A great reminder of why social media was a success to begin with, is AnnMarie Walsh, a homeless woman from Chicago. She recently used Twitter to tweet to over 4,800 followers about her experiences in being homeless. Her insights allowed her to offer pieces of advice for others that may be suffering as well.

AnnMarie currently has over 5,800 followers.

How did a homeless woman manage to tweet? She used her cell phone and computers from a local library. She was intrigued by Twitter as it enabled her to interact with people that would not normally listen to her. People were moved by her situation and even offered her as much as two laptops, to pay her cell phone bill, and bus passes.

As this was taking place, a filmmaker reached out to her via Twitter and asked her to be part of his documentary about the homeless. This was just the beginning of her positive experiences, as AnnMarie was invited to some of Twitter’s, 140 Characters Conferences as a guest speaker regarding her homelessness experiences. During one of these sessions, she encountered a case worker who was able to help her find temporary residence.

This is just one recent example. Many will remember the story of Ted Williams, the homeless man whose unique voice went viral on YouTube. He was soon able to find a job and residence after his story made headlines.

The trend seems to just be catching on. A charity in New York aims to give the homeless another chance at life, by giving them pre-paid cell phones and setting them up with Twitter accounts. This organization helps the homeless stay in touch with a world that sometimes forgets them, through Social Media.

These are just some examples of Social Media reinforcing the position that its level of interaction can be used to solve real life problems and effectively communicates the needs to one to another, enabling an action. Within the 7 Pillars, social media is integrated with other forms of communication to replicate this pattern, and enable conversions, whatever that may mean for each business or individual.

In this case, social media allowed individuals were overlooked or looked down upon on the streets, passed by thousands each day, and gave them a voice on a level playing field, where her residential status didn’t matter; where her class or appearance didn’t matter. Social media allows the world to take in a message and to grab onto it – to spread the word for the benefit for the source, in a world where we sometimes forget that the message may be all that matters.

SOPA’s stated intent is to protect copyrighted property from being pirated online. The media industry claims that piracy leads to a loss of profits and comes back to haunt the consumer in the end. Many that pirate media justify their actions with qualms of excessive pricing and the disbelief that their indiscretion could have any affect on a fiscally successful company.

Media, be it music, movies, games, etc will feel the burden in different areas, concurrent with their industry model of fiscal responsibilities. Across all boards, piracy widens the gap between the reach and influence of a product to the profits gained by said product. Companies can have a popular title without seeing the financial compensation to cover their costs of that production. With lower expected returns for their investment, companies are forced to raise the cost of that product to the consumer. The raise in cost allows profit margins to retain original or close to original percentages on a particular title. Going further down the chain, retail outlets cannot compete with pirated pricing, thus selling less of that product, and see a decrease in business which results in them hiring less people (fewer jobs).

It’s hard not to understand why companies want to crack down on piracy, regardless of your stance on it. Among the bill’s top proponents are the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and media giants, the Motion Pictures Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). SOPA aims to protect industry products and industry jobs by allowing the government and private companies to shut down websites that hold copyright infringements.

Criticism of SOPA has been heard loud and strong from the tech industry, particularly in New York City where several tech startups have thrived. Among the bill’s top opponents are LinkedIn, eBay, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and Reddit. These companies have voiced concerned about 1^st Amendment rights and censorship, among others.

What do all these sites have in common and what are they seeing that Congress is not? It requires us to dig into SOPA just a little more. The websites that oppose SOPA are those that are run on user-generated material. Under SOPA, user generated content would become to responsibility of the website itself. Let’s use the example of Pirate Bay. If someone were to post directions on Reddit or Facebook on how to log into Pirate Bay and how to download their favorite movies, Reddit would be accountable for the transgression and held responsible for enabling copyright infringement. The fear is that user generated websites could legally tampered with or worst case scenario, shut down within a few weeks of the bill’s passing.

Sites that rely on user generated content simply cannot exist in their current state under these laws. They are currently not responsible for information uploaded by a user. SOPA changes that. Users fear is that these websites will be replaced with commercialized versions of themselves or be removed/blocked all together.

