Digital Classroom Is Future, Blackboard Arises Nostalgia

If your school days were in ’90s or early 2000, you can remember the blackboards and chalks being used in classrooms. I can still remember how history teachers used to throw chalks and dusters at the back-benchers! Sometimes I also used to dodge sitting at the 2^nd bench and punishments used to be kneel down outside the classes. However, today my nephew does not look at the blackboards and ask the teachers what he or she has written on the 3^rd line or the lines extreme down. Reason is simple – he enjoys studies in digital classrooms.

Well, I tried to find out what could be the benefits of digital classrooms? How this new generation classroom is transforming education system? And my findings came something like what I am jotting down below:

Improved demonstration due to familiarity with topic of discussion

Earlier, what will be demonstrated in the classes used to remain in the notes of the teachers. They used to come and write on the blackboards and students had to instantly grab those ideas. No point of early assumption/preparation could be there. However, students now get the lectures or classroom discussion copies beforehand and prepare them to face the classes with inputs ready to be added.

Similarly, teachers now do not have to land in classes with alien topics that could seem to most of the students as rocket science. Students know what will be discussed and teachers can expect familiarity of students with topics. Blackboards are replaced with projectors and computers. Voice reach till the last bench with microphones or headphones in use.

Interactive learning leads to better understanding of the subjects

In our times, we used to take note of the discussions in the classrooms. We used to have little time of question and answer sessions with teachers on every class. But digital learning has given time for interactions. Teachers know what to discuss and students stay ready to ask questions prepared before the classes begin.

Gone are the days of text based discussions! Now audio and visual representation of the topics provide students better understanding of the subjects. They can relate their subject with the world and clear doubt from the knowledge spread across world wide web. Teachers also enjoy same freedom to quickly expand the horizon of learning to the students.

Equal opportunity and reach of learning from 1^st bench to the last

Most of my friends used to sit in the last benches to avoid studies. On the other hand, meritorious students used to claim the front rows by default. The pathetic conditions used to be with students like me who used to sit from or after 4^th or 5^th benches till nearing the last bench. Either they were deprived of the visibility of writings on the blackboards or tortured, humiliated by the last-benchers and even the toppers!

This does not happen now with digitization. Study materials reach to every student equally. It means, now even last-benchers cannot escape the notes or stay passive. They have to interact with teachers shading all excuses. Physical disability is no more a restriction against learning opportunity. From anywhere classrooms are available. One more thing is provision of jointing the class from outside. If a student is sick or by any mean cannot attend the class physically, they can join online. Everybody can learn and get share of learning equally.

Well, there are so many advantages of digital classroom, I found these really strong enough to replace the blackboard and add projectors, e-learning materials and computers in classes. Being nostalgic is good but accepting something for the better future is receptivity.  

Together we can make difference

Swami Vivekananda said – “Education is the manifestation of perfection already in man…” I think digital classrooms are helping teachers to bring out that knowledge hidden in students through accessibility, interactivity and equal opportunity. I pray to God that every student of India can get this opportunity of digital learning. 

I hope before my death, I can see this happening. I am ready take step in making this happen, now others (the reach, businessmen and Government) should come with true desire and funding. There should be more instances like Procter and Gamble to come forward with corporate social responsibilities where one slogan is - “parega India to barega India (education will take India ahead).” They are trying to take education to all, the next step can be digital classrooms – if not today, tomorrow for sure.   

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image courtesy: www.pg.com ; www.slideshare.net ; proto-knowledge.blogspot.com;  www.windowssearch-exp.com ; www.upztec.it 

Let’s Start a New Life – My life with Insulin – Shifting Gear from Type 2 to Type 1 Diabetes

First of all, let me pray to God for not cursing anybody with Diabetes! Once you come under the grip of silent killer – diabetes, your entire life changes dramatically and drastically. You are not any more a common man – you are special.  What the specialty is about? In simple words, you are no longer someone to dare a life with ‘I don’t care.’ What till date your elders have been advising to lead a balanced life, now you have to learn to balance every step you take in your life.

However, it is needless to say that there are two types of life with diabetes – one Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes. In Type 1 you are born insulin dependent as your body does not produce Insulin. On the other hand, in Type 2, you first get detected with insulin resistance or deficiency, afterwards, you find your body stops producing insulin.

