ImaginativePRO Blog

HOW TO DEVELOP RAPPORT WITH INFLUENCERS VIA SOCIAL MEDIA

The influencers in your niche are probably receiving hundreds of friendly requests a day. Hence, the trick behind successful outreach is to stand out among your peers and catch the intended party's attention.

The success probability may be bleak, but influencer engagement is not exactly rocket science. And it can drive significant results with the right strategy and social media practices.

Set Proper Goals And Maintain Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

An ideal outreach campaign must begin with a clear set of objectives. Without them, it is impossible to measure success and define a consistent key performance indicator (KPI).

The purpose of your influencer outreach program might be to get influencers to write for your blog, become brand advocates, or vouch for your content or brand credibility. Start by defining clear targets.  

Have different KPIs for different social media channels. After all, those channels are different from each other; your approach to each will be different, as will which objective is best suited for each.

Identify Top Influencers Relevant To Your Purpose

The logical second step is identifying your niche influencers active on social media. Also, if you want to conveniently measure your outreach efforts and follow a KPI model, then it is a great idea to organize your targeted people into separate tiers, based on their social authority and influence.

There are many social tools to help you find brand advocates, industry experts, opinion leaders, and key decision-makers, including Followerwonk, Klout, Topsy, Commun.it, and Group High, among others.

Click Image To Enlarge

Get A Step Closer To Your Influencers On Social Media

Influencer outreach can begin via different means, and it is important that you choose the way that has a high success probability and decent conversion rate.

Social media is my favorite medium for getting in touch with key influencers and learning from their valuable insights and predictions. Many influencers are active on Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn, which is why those social channels make ideal communication channels for outreach.

Become socially active on those channels, and you'll be a step closer to your influential audience.

Keep in mind that outreach thrives on both patience and perseverance at each of these three stages: recruit, initialize and grow the relationship, and nurture.

The following infographic by MSL Group and Social Chorus offers this three-step guide how to activate untapped influencers:

Click Image To Enlarge

Abide By Good Social Ethics And Practices

Just because your influencers follow you back on Twitter that doesn't mean they are your friends now and you can get all personal with them; resist that urge. Another important thing to note: There is a difference between being polite and being obsequious; your target influencers are probably subjected to a lot of brown-nosing, so you likely won't get far with that approach.

It is, however, a good practice to acknowledge social mentions, including retweets, with a simple "Thanks"; sometimes, if you can improvise a clever way of expressing that appreciation, then it can be a decent way of gaining attention.

Don't Think You Can #HASHTAG Your Way To Success

Hashtags have become a social custom, but don't use them too much—lest you come across as reckless and inexperienced. Learn hashtags the smart way; turn to your influencers for inspiration:

• Don't write a status (or a Tweet) beginning with a hashtag unless it is absolutely necessary.
• Focus more on quality rather than quantity: Two or three hashtags, at most, should be enough to maintain relevancy.
• Keep a close watch on trending topics within your targeted community and apply hashtags accordingly.
• Don't use long versions of hashtags: e.g., #StarbucksSeattleCafeLatteRrocks, #Iknowwhatyoudidlastsummer and the like. Stick to short and simple.

Follow-Ups Are Crucial, But Don't Stalk

There is no doubt that follow-ups are important, and how you do them is even more important. Top influencers may not acknowledge your every mention or tweet, but you must respond when they do.

It's good practice to make first contact on social networks, as I noted earlier; after successively deeper levels of interaction over time, you can take the next level of conversation to email.

When making contact via email, be clear how you obtained the email address (if it's not readily available to everyone) and also remind the person of your social media relationship. If you hear back, great. If you don't hear back after a couple of attempts, absolutely do not keep sending emails. Continue your outreach via social media instead.

Explain Yourself Clearly And Directly

When reaching out, be clear about what you want and what you're offering. Explain your objective in a lucid manner, without undertones of things left unsaid; influencers will appreciate your directness and will answer "yes" or "no," or maybe connect you with someone else who can help you.

Their reaction will depend in large part on how you've conducted yourself up until that point and what sort of relationship you're looking for.

Post-Outreach, Work On Building Social Networks

Influencers can connect you to their own well-established networks and social connections, which is why after a successful influencer outreach campaign one must focus on developing longer-term relationships.

Don't stop once your outreach objectives have met with success. Follow the approach that has helped me in staying in touch with reputed bloggers and others and maintaining long-term relationships:

• Ask for simple opinions. It can be about anything from a new concept shared by another influencer to a new website or product.
• Share your own content and ask for feedback. Some influencers appreciate sharing their technical or business insights, especially when asked to critique a peer's work.
• Talk about things other than work. Doing so makes it easier for other people to join the conversation. You might talk about the recent Grand Slam final or a humanitarian issue receiving global attention. Stay in touch—that's the point.
• Share freebies like you'd share them with a friend. This approach may not always be helpful for your influencers, but people love such gestures. Make them feel special.

COMMENTARY:    

Finding Influencers 

Locating people who can help you reach the masses isn’t easy, but social media tools can help you identify influencers suited for your purposes.  Traackr helps you locate top influencers in specific niches based on their reach, resonance, and relevance to your specific topic. Once you’ve located appropriate people, the tool will help you make contact and build a working relationship.

Whether you’re using a tool or locating an influencer through your existing network of contacts, it’s important to carefully research a person before making contact. Your message should only be entrusted to a credible, respected source to help strengthen your reputation. Pay close attention not only to the number of followers the person has, but the number of responses and conversations each of his posts initiates. Those key indicators provide better insight into how many active users the influencer has.

Calculating An Influencer's Influence Score

There are tools that try to calculate a person’s influence and quantify it in a number, or score.  The higher the score, the more influential  you are meant to be.  These systems are not perfect and should never be used in isolation, but they do have smart algorithms that analyze your activity online and give you an idea of potential influence.

Klout – Klout gives you a score out of 100 and assesses which niches you are influential in.  You connect each of your social networks through the site and it analyzes all your activity. Klout notes who is sharing your content, the likes, comments, shares etc you get, and then a score is calculated.  This score can go up or down over time.

Kred –  Kred offers 2 scores, calculated by your Twitter activity over the last 1,000 days.  If you connect your Facebook account too, this can also contribute to your score.    The two scores are:

• Influence – This is how much you get retweeted, replied to, mentioned or followed.  If you connect your Facebook account it will measure posts, mentions, likes, shares and event notifications.
• Outreach – This is how much you are engaging or sharing with other people.  You could be retweeting, replying or mentioning others.

Kred provides you with details of how it is measuring your score.  For example, you can view which of your tweets were shared by other people, and tweets where you were mentioned, and then view points that are awarded towards your score for those tweets (in the very right hand column).

The scoring systems do have some value and take away some of your groundwork.  It’s not something to use on its own but it can be one indicator that helps you to build a broader picture.

How Much Influence Do Influencers Have In A Specific Field?

Twtrland categorizes people on Twitter into 60,000 categories.  You can view somebody’s influence based on each category, so you can filter the most. Having so many categories is great, because it can really help identify the most appropriate people in your niche.

When you search based on category, you can then view people’s amplification, reach and relevance based on that topic.

Courtesy of an article dated August 18, 2014 appearing in MarketingProfs and an article appearing in RazorSocial

PINTEREST FOR E-COMMERCE [INFOGRAPHIC]

Want to create more engagement with your audience? Consider using Pinterest. The online pinning board is becoming a major sales tool for marketers.

According to the following infographic by Ripen Ecommerce, "38% of users made a purchase because they saw it on Pinterest. That was 21% in 2010."

To grab Pinterest users' attention, businesses should keep in mind the traits of the most popular and repinned pins.

For example, "a call-to-action pin description leads to an 80% increase in engagement," states Ripen Ecommerce. Also, tall images are shared 67% more than short images. And lighter images are repinned 20 times more than darker images.

Moreover, marketers should include prices in their pins. Pins with a price have a 46% higher chance of being liked.

For more information about using Pinterest for e-commerce, check out the infographic:

Click Image To Enlarge

Courtesy of an article dated August 16, 2014 appearing in MarketingProfs

THE "ELIO," A THREE-WHEELED CAR FOR THE MASSES THAT COSTS JUST $6,800, GETS 84 MPG AND GOES 672 MILES ON A TANK OF GAS

The Elio is technically a motorcycle, but is a whole lot easier and safer to drive.

Most Americans--about 93%--drive to work alone. So why use a car that’s big enough for four? A new vehicle that’s half-motorcycle and half-car is designed to replace sedans and SUVs on morning commutes and help save money and emissions in the process: The Elio costs $6,800 and gets 84 miles to the gallon. It’s possible to drive 672 miles on a single tank of gas. That's the distance from New York City to Detroit.

Paul Elio, the founder and CEO of Elio Motors and inventor of the Elio three-wheeled car. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Paul Elio, founder of Elio Motors says.

“The premise behind the concept is that most households have at least one vehicle that’s single occupant.  Even if you have kids, you probably have an SUV or minivan, and then a small sedan with dust on the backseat. We can be that car.”

The Elio actually has two seats, set front to back for ideal aerodynamics, in case the driver needs to give someone a ride. Inside, it looks and acts pretty much like a car; it’s fully enclosed and has car seats and seatbelts, air bags, and options for manual or automatic transmission. It's more like a car than this somewhat similar vehicle from Lit Motors. But because it has three wheels, it’s classified under law as a motorcycle.

