Tablets - Does Your Small Business Need One?

In January my family gave me a Samsung Galaxy Tablet for my birthday. This is a pretty nifty tool and I have quickly adapted to it for a lot of personal viewing. But as I use it I am considering how it can be of value for a small business?

What I Currently Do with My Tablet

1. I view my email and respond. The keyboard interface is easy to use. I wish the @ sign was accessible from the QWERTY keys but you can set up different standard keyboards and experiment to see which one best fits your needs.

2. I use the tablet as an indoor e-reader. I download books from Google, my Kobo account and am now starting to use my library account to access ebooks. You don't want to use this as an ebook reader outdoors on a sunny day. It is almost impossible to see text. I use my Kobo reader for outdoors.

3. I watch lots of video on my tablet whether it is news releases, clips from or entire TV shows, movie previews, etc. The screen is high definition.

4. I access the market to look at the many Android applications and have downloaded many free ones. The ones I use the most include finding the local theatre where a film is playing, looking up restaurants, or finding items in stores in the local area. My tablet is aware of my location and search  results reflect this.

5. The tablet has GPS although I have yet to take it with me in the car to use it as a route planning device.

6. I have created presentations on my desktop and transferred them to the tablet when going on a sales call. PowerPoint and other Microsoft Office applications have their equivalents in the Android world and Office file formats can be displayed through these product suites. The tool I have downloaded is Polaris Office and it is free.

7. I do a lot of browsing on the tablet. The Android browser seems to have little problem with most web sites. Some sites display differently than on Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, looking like mobile web page views rather than those you see on a computer screen.

As I continue to use my tablet I'll keep you updated.

Deploying Business Social Networks to Create Online Exchanges

I invite you to read my latest article on this subject posted on CMSWire, the online magazine.

I've been neglecting this blog for a bit but promise to be more faithful in recording my ideas here in the coming weeks. So keep reading and I hope you enjoy the article.

Your Social Network Profile May Get You Hired

Social networks are mined by HR and recruiting firms today as a primary recruitment source according to Jobvite, a U.S. company that monitors hiring by companies. In its June 2010 survey nearly 75% of organizations indicated that they were using social networks to find candidates and almost 60% reported successfully hiring someone they found through social networks.


What does this mean for sites like Workopolis and Monster? They are still a primary source for recruiting but new hires increasingly are coming from site searches in places like LinkedIn, Facebook and even Twitter.


What does this mean for anyone posting information to a personal profile, a discussion group, or fan page in Facebook or other popular public social networking sites? If employers are finding new hires through personal pages online, those pages need to present individuals in a professional manner.


When HR or recruiters come calling what will your social networking profile say about you? Here are 7 points to ponder.

1. Are you professional?
2. Can you be trusted to act responsibly?
3. Does your profile reflect positively on you and therefore the organization that hires you?
4. Are you sharing information or joining groups where what you say and contribute could reflect badly on you?
5. Do you have pictures on your site that demean you?
6. Are your Tweets and Wall postings fatuous or a positive reflection of your work ethic and values?
7. Are you linked to friends and associates that positively reflect who you are and who you know?  

Why Your Small Business Needs to Look at Social Media as a Marketing Strategy

If you still think that social media is not relevant to your small business, think again. Marketers are discovering that social media represents a significant avenue for getting to potential customers. This is particularly true if your company is in a technology field.

R2i, an Internet marketing company, reports in a recent survey that 61% of U.S. marketing professionals it interviewed used social media for lead generation. In that same survey 27% indicated that they used social media to monitor online conversations about what was being said regarding their products or services.


What makes social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace so attractive to marketers who are looking for quality leads? After all, these are social networks, not business networks. It is precisely the social aspect that makes these sites valuable. People reveal information about their interests, what they do for a living, what they read, their hobbies, personal stuff that can help marketers build strategies for creative approaches. Social media isn't a hard sell place. Marketers who recognize the nascent customer, the one who is not going to buy today but who can be reached over time, will be able to develop qualified prospects in employing the right social media strategies.

