Looking for how to make double your money? Investment in stocks on long term basis being traded in a stock market is one way you can use to accumulate wealth. In favorable conditions value of your holding stocks appreciates and you can make huge profits by selling these expensive stocks in the stock market receiving capital gain that resulted from the price difference when you bought a particular stock and when you sold it. On the contrary if conditions are not favorable this difference of prices may turn negative causing demise to you in form of capital loss. Volatile markets have more chances of capital loss. A specific amount of tax liable on capita gain might be written off in case of capital loss. So the bright side of this ugly capital loss is you can use such loss to counterbalance your taxable gains i.e. tax on your capital gain in case of capital loss is deducted hence offering some tax benefit to the holders.

Capital loss due to worthless stocks can counterbalance you tax on capital gain on “dollar for dollar” basis. For every dollar loss you get equal dollar benefit in tax. If however the amount of capital gain tax is lower than the loss, remaining loss amount is carry forwarded to upcoming tax years.

But remember this tax deduction is applicable only to those stocks having worth of zero known as “worthless” stocks. If a company becomes bankrupt making market value of its shares zero and you were not able to unload them before bankruptcy IRC can give you some relaxation upon your losses. When you are stuck with such painful valuable stocks the appropriate solution is to write them off some how in the stock market and get tax advantage by following IRS guidelines.

Some Prerequisites

Writing off a worthless stock is not an easy job. Remember some points about value of worthless stocks before filing tax advantage from IRS.

• Worthless means completely zero. Bankruptcy of a company doesn’t guarantee its stock value to become totally zero, price might become few pennies. However if your stock holds some penny value it will not be treated as “worthless stock”.

• A dead stock in the true sense (price=0) is treated just like any other capital asset you disposed off for zero residual value on last day of tax year.

• It’s necessary to sell these worthless stocks for zero because transaction record is needed to claim tax write-off from federal tax regulatory authority.

How to Sell Zero Price Stock?

When stock markets crashes, writing off a worthless stock is too hard as there are no buyers of worthless stocks. To provide liquidity to the investors carrying worthless stocks most brokers have specialized rules and buys them from you charging a small commission. Such courtesy programs provide transaction record to the seller of worthless stocks.

What you Need in Documented Form?

Whiling filing out a worthless stock sale the underlying reasons and details of stock demise not necessarily should be put on your request form.
Tax officers have the right to question you about loss so you should be prepared to proof:

1. Investors won’t be able to get any return for holding the stocks ever in future in which they suffered a loss as the company is dead.

2. The particular date upon which stock turned out to be exactly zero must be in your knowledge.
Armed with above mentioned two proofs you can file your loss report.

Filling out your Claim

Do take care of following things while “writing off worthless stock”

• State your priceless stock on line one or eight of Schedule D (Schedule is bifurcated into further two types for short term and long term investments). So determine your holding period and go for picking the right form.

• Write worthless in column “c” in part 1 for short term and column “d” of in part 2 of long term form.

• If you couldn’t file claim for your loss in the year it happened and you paid the capital gain tax on that then you can file claim through Form 1040X for credit or refund.

The backbone of business revenue is a customer. Customer loyalty and customer satisfaction leads to the existence and sustainability of a business. Loyal and satisfied customers become advocates of your business and repeat purchase. Specifically pointing out to small businesses with little competitive advantage and squeezed revenues the significance of customers is of no question. Your source of generating revenue, your customer needs regular communication from your side. The survival of small businesses with tiny market share depends on two solving two issues:

• Effectively acquiring new customers to increase your customer base
• Retention of existing customers by maintaining customer relations

To overcome above mentioned two issues, communication i.e. “trying to connect with customers” is indispensable. Small businesses need such modes of connecting to your customers those can translate into immediate revenues without incurring considerable costs of communication.

Some of marketing tools mentioned below are of great worth helping the small businesses striving for “trying to connect with customers.” We can call them low cost high return means of connection to your customers.

Email Communication

Email is an extremely effectively, inexpensive and widely used technique of connecting with customers either for customer acquisition, customer retention or customer services. Email marketing occupies a dominant position among all other communication methods by delivering highest return on investment (ROI). Direct Marketing Association identified in a study that email marketing contributed $43.62 for each dollar spent on marketing during 2009. For small business the significance of this tool is two fold as it is an economic tool to trap potential customers as well as make happy the existing customers.

Everlasting and strong customer relationships can be developed that leads to accomplishment of business objective i.e. maximizing profits. It enables a small business to regularly communicate your offerings, services, brand and proficiency thus constructing recognition of your business. This brand recognition forces customers to turn your brand when they actually want to make some purchase. Valuable and informative email content brings new business for you by attracting and convincing the readers.

