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Warum fürchten sich Schweizer Banken vor sozialen Medien?

2012-03-08T12:26:00.004-08:00

Schweizer Banken «zwitschern» kaum

Ich habe mich immer gefragt, warum Schweizer Banken sich vor sozialen Medien fürchten und fand eigentlich nie eine Antwort!

Dass sich Schweizer Banken aber ganz offensichtlich vor sozialen Medien fürchten, bestigt Frédéric Rapp mit seinem Cash Artikel "Schweizer Banken «zwitschern» kaum."

Nur wenige Banken gehen aktiv auf die «Tweets» der Nutzer ein.
Bild: iNg

08.03.2012 03:07

Die Schweizer Banken nutzen Social Media wesentlich schlechter als die internationale Konkurrenz. cash nennt die Gründe und weiss, welche Schweizer Bank bald auf Facebook zu finden ist.

Von Frédéric Papp

Ausländische Banken messen den Social-Media-Plattformen wie Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn oder Youtube grosse Bedeutung zu. Nicht so die Schweizer Banken. Laut einer Studie des Informationsportals assetinum.ch nutzen vor allem die Schweizer Traditionsbanken die neuen Medien kaum. Getestet wurden insgesamt 50 Institute unter anderem auf ihre Präsenz auf den Social-Media-Kanälen und ihre Reaktionsfähigkeit auf Anfragen via Facebook oder Twitter.

Mit dem 22. Rang schneidet die Credit Suisse noch am besten ab. Die UBS liegt auf dem 33. Platz. Von den Traditionshäusern kann einzig Pictet mithalten. Die Genfer Privatbank belegt den 26. Rang. Die anderen Traditionsbanken hingegen liegen abgeschlagen auf den letzten Plätzen. Es sind dies: Lombard Odier, Julius Bär und Vontobel. Bloss drei Punkte erhält die Bank Sarasin. Sie liegt damit auf dem zweitletzten Platz.

"Wir haben die Nutzung von Social Media auf unserem Radar. Allerdings schätzen wir den Nutzen für unsere Klientel derzeit als zu gering ein", sagt Sarasin-Mediensprecherin Franziska Gumpfer gegenüber cash. Die Basler Bank wird von der brasilianischen Safra-Bank übernommen, die laut der Studie den letzten Platz belegt.

ZKB wird Facebook integrieren

Auch die Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) kommt schlecht weg. Im Ranking belegt sie gerade mal den 43. Rang. Dies ist doch eher erstaunlich für eine Bank, die mit den Leitspruch "Wir sind die nahe Bank" wirbt. Allerdings will das Zürcher Staatsinstitut nun vorwärts machen: "Facebook wird künftig konsequent als zusätzlicher Kommunikationskanal integriert", sagt die ZKB-Medienstelle zu cash.

Sieben von den neun getesteten Schweizer Banken verfügen über kein eigenes Facebook-Profil. Dies ist mit ein Grund, weshalb die Banken so schlecht abgeschnitten haben. Denn so blieben die Testfragen von assetinum, die via Facebook gestellt wurden, zwangsläufig unbeantwortet. Das ernüchternde Resultat: Die Schweizer Banken erreichten gerade einmal ein Zehntel der möglichen Facebook-Punktzahl von je maximal 35 Punkten. Bei den Testfragen ging es laut Benjamin Manz, Geschäftsführer von assetinum, um Anfragen bezüglich Dienstleistungen im Private Banking.

«Tweets» blieben unbeantwortet

Auch die Kommunikationsplattform Twitter wird von den heimischen Banken kaum genutzt. Zwar verfügen sieben von neun Banken über einen Twitter-Account, allerdings gehen nur zwei der Banken aktiv auf die "Tweets" der Nutzer ein.

Fakt ist aber: Sowohl bestehende als auch potentielle Kunden nutzen anstelle des Telefons oder einer persönlichen Beratung verstärkt Social-Media-Kanäle, um Auskünfte über Bankdienstleistungen zu erhalten. "Zum Beispiel kommunizieren Nordea, SEB oder ABN Amro intensiv mit Kunden via Social-Media-Kanäle", weiss Manz. Folglich nehmen diese neuen Medien in der Kundenberatung und in der Akquise an Bedeutung zu. Ausländische Banken nehmen da eine Vorreiterrolle ein.

Gefahr von Empörungswellen besteht

So liegt die Citibank mit insgesamt 84 von 100 Punkten ganz vorne. Allein in der Kategorie Facebook erzielte die Citibank 28 von 35 möglichen Punkten. Auf dem zweiten Platz ist die Société Générale, gefolgt von der ABN Amro. Selbst die Deutsche Bank liegt mit dem 7. Rang weit vor ihren Schweizer Hauptkonkurrenten UBS und CS.

Doch soziale Medien bergen auch Reputationsrisiken für die Bank. Die Rede ist vom so genannten "Shitstorm" (dt. Empörungswelle). Dieser wird als ein Vorgehen bezeichnet, bei welchem zahlreiche Nutzer öffentlich Kritik an einem Konzern, Produkt oder auch einer Einzelperson üben. Dabei muss die Kritik nicht zwingend sachlich oder objektiv sein.

Aber der Gefahr kann gebannt werden, wenn die Banken die Interaktionen via ihre Social-Media-Accounts überwachen, zum Beispiel mittels eines Social Media Managers.

Gerade in Bezug zur Verminderung von Reputations-, operationellen- und systemischen Risiken wäre eine aktive Teilnahme Schweizer Banken bei sozialen Medien von grossem Vorteil!

Was denkt Ihr?

Warum fürchten sich Schweizer Banken vor sozialen Medien?

Is Pinterest significant for your business?

2012-02-13T17:53:00.000-08:00

Pinterest is significant for the Swiss Businesses Club

Dear Reader,

Just a few days ago I was invited from one of my investors on Empire Avenue to join him on Pinterest.

It was part of a Mission I liked to execute!

Besides Ecademy, Empire Avenue, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus, Pinterest, as a new social media tool, offers new a business strategy to help build up a business network in the form of pins and boards!

Pinterest offers users to positioning themselves as thought leaders in their industry and send increasing traffic, and in-turn potential clients, to their website.

I came back to my office and suddenly I started seeing mentions of Pinterest in all my own social media feeds. What was it and how could I have missed it until now?

Pinterest is perhaps the most buzzed-about service of early 2012 and an unexpected startup success story.. Users can 'pin' interesting things they find on the web and use Pinterest to put this web content into 'sticky-note' sized blocks that users can organise onto virtual pinboards that fill the entire browser screen and share them with friends.

Here's how to get involved:

Pin a craft, recipe or project you love.
Follow the directions and reproduce it in real life, snapping photos along the way. Be sure to take a photo of the finished product!
Upload the photos of your project, along with a screengrab of the original "pin," to iReport (you can get started by clicking the button at the bottom of this post). In the text, tell us how your project turned out compared to the original and how the process went. Was it easier or harder than you thought? Will you use Pinterest for real-life inspiration again?
If you are a Twitter, Instagram, or PicPlz user, you can also send us your submission with the hashtag #pinstoprojects.

You can have as many pinboards as you like and you can pin as many images, videos, links, websites, pictures as you like to each pinboard.

What do you think?

Is Pinterest significant for your business?

Please feel free to share your comments!

Have a great and happy weekend!

Best,

- Lucas

Join The Swiss Business Club - Join the GuanXi Game Club - Join the Risk Consulting Club - And Join Doing Business Virtually!

Official Google Blog: Making Chrome even more app-ealing

2011-12-29T12:15:00.000-08:00

Official Google Blog: Making Chrome even more app-ealing: From sharing photos, to collaborating on documents, to enjoying online games, web appsmake the web fun, useful and entertaining. Since the beginning, Chrome has been designed to allow apps to do more, faster. Today, changes in Chrome make it even easier to access your favorite apps and discover new favorites.

In the latest stable release of Chrome, we’ve completely redesigned the New Tab page. It’s more streamlined, so it’s easier to access and organize your apps in different sections on the page. Watch the video below for a quick tour.

To add more apps to your New Tab page, click the Chrome Web Store icon. The Web Store also has a new look:

Apps and extensions are now presented in a wall of images that’s updated every time you visit the store. We hope this will help you quickly scan the store and find interesting things to try out. In addition, apps and extensions are easier to install—just hover over an image on the grid and click “Add to Chrome.”

Getting additional information about an app or an extension is just a click away. When you click on an app, extension or theme, you’ll see a panel featuring screenshots, videos and other relevant information neatly organized into separate tabs. The store also includes a brand new reviews interface that links to the Google+ profile of each reviewer. (To protect your privacy, we made sure to anonymize any reviews that you previously submitted.)

Along with the new look, a bunch of new apps have joined the store. I’m personally excited about My Robot Nation™, an app that lets you design your own robot and bring it to life with a 3D printer. There are plenty of new games to play, including The Godfather: Five Families andFieldrunners. And for those of you still looking for a Halloween costume, check out the brand-new eBay shopping app.

We have many more features on deck, and we’re looking forward to making the app experience in Chrome even better soon.

Inside AdWords: Third Party Tools To Help Manage Your Google+ Page...

2011-12-21T22:44:00.000-08:00

Inside AdWords: Third Party Tools To Help Manage Your Google+ Page...: Last week, we announced Google+ Pages , which provide a new way for businesses, brands, products, organizations and other entities to build...

Official Google Blog: Google+: A few big improvements before the New Yea...

2011-12-20T06:02:00.000-08:00

Official Google Blog: Google+: A few big improvements before the New Yea...: Today we’re pleased to announce a goodie basket full of Google+ features and functionality for you to unpack and enjoy over the holidays. So...

Google AdWords announces new dynamic ads for search!

2011-10-25T19:48:00.000-07:00

Google AdWords Introduces Dynamic Search Ads

Google is about to take what it calls "a whole new approach" to search advertising, the foundation of its massive revenues.

The AdWords program has always been designed around "keywords, keywords, keywords," said product management director Baris Gultekin. And that isn't changing, exactly, but Google is announcing an alternative, which it calls Dynamic Search Ads. Traditionally, an advertiser will create a campaign by bidding to run ads alongside specific keyword searches. With the new product, advertisers just point AdWords toward the pages that they want to promote. Then Google matches the ad with the best searches and generates an appropriate headline.

On October 20th, Google officially introduced Dynamic search Ads. Google can now create an ad automatically for your website, whenever a relevant search occurs. This is based on Google’s organic web crawling technology.

Google shall dynamically generate a headline (referring to the search query), and the content it found on your most relevant landing page or website.

This ad once generated, follows the normal procedures of entering the auction etc. This new introduction of ad generation is flexible though. If you have a keyword targeted ad already in place, eligible for any search query, Google holds back its dynamic ad and your existing ad is given preference for impression.

What is Google’s perspective?

Since the ad content is directly picked from the website content, the relevance and consistency increases. When a prospective customer clicks on a dynamic ad and find a landing page with the exact information he was looking for, he will more likely convert.

While pilot testing this feature, Google has seen 5 – 10% rise in clicks and conversions. Great! You ROI is going to increase too!

Google also thinks that since large e-commerce websites and businesses have an ever changing inventory and new listings every day, like items that run out of stock, (and delay in new stock), and items that are completely removed from stock, there may be a mismatch in the existing ad and the website content – creating a negative user experience and hence affecting conversions!

Searcher’s behavior changes too! Google has also observed that everyday there are new types of search keywords used by searchers over the world. This means that even the best AdWords campaign could face inconsistencies, hence missing out on valuable impressions (even if they were relevant!). It’s in the best interests of end users and advertisers!

Google states that this is to complement your existing keywords ads. To ease your efforts and increase sales too!

You get to target the entire website or just a few pages for dynamic ads.

You can select even certain product categories!

You can select pages with particular targeted words or strings in your URLs.

You can use the traditional filters like keyword negatives.

You can also prevent the out of stock products from being promoted!

Plus you get all the features like reporting on searches that generated clicks, destination pages that matched ads, headlines that were generated, CPC, conversions and much more!

With all the above statistics, I would recommend that website owners take full advantage of this new feature! Well, we can manage our AdWords campaign in our own style, and use this feature as an add-on! Pilot testing has shown good results indeed. As an advertiser you can be sure that this new feature will definitely add value to your marketing campaigns and give you a higher CTR, leading to a higher conversion rate and most importantly a higher return on investment

Gultekin predicted that this could eventually represent "the future" of AdWords, because it's a more natural way to think of ads—businesses usually start with a product or Web page that they want to promote, then with AdWords, they have had to think of a long list of relevant keywords. With Dynamic Search Ads, Google can take "the middle layer of keywords" out of that process.

This also makes it easier for advertisers to adapt their campaigns to limited promotions and limited supplies, because the new program will kill any campaigns pointing to pages that display an "out of inventory" message.

Why do Google, Microsoft's Bing and Yahoo Collaborate in Search?

2011-06-03T02:25:00.000-07:00

In a rare display of collaboration, Google has joined forces with its search rivals Microsoft and Yahoo in a project intended to improve the Web crawling and indexing of structured data, which often originates in databases and loses its format when converted into HTML.

Kavi Goel and Pravir Gupta from Google's Webmaster Central Blog announced today schema.org, a new initiative from Google, Bing and Yahoo! to create and support a common set of schemas for structured data markup on web pages. Schema.org aims to be a one stop resource for webmasters looking to add markup to their pages to help search engines better understand their websites.

At Google, we’ve supported structured markup for a couple years now. We introduced rich snippets in 2009 to better represent search results describing people or containing reviews. We’ve since expanded to new kinds of rich snippets, including products, events, recipes, and more.

Example of a rich snippet: a search result enhanced by structured markup. In this case, the rich snippet contains a picture, reviews, and cook time for the recipe.

Adoption by the webmaster community has grown rapidly, and today we’re able to show rich snippets in search results more than ten times as often as when we started two years ago.

We want to continue making the open web richer and more useful. We know that it takes time and effort to add this markup to your pages, and adding markup is much harder if every search engine asks for data in a different way. That’s why we’ve come together with other search engines to support a common set of schemas, just as we came together to support a common standard for Sitemaps in 2006. With schema.org, site owners can improve how their sites appear in search results not only on Google, but on Bing, Yahoo! and potentially other search engines as well in the future.

Now let’s discuss some of the details of schema.org relevant to you as a webmaster:

1) Schema.org contains a lot of new markup types.
We’ve added more than 100 new types as well as ported over all of the existing rich snippets types. If you’ve looked at adding rich snippets markup before but none of the existing types were relevant for your site, it’s worth taking another look. Here are a few popular types:
Creative works: CreativeWork, Book, Movie, MusicRecording, Recipe, TVSeries
Embedded non-text objects: AudioObject, ImageObject, VideoObject
Event
Organization
Person
Place, LocalBusiness, Restaurant
Product, Offer, AggregateOffer
Review, AggregateRating
Or, view a full list of all schema.org types. The new markup types may be used for future rich snippets formats as well as other types of improvements to help people find your content more easily when searching.

