Txtlocal MD Darren Daws says SMS leads the way for mobile marketing

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As the mobile industry comes of age and becomes more sophisticated, it is widely predicted that more companies are choosing to spend a larger percentage of their marketing budget on mobile advertising and applications. The benefits of SMS becomes clear; campaigns need to capitalise on using SMS to support their overall marketing strategies and use messaging as the main force driving customers to the Internet.

This view was echoed by some of the worlds biggest brands at the latest MMA forum. Gavin Mehrotra, Director of International Media for the Coca Cola Company, started his presentation stating categorically that “SMS is the number 1 priority at Coca Cola in mobile” and that you need it to reach just about every person on the planet.

We also know that SMS gives a campaign the added power to communicate with your target customer and build on the relationship you have with them based on permission and trust. Adding SMS to a campaign allows consumers to text for more information so the follow-up is able to become more targeted; we have seen this work in every sector. In the Arts we have worked with English National Opera who used an SMS campaign to increase ticket sales for late availability, an investment of 500 in SMS marketing brought a return on investment of an amazing 8000 in ticket sales. Papa Johns Pizza use SMS to market special offers at times that they want to build sales, in fact across all sectors we are experiencing a growth in ROI as campaigns are measurable in a way they havent been until now.

Combine this with the growth in the use of Smartphone technology and its clear why campaigns are benefiting from improved targeting with SMS. No longer are you limited to 160 characters of text, the use of Smartphone technology and the public acceptance of tiny URLs on social media platforms, means that SMS can be used as tool to link to a bigger picture. SMS can now be used as the hook needed to direct the reader to where they need to be online, faster than if they were left to their own devices. Links to apps, videos and web pages are easily incorporated into an SMS message, making SMS a vital tool working hand in hand with other mobile marketing tools to achieve greater ROI for every mobile campaign.
At Txtlocal, we work with clients of all sizes and shapes from English National Opera, Malmaison Hotels and Liverpool University to much smaller owner operated brands like Shelleys Restaurant in Warrington, we can create campaigns that generate a real response – quickly. Any tool which allows a business owner to grow their customer data and intelligence, and then allow you to communicate targeted messages to them directly is powerful, and its right there in your hand the humble mobile phone.

Its safe to say that if the world’s undisputed number one advertising brand, Coca Cola says categorically, SMS is priority number 1, then surely other businesses large or small need to operate with the same view.

Modern Technology – Connecting Or Hurting Humanity

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The marvels of modern technology is what makes our present society possible. All these cool new gadgets and fancy devices have developed the standard of living for humanity so much that we simply cannot live without them as the are impact technologies. Institutes of technology and management have become citadels of learning and hope. Examples of these star technologies include the cell phone, the television, and comfy, sleek new modern vehicles. These gadgets make life so much easier, but it doesn’t mean that we could not live without them. For all it’s wonders, technology also has a downside, which is that fact that as it advances; people will become and will continue to become more lazy.

As observed already, modern technology has been such a huge impact that it has become engrained the in fibre of all of human society but it has brought a terrible precondition with it. Modern technology can make people lazy, selecting to sit on their butts looking at an electron screen for hours rather than doing something outside or physical exertions. The internet is a spring of information but it has become more obvious over the last few years that people tend to go to communities that have similar ideologies and opinions and avoid those with differing thoughts. What is created is homogenized online communties with no divergence and a large subverting of the foundations of democracy. The various institutes of technology & management will just go on about how great anything technology is.

Travelling by vehicles like cars or buses are a necessity in the modern world, but these habits are what makes the world look so unengaged nowadays. Many people now are too lazy to even commit themselves to taking a walk around the block to your destination. Now a days everyone possesses a car that they can and do take all over, even if it’s just a tiny walking distance down the street or around the corner. I am not trying to appear as a luddite as technology has evidently made cars and almost everything in life much safer to be in or close to. Car companies love to brag about how their newest vehicle have higher crash test ratings, and numerous of air bags which is something to be proud of. So while the new innovations in cars may make people more aloof, cars are essential in life so maybe the innovations in safety are more serious then the lazy element.

