@BasilPuglisi

Content & Strategy, Powered by Factics & AI, Since 2009

General

Google Plus: A short Intro to G+

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Vic Gundotra of Google explained that, connection is a “basic human need”. The current online choices in social media did not have enough diversity inside each individual social tool.

Who should be worried about Google+:

  • GoToMeeting
  • Flikr
  • Skype
  • Facebook
  • Microsoft
  • EVERYONE!

Bradley Horowitz, VP Products helped build Google+ explained in an interview for Twit:

Google+ allows individuals to create social networks inside a single social tool to share as you want where you want, when you want. It allows you to not only share via a news feed, but puts you face to face with people via video chat or in “Google Hangouts”.

In the real world people interrupt conversations and the technology in Google Hangouts was developed to recognize that and move the camera, its designed to develop the natural communication we see in real life.

Another innovation in Google Plus is Spark. Spark uses google news and google search to integrated with content that you interested in, it will provide a personal filter for content that is fresh and new to generate conversation. It keeps the discovery and sharing within your circles.

Another Great feature of Google Plus is the instant upload feature for Android. It allows users to automatically upload pictures as you take them on your mobile phone, then when you use G+ its loaded and ready to share if you choose.

Huddles is the mobile version of the platform that allows you to interact in small groups, I hope they add video to this, it would make the mobile video a real userfriendly social option.

Changing Social Interaction on the Web:

In Google Hangout people have to interact in a real time public space, something that others will now have to rethinking. Success will now include how they look, speak and the body language or facial features that they use. Google Hangouts has a game changing advantage for those that do know how to present and speak in public and are truly genuine. Users should be aware that this new social tool is a lot like “Larry King Live” and you better be prepared for questions that you may not want to answer.

Stay Tuned for “What does Google+ Really Mean for Google?”

This is a great video look at Google+ and really starts to get to the culture of Google+ at 44 minutes.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3evAu7WN4Q]

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New Facebook Features

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Facebook seems to be well intent on stepping up their game in the world of social networking. Whether a knee-jerk reaction to Google +, or a long planned idea, following a recent press conference at their headquarters, Facebook launched their newest options for their users.

Skype

One of the newest features includes Skype powered video chat, for single or group chat connections. Many users have already lauded the ease in which a user can initiate first a solo chat, and then simply initiate another to create an instant video conference call.

From an unbiased point of view this does offer awesome capabilities to those who would not have been able to communicate this easily before. Soldiers and others abroad can quickly strike up a video chat with Mom and their spouse when time is short and connections are vital. Students traveling countries away from their homes can do much the same.

This is what the internet is about and it does feel good to know the great connections that can be made here now with not much hassle, but just as with anything else, this already leaves a hole open for those who abuse such things to begin doing so. If you have an incredibly huge network on Facebook, you may find yourself the recipient of unwanted phone calls. This could quickly become another source of frustration for those who use Facebook who may not be entirely fond of their privacy policies.

Group Chat

Although the new group chat is certainly more user-friendly, aesthetically pleasing, and in general, so far, less buggy and annoying, it does seem to offer then unwanted possibility of Skype calling as well. However, though there may be a few annoying folks who may choose you to test the new capabilities on, drawing you into chats you may never enter willingly, the novelty of this too will wear off soon, just as it has on many other chat or instant messaging network.

The new features will be integrated into the usage of Facebook fans in over 70 different languages in the coming weeks, no small feat regardless of the digital wizard behind the curtain. This entire work over is what Facebook developers say was a part of the plan since the $240 million dollar investment that Microsoft made in them back in 2007.

Currently, these options are only available in the Windows platform. When asked about other operating system options in the future, Zuckerberg would only respond with, “We’ll see.”

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Twitter Tools You May Not Be Able to Live Without

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There are so many options these days when it comes to Twitter tools that users on Windows systems can implement to help them schedule tweets, manage followers, or aggregate relevant content. However, as with many things, options for Mac OS X may not be as easily found. This tool supplies users with a simple, clean interface that has easy-to-use features. Although Twitterific can be used for free, without paying for premium services, ads are displayed once per hour.