2) Schema.org uses microdata.
Historically, we’ve supported three different standards for structured data markup: microdata, microformats, and RDFa. We’ve decided to focus on just one format for schema.org to create a simpler story for webmasters and to improve consistency across search engines relying on the data. There are arguments to be made for preferring any of the existing standards, but we’ve found that microdata strikes a balance between the extensibility of RDFa and the simplicity of microformats, so this is the format that we’ve gone with.

To get an overview of microdata as well as the conventions followed by schema.org, take a look at the schema.org Getting Started guide.

3) We’ll continue to support our existing rich snippets markup formats.
If you’ve already done markup on your pages using microformats or RDFa, we’ll continue to support it. One caveat to watch out for: while it’s OK to use the new schema.org markup or continue to use existing microformats or RDFa markup, you should avoid mixing the formats together on the same web page, as this can confuse our parsers.

4) Test your markup using the rich snippets testing tool.
It’s very useful to test your web pages with markup to make sure we’re able to parse the data correctly. As with previous rich snippets markup formats, you should use the rich snippets testing tool for this purpose. Note that while the testing tool will show the marked up information that was parsed from the page, rich snippets previews are not yet shown for schema.org markup. We’ll be adding this functionality soon.

The schema.org website and the rich snippets testing tool are in English. However, Google shows rich snippets in search results globally, so there’s no need to wait to start marking up your pages.

To learn more about rich snippets and how they relate to schema.org, check out the Rich snippets schema.org FAQ.

By promoting the use of these common tags across the Web, Yahoo, Microsoft and Google expect that their search engines will be better able to identify, crawl and index structured data.

"Many applications, especially search engines, can benefit greatly from direct access to this structured data. On-page markup enables search engines to understand the information on web pages and provide richer search results," reads a message in Schema.org's home page.

Schema.org contains more than 100 different HTML tags for structured data categories like events, organizations, people, places, products, reviews, ratings, movies and books.

Yahoo's SearchMonkey developer program was the first broadly popular search program designed to encourage webmasters to improve structured data markup on their sites, said IDC analyst Hadley Reynolds.

When Yahoo discontinued SearchMonkey last year, the search industry suffered a serious loss, so it's encouraging to see the main three search providers band together on this issue of structured data, he said via e-mail.
"As website managers add markup corresponding to the new 'catalog' of schemas published by [the three companies], it will make it much easier for the big three search sites to render the kind of enriched interaction metaphors which are proving to be the next phase of the competition between them for web searcher audiences," Reynolds said.

"The new program catches some of the spirit of SearchMonkey, while adding real value by including Google and Microsoft. This will now be a 'job one' for web developers looking to get their sites highly ranked by the [companies'] engines," he added.

Global IT services revenue hits $793 billion in 2010

2011-05-06T10:59:00.000-07:00

Gartner Says Worldwide IT Services Revenue Returned to Growth in 2010

The IT services market bounced back from the effects of the global recession to record a 3.1 percent increase in revenue to $793 billion in 2010, from $769 billion in 2009, according to a new report from Gartner.

2010 Worldwide IT Services Vendors by Revenue (Millions of U.S. Dollars)

Company	2010 Revenue	2010 Market Share (%)	2009 Revenue	Growth (%)
IBM	56,424	7.1	55,000	2.6
HP	35,346	4.5	35,252	0.3
Fujitsu	24,117	3.0	23,304	3.5
Accenture	22,212	2.8	20,939	6.1
CSC	16,106	2.0	16,004	0.6
Others	638,750	80.6	618,674	3.2
Total Market	792,955	100.0	769,173	3.1

Source: Gartner (April 2011)

Released earlier this week, the study revealed that the majority of end-user spending in the market went toward software support, pushing this sector to clock the highest growth at 6.6 percent. Process management and hardware support saw weaker results, where both segments grew at 1 percent less than projected.

Consulting, development, and integration services performed slightly better than expected as organizations that held back on investments began investing again last year, particularly in the second half of 2010, Gartner said.

Will Japan suffer setbacks in production after the earthquake?

2011-04-10T23:53:00.000-07:00

Bank of Japan cuts assessments of most regions - Market Watch

The Bank of Japan downgraded its assessments of local economic conditions for seven out of nine regions in a quarterly report issued Monday, reflecting setbacks in production after the earthquake that struck one month ago.

“Cautious views about the economy have become widespread in many regions, mainly reflecting setbacks in production following the Great East Japan Earthquake” on March 11, the central bank said in a statement after a meeting of its regional branch managers.

The hard-hit Tohoku region reported “significant damage to the economy from the earthquake, with impairment of the social infrastructure, as well as production and business facilities,” said the report, which is roughly equivalent to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Beige Book.

“Other regions also reported cautious views, noting that the effects of the earthquake were starting to become noticeable, mainly on the production side, or that the economy had begun to show signs of stagnation, due mainly to supply-chain disruptions, as well as cautious consumer sentiment,” the BOJ said.

The central bank’s policy board meets next on April 28, when it will also release its semiannual economic outlook report. Economists had expected the BOJ to cut its forecasts sharply to reflect the disasters, and Monday’s downgrades reinforced these expectations.

At its most recent meeting Thursday, the BOJ unveiled a special lending facility for financial institutions in disaster-hit areas. Read more on Bank of Japan's special loans.

Separate data released earlier Monday by the Cabinet Office showed that Japanese private-sector core machinery orders, a key leading indicator of capital spending for the country, fell 2.3% in February, the month before the disaster. That outpaced economists’ projection for a 0.9% fall. Read more on Japan machinery orders.

Lisa Twaronite is MarketWatch's Tokyo bureau chief.

LinkedIn announces Facebook-like tentacles for the Web

2011-04-07T23:17:00.000-07:00

LinkedIn announces Facebook-like tentacles for the Web - CNN

LinkedIn announced a new platform Wednesday for its business-focused social networking site -- offering websites and developers easy tools to embed "recommend" buttons, company-profile boxes and contact widgets on third-party websites -- as well as a way to log in to other sites using LinkedIn.

LinkedIn's Share button joins a growing number of plugins that try to get users to spread the word.

Calling it "a new platform for building the professional web," LinkedIn is seeking to challenge Facebook's growing control over online identity.
Once just a site for sharing photos and updates with friends, Facebook has woven itself into the fabric of the net with its Open Graph platform, that lets other websites embed Facebook widgets, install "Like" buttons, plug-in a commenting system, and let users log in with their Facebook credentials.

Though LinkedIn’s new platform doesn’t mention Facebook by name, the term “Professional Web” clearly shows the company trying to position itself as a more mature and respectable alternative to Facebook. The new tools rely on JavaScript APIs and the OAuth 2.0 system for logins (the same as used by Yahoo, Google and Twitter, among others).

Among the offerings:

A Share button that posts a link to a page or news story to the user’s feed on LinkedIn.
A Recommend button to give a vote to a product you like.
Member profile widgets that show the LinkedIn profile of a company executive or website owner.

LinkedIn’s Share button joins a growing number of plugins that try to get users to spread the news about a site or news story, a pantheon that includes Facebook’s Like, Twitter’s Tweet button, and social voting and submission widgets from Digg and Reddit.

For those who run their own blogs or websites, LinkedIn is making it simple to show off a snippet of your LinkedIn profile and for visitors logged into LinkedIn, they’ll see thumbnails of connections they have in common.

Companies can also embed widgets that shows off employee profiles or profiles of companies featured on their site or in a news story, showing off the ones that are “in” your network. The box can also be configured to show off key information about the company — and a link to its official LinkedIn page — instead of employee profiles.

It’s a powerful challenge. LinkedIn has a solid and growing user base, one that’s shown it’s willing to pay for extra features. The company is preparing for an IPO, and extending the power of LinkedIn’s focus on business, not pleasure, outside of its online walls could help the company grow into a powerful competitor to Facebook. It would be the “real world” site that people graduate to, from the college fun of Facebook.

Unfortunately, LinkedIn’s platform faces the tough challenge of coming almost a year after Facebook debuted its Like button and its Open Graph API. In social networking years, it feels like almost a decade, and LinkedIn will have to work hard to convince websites and busy developers that it’s worth their time to graduate to the “professional web,” as well.

Does the China boom continue? Does the China prosperity continue?

2011-04-06T00:40:00.000-07:00

Jim Rogers Talks About Inflation, China, Commodities, Unrest and India - Forbes

According to Jim Rogers the China boom continues. The China prosperity continues.

I agree with Jim Rogers! I have seen during my 33 days spent in China that China's boom and prosperity is real, strong, sustainable and liked by the population!

Inflation exists and people cope with.

I liked Russell Flannery's article "Jim Rogers Talks About Inflation, China, Commodities, Unrest and India" in Forbes China Wealth!

Inflation, the outlook for commodity prices and social unrest in the Middle East are three of the most important topics facing global investors today. On the sideline of the “World Money Show” in Shanghai on Saturday, I talked about all three and other subjects in the news with Jim Rogers, co-founder of the Quantum Fund, and best-selling author of investment books including “A Bull in China: Investment Profitability in the World’s Greatest Market.” Excerpts follow.

Q. What’s your current take on China’s economic outlook?

A. The China boom continues. The China prosperity continues. I notice it spreading. The property boom continues to spread. I see that more and more. But of course, there are those who think that it’s a property bubble, including me – at least I think there is a property bubble in coastal cities. The government is trying to pop that bubble as you know and I presume that they (will) pop the bubble. The Chinese government has enough authority and control that they can pop something if they really mean it. We’ll see.

Q. What about inflation in China?

A. It’s here. It’s serious. It’s going to get worse. Part of it comes from China because they’ve got the block on currency and the money’s trapped in China. It has to go into something so it goes into furniture and property and real goods and whatever else. So that’s part of the problem. But the real problem of course is the U.S. is printing a lot of money, and that’s sloshing around. No matter how much the People’s Bank of China might resist, the U.S. central bank is much, much, much bigger, and has got a lot more money. All central banks are up against the fact that we do have a commodity boom market, and even if they didn’t print money, the prices of things are going to continue to go much, much higher. So forget the printing of money, for the moment, we’re going to have more inflation. But with U.S. pouring gasoline over the fire, it’s going to be much more difficult for anybody to stop inflation. America is fanning it as best as (it) can, and it’s going to get worse.

Q. Given that kind of outlook, where are you investing in China?

A. The only thing I’m buying in China is the RMB. I can’t just pick up the phone and buy millions of RMB as you know, but when I can buy more RMB, I do so legally. I’m not buying Chinese shares. I would like to buy Chinese shares when they collapse. I don’t know when the next collapse will come, but there’s always a collapse in every country, so I would buy more. My view toward China is different from any other investment. I buy these shares, and I plan to hold onto them for my grandchildren – my children, anyway. I hope they own them for their grandchildren, because I’m convinced that China will be the great country of the 21st century.

Q. What are some of the companies that you’re sitting on for your grandchildren?

A. I own the airlines. I own vineyards. I own coal and natural resources. I own tourism companies I own. That’s the sort of thing that I own here, and I’m looking to buy more.

Q. What about the B-share market? That’s relatively cheap.

A. I never buy A-shares. I buy B-shares, H-shares, S-shares and ADRs sometimes because they’re always cheaper. The shares which are not A-shares, they will always trade cheaper than the A-shares, so I never buy A-shares. I started buying B-shares in the spring of 1999 because I thought I could buy at that time and they were unbelievably depressed. I came in late of 1999 and I looked around and said, “My God, look how cheap these things are! Look, this is amazing!” So I bought up the B-shares and that’s when I bought Changyi for the first time.

Q. What do you make of all these Chinese Internet listings in the States? Just last week there was another company.

A. I have not bought any of those, mainly because I don’t really understand technology and it’s not my style.

Q. The multiples seem rather high?

A. Yes. What I’m getting at is that I’m skeptical of why they’re selling in the U.S. I guess I know why they’re selling in the U.S. — because they can get a higher multiple. I don’t like to buy high multiple stocks, especially ones I don’t understand. It’s not for me. Doesn’t mean they’re not going to be great successes, it just means it’s not for me.

Q. In the commodities, prices have come up quite a bit. Are there areas you think still have room to climb?

A. Agriculture as a sector. Sugar prices have gone up 500% in the past few years, but sugar is till 50% below its all-time high, which just shows you how depressed agriculture is. So with agriculture as a class, it’s still the most depressed on a historic basis. I try to find the ones that are still depressed like silver and natural gas or rice. Even though it’s been booming, silver is still 30-40% below its all-time high. If I’m right, agriculture prices are going to go much, much higher.

With a lot more social unrest in the world, more governments are going to fall, more countries are going to fall, because we’re going to have serious increases in prices of agriculture. People don’t go into the streets when the price of copper goes up, because they don’t know or care, but if the price of sugar and rice and wheat goes up, everybody knows that day, and everybody’s unhappy that day. That’s part of what’s happening in the Middle East and it’s going to continue. There’s going to see more and more social unrest. We’ve had a fair amount of social unrest in the past few years because of agriculture. It’s going to get worse, much worse, or better depending on which side you’re on.

Q. What other parts of the world do you see as risky?

A. I would say any place that’s had one person in place for 30 or 40 years. When things start going wrong, it’s easy to blame that guy. Qaddafi’s been there 42 years! Same guy for 42 years! Even in China they change the guy every five years, which makes it better, because you do have change and you have new faces. So it’s mainly places that have had the same old guy for a long time where I see the most pressure.

Q. What do you make of the ultimate fallout from Japan?

A. I bought some Japanese shares last week. I was thinking about buying them before last week, before the collapse, so I stepped in and bought some. It’s certainly going to cause more pressure on commodities because Japanese agriculture is now suspect and maybe even going to be scrapped. On metals, the Japanese have not been doing construction for many years, but now you’re going to have a big new buyer, a surprise buyer, of copper, cement and steel because they’re going to rebuild. Likewise with for oil, natural gas and coal because there’s now more emphasis on alternate, non-uranium sources of energy, (and) it’s going to cause more pressure on that kind of energy going forward. It’s more commodity demand for the world.

Q. What will the commodity price boom mean to the U.S. agricultural land prices?

A. It’s already making them go higher and they’re going go much, much higher. We still have a huge presence in agriculture. Land prices are going up. Farm prices in Iowa are going up; condominium prices in Iowa are going up as a result. That’s going to continue. Agriculture is going to be extremely profitable for the next 10, 20, 30 years. We may very well have gigantic food crises in the next few years, because we have shortages of everything including farmers. The average age of the farmers in state “X” is 58. In 10 years, they’re going to be 68 if they’re still there. This is happening all over the world. In Japan, there are vast fields that cannot be farmed. The Japanese government has just started to go, “What are we going to do?” They started to even bring in Chinese farmers as an experiment to farm the fields. So farmland worldwide is going to go up in price, certainly in America. And agriculture is going to be one of the most exciting professions in the next 10, 20 years. It’s going to be the farmers driving the Lamborghinis going forward, not the stock brokers. In fact, the stock brokers are going to be driving taxis. If I’m right, the smart ones will learn how to drive tractors so they can work for their farmers. They’re going to be driving their Lamborghinis to their lake houses, and then they’ll be going through the roof in price.

