Twitter is a world all its own, but it’s a very useful tool in generating information about both your potential customers and competitors.

The List feature in Twitter is a key tool in helping you gauge where you sit in the minds of customers and helping you differentiate your messages from the competition. Here are some ideas for using Twitter Lists to your advantage in your social media strategy.

There are two types of Twitter Lists – public and private. You can use them to A Twitter List is a Twitter feature that can help you target market to your customers, listen to your audience and gain information on your competition.

Listening is a key piece of successful social media marketing. Start your Twitter Lists project as a listening exercise to gain the most intelligence before you use these lists for marketing purposes.

It’s definitely going to take some time to set up these lists because you need to check out your followers’ profiles individually before assigning them to a list. Start with a few categories, and mark all of these lists PRIVATE. If you don’t click the private option, your followers will know they are on your list.

Is there someone not following you that you think adds value to your audience voice? Follow them or put them on a list. Remember, you don’t have to follow or have a follower to use a list. Just make sure to use a Private List.

Try to relate your list categories to the audiences you target in your other marketing. For instance, if you sell B2B products, you could segment your Twitter Lists by industry or revenue – healthcare, insurance and banking or SMB, Commercial and Enterprise.

Once you've set up your lists, ... Read More »

3.       Web 2.0 technologies should be part of the package and deliver an intuitive user experience. It’s best that this experience happens within standard Internet browser and not require a software installation or client on the user’s sy ... Read More »

This a good question to ask when you are looking at using BI in your small business. How does software-as-a-service BI function in a small business? How can these tools benefit customers and other stakeholders? Let’s dive in.

Bob Dieterle, senior VP & GM of Smart Online, calls SaaS BI applications a good replacement tool for “backend IT functions including the management of operating system licenses, upgrading patches and fixes and managing servers and networks which distracts the small business from their core mission.”

He also says the ability to get a “360-degree view of critical information and data” across the organization wherever you can access the Internet gives you a serious advantage in making timely decisions from HR to sales to responding to customers.

Take this example. A small consultancy of 10 people all working remotely can benefit from a SaaS BI application because they manage their own sales pipeline and prospecting. Organizational benefits include:

·         Each consultant can input prospect data into the tool, assign sales process tasks and gain an educated guess at sales probability.

·         The individual consultant can instantly develop a quote for the sales lead with pre-defined parameters – right inside the tool.

·         The CEO or owner can keep up with what’s happening with each consultant via a daily report because all information is updated in real-time and accessible from the Web-based BI tool.

Mike Vizard over at CTOEdge.com recently gave his top ten technologies of 2009. Here’s our take on this list:

Server Virtualization – Vizard says this saved IT organizations dollars on servers this year, which was valuable in the Great Recession. Business intelligence was also a benefactor of server virtualization. Without this application, BI would be struggling.

Smartphones – Where would we be without these artificial appendages? Not only are they putting personal information at our fingertips; they’re allowing employees better productivity because they can access email and important business info at the slide of a thumb or punch of a button.

Cloud Computing – Vizard says this new technology could threaten jobs, but it has freed up resources in IT.

Multicore Processors – Quad-core processors are “changing the fundamental economics of server systems,” says Vizard. He says the real value is in teaming them with virtual machine software. We concur.

Business Intelligence Apps – BI apps are helping businesses make informed decisions because they have intelligent data readily available. Now, if we could just bridge the gap between business users and IT, it really would be a happy New Year.

Application Acceleration Appliances – Vizard calls these “comparatively inexpensive option” to upgrading networks.

10GB Ethernet – Although this is not widespread yet, the option to deploy 10GB Ethernet as data needs increase is something to feel good about as the year winds down.

802.11n Wireless Networks – Before these networking devices arrived, Vizard says “managing a wireless network” was painful. Cheers to less end-user complaints!

Virtual Switches – Vizard says this is an up and coming technology for the enterprise because it will affect virtualization down the road. He says “virtual switch technology will not only be seen as invaluable enabling technology, but also the technology that ... Read More »

Adam T. Sutton, a reporter for MarketingSherpa, recently interviewed Janet Eden-Harris, vice president of web intelligence for J.D. Power and Associates, about how marketing research can be done via social media.

