Business and Marketing

It rules that the increase suggested by USPS is in line with price cap regulations. New prices will take effect on April 26.

The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) yesterday approved the Postal Service's request for an average 2% increase on market dominant products, ruling that the numbers were in line with price cap regulations.

Forever stamp prices will remain the same, at 49 cents, but pre-sorted letters and postcards will go up 2.4% when the new rates take effect on April 26.

The price of single-piece, machinable, metered letters will increase half a cent to 48.5 cents. In addition, USPS will raise the single-piece additional ounce price for letters from 21 to 22 cents and the single-piece postcard price from 34 to 35 cents. The first ounce price for single-piece flats remains at 98 cents.

The PRC also approved a workshare discount increase—from 18.3 to 19.2 cents—on automated five-digit flats, as well as continuation of discounts for upcoming promotional programs for business mailers.

A three-cent rebate on Business Reply Mail and Courtesy Reply Mail will be returned to mailers who participated in the Earned Value Reply program in 2014; newcomers will get a two-cent rebate. A promo encouraging use of innovative methods will provide a 2% discount on mail including such technologies as near field communication (NFC) or augmented reality (AR), and a 2% discount will be given to mailers using dynamic or variable color in marketing messages.

USPS declined to take its annual price cap adjustment in January, awaiting the outcome of its appeal to keep the 4.3% exigent price increase on a permanent basis. That decision, however, is still forthcoming from the D.C. Court of Appeals.

Business Breaking News: 10 Things Katy Perry Can Teach You About Social Media

Katy Perry is more than just a pop princess — with nearly 64 million followers, the “Firework” singer is the reigning queen of Twitter.

Perry is now officially the most followed user on Twitter, making her even more popular than the President of the United States is on the social network. And keeping up with her Twitter timeline is no easy feat, given the star’s busy schedule. Even though Perry is busy traveling all over the globe for her Prismatic World Tour and performing at the Super Bowl and the Grammys, she still makes time to tweet, much to the delight of her ever-expanding fan base (also known as “KatyCats”).

So how does Perry maintain her status as social networking royalty? Her strategy is simple: be yourself, have fun, and market smart. Step up your social marketing game with these 10 tips, straight from Katy Perry’s Twitter:

Commodity Online News: Gold trimmed gains on strong dollar Chinese demand supported prices