of contacts; $200/mo for 100 contacts; $800/mo for up to 1000 contacts; $2400/mo for up to 10k contacts; $10/mo per 1k extra contacts. Marketo: This all-in-one marketing solution helps with lead generation, grow customer relationships, and increase marketing ROI. Pricing: Varies based on number of contact records; $1395/mo for up to 10k records with standard plan; $2995/mo for up to 10k with advanced plan; consultation required for larger enterprise solutions. Considerations Before Signing a Contract Before you sign on the dotted line for any content marketing solution or partner, you should carefully consider exactly what you are interested in accomplishing with content and what areas your company needs the most help with. Focus on creating realistic goals and how much those goals are worth to your business. Set clear expectations in the beginning and be wary of any solution that appears too good to be true, or are drastically discounted for the results that they promise. This can be an indication of future trouble and extra work that takes away from your other business objectives. If your goal is to succeed with content marketing, then it’s essential that your company makes the right investments in both resources and talent in order to execute your efforts effectively. For more insights on how to be a better marketer, sign up for Brian Honigman's weekly newsletter.

Ashley Madison Is The Latest Proof That The Internet Does Not Keep Secrets

Secrecy is at the core of Ashley Madison's business model. The dating site, which caters to people looking to cheat on their spouses, bills itself as “the world’s leading service for discreet encounters." Millions of people created Ashley Madison accounts, believing it to be a risk-free environment. No longer. On July 15, a group calling itself the Impact Team hacked into Ashley Madison's site, lifting the personal information of some 32 million users. The hackers on Tuesday posted what appears to be the full data set online. It includes an array of information about individual users, according to Quartz, including their name, address, phone number, birthdate and the last four digits of their credit card. Also included are details from user bios, with descriptors like, "I May Be Spoken 4 But I Speak 4 Myself.” Chat rooms and websites have long been a way for people to behave in a manner that they'd rather not publicize to their friends, neighbors and spouses. Logging into a website used to seem more anonymous and less detectible than flirting at a local bar; shopping online an embarrassment-free way of purchasing a vibrator or facial hair bleach. But as hackings, like those of Sony, the IRS and Home Depot, become more commonplace, this notion of online anonymity seems less realistic than ever. The Internet never was a place where people could be anonymous in plain sight, but people probably won't stop treating it that way. The Internet was created as a way of connecting people, but even its founders are skeptical about whether these connections can ever be truly private. Vint Cerf, who developed the TCP/IP network protocol, a technology that forms the basic communication language of the Internet, has expressed doubt that anyone can shield their identity on the web. “If you want a life of anonymity, join the French Foreign Legion,” he told Forbes in 2011, adding that “the Internet is brittle and fragile and too easy to take down.” Robert Kahn, who "invented" the Internet along with Cerf, told The Huffington Post that the web is no different than society as a whole. Using cash might make a transaction seem secret, "but cameras are everywhere," he wrote in an email. "There are lots of things one can do to conceal one's identity, but I suspect experts in the field can piece together clues of all kinds." There are ways to be more anonymous online. You can use Tor or a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, to surf the web without leaving a trail of your IP address, the technique Ashley Madison's hackers used to upload their data. But none of these techniques are foolproof. Even users who are especially savvy at concealing their identity make mistakes. In 2012, Hector Xavier Monsegur, a hacker who went by the name "Sabu" and co-founded the hacking group LulzSec, was identified and arrested after he posted comments in a chat service thinking he was using a VPN, software that makes your browsing anonymous. He hadn't connected to the network, and was caught, and became an informant for the FBI. That kind of mix-up happens often, according to Rick Holland, a security analyst at advisory firm Forrester Research. “[Experienced Internet users] think they’re working in some kind of encryption and they’re not,” he said. “Even typing things on a computer -- they think they’re in a window within [their system] and really they’re connected to another.” People who are less savvy than Monsegur are even more at risk on the web, especially when giving personal information to sites like Ashley Madison. "When you sign up for something that’s a social networking outlet, you’re implicitly giving up some control over that information," said Scott Crawford, research director of information security at 451 Research. But Ashley Madison allows its users, if not actual anonymity, then the veneer of it. You can post under a pseudonym and log in with a fake email address. (Ashley Madison didn’t require email verification.) And even websites tamer than Ashley Madison offer the illusion of anonymity -- which is why people feel comfortable handing over swaths of personal information. It’s why people continue to purchase things on Amazon, even after purchase histories have been hacked and released. “Most people have no idea how vulnerable we are,” Holland added. “Whatever the opposite of anonymous is, that’s what we are.” The dangerous part of our naivety, Holland said, is that people continue to behave as if the web conceals identities. “People do things on 4chan because they’re hiding. People say things on Twitter that they would never say face to face, because the separation they have from the physical world makes them think their identity is secret.” The millions of users whose data was compromised in the Ashley Madison hack will have to confront their private life in public. But Holland doubts that people will stop treating the web as an anonymous space. In the future, users could create fake personas and have one-time use credit cards to protect themselves from data breaches, but he doubts they will. Crawford agrees. "There’s a certain amount of fatalism these days, that breaches are inevitable," he said. "Will that be the case in this instance? Hard to say.”

Project Ara Falls Apart, Update Internet Explorer Now… [Tech News Digest]