Those strategies employ cause and emotion more than price and promotion. So think about what you are marketing and who your customers are (a typical profile or a number of typical profiles) and do a little experimenting on a social network if you haven't already.

If you do your homework you will soon find many more reasons to deploy resources to social media to help you generate revenue. At worst you will find out what your competitors are or are not doing in the social media space.

Who do you think are the Top 10 Mobile Phone Networks in the World?

These numbers are the latest and represent the first quarter of 2010. When we think of wireless providers we tend to see North America as the primary market. But in fact the largest market by far is in Asia, followed by Europe and Latin America. Although India has great potential in terms of growth it significantly lags behind China in mobile customers.

Rank	Carrier	# of Subscribers	Primary Areas Served	Brands
1.	China Mobile Ltd.	538,900,000	China, Hong Kong	China Mobile
2.	Vodafone Group Plc	341,100,000	Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa, U.S.	Vodafone, Vodacom, Verizon Wireless
3.	Telefonica	206,700,000	Spain, Latin America, Europe	Telefonica, Movistar, O2
4.	America Movil	206,400,000	Mexico, Central & Latin America, U.S.	Telcel, Claro, Comcel, Tracfone
5.	Telenor Group	179,000,000	Scandinavia & Europe	Telenor, Pannon, Kyivstar
6.	China Unicom	147,600,000	China	China Unicom
7.	Deutsche Telekom	150,200,000	Germany, Europe, U.S.	T-Mobile
8.	TeliaSonera	149,900,000	Sweden, Europe	TeliaSonera
9.	Bharti Airtel	127,600,000	India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh	Airtel
10.	France Telecom	123,700,000	France, Europe	Orange

When planning marketing strategies, even small companies have to pay attention to where market opportunities lie. Often they aren't in your own backyard as is the example shown here. Asia represents fertile ground for anyone in the mobile communications space.

Does Your Small Business Web Site Create Customers?

According to a recent Citibank survey of 552 small business executives, 37% reported that they did not use a web site to help them market their business. In that same study 84% indicated that they had not sold products or services using e-commerce and 62% did not use e-mail for marketing purposes. Of the 63% who did report that they had a web site, almost three-quarters found it to be an effective way to generate business.

No doubt you have experienced the fear, uncertainty and doubt, the FUD that comes along with making marketing investments in online activities. You are not alone. Many small business people feel compelled to create a web presence and then find themselves challenged by what next steps to take.

Creating that web site is a great first step in taking advantage of the omnipresence of the Internet as a means to communicate with prospects and existing customers. Driving them to your web site and turning it into an order taking mechanism to drive revenue requires considerable thought and then action.

"A website's ability to convert a visitor to a customer is a measurement of its effectiveness," states Joel Book, in the May 2010 issue of Electronic Retailer. Brooks talks about:

1. Driving Conversion Rates
2. Landing Page Optimization
3. Abandoned shopper re-engagement strategies
4. Creating repeat customers

In the next few blogs we are going to talk about all of these strategies in greater depth. I invite you to follow along, share your experiences by contributing to the conversation.

Latest CMSWire Article Focuses on Using Private Social Networks as a Mechanism for Improving Collective Wisdom

Organizations spend money on buildings, office equipment, and people. When needed it's easy to change the first two. People, however, represent a bigger challenge.

Experts on organizational change like Dr. Lewis Frees of Harmony Inc. focus on the people investment that businesses make with a focus on triggering collective intelligence. Check out my latest CMSWire article on this topic and let me know what you think.

Email Remains the Killer App Despite the Rise of Social Networks and Text Messaging

I've been using email since the late 1980s. So it is ingrained in me. I don't think of it as new or challenging in any way. But lately I've noticed that I'm using the email systems inside public social networks to send messages to "friends" and "contacts" in these online environments. I'm posting comments on their profile pages. Do I see this as a replacement for most of my communication. No! Just another way to connect to people.

