Using Social Media To Build B2B Relationships

In a recent interview, Tom Skotidas was spot on with his assessment of an important difference between the Business-To-Consumer (B2C) and Business-To-Business (B2B) markets.

Do you want to use LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook to help develop B2B opportunities? Then, as Tom says, you must aim towards eventually creating real world business relationships.

You can do this by first establishing visibility through a regular stream of activity associated with your on-line presence. And then by looking for opportunities to engineer face-to-face meetings.

Once you have the required visibility, you'll be in a position to suggest the following to your on-line contacts:

• Attending a meeting of your favourite business group
• Joining a get-together you're organising at an industry conference
• Coming along to a business social event
• Or, maybe even having a one-on-one meeting

But these tactics will only be effective AFTER you have established a reasonable degree of visibility on-line.

You can see the full Sky Business News interview with Tom Skotidas right here:

Firefox Version 7 Released

This latest release of the Firefox Internet browser promises to provide better utilisation of your PC memory. 

Which has to be a good thing.

Still using Internet Explorer? You really should give Firefox a try. Heaps of useful features and a wide range of add-on functions. And it's free.

Find more information on Firefox at: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/features/ .

You can download Firefox version 7 from:  http://firefox7.org/

Pricing Rip-Off's For Software

Australian's are being significantly overcharged for software according to an article in today's Sydney Morning Herald. That's even more true for businesses that don't take advantage of the great range of FREE software and services that are now available.

But how do you find free products that are effective, reliable and well-supported? 

Follow this blog for a start. It will provide regular information on the latest free offerings.

 Want to start using the best free products straight away? Then get our sister publication - Free Business Resources. It will provide you with a catelouge of over 130 carefully reviewed free products that are suitable for business use.

Free Business Resources can save your business thousands of dollars. And offer you a host of ways to improve efficiency.

Need To Collect Information?

Create neat, customised forms for your business using Zoho Creator.

Zoho Creator allows you to create an online form by inserting fields using simple drag-and-drop actions. Pre-configured forms are also available. It provides a range of views enabling you to examine the information collected. You can even generate graphical reports.

According to Zoho, the facility is completely non-programmer friendly and allows you to have a customised form available online within minutes. Although more complex, database-style functionality can be added if required.

The free version of Zoho Creator enables you to create three different forms and collect up to 1000 records. Low cost subscription plans are available from $15 per month, if you require greater capacity, more report types or the payment module option.

The video below will give you a snapshot of how Zoho Creator works.

Is Software About To Destroy Your Business?

Is your business about to be decimated by a software application? Is it time to stop worrying about low-cost overseas competition and start preparing for the arrival of software which supersedes your business altogether?

If even part of your business operations involve the supply and/or processing of information, the answer to both of the above questions may well be yes. 

By Patrick Horsley @ flickr

Software eats part of the world, a recent article by John Hempton of Bronte Capital, provides numerous examples of how companies producing physical products are being "appified". By which he means, their business models are being dramatically undermined by newly emerging software applications. This process may be even more disruptive to professional service companies, whose competitive advantages often revolve around their handling of information.

There are already many examples of "software" businesses that have have changed whole industries. Just think of Amazon, Google, Netflix and Apple's iTunes. 

The time has now arrived when many more businesses are under the threat of having, at least, a part of their operations "appified". Three reasons why this impending treat must now be taken seriously by an ever increasing range of businesses are provided in an Essay by Marc Andreessen in the Wall Street Journal. The reasons are:

 By thomcochrane @ flickr

• Over two billion people already use broadband Internet.
• Within the decade over five billion people will own smartphones with Internet access.
• The cost of placing an application on the Internet and making it easily available to a worldwide market has now dropped to just $1,500 per month.

So how do you ensure your business continues to thrive? 

• Watch out for the emergence of software applications which could impact your business model. And don't underestimate which areas of your business may be effected.
• Embrace software which can make your business more effective. (You'll find some of my suggestions covered in this blog from time to time.)
• Focus your business on activities that are hard to replicate with software. These will include, in particular, activities based around personal relationships, collaboration, partnerships, combining skills and creativity.

What other ways are there to evolve a business in order to compete with the inevitable "digitisation" of traditional business processes? Your thoughts will be welcome.