Look and Feel of Twitterific

Twitterifics screen is entirely resizable and can be used in full screen mode. Its white on black appearance may not be the most favored choice for many users but it works great for the formats it is used on. Since replies and direct messages are shown in different colors, this helps to distinguish quickly and exactly what a user may be focusing on.

Users can also configure a few of these options such as the ability to show Twitter errors as highlighted as to be easily recognized regardless of the size of device they are being viewed on. Across all devices, once a Tweet has been read, it will be dimmed.

Twitterific Coverage and Common Commands

Twitterific is available for Mac, iPod, iPad and iPhone. All of Twitterifics options are available through the click of a mouse on your desktop or the tap of a screen on other devices. Command Mac commands such as the command-W combo to close your screen also work on Twitterific.

Who Uses Twitterific?

Twitterific is currently ranked #209,891 globally and it is currently ranked as a desktop application. Twitterific users are commonly men under the age of forty-five who are highly educated.

The TweetedTimes

The TweetedTimes can generate a newspaper from your Twitter account. This can certainly help any Twitter enthusiast to aggregate the most important messages to them, which their Twitter account has picked up during a busy day. Delivering these messages in an easy to read format allows them to be viewable on many mobile devices.

Who Uses TweetedTimes?

Currently, TweetedTimes has a three-month global ranking of #50,787. Most of its users tend to be women with postgraduate educations who commonly browse from work.

The Tweeted Times features sophisticated filtering and ranking algorithms that can help to allocate the most important information, and cut out the outright spam. Users can create a newspaper from any search term and TweetedTimes newspapers are updated hourly. This real-time personalized newspaper can cut your Twitter time in half and provide you with the most important tidbits you would have happily searched for.

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Klout Influence in the Music Industry with Spotify

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Spotify, an award winning online music service that stormed Europe is now available to users in the United States. Partnering with Klout, a form of social media influence measurement, Spotify has offered limited invitations to their new US services.

Although the Spotify invites are rare, they are being extended to Klout users who have shown the most social media passion about music, entertainment, and relating technologies. Since these are the exact viewers that Spotify wanted to reach, this has certainly proved itself to be another great partnership for Klout, the Klout Perks program, and its users.

Users who receive a Spotify invite can expect to receive, based on interest and Klout ratings, access to free trials of the music service itself, as well as a free month of Spotify’s most premium service if the members of their own communities sign up for Spotify.

Get Signed Up

If you want to have any shot at all of getting hooked up to this great new service, visiting the Spotify/Klout sign up is the first important move. Signing up is as easy as integrating your Twitter or Facebook accounts with one click on the sign up page. From there, if your account is rated as influential in industries relating to music, a free trial version of the music service may be offered. However, if new to any of the services, or if you have not previously made a habit of tweeting or sharing your passion in music, you may have to build your influence in those areas before you can expect an invite to be forthcoming.

Keep Trying

Spotify invites were so in demand in the first few hours after the release that Klout had to put a hold on passing out more invites for a while to be sure they did not cause their service, and servers, to be overwhelmed. In fact, Klout has actually had crash issues due to an overwhelming volume of users vying for this new Klout Perk. Spotify and Klout plan to continue handing out invites over the next few days.

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Twitter: Business & Brands Now Trending

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Twitter is becoming part of our lives whether we are active users or not. Twitter has found itself as the exclusive information tool, scooping Osama Bin Laden Death and now the latest in business and brands. There are so many uses to this short burst of 140 characters, and new ones are being discovered every day. We cannot ignore its existence because it touches many aspects of our lives.

