Demandbase, an account-based marketing specialist, raises $30 million – Fortune

Demandbase, an account-based marketing specialist, raises million – Fortune
The company's account-based marketing technology automates three processes: identifying prospects with strong purchasing intentions, personalizing the message delivered to potential buyers, and notifying the appropriate sales representative when it's …
Read more on Fortune

Op-ed: Democracy's death by a thousand cuts
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The march of the Androids – Apple iPhone pushed into 4th place as Android models dominate online discussion according to social media research specialist DigitalMR

London (PRWEB) January 12, 2012

Social media research specialist DigitalMR releases latest findings on what customers are saying about smartphones on the internet.

DigitalMR analysed over ¼ million customer comments about smartphones across September-October 2011. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of these customer views are positive, compared with 38% negative.

Android models are the most mentioned smartphone brands. Samsung attracts the most mentions with a 30% market share of all positive comments and a 31% share of the smaller, negative comments group. Next placed is HTC with 22% positive mentions and 19% negative, followed by Motorola with 17% positive and 15% negative.

Together, the three Android brands account for two thirds (68%) of all measured online customer comments regarding smartphones.

Although Apple has fewer overall mentions it attracts more negative mentions than Motorola with a 17% share of all negative comments. This may well be related to customers experiencing teething problems when switching over to the new iOS operating system in October.

Results are based on comments posted by consumers on the major smartphone brands: Apple, Motorola, Samsung, RIM (Blackberry), HTC, LG, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Kyocera and HP across Sep-Oct 2011.

Established smartphone models from Apple and RIM (Blackberry) only account for 14% and 7% of total customer comments respectively.

DigitalMR’s analysis (powered by SocialNuggets) is based on comments posted via a range of relevant websites and open access social media platforms. It measures, not only the number of comments posted by consumers on the internet, but also their sentiment – whether posts are positive or negative in nature.

Managing Director of DigitalMR, Michalis Michael commented: “The march of the Androids continues with their increased sales and market share gains being matched by consumers’ conversations online.”

All the brands measured, achieve a positive Net Sentiment Score (NSS) for Sep-Oct. NSS provides an overall percentage score of net positive posts.

The average NSS taken across all the brands measured is 24%. This shows customers are generally very happy with their devices and are sharing the good news online.

Of the three most talked about brands on the web, HTC had a NSS of 31%, followed by 29% for Motorola and a slightly below par score of 23% for Samsung.

The highest NSS is achieved by HP with 50% (although this is derived from a relatively small base number of mentions) followed by Nokia (47%) with the lowest NSS recorded by Sony Erickson (4%) and Apple (6%).

Click here for further data

Features

DigitalMR measures thousands of customer posts regarding the services and features attributed to smartphones.

“Operating system” and “Service provider” features generate the most comments overall. “Operating system” attracted a 17% share of positive mentions which was outweighed by 28% share of negative ones. The next most mentioned feature “Service Provider” produced 23% positive vs 19% negative. “Body” – the design and shape of the handset – received far more positive comment than negative (20% share positive vs just 8% share of negative.

In their words – customer comments sample

Nokia

“excellent choice. It still remains Nokias best phone despite other models released after it. I have one, its the most amazing device and i know i’ll be keeping mine for years and years and with easy free updates for the next five years atleast, its a solid investment”.

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111015041838AAnjcKx

Apple

“Agreed! I do feel disappointed – I ordered on the 7th but my order still says processing. Every person I know who wanted a 4S now has one except me – the difference – I’m the only person to pre order directly from apple rather than turn up at a store or get one through my phone company! Seems pretty unfair really!!!!”.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3372464?start=120&tstart=0

Click here for further customer comments and more about web listening reports

Contact

For regular reports and more information:

Michalis A. Michael

mmichael(at)digital-mr(dot)com,

tel: +44 751 571 0370

http://www.digital-mr.com

About DigitalMR

DigitalMR understands what people think and feel when they share views online. It is a specialist agency which provides a holistic approach to web based market research. It specialises in utilising social media research, especially active web-listening, and online communities to enhance its business consulting approach. The agency has pioneered new methods in online focus groups alongside tools such as video diaries, bulletin boards and online ethnography. DigitalMR is headed by founder and MD, Michalis Michael and has offices in London UK, Nicosia Cyprus, and Columbus Ohio, in the US.

Click here for more about SocialNuggets

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Amazon set to challenge Apples domination of the tablet PC market, says online research specialist DigitalMR.

London (PRWEB UK) 4 April 2012

Social media research specialist DigitalMR releases latest findings on what customers are saying about tablet PCs on the internet.

The overwhelming majority of customers are highly positive in their views on tablet PCs as expressed on the internet. DigitalMR measured thousands of comments for slate devices across Dec 2011 to Jan 2012. 71% of all views measured were positive with only 29% negative. Apple recorded a 32% share of all positive comments and 35% of the smaller pool of negative ones. Hot on its heels is Amazon with 30% of positive mentions and a 33% share of negative.

Results are based on comments posted by consumers on the major tablet brands made by: Apple, Motorola, Samsung, Blackberry, HTC, LG, HP, ASUS, Amazon and Sony across Dec 2011 to Jan 2012.

DigitalMR’s analysis (powered by SocialNuggets) is based on comments posted via a range of relevant websites and open access social media platforms. It measures, not only the number of comments posted by consumers on the internet, but also their sentiment – whether posts are positive or negative in nature.

Managing Director of DigitalMR, Michalis Michael commented: “Can Apple maintain its dominant position among tablet PCs? It will be interesting to see if Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet can continue to convert its positive online sentiment into sales.”