That's the same way I feel about texting or text messaging. I've been using short messaging on my mobile phone for 5 years. That doesn't make me an early adopter by any means. What started off as an opportunity to stay in touch with my family throughout the business day without telephone calls has graduated into me using Twitter to send short messages to many people including family.

Windows Live recently conducted a survey of its users (see graph to the left) and found that 71% preferred to stay in touch with friends and business through email rather than social networks.

In that same survey users, however, were almost equally divided when asked about their preferences - text messaging versus email. It seems that even millennials, the digital natives
generation, still find themselves preferring email to other forms of communication, particularly in business settings.

In recent studies of millennials reported by Accenture email is increasingly being challenged as the preferred medium for corporate communication. It seems within this generation of users the younger you are the less you see email as significant. The numbers are quite revealing with older millennials spending 9.5 hours per week writing or receiving work-related emails, working mid-millennials, 7.7 hours and younger millennials in high school and college, less than 2 hours. The preference of these youngest millennials is text, instant messaging and communicating through social networks. Regardless of what age millennials are, blogging is not part of their comfort zone. The Accenture survey reported less than 30 minutes a week was spent on blogging, far less than the time spent using search, texting or interacting on social networks.


So here I am blogging, a digital immigrant, explaining the trends that businesses must be aware of as they hire the next generation of workers or interact with the next generation of consumers. Hopefully, when these millennials are doing Internet search they will find my blogs.

An Eco Font Tip - This is not an April Fool's Prank - Century Gothic beats Arial Anytime

The default font for most computer users is Arial. As reported in The Register, Diane Blohowiak, Director of Computing and Information Technology, at University of Wisconsin in Green Bay, in an effort to go green has switched the college's default email font from Arial to Century Gothic.

Why?

Apart from my own preference for Century Gothic over Arial, it appears that it is not just font appearance that makes this an appealing choice. Blohowiak's research showed that when Century Gothic is sent to printers it uses 30% less ink than Arial. With printer ink costing $10,000 per gallon, Blohowiak sees substantial savings in the office supply budget in making this change.

I did a little more research and found another "eco" font solution at of all things Ecofont. Ecofont shoots holes into your print characters to reduce the amount of ink you use by as much as 25% according to their web site.



I'm a great believer in using QuickPrint features on my home ink jet printer because I know it saves ink which saves me money. But it certainly doesn't save paper and the trees that are needed to produce the paper.

Of course we could all dispense with printing paper entirely, the dream of the electronic office finally realized. But it seems that computers have not eliminated hard copy as of yet.

So if I switch to Century Gothic, use Ecofont and select QuickPrint does that mean I'll be using no ink at all? Stay tuned to this channel for more "eco" friendly business advice and have fun with your fonts.
 
"Go green."

How Enterprise 2.0 Sales Teams Will Use Social Networks

I invite you to read my latest offering on CMSWire. The subject is the impact of social networking on sales organizations. Sales have undergone a technology revolution over the last two decades as CRM tools have taken hold. Today sales people do funnel management, with leads pouring in the top, and sales coming out the bottom. But social networking brings a whole new perspective to sales organizations, particularly social networking inside the firewall. Suddenly knowledge sharing, mentoring and succession strategies can be deployed to create overall improvements in the entire sales team's performance. Enjoy the article and tell me what you think.

How Can You Maximize the Message in Your Tweets?

I don't do a lot of tweeting but whenever I publish an article I go to Twitter and announce it with the URL. When the URL is a long string it can literally occupy the entire tweet.

There are a number of online application providers that have created ways to shorten a URL. One of them is Tiny.cc.

Here's an example of what using this application does for you:

I created a blog with the following link name:

http://lenrosen4.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/energy-in-the-21st-century-part-1-our-history-and-the-current-global-dilemma/

In Twitter the URL pretty much would occupy the entire message.

With Tiny.cc, however, you can contract the size of the URL to a very tidy number of characters.

http://tiny.cc/42ldf

And you have room for a message as well.

Tiny.cc is not the only application provider offering this service. I found it using a Google search query "short URL names."

