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|  | Posted On Jul 03, 2008 in |  Comments(1) | Do you really believe that social networking sites are relevant enough to cater to the ever growing needs of the job market? Are they capable enough to provide quality manpower to organizations? Is it a good and reliable solution?
I would like to tell you my story in few lines.It really feels strange that I got my job through a social networking website. None is ready to buy my story, but it is as true as the sun rising in the east. Everyone is amazed that I landed up with such a good job when others really have to slog it out scanning sites, looking for opportunities and mailing resumes. Things just don’t end here and have to keep waiting for the response. Luckily I joined the famous Indian student networking portal – www.collegespeaks.com, where I would regularly post comments in the ”Quotes” section and that helped me grab my first job offer even before I finished my college. After the dot com boom a lot of jobsites came to the fore which could supplement the traditional hiring structure. Referrals also started gaining popularity. But still the job market was not completely untapped.Now comes the social networking way of finding candidates which many professinals and HR recruitment firms consider better than many job sites. So the questions- do you Orkut, or are  you linked with LinkedIn, the most popular professional networking website, or is your face among the millions faces in Facebook, or have you had your space booked in MySpace, aptly fall in line in the series of questions that I have put up so far. Social networking websites have suddenly caught the fancy of job seekers and the  recruiters alike. The stats are not very much in favor of jobsites as they still account for 15-20% of lateral recruits in industries (Figures are in Indian context which may vary from country to country). Social networking Websites offer special avenues and special challenges simultaneously to both the entities- the seeker and the provider.
Pros and Cons of Hiring Through Social Networking
Mine is not the only isolated case to be sourced through a social networking site. If you make a search you will find a good number of people getting plum offers through various social networking sites. And a small fraction is of people like me who would never care to post resumes due to lethargy. Let’s see what job market is all about in the present day.
The job market consists of two types of persons. The proactive ones will search through different job sites emailing their resumes. Another category is of those whose resumes are not present on the job sites meaning a good number of quality man power is latent. But by engaging social network sites, the chances are very high that those latent potentials will be lucidly available. One can get in touch with persons who are not actively into the job market as per the organization’s needs and offer the proposal.
Social networking sites (SNS) also play an important role when you are trying to set up a new venture in a foreign land or an alien country. Sites like LinkedIn can definitely help you in finding the right candidate who fits the bill. These sites are basically for professional or business networking. So when you compare them with jobsites they have a definite edge on the number of profiles on a SNS over the number of CVs stored in the database of jobsites. Another important factor why companies are looking at shifting from jobsites to networking sites can be attributed to the good number of youth accessing the latter.
 Communities, forums or user groups have a particular type of user base which consists of people having penchant for particular things. Take for example: Orkut has communities like Indian Journalists. If a media organization wants to appoint a journalist in India, he can visit that particular community and take a look at the profiles as per its requirements. Social networking site thus present a better idea about the candidate as people are more open in social networking to express their feelings.
The major factor that goes against SNS is credibility. Some argue that SNS are more credible than jobsites as the profile is in the public domain with all the references like friend lists, fans or testimonials. However, on the yardstick of credibility both hold equally and one must check through references in either case.
 Apart from the question of credibility, investment- both in terms of time and money also goes against SNS. Generally, job portals return with results quickly as compared to SNS. E-sourcing requires special set of skills to effectively spot the right talent.
For the Job Seeker and the Recruiter
 The recruiter and the job seeker - these are the two who enter into a new relationship. So the impetus is on both to help each other. The job seeker can use keywords and describe about him or her. And this one is a must- join communities where he/she thinks that prospective recruiters will come, but they according to his interests.
Hiring agencies, organizations should be careful that they get across all the necessary references before they finally decide upon the candidates. We must remember that hiring through social network is still in infancy. Thanks to Web2.0 and other technologies that are really making it happen.
The Times Ahead 
Human resource is unequivocally the major asset of any organization and it involves a lot of things before a candidate is finally handed the offer letter. So it’s imperative that the organizations have to be diligent about the prospect.
The future seems very bright for the social networking sites. But nothing concrete can be said as when. Sites like LinkedIn have their profiles featured in the Google search pages. That is a big advantage for a prospective recruiter or a job seeker as they can specify the search details. Many companies have already started searching profiles in different sites that suits their taste. Experts believe in today's competitive world, it is important to target active as well as passive job seekers.Many other such sites are already are looking at options to make their profiles or user database Google searchable.
