by Onyia Ifeluwa | Sep 13, 2017 | Technology, Web Design
Information Retrieval Skills and Its Accompanied Benefits For Information Seekers
Information retrieval should become part of schools curriculum as the number of information sought online, and level of information explosion keeps rising. Meaning some people with low technical skills of retrieving information could be having difficulty retrieving information that is acceptable and perfect for their information needs.
So, what is Information retrieval? The definition below is derived from Wikipedia’s definition on Information retrieval.
“Information retrieval (IR) is the activity of obtaining information resources relevant to an information need from a collection of information resources. Searches can be based on full-text or other content-based indexing. Information retrieval is the science of searching for information in a document, searching for documents themselves, and also searching for metadata that describe data, and for databases of texts, images or sounds.”
An information retrieval process begins when a user enters a query into the system. Queries are formal statements of information needs, for example search strings in web search engines. In information retrieval a query does not uniquely identify a single object in the collection. Instead, several objects may match the query, perhaps with different degrees of relevancy.
An object is an entity that is represented by information in a content collection or database. User queries are matched against the database information. However, as opposed to classical SQL queries of a database, in information retrieval the results returned may or may not match the query, so results are typically ranked. This ranking of results is a key difference of information retrieval searching compared to database searching
The evaluation of an information retrieval system is the process of assessing how well a system meets the information needs of its users. Traditional evaluation metrics, designed for Boolean retrieval or top-k retrieval, include precision and recall. Many more measures for evaluating the performance of information retrieval systems have also been proposed. In general, measurement considers a collection of documents to be searched and a search query. All common measures described here assume a ground truth notion of relevancy: every document is known to be either relevant or non-relevant to a particular query. In practice, queries may be ill-posed and there may be different shades of relevancy.
Virtually all modern evaluation metrics (e.g., mean average precision, discounted cumulative gain) are designed for ranked retrieval without any explicit rank cutoff, taking into account the relative order of the documents retrieved by the search engines and giving more weight to documents returned at higher ranks.
You would agree that information is useless when it is not meeting an information need, making it irrelevant. Hence, knowing how to retrieve information in this day and time is important, if it is to be seen relevant. And reason I join the numbers of experts arguing that information retrieval should be emphasized on.
What do you think as well?
by Onyia Ifeluwa | Sep 13, 2017 | Business
Events Planing; All You Need Know While Planing A Successful Event
You need understand and follow these tips if you are embarking on having a successful event:
- Decide upon your target audience before anything else. The first step — before you do anything else — should be to clearly define who your target audience is. From this all the other decisions will fall into place in terms of format, content, prices, location etc. This structured approach will also help you to stay focused on achieving specific goals and not allowing the scope to become too broad or watered down.
- Make a list of details — When you decide to have an event, everything matters. From program content and lighting to transportation and parking — everything counts. And your audience will attribute everything to you and…your brand. Making a list will ensure you don’t overlook things.
- Have a clear business purpose for holding the event. Before you can begin planning a successful event, be clear on why you are doing it in the first place, because every decision after that should support your main goal. Is it lead generation? Is it to create awareness of your company or a particular product? Is is to develop customer loyalty? Or do you simply want to make money (which is okay too)? And make sure the team is aware of the purpose, so that you don’t have “scope creep.”4
- Watch out for other industry events when scheduling. Check the calendar. Make sure you don’t schedule your event on or too close to holidays or popular vacation times. It’s just as important to check for other events that your target attendees might be going to.
- Be flexible with changes in size, location and other details. As you get into the event planning process, you may find that your event changes in size, location, and many other ways than you originally planned. This is natural and perfectly fine as long as you don’t lose sight of the reason you’re doing all this work in the first place. Some flexibility is necessary.6.
- Know your limitations.We all know the goal is to throw a great live event. To that end, we also have to be aware of what we can or cannot realistically do — be it budget … or time-wise. If you decide to throw a live event in a week’s time, plan for a more intimate affair. If it’s a big event, prepare several months ahead. If the budget is small, you may have to counterbalance with creativity and a lot of do-it-yourself world.
- Create SMART goals. Always start with strategy. Just like building any business, great events start with a strong, thoughtful and measurable strategy. Live events are an amazing way to share your brand, connect with your target market, get feedback on your product, but you need to know what you are trying to achieve. Stick with SMART goals and outline what you are aiming for. Then make sure that you proceed in line with reaching these goals.
by Onyia Ifeluwa | Sep 12, 2017 | Social Media Marketing
Studying Companies Doing Social Media Properly and Understanding the Method. I shall be sharing insights on companies that have been noted doing social media properly and underlying the methods of these companies, and I admit thanks must be attributed to other social media experts that have taken resources and time to study these companies properly. The purpose of this article is to help new companies and existing companies that are struggling with social media management. I am aware this article will help you as well. Can we just begin?
