Is blogging dying?

Blogging scene has dramatically changed over the past few years, after micro-blogging sites like Twitter took off so quickly and amassed such large amount of members in a short time. Thus, the question lies within that is blogging dying and is it still useful for small businesses? A quick search around the net returns rather positive answers. Primarily, a blog creates a promotable “Social Media Asset” because every post is a potential destination for links and entry points through search engine. Optimizing the blog content for identifying themselves can be very useful for small businesses that wants to be the destination for relevant customers who are looking for those certain keywords too. Besides, a blog is much more customizable than say, a Facebook page or Twitter account. Businesses can present its ideas, promotions better, without have to be restrained by the website.

“More than two-thirds (68%) of online Americans say they visit online blogs, communities or social networks, and 33% engage in product research online to help them make purchase decisions.” Therefore, it is quite important for businesses to manage their blogs properly, if there is one, and to be tweak with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial.

Blogs can also serve the purpose of reinforcing businesses’ brand reputation and the depth of knowledge towards their products. Consumers would really appreciate good discussion, good reviews or useful information towards certain products they might be interested in. However, personally, I do not think blogging is enough as a small business’s marketing tool today. Instead, they should be as important as the marketing platforms on Facebook or Twitter. If handled well, these two can boost revenues and sales without much costs involved, relatively.


Sources:
Blogs as a Useful Business Tool, Cathy Larkin, http://websavvypr.com/blogs-as-a-useful-business-tool/marketing-pr-and-social-media-strategies/blog-ideas/admin/2009/03/


The Value of Small Business Blogging: 3 Key Questions & Answers, Lee Odden, http://www.toprankblog.com/2012/03/the-value-of-small-business-blogging-3-key-questions-answers/

Millennials.

The current trends show that the use of the internet, smart phones and the confidence of the people shopping online is growing at a really fast rate. Thus, e-business is definitely here to stay, and what’s the future is going to be for the entrepreneurs? Some people might answer with a definite yes, as everyone seems to be jumping on the online shopping wagon now.

The future of mobile business might actually sound slightly appropriate in today’s context. Again and again, as smart phones penetration increases year after year, businesses certainly have to consider this huge untapped market where consumers are generally more well educated. Marketers could reach them in a myriad ways, but that does mean it is easier now to sell the products to them. According to BusinessWeek’s article, the main user group of smart phones and latest mobiles, 18-to-34-year old, are “mainly drawn by sales and promotion”. Amazingly, 24% of this age group consumers actually describes their lives as financial desperation. Most of them want to be fashion-driven and have the latest gadgets, but they are not willing and, some unable, to pay for it. Hence, here lies a huge problem for the current businesses, especially the retail businesses.

Of course, it is not as bad as it sounds. But as mobile shopping slowly taking away the share of online shopping (through desktops or PCs), businesses should really consider their primary targeted consumer groups and weigh the financial costs of offering mobile/online shopping. Serving up a platform where many people wouldn’t afford just does not sound like a good plan.


Sources:

The Future Of E-Commerce And Online Business, http://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-future-of-e-commerce-and-online-business/27002/


The Future Of E-Commerce, Sramana Mitra, http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/30/ecommerce-amazon-ebay-technology-internet-ecommerce.html


Young Consumers Pinch Their Pennies,Matt Townsend, Ashley Lutz and Christopher Palmeri, http://mobile.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-22/young-consumers-pinch-their-pennies

In the previous class, we talked about how luxury businesses haven’t tipped their toes into e-commerce just yet. It is definitely an interesting discussion as there would be such a big portion of consumers are big fans of the luxury brands out there. I believe one of the major reason why most luxury brands are reluctant to offer their merchandise online is that customer service and shopping experience are considered the most important selling point for consumers aside their luxurious expensive goods. While many premium brands like Coach has already stepped on their game on their website, delivering almost all their products to shoppers through online. However, the luxury brands like Louis Vuitton. Gucci and Hermes, have decided to just showcase their products online and direct customers to purchase in store though many of these have something in common - their websites tend to use Flash which is usually laggy and not supported by some of the web browsers out there.