Everything is in your hand- You can lead a happy life with a remote control in your hand

I am not writing this piece to discourage my reader! I am trying to tell you some facts that I have experienced and I strongly feel that I must share these with to let readers be aware of the truth; I have seen only few blogs or information is available on the truth of a life with insulin.

Well, as I have said the remote control is in your hand and you can lead a happy life, I am no way joking. Let me point out a few scenes/scenarios that I am dealing within a few days of starting insulin:

A strong hunger anytime – In my Type 2 situations, hunger was there but it was not that much strong! I could wait to get the food ready. But now I start to feel shivering in my body and it does not stop until I take a dose of sucrose/glucose – may be chocolates, a glass of sugarcane juice, glucose syrup, direct sugar or the likes to restore sugar level in my body fast. Sometimes you feel extreme dry throat and even water does not help until glucose restores to a balanced level. 

A strict timing in meals – The moment I went to my doctor complaining about these hunger and dry throat, he confirmed to start insulin after seeing the rising level of sugar in blood, as the report shows. Now, he told me to be very careful in taking foods and timing of the meals. He told that the morning should start with a dose of insulin and then there can be one and half hours break to have something again. These should be snacks to avoid empty stomach. Now I can see what an uncontrollable situation arrives when I miss this schedule. The dinner is followed by another dose of insulin.

A sudden drop of blood glucose at night – You have to stay prepared to face low level of sugar (hypoglycemia) at night. While you are sleeping, suddenly you wake up to feel sweating and hunger and little delay to take a dose of glucose leads to shivering again. So it is better to keep some food ready to take immediately after you wake up in those situations.

What to expect from a life with insulin as its inseparable part

Trust me, life is always easy and comfortable when you start taking insulin. After telling you the above situation, you must be laughing to hear such comment! But these situations are much better conditions than what could have been worse without taking insulin. As you know, diabetes is a silent killer when it controls your life, Insulin stops it from snatching your happy journey to a smooth exit at a desired time.

A side-effective free treatment- There are so many side-effects of taking oral medications for longer time. But insulin never does the same. It wound not hurt your organs and decrease their efficiency by pressurizing their activity. 

Smooth life controlled in style-  Yes, once insulin starts, you begin to feel absence of the dozy and dizziness with tired conditions. Such situations used to come when you are not with insulin and most of the times it occurs after having some food. The extra amount of glucose running in your blood creates such condition. If your dose of insulin is proper, you can avoid such uneasy feeling. 

Tension free life against sudden imbalanced blood glucose – In a life with insulin, you are on controlled diabetes. You do not have to take tension of what is happening inside your body – the damaging effects of excess glucose running in your blood. Insulin kills the extra glucose at the maximum level. Sudden rise or fall of glucose stops within a few days after your body responses to new entity (insulin) from the outside.  

There is nothing to conclude as life with insulin moves smoothly…

As I told in the beginning, this is not a blog piece only, it is true experience to be shared in parts, I would like to tell you things as those comes to me in near future. I would like to update this piece after an interval when more shareworthy information piles up and I can steal some time to write from my hectic professional life. But I promise to share more in the next slots. There may be some other things to share in this blog, till date I personally requesting you to come out of the unnecessary tension that disturbs your life with diabetes. Believe me your life is going to change when you are leading a life with insulin…

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To stay informed about diabetes, you may visit: http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/

http://www.diabetesindia.com/

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Image courtesy : www.sciencenutshell.com   ; www.bbc.co.uk ; kindredspirit.co.uk

Top 5 Benefits of Using Cloud Solutions for Small And Medium Business

Cloud services are boosting small and medium businesses turning their data and information into results. Cloud solutions help these type of business in balancing information demand from domestic and international clients. Information management is now easy for them as they are not feeling the heat of costs required for storage even. They make global business and thanks goes to cloud services.

Cloud has started playing the role of rescuer

Application as a service (AAAS), Platform as a service (PAAS) and Infrastructure as a service (IAAS) is changing the way a decade ago small and medium businesses had done their product development and service delivery. While supply chain management or customer relationship management used to be tough for the small businesses. Now it has become easy with AAAS. Go back a decade and you could see lots of small businesses used to lose their way due to failure in integration and process automation middleware functional issues. Now they do rely on PAAS to remove those obstacles. And yes, from small to medium businesses server storage was ever an issue as finance remained constraints in setting up severs. IAAS welcomed businesses with ‘pay as you use’ and businesses are now booming kicking aside storage issues.

