Mediaboss Marketing

NEW YORK, March 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Halogen Media Group/YouCast announced the launch of SocialChorus, Inc., a Social SaaS Firm and Influencer Relationship Marketing (IRM) Platform.

"Social media has democratized the power of influence, and accelerated the growth of social influencers," said Gregory Shove, SocialChorus Founder and CEO."Brands are unable to effectively keep up, and need a better solution to collaborate with these influencers. The days of marketers managing influencers with spreadsheets and phone calls are over; technology is required to deliver the engagement, scale, and efficiency brands need to succeed."

The Company has a five-year history of Influencer Relationship Marketing.The experience of managing over 200 global influencer activation campaigns empowered them to develop the technology to automate the IRM process and rebrand as SocialChorus.Over twenty-five fortune 500 clients have already signed on to build their own branded influencer networks using the SocialChorus platform.

Joe Burton, formerly Global COO at some of the world's largest agency networks, was brought onboard to drive the launch of the new platform and build the client services organization."I'm excited.As social activity explodes, brands and agencies have learned that manually managing influencer-marketing programs is time consuming, costly and not scalable. In automating the IRM process, our platform frees marketers to focus on strategy, driving social actions, and creating mutually beneficial relationships with influencers. The IRM possibilities are now only limited by their creativity," said Burton.

SocialChorus allows influencers to team up with brands and create something magical. Influencers use the SocialChorus IRM platform to gain access to branded social currency and content to share with their followers. Brands receive real-time metrics with the ability to track everything from social actions, to earned media value and brand influence.

"We believe that the relationship between the influencer/superfan and the brand is one that should be developed and nurtured. Our software provides a white-labeled solution where 100% of the relationship and marketing value accrues to the brand and their influencers directly. We think that several marketing disciplines, from Public Relations to Social Marketing and Word-of-Mouth will see immediate ROI from deploying our software," said Shove.

Industry insiders have already noted the value of SocialChorus' platform: "When it comes to actually managing this new breed of campaign as it grows into one of the most important marketing techniques, brands have been, essentially, screwed from the get-go. Enter SocialChorus: It's like a back-end panel for your entire social campaign," wrote Harrison Weber, East Coast & Design Editor at The Next Web.

About SocialChorus SocialChorus is a Social Software Services Company and Influencer Relationship Marketing (IRM) platform that helps brands find and connect to the people whose social influence matters most. The platform allows brands and agencies to work with these influencers in authentic ways to drive real social marketing results. SocialChorus' IRM software beta launched in February 2012, and is available along with strategic IRM and activation services to give brands the simplicity, speed, and efficiency needed to build enduring social relationships at global scale. SocialChorus was founded by Gregory Shove, CEO, and co-founders John Eaton and Jonathan Cohen. The Company's lead investor is Kohlberg Ventures. SocialChorus has offices in New York City and San Francisco. http://socialchorus.com

Contact: Melissa Murphy Tel: 646-723-9855 Cell: 516-305-3218 Email: melissa.murphy@socialchorus.com http://www.twitter.com/socialchorus

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SocialChorus Enables Brands to Harness Social Influence With the Launch of Influencer Relationship Marketing Software

The tide of change can be felt in Myanmar's media landscape. Although some independent journalists are skeptical, Parliament is currently reviewing a draft law that might abolish censorship altogether.

Ahr Mahn collapses into his leather armchair in the small conference room. The editor-in-chief of the weekly 7-Day News has just come back from the censors. Myanmar is going through a reform process and censorship has been relaxed, but not abolished.

He explains that a recent article he wrote was particularly displeasing to the censors. "They demanded I use a milder tone. I had mentioned the fact that many people were worried something might happen to Aung San Suu Kyi during her election campaign trips."

Hillary Clinton's trip to Myanmar aroused a lot of media interest

Generally, however, he says, it is no longer a problem to talk about Myanmar's iconic opposition leader. Barely a newspaper appears these days without her picture on the cover. The young editor explains that there has been a marked change since she met President Thein Sein. "Before it was strictly forbidden to show her on the cover and only sometimes was it allowed inside."

'The people believe us'

Mahn says that the newspaper's popularity has increased dramatically since last April. It now has a weekly circulation of 140,000. "The news suddenly became important and the people believe what we say."

Zeya Thu, deputy editor at The Voice, which has a weekly circulation of 85,000, says another reason is the fact that the news is more up-to-date. "The censorship process used to take at least a week," he says.

Nonetheless, there are still subjects which remain taboo. The peace talks between the government and ethnic minorities are delicate. There can be no talk of fighting. No statements made by ethnic groups, especially the Kachin, are allowed to be published.

