Mediaboss Marketing

LONDON--(BUSINESSWIRE)--

Increasing use of social media marketing expected in the coming year, finds Constant Contact study

A new study from Constant Contact®, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTCT) reveals that almost 40 per cent of UK small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) are using social media to market their business. What’s more, the study suggests that nearly eight out of ten (79 per cent) of those currently using social media marketing expect to increase their use of the tool to drive business results in the next year. Of those not using social media marketing currently, 27 per cent plan to begin using it in the next year.

The study, which surveyed almost 700 UK SMEs, found that they have a keen understanding that social media marketing will be increasingly important in the coming months. In fact, over two-thirds (68 per cent) report that social media is an effective way to market their business, and 64 per cent report that social media will become more important in the future.

Specifically, these smaller companies report that social media is a good way to generate word of mouth and referrals (48 per cent), is cost effective (47 per cent), is a good way to communicate with existing and prospective customers (roughly 45 per cent), and can help their business succeed (45 per cent).

Facebook is the tool of choice among those SMEs using social media with half (51 per cent) using it for marketing purposes, followed by Twitter (42 per cent), LinkedIn (39 per cent), Flickr (16 per cent) and group deals (10 per cent).

“What’s interesting is that, while the number of UK SMEs using social media marketing is still under 50 per cent, those SMEs who are using it clearly see its value – and are looking to increase their social media efforts,” said Annette Iafrate, UK managing director at Constant Contact. “We’ve believed for some time that social media marketing could offer big value to SMEs, primarily because it is all about engaging, and that’s something that SMEs are real experts at. The issue has been getting to the understanding that doing social media marketing doesn’t have to take a lot of time.”

Time is indeed a clear hurdle to SMEs’ use of social media; a full 41 per cent reported that they believe social media marketing requires a lot of time – something they just don’t have much of. Furthermore, four out of ten feel they need to know more about how to use social media marketing.

“The great news for SMEs is that these hurdles are easily surmounted. There are fantastic tools available today that make social media marketing very easy to manage, both from a time and knowledge perspective,” said Iafrate. “The hardest part is getting started – and we have ways to help there as well.”

Constant Contact offers a full set of tools to help SMEs find social media success whether they have yet to begin dabbling with social media or they already have engaged fans and followers. SMEs can:

Of note, SMEs are using social media in tandem with other, more traditional marketing tools to take advantage of the additive effect. Other highly rated marketing tactics cited include hosting events, doing email blasts, using paid search, using online event marketing tools, and running traditional advertising.

About the Study

This Constant Contact-sponsored survey was conducted in October 2011 by Chadwick Martin Bailey via an online forum launched in the UK, questioning small business owners and their marketing decision makers. Results include responses from British small businesses across a range of business-to-business and business-to-consumer industries, as well as nonprofits. A total of 680 respondents participated in the study.

About Constant Contact, Inc.

Constant Contact is revolutionizing the success formula for small organizations through affordable, easy-to-use Engagement Marketing™ tools that help create and grow customer relationships. More than half a million small businesses, nonprofits, and associations worldwide rely on Constant Contact to drive ongoing customer dialogs through email marketing, social media marketing, event marketing, and online surveys. All Constant Contact products come with unrivaled KnowHow, education, and free coaching with a personal touch, including award-winning customer support.

Constant Contact and the Constant Contact Logo are registered trademarks of Constant Contact, Inc. All Constant Contact product names and other brand names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Constant Contact, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

(CTCT-F)

Contact

LEWIS PR
Suzy Ferguson / Laura Spence, +44 (0) 20 7802 2626
cc@lewispr.com
or
Investor Contact:
Constant Contact
Jeremiah Sisitsky, 339-222-5740
jsisitsky@constantcontact.com

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Four Out of Ten UK SMEs Adopt Social Media Marketing

WASHINGTON • Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin has been as aggressive as any member of Congress in pressing technology companies to promote Internet freedoms. Last year, he lectured Facebook about the need to protect users from authoritarian regimes.

