Hy-Vee Launches Interactive Online Planning with the Grocery Shopping Network
The Grocery Shopping Network is pleased to announce the addition of Hy-Vee Supermarkets to their rapidly growing network of international clients. Hy-Vee is an employee-owned Midwestern supermarket chain that is currently operating in 7 states and over 220 stores. The Grocery Shopping Network has launched Hy-Vee’s new online service capabilities through GSN’s industry leading supermarket platform.
Prior to visiting their favorite Hy-Vee Supermarket location, customers will be able to shop their local store’s entire inventory at Hy-Vee.com. While visiting the website, clients can add items to a printable shopping list, complete with coupons that can be organized by department for easy shopping. Clients also have the option to add items from a clickable circular, manufacturer coupons, recipes and unadvertised in-store specials. Shoppers can find recipes, on a 64,000 recipe database, to turn the food values they have selected into menus the family will enjoy quickly and easily. Hy-Vee.com will also offer a wide range of educational cooking videos, from real culinary experts, to be viewed online. This helps the consumer save money and time, a valuable benefit from their grocer in difficult economic times.
Grocery Shopping Network’s Ad Network also shares revenue with their grocery partners from display advertising of packaged goods products. Hy-Vee Supermarkets will benefit from increased site traffic, sales and satisfaction from clients visiting the new Hy-Vee.com website as well as their participation in our Ad Network program.
Hy-Vee Supermarket clients are now offered state-of-the-art services that help them shop smarter, save time and allows them to have fun with our recipes and innovative cooking videos. This new partnership reflects Hy-Vee Supermarkets’ ongoing commitment to provide service that delights their customers and keeps them coming back for more.
“We are excited to partner with Hy-Vee, one of America’s leading grocery retailers, to enhance Hy-Vee’s online presence for the benefit of their customers and employees,” said Andy Robinson, CEO of Grocery Shopping Network. “Hy-Vee has enormous growth potential by expanding Hy-Vee.com with the Grocery Shopping Network tools for customer engagement.”
About Hy-Vee, Inc.
With sales of more than .2 billion and more than 225 retail stores across seven Midwestern states, Hy-Vee ranks among the top 30 supermarket chains in the nation.
About Grocery Shopping Network, Inc.
Grocery Shopping Network, Inc. connects consumers, retailers and brands through its premier content and software for supermarket websites. The company’s services enable consumers to quickly plan a shopping trip or place an order online. GSN provides the shopper the best way to find bigger savings, better meals and faster shopping. Retail grocers experience a strong ROI through increased sales as well as through their participation in GSN’s Ad Network™. The GSN Ad Network™ exclusively delivers sales information to over 4,000 retail grocery locations in the top US markets. The GSN Ad Network™ is an extremely efficient and effective online advertising channel for CPGs by placing relevant offers to grocery shoppers at the precise moment they are deciding what to buy. The company’s analytics offering, GSN Insights™, provides proof of the direct ROI created when a brand advertises with GSN by measuring the effectiveness and sales lift of the advertisement. To find out more visit: www.groceryshopping.net.
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Time for Brands to Change their Approach when Marketing to Mom, Says New Report by Razorfish and CafeMom
A new marketing report by Razorfish and CafeMom indicates that moms’ digital behaviors change remarkably when their children hit 12 years old and that mobile browsing and social media channels are increasingly affecting moms’ buying decisions.
Digital Mom consists of two companion studies. The first study, conducted by Razorfish–one of the largest digital marketing companies in the world–focuses on how digital moms are adopting emerging technologies. The second study, prepared by CafeMom–the largest social networking site for moms– concentrates on the role that social media play in helping to inform purchase decisions, among other key trends.
Survey findings will help marketers to better understand the different types of moms using mobile browsing, social media and emerging technologies and how to engage them most effectively depending on their age and the age of their children.
Part One: “Connecting with Digital Mom through Emerging Technologies”
Digital moms are not a niche market. According to Nielsen NetRatings, 32 million women in the U.S. have children ages 18 and under and go online; of those women, 84%, or 27 million, interact with emerging technologies.
