Managing Customer Service via Social Media ? Scalable Social ...

Remember the days when gathering customer feedback involved filling out a comment card? ?In these social media-obsessed times, customer service is more likely to involve Tweets and updates than pen and paper!? This should come as no surprise to us in a world where people chose emailing and text messaging as a preferred means of communication.

Consider this: in 2010 filmmaker, Kevin Smith tweeted his complaint about a Southwest Airlines flight. The result? Eight responses from Southwest within a 48 hour period of time. The last being a public apology. Now I don?t know about you, ?but I am pretty sure I have never received that response from a a comment card!? So what?s the lesson for those of us managing a small business? Educating ourselves about the growing need of handling customer service via social media is time well spent.

Social Media or by phone ? People don?t like to wait for customer service

In Customer Service, Every Moment Counts

We all know how frustrating it is to wait for customer service. Try calling a cable company and finding yourself on hold for twenty minutes. By the time we get through to customer service we are even more annoyed than when we picked up the phone. Social media is no different. In fact, with how quickly social media posts are made available to the public eye, this gives even more impetus to addressing comments and complaints promptly. Recent studies have shown that most fans expect a response within 24 hours, yet most businesses are not meeting that expectation.

Don?t Be Afraid to Be Human

While technology has made our lives easier, when online customer service lacks a human touch, you will find it difficult to truly satisfy your customers. Try this: As mentioned above, respond to the matter as quickly as possible via the main account (I.e.@AcmeCustomerService) or from your company?s Facebook Page or Google Plus account, but consider signing the response with your own name, ie., ?? we will do every thing we can to resolve this in a timely manner- Tina G,?.? Give them a way to respond to you directly by phone or email to take the discussion off-air.

Fight the Urge to Delete Negative Comments

Try to remember the customer has made an effort (even if it?s in the form of a complaint) to give your company feedback. Ignoring the comment will not resolve anything, in fact, a customer who feels ignored is liable to get angrier about ?the issue at hand. Make such comments a high priority, addressing them as soon as possible.? Of course, it is your prerogative to delete abusive or profane comments and to block users who continue to ignore your posting policies.

The World is Watching, so Reply in a Kind and Helpful Manner.?

Remember that social media puts your business in a fishbowl and magnifies your personality ? for good or bad. Avoid ?reacting? to negative comments and instead be ?proactive? about attaining a resolution by letting customers know you will do everything possible to rectify the situation. Not only will this calm the frustrated customer, but it may also go a long way in earning the respect of ?prospective customers.

Yes, times have changed. The days of a written complaint via a comment card may well be in our past. However, customer service is customer service, ?whether it?s received formally at a desk, or on a public forum. If we learn to utilize social media as a tool for achieving a high level of customer service both the consumer and entrepreneur is sure to achieve satisfying results.

What has been your experience with customer service via social media? Please share in the comments below!

If your company is interested in becoming a social business, you may enjoy our free eBook on Enhancing Your Internet Presence With Social Media.? Download it today!

About the Author tinagammon (1 Posts)

With six years experience in managing a small business and many more enjoying creative writing as a hobby, Tina is happy to use both as part of the Scalable Social Media team.Tina believes that if you understand something well, you can explain it simply, so that's her aim here. How's she doing? Let her know in the comments! When she's not blogging for Scalable you might find her behind a camera or hiking in Europe.

Source: http://scalablesocialmedia.com/2012/10/customer-service-social-media/

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Photos: Sandy slams the East Coast

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Italy president says Monti government must continue until spring

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How to encourage innovation | ***** - SelfImprovement.ch | betiragrie

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Microsoft: we're calling our apps 'Windows 8 Store Applications'

Ever since those bygone days of Metro, we've all been struggling to figure out precisely what to call the design language of Microsoft's OS offerings. When the question was put to MS's Will Tschumy, the user experience strategist told a crowd at Build that the company is calling Win 8 apps "Windows 8 Store Applications" -- not exactly as elegant as the aesthetic the company is implementing across its products.

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

Microsoft: we're calling our apps 'Windows 8 Store Applications' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pressey factor looms large for 15th-ranked Tigers

Missouri's Keion Bell, left, dunks the ball past Northwest Missouri State's Matt Wallace, right, and Grant Cozad (45) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball exhibition game, Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, in Columbia, Mo. Missouri won 91-58. (AP Photo/L.G. Patterson)

Missouri's Keion Bell, left, dunks the ball past Northwest Missouri State's Matt Wallace, right, and Grant Cozad (45) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball exhibition game, Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, in Columbia, Mo. Missouri won 91-58. (AP Photo/L.G. Patterson)

Missouri head coach Frank Haith, right, watches with new assistant coaches Dave Leitao, center, and Rick Carter, left, during the first half of an NCAA college basketball exhibition game against Northwest Missouri State Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, in Columbia, Mo. Missouri won the game 91-58. (AP Photo/L.G. Patterson)

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) ? Unlike football, Missouri's transition to the SEC might not be so difficult when it comes to the other marquee sport.

