Tag: Business

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That’s fairly extensive, but many firms are, at the very least, monitoring some of employees’ Internet, phone and email use, especially larger companies and those in sensitive or heavily regulated industries. The market for email monitoring software has grown more than 25% each year since 2008 and is projected to reach $1.23 billion in 2013, according to IT market research firm Gartner; more than one in three large U.S. companies employ actual people to read or analyze employee email, according to a 2010 study by email monitoring firm Proofpoint. Plus, a survey by the American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute found that almost half of the small, medium and large companies surveyed monitored phone use, and two out of three monitored web use. Instant-message and text-message monitoring are also increasing, says Stephen Marsh, chief executive of email archiving firm Smarsh.

Not only do employers watch what you’re doing, but many act on what they find. One in five large U.S. companies fired an employee for violating email policies in the past year, the Proofpoint survey found. What was a fireable offense? Most email investigations pertain to issues of employees leaking sensitive, confidential or embarrassing information, or theft – not racy messages sent to a girlfriend from an office email account or the occasional online shopping binge from the corporate desktop.

via smartmoney.com

Follow the link and go to the source. How many of these things are true in your organization?

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Cloud computing offers a lot of benefits to small-medium business and other cost conscious organizations. Here’s how you can avoid some of the risks…

With Cloud Computing becoming more widely utilized, it is important for organizations to understand ways to maximize benefits and minimize risks of a move to the cloud. This paper details the significant benefits that Cloud Computing brings and provides guidance to IT decision makers to help their decision making process. This is especially important given the plethora of vendors in the marketplace today. Buyers need to appreciate that assessing individual providers is critical to the success of Cloud Computing programs.

Go to the source to read the article: rackspace.com

If you seriously want to understand the benefits [and pitfalls] of cloud computing, go to the source. If you want to apply the benefits and avoid the pitfalls in your organization, ‘connect with me’ to discuss your scenario…

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Here’s what’s been fascinating me for the last 24 hours…

 

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Social Media Landscape
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Consider this…

Every job requires a variety of skills to be successful, and social media marketer or communicator or specialist at a B2B company is no different. But when you start to list out the skills and realize the level of competency required for this postion, it becomes daunting to find individuals with all of them. If you were looking to make a social media hire, which may be a quaint thought in a few years, you must determine what skills hold the highest priority for your organization. This may be difficult to determine if your B2B company is looking for the person to start the company’s social media programs.

And if you are looking for a social media postion, while you cannot excel at all of these, you must excel at several of them and possess a high level of proficiency at most of them. So let’s take a look at the major skills, which I have presented in the form of positions or job titles.

via socialmediab2b.com

Follow the ‘via’ link to go to the source where you can find all the skills you need…

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Here’s what’s been fascinating me for the last 24 hours…

 

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I found a great post on the Duct Tape Marketing site that was very timely for me…

To help website owners take full advantage of the most important online marketing opportunities, here are 3 things small businesses can do to attract and engage new customers.

Content Publishing & Marketing – Consumers are interacting with multiple content sources before purchase and businesses that provide useful information beyond product features and benefits can attract more traffic and referrals.

Tips, articles, videos and experts interviews provide customers with the information they need to buy and refer to others. Useful content optimized with keywords also attracts more search engine traffic and links.

Social Media & Networking – 90% of marketers say that social media is important for their business according to the 2011 Social Media Marketing Report. Word of mouth, referrals and buzz on social networks can increase awareness, build trust and influence sales.

Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube offer useful platforms for small businesses to be helpful and share information with networks far beyond their customer base.

