AJB Software In Bloomberg Story on eBay and PayPal, VeriFone Partnership

EBay, VeriFone to Bring PayPal to Store Cash Registers

By Olga Kharif - May 24, 2012 1:32 PM PT

VeriFone Systems Inc. (PAY), the largest maker of credit-card terminals, said shoppers will be able to use their PayPal accounts at cash registers in some brick-and- mortar stores this holiday season.

EBay Inc. (EBAY), owner of the PayPal online-payments business, and VeriFone have signed a licensing and marketing deal to add the payment option at U.S. retailers, Jennifer Miles, an executive vice president at VeriFone, said in an interview. She didn’t name the retailers.

PayPal and VeriFone competitor Ingenico (ING) agreed in January to incorporate PayPal into the French company’s card-reading terminals. PayPal also announced a relationship with AJB Software Design Inc. to develop software to ease merchants’ processing of PayPal transactions.

Also today, PayPal announced point-of-sale payment partnerships with 15 retailers, including J.C. Penney Co., Jamba Inc., Foot Locker Inc. and Abercrombie & Fitch Co.

This story is the latest of many in coverage of AJB Software and company news.

*Note, story have been shortened, see full Bloomberg story at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-24/ebay-verifone-to-bring-paypal-to-store-cash-registers.html

PR In The Changing Social Media World Today

In today's faster than ever business world, public relations has seen big changes over the last ten years, going back to the Dotcom and NASDAQ days to now, key developments have changed the landscape of PR and communications, and opened many new opportunities and means for success in public relations.

Starting with Twitter, the mass use of this social media tool by just about everyone in the known world, including companies in all industries and all at levels as well as media editors, reporters and bloggers with many using tweets as a preferred form of communication. Sites and services such as ProfNet and Help a Reporter Out, offer services to help with reporters and news, and you can sign up via their websites as well as follow them on Twitter. Search engines offering peoeple search services such as 123people and Intelius help you find information about people and business contacts, media, potential clients, partners or employees, and much more, and are a very effective tool for finding data about people online. Then of course there are the many social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ as well as the many sites focused on specific groups, topics or industries such as PartnerUp, XING, Yelp, Meetup and more, where you can network, find and meet people and share news and posts with the world.

With all of these new ways of networking and communicating, along with proven traditional means of PR - including posting of press releases through wire services at Business Wire, PR Newswire, India PRwire, and many more for local, national and international release and distribution - now we have social media and through the many networks, sites and services along with online news including TechCrunch, Mashable, Examiner.com and more, there are now so many new ways and means to achieve amazing results with media and social media in the world today, the possibilities are endless.

All you have to do is sign up and use them all, and the good news is most are free, and all are highly effective. Welcome to PR in the wide open Social Media world of today.

Interesting Results to User Survey Conducted by 123people, Regarding Online Privacy

Today leading people search engine 123people announced user survey regarinding online privacy which showed interesting results and highlighted that despite growing awareness of online data and privacy issues, people still need further education regarding online privacy and protecting themselves and their data online.

From Press Release:
23% of 123people Users Check Their Digital Footprint Regularly

Awareness about personal data online is growing – but further education still needed

January 28th is International Data Privacy Day. This day draws the attention to a topic that affects every Internet user: Data Privacy and the handling of private information through the Internet. The latest figures from a national user survey conducted by the leading people search engine 123people (www.123people.com), reveals that 23 percent of Internet users search for their own name regularly, and in doing so 55 percent clearly intend to check their online reputation.*

“Although awareness about personal data online is growing, further information and education is still needed. We assume that 70 percent of the users that contact the 123people Customer Support Team need to know about their digital footprint or how to sustain and manage it”, explains Alexandra Senoner, Head of Corporate Communications. Most of the user requests sent to 123people’s Customer Support refer to the “deletion” of a specific link. 123people restricts every link upon request from its website, but as 123people does not store any links nor create any profiles, but generates the results and links in real-time each time a search is conducted, a real and effective deletion of the link can only be done by the user at the original source.