For the purposes of this report, Razorfish surveyed 1,500 “digital moms”–defined as women with at least one child under 18 in the home who have engaged with two or more emerging technologies and who have researched, sought advice or purchased a product online in the last three months. Results confirm digital moms have moved beyond email and search, and are now active users of Web 2.0 technologies. The majority of moms are using social networks (65%) and text messaging (56%). More than half of these moms are also gamers, with 52% of them playing games online or via a console.
A particularly interesting trend is the rise of mobile browsing, said Terri Walter, vice president of emerging media at Razorfish and author of the Razorfish study. While only 10% of digital moms use mobile browsing, the women who do use it say it has more influence than other media channels as they get closer to a buying decision.
“This finding is significant,” Walter said. “It predicts the profound impact that mobile browsing and perhaps shopping applications will likely have on peoples’ buying decisions as more people adopt smartphones.”
Razorfish’s Key Findings for Marketers:
Moms with children 12 and older are motivated to adopt new technologies to stay in tune with their children. Of those who use social networks and blogs, almost half (47% and 40%, respectively) monitor their children. Likewise, digital moms of children 12 and older, versus moms with children under 12, are more likely to watch online video, (40% vs. 34%), game (57% vs. 51%), read online consumer reviews (38% vs. 30%), and watch or listen to podcasts (13% vs. 9%); This trend can be explained by different leisure time patterns among women with older children and a compelling interest in understanding their teenage children’s digital lives.
The gap is closing between TV and digital channels in terms of creating awareness and affecting product decisions, and social influence channels are increasingly important. Although TV still has the most impact on creating initial awareness for a product (31%), social influence channels such as online consumer reviews, blogs, social network sites and RSS are highly influential in the learning/researching stage (29%).
Moms’ interests are broad; some interests change by life stage, and some do not. More moms show interest in clothing/fashion and food than in parenting information, with the exception of moms with children under six.Part Two: Connecting with Digital Mom through Social Networks
CafeMom conducted a companion study of 1,740 active members of CafeMom, combined with CafeMom behavioral and usage data, to achieve a deeper understanding of how and why moms are using social media, and its impact on shopping behavior and purchase decisions.
The study found that moms are spending more time on social networks than ever before, turning to them for social, recreational and informational purposes. Once part of a social network, these moms are not just passive consumers, but active participants in activities such as blogging, photo-sharing, engaging in group discussions and building communities based on similar interests.
“With the rise of social networking, moms are becoming less dependent on traditional media and brand advertising to inform purchase decisions,” said Laura Fortner, SVP of marketing and insights at CafeMom and author of the CafeMom study. “Marketers can extend brand engagement by interacting with moms in their space and leveraging their influence within their social networks.”
CafeMom identified five distinct segments of socially connected moms. Highlights of the report’s observations and recommended marketing approaches for each segment include:
The Self Expressor typically has a preschooler at home and is eager to chat with other moms about parenting and shopping-related matters. She spends a lot of time building her personal profile page, so marketers should explore ways to be included on her virtual real estate and take advantage of viral pass-along.
The Utility Mom typically has the most children at home of all the segments, yet spends the most time online each week and enjoys relaxing with games and quizzes. To reach the Utility Mom, marketers should align with entertaining widgets and send brand messages through influential women in her circle.
The Groupster is a dynamic builder of online communities and seeks purchasing information and advice from her wide social circle, which includes moms she does not know offline. Marketers can reach her by associating with groups, blogs and other message centers and enlisting her as a brand advocate.
The Infoseeker usually has a young baby at home and is hungry for information on parenting and related products. Brands that can tie their messages into the information she is seeking, especially via the voice of other moms, will be the most successful at connecting with the Infoseeker.
The Hyperconnector, typically the mother of older children, is no longer aggressively seeking parenting information and advice, but rather uses social media as a way to chat with others and learn about new products. As an active social network member, she is comfortable expressing her opinions and would be an excellent candidate for brands to tap in social marketing campaigns.
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Amidst Growing Internet Privacy Concerns, Online Blog Community SoulCast.com One-Ups MySpace and LiveJournal on Privacy
SoulCast, a new, free web-based company that allows users to read and write free blogs, claims that privacy and anonymity is one of their top service goals. In light of all of the spying controversy surrounding the NSA and their collection of customer data, and the recent MySpace crackdowns, SoulCast appears to be welcome refuge for many readers and writers of blogs.
