BCA

Help Wanted to Steer Career

Do you have relationships with people who help you make sense of your work, your organization, your career? Ask yourself:

• Who guides me? Who is a role model?
• Who affirms my own interpretations and sense-making?
• Who stretches and challenges my sense-making? Who adds perspective?

If you don’t have relationships to help you understand and navigate your work life, who can you turn to? How would you go about changing and re-vamping existing relationships so that they meet your needs?

By Lou Amico

The days of stationary web browsing strictly from behind a desktop computer  are over. Today’s customers are on the go, relying on their smart phones and  tablets to go online and get information at lightning speed. Over the past three  years there has been an explosion in mobile devices, which includes tablets. In  2010 it was typical to see mobile device visits at 3 to 5 percent of total  visits to a given website.

Today, the majority of websites receive 25 to 50  percent of traffic from mobile visitors. This number will continue to increase  making it even more imperative for companies to innovate with a responsive  website design that adapts easily to the different browser sizes and technology  of today’s mobile devices.

What is responsive design?

A responsively designed website adapts automatically to the viewers browser -  from desktop computers to mobile smart phones to tablets – the content and  images fit the browser so a user does not have to scroll back and forth and side  to side to see the entire page. Instead of seeing only part of your web page  when viewed on a non-traditional browser, the web browser automatically detects  the type of platform accessing the website and adapts the page to fit the  viewers screen, leaving the navigation, text and forms large enough to easily  read and access without adjusting the browser.

It can be a frustrating experience trying to get information on a website  that doesn’t adapt to the browser’s space. If a customer can’t easily scan a  page and find what they are looking for then they will most likely go back to  their trusty friend Google and visit a competitor’s site.

Apple and Flash don’t mix

You know that fancy Adobe Flash slide show, banner and presentation that your  web developer charged you an arm and a leg for? Adobe Flash is not compatible on  iPhones and iPads. A responsively designed platform incorporates non-Flash tools  that work regardless of the browser. So, those important graphics and  presentations can easily be viewed.

We’re a fast moving society and the ability to access information  instantaneously on a variety of technology platforms has caused us to all to be  a bit more impatient. The percentage of mobile and tablet visitors to your  website are only going to increase. Is your website laying out the welcome mat  to this on-the-go technology or slamming the door in its face?

Lou Amico is founder and president of LA Management Company, a strategic  marketing firm specializing in online marketing, video production, multimedia  production, website development and optimization and social marketing. He can be  reached at (704) 560-6274 or visit http://www.LAManagementCo.com for more information.

Having worked in recruitment advertising for nearly 20 years I have been in  the vanguard of most recruitment innovations as they have come along and I have  some shocking news to report. One of them, online recruitment, is not working  and the situation is getting worse.

Fifteen years ago if you were an employer and you wanted to recruit a new  member of staff your choices were limited, mainly to which newspaper you  advertised in – the local paper for junior and blue collar staff and the  national broadsheets for senior execs or field based staff. There were also a  range of well-read technical, trade and professional titles that targeted  specific professions.

At the time these publications enjoyed a virtual monopoly  (either geographical or functional), so it was an expensive exercise, discounts  or special deals were the things of dreams and fantasy. But at least you knew if  you placed your ad in the newspaper on Thursday by the following week you had  over a hundred applications, including letters (most hand-written) and CVs. The  majority were from local people interested in the role.

 The Monster Board was an alternative to the press

The late 1990′s saw the emergence of the first job board (The Monster Board)  and things began to change, initially for the better. For the first time there  was an alternative to the press, it was cheaper than printed publications,  sometimes a lot cheaper, and included features such as CV databases. Even local  recruitment was accommodated by job boards such as Fish4 in the UK, so those  early advertisers had choice as well. Since then the growth of job boards has  mirrored the rapid development of the Internet itself.

So what changed? One of the main characteristics of the Internet, why it has  grown so rapidly and why we have taken it to our hearts, is the relatively low  cost to set up a new website. The same could not be said of magazines and  newspapers, hence the virtual monopoly of many publishers.

