Durham Startup ArchiveSocial seeking Sales Superstars

You’re a startup, right? Give us your pitch 

Social media has tons of benefits, but it’s not all fun and games for a business. Many businesses have to deal with legal and compliance headaches such as record keeping, audits, and potential lawsuits. 

ArchiveSocial safely takes away the pain so that businesses can better leverage social media. Today, ArchiveSocial provides the industry’s leading technology for capturing and preserving business-grade records of social media activity. But the archive is just Phase 1. With your help, we will build ArchiveSocial into an autonomous network of globally distributing technology for auto-detecting potential liabilities and protecting businesses as social media happens (sounds cool, eh?). 

But what really makes you special? 

In 2012, we were selected out of 111 nationwide applicants to participate in the inaugural class of The Startup Factory, and were chosen out of 184 NC companies for a grant from NC IDEA. Since then, we've been honored as a Gartner "Cool Vendor", TiE50 Top Startup, and Code for America Accelerator company. We’ve also had our fair share of great press in publications like InformationWeek, Fast Company, and Entrepreneur.com.

Accolades aside, we have real customers, and lots of them. Our customers are spread across the world, but If you live in North Carolina, chances are that your city and county are using us in addition to the State of NC itself. Our other customers include independent financial firms and major governments like City of Austin, San Francisco, Orlando, Louisville, and US National Archives.

This is a unique opportunity to join a startup that is proven, yet still at the ground floor. You will be a core member of the sales team responsible for driving a significant percentage of the overall company revenue. 

What are you hiring for? 

Hiring? We're not just hiring! We’re scouring the triangle for sales superstars who fit the following job description:

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Meet and exceed sales quota goals
• Skillfully articulate ArchiveSocial’s value proposition across web conferences, phone calls, and emails
• Become a subject matter expert by staying up-to-date with industry news, seeking out external resources, and collaborating with team members
• Build and manage a large pipeline of prospects in a manner that is consistent and repeatable
• Drive new revenue by effectively addressing customer pain points, resolving objections, and creating urgency
• Prospect for new leads and create opportunities based on qualification requirements
• Continually refine messaging and process to increase conversion rates; help improve ArchiveSocial’s sale methodology as we scale and grow
• Document ALL sales activities in an extremely disciplined, comprehensive manner

SKILLS / TRAITS

• Unstoppable positive attitude with the hunger to always surpass goals
• Top-notch email and oral communication skills
• Proficient with software technology and able to relay the associated benefits
• Extremely organized and detail-oriented
• Able to make at least one team member laugh daily

EXPERIENCE

• 2 or more years of B2B SaaS sales experience (this is a firm requirement!)
• Well-versed with Salesforce CRM
• Experienced with spreadsheets and other office productivity tools 

Can you control your excitement? 

If not, please send a resume to loveyourwork@archivesocial.com with a few sentences on why you believe this is the right opportunity for you.

Aqueti Kickstarts Gigapixel Tour of NC

CED VMS company Aqueti today launched a Kickstarter campaign you might want to look into. Their new Aware2 camera takes a single-shot panorama with extraordinary detail -- it’s as though your eyes can zoom into every single part of a wide angle shot. This is a widely-hailed (Wired, NBC, ABC, WSJ, etc. ) breakthrough being spun out of Duke University, and to demonstrate this product and its applications, they’re giving NC citizens the ability to experience the first public use of the camera.

Carolina Zoomin’! The campaign is called Carolina Zoomin’ because if they get enough backers (between today and June 19) they’ll be zooming across North Carolina – literally.

They head to the coast July 15 and from their base in Wilmington will capture the Cape Fear and Outer Banks through July 23. Then it’s off to the mountains and Asheville from July 24-August 1, and wrap it up in the Piedmont and Raleigh-Durham from August 2-10. They’ll also offer workshops on the use of and technology behind the camera: July 17 in the Wilmington area, July 30 in the Asheville area, and August 6 in the Durham area. The exhibition events will be in September, 2013.

