A big hello to all my friends in the corporate world! Today I bring to you a topic you simply love; Smartphones! Makes you smile already? Then let’s get started.

Visualize this. A boardroom, an important meeting, but not a single Smartphone around! Difficult to imagine, isn’t it? The business world is full of iPhone, Blackberry and Android Smartphones. Let’s look at the importance of Smartphones for businesses.

Benefits of Smartphone to a business

Here are a few things Smartphones do for an employee or business man:

• It keeps official data safe; stores company files and network.
• It has all the communication and messaging services like SMS, email, traditional voice, voice over IP and video messaging in a unified device.
• It helps you stay tuned and keep tab of work even when out of office.
• It is a great medium for businesses to reach its customers, as consumers are engaged on mobile.
• It gives easy access to the internet, and rich content on the move.
• It provides mobility and wireless communication.
• It is a perfect place to display advertisements.
• It works as a platform for business transactions.
• It is a perfect platform for effective communication for business continuity events and also during crisis and emergencies.
• Smartphone shoppers have grown in numbers, and often make decisions influenced by the usage of Smartphone.
• Smartphone apps drive sales today. They work as strong links between actual stores and the Web/Internet. Customers eventually get a richer and more entertaining shopping experience.
• It decreases phone costs and increases flexibility.
• It provides location based services which is useful for tracking of individuals in a crisis.

What does the future look like?

Today a number of businesses/companies have started offering applications and services on mobile phones, mainly using the phone company’s internet. Smartphones are now capable of taking input or extracting data in an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) programme. Tomorrow it can make use of technology convenient for SMEs. These could be easily be used by small and medium-scale enterprises (SME). This ERP can store information like important deals, status etc, and every time the Manager wants to get updated on any such information he can by simply logging on to the ERP.

Features such as approvals and dashboards on mobile devices could become reality. As far as businesses go, it is not only the bigger companies, but also smaller ones that are on the look out of mobile applications. The penetration and adoption these apps is significantly high in the pharmaceutical industry, but is now picking up in wellness and retail sectors too.

Friends now I’m beginning to realize that I can use my Smartphone more for so many purposes. How about you? Do you think it is time to use your Smartphone, a little more smartly, to the fullest and make your business life easier? Let’s go the smart way now! This is Ibea signing off for the day! See you soon!

Good evening my Internet buffs! Tell me, while surfing the web, how often have you been troubled with excessively slow sites, got irritated, lost patience and abruptly left the page? Well, off late I have been bothered by slow sites! In fact just last night I was on a lifestyle site that took exceptionally long to load. I waited and finally gave up! Phew! Sounds familiar?

So folks, we agree Page Load time (time taken for a web page to complete loading of its content in a visitor’s browser) matters!

The following graph depicts the mean and median Page Load time for Desktop and Mobile:

Let’s explore Page load further.

Why does Page Load time matter?

It matters for the following reasons:

• Simply because, no one likes waiting or has that kind of time and patience.
• Users today are used to fast download (thanks to broadband), so spending too much time on page downloads puts them off.
• If a page loads too slowly, chances are high that it has already lost its users as they would have abandoned it for a faster one.
• It helps in conversions.
• Sites that are not optimized lead to a higher bounce-rate and lower conversion-rate.

What really slows down Page Load time?

Following are the reasons for slow Page Load time:

• Excessive scripts on a page
• The nature of the site/ content/file size
• Heavy, large images; not optimized for the web
• The type of interactions your users perform on the site
• Excessive and unwanted use of background images in website design
• Poor coding standards
• Server overload and low quality shared hosting leading to slow response times and ultimately slows down the page load time.

How can you improve your Page loading time?

These are the two things you can easily do:

• Compressing images: Heavy images lead to an increased page loading time. Compressing images allows you to remove unnecessary data from, thereby reducing file size. So try and compress images and remove unnecessary data from it.
• “Minifying” any JavaScript there: Removing additions from JavaScript files that contain additional comments, white-spacing or code indentation is called ‘minifying’. These additions pump up the file size. So get rid of those too!

Though Page load speed is a crucial factor in Page Rank and organic search rankings, it is certainly not the only factor in determining the performance or popularity of a site. A faster web leads to better experience for the users and also to businesses. Here is a suggestion: Use Google Analytics to track your site and help you determine your site speed and performance. As a businessman if you are not happy with the results it brings in front of you, may be you could look at fixing it up?