You can use Tiny.cc for wall postings in Facebook or for updating your LinkedIn status. It's a great way to maximize your marketing message while minimizing those long strings of gobbledygook that constitute URLs.

Tear Down Knowledge Silos with Enterprise Social Networks

This is the title of my latest article to appear on CMSWire. Silo thinking is a challenge in any organization whether large or small. By creating a social network cross fertilization can begin in an organization to improve processes, to create new products, to build better bridges to suppliers and customers. Hope you enjoy the read.

Social Networking in the Enterprise: What’s the ROI?

This article just appeared on the CMSWire site. It describes the compelling forces that are making companies look at social media: work force retention and knowledge retention.

Is Franchising Right for You in the Current Economy?

Two years ago I started a social network using Ning, the public social networking platform that allows you to build your own. I called it Franchise Formula. In the last few months I have started working with a franchisor and have found myself increasingly posting forum discussions on the site and have watched it grow in terms of members and visitors. I posted an article as a discussion piece that I wanted to share with readers of this blog because many small businesses are acquired franchises. The article appears here in part.
The toughest decision anyone can make is the leap into a new business, going to the unfamiliar from what is comfortable. Many of you seeking a franchise have been pushed. Your leap is not necessarily voluntary. You've been laid off, downsized, or terminated. It's happening everywhere these days. And it is to you that I throw open the doors of this discussion.

There are so many franchise choices out there from fast food to opulent sit down restaurants, from home-based businesses focused on a wide range of services, from retail to wholesale, from educational to pet services. The range of franchise offerings is immense. So what's the right fit for you?

Here are some very important points to consider.

1. Not everyone is cut out to operate a business on their own. Some of us want a pay check every 2 weeks and don't want to live with the risk factor of self reliance. You have to ask yourself honestly. Are you willing to take that kind of risk? If you have a family are they willing to share that risk with you? If the answer is no then you should be talking to HR folks and sending out resumes, not looking at franchises.

2. Not everyone who is prepared to risk going it alone is cut out to be a franchisee. Franchises work on the premise that those who become operators are prepared to follow a proven system, a business model that has been built for them. Often franchisors mention seeking those of you with entrepreneurial skills. The truth is entrepreneurship can get in the way of being a good franchisee because entrepreneurs tend to do things their way, not the franchisor's way.

3. The cost of acquiring a franchise from a franchisor is only a fraction of the money you need to have put aside to become successful in operating the franchise. Is there a hard and fast rule for the ratio of just how much money you need in your first year and subsequent years to succeed? It varies from franchise to franchise. The relationship between the cost of a franchise and the money required to operate it is significant when talking about storefront franchises such as restaurants and retail businesses. Think of an ice berg when looking at these types of opportunities. The cost of the franchise is the ice you can see above the water. Your other costs are all the ice you cannot see. That is less the case for home-based franchise businesses where your operational costs are to some degree covered by your existing home. You probably have a computer and Internet access. You probably have storage space. You probably have a car, truck or van. You don't have to build anything. For these types of franchises your first year operational costs may be equal to or a little more than half the cost of the franchise acquisition. So is the franchise you like one that fits with your economic circumstances? We cannot all buy McDonald's franchises because not all of us have the means.

4. If you have fallen in love with a concept that is not within your budget you need to investigate sources of funding. There is money out there despite these tough economic times. In the US the Federal Government SBA loans program is worth investigating at all times when considering sources of funds. This is a much better alternative than remortgaging your home, or maxing out lines of credit and credit cards. Canada has an equivalent program through the federal government and in both Canada and the US, local banks are the places to go when considering this option.

5. Finally you need to do a self assessment when looking at a franchise opportunity. Are you ready to take the time necessary to make the franchise you have selected successful? Every franchisee goes through the same stages when operating a franchise - the euphoria and excitement at the start, the fear when the initial effort doesn't lead to immediate rewards, the grind of daily operations, and finally the potential boredom that comes with having mastered the franchise model successfully to the point that the business no longer excites and you seek a way out. It's important that you look at any franchise purchase knowing that you will experience all of these stages. Is your personality capable of dealing with this? In your own mind are you the right stuff?