Q. So if you’re an American investor and you’re looking at that, how do you invest into that kind of future?

A. You could buy businesses that benefit from farmlands, farming, seeds, fertilizers, tractors, the stores and shops that are in the agriculture belt. There are plenty of ways to invest. I presume there are some banks in that part of the world which will be prosperous and thriving. But the best way of course is to buy rice futures or the futures themselves. There’re plenty of ways to do it.

Q. What do you make of India?

A. I am not optimistic. I’m short India, as a matter of fact. I can go on and on about the shortcomings of India and how people don’t understand India, but the one fact is that India now has now a 90% debt to GDP ratio, which, for some reason, the bulls either don’t know or ignore. As you probably know, the studies show that when a country gets to 90% to GDP it’s very difficult to grow very rapidly because everything you’re doing is paying off the debts of the past. So no matter how productive and dynamic you are, you’ve still got a big burden. So for that and all the other reasons, I’m less optimistic about India then most people. It’s a phenomenal country to visit, but boy, it’s tough to do business there. Even for Indians, it’s tough to do business there.

Q. What about some of these other Asian markets?
A. I’m not buying shares anywhere right now because I would rather own commodities. I’m still skeptical of the world economy. If Myanmar opens a stock exchange – and they’re trying, I would buy shares there in a minute.

Q. Why?

A. Well, there are 80 million people (that are) disciplined (and) educated, and vast natural resources. There is India on the left and China on the right, It’s starting to open up – not according to the western press, but you know, it’s time (for them) to open up. It’s got enormous potential. They don’t have to compete with Westerners because the Westerners are all boycotting. They don’t have to compete with Exxon because Exxon is not there, so it’s wonderful for anybody who’s there in business. They’re going to make a lot of money, because a lot of Westerners are not going there yet.

I like this article!

What do you think?

Does the China boom continues? Does the China prosperity continue?

Salesforce.com unfazed by Microsoft CRM

2011-01-21T04:23:00.000-08:00

Salesforce.com unfazed by Microsoft CRM - ZDNet

Salesforce.com has responded to Microsoft's Dynamics CRM 2011 Online launch, calling the company's latest offering a "snapshot of history".

Microsoft's online-hosted CRM system represents the software giant's first foray into providing CRM via its own cloud, something Salesforce.com has been doing for a decade.

In an effort to attract customers Microsoft has offered up to $249 in product credit per user for any Oracle and Salesforce.com customers switching to Dynamics Online.

However, Salesforce.com has verbally shrugged about the offer.

"Microsoft still bases its CRM on desktops, proprietary systems and Outlook. That's a snapshot of history — not a social app for today's mobile, open world," the company said in a statement.

Microsoft's offer is not hook-free in any case, with only companies between 15 and 250 users being eligible. Those who take it up will also be locked into a two-year licensing agreement.

Microsoft wouldn't be the first Salesforce.com opponent to use monetary enticements to lure customers to its fold. In 2008, NetSuite offered its product for half of the amount Salesforce.com customers were paying at the time. In 2009, it extended the offer due to strong interest.

In addition to the monetary incentive, Microsoft will be using local partners and software vendors to sell the service to Australian customers.

Mobile Marketing Review of the Year

2011-01-03T05:41:00.000-08:00

2010 - Review of the Year - Mobile Marketing

As is traditional on New Year's Eve, we are delighted to offer you a look back at the year in mobile marketing. So sit back and enjoy the highlights of another incredible 12 months…

The year got off to a flying start, as Apple responded to Google’s decision to buy AdMob by snapping up rival mobile ad network Quattro Wireless, followed hot on the heels by Amobee Media Systems, which announced that it was buying mobile media firm RingRing Media. January also saw Google unveil its first Google-branded phone, the Nexus One, developed in conjunction with HTC, while Apple took the wraps off something called the iPad, which turned out to be reasonably popular. And Orange UK launched its opt-in advertising service, Orange Shots.

February saw the industry decamp en masse to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress, where 24 telcos announced that they had come together to create the Wholesale Applications Community, an alliance to build an open platform that delivers apps to all mobile phone users. The move was designed to address the app industry’s fragmentation problem, and challenge Apple’s dominance in the sector, though WAC has not broken too many records in the 10 months since.

Away from MWC, the GSM Association (GSMA) and comScore, in partnership with operators O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3UK, announced the official UK launch of GSMA Mobile Media Metrics (MMM), a census-level solution for mobile media reporting. In the same month, mobile analytics and payments firm Bango revealed that traffic to mobile websites had grown by 600 per cent over the past 12 months. And mobile discovery provider Shazam made its first move beyond music with the launch of the Shazam Audio Recognition Advertising (SARA) program, which allows brands and broadcasters to extend the reach and depth of their advertising campaigns to mobile. The SARA program lets brand advertisers directly reach, influence and interact with target audiences using Shazam’s music recognition technology to tag a TV commercial.

March saw T-Mobile and Orange given the OK to proceed with their merger by the European Commission, after the operators agreed to give up some of their spectrum. The combined company, known as Everything Everywhere, has a customer base of around 29.5m. There were more deals, as ad agency M&C Saatchi snapped up mobile marketing firm, Inside Mobile, Nokia announced that it was buying Novarra, which provides a mobile browser and service platform, and Amdocs, which provides customer experience systems, snapped up mobile payments and messaging aggregator MX Telecom for $104m (£69m) in cash. When the deal went through, MX Telecom became part of Amdocs’ OpenMarket business.

April saw the publication of figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers, showing that the UK mobile advertising market had grown by 32 per cent in 2009 to reach £37.6m. Mobile search was the fastest growing category, up 41 per cent to £20.2m and a market share of 54 per cent, compared to 50 per cent in 2008.

Still on stats, Apple revealed that it had sold 300,000 iPads in to stores and customers who had pre-ordered on its first day alone. Apple CEO Steve Jobs still found time to publish an open letter in which he detailed all the things Apple doesn’t like about Adobe’s Flash platform, including battery drain, security issues, and the proprietary nature of the platform. Jobs concluded that: “The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content.” Wonder if that Christmas card from Flash ever made it to Apple HQ…

Mobile Interactive Technology (MIT), revealed that it was behind a mobile donation campaign that had contributed £3.4m of the £31.6m raised to that point by Sport Relief 2010 in the UK. All text donations of £1, £5 and £10 made by the public benefitted from 100 per cent out-payments, thanks to mobile network operators waiving their usual fees.

And there was no let-up on the deals front, as HP announced that it was buying Palm for around $1.2bn (£785m), and WIN plc revealed that it was in discussions with IMImobile which could lead to a recommended cash offer by IMI for the company at a proposed price of 141p per WIN ordinary share.

May saw the launch of the iPad in the UK and several other territories. Apple also revealed that it had sold 2m of the devices since the US launch on 3 April. It was a good month for Google too, as it was given the green light by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to complete its acquisition of AdMob, with the regulator citing Apple’s entry into the market, through its purchase of Quattro Wireless, as a factor in its decision.

Marks & Spencer (M&S) became the first major UK retailer to launch a permanent mobile website. The site offers over 24,000 products – including clothing, home and furniture, technology and gifts. Other retailers, including John Lewis and ASOS, would follow suit later in the year.

And handset maker LG released a report which estimated that mobile phone users in the UK spend £422.2m on mobile applications each year. Despite this, the report revealed that the most popular apps are those offering money off products and services.

Apple was in the news again in June, but for all the wrong reasons. Things started well enough, as CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone 4 to the world. A couple of weeks later, the device went on sale in several countries, including the US and the UK. But then the ‘Antennagate’ scandal broke, as it emerged that if you hold the phone in a certain way, you lose the signal, something to do with the steel band round the edge of the phone that acts as the antenna. Despite this hiccup, Apple still managed to sell 1.7m iPhone 4s in the first three days after its launch.

But the iPhone didn’t grab all the headlines, as comScore reported that sales of Android handsets had risen by no less than 2,429 per cent in the past year. There were plenty of deals too, as Velti bought Media Cannon, IMImobile completed its purchase of WIN plc, Broadcom acquired NFC specialist Innovision for £32m, and Mobile Interactive Group (MIG) bought Manchester-based Piri.

July saw the Antennagate scandal gathering steam. At the start of the month, Apple revealed that it had got to the bottom of the problem. The issue, it said, was not that the phone loses signal when held in a certain way; rather, it was not displaying the signal strength correctly in the first place. But as the pressure built over the next couple of weeks, including a class action lawsuit filed against Apple and US network AT&T by a group of iPhone 4 users, Apple changed tack, admitting that there was a problem, and offering a free bumper case to iPhone 4 owners, in addition to the previously-announced software update to fix the signal strength display issue. Even then, however, Apple was in combative mood, as CEO Steve Jobs used the press conference called to announce the fix to claim that Antennagate was not unique to the iPhone. Jobs showed videos of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and HTC Droid apparently experiencing a similar problem, prompting the expected outraged response from Blackberry-maker RIM.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the publicity, bad though it was, seemed to do Apple little damage, as it posted record revenues for the quarter of $15.7bn (£10.26bn), and net quarterly profits of $3.25bn. By contrast, Nokia released its second quarter results, which revealed a 40 per cent slump in profits to €227m (£192m), compared to €380m the previous year. On a brighter note, Amazon revealed that its customers had ordered more than $1bn worth of goods from Amazon using a mobile device in the past 12 months.

August saw more good news for Google, as research firm Nielsen released a report showing that sales of Android handsets in the US had overtaken the iPhone for the first time. A few days later, Google CEO Eric Schmidt revealed that Android handsets were selling at the rate of 200,000 a day.

Premium mobile ad agency 4th Screen Advertising opened its doors in the US, with Shazam as its foundation client, while Buongiorno entered into a partnership with Telefónica O2 Germany to launch O2’s new service ‘Prepaid Überraschung – Aufladen und Gewinnen” (‘Prepaid Surprise – Top-up and Win’) for prepaid mobile customers. And A&N Media selected Velti to supply a mobile CRM platform for a number of its publications and websites, including theDaily Mail, Metro, Evening Standard, Jobsite, Findaproperty, Teletext and Northcliffe Regional Newspapers.

September saw the release of figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau and the Direct Marketing Association revealing that 74 per cent of people who have not yet opted in to a mobile marketing database would do so if they were given the right incentive. 41 per cent of respondents said they would be more likely to opt in to a mobile marketing database if they could control the kind of advertising that came to their mobile, and 39 per cent if they could control which types of brands contacted them.

Staying with stats, European transport group Arriva announced that its m-ticketing service had seen over 300,000 journeys made by customers using their mobile phones to buy their bus tickets in the first six months of operation. The successful deployment of the payment solution on 4,500 buses on over 1,000 routes nationwide (excluding London), makes the system one of the largest deployments of its kind in the world. And staying with travel, Quno.com, a web-based rail search and booking service announced its arrival in the UK with the launch of the UK’s first location-based mobile games at major UK rail stations. The games were developed in partnership with SCVNGR (Scavenger), a popular US mobile social gaming platform that rewards users with points for going places and doing things.

October saw the release of figures from Openwave Systems showing that 70 per cent of mobile operator data traffic is down to the mobile usage patterns of just 2.5 per cent of all mobile users. This tiny minority of extreme users is characterised by its use of bandwidth-heavy content, such as video. And behind nearly every case of extreme usage is an unlimited data plan and a high-end smartphone consuming an average of 50.4MB of data per day.

Tesco revealed that its grocery shopping app for the iPhone and Nokia phones, developed in conjunction with Ribot, had achieved 400,000 downloads since its launch, with new downloads running at the rate of around 50,000 a week. The retailer also revealed that 4 per cent of Tesco.com’s orders were “touched” by the app, meaning that 4 per cent of orders placed online had had at least one item added to the basket via the app, which enables customers to add in the odd item when they have a few spare minutes.

Still on apps, Thetrainline.com launched its updated iPhone app that enables travellers to buy train tickets on the go from their mobile handset, and collect them from any of over 900 stations. And Informa Telecoms & Media released a report revealing that global mobile advertising revenues will hit $3.5bn (£2.2bn) in 2010, rising to around $24bn in 2015. Informa also forecast that during this period, the share of mobile advertising revenues going to network operators will fall from around 26 per cent in 2010, to around 20 per cent in 2015.

November saw Facebook revamp its Messaging system to enable users to decide how to talk to their friends - via SMS, Instant Messaging (IM), email or Facebook chat – and then routing the message into a single conversation stream, irrespective of the medium used to send it. Ringback tone (RBT) specialist Muzicall teamed up with three UK mobile operators - Orange, Virgin and 3UK - media companies and a number of mobile advertising networks, to produce and promote a charity ringback tone for BBC Children in Need 2010. Mobile users with participating operators were able to support BBC Children in Need by buying the ringback tone, with prices starting at £2.50. 100 per cent of the revenue generated (excluding VAT) was be donated to BBC Children in Need by participating mobile operators.

Sportswear outlet JD Sports became the latest UK high street retailer to launch a mobile-optimised website, in response to high volumes of mobile traffic hitting its website. The site was created by Usablenet, which has also tailored mobile sites for Marks & Spencer, John Lewis and Debenhams.

Orange’s eco-mobile phone charging prototype, the Orange Power Wellies, were honoured by Time magazine as one of the 50 Best Inventions of 2010. Created in collaboration with renewable energy firm GotWind, the Orange Power Wellies use a unique power generating sole that converts heat from the user’s feet into an electrical current. 12 hours of walking charges a mobile phone for an hour. The prototype was showcased onsite at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, where Orange is the Official Communications Partner.

And mobile app developer TouchType revealed that its SwiftKey language prediction app for Android phones, had clocked up half a million downloads since its launch four months ago.

December saw Mobile Marketing reveal the winners of the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards 2010. Marks & Spencer enjoyed a double triumph, taking the award for Most Effective Mobile Site, created by Mobile Interactive Group (MIG), and for Most Effective Mobile CRM/Enterprise Messaging Campaign, in partnership with Incentivated. Other winners included Sky Sports/Procter & Gamble, NAVTEQ Media Solutions, and Upstream Systems.

Point of Sale specialist DigiPoS launched what it described as an “mCommerce ecosystem”, called MobileShopper. It takes the form of an app, currently available for iPhone, with Android and BlackBerry versions due soon, which is free for consumers to download, but for which the retailer for whom the app has been tailored pays £1 per download. DigiPoS will tailor the app for individual retailers, who would then encourage their customers to download the app to make their in-store shopping experience easier. For each copy of the app downloaded, the retailer pays DigiPoS £1.
Absolute Radio revealed an all time high in its figures for mobile streaming, with users accessing 353,000 hours’ worth of content via mobile in November 2010, an increase of 305 per cent on the corresponding month last year.

