Why small businesses need to pay attention to engagement - Red ...

Today, here?s a juicy guest post by small business writer Erica Bell about why?engagement matters.

Starting a business isn?t easy, I know. Small business owners wear many hats, from CEO to Marketing and HR Manager, and are constantly under a time crunch. While managing the business from sunrise to sunset may already be a challenge, small business owners can?t forget to pay attention to customer engagement. Because smaller businesses often have smaller marketing budgets, they need to pay attention to engagement, something that doesn?t require a large financial investment. Customer engagement is how small businesses can drive loyalty, create return customers and boost starting off sales.

Build Loyalty

Small businesses need to spend some time engaging with customers and building customer loyalty. A customer who supports your business from the beginning and has a great experience will return for more! When small businesses get started, it?s the return customers who build the business. Make sure you are engaging with these early on customers to build their loyalty. How? Be personal and responsive to customers and see those same customers return and spread the word.

• When a customer is engaged with a company, they develop deeper emotional commitment to the companies, granting them an average 33 points higher Net Promoter? score (NPS?), a common measure of customer loyalty (Bain & Company).

Increase Sales

Engagement with customers can lead to an increase in sales. Customers are likely to share their fantastic experiences and interactions with your brand with their friends, family and in some cases the general public. You can keep engaged and satisfied customers coming back while attracting new ones. Remember, it costs more for your business to acquire a new customer than it does to keep current customers. Engaged customers tend to stick with your business longer, buy more often and refer your brand to their friends. (Tweet this!)

• Customers who engage with a brand online report spending 20 percent to 40 percent more on that brand, or on that company?s products (Bain & Company).

Provide Better Service

Customer engagement and the customer experience often go hand in hand. When you know where your business is falling short in terms of customer service and the customer experience by engaging with customers, either through social media, your business phone or review sites, you can alter your current strategies for better performances in the future. Engage with your customers to find what they do and don?t like and what they would like to see from your business in the future.

• Poor customer experiences result in an estimated $83 Billion loss by US enterprises each year because of defections and abandoned purchases (Parature Customer Service Blog).

When engaging with customers, make sure your employees are friendly, personal and knowledgeable. Great personal experiences and great customer engagement leads to great customers who talk about your business and brand in a positive light. Help your business stand apart from the major corporations by providing better, more engaged responses to customers, no matter how they choose to contact you. Engaging with customers can make your job as a small business owner easier. You can cover your marketing, customer service and sales bases all at once!

About Erica: Erica Bell is a small business writer who focuses on topics such as small business call center software and making the most of a business phone system. She is a web content writer for Business.com, Media Inc.

Source: http://red-slice.com/2013/02/why-small-businesses-need-to-pay-attention-to-engagement/

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Spring 2013 Intramural Basketball Schedule | Intramural Sports ...

East	West
Curtain Call	Game Point
Venomous Rabbits	Midwest Avengers
Purdont	Expansion
Past to the Future	Sky?s the Limit
PUC Bulls	Barbarians
Geeks in Sneaks	Bankshot Byrds
2 White 2 Win	Last Minutes

Week #1 (Feb. 10^th)

11:30am? ? Purdont vs. Geeks in Sneaks?????????????? South Court

12:30pm?? Venomous Rabbits vs. Curtain Call???? South Court

12:30pm?? Sky?s the Limit vs. Barbarians????????????? North Court

1:30pm???? Midwest Avengers vs. Expansion ??????? South Court

1:30pm???? PUC Bulls vs. Past to the Future????????? North Court

2:30pm??? Bankshot Byrds vs. Game Point?????????? South Court

2:30pm??? 2 White 2 Win vs. Last Minutes?????????? North Court

Week #2 (Feb. 17^th)

11:30??? 2 White 2 Win vs. PUC Bulls???????????? ? ? ?? South Court

12:30? Game Point vs. Expansion???????????????????????? North Court

12:30? Curtain Call vs. Purdont???????????????????????????? South Court

1:30??? Midwest Avengers vs. Bankshot Byrds???? North Court

1:30??? Geeks in Sneaks vs. Past to Future????????? South Court

2:30?? Last Minutes vs. Sky?s the Limit????????????? North Court

2:30?? Venomous Rabbits vs. Barbarians????????? South Court

Week #3 (Feb. 24^th)

11:30 ?? Expansion vs. Bankshot Byrds???????????????? South Court

12:30?? Curtain Call vs. Game Point?????????????????????? North Court

12:30? Barbarians vs. Last Minutes?????????????????????? South Court

1:30??? Sky?s the Limit vs. Midwest Avengers????? South Court

1:30??? Past to Future vs. Venomous Rabbits????? North Court

2:30?? Geeks in Sneaks vs. 2 White 2 Win?????????? North Court

2:30?? PUC Bulls vs. Purdont???????????????????????????????? South Court

Week #4 (March 3^rd)

