Effective Web Hosting for Social Media Sites

Social media websites are a relevant and a crucial aspect of web surfacing in all parts of the world. The social media networking websites of today require only the most accommodating and innovative Web hosting. Because social media, podcast, forum wikis and weblog formats are varied, website hosts must be responsive and flexible to all of their client's needs. One of the common features among social networking websites is how they discuss and share personal information, which is something all social media campaigns need to keep in mind.

Above all else, it is important to remember that social media campaigns are becoming quite crowded and generate a huge amount of traffic. Because of this, bandwidth usage is higher than ever. In order to meet this demand, fast servers are a must when launching social media efforts. Every day, high bandwidth usage continues to grow as various media elements, such as applets, instant message functions, pictures and videos, are integrated into social media websites. All of these types of media place a heavy demand on the web hosts of today.

Perhaps the most critical area where web hosts need to excel is in their response to the public interest. Targeted SM campaigns cause big traffic boosts once the public begins to respond to the campaign message. Due to this traffic surge, server overload risks increase, which is why website hosts need to take a proactive approach to accommodating this high demand. But they cannot get away with using any kind of site content. In order to attract new users as well as nail down long-term interest, it is essential to utilize timely content management. Websites that do not provide regular fresh content, are not well maintained, run slow and are not open to suggestions do not gain and keep substantial amounts of traffic. Traffic is the main goal of all successful SM campaigns.

Because SM website hosting relies on content management, it is the job of web hosts to provide a wide array of tools for installing and editing Web content. Drupal is one of these effective software packages that helps people and businesses publish content on their websites. The free add-ons and built-in functions of Drupal aid users in uploading files, creating blogs and using p2p networking. cPanel is another crucial tool for website hosting. This application allows for tight security, layered administration and features not available in any other similar application. The cPanel program is a must-have toolkit for launching new websites, which is a critical phase in any SM campaign.

Besides the above-mentioned tools, there are more common features shared by superb social media campaigns. One such similarity is that they are all goal oriented. A clear and straightforward description of the goals and is the start of all great campaigns. If you want to raise product awareness or get product/service feedback, you need to first determine your goals in order to avoid aimlessness. As the campaign continues, review these goals to maintain focus as you consider account experiences.

Brand identity is of the utmost importance. Due to social media's nature, your marketing campaign will have a wide reach so your campaign must correctly reflect its purpose from the word "go."

It is also important to establish a communication outlet with the Internet community. While there are some SM campaigns that dislike feedback and disable comments, successful campaigns are responsive and tailor their message in order to meet the always-changing demands of their target audience.

Entice your visitors. You can encourage online visitors to share information about your campaign efforts by giving away new offers and special discounts to repeat guests.

Finally, utilize your Facebook page's status changes and updates to expand your network of prospective clients. Because people tend to check their personal profiles on a regular basis, you will be able to instantly update them regarding special promotions.

If you use the above tips and tools, you can achieve a powerful social media campaign in just a few clicks. 

You can read more stuff written by her, including web hosting reviews of leading and affordable hosting companies and much more. Further more information search a WHS - bringing transparency to web hosting.

By Vanessa (WHS)

Reprint by Acarre Community Media

Web Design For Charity

Charity web design is a part of web designing. There are many charity websites on internet and many more to come. All these websites need web designers. The basic purpose of each website is to let the people know that there is someone to help you. This can be an amazing & satisfying experience to work and promote a charity website.

A specific charity organization works to help a particular community. Some promote feeding the hungry, some try to help people to build their own home, some work to help old people to live their life comfortably. A charity organization can work to help anyone but there basic purpose is the same as help the needy people.

Now it's on you whether you want to charge for your work or you want to donate your earning along with the volunteer work. You need to make a simple website. There are pictures, videos and other works of the charity so that visitors can easily understand what kind of charity organization is this. Some of the websites have a charity button for donation so that their online visitors can donate something to the charity.

Although these websites are very simple but one should not take this work for granted. There are many charity websites people usually visit. Many times the visitor list per day goes up to many millions. It's an easy way to communicate with people all over the world. People can donate easily on website rather than posting or couriering. The website should look appealing and catch the visitor's eye. One should get the whole information about the charity organization & its work in few seconds.

If we talk about the Non-profit organizations and their website then they are quite similar to commercial websites. They also serve their clients but they don't want profit that's why they need funding to run the organization.

So there are three categorization of the websites first one is commercial websites, second one is Non-Profit organizations websites and third is charity websites. Commercial websites get their funding from business they do and profit they get. Non-Profit Organizations and charity organizations get their funding from people who want to help these organizations. Websites is of a great help to get more and more donation and help the needy people. Through websites an organization can collect charity from all around the world.

If you want to design a website then there go for Website Design Company Delhi and Website Designing Company Gurgaon for world class web designing. Further more information about this articles, the author invites you to visit Addictive Media India.

By Kunwarpal

Repost by Acarre Community Media

How To Use a WordPress Blog To Enhance Traffic To Your Website

WordPress blog can be installed easily in any website and it can be used to drive traffic by writing useful posts that contain relevant information and relevant business key phrases. As we use a blog in our websites to update our prospective and existing customers about our products and services, we can also use it strategically to enhance traffic to our websites.

WordPress blog is very easy to install in your website. You or your web designer can customize it as per your specific needs. The WordPress admin interface is so handy to use that it hardly takes few minutes to write and publish a new post. But it is important to know how to use your blog for search engine optimization and to drive traffic to your website.

Four important things you need to show on your blog are recent posts, archives, categories and comments. Every new post you generate through the WordPress admin must be done strategically as search engines consider it as a new page on your website with a distinct link. Hence, it is vital to understand the importance of the title you select for your blog post. You can easily customize the titles of the posts in WordPress blog in a way that only title comes in the new post link and not the date or category of posts. You can even include business key phrases in the title of the post. For this, you must write a post that contains useful information on the services or products you want to promote. Title must be selected accordingly.

As it is not easy to update content on your website regularly, writing new posts serve that purpose. You can target new keywords through the blog posts. What you need to do is to write relevant content including these keywords and link them with the appropriate page of the website. It serves dual purpose. First, you help your customers to know more about the services you provide and second, you make search engines to see the appropriate interlinking with targeted keywords on your website. You can also target long tail keywords through blog posts as it is not easy to target these keywords through main pages of your website. This way you can drive traffic to your website through WordPress blog.

Try a WordPress blog to drive traffic to your website through strategic writing in your posts and to keep your targeted customers updated through relevant information about your products and services.

E-Definers Tech is a leading web designing company in Delhi and it possesses expert web designers in Delhi, India. Further more information about this articles, the author invites you to visit E-Definers Tech.

By Prashant Kumar

Repost by Acarre Community Media 

Create Impressive Website Design with CSS3

CSS3 is used in organizing the style and layout of Web pages. It is the latest standard in the CSS series. CSS3 offers a wide variety of new trends to make an impact with your web designs. With many exciting new functions and features, CSS can be used as a powerful tool in website designing and development. A CSS3 refers to the technical stipulation of a layout. It ensures that a web page will appear precisely the way the website developer has specified.