The question of privacy in the internet world is a much-debated topic these days. “A lot of blogging and networking sites are not considered to be “fully private” based on the information they collect from a new user when they sign up,” states Brian Ree, CEO and Founder of SoulCast. Unlike MySpace, LiveJournal, Xanga, and just about every other networking website out there, SoulCast doesn’t collect any personal information unless you choose to provide it. The goal is to help keep the user as anonymous as possible so they can write freely and openly about anything, which is one of the philosophies of SoulCast.Additionally, SoulCast doesn’t collect or store IP addresses like virtually every blogging site out there. Not many websites enforce anonymity so much as SoulCast.
The privacy aspect of SoulCast may prove to be a great draw for many potential users, especially since there are few places in the blogosphere that can make such a strong claim for anonymity and privacy. But the team at SoulCast is confident that this service they’re providing, as well as the incentive that you can get paid to blog, will be the sustaining factors of the community. And the timing of such a site couldn’t be better.
SoulCast is a free online blogging community that was established in 2006. SoulCast provides a place for anyone to blog and read about interesting topics for free, without constraints and in full anonymity. In addition, SoulCast members have the option to get paid to blog.
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Twitter Users Can Now Install Free Twitter Backgrounds Through Twitrounds
In response to the tremendous growth of Twitter, twitrounds.com recently launched to provide all Twitter users the ability to update their profile designs with free twitter backgrounds. Twitter users can simply look through different styles of backgrounds and upload them directly onto their profile in order to stand out in the Twitter community. The “Easy Auto Install” feature or the manual installation offer users different ways of loading backgrounds.
As Twitter continues to grow, it is becoming more mainstream with different people using the micro-blogging service for various purposes. A site like twitrounds gives everybody the opportunity to have a unique and quality Twitter background at no cost. Twitter users no longer have to display default Twitter backgrounds or hassle with creating backgrounds with the right sizes because twitrounds does it all. In addition, twitrounds is planning on including helpful and insightful articles about Twitter and all its features.
For additional information on this site, visit twitrounds for free twitter backgrounds.
About twitrounds:
Twitrounds was established to provide high quality twitter backgrounds for all Twitter lovers for free. The startup makes creative and appealing backgrounds while Twitter users find a background they like and install it through the site. Each background is designed with a specific theme. Twitrounds currently has over 100 backgrounds and new ones are added daily.
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Bill Clinton Gas Prices vs George Bush Gas Prices
Comparing the gas prices between the Bill Clinton era and the George Bush era is like comparing democrats to republicans. These pictures really tell the whole story and then some.
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What Were They Thinking?
This list of domain names shows just how much thought went into choosing their name. So next time you are thinking about registering a domain name, don’t be one of these guys…
Who Represents is where you can find the name of the agent that represents any celebrity. Their Web site is
www.whorepresents.com/
Experts Exchange is a knowledge base where programmers can exchange Advice and views at
www.expertsexchange.com/
Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
www.penisland.net/
Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
www.therapistfinder.com/
There’s the Italian Power Generator company,
www.powergenitalia.com/
And don’t forget the Mole Station Native Nursery in New South Wales,
http://www.molestationnursery.com
If you’re looking for IP computer software, there?s always
www.ipanywhere.com/
The First Cumming Methodist Church Web site is
http://cummingfirst.com
And the designers at Speed of Art await you at their wacky Web site,
www.speedofart.com/
I know there’s probably a ton of these out there, feel free to mention others I may have missed.
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Finally, A Blog Dictionary
It sucks encountering a term you don’t know when reading as many blog articles as we do. To help ourselves and others, we decided to post the Blog Dictionary here as a reference. You will probably be familiar with the majority of these terms, but a few will surprise you, enjoy.
A
Autocasting: Automated form of podcasting that allows bloggers and blog readers to generate audio versions of text blogs from RSS feeds.
Audioblog: A blog where the posts consist mainly of voice recordings sent by mobile phone, sometimes with some short text message added for metadata purposes. (cf. podcasting)
B
Biblioblogosphere: A humorous reference to the world of librarian blogging
Blaudience: The audience, or readership, of a blog
Blag: A humourous misspelling of ‘blog’
Blath: A math oriented blog. A portmanteau of “math” and “blog”.