Sharing an article I read that positions social media for business both present and near future

The article I speak of is entitled, Social Network Economy Leaving Business Behind: Resistance and Disbelief Still a Common Response. The author, Lorraine Mallinder, argues that social media is altering all the rules that business has accepted as "operating by the book" for the last 60 years. What do we mean by altering the rules? What were those rules?

Before social media arrived on the scene, companies would develop products or services in anticipation of a market, based on experience, market research, analysis of competition, and so on.

These companies would then find mass communication resources like newspapers, magazines, television, and radio and determine branding messages, campaign pitches, print ads, TV and radio spots, mail drops, fliers, sales literature, and price lists.

If the companies had websites they would try and feature their URLs in ads and throughout their campaigns they would invite prospective customers to learn more, call toll free numbers and maybe even get involved in a contest. Company sales forces would respond to leads generated from these campaigns and follow up to convert prospects to customers.

Enter social media and begin to see how the rules change. Here is just one example.

GroupOn is a company that creates instant demand and uses the viral marketing of social media to build sales. How do they do it?

1. A company approaches GroupOn to create a campaign around a product - it can be an event, a restaurant or bar. a retailer. GrouOn charges no upfront fees for its services. The one common denominator is the offer is at a great price representing significant value.

2. GroupOn targets a specific demographic and specific locale on behalf of the company and sends its offers via email. GroupOn email recipients are often repeat buyers of GroupOn offers.

3. Every GroupOn email recipient who who responds to the GroupOn offer is encouraged to invite friends to take advantage of the deal. GroupOn includes Facebook, Twitter, blog, RSS and email feeds to make it easy for the word to spread.

4. Because every GroupOn offer is goth time and numbers sensitive the incentive to connect among its recipients is very high.

5.When the threshold number is reached within the time deadline everybody in the instant buying group gets the product at the great price. Otherwise the deal goes away.

Think about how different this approach is to traditional marketing. The target audience is narrowly focused to a single city. The prospective customers are incented to invite others to participate. There is no outlay of money for advertising and promotion on the part of the seller. Instead GroupOn helps design the ad, provides editorial and copy assistance and provides the target audience database. GroupOn takes a share of the risk and gets a percentage of the revenue from each GroupOn campaign. With 97% of its clients providing repeat business it's hard to dismiss this approach to selling in the social media age. It just simply works.

What social media has done is create motivated consumers who are involved with your business when you embrace them through social media. GroupOn is just one example of how companies are taking social media connections seriously and yielding immediate ROI.

That's why I encourage you to take the first steps to make social media part of your marketing strategy in 2010.

Crystal Ball Gazing About Technology and Its Impact in 2010

I had the opportunity to read a column called 5 Technologies that Could Change Your Life in 2010, written by R. Colin Johnson. I couldn't help myself but had to respond and wanted to share with you both a link to the original very thoughtful article and my own prognostications that appear somewhat critique-like. Of course I had to make my own 5 technology forecast.

It's always fascinating to crystal ball about technology and its impact. I would argue that many of the items described in the original article, which you can read by clicking on the link above, will not have a significant impact in 2010 but should become part of our everyday use within 3 to 5 years.

The first one mentioned is the Kindle and its competitors. I call these early stage technologies. In "Second Foundation," Isaac Asimov described a scene with youngsters at the beach reading from an electronic book. I think Asimov probably had the sand, water and electronics mix problem pretty much licked in his mind but I highly doubt that these current technologies have the ability to replace a paper book form factor when on vacation and going to the beach. Ever tried to read an electronic screen outside on a sunny day? Kindle and its ilk have a long way to go to displace paper.