As a website designer we have to look into the capabilities of CSS3 and need to make the most of it. The basic approach of CSS3 in web designing is to make the web page user friendly by removing loads of complications from it. The changes that CSS3 has brought into the website development market are quite amazing. Using CSS3 can speed up the process of website design and development and also speed up your web site.

Using CSS3 to your Advantage

Keep all the things side apart, here are some advantages of CSS3 for you:

1. Better search engine results:

With CSS3, you can keep your HTML code much cleaner which in turn helps search engine crawler in getting the real content from your site very easily. You can also put any content anywhere in your web page and no longer each individual page have to be simplified to replicate the new style. By using this website design technique you will make much greater consistency throughout the site easily.

2. Lightweight coding:

In the field of website development, no one likes to wait for anything to come. This condition also applies in loading of web pages. When a website page takes a lot of time to load, generally users leave that page. By using CSS3, web pages can be made lighter which will allow the site to load faster. As table layout format is not used in CSS3, the sites acquire less memory and load faster.

3. Accessibility and usability:

In website designing you have to make it understandable that the content of the site must be validated in all formats of the browsers. A web designer has better control over a website by using CSS3. CSS3 allows for more compatible style elements, including font size and line heights through which web pages can be used more easily by people with disabilities. Website developers can craft specific CSS files especially for printing, or mobile devices, as well as the customary computer screen and in doing so making websites fully multimedia applications.

4. Isolation and Differentiation:

With the introduction of the CSS3 format, website designers have a lot to offer in development of a web page. CSS3 allows changes and modifications to be made in individual modules. CSS3 format helps users in separating presentation from structures. In this technique, style sheets defined presentational characteristics whereas the document structures were defined in separate heading. This eases the maintenance of the web page in efficient and comfortable manner.

When you start styling your content with CSS3 modules, you will probably never want to go back to using the old tags for styling.

You must use CSS3 to determine its full potential. Flexibility is the most useful features of using Cascading Style Sheets. One of the important things you require to gaze at before using this technique is what browsers the greater part of your users uses to visit your website. The reason behind this question is that it sometimes may be very difficult to make your CSS sprites friendly with many of the browsers depending on the techniques you use.

Further more information about this articles, the author invites you to visit sonitek - website design Toronto.

By Ricky Fill

Things to Consider When Looking For the Best Web Design Company

Websites are the calling cards of every online venture that you should be proud of! It should provide relevant information along with pleasant viewing to all its users, achieved through quality web development and designing services. With advancements in the field of internet marketing and web technologies, now the market is over-flooded with avowedly best web design company. Therefore, selection of a good web designing company has become a tricky task. However, there are many determinants based on which a probable decision is reasonable as well as worth the value of your hard earned money. if you want to reach to any worthy decision, consider these following points before finally venturing out on any web design company:

• Experience- this factor plays a very important factor while looking for the best web design company. A web design company with years of experience is undoubtedly competent in understanding customer needs and requirements, rendering relevant solutions. Experience helps in honing expertise that directly impacts productivity. A web design company rendering services like Application development, SEO, brand building, etc for years should be kept on top of the list.
• Service portfolio- always make sure to check a web design company's service portfolio. Go through the range of service packages provided by the company along with their expertise level in every domain of web designing. The richer the service portfolio of the company, the better the chances of receiving multifarious web design solutions under a single roof.
• Methods of working- checking on the workflow as well as the work procedures followed by an apparently best web design company will save you from the unnecessary worries and troubles. Those companies following unorganized and complicated workflow will demand your presence, delaying web designing and development projects unnecessarily. Talk about their working methods and go with systematic and simplified one. This will save your time and money, ensuring timely submission of assigned projects.
• Reputation- gauging out the reputation of a web design company is probably one of the trickiest tasks. Get ready to do a thorough research on the selected companies to know more about their company profile along with their market reputation to reach to a decision. Go through the company website, check their clientele and accomplishments and don't miss out on their client's feedback. Or simply search over the internet to find information about the company through online forums, communities and groups. Never trust a web design company without checking its credibility.
• Cost effectiveness- this is another important factor that goes into selecting the best web development company. It is vital to measure the cost effectiveness of the company's web design solutions. Check whether your investment is worthy or not and for that you can even ask for quotes. Compare your needs with the company quote to get cost effective web design solutions at competitive rates.

The above mentioned points surely would help you to find the best web design company. But you should also invest your foresightedness to determine the suitability of a web design and development company that will build your dream website.

Further more information about this articles, the author invites you to see WDE - website design expert.

By Saheli Kundu

Reprint by Acarre Community Media

Corporate Brand Orientation: What is it? , What of it?

Approach and rationale

Although the corporate brand and brand orientation literatures both date back to the mid-1990s – as various reviews attest (see Balmer and Gray, 2003; Balmer 2010; Evans et al, 2012; Urde et al, 2013) – to date, there has been an oversight in explicitly linking brand orientation to corporate brands within the annals of both brand orientation and corporate brand management. Within the brand orientation literature, there are resemblances with the corporate brand orientation notion, as espoused in this article. However, the links between brand orientation and with corporate brands have, for the most part, been implicit and embryonic.

The main tenor of this article is to further shed light on the significance of the brand orientation notion, specifically, as it applies to corporate brands. In this article, the corporate brand orientation perspective is made explicit, is given intelligibility, and is afforded significance via the introduction and explication of the corporate brand orientation designation.

Another of its ambitions is to recognise and celebrate extant scholarship in the brand orientation field and, in particular, the seminal work of Urde (1994) on the eve of the twentieth anniversary, in 2014, of his groundbreaking work.

The perspectives and viewpoints advanced in this commentary are primarily informed by the author’s own reflections of the corporate brand orientation domain. For the sake of expediency, many of the references given in this commentary are those of the author and his co-authors.

Readers of this commentary will of course wish to apprise themselves of the literatures relating to brand orientation, corporate brands, corporate brand identification and corporate marketing. A list of further reading has been included to this end.

Corporate brand orientation: A logical development

As such, the formal introduction of a corporate brand orientation doctrine not only broadens but, arguably, also adds a degree of nuance and significance to the brand orientation field.

For the author, the espousal of the corporate brand orientation – which explicitly links the brand orientation notion to corporate brands – represents an entirely logical development of the original brand orientation perspective articulated by Urde (1994) in his Journal of Consumer Marketing article entitled ‘Brand orientation – A strategy for survival’.

This being noted, this article airs the author’s assessment that the brand orientation as it pertains to corporate brands is qualitatively different from the brand orientation as it applies to brands per se.

In addition, the formal introduction of the corporate brand orientation notion may advance the general discernment of the brand orientation territory by providing sharper and firmer theoretical/instrumental bases for brand orientation at the corporate level.

Brand orientation perspectives

Significantly, and building on the above, there is also a logic in categorising other brand orientation perspectives. As a first step towards this aim, the brand orientation nomenclature is seen to encompass the following:

1. Corporate brand orientation
   (an organisation’s centripetal force based on a corporate brand).
    (NB: A corporate services brand orientation will need to take cognisance of the particularly important role of employees).
2. Product brand orientation
   (an organisation’s centripetal force based on its product brands).
3. Service brand orientation
   (not at the corporate level) (an organisation’s centripetal force based on its non-corporate service brands).
4. Omni-brand orientation
   (an organisation’s centripetal force based on the firm’s brands in their totality).

