Tag: Trends

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All vendors, heck, EVERYONE needs to rethink the way we interact with customers, especially now that there are 400 million Facebook members, 100 million of which access the service via smartphones…

“Traditional Web sites are being replaced by social media and Web 2.0 communities for vendor and partner marketing and sales activities, and the number of people using such tools for sales purposes is increasing as the technology continues to evolve and users start to understand how to better take advantage of the benefits.

In fact, the way vendors and channel partners are doing social marketing is starting to change a lot, said Michael Dubrall, managing director of Gilwell Group, during the recent “Exploring Social Media & Vendor Marketing Trends — Survey Results” Webinar hosted by Integrated mar.com as part of its Trusted Business Advisor Webinar series.

Vendors and partners are having to change the way they meet their customers’ needs, but they’re also communicating with and finding customers differently than before.

“There’s a huge change in the way we’re interacting with each other up and down the value chain,” Dubrall said. Some of the old ways of doing business are giving way for the new reality of social media marketing…” Source: Integrated mar.com: direct results for the indirect world

If you’re a marketing genius confused by all the social media possibilities, comment, call or contact me to talk about how this applies to your business…

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“We all know that there is growing agreement that podcasts are a great way to share your thought-leading content.

According to a study released by KnowledgeStorm and Universal McCann on the emerging role of new media, over 41 percent of survey respondents claimed they had listened to podcasts on more than one occasion, and 13 percent stated that they frequently download or listen to them; and 65 percent of podcast listeners said they listen to podcasts for both personal and business interests (source: Emerging Media Series: The Influence of Podcasts on B2B Technology Purchase Decisions, July 2006).

There is increasing demand for podcasts as part of the marketing arsenal to engage audiences and advance conversations with prospective customers. Podcasting is proving to be a great way share multimedia content because your audience can fetch it automatically or when it fits their schedule. Podcasts are fun and easy to do and there are plenty of free or cheap ways to get started. Click here to read the original article or give me a call at (920) 486-4798 if you’d like to know more…

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I’ve been following industry oracle Guy Kawasaki for over 25 years and I agree with him almost all of the time. He was right about the Mac, he’s right about Posterous and he’s right about Alltop. He’s right about so many things. When he speaks, I take notes. This time, however, I take issue…

He posted a recent article on the topic of Facebook pages recently and this is one of the rare times I need to take issue…

“Q: I’m a small business entrepreneur, and I’ll be introducing a consumer product soon. Should I create a website for my company or a Facebook fan page?

A: I faced a similar question a few weeks ago for my book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions. I had three options: create a site for the book, add a section for the book to my existing website, or create a Facebook fan page.

After five minutes of thoughtful deliberation, I decided to add a bare-bones section to my website (which I haven’t gotten around to do yet—which should tell you something) and create a Facebook fan page but not to create a website for the book. Here’s why I did not choose a website:” Source: Ask the Wise Guy: Facebook Fan Page or Website? : The World :: American Express OPEN Forum

Guy goes on to elucidate 4 reasons why he did not choose a website and 8 reasons why he chose a Facebook page along with 3 potential ‘gotchas’ — go to the source and read the entire article if you’d like…

Here’s where Guy and I part thinking. In business, the answer is rarely either/or. Frequently it’s both/and. Guy’s advice is great for someone launching a product or a book, but it’s not really great long term advice for an entrepreneur launching a company. As a short term strategy I recommend that entrepreneurs buy a domain, set up Google Apps and create a Facebook page. Google Apps will give them the ability to send corporate email from their domain and their domain name can be temporarily directed toward their Facebook page until they build a blogsite. This will give them a total ‘appearance package’ that will allow them to look professional immediately while they contemplate their website and further social media strategy and tactics…

On this issue I side with author Lisa Barone who recently posted…

“Brace yourself: Facebook is trying to take over the world. Or, if not the world, at least the entire Internet. With Facebook partnering up with popular sites like Yelp, many SMB owners may feel as if their load got lighter. I mean, why waste time worrying about your building your blog or your own site when you can grow your Facebook presence instead? If Facebook’s opening up the doors so that people can take you with them, you don’t have to worry about anything else anymore, right?

Wrong!