Resolving legacy software issues

Cloud services are the answers of few issues that legacy software face. There can be many issues, one of the issues can be merger of two legacy software. Take the ERP for two diffident companies coming from two different venders. This is an era of merger, particularly for small and medium businesses most of the time merge is needed to survive. But ERP systems two companies were using can create wall. The problem is the software they are using for years has become legacy for them and they do not dare to come out of those. Cloud is solution in this respect.

Similarly, compatibility with the new trends in the business can become issue of the legacy software a company uses. Think of an old messaging application that fails to comply the new type of graphically reach messages or fails to recognize new android device serving the messages. The failure in upgrade or update in legacy software remains issues for companies. They are willing to use cloud software solutions but those legacy pull them down.

Now coming to the main question. What benefits small and medium businesses can reap from cloud services? How cloud ensures that they make profits? There are lots of benefits but the major ones should get a mention.

What are the 5 major benefits of cloud solutions?

1. Accessibility – Ability to break the boundaries remains one of main constrains of small businesses. Cloud has given them freedom of worldwide accessibility. Now they can operate from anywhere of the world. They have access of their data from anyplace they want to. It is globalization of local geniuses.
2. Flexible –Meeting the demand is one of the major claims of cloud services. Sometimes the demand of any service can be limited while other time it can be demanding. Thanks to the cloud infrastructure which can meet any sort of demands at any point of time.
3. Compatible – Whatever cloud services a business uses, it remains compatible to most of the other similar services. It never faces issue of compliance or compatibility as it happens for the legacy software. Cloud services keep themselves updated with the modern versions available in the market.

4. Consistency – Ask for the consistency, and cloud is the answer. Before cloud came to the market, there were an excuse to the service providers. They asked breaks in the name of maintenance and security. But cloud has broken this ‘taboo.’ The global attitude of cloud keeps its services uninterrupted. A cloud connectivity reminds of the old saying from history “once in British Empire there was no sunset.” Colonization is dead. But cloud is now another name of consistency.
5. Cost effectiveness – The synonym of cost-effective services is cloud. With the introduction of ‘pay as you use’, all other solutions against cloud has tested defeat. Take the storage part of cloud services. It says you do not need to buy terabyte of storage when you need it in gigabyte. Pay for the storage you use and the time you need more, you would pay accordingly.

Now to make things clear, we can take any business type and see how cloud can bring wonders! Just think of an ecommerce venture. There is no doubt that throughout the world, ecommerce is one of the most competitive market. Yet, it stays as one of the most profitable business mode. Now a startup in ecommerce domain, particularly in third-world countries like India, cloud can help in overcoming hurdles.

In ecommerce, customer relationship management stays ever challenging. But integrated cloud solutions in AAAS has made things easy. Without having to face issue of old CRM, cloud service integrates all the customer data input from any place of the world.

On the second instance for the ecommerce, we have to consider the volume of data, growing day by day. An ecommerce business soon demands more space for its growing data. However, small ventures most of the times remain incapable of having own data storage system avoiding security challenges. Here comes cloud IAAS. With the use of cloud, they can make secure and seamless business without digging big black holes in their budgets.

This is one example of revolution cloud is doing to small businesses. There are hundreds of such business types that are enjoying benefits of cloud services. Whether it is AAAS, PAAS or IAAS – cloud is ever ready to help any kind of business to break the boundaries and grow to become giants. So we can say at the end that there is only one step to be taken to make any business global and successful – use could and it could see itself soon touch the 7th heaven which is reality today. All thanks and kudos to cloud solutions and related services.

 

 

 

Thanks for image- Wikipedia, NCPTT, CIO, ricohidc

The Present Scenario of Building Information Modeling in India

Building information modeling (BIM) is the construction technology that is overhauling the process of work in the construction industry worldwide. Well, to India it is yet to pick up a rapid popularity to people engaged in construction (architects to contractors). BIM is for increasing work efficiency, saving time and resources. BIM is for improving coordination through design and virtual building capabilities (3D representation is one things to name only). BIM is to create atmosphere where clients, designers, material producers and construction companies can work together with a supreme target of producing exact desired output.