1. Zappos What do we know about Zapos, well
Zappos is an online retailer that sells shoes, clothing and accessories. They’re popular for the enormous emphasis they put on creating real relationships with their fans and customers. You would not disagree after taking note of their Facebook custom welcome tab below. Their catchy saying, “Let’s be in a Like-Like relationship,” shows they
treat their potential fans as equals, solidifying their relationships even more. One great strategy they have employed is to first ask for the Like and then ask their new fans to join their email list. Once you click their Like button, the custom tab changes and you then see the opportunity to sign up for their email list and interact with their products, as seen in the image below. By waiting until after the fan clicks the Like button,
Zappos is among the companies proving they care about building relationships with their fans first. In addition, Zappos uses a strategy often called “fans-only content” where they
reveal content only after someone has become a fan, such as the fashion images in the illustration above. Once you click the Like button, you get instant access to exclusive content, videos and special promotions. They’ve also included comment widgets, as seen below, on their custom welcome tab where you can post about their products and your comments will post to your profile or page, telling all your friends or fans what you like most about Zappos. Great social proof! One of the best engagement strategies I’ve seen on Facebook is Zappos’ “Fan of the Week” contest, which few companies use to their advantage. They encourage fans to send in their photos with the Zappos box and other fans get to vote on the best photo of the week. What’s great is that Zappos highlights the fan of the week by putting him or her in their wall image photo for all to see. As seen below, this is definitely about putting your customers first!
2. Ford Motor Company Ford has brought the social experience to the forefront of their marketing efforts. Each time they add a new blog post, they pull in the image, headline of the post and the comments from readers onto the front page of their website. Those new to the site or those browsing for a new car get to experience the company and its culture from a social viewpoint right from the start. Their blog,
The Ford Story, is also unique. In the image below you can see their innovative layout where viewers can start reading the comments before they read the article, putting their fans’ and followers’ viewpoints first.
Introducing your blog and your readers’ comments to new viewers sets a welcoming and friendly first impression for any company. Notice the placement of the Stories button in the image below. Ford takes the social sharing component to the next level by not only asking their customers for their Ford stories, but also asking their community to share ideas that are in popular categories like
Safety or
Personalization. Ford uses this as a way to
get new ideas for their next generation of cars. These ideas are not taken lightly; Ford has used many of these innovations to advance the technology of their cars. They do a great job of involving their fans and customers into their company growth. Also, photos are always a great way to attract new viewers and draw in existing audiences. In the image below Ford has added a Flickr widget to show off some of their latest photos, making their site more interactive and fun. (One little-known fact is that Flickr is a fantastic tool for search engine optimization. When you load your photos onto Flickr, you can tag them and optimize the descriptions.) While digesting these strategies used by Zapos and Ford Motors, can you also take time to digest these tips that have been discovered to be the catalyst of the above companies?
Tip: Brainstorm ways you can
use social media to make your fans the stars; join the cool companies. The more you spotlight your fans and followers on your social media channels, the more often they’ll engage with you and come back for more. Note, you don’t have to be a billion-dollar company to model what Zappos is doing on their Facebook page. You can take their best strategies, tweak them to fit your unique needs and make them work for your business. Encourage your customers to share their stories and ideas and make it easy to do so on your site. Also,
make it easy for readers to interact with and share your content by adding more opportunities to comment on your blog and sharing buttons to encourage social sharing. Please do not hesitate to leave a question or share your insight as well, as I find this imperative if the need arises.
by Onyia Ifeluwa | Sep 11, 2017 | Social Media Marketing
Studying Companies Doing Social Media Properly and Understanding the Method 1
The other day, a religious reader of this well followed blog of ours told me she found the insights and methods on Zapos and Ford Motors helpful and inspiring, this gladdened my heart, as I am glad that finally many people like my friend have understand that you do not fight the top, rather you learn from them so you can join them.
I will not have been able to draw this article without the guidance of the social media experts that made this research on the following companies available. Trust you are ready to devour the information on the following companies with the hope of you following these steps, hence your company can witness similar or better level of successes these companies have made.
Cree
Cree is a business-to-business company that sells energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, industrial LED lighting. When you think of social media marketing, you wouldn’t think that an industrial lighting company that sells LEDs to grocery stores would be shining; however, Cree is extremely social-savvy.
