Mediaboss Marketing

LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwire -06/20/12)- Small- and medium-sized businesses rate email and social media marketing channels as the easiest to use and the most cost-effective for customer communications and marketing. Campaigner, an email marketing service and brand of j2 Global, Inc. (JCOM) that empowers companies to better attract and retain business through creative email marketing campaigns, is introducing new features that integrate the two favored tactics. The new social sharing functionality allows businesses to take a more holistic approach to online marketing and brand development.

"The synergies between email marketing and social media are evident, particularly as email marketers explore the value of enabling their messages to be easily shared on social networks like Facebook and Twitter," said Paul Turnbull, Product Manager, Campaigner. "Instead of having to deal with both an email marketing service and social media management tool, customers now have the ability to share emails on multiple social platforms through one easy-to-use interface. We are excited to deliver on many of the top requests from our customers and look forward to meeting their evolving email marketing needs."

With the highly anticipated incorporation of the share-with-your-network (SWYN) functionality, email marketers' subscribers can now pass along emails they receive to their own networks via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ using sharable permalinks. Available in both Campaigner's Email Editor and Smart Email Builder, email marketers can now amplify email marketing messaging by using the new Campaigner 'sharebar' and add social sharing links within emails. This allows subscribers to pass along content like promotional offers and insightful newsletters to prospective subscribers. These new social sharing capabilities enable email marketers to be more discoverable, extend the reach and enhance the life of their email campaigns, and provide another means of building subscriber lists.

As subscribers begin to share content, email marketers have more means to grow their email subscriber lists. Campaigner measures the views originating from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ to help customers gain insights into the impact of each social media channel and track the success of new shareable email campaigns.

Subscription Management Simplified and Customized

Campaigner has also added new functionality for customizing subscription management forms and messaging. Businesses can customize how subscribers can access and manage email preferences, edit their contact information, and opt-in or out of mailing lists and types of campaigns they receive. This allows email recipients to more easily change preferences, update their email address or unsubscribe completely using clear, dedicated forms and help ensure compliance with regulations such as CAN-SPAM.

As part of this functionality, users now easily control which mailing lists are exposed when subscribers update their preferences for a specific email campaign. In addition, it is now possible to make any mailing list visible or hidden, which can be useful to separate mailing lists used solely for internal contact groupings versus those mailing lists that your subscribers can opt-in or out of.

Additional features now available to Campaigner users include:

For more information about Campaigner's new features, visit http://www.campaigner.com/whatsnew and view the video tutorial at http://www.campaigner.com/resources/tutorials/csb/Social_Sharing/.

About Campaigner

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Social-Savvy Small Businesses: Campaigner Provides New Connection Between Email Programs & Social Platforms

This article is written by a member of our expert contributor community.

Our training firm, Social Media Marketing University, recently did a survey of entrepreneurs, executives, marketing pros, and social media practitioners, and discovered this fact: 65% of those executing social media campaigns were self-taught.

What makes social media so tempting as a marketing tool for businesses is the fact that, unless you opt for paid advertising on these sites, using them is absolutely free. However, that temptation can also be a trap. Because social media can seem so easy to use, it's also easy to misuse--in ways that can backfire on your business.

Expertise matters a great deal when you're performing any business task, and social media is no exception. Trying to feel your way through a social media campaign can potentially create a disconnect between you and your target audience.

A recent Intuit survey shows a marked contrast between what companies believe attracts consumers and what those consumers think. Most small business owners (51%) feel that wall posts are the best way to engage potential leads, while only 18% of those potential leads agree. 37%, however, say that special offers and/or discounts are what really grab their attention.

Being an amateur in any arena causes you to make mistakes you shouldn't. In social media, that problem is magnified by the fact that you're making your miscues in front of the whole world. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is becoming more sophisticated about Facebook, LinkedIn, and the like--and that group probably includes your competition.

So, the next time you think about updating your status, up your marketing game as well--and consider the following three important points:

1. Creating an effective social media overall strategy is crucial.

Here's a frightening fact (at least to a business)--two-thirds of everyone who uses social media has never, ever "followed" a brand. That indicates that companies are not giving consumers compelling reasons to be "fans" on social media sites. If you don't have a real social media plan, you won't have a consistent and engaging presence that achieves your business goals.

The rest is here:
For Social Media Marketing, Go Pro Or Go Home

GENEVA The government of Israel, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza are all unduly limiting free speech through restrictive laws, intimidation and censorship, a U.N. human rights expert said Tuesday.

The global body's independent investigator on freedom of expression, Frank La Rue, said the measures have had a chilling effect on the work of journalists and peaceful activists, and urged Israel and the Palestinians to uphold international standards on free speech.

"I am concerned by the recent attempts to limit criticism of Israel regarding its policies and practices of occupation, and questioning of Israel as a Jewish state," La Rue said as he presented his report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

He cited a law adopted last year that allows Israeli authorities to fine publicly-funded institutions that commemorate the so-called "Nakba," or catastrophe, an Arabic term used by Palestinians to describe the displacement of hundreds of thousands of non-Jewish residents during the war surrounding Israel's creation in 1948.

"The law severely undermines their right to freely express their opinion, preserve their history and culture, and to their right to commemorate the Nakba, which is an integral part of their history," said La Rue.