Google struggles to keep Project Ara together, Microsoft patches Internet Explorer, play Final Fantasy VII on iOS, Pocket Casts casts pods, find your Ashley Madison email, Kelly Clarkson sings Tinder. Project Ara Is Just Too Fragile Google recently revealed that Project Ara — its effort to create a modular smartphone — has been delayed until 2016. And now we know why. In a nutshell, Project Ara failed the drop test. As Google explained with a tweet promising, “No more electropermanent magnets.” These magnets are what Google has been using to keep the various modules attached to the body of the handset, but they clearly aren’t strong enough to keep the components from separating if dropped. This is a rather serious fail on the part of Google, and it’s no wonder it has forced the company to go back to the drawing board. A follow-up tweet hinted at the possible solution, with Google “testing a signature experience to attach/detach modules”. Whatever that means. Regardless, don’t get your hopes up of buying a modular smartphone anytime in the near future. Internet Explorer Gets Patched Up Microsoft has issued a critical patch for Internet Explorer designed to fix a flaw already being exploited by undesirables. All versions of Internet Explorer, from IE7 to IE11, are affected, although the new Edge browser for Windows 10 is safe. Interestingly, Microsoft is crediting Clement Lecigne of Google with the find. Microsoft explains the issue in a Technet post, saying, “An attacker could host a specially crafted website designed to exploit this vulnerability through IE, and then convince a user to view the website”. Thankfully, there is still an element of user control involved, as “an attacker would have to convince users to take action, typically by getting them to click a link in an instant message or email that takes them to the attacker’s website, or by getting them to open an attachment sent through email”. Users are being advised to update Internet Explorer as soon as possible. We would add that switching to another, probably better, Web browser would also fix the problem. You know Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox both exist, right? Final Fantasy VII Lands on iOS Final Fantasy VII is finally available on iOS, with Square Enix releasing the game in the App Store on Wednesday (Aug. 19). This mobile version of the classic RPG (role-playing game) works on iPhone 5s or later, iPad 3 or later, and iPad mini 2 or later. Final Fantasy VII is priced at $15.99 in the U.S., which is significantly more than most mobile games. But then this is Final Fantasy VII, one of the greatest games ever released on any platform. It also comes with touchscreen controls, and various built-in cheats to help those struggling to make progress. Pocket Casts Adds Nearby Podcasts Pocket Casts, one of the best podcast catchers currently available, has been updated. At least on Android. The update has added a rather cool new feature which offers users a new way of discovering podcasts they currently don’t listen to/have never heard of. The new Nearby tab, found under Discover, shows you the podcasts being listened to by people in close proximity, and what podcasts you have in common with those around you. Provided they have Pocket Casts installed and are sharing the information. Unfortunately, iOS users will have to wait a little longer for the update to reach them. The Ashley Madison Email Finder The hackers who hacked Ashley Madison — the website for people who want to cheat on their significant others — recently dumped the data on the dark web. As a result, a lot of people are enduring a tough week, after being exposed as (potential) cheaters. However, it turns out that many of the email addresses used to sign up to Ashley Madison were used without their owner’s permission. Which means your email address could have been used even though you had never even heard of Ashley Madison before last month’s incident. Thankfully, there is a simpl ways to discover if your email address was caught up in the scandal. Simply type your email address into cynic.al, and you’ll at least know if you have some explaining to do. We just hope your partner believes you’re entirely innocent of any wrongdoing. Kelly Clarkson Sings Tinder Profiles And finally, to succeed at Tinder — which essentially means scoring more dates than anyone else — you really need to spend some time on your profile. Pitching it just right is essential to Tinder effectively. Unless, that is, you personally know Kelly Clarkson. This video shows American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson singing a selection of Tinder profiles. She makes them all sound good, whether they’re bland, odd, or even a little bit perverted. So, there’s the answer: if you’re struggling to Tinder, make friends with a singer. [H/T CNET] Your Views on Today’s Tech News Do you have any interest in Project Ara? Are you still using Internet Explorer? Will you be buying Final Fantasy VII on iOS? Is Pocket Casts your favorite podcatcher? Was your email address caught up in the Ashley Madison hack? Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome.

In India, Rural Internet Rollout Remains a Pipe Dream

Updated Aug. 20, 2015 5:42 a.m. ET NEW DELHI—India’s Communications Ministry has big plans to connect hundreds of millions of villagers to the Internet. But for now, it is struggling to conquer email. In a cramped government office, a secretary tells a visitor that it will take 15 minutes for an email she sent to arrive in his inbox. The local broadband connection is poor, he explains. When the message does arrive, he prints it and carries it to his boss, Aruna Sundararajan, head of Bharat Broadband Network Ltd., the state enterprise spearheading India’s Web-expansion push. Ms. Sundararajan prefers to have some of her work email delivered by hand. This is where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of a “Digital India” meets reality. In early July, the leader of the world’s largest democracy outlined ambitious plans to get rural Indians onto the information superhighway—in large part by ramping up a long-delayed effort to connect hundreds of thousands of villages to the national Internet backbone using fiber-optic cable. The original 2013 target date for completion has been shunted back to 2019. “India may have missed the industrial revolution, but will not miss the IT revolution,” Mr. Modi said, pledging to hook up 600 million rural Indians for online access to government services, education, e-commerce, banking and health care. Accomplishing that is a tall order. Fiber-optic cables—which transmit data at high speeds and at a lower cost than satellite or spectrum technology—can be difficult to put down in hard-to-reach areas. The installation program that started in 2011 is woefully behind schedule: Just 1% of the planned 250,000 central village hubs are connected to the Internet, according to the government. Mr. Modi is trying to kick the project into high gear by slashing red tape. The premier also set up the Committee on the National Fibre Optic Network to evaluate the previous government’s plan to lay 372,000 miles of last-mile cable at a cost of $3.1 billion. It has issued a report saying almost three times as much cabling is required and that the price tag for the government will rise to about $11.2 billion. “The old plan was a rural road, this is a broadband highway, a superhighway,” Ms. Sundararajan said. The committee also recommended allowing greater participation by state governments and the private sector in the construction and maintenance of a network that so far has been in the hands of a few state-owned behemoths. The proposals are awaiting cabinet approval. “The private sector is ready to go,” said Ankit Agarwal, global head of telecom products at Pune-based Sterlite Technologies Ltd. EQSTRTECH -0.41 % , which is one of the government’s main cable suppliers. Private firms are expected to deliver and operate the village hubs’ fiber-optic networks in 10 of India’s 29 states—including some of its largest—and lay cable in at least three others, according to the network committee’s report. Jaideep Ghosh, a partner at KMPG India who focuses on telecoms, said the industry wasn't “overly excited to take part.” He cited the expected slow pace of the installation and that telecommunications companies have already reached the most-lucrative population centers. Phone and cable companies “are focused on markets where money can be made.” Work in India is speeding up. More than 11,500 miles of optical fiber have been laid between April and June this year, a huge improvement from the same period a year ago, when around 250 miles of fiber was installed. But the task ahead remains gargantuan. In 2013, 1.06 billion Indians were still without Internet access, according to a report by McKinsey & Co. Internet penetration was 15% in India, compared with 46% in China. If connectivity can be improved in Asia’s third largest economy, it could become a vast new marketplace for online companies. Amazon has set up an Indian arm to tap India’s e-commerce market, which is set to soar to over $100 billion in the next five years from the current $11 billion, according to Morgan Stanley. MS -1.00 % Local e-commerce companies such as Flipkart Internet Pvt. and Snapdeal.com, owned by Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd., have been getting large-scale financial backing from investors. In October, Japan’s SoftBank Corp. 9984 2.21 % invested more than $600 million in Snapdeal. India’s shortcomings in building traditional infrastructure mean it doesn’t have the roads, bridges, power lines and predictable electricity supply that would make it easier to connect the country. Getting access to land through India’s myriad local and federal government bodies that control access to rights of way has also checked momentum. Work on the network has so far only begun in 19% of the village clusters, and of those, 15% have faced delays getting access to the land because of red tape, according to the committee’s report. A shortage of duct through which to feed the fiber has also held progress back, as have problems with the government-developed technology to connect the cables to the schools, community centers and hospitals they are meant to serve with the Internet. “It is a monumental project but it really can be a game changer for India,” said Ms. Sundararajan. “We’re going from dial-up to actual broadband pace.”