Corporate-level orientation perspectives

It should be remembered that there are a number of possible orientations at the corporate level. These include corporate brand, corporate identity, corporate marketing and total corporate communication orientations. Such perspectives are not necessarily mutually exclusive and multiple orientations are possible.

1. Corporate brand orientation
   (the corporate brand as an organisation’s centripetal force based on a corporate brand’s value and covenant/‘promise’. This viewpoint informs this article).
2. Corporate identity orientation
   (the corporate identity as an organisation’s centripetal force based on an organisation’s innate characteristics that define and differentiate an entity; Balmer, 2008).
3. Corporate marketing orientation
   (the corporate marketing philosophy as an organisation’s centripetal force based on a corporate-level marketing philosophy that regards the organisation – including both its corporate brand and corporate identity – as the main interface with its customers and importantly its other stakeholder groups. See Balmer, 2011).
4. Total corporate communication orientation
   (total corporate communications as an organisation’s centripetal force/s based on the view that total corporate communication provides a critical and strategic lens grounded in the precept that everything an organisation says makes or communicates. See Balmer, 1995, 1998). Total corporate communications comprise primary communications – the communication effects of products, services, management, staff and corporate behaviour; secondary communications – the communication effects of controlled forms of communications such as advertising, PR and so on; and tertiary communications – the communication effects of communications given by third parties (see Balmer and Gray, 1999; also see Illia and Balmer, 2012).

        The corporate brand and corporate identity orientations, for some, may appear to be comparable, but there are significant differences. It has been previously argued that both identity-based views of the firm and identity-based views of corporate brands (see Balmer, 2008, pp. 893–984) afford salient and legitimate, but different, corporate-level perspectives.

As such, an orientation grounded in a corporate identity focuses on the organisation’s raison d’etre: what it does, its ethos, operating style, size, markets covered and mode of stakeholder engagement.

In contrast, a corporate brand orientation is grounded in the core promises and stakeholder expectations with which the corporate brand is associated.

Corporate brand orientation and a corporate marketing logic

Importantly, linking corporate brand orientation to a corporate/organisational marketing logic¹ is, from the author’s perspective, a key tenet of the corporate brand orientation.

Whereas extant discussions of brand orientation (Urde et al, 2013) have been explored in the context of the traditional marketing logic (the latter, typically, has a customer focus and product/services foci), it has not been discussed from the perspective of a corporate marketing logic (this has a stakeholder and institutional foci).

Reprising the key points of this introduction, the author holds that Urde’s (1994) brand orientation perspective is especially salient apropos corporate brands. As such, this requires a new approach to brand orientation: corporate brand orientation.

Brand Orientation and Corporate Brand Orientation : Progress, Problems and Prospects

Progress

     Recent, insightful reviews of the brand orientation canon have advanced the general comprehension of the domain. This includes the elucidation and comparison of various brand orientation and marketing perspectives (Urde et al, 2013) and the identification of philosophical, behavioural and hybrid approaches to the field (Evans et al, 2012).

Problems 

         Significantly, Evans et al (2012) note that within the brand orientation canon there has been a failure to build on extant work on the territory. As a consequence, this has impeded the development of the brand orientation construct.

These authors (Evans et al 2012) also observed a lack of clarity in terms of the focus of brand orientation. To reiterate, sometimes the notion appears to refer to the corporate brand and at other times to brands in their totality. Clearly, an organisational-wide philosophy and culture grounded in a corporate brand is markedly different from a philosophy and culture that focus on brands per se.

Consider the following explanations of brand orientation that, respectively, reveal the lack of clarity in terms of whether brand orientation should refer to the corporate brand or, more generally, to a company’s brands in their totality: (brand orientation is) ‘the degree to which the organisation values brands and its practices are oriented towards building brand capabilities.’ (Bridson and Evans, 2004, p. 404) (brand orientation is) the extent to which organisations regard themselves as brands and an indication of how much (or how) little the organisation accepts the theory and practice of branding. (Hankinson, 2001b, p. 231)

Prospects 

           For his part, the writer has noted four opportunities through which the brand orientation can be advanced:

• the efficacy in explicitly linking the brand orientation notion to corporate brands/the corporate brand literature per se;
• the efficacy in clearly linking brand orientation to the literature on corporate marketing;
• the efficacy in fully linking brand orientation to the literature on corporate brand identification, especially as it relates to employees/organisational members;
• the efficacy in fully discriminating between corporate brand orientation categories (this has already been detailed earlier).

Further more information about this articles, please you check on Journal of Brand Management.


By John M T Balmer
Repost by Acarre Community Media

Identifying revenue opportunities via capacity analysis - Introduction

Capacity is defined as the output- or revenue-generating ability of an entity or a component thereof. It is a measure of the ability to produce goods, services and revenue.

Not all capacity concepts or components are created equal. Capacity's several components include, of course, the physical facilities that exist 24/7 although they may not be utilized 24/7 for various reasons. Because physical capacity is not easily adjusted in the short term, the notion of fixed physical capacity is central to much of the RM literature. Another component of capacity is personnel or the level of staffing provided to make the physical facilities operational. The amount of personnel capacity is discretionary and in many cases may be easily modified in the short term. Processes employed constitute a third component that affects how physical facilities and personnel are utilized to produce output.

Because they are internal to the organization, these three components of capacity depend on decisions made by management. A fourth capacity component is at least partially external: the supply chain (purchases) that reliably provides the goods and services necessary for the organization's outputs. Thus, we may think of the ‘four Ps’ of capacity:

1. Physical
2. Personnel
3. Processes
4. Purchases

 

Capacity illustration

To illustrate, observe that from a physical facilities viewpoint a restaurant's capacity consists of the size of its dining area and its kitchen. The number and capabilities of food preparation and service personnel also affect capacity. Processes utilized include the various techniques of preparing and delivering output. Although a fast-food restaurant's capacity differs from that of a fine dining restaurant of comparable size – a fast food outlet's physical capacity is able to serve more customers due to shorter preparation and service times – it will not necessarily produce more revenue. Finally, the ability to service customers depends on a steady and reliable supply of food and service products.

All four restaurant capacity components – physical facilities, personnel, processes and supply chain – interact to create the restaurant's revenue potential. Thus managing the revenue process requires measuring capacity on the various dimensions discussed above, and to analyze how those dimensions of capacity are being utilized. The CAM-I capacity model, discussed next, offers a useful framework for such analysis.

Summary and Conclusion

Building on the theme that proper consideration of capacity and its components is central to any effective RM scheme, we examined the insights provided by the CAM-I capacity model. The breakdown of capacity utilization into idle, non-productive and productive components provides a convenient framework for managerial review and analysis. Why is capacity idle? Are there impediments to its use? Should previous conclusions about the non-marketability of idle capacity be re-examined? Are there new and creative ways to put some idle capacity to work? How much capacity is non-productive and why? Can ways be found to convert non-productive time to productive? Analyses such as these can help identify new revenue opportunities. A CAM-I capacity analysis provides a straightforward framework for identifying revenue-generating enhancements without sophisticated mathematical analysis.