Online Surveys

Prosperity of a business lies in the fact to bother the critics and feedback of your customers. Practically one to one conversations are not possible giving rise to use the online surveys for connecting to your customers. For small businesses these surveys are of more worth because of their inexpensiveness. As small firms are in developing phase of their business customer feedback provides numerous suggestions for improvement leading to high sales volume. Conducting at least once a year or after any purchase these surveys extract information regarding customer satisfaction, perception, and post purchase experience with your products/services. These surveys are useful communication tool as they provide a feeling to your customers of being partners of your business. Undoubtedly judging customers viewpoint about the most convenient method to communicate them itself guides a business “how to get customer feedback??” Such low-priced online surveys answer this question.

Social Networks

Another low cost high return mode of communication for small businesses is social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn etc. The benefits of social networks are very materialistic for small businesses in context of speaking to your customers. People are becoming regular users of such communities that generate an opportunity for business to be in touch with your customers and acquire new ones. The benefits are two fold as such sites enable small businesses to expose their products to customers as well as knowing their comments in a short period of time. Pages on social media bring in new connections and customers for a business. Active participation in this media is critical because just being there doesn’t create any value for your customers rather establishing your credibility implants a brand in the minds of consumers. Frequent interaction and communication is equally important for large as well as small businesses as it conveys all worth mentioning information about your business to the customers keeping your brand alive in their minds.

Online Video Marketing

Online video marketing is emerging as substitute of expensive TV ads for communication to your customers. It enables the businesses to demonstrate their products along with hoe to use instructions saving the costs of developing and distributing paper manuals and pamphlets for their business. The costs businesses pay for advertisement depends on clicks and views made by the internet surfers. So it’s a variable sort of cost not the fixed one.

Newsletters

One more effective way of connecting to your customers on a regular basis is the monthly newsletters highlighting valuable, relevant and customers need specific information.

Super Bowl XLV has now been wrapped up and the Green Bay Packers have taken the Lombardi Trophy home. The “Super Bowl Sunday” is always been an American national holiday. Also this year, the 2011 Super Bowl has become the most-watched American television program in history, drawing an average audience of 111 million viewers. The Super Bowl is also among the most watch sporting events in the world. The commercial have always been the main attraction for many people during the Super Bowl. Because of its high viewership, commercial airtime during Super Bowl broadcast is the most expensive of the year. Due to the high interest rate of people and the high cost of investing in advertising on the Super Bowl, Money regularly develop their most expensive and entertaining commercials for this broadcast.
Below are the best Super Bowl commercial of all time, which one is your favorite one?

1. Volkswagen: The Force

The Volkswagen Super Bowl ad called “The Force” proved to be a coveted ad this year. It has registered more that 12.5 million views on YouTube alone, around 10,000 comments and 62,000 “likes” short after its released on You Tube. The Star Wars-themed commercial has also been the most talked about ad on Twitter.

Why we like it
The video shows little Darth Vadar in this attempts to use the force. It’s a nice, simple clean cut commercial. The commercial says nothing about the car at all, just trying to associate warm fuzzy feeling with the car and brand. Also the idea of releasing the ad on YouTube before the Super Bowl was quite new and creates a prior hype for the ad.

2. Snickers Commercial 2010 with Betty White)

The Snickers Commercial (featuring Betty White) was debuted during the 2010 Super Bowl. The most exciting thing about this ad is seeing Betty White get tackled.

Why we like it
Everybody love Betty White and this commercial, with the slogan “You’re not you when you’re hungry”, features Betty White on the football field.

3. Monster.com “When I Grow Up …” (1999)

A group of kids stare at the camera and declare their desire to “have a brown nose,” “be a yes man” and “claw my way up to middle management.”

Why we like it
Kids are cute, and when they talk about what they want to be when they grow up make them even cuter. It was great brand recognition for the new company.

4. Apple “1984” (1984)

In the third quarter of the 1984 Super Bowl, a strange advertisement appeared on the TV screens. A runner representing Apple throws a sledgehammer into a giant Big Brother image representing IBM and shatters the TV image. As the screen explodes, a voice-over announces, “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce the Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.”

Why we like it
The Apple Ad 1984 promised a populist shift in the future of Personal computers. With “Blade Runner” the ad generated more hype.

5. E*Trade “Monkey” (2000)

Two dim-witted guys and a monkey clap to some cha-cha music in garage, followed by the punch line, “Well we just wasted 2 million bucks. What are you doing with your money?”

Why we like it
It was one the cheapest ad of the year to produce. The marketing Gods have a way of punishing tech companies that blow too much money on flashy ads.

6. Lays Potato Chips

The Lays Potato Chips is an ad from 2008 featuring MC hammer.

Why we like it
Any reason to bring back the “Hammer Pants” is a good one.