It doesn’t matter how hot Facebook or any of the other social media sites are looking right now. You still need to be focused on using your blog to create your own authority and brand.” Source: 10 Reasons Not To Ignore Your Blog For Facebook

Reason #1 she cites? “You don’t own Facebook”…

The problem with Facebook from my perspective is that you’re not only a renter, you’re a free renter and you can expect all the rights and privileges thereof. In other words, you have no rights on Facebook — not even privacy. You use it at your own risk. Facebook can — and has — made major changes to their technology without notice or recourse. Using a Facebook page is a great place for an entrepreneur to start but not to stay. I agree with Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse and other internet visionaries who propose an internet ‘homebase and outpost‘ strategy that puts a blog at the center of your online presence. The key is that you have to own that presence and be ‘master of your domain’ name and internet brand…

In the future, these homebases may become less important as more people understand the wisdom of David Sauter and his team at Envano. Their ‘autobahn’ model describes a future where a website becomes less important as a company embraces appropriate social media tools to build their internet presence, but the lack of an ‘easy button’ or unified social media dashboard makes this more of a future vision than a present reality…

Guy, I love you, your thought leadership and your content, but just this once I think your Q&A might have done the reader a disservice. Readers? Questions? Feedback? Please comment, call or use the contact form to connect so we can talk about how this applies to your business…

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Sweta of GlobalThoughtz has an interesting blog post on the topic of corporate blogs…

“How do you follow your favorite company? How do you come to know about their latest launch or what’s cooking in their labs? My answer to this would be their ‘Corporate Blogs’. Not only does it give me a constant update about the company I like but also makes me feel connected to them. It gives me the feeling that they are listening to me. 

Today as a consumer, I have several products to choose from for each of my need and certainly my choice is driven by my affinity to a particular brand. Just like Internet presence had become crucial a few years back, corporate blogs are absolute necessity now. After all we live in the world of Social Media.

Its not just web companies that need to engage their consumers with their blogs. Few of the most loved companies in the world also house must read blogs. One of the best example of corporate blog is Official Google Blog, not only does it provide an insight into the company but also provides useful information to its readers. Corporate blogs such as McDonald’s Corporate Social Responsibility by McDonald’s, Check Out by Walmart and Fast Lane by GM have made these most loved companies even closer to their consumers. The Social networking sites Facebook and Twitter constantly update their users with their blogs The Facebook Blog and Twitter Blog.” Source: Why a company must have a blog.

Here’s the real payback, however, and the real reason why these corporations do it: HubSpot says that companies that blog get 55% more visitors, have 97% more inbound links, and 434% more indexed pages [which are valuable from a search perspective]. Better yet, customers who are engaged by a corporate blog and social media spend 30% more than their disconnected counterparts, according to MarketingSavant Dana VanDen Heuvel…

I guess you don’t really HAVE to have a blog, but at a time when many companies are fighting for their economic survival, I think it’s good to know there’s a good, fast and cheap tool that delivers these kinds of results. Question? Feedback? Leave a comment or use the contact page…

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Yup. This about says it all…

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Is it possible to love a phone? Oh, yes — I looove both of these… 

The Nexus S 4G from Google offers a stripped-down Android experience free from unnecessary pre-installed ‘bloatware’ apps common on many other phones. This highly customizable device is ‘pure Google’ and many Android users will prefer this experience to the bells and whistles other manufacturers load onto their phones. It can still take advantage of Sprint’s 4G WiMax network, offers a beautiful 4-inch slightly curved display, and will always be the first phone to get Google’s Android software updates. For hardcore Android users who want to keep things pure, this a great choice.

The HTC EVO 4G was the nation’s first 4G phone, and though it is a year or so old and is likely to get superseded by the EVO 3D later this month, it still packs a fair old punch. Sporting a large, bright 4.3” screen, this phone lets you take advantage of Sprint’s speedy 4G WiMax network. You’re also likely to find your monthly cellular bills with Sprint are lower if you choose your plan carefully. With an expected update to Android’s 2.3 Gingerbread operating system in the next few days, the EVO 4G will still keep you ahead of the pack for a while yet.

via androidapps.com

For almost a year, I was thrilled with the Evo but then Cindy Otley of Sprint in Green Bay tempted me with the Nexus S. Never have I been more ecstatic about a device — or at least not in recent memory! With more speed, more memory and less crapware, the Nexus S is the Android phone that beats them all, especially when combined with the Sprint network. Call the Oneida St. Store @ (920) 497-2181 ‎and let Cindy hook you up…

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Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has announced that the search giant will launch its Groupon competitor on Wednesday, starting with Portland.