Only two players are back from Frank Haith's 30-win debut season, and just one starter, but that's preseason SEC player of the year Phil Pressey. A third cog is back on the front line after a year lost to injury, and then there are all of those blue-chip pickups for the AP national coach of the year to put on the floor when he's ready.

After setting career highs with 10.3 points, 6.4 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 2.1 steals, Pressey spent his summer competing at the LeBron James, Chris Paul and Deron Williams elite camps. Fellow guard Michael Dixon was perhaps the nation's best sixth man with a 13.5-pint average last season, and is a second-team preseason all-conference choice.

Forward Laurence Bowers returns from a left knee injury for his senior season needing just 26 blocks to become No. 2 on the school career list and 126 points for 1,000.

Perhaps it's a team that could finally end Missouri's Final Four drought. Last spring, the Tigers won the Big 12 tournament and were a No. 2 seed in the West before getting upset by Norfolk State in their NCAA opener.

"I really think so," Bowers said. "From a talent standpoint, and just all the intangibles, we have a really good chance. Now, obviously, we've got to still work. You can have all the talent in the world, and if you don't have work ethic it doesn't matter."

There's already a bump in the road, with Dixon and freshman Dominique Bull suspended indefinitely for an undisclosed violation of team rules prior to the exhibition opener. There is still plenty of time to get everyone aboard before the SEC opener Jan. 8 at home against Alabama.

Missouri is loaded with experience, especially for a school that lost Marcus Denmon and Kim English to the NBA draft, plus center Ricardo Ratliffe. The transfer class of Keion Bell, Jabari Brown, Alex Oriakhi and Earnest Ross is considered among the best in history by one publication, and Bell, Oriakhi and Ross started the exhibition opener.

The 6-9 Oriakhi played on the 2011 national title team with Connecticut and has one year of eligibility remaining. Brown (Oregon) and Ross (Auburn) are 6-5 guards and Bell (Pepperdine) is 6-4. Ross has SEC experience and led the team in rebounding during its European tour in August.

Better still, Brown practiced with the team last year.

"It helped me a lot, because I wasn't as far in the dark in terms of what to expect, in terms of how Coach Haith does things," Brown said. "I got to see firsthand for all of last year, start of conference play."

There's no doubt about the focal point. It's the elusive, fearless Pressey.

Missouri always had the inside recruiting track, given Pressey began his college career playing for Mike Anderson, whom he grew up calling "Uncle Mike." Anderson was a college teammate of Pressey's father, former NBA star Paul Pressey. Now at Arkansas, Anderson knows all too well what he left behind.

"I've known him all his life," Anderson said. "Phil is the epitome of a point guard, he's like a coach on the floor. I think he's ahead of his time. Obviously, he's got to go out and play and prove it, but I think he'll be up to that challenge."

Pressey is a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award given to the nation's top point guard. Last year as a sophomore, he broke the school single-season record with 223 assists and his 74 steals is second-most. He is 158 assists and 61 steals shy of school career records.

Pressey and Dixon have piled up 569 assists as teammates and with 212 more will become the top assist tandem in school history in just three seasons.

"Only time can tell how good we can be," Pressey said. "We're going to work every day, and I think we can have a terrific season."

Missouri was the nation's top shooting team last season with 50 percent accuracy, and also was the best at assist/turnover ratio. The Tigers were in the top 10 in scoring (80.4 points), scoring margin (14.1 points), 3-point percentage (39.8 percent), turnovers (10.2) and turnover margin (4.1).

Haith's new team hit the ground running in the exhibition opener, going up 27-3 early against Division II Northwest Missouri State on Monday, and opens the regular season Nov. 10 at home against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. There are games against NIT champion Stanford and either Louisville or Northern Iowa in the Battle 4 Atlantis Nov. 22-24 and with the other side of the draw including Duke.

The Tigers begin a home-and-home series with UCLA, playing on the road this year Dec. 28, and they have a three-game winning streak in the annual Braggin' Rights game against Illinois in St. Louis, with this year's matchup set for Dec. 22.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-10-30-BKC-T25-Missouri-Preview/id-ddffa186f8b9424e984a58695c92243c

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Microsoft: Windows Phone to catch up in apps

NEW YORK (AP) ? Microsoft launched a new version of its Windows Phone software with broad support from smartphone makers, cellphone carriers and app developers as the software company tries to position new Windows gadgets as strong alternatives to Apple and Android devices.

The company also promised to address one of the chief shortcomings with Windows Phone: the dearth of third-party applications relative to offerings for Apple's iPhone and devices running Google's Android system.

Windows Phone 8 is the successor to Windows Phone 7, which launched two years ago but has had little traction in the market. The new software will run on more powerful phones with flagship models coming from Nokia, Samsung and HTC. Together, they'll launch eight Windows Phone 8 smartphones before the year is out, starting this weekend overseas and later in November in the U.S.