The trend of recruiting from social media sites is here to stay and will grow eventually as targeted hiring can take place for free and that too with a background check on all social media sites like LinkedIn and Orkut. Though the person commenting on the prospect can be found to be bias at times, the prospect might be also connected to other networking sites where they have a different set of people to interact with. The reviewer can visit other social media sites to know more about the prospect in question and form a conclusion by synchronizing all comments. Apart from recruiting through job portals, campuses and other mediums; social media sites are going to be one of the coolest ways to recruiting talent. Job portals are here to stay but for how long, we can just speculate.
So what say! Haven’t I given you a valid excuse to keep Orkutting? Happy surfing and start building your network, after all business is all about networking.
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| | Posted On Jul 02, 2008 in | Add a Comment | Remember the Vodafone Dog or the old Hutch? Or the bold Subway hoarding on a United States Expressway, having SEX written prominently over it and below,” Now that we have got your attention, come and eat at Subway.” Advertisements are basically to build brands and reinforce the product in the minds of the consumer through different media like radio/TV/Print/New Media etc.The whole chain of events leads to the consumption of the brand product in the market or simply the sales of the company move up.In our previous blog we already discussed how you can build brands online - Building Brands Online.
17 years after Sir Timothy Berners Lee developed the internet, it is on the brink of second revolution that is going to have far reaching consequences in every business domain, be it hospitality,services,transportation, or for that matter anything you can think about.Yes! It's internet advertising.Organizations are using this new platform to effectively build brands and for sales promotion purposes at all levels.Earlier if it was TV that was in the lead role to promote a product, of late the balance has been shifting towards internet.In this section we will delve into the intricacies of Internet Advertising and how it can generate more sales for you.
Lets begin with the basics first. Internet advertising is simply branding your project using the strength of the World Wide Web.It is somewhat different from TV or Print advertising. Read More
Why Internet Advertising?
The web market includes micro, home-based, and small and large business organizations that are interested in tapping into a potentially huge market.An online advertisement allows the business owner to reach this market using only limited resources.Most important of all, this market is growing all the time. It is on the cutting-edge of technology with thousands of Web sites being created and placed on the Web daily throughout the world. Most companies have turned to the Internet to serve their advertising needs.It is the most efficient, cost effective method of advertising since the introduction of television. The notable difference is that your Web site remains on the Internet advertising your company indefinitely.There are no limited advertising time frames.
Colours of Internet Advertising
Internet advertising comes in a variety of colors that enable you to reach to a wide class of customers halving specific requirements, interests, purchasing capacity, knowledge across different demographics through out the world.These are some of the most popular types of internet advertising:
The Good Old Banner Ads
 Banner ads are usually relatively simple pieces of HTML, generally rectangular in shape which may considerably vary in appearance and subject matter, but they all share a basic function: if you click on them, the Internet browser will take you to the advertiser's Web site.Studies have shown that banners are terribly good at generating traffic through click-throughs and have a powerful branding effect.But bear in mind that banner ad content should be in sync with the site content and the taste of the visitors visiting that space.
Mailing Lists & Newsletters-The easiest One!
So often you would have used this application without realizing its power.Mailing lists and News letters are one of the best and easiest ways to effectively brand your product across specific demographics targeting people who really are interested in knowing about your product and purchasing it from the market.
What about Sponsorships! 
Sponsoring on internet is bit similar to sponsoring on television.You can sponsor a particular section/page of the website and project your brand strongly by integrating into brand elements along with the content of the website.Or you can sponsor a particular page saying,” This Page is sponsored by…” and showcase your brand more prominently.The main advantage of sponsorships are that they are more target specific as you already have an idea which class of consumers will visit that page or particular section.
Need a Break? Interstitials!
Interstitial ads (interstitial means "in between") are a way of placing full page messages between the current and destination page during file downloading. Interstitial messages, like TV commercials make viewers a captive of the message. Typical interstitials last ten seconds or less. That's five to ten seconds of doing nothing but looking at the ad.