Health of family is (and has to be) the top priority of head of the family. No one knows what kind of health issue arises at what time, so there has to be a backup plan that can relieve us of health related financial matters. For such purposes, a health insurance plan is usually foremost priority of most of the families all over the world.

What is a Health Insurance Plan?

A health insurance plan, as the name suggest, is an insurance plan associated with health issues and financial matters related thereto. The person who gets this insurance pays monthly premium (in most cases) for being able of getting the insured amount or the promised health care when the right time arrives. Usually we get short of money when we need it for instantaneous health related incidences. Health insurances keep us away from such worries.

How to Choose the Best Suitable Insurance Plan:

This is yet another big issue. Of course, nobody knows what kind of health issue will arise in the future and how much amount will be required for that purpose. All I can say is that you have to make the right GUESS! Yes, a guess! There are few tips in the following lines that will aid you in choosing the right health insurance plan for your family.

1. If you are an employee, best option for you is to opt for the insurance that your employer has offered to you. It will be the cheapest health insurance you can ever find, and usually it will cover most of your needs. If you have been provided with insurance plan options (from the employer) to choose from, find out the relation between your needs and your budget.
2. Now, in case you are self-employed or your employer does not offer you health insurance, you will have to look for one from the huge pile of options and choices. Formula is the same; know the relation between your needs and budget.
3. Find out whether the plan will cover dependents, too? If you are single, you will need an entirely different plan from a person who is a father of four kids.
4. How often do you or your family member get sick? Are you under a treatment where you have to visit the doc weekly, or monthly? These things are important to know in order to get the best suitable health insurance plan for your family.
5. Asking questions is a healthy habit, especially while finding out the best health insurance plan. Included (on the panel) hospitals and institutes, referrals for specialist visits, changing doctors, emergency rooms treatment etc. are the most frequently asked questions.
6. Find out whether they cover pre-existing ailments.
7. If the company denies your treatment, there must be a fair appeal process.
8. As the prices are increasing day by day, it will become difficult for elderly to get themselves treated out of their pocket. Therefore, it is better to go for long term care insurance if you are above 40.
9. If you have a specific doctor or clinic where you go for treatment, make sure that is on your insurance plan panel.
10. Start saving!

What does it take to travel on business, far from your comfort zone?  Flight delays, whirlwind business trips, lack of rest, no vacation time and a whole lot more. Clearly no finishing school in the world can prepare you to face these seemingly trivial travails of a trip.

A business trip offers a great chance to make a name for yourself as you represent the company. You can choose to stay sharp and come back a success, or pretend it’s a drunken vacation and break your career. If you choose the former, here are seven must-know tips for someone who wishes to be a pro business traveler:

1. Stay Alert Even Before Traveling

Most business travelers tend to rush things and end up not getting enough rest before departing.  It is essential to get plenty of rest the night before, as stress can also leave you prone to forgetting something important. Keep everything you consider important and cannot afford to lose, such as your ID, wallet etc. with you, in case of loss of baggage.  Here is a site I found interesting.

2. Eat Healthy

The psychology of a traveler is such that traveling is seen as a time to break away from a healthy lifestyle.  This attitude may be excused if you’re on a vacation but certainly not when traveling for business.

Photo by ArtistOnline

Airports are unhealthy places that don’t offer great food choices. A greasy pizza or a fatty burger is the worst way to start your journey. While you may not be allowed to carry beverages, you can pack your own healthy ready-to-eat snacks like some granola bars, fruit and sandwiches, and buy some water.  While at home or office, you certainly do not eat chocolates, peanuts, pretzels and drink wine all day; so why such unhealthy temptations while traveling?

To ensure you stay sharp at all times, stick to non-greasy food, fresh salads (with light dressings) and fruits.  Choose grilled chicken over fried and the plainest fish dish on the menu. Avoid buttery sauces and order for a veggie medley instead of fries. As tempting as it may be, stay away from aerated drinks.

Traveling is dehydrating and water is a wonderful source of hydration. If you are one of those business travelers who need to consume alcohol during flight, make sure to drink plenty of water as alcohol dehydrates you. We are talking of pure sparkling water not what you mixed in your drink. This will also help you avoid getting sick or feeling nauseous by the time you reach your destination. Why not start loading up on water hours before boarding a flight? CNN reveals important information on toxic cabin air in this video.

3. Keep Fit And Relaxed

One of the most popular misconceptions of even frequent business travelers is that they can rest on the plane. You may think you’ve slept on the plane but it can be stressful and leaves most people tired by the time they land. It is advisable to plan in such a way that you get a good night’s sleep before getting on the plane; more so if you have to handle business soon after landing.

While on a business trip, people have little or no time to keep up with a regular exercise program. But it does not have to be that way. Getting a good workout before attending to your business is not only good for your health but also gives an extra burst of energy for the day. It does not have to be anything extensive, just a simple workout while watching the morning news will do.