Link to full press release here or you can see press release at: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120125005847/en/23-123people-Users-Check-Digital-Footprint-Regularly

AJB Software Today Announced Their Relationship With PayPal

Maxima PR working with The DFI Group out of Toronto, wanted to highlight today's announcement of the relationship between AJB Software and PayPal, bringing in-store payment services and options to the retail world and retail stores. Now you will be able to enjoy the convenience of PayPal's services in retail stores near you.

From Press Release
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AJB Software Design, Inc., a leader in integrated payment solutions, today at the 2012 NRF Convention, announced its relationship with PayPal. Working together the companies will offer Point of Sale (POS) application programming interfaces (APIs), making it easier for AJB’s large retail customers to offer PayPal as an in-store payment option for shoppers, who can access multiple payment sources and coupons within the PayPal wallet...  See full press release on Business Wire at: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120116005069/en/AJB-Offer-PayPal-Retail-Payment-Processing

A Little Holiday Fun From 123people with Santa, Rudolph, The Grinch and Even Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo

My latest blog for 123people (http://www.123people.com/) the leading and quite frankly the best of the people search engines, where I wrote a blog to provide everyone with a little fun and humor for the holidays!

See my 123people blog "Holiday Fun From 123people with Santa, Rudolph, The Grinch and Even Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo!" at:

http://www.123people.com/blog/a-little-holiday-fun-from-123people-who-is-the-most-searched-for-holiday-character

Enjoy the blog, some laughs and the holidays everyone!

From me and my whole team here at Maxima PR, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Big Mistakes In PR That Can Easily Be Avoided

Wanted to discuss today some of the common mistakes made by people and agencies in public relations.

A few of the most common mistakes are actually very simple and easy to avoid, if you just take a little time and have a little knowledge.

1. Overdoing it with the media and contacting them too much. You do not need to contact the media 7 or 8 million times, this annoys them and if you burn a bridge, you may not have a second chance with the person you have harrassed to the point of ignoring you.
2. Making sure you have the right contacts at press outlets. Many times lists are out of date or have everyone at a press outlet on a list. This is not appropriate and you need to research and know who your contacts are for whatever type of story you are pitching. There can be more than one person at a publication, but you need to know who they are, not just randomly contact every reporter at an outlet. This makes you and your agency look like hacks and is not good.
3. One very important rule is to never ever lie to a media person about a company, product or service. We all want to score the meetings and the big stories with Wall Street Journal, New York Times, TechCrunch and Good Morning America, but when you lie you are risking not only your reputation with the media, but the company you represent. I have seen PR agencies and people lie and have warned them about this, and some have found out the hard way what it costs to try and fool the media. You cannot buy your reputation and if you soil your name with someone in the press, it could have a very negative effect on your career.

Just a few simple rules to follow when working with the media, and it is always best to be open, honest, and know your media outlets and contacts. A good PR agency or team lead will make sure their people are doing things the right way, and will educate and assist them on learning and developing in their career and skills, and help them to avoid blunders like those listed above.

Good luck pitching all you hungry PR people.

Networking: The Power of Communication

Today we wanted to go over networking and how important and beneficial networking and communicating can be, not only for PR and media, but for any part of business and life.

You never know who or what is out there or who or what your associates, family, friends, coworkers or casual contacts know or are into, unless you communicate, network and find out.

If you are building a business and have a general plan and overview, by networking with already existing contacts, while also going out and about to meet and make new contacts and associates, you are doubling your chances of finding clients, work, contacts, and a vast range of opportunities and people who could help you in any number of ways.

It is very important to network and communicate openly, and sometimes things can really come together with people and opportunities which can grow and become more contacts and opportunities, and still more and more. Communicate and network the heck out of yourself, your business, skills, interests and opportunities and share this with everyone through your network or networks, and you will be amazed at the number of great things that can and will happen for you, your business and career.