Students graduating from college today are feeling the sting of a tough economy: Only 19.7% of those who have sent out a résumé have a job, according to a recent survey by the National Association of Colleges & Employers. Even worse: Less than 60% of undergraduates have bothered to look for employment.

That’s grim news, as any college student (or parent of one) preparing to enter the workforce can attest. But that doesn’t mean students can’t dream—or that there aren’t opportunities out there—as witnessed by the record number of undergraduates who responded to Universum USA’s annual survey on ideal employers.

The research firm solicited feedback from more than 60,000 college students from across the nation on their top five places to work. Universum has given BusinessWeek the first look at its complete findings, which include the overall top 100 employers and breakdowns of the top employers for liberal arts, natural science, IT, engineering, and business majors. New trends emerged, and even a few surprises, including the relative strength of JPMorgan Chase (JPM), which beat out rival Goldman Sachs (GS) as the most sought-after financial-services firm for job seekers. (It was also the first time in more than a decade that Goldman hasn’t topped the list in that sector.) Not surprising, however, is the growing interest in the public sector—always seen as a safe haven in tumultuous times. Even better news for job applicants: Many of these employers are still hiring—although competition may be fierce.

Going for Government Jobs

Take No. 27 Lockheed Martin (LMT), which is the second most popular employer among engineering students. The aerospace and defense giant will hire 4,500 to 5,000 recent grads this year alone. Sounds great in this tough economic climate, right? But total online applications are up from 1 million last year to 1.4 million this year. Lockheed’s training programs include not only engineering tracks, but also areas such as finance, human resources, and communications.

The government also looks to be a popular destination for students this year because of the security it provides in a weak job market. Perennial favorites such as the State Dept. (No. 4), NASA (No. 8), the FBI (No. 5), and the Peace Corps (No. 7) are among the top 10 overall employers this year.

Some public-sector newcomers such as the Energy Dept. (No. 22) also appear to be on students’ radar for the first time. Why the jump in popularity? “One thing that has helped is the message from the current Administration,” says George Waldmann, director of the Employment Solutions Div. “Science and innovation is definitely a priority, and I think that has helped us in the marketing of our employment opportunities. [The Energy Dept.] is more visible.”

Investment Banking’s Popularity Falls

Not surprisingly, the industry that took perhaps the biggest hit in terms of student popularity is investment banking. The investment banks included in the top 100 fell an average of almost 20 spots from last year.

But some banks did hold up better than others: JPMorgan (No. 19) surpassed rival Goldman Sachs (No. 21) for the first time in the 14 years Universum has conducted the survey. “[JPMorgan has] a very dedicated CEO who’s been quite visible,” says Universum USA CEO Claudia Tattanelli. “They were probably on campus a little more and also more visible because of the commercial banking, too.”

That helps, but how does Morgan sell students on investment banking with the current unrest in the markets? “It’s challenging and [young people] have an ability to make an impact,” says Sheri Denmark, JPMorgan’s global head of investment banking recruiting.

Still, the place where students really want to work is Google (GOOG)—No. 1 for three years running. However, this year the victory was by a much smaller margin than in years past. “They’ve pulled back a little on recruiting,” says Tattanelli, adding that students are also “looking at a larger number of companies,” out of necessity in today’s tough market. In the past, she notes, students relied more on big brands in choosing ideal employers. Now they’re more concerned with who actually has jobs and will serve as a safe and secure employer.

Stable Employment Would Be Nice

Companies that stress work/life balance continue to be a top characteristic of an ideal employer for the students surveyed—but more so for women than men. Seventy percent of women listed this as a top priority and 60% of the men put this on their list. Furthermore, only 26% of women surveyed mentioned “leadership opportunities” among the most important characteristics of an ideal employer, whereas 41% of men said this was of the utmost importance.

But when it comes right down to it, students want what they’ve always wanted: a good, steady paycheck.

In the section of the Universum survey that asks students to expand on the factors that went into their choice of ideal employers, stability was a constant refrain. “A very prestigious and reliable company,” said one student of Ernst & Young. “A solid organization with a stable history,” said another of the FBI. “A position at NASA would be very stable,” said another about the U.S. space agency.

On the flip side, some expressed their concerns about a lack of security at other employers. One worried about “an uncertain future given the current economic conditions” at JPMorgan, for instance.

And while JPMorgan and other employers on our list admitted to some belt tightening around perks, recruiting and developing young talent still remains a top priority. “We want to have the right dialogues with [interns] from a mentoring and coaching perspective,” says JPMorgan’s Denmark. “What is not important is a cocktail party or serving bagels and lox.” Nor is that what today’s job-hunting undergrads are looking for in an ideal employer.

Click to view a slide show of Universum’s 25 Ideal Employers.

