The On-Going Conversation

A Social Reality: Choose Wisely

As human beings and social animals, we look for guidance from the people we choose to surround ourselves with; that's what we do best.

Adobe and Apple : Tech Friends Again

Adobe has apparently resolved the apprehension with Apple over Flash and lends support to the iPad in a series of new advertisements.

Read the full article via Mashable

Communication is the Only Way

Make a Quality First Impression

Communication is tool that each and every one of us is required to utilize on a daily basis. Without having the power to voice your opinion, it can be challenging to connect with people on a personal level. We not only need to connect with people on a personal plateau, but a majority of us are also responsible for establishing common ground in a professional manner. 

 

 

That is why it is crucial to create a degree of confidence with your communication skills. Like anything else in life, your communication skills can be honed and you can become proficient with perpetual use and practice. It is also applicable and arguably a requirement for business interactions.

Without communicating in a professional manner, businesses can fail to connect with prospective customers. You not only need to create an environment of trust and dependability, but you also need to assure the potential client that you will have their back throughout your relationship.

Moreover as a public relations and mass communications graduate, I feel as though I fully contemplate the importance of credibility, honesty and transparency, which can be facilitated and help establish relationships with the individuals you interact with.

Listed below are a few recommendations for creating a quality first impression that will hopefully enable sustained interaction in whatever capacity.  

1. Make eye contact and make sure they feel utterly comfortable. This will help convey a degree of confidence. It also helps assure that they feel as though you are fully engaged and respect the elements they are corresponding about. Especially with organizational interactions; because you want them to feel completely confident in your ability to aid them along the way. I would say that your initial reaction towards a person will create a lasting persona, which may be challenging to change once the thought has entered their mind.  

2. Stand up and shake their hand. This documents your willingness to truly connect with them and allows you to establish common ground from the commencement of your dialogue. You can even impress them with the hand shake alone, depending on the firmness of your shake. Practice with your close associates and make sure they would be willing to work with you, based on the demeanor and attitude that your represent. You may not think this can be illustrated with a mere hand shake, but you never know.

3. Ask them if they need anything and assure them that they are the focal point of all your energy. This will allow them to see your utilitarian nature and willingness to help. People want to feel as though your relationship or pending interaction is valuable from your perspective. The goal should be to convey a degree of professional and maturity, regardless of the avenue for connection. It could either be regarding personal matters or even a professional acquaintance; it really doesn’t matter and you should strive to remain affianced nonetheless.

4. Follow-up and make sure to thank them for their time. People love to hear that you fully appreciate their ability to meet and take time out of their busy day. We all more than likely have families and a collective of obligations, which can make it difficult to allocate time towards opposing individuals. This can be especially challenging in the digital world that we live in. Even if it is merely a phone call, it is better than nothing. Personally I would recommend a hand written note or email expressing your gratitude. They won’t necessarily expect it, but maybe you will make their day slightly more optimistic.

Just remember that communication can be a vehicle to success or even impediment. Remain confident and never doubt your ability to connect with people from varying perspectives. At the root of it all, we are all human beings and we require others to fully experience life.

A Visual Update Via LinkedIn

Tech: LinkedIn launched InMaps, an experimental project that creates a visualization of the connections within your business network.

* Source: Mashable

Blackberries: Not Just a Fruit Anymore

RIM Update: Research in Motion plans to launch a cloud-based capability for its popular BlackBerry Enterprise Server by the end of 2011.

Verizon Wireless Customers: A Tech and Mobile Update

Tech: Verizon Wireless will soon drop its "New Every 2" upgrade plan, which rewards customers who renew a 2-year contract with a discount.

The Nature of Cell Phone Usage

Cell Phone Trends in 16 Countries: Source: Pew Research Center. The median % of people who own a cell phone has increased by 36% since 2002; the current median is 81%.

Social Media: Expose Your Company to the Light

As cliché as it sounds, you never know until you try.

This day in age it has become increasingly important for businesses to harness social media. You don't necessarily need a perpetual approach either, but at least give it a try and see where the outreach takes you. It is also relatively effortless and economically feasible as well; it only requires time and dedication. Not to mention, the benefits overwhelmingly outweight the time and energy that organizations must be prepared to devote towards the social ecosystem.

The social media environment is constantly evolving and changing as well. As this occurs, social media continues to become increasingly connected to business and the way in which it is conducted. Despite the juxtaposition of social media and social businesses, the phenomenon remains relatively new and wasn’t even part of the picture ten years ago. As a result, it can be challenging to decipher what is to come and where the world of social media is headed.

Regardless of the direction that social media may travel, I am intrigued by the possibility of what’s to come and where the trends will ultimately lead. However, even with excitement there comes a degree of obfuscation. One can never truly predict the course of time, and we will have to wait to see where the process goes next. Personally, I think that location-based networking services will continue to expand and increase the overall level of personal transparency. For example, Foursquare would be classified as a geographical social media network.