"People all over the world are about to fall in love with Windows Phones," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said at the Windows Phone 8 launch event in San Francisco on Monday.

Microsoft said it will also catch up in offering third-party apps. There are 120,000 applications available for Windows Phone, but some apps that are popular on other systems are notably missing from Windows Phone because it can be hard to get developers interested in writing programs for a small number of smartphones.

Microsoft is patching some of those holes soon: Microsoft vice president Joe Belfiore said Internet radio service Pandora is coming to Windows Phone 8, along with games such as "Where's My Water?" Soon, he said, 46 of the 50 most popular smartphone apps will be available.

The company is also releasing an app for Skype, the Internet calling service it owns. The Skype app available for Windows Phone 7 was an unfinished, or "beta" version. The new Skype app will run in the background, listening for incoming calls without placing any drain on the battery, Belfiore said.

Microsoft scored a big endorsement from Verizon Wireless, the largest cellphone carrier in the U.S. It will carry three Windows Phones this holiday season, including its first Nokia phone in many years. No. 2 AT&T Inc. and No. 4 T-Mobile USA will also carry Windows Phones from Nokia and HTC, leaving only No. 3 Sprint Nextel Corp. out.

Verizon executives have said that they want to see a viable "third ecosystem" alongside Apple's iPhone and Google's Android. Having more potential partners to work with provides the carriers with more leverage against each one and would make them less dependent on the whims of Apple and Google.

Microsoft released Windows 8 for desktops, laptops and tablets last week. That event was devoid of surprises, as Microsoft needed to work with hundreds of partners such as computer makers ahead of time. With smartphone software, the number of partners is much smaller, so Microsoft was able to save some details for Monday's launch event.

For example, Belfiore revealed that Windows Phone 8 will come with a "Kid's Corner" feature. If enabled, kids will be able to start up the phone from the lock screen, gaining access to apps and games that the phone's owner has designated as safe for them. Belfiore brought his three children on stage to demonstrate the feature. Actress Jessica Alba lent star power to the event, endorsing Kid's Corner as a "busy mom."

Owners will also be able link apps to their lock screen, giving them at-a-glance information such as sports scores.

Windows 8 for computers has borrowed its look from Windows Phone 7, presenting applications not as icons but as "Live Tiles," which can be animated with data from the application. For instance, the "Pictures" tile shows a slideshow.

The live tiles and the distinctive user interface remain Microsoft's biggest selling points for Windows Phone. In terms of third-party applications and the features of the phones, it's mostly playing catch-up to the iPhone and Android.

Microsoft will be emphasizing the consistent look across devices in a massive advertising campaign that will talk not just about its new software, but its venture in hardware manufacturing. On Friday, Microsoft released its first tablet computer, the Surface.

"Between Windows 8, Microsoft Surface or Windows Phone 8, you won't be able to turn on the TV or open a magazine without seeing a Microsoft Windows ad," Ballmer said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-10-29-Microsoft-Windows%20Phone/id-fdade09c6f414be7b69cc3e9b52aa6e7

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Tsunami Reaches Hawaii After Canadian Earthquake (Voice Of America)

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WORD VIRUS: The Dead Have Something to Tell You

By BESS LOVEJOY

Published: October 27, 2012

Seattle

ONCE, we commemorated the dead, left out offerings to feed them and lamps to guide them home. These days, Halloween has drifted far from its roots in pagan and Catholic festivals, and the spirits we appease are no longer those of the dead: needy ghosts have been replaced by costumed children demanding treats.

Over the last century, as Europeans and North Americans began sequestering the dying and dead away from everyday life, our society has been pushing death to the margins. We tune in to television shows about serial killers, but real bodies are hidden from view, edited out of news coverage, secreted behind hospital curtains. The result, as Michael Lesy wrote in his 1987 book ?The Forbidden Zone,? is that when death does occur, ?it reverberates like a handclap in an empty auditorium.?

It wasn?t always this way. Death once occurred at home, with friends and family gathered around. Local women were responsible for washing the body and sewing the shroud. People sometimes slept in the same room as corpses, because there was nowhere else to go. In the Middle Ages, cemeteries often acted as the public square: you didn?t just walk on the graves, you ate, drank, traded and sometimes even sang and danced on top of them.

You can see this familiarity with death in the ways people have historically treated famous dead bodies. Alexander the Great?s mummy was one of the most revered objects in the ancient world, and a stop at his tomb provided a political boost to Roman emperors (Augustus supposedly went as far as kissing the corpse, though it?s said he knocked off Alexander?s nose in the process). Soon afterward, early Christians began building the first churches over the tombs of martyrs, and venerating their body parts ? fingers and toes, tongues and eyeballs ? as miracle-producing sacred relics. A letter from around A.D. 156 describes the bones of St. Polycarp as ?more valuable than precious stones and finer than refined gold.?

