Ever wondered whether Facebook can help bring in traffic, sales or clients to your small business? Or if it is really worth the time and effort it takes to optimize a Facebook fan page for your brand? The answer so far seems to be ‘most definitely.’ Although social media marketing can be very tricky, it is a fact that many businesses are igniting their online presence through their Facebook marketing strategy. Facebook is delivering the highest Return On Investment (ROI) of any online marketing medium. More and more businesses are therefore advertising on Facebook to enhance their brand image and sales. Once you create a strong brand identity in someone’s mind, there is high possibility that he will share it among his circle. It is this viral power of Facebook and the potentially colossal exposure, a successful viral can provide, that has turned the largest social website into a powerful marketing medium.

Dominates Online World
Consider that Facebook dominates cyberspace, beating Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL in time spent online. This trend is illustrated in the chart below, which shows a steep rise for Facebook when compared to the slower rise of Google, a decline for Yahoo, a relatively flat line for Microsoft and a sharp drop for AOL. It clearly shows that Facebook has become an integral part of daily communication, at least in the U.S.A, dominating the Internet in a way that is impossible for investors to ignore.

Advantages of Marketing Your Business on Facebook
There are many good reasons for you to consider using Facebook marketing if you want your business to succeed. With Facebook, you are reaching people who have the same interests as you. You are creating strong relationships with your customers and gaining insights into their wants and needs. Here are just a few reasons for you to consider marketing on Facebook:

Branding: Facebook is great for building brand awareness. As a business, you can use Facebook as your page. You can strike up a conversation, respond to questions and use the page as your voice. When people ‘like’ your page, they are promoting your brand on their friends’ pages as well. You can target users based on demography or basically anything you might find on their profile to advertise your brand.

Efficient Sales Channel: Facebook also provides a seamless buying experience to customers in a single and convenient platform. It is a virtual powerhouse for advertising and sales with over 800 million people using it to share information and experiences. Businesses are driving traffic back to their websites through ads, by posting information on new products or through the ‘likes’ in the fan pages. It is estimated that more than one-half of brand fans are likely to buy products for many or at least a few of the brands they ‘like’ on Facebook.

Customer Interaction and Networking: Users get updated information on any new products/services, as well as have grievances redressed in real-time. You can communicate promotions, events and contests and ask for ideas on product improvement. Relevant pages that you ‘like’ will be a great accessory to your page; your followers can also view them. This builds up interaction, and you get to socialize with like-minded communities, increasing the chances of a response.

Targeted Traffic: Interaction with like-minded people, who have an interest in what you are offering, will give your business a very good conversion rate. For this reason, Facebook is considered one of the most valuable traffic sources available in the Internet. You can also review your fan profiles and future prospects and use it for targeted lead generation. Local customers, who are most likely to buy your products, can be filtered out using powerful search features to further streamline the targeting process. Websites can also be linked directly to their Facebook pages and profiles.

Reputation Management: When you are running a business, the whole point is to make yourself look good. On Facebook, you are constantly on your alert, ready to combat any negative reviews or comments. People trust what others have to say about your company and products more than they trust your marketing. A potential customer has to just scan your fan pages for user feedback or referrals before they make a purchase. Facebook helps you keep a close watch on what others are saying about you, and helps you resolve a situation before you start losing business.

Facebook is powerful because it helps you communicate and get feedback from the very people you are trying to reach. It’s also flexible because no matter what type of business you run, there are a variety of different marketing options to suit your company, budget and time constraints. Companies that are already using Facebook for marketing are at an early adopter advantage. With the number of people using it skyrocketing by the day, Facebook is now an indispensable part of social media marketing and has become a must-have marketing platform for businesses large and small.

For at least some of us, ad messages popping up on the mobile can be irksome. So how about the “50% off your meal now” offer that pops up on your iPhone as you walk past your favorite pizza outlet at lunchtime. Hmm… maybe not so annoying after all!

What if you come to know your buddy is already in there taking advantage of the offer? You could join and have a great time too – at half the price.

Wait! Get a few more of your friends to drop in to make it a group of 10 and your meal will cost only one-fourth.

That is possibly what a combination of Where app, Facebook and Groupon could do – give you a ‘happy meal’!