[via BusinessWeek] By Lindsey Gerdes

K9 ADVISORS was founded as a result of my passion. For years, I trained thousands of dogs for a large dog training facility in Miami. There, I began as a protection dog decoy and agitator and quickly progressed into basic and advanced (off- leash) obedience and severe behavior problem solving, becoming the facility’s head dog trainer. Throughout the years, I’ve trained many other dog trainers, advancing some and releasing those not suited to dog training, in addition to managing and training the kennel staff. I continued training dogs of all kinds and ages with varying behavior issues while attending Florida International University. I then received my Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, with an emphasis on behavior assessments and modifications, in 1997. Shortly after graduating, I began a lucrative career as a financial advisor, while continuing to train dogs for free in my spare time. It was never something I could let go completely; it was too much a part of me. After creating and operating my own financial service firm, I still continued with my passion of dog training. While a financial advisor, I continued to help various local rescue groups save some “un- adoptable” dogs with behavior problems through my training techniques. Eventually, I found my passion for helping dogs and their owners more rewarding than being a financial advisor. I then coupled my drive and my ability to advise people on their financial affairs with my solid dog training. Today, I am well recognized by many local and national rescue groups as a canine behavior problem solver. I can train ANY dog, regardless of the circumstances. From severely abused and neglected, to deaf and blind dogs, to even police dogs for various local police departments, I’ve done it all!

Specialties:

* Solving Severe Dog Behavior Problems

* Training Advanced, Off-Leash, Obedience

* Developing Obedient Family Protection Dogs

* Importing and Acclimating Executive Protection

* Dogs for Business Owners and Families.

The advantage to working with me is that I am an owner AND the dog will be trained in a very precisely tested system that works! Any owner will see amazing results in the very first lesson. Contact me today to set an appointment for your dog’s training.

Check out these great online web tools for small business shared by Inc, Magazine. Great ideas here.

Find Out Who is Visiting Your Website

Demandbase lets you know when those blue-chip customers are knocking at your virtual door. Its free real-time ticker analyzes your visitors’ IP addresses and compares them with information from sources such as Dun & Bradstreet and LexisNexis. With those data, Demandbase can tell you the names of the companies at which many of your visitors work. Click on a company name, and Demandbase will sell you the name and contact information for a lead at that company. Demandbase has been called the iTunes of CRM, and it’s almost as affordable: The average cost per lead is just $1.80.

Calendar, Meet Social Networking

LuckyCal aims to make it easier for you to meet up with friends or business contacts. The free Web tool, which launched in December, integrates your work and personal calendars with those of your employees, friends, and business associates (as long as they give you permission). The main benefit could be for road-weary sales teams; LuckyCal will scan your colleagues’ and clients’ Outlook calendars and Facebook profiles and e-mail you when they are in your area. LuckyCal plans to charge for an enterprise version that launches later this year.

Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Three new software programs can help companies cut carbon emissions. Edison (verdiem.com/edison), CO2 Saver (co2saver.snap.com), and Carbon Control Software (carboncontrolsoftware.com) all use Windows power settings to reduce the energy consumed by computers while they are idle. All the programs provide information on how much carbon you have saved, and Edison estimates how much money you have saved as well. The personal versions of the programs are free. Carbon Control Software’s business version costs $10.50 and up per license per year and Verdiem, the maker of Edison, has a corporate version that sells for $20 per computer per year. It may be worth the price: Globally, IT infrastructure emits as much carbon as the aviation industry, according to research firm Gartner.

Ditch That Phone Tree

Fonolo.com has mapped out the automated customer service phone trees of 200 companies. Log on, click on the department you want to reach (reservations at American Airlines, for example), and Fonolo will make the call, navigate the system, and call you when it has reached your desired department. When we used it to call Citibank, it connected us with a rep in less than 20 seconds, compared with two minutes when calling directly. Fonolo has an iPhone app as well.

Save Money on Travel

When you cancel a flight, you are entitled to a refund of the taxes and fuel charges you paid — even on a nonrefundable ticket. For 25 euros ($32), MissRefund.com will get that money for you. The company has secured refunds as large as $262; the average is $101. If you don’t receive a refund, you don’t have to pay. Meawhile, Vayama.com is an airfare booking site focused on routes and destinations that aren’t generally available online, like Seattle to Denpasar, Bali. But it doesn’t always have the best prices, particularly on run-of-the-mill trips, so make sure to shop around. Airfarewatchdog.com scours listing sites such as Travelocity and Orbitz to find the best deals, even on small airlines like Allegiant. And Yapta.com will alert you when a good price appears on the flight you want. If the price falls after you have bought the ticket, Yapta will, for $15, try to get you a refund or credit for the difference.

Name Your Price for Coding Help

The world’s largest community of software developers and graphic designers is now ready to serve small companies. Since 2001, TopCoder has been holding coding and design competitions to help companies like ESPN develop new software tools, websites, and logos. Late last year, it launched TopCoder Direct, a do-it-yourself version that allows small and midsize companies to get in the game. Log in at topcoder.com/direct, describe what you want, and determine how much money you will award the first- and second-place finishers. When the submissions come in, you pick the best. A prototype for a simple website might cost $1,200.

Skype on Steroids

Chances are you have a cell phone, a work phone, a home phone, a couple of e-mail accounts, and maybe an instant-messaging program. With free software from VoxOx, you can keep them all in one place. Import contacts from all of your e-mail and IM accounts. Then, e-mail, IM, text, or call anyone you know, all through VoxOx. Every user gets a phone number, which shows up in the caller ID of the person receiving the call. If someone uses the number to call you, you can pick up at the computer or have the call forwarded to any phone. But there is one drawback: VoxOx gives users only two free hours of calls. Then, you can either pay a fee or get more free calls by watching ads.

