Distance education

By now you have heard about web-based social networking (Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc.) and you have an understanding of what it is. You know people are using it, some with claims of free flowing business opportunities and profitable connections. If you have been daring, you have stepped into the world of social networks, and maybe even established a profile for your business. However, it is likely your business has yet to capture and realize the full potential of your new electronic network.

The typical business will use their social networks as a secondary gateway into the company’s primary website, in an effort to build traffic. It is a valid and noble effort, as you are building links, which is ultimately helpful in building Google rank, but this alone, does not unleash the raw, potential power of your newly established network.

Successful social networking, like a high quality advertising campaign, requires a sound strategy that engages your customer, maximizes your ROI, and builds your position in the market. A haphazard approach to networking produces minimal desired results. You need a map, a strategy, a mini business plan for your social networks.

In my universe, one of the classic mistakes I see is that event planners spend a tremendous amount of time networking with other event planners – their competitors. The logic is that this networking allows for the free exchange of ideas and business practices, but ultimately they are missing the bulls-eye. Why build an exclusive network of your peers, when your peers will never hire you? Go to your target audience. If you are in the insurance industry, connect with a small business owner’s network where the demand and need for affordable insurance is great. Print designers can connect with the meeting and event planners group, where event advertising and publications are in high demand. Sustainability experts, the world is yours. Connect to everyone!

In my experience, the greatest untapped power of social networks is as a two-way communication tool with the customers. A well constructed social network allows the delivery of a message and allowing it to rise above the daily clutter of ”junk advertising.” Various studies claim that we receive more than 3000 (some say as high as 5000) marketing messages per day. To rise above that volume of noise is challenging at best and nearly impossible at worst. A small business with a limited advertising budget can hardly compete with the unlimited budgets of the big box stores and Wall Street ad agencies, especially in the arenas they already own. But, you can build your own arena and be the single champion.

The power of advertising to your audience, in a social network environment, is that they have subscribed, or connected to you, specifically for the purposes of receiving your message. Not only do they want your message, they are willing to go out and retrieve that message on their own. All you have to do is make it available to them. Think about the piles of junk mail and SPAM emails you receive daily. If you are anything like me, you can spot it almost immediately and you toss it just as quickly, in bulk, without a second thought. Why do we toss it? We didn’t want it in the first place, so we are not compelled to consider its value to us. On the other hand, when you receive your weekly copy of the Business Press, or your monthly copy of Entrepreneur, you read it. Why? You subscribed and you know there is relevance to your life and business. Create your own network, encourage your customers to join and then deliver them hard hitting information that is timely and with offers they will not want to pass up.

Everyone is aware that Myspace is a social networking website. It is a user submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, photos and much more. Folks consider myspace as something personal. People are aware that they can personalize their profile in myspace page and design myspace in such a way that others can understand what kinda character they have.

HOW BUSINESS?

However for a businessman, who turns every available option into opportunities, myspace is a great business promotional tool. Wondering how? Social networking websites like myspace, when utilized properly, acts as a platform for getting more contacts. More contacts mean more business. Myspace, through its sound networking capability creates a buzz about your business. Getting more people know about your company are stepping stones to success in business.

THE DESIGN

The main aspect in business promotion through myspace is the creation of a business profile. Businessmen are using myspace to introduce their business to others. The interest of people towards your company will increase depending on the design and uniqueness of your profile design in myspace. Nowadays professional web and graphic design companies provide various designs for profiles in myspace

There are professionals called myspace designers who design unique Custom MySpace Layouts, MySpace Div Layouts, and MySpace Flash Layouts and so on. These professional MySpace designs are very much effective in business promotion. Your profile page in MySpace is the most important of all the other since this page provides you an opportunity to feature your products, services and also any award’s that you have won. Once the profile page is designed right, the business is all set to go. There are many professional myspace designers who provide effective myspace designs.

THE BENEFITS

Social networks encourage individuals to express their own views, opinions and ideas, providing them an opportunity to make a deep market research. Now you would have understood the importance of being in myspace if you are a business-man. There are also forums in myspace which can be utilized for business discussions. Though these forums are not popular as classifieds, there are many people who find time to checkout the things posted online.

GET INTO YOUR SPACE BEFORE IT’S LATE:

It is not late to get your business on myspace now. Getting into myspace is quite simple. Myspace is highly customizable. If you are not sure of what has to be done to spice up your profile in myspace, all you have to do is to just hire a web-designer. I you find difficulty in getting a web-designers; there are also a lot of professional myspace designers waiting to help you. “Opportunity is often missed by people because it is dressed in common”. So let us conclude that myspace is not only for teens and college students but it is also for all you busy, businessmen. So myspace is a great marketing tool!

