If you have any doubts about the power of Social Networking just look at the results from this year's election. The Obama campaign was the first to utilize it and they raised a new record of $150 million in September up from their previous high of $66 million. A major part of that was accomplished through Social Networking utilizing everything from their presence on Image via CrunchBase, Twitter, My Space etc to name a few to connecting with people who held rallys in their homes and neighbourhoods. They also encouraged people to download phone lists and make calls and even offered the ability to "mine" your personal phonebook and match up demopgraphics and then download that to your iPhone as a list to make calls when you had time. The McCain campaign eventually saw the power of this and has jumped in with both feet. The benefit has been the personal touch and the empowerment that cannot be retracted and has made everything more transparent now and in the future.
This has the same application to the Auto Industry and by engaging and interacting with your customers in a meaningful way that is important to them you will reap the benefits. Get a blog going and a presence in the Social Networking world and you will find that you will build lasting relationships that result in more sales and a higher gross profit that everyone has been looking for in this new economy. Don't you buy from people you have a relationship with and trust ? What if they referred you to a relative or friend that was in the market for a car, would that increase the likelihood of making a deal ?
To read more on the election and social networking:
In order to maintain a competitive edge, corporations are increasingly looking for opportunities to make them stand out. Although traditional media serves as a solid medium that disperses company messaging to the world, the trends of information consumption are evolving. After some initial hesitancy, corporations are slowly starting to realize that it is important to jump on the virtual bandwagon of blogging. This medium represents the missing ingredient that traditional media lacks: the ability to directly connect a company to its customers.
As of February 2008, 54 companies listed on the Fortune 500 have corporate blogs (source). I had the great honor of interviewing the social media gurus behind three of the top companies with blogs: Michael Brito, Social Media Strategist at Intel, LaSandra Brill, Manager, Web & Social Media Marketing at Cisco, and Tac Anderson, Web 2.0 Strategic Lead at Hewlett Packard (HP).
Below is the information Intel, Cicso and HP have provided me regarding how their companies utilize blogging to connect with their customers.
Why is Blogging Crucial to Corporations?
What is the first image your mind conjures up when a brand is mentioned? Is it the logo, the jingle on the advertisement or the experience you previously had with the brand? Blogging allows current and potential consumers to associate the brand with a face and a personality. It bridges the distant gap that has existed between the “inaccessible” company and the “average” consumer. Brito said, “It’s a way for us to appear less corporate and put a human face when we interact online. We believe people relate more effectively to other people instead of a logo or corporate brand.”
Additionally, the blog is a representation of the company’s values, beliefs, philosophy and direction. If they are involved in a medium that encourages a two-way conversation, it shows their consumers that they care about their opinions. Brill noted, “Blogging lets us communicate with our customers in a more personal and direct way. But more importantly, blogging gives us a much needed way for customers to communicate with us. Customers are able to interact with comments and potentially provide valuable feedback or insight that can be brought back into the business.”
Although direct interaction with customers is an incredible incentive, there are many other benefits to blogging. It has the power to position employees as thought-leaders in their industry, to assist in reputation management during crises; to build brand awareness and loyalty; and to increase brand visibility, traffic and links.
I attended one of the most enlightening Webinars yesterday, put on by Automotive News. It featured a presentation by Avinash Kaushik, an analytics evangelist for Google. He discussed what he described as the "Head and Long Tail Concept" which basically showed how most sites simply concentrate on the main keywords, such as the OEM Brand or Dealerships name etc as a way for customers to find them. While this is very necessary it only scratches the surface of what is available out there. The great differentiator is to invest some time in finding out who your demographic is and going after them with keywords that are of interest to that particular clientele. He also spoke of learning what is actually happening when people come to your website. Yes leads and sales are important, but what is working and not working on your site is worth it's weight in gold to a company. If people are concentrating on a particular element, why not highlight that and make it easier for them to find. An example may mean that some information on the 3rd page of your site is the trigger that gets someone to submit a lead, or make an appointment, or fill out a credit app. Get that content on the first page of your site.
Who comes back to your site again and again and what do they do when they get there?
Do you know ?