Interstitial reminders would be placed between your main page and your most popular secondary pages. Through sensory input-filtering, your clients may miss the banner ads, but there is no avoiding with Interstitials. Care should taken that it is not over done or they will be annoying.
Flashy, Vibrant and Eye Catchy- The Rich Media Advertising
With Java and Flash becoming the norms of the modern day advertising, a large of ads are designed in rich media format with sound files and videos. These are more entertaining and cast a strong image of the product in the mindset of the viewers. Organizations like Nike,Adidas,Reebok,Levi’s are using these ads more frequently.
Searching...Searching...Searching..Found! Keyword Advertising
Sometime when you search for a particular term in the Google, you will notice an ad displayed at the top of the search result. This is what keyword advertising is all about. It is quite an effective means of promoting and selling your product. You just have to pay the search engine, directory or site for having your link/ad displayed at the top of the results page when the particular key word is searched. But there is a catch, higher is the popularity of the word, higher is the cost.
The New Age Specials- E-Coupons/Digital Coupons
Digital coupons are electronic twins of the usual paper coupons that we have been using for ages. Also called e-coupons, they offer you special deals for e-commerce purposes. But they are still in their infancy and still a lot has to be done.
Heard the punchline of latest NIke ad? “Stop talking, start doing”. This is the what it says. So start working on your online advertising strategy by using any or all of the above advertising methods that best suits your business requirements and budgetary constraints.For further information read our previous stories on Internet Marketing and Advertising. |
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| | Posted On Jul 01, 2008 in | Add a Comment | How does it feel when you have to wake up early before the sunrays knock on your window, getting rid of the usual morning ablutions in hurry and zipping off for the office everyday with burger in one hand and steering wheels in the other hand? Had it not been a public website, I would have used all the abuses that you chant everyday, thus giving proper respect and voice to your sentiments. But the paint is not as dark as it has been painted. Take a look at Vyew 3.0. It is going to change your lives forever. No office. No coming late and no excuses to the boss.
Vyew, developed by Simulat, Inc., is a browser-based collaboration and conferencing platform that enables web users to share and create together files in real-time and asynchronously over time. It has been gaining popularity with Web 2.0 becoming the buzzword. It’s flexible enough to allow conferencing and collaboration on your terms without affecting your work flow. Read More
Vyew Books
VyewBook = Meeting Room = Work Space.
A VyewBook is a collection of pages created and saved together in Vyew for collaborating on during live conferences and asynchronously overtime, anytime. Not only the user has the liberty to create multiple content topics but also save large number of files based on audience, utility or version. It Supports a wide range of file formats-DOC, XLS, PDF, PPT, JPG, GIF, PNG, SWF, TXT, RTF,MP3,FLV.
VyewBooks give users the ability to easily author new content and collaborate on almost any file. Each web meeting becomes a historically archived VyewBook for future referencing.
VyewBooklets
Users can print their VyewBooks and publish them as 'VyewBooklets' anywhere on the web, and can be embedded within blogs, social networks, or web site.
Communication Vyew 3.0 offers multitude of communication options ranging from VoIP, Text Chats to Conference calling. If you are one of those who believe in Voice communication instead of typing message, then you can use the built in uniplex VoIP via PTT button (Push to Talk) for presentations to 50 persons or collaborations with up to 2-3 people, or use a webcam if you have one. For the residents of US, a free conference calling number is available which is ideal for presentations to maximum 150 people at a time, or collaboration with 2-4 people. The communication sidebar is available throughout the Vyew Interface.
Document Explorer
The Document Explorer lets the users to upload content for new or existing meetings/collaboration sessions. The users can enrich their content and information by inviting participants to meetings and share their documents during collaboration. It lets users to manage their VyewBook meetings and documents. Vyew 3.0 is better than its earlier versions vis-à-vis:
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New Desktop Sharing Engine
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Voicemail notes
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Sidebar discussion area for comments
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Online image editing
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Better quality of Push-To-Talk VoIP and Webcam
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Background importing
Applications
Vyew 3.0 is finding wide application in business and education. Users can invite specific persons to specific VyewBooks which can be left unlocked for the collaborators to review or add content. Pages can be switched on-demand during live conferences from one to another.