With millions of pieces of content synchronously being made available, content has become hard to manage in real time. With existing laws in place (Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998), an ISP must remove material from web sites that appear to constitute copyright infringement. This can be requested or flagged by the copyright owner or their representative. Under SOPA, websites could be shut down or blocked by simply being accused of enabling copyright infringement.

The tech industry – specifically those sites running on user generated content have created thousands of jobs in the past few years. Slowing down on innovation is not something the country can afford to do, and not something these young companies want to see happen. They claim Congress will seek to end piracy and hurt the tech industry as collateral damage.

For many, it’s hard to garner support for the RIAA. They’re known for being ruthless in their pursuit of those that illegally download music. SOPA however, is not just about piracy, it’s about property. Including intellectual property.

Aside from tangible products and goods that are protected under SOPA, the bill also addresses the issue of intellectual property. A foreign website selling knock-off purses would be covered under the bill. This is considered intellectual property theft.

This is important for companies, specifically those that pride themselves on providing high quality often high price point goods. Buying bad quality, imposter goods presents a bad image of that company to the buyer, in opposition to the image they have developed and portray and in many cases, in direct opposition to the goods they manufacture.  Associating a supposed ‘high end’ brand with bad quality will damage a company’s image, in turn; damage their brand and their profits.

As the United States cannot do anything to shut down a foreign site, the most they can do is block access to it, under the moniker of protecting Americans into not paying for fake goods. This raises all kinds of questions on censorship, government interference and has even drawn the ire of those that claim this violates the principles of a free market.

Amongst the loudest of SOPA opponents, the Reddit community has displayed the true power of the internet and has collectively raised their voices in protest. They’ve managed to raise awareness to the general population, and have made their feeling felt in the pockets of supporting corporations.

Among the top proponents of SOPA was GoDaddy.com. Having faced public backlash for their involvement, they have since backed off. The backlash? A Reddit user called for a national, ‘Change your Provider Day’ in opposition to GoDaddy’s stance. Within 5 days, GoDaddy lost 74,000 domains due to the Reddit-driven campaign.

As GoDaddy hasn’t been getting a break about this lately, let’s give them one and look at why they’ve supported this. The company was being sued by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (which produces the Oscars each year) for facilitating trademark infringement by allowing domains to be registered by individuals that used it to promote the Oscars (ie. 2011oscars.com), without the consent of the Academy. If SOPA passes, GoDaddy is alleviated of responsibility and those sites can just be taken down or blocked.

Another major concern with the bill is that it does very little to actually target piracy. Taking a closer look, SOPA only targets http, or the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (one of many internet protocols) and does nothing to target the BitTorrent protocol. This protocol which uses neither http nor DNS accounts for approximately 95% of piracy. Thus, the bill does nothing to actually stop piracy where it thrives and only has a negative impact on the structure of the internet which has prospered in the past two decades under the free exchange of information.

In the game of combating piracy, companies are left to wonder to who to blame. Several tech companies have expressed their desire to see the private sector tackle piracy on their own and resist the idea of government regulation of the internet. The comedian, Louis CK is an example of the private sector taking on this issue. The comedian abstained from the production assistance of a larger corporation and opted to film a comedy special, set up his website, and produce the event by himself.

He promoted the special to his fans and admitted that they could pirate it if they want to, but asked for their support and spend $5 to download the special. The low price countered any claims that it would be too expensive for fans to manage. This honest and genuine request resonated with his fan base and others seeking to support the cause. People forewent on downloading a pirated copy of the event, and opted to pay the $5. All profits went to him and covered his production costs. This social test was a stellar success, and Louis CK made over $1 million dollars in sales off the comedy special.

The question becomes if the private sector can tackle this problem on their own by restructuring their own businesses that have seen financial success in the past, or if a heavy handed government ruling that threatens to ‘break’ the internet is necessary. SOPA draws ire from what it fails to do. Fear of SOPA comes from not what it threatens to take away, but from what is can be used to do. As a law is only as good as its interpretation of those regulating it, SOPA can be used to not only protect the intellectual and tangible property of business owners, but to limit free speech and the free flow of information to and from American citizens.