Mobile transaction network mBlox released the findings of a study that revealed that has UK banks and credit card providers are falling short in the mobile services they offer to consumers. mBlox analysed the mobile activities of 50 UK banks and credit card providers in September 2010. It found that 84 per cent of UK banks and credit card providers do not offer SMS transactions or balance alerts as part of their customer service offering. A further 34 per cent do not have a mobile website, and 76 per cent do not yet have a mobile application, with only 16 per cent offering an iOS mobile app, 8 per cent an Android app and 2 per cent, a BlackBerry app.

Airlines were also in the firing line, as research from mobile internet firm Volantis revealed that in spite of offering a slew of mobile apps and websites, many of the airlines affected by the current adverse weather conditions are failing to provide up-to-date customer information as part of their mobile presence. Having looked at the mobile offerings of 13 major international airline operators, Volantis found that, while 11 of them offered a mobile site accessible on all web-enabled devices, and eight offered some form of smartphone app, just five offered up-to-date flight news and information which could help stranded passengers at airports across the UK, US and Europe, via their mobile apps or mobile websites.

But we end this round-up of the year on another stat. This one comes from mobile search firm, Mobile Commerce, and reveals that ‘Facebook’ is the most searched term from the 40m mobile searches the company deals with each month. Facebook also comes in fifth (www.facebook.com) and seventh (Facebook.com). Social network terms, in fact, take six of the top 10 places, along with email and search provider terms ‘Hotmail’ ‘Google’ and ‘Yahoo’, giving a clear indication of how the mobile internet in the UK is currently being used.

That trend looks likely to continue during 2011, but what other trends will emerge is something we hardly dare hazard a guess at, given the pace of change in this constantly-evolving industry. Whatever does happen though, we’ll be here to bring you all the news throughout the year. And remember, if you want a weekly round-up of the top stories delivered to your inbox each Wednesday, just take a couple of minutes to register using the link towards the top right-hand side of the site.

Soffront Offers a One-Stop Customer Service Shop

2010-12-31T02:02:00.000-08:00

Soffront Offers a One-Stop Customer Service Shop - CRM Buyer

A company's customer service system should be constructed around the customer's needs and preferences, not the company's, said author and keynote speaker Micah Solomon. "Success in customer service starts with quantified empathy. With learning what your customers want."

With helpdesk, knowledge management, customer portal, email auto response, project management, and mobile access capabilities, Soffront prides itself on being a one-stop shop for customer service solutions.

"The customer service solution we offer is pretty comprehensive," Manu Das, CEO of Soffront, told CRM Buyer. "That's what our system does best."

Soffront Customer Service Portal

(click image to enlarge)

Soffront's Customer Helpdesk and Customer Portal creates a ticket when a call or email is received, a process expedited by Soffront Email Response. The customer can then close the ticket based on the response.

Soffront Analytics for Support uses key performance indicators to help businesses analyze their support process, and Soffront Mobile CRM provides mobile access to support teams.

Customers can also use Soffront Knowledge Management for Customer Self Service, a knowledge base that allows customers to help solve their own support issues.

"We do all of those," said Das. "We provide a knowledge base for self service."

Good Service Requires Custom Fitting

Customers can review the knowledge base and decide whether to submit a ticket. They can also discuss issues in a forum with other users and provide assistance to each other.

Soffront tracks any assets associated with customers, including software, gadgets, servers, devices, computers, documents or blueprints -- anything that would be necessary for customer maintenance and care.

Soffront also manages returned merchandise for the customer, such as defective products. Most customer service vendors do not provide this type of tracking, Das pointed out.

When customers return products for replacement or repair, the new or repaired product needs to be returned to the customer. Soffront saves the history of this entire multichannel process.

"How do you keep track? You're managing something for the customer," Das said. "It makes you completely organized."

An approach such as this, which revolves around the customer, provides good results, Micah Solomon, customer service keynote speaker and author, told CRM Buyer.

Customer service software can help companies provide individualized service by capturing each customer's preferences and by tracking all the interaction history with a customer.

"Good service requires custom fitting to each customer," Solomon advised.

Easy and Affordable

The price of a customer service system could depend on the size of the company, said Jeff Furst, founder, president and CEO of Furst Person. Small to medium businesses usually pay a monthly fee per user while larger companies might receive a discount, Furst told CRM Buyer.

Soffront offers both on-premise and hosted options that are very affordably priced, Das stated. The system costs US$80 per user per month. The price includes most modules except the offline and PDA client. The customer portal is unlimited for $200 a month. The knowledge base is $100 a month. Soffront charges 15 percent for ongoing support.

The dashboards can be easily configured by employees who are not tech-savvy, Das noted. Additional IT people do not have to be hired, which helps to keep costs down.

"We provide a suite that is really configurable by a business person," he said.

Hosted Solutions Remove Barriers but Have Limits

Some companies may encounter limitations with the on-premise version, Das acknowledged -- for instance, a small company with a few hundred people that's on a growth trajectory.

The hosted version eliminates any issues with scalability, Das said, noting that scalability is becoming less of a problem with cloud computing and SAAS.

"Hosted solutions are potentially a huge positive," Solomon concurred. "However, the hazards are trying to fit your customer to the limitations of the cloud-based system, rather than the other way around."

Concern with data security could also be an issue with a hosted solution. Government regulations sometimes require that no data be stored outside of a company network, Das said.

Focused and Integrated

Soffront serves all industries, which gives it a very diverse customer base that includes financial, retail, software and manufacturing companies ranging from mid-sized to divisions of Fortune 500 companies.

However, the system works best for groups of 500 to 600 users, and Soffront prefers companies or divisions that size, Das noted.

"That's our root," he said.

A niche customer service solution could be a good choice for a company of that size. Although small to mid-size businesses have the same service issues as larger companies, their configuration requirements might be different, Furst observed.

"Large companies need a very robust system," he said. However, this is not as much a concern for smaller companies.

Quantified Empathy

Soffront provides a dedicated implementation staff for each of its clients, including a project manager, customer service representative, and account manager.

The system improves productivity by capturing all information pertaining to calls, eliminating steps, and speeding up the process, Das explained. Soffront's dedicated service allows its clients to provide personalized service to their own customers.

Providing dedicated and personalized customer service is the key. The system should be constructed around the customer's needs and preferences, not the other way around, Solomon emphasized.

"Success in customer service starts with quantified empathy," he said. "With learning what your customers want."

Paciolan Signs Ticket Deal With The Smith Center

2010-12-28T05:55:00.000-08:00

Paciolan Signs Ticket Deal With The Smith Center

Paciolan, a leading provider of ticketing, marketing, and fundraising solutions, announced today that The Smith Center for the Performing Arts (The Smith Center) will partner with the company to open its new $470 million arts center. As an important component of the Las Vegas artistic and cultural community, The Smith Center will leverage the Paciolan system to sell tickets to its events.

"We're excited to work with Paciolan for our ticketing solution," said Myron G. Martin, president and chief executive officer, The Smith Center. "Paciolan provides us the tools, resources and services to offer our patrons an exemplary entertainment experience."

The Smith Center is the first new performing arts center to join the Paciolan community since their sale to Comcast-Spectacor, just nine months after regaining their independence.

"Paciolan offers us a uniform standard of excellence with a perfect blend of solutions that emphasize both earned and unearnedincome opportunities," said Paul Beard, vice president and chief operating officer, The Smith Center. "They provide us a powerful distribution platform to sell high volumes of tickets as well as a potent, integrated fundraising system."

The Smith Center plans to utilize Paciolan's CRM technology to deliver outstanding services at every point of contact with their patrons. By leveraging an integrated CRM system, The Smith Center will gain a holistic view of their patrons' interactions and preferences to deliver a personalized entertainment experience.

"Paciolan is the right choice for The Smith Center as they provide us the most financially advantageous model as well as a powerful foundation to grow our business in the unique Las Vegas market," said Richard Johnson, vice president and chief financial officer, The Smith Center.

The Las Vegas market features a network on local organizations that leverage the Paciolan system. This network allows the Smith Center to work with other organizations, including UNLVtickets, to create greater cross-selling and marketing opportunities for both organizations.

An important factor in The Smith Center's decision was Paciolan's turnkey solution that enables The Smith Center to provide patrons one-stop shopping for their ticketing and donor needs. This proven technology allows The Smith Center to quickly ramp up their operations without requiring a newly designed, customized system. To complement the turnkey solution, The Smith Center has hired Mike Ruppert, an arts veteran with over 20 years of unmatched Paciolan experience, to manage their ticketing operations.

"It is truly an exciting moment for Paciolan to partner with a new, world-class organization such as The Smith Center to help them manage their beautiful new facilities," said Dave Butler, chief executive officer of Paciolan. "This partnership is the first new performing arts center to join the growing Paciolan community since our independence, just nine months ago, which demonstrates the power of our robust ticketing, fundraising and marketing solutions to the vibrant performing arts genre."

About The Smith Center The Smith Center for the Performing Arts is a public/private partnership that will become the centerpiece of cultural life in Las Vegas offering a blend of performances by resident companies as well as first-run touring attractions. The 5-acre cultural campus will feature three performance spaces including the 2,050- seat Reynolds Hall with refined acoustics and the Boman Pavilion housing a cabaret jazz space and a studio theater, all complemented by the DISCOVERY Children's Museum. The Smith Center will be a living room for Las Vegas; a place that will educate, entertain and excite the citizens of our great community. Located in downtown's 61-acre urban development, Symphony Park, The Smith Center broke ground in May of 2009 with a ceremonial carillon bell casting and ringing. In February 2010, it celebrated its "Topping Out" with the raising of 50 tons of steel and is projected to open in March 2012.

For more information about The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, please visit www.thesmithcenter.com.

About Paciolan Founded in 1980, Paciolan is the leader in venue enablement, powering ticketing, fundraising and marketing technology solutions for leading organizations across North America. Collectively, Paciolan powers over 500 live entertainment organizations that sell over 100 million tickets annually. Primary markets include college athletics, professional sports, performing arts, arenas and museums. Paciolan is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast-Spectacor.

Visit www.paciolan.com for additional company information.

Five Predictions for the Job Market in 2011

2010-12-23T04:32:00.000-08:00

Five Predictions for the Job Market in 2011 - Vault

As far as job creation goes, there's little doubt that 2010 has been something of a disappointment. While we saw a couple of glimmers of light, it says a lot that the only thing that moved the headline number downward was temporary Census hiring. As we head into 2011 with an unemployment rate of 9.8 percent, and some 15 million people out of work, it's more apparent than ever that we're not going to see any kind of rapid improvement in hiring. But that doesn't mean that things aren't going to get better—it's just going to take some time. And there will, of course, be opportunities for those who know where to look for them.

Without further ado, here are five predictions for the job market next year:

Unemployment: Here to Stay

This time last year, we predicted that getting unemployment below 9 percent would represent a "serious achievement." Unfortunately, that still stands for 2011. With the economy only just creating enough jobs to keep up with population growth—and government job-creation measures seemingly off the table—a rate of 8-point-anything is increasingly looking like nirvana.

More Professionals Head East

More American students looking to go into finance will be studying the Chinese language, because that's where the majority of financial services-related opportunities will be.

The trend will extend beyond banking to the accounting and consulting industries as well.PricewaterhouseCoopers intends to double its headcount in China over the next five years, meaning it will hire 10,000 new employees by 2015. And thousands of Deloitte's planned 50,000 new hires in 2011 will join the firm in the Far East.

Vocational Occupations Become More Popular

Skilled occupations that pay well yet don't require a higher-level education will become more desirable. That means more plumbers, more CPAs, more medical technicians. As enrollment and tuition rise at traditional four-year colleges, more people will look for lower-cost alternatives—say, community and for-profit colleges—that will allow them to gain vocational certification or training for those jobs without taking out crippling student loans.

Companies Keep Taking the Profits

If it ain't broke, don’t fix it. Many companies posted record profits on the back of cost savings this year, and are likely to continue that behavior into 2011. Having gotten used to doing more—and making bigger profits—with less in the way of manpower, if companies do decide to shovel any of their cash back into the economy next year, it's more likely to be for mergers and acquisitions than large-scale hiring programs.

So who's hiring?

Despite the doom, there are still some growing career fields. Healthcare is an obvious (and longstanding) one, but as the various provisions of Obamacare start taking effect—or being starved for funding—there are serious opportunities for consultants and policy experts as well.

Tech is another field that is likely to continue growing—with a particular emphasis on cyber security, thanks to government spending aimed at curbing the threat of cyber-terrorism and hacking.

Finally, 2011 may well be the year that "green jobs" switches from buzzword to reality—with the majority of new positions in green manufacturing and technology.

How Important Will Corporate Social Responsibility Become?

2010-12-23T04:18:00.000-08:00

CSR 2010: Corporate Social Responsibility Shifts From the Cubicle to the Boardroom - Vault

With Corporate social media policies that enable corporates to let their employees write about their work within their corporations, corporate social responsibility will become a major issue on CEO level, I think!

Alice Kerngold seems to confirm this paradigm shift in her newest blog at Vault:

The benefits of corporate social responsibility for companies have been discussed for years. So when CSR advocates were challenged in 2010, they were bored, weary, and frustrated: "Come on, how long do we have to explain this to you?"
While the challenge might have sounded repetitive, there was a new shift in the CSR discussion. Because the conversation moved from the cubicle to the board room.
Until recently, the discussion about CSR was siloed within mid-level offices for human resources, philanthropy, and public relations; the company resources involved were minimal.
Today, it's the company CEOs who are interested in CSR; they're considering the potential benefits of CSR to advance the corporate mission and strategy and showcase the brand. Consequently, CSR is eliciting significant corporate resources with a worthy impact on shareholder value.
A Historical Perspective: CSR is Siloed
In the 1980's and early 1990's, CSR was merely a term that some companies used for their newly integrated volunteerism and philanthropy programs. Support staff or middle management might note just a couple of the benefits – like "teamwork"—to appeal to their bosses for a modicum of support.
A more comprehensive list:
a) Human Resources: Personal and professional development, recruitment and retention, fostering engagement among people from diverse backgrounds, pride in company, and teamwork
b) Marketing: Appeal to customers, company reputation, media promotion, and cause-related marketing
c) Public Relations: Relationships with businesses, community, and government, and company reputation
d) Philanthropy/Foundation: Employee pride, improve the community where employees live and work, company reputation, align with causes that are relevant and meaningful to employees and also the company's purpose/product
In this earlier iteration, these company "CSR" programs:
• Were not integrated across human resources, marketing, public and governmental relations, philanthropy, and so on
• Had no overall strategy with involvement from senior executives
• Had no particular connection with the company's mission or brand
• Had no senior executive driving the programs to maximize their value in terms of public, community, and governmental relations; media; and human resources
• Were not assessed with serious evaluations and analysis of the benefits to the company, and the company's social impact
• Had no meaningful leadership from the CEO, much less the board of directors
• Were not considered with regard to shareholder value
Additionally, companies were missing out on–and continue to–a tremendous leadershipdevelopment opportunity.
Engaging Executives in CSR
For two decades, a core component of my approach to CSR has included training and placing executives on nonprofit boards through a purposeful and very high quality matching process. Through board service, companies benefit by providing unique, fulfilling, experiential leadership development opportunities for their executives and professionals, while also helping to build more effective boards of nonprofits that will advance the nation's and the world's NGO/nonprofit sector.
Twenty Years Later: CSR as a Corporate Strategy
Today, for a select group of visionary and opportunistic business leaders, CSR is becoming more fully integrated into the company's core strategy. In such cases, CSR is aligned with the corporate mission and showcases the company's brand, while also providing the above-mentioned human resources and public and community relations benefits – but on steroids.
Today, the CEO is engaging her senior leadership team and her board around CSR, and the CEO and the board are articulating how their company's approach to CSR can indeed increase shareholder value in the long term.
Today, a company commitment to CSR involves auditing and, if necessary, refreshing the company's approaches to corporate ethics, board governance, leadership development, environmental conservation, community engagement and NGO/nonprofit partnerships, supply chain management, and human rights, among others. Two obvious examples include PepsiCo–"Performance with Purpose"–and Walmart.
I contend that CSR is becoming such a force, that soon, if a company does notinvest in CSR, that company's board and shareholders will ask how and why the CEO and his team made such a strategic decision.