[via INC MAGAZINE]

From iPod and BlackBerry to Twitter and Wikipedia, we take a look at the processes and people who came up with the names for these iconic tech products.

Coming up with a great technology product or service is only half the battle these days. Creating a name for said product that is at once cool but not too cool or exclusionary, marketable to both early adopters and a broader audience, and, of course, isn’t already in use and protected by various trademarks and copyright laws is difficult—to say the least.

The makers of these 10 tech products—the iPod, BlackBerry, Firefox, Twitter, Windows 7, ThinkPad, Android, Wikipedia, Mac OS X and the “Big Cats,” and Red Hat Linux—all have displayed certain amounts marketing savvy, common sense and fun-loving spirit in settling on their products’ names. Here are the intriguing, surprising and sometimes predictable accounts of their creation.

[Check out the Slideshow on CIO.com]

Twitter is the canary in the coal mine of public opinion — for celebrities, politicians, and, of course, corporations. When European discount carrier Ryanair lashed out at “lunatic bloggers” after a Web designer reported a glitch on the airline’s site, its online reputation dipped as low as its fares. Conversely, Mars got a sweet treat when it posted Skittles-related tweets on its Web site, learning immediately how people felt about the candy.

Twitter’s explosion from microblogging curiosity to mass-media phenomenon [0] has awakened a lot of companies to just how fast memes spread on the Internet today. Make a mistake like Ryanair’s — or Johnson & Johnson’s offensive Motrin ads last winter — and the response is brutal. Get it right like shoe retailer Zappos and bask in the love. How can you know if your canary is singing or dead? These tools will help you monitor not just Twitter but everywhere the online conversation involves your brand.

TweetDeck [1]. To follow the raging tweetstream, you need a dashboard. This free download splits your Twitter feed into subgroups, letting you follow shout-outs (@replies) in one window and specific searches in other views. For instance, Pepsi could follow Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Tropicana, and Frito-Lay in four different search fields, receiving instant feedback on announcements and ad campaigns.

Scout Labs [2]. Need to monitor feedback on your new product? Scout Labs reads blog posts and social-networking comments from around the globe and judges them by their words and tone. The sentence “I love Amazon but the Kindle 2 is disappointing” gets properly parsed as a positive comment for Amazon but a negative one for its e-reader. This ultra-targeted approach allows clients such as Charles Schwab, HP, and Netflix to follow comments in real time and react quickly. Pricing starts at $99 a month for five searches.

BlogPulse [3]. This free feature from Nielsen Online searches the blogosphere for what’s happening with your brands. Type in a few keywords and track the number of mentions over the past six months, and view them in a handy fever chart. You can also trace the roots of a Web conversation and learn more about key Web influencers.

Vanno [4]. It’s Digg for reputation. Readers vote on news stories, opinion, and gossip about more than 5,800 companies, and Vanno mashes it up into a numerical score. The free site tracks these companies based on 25 topics, including job satisfaction, customer service, and social responsibility. At press time, Cisco was No. 1.

CoTweet [5]. This free service (currently in limited beta) allows multiple people to tweet from the same user name, using software to replicate the success of Zappos’s hundreds of staff bloggers, including CEO Tony Hsieh, within one account. Employees can delegate tasks, track conversations, schedule posts, and best of all, identify the people behind the brand.

TNS Cymfony [6]. If you need a more heavyweight tool (starting at $40,000 a year), TNS Cymfony goes beyond simple keyword analysis across the Web and analyzes grammar. It also includes crisis PR solutions that track key bloggers, journalists, and consumers. (Nielsen Online’s Buzzmetrics [7] service offers similar features.) During the past Super Bowl, TNS Cymfony reported that the teaser for the anticipated summer hit Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen earned seven times the buzz of the average ad during the big game.

Use these seven tools and you won’t have to worry about revenge; your brand will be transformed into an agile, respected member of the Web’s social swirl.

(CNN) — When Rita Bryer sees 300-foot-tall wind turbines sprouting up from the prairie near her home in western Oklahoma, she can’t help but wonder about the view from the top, where blades the size of semi-trucks spin.

“Out here, you can see the wind turbines from 10 miles away,” she said. “Think about how far you’ll be able to see when you’re at the top.”

So, partly out of curiosity, partly because she wants to be part of something new, the 51-year-old is leaving behind a career of odd jobs and oil-field work.

She’s going back to school to become a wind turbine mechanic — one who’ll have to scale the turbines to make repairs.

Across the country, people like Bryer are looking to the renewable energy sector in hopes its “green-collar jobs” will offer them stability in this shaky economy. Some are signing up for community college or apprenticeship programs that train students to be wind turbine mechanics, solar panel installers, fuel-cell engineers or energy efficiency experts. Watch how the green economy is growing in Pennsylvania »

Government support has rallied excitement for the prospect of a green jobs corps, as President Obama’s stimulus package puts about $20 billion into greening the economy, according to the White House.Obama says country will double renewable energy in three years »

In his recent speech to Congress, Obama said the U.S. will double its supply of renewable energy in three years. To do so, he’s calling on a new class of workers to be trained in environmental fields. Green jobs training programs will get $500 million from the stimulus.