What will they photograph? That’s kind of up to the backers! Aqueti is crowd-sourcing its ideas and backers get to vote on their preferences. Suggestions so far? Photographing 100 mountain-climbers; a 500-person crowd at the first gigapixel recorded wedding; zoom-able panoramas full of coastal wildlife; concerts; family reunions...

They’re also making a film of the expedition, and at the close of the tour will host a screening at a catered reception with boosters and the company founders, and offer the first-ever display of the crowd-selected series of 30-foot prints that represent our Carolina Zoomin’ tour.

It’s pretty cool – you might want to visit the Kickstarter page to learn more, or go experience some of the pictures they’ve taken at the Duke graduation and Durham Market a couple weeks ago.

State of North Carolina Uses ArchiveSocial to Archive Social Media Records

The State Archives of North Carolina unveiled a first-of-its-kind social media archive to an audience of leading archivists, librarians, and records managers at the Best Practices Exchange Conference in Annapolis on Tuesday. The interactive social media archive is available to the public at http://nc.gov.archivesocial.com and contains more than 55,000 public records of Facebook and Twitter communications from state agencies across North Carolina.

VC to Entrepreneurs: Go-To-Market Goal is to Be Lazy

Scott Maxwell, founder and senior managing director of Boston-based Open View Partners, spoke to entrepreneurs at Startup Summit on November 7, 2012, to advise on taking a product to market and crafting an ideal go-to-market strategy.

If launching a new product, said Maxwell, the key is to find and identify a particularly well defined narrow universe of buyers. In other words, "why sell to multiple segments when you can sell to a real narrow market successfully," said Maxwell. Ultimately, an entrepreneur's goal should be to "be lazy," said Maxwell, meaning that the entrepreneur ought to select the conversion mechanism that takes the least amount of investment yet still produces a result in progressing the buyer or potential buyer down the buyer's journey to purchase.

Maxwell's strategy on buyer conversion is simple to remember - think of it as "the four C's," Conversion, Content, Context, Contact.

Conversion

The leverage point is the point in the purchase journey where a buyer or potential buyer gets stuck. You can also think of the leverage point as "the point at which, if we improve the process or solve a problem, it becomes easier for the buyer to make the purchase," said Maxwell. 

As with any comprehensive strategy or sales/marketing initiative, an entrepreneur must begin with the end in mind. You must be able to answer the question: "what is the conversion towards which we are working?" Is it to make a potential buyer within your target market aware of your product? Is it to garner interest (inbound or outbound mechanisms) in your product from the buyer? 

Once you know your goal - let's suppose that your goal is to get a new potential buyer interested in your product - you must define how that goal is achieved, or what buyer action will indicate that they have reached the conversion point. Maxwell listed off many examples of a buyer indicating interest: became a newsletter subscriber, opted-in to promotional/discount emails, joined/accepted an invitation to a private beta, followed you in a social media channel, signed up for a free trial, etc.

The reason you define, exactly, what you want your potential buyer to do is to help you streamline your design process when taking your product to market, and solidify your sales and marketing channels in such a way that you are maximizing your time and focusing your efforts, said Maxwell. It's imperative that you realize that "conversion points can take place throughout the entire [buyer's journey] process," said Maxwell, so that you can create and "string building blocks together to move buyers across the whole cycle."

Content

Our second C is content, or what you can deliver to a potential buyer that will move them towards conversion. The goal in creating content, said Maxwell, is to deliver the information or create the actionable items necessary to move your potential buyer to the conversion point. 

Want Maxwell's quick advice on content? It's simple: "shorter is better than longer, more pieces better than fewer." Your buyer has limited time and limited focus. Create content that results in actions by encouraging brevity and action. 

"Your messages must resonate," said Maxwell, "and your packaging must match the buyer's context." Context, and understanding your buyer, is critical to the success of your go-to-market strategy.

Context

You're probably aware that online marketers, political campaigns, membership organizations, and all kinds of other groups are currently seeing an explosion of customer/donor data. The increase in contextual clues, paired with demographic information, gives organizations an incredibly vast knowledge of market segments, niche markets, and in some cases, individual profiles. 