That failing to have or integrate CSR into a corporate strategy will no longer happen by default – that one way or the other, CSR will be on the board's agenda.
--By Alice Korngold
Alice Korngold consults to global corporations on CSR, trains and places corporate executives on NGO/nonprofit boards, and consults to NGO/nonprofit boards. She is the author of "Leveraging Good Will: Strengthening Nonprofits by Engaging Businesses," (Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Imprint, 2005) and blogs for Fast Company.

More corporate social responsibility in a totally connected world will also enable us to enable corporate multicultural responsibility, that should become more than sending some of your overseas executives on cultural competency training!

Zuckerberg visits China - Facebook meets Baidu

2010-12-20T04:43:00.000-08:00

Zuckerberg visits China - Facebook meets Baidu

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, met with Baidu's CEO Robin Li during a visit to China on Monday. Baidu is China's largest search engine. Baidu confirmed the Zuckerberg visit and talks with Li and senior staff, but did not disclose the nature of the discussions.

Facebook is currently blocked in China, one of the world's largest online markets with some 440 million users online. The Chinese government routinely monitors and blocks internet sites with politically sensitive content in what is termed the "Great Firewall of China". Baidu is the country's largest search engine with a 73 percent market share, well ahead Google which commands just 21 percent.

It is understood that Zuckerberg holds a strong personal interest in China, and has been taking daily Chinese language lessons. His girlfriend is Chinese and has family in the country. The Facebook founder had confirmed in an interview with Time magazine that he would be visiting China over the holidays.

20 Ways To Cut The Cost Of Your CRM Project

2010-12-17T02:27:00.000-08:00

20 Ways To Cut The Cost Of Your CRM Project

Richard Boardman listed some great ways to cut the costs of implementing a CRM system, we liked to share with you:

Do you really need new CRM software? – sometimes organisations already have CRM software, but it just isn’t working well for them. The temptation is often to replace it with something new. However, the fault may not be with the software itself, but in the way it’s been implemented or used. Re-implementing what you already have is likely to be significantly cheaper than buying a new system.
Pick your shots – as I mentioned in my post on how to phase CRM projects, it’s generally best not to try and do too much in one go. If you can focus on the areas where you can achieve the greatest impact, you can lower costs, and increase the return on investment from the project.
Create a detailed requirements specification – this will allow you to solicit firm bids from prospective vendors in a competitive environment which will allow you to buy more cost effectively.
Don’t get locked in – one very expensive mistake a lot of organisations make is to commit to a vendor before the final costs for a project are known. This removes the incentive for a vendor to offer competitive pricing, and it’s is a lousy position to try and negotiate from.
Do you quality for a discount? – companies like Microsoft and Salesforce.com offer highly discounted software to certain sectors such as charities and educational establishments. If you think you may qualify, then it’s worth asking the question.
Haggle – most CRM software and service pricing is negotiable, so don’t be afraid to haggle. If there’s a large number of service days involved it may be worth getting an independent CRM consultant involved to verify that the quoted amounts are appropriate for the work involved. Quarter and year ends are time when vendors are most motivated to cut deals, and you will tend to negotiate much more successfully the less optimistic the prospective vendor is about their likelihood of winning your business.
Trade – there are a couple of dimensions to this, but you may be able to offer the products or services that your company provide in full or partial payment. You may also be able to trade in other ways, particularly in terms of you ability to act as a reference site. Vendors are always anxious to secure new references particularly if they have a new product or are entering a new market. Your willingness to act as one could secure a substantial discount.
Terms matter – it’s not just what you pay for software and services that’s important, check the small print as well. There can be a range of hidden terms and costs that can become very expensive over the life of the system. Be aware of these and address them in your negotiations.
Don’t over-customise – the more customisation you do, the greater the implementation costs. While you should always tailor the system to meet your unique needs, organisations can be prone to adding unnecessary ‘frills’ to the system, or capabilities that later prove to be expensive white elephants. Keeping as close as possible to the out of the box capabilities and ruthlessly cutting out any development requirements that don’t add significant value can be a very effective way to cut costs.
Don’t get hooked up on labels – it’s often tempting to go for the known names in the industry, but you may be able to purchase much more cost effectively by looking to newer, less established vendors, where you aren’t paying a premium for the brand.
Buy to fit your functional needs – your detailed requirements specification should tell you the functionality you do (and don’t) need from your CRM software. Understanding your needs and matching them to the most appropriate product can save you lavishing money on a suite of capabilities you don’t require.
Make use of open source and low cost offerings – there are a raft of free to low cost CRM offerings available on the market. These may not be as sophisticated as some of bigger ticket options, but if your needs are pretty straightforward they may well do the job.
Be clear on your objectives – there are two approaches to CRM which are discussed in more detail in this post. You can use it in an ad hoc way or a process driven way. The ad hoc way is cheaper and the returns lower. The process driven way requires a lot more resource, but will produce much higher returns. It pays to understand which approach you are aiming for. The thing you want to avoid is going for process driven approach without the necessary resources, because you will end up spending a lot, to achieve very little.
Buy licences when you need them – as I mentioned in my ‘How long does a CRM project really take’ post, CRM implementations can take a lot longer than people expect. Buying licences during the implementation phase, when no one is able to use them, needlessly ties up capital. Since most CRM software companies do not penalise you for adding users incrementally, it’s often better to buy as you need them as this avoids you buying for users who don’t end up using them. This can save you a fortune in expensive ‘shelfware’.
Don’t let it go wrong – it’s a lot cheaper to implement a project right first time than to try and turn it around later. It’s easy to underestimate what’s involved in a successful CRM project and it’s easy to come unstuck, so it’s a cost effective strategy to plan it and mange it carefully.
DIY – there’s a lot on a CRM project that you may be able to do a lot more cost effectively than the vendor. With many systems it’s relatively easy to set up the basics such as adding fields and pick-lists, so a good way to reduce costs can be to use the vendor for the more complex tasks and use internal resources to carry out the more straightforward work.
Have developers working on-site – in my experience developers tend to be much more productive when they are working outside of their own offices. This is perhaps less of a problem if they are working to a fixed price contract, but if it’s time and materials, then I’ve found that you get a lot more for your money if you have them working in your own site rather their own.
Look for experience – a capable, experienced, developer will generally be many times more productive than an inexperienced one, but the day rate you pay is often the same. It therefore pays to be very selective about the team members you have working on your project.
Consider freelancers – vender implementation staff can be an expensive resource. Freelance staff can be considerably cheaper. If you can find experienced staff with the required skill-sets, then this can significantly cut project costs.
Get independent advice – there are a number of independent CRM consultants out there, and they are well positioned to advise on the negotiation of pricing and term, as well guide your around some of the potentially costly implementation pitfalls.

Of course, cost is only one dimension of a CRM project, and we shouldn’t forget the value generated by the system is critical. However if you keep costs under control, then the overall return on your investment becomes potentially significantly higher.

9 Tips to Managing a Growing, Successful Facebook Fan Page

2010-12-14T04:40:00.000-08:00

9 Tips to Managing a Growing, Successful Facebook Community

A blog article written by Debba Haupert, founder of Girlfriendology.com, a community of women based on inspiration, appreciation and celebration of female friendship. She speaks on friendship and social media and has worked with ConAgra, Healthy Choice, Frito-Lay, Kroger, Biz detergent, Crystal Light, caught my attention as all Facebook fan page administrators, but also Facebook fans, can learn a lot from her insights! It consists a short personal experience of the Facebook effect that may well transform the Matthew effect.

A year or two ago (decades in social media years), I was all about ‘the Twitter.’ (Betty White reference) I concentrated my social media efforts and time on growing my Twitter followers to be a large community of women. My blog, Girlfriendology.com is about female friendship, hence the gender focus. Hours of following, unfollowing, tweeting, RT-ing, #FF-ing led to a decent Twitter following - around 20,000+ and primarily women. Just what I was hoping for.

Personally, I enjoy Twitter, I love my Twitter friends and would rather get my news from strangers on Twitter than spend an hour watching the news. But, I had to ask: was our Girlfriendology community on Twitter?

Mashable reported that as many as one-third of women 25-34 check Facebook first thing in the morning (many before even getting out of bed) – it’s that important/interesting to them. Forbes said: “Facebook, the largest social networking tool in the world, is dominated by women,” with 57% of members female and women being more active (aka: social) on Facebook.

IRL, my BFF’s are on Facebook – a lot! Many will never attempt to tweet or be interested in Twitter. Their friends are on Facebook, so they are too. For example: in my friend Colleen’s office of all women, every day they grab their lunches and eat at their desks – while they’re surfing Facebook!

So to Facebook I went, to grow my community for my blog, and I have, putting in a lot of time and learning a lot of lessons along the way. Here’s a few of the tips I’ve learned in growing my community -currently 12,000+ females and growing - on Facebook:

1. Survey your Community – How well do you know your community/readers? I ran an online survey to research my readers, find out insights into the community and source content ideas/material, etc. I asked my community what social media sites they use. Over 90% of the survey respondents indicated they were either ‘addicted to,’ or on Facebook several times a day. Over 90%! I also asked them where they interact with Girlfriendology most often – on our blog, our Facebook page, Twitter, our online community, etc. Again, the top answer was on Facebook. The survey findings confirmed – I need to put time and energy into my Facebook marketing and community building. TIP: Ask your community about their social media preferences and then go where they are!

2. Plan your Updates to fit their Schedule and ‘Likes’ – Based on research (online information and observed among friends), I know that women check in on Facebook before and after work, as well as during lunch time. Women also visit Facebook frequently on weekends – you can tell by when comments are made, or from your insights (stats on Facebook pages) on how many impressions are generated at different times. Taking a hint from my friend Colleen and her office-mates, I post a daily ‘girlfriend video lunch break’ with a female-friendly funny or inspiring YouTube video every day. Women like inspiring quotes, so I also post one or two daily. I take note of what they ‘like’ and comment on, and respond with more of the same based on their engagement. TIP: Know your audience, their schedules and be consistent with your Facebook updates.

3. Schedule Your Updates – I know exactly what you’re thinking: I don’t have that much time, right? I agree, it can be overwhelming but it’s worth putting some effort into your community on Facebook. To be honest, I can’t imagine any audience who isn’t on Facebook. Use tools like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite to pre-schedule your updates. Set-up your Facebook updates to then tweet them. I put in a couple hours over the weekend to load my Facebook updates for the coming week. I created a simple grid of the daily updates (and days of the week) I want to pre-schedule - inspirational quotes, the lunchtime video, a ‘Girlfriendology Classic’ (a link to an ‘old blog post’ that is evergreen and that I want to generate new traffic for) and, especially at the holidays, a ‘girlfriend gift recommendation’ which incorporates an affiliate link. This way, during the week I only have to add occasional updates and links to new blog posts, etc. TIP: Plan ahead, create a schedule then pre-load your Facebook updates.

4. Use Facebook to Grow your Mailing List – As I mentioned, a lot of my Facebook traffic never makes it to my website. I also know that they people come and go on Facebook. My goal is to engage them in my community so they do visit the blog, comment on it, visit the Facebook page and through the experience feel part of Girlfriendology. To stay in touch with my followers, I encourage them to sign up for the weekly newsletter – it’s easily accessible on my Facebook page. (Check out this blog post on growing your newsletter list.) I have posted my ‘Sign Up’ form on Facebook (on a tab) and remind them to do this every Wednesday (see below). TIP: Make it easy for your friends and fans to join your mailing list.

5. Create a Promotional Calendar – We all have lots of social media communities and promotional opportunities. So I created a promotional schedule for my social media communities that’s not overly promotional. On Mondays, I post a ‘FRIENDly’ reminder to share Facebook.com/Girlfriendology with their girlfriends – it goes onto my Facebook page and Twitter updates (as do all of these). On Tuesdays, I ask women to follow us on Twitter.com/Girlfriendology. Wednesdays are my ‘sign up for our newsletter!’ day. Thursdays, I promote our girlfriend gifts/products and Fridays are a great day to remind them of our upcoming Girlfriend cruise. I make it a short and hopefully ‘sweet’ reminder of how they can engage in the community. TIP: Create a Promotional Calendar with your different social media sites and opportunities for monetization (like affiliate links or products that you sell).

6. Ask them to ‘Suggest to Friends’ – The first ‘obvious’ first step isn’t always obvious! Start with your own friends. Build your online Facebook community by suggesting your site to your current connections. Ask them to share your page with their friends. Make it obvious that you want/encourage/LOVE referrals to your Facebook page. Tweet about your page and link to it. In my page description (on the left column, under the logo on my Facebook fan page), I start the copy with “Suggest to Friends” (right under the ‘Suggest to Friends’ link Facebook provides) to make sure they don’t miss that request. Recently I added the ‘Suggest This’ free Facebook app to my Facebook page. It creates an additional tab at the top that says ‘Suggest This’ to make it easy for your fans to share your site with their friends. (Just search for ‘Suggest This’ in your Facebook apps.) I believe in having several reminders and ways to grow your Facebook community. TIP: Ask your community to share your Facebook site with their friends, then make it easy to ‘suggest your site.’

7. Every Blog Post, Interview, Guest Blogs, etc. … SHARE! – Don’t be shy, you have good things to share on your blog and in your community, right? Your Facebook community ‘liked’ your page and expects to know what is going on with your blog. Every time I post a new blog post, it automatically becomes a Facebook update (and Twitter tweet) with a link to the blog. (This is set up in my FeedBlitz settings so I never have to worry about it. It also updates my LinkedIn page.) Any other newsworthy updates – like you’ve guest blogger on a site, interviewed someone on your BlogTalkRadio show or posted a new YouTube video, update your Facebook page and remember to include any links back to your site. TIP: Share your updates and links.