Write to Joanna Sugden at joanna.sugden@wsj.com

4 Farm Finance Strategies

A quick look at three scenarios reveals how this sample cash crop farm will have a large negative cash flow, says Kelvin Leibold, Iowa State University. “At year’s end, it will have a lower current ratio, less working capital, and struggling net income,” he says. New machinery was purchased in 2013. “If you buy machinery with cash, you eat up working capital, and this can put your business at more risk,” he says. “Buying machinery utilizing credit will impact future cash flows and working capital.” In 2014, this producer had 38% of dollars (working capital) needed; by 2015, it had dropped to 24%. The current ratio slipped from 2.2 to 1.6. Replacing corn with soybeans would improve net cash flow by $23,000 – a bigger help than dropping 200 acres of high cash rent ground. Stretching debt out would help net cash flow, shore up the current ratio, and improve the working capital-to-gross revenues ratio. “We need to know the family living costs and how government payments are included,” Leibold says. “This producer is living off of working capital.” He advises producers to understand their financials before meeting with a lender. “It’s a challenge to explain how you can have declining net worth and still be profitable,” he says. “You can be profitable with negative cash flow if you’ve spent it on bins and equipment. Or you could lose money feeding cattle and have positive cash flow if you keep borrowing. Be ready to explain the change in your numbers. Was it a divorce? Or was it a new grain dryer to improve efficiency?" 1) Focus on breakevens and marketingAndy and I are reviewing our balance sheet, breakevens, and cash flow more frequently. Understanding our overall financial picture makes it easier to make sales when opportunities present themselves. Our overall financial picture helps determine where we need to make sales in our marketing plan. However, the markets may not give us all we need or want. So we sometimes make sales if we’re getting to a point in the year when we need to execute more sales. Then, we’ll look at whether to reown at a later date. We mostly utilize a hedge account to sell futures and make cash sales based upon when basis is strong.– LaVell Winsor, Kansas 2) Position for the long haulProducers who are burning working capital may need to explore several scenarios, including an overhaul of their financial engines. Example: A farmer has about 1,200 acres of corn and soybeans with 225 acres owned. The average per-acre cash rent is $250. New machinery was purchased in 2013 to save taxes. Three scenarios are planting less corn and more soybeans; dropping cash rented acres; and debt restructuring. “Many farmers won’t part with money-losing land,” Swanson says. “Farm the best, leave the rest.” “It’s a tough decision,” counters Dale Nordquist, Center for Farm Financial Mangtement, University of Minnesota. “The returns from most rented land cover direct costs and some of the overhead. Most farmers have geared their operation to their land base. Can they make other adjustments? The question is long term." He adds, “Debt restructuring is a last resort. My concern about preemptive debt restructuring is that short-term debt may build back up again.” 3) Examine your ROIWe have stopped making any capital purchases that don’t result in a high return on investment. Our equipment dealer came up with some pretty good offers, but with $3 corn and $9 beans, we’ll get by using our equipment for a few years. We upgraded our tractors and combine in 2009 and 2011. We’ve experimented with vertical tillage, but some of our soil types benefit from chisel plowing. This year we no-tilled into the cornstalks where we had used vertical tillage. We had one pass in the fall, put on the burndown, and then planted. It reduced expenses, was more timely, and preserved soil. We’ll see what happens with our yields. – Ron Moore, Illinois 4) Do it yourselfWe have always hired a custom crew to apply the manure from the barns, but it was a struggle to get them there on time and have them do the job the way we would ourselves. Recently, we bought a 9,500-gallon tanker, two transport tanks, agitators, and transfer pump. Now we’re able to pump our barns in a timely manner, and we save a lot of cost. We pump a neighbor’s barn, too, so it was an opportunity for more business. The savings will cover our investment in a little over two years, not counting any custom work. Knowing that we’ll get the manure pumped before the ground freezes has a huge value to us. We also plan to start selling bred heifers every year. It’s always been our plan, but we’re finally up to our target herd size. We have AI’ed about 300 heifers, and we’ll market them in December. Our commercial herd is built on good genetics from leading Angus and Red Angus breeders. Getting that value out of the bred female vs. a backgrounded yearling should improve our net gain.– Drew Peterson, South Dakota