Too much choice

So the first reason online recruitment is failing is choice. There is too  much choice, seemingly every week a new recruitment website comes along  promising to be bigger and better than the others, offering better deals and  even lower prices. This is confusing for the advertiser and the candidates  alike. Which websites do you go to, and how many – 5, 10, 50?

Lack of a level playing field

But surely Google can help? That brings me on to the second problem, the lack  of a level playing field. If everything else was equal and Google worked as  intended candidates would only need to enter their ideal jobs and suitable  vacancies would appear. But we know Google doesn’t work like that, search  results are distorted and twisted by advertising and SEO.

Non-Jobs litter the Internet

The third issue is non-jobs, that litter the Internet. A problem that has  always existed to some extent, because costs are so low many job boards are  riddled with jobs that don’t exist, their function is purely to harvest CVs from  unsuspecting candidates. This significantly devalues the genuine jobs and the  website and is difficult to police when it is the recruitment agencies working  for ‘confidential’ clients.

With the fall in performance of the job boards, comes an apparent fall in the  quality of candidate applications. No doubt fuelled by a frustration with  non-jobs and poor etiquette by recruiters when it comes to acknowledging  applications, etc., many candidates resort to a shorthand form of application  with the briefest of emails accompanying a very generic CV. Which does no-one  any favours.

I know from working with my clients that, despite the double dip recession  and record unemployment, it is more difficult than ever to recruit staff because  of problems with online solutions.

The Future

What does the next few years hold for us? Social Media is proffered by many  as the future of recruitment, why advertise or use job boards when you can start  a dialogue direct with candidates through Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. The  short answer is time – how many HR departments have the time to build links and  communities, to contribute content and manage profiles. If the Finance Director  gets fired you need to find a replacement as quickly as possible. The only  people with the time to ‘work’ Social Media, and the ones pushing it hardest,  are the recruitment agencies.

Newspaper and trade publications undoubtedly still have a role to play in  recruitment, particularly the ones with a strong online presence, but they’ll  never be the force they once were and there is no going back, we have to press  on into the brave, not so new, digital world regardless. But when this recession  ends I strongly believe the recovery will be seriously hampered by the  limitations of today’s online recruitment solutions.

By Barry Silverstein

The growing popularity of online marketing, in particular social media, is  resulting in an interesting dilemma. Small businesses are finding that they can  use blogs, videos, podcasts, search terms, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other  such media to generate traffic to their Facebook page or website. The problem is  they have no idea if these “leads” are any good for their business.

In fact, even large businesses routinely fail to qualify prospects  effectively. Here’s a widely acknowledged industry statistic: Around 70 percent  of leads generated never receive a sales follow-up.

That’s why small businesses could be throwing away sales if they do not  develop a lead qualification process that matches the way consumers buy  today.

In the past, a marketer could pretty safely bet on a lead qualification  process that looked like a funnel. The concept can be described as follows:  Imagine lead qualification as a funnel that has a broad opening at the top and  narrows down to a small opening at the bottom.

The lead qualification process is  designed to take a larger number of unqualified prospects (sometimes called  “suspects”) into the top of the funnel and push them down until only the most  qualified leads come out at the bottom of the funnel.

A prospect goes through  various qualification levels before they are converted to a customer.

The Internet changed things

This all worked rather well for many, many years — until the Internet came  along. It wasn’t the Internet itself that changed the process; rather, it was  the way the Internet enabled and facilitated a different kind of purchase  consideration to occur.

Today, the purchase consideration process is subject to many more outside  influences because the consumer has access to so much information in real-time.  This information shapes the prospective buyer’s view of the product in new and  different ways, and it makes lead qualification complex and even volatile.  Businesses have to work harder at understanding where a buyer is in the purchase  consideration cycle.

The big change is consumer empowerment. Because of the growth of social media  and the ease of online and mobile communication, people exhibit different  behavior when it comes to making a purchase. Now people who want to buy  something may do quite a bit of online research about the product or service  first.

They will search out product reviews on the Web, actively seek out what  other buyers of the product are saying, and engage in sharing opinions in blogs,  on Facebook, and on LinkedIn. They may ask others about the product via Twitter  or Facebook and continue the dialog.