Moreover, if companies neglect to commence a social media strategy, they may be failing to connect with a niche portion of the population. This niche segment could potentially become customers, which may even help cultivate more customers, merely through word-of-mouth marketing.

All-in-all, I believe the benefits of social media are hard to decipher and classify. However, I wanted to showcase an assortment of ways that social networking can benefit companies of all sizes. Who knows, maybe you will experience the benefits first hand and create a tangible way of classifying your own social advantages.

The Three Benefits of Reaching Out -- Socially and Strategically

1. Transparency -- Companies now have the ability to be more open than ever and connect with customers in mere seconds. It can also function in a reverse manner, with individuals being able to communicate with companies online, aside from the barriers of an organizational hierarchy. For the most part, prospective customers want to feel as though companies have the utmost credibility and conduct business in an honest fashion. With this in mind, social media can be an avenue to accomplish this, by opening the gates of communication to any individual that would like to correspond directly with the company.

2. Awareness -- Businesses can build an online identity, which hopefully generates more involvement from ordinary individuals. Social media can also be a primary avenue for news on events, contests and information that correlates the organizational mentality and overall mantra. This will allow companies to control the message and the fashion in which they convey themselves. Ideally companies want to present themselves in a professional manner, plus social media can help document the tech savvy nature of an organization, by showcasing their ability to utilize online avenues of expression.

3. Special deals and contests -- Ann Taylor for example is using Foursquare in a recent effort to harness social media platforms. Their campaign specifically allows individuals that are mayors at specific locations in New York City, to receive 25% off of their total purchase. Depending on the successful of their campaign, they may even attempt to expand the approach to all stores nationwide. Not to mention, there are specific social media programs that will allow to trigger messages at specific times. By having the option to schedule a message, businesses can determine when they would like prospective customers to be made aware of certain information. This means that social media in a sense, is more tactical than ever.

Business can also establish credibility, integrity and a degree of trustworthiness, merely by interacting with a niche portion of the population on-line. Obviously it needs to be in a positive and helpful manner, which will help yield the results that companies are striving for. Nonetheless, a companies’ approach is generally dependant on their particular organizational mantra and overall goal structure.

All-in-all, businesses should consider commencing a social media strategy, if of course they haven’t already. The strategy doesn’t necessarily need to be perfected from the onslaught either. Through time and social participation, businesses can literally generate a social prescription for the company, which speaks from experience and contains a frame of reference for comparison.

This prescription will hopefully become a remedy for the company and involve a transformation, once businesses have an understanding of the landscape they are working with. Just remember, there isn’t necessarily an incorrect way to conduct social marketing – just give it a try and see what happens. There are no rules to abide by and the conditions are still relatively new.

Image Credit: Social Media Marketing -- Enough is Enough by: Jennifer Mattern - July 2009

Re-Evaluate Your Business Mentality

Focus on what you can to set your business apart from the competition.

It is important for each department in a business to understand where they stand in regards to overall business goals. Without having a clear grasp of what their objectives are accomplishing, do their missions and goals truly serve a purpose?

Each department should be able to define their individual goals, which generally fall within the parameters of the overall business goals at each specific company. Obviously varying departments are going to have unique goals that other aspects of the organization don’t have and vice-versa.

However the difficulty can be to define these goals and make sure they are always being strived for. They may not always be achieved with day-to-day projects, but for the most part they should always be understood and transparent to all employees, which represent a collection of business entities throughout the world.

Listed below is an assortment of goals for particular businesses, regardless of their overall concentration. It also focuses on how they can ultimately achieve lasting results and implications with the customers they interact with.

1. Authenticated experience: In a sense, employees should believe that their company is striving to create a “prescription” for specific individuals who access their website, use their services or those that could potentially become customers in the near future. This will help maximize their overall experience and generate an environment that is easy to appreciate. It will also hopefully help align their innate perspective with that of the business and establish an ambiance of comfort. Not to mention, a degree of credibility and honesty that can transform the perception that individuals have.

2. Generate customer-loyalty: Employees are responsible for creating an environment where individuals ideally remain customers and convey their appreciation to their friends and family. This correlates to a quality customer experience that sustains a degree of loyalty and focuses on the nature of customer-centricity.

3. Market the businesses specific resources: You want to present the resources that you and your business have; not only the individuals who already work with your company, but also to those who may prospectively be interested conducting business down the line. Without documenting what your company has to offer, potential customers won’t even be aware of your particular services and may consider other companies from the commencement of your conversation.

