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Michigan - The Helping Hand State.
Find out how your business can apply for recovery money!
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 Too Much Technology?
During the week of February 14, 2011, NBC aired the competition between two of Jeopardy's biggest winners and IBM's computer, referred to as "Watson." Despite a few flaws, Watson easily defeated human competitors.
Watson tackled a
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game that requires recall and the ability to decipher difficult clues. This intelligent machine understood humans and was able to respond. While this amazing advancement is incredible, it may have serious future repercussions in the job market.
IBM is already collaborating with Columbia University and the University of Maryland to create a physician's assistant service. They are also in discussions to make a version of Watson that would interact with consumers on buying decisions and technical support.
While both of these projects are only in early stages, Watson's success could indicate jobs being handled by computers in the future. And this reality is a scary one with many Americans already without jobs.
Jaclyn Klein
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About Eiler
Eiler Communications is a public relations and marketing communications firm in Ann Arbor, MI. We specialize in new and traditional media marketing, serving established and emerging companies in the communications
technology, financial services, biotechnology and healthcare industries.
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"Floorence Comes to Town" Marketing Campaign Launched
Eiler Communications launched a snazzy new
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marketing campaign, "Floorence Comes to Town" for client, Ann Arbor Carpets Flooring America, Ann Arbor's premier carpet and flooring company since 1980.
"Floorence Comes to Town" features Floorence, a modern-day fictional female who heads a family of children while working full-time. "Floorence is a character that exemplifies today's busy women, who manage a family, care for kids and run the home," said Jenny Mrozinski, President of Ann Arbor Carpets Flooring America.
Ann Arbor Carpets Flooring America is using Floorence to build upon their years of business experience and identify with women, the primary flooring decision-maker.
The campaign will run in several mediums, including AnnArbor.com, the Lucy Ann Lance Business insider radio program daily on WLBY 1290AM, billboards, the home Builders Guide, the Remodeling Directory and Our House magazine.
A new website, www.askfloorence.com will also be launched to allow customers to ask questions, learn store specials and shop products.
Toni Cotter
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Do Not Track Option Could Revolutionize Advertising Industry
Have you ever noticed that the advertisements lining the website you are looking at are things you like, are interested in or have looked at before? This is because every time you visit a website, your activity and what you click on is closely monitored. Internet-wide, monitoring web activity has allowed advertisers to tailor messages to specific customers. Marketing and advertising companies have thrived with this capability.
However, this could soon change.
In December 2010, the Federal Trade Commission initiated a "Do Not Track" mechanism that would enable Internet users to opt out of being tailed on the Internet. Users could check a box telling their web browser to notify every webpage they visit not to track them and the advertising industry would have to honor the request. The "Do Not Track" option was created as a response to complaints that online tracking violates the privacy of Internet users.
Opponents of the "Do Not Track" plan say it would disrupt the huge online advertising industry, in which over 80% of online ad campaigns use some sort of behavioral targeting. The $25.8 billion-a-year online advertising and marketing industry would surely falter and affect the estimated $300 billion US Internet economic activity.
The "Do Not Track" option might excite users but for businesses trying to sell their products and services, advertising might have gotten a little harder.
Jaclyn Klein
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The Hottest Hybrid: Quora
An old idea of Internet users asking and answering questions is being reinvigorated. Venture capitalists are investing in new question and answer websites, including Quora, Stack Exchange, VYour and Hipster. These new Q & A sites are revamping th e industry and outdoing older sites including WikiAnswers and Yahoo Answers with less repetition and a focus on quality.
The hottest new start-up in Silicon Valley, Quora, intends on becoming a hybrid of Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers and Twitter. Quora collects information on a wide variety of topics, currently unavailable on the Internet, through user-generated and edited content in a question and answer format. Quora incorporates aspects of Twitter with a feature allowing users to follow other users.
Quora will not replace outdated competitors for one main reason: time. Quora encourages quality over speed. Answers that are posted receive answers overtime, opposite to Wikipedia's lightening-quick search option. Still, this is necessary to uphold the quality of answers Quora promises.
Initially, Quora was only open to CEOs, experts in their fields or invitees, helping maintain quality answers. Now open to the public, Quora maintains quality through Quora reviewers, community consensus on best answers and Quora's encouragement to users to only post in the user's field of expertise.
As the site grows, quality may be at risk. Quora is unique because of its caliber of answers, without it the site might blend into the background with the myriad of other Q & A markets.
Jackie VanSloten |
Michigan Dashboard - A Way to Measure Politics
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder recently introduced a remarkable web page called the Michigan Dashboard, where he lists twenty-one areas to measure his administration's success. Unlike most politicians, Snyder is using his business roots to make government a business with actual goals and a bottom line that can be measured.
The Michigan Dashboard is the facts and statistics you as a business owner and Michigan resident want to see. It looks at per capita income, obesity, traffic fatalities and ACT scores, among others. Under each of Governor Snyder's twenty-one categories you can see where the state of Michigan currently falls, where it is going and how it compares to the rest of the country.
I applaud Governor Snyder's Michigan Dashboard. It is a way for us to actually see progress or a lack there of. Businesses demand results from their employees. It's about time we start demanding results from our government. This dashboard allows us to do so. Jaclyn Klein |
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