Yet there are tools available to tell you exactly that.
Dealers spend 90% of their money on the "head" and not the tail. Why not learn more about your customers and spread out the investment, in fact reduce the dollars spent and drive a higher number of customers to your site by purchasing less popular keywords that attract more people? Seems like a winner to me.
Another concept that got my attention was that most website content is decided in the end by the "Hippo" in the company or the Higest Paid Person's Opinion, who may or may not have a clue. It is hard to buck that person though as they generally sign the paychecks. Again you can quickly test out an idea by posting differnet types of content and then measuring the results to prove or disprove an opinion quickly and scientifically rather than emotionally.
Charles Green on 10/02/2008 12:46 0 comments ,21 views
When the customer says, “I don’t know, that sounds kind of high to me…” what do you do? How does Trust-based Selling™ handle customers’ concerns regarding price? First, note the sales jargon for this situation—it gets called “objection handling.” The wording is revealing. It suggests we have a conflict with our customer, an oppositional situation—their side is objecting to our side. And our job is to “handle” it. Kind of like a counter-move in wrestling. But what if you’re trying to create a trust-based relationship with a customer? In that case, this isn’t about “objections,” much less “handling” them. Instead, it’s about a mutual inquiry as to whether joint value can be created—or not. Price is—at bare minimum—a simple and necessary part of the discussion. But much more importantly, when we hear price comments as “objections,” we immediately jump to a place of high self-orientation—the trust-destroying denominator in the trust equation. Omigosh, they’re pushing back against me—I’ve got to counter-attack. Thought one in responding from trust—it’s not about you. In fact, it’s never about you. It’s always about the customer. What looks like a threatening price objection is actually a great opportunity to learn something important about a customer, and a chance to add value right in the sales process itself. Here’s why. Most price “objections” are simply expressions of dismay or concern—feelings—on the part of the customer. Most fall into five categories. Helping the customer identify these feelings and these categories is a positive help in and of itself. The actual words spoken can be identical: “— that sounds kind of high to me.” But they mask very different meanings: The categories are:
1. Naïve. Uh oh, that’s way bigger than I thought. Subtext: "I feel ashamed; I didn't understand what was involved in buying this product/service before talking to this person."
2. Out of Date. That’s more than we can afford. Subtext: "I feel embarrassed—I invited this person in thinking we could do it in this year’s budget. Now I see that won't work."
3. Engineer. Wait a minute, I don’t see why it should be that much. Subtext: "That doesn’t make sense—they must be quoting me the fully-loaded version, let’s reverse engineer it."
4. Comparison Shopper. Hey wait—how do I know you’re not screwing me? Subtext: "I want to get a good deal, maybe not the best, but in the top half, so I need to know the real prices."
5. Bazaar Lover. Aha, the game is on! Subtext: "I don’t care what you quote me, I’m going to get 20% off! I love this part of the buying process!"
Each of these subtexts requires a very different response. The good news is—the responses are obvious. All we have to do as the seller is to ask! Ask the buyer what’s behind their words; what kind of concern are they expressing when they say, “I don’t know, sounds a little high to me.” What are they feeling? Our job is simply to explain that all reasons are valid, and that we simply need to know which is operative here. Simply by stating them for what they are, buyers one and two feel relieved of their shame and embarrassment. And while this transaction won’t happen, you just vastly increased the odds of them buying from you in the future.
Number three becomes a simple job of itemizing features and costs—as long as we are not attached to the margin on every little feature. An easy sale.
Number four is solved by the willingness to be transparent, within the bounds of what’s legal. Another easy sale—as long as your price is fair.
Number five just wants to have fun. So build in a little upside, and be prepared to give a little more up; and enjoy yourself along with the buyer.
This is not about “handling objections.” It is about using curiosity and customer focus to build relationships. The profits follow—as long as we remember we’re supposed to be on the same side of the table as our customer, and in a relationship that is the sum of multiple transactions.