You can walk around the plane as much as possible during the flight. Regular stretching of legs will also help avoid the risk of deep vein thrombosis while giving you the exercise you need.

4. Combat Jet Lag

Jet lag is the bane of a business traveler. If you are traveling across time zones for business, it is only natural that your sleep timing gets disrupted; especially if it is daytime when you arrive at your destination but night back home. Try to avoid sleeping during the day and do some light exercise to refresh your body enough to keep it from producing sleep-inducing hormones. Caffeine can be used to help combat sleepiness during the day but it should not be taken close to bedtime, as this can make you sleepless at night.

In the U.S. mathematicians are developing unique software that can help the global traveler adjust easily in a new time zone. In their laptops, travelers will enter the flight details and receive advice on when to sleep, when to get exposed to daylight, and if they need some supplements.  Anyway, you may have to wait about five years for this software to be out.

5. Deal With Loneliness

Over time, traveling for business can seem like an endless grind. Make your monotonous and lonely business trips fun and interesting.

One way is to converse with neighbors on the plane.  At the hotel, instead of ordering room service, get down and choose a table with a view, overlooking a river or even a street.  Better still, sit at the bar and talk to the locals. You can even network with your business community and meet up for a lunch or dinner, provided your schedule allows it. This sort of interaction keeps your senses alert.

Reading can be a great stress buster. Carry a couple of good books and read on the plane and when dining alone, if you are in no mood for inane conversations.

If you have to occupy long stretches of time between conducting business, it can be refreshing to visit places of interest, such as antique shops or local craft shops.  Take the edge off and get ready for an upcoming business meeting.

6. Carry Data Backup

Electronic storage devices are part and parcel of every business traveler. No longer do businessmen carry bunches of paper stuffed in their bags. Although, it is not advisable, if you are going to check in your laptop, you need to get yourself a sturdy laptop bag, as you can expect some mishandling. Pack appropriate cables to access the Internet. However, it is essential to back up all the material on a USB flash drive (or a couple of drives), as they are small, light, portable and easy-to-use. This ensures you are covered if something should happen to the laptop.

7. Safeguard Against Negative Elements

While staying sharp when traveling for business entails keeping yourself healthy and fit and handling business efficiently, it also means not becoming a sitting duck for criminals.

Here’s how you can be security conscious when traveling:

• If you are going to a new place, try and avoid reaching the destination at night.
• Find out about the hotel you are going to be staying beforehand, to ensure you do not end up in a hotel of questionable safety.
• It is advisable to pay for the food from the restaurant instantly.  Charging these expenses to your hotel bill makes it easier for people to match your name and room number.
• Be very careful with your credit cards as most of them give away your complete name.
• Be vary of taxi drivers who take you on routes you have no idea of.  It is a good idea to check the route on a map beforehand.  This way you can even suggest the landmarks to the taxi driver.
• Make sure you do not act like a stranger in town, even if you are.  This lessens the risk of being taken for a ride.

Finally….

It is very easy to change the complete routine when traveling – right from changing sleeping patterns to eating wrong to not exercising to letting yourself go.  However, the best way to stay sharp when traveling is to stick to the normal routine as much as possible.

If you do feel unwell, take extra care by going to bed early or sipping some tea or taking medication. Following these tips will help keep you mentally sharp and physically energetic to handle your business efficiently.

Before we end, we cannot help but recommend this excellent FDA site that gives tips for travel abroad, irrespective of the country you are traveling to.

Finally, find the safest airplanes to fly. Bon voyage!

As a business owner, you must know that learning things and growing is an almost daily experience.  In order to survive, you must find smart and efficient ways to market your organization to potential clients.

The internet is an entrepreneur’s dream come true. Online branding penetrates the market at a speed unheard of by using the latest tools available, such as blogs.  Of course, it goes without saying that you cannot just create a blog and leave it. The actual game starts after that. The important thing is what you do with these blogs.

Why is everyone clamoring to create an audience online?  Creating blogs using blogger, Free blogs from WordPress or hosted blogs, Ibibo, etc. is done to converse with an unknown proportion of people in full view of the world, which includes the competition. Your aim with blogging is to reach an audience of millions of internet users within no time.  Not just reaching an audience, but your target audience. There is a reason why many Fortune 500 companies maintain active blogs.

It will not be long before you see the formation of a huge audience. You get to know a lot about your organization through the comments and discussions posted by them on your blog.  Things can be improved by taking criticism positively and constructively. You no longer need to feel like you’re standing at the edge of the abyss with all that competition trying to be one up on you.

Let’s look at how having an audience can make your organization stand out from the competition:

Photo by clagnut

1. Access to customer thoughts through better communication

The world belongs to those who make an effort to stand out, and you can achieve this through communicating with your audience and enhancing your credibility. By posting industry news and keeping your blog updated about the happenings in your organization, you are reaching a larger audience in the easiest way possible.