 

The motorcycle classification leads to some strange consequences--in a few states, under current law, you’d have to wear a helmet even though the vehicle is enclosed. But it also has benefits. Elio says. 

“As a motorcycle, you can go in the HOV lane by yourself.”

It also meant the vehicle can come to market more quickly, since there’s less red tape involved in manufacturing a motorcycle.

The Elio three-wheeled car (rear view) (Click Image To Enlarge)

Even though regulations don’t require it, the company plans to comply with all standards for cars that apply. Elio says.

“We’re engineering to achieve a 5-star crash rating in all directions.  We’re going way beyond the minimum.”

Still, there are a few idiosyncrasies--the headlights, for example, can’t comply with car standards because motorcycle lights are required to be brighter by law.

 

Because the vehicle is so lightweight--about half the weight of a typical small car--the company can save on materials costs. Elio has also tried to optimize other steps in manufacturing to keep costs down.  He says.  

“We get all 34 of our suppliers together once every four to six weeks and we work on the vehicle as a group. That’s never been done before. All of these things add up to a lower price.”

There are no guarantees of success. Aptera Motors developed a three-wheeled electric vehicle with much fanfare, but the company shut down in 2011.

When the vehicle comes to market next year, the Elio plans to have innovative financing to make the vehicle even easier to buy.   Elio says.  

“It’s actually cheaper to drive a brand new Elio than a clunker.”

The company will offer the option to buy the car with nothing but a special credit card for gas; every time someone buys gas, they’ll pay extra to make a car payment.

Elio explains.

“If you buy $10 of gas, it will show up as a $30 charge on your statement--that $20 extra is your vehicle payment.  As long as you drove into the dealership with something that gets 27 miles per gallon or less--and we know there are 100 million of those cars out there--you’ll be paying less, and you’ll have a brand new vehicle under warranty.”

You'll also be helping reduce pollution.  Elio says.  

"If you drive it 20,000 miles per year, an Elio produces less emissions than one cow’s flatulence during the same time.  We’re cleaner than a cow. After 10 years of sales, we expect to save 8 billion gallons of gas."

COMMENTARY:    Because it has three wheels — two in front and one in the rear — the Elio is actually classified as a motorcycle by the U.S. government. But Elio Motors founder Paul Elio says the vehicle has all the safety features of a car, like anti-lock brakes, front and side air bags and a steel cage that surrounds the occupants.  According to Paul Elio, the company hopes to ultimately achieve a five-star safety rating.  Drivers won’t be required to wear helmets or have motorcycle licenses.

 

The Elio’s two seats sit front and back instead of side by side, so the driver is positioned in the center with the passenger directly behind. That arrangement, plus the low seating position — the Elio is just 54 inches tall — and the lack of power steering take a little getting used to.

But after a couple of spins around the block in this Detroit suburb, it felt like any other small car. That’s partly because its two front wheels stick out by a foot on both sides, aiding balance and preventing the vehicle from tipping. The Elio has a three-cylinder, 0.9-liter engine and a top speed of more than 100 miles per hour. It gets an estimated 84 mpg on the highway and 49 mpg in city driving.

Keeping Costs Low

Elio keeps the costs down in several ways. The car only has one door, on the left side, which shaves a few hundred dollars off the manufacturing costs. Having three wheels also makes it cheaper. It will be offered in just two configurations — with a manual or automatic transmission — and it has standard air conditioning, power windows and door locks and an AM/FM radio. More features, such as navigation or blind-spot detection, can be ordered through Elio’s long list of suppliers.

Germany’s Daimler also promised to revolutionize American commutes with the Smart car, but that hasn’t panned out, says Karl Brauer, a senior analyst with Kelley Blue Book. Smart sold just 9,264 cars in the U.S. last year.

The Smart has a starting price of $13,270 for a gas-powered car and gets 38 mpg on the highway — not enough savings or fuel economy to justify sacrificing comfort in the tiny car. But, Brauer said, the equation might work in the Elio.

He said.  

“If it really gets 84 mpg and doesn’t drive terribly, it would justify the compromises you’re making in size and comfort.”

Elio will also save money by selling the cars directly through its own stores and not through franchised dealers, similar to electric car maker Tesla Motors. Elio plans stores in 60 major metropolitan areas. They’ll be serviced by car repair chain Pep Boys.

The Entrepreneur Behind The Elio

Paul Elio, a one-time stockbroker and New York City cab driver, dreamed as a kid that he would one day own a car company called Elio Motors.

Elio told The Associated Press. 

“As I matured I decided that was as likely as playing in the NFL.”

But he did earn an engineering degree at General Motors Institute — now Kettering University — and started his own company engineering products like children’s car seats.

In 2008, tired of high gas prices and the country’s dependence on foreign oil, he started working on a fuel-efficient car. Equally important to him was creating U.S. manufacturing jobs and making the car inexpensive enough to appeal to buyers who might otherwise be stuck in old, unreliable clunkers.

He said.  

“Whatever matters to you, this can move the needle on it.”

The recession killed his engineering company, but it also provided the opportunity to buy the Shreveport plant when GM filed for bankruptcy protection. Elio Motors plans to employ 1,500 people at the plant.

The company has also applied for a $185 million advanced vehicle development loan from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Paul Elio said so far, reservation holders are older, more affluent buyers who will use the Elio as a second or third car for commuting.

He said.

“It’s an ‘and’ purchase for a lot of folks.  So keep your SUV or your minivan or your large sedan, and when you’re driving back and forth to work all by yourself, take the Elio. At this price point and this mileage, that works financially for folks.”

Eventually, though, he believes the car will appeal to high school and college students as well as used-car drivers who want something newer and more reliable. He also hopes to eventually export it to other countries.

Elio Motors Makes Progress in Helmet Exemption Legislation

Louisiana is the most recent state to declare helmet exemption exemption for the Elio, which is federally classified as an enclosed motorcycle. House Bill 218 was unanimously approved in Louisiana, where the Elio will be manufactured, in late June. New York also has an exemption on the books, allowing the Elio to be driven around the progressive state without a helmet.

Another legislative success is quickly emerging. Michigan Senate Bill 390 was recently passed, and is expected to pass through the House unanimously, following Louisiana’s lead. This is good news for the company, which will base their corporate headquarters out of the state. Louisiana, New York, and Michigan join 42 other states which allow the Elio to be driven sans helmet.

There are only 4 or 5 states left that technically require a helmet with this vehicle, since its licensed as a motorcycle. They've managed to get exemptions in numerous states already. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Among the 5 states that technically require helmets to be worn while driving the Elio, are Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Nebraska.

Elio Motors’ Vice President of Government Affairs, Joel Sheltrown says,

“We are actively working with the five helmet states’ legislators to work through any issues they may have. Given our success in the other 45 states, we are optimistic about solving any issues we may face.”

Sheltrown adds that Missouri, a helmet-state, has already identified bill sponsors and drafted legislation to exempt the Elio from their helmet laws.

Big Plans To Expand

Phoenix-based Elio plans to start making the cars next fall at a former General Motors plant in Shreveport, Louisiana. Already, more than 27,000 people have reserved one. Elio hopes to make 250,000 cars a year by 2016. That’s close to the number Mazda sells in the U.S.

Elio Motors executives placed a temporary sign outside the former General Motors plant in Shreveport, La. (Click Image To Enlarge)

The Caddo Parrish's Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response (RACER) Trust is responsible for selling and cleaning up former General Motors properties and has agreed to sell the shuttered General Motors plant near Shreveport, La., to Elio Motors.  The start-up carmaker plans to hire 1,500 new workers.

Elio Motors will rent approximately 1.5 million square feet of the 4.1 million square foot building from Industrial Realty Group, who leases the GM plant.

The deal was heralded by Louisiana politicians as an economic victory for a community devastated by GM's contraction. The state was expected to provide incentives for the project, but details were not immediately available.

Closing Statements

I remain skeptical that Elio Motors can raise sufficient startup capital to modernize and equip their plant in Shreveport, Lousiana in time to begin production of the Elio car by fall 2015.   According to Paul Elio, Elio Motors CEO, the company is trying to raise $165 million.   

By comparison, Tesla Motors had to raise over $500 million, which included a $465 million direct loan from the Department of Energy, just to have sufficient capital to hire plant workers, modernize and equip their plant in Fremont, California in order to build the Roadster, their first all-electric car. 

Tesla Motors required much more startup capital because the Roadster, a four-wheeled and all-electric sports car was a far more complex automobile to build, requiring parts from hundreds of vendors.  The Roadster is a two-seater sportscar that weighed over 2,700 lbs, could travel about 245 miles on an electrical charge, has a top speed of 187 mph and could do 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds. The price tag: $109,000.  

By comparison, the Elio is a three-wheeled car/motorcycle that uses a three-cylinder motor and weighs only 1,600 lbs, with a top speed over just over 100 mph, and a range of 672 miles (highway) on a tank of gas.  The price tag:  $6,800.   According to Paul Elio, Elio Motors CEO, the majority of key parts and components are sourced from about 30 vendors.

If Elio Motors can raise the startup capital they need (see above), they could conceivably begin limited production in late 2015, but I doubt they can deliver 27,000 vehicles (their current pre-orders, but I wonder how many of those pre-orders are solid)  in 2015.   It takes time to hire plant workers, especially skilled factory workers when the U.S. auto industry doing so well, and workers will be reluctant to leave a well established, well-financed employer for a startup like Elio Motors.    