When I first started planning international meetings more than 20 years ago, “going global” was the catchphrase of the day. Companies sought new markets outside of the United States and associations sought new membership. When I started planning meetings abroad, my focus was strictly on logistics: freight forwarding, negotiating in foreign currencies, collaborating with airlines, tax deductibility, choosing activities for attendees to enjoy while they were in the destination, and producing a positive experience that would not be forgotten … all important aspects of international meetings.

I didn’t realize I was overlooking one of the most critical parts of the international meeting experience: protocol. As an international meeting planner, I also needed to assume the role of protocol officer without the title. I quickly learned that it was my job to understand cultural expectations to get the job done. Here are some protocol tips I share from my hard-earned experience:

Communication Styles

Communication is not the same all over the rest of the world as it is in the United States — and I am not referring to obvious language differences. Americans like to “get to the point” and to know definitively what is going to happen at each step of the way. Our communications, both written and verbal, are more hurried. We often use “shorthand English,” thinking the other party will understand our meaning. For example, responding to questions from a Japanese meeting planning team, one U.S. hotel sales executive said, “No problem,” which was interpreted as “No, there is a problem.” The hotel lost the business.

In Asia, the Middle East, and in many part of Europe, communication is more looped. It starts with social chat, may include a mention of the work at hand, and then goes back to social chat. Americans may become frustrated with the time it can take to get consensus on a point, but should not try to hurry the process. Understand that the relationship between the parties is more important than the contract. In negotiations with vendors, “no” doesn’t mean no most of the time; it means maybe. Sometimes, as in Asian countries, “maybe” means no.

Dress

How you dress sets the tone for your business relationships overseas. Fortunately, the conservative navy or grey suit for men and women is proper just about everywhere. It conveys a sense of professionalism. For women, a modest neckline is just as important.

You may not have thought about it, but colors have a strong influence in how you are perceived abroad. While red is a power color in the United States, in parts of Africa it is a color of mourning. In Asia, it is a lucky color, while in Russia and many countries of the former Soviet Union; red still stands for communism and the blood of revolution. In Latin America, the color purple is associated with death. In Asia, white is the color of mourning. Color consideration must be given to gifts as well as dress.

Business Cards

You will need to hand out twice as many business cards overseas as you would expect to hand out during a meeting at home. In almost every office meeting, you will give one to the receptionist as well as to your contact. Always give your business card with your right hand or both hands. The left hand is historically the “dirty” hand, reserved for personal hygiene, so refrain from using it to offer gifts or your business card. Don’t forget to have the other side of your business card translated in the language of the country in which you are doing business if English is not the primary language spoken there.

Eye Contact

Meeting one’s gaze is revered in the United States. We determine if the other person is honest and trustworthy by whether s/he establishes eye contact with us. But don’t hold your gaze too long in Asia. A steady gaze is considered to be aggressive and even hostile. The rule to abide by is if you feel that your eye contact is making someone uncomfortable, look away. In most cultures, intermittent eye contact is acceptable.

Greetings

Greetings can be tricky. Handshaking is firm and relatively short (three seconds) in North American and Northern European business. However a lighter (limp) but lingering handclasp (10-12 seconds) is the norm in Asia. To make a great impression, go along with cultural norms. Observe. What you get should be what you give in return.

Gifts

In the United States, gift giving in business is regulated by Congress. There are limits to the value of gifts you receive from other American organizations. Other countries generally don’t have those limits and gift giving is an important part of business relationships. But there is an art to giving gifts. Knowing when to give, what to give, to whom to give it, and how to wrap it are equally important.

In Asia, at your first meeting with a new client or supplier, exchanging gifts will be the norm. There are mandatory gift-giving holidays around the world. In Japan, gifts are exchanged July 15 or mid-year and at year’s end, on Jan. 1.

Gifts representing your company, industry, or country should be made in your country. Some suggestions of appropriate gifts that work almost anywhere are picture books of your town or country, high-quality writing instruments, Native American artifacts, travel accessories such as candles, air purifiers, compasses (Muslims need to know the direction of Mecca), and zoom binoculars. Any intellectual gift — books, music and handicrafts (art) — will be appreciated.

Some taboos:

[bullet] leather gifts given to Hindus

[bullet] alcohol and any product which includes it as an ingredient given as gift to a Muslim

[bullet] giving knives, which represent severing relationships (so forgo giving that lovely carving set)

[bullet] a gift made in China given to a Japanese client.