Like the VCR recorder upon its launch, the mp3 player when introduced, and YouTube even today – the answer of large corporations has always been to stifle innovations that can potentially interfere with their business models and profits by trying to get them banned/blocked. Their latest attempt to censor the internet is no different. Think what the world would be like if it weren’t for those tech innovations. SOPA goes beyond protecting the right of copyright owners and takes a dangerous step into government intervention in the flow of information and freedom of speech guaranteed to American citizens.

How do you phase out of implementation stages and bring yourself into periodic maintenance? Before preparing for an ongoing link building campaign, there are plenty of little things you can do that most people forget – and can tip the scales of Google in your favor. Here are some things to help improve your rankings that you should be doing:

Images

Alt Tags traditionally convey the information of the image when not available. They are not normally available to viewers unless their images are turned off and/or the image cannot be loaded. For SEO, Alt Tags can enforce your sites relativity to keywords you have chosen to optimize for. Make sure your alt tags contain keywords that you have decided would drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Using this method appropriately can help your rankings. Make sure every image has an alt tag attached.

Copy

Editing a websites copy sometimes falls last on the list of priorities for an SEO auditor when in fact it should be one of the first things addressed. Changing a site’s copy is probably the number one thing you can do to change SEO rankings. The appearance of keywords in the copy of your webpage is looked at highly in most major search engines. It is important that your website not come off as spam. Keyword density is often argued, but around 2-8% is considered by many to be a standard – allowing you to insert keywords and keeping the text readable to your viewers. There are of course exceptions to this rule. Also keep in mind, keywords in the copy that are bold, or links may be looked upon more highly by search engines.

Code to Text Ratio

The code to text ratio is used to calculate the relevancy of a web page. Higher code to text ratio gives you better chances of getting positive organic search rankings. If your web page contains too much HTML code, it could prevent a search engine from crawling pages. Simple things can be done to fix this problem, ranging from simply adding more copy to your site, or by minimizing the amount of code used. This can be done by putting CSS and Javascript into external files, removing excess tags, and using CSS based layouts.

This problem has become more apparent in recent years with blogging systems like WordPress and Joomla, content management systems which allow people with little to no HTML knowledge, to update and manipulate web sites. While the constant addition of pages and keyword rich content on your site is a positive aspect, CMS’ use a lot of coding. This will affect your code to text ratio negatively.

Site Speed

Believe it or not, your website speed plays a small role in how your site is currently ranked. Site speed can be tested at a variety of sources online. My personal favorite being Google Site Speed Tester, which not only gives you a breakdown of how your website is scored in their system, but tells you how you can improve it. When website speed is positively viewed, your site has better chances of ranking.

These are just some of the details that many forget when optimizing for SEO. There are plenty more. Sometimes it’s the little things that will help.

Social Media has become one of the most powerful tools in Communications, PR, and Marketing. As the use of social media is ever expanding, it is now beginning to be used to influence immigration trends and has began to have a great influence in the medical world.

Australia is a prime example. This country has a unique problem. With a population of 20 million, many describe Australia as being under-populated. This can be attributed to the long distance that people have to travel from their native countries to Australia, and the violence against the native aboriginal people.

Slowly, Australia has begun to “convince” people from different cultures not only to visit as tourists, but also to become Australian citizens. In order to attract more people, Australia has implemented media. They have created television ads to promote the benefits of becoming an Australian citizen. This trend took off in 2010, when SBS, a local TV channel launched an online interactive series of documentaries celebrating the successful stories of the African people who came and built a new life in Australia.

What about medicine? How can Twitter be your Doctor?

Computer Scientists from John Hopkins University have observed that over 1.5 million tweets from 2009-2010 were inquiring about self diagnosis and self treatment for varying illnesses. Incorrect self diagnoses followed by feedback from millions of unqualified followers have created a sea of misinformation. This year the common misconception that antibiotics combat the flu became even more prevalent due to this form of communication. (In fact, antibiotics have little to no effect on the flu, they simply build the virus’ immunity to this type of treatment). The topic of medicine has found a convenient niche in modern social media. Currently, qualified specialists are creating special Twitter channels to give advice on healthcare inquiries regarding widespread ailments like headaches and the stomach bug.

