The New Year is shaping up to be the year of the consumer. The rise of social networking sites has given customers the power to rapidly spread their like or dislike of a product. According to Bazaarvoice.com, 53% of people on Twitter recommend companies and/or products in their Tweets, with 48% of them delivering on their intention to buy the product.

Whether negative or positive, you as a company can make this work to your benefit. User generated content is a way to harness the reviewing habits of your customers in a constructive way.

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- Financial Zone - No Comments »

i’m into titling blog posts with hashtags these days.

yesterday, i grabbed a quick look at twitter in between a packed day of meetings and saw a tweet from someone that looked like this

Join me & change your profile picture to protest SOPA: BlackoutSOPA.org #BlackoutSOPA

— Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) January 9, 2012

it took me about a nanosecond to and add a stop sopa banner to my twitter avatar. this is something i’ve wanted and expected for a month or more. now i’ve got it. slowly my twitter feed is filling up with avatars with the stop sopa banner on them.

my dream is all of twitter fills up with this banner. t

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- Financial Help - No Comments »

Mortgage demand fell over the two-week holiday period, even when accounting for the usual slowdown brought on by the holiday season.

Overall, newly submitted mortgage applications for the week ending Dec. 30 were down a seasonally adjusted 3.7 percent from the week ending Dec. 16, according to figures released this morning by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).   Even so, demand was up strongly compared to last year, with applications up 39 percent compared to the two-week period at the end of 2010.  

Mortgage refinancing relatively steady

  For the current period, applications for mortgages to purchase homes showed the biggest decline, with purchase applications down a seasonally adjusted 9.7 percent over the past two weeks. Re Read more…

- Stock Quotes - No Comments »

WASHINGTON (AP) – More economic reports due today will shed new light on the manufacturing sector.

The Commerce Department releases factory orders for November, providing a glimpse of future demand for manufacturers. The consensus forecast is for a gain of 2.1 percent.

Also, automakers will be releasing reports on vehicle sales for December. When final figures are calculated, sales of new cars and trucks are expected to reach 12.7 million. That would be up from 11.5 million in 2010 and 10.4 million in 2009, which was the worst year since 1982.

- Stock Quotes - No Comments »