As use of both business and personal mobile phones has become more widespread, social network marketing has had to adapt as well.

Since the business world is still feeling its way across new, rocky paths, how quickly and how well businesses adjust their marketing paradigms to mobile phone and mobile tablet users could well spell the difference between profit and loss in the coming years.

Studies have projected that by the year 2015, tablets and smartphones in active and constantly preferred use will outnumber their desktop PC counterparts. One of the most commonly used features on tablets and mobile phones is social networking. Smaller screens, apps and short cut buttons are redefining this newest, self-fulfilling marketing trend.

Your markets are going mobile. If your business isn’t mobile-marketed, your market will leave you behind in favour of those who keep up with them.

App Development

General use, mobile phone apps are great: But is your business listed on the appropriate types of apps? If you own a chain of gas stations, for example, are yours listed in the Find X apps? Is your restaurant?

If you answer negatively to either question, consider getting your business listed. But that shouldn’t restrict you to developing your specialized app for every major mobile operating system as well: In those combined-listing apps, you’re one among many, but you should be included. In a solo, specialized app, only your business is presented.

Just make what you offer in that app reach beyond your latest sales pitch. People like sales, but they like other information as well. Include, but don’t limit.

Discount Ads

FourSquare, for instance, is a terrific local advertising, consumer-driven social networking tool that entices new customers and rewards loyal, repeating customers who are in or will pass through your local area.

You design your advertising. You customize for item inclusion, discount amounts and timing. FourSquare is one of the fastest-growing SNM tools, and if your business isn’t listed in local retailers or if your brand isn’t listed for local availability, you are losing customers.

Real Time Business Intelligence

Real Time Business Intelligence, as the name suggests, is about establishing a systematic procedure of delivering information about various business operations, as it happens, on an immediate basis.

Traditional Business Intelligence has always been the key factor in critical ‘decision making’ of various corporations as the information and feedback about various internal business operations helps in carving out future growth plans and also identifying and addressing the existing problems within the system.

But as the overall information system has evolved so much and businesses are becoming more current in nature, the reaction time to anything related to any business domain has become shorter and more critical. And businesses failing to keep up with the pace of the Industry, are likely to suffer badly in the time to come.

This is where Traditional Business Intelligence fails to deliver critical information on time and becomes insignificant and Real Time Business Intelligence comes into play. Real Time flow of information and feedback keeps the businesses informed about business threats, industry trends, internal system flaws etc, that too on an instant basis.

In today’s scenario, businesses make or break at an unbelievably fast pace. Some of the newbie info-tech companies are taking less than 3 years to file for a multi-billion dollar IPO, while many well-established companies are filing for bankruptcy.

Hence, the pace at which business dynamics are changing is just incredible. And if these ever-changing dynamics are not monitored on a constant basis via systems that facilitate Real Time Business Intelligence, your business could face a sudden crisis and you will be unprepared to deal with it.

Companies like QuartetFS are providing Real Time business Intelligence solutions to many businesses, both conventional and fresh startups and the trend of companies opting for Real Time Business Intelligence is showing no signs of dampening.

So if you run your business without any Real Time Business Intelligence in place, it is time to consider having it for a safer and prospering business in future.

Below are the companies that have launched their enterprise applications at Google Apps Marketplace.

This has opened up the golden floodgates for thousands of  third-party developers, who will now be able to sell their Enterprise level application(s) to tens of millions of Google Apps users.

Many of the third party applications in Google Apps Marketplace are free and several others are paid. The end users can choose to add any of the desired app to their existant suite of cloud apps (including Google Apps) and start using it with their domain right away. Due to tight integration of third party apps with Google Apps, external apps also make use of native Google app functionality such as Gmail and Gtalk.

But its not just users but largely developer community, which will be attracted towards this opportunity. As there is just a one-time fee of $100 for inclusion of any third party developer into this program(for developing and selling any number of apps) and Google takes a meagre 20% and leaves wholesome 80% for the app developer,  its a great money making opportunity from developer’s standpoint.

Analyzing this announcement from another end, the step seems to be a strategic step from Google towards building a Cloud App Store for Chrome OS.