Local & Mobile – By 2014, mobile Internet will take over desktop Internet according to Microsoft Tag Lab. Small business websites can increase page views by offering a mobile friendly version of their website. They can also increase visibility on local search by making sure they’ve claimed their listings on Google Places and Bing Business Listings.

via ducttapemarketing.com

I just spoke last night to a group of independent home inspectors about these very issues. Some didn’t even have a site. Those that did had ‘brochureware’. The problem, I explained to them, is how will someone know you’re an expert if they can’t google you? That’s now this next generation of buyers will make there decisions…

The answer is as easy as using a free WordPress site as your business blog and adding Google Apps for corporate email. Next, link the rss feed from your blog to your Facebook page, Twitter account, LinkedIn account and your MailChimp newsletter. Then all you need to do is use Google Reader to ‘listen to the internet’ and make the information you need come to you. Out of that listening will come a lot of great ideas for you to create or curate on your website. This is the ‘lather, rinse, repeat’ cycle of ‘thought leadership’ marketing. I call it the ‘e1evation workflow’.

Anyone who can send an email can use these tools to get known by Google and the best news is every single one is free and completely cross platform right down to the smartphone level. Comment or ‘connect’ so we can talk about how this applies to your organization…

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If you’re a business owner and you’ve heard the recent news about Facebook’s attention-grabbing new feature for location-sharing and checkins, you’re probably itching to find out what Facebook Places can do for your business and how it can help you reach out to would-be customers and loyal regulars in your community.

While Facebook isn’t ready to announce any special brand-platform relationships or tie-ins just yet, one Facebook ad exec told us that the company does have plans to integrate Places with its larger marketing offerings for SMBs. The best thing a business owner can do to prepare for those offerings is get familiar with the ins and outs of Facebook and location marketing now.

Here are a few pointers for how SMBs can use Facebook Places and other marketing tools starting today.

via mashable.com

You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article if you’d like to dig a little deeper…

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First Impressions

First, your headline matters. It’s what people see when they accept your invite, and it’s probably the fastest first impression one receives. If you work for a company, put that name in the headline. When I don’t see a company name, I wonder if you’re solo.

Your Summary

Here’s where I think the most work can be done. When I look at my profile, I think it’s a bit long, but otherwise, I’ve done the following:

  • Lead with what I do most.
  • Lead with the type of business I want to do.
  • Move into the reasons why you’d do business with me.
  • Move from there into all the nuances of what I do.

In every case within the summary, your plan should be to write from the mindset of the prospective employer (or client), such that when they read it, they think, “I need to hire this person.”

Tip: refresh your summary every two weeks.

via chrisbrogan.com

Thanks, Chris, for posting this. My LinkedIn profile is the ‘red headed step child’ of my social media empire! If you’re like me, you can follow the ‘via’ link above to spiff up your profile…

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I’m proud to have been chosen again to speak at the second “How to be a social media rockstar” event hosted by the Green Bay Chamber of Commerce. I’ll be speaking on the topic of ‘the signs point to social media’.

Since the beginning of business, people have used signs as a means of communication commercial value. They are still an effective tool, especially when combined with social media. I will be talking about effective B2B and B2C communication through the use of commercial signs linked to social media tools, including QR codes as a means of linking traditional and new media…

You can sign up for the event using the information below. I hope to see you there…

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‘Thought leadership’ marketing takes time! Here’s one man’s perspective on taking that time to ‘make media’ as he says…

This is a chicken or the egg causality dilemma for me: as I create more media, my media consumption has changed or my media consumption has changed, hence I’m able to create more media. I really don’t know which came first but what I can tell you is that I definitely watch much less TV, read more than I ever have in my life, and listen to industry specific podcasts.I rarely watch TV anymore and when I do it is usually a sporting event, a movie, or Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. I just don’t find sitting mindlessly in front on the TV exciting anymore. Rather than watch TV, I take time with my family or read. Speaking of reading, I read all the time. Whether it’s a book, a blog, or the newspaper, not only do I find enjoyment in reading – I also find blog topics and ideas.