Cree knows how to make their customers’ experiences fun, social and interactive. In their “Cries for Help” section, they encourage companies to showcase their terrible lighting on their site. It’s a fun way to make light (no pun intended!) of their bad lighting situations in their offices.
In addition, Cree provides valuable content to pique their audience’s attention. With articles such as “What happens if a baby holds a Cree light bulb?”, they’re able to speak to their audience in a way that grabs their attention and gets them involved. Great content is the key to a happy audience.
Also, Cree knows the value of social proof. When you become part of their environmental movement, you get to display a badge on your site that says, “Take the pledge. I joined the LED lighting revolution.” This is a great way to build community with your audience and get great viral exposure for your company.
San Chez Bistro
San Chez Bistro is a tapas bistro and restaurant in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Just like Martell Home Builders, they’ve taken social media and infused it with the needs and preferences of their local audience. San Chez encourages their patrons to use Twitter to reserve a seat at their restaurant. They call it “Tweet-Ahead Seating” and it’s a great use of social media local marketing. Once you tweet your interest in a reservation, the online hostess tweets you back with a message similar to this: “Great, you’re on the list. See you in a little while.”
With the number of smartphones on the rise, San Chez knows they can reach even more potential customers if they make access to their restaurant easy and quick. By combining smartphone capabilities, social media and local marketing, they were able to create an extremely successful marketing campaign online.
In addition, San Chez Bistro utilizes Foursquare to gain even greater viral visibility. Foursquare, one of the top location-based services out there today, allows people to check in with their mobile devices and let all their friends know where they’re currently spending time. It’s fun for the fan and powerful exposure for the physical business.
Tip: Remember that you’re not selling to other businesses or to “consumers,” or companies but instead you’re always selling to real people whose buying decisions are driven by emotion. Speak to that emotional side, as Cree has done by infusing the hot buttons of bad lighting in the workplace and people’s passion for environmentally friendly products. Find your cause and use it in your messages and share it on your channels.
If you’re a local business, consider customizing your Foursquare page and adding an incentive for social media check-ins. It’s great exposure for you and makes your patrons’ experience in your establishment more fun and interactive.
Hope you find this educative as well for your companies. Do not forget I am always eager to welcome your comments.
by Onyia Ifeluwa | Sep 11, 2017 | Business
5 Online Business Ideas You Can Start With
Some years ago, I was in that hole, that kind of hole that keeps some trash falling on your head, while countless valuable ideas are running on your brilliant mind. The following online business ideas will help you if you carefully follow through.
SEO consultant
Do you know the ins and outs of search engines and have skills in platforms like Google Analytics? The owners of a lot of smaller companies don’t realize how much of an impact search engine optimization (SEO) can have on their business. Educate those business owners on the power of SEO to help transform their websites into a more SEO-friendly property. Use your skills to show business owners how to read and use their analytics data the right way, and how to properly use keywords and structure content to get more traffic.
Social media consultant
Larger companies and medium company can hire an agency or full-time staff member to run their Facebook and Twitter accounts, while small business often have to handle their own social media marketing. With so many responsibilities and challenges, there is no doubt many business owners are often too busy, overwhelmed or under-trained about the importance of social media to spend time developing and implementing a great social media strategy. As a consultant, you can help them determine the best tactics, posting schedules and content for their target audience. As their follower count grows, so will your business.
Web design
There’s nothing more off-putting than a poorly designed website, and often, it kills credibility. If you know HTML and have a good eye for design, you can launch a service to create attractive, easy-to-use websites for small businesses. Put your skills to good use for business owners who want to take their online presence to the next level. Build a comprehensive portfolio, and then create your own website to show it off and attract a steady stream of clients.
Affiliate marketing
If you are that kind of person who loves leaving customer reviews on sites like Amazon for free, you need to consider putting an end to this. Word-of-mouth advertising is still a huge lead generator for many companies, and a lot of businesses are willing to share a portion of their profits with persuasive individuals who will promote their products to the public. If you have a personal website with a large following, this might be easier to accomplish (PR reps are always seeking out brand advocates they can send free samples to).
App development
Mobile applications are more popular than ever, and people are willing to pay good money for ways to manage their lives from their smartphones. If you have a great idea and happen to know coding, you can run with it and create your app yourself. If you just have an idea and don’t know the ins and outs of how to turn it into a reality, there are plenty of software developers looking to collaborate with people on app creation.
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