Today, Durbin focused on Twitter, the microblogging giant that announced last month that it had begun censoring content in countries that restrict Internet use.

Durbin, a Democrat, chairs a Senate Judiciary subcommittee with a wide perview: the Constitution, civil rights and human rights. He is joined in his request to Twitter by Tom Coburn, R-Okla., among the Senate's most conservative members.

A letter from Durbin and Coburn to Twitter CEO Dick Costolo this morning began by praising the San Francisco-based company for providing "an important tool to democracy and human rights activists."

But it raised a series of questions such as what procedures Twitter will use when it receives a censorship request from a foreign government.

Twitter was vague on details when the company declared in a blog post on Jan. 26: "Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively witthold content from users in a specific country - while keeping it available in the rest of the world."

The Durbin-Coburn letter asks, among other things, how Twitter determines whether requests from presumably authoritarian governments are valid.

Among other questions to Twitter:

• Do you make an assessment of whether complying with such a request may put the human rights of the Twitter user at risk?

• Do you assess whether such a request complies with international human rights laws?

• Where do you store the private information of your users?

The senators also pressed Twitter to join the Global Network Initiative, an alliance of Internet and technology companies who have agreed to submit to a voluntary code of conduct that involves protecing human rights.

Twitter has thus far has balked, responding two years ago that the company hadn't had the time to "fully evaluate" the initiative but, initially, considered it "better suited to bigger companies."

In renewing the request to join, Durbin and Coburn observed that Twitter has grown to the point where it has users in nearly every country in the world.

"Twitter clearly faces the significant human rights issues that the (initiative) is designed to help companies address, namely government pressure to violate the freedom of expression and user privacy," the letter reads.

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Durbin wants explanation of Twitter's new censorship policy

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"We understand that Twitter has an obligation to comply with legal requests that do not violate human rights, and we appreciate that you are taking steps to minimize the impact of censorship," the senators wrote. "However, your announcement leaves important questions unanswered."

The lawmakers also encouraged Twitter to join the Global Network Initiative, a voluntary code of conduct for tech companies that require participating organizations to take reasonable measures to protect human rights. Twitter has reportedly avoided joining GNI in the past, according to the letter, which cites a 2010 letter from Twitter's general counsel stating the company thought the code "is better suited to bigger companies."

The following is the full text of the letter, as posted by Forbes on Wednesday afternoon.

February 15, 2012

Dick Costolo
Chief Executive Officer
Twitter, Inc.
795 Folsom Street, Suite 600
San Francisco, CA  94107

Dear Mr. Costolo:

We write to request more information about Twitter's human-rights policies and practices.

We commend you for providing an important tool to democracy and human-rights activists. Twitter has helped activists in the Middle East and elsewhere to organize demonstrations and publicize human-rights abuses. At the same time, Twitter and other social networking technology have created what Internet expert Evgeny Morozov calls "a digital panopticon" that repressive regimes use to crack down on activists. As Scott Shane wrote in The New York Times, "A dissident's social networking and Twitter feed is a handy guide to his political views, his career, his personal habits and his network of like-thinking allies, friends, and family."

Freedom of Expression

Our inquiry is prompted by Twitter's recent announcement that it would begin censoring content in particular countries. "Tweets still must flow," a Twitter blog post on January 26, 2012, said, "Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country - while keeping it available in the rest of the world" (http://blog.twitter.com/2012/01/tweets-still-must-flow.html). The Twitter Help Center page on "Country Withheld Content" further explains, "if we receive a valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity, it may be necessary to reactively withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time" (https://support.twitter.com/articles/20169222).

We understand that Twitter has an obligation to comply with legal requests that do not violate human rights, and we appreciate that you are taking steps to minimize the impact of censorship, by, for example, making censored content available outside the country where it is withheld, only censoring content in response to a government request, and providing notice when a tweet is censored.  However, your announcement leaves important questions unanswered.  Please respond to the following questions:

1.      What procedures does Twitter follow when you receive a request from a foreign government to withhold content?  Are these procedures in writing?  Have Twitter's employees been trained in these procedures?