“People go to their blogs, to message boards, chat rooms, and forums, really, to talk to one another,” Eden-Harris tells Sutton. “And they talk spontaneously about products, services, and their lives… You’re not prejudicing them by asking a question. You are listening in, or overhearing conversations that are taking place spontaneously.

She says people with blogs dedicated to a particular topic provide thought and opinion leadership to consumers. Marketers can gain valuable information from paying attention to these bloggers.

Eden-Harris and her team only scour social media sites with public access. Facebook is not on her list because it requires a password, Sutton reports. The J.D. Power and Associates crew aims to gather information from these social media sites and topic bloggers.

She says they mine millions of posts every week and input the data in a database. They analyze the data to not only garner demographics, but consumer motivations.

“It goes beyond demographics,” she says. “It goes into what motivations do people have for buying or using a product or responding to a trend.”

How do Eden-Harris and her team go through millions of posts in a week and gather this detailed information? With a little help from Natural Language Processing – a computer science technology. “NLP can be used to analyze text for subject matter, sentiment and assumptions about a person’s background, such as sex and age,” Sutton writes.

The JD Power team uses this information to report on the particular consumer sharing their opinions on products and companies.

These reports are divided into four main categories:

1.      Brand monitoring – The most common type of report requested by J.D. Power’s customers. They gi ... Read More »

 

What is different? According to Atre, the following developments have changed the face of BI:

·         Recent technological expansion has opened access to the Internet, making the Web a commodity.

·         Systems are now built to be “user friendly” instead of “system friendly.” This has become an expectation as consumers are using their computers both work and home environments.

·         Businesses have realized (or need to) that they have to “provide access to information to the right people at the right time and at the right price so that the employees can make sound business decisions.” That is the very definition of BI.

 

Let’s take a look at what Atre says are the differences in BI implementations of the past and implementations of today.

1.       Most employees have access to computer-based information. With that said, BI resources are not just for “power users.” BI has moved into the trenches. With this large base of trench employees using BI applications in their day-to-day jobs, they expect the information they access to be ... Read More »

The Channel Register, a trade publication for the computer industry, recently released a compilation of the most popular white papers concerning SQL Servers. Here’s a recap:

Named instance architecture is the subject of a whitepaper from Double-Take Software, a firm specializing in backup software. Named instances give users the ability to complete isolate a database while consolidating on the same server. Double Take’s paper shows how to fix a major problem with backing up named instances.

The problem with named instances is the need to maintain the individual instances separately from others on the same server. Double Take fixes this problem in the whitepaper: SQL Server many-to-one protection.

Microsoft’s whitepaper written by Rod Newing, a computer journalist, “Business Intelligence for the Mid-Market” illustrates how small to midsized companies can use BI as a viable business solution just like large businesses.

Their main selling point: Microsoft’s BI cuts costs by allowing taking the IT department out of maintaining multiple BI systems. The SQL Server comes into play as the platform for Microsoft’s BI system.

The Channel Register’s most popular library selection is the case study on how McClaren Electric Systems uses the SQL Server in the engine control unit of Formula One race cars. During a race, the ECU may gather up to a gig of info from sensors on the power train components of the cars.

 

White defines six major activities in the closed-looped ... Read More »

 Using LinkedIn Etiquette to Position Yourself in Your Industry

With the current state of the economy, job searching and getting customers in the door is tough business. Companies are cutting back and putting off projects. Getting creative with networking whether it’s for sales or a job is a must. 

Some recently laid-off workers are using “notice me” techniques to attract employers including a cable access program in the Northeast that lets job-seekers place a short video ad describing their experience and a mom buying billboard space to let potential employers know she is available for hire. Advertisers are using “bailout” and “tax holidays” in their marketing efforts to draw in more sales.

While creative, these tactics don’t have solid results. Turning to social media is a way to be a little less “in-your-face.” With the right strategy, LinkedIn is a good way to network for job opportunities and business deals. However, if you don’t handle yourself well, it can come back to haunt you.

C.G. Lynch, a writer for CIO.com interviewed Kirsten Dixson, a reputation management and online identity expert about LinkedIn etiquette. Here are a few highlights from the interview.