Apple’s secretive self-driving car project is further along than people thought

The robocars wars are really heating up. Two weeks ago, The Guardian outed Google Auto, the stealth self-driving car company the search giant set up in 2011. Today, the Guardian has a new report with what seems like the first definitive news that Apple is building an autonomous vehicle of its own: Apple is building a self-driving car in Silicon Valley, and is scouting for secure locations in the San Francisco Bay area to test it, the Guardian has learned. Documents show the oft-rumoured Apple car project appears to be further along than many suspected. In May, engineers from Apple’s secretive Special Project group met with officials from GoMentum Station, a 2,100-acre former naval base near San Francisco that is being turned into a high-security testing ground for autonomous vehicles. In correspondence obtained by the Guardian under a public records act request, Apple engineer Frank Fearon wrote: “We would … like to get an understanding of timing and availability for the space, and how we would need to coordinate around other parties who would be using [it].” The code name for Cupertino’s robotic car operation is Project Titan, which the Wall Street Journal reported in February. In recent months Apple CEO Tim Cook has had meetings with car manufacturers, and the company has been poaching engineers with expertise in automotive. It’s also been making investments in artificial intelligence and computer vision, two important fields for making robotic cars work. According to documents obtained by The Guardian, Apple has set up a nondescript satellite office that houses staff dedicated to the project. As is to be expected, access is restricted. According to The Guardian, Apple has been looking into testing its robocars at GoMentum Station, which is an old naval weapons station 40 miles north of Silicon Valley. With some 20 miles of highways and roads, it’s a bit like an older version of MicCity, a fake town set up by the University of Michigan to test and research self-driving cars. The big plus with GoMentum station, though, is the level of security and privacy it offers, which if you know Apple, is a big plus. The company has a long history of CIA-level secrecy. Other companies working on self-driving cars, including Google and Tesla, have expressed interest in testing their vehicles there. But, according to The Guardian, only Honda “has signed a $250,000 memorandum of understanding with the facility to begin testing.” Honda plans to “use self-driving versions of its RLX saloon to accelerate the development of automated and connected vehicle technologies far from prying eyes.” Autonomous cars are going to require very detailed mapping. Google is the clear leader here, though Apple, too, has made investments in mapping in recent years. Last week, automakers Mercedes Benz, Audi and BMW announced they’d pooled together $3.1 billion to collectively buy Nokia’s digital mapping tech, dubbed HERE. The self-driving car space is looking more and more like the smartphone market, where Apple and Google are the clear leaders, and everyone else is trying to catch up.

Tesla, Uber, & Internet Sales Taxes – Quit Being So Easily Duped

If you’ll please forgive a bit of navel gazing, we need to have a little talk about social media, political action, issue advocacy, and earned media. I’ve always avoided characterizing what Peach Pundit “is”. I find that really is in the eye of the beholder. But I have found over the years that we have an evolving role in public debate and issue advocacy. I’ve also started to notice a pattern. We’re all being used. Readers of right-leaning political blogs tend to fit a profile. We’re libertarian leaning with a bit of a populist bent. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s our market segment, and that helps those that wish to market to us hone a message. I’ll use this week’s story about Tesla wanting to sell cars directly to consumers as an example of what I’m talking about so this makes sense. It generally follows an accepted formula to help you engage on their behalf, without letting pesky facts or shades of gray enter into your strong belief that Tesla is a complete victim of overarching government regulation and greedy auto dealers. Got that? Let’s begin. The first step in this process is that a news story is “originated”. In cases where the company has a legislative interest at stake, that’s often with the help of a skilled PR firm. There’s no shame in that, and I’ve had PR contracts with companies that do this sort of thing before (client interests are disclosed on the rare occasion I write about my own clients). News is rarely organic these days. PR folks help make sure the right message gets to the right people. Then, via the magic of social media (including folks like us), these stories spread. Often with a unified theme. In Tesla’s case, this is a company that is not allowed to sell cars in Georgia which is a violation of the free market. Why isn’t Tesla allowed to compete like a company should? Cue outrage. The problem is that in most cases like this, “free market” is a meaningless bumper sticker slogan designed to draw you in without any analysis of the actual facts or merits of the situation. “Free market” is a concept. For it to exist in reality, we would have to live in a world without taxes or regulation. We don’t. So what happens to Tesla’s argument if we make the subtle change from “Free Market” to “Level Playing Field”? Well, first we would have to look at the fact that Tesla managed to turn itself into a legitimate company courtesy of a Federal loan in the amount of $465 Million Dollars. This was in 2009, when private capital from the “free market” was quite scarce. To be fair, GM and Chrysler (now Fiat) got a lot of government money too. But the folks screaming “free market” are still upset with GM and Chrysler, often citing that the Government shouldn’t pick winners and losers. Tesla was picked as a winner too. Tesla also represents an example of government privatizing profits and socializing losses. As this Slate article points out, Tesla’s loans were given at rates well below anything would have been offered from the private equity markets. Now the company has a $35.6 Billion dollar market cap. The government didn’t get equity that would be accustom to a high tech startup. Instead, they got roughly 3% interest. How’s that “free market” looking now? It’s looking pretty good. Tesla announced yesterday that it will be building a plant in Nevada to build batteries. Government incentives are estimated at $1.2 Billion over the next 20 years. This is where “level playing field” works better for Tesla. It’s hard to call $1.2 BN in incentives “free market”, but auto plants routinely get $300M-$500M in incentives for a new plant. Tesla has some “buzz” to generate a bit more, and the scope of the plant may be bigger. Or, Nevada just needed the win and overpaid. Regardless, not “free market”, but every manufacturer plays the same game. Tesla got a big win from Nevada. If you buy a Tesla in Georgia, the “free market” will give you $12,500 in income tax credits. You can take an additional $2,500 if you buy a charger for your business. You get to drive in HOV lanes with only one passenger in the car for free. And Georgia Power will give you reduced electric rates. That’s some level playing field they have there. But if that’s not enough, Tesla’s website asks you to contact your state representative and ask for more. To level the playing field. So what’s the problem? Tesla doesn’t want to sell cars through independent dealers. Instead, they have a fairly nondescript sales and service center off the 120 loop in Marietta which is company owned. That’s only legal in Georgia because Tesla got an exemption provided they would only sell 150 cars per year. The Georgia Automobile Dealers Association claims they’ve sold 173 cars, and wants them to stop selling cars. Cue the manufactured outrage. You can get an idea of the typical response from the comments in this post from earlier in the week. They can be summed up as 1) Auto Dealers are greedy and thus should be punished. 2) Auto Dealers have lobbyists. 3) Any attempt by the greedy auto dealers and their evil lobbyists to not let Tesla do exactly what it wants the way it wants is a violation of the free market. It’s the same it you take out Tesla and insert Uber, or internet merchants. Exactly. The. Same. Argument. Let’s stick with Tesla to finish the point. First, Tesla has lobbyists. Here they are. Good people, no shame in that. But pretending that Tesla is pure and the other side isn’t because they have lobbyists is a ridiculous argument, especially for readers of an inside baseball type of publication such as this. Please do not ever cite “they have lobbyists” as an argument as if this is a one sided, unique occurrence. It’s just dumb. Then there’s the populist argument that’s pretty easy to make against car dealers. They are industry that’s pretty unpopular. Almost as unpopular as politicians. But you know who likes auto dealers? Politicians. Why? Because outside of metro Atlanta, most of them aren’t the corporate megadealers that you see all over Atlanta TV. They’re local, independent businessmen. They’re “good corporate citizens”. They sponsor little league teams and anchor local United Way pledge drives. And they employ people. Perhaps most importantly, they generate tax revenue. A lot of it. They’ve also invested a lot into the current system. As have brick and mortar retailers. As have the owners of taxi cab medallions. Those orchestrating the PR campaigns based on the fact that somehow asking new entrants into industries to compete on a level playing field are killing the “free market” want you to ignore that there’s already a market, with people that have made investment decisions based on the rules, operating in the current “free market”. We should always look at ways to deregulate any market where it is feasible. Of those mentioned above, the taxicab industry is perhaps the most ripe for that. But this shouldn’t be done based on the manufactured perception that a new entrant into an industry is special, and deserves to “compete” based on rules that it only wants applied to itself. That, quite frankly, is the opposite of the free market. And in this case, that’s exactly what Tesla is asking for. That, and for you to contact your representative for more incentives to buy their cars in a distribution channel only available to them. In a “free” market. Frankly, I’m not sure if the law requiring auto manufacturers to sell through independent dealers is still required. There is an argument to be made that competition is actually increased under this model as the dealers must compete with each other on price and service if you want a Chevrolet, whereas there’s no negotiation with a Tesla. Or, one could argue that it isn’t a proper state role to create this barrier to entry. The fact remains, the auto market in Georgia has had this barrier for decades. It’s how the market currently works. And any change to that is a fundamental change to how a lot of Georgia businesses/employers operate, with a lot of deployed capital on the line. As such, it deserves a serious debate. Not a PR campaign that screams “free market” with no understanding of the term.

