Using traditional methods in nontraditional results oriented ways

It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners. Terrestrial TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users. The internet took four years to reach 50 million people… In less than nine months, Facebook added 100 million users. Your business can reach this mass of audience in just two days with Social Media Marketing in Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook

Which social media tool do businesses find most effective at reaching their target audiences? Most advertisement you deliver through mailbox will be directed to spam, but Facebook will directly send the advertisement to the user’s mailbox or wall when your page or group are being followed by fans. Alternatively, you can post the advertisement on the right column of the Facabook page; your advertisement will be shown parallel to the page which other people are viewing the relevant information, for example, your car advertisement will be appear on users who are viewing mobile related page or Facebook users who include car in their profile page. Facebook has rapid sharing ability whereby the account followers or friends can easily share the relevant information resulting in wider visibility.

Twitter

The 140 – limit characters in twitter message or Tweed are very much aligned with standard text messaging, and Google’s real time Twitter streams represent a very powerful viral marketing opportunity. Creating and distributing time sensitive events through Tweed is an economical yet efficient practice and can be done swiftly. Additionally, Twitter is very compatible with wireless technology because it doesn’t consume much bandwidth; this is especially useful for Twitter users who use mobile device. Moreover, Tweed can be re-Tweed by the viewers thus making the message to be viewed by substantial people who are not the targeted audience.

Pay-per-click

Want to understand which online tactics work best for engaging with customers and prospects? People often ignore irrelevant search results, with PPC advertising the advertisement will never emerge to another page of irrelevant information. To ensure your advertisement visibility to relevant information occur on Google results and prospects, advertisements under PPC come into sight on Google page below the sponsor links column to the right of the page, and the advertiser will only be charged when the link is being click. As a result-oriented advertising, the advertiser need not worry about wasteful cost on disregarded advertisements.

Conversion tracking

In PPC advertisement, one out of ten keywords will generate profits to more than 90% of your overall profits. For every ten keywords you put in the advertisement or campaign only one keyword determine your sales. Why conversion tracking? With effective monitoring of those noteworthy and practical keywords in your advertisement, conversion tracking is able to track those underperforming keywords to help you decide which keywords to retain and to remove. Conduct tracking with the profitable effect of spending the right money on the right keywords.

Conversion marketing

Conversion marketing is measured by conversion rate— the percentage of visitors who take the desired action. The marketer’s desired action may vary, it could be purchasing to submitting online form, and the conversion rate is the percentage of customers who performed the desired actions.

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World Summit on Sustainable Development,

Johannesburg,

September, 2002

In 1987, the United Nations released the Brundtland Report, which defines sustainable development as ‘development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

If we consider our current situation, we can clearly see the need for a broader perspective focusing on what type of society we want. Sweden and the rest of the world are currently facing enormous challenges. Regardless of whether we take a medium-term perspective of 20 years or a long-term perspective of 50 years – a reasonable time span when talking about a new, extensive infrastructure – various development routes and challenges need to be included when working to ensure that IT promotes sustainable development.

- Reduction in resource consumption

Rich countries, including Sweden, must significantly cut their resource consumption, in most cases by a factor of 4-10.8 Carbon dioxide emissions, for instance, must be reduced by approximately 60-80%. One general challenge is to break the link between increased environmental pollution and economic development (known as decoupling) to allow fair, ecologically sustainable development on a global level.9

- Elimination of absolute and relative poverty

A large part of the world’s population still lives in poverty, and the situation is worsening in many parts of the world. Over 1.2 billion people, or a fifth of the global population, survive on less than 1 dollar a day, and 54 of 175 countries were poorer in 2000 than in 1990.10

- Dealing with demographic change

Many rich and poor countries face a new demographic trend with a sharp increase in the elderly population, both in total and in relation to the overall population. New challenges will emerge at global level in roughly 50 years’ time, when the world’s population will have increased by three billion from today’s six billion to approximately nine billion. 11

- Dealing with present and future technological breakthroughs

Various technological breakthroughs are expected in areas such as bio-, materials and information technology. As these are interrelated, new opportunities and threats will emerge requiring international cooperation.

As regards the role of IT in the challenges listed above, it is important to remember the multifaceted nature of this technology. Firstly, IT is a threshold technology that can quickly contribute to changing our societal and economic structures.

Secondly, IT often acts as catalysts that can either accelerate today’s negative trends or support the positive trends we see today. Although we do not know at present how IT will affect societal development, we do know that its impact will be significant and that decisions made today will determine the direction of societal development.

Thirdly, IT technology in itself is often of secondary importance. It is the benefits – the applications and system solutions – generated by IT that are of primary interest. These applications and solutions take many forms, and offer various benefits in a wide range of areas.

The chosen priority areas should make up an integrated whole where both the individual elements and the overall work generate the following opportunities:

-  produce significant environmental benefits and positive (or neutral) social and economic effects

-  clear communication potential

-  possibilities to establishing concrete goals

-  significant business and export opportunities

-  possibility for further independent development

-  include the main areas concerned in the discussion on IT and sustainable development

- consist of a large, strategically important part of the population that works with these issues, and offer opportunities for creating new networks

In an effort to make its global 92,000-person workforce more productive through better internal communications and knowledge sharing, Microsoft has been exploiting its SharePoint collaboration software over the past three years to support an internal podcasting network called Academy Mobile. Christian Finn, Microsoft’s director of collaboration and enterprise social computing, shared lessons learned at Wednesday’s opening keynote at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston.

Also check out our SharePoint 2010 test

Academy Mobile had humble beginnings, with Microsoft enticing early adopters with cameras, software and other free tools as long as they pledged to upload a certain number of podcasts to the network.

Microsoft used viral/guerilla approaches to spread the word about the program, showing up with whiteboards and T-shirts at company meetings, offering contests and holding live “cast-ins” at company events so that employees could see people creating podcasts live. Over time, Microsoft kicked internal marketing up a notch, producing splashy banners for big company meetings, Finn said.

Microsoft also came up with a rewards system for those most involved in producing podcasts and otherwise participating in Academy Mobile. Fancy headphones, golf clubs and other prizes could be had for turning in “points”. Reward recipients can also convert points into charitable gifts, matched by Microsoft. Rating systems allow users to vote up the best podcasts, giving those podcasters further recognition.

While early “stars” of Mobile Academy came largely from the field and elsewhere, as Academy Mobile grew it wasn’t long before Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, CIO Tony Scott and other top execs got into the act with podcasts of their own. Still Finn says the system has been largely a grassroots effort that has grown through the ideas that have bubbled up from lower levels of the company.

Microsoft has gauged the success of its program not so much in terms of a typical ROI measurement but through such indicators as number of podcasts uploaded (from 2,000 in fiscal year 2008 to 9,000 in fiscal year 2010) and viewed (from 100,000 in FY 2008 to about a million in FY 2010). More than half of Microsoft employees have viewed podcasts and that number increases to better than 95% among sales employees, who it was originally designed for. Microsoft figures if people are participating then they are getting something out of it, as is the company, Finn said.

One benefit of the podcast network is that it provides training in niche areas that even a company with Microsoft’s financial resources wouldn’t otherwise fund, Finn said.

Another benefit is that Academy Mobile has fostered interaction across departmental silos.

Finn acknowledged that building a podcast network — or at least one along the lines of what Microsoft has done – isn’t for every organization. “Mileage will vary,” Finn said, noting that more or less screening/editing of podcasts might be in order at some organizations.