If you want to successfully bring a new product to market, said Maxwell, it is critical that you build a buyer's profile using the contextual data available to you. Ultimately, your goal in this step is to "really, really, really sharply understand the context in which the buyer makes the purchase decision or the conversion," said Maxwell. 

Some important questions to answer about your potential buyer's profile: What are their purchase priorities? Professional aspirations/goals? Personal aspirations/goals? Their reason for indicating interest? Any reason they wouldn't be interested in your product? Impressions of your company or your competitors?

As you build out a buyer profile, you'll begin to answer these questions. Refining the profile helps you better market and sell to the right people, the right way, the first time. Once you're prepared, you may then think about the fourth C.

Contact

Your goal is to deliver the contextual content through the proper channel, at the proper time, such that your potential buyer goes through a conversion channel. You want to convert the potential buyer into a customer, so ensuring that you are communicating in the right channels is vital. 

One of three things will happen for each new customer. First, you may contact them. Second, they may contact you. Third, others may contact them about you. Do you know your preferred method of contact? Do you have a strategy for each of these types of contact? Those who prepare a strategy well in advance are much better equipped to identify and utilize proper channels of communication, said Maxwell. 

Your ultimate goal as an entrepreneur, launching a new product, is to "be lazy, while still resulting in a conversion," said Maxwell. Why meet in person if a phone call would work? Why use the phone if an email would work? Why email if SEO or word-of-mouth works? 

Bringing it all together

If you had to make one change within your sales/marketing strategy, said Maxwell, "focus on first creating a great content factory." Recognizing that this is entirely a personal opinion, Maxwell noted that this strategy has been successful within his organization and within the organization of his firm's portfolio companies. 

How do you do it all? The answer is relatively simple. "You don't do it all," said Maxwell. "Focus on your best targets. Then, narrow your focus on the leverage points for each buyer target group," said Maxwell. "Finally, focus on the conversion. Execute the plan. Iterate. Try again."

Featured Panel at Startup Summit: Entrepreneurs & Seed Stage Growth

We're in Raleigh at Startup Summit today and tomorrow, celebrating entrepreneurship in the Research Triangle and the Southeast. Startup Summit precedes the digital-focused Internet Summit which attracts a few thousand people to the Triangle to discuss digital trends, internet optimization, and specific industry topics like SEO/SMO, Analytics and Big Data, and much, much more.

We stepped into the Entrepreneur's Panel at Startup Summit, featuring four local entrepreneurs, all of whom are CED Members: Robbie Allen, founder and CEO of Automated Insights, Daniel Chalef, founder and CEO of KnowledgeTree, Luke Fishback, founder and CEO of PlotWatt, and Matt Williamson, co-founder and CEO of Windsor Circle.

What were your biggest challenges in starting your company?

Matt Williamson, and Windsor Circle's three other co-founders, went the entire first year without paying themselves, said Williamson. Choosing to go down this path created a strong commitment to the process, ensured that all four founders were pursuing the same vision and had the resources and ability to commit for a full year. Luke Fishburn echoed Williamson's comments, noting that PlotWatt's founders lived entirely on personal savings for a few years. "One of our biggest challenges," said Fishburn, "is bringing on your first hires who will take lower pay in exchange for some equity - and ensuring them that the equity is worth something." 

Daniel Chalef returned to Williamson's comment about aligning the vision of the founders - in the case of Chalef's startup, KnowledgeTree, the co-founders were his original angel investors. It is important for you and your earliest founders or investors to be on the same page, with an aligned vision, said Chalef. "Are all of you invested in the same vision? Are you willing and able to invest in the vision? These are the most important questions early on," said Chalef. 

For Robbie Allen, who founded Automated Insights (originally was known as StatSheet), the biggest challenge he hears from entrepreneurs is just getting started.  He often gets asked why he would leave his job - Allen spent 13 years at Cisco - to start a company. He noted that many folks have a risk aversion to changing careers, but that he believes that it is actually more risky to stay within a large organization for many years. The problem becomes - and the audience loved this term - "network decay," or the process by which you become complacent in your role within the organization and aren't out hitting the pavement building your skill set and your network. 