Blawg: A blog focusing on commentary about the law, generally written by a law professor, law student, or lawyer. A portmanteau of “law” and “blog”.
Bleg: A blog entry consisting of a request to the readers, such as for information or contributions. A portmanteau of “blog” and “beg”. Also called “Lazyweb.”
Blog Carnival: A blog article that contains links to other articles covering a specific topic. Most blog carnivals are hosted by a rotating list of frequent contributors to the carnival, and serve to both generate new posts by contributors and highlight new bloggers posting matter in that subject area.
Blistless or B-listless: When a blogger becomes listless or apathetic about posting. It is also indicative of what will happen to the blogger’s mailing list.
Blog client: (weblog client) is software to manage (post, edit) blogs from operating system with no need to launch a web browser. A typical blog client has an editor, a spell-checker and a few more options that simplify content creation and editing.
Blogger: Person who runs a blog. Also blogger.com, a popular blog hosting web site. Rarely: weblogger.
Bloggernacle: Blogs written by and for Mormons (a portmanteau of “blog” and “Tabernacle”. Generally refers to faithful Mormon bloggers and sometimes refers to a specific grouping of faithful Mormon bloggers.
Bloggies: One of the most popular blog awards.
Blog Farm: A website constructed from a group of linked weblogs, typically with the main blog aggregating the total content/acting as a gateway.
Blog feed: The XML-based file in which the blog hosting software places a machine-readable version of the blog so that it may be “syndicated” for further distribution on the web. Formats such as RSS and Atom are used to structure the XML file.
Blog Hopping: To follow links from one blog entry to another, with related side-trips to various articles, sites, discussion forums, and more.
Bloglet: A small blog entry, usually one or two sentences long. [1]
Blogoneer: A portmanteau of “blog” and “pioneer”, meaning a person who blogs with an expert or pioneering attitude.
Blogorrhea: A portmanteau of “blog” and “logorrhea”, meaning excessive and/or incoherent talkativeness in a weblog.
Blogosphere: All blogs, or the blogging community. Also called blogistan or, more rarely, blogspace.
Blogroll: A list of blogs. A blogger features a list of their favorite blogs in the sidebar of their blog.
Blogsandwich: A blog that contains several different topics.
Blog site: The web location (URL) of a blog, which may be either a dedicated domain, a sub-domain, or embedded within a web site.
Blogsite: Sometimes confused with a simple blog or blog site, but a blogsite is a web site which combines blog feeds from a variety of sources, as well as non-blog sources, and adds significant value over the raw blog feeds.
Blogsnob: A person who refuses to respond to comments on their blog from people outside their circle of friends.
Blogstipation: The state of being unable to think of any topic to blog about, leading to irregular, strained blog entries. A rush of interesting events can clear the block; this is sometimes known as a blenema.
Blogstorm: When a large amount of activity, information and opinion erupts around a particular subject or controversy in the blogosphere, it is sometimes called a blogstorm or blog swarm.
Blogstream: A play on the term mainstream that references the alternative news and information network growing up around weblogs and user driven content mechanisms. Can also be used as a play on the phrase “thought-stream”, referring to the stream of consciousness as expressed through a weblog.
BlogThis: Pioneered by Blogger.com, BlogThis links on a blog allow the reader to automatically generate a blog entry based on the blog entry he/she is reading, and post to their blog.
Bloll: A troll who specialises in blogs. A portmanteau of “blog” and “troll.”
Blooger: A blogger who exhibits adolescent tendencies and lacks basic social graces or good manners. A portmanteau of “blog” and “booger.”
Boreblogging: Writing about personal matters that are barely interesting even to the writer — preferably in a slightly bent fashion so as to make it fun to read in spite of the subject matter.
You may also enjoy reading the Ultimate Luxury Blogger Mobile Home
C
Categories: This is a method of organizing blog entries by assigning each entry to a predetermined topic. Each topic (category) will link to a list of entries, all with related content.
Celeblog: A blog detailing the lives of movie stars, musicians, and other celebrities, much like tabloid magazines. They often feature embarrassing or revealing paparazzi photos.