2.      Do you maintain a written record of all such requests?

3.      How do you determine whether such a request is "valid and properly scoped"?

4.      Do you require that such a request follow the legal process required by the foreign government's laws?

5.      Do you make an independent assessment of whether such a request complies with the foreign government's laws?

6.      Do you assess whether such a request complies with international human rights laws?

7.      If you determine that such a request violates the foreign government's and/or human rights laws, how do you proceed?

8.      In what circumstances would you decline or challenge in court such a request?

9.      Which Twitter official is ultimately responsible for authorizing the withholding of content?

We are also concerned about whether Twitter has in place adequate safeguards to protect the privacy of its users. We commend Twitter for allowing the use of pseudonyms, which is an important protection for democracy and human-rights activists in countries with repressive governments. We understand that Twitter must cooperate with legitimate law enforcement efforts, and we appreciate that Twitter attempts to notify a user before turning over his or her private information. A Twitter blog post on January 28, 2011, "The Tweets Must Flow," states, "While we may need to release information as required by law, we try to notify Twitter users before handing over their information whenever we can so they have a fair chance to fight the request if they so choose" (http://blog.twitter.com/2011/01/tweets-must-flow.html).  Again, important questions remain unanswered.  Please respond to the following questions:

1.      What procedures does Twitter follow when you receive a request from a foreign government for the private information of a Twitter user?  Are these procedures in writing?  Have Twitter's employees been trained in these procedures?

2.      Do you maintain a written record of all such requests?

3.      Do you make an assessment of whether complying with such a request may put the human rights of the Twitter user at risk?

4.      Do you require that such a request follow the legal process required by the foreign government's laws?

5.      Do you make an independent assessment of whether such a request complies with the foreign government's laws?

6.      Do you assess whether such a request complies with international human rights laws?

7.      If you determine that such a request violates the foreign government's and/or human rights laws, how do you proceed?

8.      In what circumstances would you decline or challenge in court such a request?

9.      Which Twitter official is ultimately responsible for authorizing the disclosure of private user information?

10.  In what circumstances do you notify a Twitter user that you have handed over his or her information?

11.  Where do you store the private information of your users?

Global Network Initiative

As you know, we have urged Twitter to join the Global Network Initiative (GNI), a voluntary code of conduct for internet and communications technology companies that requires participating companies to take reasonable measures to protect human rights.  We believe that the GNI has potential to advance human rights if member companies fully implement the GNI's principles and the GNI's membership is expanded.

In a February 19, 2010 letter, Twitter's General Counsel told us, "[W]e have not had the luxury of time to be able to fully evaluate GNI.  It is our initial sense that [GNI] is better suited to bigger companies."  As the GNI testified at a March 2, 2010 hearing on internet freedom that we held, GNI membership dues and requirements differ based on a company's size and resources:  "While membership requires executive-level commitment to the principles and GNI framework, implementation of GNI commitments will vary for each company, depending on differences in size, markets, business models, products and services."

We appreciate that joining GNI would require a significant investment of time and resources, but Twitter now has hundreds of employees, over one million active users, and is "used by people in nearly every country in the world" (http://blog.twitter.com/2011/08/your-world-more-connected.html, http://twitter.com/about, http://blog.twitter.com/2011/09/one-hundred-million-voices.html).  Twitter clearly faces the significant human-rights issues that the GNI is designed to help companies address, namely government pressure to violate the freedom of expression and user privacy.

1.      Now that you have had two additional years to evaluate the GNI, will you consider joining?

2.      GNI members undergo an independent assessment and evaluation of their human-rights policies and practices.  Does Twitter undergo such an external audit?  If not, will you?

3.      GNI members employ human rights impact assessments to identify circumstances when freedom of expression and privacy may be at risk when entering new markets; considering potential partners, investments, and suppliers; and introducing new products and services.  Does Twitter conduct such human rights assessments?  If not, will you?