The veneration of relics is a well-known religious practice, but the tradition also influenced the treatment of secular saints like Galileo and Descartes, whose bones were seen as symbols of their genius. When Galileo was exhumed in 1737 in Florence, Italy, for transfer to a more lavish tomb, several fingers, a tooth and a vertebra were plucked from his skeleton to be kept as relics. When Descartes was exhumed in Sweden in 1666 for reburial in France, a guard stole his skull, and the French ambassador pocketed his right index finger. During the French Revolution, a conservator reported that he?d carved some of Descartes? bones into rings, which he distributed to ?friends of the good philosophy.?

The idea of turning the dead into jewelry wouldn?t have seemed strange to the Victorians, who often wore rings, lockets and other adornments made from the hair of dead loved ones. The Romantics were particularly serious about these things, and Mary Shelley went so far as to keep Percy Shelley?s heart ? plucked from his beachfront funeral pyre ? in her desk drawer until she died. In her defense, keeping a heart as a relic wasn?t entirely uncommon: Voltaire?s heart is still kept at the Biblioth?que Nationale in Paris, while Chopin?s is preserved in alcohol at Warsaw?s Church of the Holy Cross.

Hearts and hair weren?t the only bodily remnants once kept around the house. After the author and statesman Thomas More was beheaded in 1535, his devoted daughter Margaret rescued his boiled-and-tarred head from its pike on London Bridge, preserved it with spices, and later asked to be buried with it in her arms. And the widow of the writer and adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh kept his embalmed head in a case after he was executed in 1618.

Today these stories strike us as macabre; they display an intimacy with death that seems downright unhealthy. But taken as signs of their times, it?s possible that they actually show a healthier relationship with death than the one we have now. Despite the (frequently commendable) advances that have removed death as a constant presence in our lives, it remains inevitable, and many of us are ill prepared when it comes.

The erasure of death also allows us to imagine that our mortal trivialities and anxieties are permanent, while a consistent awareness of death ? for those who can stomach it ? can help us live in the here and now, and teach us to treasure what we already have. In fact, a study by University of Missouri researchers released this spring found that contemplating mortality can encourage altruism and helpfulness, among other positive traits.

This idea probably would have seemed stranger half a century ago than it does now. While death is still largely absent from our lives, we?re starting to be a little more comfortable talking about it. Since the mid-1950s, a growing body of academic literature has sprung up around death, dying and grief. Cultural products that deal with corpses ? everything from Mary Roach?s best-selling book ?Stiff? to the Internet video series ?Ask a Mortician? ? are becoming more popular. ?Death cafes,? in which people come together over tea and cake to discuss mortality, have begun in Britain and are spreading to the United States, alongside other death-themed conferences and festivals (yes, festivals).

Of particular note, the hospice movement has taken death back from an exclusively medical setting, and more Americans are now dying at home, frequently among their families. (According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 19 percent of Americans aged 85 and older died at home in 2007, compared to 12 percent in 1989.)

It?s never easy to confront mortality, but perhaps this year, while distributing the candy and admiring the costumes of the neighborhood kids, it?s worth returning to some of the origins of Halloween by sparing a thought for those who have gone before. As our ancestors knew, it?s possible that being reminded of their deaths will add meaning to our lives.

Source: http://apollo-wordvirus.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-dead-have-something-to-tell-you.html

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Dragon ship back on Earth after space station trip

This photo provided by SpaceX shows an unmanned Dragon freighter that left the International Space Station with a stash of precious medical samples and aimed for a Pacific splashdown to end the first official shipment under a billion-dollar contract with NASA, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station used a giant robot arm to release the commercial cargo ship 255 miles up. The California-based SpaceX company steered its capsule back to Earth via parachutes on Sunday afternoon, a couple hundred miles off the Baja California coast. (AP Photo/SpaceX)

This photo provided by SpaceX shows an unmanned Dragon freighter that left the International Space Station with a stash of precious medical samples and aimed for a Pacific splashdown to end the first official shipment under a billion-dollar contract with NASA, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station used a giant robot arm to release the commercial cargo ship 255 miles up. The California-based SpaceX company steered its capsule back to Earth via parachutes on Sunday afternoon, a couple hundred miles off the Baja California coast. (AP Photo/SpaceX)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) ? An unmanned Dragon freighter carrying a stash of precious medical samples from the International Space Station parachuted into the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, completing the first official shipment under a billion-dollar contract with NASA.

The California-based SpaceX company successfully guided the Dragon down from orbit to a splashdown a few hundred miles off the Baja California coast.

"This historic mission signifies the restoration of America's ability to deliver and return critical space station cargo," Elon Musk, the billionaire founder and head of SpaceX, said in a statement.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden praised the "American ingenuity" that made the endeavor possible.

Several hours earlier, astronauts aboard the International Space Station used a giant robot arm to release the commercial cargo ship 255 miles up. SpaceX provided updates of the journey back to Earth via Twitter.