Courtesy of an article dated March 31, 2014 appearing in Fast Company Exist, an article dated January 18, 2014 appearing in the Shreveport Times, an article dated September 30, 2013 appearing in Technology Tell, and an article dated January 8, 2014 appearing in USA Today 

 

A GUIDE TO CREATING PROVABLE ROI IN SOCIAL MEDIA IN 10 EXPERIMENTS THAT CAN HELP INCREASE VALUE

Social media is (and for the foreseeable future, will be) an integral part of marketing. Common sense says it’s a no brainer—investing in expanding your business’s ecosystem through social just makes sense because your customers, your prospective customers, and your competitors are on social media.

What do marketers need to measure in order to measure the effectiveness of their social media marketing?  Some say measure conversions. Others say measure net promoter score, and there are those that say followers are the main metric to optimize. Others are just on the bandwagon, investing time and money in social media because they know it’s important but can’t say how effective it is. A 2014 study by Social Media Examiner reported that 87% of marketers surveyed don’t know how to measure their return on investment from social media.

What’s clear is that there is not a silver bullet solution to calculate return on investment from social media. This can cause skepticism. In such a data-driven era of marketing, managers, and CEOs want clarity and quantitative proof of the ROI of social media in order to make decisions.

Enter Experience Optimization

Experience optimization means proactively bringing data to the core of your business to create high performing user experiences that increase conversions, engagement, and revenue. Experimentation and testing are at the core of experience optimization. The goal is to apply these practices to social media strategy to quantify the value of social media and uncover helpful answers about where you should spend more or less time and resource.

Click Image To Enlarge

By asking specific questions about individual channels, you can reach conclusions about larger questions like:

• How much does social media impact my business? 
• How does social media impact consumer spending and decision making? 
• What are key drivers of success on social media? 
• How much money and time should I be investing in social media?

1

1.  Test Location of Share Buttons

The physical location of a button is a factor in a visitor’s decision to share. Think about placement on the page as well as which pages have options to share.

These type of tests can help you determine where on the page people are most likely to click, as well as the places on your site that stir emotion—a main motivating factor in sharing. On article pages, test placing share buttons at the end of the article vs. the beginning vs. both places.

CNN

MASHABLE

SEPHORA

Click Images To Enlarge
 

MEASURE SUCCESS

Track which variations increase engagement on share buttons.

2.  Experiment with the time you publish to different channels

Traffic generation is part of the value social media adds to your business. Test when you post to your various social channels to find peak times of the day and days of the week for click throughs.

Click Images To Enlarge

MEASURE SUCCESS

Measure which posts generate the most traffic.

3. Try different offers incentivizing people to share

A study found that recommendations—especially shared online—are more influential on a person’s buying decision than brand or price. Test the way you incentivize people to share or review your product or service.

When thinking of incentives, put yourself in your customers’ shoes. If you ask people to share or write a recommendation ask, “What’s in it for me?”

LYFT

 WARBY PARKER

Click Images To Enlarge

MEASURE SUCCESS

Track which offers generate the most shares. You can offer different referral codes for incentives and measure which codes are used most.

4.  Experiment with personalized calls to action on landing pages

Traffic coming from different channels to your website may not all be responsive to the same call to action. Test the ask you make of people based on which social channel they came from. This can help you learn about the actions that visitors from different social channels are most likely to take.

Click Image To Enlarge

Maybe traffic from LinkedIn is more likely to sign up for a service, traffic from Twitter might be more prone to share an article, and visitors from Facebook are inclined to like a page?

Test showing different call to actions on traffic from different referral sources.

Click Image To Enlarge

MEASURE SUCCESS

Track which call to action converts best for each segment of social traffic

5.  Test calls to action in social updates

Language and length are two factors that go into crafting a call to action in a social post. Testing how you position an action is a way to gauge what your audience is interested in.

Direct appeals in social media updates may not lead to conversions. Your audience might engage more with informational posts.

TARGET

KISSMETRICS

SALESFORCE

 

Click Images To Enlarge

MEASURE SUCCESS

Run a controlled campaign for a few weeks on each of your main channels and track how usage of direct CTAs vs. absence of CTAs impacts engagement.

6.  Test the design of your share buttons

Share buttons come in all shapes and sizes these days. Button designs that used to be omogenous across the web are becoming highly customized. Simply testing what your buttons look like can lead to a significant increase in shares.

Test a single share buttons versus multi-site share buttons.

FORBES

VEGGIETALES

MARKETO

Click Images To Enlarge

There are many questions to test on a share button:

• Do you include a share counter? 
• Do you include who shared it? 

Depending on what type of share it is, knowing who else shared it could be a very compelling
reason to buy or share. For e-commerce sites, seeing who bought an item could be more compelling than a star rating.

MEASURE SUCCESS

Which button design generates the most clicks. Also keep track of which channel is most popular.
If you see shares to one channel outshine the rest then you can focus more time and effort there.

7.  Test one-click sign up with social media buttons

Reducing the steps and time necessary to login or signup to your service can increase engage-ment and usage. Any way to reduce friction can be positive for your company. Social login is one way do this. Try using social login on your website to see if it increases sign up rate or product usage.

GOODREADS

KISSMETRICS

Click Images To Enlarge

Apply insights from other tests to determine which social network your customers or users spend most time on and test offering that as a login method.

If you already have social login, test the size and position of the button relative to the form. Try
assuring people that you won’t post to their feed if they sign up.

MEASURE SUCCESS

Track sign up conversions or logins with and without the social login.

8.  Experiment with the types of images you share

Using images in social posts has the power to significantly increase engagement. Twitter states that they see 2x engagement on posts with images. Test whether a specific type of image create more engagement over another.

Click Image To Enlarge

Instead of specific images, test out the impact of different image types, like images with people versus no people.  Models versus just product.  Test the impact different images have on different social networks.  What drives shares and likes on Facebook may not perform as well on LinkedIn.

MEASURE SUCCESS

Come up with a way to categorize the types of images you post and track how the different image categories impact your key metrics.

9.  Test how you position recommended content

Giving readers recommended articles to read next is a proven way to increase pageviews on your content. The exact design and positioning of the articles is something you can test. 

Test adding social share numbers next to recommended articles. If the articles with the highest
number of shares are the most clicked in the recommended content module, then you have
proof on the return value of social media. Upworthy tested the design of the module they use to
recommend content and found a variation that increased social shares by 27%.

FORBES

 TECHCRUNCH

Click Images To Enlarge

MEASURE SUCCESS

Track clicks on recommended articles with social proof support.

Click Images To Enlarge

Peter Koechley, co-founder of Upworthy, says.   

“In the earliest days of Upworthy, our goal was to find people on social media and grab their attention and then get them to share back out to social media as well.  We wanted to optimize that loop.”

As Upworthy’s audience grew, the team realized that the desired loop was not so tight. Engagement was growing and people were spending more time on the site–but it was difficult to find additional content after landing on a particular video or graphic. “Our users wanted to dig deeper, but there was no obvious way to get to a second piece of content,” says Peter. Peter’s goal was to increase sitewide engagement, while maintaining the share-optimized user experience. 

Hypothesis

Peter believed that adding a recommended content module would decrease the number of social shares for each article on average. “We had already done a lot of testing and found that when we added distractions, user sharing went down,” Peter said. It’s the classic paradox of choice concept. The team decided to run a series of A/B tests to find a variation of a recommended content module that would maximize sharing and clicks on new content.

1st Round of Test Variations

The original article page had no recommended content links, so they started from scratch in terms of wireframes and design.  

First, the team experimented with placement of the recommended content box on the page. Continue to the next page to see the variations they tested.

Click Image To Enlarge

2nd Round of Test Variations

Then they honed in on design trying a number of different aesthetics and wording for the recommended content. Was it “Watch these next”, “Some of our best”, or “Best of Upworthy” that attracted more clicks and shares?

Click Image To Enlarge

10. Experiment with targeting for paid social promotions

Paid updates can be a very effective way to reach new audiences, but which audiences perform best for your brand and what kind of promotion you do is something to experiment with. Test promoting updates to different audience segments.

When testing paid social placements the first step is deciding on your goal. Is your goal likes/follows on your company page or shares on a high value piece of content? Your goal will help you determine the type of advertising campaign to run. Then, it’s all about picking your audience.

LINKEDIN

 

TWITTER TWEETS

Click Images To Enlarge 

MEASURE SUCCESS 

Keep track of which audience segments turn into conversions.

So Where do I Start?

Start with the 10 experiments that can help you increase value from social media as noted above.

If one of them hasn’t jumped out at you to run immediately already, then start by defining a goal
you are trying to achieve with social media. How do you define goals? If nothing is jumping out
at you, then ask, why do we have [Insert popular social media site]? What will happen if we stop
posting there? Work backwards from there.

Do flex your creativity muscles. Continue to brainstorm brilliant, never-before-seen ways to
stand out through the cacophony of an average person’s social feed. And definitely do make it a
priority to measure the impact of your work on metrics that really matter for your business so
you can prove the value to your boss or boss’s boss.

Courtesy of the white paper titled, "A Guide To Creating Provable ROI From Social Media," written by Cara Harshman of Optimizely the world’s leading optimization platform, providing A/B testing, multivariate testing, and personalization for websites and mobile applications.