Image via Wikipedia A new Jupiter research report, The Social and Portable Inbox: Optimizing E-mail Marketing in the New Era of Communication Tools ," shows that newer marketing communication methods, such as social networking sites and text messaging could be eroding the effectiveness of email promotions. The report states in 2007, 51 percent of e-mail users said e-mail inspired at least one online purchase, and 47 percent said the same for off-line purchases. However, in 2008, only 44 percent of users were inspired to purchase online and 41 percent for off-line purchases. In addition, 22 percent of those surveyed said they use social networking sites instead of e-mail, and a large amount more indicated they use their cell phones, text messaging and instant messaging (IM) as an alternative to email. "Consumers' confidence in e-mail has become shaken by irrelevant communications and high message frequency, which are top drivers of subscribers' churn and channel skepticism," explained David Daniels, Vice President, Research Director and Lead Analyst of the report for JupiterResearch. "People receive such a high volume of e-mail that they are unable to pay attention to every message. It is so important for marketers to be relevant and succinct when they send messages to consumers' inboxes."
A lot of very influential people are sounding off that it’s not the number of friends you have on social networks that matter, but rather the quality of the relationships. For instance, many people would rather have 100 close knit contacts on LinkedIn than 600 “lose contacts” or people who you might not even know. Facebook considers users with 5,000 friends (the max you can have) “whales.” Basically having a lot of friends on Facebook, contacts on LinkedIn or followers on Twitter is giving people a bad name. There was even a recent study done that compared the number of friends and wall posts you have on Facebook to being more or less narcissistic. Follow this link to a great discussion and analysis
The problem with so many web sites today is that they are built around an advertising model – but the wrong kind. As a result, business owners are throwing away money hand over fist when they could be pulling in tons of qualified, interested prospects and customers.
If you want your web site to capture more quality leads, this article is for you. You see, there are two types of advertising, but only one kind of web site. Unfortunately, most web site designers don’t seem to know this.
By Steve Finlay WardsAuto.com, Sep 5, 2008 8:38 AM
COSTA MESA, CA – Car dealers spend a bundle on conventional advertising, yet balk at small allocations for Internet marketing efforts.
That baffles Todd Stainbrook, even though he says he understands the dealer “mindset” after spending much of his Ford Motor Co. career in the field.
“Same-brand auto dealers at regional marketing meetings will approve millions of dollars on co-operative TV ads,” he says. “But then, when there’s a proposal to spend $25,000 on digital advertising, you’ve never heard so many skeptical questions.”
His job as digital integration manager for Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands is to nudge dealers into the brave new world of digital marketing and make it a foundation of their ad plans.
“We’ve made a lot of progress but we have a lot to do,” he says at ENG’s annual automotive customer relationship management conference here. “There’s a lot of room for improvement.”
Stainbrook adds: “The days are changing from dealers saying, ‘I must have a TV (ad) plan, I must be in newspapers, I must do direct mailing, and, oh yeah, what about digital?’”
Still, he adds, many dealers have a last in, first out mentality when it comes to such marketing that ranges from online banner ads to search-engine marketing.
Digital marketing has become a $28 billion part of the ad industry. But at 11.5%, it accounts for the lowest portion of automotive advertising, Stainbrook says.
Still, many dealers – some faster than others – are “getting it,” he says. “I’ve seen a whole new perspective. Dealers today are much more receptive. You can’t escape that huge online presence. In a few years, there will not be a digital discussion anymore.”
Because Ford reaches 70% of its buyers online, “we want to make sure we are relevant to them,” he says.
Relevance is essential when dealing with the younger generation of Internet-savvy car buyers, he says. “Their expectations are high, they are focused on themselves and they are shocked if they get something that’s not relevant.”
As Internet marketing evolves, “we’re beyond, ‘Why digital?’’ he says. “Today, there is no arguing with it. Now, it is a question of what to do next.”
Also evolving are opinions on the best way for dealerships to interact with Internet customers. Responding quickly to their emails once was – and largely is – considered a must.
“But it’s not all about speed,” Stainbrook says. “The mantra used to be: ‘I’ve got to respond to their emails within five minutes.’ That helps. But consumers are looking for information. If all you are interested in is speed, you are missing out on opportunities.
“If consumers, who’ve done their homework, email you with questions, and you quickly reply, ‘When can you come into the dealership? I’m here until 9,’ that speedy response isn’t going to impress them.”
