basilpuglisi@aol.com

If your still not sure about Social Media as a sales tool, think about this!

“customer reviews had a strong influence on the purchases of 71% of respondents—while only 25% said the same about Facebook fan pages”—an interesting statistic considering the pace at which companies are setting up Facebook pages. Seems to me there is a disconnect here since comments posted on a Facebook page are customer reviews, aren’t they?

 “Customers are constantly accessing information via multiple touchpoints — including mobile devices, social networks, and company websites — throughout the research process. Companies have come to recognize the importance of providing excellent cross-channel services to improve the customer experience. In fact, 80 percent of customer experience decision makers said that improving cross-channel interactions was one of their key priorities in 2010. However, consumers consistently rate satisfaction levels for cross-channel experiences as poor, so it is apparent that businesses often struggle to deliver on this goal.”

Think about how you are using, or not using Social Media to meet consumer needs!

Sitepal has introduced a rather impressive new set of speaking avatars. While the technology behind this type of avatar may be complex, the simplicity of its use may make it worth its weight. Thanks to 3-D Photoface, who has some of the most life-like avatar creations on the web, these avatars are of a quality perhaps never seen before in this type of public use format.

Although Sitepal already boasts over 250 customizable avatars, they now offer those who cannot find the perfect match among that batch, the opportunity to build their own virtual web speaking avatar by doing no more than uploading their own photo of choice, and selecting a few options in the avatar creation wizard.  

Sitepal can now laud their avatars as having intensely human characteristics, all the way down to customized voice personalities and detailed facial movement and expressions. The ability to fine-tune an avatar so specifically for your site now, may have some users considering the usage of this kind of website capability for themselves.

Sitepal does offer a free trial so that users can test out their limits with their product. However, if you find yourself newly addicted to the features it provides, even a basic account will cost you at least $9.95 per month. That includes only the most basic of features.

Integrating audio through microphones, telephone or from a custom recording.

Available editor that includes over sixty characters and hundreds of background videos and images. You can also use your own scene if you choose.

The ability to publish to emails, PowerPoint, or HTML web pages.

Basic users get up to 1,500 streams per month as well as email support. This is not a terrible deal if your site can utilize this type of speech technology.

Many of the other features that a lot of users find helpful such as Sitepal’s text-to-speech scripting will require a higher paid membership. High end Sitepal features can cost up to $250 USD per month. Higher paid accounts of course receive a higher stream allotment as well as other key selling points such as eBay store integration.

The social internet website MySpace announced with great pride to the people in attendance at the Games Developers Conference that they have a better gaming system for those social gamers. The functions and tools are superior and they have improved the user friendliness.

The MySpace users that own the iphone now have the ability to play all of the MySpace games on their phones. The names of some of the iphone games include Hoop Fever Live, Zombie Revenge and Wild Ones just to name a few. The players no longer have to sit in from of their computer towers or laptops to play the games they love. They have the choice and freedom of playing their games when and where they want to.

MySpace says that nearly one third of their current members are playing their games on a daily basis. They are hoping that all of the members who want to play will discover the newest changes and want to jump on the daily “game wagon”. MySpace hopes that the players, new and old, will share the games with other members.

They have greatly improved the usability of the Game Gallery. Gamers will find that they can now find new games that they haven’t played before, and play those games recommended by other friends. Players also have the ability to rate the games that they play. If the rating on each game is high, this will inspire others to play. They have greatly improved the gaming search tool so the user can easily find the games they are looking for.

The social platform that MySpace is using is enticing to game developers and gamers alike. Those developers receive support for the games from some of the major development houses. This improves the games for the developers and the players.

MySpace is hosting “Game Development on Social Platforms”. Those involved will learn how to build games for that platform among other topics. The MySpace technical team members will be available to help the developers and gamers perfect their specific games, or build games.

On specs alone, HTC HD2 looks to be the best mobile 6.5 device ever created for Windows. It contains a 4.3 inch screen with 800 x 480 resolution. It also includes a speedy 1-GHZ process by Snapdragon. After the recent launch for the HD2, it was easy to get my hands on this device to see if it could live up to its own hype.

It quickly became obvious that this was indeed likely the best 6.5 device around. The touch screen is increasingly fun to play with, it also does a great job of putting the iPhone screen to shame, however, it is comparable to the Droid or Nexus One quality of touch screen and resolution.

The interface seems highly responsive, assuming due to the Snapdragon processor. Apps seem to open without the smallest delay.

Web Browsing

Browsing the web with the HD2 is also rather enjoyable. HD2 uses Opera Mobile so that on most pages you should see most, and commonly most often, all of the page itself. The web speed is also impressive on its 3G network.

However, there are some bug issues with the HD2 and web browsing. so in this aspect, the iPhone’s smooth Safari can blow the HD2’s web browser hitches out of the water. There seems to be a rather large bug that is involved with zooming in on a page. Many users have in fact reported the same exact issue, so this is obviously a manufacturing bug early on. Sure to be a quick fix around the corner.

This nifty device comes bundled with exclusive apps from places like Barnes & Noble as well as Blockbuster and MobiTv. Users can rent or buy movies from Blockbuster via the app available. The Barnes & Noble app gives users a world of literature at the tip of their fingers.

All in all, with a few flaws and a few shining perks, this mobile device is certain to be a hit, at least, that is, until the next one trumps it.