4. Business adoption: Companies should allow the capability for people to go paperless and have access to their information with the click of a mouse. This also correlates to the placement of items on a website specifically, which creates an easy to use set of circumstances. This also helps with making items more convenient for prospective customers, especially considering the busy lives that we all seem to have at the moment. Just remember, we live in a digital world that requires instant gratification. A business should try and emulate this high-paced environment, if they want to sustain and continue a level of growth, especially in this technologically driven world.

5. Reach out into the community: Companies of all sizes, mentality and focus should be involved in the local community and promote information that is applicable to their own world. This will increase the likelihood of market awareness and hopefully lead to more individuals recognizing your business through association of ideas. This also involves the interaction with local entities, in an effort to make it easier for people to access your companies’ information. This can be accomplished by utilizing a proactive approach to personal market awareness and can even stimulate a level of intrigue.

All-in-all, companies need to determine what works the best for them. We all need to remember the capitalist system we are a part of. Ultimately the decision comes down to the individuals that live in the market place. Nonetheless, businesses need to do their best to market their products, services or approach, depending on whether or not a company is for profit, not-for-profit or non-profit.

The Overwhelming Benefits of Social Media

As cliché as it sounds, you never know until you try.

This day in age it has become increasingly important for businesses to harness social media. You don't necessarily need a perpetual approach either, but at least give it a try and see where the outreach takes you. It is also relatively effortless and economically feasible as well; it only requires time and dedication. Not to mention, the benefits overwhelmingly outweigh the time and energy that organizations must be prepared to devote towards the social ecosystem.

The social media environment is constantly evolving and changing as well. As this occurs, social media continues to become increasingly connected to business and the way in which it is conducted. Despite the juxtaposition of social media and social businesses, the phenomenon remains relatively new and wasn’t even part of the picture ten years ago. As a result, it can be challenging to decipher what is to come and where the world of social media is headed.

Regardless of the direction that social media may travel, I am intrigued by the possibility of what’s to come and where the trends will ultimately lead. However, even with excitement there comes a degree of obfuscation. One can never truly predict the course of time, and we will have to wait to see where the process goes next. Personally, I think that location-based networking services will continue to expand and increase the overall level of personal transparency. For example, Foursquare would be classified as a geographical social media network.

Moreover, if companies neglect to commence a social media strategy, they may be failing to connect with a niche portion of the population. This niche segment could potentially become customers, which may even help cultivate more customers, merely through word-of-mouth marketing. All-in-all, I believe the benefits of social media are hard to decipher and classify. However, I wanted to showcase an assortment of ways that social networking can benefit companies of all sizes. Who knows, maybe you will experience the benefits first hand and create a tangible way of classifying your own social advantages.

The Three Benefits of Reaching Out -- Socially and Strategically

1. Transparency -- Companies now have the ability to be more open than ever and connect with customers in mere seconds. It can also function in a reverse manner, with individuals being able to communicate with companies online, aside from the barriers of an organizational hierarchy. For the most part, prospective customers want to feel as though companies have the utmost credibility and conduct business in an honest fashion. With this in mind, social media can be an avenue to accomplish this, by opening the gates of communication to any individual that would like to correspond directly with the company.

2. Awareness -- Businesses can build an online identity, which hopefully generates more involvement from ordinary individuals. Social media can also be a primary avenue for news on events, contests and information that correlates the organizational mentality and overall mantra. This will allow companies to control the message and the fashion in which they convey themselves. Ideally companies want to present themselves in a professional manner, plus social media can help document the tech savvy nature of an organization, by showcasing their ability to utilize online avenues of expression.

3. Special deals and contests -- Ann Taylor for example is using Foursquare in a recent effort to harness social media platforms. Their campaign specifically allows individuals that are mayors at specific locations in New York City, to receive 25% off of their total purchase. Depending on the successful of their campaign, they may even attempt to expand the approach to all stores nationwide. Not to mention, there are specific social media programs that will allow to trigger messages at specific times. By having the option to schedule a message, businesses can determine when they would like prospective customers to be made aware of certain information. This means that social media in a sense, is more tactical than ever.

Business can also establish credibility, integrity and a degree of trustworthiness, merely by interacting with a niche portion of the population on-line. Obviously it needs to be in a positive and helpful manner, which will help yield the results that companies are striving for. Nonetheless, a companies’ approach is generally dependent on their particular organizational mantra and overall goal structure.

All-in-all, businesses should consider commencing a social media strategy, if of course they haven’t already. The strategy doesn’t necessarily need to be perfected from the onslaught either. Through time and social participation, businesses can literally generate a social prescription for the company, which speaks from experience and contains a frame of reference for comparison.

This prescription will hopefully become a remedy for the company and involve a transformation, once businesses have an understanding of the landscape they are working with. Just remember, there isn’t necessarily an incorrect way to conduct social marketing – just give it a try and see what happens. There are no rules to abide by and the conditions are still relatively new.

Image Credit: Social Media Marketing -- Enough is Enough by: Jennifer Mattern - July 2009