Where is the prospect in the buying cycle?

The qualification funnel of old was linear and fairly uncomplicated. The  marketer could have better control over the lead qualification process — there  was less outside noise to detract from the marketer’s message. Today, it’s  difficult to even figure out where the prospect is in the buying cycle.  McKinsey, a renowned consulting firm that deals with major corporations, sees  the new process as being more circular than linear. McKinsey has a new name for  the process — they call it a “Consumer Decision Journey.”

Think about lead qualification as a “Consumer Decision Journey” and the  qualification funnel seems inadequate in meeting the needs of the new consumer.  Now, instead of an individual going through a linear process of moving from less  qualified to more qualified prospect, you should be prepared for a certain  amount of unpredictability.

This means more flexibility on your part. You will  probably need to be ready to respond at various times as the prospect’s  questions arise. With purchase consideration involving so many more outside  influences you can’t control, the qualification steps you take may need to be  far more personalized and specific to the needs of each individual prospect.

Lead cultivation essential to converting the customers interest

This means that lead cultivation becomes far more important for marketers.  Now you need to find ways to keep a prospect informed on a regular basis to  maintain interest over time. The basic premise of lead cultivation is that a  prospect’s interest in purchasing your product or service is fluid. The  prospect’s need rises and falls based on changing priorities, availability of  budget, and other issues you may not even know about.

Marketers have learned by experience that making periodic contacts with a  prospect seems to pay off. With each of those contacts, you have a dual  objective: (1) to provide the prospect with information and assistance that  maintains interest in your product and ensures your product is still under  serious consideration, and (2) to continue to learn as much about the prospect  as possible at each contact so subsequent contacts can be very targeted and  pertinent to the prospect’s needs.

Generating leads is only part of the story. It takes a solid lead  qualification program to make sure you are not throwing away sales.

Barry Silverstein is the author of the new eGuide, “Sales Leads 123:  Generating, Qualifying, and Converting Sales Leads in 3 Proven Steps.” In his  thirty year career, he has helped scores of small and large companies generate  and qualify leads. He is also the author of “Branding 123: Build a Breakthrough  Brand in 3 Proven Steps,” and “Product Launch 123: Launch a New Product or  Service in 3 Proven Steps.” All three eGuides are available for $2.99 at the  Amazon Kindle store, at Smashwords.com in any eBook format, and wherever eBooks  are sold. More information is available at http://www.123eguides.com

Social networking is a phenomenon that has taken the world by surprise. All  over the world, with increased social sites and subscribers, businesses have  found a new haven for marketing. Social media is one of the newest ways to reach  your target audience and market your products more effectively. Though social  media is significantly changing marketing, you need to have the right tools to  ensure maximum exploration and benefits. Below are five tools that you require  to increase your significance in the social media.

Conversocial

Conversocial is a new method that allows you to connect effectively with your  consumers. This great tool also allows you to manage your conversations on  twitter and Facebook, which are the most visited social sites. In this way, you  are able to keep in touch with your customers and effectively offer excellent  customer care. This tool in addition allows internal collaboration, marketing  and customer service. Every company of business personality using conversocial  can track their team’s activities and also manage their permission. Conversocial  is the ultimate tool for maximum social media production and full control of  social media processes.

Sprout social

Sproutsocial is another great tool to use for social media management. This  tool combines all the needed elements for a successful social media appearance.  This tool integrates with the three main social sites, Facebook, twitter and  linked in among other social networks and therefore, gives your business a  better appearance online. This tool ensures that all the work is done for you  such as competitive insight, reporting, contact management, analytics, lead  generation and more that pertains to your business presence on the social  scene.

Hootsuite

With over 2 million satisfied consumers all over the world, this tool ensures  that social network management is easier than ever. This amazing tool has a  dashboard that ensures you save time and energy when you need to post in all  social networks at once. This tool also allows you to monitor all the social  sites and generate reports. The reports generated by this tool are very  beneficial when you need to convince your clients on your social media success.  When in the dashboard, you are able to track Google analytics, follower growth,  brand sentiment and Facebook insights. This tool also allows you to engage  multiple contributors to your social sites with no need of exposing your  passwords.