One aspect of today’s world brought about by Twitter is that secrets are something much harder to keep these days. Tweets by innocent bystanders about a clandestine operation can foil a mission. Tweets of conduct unbecoming elected official find themselves, with one mistaken click of a button, broadcasted to the whole world. A claim of hacking did not hold water in Anthony Weiner’s case and another claim of hacking, this time on FoxNewsPolitics, are being investigated by the security services. On July 4, 2011, six tweets appeared from that source announcing the premature death of President Obama, who was presumably assassinated in a Diner. Jokes aside (“The rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated” Mark Twain said so succinctly), it poses a great risk to the validity of news sources.

Theoretically, to prevent foul play, Twitter has a service called Verified Tweets, which has been in existence since 2009. Twitter is using it to prevent confusion by verifying the person behind the account. It has been done with important and famous people and with Twitter’s advertisers and partners. The verification process was open to the public for a short time in beta testing, but it is now closed. “In the meantime, we’re still verifying some trusted sources, such as our advertisers and partners. If you’re one of our partners or advertisers, please follow up with your account manager for details.” It says on their blog. Obviously Fox news is a verified tweeter, so what about trusting the news?

And there’s the aspect of commerce using Twitter. “Promoted tweets” are ones that are paid for by the advertiser. Twitter handles 50 million tweets a day and Promoted Tweets are twitter advertising platform. In Apr. 2010 Twitter.com rolled out a system where ads can appear at the top of some Twitter.com search results pages. They are labeled as “Promoted “and retain all the other functions of a tweet. Twitter.com has expand it to Promoted Accounts, in which people and brands are buying their way onto your “who to follow” list.

It seems that while some larger companies are still trying to figure out social media, there are those who already have. Here are some, that experts agree, who excel in using Twitter.

  • Starbucks – 1.5 million followers and is the most socially engaged. It ranks on top of fast customer interaction. It’s about the relationships with the customer, they say, not marketing. Which is a good marketing slogan in itself. Starbucks hosts polls, contests and shares photos and videos.

  • Southwest Airlines – Tries to replicating the casual atmosphere on their flights into their tweets. The only company that knows how to make someone LUV the company (LUV is the Love Field in Dallas, the headquarters of the company).
  • New York Times – This news organization broadcasts the news in 140 characters. It has subchannels for specific interests and reaches 2.4 million readers.
  • JetBlue – After their nightmare in 2007 (“a day on the tarmac”) JetBlue is keeping constant communication with its followers (1.6 million). It uses tweets to broadcast special deals to their 50,000 most loyal customers. They have 14 people tweeting for the account; assisting, apologizing and solving problems.
  • Zappos – The online retailer keeps in touch with its customers, encouraging anybody, from the CEO to the newest employee to join the party.
  • Cisco Systems – The company shows how well business to business can do on twitter. They ask and answer questions.
  • Bergdorf Goodman – They tweet about New York, fashion and style, engaging their customers in conversations and showing them things the followers would be interested in.
  • Whole Foods Market – They use Twitter to go deep in their customers’ needs and test new concepts. They extend the discussion to the philosophy behind their business.
  • Dell – Getting their inventory and older equipment out the door fast, Dell is using Twitter. It is a fast grapevine that broadcasts the news. The sales are $3 million a year using this method.
  • Home depot – It goes beyond product and store questions to help in many home improvement projects.

A great example of how I have seen twitter impact communication and win business can be seen in these two previous articles:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzyD-cTRoAA]

 

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How is Social Media Changing Higher Education?

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Many teachers have adopted an everyday practice of incorporating digital technologies in the classroom and extending learning beyond the traditional boundaries of the Institution.

Distance education is high on the agenda of most higher education institutes and a great deal of effort and time has been invested into staff development to ensure that teachers are up to date and aware of how to teach remotely using new technologies.

It’s not only the role of the teacher that has changed. The embedding of digital technology into everyday study has also changed the way students learn. Now students can assume more responsibility for their own learning and design their own study trajectories. They are able to access a vast pool of knowledge through access to the World Wide Web. They can learn anywhere, anytime.

Since the web has become more social, students today share experiences and knowledge; they can communicate with their teachers after hours, they communicate with peers and enhance their learning experience.