The news that Google is getting into the daily deals space is not a surprise. Google attempted and failed to acquire Groupon for $6 billion last year. A few months later, Mashable exclusively learned that Google was developing a Groupon competitor called Google Offers.

At the D9 Conference in Palos Verdes, California, Schmidt and Stephanie Tilenius, Google’s VP of commerce, demonstrated the company’s new product. It’s just like Groupon in that it provides users a daily deal from “thousands of merchant partners.” Google showed off a deal for $10 worth of Floyd’s coffee for $3 on stage.

The big selling point for Google Offers is that it will integrate seamlessly with Google Wallet, the company’s NFC-based payment system launching this summer. Instead of printing out a coupon or barcode, completed offers are put into a user’s Google Wallet, where they are automatically saved and redeemable. Eventually they will be utilized automatically through NFC.

Google Offers will be available Wednesday in Portland and eventually will roll out to New York, San Francisco and other cities during the summer.

via mashable.com

Bye, bye Groupon…

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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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Today in the news, mobile social media usage is soaring…

Digital measurement firm comScore released a study today highlighting the rise in social media access via mobile phones and offering some comparison metrics for some of the biggest social networks and their usage on mobile devices.

comScore measured the changes in both mobile browser access to social networks and the access numbers to specific social networks from January 2009 to January 2010. Source: Mobile Social Networking Usage Soars [STATS]

But who’s using it? Not who you think…

Despite a previous Ofcom report showing that for (UK) 16-24 year olds the mobile phone was the second most essential piece of media behind the TV and ahead of the PC, metrics firm Nielsen says that it’s really people aged 25+, and in particular 35+, who are most likely to be going online via their mobiles. Source: Think mobile social networking is all about teens? Think again

Now that you know it’s not all about teens, let’s take a look at social media by gender…

Men are more positively inclined towards social media activities and use social networking sites more than women, according to what Liberty Mutual called a “comprehensive national survey” of online behavior it released yesterday. This is somewhat surprising, since it’s the exact opposite of what other surveys have found, including a recent one from Royal Pingdom that looked at user profile data from some of the major social networks. Source: Who Uses Social Media More, Men or Women? – GigaOM

Questions? Feedback? Comment, call or contact me…

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A long time ago during Apple days, I was privileged to work with Nilofer Merchant. She writes here…

I believe in the power of stories. Stories are like Maps. They point to directions and paths that we might not have seen if not well marked. I share my stories, and my goal is to enable others to be emboldened to share theirs. Stories told as they are happening is a way of seeing the imperfect, raw, and often tenuous ways that outcomes are shaped. When any decision is seen in retrospect, we can say “of course” but that’s rarely how it feels at the time. I did a very transparent process of sharing the Rubicon closure story over the course of a year, in the hopes that perhaps it will be informative to others and knowing that how I tell the story years from now will be different than the steps on the journey. This blog can then be a learning journey of stories – yours and mine.

via blog.nilofermerchant.com

Nilofer is brilliant! Follow her blog and you’ll see why…

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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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This one really has me scratching my head…

“One of the interesting trends of 2009 has been the gradual decline of RSS Readers as a way for people to keep up with news and niche topics. Many of us still use them, but less than we used to. I for one still maintain a Google Reader account, however I don’t check it on a daily basis. I check Twitter for news and information multiple times a day, I monitor Twitter lists, and I read a number of blogs across a set of topics of most interest to me.

Frankly I’m more likely to use Google Reader to search for specific information nowadays, than to scan my subscribed feeds for their latest posts. So what’s happened to RSS Readers. Do people still use them and is there still a viable market for them?” Source: RSS Reader Market in Disarray, Continues to Decline

Personally, I consider mastering RSS feeds to be a key competitive advantage for thought leaders. I think the reason why RSS readers are in decline is because feeds are still hard for most people to master and they just don’t get it! If you’re one of those folks, contact me and I’ll be happy to help you figure it out…

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Open source software may be the answer…

“There’s a persistent perception that open source software is being ignored in the enterprise, that IT management fears it and it ends up being more costly to deploy than proprietary solutions. That’s certainly the perception that some major software vendors would like you to have. But it’s Jeffrey Hammond’s job to dispel those perceptions, at least when they aren’t accurate. As an analyst for Forrester Research, Hammond covers the world of software development as well as Web 2.0 and rich internet applications, so he sees how open source is being used on a daily basis. He’ll be speaking at OSCON, the O’Reilly Open Source Convention, talking about the true cost of using open source, and he gave us a sample of what’s going on in the enterprise at the moment.” Source: Open Source is Infiltrating the Enterprise – O’Reilly Radar 

Go to the source…

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You betcha!