One of the essential innovations, cell phones have attached humanity closer than ever before. Cellphones have allowed anybody, anywhere to call anyone, anywhere with a touch of a few buttons (assuming the signal is great and you are willing the pay additional fees). Cellphones have however led to the growth of the ‘texting’ culture and it’s execrations of our language and conversation skills but it’s just a small price to pay for the networking of the human race.

Video games have congealed themselves in modern culture as a great outlet for amusement, learning and refreshment. Despite what you hear from soccer moms about video games and violence and videogame addiction, videogames actually have an effect like to those movies you see in theaters. They admit you to become someone else and experience things from a brand new perspective which is great for personal maturation. Videogames are also great for interpersonal gatherings and encountering people. Studies from ICT technology show that videogames have no correlation between increased aggressiveness.

Technology is awesome, it has changed humanity for the better and improved the standards of living for everyone in ways that we couldn’t even believe were possible. Every human on the planet now has their own cool shiny gadgets or devices that make their lives more efficient. Modern cutting edge technology has some faults but for all the good it has done, it is more than worth it. Tools for social networking, better safety for everything, entertainment and much more, technology is outstanding as long as you maintain a level of will power.

Is Technology Making Social Anxiety Worse

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I love video games, I love my computer, and I love my flat screen, but I find myself wondering sometimes if technology is making social anxiety worse. Has the convenience that technology has given to us also hindered us from overcoming social anxiety as a whole? Has technology made overcoming social anxiety even more difficult by placing a virtual barrier between human interaction and physical contact?

We can research and make friends with people online, but there is a lack of human interaction. The advantage of being online is that you can find a community to help you with whatever problem you have, but the disadvantage is the lack of action. We start using the internet as our outlet to being social.
There is a huge lack of “real” interaction. We can sit at home and keep ourselves entertained with the hundreds of channels we have. We can live our vicariously through the character we play on video games, hell we can even pay our bills online so we don’t have to interact with another human being.

I love the benefits that are given to us because of technology, don’t get me wrong. I think it’s great that I can do everything I listed above. I love the fact that I can save time and money by sitting at home. I think technology can help and hurt you at the same time.

The way that I figure it, technology is like a fine wine. Doctors say, for the time being anyway, that a glass of wine a day is good for you. On the other hand, If you drink too much, it can kill brain cells and also can cause liver problems. Technology, like wine, can affect your relationships if you take in too much of it and let it control your life.

I think it’s outstanding that I have friends from all over the world that I’ve never met and probably never will, but I think it can also stunt your growth when it comes to getting past the reality of shyness and social anxiety. I realize that technology is a tool we can use to reach out to others but we need to use it wisely and apply what we learn with it, to the outside world. We have to make sure we don’t use technology as a crutch to avoid physical social interaction.

Recover Lost Data with Active@ File Recovery

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There are many reasons and situations where you can lose important data from your computer. Sometimes, you might empty the Recycle Bin and realize sometime after that an important document, for example, was in it at the time. Sometimes, malicious software or attacks by hackers can cause data stored on your computer to mysteriously disappear. In other cases, data may be lost due to a hardware-related problem such as a failing hard disk. You may accidentally format a hard disk partition or other storage device. The possibilities go on. Fortunately, it is usually possible to retrieve lost data intact in all of these scenarios. What you need is a data recovery solution like Active@ File Recovery. This provides you with the tools you need to get your files back intact.

Active@ File Recovery presents the ultimate data recovery solution for those who need to recover a data even on deleted or damaged non-system and system partitions.