It is amazing how social media has started not only providing basic information but influencing fundamental decisions people make, drastically affecting their daily lives.

Inspired By: http://socialmediatoday.com/node/315625?utm_source=smt_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter     July 8, 2011

Anita Campbell is the Founder, CEO and Editor in Chief of the Small Business Trends website and newsletter. Campbell is also the host of Small Business Trends Radio.

Anita Campbell is an entrepreneur. She graduated from law school and has a wide range of interests. These interested are often reflected in her varied work background, including banking, information technology, human resources, marketing, and e-commerce.

Campbell is a professional speaker, analyst and a writer. She is regarded as being one of the leading small business experts.  She has gained this reputation by publishing several successful online media properties that reach over 1.5 million small business owners per year, among several other things.

Prior to starting her own venture, Campbell was the CEO for several corporations, including the Bell & Howell Company. This work experience combined with her education helped Anita Campbell to become a tremendous speaker with an expertise for small businesses. This has gained her notoriety. Campbell has been featured the “Wall Street Journal”, “New York Times”, “U.S. News” and “World Report”, “Entrepreneur Magazine”, “CIO Magazine”, “Entrepreneur Radio”, “BusinessTVChannel.com”, and other several more.

In 2005 and 2008, Campbell’s “Small Business Trends” won Forbe’s “Best of the Web” distinction for small business blogs. The site also has been highlighted in the “Wall Street Journal”, on MSNBC’s “Your Business” show as Website of the Week, and twice in “the New York Times” in 2005 and 2008, and was a CODIE 2007 Finalist.

Anita Campbell gains and capitalizes on her success through the use of social media. On 8/27/10, Anita Campbell declared on “Postlisting.com”:

During the same interview, when asked which the most effective social media for small businesses are, Anita Campbell advised:

Not only is Anita Campbell speaking at small business events, but she is the host of her own radio show called “Small Business Trends Radio,” which broadcasts over the Internet each week and is podcasted. The show features interviews of small business owners as well as corporate executives with useful information for the small business market.

Anita Campbell deserves to be recognized as a woman entrepreneur who should be followed in life and… on Twitter.

Anastacia Ashman is a strong woman, entrepreneur, journalist, essayist and a world traveler seeking unique experiences. Anastacia Ashman is an award-winning writer and producer of cultural entertainment.

Ashman is the founder of the “expat+HAREM” a global niche community site for identity adventurers. She inspires people every day with her essays and books.

Born and raised in Berkely, California, her products reflection her rich international experience. She holds a degree in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology from Bryn Mawr, and has lived Rome, Kuala Lumpur, and the last 8 years in Istanbul with her Turkish husband. She has also lived New York City and Los Angeles where she worked with literary agents and film, television, and theater producers.

Ashman is a cultural essayist, editor and producer. Her pieces have been featured in several publications, such as The Wall Street Journal Asia, Far Eastern Economic Review and National Geographic Traveler. Popular pieces include her article in A Connoisseur’s Guide to Istanbul in which she addresses the challenges someone from a different culture faces when joining a Turkish family.

In 2006, Ashman penned Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey, which was NBC’s Today Show, Lonely Planet, National Geographic Traveler, New York Times, and more. A best-seller in the US and UK, it was #1 in Turkey in 2006 a hailed as “on the o the best five books on Turkey “ by novelist Elif Shafak.

She is currently living in Istanbul with her Turkish husband and maintains expat+HAREM. She is also a blogger on Twitter in Turkey. She used her name to promote Istanbul as the European Capital of Culture in 2010. In 2010, she launched another web venture called Dialogue2010, a podcast and Twitter chat that allows people to discuss art and cultural identity. Anastacia Ushman used Social Media to not only promote and spread her ideas and works.

