There is very little that can match up to word of mouth marketing in today’s online marketing scenario. It’s said that Tata Motors, the Indian automobile manufacturer, got several hundred million dollars worth of free publicity for their sub $3000 car dubbed Nano. A large part of this came from collective blogging where the general public took a keen interest into the automakers project and well, simply … blogged about it. Now while this cannot be replicated for every business or every product s...
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We are an established and growing software development & consulting firm in San Diego. We offer an enterprise social networking & business collaboration software product, along with custom software and services for clients and partners. We are looking for an energetic and driven business development professional to join our team! The entrepreneurial spirit is alive within Axero Solutions, where our business development team thrives in a professional, competitive market of solution strate...
We've heard some people say, “Why should I use a social networking software platform inside my business firewall, when I can just ask my company to collaborate on Facebook for free?” There is a good reason to why social networking and business collaboration software platforms are built, and they are built for very different purposes. Oliver Marks did a great post on “ Collaborative Networks Vs Social Networks ,” which brings out the stark contrast between the two, and this simple illustration by...
A recent case study I read featured a large software infrastructure company, and reflected what we have been seeing across the customer support industries. The company needed to act quickly, given the fact that a large number of customers (who would typically prefer the self service support) were now bombarding their call centers and direct support lines. This is a challenge that a wide range of businesses face when it comes to post-sales customer support or customer service -- and often puts a ...
With the sales team being the front line in the quest for success for any organization, the need to strengthen their abilities as a team and equip them to function as efficiently as possible becomes paramount to their effectiveness. From businesses with smaller sales teams, to ones with a sales force of hundreds or even thousands strong, there are a number of challenges they can face that are unique to the sales organization. The ability to communicate easily and collaborate as a unit is perhaps...
So, you’ve decided that you need to incorporate a social software platform into your website and you recognize the need to have a robust online strategy that leverages the social networking phenomenon. Now, you have to juggle the pros and cons of using a hosted (SaaS) social software platform or a self hosted platform. "Which one do I choose?" Your goal to arrive at a decision that best suits your short term and long term objectives may require considerable deliberation. Most would think SaaS, o...
This is more a personal observation than a researched study, but it seems that the role of email is changing constantly in the business communications environment as social networking software advances to play a greater role in this space. It was just a short time ago when email was the backbone of nearly all external communication with customers and those outside the office — and instant messaging, along with email is how we would communicate internally. The best way to really understand the ch...
One of the questions I get asked often by businesses who are evaluating various options to build social software into their business websites is, "why should we consider a paid social software platform (like Communifire) when there are readily available options built on open source software for free?" While most will expect me to reply that open source software is no good, that isn’t going to happen, because I don’t believe open source or free software is bad. In fact, there are a lot of example...
Software development businesses are no exception when it comes to needing a robust communication platform to execute their daily work efficiently. For many of you who have either been working in software development or been involved with the development process as a customer, you’ll know what I mean when I say "our working days are full of conference calls, customer meetings, staff and team meetings, project discussions, brainstorming sessions, internal project reviews, code reviews, customer pr...
I was shopping at the local supermarket a few months ago and wound up with a hefty bill for all the groceries I threw into my cart. Why is it that you never realize just how much you’ve put into the cart until the cashier tells you your total -- and it’s almost always a surprise? Anyway… getting back to point, I paid my bill and started pushing my cart full of food towar the door when someone from the customer service desk walked up to me and informed me I’ve spent enough money to qualify for th...
Just how safe is your business’ social software website or online community? It’s just one of those questions that we’ve seen users answer “ oh it’s perfectly safe ” until something happens that is beyond their control. While a lot of businesses have overcome their fear of vulnerability of membership and customer data while building a social website, some still have horror stories to narrate and others are still skeptical. What most of these stories tell us is that while not all hosted social so...
I saw this really cool bookshelf the other day with great design, good finish, etc. ... and since I needed a bookshelf in the office, I ordered it without giving it too much thought. When it was delivered to the office the bookshelf didn’t seem like such a great idea. It just didn’t seem to fit into any of the spaces that I imagined it would and the proportions seemed a lot bigger than they seemed at the store. Now, I won’t go on about my new decor issues since this blog isn’t about that ... but...