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All my apps on my usb flash drive.
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…I’m getting a great opportunity to test my cloud computing apps as well as my other technology tools [more posts to come — you can depend on it!] to see whether or not they hold up well for the global traveler. One of the more interesting approaches I’m trying is Portable Apps — compressed applications stored on a usb drive with a menuing system that launches automatically upon insertion…

“I came across something I just had to share that has changed the way I work quite a bit. I was doing StumbleUpon one day, and one of the first pages I came across was Portableapps.com. Now I’ve blogged about both Portable Firefox and Portable Opera before. These are web browsers you can install and run directly from your USB memory stick. But Portable Apps is different because it’s basically a menu driven “work suite” for your thumb drive. You download the PortableApps.exe file, and when you run the setup (either full or lightweight version) it actually fully installs working applications on your flash drive. And it can be any kind of external hard drive, memory stick, flash card, thumb drive, etc. It’s going to fully install the applications with no need to change your registry in any way, and no need to place or modify a single file on your computers hard drive. The applications are completely “portable” – you take them with you on the go wherever you take your external drive, card, or stick. Whatever computer you are at, wherever you are – everything is with you every time.This has quite a few advantages if you think about it. Do you have a policy at work where you can’t install any applications at all? Maybe they forced Windows Group Policy on you that won’t even allow it to happen. Can’t access your home email at work? Can’t IM at work? Using a work laptop on a trip? Using an Internet Kiosk? Are you at the Library, or a friend or relatives house? Do you have multiple computers in your house? You get the picture…” Source: Portable Apps – Work from your USB Flash Drive Anywhere FREE | The Smorgasbord

So far in my experimentation, it works well. The part I like best is that all preferences are retained on the usb drive so that can insert your usb drive and immediately have your favorite apps as well as your preferences at your finger tips. I tried it yesterday in the press room at Agritechnica and the only thing that set me back was the German keyboard [amongst other things, the y and z are transposed making it a little challenging for an American touch typist!]. I don’t know that I’m quite ready to leave my computer at home and travel with Portable Apps, but that may be a real possibility in the near future. Questions? Feedback? Post a comment or use the contact form…

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Back in the day, if you wanted support from a business, you had to go to where the business’s reps were. Be it via an 800 number, support forums, e-mail or chat, the business would set the rules about how quickly your inquiry was addressed.

But with social media growing as a real-time support channel, the picture looks quite different these days. Customers are taking back control, and businesses increasingly have to assist on consumers’ terms.

I chatted with a colleague of mine, Brian House of IBM, about the different types of people searching for social support, and we discovered that most can be put in one of two categories. The first is the “social media native.” These are people who use social media, specifically Twitter (Twitter), as their main point of contact with companies and brands. These types are social media-savvy and reach for Twitter to share their everyday thoughts and opinions, which often overlap with their use of products and sentiment about brands.

The second type is the “last resort social media user.” This type of customer is more dangerous to a business because she is likely frustrated with the brand’s traditional support channels and has resorted to the public forum of social media to voice negative sentiment. She is not happy and won’t hesitate to share her opinion with friends.

Social support is no longer a luxury, but a necessity in today’s business climate. It’s an opportunity to maintain engagement with the savvy users in category one and stay on top of potentially damaging chatter from those in category two. To ensure that you are successful, here are five tips and considerations that you need to think through before engaging in social support.

via mashable.com

You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the 5 tips…

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I’m talking social media with a barrista named John in the Starbucks in York, NE. Yes, there is one thank God — it’s one of the few redeeming features of this intersection called York where I have been sleeping while attending Husker Harvest Days. John noticed my Wisconsin license plate and asked where I was from. Turns out we’re from opposite ends of Kewaunee County and we’re chatting at a Starbucks in York. Small world…

Starbucks has the only reliable wireless internet connection for me to upload my content for AGCO so I have been a better customer than usual as yesterday I had over 2.5GB of content from the show to upload for the Envano team back in Green Bay. The social media campaign we have been doing for AGCO has been wildly successful. There are over 2,000 fans in Facebook now and we just added a beautiful YouTube channel for Husker Harvest Days.