Users can make sales presentations, train and educate employees remotely, post estimates or targets to prospective customers, organize webinars or collaborate with target audiences. Or help your customers, engineering support or finance facility to your customer world wide. Furthermore, spreadsheets and financial data can be shared and web meetings can be held with financial analysts to address the financial concerns of the company or how they can be improved further. There are lots and lots of things that you can do with this amazing application.
For educators and students it is a promising tool as they can host and attend online classes, and be available to each other virtually 24hrs a day. Students always cry foul over unavailability of syllabus and courseware. But relax with Vyew’s File Storage (VFS) feature, teachers can post the syllabus and courseware on the VFS which can be accessed by everyone. Collaborate with peers at other colleges or universities on research, papers, and projects, plan social activities. Moreover, tutors can generate more income from their experience and expertise by using Vyew.
There are plenty of stuff that you can do with Vyew3.0. Just explore yourself and Vyew the magic!
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| | Posted On Jun 30, 2008 in | Add a Comment | Bored of reading Elle, Cook's Illustrated, Esquire or Times? Why don’t you switch to my magazine that is going to be on newsstands soon! Or better start your own magazine?
You must me thinking that I have become crazy reading online all the time. Absolutely not. No doubt that the task assigned to me is taking a toll on me but the idea of having my own magazine published is keeping my spirits high. Yes with the development of MagCloud from the HP stable, my long cherished dream of having my own magazine published will be soon turning into reality.
 MagCloud is an HP Lab research project evaluating new web services that will provide small independent magazine publishers, online content owners, and small businesses the ability to custom publish digitized magazines and economically print and fulfill on demand. Using HP's Indigo technology, the magazines are printed when ordered in full color on 80 lb paper with saddle-stitched covers. MagCloud offer support
Getting Started 
Anyone can browse and preview the magazines published on MagCloud. To complete an order the user will be asked to create an account or sign in. The user needs to have a PayPal account or a credit card to make the payment.
Since it’s under Beta development phase, the finished work can be shipped only to addresses in the United States presently. All magazines will be shipped in a protective plastic wrapper via USPS first class mail, and the order will arrive in about 7-10 days.
Publishing
It claims to offer high quality publishing at low cost but the users had to conform to certain production requirements. The publishing involves the following simple steps:
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Creating PDF files using authoring tools of the user’s choice
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Create magazine on MagCloud > Create a new issue> Upload PDF
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Order a printed proof. Verify the magazine before publishing.
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Set Mark Up and publish PDF.
After Publishing
Once the issue is published MagCloud exposes it to potential buyers in a number of ways:
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in the recent issues displayed under the Home and Browse pages
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the site's Recent Issues RSS feed found on the Browse page
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MagCloud search on the Browse page
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the magazine's custom home page, which shows all the issues of your magazine
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the issue's custom home page, which displays information, a page previewer, and the all important "Buy!" button
Browsing Through Different Categories
There are altogether 24 categories at present. If you are interested in reading then you just need to have an account and read any of the print work present in different categories. If for example you are into Web design and development, then you can read “The Rubyist” which is a technical magazine focused on technical content and the happenings in the world of Ruby, Rails, Merb, and anything else related to our favorite programming language. Or if you happen to be a connoisseur of good food, then surf through the Cooking, Food and Wines category and check out the Foods Ville, a magazine of the Foodsville community where you will find a great culinary library of books, articles, and recipes etc.
And if you find the magazine worth keeping, just book your copy online.
So put your thinking caps on folks and start working on the layout and content of your magazine. Who knows your magazine will become the benchmark in its category just like the Forbes or the Time magazine or even better than them! |
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| | Posted On Jun 27, 2008 in | Comments(1) | At the recently held Conference in Boston from June 9th to 12th 2008, on Enterprise 2.0 most of the speakers agreed to the view that E2.0, as it is popularly known as, is inevitable. Marketing and software pundits believe that this will be the next big thing that will have a major impact on how the business is run today after Internet infiltrated into the business processes. So this time around we won’t be discussing the regular stuff- Internet and Business- instead we will give you an insight into the somewhat new world of Enterprise 2.0 and how it is getting transformed into a major business phenomenon.
