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APRIL 2015 •
PPB
• 63
Lie Detector
Google is reportedly researching ways to rank websites by truthfulness
instead of by popularity. The search engine has for years rewarded sites
considered to have good reputations among web users, listing those with
the most “link-backs” at the top of search results. A new, truth-based sys-
tem would compare web pages’ information with Google’s “Knowledge
Vault”—a collection of 2.8 billion facts extracted from the internet.
Flutie Effect
noun:
A college or university’s ability
to transfer a successful athletic pro-
gram into increased admissions
In a 1984 college football game
between the University of Miami and
Boston College, Boston College quar-
terback Doug Flutie threw a game-win-
ning 48-yard Hail Mary pass. Two years
later, student applications for the school
had risen 30 percent. The “Flutie Effect”
refers to the idea that media attention
for athletics spills over into schools’ aca-
demics. Recent studies from the journal
Marketing Science
found schools that
rise from mediocre to great on the grid-
iron see applications increase by an
average 17.7 percent.
BIZWORDS
sive social media advertising tac-
tics in an affordable and easy-to-
use way,” said Scott Bowen, VP
and general manager of digital
services, Vistaprint. “Online mar-
keting is an untapped resource for
many small businesses, and this
tool makes it possible for small-
business owners to level the field
against larger competitors, engage
their customers in more modern
ways and ultimately grow their
business.”
The new tool will also feature a
library of ad templates and royalty-
free images.
The “2014 Webs Small
Business Digital Trends
Survey” found
63 per-
cent of small-business
owners use digital
products
as part or all
of their marketing strat-
egy, most combining
digital and print.