11:30?? 2 White 2 Win vs. Purdont??????????????????????? South Court

12:30? Past to the Future vs. Curtain Call??????????? North Court

12:30? Game Point vs. Sky?s the Limit????????????????? South Court

1:30???? Barbarians vs. Midwest Avengers??????????? North Court

1:30???? Expansion vs. Last Minutes?????????????????????? South Court

2:30?? Geeks in Sneaks vs. PUC Bulls??????????????????? North Court

2:30?? Venomous Rabbits vs. Bankshot Byrds?????? South Court

*Off March 10^th & 17^th for Spring Break*

Week #5 (March 24^th) Round #1

Playoffs (All teams make round #1 & Round #2)

*Off March 31^st (Easter)*

Week #6 (April 7^th) Round #2

Single elimination tournament begins

Posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2013 at 8:41 pm

Source: http://webs.purduecal.edu/intramurals/2013/02/10/spring-2013-intramural-basketball-schedule/

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Could This Be the iPhone 5S?

Emily Price2013-02-12 06:49:10 UTC

Photos of what may be Apple's next iPhone surfaced online Monday.

Posted by a Chinese technology site, the images allegedly show the iPhone 5S already going into production. Nearly identical to the iPhone 5, the handset shown in the photos has an updated vibration motor (some have complained the iPhone 5's is too noisy). Beyond that minor difference, however, it looks identical to the model currently on the market. Apple launched the iPhone 5 last September.

The Chinese site also suggested that an iPhone 6 was on the way, soon. It said the 6 will sport a larger display, increasing from 4.8 inches to 5 inches.

This past weekend, rumors surfaced that the Cupertino, Calif. company was also working on a smart watch. Made out of curved glass, the watch can potentially let users to make calls, answer texts and run apps from their wrists.

What do you want to see from Apple's next iPhone? Let us know your thoughts in the comments, below.

BONUS: Apple Smart Watch Concepts

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Images courtesy of Sjbbs Zol

Topics: apple, Hot Story, iPhone, iPhone 5s, Mobile, Tech

Source: http://mashable.com/2013/02/12/iphone-5s-6/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

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Authorities post $1 million reward for ex-Los Angeles policeman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A record $1 million reward was posted on Sunday for information leading to the capture of a fugitive former Los Angeles cop suspected of targeting police officers and their families in three killings committed in retaliation for his 2008 firing.

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck said the reward, raised in part from private donations, police unions and contributions from businesses, marks the biggest sum ever offered in Southern California in a criminal investigation.

The reward was posted as law enforcement agencies across the region pressed their search for the suspect, ex-LAPD officer and U.S. Navy reservist Christopher Dorner, 33, for a fourth day. Beck described it as the largest manhunt ever mounted in the Los Angeles area.

He called the spate of revenge-driven killings Dorner is suspected of unleashing "an act of domestic terrorism," adding, "This is a man who has targeted those who we entrust to protect the public. His actions cannot go unanswered."

An LAPD spokesman also said that police would be providing extra security for the recording industry's Grammy Awards ceremony being held on Sunday at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angles.

The search for Dorner has been focused in the snow-covered San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles since a pickup truck belonging to Dorner was found abandoned and burning near the popular ski resort community of Big Bear Lake on Thursday.

The truck turned up in the mountains hours after police say Dorner exchanged gunfire with two officers, grazing one, and later ambushed two more policemen in their patrol car at a stoplight, killing one and badly wounding the other.

A rambling, multi-page manifesto posted on Dorner's Facebook page last week claimed he was wrongly terminated from the LAPD in September 2008 and threatened numerous police officers and their families with violent revenge.

A former Navy lieutenant, Dorner also is suspected in last weekend's shooting deaths of a campus security officer and his fiance, the daughter of a retired Los Angeles police captain singled out for blame in the manifesto for Dorner's dismissal.

The retired LAPD captain had represented Dorner in disciplinary proceedings that led to his termination after a police inquiry found that he had made false statements accusing a superior officer of using excessive force against a homeless person.

Beck announced on Saturday a reopening of the inquiry to "reassure the public that their police department is transparent and fair."

The police officer who was shot to death in an ambush on Thursday was publicly identified on Sunday as Michael Crain, 34, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served on the Riverside Police Department for 11 years.

LAPD spokesman Andrew Smith said "an army" of police officers would be providing security for a public memorial service planned on Wednesday for Crain.