8. Add the Facebook LIKE button on your Blog – Does your blog also promote your Facebook community? We’re all competing with social media, other blogs/web sites and every other online distraction. So, our goal should be to engage our community and connect with them in various ways. I highly recommend adding the Facebook ‘LIKE’ button on your blog posts – both at the top and bottom of the posts. As readers click it, it puts an update on their Facebook page/friend stream with a link to your site – spreading the word on your blog to your fans’ friends. TIP: Use Facebook to build your blog community, and your blog community to build your Facebook ‘friends.’ Make it easy for them to help promote your community!

9. Create a Conversation – That’s what social media is about, right? Use your Facebook updates to get your friends’ input, ask their opinion, look at things a different way. I try to add questions sometimes that are ‘female friendly’ (topics women love to discuss). For example, I posted the question: “What’s your favorite ‘chick flick?’” once on Facebook/Girlfriendology. That question generated over a hundred responses and a blog post that now gets a lot of traffic – just by asking a fun question to discuss. Keep in mind - every update should not be just about you/your blog. Promote other blogs or sites your readers would benefit from, acknowledge members of the community who participate and add to the conversation, and add content/updates that make your readers’ lives better – they’ll love you for it. TIP: Ask questions, listen to their response and don’t hog the conversation!

That’s a lot to do! But as you grow your friends/fans/followers you’ll find ways to manage your Facebook contacts and updates, as well as the techniques that work for you in engaging and growing your community. Go for it! If your readers/fans are there, you should be too!

100+ Upcoming Social Media and Tech Events

2010-12-10T02:46:00.000-08:00

100+ Upcoming Social Media and Tech Events - Mashable

Here are some tips on how to network, share your information and/or promote your event(s) using social media:

Mashable’s Weekly Social Media and Marketing Event Guide is proudly supported by Eventbrite, the Web’s Event Marketplace.

Upcoming Mashable Events:

The Mashable Awards, January 6, 2011, Las Vegas, NV: In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner, Cirque du Soleil Zumanity, as well as special guest presenters and appearances.

December 6-9, 2010, Las Vegas, NV. Attend the Advanced Learning Institute’s 22nd Updated Forum onSocial Media for Government: How To Engage Your Employees And Citizens By Using The Latest Web 2.0 Technologies To Drive Communication Results, to learn how to incorporate social media into your communications and marketing plans, and leverage the latest interactive Web 2.0 tools and techniques to advance your organizational goals. Hear practical advice from: Department of State; City of Las Vegas; Army Public Affairs; Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; San Francisco Public Utilities Commission; Deloitte and more. Mention Mashable when registering to save $200!

December 6-9, 2010, San Francisco, CA: Join us at Dreamforce 2010, the cloud computing event of the year. This December, more than 20,000 fans will gather in San Francisco for our 8th annual user and developer conference. In four action-packed days, we’ll give you all the education, inspiration and innovation you need to succeed. There’s no better way to get up to speed on the latest advances in Salesforce apps, the Force.com platform and cloud computing. And this year we’ll connect you with your peers and heroes in ways you’ve never thought possible. It’s time to dream again.

December 6-8, 2010, New York, NY. Attend the Advanced Learning Institute’s 2nd Updated Forum on Social Media for Pharma: How To Develop, Execute, And Evaluate Web 2.0 Strategies To Engage Your Audiences And Drive Business Results, to learn how to incorporate social media into your communications and marketing plans, and leverage the latest interactive Web 2.0 tools and techniques to advance your organizational goals. Hear practical advice, firsthand, from leading organizations such as: Novo Nordisk; FDA; Johnson & Johnson; Kaiser Permanente; Astellas Pharma; UCB; Vertex Pharmaceuticals; Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals; Sanofi-Aventis; Millennium Pharmaceuticals; and more. Mention Mashable when registering to save $200!

December 6, 2010, San Francisco, CA: The SF MusicTech Summit brings together 700+ visionaries in the music and technology space, along with the brightest developers, entrepreneurs, investors, musicians, service providers, and journalists who work with them at the convergence of culture and commerce. We meet to discuss the evolving music/business/technology ecosystem in a proactive environment. Register and use the promo code Mashable to receive a 10% discount off the ticket price. For more information, please visitwww.sfmusictech.com.

December 6, 2010, Los Angeles, CA: The Mobile Excellence Awards offers invaluable exposure, PR, branding and networking with the who’s who in mobile entertainment, media, & technology. The event has become one of the most influential and prestigious in the industry, honoring the best in mobile entertainment, technology, marketing & media. Attendees represent the entire mobile ecosystem, including execs from all major studios, entertainment companies, brands, content providers, industry influencers & press. Deadline for submissions is September 20th!

December 7-9, 2010, Santa Clara, CA: Taking place in the heart of Silicon Valley, BIA/Kelsey’s Interactive Local Media 2010 (ILM:10) is a unique, three-day mega-conference featuring the true innovators of local media, local directories, local search, local mobile, local social and local direct marketing. One highlight is a special Mobile Local SuperForum offering the deepest and most strategic dive ever presented in the mobile local space. Head’s up: Local is hot, and this year’s conference should be BIA/Kelsey’s largest ever. Register with promo code ILMMASH and save $200!

December 7-8, 2010, Universal City, CA: The LA Mobile Entertainment Summit is brought to you by the producers of the widely acclaimed 3D Entertainment Summit, this high level strategy and networking event will explore all facets of the mobile entertainment industry. This event will be presented in association with Variety and in partnership with the Mobile Excellence Awards, the industry’s most prestigious awards program for the mobile industry. Located in the heart of the entertainment industry, the summit will attract the brightest minds in the mobile ecosystem. Delivering two days of packed in-depth discussions, the summit will deliver strategies to capitalize on this rapidly changing landscape, attracting senior level decision makers, leading press and market analysts.

December 7-8, 2010, New York, NY: In the spirit of “ideas worth spreading,” we are excited to announceTEDxTribecaWomen: a live webcast and series of events built around the TEDWomen conference in DC. Our event is one of over 70 local, self-organized events that will take place across the globe to spark discussion and connection in a small group around TedWomen. We’ll be streaming all 5 sessions of the conference – 25+ live speakers, performers, tech demos and more, over the span of 2 days.

December 7, 2010, New York, NY: The New York State Department of Health’s AIDS Institute, in partnership with AIDS.gov, is hosting a free, one-day forum on the use of social media for HIV and STI prevention and care at New York University’s Kimmel Center. Social Media: Going Viral Against HIV and STIs is principally targeting the executive leadership, administrators and communications specialists in community-based organizations, health care facilities and public health organizations in New York State. Only registrants may attend the forum. For more information, please click here.

December 8-10, Reno, NV: Join professionals from marketing, tourism, gaming, service industries and nonprofits in Reno-Tahoe’s amazing ski country for Social Media at Reno Tahoe (SM@RT), one of the best values of any similar national conference in 2010. Speakers, along with specialized breakout session presenters, include top authors, practitioners and strategist from media giant, Gannett, winter travel destinations, Vail Resorts, and many other experts in building business for professional service firms. Anchored by the University of Nevada, and its business and journalism schools, attendees get specialized instruction to return home with ways to immediately improve their social media marketing. Register now and save and an additional $100 online for the main conference with the discount code MASH.

December 9-10, 2010, Sydney, Australia: Crime and Legal Issues in Social Media II will advise and assist professionals on the utilisation of social networking without fear of the risks. Some organisations are still hesitant to maximise their use of online networking. Risks such as breach of privacy, fear of legal action, developing a negative reputation and lack of control have given way to avoidance of this important medium. The event will explore the legal implications of using social media and the policies that manage the risks. Registerand use the promo code CrimeSocialMash to save 15%!

December 9-10, 2010, Chicago, IL: Rocked the Recession: Startup the Nation is coming to Chicago to bring together entrepreneurs, professionals, and organizations that are not only thriving; they’re Rocking! Join us in a two-day conference with some of Chicago’s best entrepreneurs and thought leaders. Panels and workshops include: Fighting Recession with Social Media, Video & Your Business: Going Viral, Always Be Social, etc. We have planned two days of discussions to explore innovative companies that balk at the idea of bailouts. We are ready to Rock 2011! Register with the promo code MASHABLE for a $10 discount off your ticket price.

December 9, 2010, Springfield MO: Social Marketing Boot Camp with Sarah Evans: Limited tickets will be available for this unique boot camp style event with nationally renowned expert Sarah Evans. You’ll spend a full six hours of session time with Sarah, taking an in-depth look at the role of social media in marketing your business or organization. You wont just learn effective social media marketing techniques, but will look at how social media works in conjunction with traditional marketing and public relations and why that’s important, practical ways of engaging customers and prospects, case studies, help with creating a social media based marketing plan, hints and tips, ways to make your brand stand out online, effective engagement, latest trends, tools and resources, and plenty of opportunities for discussion and Q & A. This will be a very hands-on event designed to give you lots of practical experience and learning, and for you to leave with new ideas and tools you can implement in a very real way. Register and use the discount code MASHABLE to save $25 on each standard registration.

December 10-12, 2010, Cambridge, MA: Startup Weekend Cambridge is the place to come for anyone with a new idea that they want to see brought to life. Over the weekend, teams will work together to take the ideas and create new ventures. Register and use the promo code Mashable to save 15%.

December 11, 2010, Amman, Jordan: For the past few years, the field of social media has evolved to become one of the most exciting areas of technology and business marketing. How is it different for MENA? The first Arab Social Media Forum will be the first event in the region to discuss exclusively social media topics customized to MENA. ASMF2010 will bring both clients and agencies together to share their experience in dealing with social media platforms, different social engagement approaches and case studies. Register with the promo code ASMF10MASH and save 20%.

December 13, 2010, Portland, OR: Portland State University’s Digital Marketing Conference 2010 showcases success stories in digital marketing, addressing the needs of individuals and companies as they use new technologies to engage their audiences, clients, and customers. With three tracks, a digital marketing bootcamp, speakers addressing hyperlocal to international business, two keynotes, Ignite DMC, and a post conference wrap event, attendees receive high-quality, hands on, and interactive experiences to enhance their digital marketing knowledge. Please click here to both learn more and register today using code DMCMASH10to get the early bird price (ends November 7).

December 15-16, 2010, Austin, TX: Are you a CEO, Owner, or Marketing Executive wondering how you should be using social media to promote your business? Come to our Free 90-minute Social Media Boot Camp for CEOs where you will learn proven techniques and valuable tips to drive customers to your website and generate new leads. Our expert speaker, Paul Slack, will offer abundant detailed strategies you can immediately put into action. We are in a different city each week, so please check our listings to see when we will be in your area!

December 16-18, 2010, Santiago, Chile: Conecta 2010 is a technology fair featuring over 40 leading brands from technology and communications sector and a series of top-notch conferences on issues such as social networks, entrepreneurship & innovation, sustainability, new media and education. Featured guests and speakers include Peter Molyneux, Guy Kawasaki, Arianna Huffington, and Sir Ken Robinson. All proceeds will be used to to buy carbon bonds to ensure that the event has zero emissions. Visit conecta2010.cl for more information.

Conecta 2010
www.conecta2010.cl

December 17, 2010, New Delhi, India: The India Social Summit 2010 aims to bring together names in consumer and b2b marketing, social networking, and mobile on a vibrant platform for a day of insights and stimulating discussions. The conference features 5 Keynote addresses, and panel discussions featuring industry leaders. Delegates, consisting senior industry professionals, includes CXOs, media owners, media buyers, marketers, HR and communication professionals and social media practitioners. If you would like to register for the event, please click here.

December 15, 2010, New York, NY: Vator is bringing its popular Splash event to New York City. The Splash event, hosted by Vator, is a celebration of entrepreneurship. The evening gathering brings together high-profile, successful tech entrepreneurs sharing their lessons and advice alongside promising startups showcasing their innovative ideas. Register and use the promo code Mashable for a 20% discount off both ticket and table packages.

January 6-9, 2011, Las Vegas, NV: Join us at the 2011 International CES, the global platform for inspired ideas and innovation. With 2,500 exhibitors, CES continues to be the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow and always reflects the dynamic consumer electronics industry. The International CES is not open to the general public and all attendees must be in the CE industry to be eligible to attend the show. Register FREE for the 2011 CES with the priority code MSHB, an exclusive promotion for Mashable readers.

January 6-9, 2011, Lake Tahoe, NV: The worlds of digital storytelling, snowsports and technology will converge on Heavenly Mountain Resort January 6 – 9, 2011 for the Tahoe Snowcial, a winter festival celebrating the global community of enthusiasts who live their passion in the snow and tell their stories online. Snowcial ties these worlds together in a participative, collaborative intermingling of industry leaders that sparks new ideas for the future, linking networks, passions and turns. Speakers include CEOs of Gowalla, Path and Vail Resorts with performances by OK Go and MC Hammer. Register with the promo code founderfriend and get 10% off!

January 12-14, 2011, Washington, DC: Social Media Legal Risk & Strategy – Social media has proven to be a critical medium for companies who are looking to have their services and brands penetrate the public sphere. The use of social media, however, has not come with an absence of legal risk. Join 16 lead counsels from Coca-Cola North America, IBM Corporation, Wal-Mart, Chevron, T-Mobile, Capital One, Dell, Aon Corporation, CSC, Nationwide and other fortune 500 companies as they discuss strategies to address and overcome the legal risks posed by engaging in social media. Mashable subscribers will enjoy a 10% discount when they mention MASHABLE in their follow-up email to ddrey@marcusevansch.com.

January 12, 2011, Las Vegas, NV: Influence People is hosting a one-day social media marketing conferencein Las Vegas and it will bring together leading brands and marketing experts to explore the viral power of social networks. During this one-day event, a team of renowned marketing experts will provide guidance on how to effectively engage with customers via social media, give tips on how to maximize the impact of your campaigns and offer insights into new services to try and trends to watch out for. This is the ultimate event for anyone involved in social media or digital marketing. Register with the promo code mashable and receive a 10% discount.

January 12, 2011, Stanford, CA: The NextGen Conference brings together young, aspiring entrepreneurs and young, rock star entrepreneurs with more experienced entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Join us for a full day at Stanford University and learn from the very best! Speakers include: Peter Thiel (Founder of PayPal, Clarium Capital, and the Founders Fund), Keith Rabois (COO of Square), Mark Suster (2x entrepreneur turned VC), Travis Kalanick (serial entrepreneur and angel investor), and more! Register and use the promo codeNGCMASH!

January 13-14, 2011, Washington, DC: marcus evans invites you to attend the Social Media for Pharma Conference. Hear from your peers firsthand on how the new FDA guidance will mandate your social media strategies. By attending this conference you will learn how to boost product exposure, generate market research, build relationships and increase sales and overall business in the long term. For an exclusive discount as a Mashable member, please mention “Mashable” to Michele Westergaard at michelew@marcusevansch.com.

January 17-18 and 20-21, 2011, Singapore & Hong Kong: Join us at this interactive conference on Social Media Marketing to acquire effective techniques for boosting your brand performance and ROI. Find out how Intel, Nokia, Watsons, McDonald’s, Volkswagen, HP, Canon, Johnson & Johnson, Wall Street Journal, SMRT and more incorporated social media activities to get ahead of conversations. Through in-depth case studies and workable solutions, learn how to develop coherent platform integration strategies, handle a social media backlash and identify KPIs for the effectiveness of social media campaigns. Register today and save 10% when you enter Mashable under Additional Info.