All the brands measured, achieve a positive Net Sentiment Score (NSS) for Dec-Jan. NSS provides an overall percentage score of net positive posts. A positive score means a tablet attracts a higher proportion of positive than negative posts.

The average NSS taken across all brands measured is 42% which is high compared with other industry sectors, although slightly down on the average NSS for Jul-Aug 2011 (50%). Customers are still generally satisfied with tablet products and services and are happy to spread the word online.

Apple and Amazon both achieved a below average NSS score of 38%, but given their relative dominance in the market, customer expectations are likely to be higher. Tablet brands that achieve the highest NSS are Sony 72% and HP with 56%. The lowest performing tablet was Motorola with an NSS of 33%

Click here for Summary of positive and negative posts and overall NSS

In their words – Customer comments for models with the highest and lowest Net Sentiment Scores

Sony

“The Sony tablet (I own one)…you have the play station store and the Sony can play downloaded movies easily The design of Sony tablet s makes the tablet easy to hold, and the tablet is extremely light”.

http://androidforums.com/sony-tablet-s/450543-sony-tablet-s-vs-galaxy-10-1-vs-asus.html

HP

“The best case is without a doubt is the one made by Stilgut~ purpose made so fits perfectly, access to all ports, holds the HP tablet at various angles and looks very classy… not cheap but well worth every penny..”

http://androidforums.com/asus-eee-pad-transformer/455314-case-transformer.html

Amazon

“Nerds who like to tweak shouldn’t be buying such a device. They should buy something that’s designed to be more tweakable. The Fire is not designed to be a tablet period. Amazon never markets it as such and the word Android can’t even be found on the product page. It’s designed as a device to facilitate consumption of Amazon content. Anything you get out of it beyond that is just a bonus”.

http://androidforums.com/amazon-kindle-fire/446579-why-spend-tablet-no-sd-card-like-fire-when-there-so-many-tablets-sd-cards.html

Motorola:

“Yeah, kind of disappointed at the book reading support of Motorola Xoom,out of the box, day 1. The google books app is nice and responsive but there is no way to use it to read your own pdfs, epubs etc. that I can find. I downloaded Adobe Reader and Aldiko but neither are completely stable and as smooth and responsive”.

http://androidforums.com/motorola-xoom/286897-pdf-xoom.html

Further customer comments and more about the report here

Contact

For regular reports and more information:

Michalis A. Michael

mmichael(at)digital-mr(dot)com,

tel: +44 751 571 0370

http://www.digital-mr.com

About DigitalMR

DigitalMR understands what people think and feel when they share views online. It is a specialist agency which provides a holistic approach to web based market research. It specialises in utilising social media research, especially active web-listening, and online communities to enhance its business consulting approach. The agency has pioneered new methods in online focus groups alongside tools such as video diaries, bulletin boards and online ethnography. DigitalMR is headed by founder and MD, Michalis Michael and has offices in London UK, Nicosia Cyprus, and Columbus Ohio, in the US.

About SocialNuggets







Timely Referrals to Pain Management Specialists Could Reduce Unnecessary Back Fusion Surgeries Says Pain Management Specialist Reza Ghorbani, MD, ABIPP, FIPP

Washington, D.C. (PRWEB) December 27, 2013

While new federal data questions increases in costly back fusion surgery, early referrals to board certified pain management specialists could eliminate many operations saving trauma and money.

A Washington Post investigation found some experts fear “as many as half “ the procedures weren’t justified.

“Generally surgeons aren’t pain management specialists and as a result may recommend operations that aren’t necessary. Since we take a multidisciplinary approach, we can often find a solution that doesn’t require an operation,” says Reza Ghorbani, MD, ABIPP, FIPP, Ghorbani, MD, ABIPP,FIPP.

Dr. Ghorbani is president and medical director of the Advanced Pain Medicine Institute of Greater Washington, DC. He is also the author of the new book, “Secrets to a Pain Free Life” which stresses the importance of mainstream medical treatments combined with natural, alternative remedies shown to be safe and effective over time.

In his pain management practice, Dr. Ghorbani sees many failed back fusion patients who wind up in even worse pain.    

“I wish they’d come to me first, but often a primary care physician will refer his patient directly to a surgeon without giving a pain management specialist a chance to make a difference. That’s an aspect of medical culture that needs to change,” says Ghorbani.

When physical therapy or drugs don’t work, doctors can fuse two or more bones in the spine to prevent painful movement. However, the procedure may ultimately weaken the area around the injury leading to further complications.

This problem even has a name, “Failed Back Surgery Syndrome.” However, it can be treated with an implantable device called a spinal cord stimulator—similar to a cardiac pacemaker. It sends an electronic message to the brain through the spine that eases pain.

“Many of my patients are asking for this device as a result of other treatment failures,” says Ghorbani.

An aging population of Baby Boomers hoping to stay active and better surgical techniques may be trends underlying the bone fusion boom, but skeptics say the real rationale is compensation, not compassion. In the current “fee-for-service” environment, the more procedures a doctor does, the more he gets paid.

From 1993 to 2011 the number of US spine fusion procedures increased from 60,973 to 465,070 and the commensurate cost ballooned from $ 24,045 to $ 100,785, according to an analysis from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Appropriate or not, these operations have proven increasingly lucrative for doctors with financial interests in companies that sell plates, screws and rods–devices that can add up to $ 11,000 or more per procedure.

However, Dr. Ghorbani says the fix isn’t just on the doctor’s side. As more patients gain coverage under the Affordable Care Act, they will need to be more proactive about their own health so the system won’t be overburdened.

“We can’t be all things to all people, particularly with younger patients coming into the system and older patients needing more care. If people would just follow common sense lifestyle guidelines, it’s possible to keep pain in check. That’s one of the secrets to a pain free life,” says Dr. Ghorbani.