These days politicians, of course Western politicians, are doing online micro-election campaigning.  They pick all the activities you have on your profile – the posts, the likes , etc- and based on that will develop a customized ad that will appeal to your emotion. The end goal is to make you LIKE them and possibly connect with their campaigns.

They begin by understanding what you like best and systematically they peel the wall and connect with you. When you post on  you dislike on tax, you will be sure to get a “customized” ad that will tell you how the politician shares your frustration with high taxes.

Facebook Washington DC office focuses on providing tools to politicians to help them connect with people in their networks. With the plugin, politicians can target people efficiently like has never happened. This is a new domain for social media consulting because most times people do not turn off these politicians because they come through a point they know you want. You like higher taxes, they pretend they offer a solution in that. You hate green house emission, they link to their statements supporting your view. It is about mining your data and using that to construct an ad that will appeal to you.

Online micro-electioneering is going to become a growth area in coming months as the U.S. 2012 election heats up. So the politicians can make thousands of ads which are constantly tuned to particular and specific Facebook users. Facebook provides them data that makes the ads intuitive and relevant. Ads in Facebook is relatively cheaper, about 40c per click, and they can launch many at a time and quickly know the particular ad that people are responding to best. The idea is to figure out the one that drives higher response.

In platforms like FarmVille, politicians are also promoting themselves which enable people to visit friend’s farms to campaign. Expect to see more in Zynga and other popular platforms in Facebook and possibly MySpace. Notice that it is not just the Like they want, they also like your purse and if you connect, be ready to open your wallet for the politicians.

Almost everybody is familiar with Google Inc. Computer science graduates Larry Page and Sergey Brin are responsible for the internet search engine that changed the way people web surf. The services of the company do not stop there though.

This is a cloud computing corporation, offering several technologies such as the Gmail personal email service, the Orkut social networking and web discussion site and their income generating Ad Words program which gives companies the benefit of advertising their links on numerous affiliated web pages on a per click basis.

A Look at the Logo

Anyone who has been using the company’s search engine is familiar with the number of temporary modifications it has undergone through the years. The pop logo design is used to celebrate holidays, major events such as the Olympics as well as birthdays or milestones.

Ruth Kedar is responsible for the design of the company’s brand identity. It is a word mark which is based on the font called “Catull”. When it was first introduced after the term “BackRub” was replaced, it sported an exclamation point which was placed in order to be associated to “Yahoo!”. The colors found in the logo are mostly primary colors except for the letter L. Being shaded in a secondary color signified how the company liked setting the trend or following their own rules.

The idea for the company name came from the mathematical term for number one. It is followed by a hundred zeroes which represents how infinite the information on the internet is.

Maintaining their Success

In order to keep up with rapidly developing technology, the Google Guys believe that the philosophies which apply to the development of the successful search engine can apply to all of their products.

One such philosophy states that there is an endless amount of information available. This is the kind of thinking that lead to the company’s phone number listings, book preview system as well as their organization of image files, videos and news clippings. This also applies to their Android operating system, which is why they opt to leave it as an open source platform. It is aimed to encourage developers and manufacturers to contribute to the information repository of the system.

The company believes that everything can still be improved and developed. For example, they were already successful in providing accurate results to properly spelled search queries but to help users find what they are looking for even if they commit typos, an intuitive spell checking system was implemented and is now used worldwide.

The Green Android

The Android OS was announced back in November 2007. It was initially developed by Android Inc. until Google purchased the system. Now it is a part of the Open Handset Alliance and has its code library available for developers under the Apache License.

The first mobile phone to use the Little Green Robot was the HTC Dream which was released on the 22nd of October 2008. Today, thousands of Android devices are being shipped every day.

by Simon Drew

We are very excited that Fasmicro, our parent company, has been chosen as one of the top 30 companies in Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship. This month of September has been exceptional for us. We received a letter from the Presidency through the SGF commending our services in Nigeria and today just noted that we made the cut in the Africa Awards, organized by Legatum and Omidyar Networks (eBay founders).

From the award website….

22 September 2011 – Top 30 Companies Announced

After several rounds of evaluation and careful consideration of the 3,300 entries received, the following companies have been selected as the Top 30 (and ties) and will go forward to the next round of judging. The standard of entries this year has been higher than ever and we are pleased to see so many countries and o many industries represented – congratulations to all.

Fasmicro, our parent company, has been nominated for 2011 Records and Information Management Awareness (RIMA) Awards over a technology we are developing in Nigeria which will synchronize and harmonize transport management in the nation. In a letter, dated Sept 23, 2011, the Chair of the Awards committee noted that “[t]he Awards recognizes organisations and individuals for demonstrating vision and business skills through implementation of highly successful projects that utilize leading-edge business technologies.”

Though we did not enter this award, we are nonetheless excited to participate alongside the juggernauts like UBA Afri-Pay U-Mo and Globacom GloMobile who fall in the same category we are nominated which is Mobile Information Project Management award. Please note that we have contacted the organizers that our name is Fasmicro and not “Fasmicro Sales Network”. Of course Fasmicro Sales Network is our international sales portal. The full letter is provided below, with some areas adapted for privacy and we hope to win this award which will be concluded in Sheraton Hotel Lagos next month . We will win because we have the best technology!

 

The Managing Director

Fasmicro

124a Okigwe Road (1st Floor)

Opp Water Board

Owerri, Imo State.

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

RIMA AWARDS 2011: INVITATION FOR AWARD PRESENTATION

 

On behalf of the 2011 Records and Information Management Awareness (RIMA) Awards committee, I write to inform you that your organisation as emerged as one of the 2011 RIMA Awards FINALIST following our call for nomination to over twenty thousand (20,000) individuals and stakeholders in the Industry (local and international).

 

The RIMA Industry Awards, Africa’s premier recognition of excellence and innovation in the management and security of business information. The Awards recognizes organisations and individuals for demonstrating vision and business skills through implementation of highly successful projects that utilize leading-edge business technologies.

 

The names of the ultimate winners for each category will be revealed at the Awards presentation slated for Saturday 29th October, 2011 at Sheraton Hotel (http://www.sheratonlagos.com), 30 Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Ikeja, Lagos Nigeria, starting 2pm prompt.

 

As a finalist, your organisation stands the chance of emerging as the eventual winner for the category or categories for which you have been nominated. And for this to happen, kindly visit (http://rimaw.org/Award-Categories.php) to download the appropriate entry form to supply details about your product or project to the awards panel which will be used to determine the eventual winner for your category.

 

Please, note that aside the ultimate winner, other finalist would receive a certificate stating their success as a finalist for each category.

 

Download list of finalists for the categories which you have been nominated at:

Click to access 2011_RIMA_Awards_Finalists.pdf

We would appreciate receiving your response on or before 30th, September, 2011.

 

Looking forward to seeing you at the 2011 edition of RIMA Awards in Lagos Sheraton.

 

Best regards,

 

 

[Name]

Research Intelligence Magazine

Chair, 2011 RIMA Awards Committee

ebsite: http://www.rimaw.org/RIMA-Awards.php