At a summit in Philadelphia on Friday, Vice President Joe Biden said people who make $20 per hour before a green jobs training program can make $50 per hour after. On average, the clean-energy jobs pay 10 to 20 percent more than similar work outside the field, he said. Watch how to land green jobs »

Adding to the enthusiasm, Biden cited a recent case in Chicago where a maker of energy-efficient windows intends to gradually rehire 250 workers who were laid off when their window company closed late last year.

There is a “very direct” correlation between the stimulus package and Serious Materials’ ability to reopen the plant, said Sandra Vaughan, chief marketing officer for the California-based company.

But not all signs for green industries are so positive.

Wind and solar companies have cut staff and stalled new projects as the credit crisis has tied up money, meaning banks are less able to invest in renewable energy.

In the short term, that will make things difficult for the newly trained green work force, said Kathy Werle, dean of applied sciences and technology at San Jose City College, in California, which offers associate degrees in solar panel installation.

“Right now, money is so tight. People can’t borrow money to put solar on their homes,” she said.

Werle said she expects Obama’s stimulus plan to help jump-start the industry. Within a year or so she expects the graduates to be able to find plenty of green jobs.

The uncertainty appears not to be tempering student demand for green education, though. Earlier this semester, 260 people showed up for 44 seats in solar panel installation classes at San Jose City College, Werle said.

“Anything green is very popular,” she said.

Meanwhile, some schools that train the green-collar work force are billing their programs as near-guaranteed ways to find stable jobs.

Sidney Bolfing, chairman of the Texas Renewable Energy Education Consortium, an association of community colleges, said nearly 100 percent of his graduates find jobs in the fuel-cell industry — many before graduation.

“Typically all of these students all get jobs,” he said.

Bolfing is so confident in the idea that he markets green-collar careers to high schools and elementary schools in the area.

He hopes that the standard list of childhood dream jobs — astronaut, firefighter, police officer — soon will include things like wind technician and fuel-cell engineer.

Even if there’s trouble in the short term, green jobs are needed to fight climate change and spur economic growth, he said.

“We need to develop these new technologies like there’s no tomorrow,” he said.

Matt Raines, 31, of West, Texas, had a career as an auto mechanic. But that didn’t seem to be going anywhere, so now he is enrolled as a community college’s hydrogen fuel program.

He said local people look at him funny when he tells them about the decision because they don’t understand what he’ll be doing.

“I had one lady who actually asked me if I was building hydrogen bombs. I was like, ‘No ma’am, it’s energy production, green energy,’” he said.

Raines finds the program exciting, and says he’s been contacted about jobs by three companies, even though he is yet to finish his two-year degree.

Maria Kingery, co-founder of Southern Energy Management, a North Carolina company that installs solar energy panels, said schools need to catch up with the changing industry.

She applauded money in the stimulus package that will go to green job training programs, but said “training is going to be a real challenge” in the coming months.

Her company has a hiring freeze in place at the moment because of the economic downturn, but expects to grow in 2009, she said.

Some green jobs are low-tech and require little or no specialized training.

A former construction worker could easily take up a career in home weatherization and energy efficiency, said Bob Logston, owner of Home Energy Loss Professionals (HELP) in Baltimore, Maryland.

Some weatherization steps are as simple as shoving newspaper insulation in a home’s attic, caulking windows and repairing ductwork.

More than $11 billion of the economic stimulus package is intended to help people make their homes more energy efficient, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Because of those efficiency provisions, Logston said he expects his business to quadruple.

He employs six people now and expects to hire at least 12 more, he said. He also plans to offer his employees insurance for the first time.

“Everything’s budding, so to speak, everything’s in bloom even though it’s winter,” he said of green jobs in the home weatherization business. “The energy costs are so high people can’t afford” not to increase efficiency.

Part of the trouble with estimating the profitability of green jobs is that no one seems to be able to agree on a definition for the term. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics does not separate data on green jobs or jobs in renewable energy, and economists disagree on how many new green jobs the stimulus package will create.

In such a murky situation, community colleges often network with the local business community to gauge their interest in students from green-jobs programs. Many have banded together to dig up regional knowledge.

“The students always ask, ‘Can you guarantee job placement?’ No, I can’t guarantee it, but I can tell you I’ve spoken with local wind farm managers and everybody I’ve spoken with says there is a need, (and) there will be a need,” said Kimberlee Smithton, director of business and industry services at the High Plains Technology Center in Woodward, Oklahoma.

That school, where Bryer is taking classes, is offering a wind turbine technician program for the first time this year.

Bryer said she doesn’t know how much money she’ll make in the wind business. She doesn’t much care.

“To me, especially, it’s going to be a job — a good job I think I’ll like, and I just look forward to doing it,” she said. “It’s always nice doing something different, not the same old thing.”

The woman who’s always been seen as a rebel because she was the lone female working tough jobs in the oil fields now feels like she’s part of a movement for change.