A further impact of capacity analysis is the recognition that capacity to generate revenues does not depend solely on physical facilities. Personnel, supply chain and processes also play a role; all four components should be considered.

Capacity analysis has its limitations. The analysis works best for entities where physical capacity directly limits revenues. Thus it is most readily applied in industries that have been the mainstream of the RM literature – airlines, hotels, restaurants, golf courses and the like. The analysis is also relevant to most manufacturing environments, although complicated by how multiple products impact the use of physical facilities. The most challenging applications lie in retail and service businesses, where physical assets play less of a role in RM. However, in such environments the other elements of capacity – personnel, supply chain and processes – may take on greater importance. More study is needed on these dimensions of capacity analysis.

Overall, capacity analysis, especially the CAM-I framework, can be a valuable tool for RM.

Further more information about this articles, please you check on Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management or e-mail to rhuefne@buffalo.edu.

By Ronald J Huefner & James A Largay III

Repost by Acarre Community Media

Introduction - Perspectives on Big Data

‘Big Data’ has become a catchy term that, for the moment, retains some mystique and persuasive impact in use. For example, one could imagine hearing in a sales presentation, or at a conference or cocktail party, ‘big data is the key to success; harness big data and you harness the world; if you are not using big data, you are doomed; big data changes everything’. Similar to the way we perceive Twitter, online shopping, customer relationship management (CRM) systems and many other technology-related phenomena that have had their moments of hype, we believe that there is meaningful value in BD. However, we do not believe that BD’s impact is as near to solving the world’s problems as some might suggest. We expect that BD will continue to be a cool term to use in the short term.

We are not trying to shut down that practice. However, we are curious about what people associate with the term BD. Certainly it must communicate and reflect notions that people rally around and act on. What are these notions? Are they good? Bad? Ugly? Or, are they the Good, the Bad and the Ugly? Do they frame a valuable way to look at the world? Does BD, whatever it means to managers, scientists, researchers and others, motivate and enable actions that may become, or are, worthwhile and better than the status quo or rival alternatives?

Etymology

Before sharing the perspectives of the leading scholars that we interviewed, we feel that we would be remiss to not indicate some research into the etymology of the expression BD. Lohr (2013), who was curious about the origins of the term, finds roots in direct marketing and in technology. He cites a Harper’s Magazine article written by Erik Larson in 1989 that makes reference to junk mail and the direct-marketing industry, ‘The keepers of big data say they do it for the consumer’s benefit. But data have a way of being used for purposes other than originally intended’. However, Lohr rejects this as the origin of BD, writing, ‘Prescient indeed. But not, I don’t think, a use of the term that suggests an inkling of the technology we call Big Data today’.

He felt that credit was more appropriate to give to John Mashey, who was Chief Scientist at Silicon Graphics during the 1990s, as his use of the term reflected ‘not just a lot of data, but different types of data handled in new ways’. In addition, Lohr (2013) references Francis X. Diebold, who is the Paul F. Miller, Jr and E. Warren Shafer Miller Professor of Social Sciences, a Professor of Economics, and a Professor of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, as the first to have published an academic research paper that includes the term ‘Big Data’.

A tale of two disciplines

Well, Lohr certainly explained how he arrived at his conclusion. A definition with a bias toward computer science and technology informs it. The scholars whom we interviewed explained that, indeed, multiple definitions of BD exist as a function of the discipline in which one operates. There appears to be a difference between what boils down to two groups – and probably some other groups as well. Those who are technology focused (for example, computer scientists, computer engineers) are fascinated more with the amount of data that can be stored; the speed with which data can be stored, accessed or manipulated; and the structure of data, among a variety of technology-related aspects. One might suggest that to them, it is all about the data. Managerial problem solvers (for example, marketing scientists, management scientists) are focused more on testing theory, making discoveries and solving problems. With respect to data, they might think, just show me the data!!!

Feit makes reference to some of those with a technology focus:People who are experts in storing and managing data, they mean something very specific by big data. They mean a very specific set of tools, and a different approach to structuring data. So they think of any kind of big table database, as opposed to a relational database, as big data. So for them, big data isn’t necessarily size, but it’s the structure. It turns out that one structure is more useful when the data gets large than another, and so they think of big data as intimately tied to how you structure it. And they structure it in one big table, which facilitates parallel computation.

Thompson elaborates further, suggesting an important distinction between those who promote or sell ‘data-related’ technology and those focused on the problems for which data can be used to help solve: There’s a very strong tendency to basically blur the distinction between what you’re talking about and the underlying technology. SAS has a page up on what are big data, and SAS, of course, is the original master of big data. When the human genome project was being done in the late 90’s, the result was going to be the largest database that had ever been constructed to date. SAS software was chosen for that, because it was the only software package that could handle, at that time, data files of that size, that much data, and actually process it. It was considered to be the paragon, the ultimate big data project, of course outside of what the National Security Agency does. So the thing about this is, is that if you go and you read, what is big data, much of that is written by the technology firm. The software companies, the hardware companies that are selling it. And so what they do is, is that they blur the distinction between the technology and the actual concept that the technology is designed to address. You see the same thing when we talk about communities."(For example,) companies selling software for online portals, basically treat the software as synonymous with the (meaning of a) community. (They see) community (as,) essentially, a software package, (as) a website. But of course in practice, community is a sociological construct. All the software does is, it provides a communications means for a community to potentially use to communicate. But just because people are using the software doesn’t mean they actually form a community. So what happens is, a lot of the definitions you see of big data are defined, not by big data or the managerial issue, or the concept itself, but rather, they define big data in terms of the product they’re selling, which is software and hardware … I would argue that one of the things that’s derailing the conversation about big data, both within the organization and academia, is a failure to distinguish between essentially the marketing speak of the firms selling the software and the hardware, and the actual underlying problem the software is meant to address (Technology providers) want to define the problem in technological terms.

Important components and attributes of BD

Perspectives aside, we all agree that data are part of a process that informs theory development and decision making. We believe that data should be considered only one part of the BD concept. The perspectives that we have heard from the marketing scholars whom we interviewed led us to believe that it could be beneficial to think of BD as a term that represents a period of time or era, a process, and some new wrinkles associated with components of that process. In this section, we draw attention to these components and new wrinkles.

Purpose

A first critical consideration of BD is the purpose of it. Little says, ‘I’m problem driven’. Lehmann quotes T.S. Eliot, ‘Where is the information that we have lost in the information’, in making the point that ‘people may get so obsessed with analyzing the data that they’ll forget why they are analyzing it, and why they want to know about particular relationships’. Moe states, ‘Think about what you’re trying to accomplish’. Duparcq adds, ‘All the new connected platforms in the world won’t make a difference if they can’t justify their existence by the value they create. This is no doubt the core challenge’. And Thompson emphasizes, ‘You need to start with a theory. Theory is what allows you to frame a meaningful question. If you start looking for answers, and you don’t know what the question is, you’ve got a problem’. With more data and richer data available through technologies today, BD enables the conceptualization of new problems and associated purpose, or, deeper exploration of pre-existing problems.