In addition to continuing a manhunt in and around Big Bear Lake on Sunday, police were searching areas around the homes of more than 50 Los Angeles police officers whose families authorities believe Dorner has targeted as potential victims.

(Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman. Editing by Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/californian-manhunt-ex-cop-widens-mexican-border-002614287.html

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Fun. takes song of the year at Grammy Awards

Taylor Swift performs on stage at the 55th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)

Taylor Swift performs on stage at the 55th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)

Musical group fun. perform at the 55th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)

Dan Auerbach, left, and Patrick Carney accept the award for best rock album "El Camino" at the 55th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)

Skrillex arrives at the 55th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

From left, Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett, Country Winston and Ted Dwane, of musical group Mumford & Sons, arrive at the 55th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? You can cross one major trophy off the list for fun. at the Grammy Awards.

The pop-rockers won song of the year for their transcendent anthem, "We Are Young," featuring Janelle Monae, during Sunday night's telecast, taking the first of four major awards the group's been nominated.

"I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote the chorus to this song," lead singer Nate Ruess joked. "This is in HD, everyone can see our faces, and we are not very young."

Most of the attention has been on Frank Ocean going into the awards ? he won a trophy for urban contemporary album and is up for four more trophies during the telecast. But his fellow lead nominees got an early lead on the R&B singer.

"We Are Young" helped fun. earn a starring role at these Grammys with nominations in all four major categories after the release of their first album, matched only by Christopher Cross in 1981, and six overall. The band turned in a powerful early performance of "Carry On" early in the show as a downpour on stage began mid-song and guitarist Jack Antonoff got a kiss from girlfriend Lena Dunham of "Girls" fame after winning.

Fun. may have picked up a major win, but it was The Black Keys and Skrillex who had the early lead thanks to strong runs in the pre-telecast awards show.

The Black Keys singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach took the early lead during the pre-telecast show, picking up three trophies and assisting with a fourth. Auerbach won producer of the year alone and best rock song for "Lonely Boy" and rock album for "El Camino" with his bandmate Patrick Carney, joining electronic dance music innovator Skrillex atop the early leaderboard. He was also producer for another winner, Dr. John.

A slew of artists sit one back going into the main awards show at the Staples Center, including fellow top nominees Kanye West and Jay-Z, Gotye, former best new artist winner Esperanza Spalding, jazz man Chick Corea and Christian singer-songwriter Matt Redman.

West and Jay-Z won best rap song and best rap performance for the song "... in Paris" from their "Watch the Throne" collaboration and lost a third for short form video for "No Church in The Wild," which featured Ocean. Ocean will be up for five awards later in the evening.

Other early winners included Rihanna, Beyonce, Mumford & Sons and Taylor Swift, who opened the show as the Mad Hatter. Swift dressed in white top hat, tails, shorts and tall boots during the surreal version of her hummable hit "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" that included a troop of mime clowns and a guy on a tricycle with a flame-thrower attached.

The singer pretended to talk to the offending boyfriend on the phone: "I'm busy opening the Grammys and we're never getting back together."

Justin Timberlake debuted new tracks "Suit & Tie" with Jay-Z and "Pusher Love" in a performance that was broadcast in retro black and white. Elton John and Ed Sheeran teamed on "The A Team" and Miguel and Wiz Kalifa teamed up on "Adorn."

Adele won the first award of the night on the main telecast, taking home best pop solo performance for "Set Fire to the Rain (Live)," in one of the night's least-surprising moments ? though the singer was somewhat taken aback.

"I just wanted to be part of the night, because I loved it last year, obviously," she said of winning a record-tying six awards in 2012.

Carrie Underwood won best country solo performance for "Blown Away."

The Grammy pre-telecast awards show at the Nokia Theatre had 70 trophies up for grabs, including rock, pop, rap and country categories.

Skrillex won best dance recording for "Bangarang," featuring Sirah, best dance/electronica album for "Bangarang" and best remixed recording a year after winning those same awards in his first appearance at the Grammys.

"You know what, I thought I'd get used to it, but I tripped over every word when I was up there," Skrillex said of his acceptance speeches. "I felt like I just wanted a pool of ice water and just couldn't even breathe or think. It was crazy. I think it was even crazier than last year."

Gotye won best alternative album for "Making Mirrors" and best pop/duo performance for "Somebody That I Used To Know," featuring Kimbra.

Celebrities rolled down the red carpet in the early afternoon, showing a fair amount of skin despite CBS's mandate that stars dress appropriately with butts, breasts and other sensitive areas covered adequately.

Nevertheless, Jennifer Lopez showed up on stage in a dress slit all the way to her hip.

"As you can see, I read the memo," Lopez joked.