CHINA'S GIONEE UNVEILS THE ELIFE S5.5, THE WORLD'S THINNEST SMARTPHONE, THINNER THAN THE iPHONE 5S BY 2MM

Ever since the original Moto RAZR V3 came out 10 years ago, the smartphone industry has had a strange obsession with skinny phones.  Not because shaving a millimeter or two off a device will give it more functionality, but because it's an effective marketing tactic. In emerging markets in particular, slimmer phones at slimmer prices enjoy a distinct advantage. Gionee, a handset maker based in China, isn't very well known, but it's looking to make a name for itself with devices like the $375 Elife S5.5. At 5.55mm thick, this svelte beauty currently claims the title for the thinnest smartphone on the market. To put that in perspective, that's a full two millimeters skinnier than the iPhone 5s. I spent a few days with the device to see if thinner really is better.

Click Image To Enlarge

Mobile Geeks videotaped a hands-on review of the Gionee Elife S5.5:

 

Sporting a chamfered magnesium frame with Gorilla Glass 3 panels on both front and back, the Elife is a beautiful phone with much better build quality than I expected. It features flat sides with angular edges, which -- along with its sleek form factor -- makes for a stylish design that's fun to look at. It's comfortable, but the slim size doesn't play a role in making it any more so than fatter devices. Durability is typically a concern for extremely slim devices, but being thinner doesn't seem to make a difference here: I'm convinced this handset can hold up as well as any other smartphone comprised of similar materials. (That said, you'll still need to be careful with the glass, since it's scratch-resistant, but not shatterproof.) At 4.69 ounces (133g), the Elife also has enough heft to give it a premium feel without being too heavy or too light.

Click Image To Enlarge

The Elife's camera is a tad thicker than the rest of the device, but Gionee smartly designed the bump to complement the phone's minimal design rather than sticking out like a sore thumb. The 13-megapixel module and LED flash are nestled on the top-left corner of the back, with chamfered and angled edges that drop down to meet up with the glass. Of course, this makes it so the back isn't completely flat when you lay it down, but on a positive note, this prevents sound coming out of the rear speaker from getting muffled.

Click Image To Enlarge

Along with a thinner frame -- and a lower price point -- comes less room to go all-out on specs. It only comes with 16GB of internal storage space and no microSD slot; it features HSPA+ (either 850/1900/2100 or 900/1900/2100, depending on market), but no LTE connectivity, which likely won't be a problem in most emerging markets for now. There's also no NFC; and the non-replaceable battery is fairly small, at 2,300mAh.

Click Image To Enlarge

The 5-inch, 1080p Super AMOLED display comes with a pixel density of 441 ppi and features excellent viewing angles. All told, the panel is similar to what's used on the Samsung Galaxy S4, which means you're going to get saturated colors and deep blacks. It's not nearly as bright as most flagships I've played with recently, but it's easily viewable in direct sunlight (provided the brightness is above 85 percent).

Click Image To Enlarge

Under the hood, the Elife uses an octa-core MediaTek chipset, which, despite its eight cores, is more mid-range than high-end component. And its performance reflects this: Animations and transitions are a bit choppy; the screen sometimes has problems responding to finger input; and gaming is hit-or-miss thanks to some frame skips. Otherwise, though, the performance is smooth enough. Its biggest issue, which is amplified by the phone's slim build, is that the processor runs so hot that the glass surface is almost impossible to hold while playing games. (You'll also want to refrain from holding it up to your face for a few minutes until it cools down a bit.) The 2,300mAh battery is not very impressive, either; on most days, I struggled to make it through a full day on a single charge.

Click Image To Enlarge

On the software front, the Elife runs Android 4.4 KitKat with a custom user interface called Amigo OS. It's very similar to other Chinese Android options in that it doesn't have an app tray, so all of my apps were scattered on the home panels, à la iOS. You can access Google Play Services as well, ensuring that you'll be able to sync your Google accounts if you want. However, after a few days with the new OS, I was ready to switch over from Amigo to the Google Now Launcher, which is now available for most Android devices and is much closer to a pure Android experience on the front, but features Gionee customizations everywhere else (such as the lock screen and notification tray).

Click Image To Enlarge

The Elife is only available in a handful of countries including India and China, but the manufacturer has partnered with other brands to create carbon-copied versions of the device. You can get the Blu Vivo IV in the US, for instance, the Allview X2 Soul in Europe and the Bara 1 in Taiwan, all of which have essentially the same chassis and spec sheet. (Pricing varies, but the Vivo IV is $300.)

Click Image To Enlarge

Thin phones have their fair share of trade-offs. On one hand, the Elife is a sleek, elegant device. On the other, its slim design comes at the expense of battery life, heat dissipation, storage space and other specs. It's also just as comfortable and usable as most flagship smartphones that have two to three millimeters of extra padding (although it can be tougher to pick up when it's lying on a table or desk). Even so, additional thinness doesn't make a difference to the in-hand experience. And yet, there are strong indications that Gionee will soon come out with an even thinner device soon; if it does, the company will keep its claim to the thinnest phone on the market. But at what cost?

COMMENTARY:  The nice folks at NDTV Gadgets were able to get their hands on a Gionee Elife S5.5 smartphone and prepared this review:

Look and Feel

The Gionee Elife S5.5 could give professional supermodels a run for their money. At 5.6mm, this phone is the slimmest one we've ever seen. On top of that, it is lightweight at 135g. Despite the anorexic physical attributes, the S5.5 is a sturdily built device and can handle a few falls thanks to the magnesium alloy material used for the construction. Exuding premium quality, this Gionee phone definitely beats the pants off much of the competition in its price range, and even looks better than a few flagships we've seen (we're looking at you, Samsung). 

On the right edge of the Elife S5.5 is the micro-SIM card tray, and on the left edge are the power button and volume rocker. The slightly raised physical buttons feel soft when pressed, which is good. The bottom edge has a 3.5mm audio jack while the top edge features a Micro-USB port for charging. Right above the screen is the front camera and an invisible array of sensors. The unibody design means that the phone has a non-removable battery. 

The rear of the device is almost as reflective as a mirror. Slightly raised to accommodate the optics, the rear camera and flash are devoid of any protection. As a result, they are susceptible to scratches. One more problem with the glossy exterior is that attracts smudges very easily.

Features and Specifications

The Elife S5.5 is beautiful and powerful too, at least on paper. Under the hood is a Mediatek MT6589 octa-core processor clocked at 1.7GHz, with integrated  Mali 450MP4 graphics. There's 2GB of RAM supporting it. Only around 9GB of the 16GB of internal storage is available to users, which isn't much at all considering there is no support for memory cards.

There is a single slot for a micro-SIM card, which of course can connect to 3G networks. Unlike a lot of other phones with the same specifications in this price range, the Elife S5.5 has incorporated Bluetooth 4.0, which is good. The 13-megapixel rear camera can also shoot videos at a resolution of 1980x1080. Just like the HTC Desire 816 we recently reviewed, the S5.5 also has a 5-megapixel front camera.

This is probably one of the very few smartphones with a full-HD resolution screen at this price level, and we think it looks fantastic. At 5 inches with a density of 467ppi, pixellation is not a problem at all. Blacks are deep and colours pop a bit too much - fans of over-saturated images won't be disappointed at all, but regular reds looked like bright orange during our testing, which to us is a bit of overkill.

Software

Potent hardware is of no use if the software doesn't keep up, which is why it is important that manufacturers trying to fork Android ensure that both hardware and software work together to deliver a good user experience. This is unfortunately where Gionee falters.

Gionee's custom "Color OS" UI runs on top of the now-dated Android 4.2.2 (Jellybean). We've discussed the various problems of this software at length in our review of the Elife E7. The same problems persist in this phone as well - wasted space, a single-screen view of all apps, a cluttered settings panel in the notification slider, options that can't be found without multiple taps, and much more. 

Even if we can look past all the problems plaguing the software, the theme itself is a bit of an eyesore. The fact that themes can be changed is not much help either, since all the three options that are available are just as bad as each other. The quality and value of the default apps, including six games, are also debatable. Fortunately, we could delete some of them. The only saving grace in this mess was the intuitive keyboard.

We appreciate Gionee's attempt at differentiation, but Color OS needs more work for it to be user-friendly. Until then, we are heading to the Play Store to find a replacement launcher.

Camera

Since the quality of photographs captured by the Gionee Elife E7 impressed us we had high hopes for the Gionee Elife S5.5's camera as well. Our expectations might have therefore been a bit too high, and it turned out that the performance of the 13-megapixel rear camera was only slightly above average.

In our daylight testing, photos looked a bit dim. This dullness led to certain details being hidden. In HDR mode, the camera goes a bit overboard in trying to enhance the dynamic range, and ends up producing overexposed shots. Colours are also slightly off the mark in captured photos. 

In low light, focusing is a major issue and we more often than not ended up with blurred images. Photos were also devoid of detail and had a yellow tinge to them. Focussing is jerky even when shooting video, but the captured 1080p video looks really good. The 5-megapixel front camera couldn't capture as much detail as the one on the HTC Desire 816, but the extremely wide-angled lens helps when we want to incorporate more people in the image. Anyone who wants to try aping Ellen DeGeneres' Oscar selfie should take note. 

The camera app is minimalistic with transparent icons lined up along the edges of the screen. Oddly, the settings page opens up vertically instead of horizontally when you tap its button. 

Performance

The S5.5 returned scores of 27,952 and 16,658 in AnTuTu and Quadrant respectively. While respectable, the scores are not a true reflection of the potential performance of this phone's hardware. In daily use, we found that the Elife S5.5 stutters and lags a lot in spite of its powerful specifications. We attribute this disparity in scores and real-life performance to the clunky software.