The supply ship brought back nearly 2,000 pounds of science experiments and old station equipment. Perhaps the most eagerly awaited cargo is nearly 500 frozen samples of blood and urine collected by station astronauts over the past year.

The Dragon is the only delivery ship capable of returning items, now that NASA's shuttles are retired to museums. Atlantis made the last shuttle haul to and from the station in July 2011.

SpaceX ? more formally Space Exploration Technologies Corp. ? launched the capsule three weeks ago from Cape Canaveral, full of groceries, clothes and other station supplies. Ice cream as well as fresh apples were especially appreciated by the station residents, now back up to a full crew of six.

It's the second Dragon to return from the orbiting lab; the first mission in May was a flight demo. This flight is the first of 12 deliveries under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA.

"It was nice while she was on board," space station commander Sunita Williams said as the Dragon backed away. "We tamed her, took her home and, literally and figuratively, there's a piece of us on that spacecraft going home to Earth."

She added to the SpaceX flight controllers in Hawthorne, Calif.: "Congratulations Hawthorne and thank you for her."

The Dragon will be retrieved from the Pacific and loaded onto a 100-foot boat that will haul it to Los Angeles. From there, it will be transported to McGregor, Texas.

The medical samples will be removed as quickly as possible, and turned over to NASA within 48 hours of splashdown, according to SpaceX. Everything else will wait for unloading in McGregor.

A Russian supply ship, meanwhile, is set to blast off this week. It burns up upon descent, however, at mission's end. So do the cargo vessels provided by Europe and Japan.

SpaceX is working to transform its Dragon cargo craft into vessels that American astronauts could fly in another four or five years. Until SpaceX or another U.S. company is able to provide rides, NASA astronauts must rely on Russian rockets to get to and from the space station.

___

Associated Press writer Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-10-28-Private%20Space/id-612faa4dc31c43328092e1345da154fd

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Three new residents arrive at International Space Station

The Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft docked at the space station's rooftop Poisk module after a two-day orbital chase.

By Tariq Malik,?SPACE.com / October 25, 2012

The Russian Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft as seen from the International Space Station as it approaches on Oct. 25, for docking.

NASA TV

Enlarge

A Russian Soyuz space capsule linked up with the International Space Station Thursday (Oct. 25) to deliver three new residents to the orbiting laboratory.

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The Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft docked at the space station's rooftop Poisk module at 8:29 a.m. EDT (1229 GMT) after a two-day orbital chase.?Riding on the Soyuz?were American astronaut Kevin Ford of NASA and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin, who are beginning a five-month mission to the space station.

"We can see you, everything looks fine,"?Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, who was already onboard the station, told the approaching crew before?the two spacecraft docked about 230 miles (370 km)?over southern Ukraine.

The Soyuz crew will float inside the space station at about 11:15 a.m. EDT (1415 GMT) during a cosmic welcome ceremony.You can?watch the Soyuz crew's welcome ceremony?live on SPACE.com here?via a NASA TV feed.?The NASA broadcast will begin at 10:45 a.m. EDT (1445 GMT).

"We?ll stay until March," Ford said in a NASA interview before launch. "We?ve got some space station maintenance activities planned, some kind of periodic maintenance that we?ve trained for, but really the emphasis will be on getting the science rolling and getting as much utilization out of the flight as we can."

Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin launched into space on Tuesday (Oct. 23) atop a Soyuz rocket that blasted off from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They are the second half of the space station's six-person Expedition 33 crew, which is commanded by NASA astronaut Sunita Williams. Malenchenko and?Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide round out the crew. [Launch Photos: Soyuz Rocket Blasts Off With Station Crew]

The Soyuz spacecraft is bringing some fishy friends to the space station in addition to its human crew. The spacecraft is ferrying 32 small medaka fish to the space station so they can be placed inside a tank, called the Aquatic Habitat, for an experiment to study?how fish adapt to weightlessness.

Thursday's Soyuz docking at the space station kicks off a flurry of arrivals and departures at the International Space Station.

A robotic Dragon space capsule built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX will depart the space station on Sunday (Oct. 28) and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California. The Dragon capsule will return nearly 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms) of science experiment hardware and other gear back to Earth.

On Wednesday (Oct. 31), an unmanned Russian Progress spacecraft will launch toward the space station and arrive six hours later to make a Halloween delivery of food, equipment and other Halloween treats.

One day later, on Thursday (Nov. 1), Williams and Hoshide will don bulky spacesuits and float outside the space station on a spacewalk to fix an ammonia leak in the orbiting lab's cooling system.

Williams, Hoshide and Malenchenko are in the final weeks of their mission to the space station, and will return to Earth Nov. 12. At that time, Ford will take command of the space station crew to begin the Expedition 34 mission.