The second innovation Johnson mentions is touch screen. We have had a run of touch screen technology generational PC tools over the years and have yet to see the technology become ubiquitous. Touch screens are a highly desirable concept but it is interesting to watch them in use. The iPhone and its imitators have got a pretty good handle on the use of this type of technology in a small form factor. Where touch can replace a mouse or other pointing device we have yet to see a product become a must have platform. I think we will see touch panels on electronic devices like thermostats, LCD-specialty displays on appliances but in 2010 beyond mobile phones I don't suspect this technology will have a big impact in the short term.

Johnson talks about the growth in LED usage. I am in total agreement. LED should arrive in 2010 in a big way, from TVs to lighting fixtures, driven by demand for lower energy cost and the pollution issues associated with disposal of fluorescent fixtures.

Johnson talks about 3D printing technology entering wide usage. 3D printing needs to get down to a very economical unit cost before it will become ubiquitous. Currently 3D inkjet technologies are not priced for home users (around $5K at my last look). I see this as a 2 to 5 year item.

Finally, Johnson talks about pico-projection, a technology that remains very early stage in commercial application. I don't see it having a huge impact in 2010.

So here are my choices for 2010 in terms of technology that will impact us in business and in our personal use.


1. Ever cheaper notebook technology will make computing more and more affordable for all. We will see notebook computer pricing drop dramatically in 2010 with pricing approaching $150 to $200 on entry level systems (not netbooks but notebooks). By 2012 I expect we will see the $100 to sub-$100 notebook. See the article that recently appeared in Forbes.

2. WiFi / MiFi will be huge in 2010, almost ubiquitous. Not as sexy to talk about as the stuff in Johnson's article but definitely the phenomenon we will all benefit from globally in the coming year.

3. 3D will enter the living and rec rooms of homes through gaming devices and TV in 2010. In addition we will see, as in the popularity of Wii games, significant growth in interactive gaming that includes full body movement integration. See the article in PhysOrg.

4. In-the-cloud computing applications with HTML5 will bring a significant change to the applications we use on computers in 2010. I am convinced that Office 2010 may be Microsoft's last kick at the can in creating a desktop office tool. The Chrome Operating System will have a significant impact on computing platforms as we strive to see the OS on our PCs become as simple to use as dial-tone is on telephones. Apps running in the cloud will run on our desktops whether we are Internet-connected or not.

5. GoogleWave is a big question mark for me in 2010. I want to see this type of tool begin to create a homogeneous communication environment that replaces our present silos of communication like email, video conferencing, chat and instant messaging. Wave has the potential to do this. I'm not sure if the general public is ready however. We do get used to our tools and forget that computers are all about facilitating work and our lives, not about dictating to us the way we have to work.

If you are not familiar with my other blog postings I invite you to visit my WordPress blog focused on the impact of technology in the 21st century. Although my prognostications are far more futuristic than the year 2010 I invite you to visit that site from time to time as I try to describe the overall advances we will make in the 21st century as technology and humanity become forever entwined.

If Governments are Going Web 2.0 Then Why Aren't You?

Yesterday I attended a webinar on how government, banks and health care are moving to Web 2.0 applications to deliver services, retain customers and reach out to new audiences.

U.S. Government Adopts Web 2.0 Tools

The presenters talked about how the Obama White House has from almost the day after the President was elected pushed an agenda to make the U.S. government more open and accessible. Government departments were tasked with looking at how they could publish information that could be retrieved, downloaded, indexed, and searched using common web search applications. In the last week the U.S. government announced its Open Government Initiative, a further expression of the goal of the Obama administration to change the relationship of government and its citizenry.

Similar action is being taken by Australia where the federal government and many state governments have taken on the task of introducing Web 2.0 capability to make government information more accessible and usable. The Australian government has stated as one of its many goals to make public-sector information free, accessible using open standards, easily discoverable, machine-readable and freely reusable. Although the government of Australia intends to maintain copyright of all materials, it intends to license its content freely for reuse with no fees and no need to ask for permission on the part of the users.

In the UK the government has made similar moves implmenting openness through the sharinig of government data freely.