4.      GNI members provide training on human rights, freedom of expression, and user privacy to its employees.  Does Twitter provide such training?  If not, will you?

5.      Please provide a copy of any human rights guidelines and policies that Twitter has in place.

Thank you for your time and consideration.  We look forward to your response at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

Richard J. Durbin

Tom Coburn, M.D.

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Twitter Censorship Guidelines Questioned by U.S. Senators [FULL TEXT]

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 15, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Empire Post Media, Inc. (OTCBB:EMPM.PK - News) announced today that its existing third party financing of $1,500,000, originally put in place for the production of the television series "Journey Beyond," will be tapped to provide financial support for other projects being developed by the company.

"This production finance facility will greatly accelerate our production activities, especially in the area of television programming," stated Peter Dunn, Empire's CEO. "This resource is critically important as the company moves forward with development of 'On The QT' and '3D World, with the intention of producing and owning the shows to maximize the return to Empire.

"This financing is consistent with the company's policy of using third party funding sources on a profit sharing basis for all productions. This policy insures that production financing will not dilute the current shareholder base," Dunn added. "These two productions conform with our financial model and could add up to $9,000,000 a year to gross revenues should each reach its full potential."

Further information about Empire can be found at http://www.empirepostmedia.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts.

The Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "forecast," "project," "plan," "could", "might"," "potential," "will," "may," "should," "expect," "pending" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements

The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, our management's examination of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other data available from third parties. Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections..

Read more:
Empire Post Media Taps $1,500,000 Production Finance Facility to Support New Television Development Projects

Beijing, Feb 16: 

The Chinese Government is establishing management committees in every monastery in Tibet to strengthen its controls, amid a spate of suicides by Buddhist monks and reports of growing unrest among them.

A management committee has been established in every monastery in the Tibet Autonomous Region to oversee general monastery affairs, an official in-charge of local religious affairs told the official media here.

Headed by government officials, the so-called Monastery Management Committee also consists of monks and nuns who carry out duties including tourist reception, cultural relic protection and assisting locals with religious affairs, said Mr Luobu Dunzhu, a director with the office of religious affairs under the Tibetan United Front Work Department.

“It is under the mission of establishing harmonious monasteries that we are stepping up these committees,” Mr Luobu told state-run Global Times.

Tibet began establishing monastery committees in November and managed to expand them to the regions’ 1,787 monasteries early this year, according to Mr Luobo, who said the number of staff members at the committees could reach as many as 30 for some big monasteries and only a few for smaller ones.

According to one estimate, Tibet has over 40,000 Buddhist Monks. Tensions have been high in Tibetan regions ahead of the Tibetan New Year next week and the fourth anniversary of the March 14 riots in Lhasa in 2008.

The Tibetan New Year falls on February 22. The Tibetan administration has already beefed up security measures following a spate of suicides by monks and nuns, demanding the return of the Dalai Lama.

Two riots were reported in the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture during the Chinese New Year amid foreign media reports that several monks had set themselves ablaze.

Lhasa’s ruling Communist Party chief, Mr Qi Zhala, visited the monasteries on Tuesday and urged the monastery committees to increase vigilance and create a “harmonious and stable” social environment for the 18th National Congress of the CPC to be open in a few months, the Tibet Daily reported.

The Congress is expected to be held in November to elect a new leadership to rule the country for the next 10 years.

Mr Qi said that monastery committees must further raise vigilance and recognise the “important role it has played in maintaining stability,” the report said.

Local officials have been told that severe action would be taken against them if they fail in preventing any untoward incidents.

Mr Luobo said that one of the duties of the committees’ staff is to take charge of the monks’ healthcare insurance, which now covers 80 per cent of the regions’ monks and nuns.

In response to concerns that monastery committees might disturb religious practices, Mr Luobu said “monks and nuns have the freedom to perform their religious rituals and the establishment of such committees is aimed at ensuring such practices”.

Read the rest here:
China takes control of Tibetan monasteries to put down unrest