How can new entrepreneurs overcome 'initial inertia' and get from ground zero to a real operating business?

"One of the attributes that characterizes entrepreneurs is their willingness to learn and the ability to convince ourselves that we can become subject matter experts really quickly," said Fishback. In the early days, Fishback said, he often found himself investing time in reading material and studying an industry, worrying that he was not spending his time wisely. Now, however, "I look back on these times and realize that these were my most productive and high-value hours."

The next step, said Chalef, is to find customers. "This will give you a strong validation point," said Chalef. Go out and seek that first 2, 3, 5, 10 customers. They'll become strong feedback mechanisms and allow you to develop proof of concept. 

Allen proposed a different approach, using what he himself noted as a cliche - follow your passions. "Turns out, there's no step-by-step guide to entrepreneurship," said Allen, "however, the one universal point I hear from entrepreneurs is that they are passionate about what they are doing." Successful startups will always figure out how to keep the business operating, said Allen. Most startups fail because they give up too early, Allen proposed. "Of course it will be difficult, and there will be challenges, but if you like what you're doing enough to persevere through these challenges, you will succeed," said Allen. 

What advice would you share with folks about recruiting, bringing on first employees, hiring?

All panelists agreed that identifying proper channels for recruiting and building a culture to encourage retention and commitment to a communal vision were absolutely vital components of their business and core tenants within their hiring strategy. "We work our assess off on recruiting," said Fishburn, going on to describe PlotWatt's hiring process as an intensive problem-solving interview, noting that candidates often spend a full week working on a real-world problem, and that the hiring team reviews their code with them to understand their coding philosophy and knowledge. PlotWatt then offers a 'sliding scale' compensation package. "We do not negotiate salary," said Fishburn, "but we do allow new hires to select the package of compensation plus equity that makes the most sense for them."

Chalef discussed the importance of exiting folks the proper way. It is absolutely vital, said Chalef, to understand the impact of a team member leaving, and to pull the team back together to continue working towards that shared vision. While this is a vital skill, said Chalef, it isn't an easy one to learn. If you do offer equity to a new hire, said Chalef, "make sure you provide stock options, not stock."

Allen noted that one of the best ways to bring people onto the team is through identifying potential advisors - these may be investors, successful entrepreneurs, or strong business professionals who are experts in the industry or vertical in which you are targeting. This is a great way to get free work, and free advice, and a wonderful way to build your network, said Allen, because in the professional community, it is often seen as a "badge of honor". If you choose to go this route, said Allen, you must understand "that it is the founder's responsibility to reach out to your advisors." 

What's your biggest mistake? What did you learn from it?

"I don't believe that entrepreneurs should have regrets," said Allen. Each mis-step is just "a part of the journey." Besides, said Allen, "the mistakes I made on my journey may not be a relevant 'fact' for you. There's no right way to go about the journey - it's a roller coaster ride and you will make mistakes." 

Chalef helped re-frame the question, proposing that the audience think of their answers as "things that I would look out for or avoid the next time around." For Chalef, he would ensure that he built a team of people that fully understood startup finance and the pathway to an equity payoff. This fits into an earlier point Chalef made about company culture and ensuring that you surround yourself with people who buy into the shared vision. Equally important, said Chalef, is understanding that "you are not alone" in your venture. Understanding who you can discuss the challenges and doubts that you will inevitably have is vital, said Chalef. Finally, make sure that you "think big, because you're not going to build a big business if you think small," said Chalef.

Williamson shared two anecdotes from personal conversations. The first, from a west-coast entrepreneur: "if you're not failing 70% of the time, you're not aggressive enough." Second, from one of his investors, is that the true mistake "is not learning a lesson from when you do make an error."

What's a one-sentence takeaway, or motto, that aspiring entrepreneurs can use to guide their journey?

Fishburn: Make your venture something you care passionately about.

