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More of the world’s biggest marketers are selling their stuff at the place where consumers hanker to hang out: Facebook.
Think of it as the ultimate convenience for a mobile generation that considers it seriously inconvenient to leave Facebook — even for a moment — in order to go to a retailer’s website. Now, marketers from Express to J.C. Penney to Delta Air Lines are steering those purchases to their Facebook pages.
Within a few years, social media gurus say, the very notion of shopping on a retailer’s website will become dated. “Expecting people to come to your website is expecting them to make an extra effort,” explains Janet Fouts, a social media coach. “They’re already on Facebook.”
The numbers are dazzling. Facebook has roughly 500 million users — 250 million of whom are on the site every day. The average user has 130 friends. Each month, people spend a total 700 billion minutes on Facebook.
“It’s social networks like Facebook that are the center of people’s lives,” Fouts says. “It’s where their friends are. It’s where they play games. And it’s increasingly becoming where they shop.”
Arthur Laurents, writer of such classic stage musicals as West Side Story and Gypsy, has died in New York aged 93.
The director and screenwriter died at his Manhattan home from complications of pneumonia, his agent said.
Born in Brooklyn, the attorney’s son began in radio and wrote military training films during World War II.
His screen credits include the Alfred Hitchcock film Rope, Barbra Streisand romance The Way We Were and 1977 ballet drama The Turning Point.
Laurents won a Tony award in 1968 as author of the book for the musical Hallelujah, Baby!, and another, in 1984, for directing La Cage aux Folles.
He remains best known for writing the books for West Side Story and Gypsy, hit Broadway shows that were later turned into movies.
Laurents worked with lyricist Sondheim on West Side Story
Featuring music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, the former retold the Romeo and Juliet story as a drama about rival New York street gangs.
The latter, based on the memoirs of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, premiered in 1959 and was successfully revived four times on Broadway.
Laurents directed three of the revivals himself, most recently in 2008 with Patty LuPone in the leading role.
NBC has a hit on their hands with the singing competition show The Voice. Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, Cee-Lo Green and Christina Aguilera are the show’s judges, and the talent has been amazing. What sets this show apart from other singing reality shows is that you don’t see who is singing. You just hear their amazing voices. The ratings for the show have been impressive. Last week, they beat Dancing With The Stars in the ratings.
A Nato air strike in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, has killed the son of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, a government spokesman has said.
Colonel Gaddafi himself was in the large residential villa which was hit by the strike, the spokesman added, but was unharmed.
His son Saif al-Arab was said to be dead, as well as three grandchildren.
Nato has confirmed the air strike, without denying or confirming the reported deaths.
A Nato spokesman said the strike had hit a “known command and control building in the Bab al-Azizya neighbourhood”.
“All Nato’s targets are military in nature… We do not target individuals,” said Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard.
He said that he was aware of reports that members of Col Gaddafi’s family had been killed, but made no further comment.
“We regret all loss of life, especially the innocent civilians being harmed as a result of the ongoing conflict,” said Lt-Gen Charles Bouchard.
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On Saturday, Nato officials said the alliance would not consider talks until government forces stopped attacks on civilians.
The vice-chairman of the Transitional National Council also rejected the offer of negotiations, saying the Libyan leader had “offered ceasefires only to continue violating basic human rights, international humanitarian law, and the safety and security of Libya and the entire region”.
Count David Letterman among the celebrities who are now linking Donald Trump’s recent comments about President Obama’s birth certificate and ivy league worthiness to flat out racism.
In a preview of tonight’s interview with Dr. Phil, Letterman offers his opinion on the “Celebrity Apprentice” host, saying the birther drama was amusing and all, but the questions about his academic record is another issue altogether.
“It’s all fun, it’s all a circus, it’s all a rodeo until it starts to smack of racism,” said Letterman. “And then it’s no longer fun.”
Letterman suggests that if Trump comes back to The Late Show — “and I’m not sure that we want him back” — the tycoon “ought to be prepared to apologize.”
The NBA’s Steve Nash and his wife, Alejandra Amarilla, are divorcing. He filed for divorce one day after she gave birth to her third child. That’s right! I said her third child! Published reports say when the baby was born, Nash’s suspicions of cheating were immediately confirmed. And, there’s more drama. Sources are pointing to Nash’s ex-teammate Jason Richardson as the father, and are saying that’s why Richardson was quickly traded from the Phoenix Suns. No word yet from Nash or Alejandra on all this.
SIDEBAR – Evidently the baby didn’t look white……
Washington, D.C. received a wonderful treat as host of an empowering weekend for women. The third annual “Get Radical Conference” took place March 25 – 27, at the Renaissance Hotel, where nearly 500 women showed up from all over the country to hear a message of power from dynamic speakers.