Have you ever seen the whitehouse blog? You must! It can serve as a great model as a communications link with your audience – the existing as well as the future audience. Sounding personal and making every visitor feel like a bazillion bucks pulls competition down faster than any other marketing strategy.

2. Paving the path for clients to come looking for you

Organizations spend great amounts of money on advertising, towards building a sizable customer base and getting their name out there.  Your new audience will come to you and not the other way round.  People always love visiting already active portals. Through viewing the credentials of the company and reading the blog posts and interacting with others, your audience is formed, making it easier for you to communicate with all of them at once and turn them into customers.

3. Existing audience drives more traffic to your business

Over a period of time, your audience feels comfortable enough to trust you and recommend you to others too. Whenever you post new information that is of interest to them, they will let others know. When your visitors start posting, commenting or tracking back, it can have a viral effect – spreading across the blogosphere. You will even be linked to by other blogs, if you have interesting content. Visitors to those blogs will make their way to yours and there will soon be a flow of new visitors wanting to read what you have to say, utilizing your services or buying your products. This beautiful benefit of expanding your business outside of invisible geographical walls is easy to accomplish.

4. Audience development helps build a community

We all need different things in life. But the one most common thing that binds us is the need for information and the need to find business owners who are experts in their field.  You can draw an audience into conversations on your blog, giving your company an interactive forum.  They can now participate versus just reading/watching/listening passively. When you share ideas, you are engaging your audience in industry-specific dialogue that might not uncover through years of traditional market research and relationship building.

You will soon develop a rapport with your visitors, receive feedback and build trust. If you succeed in building a community, all news pertaining to your organization will travel fast. Over a period of time, a community of highly targeted and interested audience surrounding your business is developed – or should we say – future clientele. This will enable you to navigate to opportunities that offer the highest returns.

5. In the eyes of the media

The right audience is every PR consultant’s dream. Your audience is not going to be restricted to individuals looking for solutions but also the media that laps up interesting news, instead of them being passive recipients of press releases.  An active organizational blog with thriving audience can be a great outlet where media is informed about all news related to your company as well as your insights related to the industry. This will enhance your image in such a way that it can make it more attractive to potential customers, business partners and even employees looking for positions in highly visible organizations – such as yours.

6. Ability to attract better talent

Organizations advertize in newspapers or television to reach the best talent in their particular field of expertise.  What you must not forget is that such go-getters also look for highly motivated companies to make the best use of their skills and achieve the learning curve every intelligent mind seeks.

Needless to say, highly qualified and eligible job-seekers look for organizations with huge audiences and the feedback left by others over a period of time gives them a clear picture of who you are. Once your audience reads and discusses what you have to say, and you have established yourself as a thought leader, you will also be seen as an attractive employer.

Although, this may not be everyone’s cup of tea, the concept of Reckitt Benckiser’s blog is certainly interesting.  It is written by employees showing potential candidates how good it is to work at their company.

7. Better product and services development through instant feedback

Feedback is the most crucial aspect of any business. Since audiences are informal and have the power to comment freely on what they feel, organizations can get a measure of value from their blogs. You will be able to publish an idea or talk of a product to see if it generates interest.  Who likes it and who doesn’t? What are they saying?  A good-sized audience can bring the immense power of thousands of dollars worth of surveys.

The audience effectively leaves a record online of all the customer service comments and these can be reviewed by future customers.  At Adobe, which was Macromedia earlier, they had a strategy, where visitors were asked for product ideas. This makes the audience feel more responsible for helping in building the product, with the potential of turning them into future customers.

8. Improving the perception of your brand

The beauty of developing an audience online is that you have the power to influence online conversations by being actively involved.  Leading conversations on your blog with the involvement of thousands of loyal readers and raving fans will give you the opportunity to improve the perception of your brand, as well as position your company as a leader in your area of expertise, shredding the competition to bits.

9. Increased search engine visibility through audience interaction

You must have heard of the saying, “Content is king.” One of the key benefits of an increasing audience is search engine visibility for your organization.  As the audience builds up and useful content on the blog in the form of articles, comments, suggestions and discussions increases, your organization will be perceived as an authority in your specific area of expertise.

It is common practice to link back to an interesting thought or post.  Back links are a way for search engines to differentiate the better blogs from the rest.  All the new posts and conversations along with the fresh content added by your company help create natural inbound links along with maximizing your site’s visibility to the search engines; increasing the opportunity to connect with an even bigger audience. Higher search engine ranking means higher traffic. Google and other sites reward blogs/sites with plenty of inbound links, thus paving the path for multiplying your audience.

10. Monetizing your audience in several ways

Obviously, if you are an organization, you are also looking for monetary benefits. The best part of spending the time and effort on building a loyal audience is monetization. An organization can monetize the audience in a million innovative ways.