Clix: A person’s circle of online communities.
Collaborative: Blog A blog (usually focused on a single issue or political stripe) on which multiple users enjoy posting permission. Also known as group blog.
Comment spam: Like e-mail spam. Robot “spambots” flood a blog with advertising in the form of bogus comments. A serious problem that requires bloggers and blog platforms to have tools to exclude some users or ban some addresses in comments.
D
Dark Blog: A non-public blog (e.g. behind a firewall)
Desktop Blogging Client: An off-line blog management (posting, editing and archiving) tool
F
Fisking: To rebut a blog entry in a line-by-line fashion.
Flog: A portmanteau of “fake” and “blog”. A blog that’s ghostwritten by someone, such as in the marketing department.
A Photoblog.
Feeds: RSS Feeds
G
Glog: A first-person recording of an activity, in which the person doing the recording is a participant in the activity. Probably a portmanteau of “gonzo” and “blog”.
GBCW: The “Good Bye Cruel World” diary is when a Kossack decides that Daily Kos has become too (fill in the blank) or isn’t nearly (fill in the blank) enough for him or her to continue visiting the site. General chaos ensues in the Comments as other Kossacks agree, disagree, and wish the diarist good luck or good riddance.
Gulog: A portmanteau of “gulag” and “blog”. Used when a blog is so dismal and depressing, it’s as if it were written in a Soviet labour camp.
H
Hits: Number of users visited is often referred as hits. (website / blog hits)
HT: “Hat Tip” An acknowledgment of the source where you found the noteworthy item.
I
Instalanche: Sudden and possibly overwhelming increase in traffic to a site after being linked to by the Instapundit
K
Koufax: An annual quasi-Liberal webblog award.
K-log: aka “knowledge log”, a type of blog usually used by knowledge workers and posted on a company intranet for sharing company knowledge.
Kos Kid: A term for any one who posts, or reads regularly, the blog Daily Kos. Also known as “Kwazy Kos Kids” after the eccentric nature of some of the members.
L
Lazy Web: Making a suggestion to an internet community in the hopes that someone else will do the work.
Link Love: linking to a site or blog, usually unsolicited, that you like, enjoy, or find useful.
Log in, blog to, log out: A catchphrase referring to blogger style of activity.
Linkroll: A list of recently-bookmarked links with brief descriptions, in the sidebar of a blog.
M
Milblog: Term for blogs written by members or veterans of any branch of service – Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines. A contraction of military and blog.
Moblog: A portmanteau of “mobile” and “blog”. A blog featuring posts sent mainly by mobile phone, using SMS or MMS messages. They are often photoblogs.
Momosphere: Term to encompass blogs written by mothers. A portmanteau of “mom” and “blogosphere”.
Multi-blog: Creating, maintaining, and running multiple blogs (2 or more) simultaneously.
Multi-blogger: An individual, business, or institution that runs multiple blogs.
N
Natural Blogarithm: Used to describe the vibe or rhythm of the blogging community. A portmanteau of blog and natural logarithm.
P
PENUS Potentially Exciting News Under Scrutiny: Use this when you have something big that you can’t wait to show to the blogosphere.
Permalink Permanent link: The unique URL of a single post. Use this when you want to link to a post somewhere.
Phlog: Type of blog utilising the Gopher protocol instead of HTTP
Photoblog: A blog mostly containing photos, posted constantly and chronologically.
Ping: The alert in the TrackBack system that notifies the original poster of a blog post when someone else writes an entry concerning the original post.
Placeblog: Tim Lindgren has used the term “place blogging” to describe weblogs that focus on events and people with a hyperlocal scope.
Plog Political blog: Blog containing mainly politically-oriented material.
Podcasting: Contraction of “iPod” and “broadcasting” (but not for iPods only). Posting audio and video material on a blog and its RSS feed, for digital players.
Post: An entry written and published to a blog.
R
RSS: Really Simple Syndication is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts.
RSS aggregator: Software or online service allowing a blogger to read an RSS feed, especially the latest posts on their favourite blogs. Also called a reader or feedreader.
