You cannot have credibility saying you are customer-centric if you ignore your customers in social media channels - Charlene Li

Full Article:  The Crisis of Courage in Social Media

Eighty-one percent of executives believe their brands can get more sales and bigger market share by using social media - Article by Ryan Holmes CEO at HootSuite

Full Article: Are You Leaving $1.3 Trillion on the Table? Why Fortune 500 Companies Are Racing to Social Media

New LinkedIn Profile Format Coming Soon!

LinkedIn have announced the introduction of a new format for individual profiles.

The new format seems to provide a cleaner, more modern looking display. With a larger profile photo (so make sure you've uploaded a good one!).

There will be a graphical display of your network in the right hand column. More interesting and useful statistics are promised.

Profile photos from a selection of your connections are to be shown at the bottom of the new format. Which according to LinkedIn will also make it easier to connect and build relationships.

You can see the new format at: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/about. At present you need to submit a request to have your account upgraded to the new profile format.

What do you think of the new format?

New LinkedIn Update Format!

I spotted this new format for sending Linkedin updates on a client's account this morning (see photo). Key changes seem to be:

● You now have a drop-down menu which allows you to select options about where the update is published: LinkedIn + Twitter; LinkedIn; Connections

● You enter website links in the "Share an update" area and a display of the link is automatically generated underneath (rather like Facebook status updates).

Has anybody else seen this new LinkedIn update format yet? Or noticed any other features that it provides?

New LinkedIn Endorsement Feature

LinkedIn have just added a new Endorsement feature for profiles. This feature allows you to endorse the specific skills (or expertise) of your connections with a single click of the mouse.

How can you utilise this new feature?

There are three options:

A) When you go to a connection's LinkedIn profile, you may be prompted to make an endorsement through a new section which is displayed at the top of that profile. It will be similar to this one:

You can delete any skills you're not in a position to endorse. Or even type in a skill you would like to add to the selection shown. (My experience so far is that this section does not always display the most appropriate skills for the person concerned.)

Just click the “Endorse” button to confirm your endorsement.

B) Once you have made an endorsement as described in A) above, you are often also offered the chance to make additional endorsements, to other LinkedIn connections, through a panel like this:

Just click the appropriate “Endorse” button to confirm endorsements. (Once again, the most appropriate skills do not always appear to be displayed in this section and you can only endorse the single skill displayed.)

C) In my opinion, the most effective way to make endorsements is to scroll down a profile to the actual “Skills & Expertise” section. Then select the specific skills you would like to endorse. This section now looks like this (with or without the prompt from LinkedIn):

Simply click on the cross adjacent to the skills you wish to endorse.

Once you have endorsed a skill, your picture is shown on that person's profile, alongside the endorsed skill.

What do you need to do to take advantage of this new feature?

Make sure you have added the “Skills & Expertise” section to your LinkedIn profile. If not, you can add this section via the “Add sections” tab available when you select the “Edit Profile” option.

Also, ensure that your most pertinent skills are listed first in the “Skills & Expertise” section. So that they are easy for people to select. Although from what I have seen so far, it appears that LinkedIn is automatically re-ordering the “Skills & Expertise” section to reflect the number of endorsements received.

How significant will this new feature become?

It's hard to tell how widely accepted the LinkedIn Endorsements feature will become at this stage. But it is certainly a nice way to acknowledge the business capabilities of those with whom you work most closely.

LinkedIn - Your Company's New Best Marketing Resource

LinkedIn have just introduced the ability to post updates directly from your Company Page*. Overnight, this has transformed LinkedIn in to an important, highly focussed and free marketing resource for organisations.

You really want to be working on developing this company updates facility into a powerful marketing tool for your business. There are, however, TWO tricks involved.

TRICK ONE

Firstly you have to select "Designated users only" as the option for Company Page Admins. Sounds complicated but it's really not to hard. And it will be worth the effort.

Go to your Company Page via search or the Companies tab. Then enter edit mode via the blue Admin tools tab. Next you select the "Designated users only" button and find your designated users via the "Start typing a name box". (For some reason, finding your designated user or users seems to work much more smoothly if you type in surnames.)

You should end up seeing something similar to the image below (but not with me as your designated user!).

Click the blue "Publish" button and it will take you back to your Company Page. It will now include a "Share an update" box similar to the one shown below. And you can start sending updates in the same way you do from your personal LinkedIn profile.

TRICK TWO

The updates from your Company Page only go to people who are followers of your company. You've probably not worried much about this before, but you had better now start encouraging people to follow your company.

As a minimum, make sure all company employees are followers. Then encourage them to "like" company updates, which will help to propagate the updates throughout their network of connections.

You may also wish to start promoting your LinkedIn Company Page on your website, Facebook page, Twitter account and other marketing collateral.


* Don't yet have a Company Page on LinkedIn? Then log-in to your personal account, go to the Companies Tab, then Search Companies, then Add a Company.

If you need any additional help getting this valuable new marketing resource working for your business, don't hesitate post a comment below or email me.

Still Paying a High Price for SMS Messages?

Is your company paying for SMS Messages sent between staff members? 

You can avoid these costs by having all personnel use a mobile phone application which provides free messaging. Suitable applications include Skype, Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger and What's App.

These mobile applications themselves are also free. Apart from text messaging they often include support for the free transmission of images and videos. Group messaging may also be a handy facility for some businesses.

Skype's Mobile Product Offerings

The major snag is that all personnel need to have the same application loaded on their mobiles phones. But this is pretty simple to organise. The applications can be downloaded directly on to mobile phones from the websites listed below. You may also wish to get other key business contacts, such as, clients, suppliers and business partners in on the act. Saving you all money.

You do need a "smartphone" to run these applications. Smartphones, such as the iPhone, have the computing power to support third party applications, Internet access and email. Not sure if you have a smartphone? The websites listed below will help you there as well. Some personnel don't have smartphones? It may be time to address that, smartphones are going to become increasingly integrated your business environment, like it or not.

How can messaging be free? Your messages are sent over the phone's Internet connection, instead of via a telecommunications carrier service. This does use up some of the data transmission allowance, but as long as you don't overrun the monthly plan, there is no additional cost. Text messages, for instance, only use infinitesimal amounts of data.

You can download free messaging applications, also known as apps, from the following sites:

Skype -  http://www.skype.com/intl/en/get-skype/on-your-mobile/
Windows Live Messenger - http://explore.live.com/windows-live-messenger-mobile
WhatsApp - http://www.whatsapp.com/

For an additional perspective, see this recent article in the The Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/free-texting-could-spell-doom-for-sms-20111011-1lip1.html

To find other great free services for your business, check out the ebook Free Business Resources.

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.