As Google’s Chrome OS is a Cloud based OS, a cloud app store for third party applications, along with Google’s native web applications, makes perfect sense. And that would also allow Google to package Chrome OS along with a rich App store, quite similar to what Apple does with its iPhone App Store. 

For now, what Google is eyeing for is to lure as many developers as it can, for developing rich enterprise level applications and sell them through their marketplace. Developers, you better grab the chance early!

Now, like social networks, do we have such a rich community oriented platform to benefit our businesses ? Well, you might say LinkedIn but LinkedIn is limited to Business networking only.

Business owners and entrepreneurs would have loved a community driven platform that could serve not only as a business networking arena but also as a web based utility for serving other critical business needs. Here’s the aspirin for the problem we’re talking about. Meet BizOnBytes.

On BizOnBytes, there are plenty of things that a business owner or entrepreneur can take advantage of. As the real emphasis remains building a rich business community, business networking remains the most critical factor but apart from that, business owners can benefit from numerous features such as…

• Client, employee and supply chain management
• Manage income  and expenditures for fund tracking
• Create company’s website and write business oriented articles for product promotion etc
• Open online product/service store to promote and sell your product within the community
• Explore prospective business clients and suppliers
• Generate Invoices and receipts

These integrated features make it a unique Business Management and Networking platform for business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals.

BizOnBytes offers two plans to sign up, Lite edition and Premium edition. Lite edition comes at NO cost but the Premium edition is the one to choose here as it is FREE for 1 year from the day you sign up.

In case, you’re a business owner, entrepreneur or a professional, go try out this service. You got to be patient for a while as every networking platform seems a lonely planet at early stage but once you invite your business relations, spend some time there, you would start seeing the hidden value of the system.

The survey also projects that there’s an expected decline of nearly 40-60%  in the year 2009 in physical events.Reasons are quite obvious.When companies are drying up with funds and laying off employees in massive numbers,they will try their best to save out of every lavish spending they had been doing earlier.

Big & glossy physical events such as Trade shows and conventions require some heavy investments and in such an economic downturn,enterprises are now relying more on the nearest alternative to physical events,Virtual events.

Virtual events include Webinars,Webcasts and Virtual Shows(which is TiVo for conferences).Such events are so cost effective and comfortable to the consumers that more and more companies are now preferring these events on a regular basis.Also that when the things are no more physical and everything is on web then physical presence doesn’t serve as a limitation and participation increases by many folds.

But that doesn’t mean that physical events will go extinct in few years.Live product display,demonstration,feature briefing and many such things can’t be effectively done in virtual events and therefore physical events will certainly keep happening but the amount of investment will surely decrease in physical events and virtual shows will help filling up the void due to lack of physical events.

Below is the press release of the survey conducted by ON24

Survey Shows Explosive Growth for Virtual Events in 2009

Trade Shows, Conventions, Sales and Training Meetings Projected to Decline 40-64%

San Francisco, CA, January 14, 2009 – ON24, Inc. (http://www.ON24.com), the global leader in webcasting and virtual events solutions, today announced the results of its survey of more than 270 customers, which polled the anticipated use in 2009 of trade shows, conventions and sales training meetings against virtual events such as Webinars and Virtual Shows.  The survey showed a notable shift from physical to virtual events.  While the economy likely played a major role in decision-making, respondents also valued the convenience, flexibility and additional capabilities provided by online participation.

Survey findings showed the following shift from physical to virtual events in 2009:

• 42% expect participation in physical trade shows to be down by 20 – 50%
• 64% expect to have fewer physical sales kick off meetings – or none at all
• 60% expect training, management and other internal meetings to be down 20 – 50%

A full 76% said their company has already begun using virtual events (53%) or plans to begin using them (23%) to supplement some of their physical events in 2009

Virtual Is In – For Convenience As Well As Cost

Cost savings aside, respondents generally found little they would miss about attending physical events and saw a number of advantages to virtual ones in terms of convenience and productivity.

While 61% said they would miss seeing people in person, less than half felt they would miss traveling to other locations (34%), enjoying the social activities (36%) or seeing speakers in person (20%).