In India BIM experts like to name it as virtual design and construction (VDC). India is having a booming market for large scale residential and commercial development. It is having its qualified, trained and experienced BIM professionals who are implementing this technology but the percentage of acceptance is not that wide compared to global scenario.

However some of the BIM platforms are gaining huge popularity for their benefits to the construction industry. Let’s see why its BIM solutions are highly suitable for Indian construction industry.

We can start with a quick look at some research reports showing what the scenario of India is in acceptance of BIM.

The cost factor: Construction sector is second largest industry contributing to the Indian economy but very high cost to use BIM prevents Indian industries to adopt this technology fast. A survey done by RICS and KPMG found that

• 22% of respondent currently use BIM
• 27% respondent reported that they are aware and actively considering BIM usage
• 43% respondents claimed to be aware of BIM but are not sure about implementing
• Additionally 8% respondents are not aware of BIM

Slowly some BIM service firms are providing its clients the most affordable BIM services. So costing is no issue for the clients in India. The lack of technical expertise: It is a fact that construction industry is trying to spend the money but mushrooming BIM service providers who lack technical expertise doing the most harm. The professionals who don’t know how to use BIM cheating the industry with cheap costing offers. Once the construction companies are trapped, they produce low graded output. This creates the bad impression about the Indian firms who are providing BIM services.

Lack of Holistic service – It is a fact that lower demand from the industry, or lack of government initiatives to encourage use of BIM has made a large part of construction industry (43%) unwilling to take it seriously. However, there is another situation that should not be neglected. When any construction company wants total BIM services, they do not find it from most of the firms. While one firm is expert at Architectural BIM part, other is on Mechanical BIM. This annoys the firms as they feel it time consuming and budget wise not fitting.

To conclude, it can be said that a few genuine firms are trying to change the scenario of BIM acceptance in India but still there is long way to go. These are just three major constrains discussed. There are others to be resolved. Skills of employees can be improved, myths about BIM can be changed and the overall lethargic attitude of professionals towards validating the facts can be changed if Indian government tries its share in encouraging BIM usage in construction industry by some mandate. The government can take initiative to introduce BIM in education institution to make Indian Real Estate industry compatible with current global trends. Many things can be done when everyone is willing.

Now tell me are you ready to accept BIM? Can you ask the construction company if they have used BIM to develop structurally most perfect residential or commercial buildings that you are trying to buy?

 

 

Thanks for image - www.bexelconsulting.com; blog.array-architects.com

‘Make in India’ Campaign – How Far It Can Boost Employment in India

India claimed and proved that it can reach Mars at a less cost per kilometer than the Auto fares it has in its metro cities! Cherishing this success, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has invited foreign direct investment in manufacturing to boost the employment scope in India. He named the campaign as ‘Make In India’ and also takes the FDI in two ways - for common man as “First Develop India” and Foreign Direct Investment for the investors. Now the biggest question is how far it is possible to generate employment through manufacturing industry when it currently contributes only 16% of the national GDP.

How to fulfill employment expectation of 12 million youth while 2 million jobs are available?

Some questions are always easy to ask – how to fulfill employment expectation of 12 million youth while 2 million jobs are available? It is fact that Gross domestic product (GDP) growth stalled below 5% in 2013. How is going to be his claim when he wants a movement away from poverty will come from increase in employment? Will it be really possible to generate employment by developing the manufacturing sector in India?

 

Dignitaries assuring contribution and upholding concerns

Dignitaries present at the launch of Make In India Campaign had their share of thoughts that arise hope. Ms. Chanda Kochchar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank says Make in India is the next growth driver for India and it is capable to add 9 crore jobs in the coming decade through Manufacturing sector. Thanks to Mr. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman & Managing Director for Reliance Industries to give some touch of reality when he said this 'Make in India' is a historic approach for the Indian manufacturing industry aiming at the present and future, not about the past. And Reliance will create 1.25 lakh jobs in next 12-15 months.