Chalef: Surround yourself with great people. Think big. Get out there, create something big.

Allen: Enjoy your journey. Build your culture so that everyone in your office loves coming to work every day. 

Startup Summit Comes to the Triangle this November

You've probably heard of the Internet Summit, a two day conference that attracts many of the region’s top digital minds. It’s run by the same group that organizes Digital East, a conference in which I participated back when I was still running partnerships for a startup based in the DC Metro Area. We ended up pitching as a startup at that event and gained traction with a few local investors.

My very first day in the Triangle, CED sent me to the Internet Summit. Last year’s event attracted digital professionals from a variety of industries and sectors and included exciting panel discussions and an animated keynote from speaker and internet-sales genius Gary Vaynerchuk. 

The panel that stands out most in my mind from last year is one that was designed specifically for startups to understand how to craft a successful pitch. Marc Gorlin, the co-founder and chairman of Kabbage, who just closed a partnershipdeal with CED Mentor Partner Channel Advisor, gave an impressive overview of what would impress potential investors and what certainly would get you the boot.

I'm excited to attend again this year, and here’s why: in previous years, the focus on startups has been lacking. Sure, there was that panel last year, but there wasn't much else. I didn't bump into nearly as many entrepreneurs or folks working within growth-stage companies as I thought. 

It’s like the folks running the conference read my mind – this year features the Startup Summit, which focuses exclusively on giving startups an opportunity to showcase their technology and learn from those who have been in their shoes.

Speakers include Angus Davis of Swipely, Sarah Lacey of PandoDaily, Paul Singh of 500 Startups, Scott Maxwell from OpenView Venture Partners, and the Triangle’s own David Morken of Bandwidth. Sixteen early- and growth-stage startups will pitch to the audience. According to Scott Hedrick, one of the professionals behind the Startup Summit and Internet Summit, eleven startups are confirmed, and the final five will be selected soon (check back for an update).

I asked Hedrick what prompted the decision to add the Startup Summit. “We wanted to take the opportunity to highlight the great startup community here locally,” said Hedrick in an email, “we're always looking for places we can add extra value for attendees, and the Startup Summit appears to be a great extension of this event for the audience.”

CED is proud to be a community sponsor of the Startup Summit, and we look forward to seeing the region’s top digital minds convene in downtown Raleigh for an incredible three days of knowledge-sharing, networking, and the inevitable afterparty.

Still need to register? As a community sponsor, CED gets to offer a discounted rate to attend. If interested, email joanna@techmediaco.com and tell them CED sent you. 

Post authored by CED's Jason H. Parker, who spends his days telling the story of entrepreneurship in the Triangle and his nights dreaming of startup ventures. Find him online @jasonhparker. 

How to Get Your Startup Picked Up in the Wall Street Journal

A couple of days ago I was honored to speak with Walt Mossberg, Columnist at the Wall Street Journal and co-founder (with Kara Swisher) of AllThingsD. We had a time to discuss happenings in the “Post-PC Era” and he had mentioned that he really likes to see what entrepreneurs are up to. Below are some hints about how to get Walt and/or Katie Boehret, his review partner and columnist, and/or the AllThingsD editorial staff to take you seriously in the early stages of your company.  Listen closely…

Ann: Walt, you are well known for outstanding coverage of major releases from big-name companies, new mobile technology gadget reviews, and, well, all things that are D, so to speak. But I’ve worked with you for years on products from start-ups – and you seem well-disposed to taking a look at new products from entrepreneurs.

Walt: I do like to talk to entrepreneurs. Continues inside...

Three Takeaways From the Instagram Deal

As the dust settles on the $1B Instagram deal, every entrepreneurial ecosystem is now reflecting on the impact of the deal and what it means for their local entrepreneurs. Yes, it is true that there will be a wide variety of unique perspectives on the deal, with different takeaway points. Here are a few that I think are relevant for the entrepreneurs and startups in the Research Triangle:

Triangle Startup Weekend - Saturday Action!