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter?@tariqjmalik?and SPACE.com on Twitter?@Spacedotcom. We're also on?Facebook?&?Google+.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/7VSYi3n-V-0/Three-new-residents-arrive-at-International-Space-Station

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Magnitude 7.7 earthquake rattles West coast of Canada

Canada earthquake: The earthquake stuck just after 8 p.m. local time Saturday, creating a small tsunami. No major damage or injuries have been reported in Canada. Hawaii still on tsunami watch.

By Jeremy Hainsworth,?Associated Press / October 28, 2012

US Geological Survey map of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck near the Queen Charlotte Islands Saturday evening.

USGS

Enlarge

Vancouver, British Columbia

?A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the west coast of Canada, but there were no reports of major damage. Residents in parts of British Columbia were evacuated but the province appeared to escape the biggest quake in Canada since 1949 largely unscathed.

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The U.S. Geological Survey said the powerful quake hit the Queen Charlotte Islands just after 8 p.m. local time Saturday at a depth of about 3 miles (5 kilometers) and was centered 96 miles (155 kilometers) south of Masset, British Columbia. It was felt across a wide area in British Columbia, both on its Pacific islands and on the mainland.

"It looks like the damage and the risk are at a very low level," said Shirley Bond, British Columbia's minister responsible for emergency management said. "We're certainly grateful."

RELATED: Bizzare 2012 earthquake

The National Weather Service issued a tsunami warning for coastal areas of British Columbia, southern Alaska and Hawaii, but later downgraded the warning to an advisory for southern Alaska and British Columbia. Gerard Fryer, a senior geologist with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, said the first waves hitting shore in Hawaii are smaller than expected, but added it could be as long as seven hours before the warning is canceled if waves get bigger.

The weather service also issued an advisory for areas of northern California and southern Oregon.

Dennis Sinnott of the Canadian Institute of Ocean Science said a 69-centimeter (27 inch) wave was recorded off Langara Island on the northeast tip of Haida Gwaii, formerly called the Queen Charlotte Islands. The islands are home to about 5,000 people, many of them members of the Haida aboriginal group. Another 55 centimeter (21 inch) wave hit Winter Harbour on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island.

"It appears to be settling down," he said. "It does not mean we won't get another small wave coming through."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/4vas0oFcuNg/Magnitude-7.7-earthquake-rattles-West-coast-of-Canada

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Credit Card Issuers Showing a Social Side - Blogcritics Culture

Banks, in search of their next generation of affluent lifelong customers, have taken the credit card sign-up tables that used to speckle college campuses on football Saturdays in the fall onto the Internet. Now, instead of trading an application for a t-shirt, college students can interact with financial companies on their favorite social media websites, often with real monetary perks involved.

This shift in approach was a long time coming, but it took something of a credit card marketing perfect storm to fully materialize. While the credit card industry had been rife with anti-consumer tactics for some time, it wasn?t until the height of the Great Recession that a law improving transparency in the credit card market and beefing up consumer rights was passed. This brought to a close the era of on-campus credit card marketing that insulated students from competing offers.

Meanwhile, social media was rocketing toward ubiquity. By 2010, nearly 90 percent of people aged 19-28 were using social media websites, and by 2011, Facebook amassed roughly 640 million registered users, according to the Search Engine Journal.

Also, in the last 10 years, banks have seen the effectiveness of their direct mail offers decline by roughly 90 percent.

In other words, the stage was perfectly set for banks to get social with their marketing efforts, and they?ve certainly responded. The following are among the notable social media initiatives launched by major credit card issuers in the last couple of years in the hopes of roping in people with college educations and high earning potential who will soon also be in the market for bank accounts, mortgages, and more:

• Facebook Giveaways ? Chase has given away a $1 million cash prize and $1,000 Amazon.com gift cards through Facebook ?Like? contests.
• Social Media Deals ? American Express? ?Link, Like, Love? program enables cardholders to link their credit cards to their Facebook accounts, claim deals advertised on the site, and then automatically receive discounts when making corresponding purchases.
• Point Sharing ? By now most of us have seen the Citi commercials in which townsfolk use their collective points to throw a huge Olympics viewing party or take a trip to the Games. Don?t worry though, you can still pool rewards even though the closing ceremonies in London are long past.
• Virtual Rewards ? American Express and the online gaming company Zynga teamed up to offer a Farmville Prepaid Card, which allows you to earn virtual game credits on real-life purchases. Discover is also giving consumers who sign up for cards through Farmville $100 in Farm Cash.
• Affinity Cards ? Chase also launched a LivingSocial Credit Card that allows you to earn extra rewards on LivingSocial purchases.

The truth is these initiatives merely represent credit card companies' testing of the social media waters. It?s only fair to expect their efforts to intensify moving forward and the current personal finance landscape to significantly change as mobile wallet technology goes mainstream and people stop responding to direct mail offers altogether.

Source: http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/credit-card-issuers-showing-a-social/

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Sandy to erode many Atlantic beaches

ScienceDaily (Oct. 27, 2012) ? Nearly three quarters of the coast along the Delmarva Peninsula is very likely to experience beach and dune erosion as Hurricane Sandy makes landfall, while overwash is expected along nearly half of the shoreline.