Graphics performance is not that great, either. We played Shadowgun and noticed that it lagged in sections which were filled with hordes of villains. The GFXbench test returned a score of 10.5fps which corroborates our experience with gaming.

One area where the Elife S5.5 shines throughout is video playback. Though it was no surprise that the phone managed to play all the videos we threw at it, we were glad that it did so without skipping frames. The gorgeous screen makes watching videos totally enjoyable.

On the other hand, this phone heats up quite a bit. This could be due to the way all the internal components are crammed within this slim, all-metal body. Battery life isn't great  - the S5.5 lasted only six hours and 28 minutes before dying in our continuous video loop test. Call quality is decent with both the caller and the receiver hearing each other without issues.

Verdict

Quite surprisingly, we managed to spot the Elife S5.5 in the wild inside a local train and noticed that the person using it was engrossed in a movie. After striking up a conversation, we discovered that he had purchased the phone because of the 1080p screen and phone's looks. Perhaps this is a sign that users can indeed warm up to the idea of a Chinese brand making premium smartphones. 

Our new friend had easily identified the two major reasons your should consider the Gionee Elife S5.5 at its current price of Rs. 22,999. However, you also now know that the camera isn't all that great, and the heating issue could potentially be harmful for the phone in the long run.

If that puts you off, at least this price segment is littered with options now. Our favourites are the big-screened HTC Desire 816 with its capable camera, the Moto X (review) with its unique voice commands, and the Elife S5.5's elder sibling, the Elife E7, which is a flagship on a budget.

Below is NDTV Gadget's overall review summary of the Gionee Elife S5.5 smartphone:

 Click Image To Enlarge

Here are the complete specifications for the Gionee Elife S5.5 smartphone:

Click Image To Enlarge

Courtesy of an article dated August 8, 2012 appearing in Engadget, an article dated March 30, 2014 appearing in TechieOasis, and an article dated June 2, 2014 appearing in NDTV Gadgets

NASA AND CHINESE RESEARCHERS VALIDATE "IMPOSSIBLE" PROPELLANTLESS MICROWAVE 'EMDRIVE' ROCKET THRUSTER

 

NASA is a major player in space science, so when a team from the agency this week presents evidence that "impossible" microwave thrusters seem to work, something strange is definitely going on. Either the results are completely wrong, or NASA has confirmed a major breakthrough in space propulsion.

Roger Shawyer (left), receiving a DTI SMART Award for his EmDrive concept in August 2001. (Click Image To Enlarge)

British scientist Roger Shawyer has been trying to interest people in his EmDrive for some years through his company Satellite Propulsion Research Ltd (SPR Ltd). Shawyer claims the EmDrive converts electric power into thrust, without the need for any propellant by bouncing microwaves around in a closed container. He has built a number of demonstration systems, but critics reject his relativity-based theory and insist that, according to the law of conservation of momentum, it cannot work.

The EmDrive itself is simply a microwave resonating cavity in the form of a closed, truncated cone (See below).  You fire up a big electrically-powered microwave generator and start beaming microwaves inside this thing, and the microwaves bounce around all over the place, exerting radiation pressure on the inside of the cavity.

According to Shawyer, the EmDrive is able to extert a small amount of thrust that propels it towards the large side of the cone.  Shawyer says this happens because inside the resonating cavity, the velocity of the microwaves changes significantly as the cavity diameter varies. The velocity changes enough, in fact, to exert a larger force on the larger end of the cavity, and a smaller force on the smaller end of the cavity, resulting in net thrust.

Prototype of the EmDrive microwave thruster engine developed by scientists at NASA. (Click Image To Enlarge)

SPR's EmDrive Demonstrator Engine (Side View)

SPR's EmDrive Demonstrator Engine (Front View) mounted on a test rig

A video clip of the initial part of an acceleration test run by SPR can be seen on YouTube:  

  

You can also download the folowing .AVI files from the SPR website:

DMtest188.avi (13.7MB)

DMtest188.wmv (5.33MB) 

Notes on Test video:

1. The field strengths within the thruster equate to a power level of 17MW. Signal leakage causes EMC effects within the fixed video camera. This leads to the apparent vertical movements.
2. The engine only starts to accelerate when the magnetron frequency locks to the resonant frequency of the thruster, following an initial warm up period. This test operation eliminates possible spurious forces.
3. The rotary air bearing supports a total load of 100kg, with a friction torque resulting in a calibrated resistance force of 8.2 gm at the engine centre of thrust.
4. For this test a thrust of 96 mN was recorded for an input power of 334 W.

Research to confirm the results of the EmDrive microwave thruster engine developed by Roger Shawyer came from a team of Chinese researchers headed by Yang Juan, Professor of Propulsion Theory and Engineering of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Northwestern Polytechnic University in Xi'an and the findings published in a research paper titled "Net thrust measurement of propellantless microwave thruster."  The research paper was originally written on June 9, 2011 and finally published in 2012 in the academic journal Acta Physica Sinica, now  translated  into English.

Yang Juan, Professor of Propulsion Theory and Engineering of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Northwestern Polytechnic University in Xi'an. (Click Image To Enlarge)

The Chinese team led by Professor Yang Juan built its own EmDrive and confirmed that it produced 720 mN (about 72 grams) of thrust, enough for a practical satellite thruster. Such a thruster could be powered by solar electricity, eliminating the need for the supply of propellant that occupies up to half the launch mass of many satellites. The Chinese work attracted little attention; it seems that nobody in the West believed in it.

 Chinese EmDrive Microwave Engine Thruster developed by Professor Yang Juan. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Schematic of the Chinese EmDrive Microwave Engine Thruster developed by Professor Yang Juan. (Click Image To Enlarge) 

However, a US scientist, Guido Fetta, has built his own propellant-less microwave thruster, and managed to persuade NASA to test it out. The test results were presented on July 30 at the 50th Joint Propulsion Conference in Cleveland, Ohio. Astonishingly enough, they are positive.

NASA tested a different version of the EmDrive called the Cannae Drive designed by Guido Fetta. (Click Image To Enlarge)

According to Guido Fetta, the "Cannae Drive," was named after the Battle of Cannae in which Hannibal decisively defeated a much stronger Roman army:  you're at your best when you are in a tight corner.  However, it's hard not to suspect that Star Trek's Engineer Scott -- "I cannae change the laws of physics" -- might also be an influence. (It was formerly known as the Q-Drive.)

The NASA team based at the Johnson Space Centre gave its paper the title "Anomalous Thrust Production from an RF [radio frequency] Test Device Measured on a Low-Thrust Torsion Pendulum".

The five NASA research team spent six days setting up test equipment followed by two days of experiments with various configurations. These tests included using a "null drive" similar to the live version but modified so it would not work, and using a device which would produce the same load on the apparatus to establish whether the effect might be produced by some effect unrelated to the actual drive. They also turned the drive around the other way to check whether that had any effect.

In January 2014, the NASA research team also tested Shawyer's EmDrive design.  The test results for this were also positive, and in fact their tapered-cavity drive, derived from the Chinese drive which is in turn based on Shawyer's EmDrive, produced 91 micronewtons of thrust for 17 watts of power, compared to the 40 micronewtons of thrust from 28 watts for the Cannae drive.

In her research paper, professor Yang Juan describes China's iteration of Shawyer's EmDrive that's able to generate 72 grams of thrust with 2,500 watts of electricity.  It doesn't sound like a huge amount, but if you compare it to the hands-down most efficient spacecraft engine we've got right now (where efficiency is at an absolute premium), an ion thruster, the Chinese EmDrive gets you four times as much thrust from half as much power without sucking down any fuel at all. Yeah, you need electricity, but electricity is cheap in space and cheaper on the ground. Anyway, you can read the paper here, and if you can make conclusive heads or tails of it, please do us all a favor and explain it in the comments.  Below is an infographic comparing the Chinese EmDrive with the European Space Agency's SMART-1 ion engine:

Click Image To Enlarge

Back in the 90s, NASA tested what was claimed to be an antigravity device based on spinning superconducting discs. That was reported to give good test results, until researchers realised that interference from the device was affecting their measuring instruments. They have probably learned a lot since then.

The torsion balance they used to test the thrust was sensitive enough to detect a thrust of less than ten micronewtons, but the drive actually produced 30 to 50 micronewtons -- less than a thousandth of the Chinese results, but emphatically a positive result, in spite of the law of conservation of momentum:

"Test results indicate that the RF resonant cavity thruster design, which is unique as an electric propulsion device, is producing a force that is not attributable to any classical electromagnetic phenomenon and therefore is potentially demonstrating an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma."

This last line implies that the drive may work by pushing against the ghostly cloud of particles and anti-particles that are constantly popping into being and disappearing again in empty space. But the NASA team has avoided trying to explain its results in favour of simply reporting what it found:

"This paper will not address the physics of the quantum vacuum plasma thruster, but instead will describe the test integration, test operations, and the results obtained from the test campaign."

Fetta also presented a paper at AIAA on his drive, "Numerical and Experimental Results for a Novel Propulsion Technology Requiring no On-Board Propellant". His underlying theory is very different to that of the Shawyer's EmDrive, but like Shawyer he has spent years trying to persuade sceptics simply to look at it.  He seems to have succeeded at last.

Shawyer himself, who sent test examples of the EmDrive to the US in 2009, sees the similarity between the two.

He believes the design accounts for the Cannae Drive's comparatively low thrust.  He says. 