Way back in 2000, businesses were just starting to realize the benefits of being online. In those days, online success was synonymous with having a website with a .COM name. Soon, as the number of websites grew, it became necessary to stand out in the crowd. This realization brought forth a brand of online marketers armed with tools such as SEO, PPC ads. etc. Man being a social animal, realized before long that ‘being online’ meant ‘being on social networks’. Social media sites, Facebook and the likes, appeared and with it bloomed the era of social media advertising.

According to Wikipedia, the term social commerce was coined by Yahoo in 2005 to describe collaborative shopping tools. The term was rarely discussed until Groupon with its “cents-off coupon married to a Friday-after-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy” came into the scene. The astounding growth of this technology start-up prompted a lot of clones to come up. Not to be left out, Facebook also added ‘Groupon features’ to its offerings. Of course, the social networking giant has an advantage. While Groupon and similar sites rely on deal sharing through social networks, for Facebook sharing is the default.

So, that brings us all the way from e-commerce to social commerce to f-commerce. And now what?

Location based mobile apps seems likely to take it forward from here. Services like Gowalla, DeHood and Loopt are becoming increasingly popular. The social commerce field will continue to explode and we will see the convergence of social and mobile commerce. The recent eBay acquisitions of Milo (for real-time inventory management) and Where.com (for location based mobile ads) seem to be in line with these trends. Moreover, Google is in it too with its mobile payment app and the most recent Google+. The future definitely seems promising and it waits to be seen who will be the king of e-commerce.

Right from the time Facebook took over the as the king of social market, drowning Myspace, there has been no real fight for the throne. It’s time we saw a good competitor for Facebook.

Google has attempted to break the Facebook wall many times before, only to bruise itself. Google Waves had to be shut down and Google Buzz doesn’t seem to be picking up. After these failed attempts Google has now come up with another weapon to breach the great wall of Facebook. This is Google Plus (+1). Let’s see what this product has in store.

1. Circles: Circles are groups that can be created for restricted communication and sharing. This is like having separate communities for your friends, family, colleagues, etc. You can create any number of circles.

2. Sparks: Sparks track the latest and the most relevant of your interests. You can create sparks and have them listed on your home page. Google provides live search results when you click on them.

3. Hangouts: Hangouts are for collaborating and planning with buddies in your circle. You can have on-screen video chat with up to 10 people simultaneously.

4. Huddles: Huddles are for the mobile freaks. This is a group messaging system to update those in a circle.

The look and feel is exactly Facebook replicate. Techcrunch says you need two extensions to clone Google Plus into Facebook. Unfortunately Facebook has most of the features also. The multi video chat could be one that’s missing and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook CEO) would have already started working on it now. Yakity, TinyChat already offer them. All these have made the mood among Google investors go pessimistic.

So is it any good for businesses? We cannot answer this now since the product is still in trial field. There is nothing specific like Facebook pages that we can find right now. But we can take it for granted that Google guarantees higher positioning of your business in its search results if you get more +1s.

Simply put, Google Plus has nothing spectacular for Facebookers to turn into +1ers.

A Brief History on Yesterday’s Social Networking King – Myspace

In 2003, eUniverse launched a new platform that enabled individuals to interact with each other over the Internet. Within a short span of time, the platform allured millions. Internet users were already beginning to get bored with the traditional email and chat. This platform named Myspace managed to move to the top of the list even though similar ones like Friendster were already in the market. Years rolled by and in 2007, Myspace clearly became the king of social networking with more than 100 million users.

Today’s Critical Care Unit Patient – Myspace

Myspace (Now My_____) was dethroned by Facebook in 2009. Furthermore, Myspace is now in the ventilator. With losses of around $150M a quarter, its immediate owner Rupert Murdoch is looking left and right to get rid of this dying patient. Below is Hitwise data that shows the rise of Facebook (blue line) and the decline of Myspace (green line) over the years 2008, 2009 and 2010.

The main source of revenue for Myspace was from ads. The eMarketer data released in Jan 2011 shows the decline of ad revenues for Myspace and increase of ad revenues for Facebook.

What Went Wrong For MySpace?