But Zeya Thu says he no longer censors himself. "Before we couldn't write about anything - about political prisoners or human rights. Now we simply write what we want and then the censors can decide what to cut out."

See more here:
Myanmar's journalists breathe more freely but it's a long haul

Censorship? More like "censorsh*t," am I right? Censorship is one of those topics we do not hear about too often, but when we do, we are furious.

A fundamental concept of the First Amendment, freedom of speech is an American fan favorite that we pride ourselves on.

Recently, censorship has been prominent in the news in the United States and countries around the world. Here at home, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) has been the ultimate threat of an Internet troll for quite some time.

It was created in the hope of stopping online trafficking in counterfeiting and piracy.

If enacted, it will not "shut down the internet" like every middle schooler on Tumblr thought, but it will block access to sites that allow copyright violated or pirated downloading and linking.

So what does that mean? There would be noFacebook, YouTube, MediaFire, SoundCloud, Twitter, DropBox or any other site that can be targeted as a place where online piracy could take place.

No Twitter? But I put jokes up there. It's my lifeline (@MaeveMcDonough #shamelessplug).

Many blogs would also be shut down. Everyone would be responsible for what they put on their blog or website and if it does have copyright infringement, consider it gone. This threat to our right to be an Internet dweller should make us realize how lucky we really are.

In Cuba this week, Project Censored, an American nonprofit organization dedicated to media criticism and investigative journalism, made its case to a conference of Cuban authors and journalists hosted by Fidel Castro.

It's been more than 50 years since a bad word about Cuba was uttered in any sort of national media. After Project Censored's failed conference, it's going to stay that way.

See the article here:
SOPA small beans compared to international censorship

iStockphoto.com

While the controversy continues to swirl around radio talkmeister Rush Limbaugh and his admittedly inappropriate comments about Georgetown Law Student Sandra Fluke, an analysis from the left-leaning Brookings Institution adds an economic twist to the debate over coverage of contraception.

Love them or hate them, contraceptives do save taxpayers money, Brookings concludes.

The study, from the Brookings Center on Children and Families, looked at three different ways to prevent unintended pregnancies, which account for about half of all pregnancies in the U.S.

All three approaches more than pay for themselves. But one - increasing funding for family planning services through the Medicaid program - clearly outshines the other two in terms of cost-effectiveness.

Yes, you may have heard there are lots of ways to lower the rate of unintended pregnancy. There are mass media campaigns to urge young people to avoid unprotected sex. Other programs urge teens to delay having sex, or, as a fallback, teach them how to use contraception effectively. And then there's Medicaid's help low-income women afford the most effective contraceptive methods.

But this study, using a simulation model devised by Brookings, is the first to estimate exactly how much could be saved using each method.

It found that a national mass media campaign that would cost $100 million would result in about $431 million in savings to taxpayers, largely by reducing unintended pregnancy, particularly among people who don't make much money.

Programs the Brookings researchers called "evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention," which combine an emphasis on abstinence "while also educating participants about how to use various methods of contraception" have both reduced the rate of sexual activity and increased the use of contraception.

Spending $145 million on such programs would return $356 million to taxpayers, according to the model.

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How Birth Control Saves Taxpayers' Money

HOUSTON, March 6, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Customers of VisionMonitor Aviation LLC., a leading developer of enterprise wide software solutions, have recently reported receiving significant reductions in their insurance premiums resulting in substantial annual savings. The basis for the reductions is the ability to demonstrate excellent risk management control using the VisionMonitor Safety Performance Indicator (SPI) Solution for monitoring safety performance in real time. The SPI Solution allows airlines to proactively manage their safety operations by analyzing trends and taking corrective action before potentially unacceptable risks occur. VisionMonitor utilizes a central data repository with the automatic retrieval and analysis of critical safety information from different operational systems which simplifies the validation of data and breaks down the silos of information between departments. Using the SPI Solution, airlines can measure the effectiveness of their investments in the safety process and prioritize these investments. While proactively managing risk, VisionMonitor Aviation customers are realizing an improvement in operational risk control and the resulting financial benefits.

About VisionMonitor Aviation, LLC (VMA): VMA is a subsidiary company of VisionMonitor Software, LLC, which was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. VisionMonitor was originally formed to provide energy companies enterprise wide software solutions for managing their environmental performance. The organization has since expanded into the Aviation industry with the input and support of leading Aviation safety experts and major airlines. VisionMonitor solutions are in use by major companies representing the Aviation, Energy, Petrochemical, Utility, and Storage Terminals industries.

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VisionMonitor Aviation Customers Demonstrate Excellent Risk Management Control and Receive Insurance Savings