Will EPA have to pay for polluting river?

Story highlights An EPA cleanup team accidentally caused a massive spill of pollutants into the Animas River Cevallos: The law gives government immunity from liability for the damages it causes, though there are ways around that That's right. EPA was there to help fix the water, and instead ended up contaminating a lot more water. Danny Cevallos Danny Cevallos Danny Cevallos Many are demanding that EPA be held liable for this environmental disaster, which has flooded our screens with images of mustard-colored streams. In the past, when companies like offshore oil-drilling company Transocean and oil company BP were deemed responsible for leaking millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, corporate heads rolled. Money settlement figures were in the billions, and employees were criminally prosecuted. So, will the EPA similarly be held accountable? Not likely. As Mel Brooks famously said: "It's good to be the King." And, as President Nixon infamously said: "When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal." In modern times, for the EPA, it's good to be the government, especially when what it does is not illegal. Though the United States is no longer (technically) a monarchy, the government still enjoys today what is called "sovereign immunity" from civil and criminal liability. The sovereign immunity doctrine prevents any entity, governmental or private, from suing the federal government unless -- unless the government gives its permission -- to be sued. And, as you might expect, when the government decides when and if the government can be sued, well, they have a tendency to side with themselves. To be fair, the government does give its consent to be sued from time to time. Many of the environmental statutes, like the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act, contain provisions that allow citizens to sue the EPA when the EPA fails to perform an act or duty. Just because the government consents to being sued doesn't mean that the government can't make it an unappetizing process. Citizen suit provisions -- against both federal and state agencies -- usually require extra obstacles, like formal notifications in advance of filing the lawsuit. Claims for civil wrongs against the government are barred unless presented in writing to the appropriate Federal agency within two years. The takeaway: Even when the government waives its immunity, it still partially cloaks itself in all manner of procedural defenses against a would-be plaintiff. It's interesting that the same behavior that will get a CEO indicted, or a company sued into bankruptcy, might not even be actionable against the government. Sovereign immunity isn't just a legal doctrine. It's a culture. Even if you don't work for or with the government, you and every other citizen has been exposed to the sediment of immunity. Don't believe me? Pick up the phone and call the 1-800 number for Chick-fil-A and ask a question about their spicy chicken sandwich deluxe. Then hang up and call your local government agency to find out about how to get the licenses and permits if you want to open your own Chick-fil-A. Odds are, the private corporation will burn more calories providing you services than the public entity. We've all wasted time on hold with government entities, where it's apparent there is zero quality control, and customer service just ain't a priority. Don't get me wrong: you can reach a helpful person at a courthouse or a probation department, but they are helpful because they choose to be -- not because the system incentivizes service. Private companies, on the other hand, offer 50 different ways to reach them: fax, e-mail, Twitter, online chats, are only a few. Good luck finding anything other than a main telephone number for municipal administration services. To be fair, if you told me tomorrow that my private practice was immune from all criminal, civil, or professional liability, and I'd get a pension when I retired, I'd probably stop answering the phone and sleep til noon. Heck, I'd probably start leaving work at three and taking three-month paid vacations in the summer. Of course, I'm kidding. Even government employees don't take three-month summer vacations -- oh wait -- well, some do, but that's not the question here. The question is whether sovereign immunity is good policy when the government does something really negligent. Hopefully the government will do the right thing and take care of those states and citizens who have been affected by the spill, without lawsuits and courts. Perhaps federal agencies will provide assistance and services to those damaged by the pollutants in the river. Then again, good-intentioned federal agencies trying to help is exactly why this happened in the first place. To be fair, the EPA has been sued in the past and will be sued again. And while suing the "King" is rarely easy, it can be done. But it's not so much the government's legal immunity, but the culture of immunity that is the problem. When private companies cause ecological disasters, we go after them in criminal and civil court. When the government does the same thing, it feels like the punishment is less severe. Maybe President Nixon was right. Maybe when the government, the executive, or the king does something illegal, it becomes legal simply because the government does it. When President Nixon said this in an interview, we were shocked. Maybe he wasn't that far off. Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion. Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion. Read CNNOpinion's Flipboard magazine.