"From what I understand of the NASA and Cannae work -- their RF thruster actually operates along similar lines to EmDrive, except that the asymmetric force derives from a reduced reflection coefficient at one end plate.  Of course this degrades the Q and hence the specific thrust that can be obtained."

Fetta is working on a number of projects which he is not able to discuss at present, and NASA's PR team was not able to get any comments from the research team. However, it's fair to assume that the results will be picked over very closely indeed, like CERN's anomalous faster-than-light neutrinos. The neutrino issue was cleared up fairly quickly, but given that this appears to be at least the third independent propellant-less thruster to work in tests, the anomalous thrust may prove much harder to explain away.

The NASA paper projects a 'conservative' manned mission to Mars from Earth orbit, with a 90-ton spacecraft driven by the new technology. Using a 2-megawatt nuclear power source, it can develop 800 newtons (180 pounds) of thrust.  The entire mission would take eight months, including a 70-day stay on Mars.

This compares with NASA's plans using conventional technology which takes six months just to get there, and requires several hundred tons to be put into Earth's orbit to start with. You also have to stay there for at least 18 months while you wait for the planets to align again for the journey back. The new drive provides enough thrust to overcome the gravitational attraction of the Sun at these distances, which makes manoeuvring much easier.

A less conservative projection has an advanced drive developing ten times as much thrust for the same power -- this cuts the transit time to Mars to 28 days, and can generally fly around the solar system at will, a true NASA dream machine.

COMMENTARY:    The validation of the Roger Shawyer's electromagnetic drive or EmDrive appears to be a potential gamebreaker for the nation that can develop a fully-functional and scalable microwave-powered EmDrive that can prove its efficiency and reliability in outerspace.  

A propellantless rocket thruster that will meet or exceed the requirements needed for future manned space missions to Mars or even neighboring star systems, will depend on fully exploiting this EmDrive technology to its fullest.   In fact, the future of mankind could rest on just such a propellantless rocket thruster.  

The World is rapidly running out of natural resources used in developing rocket propellants, and since anti-magnetic propulsion systems do not appear to be in our immediate future, ion-powered engine thrusters and EmDrive powered systems are two options that are open to exploitation.  

I believe that our country to do everything possible to develop such a propellantless microwave-powered engine thruster for future space travel.  

Courtesy of an article dated July 31, 2014 appearing in U.K. Wired, an article dated August 1, 2014 appearing in Sploid Gizmodo, an article dated February 6, 2013 appearing in U.K. Wired, an article dated August 6, 2014 appearing in Guardian Liberty Voice, an article dated February 6, 2013 appearing in U.K. Wired, and Roger Shawyer's website SPR, Ltd

THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE APP-ADICTED TEEN [INFOGRAPHIC]

Rise and shine—and check your smartphone? That would have sounded foreign to most people 10 years ago, but it's now the natural course of action after shutting off your alarm.

Moreover, it's not just adults who can't start their day without first checking their phone. It's teenagers, too.

Of the 95% of teens in the United States who have Internet access, 78% have smartphones. Those smartphones are jam-packed with apps, including for Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Spotify. Even texting, the most basic use for a smartphone, is being replaced by messaging apps, such as WhatsApp and Kik Messenger.

These days, for teenagers, using their smartphones in any and all situations is deemed acceptable. Whether they are sitting in class or hanging out at home in front of the TV, teens are constantly running apps.

Does any of that surprise you? If you have kids, the answer is probably no.

Click Image To Enlarge

Courtesy of an article dated August 9, 2014 appearing in MarketingProfs

TESLA TO BUILD A NEW 'GIGAFACTORY' TO MAKE LOWER COST LITHIUM BATTERY PACKS, SHARES BATTERY PATENTS WITH AUTOMAKERS TO INCREASE EV PRODUCTION

Earlier this year serial entrepreneur and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk decided to allow anyone to, “in good faith,” make use of the automaker’s patent portfolio without fear of being named in a patent lawsuit.

The goal of this new strategy, he wrote in a blog entry on Tesla’s website, was to entice other automakers to enter the electric vehicle (“EV”) market by allowing them to leverage Tesla’s technology as a platform on which to build new EVs.

In February 2014, Tesla Motors announced strong fourth-quarter results with record shipments and gross margin. Its investor newsletter also included a tantalizing paragraph:

"Very shortly, we will be ready to share more information about the Tesla Giga factory. This will allow us to achieve a major reduction in the cost of our battery packs and accelerate the pace of battery innovation. Working in partnership with our suppliers, we plan to integrate precursor material, cell, module and pack production into one facility. With this facility, we feel highly confident of being able to create a compelling and affordable electric car in approximately three years. This will also allow us to address the solar power industry’s need for a massive volume of stationary battery packs."

Understanding that it was “impossible for Tesla to build cars fast enough to address the carbon crisis,” this patent policy shift was put forth in an effort to quicken the percentage growth of EVs in the 2 billion strong global automobile fleet, currently dominated by internal combustion engine (“ICE”) vehicles.

Despite the fact that the company is bucking the conventional wisdom that patents are to be held onto by manufacturers and leveraged for license fees and exclusivity, yesterday’s second quarter earnings call showed shareholders that the manufacturer’s future lies not in patents, but in its ability to build powerful partnerships and scale.

Tesla’s current progress is providing significant disruption in the sport-luxury space. As this Head 2 Head episode shows (starting at the 1:20 mark), the Model S is selling units in excess of European competition. But this week the mission to expand the role of EVs in the global marketplace took another important step.

Tesla announced it is cooperating with Japanese industrial giant Panasonic to develop a new, US-based battery production facility. Dubbed the Gigafactory, the facility will be able to produce batteries for as many as 500,000 EVs per year by the year 2020. The scale of the production is projected to be so large, in fact, that by 2020 the Gigafactory alone would produce as much battery capacity as the entire world produced in 2013.

To be sure, the impact of the Gigafactory will positively affect electric auto sales. The Gigafactory’s scale and capacity may be felt across the technology and energy sectors as well.

Background

Panasonic has long been a partner of Tesla Motors, having supplied the automaker with the lithium-ion batteries that Tesla used in both its inaugural vehicle, the Roadster, as well as the current Model S sedan and the upcoming Model X crossover SUV.  By eschewing the creation of their own proprietary battery technology and making use of existing infrastructure, Tesla was able to cut significant costs from the most expensive part of any high-performance electric vehicle: the battery.  The planned Gigafactory is a key strategic step in carrying out Tesla’s long-term mission to deliver lower-cost EVs to consumers around the world.

Auto

The economies of scale that the Gigafactory is designed to deliver will mean that by 2017 new battery packs will cost as much as 30% less than current Model S batteries (PDF).  These upcoming Generation III battery packs will contain more power capacity than Tesla’s current fare, a key factor to the success of Tesla’s long awaited Blue Star project.

The Blue Star project is Tesla’s long-proposed, low-cost automobile model (recently dubbed the Tesla Model III), and is set to debut alongside the Generation III batteries in 2017. The 200-mile range EV’s base configuration will retail for about $35,000 — nearly 40% less than the cost of the $57,000 base price of the current Tesla Model S.

While battery production and capacity has grown worldwide over the last decade, Tesla notes that nearly all of that growth has been in Asia. In contrast to that trend, the joint collaboration between Panasonic and Tesla will take place at a facility in the American West, likely near Reno, NV and less than four hours’ drive from the Fremont plant where Tesla’s autos are assembled. Without having to ship batteries from Asia, this close proximity will lead to additional cost savings through considerably lower Model S and Model X production times.

The specifications for the Gigafactory have been published.  As reported earlier, Tesla will provide the facilities, human resources, and materials for the site, while Panasonic will invest between $200 and $300 million and focus on manufacturing techniques. Panasonic’s efforts will take up about one half of the Gigafactory facility, while the other half will be allocated to suppliers who turn raw battery cells into the finished battery modules, ready to be installed in Tesla’s vehicles, according to the press release.

 

Click Image To Enlarge

In keeping with Musk’s environmentally sustainable reputation, the facility, which will sit on 500 to 1,000 acres, will not only recycle older battery packs but will also be powered by “new local renewables,” namely wind turbines and photovoltaic panels. Musk is also the Chairman  of Solar City, which is currently ranked second among the top 250 solar contractors of 2013. This relationship would presumably add to the cost savings on the acquisition, installation, and maintenance of the solar piece of the renewable energy system meant to service the Gigafactory.

Demand for the batteries will go beyond Tesla’s own customers. Jonathan Ward, founder of LA-based Icon, a specialty auto manufacturer and modification shop, has indicated interest in using not only Tesla’s patents but also the very platform of the Model S to build a vehicle he’s calling the Helios.

Helios would be Icon’s “revisionist approach” to automobile manufacturing; a car that in Ward’s words, “[Fuses] vintage design with the best modern drive experience and technology.”   To be clear, Icon’s Helios, which is in the earliest stages of design, is a lifestyle vehicle that takes the likes of Chrysler’s once-popular but now discontinued 1930s-style PT Cruiser to an extreme, almost aeronautical level.  For those who feel that the subtle lines of Tesla’s Model S lack flare, the dramatic curves of Ward’s Helios have the potential to expand the market for Tesla’s automotive technologies.