Women in Business

In many cultures, women are not as easily accepted in the role of competent business people as the United States. Because of their cultural norms, it takes more time for international business contacts to trust a woman’s knowledge and competency. Be patient and maintain your professionalism. Often women are ignored at business meetings if they are there with male colleagues; historically they have been seen as assistants, not the ones in charge. It often is important for the group to overtly refer to the women and solicit their opinions on matters to keep all parties included in the meeting.

Promptness

Still another concept to grasp in order to successfully conduct business in the international arena is one of time. In all of Northern Europe, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium, there is a high regard for promptness. Being 10 minutes early is appreciated. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, and Australia, promptness is appreciated. However, in Southern Europe (Spain, Italy, Greece), most of the Mediterranean, and Arabian Gulf Countries, a meeting may be scheduled for 2 p.m. and actually begin between 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. (except for banquets).

In most of Latin America and Asia, it is even more lax, and appointed times are just estimates. You can’t go wrong by being on time; just bring a book to read or work to occupy you while you wait.

Keep in mind that Americans are almost the only adults on earth who eat dinner at 6 p.m. Assume you will eat later than you are accustomed and keep that in mind when planning group dinners which include local colleagues.

As a self-confessed football obsessive, I need to be able to access live broadcasts of the top games wherever I am. Sometimes it’s not always possible to find somewhere that shows the particular match I want to watch but thanks to technological advancements and I can now watch almost any match I wish through a live football stream.

With the help of the internet and some networking facilities, I am able to watch streaming live football via my computer in the office and my laptop should I be stuck in a hotel room somewhere. Being able to watch any one of a number of football matches being broadcast on a particular day is all well and good, but this article tries to explain how it’s done for the more inquisitive natures out there.

To understand how live football streams work, you first need to understand a little bit about networking. In its most simple form, networking is one computer exchanging data with another computer. To be really simplistic, there isn’t a lot of difference between this and mailing a letter.

The first computer addresses a piece of information to another computer and then sends it across the cable that connects computers to one another. The second computer checks the addresses of all of the messages coming by and reads only the messages addressed to it.

Live football stream is achieved with the help of streaming media you can download the streaming media. This concept is not as foreign as it sounds and it simply acts like an ordinary television or a radio broadcast that streams live football matches. When you wish to view a certain live football stream, a programme called a “streaming media server” breaks up the desired file into pieces called “packets”.

These packets race across the Internet one at a time and get reassembled back into your computer the same way. Providing you have a fast internet connection and the server is not overloaded, the live football streams will begin playing instantly on your PC and the file size is generally small.

Unfortunately, like most good things, there is a drawback to using football streams to get your fix of live action. Since it is live and should be delivered just in time across the potentially unpredictable internet network, quality is sacrificed in order to enhance speed and performance. Even though the main use of streaming video is web delivery, this type is not suited for local presentations.

To view live football steams, your computer requires a special program, called a streaming media plug-in. These plug-in programs are generally free and can be downloaded.

The difference between downloading video from the internet and watching a live football stream is that the user doesn’t need to wait for the entire media file to download before it can get viewed. While the quality may not be perfect, a live football stream appears to begin to play almost instantly.

It is possible to Watch Live Football Online on the internet.

If you want to make the most of social media marketing today, you better sign up with Facebook. According to a recent report from the Orlando Business Journal, Facebook has far outpaced its competitors in the first quarter of 2009, garnering 78 percent of US social network participants against MySpace’s 42 percent, LinkedIn’s 17 percent and Twitter’s 10 percent.

Worldwide, Facebook was reported to have 307.1 million unique visitors in May 2009 while MySpace had less than half with a mere 123.2 million unique visitors. According to Facebook, its members are sending each other one billion chat messages each day.

As early as 2008, a study done by Internet Retailer and Vovici showed that most online retailers in the US chose to use Facebook as a social media network to help boost sales. A separate study done by Rosetta among the top 100 US online retailers showed that 59% had set up a Facebook fan page. Among these retailers were Best Buy, Kohl’s, Wal-Mart and Toys “R” Us.

In order to make the most of your company’s Facebook fan page, though, you should familiarize yourself thoroughly with social media marketing as a whole, and with the way Facebook itself works in particular. It would be wholly counterproductive to make an online faux pas and earn ill will. Each social media network has its own temperament, after all, and its own set of rules and online etiquette. Members and users also have certain expectations from other members and users.

Perhaps it would be best for a company not to risk experimentation by assigning this task to a newbie. Learn from the mistake of the New York Times whose new social media editor had no extensive knowledge of Twitter before diving in. As a result, her repost meant to point other Tweeter users to an online article ended up taking them to Ebay instead. Do not make the same mistake in Facebook or you will get a lot of negative comments instead of the favorable ones you need. It would be best to leave the task of handling your company’s social media marketing efforts to the experts.

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