[via CNN.com] by John Sutter

In 1988, three young guys in New York City — an acting student, a magazine researcher, and a software producer — were so happy to see the end of the 1980s, they held a funeral for the decade. They painted their faces blue and led a procession through Central Park; they burned a Rambo doll and a piece of the Berlin Wall. Although they couldn’t have known it, Chris Wink, Phil Stanton, and Matt Goldman had launched what would grow into an entertainment juggernaut. Since opening in New York City’s Astor Place Theatre in 1991, the Blue Man Group has played in 12 cities across the globe. More than 17 million people have seen its shows, and today, tickets go for $43 to $132. Goldman, the onetime computer geek turned impresario, tells the Blue Man Group’s unlikely story.

The Blue Man character is about universal human truths. When we got bald and blue for the first time, we knew instantly that we were on to something really special. It’s not like we sat down and came up with a business plan and followed it from Point A to Point B to Point C.

We played P.S. 122, La MaMa, all these hip, arty venues before we opened at the Astor Place Theatre. So some in the downtown art crowd thought we were selling out. But the work didn’t change. In the beginning, the house was half empty, and we were undercapitalized. We’d show up at the theater expecting a padlock on the door. I set up my office — a telephone, pen, and pad — directly opposite the box office. When I saw someone leave the box office without a ticket, I’d run out and start chatting him or her up. I wasn’t going to let him or her walk away without buying a ticket.

We made all the props ourselves. We found PVC pipe on Canal Street and turned it into musical instruments. But the Jell-O in the show cost $880 a show to make. So our producers said, “Lose the Jell-O.” Phil and Chris were working at the time for Jean-Claude Nédélec, who co-owns Glorious Food, the catering company. We told him our sad story, and he said, “We’ll make the Jell-O.” For three years, Chris and I would take a cab to the Upper East Side to pick up giant Jell-O molds and never paid a cent for it.

We went from six to eight shows a week and did 1,285 consecutive shows. We were sold out eight weeks in advance, but our producer got panicky at the thought of one of us getting sick, so we had one understudy. We never canceled a show. But then Phil cut his hand, and Chris Bowen, our extra, got bald and blue for the first time. It was fine. He’s now our senior performing director.

We realized that if we wanted to grow, we’d have to replicate ourselves. We cast three Blue Men, opened in Boston, and assumed it would go well. But there was no script, no musical score. It was a case study of the wrong way to grow. We realized we had to articulate our vision, so we locked ourselves in a room and spent several days writing the Blue Man manual.

The Blue Man is part innocent, hero, scientist, shaman, group member, and trickster. He doesn’t speak, but he communicates with vaudevillian slapstick humor. He drums and catches gumballs in his mouth that are filled with paint, which he spits onto a canvas to make art. It’s interactive, with music, lights, and lots of colorful liquids that get sprayed on the stage and into the audience.

The whole show is about connecting with the audience — to get to that heightened gestalt when someone scores a goal at a soccer game. That “AHHH!” There’s no intellect involved at all, just chemical secretions through one’s brain and body.

Three is the smallest unit where you can have an outsider; two guys win the third over, or the third guy wins the two guys in. It can go either way, and that tension makes for good theater. It also makes for good business partners — it takes the ego out of it. To this day, we’ve never made a decision based on the majority. All decisions are consensus. It takes longer, but we find if you keep talking things through, you reach a better choice.

We decided to open in Chicago. Before the show, we realized we had no idea how much money we needed. We called the general manager of the Boston show, who is now our CFO, and she did the numbers. To make payroll, we had to open three days early and do two shows a day. We figured, no one is going to know that the whole set could fall apart. They’ll just think, Oh, the Blue Men; they’re crazy. From Chicago we moved on to Las Vegas and later Orlando.

Vegas was a gamble. The theater had twelve hundred seats. We did 10 shows a week, but for the first six months, the theater was half empty. Lots of companies had come to us, wanting to do Blue Man ads. We turned them all down. But when Intel asked for the fourth time, we said, “Let’s talk.”

They said, “We want to get across that Intel is innovative, intelligent, and fun.” We liked that but said, “The ad agency is going to do lame storyboards.” So they gave us signing-off approval. Then we said, “The music is going to be really bad,” and they said, “You can make the music!”

That was in 2000. It was one of the biggest ad buys at the time: The ads were shown at the Grammy Awards, the basketball playoffs, the World Series. Every month, a new one aired. We went from 10 shows a week at 50 percent capacity to 14 shows at 100 percent.

Then we went international. Germany is the second-biggest entertainment market in the world for theater, so we started there. It felt appropriate, because when we did the funeral for the ’80s, we burned the Berlin Wall, and then it actually came down. So we felt personally responsible. We’ve had shows in Amsterdam and London. Today, we’re in Stuttgart and Tokyo.

We have about 70 Blue Men on the payroll. They’re hard to find. A lot of them trained in theater or are good drummers. We have a casting director and hold national auditions. Our Blue Men train in New York before we ship them out to our shows in other cities.

If you invent your own instrument, you’re automatically one of the top three musicians in the world on that instrument. We have made up more than 30 instruments, like the tubulum, the drumulum, and the piano smasher. I can barely hold my own musically, and yet I get to be a rock star. We made several albums; one was nominated for a Grammy.