RSS feed: The file containing a blog’s latest posts. It is read by an RSS aggregator/reader and shows at once when a blog has been updated. It may contain only the title of the post, the title plus the first few lines of a post, or the entire post.
S
Scribosphere: Term to encompass blogs written by professional and aspiring screenwriters. A portmanteau of “scribe” and “blogosphere”.
Shart: An acronym; Stubborn, Hostile And Resentful Troll, the most feared kind. A blog that falls victim to such a troll is said to have been “sharted”. A blogger who vandalises their own page for sympathy is said to have sharted themselves.
Shocklog: Weblogs to produce shocking discussions by posting various shocking content.
Spam blog: A blog which is composed of spam. A Spam blog or “any blog whose creator doesn’t add any written value.”
Slashdotted: The Slashdot effect can hit blogs or other website, and is caused by a major website (usually Slashdot, but also Digg, Metafilter, Boing Boing, Instapundit and others) sending huge amounts of temporary traffic that often slow down the server.
Splog: A term used to refer to a ‘spam blog’, made popular in 2005 by Mark Cuban
Storyblog: Also written as “slog”. A term used to describe blogs used primarily to publish written stories and poetry used for practice usually by aspiring writers.
Subscribe: The term used when a blogs feed is added to a feed reader like Bloglines or Google. Some blogging platforms have internal subscriptions, this allows readers to receive notification when there are new posts in a blog.
Svithe: A spiritually themed post on a blog not normally focused on spiritual matters.
T
Template: Templates, used on the “back end” of a blog that work together to handle information and present it on a blog.
Theme: CSS based code that when applied to the templates will result in visual element changes to the blog. The theme, as a whole, is also referred to as a blog design.
TrackBack: A system that allows a blogger to see who has seen the original post and has written another entry concerning it. The system works by sending a ‘ping’ between the blogs, and therefore providing the alert.
Troll: A commenter whose sole purpose is to attack the views expressed on a blog and incite a flamewar, for example, a liberal going to a conservative blog, or vice versa. The word trolling means literally ‘to fish’, ie. when the troll fishes for a clashback from the blog writer and/or pro commenters. Many trolls will leave their remarks on multiple posts and continue to visit the blog, sparking spirited debate amongst the blog’s regular readers. Trolls’ verbosity can range from eloquent to crass, although most trolls probably fall into the latter category. Originally, trolling only meant the custom where someone was commenting just to get a flamewar going, by using exaggarated points of view not held by themselves.
V
Vlog: A video blog; a vlogger is a video blogger (e.g. someone who records himself interviewing people of a certain field).
Vorage: A marriage between the words forage and video defined as “The act of foraging for video on the internet and sharing it with others.”
Vloggers: Those who share streaming or downloaded video content on the web often engage in voraging, scouring search engines and obscure websites to present a curated collection of videos that usually fall within a set theme or editorial perspective.
W
Web Keynoting: Having a blog’s text dictated by a web keynote (also, voice professional). Service provided by Ch4tter.
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Signs of Over Blogging
You check your stats more than 10 times a day: If you are constantly checking your blog’s stats, you are becoming obsessive. Unless you are monitoring the success of a new technique, don’t check your stats so often.
Your face shows up on a milk carton: If this happens to you, then you definitely need to take a break from your blogging and get in touch with your friends and family.
You suffer from blogger’s block: While this is a relatively new term, it is happening frequently as we try to create more and more relevant content. If you are currently suffering from blogger’s block, either take a day off to refresh your mind or read other blogs for inspiration.
Your friends and family check your blog to see how you are doing: Don’t be shy, now that you are a blogger, you can still visit your friends and family just like old times.
Checkout the Ultimate Luxury Blogger Mobile Home
Your health is deteriorating: Many of us may not recognize this is happening to us as we sit for long hours writing and researching. Try to limit your time blogging and take a health break frequently. Take walks, do the laundry and other physical activity, you will be surprised how refreshing it is.
Online friends out number real friends: This is a sad but true scenario for many bloggers.
Your ideal vacation is to go to a blogger convention: I know my wife may not share the same enthusiasm as I would on this one.
You wish you could delete some people’s comments in real life: If you start to think stuff like this, then ya you may be spending too much time on your blog.
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