Featured Report: Holiday Buyers Make It Mobile

eMarketer.com
Oct,22,2012
The number of consumers planning a mobile purchase has nearly doubled With the holiday season on the horizon, retailers are gearing up for the rush of gift shopping that accompanies the last few months of the year. A September 2012 survey of US online buyers, conducted by market consultancy the e-tailing group and ecommerce service provider MarketLive, found that ecommerce will continue to siphon business away from traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, with mobile playing a growing role in that evolution.
Read Report

This Week's Mobile Marketing News
Mobile Marketer
QR codes key driver in 2012 holiday marketing efforts
Oct,22,2012
by: Rimma Kats
Many marketers are turning to various mediums to bolster their holiday marketing initiatives. However, QR codes will be the standout technology that will elevate those campaigns and take them to the next level. Brands such as Target and Tourneau are incorporating mobile bar codes into their holiday initiatives as a way to not only interact with consumers in a different way, but also help increase revenue. Although there is an ongoing love/hate relationship with QR codes, there is no doubt that the technology will play a big role this year.
Read more

Eloqua
Everyone is Talking about Social CRM. Few are Doing It.
Oct,17,2012
by: Jesse Noyes
If your organization hasn’t adopted social CRM, don’t feel so bad. Most folks are in the same boat as you. Social CRM may seem like the topic du jour, but in reality most of the market isn’t adopting the principles or technology needed to truly make it work. More people don’t even know what it is. This is the current state of social CRM adoption – at least according to Awareness Inc., which recently covered the topic in its State of Social Marketing report. The survey found that 16% of respondents were using a “social CRM system”, while 17% didn’t know what social CRM was. 21% percent said they weren’t using social CRM, but planned to. But a whopping 46% simply said they didn’t use social CRM.
Read Report

Yankee Group
Search Giant Google Records 20 Percent Drop in Profit in Q3
Oct, 19, 2012
by: Carl Howe
Google accidentally released its Q3 earnings a few hours early, and the results were shocking to most; the tech giant reported a 20 percent drop in profits, resulting stock prices falling 9 percent in the minutes following the release. The Washington Post is reporting that the earnings releases were posted to the Securities and Exchange Commission Web site a few hours earlier than anticipated. Google ceased trading on NASDAQ following the release while it finalized the document, which was initially posted with a note stating it was “Pending Larry quote.” Google reported revenue of U.S.$11.3 billion in Q3, which was up 19 percent year-on-year, but net income fell to U.S.$2.18 billion. Part of the company’s decline is blamed on foreign currency exchange rates, while another part is blamed on Google’s Motorola unit, which reported an adjusted operating loss of U.S.$151 million.
Read Report

Health and Wellness Seminars Coming January 2013
Chicagoland Healthcare Professionals:
Are you concerned about your practice can meet the Meaningful Use 1 and 2 regulations? Are your still struggling to understand and complete your EHR network? Do you know if you even qualify for the over $20 billion dollar EHR Incentive program funds? If answered YES to any of these questions.

Then make plans this January, 19, 2013 to attend the Health and Wellness Seminar hosted by Chicago's Uptown Business Partners. These seminars will explain in clear English not tech speak how to understand and complete an EHR for your practice how fund it and real solutions on how to find and IT partner help you complete your EHR and qualify for the EHR Incentive program. The first seminar Understanding EHR will take you step by step on how EHR works and how to create an EHR network. We will be teaching this totally interactive seminar and giving you real solutions to your EHR problem.

So make plans to attend this seminar and get the answers you need to help your practice meet all of the Meaningful Use Rules.

If you need answers to your Healthcare IT needs now visit our Healthcare Managed Services page at Wirehead Technology

Social Media and Ageism

Social Media and Ageism
by: Howard Lee
CIO
Wirehead Technology

While social media is being used in business and doing quite well, I'd recently found that it has revealed how we look at age in understanding its usage.

I'd met up with a group of small business owners at a community mixer. While we were talking, the subject had come up. I'd told them that my business was using social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, etc. to attract new customers. They'd asked me about my business and also who had done my social media network for me. After I'd answered that I'd done it all myself, they'd become quite shocked and surprised. One man had said that he'd thought that I'd hired some young people to do my network and also that it is only they who can understand how social media works. I'd said to him that this is not true and anyone can learn how to use it for his or her business.

Here is where ageism comes into play in social media and business. Many business owners feel that only young people ages 18 to early 30s can create social media networks for their businesses. So they hire these young people with the hope that they would get better results. Unfortunately, they create these networks only to look good for people mainly in their own age group. The business owners would unhappily find out that their business needs are not being fulfilled because their networks are not attracting enough new and appropriate customers. Business owners, regardless of age, must understand that it's not about how many 'likes' they may have on Facebook or 'followers' they may have on Twitter. They need to turn them all into business customers. This can and should be done only by people who truly understand social media and business and more importantly getting their messages and brands into the minds of the public. Neither time nor money should ever be wasted.

To illustrate my point, recently I'd read an article online written by a 26 year-old woman who had stated that if a business wanted to get into social media it should not hire anyone over 30 years old since a person that old could not do a good job. After thinking about how arrogant her statement was, I'd commented that I was using social media for business for ten years starting with Linkedin and am currently using social media tools like Facebook and Twitter since 2007. I truly hope she will rethink about her statement about social media and age and also change her attitude.

Another example: I'd gotten a call from a company telling me that my business could not really grow without social media and how I would be losing out if I don't use them to create my social media network. This young salesman probably in his mid 20s was talking about his experience in social media and why it is something I could not understand without his expert 'guidance'. After about ten minutes of this, I'd asked him long he has been using social media in business. He answered three years. That's when I'd told him that I'd been working with social media for ten years. He was quite surprised to hear that.