Ferguson to New York, Social Media Is the Organizer’s Biggest Megaphone

Within minutes of the grand jury’s decision Wednesday, Twitter and Facebook lit up with thousands of messages around hashtags such as #EricGarner, #ICantBreathe and #BlackLivesMatter. Facebook pages called for protests in cities around the country. Hundreds of people soon crowded in protest at New York’s Grand Central Station and Times Square. This was not serendipitous. The speed with which these demonstrations came together and grew reflected intense planning by organizers and activists and shows how social media has matured into a crucial tactic for coordinating activity, drawing people to the streets and trading tips. “This can happen offline, but online we can amplify it more, and it reaches people faster,” says New York-based feminist media activist Jamia Wilson. “This is why these on-the-ground demonstrations can happen so quickly.” A similar scenario played out last week around the grand jury’s decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. In that case, organizers had prepared ahead of time by using social media to organize demonstrations, setting up a website that mapped out potential places to protest and a Tumblr page to denote protests happening in places around the country. Organizers Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes, both in Chicago, for example, started a Facebook event page planning protests in their city. They tried to estimate when the Ferguson decision would be made, and updated the page accordingly. In part due to their planning, the protest unfolded very quickly. With the momentum of the success of the Michael Brown protests, activists were again able to set the stage, deciding on hashtags ahead of time and choosing locations to gather at after the New York verdict. Hayes was following conversations on Twitter Wednesday ahead of the Eric Garner decision, when she saw mention of a peace circle to be held in Rogers Park, Chicago, in memory of Garner. She arrived at 6 p.m., to find 40 others already there. After meticulous planning, once the demonstrations begin it’s the vivid photos and videos sent by people on the scene that ultimately spur throngs of others to join the protests, social-media experts say. “You can see that it’s not just five people standing in Times Square — it’s people marching throughout the city,” said Marcus Messner, associate professor of journalism at Virginia Commonwealth University who teaches social-media journalism. “The immediate visuals we’re seeing on Twitter and Instagram help people overcome that barrier to getting out and protesting.” Antonio French learned about unrest in Ferguson in a tweet from a traditional news outlet that used the term “mob” in it. The St. Louis alderman wanted to see for himself. When he arrived at the site of the protests, he found no media there, and no one capturing what the community was saying and feeling. “My role in those first few days was kind of like a reporter,” said the former journalist, whose Twitter following has climbed from about 4,000 before the Mike Brown protests to 120,000 today. His role has changed, he said, to peacekeeper, and then mediator between protesters and police. All of that has had a social media aspect to it, he said. “Had it not been for Twitter, I’m pretty sure that Ferguson would not have become what it has,” he said. “In fact, it’s now hard to talk about Ferguson without hashtag Ferguson.” He said he has watched as even the Ferguson police have joined the Twitter conversation. This isn’t the first time protests organized on social media have grown to such large proportions of course. In Egypt in 2010 and 2011, for example, people organized around the Facebook group “We Are All Khaled Said,” created in memory of a young man who was killed by the police after he had posted anti-police videos online from an Internet café. His murder sparked protests that ultimately led to the revolution that toppled long-time President Hosni Mubarak. One of the advantages activists have found to organizing on social media, both in Egypt as well as now in the U.S., is the ease with which they can trade ideas on the best ways to plan events. Shortly after Brown was killed, for example, New York-based activist ‘Feminista Jones’ called for people to volunteer to host local national moments of silence to mourn Brown on Aug. 14 under the hashtag #nmos14. People who had never launched a protest asked on Twitter: “What materials do we need?” “How do we get the word out?” Some activists recommended using “light boards” that can project messages on buildings to help get the attention of passersby and tell them where the protests are occurring and what the messages are. “Across different states, you see similar demonstration tactics being used because social media allows us to share,” Chicago-based activist Suey Park says. Hayes notes that social media has also made it more likely that mainstream media will notice an event, if not as it is unfolding, then later when reporters notice the trail of photos and comments on Twitter and Facebook. “Before we had Twitter and Facebook, the main chance for people to learn about our event was if the media covered it,” she said. “Now with social media, we cover our own story.” As organizers tell their story, many are keen to elevate the voices of the people most involved in local communities. “Yes, it’s important to retweet reporters, it’s important to retweet the news, but for this, many groups are advising their grassroots members to retweet people on the ground to elevate their stories,” Wilson says. But even as activists call on one another to retweet certain voices, no single face has emerged for this movement. “People are looking for an overarching leader, and I don’t think that we’re going to find that,” says Joseph Mayton, a blogger who reported in Cairo throughout the Arab Spring and now lives in California’s Bay Area. “There is no need for one leader—people can come together online and do their own thing, and head into the streets and make change.” Twitter’s data team put together a map showing the global conversation around the hashtags #BlackLivesMatter, #HandsUpDontShoot and #ICantBreathe. Note how the colors change as the news unfolds: –Jeff Elder contributed to this article