January 19, 2011, New York, NY: Mobile Healthcare Communications: Case Studies and Roundtables – Representatives from GlaxoSmithKline, Within3, Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Roche Diabetes Care, and others will demonstrate the best case studies of how major healthcare brands are connecting with consumers and professionals through mobile communications. Register

and use the promo code MASH for a discounted rate of $155.

January 20-22, 2011, Mumbai, India: Click Asia Summit 2011 is designed to be Asia’s largest digital & mobile marketing conference and expo where industry thought leaders congregate to discuss online marketing, challenges faced by agencies, and the changing face of social media. Click Asia Summit 2011 is going to change the way you look at Digital and Mobile marketing. Please register by clicking here.

January 20-21, 2011, San Francisco, CA: The First Annual Gamification Summit brings together top thought leaders in game mechanics and engagement science for the first time. Hear what works and what doesn’t in this dynamic and fast-moving field through case studies, workshops, keynotes and panels delivered by experts such as Gabe Zichermann (author, Game-Based Marketing), Amy Jo Kim (gamification guru) and Jane McGonigal (TED fellow, debuting her new book) and network with other leaders in the space. Attend the Gamification Summit 2011 and learn how game mechanics and the new science of engagement are rewriting the rules of brand marketing, product design and customer acquisition. Know the score: Register now with the Mashable promo code GSMASH11 and save 10%.

January 20, 2011, Washington, DC: L2 is a think tank for digital innovation. L2 will host the Social Graph Clinic, an all-day intensive clinic addressing the opportunities, challenges, and underpinnings of social media. Held at the George Washington School of Business, the event will feature speakers from academia, public sector, and private industry to lead discussions on social media strategies, rules of engagement, and metrics for marketing and digital professionals. Register here for the Social Graph Clinic. The first 10 Mashable readers to register will receive a 25% discount on tickets (Please use the following discount code when registering: “MASHABLE“)

January 24-27, 2011, San Francisco, CA: The Emerging Media Conference is one of the largest and unique of its kind, welcoming the New Year with an opportunity to view and experience the latest in technology advances and upcoming product roll outs. For three full days there will be demonstrations, presentations, and discussions led by some of the most connected and recognized experts in the industry including Keynote Jesse Schell from Carnegie Mellon University. Whether you are immersed in the world of emerging media or just have a casual interest, this conference allows you to preview the future of the tech world like a seasoned insider. Register and use the promo code EmMeConMash to save 10%.

January 24-26, 2011, London, UK: The Digital Content Monetisation (DCM) Europe 2011 is a forum for media and entertainment specialists to find out how to deliver sustainable strategies to monetise their digital content. You will meet over 200 of your peers across TV, Film, gaming, music, publishing and sports. Mashable readers receive a 10% discount when they register and use the promo code MASH.

January 25, 2011, London, UK: If you don’t have a plan to offer your mobile services, you could be left behind as consumers increasingly consume entertainment, social media, games and gambling via mobile access devices.
Mobile Gaming will present a detailed and exciting roadmap for how gaming companies can take advantage of this new channel that has finally ‘come of age’ and multiply their revenues in the near future. Register and use the promo code MASHMOBILE.

January 26, 2011, London, UK: Monetising Social Games will show you how to integrate the phenomenal success of monetised social games into your product mix so you can catch the next wave of explosive customer acquisition and revenue growth via a channel that is legal in the USA, China and other markets inaccessible to traditional online gambling companies. Register and use the promo code MASHMSG.

February 1-3, 2011, San Diego, CA: The Green Data Center Conference will analyze new technology that will not only benefit our environment, but also save organizations money and increase efficiency. Industry experts and executives will gather to discuss the growing importance of green technology and the associated benefits. Corporate case studies will be presented to demonstrate how existing data centers have been retrofitted and new facilities built from the ground up. This conference will share valuable information that can be taken back and used immediately to gain measurable ROI. Register and use the promo code GDCSD10 to save 10%!

February 1-3, 2011, Santa Clara, CA: O’Reilly Strata Conference: Making Data Work – Turn data into decisions at Strata, the new conference from O’Reilly Media, focusing on the business and practice of data.Unprecedented computing power and connectivity are bringing new layers of experience to our lives in how we manage and present data sets of all sizes. Throughout three days of training, breakout sessions, and plenary discussions, O’Reilly Strata connects the decision-makers, practitioners, and leading vendors from enterprise and the web who are at the leading edge of this space. Topics include data science, acquisition, organization, machine learning, visualization, and more. Mashable readers can save 15% on registration with the promo code str11msh.

February 7-10, 2011, Orlando, FL: ARC’s 2011 World Industry Forum: Driving Innovation, Sustainability and Performance will take place at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld! This forum will focus on challenges that will help you develop winning strategies. It provides an ideal environment for industry executives to collaborate, share ideas, and find new ways to attack their most pressing problems. The event includes sessions on the major issues facing our industry, with multiple tracks that enable executives to explore these topics from different perspectives. Owner/operators, solution providers, & technical experts will all benefit while contributing to the community’s body of knowledge.

February 7-9, 2011, New York, NY: Now in its 10th year, the ePharma Summit is going to be bigger than ever. We are looking ahead to new trends and opportunities in digital marketing with unparalleled insight from leading industry innovators. Join us for more novel mobile strategies, more regulatory insights, more customer perspectives, and more examples of what is really working now from the organizations you admire most. Join us February 7-9 in New York City at the most respected digital marketing event for the life sciences industry as we explore innovative e-strategies and proven techniques to drive business. Register with promo codeXP1606MASH and save 10%.

February 8-10, 2011, San Francisco, CA: Social Media Strategies Summit – We have researched the social media buzz to develop and present to you a top of the line marketing conference that you can’t afford to miss. With in-depth case studies from the nuts and bolts to micro-blogging and sustaining online communities, you leave with a refreshed vision to take your marketing plan to the next level for 2010 and beyond. Register and use the promo code MASH to receive a discount.

February 14, 2011, Barcelona, Spain: The Mobile Premier Awards are among the most influential events in the mobile industry and the point of reference in early-stage innovation during the Mobile World Congress. An international jury of the most recognized mobile industry experts will select the 20 finalists from all the local AppCircuses held during 2010 to showcase their app in a 3-minute pitch at the event in Barcelona in front of investors, operators, media companies, peer entrepreneurs, and press and influential bloggers. Register and use the promo code #BCNMASHABLE to receive a 10% discount.

February 23, 2011, Portland, OR: Join hundreds of your online marketing peers for the Fifth AnnualSearchFest Internet Marketing Conference in Portland on February 23, 2011. Thought leaders and industry experts from around the country–including major brands like Intel, REI, and the New York Times–will deliver in-depth presentations on topics including Advanced Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Universal Search, Analytics, Paid Search Marketing and many more. Register with the promo codeMASHABLEPDX to save 10% on your General Admission ticket!

February 25-27, 2011, Los Angeles, CA: The 9th Annual Southern California Linux Expo, the premier community run Linux / Open Source conference, will feature tutorial sessions designed to show users of all skill levels what Open Source can do and how to do it. Whatever your interest is in Open Source, SCALE 9X will have something for you. Register and use the discount code MASH9 for 35% off.

February 28-March 1, 2011, Sydney, Australia: Social media marketing has rapidly evolved to the extent that it is no longer enough to just get on board the “social media marketing train.” Marketers are bombarded with tools and technologies without a real understanding of integrating social media effectively. Social Media Marketing – The Way Forward enables marketers develop and manage a sound strategy for your ongoing and future social media marketing projects, with practical and valuable insights shared by some of the most successful brands and campaign creators in both B2C & B2B social media marketing. Register with the promo code MPMASH and save 10%!

March 1-5, 2011, Hannover, Germany: CeBIT is the world’s largest trade fair showcasing digital IT and telecommunications solutions for home and work environments. The key target groups are users from industry, the wholesale/retail sector, skilled trades, banks, the services sector, government agencies, science and all users passionate about technology. CeBIT offers an international platform for comparing notes on current industry trends, networking, and product presentations. For more information, please visit: http://www.cebit.de and to receive your complimentary visitor registration to this elite event, please email lguiang@hfusa.com.

March 1-2, 2011, London, UK: TFM&A is the UK’s largest and longest running multi-channel marketing, media and advertising event. TFM&A will be delivering the latest industry insights, trends and developments as well as leading suppliers of digital, direct, data and CRM solutions. With free seminars and keynotes from big names like Microsoft Advertising and Experian, over 200 exciting exhibitors, a dedicated networking bar and cafe and many more show features, take advantage of your FREE entry to create a campaign that becomes a classic. Register at t-f-m.co.uk/mashable.

March 2-3, 2010, San Francisco, CA: EyeforTravel’s Social Media Strategies for Travel Conference is North America’s number one social media event for travel professionals. Now in its fourth successful year, the event brings together top travel brands to share key insights on how to maximize the impact of your social media initiatives. The two days are packed with case studies, presentations and networking opportunities. Please use the promo code MASHABLE for a $100 discount on the admission price.

March 2, 2011, Berlin, Germany: FEI is Europe’s first and only event to solve your industry challenge in real-time. Explore best in class presentations by top multi-nationals, collaborate with world renowned experts, Listen to real-world visionaries choreographing “next” best practices, and participate in a real-time case study where you will tackle industry challenges and work to propel the industry forward. FEI is no ordinary conference — this is truly a catalyst for change. Register and use the promo code FEI2011MASH to save 20% off the standard rate.

March 4-5, 2011, Louisville, KY: Code PaLOUsa is a two-day, eight-track software development conference in Louisville, KY that’s designed to cover all aspects of software development regardless of technology stack. We will have sessions revolving around Microsoft, Java, Ruby, PHP, and Clojure; along with sessions on higher, platform-agnostic levels. There will be 60 technical presentations and panel discussions from well-known professionals in the software development community and a keynote talk from Douglas Crockford of Yahoo! and JavaScript/JSON fame. For more information and to register, please visit codepalousa.com.

March 8-9, 2011, Brussels, Belgium: Are you looking to unleash the power of social media for CRM? As new channels and strategies emerge it is increasingly important to meet face-to-face to share knowledge, challenges and experiences. Enterprise Social 2.0: CRM will bring social media marketers and CRM experts together to share knowledge through real-world case studies, best practices, lessons learned and offering networking opportunities with some of the biggest brands and businesses today. Past speakers include:Google, Kodak, L’Oreal, Philips, Nokia, Lego, Siemens, Vodafone, SWIFT, SAP, Roger Smith Hotel, Dominos Pizza, Airbus and more. To receive a special discount, register now!

March 9, 2011, Dubai, India: The Cloud Computing World Forum Middle East and Africa will feature all of the key players within the Cloud Computing and SaaS market providing an introduction, discussion and look into the future for the ICT industry. Register today and get inspiration on how to address your latest issues with advice from real-life end-user case studies and practical examples. Register with the promo code MEAmash20and save 20%!

March 15, 2011, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Want to know successful stories on how big brands build their brand and reputation online? Everyone can go online, but can you STAY online? Our conference, Digitalize Your Marketing Strategy, is going to be most anticipated event of the year! WE are bringing you the Malaysian’s most valuable brands, review their successful stories and provide you hands on tips to manage your online marketing strategy. Our privileged speakers from Digi, Dell, Unilever, Intel and Microsoft will share case studies using social media, digital and search engine. Register with the promo code DYMSMASH and save 20%!

March 23-24, 2010, Las Vegas, NV: Hear groundbreaking social media ROI case studies at Social Pulse 2011: The Corporate Social Media Marketing Event! This conference provides corporate marketing leaders from across industries the newest insights and case studies on how to drive measurable results and marketing ROI through smart social media strategy. Moving beyond theory and assumptions, it is the only conference that focuses on social media initiatives that have generated measurable results for America’s leading corporations.Register online or call 1-800-647-7600, and use the promo code MJK233 to save $200!

March 28-29, 2011, Paris, France: The Marketing 2.0 Conference features leading social media experts who will discuss and learn about the social media initiatives from brands, advertisers, researchers and analysts. Hear from leading people in social media about their strategies, revenue models and how they are approaching upcoming trends in the field. The event will also examine the current market conditions, future forecasts and predictions from leading researchers. Use the promo code mash2011 to receive a discount off the registration price.

April 6-8, 2011, Los Angeles, CA: Hispanicize 2011, the 2nd Annual Hispanic PR & Social Media Conference, is the first and largest conference devoted to Latino social media, bloggers and public relations professionals. The three-day conference will feature top industry keynote speakers and more than 24 professional development sessions. It’s also the first event to gather all the Latino and multicultural bloggers together for first time. For more information, please click here.

April 13-15, 2011, Singapore: The Internet Show Asia 2011 is a series of seminars and a large end-to-end showcase of the latest internet technologies and solutions. More than 10,000 attendees will be at the exhibition and conference to find new ways of doing internet business and enhancing product offerings through the internet – through case study presentations and speaking directly with solution partners. The show will aim to increase your ROI, it’s all about business, not a technology show. For more details and registrations, please visit www.theinternetshows.com/2010/Singapore.

April 18-20, 2011, Dubai, UAE: Planet of the Apps Arabia 2011 is a three day conference dedicated to the opportunities and challenges of mobile applications in the Arab world. The event is for app developers, content providers, device manufacturers, network operators and brands to meet and discuss the current challenges and opportunities presented in this growing market. Key issues addressed will include; the sustainability of the current business models, consumer engagement, developer recruitment, app discoverability, platform choice and the importance of social media networks. Register with promo code Mashable and save 20%!

April 18-19, 2011, London, UK: The Mobile Research Conference is the must-attend annual event for brands, agencies and academics interested in engaging consumers and capturing real-time feedback through mobile phones. Mobile, along with social media and online networks, represents the latest frontier for market research. Attend MRC 2011 and discover how to engage respondents, extract insights for product innovation and optimize marketing activities. This 2-day event is designed for consumer insights professionals; corporate, agency and academic survey researchers; mobile operators and tech companies. Register and use the promo code FF-MASHABLE to receive 20% off the main registration price!

April 28, 2011, London, UK: The Augmented Reality Summit is designed to explore this new dynamic reality and provide delegates with the perfect opportunity to uncover Augmented Reality in full and explore the opportunity’s AR brings any brand or company. The AR Summit is positioned at the forefront of this exciting continually developing new industry. Whether you are a Brand, Advertiser or Agency, Technology provider or Developer looking to meet key industry figures, keep up with the latest developments, technology’s & tools or simply to network with other from the world of AR – Register and use the promo code ARMASH to save 25%!

May 4-8, 2011, London, UK: Digital Shoreditch is the voice of everything happening in Shoreditch. The festival explores and celebrates digital technologies; unites the digital community; and provides a platform for sharing knowledge. The activity culminates in a series of exhibitions, parties, presentations, open studios and games.