​​Despite selling an impressive 95,000+ units since 2010 (in 35 countries and on four continents), Nissan, the world leader in EV sales, plans to significantly augment the look and range of the Leaf, its flagship EV in favor of a look more like Tesla’s Model S.  While most automakers favor incremental changes to best-selling vehicles like the Leaf, Nissan has said that its next -generation Leaf will abandon its low-impact, hybrid-like styling in favor of something more sporty.   In a move that signals direct competition with Tesla, Nissan is developing a vehicle related to the Leaf, but built under the Nissan’s upscale Infiniti marque, in order to market an EV with a performance/luxury message not unlike Tesla’s Model S and the upcoming Model III.​

While there’s currently no indication that Nissan will seek to make use of Tesla’s technologies, with over 40 percent of the Leaf’s global sales in the US market, it’s almost certainly something the company will consider. Even though Nissan is working on new batteries that allow for nearly 200 miles of range, it could instead choose to install Tesla’s similarly ranged Generation III modules into the Leafs it produces in Smyrna, TN. Tesla’s economies of scale may be able to reduce the cost of the American-born Leaf.

Technology

Today’s power-hungry mobile and laptop devices use similar lithium-ion technology to what Tesla uses in its vehicles. The challenge Tesla faces in packing more range into its vehicles is essentially the same challenge device makers like HP, Microsoft, and others face in trying to get more hours of life out of their gadgets.

As the Gigafactory’s massive scale lowers the cost of of lithium-ion batteries, Tesla becomes more and more attractive as a battery supplier to any portable device manufacturer interested in cutting costs and growing profits. Tesla’s dedication to renewable energy supplies in the production of both its batteries and its vehicles also make it an attractive supplier to Apple, which stands staunchly behind its environmental record and which also seems to consistently stretch the resources of its component vendors with every new iPhone.

Energy

Tesla and Panasonic are betting big that the demand for EVs will go up as battery prices come down and as so-called range anxiety is quelled by ever more powerful cells. Meanwhile, others are excitedly studying Tesla’s emerging energy storage capacity in a somewhat more stationary light.  As intermittent energy sources (e.g. photovoltaics and wind turbines) become popular energy solutions in the US and abroad, both commercial and home users are looking for ways to store the energy generated by the sun (or wind) for cloudy (or not so breezy) days.

In conventional energy generation (fuel oil, coal, gas, or other hydrocarbons), power utilities often scale their energy resources to the demands of their consumers. This can often mean brownouts as demand spikes and utilities rush to burn more hydrocarbons to create power. When demand is lower than expected, utilities burn more hydrocarbons than are needed, and that energy goes to waste.

Tesla’s low-cost batteries could offer a cheap and powerful solution to a problem that utility analysts almost uniformly believe is currently expensive and requires significant subsidies. Aside from the wasted fuel burned, the techniques for storing energy, which can include maintaining fields of volatile molten salt, are again expensive and hardly scalable compared to the Gigafactory’s projected output. Additionally, while few utilities practice energy storage today, California has proposed a rule that will force its utilities to get into the storage business by 2024.

Bolstered by strong earnings, significant profits, and growing demand for its products, Tesla’s vision for the future of EVs has the potential to continue to transform auto while also delivering technology to help mobile and portable devices profitably scale and to help the country make significant gains in energy storage. The vision (as is the case with every vision tied to Musk) is bold. We look forward to covering the implementation.

COMMENTARY:   The Tesla CEO envisions “a plant that is heavily powered by renewables, wind and solar, and that has built into it the recycling capability for old battery packs.”

Musk said in a previous earnings call. 

“It is going to be a really giant facility, like say we are doing that something that’s comparable to all lithium-ion production in the world in one factory,” 

Investment bank Barclays writes,

“For the time being, our model does not reflect the additional cost of building out a gigafactory, or the significant potential revenue that Tesla could generate from non-automotive sources such as grid storage. Optionality could provide upside for the stock, as investors consider the potential upside to revenue from non-automotive sources.”

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote in a January research note, adding,

“We believe the days when Tesla was known as purely an auto company are numbered.  We are witnessing the most disruptive intersection of manufacturing, innovation and capital experienced by the auto industry in more than a century.”

Jonas also claimed.

“Tesla may be in position to disrupt industries well beyond the realm of traditional auto manufacturing. It’s not just cars.”

Competition for Gigafactory Plant Sites

Tesla Motors has stirred up some competition among four Southwestern states that want the automaker to place its new Gigafactory within their respective borders.    According to USA Today, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas are all crossing their fingers that Tesla will bring its Gigafactory for lithium-ion batteries to their state. Tesla recently announced the four states as finalists for the factory's location.  

 Click Image To Enlarge

Tesla's Gigafactory aims to create electric vehicle batteries on a mass scale, which will bring battery costs down and help the automaker deliver an affordable EV. Right now, the company offers its high-end, all-electric Model S sedan that has a starting price of $69,900 in the U.S.   Tesla said the giant factory would create 6,500 jobs, which is an attractive offer to these states. 

Click Image To Enlarge

Tesla will invest around $2 billion in the plant through 2020 while investors will pay another $2-3 billion for a total $4-5 billion investment.    All four states are good candidates because they have the climate and terrain necessary to power the plant, which will run on solar and wind.    Nevada would be the closest option for Tesla, since its EV manufacturing plant is in Fremont, California. New Mexico would likely be favorable to Tesla as well, since the automaker previously planned to manufacture its EVs in the state before settling on the California factory.  

Click Image To Enlarge

Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry, said New Mexico would be an “ideal” location for the $2 billion factory according to reports in the Albuquerque Journal. He told the Journal that he believes Tesla will announce plans to build the facility in New Mexico in the next “six to eight months.” According to the Journal,

“The analyst said the factory would be capable of generating 30 gigawatts of production capacity a year, which would make it the largest such facility in the world. It may also manufacture a hybrid battery pack that could increase the driving range on Model S cars by 10 percent to 15 percent.”

Jon Barela, secretary of the New Mexico Economic Development Department, in a statement said. 

"Gov. Susana Martinez, state and local leaders greatly admire Tesla. We are believers in the company's vision and philosophy.  This is an incredible company that is changing the world for the better. We are ecstatic that New Mexico is a finalist for this phenomenal project."  

While Arizona has the sunshine Tesla needs in abundance, the state's fiscal conservatives might not be onboard with so many incentives funded by taxpayers.  Texas is another good choice, because it already provides space for other auto plants and is close to auto manufacturing infrastructure in Mexico. But Tesla has had issues with Texas in the past that could ruin future business together.  

Last April, Tesla CEO Elon Musk showed support for House Bill 3351, which would allow distributors and manufacturers of electric vehicles (EVs) only to sell directly to customers without the use of dealerships in Texas. The state fought Tesla in an attempt to protect the position of auto dealers, which can lobby a lot harder than Tesla.   

However, Tesla could strike a deal with Texas where the automaker demands the anti-dealership sales model in exchange for bringing the Gigafactory to the Lone Star state.   

The giant Gigafactory will span 500 to 1,000 acres of land and have a space requirement of 10 million square feet. It aims to produce 35 GWh of cells and 50 GWh of battery packs a year.   

Tesla added that it's getting ready to produce 500,000 EVs a year in 2020, and the Gigafactory will supply those battery packs. What's more is that Tesla expects the per-kWh cost of a Tesla battery pack to be lowered by more than 30 percent once the factory is up and running for the first year.   

Construction will continue through 2015, and in 2016, equipment installation is set to begin. The year 2017 will finally see production launch, and will gun for the half million EVs produced in 2020.

Click Image To Enlarge

An energy investor contact emphasized that the battery pack is the strategic component to Tesla’s vehicle, and just as Apple often does for critical technology, Tesla is vertically integrating — or possibly taking an Apple/Foxconn funded manufacturing partnership approach.

“Musk has the ability to mark up the price of his high-end finished vehicle — whereas most battery manufacturers/developers are stuck in an incredibly competitive market, requiring massive scale, with little pricing power and visibility to end consumers.”

Courtesy of an article dated August 1, 2014 appearing in VentureBeat, an article dated March 3, 2014 appearing in DailyTech, an article dated February 27, 2014 appearing in Green Tech Media, an article dated February 26, 2014 appearing in Mashable

 

 

FACEBOOK PARTNERSHIP WITH SAMSUNG IS A HUGE STEP IN OFFERING USERS A VR SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERIENCE IN REAL-TIME

A NEW RUMOR SUGGESTS THAT OCULUS (OWNED BY FACEBOOK) AND SAMSUNG ARE SHARING TECHNOLOGY TO BUILD THE FUTURE OF VIRTUAL REALITY HEADSETS.

On June 9, Engadget reported that Samsung was making a virtual reality headset. This week, that report has been fleshed out with a lot more detail, including an interesting partnership: Apparently Oculus--the VR headset maker that was just bought by Facebook--and Samsung have agreed to share technology in order to each build a better headset.

Oculus Rift is the first headset to provide a true real-time virtual reality experience. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Samsung is giving Oculus access to high-resolution OLED screens (that will make video displays feel more indistinguishable from reality). Oculus is giving Samsung its software technology--a way to build games and entertainment experiences for 3-D headgear. And together, they’re going to develop a new interface to control this display that covers one’s face. (The two companies are each still building headsets of their own--Samsung's will hook to a phone, and Oculus hasn't canceled plans to make a video-game-related rig for PCs.)

Google Glass are augmented reality glasses that display real-time information in a smartphone-like hands-free format. (Click Image To Enlarge)

But why should you care about any of this? So far, every big company like  Google,  Sony, Microsoft, and Oculus has been developing their headset technology in a bubble. They’ve been building hardware and software that won’t be interoperable--imagine if a Sony television couldn't watch Comcast cable, and you’ll understand the state of virtual reality hardware today.