A new model being used online is that of retrieving highly valuable market data. One way that is considered to work is by asking a question or a series of questions through a pop up on the screen after the visitors have read a certain number of articles. They will be expected to provide an answer to continue reading.

These surveys would be easy to create as they would pertain to a particular target audience. This kind of information is proving to be extremely valuable for consumer brands to gain insight into the market. Traditionally, it would be very difficult to expect people to give such information, but here if you have created a loyal audience over a period of time, the viewer is motivated to give you information in order to enjoy reading what you have to say.
You’ll find this blog – interesting.

You know what your business demands – that you get maximum value from the time and money you spend in your efforts. This is exactly what creating an audience (especially through a blog) does. It does many things at once, much as the same way you use different marketing strategies to run your business – public relations, marketing, customer relations, sales lead generation and industry connections.  What better package deal can you get for making your organization stand out?

Press releases are generally addressed to the media but are intended to attract public attention. The announcements that have news value are entertained. These communications channel through media and create public awareness on various matters and issues. The news immediately spread within and beyond borders.

Well worded and well laid out press releases create great impact. These can motivate the masses and activate positive impressions about the company, their objectives and performances. The press releases are all about news on some happenings, creations, projections and new developments that would appeal and impress public and news readers. Good news and its timely publication enhance the media proficiency and vigilance among the readers. These days a press release is the cheapest way to reach the public at large. The public responds to media communications as they can read or view the details in their convenient free time, at home, in office or during casual walk in park.

Press Release Advantages

Photo by nancydowd

The media plays a central role in the field of public relations now-a-days. The favourable comments in the media about persons and products make them known and become popular. On the other hand any anti-notes will create problems. The press releases are the basic tools and know-how for the reporters to build their news and reports or stories. Without this raw material they would not have enough real matter to fill newspaper pages. The news breaking is helpful in many ways.

Press briefings are usually meant to achieve positives objectives and publicity. Personal promotions, company awards, changes and amendments in Government laws, announcements on sports and other event schedules, social news releases, company earnings and progress reports, launching of new products and services, reports on legal matters, political campaigns and activities, reports on national problems and issues and so on. Governments use the media most as their maximum working and dealings are conveyed to the public through press releases. Media is a major link between the people and the Government.

Good Press Release Ingredients

Press release is intended to create an impact or spread the news in the shortest possible time. Otherwise the objective fails. Therefore it should be drafted in a pattern to deliver the “complete message”. The more clear and precise the message is the better reporting would result. The editors are best story writers. They understand public moods, their likes and priorities. Let them handle the news expansion by themselves.

The Heading or Headline

Headline is the most important part of the press briefing. Just as the preface of a book, it should summarize the subject in general. The topic should convey the true message instantly. A short topic not over two lines would be better and brief and bold. The name of the issuing authority should be avoided in the headline. The theme should be easy to follow, not heavily worded and be crystal clear. This will set the press release tone for the attentive audience. A well worded to the point headline will stick in the minds of the reporters, leaving enough room for them to expand the text at will later.

Press Release Dateline

Some news is released a few days or weeks earlier from the intended announcement date, for convenience on certain aspects. This is rare. In any case the date of the news release should be clear. Some news are related to instant proceedings and reports while others are

plans on future targets, and so on. According to the code of conduct, the media is bound to uphold the dates declared.

Press Release Introduction

Introduction is again very important and needs great attention. This lays the corner stone of the discussion that is to follow. Lead the reporters and in turn the readers to the information being released in short spurts so that their attention is maintained for more details on the subject, till the end. Stick to the basics in the beginning, to where, why and when? The discussion on the details must be limited to facts mostly which form material basics and are essential to the release. Make maximum use of the initial exposure, and make the release convincing. Remember there is no second time on the same subject. Therefore create a good initial impact to stay fresh for a long time.

Press Release – The Body

The body of the release can discuss any and all aspects of the subject. The statistics, background, plans, and other details are explained and made clear to cut short any expected questions. The photos and videos can high light the projections with ease. The initial reactions experienced can be answered and explained or could be pended till after the presentation. Written details should always be distributed when the information is more than that could be jotted down or remembered. The leaflets or pamphlets should high light the specific details by bold letters or use the bullets or website details. Quote names where convenient as names are easy to remember.

Add small references or quotations to make the occasion lively, particularly when the press releases are of dry nature and more technical. A short phrase here and there will remove the dullness from the audience. The press release body should complete the information to be conveyed in all respects and details be fully discussed for complete grasp by the audience. This should be done in a way to encourage the reporters and the media to stay in touch later, for further information when needed. However, keep the body length moderate, depending on the subject/topic.

