CRM Update – Mar 22 : 1:09 pm

One would think, considering Americans’ sudden love of all things whole-grain, that the classic General Mills cereal Wheaties would be doing well. Instead, sales of the cereal have been falling for years, and no one seems interested in other cereals under the Wheaties brand. It’s all because the cereal is simultaneously, but not boring enough.

What do you think of when you think of Wheaties? Famous sports figures? Plain brown flakes? Kurt Vonnegut? Most likely, you don’t associate Wheaties with much of anything, which is a problem for a cereal charging name-brand prices…

The 2014 World Cup in Brazil is still some 27 months away, but the event is already taking steps into the mobile and social arenas.
FIFA — international soccer’s governing body — announced on Wednesday the launch of a new YouTube channel it will begin to populate with highlights, features and action from past World Cups in the run-up to Brazil 2014. The channel is called FIFA TV. Posts so far include a highlight reel of Argentine star Lionel Messi from World Cup 2010 in South Africa, clips from the Under-20 World Cup last summer, and a welcome video…

There’s been some talk lately about abandoning traditional CRM technology and just sticking with social networks for a company’s Social CRM needs. What with customers’ voluntary disclosure of personal likes and dislikes, location changes, job changes and personal updates, and more, social networks are practically a treasure trove of important information. So, logically shouldn’t people just stick with the free services that offer them loads of information about their client bases?
I’m going to argue that while Facebook, Twitter and Google+ are extremely important aspects of a successful Social CRM strategy, you should not, and ultimately cannot, abandon the central software for a third-party network without consequences…

Do you manage a site that encourages people to create user accounts?Are you looking for an easy way to tap the power of Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to quickly create user identities?If so, keep reading for my review of a social service that we used to quickly build up members of our Networking Clubs.Why Social Login?Once people login to their favorite social network, they generally don’t log out. Most people have a social account with one of the major social networks.  This means their photograph and contact details are already registered elsewhere…

Spencer’s Dell laptop has two hard drive bays. That’s pretty cool, and he decided to take advantage of this by using it to install a hard drive. But no one at Dell has ever heard of such a crazy thing, and you can’t order any of the parts needed to actually hold or connect the drive from Dell’s site. Because that would be simple and easy.

If you’re not technically inclined, scroll to the bottom of this entry to see the handy summary chart that Spencer made…

As more employers embrace telecommuting, marketplaces that connect them with remote freelance workers are taking off.
These sites allow businesses to post projects that can be completed away from an office in a database that workers can browse. They’re different from crowdsourcing sites such as Mechanical Turk that help businesses hire anonymous workers for often-mindless tasks. Rather, jobs listed on them take significant time to complete and typically require professional skills such as programming, graphic design or writing…

For several years, a growing number of people have enjoyed beating the hell out of Geth, mastering head-shots on husks and trying to save the entire, expanding universe as Commander Shepherd in the Mass Effect series of video games. But without giving too much away, a lot of those same fans are not pleased with how the series finally wrapped up in Mass Effect 3.

There have been online petitions calling for new endings, at least one complaint to the FTC, and seemingly endless stories about whether or not the game’s maker, BioWare (owned by current WCIA contender Electronic Arts), should give into fan pressure, especially considering the huge cost and time it would take to get it right — and the risk that whatever BioWare comes up with might still not please everyone…

Fans of the Angry Birds franchise, take notice: the disgruntled feathery creatures have conquered space, and they’re out to show those dastardly pigs a lesson.
The latest installment of this megapopular game, Angry Birds Space, is now available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android devices, as well as the Mac and PC.
The new version brings several important changes, most importantly gravity, which will allow players to use nearby planets to perform trick shots on unsuspecting pigs.
The game has 60 levels, with more content available through in-app purchases (only in the iOS version for now)…

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