Today’s students are multi-tasking, possessing the ability to access and decipher information. Students are more at ease with changing technologies. Social media enables them to be heard and provide feedback. Studying is no longer a one way street from teacher to student but a two way collaborative effort. Social media gave the students a voice in their learning process.

In many higher learning institutions blogs, wikis and social media tools ease the way to create collaboration between students. Social media tools support sharing and building of knowledge.  Projects given to students as a group are now easier to perform since the geographical restrictions have been removed. Blogs are used for learning another language, projects can be posted on Youtube for the whole class (and the world) to see and project descriptions are posted online with due dates. Social bookmarking is used by professors to list the reading requirements of the course and giving students the key to resources online.

Experts in any field are more accessible today through social media. An expert’s tweets about his experiences can provide a learning experience and insight into the professional world never possible before. A question can be posted for an expert on his social page or his blog and a dialogue started that would have taken weeks to arrange in the pre-social media world.

And it starts even before the learning begins. Some institutions, for example, use Facebook pages to reach out to student before they first arrive on campus. With many of them leaving home for the first time, knowing some of their classmates before they arrive can support them in this time of transition.

Social media and Skype enable face-time with a teacher for a one on one session. When there’s no time during school hours, it can be done during evening hours and across time zones. . Schools today use cloud storage that enables their students the use of an expensive program from home, for a limited time. They provide space for storage of group projects where all the group members can enter and make changes.

As part of Walden University’s Doctorate in Education program I was amazed and shocked at the learning process. While it was exciting to be able to work at a unique pace and have access to classmates and instructors at different times of the day, from the comfort of my home. I also found that the use of such technology was lead by those who struggle to understand it. Having academics try to lead topics citing the internet and multiple intelligence theory was horrifying because most could not relate or lacked an understanding of the base.

One of the most foolish policies I ever heard started from Michigan State University, repeated at Stony Brook University and then echoed in the Walden University’s DC residency, “Wikipedia is not a source and should never be used”.  

The shock and awe was outstanding, it was as if the professors just repeated something that they were told and never actually took the time to do any research for themselves. While you might not directly cite Wikipedia as a source, this collaborative site for knowledge has been found by research to be more accurate then the Encyclopedia Britannica. In research, a process that requires a starting point and is benefited by diverse experiences and information, it is hard to truly argue that there is a better source then Wikipedia.

Other uses for the new technology include text messaging and social media alerts are a relatively new ways for schools in the US to alert the whole student body to an emergency situation.

What new challenges does this pose?

Keeping teachers ahead of the curve with continued education regarding technological possibilities and with so much information, educating the students to know what is credible and what not, what is important and what not, and be able to figure out the source of the information they come in contact with.

Students were given the virtual key to the library and a group study doesn’t have to be done in one physical location or with just classmates. The digital era and social media revolution is in full swing, all they need now is guidance.

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Google Throws Down the Gauntlet at Facebook in Social Network Struggle

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Google’s last two shots at storming the social networks, Google Buzz and Google Wave, met an early, and not entirely unexpected, demise. However, +1 may contain a few vital elements that make it far less likely to go unnoticed.

Custom Filtering

Being able to filter your contacts into groups and determine who can and cannot see your specific +1 preferences provides users with a bit more privacy than a Facebook ‘Like’ since Facebook currently only offers very basic privacy options, Friends or Everyone.

Huddles and Hangouts

Group instant messaging and multi-users video conferencing could make Google quite the competitor in more than just the social network industry. Users who have long bemoaned some of Skype’s capabilities, or lack of, may find themselves fans of Google Hangouts soon. Huddle can also be used on mobile devices via an app for the Android platform.

Google +1 Limited

The current version of the Google +1 system has only been released to a limited number of users but Google reps have stated that it hopes to make the entire scale of social network options available to the millions of consumers who use many of their other features every day.

Google denies that plus is a competitor with Facebook and emphasizes in so many words that they are not ‘out to get’ Zuckerberg’s social network, but rather focusing on what their users need to ease any element of their digital requirements, one of which has definitely become social networking.