Press Release – Corporate background

The company background, standing and growth data is an essential part when the company profile is not fully known in the media and market. Some details on the organization setup and key individuals should be included. The usual details sought by media are the initial start of the business and the activities past and present. Whether a small enterprise or a large private or public organization. It is an importer or exporter and the products it handles or manufactures. The corporate outlay should be informative and not too long to become a self praise. Only the key achievements and milestones are to be included. Avoid product lists, testimonials, puffery and long winded claims.

Press Release – Close

The detailing of the corporate background is usually considered the end of the press release. The ways of speech ending differs from country to country. The American tradition carry a mark “-30-“that appear at close on the written text provided. The symbol that is gaining popularity is ###. In some countries the old order routine is still followed as the ‘text ends’. No matter which country we live in, an indication to the text ending must be included.

Media Contact Detail

Finally the speech of media briefing ends. This is customarily followed by details of contacts provided for the media convenience. This includes the company officials name, phone number, e-mail address, website and name of the public relations officer. Media contact is maintained for better public relationship.

Press Release – more Guidelines

• The grammar and style should be fault free because media recalls everything.
• Word processor should be preferred to online HTML language.
• E-mail address should never be mentioned in the press release body.
• The main news should have enough spread over two paragraphs.
• Media follows facts only, so try to stick to these only.
• Keep it simple and timely.
• Be very clear and particular and avoid emotions.
• The release must be worthy enough to become news to media.
• Be objective and do not discuss detailed company past history.
• Give a brief introduction on the news release.
• Choose the first couple of sentences avoiding fancy or flattery.
• Research on the press release with others to verify all aspects or reconstruct.
• Always better to use one side of the page. Leave wide margins and ample space between the lines to help editors and reporters to make notes, as the speech progresses.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing needs commitment, time and money like all other types of small or big businesses. Marketing of Small Business often need good financial backup to provide enough lead time to make known your entry in the social and net circles. You would be spending much time and effort to your media marketing viewing the traffic flow and constantly responding to the comments / questions or suggestions left by adequate return in due time.

How to do Social Media Marketing for Small Business?

There is no doubt that without investment nothing is possible. The other fact is also true that small businesses are always short of resources. Somehow they can mange time and can invest this to stay tuned to Social media marketing. There is no confusion on returns inflow too. These come in time and in different forms like increase in links and traffic influences that improve your website visibility. The returns would emerge as your website usability improves or attracts attention within social media marketing circles. The returns generated will be continually debated to the time and money invested.

Photo by Silver Tree Consulting | Marketing

The small businesses are usually not attractive and are a kind of dry stuff than the so called ‘sexy ones. But as a routine every small business still has something that is unique and link worthy and would get more response on popular sits. The larger websites at times are too busy with unlimited clientage that small business projects often get lost or receive little attention in the rush. So diversify opting for social media marketing to get known in the less traffic rush conditions. This will also reduce too much reliance giant search engines. There are ways to find out how to do Social Media Marketing for Small Business with less time and money.

Starting a Blog:

Blogging is known for long and is used by uncounted small business setups (web 1.5 or so. This is a convenient way to start to communicate with casual visitors and customers for social marketing. Choose a reliable and low cost source for your blog. There are many bold names in the market like Twitter, Company Blog or Word press. World Press is open source software and is free. You can take a start here. You can now invest all the time you have. The more effort you put in will receive corresponding response. Take a moderately pushing start and increase steadily and stay comfortable with the Blog.

Comment on other Blogs:

Two way communications among users is needed to attract others. Therefore read what other are proposing on their blogs. Visit them and create conversations as these are all free consuming time only. Leave your comments and introduce your name and URL. You good positive comments on their blogs will lead them to yours. The traffic will build up soon and your blog introduction will be passed onto other friends and users. This intern help you gain the audience desired and return your investment.

Take to Yahoo Answers actively:

Your expertise is your small business tool yahoo Answers provide a big opportunity to divulge your knowledge to others who may be waiting for it. This is an ideal situation for a service based on small business to get in contact with prospective customers. A direct link is the foremost objective of a blog. This experience can be well expanded by investing about two or so hours a week with the answer service SEO. You can also place your own questions there. This technique guides others to your blog maintaining constant traffic. The people seeking more information will become acquainted with your social media marketing for small business soon and help it expand its services and products to a wider clientage.

Making and Sharing Videos:

Video sharing provides an impetus. This calls for a little investment and some knowledge. Reasonable cameras are available a cheap price. Short videos need almost no editing and production costs are low. The software for manipulating and providing linely features will not cost much too. Exchange our videos describing your business, visiting places, homes and projecting idea s that appeal to you will visual featuring to your customers too. You can use videos on your own blog and if suitable to others also like YouTube and so on. The return traffic will surprise you increasing your own prospects. Some others search engines also willingly accept free listings like City Search and Yellow Pages and so on. You are required to present quality stuff to enhance versatility of your blog.

