Polycom Offers New Video Collaboration Suite

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• Polycom Offers New Video Collaboration Suite
• Twitter Tools And Techniques To Power Your Marketing
• Steps To Effective Change Management
• Unemployment Rate Falls In September But What Happened To Self Employment?
• Wal-Mart Battles Online Rivals with E-Commerce

Polycom Offers New Video Collaboration Suite Posted: 15 Oct 2012 01:00 PM PDT Video conferencing company Polycom is launching a new suite of products intended to help business users communicate and collaborate with other users around the world. Until now, Polycom has been known for equipment mainly meant for large enterprises, but the new products are priced so that some smaller companies can now utilize the software as well. Polycom's RealPresence CloudAxis Suite will allow users to connect with anyone on other platforms like Skype, Facebook, and Google Talk. Business can use the software to contact clients, host virtual meetings, share content, control video recording and streaming features, and collaborate in a variety of other ways. The main benefit of this software is that it allows secure communication with others outside a business's organization or firewall. CloudAxis is designed to run as a virtual edition, delivering video collaboration tools from either the private cloud or the public cloud. The CloudAxis Suite will be available as Video Collaboration-as-a-Service (VCaaS) through Polycom's partners or by contacting a sales rep online. The new CloudAxis program, which will become widely available early in 2013, is just one out of a whole series of new products and features from Polycom, including a simplified user interface for its new and existing endpoints, which will allow users to connect with a variety of different devices including desktops and tablets. Though there are plenty of video conferencing options that are more affordable and have all the features necessary for the smallest of businesses, this new suite from Polycom does offer enterprise-grade software that may be beneficial for growing businesses. And the simplified interface makes it more user friendly for businesses that have employees or clients who work remotely or on-the go. Polycom was founded back in 1990 and caters to many Fortune 500 companies in the healthcare, education, entertainment, government, finance, and manufacturing industries. The post Polycom Offers New Video Collaboration Suite appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Twitter Tools And Techniques To Power Your Marketing Posted: 15 Oct 2012 11:00 AM PDT Twitter is emerging as the lead dog over Facebook in many mobile marketer minds. It is a no-win argument, though, because there's value in each platform. I’ve created this Twitter tools slideshow that includes 4 tips to make your time spent tweeting more meaningful and productive. Plus, I've included 9 more apps or tools to help you analyze your Twitter experience and tweets. Like many of the lists I create, there is a lot of overlap. Some tools or apps will work better, depending on how you like information displayed, for instance. All of the nine tools have a free level, but quite a few offer premium paid levels and include more powerful results. The first four slides are tips and the tools follow those. After viewing the slideshow, share in the comments the tools you are using to manage and track your Twitter activity. Let’s get started, click the blue “Start Gallery” button below to begin viewing the slideshow. Twitter Photo via Shutterstock 1. Post A Tweet From Chrome My first tip is to tweet directly from the Google Chrome browser. Go into the Settings (upper right part of your browser window), click Settings, then Manage Search Engines, then create a name for your new "engine", add a keyword, and add this exact URL string in the URL box: "https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=%s" Save it, then go to your address bar and type in your keyword, in my case I entered only the letter "t," then hit the space bar. You can now add your tweet content, then press the return or enter key, which takes you to the tweet window within Twitter, nothing else. No distractions. I know this may not be perfectly clear, so I created a short setup tutorial, with screen by screen explanations, to walk you through: Instructions to Post A Tweet Directly From Google Chrome. 2. Use Advanced Search Most people don't think of Twitter as a search tool. But you can get a lot done by a few simple commands via the Advanced Search function. You can figure out some good stuff: Find the top trending topics, only the most current or all of it, and just pictures, too. If someone is mentioning you, without the @ symbol, you can see that via this advanced search option. You can track multiple profiles Eavesdrop on your competitors Follow links from certain people For example, you can search a topic with or without links that people retweet by checking the box at the bottom of the advanced search form.  You can read Twitter's guide to advanced search. 3. Create A Recommend Follow List For People Who Sign Up This is a little known tip. “Warm Sign Up” is a feature that enables you to present your own list of Twitter friends or allies to brand new Twitter users when they sign up specifically through your Twitter URL. Here's how you do it in a few short steps. If you need more info, visit this Twitter help file that explains how to promote your profile. A. In your account, create a Twitter list of accounts you recommend. Name the list. B. In the description of the list, include the term #WelcomeToTwitter. This lets Twitter system know to present it to new users. See example here of the Top 100 Small Biz Bloggers that I created. C. To validate that this is working properly, log in to Twitter from another account and follow the account where you just created the list (e.g., in the example above, you’d follow @tjmccue from your other account). You should now see users that are on that list presented as "People You Should Follow." 4. Hash Tag Tracking The beauty of hashtags is you can add a simple term along with the hash mark # and easily track the conversation. Here's another article for American Express OPEN Forum on how to use hashtags. Simply append #SmallBusiness or whatever term you want to track. No space after the hash mark and your term, though. Hashtags.org lets you quickly jump to trending hashtags on its site. 5. Followerwonk I have to say that I love the reports from Followerwonk. This one shows where my followers reside. This service lets you analyze your followers by different criteria: location, who they follow, and more. It allows you to compare Twitter accounts and search bios. It was recently acquired by SEOmoz, the search engine optimization software folks. 