Till we meet again, I wish you happy, smooth and fast surfing on the internet! Adios!

Good Morning people! I was browsing through some travel sites, planning my summer holidays. Out of a dozen sites I visited, one really caught my eye. I thought, wow, this is a great site, but do the creators know how many visitors (like me) it has impressed so far and how effective it is? Is there a way to measure it? After a few hours of research I discovered something that answered my query – An Analytics Software! On further probing I learnt that the software is Google Analytics – the most widely used tracking software globally.

So folks, what is Google Analytics?

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics (GA) a free website statistics service developed and offered by Google, is an excellent tool aimed at marketers. It generates detailed statistics reports about the visitors of a website. However, if one wants a premium service, then it is available for a fee.

Google Analytics: Features at a Glance

• Site Search: Gets visitors to their destinations faster
• In-Page Analytics: Sees how visitors move within your site
• Site Speed Analysis: Uncovers problems before your customers do
• Event Tracking: Understands what visitors do on your site
• Mobile Device Reporting: Studies which mobile platforms work best
• Measure mobile app performance: Measure the performance of your application
• Social Reports: Studies which Social Platform should be targeted
• Social Conversions: Covers which Social platform gives best conversions
• Advertising Analytics: Tracks the Campaign performance

What does Google Analytics do?

• It anonymously tracks visitors from all referrers, including search engines, social networking sites, e-mail marketing, pay-per-click networks and display advertising including links within PDF and where they came from.
• It can officially add up to 50 site profiles. Each profile generally corresponds to one website, Each profile could have multiple sub-profiles which could be set with filters to get better view on a particular segment.
• Google Analytics e-commerce reporting is targeted to track the performance of sites dealing with online products/services sales. The reports show a site’s transactions, revenue, and many other e-commerce-related metrics. This eventually enables users to review online campaigns by tracking landing page quality and conversions (goals: which might include sales, lead generation, or may be viewing a specific page or downloading a particular file). It gives a feedback on what the users did on a particular site and whether its conversion goals were met.

While GA is efficient and useful, it has the following limitations affecting a small percentage of users:

• Many ad filtering programs and extensions can block the GATC (Google Analytics Tracking Code).
• Some traffic and users at times don’t get tracked, and leads to holes in the collected data, with certain privacy networks masking the user’s actual allocation and presenting inaccurate geographical data.
• The largest potential impact on data accuracy comes from users deleting or blocking Google Analytics cookies. Without cookies being set, GA cannot collect data.
• Some users do not have JavaScript-enabled/capable browsers or can turn this feature off.
• Another limitation of GA (for large websites) is the use of data sampling in the generation of many of its reports.

So guys, Google Analytics gives you a good idea on how your site or campaign is performing! It can track all paid campaigns, Mobile visits, Social visits and point of interaction. I personally find it a fantastic tool and am really impressed by the way it works.

So, what’s your take on it? Want to consider giving it a shot?
Image Credit: Google Analytics

Guys think about this. Around the world there are 5.3 billion mobile subscribers. Out of which 3.8 billion live in emerging economies. In India 59% users access internet through phones. In such emerging markets with low digital penetration and high mobile penetration (100% in some cases), most advertising budgets are utilized in TV, radio, print and internet. Isn’t this reason enough for advertisers to explore the mobile marketing opportunity? If you are still not convinced, then take a look at the following data provided by Jana as to why advertisers should explore the mobile marketing opportunity.

• The Emerging Market Opportunity: Emerging markets offer immense opportunity today, and are slated to account for two-thirds of the world’s output by 2030. China, India, Indonesia and Brazil are the most populous emerging markets today and they also make up two-fifths of global GDP.
• The Ultimate Buyers: The growth of these emerging economies is transforming the middle class as major consumers of goods and services. In the coming decades going by this dramatic rise, the consumer spend by the middle class is projected to surpass Western markets’ spend. Globally, the size of middle class could increase from 1.8 billion people to 3.2 billion people by 2020; which could further increase to 4.9 billion by 2030. Nearly 85% of this growth is expected to come from Asia.
• Dollars and Sense: Global brands are investing in traditional and digital media (which excludes mobile ad spending), in an attempt to capture a share of the booming middle-class. Asia Pacific spends $12.2 billion in Traditional Advertising as opposed to $2.4 billion in Internet Advertising. India’s Traditional Advertising Spend is $5.3 billion. India spends $35.4 million on Mobile Advertising.
• High Tech Society: Globally there are over 5.3 billion mobile subscriptions, making a penetration rate of 77% in the world’s population. Out of these 73% is based in emerging markets. The percentage of mobile penetration in India is 70.89%. In emerging markets, 80% of these mobile phone users are pre-paid users. Mobile airtime has emerged as a currency used to pay bills and to buy goods and services and even transfer monies in emerging markets. The mobile-only web users (meaning users who use their phones to access the web) in India is 59%.