Data attributes

Indeed, it is important to be aware of certain characteristics, or nature, of the data associated with BD. Yes, there is the attribute of size. However, the ‘bigness’ of BD is, as Feinberg calls it, … a moving target. Remember when scanner data came out? That was big data. We were stunned. Like wow, tens of thousands of households and dozens of purchases. And now, you can fit all of that data on anyone’s phone. You may not be able to analyze it on someone’s phone, but you can certainly do it on any PC. It’s kind of a joke by today’s standards.

Lehmann concurs: When I was in school, I ran a five variable, one-hundred observation regression that took more than a day to run. That was BD at the time. Now, it is considered quite small. As computing power has increased, BD has become bigger. The problem is the same today as it was years ago.

Winer agrees as well: When people first started using the term big data, I kind of laughed a little bit, because big data sets, huge data sets have been around for a long time. If you take a look at the kind of data that, say, telecom companies have on all their customers, or airlines form loyalty programs, banks on their customers, it’s not new. I think what the term tends to be used for is maybe, at least my perception is, the integration of customer databases, which as I said have been around for a while, and other information that they may be able to get about customers through social media, through user generated content, trying to integrate the two. Even though the sort of cyberspace data is not generally at the individual level, it’s usually anonymous, I think that the incremental availability of huge amounts of information that are flowing across the internet is what really people are referring to as big data. So maybe the airline and banking and telecom data were big data, and now we’re in the era of really big data or huge data or something like that. But as I said, I don’t see it being revolutionary, as much as evolutionary.

And, similar to Winer, Duparcq likes to use a definition if BD that involves database integration and vast amounts of online data: The entirety of data that is collected on a singular individual, in a multitude of platforms (online traditional, online mobile, online new, internet capable connected devices, offline stores, offline media & credit card data), connected (all online and offline datasets in one database), correlated, and interpreted from both a single and larger group perspective.

Little commented, ‘In fact, I had an email from my co-author (of) years ago, Peter Guadagni, and he said, I think we were using big data’ (n.b., Guadagni and Little’s (1983) seminal paper was based on the analysis of scanner data).

Bradlow provides a more generalized notion of size that considers norms, One way I think about it, just from most users’ perspective … (and) I don’t want to call this a technical definition, but it’s kind of a technical layman’s definition, is, data that’s bigger than you can open up with standard software. To me, that’s big data. Can I not even open up the file using … Excel, or do I really need Hadoop and massive big data skills even to open up the file? So to me, the technical definition of big data is just, does it require specialized training just to kind of observe and look at the file? Now that’s not what I think most people mean. But to me, that’s my first definition. If I have to call over to my computer science department just to open up the file, that’s big.

Pitt has a similar perspective, I think it’s data that’s too big to fit into even the largest single database, or, if you want to think of it in simple terms, it’s too big to fit into even the very largest spreadsheet you could find. And I’d also say that it’s probably not analyzable by even the biggest computer in an organization. It probably has to be analyzed on something like clusters of different computers running special applications.

The data of BD are also different in terms of structure and form. Sawhney adds, ‘The data is coming from lots of unstructured sources’. Pitt points out that What makes this different to most of the data that marketing people are generally used to, is that it also has lots and lots of text to it. So it’s not just about numbers about what people are doing. It’s also text about what people are saying, and what they’re writing, and what they’re indicating by means of words.

Feinberg takes it a step further: So I think that the whole idea has been around for a long time … electronic data capture by the internet, and the ability to create databases from every single thing we do, that’s what’s really fueled this huge cusp, like all of a sudden, everyone’s talking about big data, because every single thing is captured. So if you capture an enormous amount of information, suddenly it’s big. ‘The reason we’re really in the era of big data is that we’re getting a lot of information on every single thing that every person does. And the ability to store that at low cost, and analyze it later, is what really is, to me, the functional definition of big data.

Duparcq provides some texture to the availability of consumer data:Consumers’ propensity to generate data will largely be determined by two important factors, (including) the amount of access points available (number of connected platforms and consumer’s willingness to adopt those platforms). The average time users spend online rising constantly, data generated during that time is steadily increasing as well. In the US, usage has increased from an average of 5.2 hours a week in 2001 to 19.6 hours in 2012. Part of that increase can be attributed to consumers finding more ways to make interactive media an important part of their daily habits: shopping, information, news, entertainment, social interaction, etc.

In addition to highlighting data attributes that partly distinguish or define BD, scholars note that a key distinction of BD may be in the analytical tools or techniques that are used to monitor, share and process the data and convert it into information. In concert with this, they call attention to the ‘speed’ of the data and a need to act on it swiftly. Winer remarks: It’s not so much the data that’s new. It’s the kind of tools that we have to analyze those data and react to the data in real time, or close to real time. So if a company is monitoring its comments about it on Twitter, they can immediately try to take corrective action by starting their own Twitter feeds, or putting out a message on a Facebook site, or that kind of thing. So, I think that that’s where the change is, not so much the fact that we’ve got more data.

Further more information about this articles, please you check on Journal of Marketing Analytics or e-mail Bostongarden@gmail.com.

By Bruce D Weinberg, Lenita Davis & Paul D Berger

Repost by Acarre Community Media

Introduction - Building digital skills through training : opinion pieces

A dual market exists for training — digital marketers who need to grasp the full breadth of both online and offline activity and conventional marketers who need to skill-up for the digital realm. This article considers the differing needs of these groups and how well existing training resources are meeting them.

What is digital marketing?

So far, I’ve used the term digital marketing as if it covered one area. Just as with ‘conventional’ marketing, there are many digital marketing areas. They include:

• How marketing strategy is affected by the use of digital channels, in particular how the drive to use digital to reduce marketing costs may lead to reduced differentiation, even commoditization and consequent competitive weakness and lower margins and even revenues, and possibly to financial exposure because offline costs remain the same.
• How competitive marketing strategy is affected by the changes digital approaches allow you to make to business models, sometimes providing the ammunition to attack and bring down competitors, as many offline retailers and IT companies have discovered.
• How to plan digital marketing, covering how to develop and manage new ways of contacting and managing customers.
• How to manage different digital channels (eg, web, mobile, email), overall and in specialist technique areas, eg, search engine optimization, developing and managing apps.
• How to optimize across and within digital channels, including through accurate attribution and smart real-time bidding.
• Managing, analysing and presenting digital data, from developing insight to dashboard management. A key area here is to understand what the data is telling you, in particular staying open-minded about it and using classic market research to find out why the results are as they are.

The more technical the area, the more rapid the evolution of technique and so the more quickly training material can date, but the greater the possibility of new techniques distracting you from the essentials of competitive marketing.

In the last few months, the Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing, of which I am an Honorary Life Fellow, has asked me to help with several digital marketing training programmes. It reminds me of when, 30 years ago, the demand for direct marketing training was surging, as big companies (some recently privatized, such as BT, British Gas and BA) implemented customer databases for the first time. They discovered how responsive customers were to relevant communications, but also that they needed to change the mindsets, knowledge and skills of large numbers of their people, at all levels. These people came from many backgrounds, including advertising, public relations, retailing, brand and product management, general and technical sales, telemarketing and, of course, customer service. A revolution had taken place in what they could do. A parallel revolution had to take place in what they were trained, able and motivated to do.