6. Tweet Archivist This powerhouse web service (also available as a desktop application) allows you to search for a Twitter user, a keyword, or phrase. It states you can find, analyze, and archive your tweets. That's the key: Archive. It lets you download the search as a spreadsheet. For this sample search, I looked up “small business” as a term and it returned almost 1,500 tweets and the usernames of who tweeted it, the tweet itself, and other details. Pretty useful if you are searching for people to follow or potential clients, perhaps. Another part that I liked: When I searched for my name without the @ symbol, it showed me tweets where my name was not mentioned in the tweet itself, but the underlying post or link contained my name. Pretty savvy. Tweet Archivist is one to use. 7. Foller.me Foller.me is a beta offering that will give you a profile glimpse of your or someone else's Twitter life. In this slide, I've selected the @SmallBizTrends account profile to see which terms and hashtags would show. Naturally, entrepreneur, small business, and a wide range of events that benefit small business owners dominate this profile. The service gives you stats and figures like how many tweets, when the account profile was started, tweets with @ mentions, tweets with #hashtags, tweets with links, to name just a few of the insights you can glean from this service. 8. Tweriod Tweriod wants to help you understand the best time to send your tweets. It works in conjunction with Buffer (an app where you upload your tweets and they parse them out at an even interval, or at least not in a rapid fire procession, which is generally considered better form). Tweriod reveals the best times when your tweet will get the most exposure, based on your followers and when they are online. 9. Twellow Twellow is really similar to a phone directory, but the nice thing about the service is it looks at your profile and breaks it up into categories, based on the content in your profile bio. At a fast glance, it gives you a sense of what you have been sharing on Twitter. Sometimes, of course, the categories it selects don't quite represent what you think of yourself, so it offers a way for you to self-edit those categories. 10. TwitterMap TwitterMap is exactly what you'd expect from the name. Enter Twitter Search Terms, and visualize tweets by a user's location on a map. It is a super simple app that just gives you an idea of where a topic is more popular geographically. It is leveraging Google Maps combined with Twitter data. It takes a little while to populate the map, so do a search, then stop back in a few minutes. When you hover over the red pushpin, it reveals the actual tweet at the top of the screen. 11. Twitter Counter TwitterCounter offers a free level, but you really need premium paid levels to see much data. The one cool thing that I like about it is how it shows your follower growth. It even forecasts how many followers you will have 30-days out, based on your current growth trajectory. If you are into growing your follower base, this fast estimate may allow you to figure out how to improve. 12. Topsy Topsy is a real-time social search engine. They recently started offering a pro analytics account that I tested, but haven't posted on yet. But just using their search engine you can find new users to follow, and dig deeper into a topic. I like that it gives you the stats (on the left side column) of how many times a term has been shared or mentioned over different time periods. So, in this example, "entrepreneur" is mentioned 73,000 times over the last 30 days. 13. Twitonomy Twitonomy is one of my favorite tools on this list. They offer a very fast web interface for seeing your statistics in ways you may not have before. For example, I can pull up a summary of how many times my username was mentioned, how many of my users mentioned me, and who mentioned me the most, on one page. It will also let me see this on a map. The map option takes a bit of time to load, but you see the pushpins dropping onto the map itself, and it bounces around the world if you have a decent follower count. I had 458 mentions in 225 locations. Kinda cool. The post Twitter Tools And Techniques To Power Your Marketing appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Steps To Effective Change Management Posted: 15 Oct 2012 08:00 AM PDT Change management is a complex process which varies according to each individual organization's needs. There will be different approaches taken depending on a wide range of factors including the type of organisation, the change objectives and the external environment. However, there are 5 fundamental steps which need to  be part of any effective change management program.  These steps form the foundation for managing change.  The steps below provide insight into how to manage change effectively: Step 1 – Build The Case For Change The first step in any change management program is to establish the case for change. This provides the foundation for the whole change process. You know when you have done this successfully when team members can explain why they, and you, are implementing the changes. Step 2 – Share The Vision And Values Once you have established why change is necessary, the next stage is to communicate the vision for the future. What will the organization look like once the changes are implemented? How will things be improved? What are the positive benefits for the organization, team, individuals and customers? Creating a set of values and sharing these in the early stages of the change process will help to prepare people for the impact of the change and make dealing with challenges and setbacks less problematic in the later stages. Step 3 – Resources And Information Change management programs need to be adequately resourced and effectively project managed in order to achieve their objectives. Resources include people, finance, facilities, IT, MI and many other elements. Change fails when these things have not been considered and change is not prioritized effectively or given the commitment it requires. Step 4 – Management And Leadership Capability Ensuring that managers and leaders possess the capability to manage change is crucial. It is important to consider the specific skills and behaviors which will be required from managers and