We created a school in New York with an arts-based curriculum. It’s called the Blue Man Creativity Center. We have 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds. Next year is our first kindergarten. We’re growing a grade a year. This year, we had 200 applications for 30 spaces.

Some people think that when we get bald and blue that we’re just hiding behind a mask. But we think it’s the opposite. When you get blue, you’re left with just the purest, most vulnerable humanity. And so, about halfway through the show, people start to go, “Whoa, I’m the Blue Man.” And once you get there, you wonder, Are there actually three different characters, or is it three aspects of one personality, so together they’re one character? Those are exactly the questions we want people to be asking.

[via Inc Magainze] by Matt Goldman

For marketers, Web 2.0 offers a remarkable new opportunity to engage consumers.

If only they knew how to do it.

That’s where this article aims to help. We interviewed more than 30 executives and managers in both large and small organizations that are at the forefront of experimenting with Web 2.0 tools. From those conversations and further research, we identified a set of emerging principles for marketing.

But first, a more basic question: What is Web 2.0, anyway? Essentially, it encompasses the set of tools that allow people to build social and business connections, share information and collaborate on projects online. That includes blogs, wikis, social-networking sites and other online communities, and virtual worlds.

Millions of people have become familiar with these tools through sites like Facebook, Wikipedia and Second Life, or by writing their own blogs. And a growing number of marketers are using Web 2.0 tools to collaborate with consumers on product development, service enhancement and promotion. But most companies still don’t appear to be well versed in this area.

So here’s a look at the principles we arrived at — and how marketers can use them to get the best results.

Web 2.0 tools can be used to do what traditional advertising does: persuade consumers to buy a company’s products or services. An executive can write a blog, for instance, that regularly talks up the company’s goods. But that kind of approach misses the point of 2.0. Instead, companies should use these tools to get the consumers involved, inviting them to participate in marketing-related activities from product development to feedback to customer service.

How can you do that? A leading greeting-card and gift company that we spoke with is one of many that have set up an online community — a site where it can talk to consumers and the consumers can talk to each other. The company solicits opinions on various aspects of greeting-card design and on ideas for gifts and their pricing. It also asks the consumers to talk about their lifestyles and even upload photos of themselves, so that it can better understand its market.

A marketing manager at the company says that, as a way to obtain consumer feedback and ideas for product development, the online community is much faster and cheaper than the traditional focus groups and surveys used in the past. The conversations consumers have with each other, he adds, result in “some of the most interesting insights,” including gift ideas for specific occasions, such as a college graduation, and the prices consumers are willing to pay for different gifts.

Similarly, a large technology company uses several Web 2.0 tools to improve collaboration with both its business partners and consumers. Among other things, company employees have created wikis — Web sites that allow users to add, delete and edit content — to list answers to frequently asked questions about each product, and consumers have added significant contributions. For instance, within days of the release of a new piece of software by the company, consumers spotted a problem with it and posted a way for users to deal with it. They later proposed a way to fix the problem, which the company adopted. Having those solutions available so quickly showed customers that the company was on top of problems with its products.

Give consumers a reason to participate.

Consumers have to have some incentive to share their thoughts, opinions and experiences on a company Web site.

One lure is to make sure consumers can use the online community to network among themselves on topics of their own choosing. That way the site isn’t all about the company, it’s also about them. For instance, a toy company that created a community of hundreds of mothers to solicit their opinions and ideas on toys also enables them to write their own blogs on the site, a feature that many use to discuss family issues.

Other companies provide more-direct incentives: cash rewards or products, some of which are available only to members of the online community. Still others offer consumers peer recognition by awarding points each time they post comments, answer questions or contribute to a wiki entry. Such recognition not only encourages participation, but also has the benefit of allowing both the company and the other members of the community to identify experts on various topics.

Many companies told us that a moderator plays a critical role in keeping conversations going, highlighting information that’s important to a discussion and maintaining order. That’s important because consumers are likely to drift away if conversations peter out or if they feel that their voices are lost in a chaotic flood of comments. The moderator can also see to it that consumer input is seen and responded to by the right people within the company.

And, of course, it’s important to make a site as easy to use as possible. For instance, there should be clear, simple instructions for consumers to set up a blog or contribute to a wiki.

Listen to — and join — the conversation outside your site.

Consumers tend to trust one another’s opinions more than a company’s marketing pitch. And there is no shortage of opinions online.

The managers we interviewed accept that this type of content is here to stay and are aware of its potential impact — positive or negative — on consumers’ buying decisions. So they monitor relevant online conversations among consumers and, when appropriate, look for opportunities to inject themselves into a conversation or initiate a potential collaboration.

For example, a marketing manager of a leading consumer-electronics company monitors blogs immediately after a new-product launch in order to understand “how customers are actually reacting to the product.” Other managers keep an eye on sites like Digg.com and Del.icio.us that track the most popular topics on the Web, to see if there’s any buzz around their new products, and whether they should be adjusting, say, features or prices.

In one case, a company found a popular blogger who had spoken highly of the company’s brand. Just prior to launching a new product, the company sent the blogger a free sample, inviting him to review it with no strings attached. The end result: The blogger wrote a favorable review and generated a flood of comments. So the company got nearly free publicity and feedback.