The conference envisioned three years ago by Life Coach Doreen Rainey has taken shape quickly.
“When I decided to become a coach, and started working with my clients one on one and in small groups, I found myself saying, ‘You got to do something radical,’ ” Rainey explained. “And no matter what area of your life you’re in, you have to decide that I’m not only going to change but I’m going to change in a big way.”
That message obviously resonated with everyone in attendance as the energy throughout the conference between the women seemed electrifying.
“Radical is relative. So it doesn’t mean the same thing for every person, but that feeling you get when you feel,” she exhales, “‘This might be it!’ It’s the same. So after having coached my clients around how to get radical I wanted to take it to a bigger platform and I wanted to reach more people and I thought what better way to do that than to begin the conference and invite women from all across the country to hear incredible speakers share their tips and strategies of how to be your best and how to live your best life.”
The conference offered a bevy of powerful women that have lived through some of the most horrific things imaginable and have re-shaped their life to their best life and best self. Life Strategist Rhonda Britten who many may remember as the coach that orchestrated the apology between Kevin Federline and Shar Jackson on Celebrity Fit Club season 7, has seen hardship in the worst way.
Britten became an orphan at 14 when she witnessed her father kill her mother and then himself when she was only 14 years old. “It took me 20 years to get through that. Some may say that’s a long time,” she said. But, I assured her that certainly was not us. Her personal tragedy catapulted her into the life she lives today, re-shaping and strategizing the life of millions through her four bestsellers including the selection she used for the conference “Fearless Living.”
The list of speakers goes on with the most motivating women around today. Niecy Nash, formerly of the Style network’s Clean House, came and blew the roof off the place with her testimony and advice. Not only was she excited to be there, but her energy was infectious. She had the crowd laughing and saying their “Amens” the entire time she spoke. Her candid delivery about her journey as a single mother of three, having to return to her mother’s house with her children after her 16 year marriage ended in divorce, and back into the life she envisioned for herself was more of a ministry than a speech. Participants couldn’t wait to leap to their feet at the end of her talk.
Snoop Dogg will guest on a Rob Patterson-produced track for Charlie Sheen’s My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Death is Not an Option tour, Billboard has confirmed.
A release date for the single has not yet been revealed, although the former “Two and a Half Men” star’s one-man show is slated to kick off Saturday (April 2) in Detroit.
The news arrives after Sheen posted a picture of himself, Snoop Dogg and Patterson on his Twitter last week along with the caption, “Warlock meets his makers-music makers that is @SnoopDogg @robpatterson666 get ready to rock the Sheenius within! http://twitpic.com/4d9cw1.”
Snoop Dogg is fresh off releasing his latest album, “The Doggumentary,” yesterday, and plans on shooting a comedy with fellow stoner rapper Wiz Khalifa this May.
Meanwhile, Sheen’s Torpedo tour will visit 20 North American cities before wrapping up May 3 in Seattle.
Check out who’s coming to TV in the fall. Damon Wayans has signed on to the CBS comedy show about a sports radio station. He’ll co star with Eliza Dushku, the real life girlfriend of former L.A. Laker Rick Fox. Wayans is best known for his roles on My Wife & Kids and In Living Color. Cedric The Entertainer will be doing a comedy show for NBC, and Boris Kodjoe returns to TV on ABC’s Georgetown about young staffers on Capital Hill. Kodjoe was recently on the cancelled NBC show Undercovers that co-starred Gugu Mbatha-Raw and was created by J.J. Abrams. Abrams is producing Taraji P. Henson’s new CBS drama Person Of Interest. Donald Faison of Scrubs fame will be one of the stars of the TV Land show The Exes with Tichina Arnold (“Pam” from Martin, “Mom Rochelle” from Everybody Hates Chris). Arnold will also be starring with Fran Dresher on the show Happily Divorced which is also on the TV Land cable network.
Speaking of The Mighty O, her two-part farewell at The United Center featured more stars alongside with her long time girlfriends Gayle and Maria. Oprah broke her own rule and allowed herself to be surprised by her producers. Tom Hanks hosted the first hour, and Will and Jada Smith saluted her in the second. Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Madonna, Maya Angelou, Jamie Foxx, Queen Latifah, Michael Jordan, Diane Sawyer and Halle Berry all took to the stage in tribute. There were surprise musical performances by Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Usher, The Morehouse College Choir, Beyonce and Patti LaBelle. The biggest secret surprise of all was Oprah’s longtime boyfriend Stedman Graham introducing Aretha Franklin’s performance of Amazing Grace. The two-parter will air May 23rd and 24th.