Mr. Modi wants to create employment for Indians who are in workable-age between 15 and 54 years. However, Kenichi Ayukawa, MD and CEO, Maruti Suzuki India identifies how he is still concerned about government not involving in removing factors affecting manufacturing competitiveness. Same thing reflects in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index where India ranked 142 (worse than its 2014 rank of 140) out of 189 countries.

Logic behind faster people are pulled out of poverty, the more opportunity will there be for global business

There is logic behind Mr. Modi’s claim that employment generation is beneficial for the investors as: “The faster people are pulled out of poverty and brought into the middle class, the more opportunity will there be for global business. Therefore, investors from abroad need to create jobs. Cost effective manufacturing and a handsome buyer - one who has purchasing power - are both required. More employment means more purchasing power.”

Balancing Make for India and Make in India

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has given a different shade of light for the growth story of India. He said, for "Make in India" to succeed, the government needs to implement ambitious infrastructure plans and reduce the cost of doing business in India. He reminded that "Make for India" is equally important because external demand is weak. He also adds that India does not need to go out of the way to get foreign investors: "If we make it easier for young companies to do business in India, it will create a transparent and quick system and will do the same for foreign investors…" He also points out, FDI and globalization bring benefits but these can also affect adversely by vanishing some routine jobs as has been seen for the middle class in US and Europe.

Statistics show slowdown trend in manufacturing Industry

The vanishing theory in jobs is in other way applicable in India if we take things in different way. A recent report released by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation on Indian factories shows that more than 400,000 people lost their jobs during the financial year 2012-13. This slowdown points out to a trend in manufacturing Industry that is moving towards automating and squeezing more output from its workers. It is confirming that fewer number of workers would be required for manufacturing units. Now if this is the scenario for running investment, what about the bigger foreign direct investments that would certainly aim at more profits with automation and implementation of technological advancement. How is then going to be the number of employment through Make In India based manufacturing unites?

How to contribute 25% of the GDP while the current maximum level of 16% of GDP

The reality can be harsh but true when we see Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) reporting that India had 222,120 operational industrial units during 2012-13 and there is an increase of 2% per cent from 217,554 units in 2011-2012 but people engaged in factories declined from 13.43 million to 12.95 million notifying a drop of 3.6% (480,000). Now how Mr. Modi can claim that Make-In-India program can boost employment through manufacturing units and it would contribute at least 25% of GDP from the current maximum level of 16% of GDP!

Add to this statistics is political situation that has already hindered the growth of employment as some ‘states with more inflexible labor regulations have witnessed slower growth in employment in manufacturing than states with more flexible labor market regulations,” – this also comes from the same study of ASI.

Pray that benefits reach to people via ‘minimum government and maximum governance.’

Well, there are limitations amidst the expectations. Any dream can comes true when actions are taken. Make In India campaign is going to generate employment for sure while its results may or may not be as per expectations! Whatever it be, all the moves in generating employment is ever welcome. It is a matter of good hope that the Government has also thought about Indian entrepreneurship-led economic growth to act as catalyst to boost employment. The RS 10,000-crore fund for start-ups announced by the government is a welcome step for entrepreneurs and SMEs to set up manufacturing unites. Let’s prey that its benefits reach to people who need them via ‘minimum government and maximum governance.’

Let both foreign and domestic manufacturing industry create enormous employment opportunities for our country. Let everything work for good to Indian citizens. We have already accepted ‘Made for India’ and ‘made in India’. We welcome investors and industrialists to ‘Make In India.’

How to Step Ahead for Accomplishing Career Goals

Not only this great Hindu monk and youth icon - Swami Vivekananda (quoted on the left side) encouraged us for continuing our journey until destination, all our well-wishers and ancestors try to give us this advice. It is absolutely essential to follow as most of the times we set career goal but fail to stay committed to those.

This thing happens because we fail to get organized and determined. We lose confidence when we taste failures or the roadblocks. Sometimes circumstances make our goals secondary. We procrastinate and most of us find grey hairs on our head.

Now, tell me, have you set your goal and heading towards the target? Let me tell you how to move forward to reach your career goal step by step. Believe me, it is easy by crossing set milestones with utmost confidence, determination and some time-tested tricks noted below.

Determine what you want to accomplish

The foremost important thing is determination. Ask yourself how determine you are! Always try to stick to your target. If you fail to get the confidence, encourage yourself.