70% of Turkey’s population is under 35. The number of young people in Turkey exceeds that of densely populated European countries. It’s easy to understand why Facebook is popular there – In fact, Turkey is the 3^rd largest Facebook-using country in the world. Twitter and personal blogs have also recently gained in popularity. 2.1 million people in Turkey are on Facebook, placing them just behind  United States, Canada, and the U.K. Moreover, 10 of the 150 most used applications on Facebook are in a non-English language ( 1 Spanish, 9 Turkish). Internet and mobile entrepreneur Gulay Ozkan  says “Social Media is a very hot topic at the moment as it brings freedom to a culture that traditionally is shy”.

Ashman developed a publishing concept called the author platform – a good model for the global woman entrepreneur. To generate sales, get project funding, and attract collaborators and partners, Ashman needed to prove her influence and credibility. She received substantial attention by having a targeted mailing list. This became her audience, supplemented by alliances with others with similar audiences. She gained access to media outlets by generating her own newsletters, blogs, podcasts, etc and followed this by making several appearances and speaking engagements. Social Media offered Ashman great and unique opportunities to build a more robust platform with fewer resources.

On www.expatwoman.com, Anastacia Ashman outlines her business and Social Media philosophy:

While reading the secret of her success, a couple of key-words come to mind: interacting, joining conversations, sharing, uploading, contributing, revolving ideas, technology use, viral events creation, digital content distribution and extremely important – allowing other sources to tell her story their way.

Anastacia Ashman is unique because of her personality and the way other people see her allows the creation of a business woman with multiple valences.

Ashman is very active, and today she continues her hard work by working on a forensic memoir of friendship between two women writers spanning 25 years – this life and the afterlife.

Most fascinating is their past, because this campaign has as main goal besides inspiration – life, marketing and many other lessons that each of us should learn….

Alexandria Brown or the “E-Zine Queen” as she has been called acts as a consultant for several different companies and entrepreneurs, helping them increase sales, effectively build customer relationships, and attract new clients. The advice she has shared on her Online Blueprint System, has allowed businesses to triple their web traffic and increase sales up to 100%.

Brown has been featured in countless Business and Marketing publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Sales and Marketing Excellence, Nikkei Weekly), and on TV shows like ABC’s “Secret Millionaire”. Brown was awarded Ernst&Young’s Winning Women Entrepreneurs as well as named one of of Forbe’s Women to Watch among many others.

Brown worked for three years as an Account Executive at Mosby Consumer Health in Boston. Managing newsletter publications for several clients, she was able to form her Marketing and Communications background. She later moved to New York City, where she worked as the head of a new publishing division of, Oxygen Advertising.

For Brown, the desire to be her own destiny builder was prominent. She started her first venture when she settled in New York City; becoming a freelance writer.  She confessed, “I naively thought that I could start a business just by being good at something. In my case, it was writing reports, newsletters, and brochures for companies”. While being good at something is surely the start for any entrepreneur, Brown quickly learned that it would take much more than this.

She had no clients, and started thinking of a powerful tool to help her bring in customers – Marketing. Consequently, she joined several networking clubs and exchange groups, and tried selling herself in Manhattan by presenting her business idea, services, her skills, etc. Through these efforts, she received a minimal amount of clients, without any notable success. In debt and less than $20 in her bank account, she conjured up more courage than ever and continued her business journey.

Her first step was an e-mail newsletter. She started with a 10 person list and a website promoting her services. This helped Brown understand Online Marketing principles and how to interact with larger numbers of people at the same time.

What should have been called a humble start transformed itself into a huge success as she gained numerous clients every day. When asked about her secret to success, her first thought was to pen an e-book. She presented her process in an online book called “Boost Business with Your Own Ezine” that was sold for $27. The e-book was a tremendous success and had a definitive impact on her entrepreneurial and inspirational career.

Thirteen years later, she admits that all she was looking for at the time was a comprehensive technique to increase sales by advertising her company’s website worldwide. She was unable to find a company with a perfected system capable of providing the services she required.

Brown spent thousands of hours reading everything she could about marketing, and in turn worked thousands of hours to conceive a marketing system in order to promote her business venture.