The federal government in Canada back in 2008 made many announcements about open initiatives and the adoption of Web 2.0 applications to make information more accessible. Unfortunately little has been done to turn those announcements into reality. At the provincial level there is a greater degree of accessibility but very little in the way of interactivity with the use of social media. This country lags behind.

For governments who adopt Web 2.0 as a standard it represents a new paradigm, creating a dialog among government and its citizens.

What are the implications for you in your business? If you deal with government you should have greater accessibility. But that is really not the point of this blog. Government communicates with citizens. You communicate with customers and prospects. If you are reading this blog you probably have an email address, likely a website, and maybe are already on Facebook or LinkedIn. So my question to you is are you using Web 2.0 to change the nature of your online communications? Is your current website interactive? Do you create incentives for customers and prospects to interact with your business in new and meaningful ways?

Whether you create events, contests, blogs, invite comments, or devise other virtual and physical activities you owe it to your business to rethink your Web strategy to take advantage of what Web 2.0 has to offer.

In 2010 Your Small Business Should Look at SaaS Again

With Microsoft gearing up for another kick at the can in office suites, Office 2010, it is time to take a look at SaaS applications again. Why? Here are five reasons:

1. SaaS office tools stay current all the time. If you, like me, have gone through multiple Microsoft Office iterations then you know what it is like to pay over and over again for what turns out to be the same common functionality. SaaS applications, however, evolve with new functionality appearing from time to time.

2. The development of HTML 5 means that SaaS applications can run on your computer even when you are not connected to the Internet.

3. The new Chrome Operating System that Google recently made available to the software development community and that will become available in 2010 is a browser that is designed to support SaaS applications.

4. SaaS applications are better at securing your computer from malware because the documents, spreadsheets and slide shows you create are built in the cloud and not residing on your desktop.

5. SaaS email systems like Gmail are great spam filters saving you from having to invest in extra hardware to manage and block emails biggest pain.

So think about SaaS as a solution worth exploring and working with in 2010. Just yesterday I used Google Docs with a client to collaborate on a business plan. They were impressed at how easy it was to use, and how we could edit the document on the fly and see the results immediately with a simple screen refresh.

Where Companies are Marketing Focused These Days - the Internet

For 2010 it appears that business leaders are focusing on three marketing tactics that are all Internet based. Although traditional advertising is still something business is prepared to invest in, the hottest areas of growth are being devoted to email, social media and search.

Many companies are integrating their email and social media efforts but many others are still trying to figure out just how to make tweets and social network fan pages turn into new customers and more revenue.

In this study done by StrongMail, 42% of business leaders reported a lift in their marketing campaign performances after integrating social networking and email, but almost a quarter admitted that they had no clue as to how to measure the results of their integration efforts.

Only 5% of companies saw no value in integrating email and social networking. This research report supports the growing trend of companies to rethink the way they promote brands, whether through the Internet or through other more traditional advertising and marketing venues. Very few are ignoring social networking and micro-blogging because if they cannot see and measure the results, they certainly sense that there is something to this social media revolution.

Another Reason to Use Social Media to Create Visibility for Your Business on the Web

In my past blogs I have talked about creating Facebook presence for your business as a way to attract new customers, build a fan base, support causes and create increasing social awareness of your brand. But now there is another compelling reason to include Facebook in your online strategy.

Following on Bing and Yahoo's ability to create Facebook, MySpace and Twitter results, Google has announced a series of new features for its industry leading search engine. These features include the ability to get search results from popular public social networks and micro blogging sites.

Google has also added a really cool capability to its search engine, the ability to make searches sensitive to geography. This means if you are located in a particular city and making search queries, first page results will provide local sources of information. For retailers this has powerful implications.

This geographic search sensitivity reflects the growing use of smart phones for doing Internet search. Google has even created a Google window decal with a unique bar code known as a QR code which can be read by smart phones. The QR code is designed to have the same type of impact as a Michelin or Zagat sticker. When a phone scans the QR code, it displays important information about the retail site in Google search format results. That information could highlight specific merchandise, sales, services, menus, reviews and comments, and social media coverage.