For example, you can repeatedly charge yourself with “I can do it.” It may seem childish in the beginning, but it soon shows you positive results.

Create roadmap to destination

Without a set roadmap, nobody reaches any destination. So you need to plan your entire approach road to the destination. Write your expectation and create your plan to reach them one by one.

For instance, to be the vice president in your serving organization, you need to climb through different mid- levels like group leaders to senior manager and so on. So you need to know how to reach these positions with what level of performance.

Document goals to achieve it

You need to keep your goals visible in front of your eyes. Keep those visible through documenting them. Those would power your mind to run toward accomplishing set targets. But do not write anything out of the world! However, you can write something 2 or 3 times bigger than your present strength.

In some cases, you can set goal to double the salary package but do not think to head your serving organization in a year as it would be too difficult a task to complete in a year!

Try to anticipate roadblocks specifically

While you have goals, roadblocks are natural. But you need to anticipate those for each goal. This attitude ensures that you know what is next to come. Always be analytical in this anticipation, you have to be specific with realistic analysis. Accordingly, you can plan the support to overcome those hurdles to achieve your goal.

In few instances, you may anticipate your immediate superior to hinder your promotion. No issue, simply plan how to highlight your achievement to get notice from management.

Set a deadline for each goal

Everything we do, has deadline. You cannot afford to miss the deadline to reach your goal! Deadlines makes us accountable for whatever we do. Split your route to destination in small realistic and time-driven deadlines. Only concentrate to pass the immediate blockage and soon you get ready to reach the goal.

For example, you may fix a deadline to be the employee of the year. And to reach that, you need to be excellent in every project you do. So your target is supreme quality at delivering each project. Accomplish it, you are on the top for sure.

Prioritizing goals one by one

It is never possible to take one target at random and achieve it. You have to be calculative by prioritizing targets. Just think about the most important thing first, then make your way crossing target marks one by one. It will make difference in your career achievements and will help you move properly.

For example, your accomplishments can be to perform the best for quarterly appraisal or to be the next group leader and may be Sr. Manager. Now you have to realize what is the most prior and how to step accordingly.

There is no tomorrow- it is now or never!

Do not procrastinate or delay in starting your journey. You must realize a journey begins with a single step. Do not hesitate to take that step. Remove all fears and tensions from your mind to move forward. Take the step and you will be there.

It is as if, you have planned your route to success yesterday night, but you are waiting for tomorrow to begin with it. Remember, there is no tomorrow! So start today and possibly now.

Revisit your goals everyday

If you think, once the plan is done, you would keep on climbing up step by step; you are wrong! Remember, small failures can even discourage you to move forward. So to keep going, you have to revisit your plan to rejuvenate your subconscious mind that ensures you’re steering yourself in the right direction.

Sometimes, work pressure tend to make your goals secondary. You start your day thinking how to resolve the issue left unresolved at office. Never do it. Look at your goals each morning first as it would recharge you with positive vibes. You will see automatically positive thinking solves other problems left in other places.

It is really easy – You can do it

If there is will, there is way for sure. Hope you have understood what steps I noted here. I can remember Walt Disney's great quote. He said it correctly:

We human beings have immense mental power. We need to realize it. Your will power can really move the mountain. First dream your goal destination then start without hesitation.

In your journey, you will find hundreds to discourage you, but few to encourage. Listen your soul and walk until you are at your destination.

Now tell me, aren't those simple! Yes, take it easy and say to yourself – “I can do it.” So many people have got success by following these steps. Now it is your turn to accomplish your goals. Are you ready?

I can never forget one classic from Elvis Presley. I like the realization and try to follow it in every aspect of my life; you should love everything you do, not just your dearest one. Isn't it? I leave it to you. But trust me, there is no harm in listening this classic song...

My sincere thanks go to following sites from where I borrowed images; if I miss anybody, shower some blessings to me: ipaca-wren.blogspot.com; www.woohooing.com ; www.cipesa.org ; www.pkmenon.com ; www.nantucketchronicle.com ; www.asiaforexmentor.com ; careers.phoenix.edu ; askthecoverdesigner.com

Online Marketing - 3 All-time Benefits for Businesses

Online marketing is the path that leads to generating revenue fast. This is why businesses are ever in the search of the road-map that can strategically lead to the expected results. There are two types of marketing, in general terms, one is offline or the traditional marketing and the other one is online marketing.