Top 10 Social Media Plugins for WordPress

Social media is a crucial component for any online marketing strategy. If you’re running your small business website on the WordPress platform, it’s incredibly easy to integrate social. There are hundreds of ready made social media plugins for WordPress to choose from. Your choice of social media plugins for your WordPress website will depend on which social platforms you use actively, what kind of content you offer on your site, and the best look and placement of social tools that complements your website design. From simple to richly featured, below are some of the best WordPress plugins for social media. Digg Digg This versatile plugin by Buffer comes with plenty of customization options and integrates with virtually any social media platform. With Digg Digg, you can create either a floating social media bar with left or right scrolling options, or sharing buttons that automatically populate at the top or bottom of each of your blog posts. Digg Digg can be used with Twitter, Facebook, Buffer, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr – just about any social channels you might use. Facebook options include both Like and Share, and “lazy loading” helps you cut down on load times for your website. Flare Simple and eye-catching, the Flare plugin not only gives you customizable share buttons, but also lets you create and display a Follow Me widget, so your visitors can one-click follow your social media channels right from your website. The plugin is compatible with major social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and more. You can customize the appearance of the buttons, and place the share bar at the top or bottom of posts, or to the left and right of your pages. The left and right options scroll down the page with viewers, and auto-hide when not in use. ShareThis With great customization, tons of features, and more than 120 supported social media platforms, ShareThis is one of the popular social media plugins for WordPress that’s been downloaded more than 1.5 million times. This plugin tool offers more than social buttons, which come in the form of a Hovering Bar that can be displayed on the right or left side of your pages, with counters and your choice of small or large buttons. In addition, ShareThis has built-in social analytics, a CopyNShare widget that helps you track shares when your content is copied and pasted, and more. Share Buttons by AddThis One of the most popular and recognizable social media plugins for WordPress, AddThis Share Buttons let you integrate with more than 330 social platforms and bookmarking sites, as well as email sharing. While there isn’t an option for a floating sidebar, the plugin gives you plenty of layout choices – and you can also get free analytics when you create an AddThis account. Floating Social Media Icon Highly rated and popular, the Floating Social Media Icon plugin gives you a customizable, configurable social bar that flies onto the screen and scrolls along with visitors. You can also disable floating and set up static icons with this plugin. Floating Social Media Icon gives you more than 20 different icon styles to choose from, so you can match the themes and styles of your website. It also supports multiple widgets, so you can display various social media buttons separately on your pages. Social Media Feather Lightweight yet powerful, Social Media Feather is a simple, high-performing social plugin that keeps speeds up and load times down by not using JavaScript. The buttons have a clean, modern look, and you can customize the appearance with social icons skins. This plugin supports shortcodes, and is currently the only social sharing plugin that supports Retina and high-resolution displays used by mobile devices like the iPad 5. Slick Social Sharing Buttons If you’re looking for a social media plugin for WordPress that’s easy to implement and comes with plenty of options, try Slick Social Sharing Buttons. This plugin lets you customize button types, specify which pages and posts to display social sharing on, and choose from either a floating or slide-out share bar. You can also customize location, direction, floating speed, animation speed and more. Slick Social Sharing Buttons supports shortcodes, and gives you a social analytics dashboard to help you track your sharing activity. Social Media Widget With a long list of supported social platforms, including email and RSS, and some fun and interesting customizations, Social Media Widget is an easy-to-use plugin that creates a sidebar widget for social sharing, with links that open a separate tab or window when clicked. Social Media Widget offers three icon sizes, four icon styles (Web 2.0, Sketch, Heart and Cutout), and four animation types to make your social media buttons stand out on the page. Shareaholic The feature-rich, powerful Shareaholic offers more than social sharing. With a stated aim to help you get readers to “actually discover and submit your articles to numerous social bookmarking sites,” this plugin supports Facebook (both Like and Send), Google+, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn and other major social platforms, with share counters for many of them. In addition, Shareaholic comes with Classic Bookmarks, a Recommendations & Related Content tool, built-in Social Analytics, and official support for Google’s URL shortener as well as Google Analytics. Share Buttons by AddToAny Offering support for more than 100 social sites in 19 languages, AddToAny Share Buttons is one of the most popular social media plugins for WordPress with almost 3 million downloads. It’s easy to customize and fully featured, and supports both shares and interactive clicks – including Facebook Likes, a Tweet button for Twitter, a “Pin It” button for Pinterest, a +1 button for Google+ and more. Bookmarking and email buttons integrate with the most popular email services (Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Outlook / Hotmail, AOL, and nearly every Web-based or desktop email program). You can customize the appearance and position of the AddToAny share bar, and integrate with Google Analytics to make the most of your social marketing. BONUS: Microblog Poster A different kind of social plugin, Microblog Poster lets you automatically push your WordPress blog content to various social media platforms. This plugin currently supports Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Delicious and more. It also supports shortcodes and multiple accounts on the same platform. Social Media Photo via Shutterstock More in: WordPress