Sony's Project Morpheus is a prototype headset for the PlayStation 4 that would allow players to fully immerse themselves in 360 degree virtual worlds. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Now, it appears that two companies--very big, powerful, companies--have joined forces for mutual benefit.  Together, they’re building standards to the experience that could echo across the industry at large.  There could be one common platform on which to design virtual reality experience. And for Facebook/Oculus especially, this is a good deal. If they can own the software-end of the experience--sort of like Google owns Android--and they can license several hardware manufacturers to build hardware for it.

 

Microsoft's Xbox One, a.k.a. Project NEO, is the company's foray into the world of virtual reality. (Click Image To Enlarge)

As for what that hardware experience will look like, we’re not so sure. Engadget describes a scenario that Samsung is testing now, in which you wear a Samsung headset that plugs into a phone. The headset is the monitor, and the phone is the computer. You can watch movies or play games this way, but the phone’s camera can be used to feed environmental video to the headset and actually show the wearer where they’re walking.

Could be trippy. Literally.

COMMENTARY:   You get the feeling that Mark Zuckerberg has always believed that the next evolution of Facebook had to provide the user with a completely new user experience, and that it had to be in real-time.  The new user experience had to be more than just the small, incremental changes we've become accustomed to (e.g. Timeline), but truly out-of-this-world, spellbinding, visual and monumental.  It had to be a huge leap in the user experience.  

Bringing the social experience into the world of virtual reality met that requirement, but Zuck's team lacked sufficient knowledge and experience with virtual reality technology so they acquired Oculus VR for $2 billion in March 2014.   Oculus VR was the only company that truly understood virtual reality, and had developed the headset, albeit somewhat crude, and VR software, that gave users a real-time VR experience that was so realistic, that they often got motion sickness.

Facebook's acquisition of Oculus VR allows Facebook to leverage that knowledge and experience in both VR games (the intended goal of the Oculus team) and bringing the social media experience into the VR world   The partnership with Samsung allows Facebook to leverage Samsung's experience with mobile phones and wearable devices like Samsung's experimental VR headset and smart watch.   Samsung gets to use Oculus VR software to improve the performance of its VR headset, and Facebook gets to merge social media into the world of virtual reality.  It potentially means a licensing deal with Samsung, and with nearly 650 million Galaxy smartphones already on the market, the payback could be huge for both companies.  Facebook has over 800 million monthly active mobile users, so you have to wonder how many of them will opt for a VR social experience and be willing to pay for it.  It's a win-win for both companies if they can pull it off.

Courtesy of an article dated May 30, 2014 appearing in Fast Company Design

NEW YORK ARCHITECT DAVID ROCKWELL AND C3 DESIGN TEAM UP TO BUILD PREFAB HOMES FOR LUXURY BUYERS

David Rockwell--an architect best known for theaters, grand restaurant interiors, and posh hotels--is getting into the prefab game. (Click Image To Enlarge)

ROCKWELL GROUP IS TEAMING UP WITH C3 DESIGN TO BUILD MODULAR HOMES FOR LUXURY BUYERS.

David Rockwell--an architect best known for theaters, grand restaurant interiors, and posh hotels--is getting into the prefab game.

David Rockwell, CEO and Founder of the Rockwell Group. (Click Image To Enlarge)

He has partnered with Fred Carl* of the appliance company Viking Range to build the first luxury prefabricated homes for Carl's new modular housing venture, C3 Design, Inc. 

He has partnered with Fred Carl of the appliance company Viking Range to build the first luxury prefabricated homes for Carl's new modular housing venture, C3 Design, Inc. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Rockwell says that the modular homes will offer "a luxury design at a less than luxury price."  He unveiled the Pinwheel series, a luxury line of prefabricated homes for luxury buyers at the Dwell on Design conference in Los Angeles in July 2014.

Scale model of a modular home called the Pinwheel series designed by C3 Design and the Rockwell Group that debuted at Dwell on Design 2014 in Los Angels in July 2014. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Prefab architecture is typically associated with affordable housing, not luxury design. Because prefab buildings are constructed offsite, then shipped for assembly, they are less resource-intensive than traditional buildings. Rockwell and his team hope that with some architectural finesse, they can create stylish digs with minimal environmental impact.  

Rockwell says that the modular homes will offer "a luxury design at a less than luxury price." (Click Image To Enlarge)

He said in a phone interview.  

"Prefab didn’t need to mean compromise in any way."

Ultimately, the architect plans to work with C3 to design interior additions like prefab wine cellars.

Rockwell unveiled the design for a house called "Pinwheel'"at the Dwell on Design conference in Los Angeles held in July 2014. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Creating a home that doesn't necessarily look like a cookie-cutter container became one of the key challenges.  Rockwell says.  

"When you have a building block like a rectangle, you don’t want to have a railroad situation.  That limitation became the key contributing factor to the design."

Prefab architecture is typically associated with affordable housing like this model, not luxury design. (Click Image To Enlarge)

His 2,400-square-foot house consists of four rectangular rooms arranged around a 500-square-foot interior courtyard. Rockwell was inspired by his childhood in Mexico, where "outdoor space was part of the lifestyle." The house features two bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms, with a study that can be converted into an additional bedroom. The kitchen comes complete with a 10-foot-long marble island and professional grade appliances.  Rockwell says.  

"I love the fact that you have this little private retreat where you can entertain outdoors and it’s connected directly to the kitchen."

Because prefab buildings are constructed offsite, then shipped for assembly, they are less resource-intensive and eco-friendly than traditional buildings. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Since a prefab house can be shipped anywhere, Rockwell wanted to find a way to ensure the houses could fit into the local landscape, even if that landscape looked radically different from one buyer to the next. The exterior of the house will have a variety of aesthetics so that it can blend in just as well in Phoenix as it does in Honolulu. A hanging screen on the outside of the house--available in everything from steel to reclaimed wood to green landscaping--offers another way to give the house a more tailored aesthetic. Rockwell says.

"In a modular landscape, what we try to do is come up with a design that is very flexible."

His 2,400-square foott house consists of four rectangular rooms arranged around a 500-square foot interior courtyard. Rockwell was inspired by his childhood in Mexico, where "outdoor space was part of the lifestyle." (Click Image To Enlarge)

The more customizable a house is, the less it looks like it came straight off a conveyor belt.

For some, that means an eco-friendly way to build a swank vacation home. For others, it may make a carefully designed home a slightlymore budget-friendly option (prices haven't been released yet). Rockwell homes for the masses! Ish.

COMMENTARY:  For Rockwell, a majority of the inspiration behind Pinwheel’s design came from his upbringing in Mexico. The architect describes his childhood as one that was heavily vested in outdoor space. His connection with the outdoors motivated him to include a courtyard in Pinwheel’s plans. With this project, Rockwell and Carl really wanted to out do the notion of what prefabricated architecture could mean. They aimed to challenge the norms and prove that just because resources are limited, prefabricated doesn’t have to mean cookie-cutter looks and cul-de-sac dreams.  Together they want to tackle the notion that affordability and luxury are not mutually exclusive. Yeah, we’re listening, too…

The U.S. Prefabricated Housing Marketing

Prefabricated housing shipments for the U.S. are forecast to rise 13.6 percent annually through 2017 to 140,000 units, a vast improvement from the declines of the 2007-2012 period. Prefabricated housing will benefit from a rebound in housing starts. Both types of prefabricated housing declined steadily from 2002 on, and were hit hard by the housing market collapse that began in 2007. As the housing market and general economy recover, demand for prefabricated housing is expected to rise along with total single-family housing starts. Despite the promise of some reduction in construction costs, these products have had limited market penetration, in part because of consumers' familiarity with traditional construction practices, or in the case of manufactured housing, some stigma attached to the product itself. These and other trends are presented in Prefabricated Housing, a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry market research firm.

Overall, shipments of manufactured housing will reach 90,000 units in 2017.Demand for manufactured housing is concentrated in rural areas and in certain segments of the population -- particularly lower income groups such as young, first time home buyers and those over 55, such as retirees on a fixed income. Expected growth in these populations will boost manufactured housing demand. However, manufactured housing's market share is projected to drop from that of 2012 as the economy continues to expand and conventional mortgages become easier to obtain, and as new regulations make chattel loans (commonly used for manufactured housing) more difficult to secure.

For other prefabricated housing, demand is more evenly spread throughout geographical areas and the segments of the population. As such, demand is less affected by trends in certain areas or populations, and will more closely track demand for overall single-family housing. Therefore, market shares for other prefabricated housing types will be little changed, and demand increases will be similar to those for single-family housing overall.

The Global Prefabricated Housing Marketing

According to reports by Global Industry Analysts (GIA), the world pre-fabricated housing market will reach 827,000 units by 2017.   Growth in the world pre-fabricated housing market will be driven by the following key factors:  

• Continuous technological developments
• Positive governmental regulations
• Growing promotional activities of manufacturers
• Ongoing recovery in world economies
• Growing Demand in Developing countries of Asia and Latin America Key growth drivers in the World Market

DRM Prefab researched the global pre-fabricated housing market and produced the following detailed analysis:

Prospects for prefabricated housing market from DRM Investments LTD

 Courtesy of an article dated June 20, 2014 appearing in Fast Company Design, an article dated July 28, 2014 appearing in The Street, a press release dated June 20, 2014 issued by C3 Design, Inc., an article dated July 9, 2014 appearing in Urban Scrawl, and an article dated August 3, 2013 appearing in SlideShare