Businesses are now concentrating more on the online part. There must be some specific reasons that are attracting business owners to invest in online marketing. What are those benefits of online marketing? Is it only convenience or the cost effectiveness that happens to be the reasons for increased reliance on the online marketing ploys?

A business owner does not invest in any sector if the benefits are not 70% to 80% guaranteed. Let us find out some all-time benefits of the online marketing:

Measurable results and suitable for all business type– Look at the traditional ways of marketing, those ploys (TV, newspapers and others) have life span. It means, a business happens to invest for one time and huge too for just a few seconds or a day at latest to reach customers. They can expect some notice from the consumers/customers but can hardly measure the success in full. It is not suitable even for all the occasions. But think about online marketing. There are ways to measure its success and its life can be as high as a business desires to. Not all the traditional techniques are in the reach of small or medium businesses. Online marketing has something or the other for every business. It suits all type of businesses. Any business can effectively use it to market the products or services.

Boundless approach with global reach to customers- The ultimate goal of marketing is to reach the maximum in fastest possible way or competitors can grab a considerable market before you reach. Today things move fast. When traditional marketing techniques are used, it is found that its reach is limited and at the same time, slower than online marketing. A business can market its product or services within few seconds via online techniques while in traditional way processing time is considerably high. If traditional marketing can reach a few million ears and eyes, online marketing reaches to billions and that is within a blink of eyes. Most of the times traditional marketing does not give scope to market globally, it targets specific geographic locations. But online marketing is ever global in nature while it can also target specific locations too. Obviously, if the reach is that much huge, chances of greater revenue would be ever higher.

Always cost effective and flexible- Businesses aim less time spent, yet better results with minimum investment. Most of the traditional marketing tactics or practices incur huge investment but does not guarantee better results in short span of time. Even those are not flexible in maneuvering the efforts towards success. For example, if a business has to showcase an advertisement in a newspaper, it has to spend huge to get a considerable (noticeable) space and it is one time publication. Same way, to buy a TV slot, million Dollars can be in demand. Off course, availability is a factor added to the monetary aspect. There is no such inflexibility in online marketing. While the investment of few bucks can bring huge results, those marketing campaigns can be paused and reset according to business needs. In online marketing a million Dollar can guarantee twice or three times return if spent wisely through the hands of expert online marketers.

Hope from the above discussed points, it is clear that businesses wisely invest and correctly take decisions to invest a considerable amount of money for the online marketing. Nowadays, most of the businesses either hire online marketing teams or have their in-house team to get the utmost expected online marketing benefits. What do you think? Have you tested the water? I will not ask you to put both of your legs into the river of online marketing, but one small investment can show the power of effective online marketing technique.

Thanks for Images: blog.thecenterforsalesstrategy.com; writersliving.com; www.canuckseo.com

Social Media Analytics Is Shaping Marketing Strategy

It is needless to say that marketing managers are always in hunt for strategies that bring the best result. However, to guide a marketing strategy in the right direction, much fuel needs to be burnt. It is proper business flow analysis that can help in this regard. Knowing how customers are taking products or services is very important. It is all about understanding customer behaviors and loyalty that help in modifying a marketing campaign that demands expected results.

Where and how the buzz is

Almost everybody spends a lot of time in social media. They discuss their feelings about so many things in different social networks.

A Social Media Analytics is a tool that fetches and analyses huge social media data. It can guide the marketing strategy planners about the status (acceptance or rejection) of every product/service and of course, marketing campaign. Detailed customer sentiment analysis shows the right path to attract customers to grow business. In other words, the churn rate is improved and revenue growth possibility is bettered.

How Social Media Analytics tool benefits:

A Social Media Analytics has many important features to offer. If proper customer data analysis is taken into consideration, shaping marketing policy becomes easy with greater possibility to hit the right target.

Social Media Analytics can offer knowledge on how a product is performing in the market supported by marketing campaigns.It can also detail how a service is reaching to the customers through the effects of marketing campaigns or the pitch of the different campaigns.

It is all about understanding sentiments by keywords -

When people discuss about any product or service, they may be discussing how they like it or dislike. Analytics take the most discussed words or phrases about any product or service. It claims those as keywords.