A Competitive Intelligence analyst would be able to find the reasons for this decline of Myspace. Let’s list some of them here and learn from the mistakes of this one-time king of Social Networking.

Did not track its reputation

Users of Myspace always had the freedom to go beyond limits inside and outside Internet. When limits were crossed, the media was on the toe to spoil the reputation Myspace had earned. Unfortunately News Corp, the then owner of Myspace did not respond well to set right its loss in reputation. This resulted in reduction in traffic to the site and hence the revenue. Legal issues arose that had to be settled. The settlement with Universal Music Group was in millions. If the management had tracked their brand periodically, the damage could have been avoided or at least reduced.

Did not track new trends

Trends in market were changing the perspectives of social networking. Separate platforms began to emerge for different communities. Youtube for videos, Linkedin for professionals, Picassa for photos; Myspace did very little to convince its users with its features. It did very little to stay ahead of any new trends that rocked the market. Even though the site had the finest of the codes, there was lack of renovation in user interactivity which made Myspace look dull. Renovation would have been part of core team’s activity if latest trends in the market were periodically tracked.

Lack of in-depth analysis of its competitors

When there was a need to do something to stay alive, Myspace announced a complete redesign to its website. Any redesign requires comprehensive analyses before implementation so that there would be user acceptance. Unfortunately Myspace had to be moved to the ventilator when media hyped the redesign as a copy of Facebook. This copycatting image of Myspace completely spoiled the reputation of the one-time king. Another area where there was lack of in-depth analyses could be identified in the customization freedom given to its users. Too much customization options made the site look scrambled under many profiles. Both these instances were result of lack of proper analyses before implementing a strategy.

Sleeping while others were awake at night

There were many new players in the social media market in 2006. Facebook’s growth in traffic was witnessed by the entire world. Pioneers of social networking like Friendster and leaders of the web like Yahoo, tried to acquire Facebook. This clearly sent signal about a rising rival to Myspace. But those who had to respond to the signals were sleeping. Had they been awake, they would have sensed the danger to their throne.

Management’s pessimistic approach

Other than the Google – MySpace partnership, we have to admit that Myspace has not dealt with its issues in an optimistic way. Since Rupert Murdoch had profit in his other businesses, he had been deliberately looking to sell Myspace right from the time he faced threat from Facebook. He removed top guys like Tom Anderson who were very instrumental in bringing Myspace to the top. Myspace had never been given to young hands who could probably match to the brilliance of Mark Zuckerberg. The age factor is evident in the website for any analyst. Had the approach of Murdoch and team been different, Myspace would have still remained competitive to its rivals.

What’s The Urgent Need For Your Business?

Myspace is one example. There are many companies which have collapsed. Giants like Lehmann Brothers, Daewoo may have been in news. But there are thousands of small businesses that have collapsed in the last decade. So what must a small business do to continuously grow without experiencing catastrophes? The role of Competitive Intelligence team answers this question. Periodic reports produced by this team are vital for the existence and growth of any business. Below are few basic reports that are prepared by this analysis team.

Competitor News Report

The competitor news report can be prepared weekly or monthly depending on the frequency in which competitors make their move in your market. The report tracks every move of your direct competitors. Any mile stone achieved or any financial progress announced by them will be traced. The report will also identify new players in your market and their growth tracked in further reports.

Market Trends Report

The market trends report keeps you informed of the latest happenings in your market. The report tracks the value of your market periodically. The report also collects relevant information that forecasts the future of your product market. It also keeps you updated with different strategic changes that get accepted and rejected in the market.

Product Analysis Report

The product analysis report is the most important of all. It is a comprehensive feature by feature analysis of your product. This report will identify the major players in your market and also give an idea of how the leaders present the product to its prospects.

For more information on these reports and the complete role of Competitive Intelligence team in a business, contact QBurst team.

Businesses are embracing social media with a jest never seen before. Companies have realized the marketing/advertising potential offered by these viral networks and are clamoring to make the most of it. Small and large companies alike are striving to establish an online social presence to grab greater market share. The motto seems to be “Get out there before the competition.”

But “being out there” is not all! Social media is all about conversations, and conversations need to be listened to.