The Mobile Advertising Market continues to expand in the emerging markets, where the advertising scenario and medium is going through a rapid change. If the marketers focus on China (which is projected to become a billion dollar mobile advertising market in the next 4 years) then they can get a picture of the potential of the mobile advertising market.

What does this mean for the customers? A win-win situation! They are happy to have relevant advertisements in exchange for free airtime. What it does mean to the marketers? Marketers are shifting their ad spending from advertising to pockets of their customers.

After this eye opening study, I take a break from these numbers to sip my coffee, and mull over the huge potential of mobile advertising. I will be back soon. Till then, Adios Amigo!

Friends, we have been discussing a lot about social media. Social Media is a good thing, for sure. But isn’t, too much of a good thing bad, sometimes?

Wait! I’m not getting preachy here, or saying log out of Facebook right now, work, study, do something more constructive. Not yet! Just that there are times I wonder why do have the constant need to access Facebook. A social media junkie I know is trying to abandon Facebook, in fact the entire social networking world! He has his ‘valid’ reasons. I’m sharing them here:

• Time, attention, concentration: Spending too much time on social media, affects your important tasks for the day. Your attention span gets impacted in a big way simply because half your mind is thinking of the latest posts, pictures, and the various status updates on Facebook. Imagine how much of your bandwidth this can consume! You are not fully involved, unable to focus, prioritize or do justice to your work! Finally your concentration drops at an all-time low.
• Addiction: Uncritical and uncontrolled usage of Facebook often leads to addiction which can take a toll on your lives. You feel stranded in the absence of access to social media! Just imagine, you are meeting a close friend, and your eyes are glued to your phone. How worrisome is that! Best is to abstain from getting into this trap of becoming a social media addict.
• Facebook and real-world relationships: Following things could create a negative impact on your real-world relationships:
• Image crafting: Very often a person’s Facebook image turns out to be much different than what you see in reality upon meeting him. Often this ends up being an experience you wish to forget.
• Lesser face-to-face contacts: People feel content with seeing pictures and updates of their near and dear ones on Facebook. Is that feeling connected? Certainly not! It is a mere sense of connectedness with the virtual world. After all, nothing beats a warm hug or is as real as eye contact!
• Social injury and the trust factor: You must not over share important information and photos of yourselves or people connected to you closely. It can break their trust forever.

Finally what sense does it make having a long list of friends, maintaining friendship with them is not something you even consider or have the bandwidth or inclination toward?” Friend”ing and ‘Un’friending sounds really crazy to me!

Now comes the most important question – When was the last time you accessed Facebook? Was it an hour ago? Was it half an hour back? Or was it just now, in the middle of reading this piece? The answer you give would be an indication of whether you need a break from FB or not. Honestly!

Finally, though it is a matter of individual choice, I still believe staying off FB can do you good. You may find your lost lives and selves again. While I sign out off the day I leave you with this thought (something to consider) to ponder over…

Wow, this gets out really fast!! Guys, that was my first reaction to Digital Publishing (ePublishing of e-books, EPUBs, electronic articles and the development of digital libraries/catalogues). Unlike the long traditional publication cycle (with dependency on the publisher) Digital Publishing gives freedom to the author and quick access to the readers! Superb!

Totally impressed, I wanted to learn more about its benefits. Here is what I learnt:

Advantages of Digital Publishing:

• The overall experience is beyond just reading. It integrates rich media (video, music, documents, link to contacts and links to websites).
• Kindle and other eBook readers enable faster downloading and printing.
• The publication reaches a wider audience simply because at any given point there is a huge population accessing the web.
• No printing costs involved, so the prices of eBooks are generally less than printed books. You save money!
• Digital advertising can benefit you and your clients from an Ad Management and Ad Serving technology. Your clients can simply place an Ad in your publication, even a video if they wish so. It brings out the experience of watching T.V. commercials.
• It is measurable. With the help of a reporting or tracking function you can find out what works and what doesn’t!
• Avid readers can now own more books in lesser budgets, that too instantly through downloading.
• It is portable. One can carry as many eBooks as desired without bothering about space and weight issues. Besides, such publications can be read through all devices.
• Last but not the least, it is eco-friendly.

