Updated: Quitting Twitter for Charity Doesn’t Make Cent$

Updated Dec. 7, 2010 (See end of entry)

Want to raise $1 million? Just ask.

Alicia Keys has convinced other celebrities, including Lady Gaga; Justin Timberlake; Kim Kardashian and Ryan Seacrest, to quit Twitter and Facebook in order to raise $1 million for a worthy charity, Keep  a Child Alive — vowing not to return until they reach that goal.

To me, quitting two of the most effective platforms for raising funds, in order to raise funds, is wrong-headed. This chart shows why:

keys, gaga, timberlake, kardashian, seacrest twitter and facebook

Twitter and Facebook followers @ 11/30/2010

The numbers say it all… Read more of this post

Would your employees recommend you?

Think your employees would recommend your company or its products? Think again. A recent study by Advertising Age reveals that only 27% of employees would recommend its products or services. Worse, almost twice that amount, 49%, are actually company detractors.

As for blocking employee access to social media, the survey found that active social media participants are likely to support the company 48% of the time with far less (only 22%) likely detractors.

With a 78% likelihood that your social media savvy employees would not speak poorly of the company, it pays (literally) to let, no, to help your employees be your best ambassadors in the social media space.

Cyber Monday happens 52 times a year

Cyber Monday – you’ll find bargains, but for the savvy Internet shopper, cyber monday happens 52 times a year.In fact, jut like Black Friday it isn’t even the busiest online shopping day of the year (typically that is the Monday before Christmas).

But, sales are cyclical, and while there’s no disputing the fact that certain products are priced more competitively at particular times of the year, there’s also no doubt that the internet has provided a competitive marketplace all year ’round, where some of the cyber-monday specials (discounts and free shipping) are found on any Monday (or Tuesday, Wednesday, etc.)

Should we still call it Black Friday?

Should we still call it Black Friday if consumers demand and only respond to deep discounts? Revenue isn’t the only thing, profit matters. In an effort to build sales, retailers have conditioned shoppers to buy earlier, but only at the discount level traditionally reserved for leftover goods at season’s end.

Brief example: A retailer brings goods in and factoring out the cost, freight, shrinkage and other discounts, has a 40% initial gross profit  margin. Now, say those goods are on sale on Black Friday at 50% off retail. Add in extra selling expenses (payroll) to handle the extended hours that day, is any profit made? And the big Black Friday sellers, electronics and toys, typically have only an initial gross margin of 10% or less making them even less profitable when discounted.

And so Black Friday, meant to depict the date at which retailers started to operate at a profit, or “in the black”, and incorrectly thought to be the biggest shopping day of the year (the Saturday before Christmas has that distinction) may be more accurately — and awkwardly — referred to as “Continuing-the-red Friday.”

You can’t make that up in volume.

Happy Thanksgiving! 10 Feast Facts

Happy Thanksgiving! 10 jaw-dropping statistics about your Thanksgiving feast from Business Insider

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