Becoming more professional in customer management

      This revolution then spread out by sector, as various market changes (privatization, deregulation and a general collapse of barriers to competition) forced companies to become much more professional in how they managed their customers. The skills also spread, with the industries that were strongest in direct marketing (eg, mail order, credit cards) losing some of their best people to industries that were desperate for their skills (eg, telecommunications, insurance, travel, utilities and, eventually, retailing).

Offline still delivering most revenue

      Today, a similar revolution in marketing, sales and service is taking place because of the growth of digital capabilities and their addition to — and in some cases substitution for — older ways of doing business. Therefore, companies face the same challenges they faced 30 years ago, as they wrestle with the continuous growth in channels, media, consumer touch-points and marketing technology. However, in many companies, offline ways of doing business (including direct marketing) still deliver most revenue and profit. This means digital (at least for the moment) must take its place alongside them.

Digital is not a bolt-on

      However, while digital techniques are becoming a key for success, for most companies the link between online and offline marketing is critical, as is the need to manage a combination of online and offline channels. Most customers do not separate their online and offline lives — they tend to mix these journeys. The few leading-edge companies that have a data management platform that combines the two sets of data have realized that they need skills and knowledge from both online and offline worlds in order to manage and use the data. A view that is either purely online or offline is a partial view. One issue here is that the new digital capabilities are often ‘bolted on’ to marketing departments, rather than integrated strategically.

Further more information about this articles, please you check on Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice or e-mail merlin@merlin-stone.com.

By Merlin Stone

Repost by Acarre Community Media

Introduction - Giving too much social support: social overload on social networking sites

Social networking sites (SNS) have become well-established online services in the daily lives of individuals. A key functionality of SNS such as Facebook is networking with others (Koroleva et al, 2011). The primarily function of SNS is to post private or public messages to contacts (Krasnova et al, 2010; Tow et al, 2010). While some messages exchanged over SNS provide neutral information (I am waiting for the bus), others are social requests demanding reaction and assistance (Help me! I need an apartment in New York!, I am sick. Cross your fingers for my recovery!; I’m bored – entertain me!). The number of messages a user receives increases with the number of her social relationships embedded in SNS (Manago et al, 2012). As a result, SNS users might be confronted with an increasing number of social requests that require some form of reaction. This raises questions about the consequences of increasing SNS usage on a user’s life (Brandtzaeg, 2012; Amichai-Hamburger, 2013). On the one hand, social embeddedness through SNS can benefit SNS users, who experience more social support than non-SNS users (Hampton et al, 2011). On the other, users can be drawn into exhausting social situations. In particular, the many social relations enabled in SNS might cause users to feel they are giving too much social support in SNS to individuals embedded in their social network out of a sense of duty to respond to social support requests. We call this newly observed phenomenon ‘social overload’, and we will develop a theory of its impact in this paper. Social overload might have negative psychological and behavioral consequences. Such consequences, as elaborated in studies based on non-IT enabled social networks (Bliese & Britt, 2001) and social support theory (SST) (Caplan, 1974; Cassel, 1976; Cobb, 1976), emphasize the need to better understand the social exhaustion phenomenon, its drivers, and consequences in IT-enabled SNS as well. Some consequences may range from short-term exhaustion to long-term physiological, social, and/or psychological harm (Tarafdar et al, 2010) and could result in users reducing or complete stopping platform usage.

This research aims at identifying the possible negative effects of SNS usage on the individual (Brandtzaeg, 2012; Turel & Serenko, 2012; Amichai-Hamburger, 2013), as SNS replace other individual communication channels. In addition to being used to post personal messages to private and public social networks, SNS are also used by organizations in marketing (Culnan et al, 2010) and recruiting (Weitzel et al, 2009; Leidner et al, 2010) to communicate with external stakeholders, and for internal business communication (Majchrzak et al, 2009; Koch et al, 2012). In addition to causing stress, if social overload leads to reduction or stopping SNS channel usage, it could threaten user participation in social media. A better understanding of SNS is necessary to avoid such negative consequences, as well as those observed with other communication media (e.g., Barley et al, 2011).

The goal of this paper is to understand the phenomenon of social overload, its antecedents, and its consequences for the individual. As defined above, social overload is the negative perception of SNS usage when users receive too many social support requests and feel they are giving too much social support to other individuals embedded in their virtual social network. Increasing SNS usage for both private and professional communication and the societal need to understand drivers of possibly negative physiological, social, and psychological consequences of IT-enabled SNS motivate our research question: What are the antecedents of social overload and its consequences for SNS users?

In the following, we first discuss SNS as a technology enabling social connections among individuals and organizations and introduce SST as the theoretical base for developing the concept of social overload. Second, we develop social overload as a theoretical variable and derive hypotheses for its drivers and consequences. Third, using a study with 571 SNS users, we empirically evaluate social overload and the hypotheses. We then discuss the results, limitations, and implications for research and for practice.

Further more information about this articles, please you check on European Journal of Information Systems or e-mail christian.maier@uni-bamberg.de.

By Christian Maier, Sven Laumer, Andreas Eckhardt & Tim Weitzel

Repost by Acarre Community Media

An integrative marketing channel performance measurement framework - Introduction

Recent research into strategy implementation is damning in its findings. 'The reality is that traditional (marketing) implementation approaches have failed'. Similarly in the October 1999 issue of the Journal of Marketing, Noble and Mokwa wrote, '[Marketing] Implementation [...] is a critical link between formulation of marketing strategies and the achievement of superior organizational performance [...]. Yet, the nature of implementation and reasons for success or failure are understood poorly'.

According to Yeniyurt, the marketing field is now giving high priority to developing marketing metrics. The role of marketing channels is to implement marketing strategy. The difficulty of channel strategy is compounded by the emergence of e-channels and the need to integrate e-channels into traditional or 'bricks and mortar' channels. Ambler et al. contend that metrics usage is substantially moderated by (a company's) size and sector. The authors suggest that 'larger firms use more metrics and the needs of retail, for example, are different from those in the consumer goods sector'.

A fundamental proposition in marketing strategy is that distribution channels must be aligned with customers and competitive advantage. Unfortunately, channel performance measurement literature has provided ambiguous guidance to marketing managers. This paper addresses the problem by putting forward a conceptual model that uses strategy as the primary determinant of the characteristics of the performance measurement system.

Measurement plays a crucial role in strategy implementation according to Kaplan and Norton. Neely et al. conducted a review of the performance measurement literature. They observed that while many measurement frameworks have been developed and many others have offered criteria for the measurement system design, a generally pertinent systematic approach to performance measurement has not been built. In this respect, research in distribution channels has highlighted a 'channel performance metric paradox.' Because different systems and different channels necessitate particular measurement structure characteristics, it is impossible for a business organisation to maximise concurrently, all channel performance measures.

The literature argues, however, that the extent to which each determinant of performance impacts firm performance is a function of the performance metrics (see, eg Eccles; Neely; Simons). Further, Lebas and Euske define performance as 'the sum of all processes that will lead managers to taking appropriate actions in the present that will create a performing organisation in the future' or in other words, 'doing today what will lead to measured value outcomes tomorrow'.