leaders in order to direct and drive the change through the organization. Attending a good change management training course will equip people with the essential skills to implement and manage change well. Step 5 – Communication Good communication throughout every stage of the change process is vital to keep everyone informed and motivation levels high. The extent to which the change is effectively communicated will have a direct bearing on whether it succeeds or fails. Inevitably, change will involve delivering some difficult messages and these need to be communicated in an empathetic and supportive way. Following these 5 fundamental steps will dramatically help you increase the chances of shaping and implementing your change management program successfully. Change Photo via Shutterstock The post Steps To Effective Change Management appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Unemployment Rate Falls In September But What Happened To Self Employment? Posted: 15 Oct 2012 05:00 AM PDT Given the hubbub about the large drop in September's unemployment rate, it's not surprising that few of the other numbers released received much attention. But I think we ought to also think about what happened to the self-employment numbers, and not just because I care about entrepreneurship. Because only about 10 percent of Americans work for themselves, self-employment doesn't drive the overall jobs number the way wage employment does. But it's important nonetheless. Unlike increases in wage employment, increases in self-employment might lead to future job creation because some self-employed people hire others. A big jump in self-employment, particularly the incorporated self-employed who are more likely to hire others, might translate into job gains down the road. Unfortunately, the figures for self-employment weren't nearly as good as the overall figures last month. The number of self-employed Americans rose by a seasonally adjusted 31,000 in September, 2012. The percentage increase was only one third that of people employed by others. The self-employed who run their own corporations – the biggest employers among the self-employed – had the weakest gains. Seasonally adjusted, the number dropped by 43,000 people last month. Over the long term, the numbers are improving, but not as fast as one might hope. Incorporated self-employment is still down by 188,000 (or 3.4 percent) since January 2009. Moreover, as a fraction of the population, it is down more. Because the population has grown substantially over the past four years, we still need to add 399,000 more incorporated self-employed people to get back to the same fraction of the population in incorporated self-employment as we had in December of 2008. The almost twitter length message here is this: Incorporated self-employment hasn't been improving as fast as wage employment, didn't improve much in September, and still has a ways to go to get back to where it had once been. Unemployment Drops Photo via Shutterstock The post Unemployment Rate Falls In September But What Happened To Self Employment? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Wal-Mart Battles Online Rivals with E-Commerce Posted: 15 Oct 2012 02:30 AM PDT We’ve written previously about Wal-Mart’s efforts to keep online competitor Amazon at bay by discontinuing sales of the Kindle e-reader. Now it seems the world’s biggest retailer is taking things to the next level with an attempt to ratchet up its e-commerce presence. All businesses must, from time to time, head into new markets either to compete or simply to increase the number of customers they serve. Here’s a look at how businesses move outside their comfort zones to succeed and grow. Cyber Super Stores By the numbers. Moving confidently into the digital age, Wal-Mart outlined its e-commerce strategy recently by projecting profits of $9 billion in online sales by 2014. The retailer also plans to use Facebook to drive increased sales, including letting 22 million Facebook fans vote on toys they think Wal-Mart should temporarily discount. The Wall Street Journal Out-Amazoning Amazon. Wal-Mart also goes head to head with its chief online rival Amazon this holiday season. The retailer recently announced a plan to introduce same-day delivery in select cities for orders placed online, a response to a similar same-day delivery service launched by Amazon. The move could be a sign of the retailers aggressive foray into a new market. Time Business Far and Wide The new kid in town. Of course, you don’t have to be Wal-Mart to venture into new markets and find new customers. Sometimes all it takes is recognizing the opportunities just outside your front door. For local businesses, one simple approach is to target new homeowners in your community or new people in your town or market, says blogger and entrepreneur Ashley Neal. Celebrate Atlanta Around the world. When it comes to finding new customers, of course, the reverse is also true. Just as your business might find new customers around the corner, you may also find them around the world, says startup expert Martin Zwilling. The Internet and other technological advances enable the smallest startup to operate globally. Consider targeting customers for your products and services no matter where they might be. Startup Professionals Musings Brand New Bag How sweet it is. Exploring new business opportunities is another important step toward finding new customers and new markets. Consider investing in a hot franchise, for example. The important thing, says franchise expert Joel Libava, is to identify a new business model that adequately fits your needs. The Franchise King Turn the channel. Finding new markets sometimes requires developing new ways to communicate with your customers. Every channel is different, explains entrepreneur Simon Gabay in this post about BizSugar.com, a sister site to Small Business Trends. Gabay explains the approaches any business owner must take when exploring a new way to reach audiences or customers. The Adhere Agency Higher education. Businesses of all kinds must also educate customers about what they offer and why it’s important. The education must be a process, not a single event, explains business coach Dave Brock. Customers don’t come to you over night, especially if your products or services are new to them. You must educate your audience about your business’s value. Partners in Excellence The post Wal-Mart Battles Online Rivals with E-Commerce appeared first on Small Business Trends.

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