The predictions of coastal change for the Delaware, Maryland and Virginia peninsula is part of a larger assessment of probable coastal change released by the U.S. Geological Survey Friday.

"Model forecasts are run anew for each hurricane, as each case has unique factors in terms of storm intensity, timing with respect to tides, angle of approach, and must account for ever-changing details of coastal dune configuration," said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. "These models help us understand where emergency management resources might be most needed."

Overwash, the landward movement of large volumes of sand from overtopped dunes, is forecasted for portions of the east coast with the projected landfall of the storm. The severity of overwash depends on the strength of the storm, the height of the dunes, and how direct a hit the coast takes.

"On the Delmarva Peninsula, near the storm's expected landfall, close to three quarters of the sandy coast is expected to see beach and dune erosion. Fifteen percent of the coast is very likely to be inundated by waves and storm surge," said USGS Oceanographer Hilary Stockdon from the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center.

In these areas, waves and storm surge would transport large amounts of sand across coastal environments, depositing sand both inland and offshore and causing significant changes to the landscape, Stockdon noted.

The models show that along the New Jersey shore, 81 percent of the coast is very likely to experience beach and dune erosion, while 7 percent is very likely to experience overwash. It also indicates that on the south shore of Long Island, N.Y., including Fire Island National Seashore, 43 percent of the coast is very likely to experience beach and dune erosion. Overwash and inundation are not expected in these areas because of the relative high dune elevations.

According to USGS geologist Cheryl Hapke, many of the sandy beaches along the mid-Atlantic Coast have become increasingly vulnerable to significant impacts such as erosion because of past storms, including Hurricanes Ida (2009) and Irene (2011), as well as large northeastern storms in 2005 and 2007.

"Beaches and dunes often serve as the first line of defense for coastal communities against flooding and other hazards associated with extreme storm" said Hapke, "Any compromise to these features means that storm-related hazards are more likely to threaten coastal property, infrastructure, and public safety during a future extreme storm event."

Beach and dune erosion occurs when storm surge and waves collide with the base of a dune, termed collision in the model, and wash away significant amounts of sand. Overwash happens when these forces exceed dune height and move sand inland. Inundation is a process by which an entire beach system is submerged and, in extreme cases, can result in island breaching.

The USGS coastal change model forecasting likely dune erosion and overwash from the storm can be viewed online: http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/sandy/coastal-change/

For the latest forecasts on the storm, listen to NOAA radio. For information on preparing for the storm, visit Ready.gov or Listo.gov

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/xL2JFdKkWQU/121027164036.htm

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Internet Marketers Must Listen Before They Speak - Search Engine ...

As marketers, we spend a lot of time thinking about our message, as well we should. Our job is to tell prospective customers how we can help them, so we focus on what we say. The Internet has turned the tables on marketers, however. Time was that marketing messages were conceived by extremely creative people to get attention for products, but now, listening to what customers say and do are just as important as creativity. Old-time marketers have always listened to a few customers in focus groups, so you can think of the Internet is the biggest focus group of all time.

All Internet marketing is more successful when you listen before you speak. And if you listen before you speak again. You must listen to what your customers say and you must watch what they do. Only by seeing what works and what doesn't do you have a chance of persuading them to believe your marketing message.

Take social media as an example. A proven social media practitioner would advise you that before you engage in social media that you should first listen to the conversation that is already out there about your products and your industry. Failing to do so is like walking into a cocktail party where you don't know anyone, not listening to what is going on, and just starting to talk to no one in particular.

Working with a firm that employs listening technology as part of itsmodus operandi will get your social media marketing off on the right foot. Merely going at this like an ad agency with a clever person who comes up with ideas in a vacuum just won't achieve the same success, in my experience.

But it's not just social media. With search, you must wait for the searcher to initiate-so you are listening first. With banner ads, you can test them to see which ones work better than others. With e-mail, you can test response with small mailing lists before sending the winning version to the main list.

With all forms of Internet marketing, listening to what customers say and watching what they do are the key methods for fine-tuning your message until it resonates with your audience.

This might sound like a lot of work. It is.

Instead of just thinking up your message and delivering it, you are constantly tweaking and changing what you say based on the customer response. And it is time-consuming, honestly. It undoubtedly is less work to come up with just one message and deliver it, than it is to come up with dozens of messages, constantly tinkering to get your final one.

But you're not trying to minimize the amount of work to come up with a message. You're trying to maximize response. And there's no way that your first message will be as good as your 50th. So, even though it seems like coming up with 50 messages is more work than coming up with one (because it is), it ends up being easier to get results this way. So, if you can guarantee getting good results one way, but not the other, which one is less work in the long run?

Ask yourself: If you aren't listening to your customers to fine-tune your messaging, just what are you listening to?