Respondents found several aspects of virtual participation to be particularly appealing:

• 75% appreciated that there is no travel required
• 64% liked that they can attend the virtual sessions on their own time schedules
• 58% found it useful to be able to “forward” virtual sessions to their colleagues that they thought would be of interest to them

More than one third of respondents cited the social networking benefits of virtual events, including the ability to see a list of all attendees in advance (35%); to contact other attendees online throughout the event (40%) and to get information on people (32%) and companies (34%) they meet electronically.

“While physical events will always be an important part of a company’s overall marketing, training and communication strategy, virtual events have definitely reached their ‘tipping point’ in today’s business world,” said Denise Persson, ON24 Chief Marketing Officer, “The current economy makes online event alternatives very compelling, since they usually cost only a fraction of a physical one.  But an equally important trend is that many employees are already participating in online social networking groups, so they are happy using these same behaviors to make the most of their company events.  They are as comfortable developing relationships online as in person, and they prefer the greater amount of information and sharing that online provides.”

About ON24, Inc.
ON24, Inc.  is the global leader of webcasting and virtual events solutions for demand generation and corporate communications. ON24 provides the most reliable and trusted solutions that enable organizations to plan, produce and deliver cost-effective online events, including lead generation webinars, virtual shows, internal communications, continuing professional education and executive announcements.

This post has been guest authored by Sudhindra Rao,a Digital Communications Professional who’s also an ardent Social Media freak.He blogs here and tweets here.Click here to know more about him.

Global / Indian economic recession is one of the hottest topics among everyone today. As most of thepeople are weak in economics,all of them are wondering what exactly is happening and where are we heading towards.

As a result of increase in oil prices,foreign exchange is flowing from India. People have sold more shares in the indian share market than they bought in the recent weeks. This has added to the fall of sensex to lower points.

About three months back sensex was at 17000 to 18000 points. But now sensex points, the indicator of indian business and economy has fallen below 10000. Yesterday market fell 606 points!!

This is a clear indicator that indian economy is facing BIG problems.As a result,many companies like Jet Airways,TCS,Satyam and many others have laid off their staffs, the number of foreign tourists to india has dropped down, companies are cutting down compensations and perks etc.

So,is India moving towards ‘Recession’ ?

Inflation is rising due to high oil costs.

One day, Lehman Brothers declared themselves bankrupt. Employees all over the world were laid off. Many others followed – the list is still expanding.

Simultaneously, Home loans became more expensive and nearly impossible to get! The real estate scenario just got worse! Banks are now more worried about their customers defaulting.

Real estate prices have slashed, no one wants to even plan to buy property or even rent one expecting further reduction. Real estate suppliers have left their projects in between due to lack of demand. They have defaulted in paying interest on their debentures and honoring debentures in a timely manner. This has caused many Mutual Funds to suffer losses in millions.

Due to this poor situation in real estate and construction market, prices of steel and cement are crashing! Absolutely no demand ! Which means a lot of industries are suffering from the slowdown.

Aviation industry is sufering from severe losses! No traffic, high fare prices are all causing this industry to go under the covers.Kingfisher-Jet alliance and Jet airways staff shedding is the result….

With no demand, too many current employees cannot be remunerated with existing revenues. It is indeed a matter of concern, but companies cannot afford to suffer more! Even the cola companies weren’t spared! Recently a Cola company clodes their 5 major Production Companies.

Capital markets are moving towards crash. It seems like there is no tomorrow. FIIs do not want to invest. Finance Minister’s reassurances are of no use. There is panic everywhere. People want their money to be safe.

Banks refuse to lend money to other banks. Even though the government was willing to lend money, banks hardly took full benefits of it.

Indian startups are also facing tough times(VCs/Angels aren’t putting their money on startups so easily now).

The Indian Paradox

Inflation reflects high demand with plenty of money and scarcity of supply. On one hand,we’re facing high inflation, which is a sign of growth and on the other hand, we’re heading towards Economic recession. The worst phase of economics – stagflation. It is the worst paradox.