Peter & Maria Hoey

Resist the temptation to sell, sell, sell.

Many marketers have been trained to bludgeon consumers with advertising — to sell, sell, sell anytime and anywhere consumers can be found. In an online community, it pays to resist that temptation.

When consumers are invited to participate in online communities, they expect marketers to listen and to consider their ideas. They don’t want to feel like they’re simply a captive audience for advertising, and if they do they’re likely to abandon the community.

The head of consumer research for a leading consumer-electronics organization created an online community of nearly 50,000 consumers to discuss product-development and marketing issues. One of the key principles of the community, she says, was “not to do anything about marketing, because we weren’t about selling; we were about conversing.”

In short order, community members not only identified what it was they were looking for in the company’s products, but also suggested innovations to satisfy those needs. The company quickly developed prototypes based on those suggestions, and got an enthusiastic response: Community members asked when they would be able to buy the products and if they would get the first opportunity to buy them. They didn’t have to be sold on anything.

Don’t control, let it go.

In an online community, every company needs to find an effective balance between trying to steer the conversation about its products and allowing the conversation to flow freely. In general, though, the managers we interviewed believe that companies are better off giving consumers the opportunity to say whatever is on their minds, positive or negative. Moderators can keep things running smoothly and coherently, but they shouldn’t always keep the conversation on a predetermined track. The more that consumers talk freely, the more a company can learn about how it can improve its products and its marketing.

One marketing executive recalled the first time she let an online community created for a client interact with very little control or moderation, resulting in an animated discussion about the look of the company’s product. The client, with great concern, asked. “Who told them [the consumers] they could do this, that they could go this far?” Of course, when this process resulted in totally new packaging that helped boost sales, the client was ecstatic.

As another executive of a company that creates online communities for clients told us: “You have to let the members drive. When community members feel controlled, told how to respond and how to act, the community shuts down.”

Find a ‘marketing technopologist.’

So who should direct a company’s forays into Web 2.0 marketing? A number of managers identified an ideal set of skills for an executive that go beyond those of a typical M.B.A. holder or tech expert. We coined the term marketing technopologist for a person who brings together strengths in marketing, technology and social interaction. A manager said, “I’d want to see someone with the usual M.B.A. consultant’s background, strong interest in psychology and sociology, and good social-networking skills throughout the organization.”

Foot soldiers need to be carefully selected as well. One large technology company weighs employees’ proven skills to choose writers for blogs that are read by consumers. The company has long used blogs internally to help employees discuss technical issues, products, and company and industry topics. When it decided to use blogs to raise its profile online, it recruited those who had shown the most skill at blogging within the company. The company currently has about 15 employees who blog publicly, mostly on technology trends, and is recruiting more the same way. Meanwhile, the bloggers plan to meet occasionally to share the lessons learned from their experiences.

Embrace experimentation.

One Web 2.0 strategy does not fit all, and sometimes the best way to find out what’s best for a given company is to try some things out and see what happens.

Blogs, wikis and online communities are among the tools that companies are most commonly using for marketing, but there are other ways to reach consumers. Some of the companies we talked with have gotten their feet wet in the online virtual world Second Life, where millions of users interact with each other through avatars. Companies can sell their goods and services and sponsor events in Second Life just as they do in the real world; one sponsored a contest for the best avatar.

Others are considering new ways to use more-familiar tools. For instance, many companies have long used instant messaging on their Web sites to allow shoppers to chat with customer-service representatives. One executive we spoke with said he would like to experiment with allowing consumers to chat with each other as they shop on his company’s site.

[via WSJ Small Business] By SALVATORE PARISE , PATRICIA J. GUINAN and BRUCE D. WEINBERG

From my experiences as a sex columnist, it just never seems to amaze me of all the healthful reasons for having a plentiful sex life. The most recent Durex Global Sex Survey shows that there are unfortunately a number of countries that could use a little more effort in this arena. One of the most notable is the United States, which is quite frankly having a lot less sex than just about everyone in the world, and when they do finally get around to it, less than half are satisfied with their experiences.

Okay folks, this is serious. Sex is a very important, fundamental part of life. It is both healthy and even green in many ways. So to help me get my point across, I am going to explain 15 glorious reasons why we should be doing a little less stressing, eating, and watching TV, and a whole lot more frolicking under the sheets!

1.Stress Reliever- Stress is a leading cause of sickness, yet most people are practically bathing in it daily. Sickness leads to doctors, prescription medicines, countless miles spent driving/flying to specialists, none of which are particularly the most pleasant or green scenarios for anyone. This is especially important to take heed during the difficult economic situation we are facing at the moment. We need to take a break from all this stress and allow the body to unwind. Sex is one of the best ways to do this, and it is just not the act that is stress-free, but the wonderful afterglow which can sometimes last for hours!

2.Heart Health- According to a study at Queens University in Belfast, men who practice sex at least three times a week can cut their risk of heart attack and stroke by a lean and mean 50 percent. That’s is a lot of guys!