This paper is conceptual in nature and while adopting Miles and Snow strategy types' framework, it offers a model that endeavours to reconcile the 'channel performance metric paradox'. In so doing, we show that in order to achieve marketing success, it is important to understand the relationship between channel performance measures and strategy deployment success. Our research seeks to identify that strategy is the key determinant of channel metric characteristics.

This paper is organised in the following way. First, a review of the performance measurement, marketing channels and strategy implementation literature is undertaken. Next, channel performance measurements are integrated with Miles and Snow's strategy implementation framework. Following that a research model that is specific to channels is developed with research propositions. Finally, guidance is provided to marketing managers in the use of the model in framing a system of marketing channel performance measurement.

The paper contributes to marketing practice by clarifying the key channel performance measures in an organisational context. It also identifies which performance measures should be emphasised to avoid the channel performance metric paradox. This paradox occurs where undesirable performance trade-offs occur when the improvement of one performance measure reduces the performance of another measure.

Further more information about this articles, please you check on Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management.

By Michael J Valos & Andrea Vocino

Repost by Acarre Community Media

What makes for CRM system success or failure?

Payne and Frow argue that successful implementation of CRM programme depends upon four critical factors: 

            (1) CRM readiness assessment

            (2) CRM change management

            (3) CRM project management

            (4) employee engagement. 

A CRM readiness assessment is an overview audit which helps managers to assess the overall position in terms of readiness to progress with CRM implementations and to identify how well developed their organisation is relative to other companies. CRM change management involves strategic organisational change and cultural change. Senior level understanding, sponsorship, leadership and cross-functional integration are clearly critical in a complex CRM implementation. CRM project management requires forming cross-functional teams of specialists who manage the enterprise's CRM implementation programme. Successful CRM projects deliver against the CRM objectives derived from the corporate objectives and support the overall business strategy. Finally, employee engagement comprises support and commitment of the employees to CRM projects. Increasingly, firms recognise the significant value their employees contribute to the business, which extents well beyond the basic fulfilment of core duties. Companies cannot develop and operate appropriately customer-focussed CRM systems and processes without motivated and trained employees.

Various arguments have been put forward for the failure of CRM systems. Day suggests that main reason for CRM project failure is the lack of strategic planning prior to the implementation of CRM. Maselli found that the reasons for failure of many CRM initiatives ranged from technological implementation problems to a lack of organisational integration and customer orientation. Jain et al. state that most such failures are attributed to poor design, planning and measurement of CRM projects. They comment that capturing the wrong customer information, unclear goals, inappropriate selection and use of technology, inability to integrate people and processes and use of misleading metrics or improper measurement approaches are the major barriers in implementing and managing CRM projects. According to Kale, the seven deadly sins for unsatisfactory CRM outcome are: 

           (1) viewing the CRM initiative as a technology initiative; 

           (2) lack of customer-centric vision; 

           (3) insufficient appreciation of customer lifetime value; 

           (4) inadequate support from top management; 

           (5) underestimating the importance of change management; 

           (6) failing to re-engineer business processes; and 

           (7) underestimating the difficulties involved in data mining and data integration. 

He states that most executives are not even aware of these issues, even though they could spell disaster for their careers and for the company. Others argue CRM failures are heavily influenced by the firm's lack of ability to integrate CRM technologies into its functional processes.

Further more information about this articles, please you check on Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management.

 

By Bryan Foss, Merlin Stone & Yuksel Ekinci

Repost by Acarre Community Media

CRM software applications and business performance

Much of the research into CRM implementation tends to focus either on its alleged failure to deliver business benefits, or the enabling and disabling conditions that impact on CRM performance. Sweat, for example, reported failure rates of between 25 and 80 per cent. Overly expensive investment in technology — both software and hardware — is cited as a significant cause of CRM's failure to deliver value. People issues are also implicated in the failure of CRM implementations. McKinsey reported that 59 per cent of companies who were successful in their CRM implementations addressed cultural change issues compared to 33 per cent of those who failed. More recently, Iriana and Buttle found that companies that promote an atmosphere of innovation or risk taking, hence creating a climate for employees to act in the best interest of customers tend to fare better in their CRM outcomes. But very little has been published about the deployment of CRM software, and its impact on company performance. In fact, the whole area is so under-researched, that it has been earmarked by the Marketing Science Institute to be a priority research area.

CRM software

     Literature in the area of CRM software has tended to centre on software package or vendor reviews, or case studies about its implementation. One case study into three companies concluded that one of the main concerns in adopting CRM software is that it is perceived to come in a 'one size fits all' package. This is fuelled by the fact that vendors tend to have a standardised view of what relationship management process should be, creating problems in flexibility and functionality.

      Two recent academic studies have begun to shed light on the impact of CRM-related technologies on company performance. Based on a sample of 172 US companies, split 50:50 between goods manufacturers and service organisations, Jayachandran et al. found that companies with relational information management processes (ie, they have interactive customer contact, from which customer information is captured, integrated and widely deployed and used across the business) tend to experience better customer satisfaction and customer retention outcomes. Furthermore, this association is even stronger when the company's CRM system is capable of front-office activities across the sales, marketing and service functions.

    In contrast, Reinartz et al. found a negative relationship between CRM technologies and the economic performance of firms. From a sample of 211 Swiss, German and Austrian companies across five industries (hospitality, power utilities, financial services and online retailing), they found that the more sophisticated companies are in their CRM technologies, the worse is their economic performance as judged subjectively by key informants. Furthermore, they found a significant interactive effect in that this negative relationship was most pronounced when companies were trying to initiate a relationship with customers (eg, customer acquisition or win-back of lost customers).

     In relation to our research objectives, it should be noted that these two studies do not directly evaluate the influence of CRM software, per se, but focus on the much broader issue of CRM-related technologies. Reinartz et al. chose company performance as their ultimate dependent variable, measuring this both objectively (using return on assets (RoA) data reported in the annual accounts), and subjectively (using key informants' assessments of overall performance, market share, growth and profitability). We believe that RoA is influenced by so many variables that it is not a useful dependent variable for the assessment of CRM-related investments. Neither of these two studies investigated the effects of CRM-related technologies on customer acquisition, retention and development outcomes. Rather, these activities were bundled together. We believe that customer acquisition, retention and development are strategically important business objectives in their own right, and merit assessment.

    Finally, both these studies have chosen different ways of conceptualising and operationalising similar constructs. Jayachandran et al. use 42 items to measure CRM technologies, while their dependent variable is a composite index of customer satisfaction and customer retention. Reinartz et al. measure CRM-related technologies using only four items, with the dependent variable being company performance.

    In summary, we are not aware of any academic study that looks at the performance of CRM software per se, rather than more broadly defined CRM technologies. Neither can we find any work that focuses on software's role in management of the customer lifecycle stages of acquisition, retention and development, user satisfaction with software return on investment (ROI) and the software's impact on business performance. Our aim is to fill this knowledge gap.

Further more information about this articles, please you check on Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management

By Lawrence Ang & Francis Buttle
Repost by Acarre Community Media

Tips to Make Money through Blogging

Blogs are beneficial if you wish to promote your business or product. Writing blogs can be monetarily very helpful for a business venture to flourish as it informs the audience about the business, eventually intriguing them to buy the services or product. Usually, we write a blog to inform our target audience about our services we provide, or to share our views on something. But, if we become a little business-minded, we can make a substantial amount of money through our blog.

