Brian Lorge is the owner of Centerplace Liquor in Greeley Colorado.  He and his father went in together on the venture in September 2007.  He has seen the business grow in many ways since the purchase in 2007, with each year bring an increase in sales.  He has been employed by IBM for the past 10 years and currently works as a Network Engineer in which he supports security and auditing for the DOW Chemical company. He graduated from Franklin University in 2006 with a Bachelors degree in Computer Information Systems.

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Helly Hansen to Outfit Qittle™ Mobile Marketing Firm’s “Live The Dream” Winner and Give Away Prizes

Aspen, Colo. (December 29th, 2009) – Qittle, a national mobile and social media firm, is excited to announce a technical apparel partnership between Helly Hansen and the “Live The Dream-Win a Year in Aspen/Snowmass” competition and tour. “Live The Dream” will be promoting Helly Hansen on the 60-city tour and educational “Social/Mobile Media at its Best Seminar” along with Helly Hansen give-aways to lucky contestants. Qittle will also be giving one lucky winner a year living the dream in Aspen/Snowmass, enjoying the high quality, technical Helly Hansen gear while skiing, snowboarding, biking, hiking and promoting sponsors through social networking.

“We think the “Live the Dream in Aspen” competition is a great fit for Helly Hansen.  As the official apparel partner for the Aspen Skiing Company, wearing the Helly Hansen brand goes hand in hand with living the Aspen lifestyle so we’re really excited to be involved.” – Marshall Rutman, Helly Hansen Marketing Manager, North America

Qittle’s “Live The Dream – Win A Year in Aspen/Snowmass” competition will launch on January 1^st, 2010. Anyone interested in registering can sign up for a chance to win on the Live The Dream website from January 1^st to June 1^st, 2010. On June 1^st, 100 to 200 contestants will be chosen randomly to take action and create the largest viral marketing campaign, demonstrating why they should win a year in Aspen/Snowmass. In July, the top five finalists will be invited to Aspen/Snowmass to interview and on the 4^th of July 2010, one of those five will win a year in Aspen/Snowmass. The winner will blog, post YouTube videos, actively use different social networking sites, attend local events and promote sponsors, while living the dream. http://qittle.com/live_the_dream.html

“Qittle is thrilled to have Helly Hansen as a “Live The Dream” sponsor” – Chelsea VanVleet, Qittle Communications Director. Both parties are very excited to be working together to promote an active lifestyle and Qittle’s “Live The Dream” campaign. The “Live The Dream” competition winner will be given Helly Hansen technical apparel to use while living the dream. The lucky winner will let the world know how efficient and technical this gear is through YouTube videos, a blog and social networking.

About Helly Hansen

Since 1877, Helly Hansen has been protecting professionals who’ve chosen to make their living in some of the world’s harshest environments. Today, the brand is recognized as a global leader in technical apparel and footwear designs for a range of alpine and water sports activities. HH products are distributed in more than 40 countries. HH’s North American operations are based in Delta, B.C. For more information on HH products, team news, or to locate a dealer, please visit: www.hellyhansen.com

Holiday retail sales might have staved off a visit from the Grinch thanks in part to social media.

Nearly half of U.S. retailers polled in a pre-holiday national survey said they intended to increase their use of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter during the Christmas shopping season.

“Social media has allowed for a very efficient, low-cost way for retailers to communicate directly with their best customers on exclusive sales and offers,” said Clay McDaniel, co-founder of Seattle-based marketing firm Spring Creek Group.

Although the exact impact of social media on holiday retailing hasn’t been calculated, online outreach is thought to have been a factor in the 3.6 percent increase in November and December spending reported Monday by MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse.

In addition to boosting sales, social media has enabled retailers to reduce or divert spending on traditional advertising in print and broadcast media.

 Andrew BE specializes in Internet Business
 Development and created Elegant Technologies
 Limited while completing his Masters in
 Business Administration nearly 10 years ago.
 Combining his training in website design
 and his education in business, he offers
 a unique and powerful approach to creating
 Internet businesses: He begins each project
 from a business standpoint to develop a
 refined website and marketing strategy that
 will serve the specific needs and target
 market of each individual company. Applying
 traditional business concepts and the
 revolutionary features and resources that
 only the Internet can provide, he continues
 to exhibit an impressive track-record of
 helping entrepreneurs succeed online. 

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Text messages now outnumber mobile voice calls three to one, according to the Nielsen Company.

Monthly messages sent or received jumped to 584 a person in the quarter ending in September, a 60 percent increase from a year earlier.”

If you ask Jo Guerra what has helped her succeed, she’ll tell you it is always figuring out how to maneuver through the challenges of business and seeing and always knowing there is a successful end result. She’s developed several ventures from scratch and has experienced dramatic increases in sales and revenue including outside territory management and businesses.

Since 1996, Jo Guerra has had an internet presence and became an expert in  internet marketing from working on her first business, Jo Jewelry, a jewelry and accessory wholesale and retail importing company. Jo imported from manufacturers and suppliers in over nine countries and distributed to customers throughout the United States. From using traditional marketing including trade shows, sales representatives, and catalogs, she incorporated an ecommerce website and blog into her marketing efforts.

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According to the “Small Business Marketing Forecast 2010” from Ad-ology, lead generation is the biggest benefit of social networking for US small businesses, cited by one-half of respondents. Social networks were also considered a good way to keep up with the industry and monitor online chatter about the business.

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In case you haven’t heard, mobile marketing is all about marketing to people through their mobile phones and smart-phone devices. Small businesses haven’t had much of an opportunity to engage consumers on mobile devices, but 2010 has the potential to change that.

Demand is increasing dramatically for mobile applications and mobile web-browsing due to wider adoption of devices like the iPhone and the Google Android phone. As more people adopt these phones and features in 2010, look for small-business marketing services to start providing lower-cost mobile marketing solutions like text messaging, mobile e-mail marketing, mobile websites, mobile application development and location-based marketing.

Make 2010 your year to collect mobile preferences from your prospects and customers, and use tools like Google Analytics to see how many people are visiting your website on mobile web browsers. If you find interest in mobile interaction among your customers, begin testing simple mobile marketing campaigns such as sending a few mobile coupons via text or building a mobile micro-site for one of your products.

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Latinos Online, 2006-2008: Narrowing the Gap

From 2006 to 2008, internet use among Latino adults rose by 10 percentage points, from 54% to 64%.  In comparison, the rates for whites rose four percentage points, and the rates for blacks rose only two percentage points during that time period.  Though Latinos continue to lag behind whites, the gap in internet use has shrunk considerably.

For Latinos, the increase in internet use has been fueled in large part by increases in internet use among groups that have typically had very low rates of internet use.  In particular, foreign-born Latinos, Latinos with less than a high school education, and Latinos with household incomes of less than $30,000 experienced particularly large increases in internet use.

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