We face this challenge every day – not having the tools or systems required at a certain time. This frustrating situation can be turned around to our advantage every day hard work and a strategic thinking process.

Brown  is a millionaire and her company is ranked as one of the fastest growing in the United States. Alexandria Brown proves not only to be untired in empowering women and other entrepreneurs worldwide but also in demonstrates that any career dream can be accomplished.

Digital Marketing Techniques

Digital Marketing techniques are often a mix of social media, campaign management and mobile marketing. These day’s marketers use digital channels as a part of their campaign management strategy.

There are different techniques used in digital marketing. The key here is which one is most effective to reaching and producing action from the target demographic. The techniques which we choose should be integrated into an overall marketing and communications strategy.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is about interaction. Interaction creates relationships and those relationships open up the opportunity for you to share information about your products and services.

The diagram below shows an approach to a digital marketing strategy; where online investment should be made and how to use social media in context of an overall digital marketing strategy. Build channel partners online. Provide information to the target audience, those who shop online (in this case) and also driving prospective buyers to channel partner stores. This also educates both consumers and your sales staff the value of your brand.

A sales funnel concept is used for turning prospects into new customers.  It’s helped countless businesses to identify opportunities to refine their marketing processes and build their customer base.

Below are some digital strategies used to attract the attention of consumers within a potential market.

• Create a Facebook fan page.
• Run a Google AdWords campaign.
• Ask current customers for referrals, incentivized by discounts.
• Start an e-newsletter.
• Prepare a social media calendar.
• Advertise your business in relevant industry trade magazines.
• Regularly release quality press releases.
• Attend local networking events.
• Start a networking event.
• Start a rewards program for networking partners.
• Start a rewards program for loyal customers.
• Register your business with Foursquare.
• Reward Foursquare mayors and frequent customers.
• Write an e-book.
• Create videos on how to use your product or service.
• Create videos related to new or unique ways to use your product.
• Create exclusive content for those that have joined your social networks.
• Start a blog.
• Create a Twitter account.
• Create a LinkedIn account.
• Look for target companies on LinkedIn.
• Create a direct mail campaign.
• Create custom landing pages for all your marketing efforts.
• Use Social Mention to monitor the conversation about your brand.
• Optimize a Web page specifically for Yahoo search.
• Optimize a Web page specifically for Bing search.
• Write a white paper about your industry.
• Leave pens with your logo and information on them in strategic locations.
• Review books on your industry on Amazon.
• Offer coupons.
• Leave helpful comments on industry blogs.
• Open and use Google reader (or any RSS reader).
• Subscribe to RSS feeds and organize the feeds related to industry and interest.
• Create lists on Twitter of people in your target market.
• Use Google Wave to collaborate in real time.
• Submit your information to Google local.
• And Many More!

One of Symfony’s most appreciated features is its form library. Today I will write a short tutorial on how to create and validate a ‘choice form’ using its form library.

At first let’s see the screenshots of what we are going to implement:

Figure 1: Form Fields before Submission

Figure 2: Form Fields w/ blank Submission

Figure 3: Filling out Required Fields

Figure 4: After Successful Submission

Now let’s create a form inside ‘project_root/lib/form/’ directory called ‘myChoiceForm.php’ and write this code inside.

<?php
class myChoiceForm extends BaseForm {
public function configure() {
//key value pair for the choice form
$choices = array(‘Soccer’ => ‘Football’, ‘Cricket’ => ‘Cricket’, ‘BasketBall’ => ‘Basketball’, ‘Tennis’ => ‘Tennis’, ‘Chess’ => ‘Chess’);

//setting up the widget
$this->setWidgets(array(
‘my_name’ => new sfWidgetFormInputText(),
‘my_sport’ => new sfWidgetFormChoice(array(
‘expanded’ => true,
‘multiple’ => true,
‘choices’ => $choices,
)),
));

//setting up the validator
$this->setValidators(array(
‘my_name’ => new sfValidatorString(array(‘required’ => true)),
‘my_sport’ => new sfValidatorChoice(array(‘choices’ => array_keys($choices), ‘multiple’ => true))
));