3.Healthy, Drug-Free Baby Delivery- Some pregnant women tend to shy away from sex as the weeks get down to that big day. However, truth be told, healthy sex throughout a pregnancy has been shown to sometimes help aid in a speedier labor and delivery. This can sometimes be just the boost a woman needs to tolerate a natural, drug-free birth.

4.Cure the Common Cold- I bet you didn’t know that sex was actually a natural immunity booster for the common cold. Wilkes University in Pennsylvania has reported that having sex a minimum of once or twice a week can boost the immune system by up to 30 percent. Imagine what three or four times per week might do for you!

5.Healthiest Diet Plan You’ll Ever Have- Today’s diet plans involve special dinners and drinks in wasteful packaging, over the counter pills, medical procedures… hold the phone folks! Just one 30-minute roll in the hay will burn off a minimum of 200 calories. Some positions can burn as much as 700 calories, it just depends on how wild of a monkey dance you want to get down with.

6.Simple Energy Booster- Sex in the morning can often boost your energy level, but relationship expert, Scott Haltzman claims that the testosterone secreted in a man’s seed can actually be absorbed by women and give them even more of a pick-me-up. Now I am not forgetting about the importance of safe sex, but if you are in a safe relationship that will allow such practice, this is just one more reason to get freaky before you start each day.

7.Natural Mood Improvement- Sex can improve on a bad mood almost as much as a handful of chocolates can. Perhaps this is one of our main attractions to the post-argument make-up romp. The tactile stimulation in sex and sensual massage has a way of easing all those tense nerves which can stay indefinitely unless you make a conscious effort to rid yourself of their devious nature.

8.Skip the Aspirin, Prescribe Sex Instead- The simple act of sex can releases enough oxytocin in the body to reduce the necessity or frequent use of some prescribed pain relievers for arthritis, headaches, and even menstrual cramps. Please, can we do it tonight honey? I’ve got a headache!

9.Reduce Depression- Depression and sex can be a catch 20/20 because depression causes a lack of a libido, which reduces the desire to have sex. But if a person can get past that mental block, sex has been shown to boost their entire outlook on life by making them feel better about themselves and the world around them. They just have to get past that initial blah factor and allow themselves to be open to the idea of sex again!

10.Regulate Menstrual Cycles- Some women use the pill to regulate their menstrual cycle. Without it, their periods are just all over the place. However, research at Columbia and Stanford University has suggested that regular bouts of sex can help regulate a woman’s cycle when they engage in it at least one or more times per week. The more the better!

11.Better communication with Your Partner- I know… sometimes men can be a real bear to communicate with. We can’t sit still, we don’t know what to say. Well, throw him in the sack for a good romp, and I guarantee he will be more receptive to a heart-to-heart. Sex has a way of bringing a couple closer to each other not only physically, but also mentally. It can help drop those barriers which have been holding you back from expressing yourselves to each other.

12.Have Sex Now, so You Can Continue to Have it Later- Just as the old saying goes, use it or lose it, the same goes for sex unfortunately. All the healthful and green benefits of sex we have discussed so far, are all dependent on you keeping your bodies testosterone production in good practice. It’s just like riding a bicycle, some say. Yeah, but have you ever got on a bicycle after not riding for several years. I bet it wasn’t quite the same experience!

13.A Better Nights Rest- Sex releases endorphines, which enable the body to engage in a deeper more restful sleep. A long nights sleep has long been connected to better overall health. Are you beginning to see just how much sex and your overall health interconnect here?

14.Sex Slows the Aging Process- A healthy sex life may in fact help slow the aging process just enough to help us be less reliant on prescription drugs and other medical procedures later in life.

15.Reduce Disease of Sexual Organs- Regular orgasms for men have been shown to reduce the chance of prostate cancer. On the same token, the increased blood flow to the pelvic region for women has been shown to help keep their oven and all its parts in good working order too!

See… sex is good for you and for the environment too! So drop whatever you are doing and… But before you get up to that, take a brief moment to let us know what other green and healthful reasons I might be missing. Let’s see if we can get this list up to 50!

[via Treehugger via ABC News: Five reasons to have sex tonight] by Eric Leech

For the above entrepreneurs, wearing pajamas for a day at the office isn’t far from reality. From pet care to virtual assistants and even online dating, we found entrepreneurs who are not just enjoying work from their living rooms and bedrooms, but they are also making a good living at it. In one case, a business owner grossed $10 million in a year, and cleared half that amount. Here’s a look at the hottest industries for home-based entrepreneurs — illustrated with some fun CEO self-portraits.

Pet Care — Paul Mann, Fetch! Pet Care

Virtual Assistant — Tawnya Sutherland, VAnetworking.com

Bargain Hunting Website — Karen Hoxmeier, MyBargainBuddy.com

Accounting Services — Melissa Nash Andrews, Accounts Receivables

Technical Staffing — Bill Foster and Ruben Santana, XRoads Consulting

Home Improvement and Organization — Allan Young, ShelfGenie

Green Construction — Nic Darling, Chad Ludeman, and Courtney Ludeman, Postgreen

Graphic Design Services — Sam Feuer, Mindsmack.com

Resume Writing — Kathy Sweeney, The Write Resume

Corporate Educational Services — Joseph Pickett, Experts Briefings

Online Dating Site — Markus Frind, PlentyofFish