Message marker

This tool is an effort between the Health Level 7, and the National Institute  of standards aimed at the development of a testing tool which automatically  generates messages for the HL7 message specifications. This tool is available to  everyone interested at no charge at all. The messages generated by the tool are  most likely used to test the systems for conformance to a specific profile. This  tool is currently under development, and its function ability is not guaranteed  and therefore, feedback to the developers is highly appreciated. The release of  this tool was initially intended to check the feedback on the design, the  usefulness and the feature set, and therefore, it’s a prototype.

Engagesciences

This tool is UK’s leading social marketing platform and has a massive  customer base. This tool is one of the few self-service tools used by top level  agencies and marketers across the globe. The agencies and marketers rely on the  tool to configure their Facebook pages and successfully carry out social media  campaigns across the main social media networks that is Facebook, twitter and  LinkedIn. The tool also helps carry out campaigns on other corporate websites.  This tool allows you to build a great social marketing platform, understand the  need for each fan in the success of your media campaigns as well as magnify your  company’s advocates. This tool also allows you to easily create promotions on  social media and amazing Facebook tabs.

With all the tools and good management, social networking will continue for  better and the returns will increase more than expected.

Susan is a full-time freelance writer. She is an avid traveler and reader.  She enjoys writing on business, health & fitness, travel, parenting,  relationships and personal development.

Building a presence on micro-blogging site Twitter may seem easy, but for  those who have tried it and come up against a follower brick wall this article  is for you. If you want to build a genuine, meaningful and lasting Twitter  presence then follow these five steps to success:

Perfect Profile

Let’s start right at the beginning; profile creation. When you begin using  Twitter you will be prompted to create a profile. Don’t rush through this step -  it is your shop window and gives other users a chance to learn about you and  what you are all about. Choose a profile photo to reflect you in the appropriate  light; of you are a brand then your business logo is often a good place to  start. Remember that Twitter is public and your profile can be viewed by the  world, so don’t portray yourself or your business in an inappropriate light.

Brilliant Bio

As part of your profile you will be prompted to create a bio. You have 140  characters at your disposal; use them wisely. Trying to describe yourself or  business in 140 characters is an art form and can be tricky to master, but keep  it to the point, snappy and welcoming and you will be on the right track.  Businesses should always include a link to their website within the bio and this  is also true for bloggers.

Spread the Word

Only when you have created your profile should you start to alert family and  friends to your presence on the site. Search for people you know and follow  them. Try not to over-fill your follower list with too many celebs to start  with, instead opt for genuine friends or businesses that interest you. Retweets  and @ mentions are always helpful, so ask those who you know if they will give  you a shout out to get you started.

Understand the Hashtag

The hashtag, or # symbol, is widely used on Twitter but many people fail to  understand its significance. Placing a # before a key word in your tweet makes  it easier for people to find in searches, so if you want to talk about something  going on at home and you live in Manchester type #Manchester instead. People  searching for the word “Manchester” will be shown your tweet and may engage with  you through a retweet (RT) or even a follow.

Tweet Often (but be sensible!)

Tweet often but don’t spam. People want to read what you have got to say, but  will quickly unfollow you if you clog up their timeline with irrelevant or  uninteresting tweets. Make your tweets original and don’t always simply retweet  or tweet links from other sources on line or you will start to look like a  robot. Be human, be kind, be interesting and engaging and before you know it  your Twitter account will be an exciting community of friends, strangers and  “tweeps”.

If you need to get your Twitter campaign off the ground then you need a Digital Marketing  Agency with a proven track record in social media. Visit Bigfoot Digital and get started today.

Twitter is a social media marketing platform that can truly add depth and  dimension to your existing marketing campaign for any product or service you  have, or even just the company as a whole. However, if you really want to get  the most benefit out of Twitter, you’re going to need followers.

Its Opt-in

What makes Twitter so unique is that it’s opt-in. You get to build a list of  people that have chosen to follow you and get updates that you send out. The  problem that most newcomers to Twitter struggle with is getting followers in the  first place.