I’m looking forward to heading back to Algoma with stops in Des Moines, IA and Galena, IL along the way. Soon I’ll be sharing some thoughts on the technology behind the AGCO social media success — including my huge disappointment with the iPhone and the way it performed on the trip! Be sure to fan AGCO in Facebook and follow the new YouTube channel in the meantime. If you’re curious about how all this works, give me a call @ (920) 486-4798. I’ll be happy to talk with you — I have 12 hours of driving time to kill on the way home… ;-)

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Isn’t blogging for 40 year old political malcontents living in their parent’s basement? Not at all. Smart companies are using blogging as the glue to bring their internet content together and drive their social media outposts. Late last year, I wrote…

“Here’s the real payback, however, and the real reason why these corporations do it: HubSpot says that companies that blog get 55% more visitors, have 97% more inbound links, and 434% more indexed pages [which are valuable from a search perspective]. Better yet, customers who are engaged by a corporate blog and social media spend 30% more than their disconnected counterparts, according to MarketingSavant Dana VanDen Heuvel…” Source: Why a company must have a blog… | e1evation, llc

For those who are skeptical, read on…

“With tens of millions of blogs online today, major corporations have started to recognize the value of a corporate blog for communicating with customers. However, corporate blogging is far different than the more traditional blogging that most of us encounter on a daily basis. Corporate blogging brings its own unique set of challenges and opportunities that must be considered and addressed by the company in order for its users to have a positive experience.

…Probably the most significant reason for companies to manage a corporate blog is the communication benefits it can provide. As a higher percentage of the population uses the Internet for researching and buying products and services, companies can often benefit from having a more direct line of communication with customers and potential customers.” Source: Corporate Blog Design: Trends And Examples – Smashing Magazine

According to the source, the five reasons why companies should blog are:

  • Communication with customers and the public
  • Demonstration of corporate responsibility
  • Reputation management
  • Promotion of products and services
  • Provide executives and/or employees the chance to communicate openly

To this I would also add…

  • Search engine optimization
  • Public promotion

If you want to read more, go to the source. In the meantime, I’m going to post a couple of examples of great corporate blogs to illustrate these points. Here they are in no particular order…

GM…

“The GM Fastlane Blog is a great example of corporate blogging because GM has clearly realized that regurgitating press releases is not what blogs are made for. GM talks a lot on their blog about their cars and trucks and the design choices they make while creating them, but they also throw in interesting treatises on current hot-button issues, such as alternative energy.” Source: 15 Companies That Really Get Corporate Blogging

Social media maven Dell…

“Though Dell’s corporate blog rarely strays from Dell-centric news, the company posts with a great conversational voice, often breaks news on their blog (which keeps people coming back), and listens and responds to customers. Dell also posts regularly (1-2 posts per day at least) which keeps content fresh and encourages repeat visits.” Source: 15 Companies That Really Get Corporate Blogging

Lenovo

“The great collection of blogs from computer maker Lenovo demonstrate that the company really understands blogging. Lenovo intersperses posts about its product line with musings about business, design, life, and technology. Definitely don’t miss the Design Matters blog, which should be a must-read for any designer.” Source: 15 Companies That Really Get Corporate Blogging

Amazon Web Services…

“What could be more dreary than commoditized data processing and storage services? While that might sound boring, the AWS Blog does a great job of highlighting cool things that are done on top of Amazon Web Services. Lately they’ve put up posts about how AWS are being used by the New York Times to provide online access to 150 years of archives and by the little ShareThis widget that you’ve probably seen on hundreds of thousands of blogs around the web. Lots of charts, graphs and other fun stuff for nerds on this blog.” Source: Nine Company Blogs That Are Fun For Anyone to Read

And the list goes on. imho, smart companies will use this tool as part of what I call a ‘Perry Como’ approach to PR [you know “accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on the affirmative, and don’t mess with Mr. Inbetween]. Looking for more? I suggest the Alltop list of corporate blogs…

Questions? Feedback? Leave a comment, call or contact me so we can discuss how this applies to your business…

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