How Mormons Use The Internet To Spread The Good Word

We tend to think of religions as being conservative, stodgy, or lagging when it comes to anything that has to do with technology, and especially online technology. Therefore it may come as a bit of a surprise to find out that at least one religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are commonly known by the abbreviation “LDS” or the nickname “Mormons,” is one of the most advanced large organizations in the world when it comes to SEO, content marketing, and the use of social media [Full disclosure, I am an active member of the LDS Church]. As a member of this religious community and someone who makes his living from consulting with businesses regarding digital marketing, I have been more than curious to learn from the campaigns the LDS Church has engaged in to get their message out. Here are some of the lessons entrepreneurs and businesses can take from the Mormon way of doing digital marketing. phone with blue background Search Engine Optimization (SEO) SEO, which stands for search engine optimization, includes all activities that influence the ranking of a website on a search engine for a given keyword search. The higher a website’s rankings, the more traffic it gets. Digital marketing consultant Justin Briggs analyzed the SEO efforts of the LDS Church in 2010 while working for SEO consultancy Distilled and published his results in a well-read blog post. Given the time that has passed, I decided to revisit a few of Briggs’ findings when it came to the LDS Church’s SEO tactics and results. First, I looked at rankings for non-branded, generic keywords. Although exact results may differ from one person’s computer to another, when I used the SEO software tool SEMRush to analyze Google rankings for the following keywords for desktop users in the United States, I found LDS.org rankings in the top five results for these searches: bible bible dictionary christ church music holy bible holy ghost jesus christ king james bible new testament old testament scriptures It is not easy to rank for these keywords. Using SEMRush’s competitive analysis tool, the only website that outperformed LDS.org on these searches was Wikipedia, and this doesn’t take into account the fact that LDS.org is only one of the more than 100 websites the LDS Church maintains. Others include Mormon.org, ProvidentLiving.org, and OvercomingPornography.org. But the name of the game isn’t just to rank for highly competitive, simple keywords like those above, but to also target a large number of long tail searches, or keyword phrases that are more specific. The number of searches for “holy bible” is certain to outnumber those for “isaiah let us reason together,” (LDS.org ranks fifth on Google for this search) but when you add up the aggregate visitors from millions of specific searches they outweigh the visitors searching for a handful of generic terms. The LDS Church appears to have mastered both. Perhaps this shouldn’t be too surprising coming from a religion that has an official statement on SEO, in which it says “We view SEO as a method to spread the gospel online…” Internally, the LDS Church has taken steps to use best SEO practices on all its websites, making sure each page loads quickly, has a search engine friendly URL, uses easily readable HTML text in place of graphics where possible, and uses title, H1, and other tags properly. Its websites are an excellent case study in how to implement Moz’s oft-referenced Beginner’s Guide to SEO. But one of the greatest assets the LDS Church has when it comes to SEO is its more than 15 million members around the world. Church members have long been encouraged to master technology and use it to spread the gospel message, and they have responded in recent years by setting up personal websites and blogs, many of which link liberally to LDS Church web properties. Inbound links like these are a key factor in how Google determines the credibility or importance of a website and its rankings. Following in Briggs’ footsteps once again, I compared the number of inbound links for LDS.org to those on The Moz Top 500 (last updated January, 2014) and found that the 8.8 million incoming links LDS.org has would put it in 204th place, just ahead of websites like GoDaddy.com and TechCrunch, and slightly behind Weather.com, Slashdot, and Forbes. Entrepreneurs and businesses would do well to encourage their employees and customers to be active technology users, as the LDS Church encourages its membership. As important is sharing the vision and “why” behind the “how,” so that ability is complemented by motivation. This can lead to employees and customers creating their own resources to further motivate their peers, as LDS Church member Larry Richman has done with his blog LDS Media Talk and book 101 Ways to Hasten the Work Online. Content Marketing From its General Conference videos to music from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the LDS Church puts a massive amount of content online. Google has indexed 11.4 million web pages on LDS.org, not all too far behind the BBC which has 12.8 million indexed web pages. But the LDS Church has hundreds of other channels where it distributes content. One of these, the companion to Mormon.org on YouTube, dubbed the “Mormon Channel,” features hundreds of professional quality videos and has 95,000 subscribers. One of the features of the channel is approximately 100 videos detailing the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, which by themselves have been seen millions of times. Paul Fischer, a Salesforce consultant posting on LinkedIn’s Pulse network, explains how the LDS Church used these Bible videos integrated with long form content to produce an Easter-themed webpage entitled “Because He Lives” that is an excellent example of inbound marketing. Fischer points out this is no amateur effort. “Upon inspecting the elements of the Easter website I noticed that the page is using Clicktale,” Fischer says. “Clicktale is a sophisticated software suite that tracks ‘mouse heatmaps.’ Some of their customers include Logitec, Lenovo, and Walmart.” Fischer goes on to explain how the Church effectively used calls to action to lead visitors down various paths, depending on the type of content and topics they were interested in. But as with SEO, the LDS Church’s greatest successes in content marketing appear to originate not from headquarters, but from its members. At Mormon.org the LDS Church has one-page profilles for well known members like José Silva, an actor from Brazil, Elaine Bradley of the Neon Trees, and Brandon Flowers of The Killers, but gives “normal” members myself, Jouni from Finland, or Eunice Eshun from Ghana the ability to create similar profiles where we can share our beliefs and answer questions. Gathering content from members has helped boost the indexed pages for that website to 748,000, and also overlaps as an effective local SEO tactic since each profile is tied to a geographic area. To take things a step further, perhaps even more is being done to promote awareness of the LDS Church and the beliefs of its members by members doing their own thing online, without any assistance whatsoever from the Church. YouTube sensations like the Shaytards, The Piano Guys, DevinSupertramp, and Lindsey Stirling have attracted billions of views to their videos, dwarfing the reach of official LDS Church channels. Key takeaways for businesses? Produce lots of great content and market it well, but even better, inspire your employees and customers to create content for you–they’ll have greater reach. Social Media Ambassador, a referral automation software firm, has compiled a list of 40 studies showing word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing. LDS Church leaders have long understood that while professional marketing and PR may be helpful, and celebrity YouTubers can provide a big boost, the real power for communicating LDS beliefs lays in encouraging every Church member to be a missionary, and that’s why social media has become a focal point in any discussion regarding the Church, missionary work, and technology. “Social media channels are global tools that can personally and positively impact large numbers of individuals and families,” said Elder David A. Bednar, a top leader in the LDS Church, in a 2014 talk entitled To Sweep the Earth as with a Flood, delivered to students at LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University. He continued, “And I believe the time has come for us as disciples of Christ to use these inspired tools appropriately and more effectively to testify.” Some of the LDS Church’s more than 80,000 full time missionaries are spending time browsing social media sites looking to engage anyone willing to discuss topics related to the Church, even if “anyone” means trolls. But it’s normal members who are flooding walls, streams, and boards with gospel-related content. Some of it is initiated by the Church, such as when the use of specific hashtags is encouraged by Church media channels (see #LDSconf), but much of it is spontaneous. In his talk, Elder Bednar spoke of the Instagram account “bofm365” started by Ben and Chelsea Prince of Arizona. Each and every day, the Princes post a new image with a reading assignment in the Book of Mormon. The account has attracted over 68,000 followers to date. The lesson for businesses and entrepreneurs here is not just to encourage employee and customer activity on social networks, but to teach consistency as a key success factor. The Greatest Success Comes From Letting Go Much more has been said (see Are the Mormons Better Than YOU at Content Marketing? by Taylor Stockwell) and could be said on what can be learned from the LDS Church when it comes to digital marketing. If there is any “one big thing” to learn, it’s to let go of control. What is clear from the success of the LDS Church with SEO, content marketing, and social media, is that the largest results have come from outside the Church organization. This couldn’t happen unless the Church took the risk of encouraging its members to use their best judgement, and get to work. Mark Zuckerberg might call this strategy “move fast and break things.” A 150 year old statement from Joseph Smith, the first President of the LDS Church, is just as apt; “I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves.” Have you found digital marketing lessons in unlikely places? Share with us in the comments below. Joshua Steimle is the CEO of MWI, a digital marketing agency with offices in the U.S. and Hong Kong.