Finally, I have become a fan of podcasts. In my never ending quest to find time to exercise, which I still don’t do often enough anymore, I’ve started to walk and listen to podcasts at the same time. I feel like I’m killing two birds with one stone. There are many great podcasts out there but two I would recommend are John Jantsch’s Duct Tape Marketing and Copyblogger’s Internet Marketing for Smart People Radio.

via schneiderb.com

Brendan Schneider has put together a thoughtful post on ‘making media’ [you can follow the ‘via’ link to read the whole post] in which he talks about ‘Getting Things Done’, staying away from the ‘idiot box’ [as my father was so fond of saying’], and creating a SMS — a social media system — for managing his social media outposts. I have a lot of similar needs and biases as Brendan and my social media system is called the ‘e1evation workflow‘ — kind of a ‘lather, rinse, repeat’ cycle for ‘thought leadership’ marketing [my way of saying ‘make media’]. Comment or ‘connect’ above so we can talk about a ‘practical, tactical’ approach to social media how this applies to you and your organization…

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…and use Google Apps! I had a chat with a business owner yesterday who was still using a pop mail account to run his business — scheduling meetings with his partners is a nightmare! Enter Google Apps! Here’s a quick overview…


Contact me! I’ll be happy to talk you through it because your organization needs Google Apps, too…

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Go to the source to learn more: preyproject.com

Travel much? Concerned about losing your computer to a thief? You might be interested in how one man used Prey to track down the man who stole his computer, all played out in social media via Storify…

<script src="

A man’s laptop is stolen, but he’s able to track it remotely and with the help of social media, recover it. (NSFW language. More story links at bottom.)

http://storify.com/btballenger/man-tracks-stolen-laptop-thousands-of-miles-away.js”>%5B<a href="

A man’s laptop is stolen, but he’s able to track it remotely and with the help of social media, recover it. (NSFW language. More story links at bottom.)

http://storify.com/btballenger/man-tracks-stolen-laptop-thousands-of-miles-away&#8221; target=”blank”>View the story “Man tracks stolen laptop hundreds of miles away, calls thief” on Storify]

h/t Mitch Joel…

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picasa-logoThen join me in a free training session this morning at 10:00…

Recently I wrote about ‘rediscovering’ Picasa on my trip to Germany. I’m doing a free session for a couple of clients and friends and I’ll be opening up the remaining spaces to anyone that can join us. Here’s the login info…

1. Please join my meeting.
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/join/797914947

2. Use your microphone and speakers (VoIP) – a headset is recommended. Or, call in using your telephone.

Dial 712-338-7131
Access Code: 797-914-947
Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting

Meeting ID: 797-914-947

GoToMeeting®
Online Meetings Made Easy™

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John Jantsch
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2011 marks my eighth year of blogging. In that time I’ve logged over 2500 blog posts, acquired around 143,000 subscribers and had this blog named by the likes of Forbes magazine as their favorite for both marketing and small business.

If this asset has delivered any measure of success I can tell you that the primary reason is that in that same time I’ve also read some or all of approximately 120,000 blog posts written by others. I’ve stated repeatedly that anyone that wants to start a blog, get better at blogging or make their blog a serious marketing tool for their business must first and foremost get very good at reading blogs…

Go to the source to read the article if you’d like to know John’s logic. Find it here: ducttapemarketing.com. Business blogging for both production and consumption are two of the most important activities in my day. ‘Connect with me’ if you’d like to know more about it…
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Social media is a tool that, on the surface, appears to only have use in certain areas- such as simple interpersonal relationships or business-to-consumer marketing.  However, experienced users recognize the benefits of social media in establishing and maintaining business-to-business marketing.  Those in marketing may claim, “Well, people who are into social media aren’t the audience we are going after.” or, “My distributors are too old- they don’t even use email!”  Certainly these arguments are true in some cases, but you will not gain anything if you don’t step out of your comfort zone and try.  Remember that your future network of distributors will most likely be experienced social media users.  If your business peers aren’t deep into social media, their interns and new hires will be.

Many people are still not sure what “social media” is.  Is it Facebook, Linkedin, or Youtube?  Actually it is not any one of these things on its own.  It is a means of communicating, sharing, and listening.  It’s all about sharing your ideas with your distributors so that both of you can be more successful.  Tips, tricks, and success stories help build relationships.  Social media, in all its forms, is all about posting questions to your networks, listening to ideas, and getting timely feedback to create better business partners.  It’s about sharing presentations and demonstrations to help build credibility in your industry.