Comprehending the nature of these keywords, policy makers can feed their strategy architecture. Marketers know:

• Point of discussion against a product/service
• Relevancy of keywords with particular product/service type
• Separating positive keywords that bring good results
• Identifying negative keywords that pull business down
• Missing points/trends in any discussion
• Keywords benefiting competitors most

Market location identification- Every business has some targeted markets. Some companies confine their business in a specific geographic location, while others target global markets.Consequently, it becomes important to know how products or services are consumed by the customers in different locations. A Social Media Analytics identifies locations from where customers are discussing about a product or service. It also shows how a marketing ploy is performing in typical locations. So this becomes easy to guide and take steps to improve policy by market location. Analytics shows:

• From which location business flow is better
• What locations business is low or nil
• Which locations competitors are getting business

Finding networks of importance - There are quite a good number of social channels through which people express their opinions. A Social Media Analytics collects data from different social networks and shows where people are discussing most or least about any product or service.

They try to know which networks people are crowding the most so that they can invest their time on to those networks. A marketing person can understand:

• Which social network is bringing traffic
• Which network is not having good flow
• What networks are giving benefits to competitors

Identifying nature of influences - When a business process is analyzed properly, marketers can understand what type of customers they have most. There are customers who are very much satisfied with a product or service. At the same time, there are people who are unsatisfied. There are reasons of accepting or denial of anything. A Social Media Analytics tool even identifies people who are having neutral attitude to a product or service. A social media tool can identify promoters (people who are promoting a product or service), detractors (people who are spreading negative feedback) and people who are neutral (customers who are using products or services but may be waiting for something better without venting any expression of interest or dissatisfaction). So it becomes easy to know:

• Which satisfied customers are against each product or service
• What points are creating detractor in a particular way
• How strong neutral response is and what those customers are waiting for

Measuring sentiment quantity and quality - A Social Media Analytics tool can count the number of activities against customers spread in different social channels. It can identify the quality (good or bad) of expressions vented through channels. Obviously, it turns easy for the marketing managers to point out which networks are having better marketing effects and how. They can plan to concentrate on networks that are not actively giving feedback from the customers. The analysis shows how the quality of feedback is. For this reason, marketing experts can work on turning negative to positive feedback. Analytics shows:

• How many posts or tweets, re-tweets, comments and shares are pouring in a channel
• How many positive attitude are and how intense those are in their nature
• How a negative feedback is and how deeply that is impacting campaigns
• What the proportion and average are against the positive and negative feedback

Knowing recent activity flow- Whenever a marketing campaign is implemented, knowing immediate impact is necessary. Without knowing fast hand impact, progress can be misguided.

A Social Media Analytics tool shows immediate performance of any marketing campaign. It can report:

• How recent discussions are (by time)
• What the type (positive, neutral or negative) of response is
• How frequently people are talking about a product/service

Customer activity at a glance - A Social Media Analytics works with a mountain of data. The original analysis report is in coding format. It is difficult and time-consuming to understand those analysis. This sometimes may lead to wrong apprehensions and misleading steps. So every Analytics come with easy to understand representation (graphical structure) of critical analysis report.

The effect is very strong. Marketing managers can work fast with right modifications or update in planning. A social media tool comes with:

• Graphical view of visitor activities in social media
• Visuals or graphs of influence rise and fall in channels
• Graphically viewing growth or decrease of customers in quantity
• Chart representation of customer data for different parameters

Well, these are some of the benefits that a marketing person can get from a Social Media Analytics. Almost every Analytics tool comes with some typical features to make things easy for the users.

I have got a trial version of Decicion, a social media analytics with some unique features that helped me to get a lot of idea about how customer activities are tracked against different social media

However, the ultimate goal for a tool is to satisfy customer needs in the best possible way. In this perspective, all the tools are 95 to 99% successful.

A buyer (marketing strategy maker) of a Social Media Analytics tool, needs to choose the best Analytics tool available in the market.

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Thanks for the images: redwhiteandgrew.com, socialmediaimpact.com, iconceptsmarketing.com, briansrunningadventures.com, smartinsights.com, socialeasemarketing.com, social-media-marketing-tools.blogspot.com, variety.com,