He cites what dealerships should do online to enhance the chances of a sale. Some of those “key drivers” are:
Show real interest.
Give pricing. That remains an issue with some dealerships, but Stainbrook says 72% of Internet users who readily get prices online end up buying.
Confirm vehicle availability. When that’s done, 75% of customers buy vehicles.
Make multiple contacts, including long-term follow ups. “The reality is that people are in the market a long time, so you need a robust CRM (customer relationship management) application that will follow up for a long time,” Stainbrook says.
by Adam Broomfield-Strawn on September 13 2008, 04:52
The 10 commandments were given as a set of guidelines as to how we should live our lives. The following 10 commandments are given as a set of guidelines as to how sales reps should live their sales lives. Reps: print them off and live by them. Managers: give them to your sales team. Business owners: whenever you get a new rep, hand them a copy. These commandments are designed to promote hard work, perseverance, honesty, integrity, well earned results and a higher level of service and if followed will do so.
Editor's note: When we published "Blogs Will Change Your Business" in May, 2005, Twittering was an activity dominated by small birds. Truth is, we didn't see MySpace coming. Facebook was still an Ivy League sensation. Despite the onrush of technology, however, thousands of visitors are still downloading the original cover story.
So we decided to update it. Over the past month, we've been calling many of the original sources and asking the Blogspotting community to help revise the 2005 report. We've placed fixes and updates into more than 20 notes; to view them, click on the blue icons. If you see more details to fix, please leave comments. The role of blogs in business is clearly an ongoing story.
First, the headline. Blogs were the heart of the story in 2005. But they're just one of the tools millions can use today to lift their voices in electronic communities and create their own media. Social networks like Facebook and MySpace, video sites like YouTube, mini blog engines like Twitter—they've all emerged in the last three years, and all are nourished by users. Social Media: It's clunkier language than blogs, but we're not putting it on the cover anyway. We're just fixing it.
Monday 9:30 a.m. It's time for a frank talk. And no, it can't wait. We know, we know: Most of you are sick to death of blogs. Don't even want to hear about these millions of online journals that link together into a vast network. And yes, there's plenty out there not to like. Self-obsession, politics of hate, and the same hunger for fame that has people lining up to trade punches on The Jerry Springer Show. Name just about anything that's sick in our society today, and it's on parade in the blogs. On lots of them, even the writing stinks.
Go ahead and bellyache about blogs. But you cannot afford to close your eyes to them, because they're simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself. And they're going to shake up just about every business—including yours. It doesn't matter whether you're shipping paper clips, pork bellies, or videos of Britney in a bikini, blogs are a phenomenon that you cannot ignore, postpone, or delegate. Given the changes barreling down upon us, blogs are not a business elective. They're a prerequisite. (And yes, that goes for us, too.)
There's a little problem, though. Many of you don't visit blogs—or haven't since blogs became a sensation in last year's Presidential race. According to a Pew Research Center Survey, only 27%Some newer numbers: According to Forrester, 11.2% of online adults in the U.S. publish a blog at least once a month. Of the same group, 24.8% read a blog and 13.7% comment on a blog at least once a month. The numbers are higher for youths. Of online youths, 20.8% publish a blog, 36.6% read a blog, and 26.4% comment on a blog at least once a month. But I suspect the numbers are unreliable because many mainstream sites with millions of readers—celebrity site TMZ and gadget sites like Gizmodo—are actually blogs. But are all the readers aware of this? I doubt it. This is the blurring of the blog/mainstream divide, a theme we'll see again and again in these revisions. of Internet users in America now bother to read them. So we're going to take you into the world of blogs by delivering this story—call it Blogs 101 for businesses—in the style of a blog. We're even sprinkling it with links. These are underlined words that, when clicked, carry readers of this story's online version to another Web page. This all may make for a strange experience, but it's the closest we can come to reaching out from the page, grabbing you by the collar, and shaking you into action.