Originally posted on?Biznology Blog.

Source: http://www.searchengineguide.com/mike-moran/internet-marketers-must-listen-before-th.php

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Website Hosting Arian Foster Jersey Tips And Tricks You Need To ...

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Source: http://traffic-secrets.org/website-hosting-arian-foster-jersey-tips-and-tricks-you-need-to-know

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The tale of Death

Only when Death has accomplished his vengeance can we all rest.

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PayPal Improves Credit Offerings for Small ... - Small Business Trends

With the holiday season approaching, many consumers will be searching online stores for great deals, but small merchants can?t always offer the same deals and payment options that large retailers can. But that?s why PayPal has been working to create an easy solution for these small businesses.

PayPal unveiled some new payment options this week that will allow online merchants to offer enhanced buy now, pay later options for purchases of $99 or more.

Through PayPal?s existing Bill Me Later service, businesses can now automatically accept payments on credit from customers, including no interest for six months. Businesses don?t pay any additional costs for this feature, and they still receive payment right away.

Consumers who choose this option will be subject to credit approval through PayPal. But they can use the option with no interest if the purchase is paid off within six months.

This offering will allow businesses to give their customers even more payment options, making it easier, and thus more likely, for them to make purchases. This type of financing has been an option for larger retailers for years, so this new offering may help to level the playing field for smaller retailers that don?t have the resources to sort through the legal and regulatory restrictions necessary to market credit to customers on their own.

And the change comes just in time for holiday shopping season, so PayPal has also offered businesses banner ads to promote the credit feature directly on their sites, so that customers know they have that option when shopping.

Previously, Bill Me Later didn?t offer the same type of credit without interest options to customers across all retailers. And there was not one simple, centralized way of advertising the option to consumers.

Of course, many online retailers can accept credit card payments as well, but this addition to Bill Me Later is just one more option businesses can offer consumers, which can only lead to more customers and sales for online retailers.

About Annie Pilon

Annie Pilon is a freelance writer specializing inmarketing, social media, and creative topics. When she?s not writing for her various freelance projects or her personal blog Wattlebird, she can be found exploring all that her home state of Michigan has to offer.

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Source: http://smallbiztrends.com/2012/10/paypal-improves-credit-offerings-for-small-retailers.html

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Apple shaves ?60 off iPad with Mini launch

Apple?s small contribution to making tablets more affordable for the average consumer came yesterday with a smaller version of the iPad, almost three years after the debut of the 10 inch model.

The Mini can be pre-ordered from Friday (26 October), the day after UK customers can get their hands on Amazon?s Kindle Fire, and Apple claims all models will be available by late November.

The most basic version, 16GB with wi-fi, is, at ?269, only ?60 less than the starting price for the iPad.

Apple?s launch message pitched the Mini as exactly like the iPad, with nothing taken away, but small enough to be used, in the words of product design chief Jony Ive that "will be used in so many different places in so many different ways".

Phil Schiller, the marketing chief who company recently locked in to 2016 with a $60m package, unveiled the Mini at yesterday?s launch with the claim it was "as thin as a pencil" and "as light as a pad of paper" and 53% lighter than the iPad.

It has the same 1,024x768 resolution display as the iPad as well as Siri and Facetime.

Apple has produced a characteristically slick product demo video featuring Ive, as well as Michel Tchao, vice president iPad product marketing, and Dan Riccio, senior vice president product engineering.

It has the edge on the Kindle Fire demo video (below), though Amazon has raised its marketing game with a recent brand-focused TV campaign ahead of the Fire?s launch.

Source: http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/rss/1156270/Apple-shaves-60-off-iPad-Mini-launch/

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Gold demand in India robust as prices hit week low

MUMBAI | Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:06pm IST

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Gold demand in India, the world's biggest buyer of the precious metal, remained robust for a second straight day on Tuesday as prices dropped to their lowest in a week, enticing buyers ahead of the peak festive season.

By 2.16 pm, the most-active gold for December delivery on Multi Commodity Exchange was down 0.3 percent at 30,976 rupees per 10 grams.

Earlier in the day, the contract fell to 30,939 rupees, the lowest level since October 16.

December silver dropped 0.41 percent to 59,370 rupees per kg, following a similar trend in the world market.

Global gold edged lower on Tuesday after equities gave up early gains.

"Buyers have seen prices rising above 32,000 rupees. At the current level, they are comfortable in making purchases," said a Mumbai-based dealer with a private gold importing bank.

"There is good buying from jewellers. They are restocking for peak festival season," the dealer said.

The festival season, traditionally a time to buy gold, is underway in India and will peak with Dhanteras and Diwali next month. Weddings also take place during this period.

The rupee, which edged lower on Tuesday, plays an important role in determining the landed cost of the dollar-quoted yellow metal.

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Sunil Nair)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/INformulaOne/~3/7AQt3HesdMA/markets-india-gold-silver-idINDEE89M05Q20121023

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