Are companies listening to the conversations that go on about them? If they aren’t, they could be in for a surprise. What some companies are yet to understand is that the Internet buzz can turn negative to the extent of even ruining businesses. It was only a couple of months back that Nestle tasted the sourness of social media. Listening and closely following Internet conversations can often aid timely interventions to deflect possible catastrophic outcomes. However, keeping track of all the different threads of online conversations is a big challenge. Social media monitoring and analytic tools go a long way in helping organizations on this front.

A typical social media monitoring tool scours the Internet for specific keywords/ search phrases and aggregates relevant bits of ‘mentions’ to display collectively on an easy-to-use dashboard. These mentions can be tagged or grouped based on a number of factors like sentiment of the article, type of media source, credibility of the source, etc. While many of these online tools are fully automated, there are a few like Trackur that provide for human intervention to make the results even more meaningful.

Snapshot of the Trackur Dashboard showing results for the search term “Qburst”.

Based on the data collected, grouped and analyzed, users can generate customized reports and trending charts which can also be exported. Some of these tools have extensive collaboration features which make them all the more attractive to companies. Radian6 and ViralHeat are examples of tools that go beyond just monitoring, to offer value-added features like third party application integration. Tools in their genre also provide co-branded or white label products for agencies.

Reputation management services go one step deeper. These monitor, analyze as well as take proactive or reactive measures to help maintain a general good impression on the web. Media monitoring and analysis is only a part of online reputation management services (ORM). ORM covers a wider range of services including creation of social media profiles, search engine optimization, development of microsites, promotion of positive content, link building and removal of negative content.

As a result, ORM services can be much more expensive. While social media monitoring tools are available for as low as $1/month, streamlined ORM packages fall in the price range of $100 – $5000 per month. Some providers have a set-up fee in addition to the monthly or yearly charges. WebpageFX is a web design and development company that offers Internet marketing services. Their reputation management packages are bundled with an interesting variety of features for which they charge a one-time investment along with the monthly fee.

As with SEO services, online reputation management services are also offered on a consultancy basis. Tailor-made solutions can be drawn up to suit specific requirements. Large corporations and enterprises may opt for such customized services while SMBs would probably find the streamlined services or tools more affordable.

Big or small, companies do need to monitor social media chatter to maintain their reputation and increase customer base. The options are many; businesses just need to sift and sort through the market to find a solution that best suits their need.

Open Source Application

Skipfish is an open source scanner written in C language used to detect vulnerabilities in web applications. Users can compile the code and execute it for installation. Skipfish crawls through the web application, detects the security probes and generates a report for security assessments.

Features

Skipfish overcomes some of the common issues associated with other web security scanners. It is designed for high performance. It can handle 7000+ requests per second against local instances, 2000+ for LAN/MAN networks and 500+ against Internet targets. Its usability extends even to websites with multi-frameworks and different filtering rules. It also chalks out tricky scenarios including stored XSS (path, parameters, headers), blind SQL and XML injection.

The main security checks performed by the scanner are categorized based on the risk levels and are listed in the Skipfish wiki. This tool is expected to support Linux, FreeBSD 7.0+, MacOS X, and Windows (Cygwin) environments.

Limitations

However, Skipfish is not found to satisfy some of the major requirements charted out in the WASC (Web Application Security Scanner Evaluation Criteria).

The Skipfish 1.29 beta version is currently available for download.

Finally Google has arrived at the ‘Micro-blogging’ platform with a real ‘buzz’. On 9th February 2010, Google introduced ‘Buzz’, the new social networking application to embark on its battle to limit the popularity of Twitter. So, now there are lot of competitions going on in the Internet space. Google Vs Microsoft (Operating System & Enterprise Application Suits), Orkut (Owned by Google) Vs Facebook (Social Networking) Google vs Apple (Smart phone market). Before acquiring YouTube, they fought against them with Google Videos. So what we understand from all these competitions is that Google is not just targeting a niche or industry, rather it want to rule the entire IT Business.