Active@ File Recovery supports all common file systems found on home computers. This also includes support for the NTFS and FAT file systems, being used in Microsoft Windows OS, HFS+ file system used on Apple computers, the exFAT file system used on some flash memory cards and USB pen drives and the EXT2 and EXT3 file systems used by Linux-based operating systems. Active@ File Recovery makes it easy to scan your hard disk or other storage media for recoverable data. It also has no limitations with regard to sector sizes or total sizes of disks. Hard disks over with capacities of over two terabytes pose absolute no problem to this file recovery software. The data recovery package also comes with a bootable disk and the Enterprise version also provides the Bootable Disk Creator utility.

Active@ File Recovery also includes the Active@ Organizer utility. This allows you to easily organize and rename files once they have been recovered. It supports many different formats and the latest version of the software also supports the newest Microsoft Office document formats. Another useful feature provided with Active@ File Recovery is its compatibility with Unicode. Many other file recovery programs cannot read deleted files which have file names other than in standard Latin letters. Active@ File Recovery, however, can understand any character from any language including languages such as Russian, Chinese or Japanese etc. The data recovery software is designed to be as versatile as possible. Advanced NTFS recovery algorithms work with MFT records, repairing damaged ones and recovering deleted or damaged records on NTFS systems.

Version 9.5 of Active@ File Recovery includes 152 driver packs for supporting a vast number of different USB 3.0, mass storage and networked devices. This makes it one of the most versatile recovery solutions out there. You can boot up from the disk image provided, minimizing the risk of further overwriting the deleted data on your media and making it unrecoverable. The drivers provided will see to it that almost any storage device will be recognized when you start the computer up, thus enabling you to recover data stored on your media.

Active@ File Recovery is the ideal solution for both novice users and IT professionals. Find out more at file-recovery.com and see what the software can do for you.

This Is Your Brain On Technology The Effect Of Technology On Social Interaction

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What did people do with their time 20 years ago? How did we ever manage without personal computers, the Internet, cell phones, iPods and 24 hour cable news? The technological landscape is vastly different these days and scientist are wondering just what that means for our brains.

According to research done last year by UCLA scientist Dr. Gary Small, daily doses of technology may be altering the way the brain functions, particularly in social skills. He suggests that all that screen time may weaken the brain circuits involved in face-to-face interactions. He is concerned that fundamental social skills like reading facial expressions during a conversation are being compromised.

Small is particularly concerned about what he calls the digital native, those in their twenties and younger who have been “digitally hard-wired since toddlerhood.” As he explained in an Associated Press article, the digital native runs the risk of being socially awkward and isolated by their inability to interpret non-verbal messages from people. He is afraid this may be particularly true in the classroom that still relies on traditional verbal instruction along with interaction with the teacher and other students.

Small argues his case in his book “iBrain: Surviving the Technological Altercation of the Modern Mind.” He admits that his research about whether or not all this technology is changing brain circuitry is new and ongoing.

Other studies, in fact, have taken the opposite tact by seeing positive outcomes for technology users. A MacArthur Foundation study found that teens feel very connected to each other through online social networking. The study allayed some parents’ fears that teenagers are vulnerable to online predators the more time they spend socially on the Internet. “The study found that most teenagers steer clear of dangerous sites and use the Web only for research or to communicate with established friends,” according to an article in the Austin-American Statesman.

Parents who are too protective and prohibit computer use for their teens may be keeping their kids out of the broader social loop. The study found that teenagers move between the online social world and the face-to-face interactions with relative ease, one building on the other.

Dr. Maryanne Wolf of Tufts University thinks technology may even affect how people learn to read. Technology requires users to gather information quickly, rather than the more methodical and sophisticated methods of comprehending regular reading material. She is studying if this rapid information gathering could be changing the normal brain pathways formed when reading. She is particularly curious about the affect on young children as technology becomes a more integral component of modern classrooms.

As with any new information technology, like 50 years ago with the inclusion of television to the average American home, there will be curiosity and controversy. It is certainly hard to imagine how our brains waited for the morning paper or the evening news to hear what was going on in the world around us. It seems like each generation has a quicker learning curve when it comes to the latest technology. That could just be human nature, or it could be the circuitry of the brain changing and adapting to the technologically saturated world in which we live.