How 20% of Social Network Actions or Actors Determine 80% of Results

"If you wanted to nudge people on a social network into trying a new product or get a biochemical system to turn compound A into compound B, you could just push your product or compound into every entry point in the network. But that’s sort of a silly approach, says Jean-Jacques Slotine of MIT. A much more efficient tactic would be to target just the nodes needed to get the desired outcome.

So, along with colleagues Albert-László Barabási and Yang-Yu Liu of Northeastern University in Boston, Slotine developed an algorithm that calculates the minimum number of these driver nodes and finds them. 'Dense networks, on the other hand, such as many social networks, were much easier to control: Influence roughly 20 percent of the nodes and the whole network responds.

Those findings suggest that very-large networks are not chaotic, but rather structured, in terms of how influence and impact works across the network.

How 20% of Social Network Actions or Actors Determine 80% of Results

Two Thirds Of Moms Shop With Their Smart Phones

In a survey of 239 mothers, whom Greystripe recruited using mobile banner ads in its network, 66 percent said that their smartphones play a role in their shopping trips.

Around 45 percent of shoppers surveyed by Greystripe said they use their phones to locate the nearest store.

The next most common use of smartphones was to compare prices.

About 15 percent of the women surveyed said they actually made purchases using their phones.Most smartphone-wielding mothers put their phones to work while they shop, according to Greystripe.

Two Thirds Of Moms Shop With Their Smartphones

Axvoice Launches $99 a year VoIP Plan

"Value" isn't necessarily "price." Many people cannot put an actual monetary figure on the value of their email, instant messaging, social network or other services. But there is a fair amount of value there. But prices sometimes send signals about value.

This summer Axvoice offers $99/year plan which includes unlimited calling in the U.S. and Canada for the whole year. That's a bit more than $8 a month. Again, value is not the same thing as price. But it is hard to argue with the notion that some voice services are setting a very-real retail price on calling value, at least in terms of fixed line calling in North America.

Axvoice Summer Special - Beat the Phone Bill Heat with $99 Per Year Plan

Tips for Developing a Mobile Content Strategy

Developing a Mobile Strategy

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Mobile Search Leads to Retail Shopping

Search is becoming more important for mobile marketing, in large part because mobile search leads to actions, ranging from talking to other people, visiting social networks and recommending brands to other people.

More important is the growing evidence that mobile search leads to retail store visits and purchasing of products.

IPhone 4S coming to Sprint, T-Mobile?

Analyst Peter Misek at Jefferies & Co. says the next iPhone that Apple comes out with will be dubbed the 4S and that Sprint and T-Mobile will be added as U.S. carriers.

IPhone 4S coming to Sprint, T-Mobile?

Small Businesses Turning to Apps

Businesses now are using mobile apps software for a variety of business processes. The market for these apps was $3.21 billion last year and is expected to nearly double to $6.12 billion by 2014, according to research firm Compass Intelligence, and reported by the Wall Street Journal.

"Apps are no longer exotic," says Abhi Ingle, an AT&T Inc. executive who deals with small-business applications.

One might speculate that the trend will continue, increasingly offering many ecosystem participants an ability to sell business software where it would have been prohibitive in the past, not the least because of sales staff training issues.

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