It is a busy afternoon here at Triangle Startup Weekend! Teams formed last night and arrived bright and early this morning to start working on their products, designs, business plans and presentations for tomorrow.  Although teams are working diligently on their new ideas, it is nice to see team members taking breaks outside on NC State's Centennial Campus to enjoy a little bit of a beautiful day in Raleigh, NC.

There just under 20 teams left and I made my rounds to check in on a few.  With less than 24 hours until presentations, I was happy these teams took the time to get me up to speed.  Below is a little update on some of my favorites! You can check out Triangle Startup Weekend's live streams at triangle.startupweekend.org.  Also, tweet away to @trianglestartup or @CEDNC #TWS2012.


1. Unfundable: Crowdsourced venture capital firm to help promote startups and their work. Provides seed-stage capital to entrepreneurs. I caught up with my friend Thomas with Unfundable and this big team is making some big moves. The team is split between the development side and the business side and the site is up, but still under construction.  Check it out - www.unfundable.co

2. Dumpster Dating: Tagline - It's not dumpster diving, if you have a date. I love this idea because it encompasses  two of my favorite things: bargain buys and getting rid of stuff.  This platform allows users to post a photo of the old stuff they are putting out of the curb, as other users can check it out and let each other know if they are interested in the product. @DumpsterDating

3. Docstr - Simplifying the awful processing of scheduling doctors appointments!  Team members Chris and Nathan welcomed me upon arrival today and gave me the skinny on the weekend - fun guys! I took their survey and hopefully will help them out. @docstrs

4. Soul IPO - Steve is the soul man - literally! He and his team have set up a stock trading platform not for ownership of a company, but of YOUR SOUL! Users have the ability to buy stock in other people's souls and trade it with other users as soul stock goes up or down.  Stock in your soul can increase by doing good deeds for example or decrease, by doing not so good deeds - all decided by the Soul IPO community.  @soulxchange

5. Easy Raffle - I have to give a shout out to this idea because its goal is to help non-profits like CED! Easy Raffle allows users to raffle off items of their choosing as a fundraising opportunity all instantly, all online. Who wouldn't want to raffle off Duke v. UNC tickets to raise a little money for the cause? Can't wait to see their presentation! @easyraffle


There are a lot of other great ideas here at Triangle Startup Weekend and the presentations are going to be awesome!  This is such a wonderful example of the thriving entrepreneurial spirit in the Triangle and North Carolina.  CED is really proud to be a part of this!

Good luck teams!

Jane Royall
Development Coordinator for Membership and Annual Giving
CED
jroyall@cednc.org
@janeroyall

iContact acquired by Vocus for $169 M

What started as a college start-up at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2003 has now grown to a 250-employee company with more than one million users, and today, iContact announced that the company has been acquired by Vocus (Nasdaq: VOCS) in a deal worth $169 million.

Event Announcement: The Impact of Social Media

On Monday, February 27, Southern Capital Ventures will again host an event designed specifically for entrepreneurs. As another installment in their Entrepreneur's Series, Monday's session is dedicated to social media, and how entrepreneurs can utilize social media in 2012 to grow their business.

Bronto Software Offers Retail Guide to Successful Cross-Channel Marketing

From Bronto Press Release (through BusinessWire)

Consumers continue to spend more money online than ever before as revealed by the 2011 holiday shopping season, with online spending up 15 percent to reach $35.3 billion, according to ComScore. Cross-channel marketing has been the call-to-action for retailers to increase online engagement and drive more revenue, but rolling out a fully integrated and optimized cross-channel strategy remains a daunting challenge for many retailers. Bronto Software, the leading marketing platform for retailers and other commerce-focused companies, has developed “Taking a ‘Crawl, Walk, Run’ Approach to Cross Channel Marketing,” a new white paper outlining a step-by-step approach for retailers to plan, implement and evolve a successful long-term customer engagement strategy by integrating email, mobile and social marketing. The white paper is free for download at bronto.com/CrossChannel.

“Bronto developed the ‘Crawl, Walk, Run’ approach to help retailers take their integration of email, mobile and social marketing to the next level, whether they’re in the early implementation phase or already executing successful cross-channel marketing campaigns.”