Everyone who joins Twitter gets a list of the most popular accounts to follow  on Twitter, but that doesn’t really help you when you just want to get noticed  in the first place. There are other places to put your twitter account link so  people can follow you, but what about if there is an even easier way to get  followers, would you want to use that?

Faster Follower Accumulation with Software

Using software to add followers and friends on social networks is not new,  but Twitter takes it to a different level. For starters, people have to indeed  follow you back on their own accord, which cuts down on the accusations of spam.  If you are already providing high quality information then there’s no worry in  adding followers in this matter.

Think about it from this perspective — if you believe in your product, then  why wouldn’t you want as many people as possible talking about what you have to  offer? Twitter automation software can provide the half of the  solution — the other half comes from the natural marketing style that you bring  to the table.

It give you a lot of control over who to pull in

The nice part about Twitter friend adding software is that it gives you a lot  of control over who to pull into your twitter feed — you can target by location  or even by certain keywords if they have their About Me section filled out.

Overall, Twitter is definitely a social media platform that is effective  based on how much effort you put into it. If you treat it like a permanent  marketing channel, then you are more likely to grow your follower list naturally  over time. Using software to help you get started isn’t a bad thing at all. It’s  just going to come down to the type of content and value that you offer your  Twitter fans.

Software can help you

Learning how to get more twitter followers has become a real hassle for a lot  of people, especially small business owners who are just starting to use  Twitter. You don’t have have to learn how to increase twitter followers because there is automated  Twitter software which can help do it for you.

By Ina R. Seno

Before diving into keyword research, type this phrase in your browser’s  search box, “SEO services in Michigan.” Your search engine will pick this up and  show all the relevant or related websites. The words you typed are really  keywords or more accurately a keyword phrase. The sites displayed are the result  of SEO methods performed on those websites. The better the SEO method used, the  higher your rank will be in its pages.

One significant portion of SEO is  choosing the important keywords or keyword phrases through research.

The Meaning of Keyword Research

Keyword research is the method by which you look for the correct keywords for  you to optimize your site. It’s not as easy as you think. It takes a lot of hard  work and diligence to accomplish.

For example, you want to list down the  keywords you can use for violin lessons. You can use Google AdWords Keyword  Tool. It’s used by many people and it’s free. When you get to Google AdWords  Keyword Tool, type violin lessons and a list of suggested keywords are  displayed. Look at the columns on your right side.

One of the columns has Global  Monthly Search Volume as its title. This column informs you the number of  Internet viewers who search for that particular keyword every month. Select  keywords with greater than 2500 search volumes. This will guarantee that there  is a market for that keyword who are really typing and looking for it.

Jot down  the keywords that you have chosen. More importantly, after selecting the  keywords you have to know how many individuals are competing for that keyword.  You can use the free version of Traffic Travis to know the competition for each  word. Utilize keywords with easy competition and those are the ones which you  should use in your blog posts and articles. This will gradually increase your  rank in the search engines.

Keyword Stuffing

Never use the same keyword too many times in a single blog post or article.  Keep the keyword density below two percent. Your blog post or article can get  penalized by the search engines and decrease your ranking. This method was  utilized before to increase the ranking of sites by stuffing articles and blog  posts with keywords. The article loses its meaning. It’s important to bear in  mind that you’re writing for the human readers and not search robots.

Generalization

If you don’t choose the right keywords through research, the search engines  will not know where to locate your site and determine how high it will rank in  its pages. If these significant points are too much to understand, don’t worry,  that’s a natural response. To make the entire process easier and hassle free for  you, find an SEO company that not only handles your keyword research but the  whole SEO method.

For the whole package of SEO solutions, contact us, Michigan SEO Firm. We provide the complete SEO services and  not just keyword research. Your satisfaction, guaranteed.

By Roses Mark

Due to arrival of Social Media everything has altered. An online community of  Twitter or Facebook users can make or break your business with their mobile  platforms. Your company or service may be getting hundreds or thousands of good  or bad reviews on the new mobile sites like Gowalla or Foursquare. Social  Network management is growing exponentially.

