Target Corp. 22 Target Corp. Mass Merchant Online Sales:$1,330,129,152 Growth:10.0% See More still isn’t talking about what brought down its recently redesigned e-commerce site at least four times since its debut in August. But the problems serve as an example for other retailers that switch their e-commerce platforms, according to web site performance monitoring firm AlertBot.

Two years in the making, the new Target.com marked the retail chain’s divorce from Amazon.com Inc.’s e-commerce platform, which Target had used for a decade. AT&T hosts Target’s new site, which also relies on technology from IBM Corp. and Endeca Technologies Inc. When the redesigned site launched, Target said the revamped Target.com would offer shoppers faster checkout, better site search and navigation and more product recommendations, among other features.

But the introduction of the new site has been marred by multiple site outages: the first on Sept. 13, for about 4 hours; again on Oct. 13, for about 6 hours; another one on Oct. 25, for about 2 hours, 45 minutes; and the most recent one on Oct. 27, for 1 hour, 30 minutes. The first crash took place after Target introduced the Missoni for Target apparel line, prompting a surge in traffic that the site apparently was unable to handle. It’s not clear what caused the other three outages.

Stripping out the emotion and the soft factors that tally up player value in baseball is analogous to what’s going on today on the social web.  Everyone’s got their eye on the superstar plays (say, the Old Spice guy, @comcastcares), but they’re missing the raw analysis of true performance metrics.  Making sense of the nuanced patterns is the key to securing competitive advantage.

50 Social Media Stats to Kickstart Your Slide Deck

By: Sarah Evans Bio
RSS feed Published: July 15, 2011

Sarah Evans

On her social media and PR blog, Commentz, Sarah Evans and her staff compile a lot of stats. She cherry-picked the most relevant for marketers to share with Ad Age.

1. "Social media accounts for one out of every six minutes spent online in US." (Journalism.co.uk)

2. "Seventy-seven percent report that they use social media to share their love of a show; 65% use it as a platform to help save their favorite shows; and 35% use it to try to introduce new shows to their friends." (TVGuide.com study via TVNewsCheck.com)

 

Teams worked together to develop a pitch for their new type of meeting and presented them to the group. It was amazing to see the ideas that were generated—a status meeting run as if it were an ESPN sports show, a critique meeting where attendees punched train-like tickets to establish evaluation criteria, a client meeting that involved card laddering and secret voting, and a creative/ideation meeting that started with 20 questions and ended with attendees presenting their ideas to a “shark tank.”  Amazing.  Now those are meetings I would like to attend.

Kindling is designed to engage the members of your organization. Engagement translates into more ideas, increased collaboration and a better ROI for your innovation efforts.