Communifire is our flagship product, a feature rich and easy to use ASP.NET social networking software. Why is it different from other social networking platforms out there? 1. Many social networking software platforms in the market today are built on top of open-source technologies. There are many open source forums, blogs, CMS systems, etc. available, and many companies have just combined these tools into one product and started selling them to customers. Such “packaged solutions” may work if ...
When you have information of strategic business value, security of that data and information quite naturally becomes a major concern. Whether it’s the enterprise systems, the CRM data, the office intranet, or the business website, security is an issue that needs consideration -- and businesses do keep it in mind while implementing any new technology. Nearly every business has some kind of a confidentiality agreement between its vendors or customers and a similar agreement for its employees. The ...
Often when businesses take the plunge into leveraging social software platforms, start building online communities, and go the social media route they are not always prepared with what to expect. It can take a different mindset to be a ’social’ business and take on the online world. This mindset change is especially difficult for larger more traditional ‘corporate’ businesses who are used to communicating the ‘corporate way’. What do we mean by that? Well, having a marketing communications depar...
With social software platforms being used with more business focused objectives in mind, there has been a lot of coverage on large enterprise businesses and how they have been able to step up their productivity through better collaboration software. Yet somehow, they are actually just as accessible and relevant to start-ups and smaller businesses as they are to the enterprise businesses. Perhaps start-ups building social business collaboration platforms into their websites and using them from an...
We have been covering how closely social networks and social media platforms can be used to better business collaboration and communication for organizations. For those who are still skeptical about the capability of blogs, instant messaging, forums and online social features in increasing productivity for businesses by providing a more efficient communication and collaboration platform to make things happen, you don’t need to look to far to see massive achievements mobilized by these new age so...
Social networking software for building online business communities is not just a great way to get feedback from your most important entities of your business, but also helps to consolidate your customers (and potential customers) in a single location. We have seen a few great examples of community building for businesses on previous posts and this time we have yet another great example of how to build online business communities. The Small Business Online Community by the Bank of America is a g...
Office environments have changed drastically across organizations with the concept of “my desk” and “my chair” and even “my pc” on a downhill slide. Just today I came across an advertisement on a entrepreneurial online community for a technology company seeking a 5000 sq ft plug and work office space so their developers can come in and plug in their laptops wherever they find a vacant spot and code away. For the most part, they expect their staff will work remotely on their own schedules. Large ...
The Wiki, which started off as a breakthrough, easily editable community based online publishing platform, has found its way into just about every robust business collaboration and social media enabled collaborative software platform that has hit the market. It’s edging its way into event organization software, e-learning software platforms, publishing and online media software, social networks, community software, project management and enterprise software too. It’s simple to use, simple to imp...
Have you wondered why some businesses websites do exceedingly well in search results and seem to show up in just about every relevant search results while others just don’t seem to pack the same punch even after the best SEO expert has made his recommendations? Content ! A lot of business websites lack the volume of updated dynamic content on their websites which is such an important necessity for ranking well in search engine results. This is an area which is easily ignored while designing and ...
Learning and development is what keeps an organization in a constant state of evolution and ensures they keep getting better at what they do. When you think about web-based organizational learning and development programs, you almost instantly associate it with e-learning software platforms with formal courses and training put together by training professionals. Now, let me get this straight, there is nothing wrong with that and I’m certain that these kinds of formal training programs are built ...
While the popularity and awareness of social networks and social networking software platforms is high, all of its applications to both consumers and businesses are still bubbling beneath the surface, and have yet to make the kind of widespread impact the Flickrs and the Facebooks of the world have had. Social networks on their own are what they are…”social” “networks.” Suited for communicating and interacting socially online. However, when a social networking software platform is tweaked, custo...
Collaboration and communication are the foundation of building an intranet for any business. Large companies tend to invest sizable budgets on developing their Intranets to encourage greater collaboration but you don’t really have to look very far to see how to get there without having to spend a small fortune. Jakob Nielsen published a brilliant report on the 10 Best Intranets of 2009 which highlights not just the best examples of business Intranets but also the latest trends and direction busi...
Businesses tend to think of their website as a corporate brochure. A place for visitors to come read about their company, products and services and leave behind some contact information just in case they might be interested in what’s on offer. There may still be some amount of budget invested towards drawing traffic towards their website and once that’s done, focus shifts off the website to other areas. Is that really making the most of a business website? It can be a lot more than a corporate b...
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