But guys, there is something I want to mention here. Anything digital increases its reach, but the success or the reach to a great extent depends on how the publication is marketed by the relevant parties. Marketing thus plays a key role in determining whom it will be available among the millions of people out there.

When I discussed these benefits with a friend, she agreed, but feeling nostalgic she said, “The feel of paper/print cannot be replaced by digital publishing, just the way a warm hug cannot be replaced by 24*7 chatting. A picture that is a hard copy is what speaks a thousand words, don’t know if I can say the same about softcopy though…”

Though I totally agree with her, as a consumer Digital Publishing makes me feel empowered, because every communication channel; be it blogs, internet, e-mail and social media is accessible, just through the click of a button, 24*7! It gives me the feeling of having it all in my hands! Is this because I’m a technology freak, or is it because I really see these benefits over print? Folks, though I have been harping about the benefits of digital publishing and consider it a fantastic mode of publishing and communication, I too cherish the smell of paper that each book I read gave me in my life.

On that nostalgic note, I sign out for the day. Do let me know your thoughts on Digital Publishing when we meet next.

Good morning my internet savvy cupcakes!

Have you ever thought of this? There are millions of content pages floating across the internet! But how much of it actually gets noticed, forget getting read. Or do they simply get lost? Well, the truth is a lot of it is actually overlooked. So is there a way to ensure that the best content is not missed out by the readers? Yes, through content marketing.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is a marketing technique aiming at:

• Creating relevant, engaging, valuable and entertaining content
• Distributing and marketing the same
• Attracting, acquiring, and engaging a clearly defined and understood target audience.
• Increasing brand awareness
• Ultimately driving profitable customer action

But yes, the trick is to tactfully communicate with your customers and prospects without ‘selling’. The art is to give them information about your products, helping them make an informed choice. This way you not only win business, but also loyalty for directly engaging with your audience without intermediary media channels.

Folks, trust me this works better than traditional marketing, which often gets ignored by smart intelligent buyers!

What is the result of content marketing?

• Customers pause, read, understand…and again come back to your content.
• They discover a ‘connect’ with your content.
• You don’t end up irritating them by bombarding them with unwanted content.
• They may consider doing business with you, over a period of time.

So you see, ‘branded’ content, custom publishing, customer media, and corporate media is quite powerful.

How do you achieve success in content marketing?

• Hire a team of dedicated, skilled professionals to create your content. May be even freelance writers. The idea is to have a team of able writers and editors for the job.
• Use social channels as much as possible to smartly share content.
• Writing, editing, design, illustration, video or animation, whatever be it, ensure that the quality is top-class.
• Engage customers. Q&A series is a good way.
• Make how-to videos that solve people’s problems, gives them tips and strategies.
• Produce content that reflects you as a thought leader, shows your perspective and vision, helps people, rather than merely populating the page with content about yourself.
• Incorporate variety in your content.
• Start professional networking once you have a decent content base. Relevant and interesting content gains your readers’ trust.
• Engage in guest posting. This is probably the best way right now for content marketers to find larger target audience and build authority with potential customers and gain SEO juice too.
• Persistence, consistency and pursuing your audience are as important as the content per se.

Finally I would like to emphasize on one thing. None of these strategies work unless your content works. So my bright sparks, start building you brilliant body of content, today!

Next time when we meet, I’m looking forward to reading some awesome stuff by you.

Till then, adios and keep writing!

Hello my Twitter friends! Tell me something today. What comes to your mind when I say ‘Twitter’? Of course Tweets and 140 characters! What else? Well, that’s a response even I would give, until recently I noticed the overgenerous usage of Hashtags (#) in Tweets.

Funny, but what comes to my mind now when I think of Twitter is Hashtags, Hashtags and more Hashtags! It bothered me. So I read up on Hashtags for Tweets. Boy! It was quite an eye-opener. So friends I thought let me take you through my learnings as well…

Firstly, what are Hashtags?
Hashtags is tagging words or phrases in Tweets preceded by the # sign. It facilitates searching of Tweets.

