Media Bullseye

Albert Maruggi examines the barriers that have made those in the health care system slow to adopt social media, and looks at the areas where they are tentatively--and successfully--stepping into the waters.

Research firm Gartner has identified "Generation Virtual," a marketing segmentation with no age, gender, social demographic or specific geography. How will marketers respond to this segmentation--or will they simply ignore it in favor of the standard, readily identifiable groups?

Mark Story still needs to be convinced that the plethora of social media tools surrounding this year's political conventions do anything except provide red meat for the people who really care anyway. Is social media "game changing" for the presidential election?

Web analysts love to have their metrics as neat as Scrooge McDuck's piles of gold coins. When web measurements do not add up, they become obsessed in determining why, just as McDuck would in trying to find a lost coin. If you're watching this unfold, it can be amusing. If you're trying to figure out where your web visitors are coming from, it's like a Rubik's cube with 45 different colors.

How do you get your employer on the Twitter bandwagon? It's doable, but depending on the situation, it could take a little management-wrangling. Mark Story explains how he was able to convince the powers that be that Twitter is where it's at.

Since the dawn of the Internet, people have viewed kids using the Web with suspicion and fear. Similar to the way video games were blamed for rising teen violence rates, the Internet became the next scapegoat. Why then, knowing the possibilities of the big, bad Internet, are people raising their kids online?

Changes in political communications have created a new foundation of social media in democracy. It is the foundation upon which the importance of bloggers has been built and the speed with which news, be it based on rumor or truth, can spread through the electorate. Former political operative Albert Maruggi examines the role of social media in today's presidential campaigns.

We all use Upcoming, MeetUp, EventBrite and other applications that keep track of social media and PR/marketing events coming to our area. But wouldn't it be nice if there were one "master calendar" that listed them all? Well, there is now!

In a webcast press conference this week, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced the replacement for its current system of data storage and report filing. The new system, called IDEA, brings the SEC into the future of online, interactive data management. And that's not all they have planned for online interaction--Jen Zingsheim and Sarah Wurrey report on the webcast, and the possible future of transparency in government and business.

Our world today is changing the way we work: Gas prices are driving an increasing number of professionals to telecommute and the economy is driving more and more employers to cut back on internal staff. The result is significant growth in the number of professionals working from home. And while it has its obvious benefits, telecommuting has its unique challenges. Sara Adams has advice for telecommuters interested in growing their careers.