He also questioned an Israeli law that makes it a civil offense to call for a boycott against Israel and its products, as well as those produced in the settlements in the West Bank.

"Calling for or participating in a peaceful boycott is a legitimate form of expression which is internationally recognized," La Rue said in his report. "Moreover, given that lawsuits can be brought against individuals without any proof of damages, it creates further incentives for self-censorship, including on the Internet, to avoid litigation. "

He voiced similar criticism of a bill to amend Israel's defamation law, which would sharply increase fines without the need to prove damages.

"If adopted, it will create a significant chilling effect and will discourage investigative journalists, human rights NGOs and individuals expressing critical views," said La Rue.

Israel should also drop the practice of having a military censor review articles on issues of national security prior to publication, he said.

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UN free speech expert criticizes censorship by Israel, Palestinians

SYDNEY (AP) The Australian arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. said Wednesday it is making a $2 billion bid to take full control of pay TV company Consolidated Media Holdings. The company also announced a reorganization of its Australian newspaper business.

The News Ltd. takeover offer would give Murdoch's global media empire control of a large slice of Australia's pay television industry.

The move was supported by James Packer, whose Consolidated Press Holdings owns half of Consolidated Media.

News has offered $3.50 Australian dollars for each Consolidated Media share, valuing the company at AU$1.97 billion ($2 billion). The deal would give News a 50 percent stake in pay TV operator Foxtel and full ownership of Fox Sports in Australia.

The offer remains subject to approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Foreign Investment Review Board.

The News Corp. board must also approve the deal.

News Ltd., which owns 70 percent of Australia's newspapers, also announced a major restructure to centralize its Australian operations and reduce duplication.

News chief executive Ken Williams told staff that there would be redundancies, but he did not say how many.

The announcement came two days after Fairfax Media Ltd., Australia's No. 2 newspaper publisher, said it would cut 1,900 jobs over three years and erect pay walls for the websites of two of its flagship newspapers.

The organization would be reduced from 19 operating divisions to five, including three covering the Australian east coast where News Ltd. earns 80 percent of its revenue.

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News Corp. unit makes $2B bid for Australia pay TV

SANTA ANA, Calif. and ISMANING, Germany, June 20, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Identive Group, Inc. (INVE) (INV.F), a provider of products and services for the identification, security and RFID industries, today announced that its PACT 1241 physical access control terminal has been approved for the Identity, Credential and Access Management (ICAM) Certified Products List (CPL) of CertiPath, a leading independent provider of identity assurance services. This certification signifies to federal, state and local government agencies that Identive's PACT 1241 reader has undergone rigorous testing for compliance with the recommendations of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as laid out in NIST SP 800-116. The reader was tested in a number of authentication modes and demonstrated its ability to correctly and faithfully work with government-issued Personal Identity Verification (PIV) and PIV-I credentials, using both the contact and contactless interfaces of these cards.

"To comply with federal mandates, agencies at the national, state and local level are deploying PIV and PIV-I credentials for physical access authentication, extending their current use for secure network logon and cyber access. Approval for the CertiPath CPL identifies the PACT 1241 as a trusted product for use with these highly secure credentials, and in particular to support the management of both network and physical access with a single set of electronic credentials, or PKI at the door," said John Menzel, vice president Access Control ID Solutions for Identive.

CertiPath's CPL includes end-to-end system configurations that meet Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)-201 requirements, thus providing OEMs and facility owners with peace of mind knowing their systems meet the detailed security requirements of federal standards. CertiPath's process included assessment of Identive's physical access reader in more than 160 test cases within a full physical access control system. The PACT 1241 reader is certified to operate with any U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)-approved authentication module as part of a complete Card Authentication Key (CAK) authentication system.

Monitor Dynamics, a provider of Unified Security Management Solutions to the US federal government, unifies Identive's PACT 1241 reader into its Award-Winning Trusted FICAM Platform for FIPS 201 PACS compliance to support all authentication modes up to and including two-factor PIV-I authentication -- enabling the delivery of PKI at the reader for validation across the Federal Bridge. The combined solution recently won the Platinum Award for Best Government Access Control System from Security Products Magazine test labs and GovSec Government Security Conference Judges. "Unifying Identive's PACT readers into the Trusted FICAM Platform allows us to offer all government organizations an accelerated path to compliance with a turn-key FIPS-201 approved CAK authentication system, capable of reading PIV and PIV-I credentials out of the box. This proven combination is currently operating at numerous DoD installations across the United States and is scheduled for additional new implementations throughout the year," said Troy Paddock, president of Monitor Dynamics.

About Identive

Identive Group, Inc. (INVE) (INV.F) is focused on building the world's signature company in Secure ID. The company's products, software, systems and services address the markets for identity management, physical and logical access control, cashless payment, NFC solutions and a host of RFID-enabled applications for customers in the government, enterprise, consumer, education and healthcare sectors. Identive's mission is to build a lasting business of scale and technology based on a combination of strong technology-driven organic growth and disciplined acquisitive expansion. The company delivers up-to-date information on its activity as well as industry trends through its industry-leading social media initiatives and educational resource, AskIdentive.com. For additional information, please visit http://www.identive-group.com or follow on Twitter at @IdentiveGroup.

The Identive Group, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=8072

Note: All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Identive's Physical Access Control Terminal Achieves CertiPath ICAM Certification