We just need to learn some basic strategies in order to make money through blog-posts. Here are some of the ways that would help you to earn money through blog-writing.

By selling other's products or services

This is one click-through opportunity that can make you earn loads of money via affiliate programs. Affiliate programs serve as a bridge between the readers/viewers and the websites that offer various products and services. One of the best examples of affiliate programs is Amazon.com.  For example, if you write a book review and mention any of the books in it, affiliate program will enable the readers to click on the book's name and direct them to Amazon so that they can get further details about it. And, if they purchase that book, you get paid as well.

By selling ad-space

This is one of the most convenient and common ways of generating income through blog-writing. If you become a renowned blogger or blog about a particular product or topic, you can sell the ad-space in your blog. Bloggers can use Google AdSense or BlogAds in order to establish several ad programs. For instance, AdSense enables the blogger to choose ads that are related to the content of their blog post, and then pays on the basis of clicks that come to the advertisements. BlogAds is another way of selling ad-space that connect bloggers with the advertisers and pay a commission for any advertisements that come up on their blogs.


Ask for contributions

Bloggers can also ask their readers for contributions. For example, if your blog supports a particular issue or cause, like if you mention health care, tax reform, you can ask your readers for a little financial help. Even if you have some of the followers who just enjoy reading your thoughts and opinions, you can ask them for small contributions as a way to show their loyalty towards you. Sites such as Paypal offer on-site contribution button.

Develop and maintain customer relations

When you write a blog in order to communicate with your existing customers or for attracting new ones, you can include all the essential details of your business – what it does & how, while maintaining good relations with your clients. Through this, the readers get to know more about the product or services that are offered by your business. The customers obtain knowledge about the full range of services provided, and, therefore, decide to purchase them.

Market your products or services through blogs

It is obvious that blogs are the perfect platform to express your views or opinions, but they are also useful in making money. Marketing the products and services through blogs will naturally earn you more customers and increase your income. You can also write short journal articles that explain your strategies, as well as perspectives on a variety of issues. Through this, bloggers can make a lot of money by attracting new clients.

You can earn a good amount of money by making use of the above mentioned ways while writing a blog post for your business.

By Apoorva

Repost by Acarre Media Community 

Corporate blogs as e-CRM tools – Building consumer engagement through content management

Corporate Blogs are fast emerging as new organizational tools for marketing, building brand relationships and Customer Relationship Management. This study has been conducted to analyse the ability of an organization to use its Corporate Blog as an e-CRM tool. We attempt to study the impact of brand communication (content type and volume), hosted on an organizational blog, on its ability to induce consumer engagement. Organizations can build relationships with their prospective and current consumers through posts on a Corporate Blog, and encourage them to participate by commenting on the blog, thereby stimulating consumer engagement. The variation in the organizational objective behind hosting each post on the blog is used to categorize the content posted on the blog. An exploratory study enables us to deduce the importance of content typologies in building a relationship with the customer. We are able to identify three types of content typologies – Organizational, Promotional and Relational. We further observe that Relational content hosted by an organization is able to induce greater volumes of consumer engagement (measured in terms of number of consumer comments) than any other content typology. The analysis of dependency of consumer engagement on the volume of content posted by the organization indicates a positive correlation between number of posts and volume of comments.

A Corporate Blog is an online repository serving as a virtual storehouse of information, where organizations post content for consumer consumption. Objectives include – providing a solution to exploratory consumer browsing, aiding a consumer's quest for information, helping consumers gain access to organizational promotional campaigns and responding to controversies regarding organization/product. This creates consumer involvement with this organizational endeavour and eventually achieves consumer engagement for the organization, as the consumer commences participation. Content categorization is done to enable organizations to post consumer-relevant content to induce greater consumer participation. Dependency analysis and regression are used to study the relationship between volume of content posted by the organization and its ability to stimulate greater consumer engagement. This article addresses the need for hosting the appropriate content on an organizational initiative, which, by matching consumer requirements, helps develop a relationship between organization and consumer. The scope of future work is outlined, wherein the knowledge capital created through exchange with consumers can be mined to extract explicit information, which can be leveraged from the organizational perspective for diffusion and exploitation, for subsequent competitive advantage. According to the Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2009 (Figure 1), Corporate Blogging has moved up from the Trough of Disillusionment and is now in the Slope of Enlightenment, inching slowly towards wide-scale mainstream adoption as more and more benefits become visible.

Further information about this articles, please you check on Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management.

By Vandana Ahuja & Yajulu Medury

Repost by Acarre Community Media

Looking for a Job: Tips for Interviews

Whether you are presently employed or not, you should have the same level of preparation when going for a job interview. In a tough economic environment, even a slight advantage can make all the difference, so you want your interview to go as smoothly as possible.
Knowing how to interview is an essential tool. Many go to interviews not knowing what to expect and just hope for the best. While certainly things may happen which are out of your control, preparation is everything. A very important part of that preparation is to research the organization itself. Know the mission statement of the company and the names of important figures (eg: the CEO). Also, have a general understanding of the company's history. You do not need to be an encyclopedia, but events such as when it was founded would be good to know. The interviewer will likely fill you in on the background of the company, but the more you know beforehand, the better.

It is also important to know as much about your position as possible. This will help you when relating it to your own experience. The interviewer will generally have a copy of your resume in front of him or her during the interview, so be ready to expand on the points within your resume. Additionally, research specific interview techniques.

General internet research is always helpful as you will come across real life stories. Knowing someone who works in Human Resources is a plus as well. Also, if you know others who have or currently work with this organization, be sure to speak with them to learn more about how the interview might go.

Here are some important tips to bear in mind :

- Always bring a few copies of your resume to the interview just in case the interviewer does not have one.

- Pay attention to the interviewer: You certainly do not want to come off as rude.

- Switch off your cell phone: This should be an obvious one.

- Be mindful of first impressions : Make sure you are presenting yourself in a professional manner. While things may loosen down the line if offered the job, during an interview, you are selling yourself in a relatively short span of time.

- Be concise : Make your point in a quick but thorough manner when answering a question.

- Gauge the style of the interviewers: Some interviewers may be more relaxed than others. Do not be afraid to alter your approach based on the demeanor of the person conducting the interview.

- Be adaptive : Situations do not always go exactly as you planned. For example, an interview may start earlier or later than expected. Do not let such things throw you off.

- Observe body language: You will want to be aware of the kind of body language you are displaying and also be able to read that of the interviewer. This can help you get a feel for how the interview is going while it is happening.

Some general interview questions you may encounter :

- Why should I hire you?

- Tell me about yourself.

- What are your weaknesses and strengths? You may also be asked to highlight a specific time when you faced a challenge at work and how you dealt with it.

- Why did you choose our company?

- What interests you about this type of work?

- Why did you leave your previous employer?

- What would your previous employer say about you as a worker?

Ensure that you take the time to have specific answers to such questions or questions like them. Actually practice an interview with someone else, if possible. The most important thing is to be prepared and have confidence.

By Jayden West
Reprint : Acarre Community Media