Social media in the business-to business realm is all about connecting, learning, and growing- it is building and fostering relationships so that businesses can grow together. And remember, its all about the relationships!

via hcmiller.com

tommytrc @ HC Miller [the author of this post] belongs on your follow list! Not only is he the nicest guy in social media but he’s an ‘a-list’ content aggregator and creator as well…

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The key to zooming in on purpose and usefulness within social channels starts with the realization that there is no one audience. Nor is there a sustainable market for branded messages, marketing campaigns, or “Tweet/Like to Win” contests. Indeed, every channel created to represent the brand must carry a purpose, mission and corresponding value. One of the most common questions I’m asked by businesses of all shapes and sizes is, “What is the right number of accounts we should have in each social network?” Or, “How many profiles is too many or too few?”

The answer is as simple as it is revealing. Create the number of channels that meaningfully extend the focus of your business. Only create channels that enhance the brand message without diluting it. And make sure you have the capacity to keep all the channels relevant.

So what are the best practices for creating an engaging social stream? Let’s take a look at the traits of some of the more successful and regarded brands in the business.

via mashable.com

Another awesome article by Brian Solis. You’ll have to follow the ‘via’ link if you want to get all 14 best practices. My favorite? “Construct a Listening Framework: The best listeners make the best conversationalists. Build a listening framework that monitors the brands as well as the distinct conversations related to each account.” There are still a few seats left for my ‘Google Reader Rockstar’ event next week. Sign up here — you’ll get the listening framework Solis recommends…

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We preach it every week.

Attract the right kind of traffic by creating exceptional content.

Engage your audience so they know, like, and trust you. Let them know you’re the likable expert who’s going to give them the information (and eventually the products and services) that won’t let them down.

Then use smart copywriting and conversion techniques to turn those raving fans into customers.

No, it’s not paint-by-numbers, but it is a proven, systematic way to build your business.

But sometimes I hear people say, “Geez, that sounds like a lot of work.”

Well, ok, I’m going to give it to you straight. It’s work.

But a lot of work compared to what? Digging latrines? Losing your mind in a cubicle farm? Spouting half-baked opinions on a reality TV show?

So let’s break it down … building a business our way versus building a business by other people’s methods.

via copyblogger.com

Want more? Follow the ‘via’ link…

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Business Process Reengineering Cycle
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Great stuff!

“A participant of a recent webcast asked me if there is one service every consultant should offer. I didn’t hesitate with my answer. Every practice, no matter how different, should offer clients a diagnostic assessment. 

You might refer to this service as a strategic review, a gap analysis, a business process evaluation, or even an initial consultation. Whatever you call it, your service should evaluate a specific area of client concern in a relatively short, systematic way and offer objective advice. The emphasis is on “short,” “systematic,” and “objective.”

For example, one consultant offers a two-week assessment of client call center operations. During that time, the consultant analyzes the call center’s customer service performance, employee productivity, financial performance, and management effectiveness.” Source: The One Service Every Consultant Should Offer – RainToday

Go to the source and read the whole article…

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Are you an entrepreneur? Want to be one? Then it’s good to ponder this…

What exactly is it that sets entrepreneurs apart from the rest? What is it that makes certain people believe in themselves enough to take the prospect of failure head-on and have the determination to come out on top? It takes a special kind of person to set an idea in motion, riding the highs and lows from humble beginnings to ultimate success.”

Click here to read more…

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via youtube.com

I don’t comment on politics often here, but here’s a politician who gets YouTube! Ex-reality tv star cum DA Sean Duffy is a former client of mine who looks like he’ll have a new zip code in January — although he’s no technologist himself, at least he understands the value of social media in getting his ‘awesome’ out. Comment, call or use the contact form to discuss how this applies to your business…

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