Sharing Photos

Photo is a relatively quicker means to promote your Social Media Marketing. This is low cost but create a lot of interest. There are many photo exchange groups already in the market and very active. Your product is displayed and your blog gets known sooner. Add some popular themes to your marketing. Share photographs of Pets like dogs, dog houses, birds in cages, seashore causal scenes, landscapes that you captured and so on. You can flick photos relating to your services or products for your visitors and prospective customers on your blog or immediate sensation.

Attach to Groups and Mailing Lists:

Yahoo Groups and Google Groups maintain product and services groups and listings for quick tacking by visitors. Place your name on these lists and enter the group networks to improve your blog traffic and as a great marketing tool.

Experiment Stumble Upon:

Photo by davefleet

The Stumble Upon social site is one of the few believed to be less time consuming. The group oriented activity in your related fields can be easily managed with less effort. You are required to add pages to Stumble Upon projecting your products in details with your URL. The other users will soon “Stumble Upon” your content randomly. The approval of the chance visitors would mean your reference being passed on to many more users. The blog owners who experienced Stumble Upon claim tremendous traffic increase than the sales.

However, a source for higher rankings also increases awareness, blog readerships, besides becoming revenue outlet. The main idea behind all the above is to promote your blog with good ideas, making your listings interesting and not over looking and product heavy. Contribute regularly to your social media marketing by different stuff to keep tinkling your presence. The best strategy that will keep your hard work in tact is to register your name and URL with leading search engines for security and against name hi-jacking. You can reserve your name with Facebook or others whether you use their facilities yet or not. This will be protected from duplication.

Who doesn’t want billions of ad revenue and a new lot of fresh viewers? Yup! Every entertainment company wants this as its survival depends on these two major contributors.Considering the importance of these contributing factors one of the world biggest producers of films and T.V. entertainment, Warner Bros is going to launch two Web sites as announced by the company on Monday.

KidsWB.com

The first Web site has been named as KidsWB.com as it is quite evident from the name that the site will provide entertaining stuff to children by featuring cartoon characters like Scooby Doo, Bugs Bunny and Batman as all these characters are part Warner Bros entertaining library.

TheWB.com

The other site is TheWB.com that will provide complete episodes of shows like “Smallville” and “Friends” online and some other online shows will be presented online during next month in a beta test version, it was announced by Warner Bros.Television Group.

Online ad incomes

Kids WB.com and TheWB.com will be sponsored by ad incomes as deals with the companies like McDonald’s Corp., Mattel Inc. and Johnson & Johnson have already taken place in this connection, stated by Warner Bros.

Television studio’s content

Warner Bro.’s president Bruce Rosenblum stated in a Webcast that all it has been done for the availability of television studio’s content to younger viewers who prefer to watch shows on cell phones and laptops and they consider it television for themselves.

It is being considered a good move to make the content available on it Website by Warner Bros. as other companies have already stepped in that course.

General Electric Co.’s NBC

Other companies like General Electric Co.’s NBC and Walt Disney‘s ABC.com are already providing their stuff to the online audience and gaining good ad revenues in this connection.

The entertainment industry

However, according to some experts this move of online availability of content is not late enough from Warners Bros as online availability of shows still very promising for the entertainment industry.

Warner Bros. is trying to make its Website more than a platform for viewing large shows.
Rosenblum also stated that online watching is at its beginning stage and we must not be focused on mere profits for some years.

Meanwhile there are chances of decline in the sales of stocks and shares of the apple & company’s that it might be the situation of decrees third quarter sales.

The chief executive officer of the Apple & company’s commented a few times earlier that we have earned $ 17 billion in the profits pro the first semi of our financial year.Moreover he said that the apple has the strongest will to produce and launch a variety of products in the future timeIt has earned a pretty wide recognition in the internet marketing and advertising portfolios.

The shareholders must not be astounded even if Apple constantly is conventional through its leadership.

A few time ago the CFO Peter Oppenheimer said that the world business is going in the phase of recession, the oil prices are increasing day by day at a fluctuating rate.The United States is facing a great slump due to inflation, deflation, hyperinflation, and stagflation and so on.

These all circumstances are being increased due to the poor conditioning of the Asian countries. Asia has been facing a great phase of recession now a day.Every day there comes many disasters in form of bomb blasting, earthquake, flood, hurricanes, etc.The regime is unable to control on all of these issues. Hence there is inflation every where the world.

However, the Apple is continuously launching its computer, mobile, iPod products to attract the public in a stunning style.The proof of this could be check from the record sales of apple that the company has sold more than 10.6 million ipods and 1.7 million iphones throughout the quarter.It is not just this; apple would launch more stunning products very soon in the online advertisement and internet marketing business.

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