At the first look, we may feel that Google Buzz is an integration of Facebook and Twitter, but it is beyond that. First and foremost advantage is that you don’t have to go to another web page to see the ‘buzz’, it’s there right below the inbox in  the Gmail. The conversation will go like an email thread which is the fascinating aspect of Buzz. You can post in the Buzz, which can be held as private or public. Also, you can connect your profiles in Flickr, Piccasa, Google Reader and Twitter to Buzz. That means you aren’t missing any of your friends and by start ‘Buzzing’, you are increasing your friend and professional network. See this wondeful Video of Buzz, to get more insights.

Now we can perhaps clearly say that it is now ‘Google Vs. Rest of the World’. Apple and Microsoft are companies that are worth more than  $ 100 billion each, Facebook and Twitter are the champs of their respective niche, though they are not monetizing it well. There is no doubt that the internet and enterprise software market will come under the reign of Google, which is not far away.

Apple is all set to unveil their breakthrough product Apple Tablet / iSlate. Amidst the  uncertainties and rumors crawling around the product, technology addicts are eagerly waiting to get a glimpse of the device. The launch is planned for 27th January 2010 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco. The main theme of the event is “latest creation”, which may showcase extreme functionalities of the device. A CNBC interview excerpt gives confirmation from McGraw-Hill’s CEO that Apple Tablet will soon capsule their text books. It is also understood that the Apple iSlate will be an iPhone OS based machine and hence the contents will be transferable. McGraw-Hill considers this feature will  be really helpful in penetrating the professional education market.

The device is expected to deliver a combined functionality of an iPhone and Mac Book. However, it remains to be seen whether the device is compatible with the existing apps available through the App Store.

The rumors with respect to the price tag is speculated to be around $1000 / £600. Another uncertainty is that the Tablet is said to feature an OLED screen which alone would cost  $400. There are also rumors that iSlate will be available in more than one version, even with an LCD touch screen.

Ever Thought Of Locating Your Twitter On Your Mobile Phone Even Without a GPRS Subscription?

This concept has become a reality in India with the Shorthand mobile SMS browser introduced by the Shorthand Mobile-India(www.shorthandmobile.in), a subsidary of Smarttouch mobile Inc.. The browser once downloaded will connect you to your desired web content just through a text sms. Yes, it’s that simple!

The desired web contents are stored as SMS Apps and are listed in the Shorthand browser for easy scroll and click. The users have to just scroll down to their SMS App and click the same to access the online network. The web content is located as soon as the browser sends the text message. Hence, it does not require an active data plan.

Main Features
Apart from the general SMS Apps, Shorthand has a rich GUI that makes the platform more interesting and user friendly. Apart from other similar services of accessing web content through SMS and short codes, Shorthand SMS stands apart as there is no need to undergo the complex process of storing and using the “short codes”, “keywords” and “phone numbers” to get connected. Shorthand SMS browser lets you easily select your desired content from the well listed menu in a simple way.

Cost To The User
The users can enjoy the Shorthand browser platform absolutely free of cost. Users do not have to use their data plan while accessing through the SMS Apps. Updates to online contents via SMS Apps are sent as text messages and hence only normal SMS charges apply. However downloading the Shorthand browser for the first time needs a data plan enabled.

Shorthand Mobile Compatibility
The compatibility of this platform is not at all restricted to high-end smart phones but also works on mid-tier and low-end handsets. The browser supports different platforms including J2ME, Windows Mobile and Pocket PC phones. Below is the list of phones which is currently Shorthand compatible.

Samsung S3310
Samsung S3500
Samsung SGH-L700
Nokia N70
Nokia N82
Nokia 7210 Supernova
Nokia 2700 Classic
Nokia 5130 Express Music
Sony Ericsson G502

The Application support in the server side and website maintenance for Shorthand mobile (India) is taken care by QBurst Technologies.

Upcoming Apps
Shorthand Mobile proposes to add around 15 SMS Apps to be listed on its SMS browser platform ranging from a wide area across finance, social networking and search to transportation and news which are on the pipeline.

Target Market
The parent company, Smarttouch mobile Inc., launches the shorthand mobile sms service in the Indian market with a social networking pack, which includes Facebook, Orkut, Twitter and SMS GupShup apps in the first quarter of 2010. The service would be launched through leading telecom operators on a monthly subscription pattern which is yet to finalize on.