 

Your Photo
A professional photo is a must. Two tips for this making the most of the photo:

·         Pay a professional to shoot your headshots. For a modest investment, your profile instant goes from basic to very professional.

·         Make sure you’re photo is up-to-date. Dixson says your profile picture should “match up pretty well with your current appearance.

 

Your Summary
This important statement gives potential employers a way to get a quick snapshot of your experience. Dixson says to treat it like your personal brand space. She says, “You want to show who you are, what you do and why it’s unique.”

Bottom Line: A good summary gra ... Read More »

Christina Torode, senior writer with SearchCIO-MidMarket.com, interviewed Nigel Rayner, research vice president at Gartner Inc. about the dangers of adding search technology to the business intelligence mix. She also discusses his take on why multiple technologies are moving under the BI umbrella and his tips for making a business case for performance management projects in a tough economy.

Where does “search” fit into BI strategy?
Torode asked for Rayner’s take on search technology in developing a BI strategy. He says in many cases businesspeople are not using the BI tools they have, so why throw another tool at them. He believes they are already suffering information overload in “the structured BI world.” He warns against coupling that with unstructured data.

He says the key to success in BI is to help business people make decisions through information that is presented into context. His three keys for this “performance management” process are modeling, simulation and looking at past trends. Analytics applications the answer to achieving a decision framework, Rayner says.

The Proper Usage of Search Technology
Rayner says search has a function in gather intelligence whether it is competitive or market intelligence. He points out that “if information is organized properly,” search is not necessary. He also notes that knowing what operational data is relevant to performance management, this information can be “reflected in master and meta data,” making search unnecessary.

Convergence of BI, Business Apps, and BPM
Rayner says that vendors are working on converging these three technology segments, and users are still buying in pieces. He calls the vendors packaging all of these tools “visionary” but also sees this as a way for them to lock in customers.

He says many vendors are looking at ways to combine analytics, data warehousing, and information management with BI technology. While this is innovative, he says it’s not what users want. He says a number of tech company mergers are behind the influx of convergence.

He says there is a disconnect among users such as sales management and the CFO and IT. He says sales will go out and buy an integrated tool that combines CPM with BI and not check to see if this is compatible with the other members of the organization.

Cutting Costs with C ... Read More »

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Christina Torode, senior writer at SearchCIO.com, explored the “disconnects between” business intelligence investment and the valued derived from the BI strategy in her article Business Intelligence Strategy Success a Matter of Alignment

 

Torode writes that only about 15 to 20 percent of employees in companies with a BI strategy use BI tools in the roles (info reported from Gartner, Inc.)

 

Attending the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit, Torode reports that analysts and attendees of the conference give five reasons for the disconnect:

 

 

In her article Torode interviews company representatives at the Gartner BI Summit about their plans to reign in or expand their BI strategy.

 

One such representative was Peggy Griffith, area manager for IT regional applications and BI for Sappi Ltd., a pulp and paper company based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Based in South Portland, Maine, Griffith says her company is investing exclusively in BI this year. She says they are consolidating four BI tools into one and using their BI strategy to manage inventory and logistics.

 

Allstate Insurance Co. was another company struggling to make a place for BI in the organization. A BI pilot h ... Read More »

He uses “cognitive biases” as his basis for developing CI from the decision support standpoint. He delivers a list of these biases to illustrate how CI is not beneficial to the customer because of the over and underestimations of many levels of the research.

The overestimated biases include

·         Level of specificity required

·         Level of precision required or possible

·         The value of quantitative information

·         The need for “right now” facts over past trends

The underestimated biases include:

·         Underestimate the value of strategy; put more value on tactics

·         Underestimate the ethical principles behind gathering the CI
Underestimate time frame required to gather information

 

 

Basically, the stats show that MDM is a big deal, but as with any business intelligence venture there are right and wrong ways to do things. HP takes a look at how the promise of “more intelligent business decisions, more precise reporting and operational efficiencies” in the integration of MDM into your business brings some harsh reality.

 

Successfully implementing a MDM solution is easier said than done, and the seven deadly sins laid out in the HP white paper give you a great look at the ways to avoid “misconceptions, missteps and oversights.”

 

First Look at the Seven Deadly Sins of MDM