May 17-19, 2011, London, UK: The World E-Reading Congress brings together digital and print publishers with e-reading platforms and device manufacturers to discuss the business models and opportunities provided by the growth of the e-reading industry. Publishers must be prepared for this dramatic industry upheaval. They must learn how to embrace this disruptive technology and the World E-Reading Congress will enable them to discover how they can profit from the E-Reading revolution. Visit our website for more information and registerbefore January to save 10%!

September 26-29, 2011, Kaua’i, HI: The Search and Social Woot! is an elite conference unlike any other that will provide you with the strategies and complete know how to thrive in this ever changing environment. Each day begins with morning sessions around the hottest topics. With Keynote Bruce Clay of Bruce Clay, Inc. and speakers from corporations such as Real Networks, Network Solutions, AT&T, Microsoft Bing and Logitech. Afternoons are spent in a relaxed environment including planned activities in which individual attendees can get to know speakers and each other on a more personal level continuing the discussion and building long lasting relationships. Register and use the promo code SSWootMash to save 10%.

The Mashable Weekly Social Media and Marketing Event Guide is proudly supported by Eventbrite, the Web’s Event Marketplace.

Eventbrite is an online events marketplace where tens of thousands of individuals, businesses and organizations of all sizes manage, promote and sell tickets to their events. Make your event a success on Eventbrite.

6 Ways the Recession Has Changed Hiring Practices

2010-12-08T07:51:00.000-08:00

6 Ways the Recession Has Changed Hiring Practices - Vault

Aman Singh article in Vault has caught my attention after having read the most recent study of the The Hackett Group that concludes an "Acceleration of Offshoring Trend Driving Loss of Millions of Finance and IT Jobs in U.S. and Europe".

How has the recession affected HR policies at companies nationwide in the last two years?

As employees who had hunkered down during the recession once again start actively looking for growth opportunities, and in many cases, change employers, how are companies gearing up their retention efforts?

It seemed this problem is so acute that at a recent conference for HR executives, many executives confessed in private conversations that they had recently been pulled from other operational duties to assist in talent development and management.

Titled Talent Management: Getting and Keeping Your Best People, the panel featured HR executives from companies that together manage approximately 350,000 employees worldwide. They had a lot to offer—both on the question posed above, and on several other pressing HR questions of the day.

The panel:

--Moderator: Scott Stevenson , Director of Talent Management and Organizational Design, PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory (PwC)
--Bob Bennett, Chief Learning Officer and VP for Human Resources, FedEx Express
--Sayed Sadjady, Talent Management and Organizational Design Leader, PwC Advisory
--Helena Gottschling, SVP for Leadership and Organizational Development, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)

Highlights:

Employee Disengagement Isn't Leading to Employee Attrition

Stevenson indicated that while increasing percentage of employees were seemingly disengaged at work—especially in the last 24 months—they also made up the majority of the workforce that wasn’t actively job hunting.

"Between 2007 and 2009, the percentage of a disengaged workforce went from 10 percent to 33 percent. But this 33 percent were the ones not leaving either! Which leaves us with a big realization: One out of every four individuals leaving the company is a high potential candidate. This figure marks our biggest challenge yet," he said.

At FedEx, the focus has always been on internal promotions "and that has helped us tremendously in the last couple of years," Bennett offered, adding that current CEO Frederick Smith started at FedEx as a carrier. However, Sayed Sadjady put the onus of voluntary attrition on the demographics of their workforces. "The average age of a PwC employee is 28 years," he said, adding that job hopping at that time in one's career is considered normal these days, even necessary for employees to move onto better opportunities.

From Recruitment to Leadership Development Programs

For RBC's Helena Gottschling, the last two years saw a significant shift in priorities (and budget allocation) from external recruiting to internal training. "There has been a heightened amount of attention on how we are managing our talent and exploring the diversity of skills, generations, and capabilities already in place at RBC," she said.

Both Bennett and Sadjady were in agreement, adding that having been in the thick of the recession had forced many heads to start looking for potential internally.

Whose Responsibility is Leadership Development: The Employee or the Company?

According to Gottschling, professional development must be a partnership: "Individuals must be eager to develop. And companies must be equally proactive on providing the facilities and opportunities to match this eagerness."

For Bennett, however, this accountability has shifted in the last two years. "At FedEx, development no longer means promotion," he said, explaining that as of 2010, all employee information (resume, work history, traits, achievements, goals, etc.) is fed from one single database that connects to the entire system of job posts, career development opportunities, etc. This puts the onus on the individual employee.

Indicating that the traditional process of hiring, onboarding, goal setting and eventual development—a predominant feature of the professional services industry—has undergone a gradual integration in other industries and at PwC as well, Sadjady said that the "process has become much more ad hoc and need-based than a calendar-based objective."

Role of the Chief Human Resources Officer is Changing: HR's Seat at the Big Table

Gottschling emphasized a significant shift in leadership's attitude toward the participation of the human resources chief in operational and overall strategizing. "And the last two years have made this ever more prominent," she said, adding, "Goal setting and setting projections across departments are no longer the predominant functions of the finance department."

She also pointed out that because the "drivers of engagement had changed dramatically in the last two years," the HR department has risen in importance to deal with long term goal setting and projections. "Also, the development needs of today's workforce are so unique that it has become much harder to look even three years ahead," she offered.

Bennett alluded to this trend as well, indicating that the functionality of human resources is gradually shifting from a discretionary dispensability at companies to a prominent leader in any discussion on company strategy, goals or mergers and acquisitions.

Employee vs. Employer Value Proposition: What Sets Companies Apart as Preferred Employers?

For Gottschling, value propositions must cut across functionalities and all employees. "The No. 1 driver for a managing director in our capital markets group, for example, could be compensation, but for a customer service representative in one of our branches, the No.1 driver would be her relationship with the supervisor or whether she feels valued at the company, or even the company's reputation," she explained.

Bennett gave high points to corporate culture and detailed four key requisites for a value proposition:

Employee goals must be aligned with company goals.
Employees must feel that they make a difference.
Employees must have the ability to grow with the company.
Employees must know they are trusted and have a voice in the company.

"Everything we do and the people who do the tasks can be replicated. But corporate culture cannot be duplicated. It is the one thing that sets a company apart. And this is driven by employee engagement," he said.

The Partnership of HR and Diversity

Charting the course diversity has travelled both as a priority as well as a driver for engagement and growth, Sadjady said, "Diversity was initially driven by compliance and corporate governance. Then diversity became a necessary demand from the client base. And today, diversity of experiences, abilities, skills and backgrounds is a crucial component of overall success." [Related: Why Diversity is a Necessary Job Skill, not an HR Policy]

At RBC, Gottschling added, "For me, the Chief Diversity Officer is my CEO. Our diversity is emphasized in every function of the company, from hiring, leadership development, identifying high potential candidates, as well as earmarking opportunities for expansion."

Finally, as Bennett put it, "Diversity today is a business need, a requirement." This puts the onus primarily on the human resources department to push for and leverage the potential of a diverse workforce. And now that HR executives are beginning to crack the ceiling to the C-suite, disgruntled employees who feel unvalued or noncontributory to company initiatives and strategy, can hope to have a voice on the big table.

Next Generation of Event and Training Management

2010-12-07T04:33:00.000-08:00

Acteva Announces the Next Generation of Event and Training Management with their Salesforce CRM Connector - TMCnet

The Acteva Connector integrates with Salesforce to provide event organizers and corporate planners with a wide spectrum of features and capabilities. These tools assist you in managing your meetings, conferences, training initiatives and much more. The Acteva Salesforce Connector's close coupling with Salesforce ensures easy and automatic transfers of data between the two best cloud solutions.

The Next Generation of Event Management "Currently, products feature a one-way automated import of data from the Salesforce environment", said Bill Briner, VP of Products at Acteva. "Our product, on the other hand, is certified by Salesforce, AppExchange and features many other components." Acteva's Salesforce Connector features: Automatic import and bi-directional synchronization of existing contacts, leads or campaign members from Salesforce.com Advanced payment collection and management module to collect payments online including: major credit cards, purchase orders, wire transfers, checks and more Email invitations and registration forms auto-fill with Salesforce.com data Next generation list management for email blasts, customer communications, registrations and payment actions to the invited contacts and leads Automatic flow of attendee status updates to relevant Salesforce.com records The Acteva Salesforce Connector enables an authorized Salesforce user to add contacts, leads or campaign members from Salesforce to an Acteva email list. Once invitation emails go out, the Acteva Salesforce Connector keeps track of updates on both sides in 'real-time', making your job, as an event planner, a breeze. The Acteva Salesforce Connector populates and updates Salesforce records with registration data for tracking and reporting on the event, while simultaneously updating the activity status from within Salesforce. "Acteva makes event management easy; and with its integration to Salesforce CRM, our knowledge base of individuals' interests and event attendance grows automatically with each event!", said Acteva customer Stuart Spector from the National Council on Aging.

Additional enhancements and updates to the Acteva Salesforce Connector are expected as Acteva strives to make life both, easy and secure for organizers, administrators and attendees using the cloud to manage their payments and events. For more information on Acteva's Salesforce Connector and cloud solutions explore http://www.acteva.com.

Shopping Rewards App CheckPoints Launches On Android

2010-12-04T01:11:00.000-08:00

Shopping Rewards App CheckPoints Launches On Android - TechCrunch

TechCrunch Disrupt finalist CheckPoints is a mobile shopping rewards app that lets consumers choose their own rewards.Despite not being available for OS3 users until recently, CheckPoints is currently the fastest growing mobile shopping application (in the same space as Shopkick and Barcode Hero) on the iPhone, amassing its first 100K users in one month and its last 100K users in the past two weeks.

The app is free to download and use, and lets shoppers earn CheckPoints by checking into over a million participating locations and scanning the barcodes of a number of featured products including Belkin, Tyson, Energizer, Kmart and more. You can redeem CheckPoints for prizes like cash, gift cards, airline miles and gadgets.

The app aims for a notably different demographic than Foursquare and Checkpoints users, who check in on average about 3 times a day, are predominantly female and 64% of them are between the ages of 25 and 44.

The decision to go Android wasn’t very hard,“From the moment we debuted in the Apple App Store, we’ve had requests to expand to the Android Market – in fact, we’ve got a waiting list of over 10,000 people,” said co-founder Todd DiPaola.

Venice-based CheckPoints currently has 1 million in funding. You can find the app in the Android Marketplace here.

Integration between KM tools and CRM leads to happier customers

2010-12-01T21:32:00.000-08:00

Integration between KM tools and CRM leads to happier customers - TechTarget

Companies that want to achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction should tighten the screws between knowledge management (KM) tools and CRM software, according to IT industry analysts and attendees of this month’sKMWorld 2010 conference in Washington, D.C.

Industry analysts have been predicting a “convergence” between the KM tools and CRM software markets for the last decade -- and those forecasts have come true, to some extent. The majority of today’s CRM software packages include at least a minimal KM information repository, while most KM tools vendors provide integration kits for the leading CRM systems.

Despite vendor efforts to increase ties, however, most end-user organizations still haven’t done a very good job of capitalizing on the affinity between KM and CRM, according to John Ragsdale, vice president of research at the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) in San Diego, Calif. As a result, many organizations are missing out on the highly desirable benefits of KM and CRM integration.

Enterprises that tightly integrate KM tools with CRM software put more information at the fingertips of customer service and call center agents and therefore reduce the time it takes to resolve client problems, according to Ragsdale. Faster incident resolution, in turn, leads to shorter hold times, lower abandon rates, increased overall productivity and happier customers. What’s more, Ragsdale added, is that KM and CRM integration increases the chances of resolving issues on the first try.

“First contact resolution is probably the primary driver of customer satisfaction more than anything else,” Ragsdale said. “Even if you’re kind of rude to the customer, if you can solve the problem quickly, they’ll forgive you.”

Integration between KM tools and CRM can also provide a potentially valuable new way to capture, organize and learn from customer experiences, according to Denise Bedford, a professor of information architecture and knowledge management at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, and an attendee of last week’s KMWorld conference.

Businesses spend a great deal of time and money on customer surveys and competitive intelligence, Bedford explained, and a strong link between knowledge articles and CRM customer interactions can complement such efforts.

“Look at your clients as a major source of knowledge,” she said. “Don’t assume you know what they want.”

The relationship between KM tools and CRM software in a nutshell

KM applications provide an information repository and search tools that allow users to seek out, organize and perhaps build upon an organization’s collective experiences and wisdom. A KM information repository might include FAQs, documents, personnel information and other digital files. In the context of CRM, a KM repository might provide a searchable file of solutions to common or not-so-common customer problems, and links back to CRM trouble tickets for speedier incident resolution in the future.

“CRM is interaction management, in my view. It’s about managing every touch point with the customer and it’s about creating that database of interactions so that you’ve got a 360-degree-view of every interaction and every decision the company makes that impacts the customer,” Ragsdale said. “Knowledge management is really a separate discipline in my mind. It [involves] recording answers that are given to customers so that you can reuse those answers and never reinvent the wheel.”

Getting started on KM tools and CRM software integration

Experts say most enterprises boast more than one set of KM tools and information repositories, and figuring the best places to begin integrating with CRM can be daunting. According to Ragsdale, however, a good plan of attack is to begin by focusing on three main integration points.

The first integration point is between the organization’s basic incident management system and any knowledge base that includes information about individual customers. The goal here should be to conduct an automatic search of pertinent knowledge bases whenever a customer opens a new trouble ticket.

“You can filter your search to only include content appropriate to that customer,” Ragsdale said. “By automatically executing the search when you create an incident, you already shortcut the time that a support agent spends on the phone.”

Organizations should then focus on linking closed incident tickets to pertinent knowledge articles. This will help customer service agents avoid redundancy and increase speed when similar issues pop up in the future.

“When you find the knowledge article that solves the problem and you indicate this was the right knowledge article, you’ve got to link that to the CRM ticket,” Ragsdale said. “You can do a lot of reporting on what incidents were closed and what knowledge articles are most useful to [specific] types of customers.”

The third integration point is between customer self-service applications and any knowledge articles that can be accessed online. Ragsdale said most KM tools provide the ability to track the knowledge articles that customers looked at online before giving up and picking up the phone to call a customer service agent.

“When customers give up and create a trouble ticket, it pulls all of that information in and sends it to the support tech, so they don’t bother dragging the customers through the glass of all the solutions that they have already tried,” he said. “That capability has been out there for a decade, and I virtually can’t name a single company that has done that integration.”

Appoint a KM champion

Organizations undertaking any KM project should consider appointing a KM champion, according to Judy Jaffe, a knowledge manager at the Cambridge, Mass.-based Risk Management Foundation and another attendee of last week’s KMWorld conference.

Jaffe said the goals of the KM champion should be to guide the process of building out knowledge articles, and perhaps more important, to make sure that employees find ways to share their knowledge without fear of becoming less valuable to the organization.

“You need a champion from within your organization,” she said, “someone that has the clout and the authority to say, ‘we are going to share what we know.’”

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