First, a few numbers. There are some 9 million blogs out there,Yes, there were 9 million, but how many of them were active? Probably only a fraction. In early 2008, says Technorati Chairman David Sifry, the search company indexes 112 million blogs, with 120,000 new ones popping up each day. But only 11% of these blogs, he says, have posted within the past two months. That means the active universe is closer to 13 million blogs. Kevin Burton, CEO of FeedBlog, argues that the number should be lower, from 2 million to 4 million blogs. with 40,000 new ones popping up each day. Some discuss poetry, others constitutional law. And, yes, many are plain silly. "Mommy tells me it may rain today. Oh Yucky Dee Doo," reads only one April Posting. Let's assume that 99.9% are equally off point.What we didn't see in early 2005 was the advent of the spam blog. These blogs, produced automatically, are designed to show up in search results and to attract Google advertisements known as Adsense. Sifry estimates that fully 99% of the blog posts reaching search engines are spam. So what? That leaves some 40 new ones every day that could be talking about your business, engaging your employees, or leaking those merger discussions you thought were hush-hush.
Give the paranoids their due. The overwhelming majority of the information the world spews out every day is digital—photos from camera phones, PowerPoint presentations, government filings, billions and billions of e-mails, even digital phone messages. With a couple of clicks, every one of these items can be broadcast into the blogosphere by anyone with an Internet hookup—or even a cell phone. If it's scandalous, a poisonous e-mail from a CEO, for example, or torture pictures from a prison camp, others link to it in a flash. And here's the killer: Blog posts linger on the Web forever.
Yet not all the news is scary. Ideas circulate as fast as scandal. Potential customers are out there, sniffing around for deals and partners. While you may be putting it off, you can bet that your competitors are exploring ways to harvest new ideas from blogs, sprinkle ads into them, and yes, find out what you and other competitors are up to.
By: Jody Stoehr, Director of Business Development and Partnerships, R2i
Being in the sales field, social network theory plays a significant role in how I interact and connect with other professionals. With the emergence and evolution of social media sites, we use many networking tools today to connect with others: LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. And, I often find myself asking this question: What is the right balance of cyber interaction versus face-to-face time?
In order to maximize social network tools, it is important to remain balanced, never underestimating the power of personal interaction. The “old school” way of networking is undoubtedly the key to making memorable connections and lasting impressions. But in order to maintain a good balance, keeping a social media presence can be invaluable. For instance, a connection that may have otherwise been unknown is easily brought to the surface. Social media has become a catalyst for these connections, acting as a facilitator or hub for networking. Working together, cyber space and face-to-face exposure assist in building a strong network of professionals. You really can’t have one without the other. Which leads me to my next question: How can we harness the power of these professional connections? Please share your ideas on this topic; I look forward to your hearing your opinions.
As part of my training and consultancy with OneCommand, a leading national automotive CRM marketing company with headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio and Costa Mesa, California, I've produced a video titled " Simplifying Fixed Operations Marketing" based upon my recent White Paper by the same name. (a pdf copy of this White Paper is available for download on this Blog). This short 17 minute video highlights the key elements considered to be the basis of a truly solid marketing strategy within the service department of a U.S. automotive dealership.
A concurrent theme that comes out in all of videos and the White Paper is the need of sound management and processes within the service drive. Both videos that focus on the Service Drive, as well as the White Paper, key in on how important this is. From a consulting standpoint, a real depth of knowledge of processes is CRITICAL towards the success of a dealership's fixed operations department and goes hand in hand with having a depth of knowledge in marketing and CRM marketing systems and strategies.
A case in point would be Freeman Motors, a Toyota/Lexus dealership in Santa Rosa, California. Without selling flushes or other added-value chemicals, and without discounting their Oil, Lube and Filter services, they are able to maintain one of the highest customer retention rates in the country. (Based upon their monthly response analysis reports within their CRM software system). Dan McNamee, the Service Manager at Freeman Motors, speaks to processes in both videos.
Another individual interviewed for the Simplifying Fixed Operations Marketing video is Dominic Campanelli, Fixed Operations Director of the Sullivan Auto Group. A brilliant industry leader, Dominic has a clarity of understanding when it comes to micro-marketing (another acronym for segmentation marketing) and service drive processes.