//this is to allow any extra form fields while validation
$this->validatorSchema->setOption(‘allow_extra_fields’, true);
//this is to define what name format the form will generate in the view
$this->widgetSchema->setNameFormat(‘myChoiceForm[%s]‘);
}}
?>

Note that inside ‘$this->setValidators()’ I am defining the validation rules. Here ‘sfValidatorString(array(‘required’ => true))’ means this form field is required to be filled with some value. Similarly note the ‘new sfValidatorChoice(array(‘choices’ => array_keys($choices), ‘multiple’ => true))’ part, here by providing “’choices’ => array_keys($choices)” parameter I’m telling the validation class to validate against these particular keys from the choice form. Also the “’multiple’ => true” is important! If you do not provide this parameter then validation class will assume that user can only select 1 value and will show an error if user selects multiple entries.

Now write a method to show this form in action and pass it to the view:
‘project_root/apps/app_name/modules/module_name/actions/actions.class.php’:
<?php
public function executeShowMyForm(sfWebRequest $request) {
$form = new myChoiceForm();
if ($request->getPostParameter(‘myChoiceForm’) != NULL) {
$form->bind($request->getPostParameter(‘myChoiceForm’));
if ($form->isValid()) {
//setting up a different template
$this->setTemplate(‘showMessage’);
//passing the form to the view
$this->form = $form;
} else {
//passing the form to the view
$this->form = $form;
}
} else {
$this->form = $form;
}
}
?>

Now render this form inside the corresponding template:

‘project_root/apps/your_app/modules/module_name/templates/showMyFormSuccess.php’:
<form id=”form5″ method=”post” action=”<?php echo url_for(‘test/showMyForm’) ?>” >
<?php// echo $form; ?>
lt;span style=”color: #EE0000″><?php echo $form->renderGlobalErrors() ?></span>
<?php echo $form->renderHiddenFields() ?>
<div ><span class=”lebel”>Name :</span></div>
<div >
<span style=”color: #EE0000″>  <?php echo $form["my_name"]->renderError() ?> </span>
<?php echo $form["my_name"]->render(array(“size” => “40″)) ?>
</div>
<br />
<div ><span class=”lebel”>My Sports :</span></div>
<div>
<span style=”color: #EE0000″>  <?php echo $form["my_sport"]->renderError() ?> </span>
<?php echo $form["my_sport"]->render(array(“size” => “40″)) ?>
</div>
<input type=”submit” value=”Submit” />
</form>

Also create a template to show your submitted message:

‘project_root/apps/your_app/modules/module_name/templates/showMessageSuccess.php’:
<?php
echo “You have submitted the form successfully !<br />”;
echo ‘Your name is:’ . $form->getValue(‘my_name’).’<br />’;
echo ‘Your favourite sports are: ‘ . implode(‘,’,$form->getValue(‘my_sport’));
?>

Now you have seen how to implement a form in Symfony, try it yourself!

Danuloff goes into more depth to unveil that the true value of a quality score is more than meets the eye.  I’ll explain a couple of his insights in the following paragraphs.

The Visible Quality Score

This is a simple approximation of a quality score that offers different metrics by range and distribution.  That simplicity is good for novices to PPC advertising strategy and web analytics, but is limiting to all involved.  The visible score does not draw out enough details to make it commensurate for a user.  Quality score only the performance of a search query that is relevant to the keyword.  A keyword with a broad match, for example, surfaces from 100 different searches.  Only 5 of them are identical to the keyword in question.  Here is a clearer example.   You type ‘green sneakers’ into the search box.  Your result index shows landing pages from footwear, shoes, sandals, etc on the first page, rather than a site with “green sneakers” in the list.  That lack of detail can cost a marketer critical revenue.

Critical Details That Visible Quality Score Does Not Monitor

The visible quality score does correlate with click-through rates, also an essential metric for your e-commerce strategy.  It does not, however, monitor these statistics:

Search Query Performance

Geographic Performance

Ad Copy Differences

Details are answered by clicking here.