Social Media tools help integrate activities

It’s in a more efficient manner manages outbound & inbound interactions  along with other small business marketing activities. They rationalize and  strengthen how to participate in significant conversation happening around in  different platforms like blogs, networks, and other public or private web  communities and sites.

SMM tools also helps you integrate activities with your other business  marketing campaigns. Here are five tools that can make your life easier:

1. TweetDeck

TweetDeck is your best (free) tool if you’re looking to administer all your  personal social profiles. TweetDeck allows you to connect across Twitter,  Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare and Google Buzz. You can update all or  specific networks with the same status at one time.

TweetDeck is probably best when dealing with four or five accounts at a time,  though the dashboard is generally easy to use.

2. CoTweet

CoTweet is a brilliant tool for small businesses or division of larger  businesses that thrive social media duties among team members and have a  customer-service approach to engagement.

CoTweet allows follow-up messages to be assigned to specific managers. This  can make responses more pertinent as team members with upbeat knowledge bases  can handle appropriate questions and comments from followers.

3. HootSuite

HootSuitefree version allows you to add five networks and supports Facebook,  Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, MySpace, PingFm and WordPress.

HootSuite is best for actively-managed accounts because its design focuses on  streams, which are housed in customizable tabs. You have the elasticity to  organize tabs by account, network or content, making it easier to monitor a  definite type of feed.

4. Spredfast

Spredfast has everything you need for agencies managing social media with  high ROI demands.

Its biggest advantage over other SMM tools is analytics. Measurement is  determined by the amount of content distributed, how many people were reached  and whether the intended audience was engaged.

5. Engage 121

Engage121 is best in its class at encircling monitoring, broadcasting and  engagement.

The tool is extremely customizable and can support just about any site with a  community presence. Permissions may be set to allow & approve a message from  corporate before it is distributed to area followers, maintaining a local voice & brand consistency at the same time.

The process needs be sustained to maximize opportunities

In conclusion, follow these procedures and you will be successful in social  networking and marketing that will drive profits in your business. Using  networks includes making use of a process. Therefore, you need to remember to do  this on a regular basis so that you take full advantage and attract more  followers in the future.

Roses Mark is a Social Media enthusiast and an Internet entrepreneur. Spent  over 10 years working professionally with Internet business employers worldwide,  he frequently writes articles involving new-age, social media and personal  motivation. You can find him all around the web via Facebook, Google & on  Twitter as @Socialcubix

Social media marketing has gained its place at the table. eMarketer estimates 80% of companies with at least 100 employees will use social networks for marketing this year, up from nearly three in four last year. By 2012, usage will be even greater, and, in turn, efforts are becoming more sophisticated.

Most companies now recognize a well crafted social media strategy is a vital part of the marketing mix. In fact, a study from Jive Software and Penn, Schoen & Berland found 78% of executives thought a social business strategy was somewhat or very important to the future success of their business.

Despite this realization, most executives are still only in the tentative stages of making social strategy a priority.

The survey of executives who have final say or significant input on social business strategy found that only 27% listed social business as a top strategic priority. Nearly half (47%) admitted a social plan was necessary but not a strategic priority and 19% said social business strategy was simply not necessary.

Meanwhile, executives were also not overly optimistic about their current social strategy efforts. Only 17% felt their social strategy was ahead of the curve. About four in 10 (42%) felt their social strategy was just keeping up and 33% felt they were behind.

A different study from Forbes Insights and Coremetrics showed a similar amount of enthusiasm for social strategy. Only 11% of US and UK executives surveyed at large businesses listed social media strategy as a leading priority in 2011—tied for last place with mobile marketing. Social media strategy will receive a small boost in 2012, though, with 19% of execs listing it as a leading marketing priority for the coming year.

Many companies may be using social media marketing, but those that choose not to focus on a social strategy risk falling behind the curve in integrating social media with their overall marketing goals. Recognizing the importance of strategy alone isn’t enough; companies should start implementing a plan.

For complete data charts and story, go to e-Marketer.com