For instance, Iceland, one of the richest country, is bankrupt. A country that survives on imports, has only one day reserve for running the economy. This is global economics. We’re in deep trouble – we’re heading towards a massive depression which will not be restricted to USA only – it will hurt and injure every country and every individual hard.

If you belong to India,then being financially conscious and sensitive is a default trait in you but the financial services that we use or plan to use are limited to a count but the service providers are endless in number.

Hence,it becomes really tough to decide which bank to prefer for a loan,which property should one invest into,which credit card scheme is better and similar things like that.

PaisaWaisa is a solution one can consider if he is facing the above issues.It’s a financial portal providing a cluster of financial services/solutions,letting you perform a direct comparison of numerous service providers for loan,credit cards,insurance and other services and comfortable system to apply for the choosen service provider.A number of community features add user contribution to the site.

Rupiz Infotech,a web development and online marketing company has been the root of PaisaWaisa.The technology used,ease of use and overall user experience are the pros of PaisaWaisa.Such a portal can gain a traction in india if good efforts in marketing are employed.

What it offers…

• One can compare numerous financial service providers to find out the best one and apply
• One can have fellow user experiences to learn better about the service providers
• PaisaWaisa also facilitates with few services such as e-Tax filing(for free)

Why it can be THE NEXT BIG THING !

• Multi-Faced – Being a financial portal isn’t enough,there has to be a bandwidth of services to serve the users in the best possible way.PaisaWaisa does it beautifully.And it just does not let you compare but select the best one and apply for it without any hassle.Rest of the efforts are left to PaisaWaisa(to contact you and take the things further)
• Uncaptured genre – There are financial portals like moneycontrol but PaisaWaisa deals with the broad set of services,a parallel comparison of various service providers and easy application methodology.This sector isn’t a private property in indian web arena hance PaisaWaisa holds strong chances here

Why it may prove to be a Web Struggler !

• Marketing Issues – Sometimes an inferior product with excellent/exhaustive marketing makes a HIT pair and a superior product with an inferior marketing makes a FLOP show.As the nature of the website isn’t viral,the service is required to be known by the masses with the help of exhaustive/smart marketing campaigns(majorly online) otherwise they may find it hard to survive

It’s a website that serves as an online platform for employers and employees…quite similar to any job portal you have registered or ever heard of.

Then,how does it differentiate itself from the existing crowd of job portals ?

If you are just a XYZ University(rather unknown) passout,looking for a job for a living then….NotchUp is definitely NOT for you.

And that’s the thing that makes it different from other job portals.

In their own words…

“ NotchUp is for you if :-

• You’re happy at your job
• You’re good at what you do
• You’re not looking for a new job “

It’s a Los Altos,California based stealth startup by Jim Ambras and Rob Ellis(Both had been working in HR sector before).Due to their involvement in the recruitment process,they came with a unique idea of connecting individuals and organisations.

NotchUp aims to enpower smart,experienced and elite individuals with better opportunities and also an interview charge by the employer which requests an interview from the prospective employee.

In simple words,an employee has a right to charge an Interview Fee for spending his/her time over an interview session which may/may not result into a job.Also,the employers get to have a place where the On Demand Talent resides rather than the usual portals where low profile job-seekers lie in abundance.

What it offers…

• A platform for the niche category of high profile professionals to get a more lucrative job offer
• A place where recruiters will find talent in abundance
• A unique system where employers pay money to a prospective employee for setting up an  interview

Why it can be THE NEXT BIG THING !

• Uniqueness – It’s the one and the only one in the job portal sector where employees have to apply with their complete professional details to prove their worth for getting an entry ticket.Only elite professionals get a chance to enter NotchUp.Hence employers wouldn’t be wasting time going through ill-qualified resumes at all.All they are supposed to get are RIGHT people.
• User Empowerment – Till now,an employee is the one which is expected to take out time from his schedule and get interviewed for the job.But,this system lets the users(employees/professionals) get the control by setting their interview price before any interview happens

Why it may prove to be a Web Struggler !

• Small Market -The intended users for NotchUp can’t be hundreds of thousands in number.Such elite professionals are really small in number and this doesn’t let the system grow virally.