Three ways to adopt social media

Posted by:admin | Posted on: December 13th, 2011 | 0 Comments

-via Steven Rydin
Many businesses rely on making personal connections to build their revenue. Often, a firm handshake and a steady gaze is the only way to really trust someone you are doing business with. But times are changing, is your business adopting social media? Do you trust Amazon? Apple? I bet you have never met Steve Jobs. These companies formed a relationship with me through customer relationship management (CRM). A common buzzword in marketing and academia- I often hear a disconnect between theory and execution. So this isn’t an article about how you should be “doing” CRM. Let me show you three quick ways to reach out and connect with your customers through social media: 1. Facebook Social Plugins – Are used to integrate your Facebook fan page into your website. Inspire comments on FB about your products, feature faces of your fans + more. This link will get you started. 2. Twitter “Tweet” Buttons – Let your customers broadcast your products or service on Twitter. With some ingenuity, you can also broadcast what you are saying on Twitter, or even let people sign up to follow you. 3. Mailchimp – Is a great way to send beautiful full color email campaigns to your clients. Just upload your contact database, design your letter, and send. Embracing tools like these is imperative; especially in the new market, where lifetime relationships are often formed electronically. Contact us now so that we can put together a marketing strategy designed to meet your needs.

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Free Open Source Software

Posted by:matt | Posted on: September 6th, 2011 | 0 Comments

Free open source software dives into a blue ocean of uncontested market space MARCH 30, 2011 What is free open source software? It's a movement to provide end-users with complicated software free of charge. Even more interesting, most open source software programs have vibrant communities of developers that freely contribute to the software, adding to its value, by improving stability and extending functionality. Whether you knew it or not- you already have had extensive experience with open source software. Open source CMS projects like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal have permanently changed the appearance of the web, helping millions to make websites. Open source means business You may be thinking: Blogging tools? Well that's no big deal- but an open source CMS isn't all play. Magento is making major space in the ecommerce realm, enabling quick deployment of legitimate web-based storefronts. Magento isn't just a front-end website builder either, it has tons of features on the back-end for business administration, including sales reporting, invoices, a shopping cart, a lots more. (Ask me to create a login for you on my Magento demo site.) Non-profits are able to use open source distributions like civiCRM to manage donations, track customers, and keep in contact with stakeholders. The wild success of other open source customer relationship management tools like vtiger and SugarCRM sends a strong message to proprietary software CRM firms. Those two programs alone may be what prompted Salesforce.com to brandish a no-software crest with their logo. Small and medium organizations are not alone moving into open source space. Heavyweight corporations are implementing open source tools, slashing IT costs and redefining how traditional software companies compete. New database and server management systems are now almost exclusively based on open source's champion Linux. Even the most proprietary of software firms like Citrix and Oracle are releasing once vigorously protected software in accordance with demand for open source. Even government, in all its glorious efficiency, has battled declining tax revenue by turning to open source through Open Office. What is the driving force behind open source? Cloud computing lends tremendous liquidity to the open source frenzy. Firms like PHP Fog may enable faster uptime, while rock solid hosting firms like MediaTemple and rackspace make web serving easy. Demand for hosted software/services will continue to rise with the proliferation of feature-rich open source software distributions. The practice of taking something really valuable and sharing it with others -sounds noble but impossible to sustain. Still somehow open source momentum seems unstoppable. And don't be fooled, there is money to be made in open source. Loads of it- Just examine the synergy between Red Hat and JBoss. (JBoss was also the target of lucrative acquisitions.) Ready to get on board? You can find lots of open source software at Sourceforge. Try your hand at a CRM implementation: Locally host SugarCRM's community edition. Mac users can use MAMP, Windows users can use XAMPP and be running in 15 minutes.

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Market Volatility Feeds Fear and Greed

Posted by:matt | Posted on: September 6th, 2011 | 0 Comments

Domestic and international financial markets are are in uproar, causing selloffs and deep concern among investors. The US lost its top-level credit rating, equating its creditworthiness with Belgium and New Zealand, but below 13 other countries: the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Hong Kong, Germany, France, Canada, Britain, Denmark, Austria, and Australia. Many Americans are wondering, “What should I do?” Two reactions are common: Fear Greed These two reactions can be powerfully motivating and are prompting some very irrational behavior. First, let’s look at an extreme example of fear: In 2008 when the market dropped significantly after the real estate crisis, many fearful Americans called their broker, liquidated everything, then went to the bank and withdrew all their money. Those strongly held beliefs about the end of America & fear of losing everything caused many others to stop investing and simply hang on to cash. It seems silly now, in retrospect, given the continuity of our American way of life that anyone would have acted so irrationally. Still, from a behavioral perspective, people are terrified of losing their security. One this is clear: when facing economic uncertainty, acting from a basis of fear is risky. Greed is the other common reaction to the fiscal calamity. Some investors are using the volatility to profit from the downturn. Short-sell strategies and derivitives can enrich a portfolio as the market goes down. Without insider information, betting on the downturn is risky. A conservative approach Speaking with local financial advisor, Greg Melia, I learned about the “rule of 100.” The rule of 100 is simple: 100 – Your Age = Maximum % of Your Portfolio in Stocks The basic idea behind the rule of 100 is that the closer you are to retirement, the less risk your portfolio assumes. What are other investment alternatives to stocks? Consider more conservative alternatives like bonds, annuities, CDs, even Gold. By Steven Rydin

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