As I approach people in the Car Business to discuss the Social Media happening in the world, I find that there is more skepticism than acceptance. Last year the Auto Industry in the US spent 12-15 BILLION dollars on advertising alone.
Do you know if it worked ?
Did you reach the audience you wanted or did much of fall on deaf ears and eyes and end up in the garbage can ?
You have 100 million of YOUR customers on Facebook alone and yet there is almost no presence in that space. What does this Automotive 2.0 cost you ? Almost nothing, just some time and a caring attitude.
Want your CSI to improve ?
Want to sell more cars ?
Then get involved or keep doing what already does not work ? Don't believe me just look at the results.
If you want to learn more call or email me and I will share with you what I know and how I can help you take advantage before the rest of the world wakes up !
The train has left the station. Wouldn't you like this to be your Dealership ? One of your customers lives right next store but he is now going to drive 30 miles based on the social network site Pricehub.com !
I bought my 2008 prius from JD Flakoll in walnut creek. I got package NW #6 with Floormats, Alloy Wheel Locks and leather. JD and his wife team up to provide Internet pricing. They were great to work with and were no hassle. I communicated with JD via email and when i went in to buy the car, they actually had it in stock and there were no tricks or extra charges. I got exactly what i paid for. Highly recommend him - low pressure and does what he says he is going to do.
Do you have JD Flakoll's email or contact info? My wife and I are looking to buy a Prius. We're over in San Mateo but willing to go anywhere in the Bay Area if we can get a better deal.
Btw, when you went in to the dealer, how long did it take you before you drove off the lot with the Prius?
TrueCar joins GoodGuide in helping consumers obtain more information about the products they buy - information that sellers don’t necessarily want them to have. In TrueCar’s case, that information is simple yet elusive: just how much you should pay for a new car.
TrueCar aggregates data from a variety of (mostly unnamed) sources to determine how much money other people have paid for new cars around the country. It then places its findings at your disposal so you can determine whether or not that dealership down the street is offering you a good deal. The outcome, hopefully, is that you save not only hundreds and possibly thousands on your new car but the time it would have taken to comparison shop as well.
To use TrueCar, you just have to enter your zip code and the model you’re interested in buying. The price data is offered to you in a variety of visual formats such as bar graphs and charts. And it can be narrowed down to a local, regional, or national level. You can also view the history of how a car’s price has changed over time.
The site currently accounts for only about 25% of all relevant transactions. The founders want to hold off from launching it publicly until they’ve reached at least 50% and they are confident that one day they will hit 75%.
The expert panelists were concerned in particular about the sources of TrueCar’s information and its uniqueness. Jeff Weiner asked where the company got its information and why the pricing information offered by other sites like Edmunds didn’t stack up. The founders insisted that all of the data was out there and publicly available; it was just hard to tie it all together and make sense of it. And since they had built a sophisticated system to synthesize it all, their pricing insights were deeper and more informative.
Don Dodge and Sean Parker were also skeptical that the provision of this pricing knowledge would actually change consumer behavior, since people are lazy and subject to price discrimination, even when it comes to commodities.
Three jam-packed days, and 52 startup demos later, we finally have a winner for this year’s TechCrunch50. Every day, the presentations just seemed to get stronger and stronger. There were so many strong contenders this year that we are awarding five jury selection prizes, in addition to the top prize. But there must be a winner, and that winner is…Yammer.
Yammer is Twitter with a business model. Created by an existing company, Geni, to scratch its own itch, Yammer takes the familiar Twitter messaging system and applies it to internal corporate communications. There is such a huge demand for this type of service that 10,000 people and 2,000 organizations signed up for the service the first day it launched on Monday. Anyone with a corporate email can sign up and follow other people in their company. But if a company ants to claim its users, and gain administrative control over them, they will have to pay. It’s a brilliant business model.
If you are looking for new ideas to help get your business out of it's funk, then click on the video to learn more ! If you have any questions email me at allan@allanbird.com or just give a ring to 415-717-5079. Enjoy the show !
On Sept. 5, 2006,Mark Zuckerberg changed the way that Facebook worked, and in the process he inspired a revolt.