Then I went on to tell him that I was also working with companies since 2007 to put them on MySpace and YouTube to increase their businesses and had taught at a seminar on social media and mobility in business in 2010 at Illinois Institute of Technology here in Chicago and one of the guests was Luke Shepard from Facebook. Then I'd told him that he obviously didn't look at my business because if he did he would have seen very clearly that we are very social media connected and could probably teach him a thing or two about using it. Towards the end of the sales call, he'd asked me if I'd like to talk to their business development director about possibly partnering on future projects. I'd told him that he could pass on my info and I would take his call if he think we could possibly work together. I had not heard back from them since.

The aforementioned stories are just two of many similar stories I would hear from other older business owners who would get calls many times from younger so-called experts like that salesman who would 'talk down' to them about social media as if they are just too old to understand social media. The results are that most owners feel insulted by these 'helpers'. This may be why business owners don't take social media seriously because they themselves haven't been taken seriously. The solution to all of this is that younger social media companies should make sure that they truly understand that older business owners really want their experiences to be accounted for while talking with them. And more importantly, they should not treat the owners as if they're 'out of touch' and explain to them in plain English how social media can help their businesses. And also, just like traditional forms of advertising, social media can get their messages and brands across to attract new customers.

I'm happy to say that I have found that older business owners have responded very favorably to using social media when it is shown clearly as something that can truly help their businesses. It's just like in the early 2000s when business owners didn't think that websites could help their businesses. Now almost every business, large and small, has some type of online presence. Social media is now another means of getting businesses even better online presence.

Oh, in case you were wondering what my age is and why I wrote this article, I will proudly say that I am 58 years old and all this needs to be told and hopefully understood.

SBA Expands Entrepreneurship Boot Camp for Vets

SBA News Release
PRESS OFFICE

*************

SBA Expands Entrepreneurship Boot Camp for Vets
Announces Two New Programs for Women Vets, Guard, Reservists and Families

*************
Release Date: November 10, 2010
Contact: Dennis Byrne (202) 205-6567
Release Number: 10-63
Internet Address: http://www.sba.gov/news

*************

WASHINGTON – With thousands of service men and women returning from
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Small Business Administration and
Syracuse University are expanding their Entrepreneurship Boot Camp for
Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) to a seventh school, Louisiana State
University, and launching two new entrepreneurship programs for women
veterans and National Guard and Reserve members and their families.

According to the SBA, nearly one quarter of veterans indicate they are
interested in starting or buying their own small business, and that percentage
is even higher among women veterans. With that in mind, the growing
partnership between SBA and Syracuse University provides training on how to
start and grow a small business to veterans, with programs targeted to
service-disabled veterans, women, National Guard and Reserve members and
their families of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“When you consider the leadership and management skills our veterans
develop while on active and reserve duty, it’s no wonder we see more of them
pursuing their dreams as entrepreneurs and small business owners,” SBA
Administrator Karen Mills said. “Through our partnership with Syracuse
University we are continuing to strengthen the tools and resources available to
them.”

“We often speak about the sacred trust we have with our service men and
women, and one way we honor that trust is ensuring they have every possible
opportunity for success,” Mills continued. “When it comes to entrepreneurship,
their success also means success in driving economic growth and creating
jobs.”

In 2009, SBA partnered with Syracuse University, providing a three-year
cooperative agreement providing funding totaling $450,000, to support the
university’s year-long EBV program on six campuses. Now in the second year
of the partnership, with SBA’s support, the “boot camp” is expanding to a
seventh campus, E.J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University.
The other five campuses are: the University of Connecticut School of
Business, Mays Business School at Texas A&M, UCLA Anderson School of
Management, Florida State University’s College of Business, and the Krannert
School of Management at Purdue University.

Created and delivered by a network of some of the best business schools in
the country, it is designed to leverage the skills, resources and infrastructure
of higher education to offer experiential training in entrepreneurship and small
business management to veterans. Last year, the first year SBA partnered
with Syracuse University, 129 service-disabled veterans participated in the
program. Since the program’s inception, more than 320 wounded warriors have
graduated to date and more than 150 businesses to date have been launched
by graduates.

Additionally, SBA is also providing $2.6 million through a cooperative agreement
over three years for two new programs supporting veteran entrepreneurs. The
first, Women Veterans Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (V-WISE),
focuses on training, networking and mentorship for women veterans. The
three-day, off-site training program, online training and network support
structures will be delivered in several locations around the nation, and
anticipates serving up to 1,400 female veterans over a 36-month period.

The second new program, Operation Endure & Grow, targets National Guard
and Reserve members, their families and business partners. The goal of this
program is to mitigate the economic hardship of deployed members and their
families. The eight-week online course will focus on the fundamentals of
launching and/or growing a small business for those who will sustain the
business when the service member is deployed, injured or killed. Initially 550
individuals are expected to participate. In total V-WISE and Operation Endure
& Grow will serve over 1,950 individuals and their families.

The expansion of SBA’s partnership with Syracuse University builds on more
than $1.25 billion in loan guarantees for veterans in its flagship 7(a) and 504
programs, and through its Patriot Express loan pilot initiative. In three years
Patriot Express has supported nearly $550 million in loans to more than 6,500
veterans and spouses looking to establish or expand their small businesses.

SBA reaches out to veterans through its 68 local SBA district offices, 16
Veterans Business Outreach Centers nationwide, and its partnership with 1,000
Small Business Development Centers and some 12,000 SCORE – Counselors to
America’s Small Businesses volunteers. SBA has numerous programs creating
government contracting opportunities for vet-owned small businesses. For
more information visit www.sba.gov/vets and www.sba.gov/reservists.