Celebrities also felt an increased Los Angeles Police Department presence in light of a manhunt involving an alleged cop killer. Police were everywhere, including atop the hotel across from the Staples Center.

Frank Ocean remains in contention for five awards and will perform.

"It feels cool," Ocean said on the red carpet. "It's really bright, a lot of beautiful ladies walking around being fancy. I have to perform tonight so the wheels are constantly spinning. You can't really just sit in your seat and take it all in."

Three of the night's major awards are still to come. Jack White's "Blunderbuss" competes with fun.'s "Some Nights," Ocean's "channel ORANGE," Mumford's "Babel" and The Keys' "El Camino" for the night's top award, album of the year.

Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know," featuring Kimbra, Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" join the fun., Ocean and Black Keys entries in record of the year.

And rounding out the major categories, fun., Ocean, Alabama Shakes, Hunter Hayes and The Lumineers are up for best new artist.

There was no shortage of mashups the Grammys have become famous for, either. Elton John, Mavis Staples, Mumford, Brittany Howard, T Bone Burnett and Zac Brown are saluting the late Levon Helm, who won the Americana Grammy last year a few months before his death. The Keys will join Dr. John and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on stage. Sting, Rihanna and Bruno Mars will perform together. Other team-ups include Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley, and Alicia Keys and Maroon 5.

___

AP writers Nekesa Mumbi Moody, Mesfin Fekadu, Sandy Cohen, Anthony McCartney and Beth Harris in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

___

Online:

http://grammy.com

___

Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott: http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-10-Grammys/id-2831f30c0f6344f094620e0faa6604f3

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CCleaner 64bit Hangs Windows 7

Supra, on 11 February 2013 - 02:53 AM, said:

This issue only began when I installed Bitdefender Internet Security 2013. When using Bitdefenders File Shredding tool (A program that deletes select files with a single pass) it would also fail to delete the files CCleaner did, but it wouldn't hang Windows.

I think there is a big clue there

Source: http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=37896

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Timbre App Encouraging Local Music Discovery One Location at a Time: From Boston to Tokyo to London

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass.----Timbre (Download: http://tmb.re/TEY8M8) the location-based music discovery app that helps music lovers find live bands, today announces it has expanded internationally. The app has been fully localized in 22 languages and is now free to download in 36 countries, including Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, France, Germany and Japan. With over 2 million artist discoveries and 70,000 ticket requests made with the app, Timbre is building on the momentum gained in 2012.

?The great part about Timbre is that it exposes us to a large market that we would otherwise have no way of connecting with?

The expansion was enabled by a new round of investment led by Atlas Venture (Fred Destin), Boston Seed Capital (Nicole Stata) and Bantam Group (Joe Caruso). The investment will be used for further development and commercialization of the app.

Timbre is a free app that provides an elegant and intuitive display of concerts that are playing at nearby locations. Timbre also enables users to listen to music samples from the bands, purchase songs on iTunes, and buy tickets to shows all within 3 taps.

"The lifeline for the artists and bands in the age of SoundCloud and Spotify is live events. With Timbre, we simply want to help connect new fans to anything from major pop acts to new bands on the fly. Mark Kasdorf and his team have built an incredibly elegant app to do just that, and music fans are lapping it up," said Fred Destin, partner at Atlas Venture.

?The great part about Timbre is that it exposes us to a large market that we would otherwise have no way of connecting with,? said James O'Brien, member of The Joint Chiefs, a Boston-based band.

?This fundraise has allowed us to grow faster and more effectively. We are excited to have such great partners, and to continue building a fantastic music tech company in the Boston area,? said Mark Kasdorf, CEO of Timbre.

Better Live Music Discovery Starts Here

Timbre finds live concerts by a user?s current location or by user-defined city/town with an adjustable radius from 1 to 50 miles. When a user selects an artist, they are presented with the band's most popular songs and a poster page with upcoming concert details including venue, date and time. The user can listen to more songs by the artist, purchase concert tickets or return to discovering other bands performing nearby. Concert information can be shared via email, text message (SMS), Twitter, and Facebook.

Celebrating the Grammys

In the spirit of the Grammys, Timbre will be featuring a playlist for the 55^th Grammy Awards. This playlist allows users to pay homage to the achievements of the music community by allowing them to sample each artist's music and easily purchase their music via iTunes.

About Timbre

To learn more about how Timbre (Download: http://tmb.re/TEY8M8) is connecting bands to fans and fans to bands, watch the?Timbre video and follow @timbreapp on Twitter.

*To download screenshots, right click on the images at http://www.timbreapp.com.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Location-basedServiceslbsZone/~3/sf5eofOqc_U/index.php

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