Zuckerberg, a doe-eyed 24-year-old C.E.O., founded Facebook in his dorm room at Harvard two years earlier, and the site quickly amassed nine million users. By 2006, students were posting heaps of personal details onto their Facebook pages, including lists of their favorite TV shows, whether they were dating (and whom), what music they had in rotation and the various ad hoc “groups” they had joined (like “Sex and the City” Lovers). All day long, they’d post “status” notes explaining their moods — “hating Monday,” “skipping class b/c i’m hung over.” After each party, they’d stagger home to the dorm and upload pictures of the soused revelry, and spend the morning after commenting on how wasted everybody looked. Facebook became the de facto public commons — the way students found out what everyone around them was like and what he or she was doing.
But Zuckerberg knew Facebook had one major problem: It required a lot of active surfing on the part of its users. Sure, every day your Facebook friends would update their profiles with some new tidbits; it might even be something particularly juicy, like changing their relationship status to “single” when they got dumped. But unless you visited each friend’s page every day, it might be days or weeks before you noticed the news, or you might miss it entirely. Browsing Facebook was like constantly poking your head into someone’s room to see how she was doing. It took work and forethought. In a sense, this gave Facebook an inherent, built-in level of privacy, simply because if you had 200 friends on the site — a fairly typical number — there weren’t enough hours in the day to keep tabs on every friend all the time.
If you were interviewing someone for a position with your company and they admitted that they didn't know anything about the new trends and innovations taking place in their field, what would you think? Likely, what you would think is "next candidate, please." In today's business world, job-seekers are expected to stay current with the happenings taking place in their area of interest. There was a time when those happenings were very much job-specific and anything having to do with technology fell squarely on the shoulders of I.T. That time has passed. Web 2.0 technologies lifted the veil of mystery surrounding computing technology and made it accessible to everyone. Today, if you're not staying current with Web 2.0 technologies' impact on business, then you're just not staying current. Period.
Web 2.0 Is Everywhere
No matter which department you're in, Web 2.0 technologies have had an impact. If you've been ignoring their prevalence and adoption, you're at risk of falling behind in your career and your business is at risk of losing ground to its competitors who are tuned into this trend.
Here at ReadWriteWeb, we deliver news about Web 2.0's impact on business in addition to news about web technologies in general. Depending on your area of interest, you can find a lot of great information on this subject in our archives. Or simply bookmark this post for easy reference.
I have been very involved in the sustainable food movement for several years now. Events in my life in 2009 caused me to meditate and reflect on what I could do to give my body and mind the best food possible. The conclusion was that the only diet that makes sense is a Vegan one. Easier said than done in our society and now I am dedicated to changing the landscape a person at a time. You can contact ,me through this blog or by email or mobile.
abird7820@gmail.com
415-717-5079
Image via CrunchBase, Twitter, My Space etc to name a few to connecting with people who held rallys in their homes and neighbourhoods. They also encouraged people to download phone lists and make calls and even offered the ability to "mine" your personal phonebook and match up demopgraphics and then download that to your iPhone as a list to make calls when you had time. The McCain campaign eventually saw the power of this and has jumped in with both feet. The benefit has been the personal touch and the empowerment that cannot be retracted and has made everything more transparent now and in the future.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_shaQtpR00wTMuvU6Zwly0IhrUllngQxKkFmzgmX7GV7TolkJrlq7titUKAUpzXfirhk84IOyaVjjge9t9XUIyyfm3B6m1bmOR56SnB8FsUEQtB7sI1Om65DI0jtTNAYpqpBKo8ZKBb-vq8IwsRvjul=s0-d)
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Walnut Creek Toyota - JD Flakoll 
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If you were interviewing someone for a position with your company and they admitted that they didn't know anything about the new ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uNClnihHCjfXLHtk4ZI5nmUKq-y9tQLfz-phMzzSG0g54PwAqf2Yq558UuoOUQoqIFnl9TH8h2M8LsX4Yb0JWXU3UwEVEY6pZ4FyK7TFD3V_Et9UdysGMsjYaTA2vJszddLnlieNZd6YC9mdZT9qg=s0-d)
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