Why use Hashtags? Twitter is an open social network, accessible to all, unless your profile is private. Hashtags make it easier for Twitter users to locate people interested in the same conversation as you are. So when you click on the Hashtag you see other tweets that use the same Hashtag. Automatically you see many posts of your interest area, as people interested in the same topic as you are likely to use the same Hashtag. So if you search for #Mango, Mango as a brand of clothing will show up and not Mango as a fruit.
Following are a few ways to use Hashtags effectively to get more out of Twitter and enhance your overall Twitter experience.

Attract people: Well, let’s say you spotted a nice Chinese restaurant and Tweet about it. If you use #Mainland China, it will drive people towards it who are interested in the restaurant/food.

Use Hashtags sensibly: If you are tweeting about travel, tag it like this; I had an amazing tour of the #Taj Mahal and not #I had an #amazing #tour #of the #Taj Mahal. Don’t overuse Hashtags. Avoid unnecessary tagging and overuse.

Hashtag keywords to encourage participation: These days certain Twitter users are adding ‘#’ before Tweets to keep track of helpful tips pertaining to Twitter. This adds to the existing pool of information, without eating up anything close to 140 characters. You could try the same!

Using Hashtag for your businesses: Use Hashtags appropriately to drive conversations towards your business. Host contests, daily give away prizes and display updates on store sales and promotions. For example you can track Discounts #Croma on your Tweets and encourage your Twitter users to use it too. Keep your business name distinct and use its initials if that is convenient to you.

Use Hashtags and keep track of communities: Some communities online are already using Hashtags on Twitter to keep track of ongoing conversations in their group. Stay updated and tuned to what is happening there.
Friends, as we continue tweeting, let’s use Hashtags, in new, creative and interesting ways. Let’s not abuse it. This way we can make most out of Hashtags, for ourselves, our brands or your businesses.

Mr. Joy is in a situation like this: He has a Pinterest page, where he has been religiously posting images, and managed a few followers too. Wonderful! But it’s been a while; and there are no re-pins, likes or comments yet! Ouch! Now he begins to wonder if anyone is really listening to what he has to say. If you too are in a similar situation and doubt if Pinterest is really worth your time, then I have some good news for you!

Firstly, there’s no need to freak out if your Pinterest boards aren’t making the big impression as yet. So, relax! Just understand that making the desired impact takes time and continuous effort. Just like any other social media site.

Cheer up folks! I have something to set the ball rolling for you – a list of very helpful things you could do to increase your following! Try them

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Welcome back my friends. I hope you went back to LinkedIn and your profile looks much better and attractive now. I also hope you have started building your connections as well.

It’s time to add more to our LinkedIn list about tips to generate leads on LinkedIn (Part 1). What next? Now we explore LinkedIn groups further. We will also look at how you can use LinkedIn Direct Ads, LinkedIn Mobile and Share content and Slideshare to generate leads.

• LinkedIn Groups: Expand your horizons and join groups that are not of your industry, but outside it. When you stretch out you meet people across industries and widen your circle. This is a good way to help you grow your business.
• Participate in Group Discussions: You will find numerous groups in LinkedIn across schools, universities, industries, interests and such other criteria. It is a great idea to provide your insights and information in the discussions that place in these groups. This way you become a resource there and people can bank upon you, when it is actually time to starting to work on the professional front.
• LinkedIn Direct Ads: LinkedIn’s Advertising Programme is a powerful medium for driving leads/new prospects to your landing page, LinkedIn Group or other destination. You can create your ads there by writing a headline, a body copy and adding your destination link. Once ready with it, you will have to bid with LinkedIn as to how much you will pay LinkedIn per click of each ad. This works the same way as Google paid search ads.
• LinkedIn Mobile: The LinkedIn Mobile application is available for free and you can download it on all smartphones. It works like that. When you are in a conversation with a prospect, simply ask them to turn on the LinkedIn application on your smartphone. Both the phones need to have their settings right. Bump them together lightly, and see an amazing thing happen. LinkedIn will transfer your contact information between phones using Bluetooth. Enjoy the accurate information transfer!
• Share Content and Add a Slide share application: Share your content as often as you can. This by default increases your visibility. Furthermore, you can share your comments and thoughts on the post. This way your expertise gets highlighted. You could add the SlideShare application where your webinars or PowerPoint presentations in your LinkedIn profile, which could be something of interest to your visitors.

Friends, are you ready to explore these 150 million users across businesses and designations? If you ask me, I would say, just go ahead. Reach out and explore. You never know what could be the next link to get you your next business lead on LinkedIn. I am sure you will come back to me after you get your first lead.

Till then, happy professional networking! All the best my dearies!