“Retailers have already made great strides in adapting their marketing mix to meet the needs of today’s digitally connected consumers, but it has been an ad-hoc process for many merchants,” said Jim Davidson, Bronto’s Manager of Marketing Research. “Bronto developed the ‘Crawl, Walk, Run’ approach to help retailers take their integration of email, mobile and social marketing to the next level, whether they’re in the early implementation phase or already executing successful cross-channel marketing campaigns.”

The white paper includes a step-by-step approach for planning, implementing and maintaining a successful cross-channel marketing strategy. The following is a quick summary of the top recommendations:

Crawl: Initiate a Multi-channel Dialogue

• Break the silo mentality between email, mobile and social channels by gathering more detailed audience preference and profile information and getting consumer permissions to communicate via multiple channels
• Leverage campaign themes across multiple channels, mapping content to the channel preferences of the audience
• Optimize content, messages and multimedia to build fans, followers and subscribers

Walk: Connect the Dots

• Execute campaigns to connect audience identities from different channels
• Identify your best customers through their engagement in more than one channel
• Use analytics to develop a more complete picture of your customers and subscribers

Run: Ramp up to Full Cross-Channel Speed

• Leverage data from related systems (e.g. e-commerce platform) to develop personal, relevant messages
• Utilize the best channel for different types of messages as opposed to sending the same message through multiple channels
• Refine consumer profile and behavior data on an ongoing basis

Retail marketers can find more details in the complete “Taking a ‘Crawl, Walk, Run’ Approach to Cross-Channel Marketing” paper. Download the free white paper at bronto.com/CrossChannel.

IBM developerWorks Releases "Tech Trends" Survey Results

In July, IBM developerWorks conducted a survey of over 4,000 IT professionals, faculty members and students from among the developerWorks community. The survey asked respondents about their view of the future of technology, including questions on business analytics, mobile computing, cloud computing, and social business.

 

Here is a preview of some of their findings:

• For cloud adopters, "developing new applications" is expected to be the top activity in the next 24 months, surpassing today's top cloud focus areas of virtualization and storage.
• 51% of respondents stated that adopting cloud technology is part of their mobile strategy
• India may be all about social business technology (57% adopting), but other countries including Russia (19%) are more hesitant.

4 Tips for Writing Effective Web Content

Submitted by Brittany Miller

Lets face it: people are busy. When they go to the web looking for answers they want to grab information quickly. Most people will spend a very short amount of time on a webpage and typically only read a few words or paragraph before deciding if the content is worth their time. So how do you make it easier for people visiting your website to find the information they need and keep coming back to you for more? By writing great content!

Small Firms See Signs of Strength Online

Submitted by Zach Strom

Chapel Hill, N.C. - Despite challenging economic times, small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) are continuing to grow in one area: the web. Protea Digital, a North Carolina based marketing firm, reports that clients have experienced significant increases in online sales in the past quarter.

iContact Plans to Expand Social Networking Abilities

Excerpt from WRAL

Email marketing company iContact is looking to accelerate its sales momentum by expanding social networking capabilities.

What is All The Fuss?

Submitted by Brittany Miller

The web has been buzzing since the arrival of beta version Google+ and more than ever this week since Google has allowed everyone to make accounts on this new social media platform. I finally took the plunge last week and opened my own Google+ account to check out some of its features and uncover what makes this social network different from the rest.

The goal behind Google+ is to make sharing online more like sharing in real life. It gives you the ability to connect with people on the web like you would connect with them in person. With features like Hang Out and Huddle, Google mirrors real life online. Here are five pretty awesome Google+ features:

Think Facebook is Not For B2B Companies, Think Again

Written by Brittany Miller, Neu Concepts 

At Neu Concepts, we have the privilege of working with a lot of interesting companies who offer B2B products. When I ask if they have a Facebook page for their company, they wrinkle their noses and reply, “Facebook is for my personal stuff.” 

Don’t you want your company to be more personal?