More on Google +1

Google +1 Goes Live with Adwords

Google Search goes social with +1

Trending Companies: Google innovates?

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Social Media Trends in Europe and Russia

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The use of social media is certainly not limited to the United States alone. In fact, for some internet users, social media networks may have been their first experience in connecting to someone outside of their own local, state, or even country.

Russia has a significantly different social media audience in the simple fact that in comparison to the U.S. it is extremely small. The total online population of Russia is just under 60,000 and only 42% of that population is using online capabilities at all.

Russian Demographics

According to eMarketer, 61.9 million people in Russia will use the internet by 2013. This would be a significant jump from 2009 where the number rested at 45.8 million. Although the minor numbers may seemingly indicate otherwise, Russians are actually the most arduous social networkers when it comes the length of time spent on social media sites per user.

Odnoklassniki, Russia’s main social network has a reported user-base of around 30 million. The site helps to connect classmates in Russia and the Ukraine and has over 8 million visitors per day. Nearly 75% of the online population of Russia visited at least one social networking site during the month of the study in August of 2010.

Russians are spending more than double the worldwide average time of 4.5 hours on social networking sites. This makes it rank high at #1 among all countries with reported social networking statistics and open social media option engagement. Following Russia is Israel with an average of just over 9 hours per visitor. Israel is followed by Turkey with 7.6 hours per user spent on social networking websites.

This means that in spite of Facebook’s worldwide powerful command in social networking sites, in an overall majority of this specific internet market, Facebook actually ranks fifth in Russia with just over 4.5 million users. However, recent years have seen increasing growth in Russian internet users who utilize Facebook as a social network option.  This is causing Facebook to quickly outpace the other five top social networking sites. 

European Social Media Statistics

Currently, the top ten countries for social networking are ranked by the time spent per visitor. The current worldwide average time for visitors spent on social networking websites is 4.5 hours. In a 2009 Rapleaf study, it was shown that females are far more active in social media than men. However, this study was focused on the U.S. A newer study from Comscore showed that the same rang true for European countries such as France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. It should be no great surprise that the younger set of females ages 15 to 24 spend the most time of all age groups on social sites than their male counterparts at a generous 8.4 hours each month. What may be a bit more astonishing  is that the next age group on social media time consumption lists isn’t the 25 to 34 year olds, but the older group in the 45 to 54 year olds. The studies actually showed that the 45 to 54 year olds spent more than double the amount of time on social networking sites than the males of the same age group.

The short top ten list of countries leading in social networking capabilities are:

  1. Russia
  2. Israel
  3. Turkey
  4. UK
  5. Philippines
  6. Canada
  7. Indonesia
  8. Finland
  9. Spain
  10. Puerto Rico

Many European countries utilize social media websites that are not commonly used by U.S. internet users.

Friendster is relatively popular in Russia, while Hi 5 is frequented visited by users in Spain and Italy more often. Netlog is also highly popular in Spain and an unfamiliar sight for U.S social media users known as Studvyiz, is Germany’s most popular social media outside of Facebook and Myspace.

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Transparency & Social Media

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Embracing social media 100% may be the best investment, you as a business owner, can make for your company and brand. However, businesses already renowned in the social media world, can also be considered pioneers of this method of advertising and marketing.

Although many have heard of the benefits, fear of possible damage may have kept them at bay long enough that they are just now dipping a toe in the proverbial social media pool. Some of these businesses may be ultimately considered about the meaning behind the transparency of social media  as well as the implementation of.

Social media marketers speak about social media transparency and the importance of being open, authentic, and honest about their company’s brands or opportunities. However, keeping in mind that it is all about the people, and little of the product, that is the most important element of maintaining a balance in social media transparency.

What is Social Media Transparency?

Commonly, this phrase is used in reference with news media to inform the public why and how the business gathers information from a variety of sources. This is really no different than providing the name of which reliable source told you what. We already regularly do this in our daily rumor mills. The discussion of odd or unusual details may illicit a “who told you that?” Social media transparency only makes this a proactive measure. “This is what I heard, and here are the reliable sources that support that notion.”