Browser based softwares, SaaS, and Web 2.0 have been making fast advancements in the enterprise arena, however the absence of useful pioneer reports is hampering the development process and preventing many organizations from moving on to this next level. The trends have been really amazing with more and more number of user generated content and communication collaboration mushrooming up via blogs and social media websites. Keeping all the above developments in mind a question that often comes to our mind is can the integration of the three- SaaS, Web 2.0 and business- be more meaningful in the enterprise as well.
What is Enterprise 2.0?
The term Enterprise 2.0 was coined by Andrew McAfee, Associate Professor, Harvard Business School. According to him,”Enterprise 2.0 is the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers.” Source: Professor Andrew McAfee’s Blog
Social software enables people to rendezvous, connect or collaborate through computer-mediated communication and to form online communities.
Platforms are digital environments in which contributions and interactions are globally visible and persistent over time.
Emergent means that the software is freeform, and that it contains mechanisms to let the patterns and structure inherent in people's interactions become visible over time.
Freeform means that the software is most or all of the following:
These examples will help you understand the term better:
To make a long story short, it means using inside an enterprise the successful tools of web 2.0.These new tools may well supplant other communication and knowledge management systems with their superior ability to capture tacit knowledge, best practices and relevant experiences from throughout a company and make them readily available to more users. Enterprise 2.0 liberates the workforce from the constraints of legacy communication and productivity tools like email. It provides business managers with access to the right information at the right time through a web of inter-connected applications, services and devices. It makes accessible the collective intelligence of many, translating to a huge competitive advantage in the form of increased innovation, productivity and agility.
Other than Web 2.0, E2.0 makes extensive use of Office 2.0, the term coined by Ishmael Ghalimi. The term Office 2.0 is a marketing neologism representing the concepts of office productivity applications as published applications rather than stand-alone programs. The term leverages the Web 2.0 concept to conjure imagery of collaborative, community based and centralised effort rather than the more traditional application running on a platform locally. Office 2.0 prevents you from the tedious work of software installation, updates, administration rights, software versions, virus scanning and all like stuff. Read More
Tools of Enterprise 2.0
Whether created by software vendors, internal IT departments, line-of-business units or service providers, the software of Enterprise 2.0 will be flexible, simple and lightweight. It will be created using an infinite combination of the latest - and possibly, some old-fashioned - ingredients, including the following:
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Technologies
Open source, SOA/Web services (AJAX, RSS, blogs, wikis, tagging, social networking, and so on) Web 2.0, legacy and proprietary - or some combination
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Development Models
Relying on in-house, outsourced or offshore resources - or any combination; pursuing a global development strategy; and/or pursuing co-creation with users, partners or both
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Delivery Methods
Downloading individually; paying for a license; and/or, using on-demand/SaaS or via a service provider
Business Vs Enterprise 2.0
Enterprise 2.0 is the synergy of a new set of technologies, development models and delivery methods that are used to develop business software and deliver it to users.Enterprise 2.0 is more than just Web 2.0 for business. The complexity of enterprise computing is far more than personal computing. Things like legacy environments, innumerable vendors, mismatched data sources, stringent regulations and scattered pattern of users make it further complicated. While Web 2.0 can deliver genuine advantages for both business users and consumers, the real "Enterprise 2.0" will encompass a far broader and more complex vision. But with Web 2.0, all these complexities can be metamorphosed into strength as the organization becomes flat and there is ease of flow of information. Just take a look at the major advantages that E2.0 has in store for you as compared to conventional business methods often called as Enterprise 1.0 or E1.0.
Everything about E2.0 is not perfect and there are limitations like what happens when the server is down or the connection is irregular. These shortcomings may look to deter people/organizations from quickly shifting to E2.0. Despite those limitations its getting all the attention in this world and more and more business firms are embracing these new tools and technologies, either at the top-down level or at the grassroot level, and often both. It’s also an indication that the network is going to become the pre-eminent location for most meaningful business software.
Everything about E2.0 is not perfect and there are limitations like what happens when the server is down or the connection is irregular. These shortcomings may look to deter people/organizations from quickly shifting to E2.0. Despite those limitations its getting all the attention in this world and more and more business firms are embracing these new tools and technologies, either at the top-down level or at the grassroot level, and often both. It’s also an indication that the network is going to become the pre-eminent location for most meaningful business software. |
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