As a business, sometimes your only role is to provide those details, the who as important as the why, and for many companies, being a reliable source of sources is just as important to their visibility. Regardless of the stepping stones of sources, the point is to lend credibility to your message, and build trust with your consumers.

As an individual we check-in and tweet with data, photos and more, so if we are transparent, we expect business to do the same right?

Transparency in Digital Media

When considering this element in relation to social media and most certainly when it comes to covering or reviewing products, or social business blogging, the main focus is to be open and honest in all elements of what you share. Are you doing a review for the new iPad? Share right away with your viewers that you received an iPad to research and blog about their product. As long as it breaches no contract, it is also good to share if you may not have received a free device to do your review, but that your review was paid or sponsored by another source.

It can also be used as a simple means of saying “Hey, I heard about this idea from a post at www.referencedsource.com and thought I’d share my opinion, thoughts, or review of this idea.” Not only is this the transparency that should be focused on, it is also good netiquette. It is the acknowledgement that while your post or blog is not created by a specific expert in a field, it is based on one, and here is the person who wrote the material that inspired your own.

If your business or brand is highly followed on Twitter for a specific reason. Perhaps because you are the go-to company who helps to determine the safest toys for children. Advertising a toy as ‘safe’ because you were paid to do so, without sharing that you were paid to do so, is not only misleading, but can be the beginning of the end of your brand and every consumer who values its sources.

Can You Trust Me?

Although not all reasons behind transparency can present such dire consequences as the reference to children’s toys, the lack of transparency can indeed cause a shining company to fail simply due to lack of disclosure.

Social media is no doubt, a double-edged sword. The same format that can make your company’s brand a vital one, can also hammer away at it until transparency transforms into invisibility.

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EmpireAvenue: Social Networking or Social Training?

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EmpireAvenue is classified as a social network service site which is quite an understatement. Launched in July of 2010, this site resembles a stock marketing simulation game. Users are allowed to buy and sell shares of other users and their websites.

Alexa’s global ranking for EmpireAvenue is #15,209. Currrently statistics show that a disproportionate amount of users are childless, lower-income men under age 45 who do most of their browsing from work. The site is most popular in the U.S. as well as in Norway where it ranks at #705 with Alexa.

One more site with Facebook sign-in integration, getting logged on to begin using EmpireAvenue takes only a matter of moments.  Once in, fill in your profile detail, link up your other social media accounts and you are ready to begin trading.

Playing the “Game”

Highly customizable, EmpireAvenue allows users to set their interest, which in essence, are the same keywords and phrases you have used on your other social media sites to attract like-minded users. Once you have those set you will likely begin to see others buy shares of you.

Each player has their own portfolio in this created virtual economy. Users can increase their virtual worth by participating in the game as well as by building networking relationships with other users, as well as by interaction on integrated social media sites.

As you move along and buy shares of others, you will also see a ticker just like the NYSE bar that floats near the top of your screen. You can easily keep up with your shares of other users and their progress. The money on this system is referred to as Eaves, and although you begin with plenty, around 7 to 9k depending on how many social medias you integrate, you can also earn them or purchase them when they run low.

What Can This Do For Your Small Business?

The quick answer is that it is truly a gamers world, even those who have not spent years of their childhood immersed in anything and everything video game, have quickly flocked to massive social media games such as those found on Facebook. Since its beginning rankings show this site has steadily climbed in user numbers and participants.

A large part of personal branding requires consumers to get familiar with your product, service and you. Interacting with prospective clients or buyers in this manner can certainly increase your web presence, as well as increasing other users trust in you and your products or services.

Once your EmpireAvenue account begins to become more profitable this too can reflect on how driven you are as a business owner to succeed. In addition to that note, once your own account begins to gain recognition, you may have broken through the social media world as a serious competitor.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/naVkQyCCYzI?hd=1]

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