I did some read up about this topic and has found some interesting possible solutions. First of all, the online shopping experience has to be smooth and as good as shopping in store. They should be simple, sleek and clean yet without lacking any crucial functions. The luxury brands can also offer invite-only sales for selected or privileged members. This will definitely increase the exclusivity of the websites and brands as well. If the website manages to create word-of-mouth, then it will be a really useful marketing gimmick too. Tailoring products recommendations based on the customer behaviour would be really useful to create a much better shopping experience, as what luxury brands are all about in the first place.


Source:
What is the future for luxury e-commerce?, Matthew Curry, http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/6009-what-is-the-future-for-luxury-ecommerce

VDI for SMBs?

Since about 2010, small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) which does not suddenly had more options to rethink their traditional operating system and desktops for their businesses. With the large influx of tablets and smartphones, virtual desktops became a much more viable choice for these businesses. Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) became a popular choice within the financial industry, which allow them to keep their highly confidential data off their laptop. For them, the cost is minute as compared to the loss if they lose their laptops and the data.

But is it perfect for SMBs which do not have large capital. Let’s weigh the pros and cons. One of the good thing about VDI is that it has a flexible cost model. You can pay according to how much you use. Providers of VDI like VMware and Citrix say their system can save between 30% and 50% of the current cost for IT admins to manage, upgrade and support. One of biggest selling point for VDI is that it provides the flexibility to work anywhere on any connected device, increase business agility. Besides, VDI also increases the security with no data stored on the devices, but on the cloud, allowing access anytime and anywhere. The drawbacks of VDI include the disadvantage that it will not work offline and historically VDI’s performance has been slow and has poorer user experience compared to the traditional laptops. Also, VDI is considered relatively new in the industry, thus SMBs which do not have proficient IT support on their own might find themselves rely too heavily on vendor support.

Regardless of the pros and cons, VDI or Desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) will be very interesting to watch in the coming few years, especially for SMBs. And of course, putting almost all data on cloud require a leap of faith for businesses, VDI has many upsides for businesses and offers more flexibilities, allows them to allocate more money on their core businesses. 

Sources:

Top 12 Pros and Cons of Virtual desktops, thedaasler, http://thedaasler.wordpress.com/2011/04/06/top-12-pros-and-cons-of-virtual-desktops/

The Benefits of Virtual Desktops, Phil Hochmuth, http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/12/desktop-virtualization-software-business-intelligence-hochmuth.html

Small business and social media

Social platform seems like the right place to market for small businesses which do not possess a large amount of capital. But how useful is it really, in converting the number of fans and likes into real cash and profits? Or rather, how should the businesses fully utilize the social media platform. First of all, businesses should not treat social media as a separate entity from their main business. In fact, they should be treated as a whole, and social media is just a tool to aid the business. Social media is a great platform to generate interactions with your customers, creating awareness regarding your newly-launched products or getting feedback from them. 

Another important thing businesses sometimes overlook is the power of optimized search engine combined with the social medias, like Facebook and Twitter. Any attempt to have positive search results for the business website must be accompanied by a strategy to optimize the entire web presence through the effective use of social media. Besides, without relevant, useful or even entertaining contents, customers just won’t engage with the businesses’ social media effort. Of course, it might be hard for a small business entrepreneur to spend all his/her to come out with these relevant contents to be posted. So, many business articles have pointed out that business “beginners” of the social media should just listen in the beginning. Signing up on twitter or facebook and follow whoever is talking about the products and learn about which type of content has the higher response or feedback. In short, joining social media is like trying to join a community. You need to learn the etiquette, the lingo and then slowly become part of the it. And best of all, it costs nothing. So for small businesses, there is more pros than cons to just sign up on one of the social media platforms and start learning more about your business. 

Source:

Small business and social media: how to get in the game, CBC News, October 20, 2011

Let's Talk Social Media for Small Businesses (Part II), John Jantsch

Mobile Shopping?

With much easier access to the internet and more refined shopping applications written for the smartphones, savvy consumers are increasingly relying upon mobile shopping, and looking for the best deals around. Like past years, many consumers visited the physical stores during the past holiday seasons. However, something different last holiday season was that more of them were there to check out inventory and compare prices. Buying online could help consumers avoid the long wait at checkout and to carry their shopping bags around. While there isn’t a solid proof that the retail experience has gone down over the past few years, one thing we are sure is that consumers are “smarter” nowadays that they are able to conveniently compare prices just by using their mobile phones. Vendors like Amazon, which offers $79 a year for their Amazon prime membership, can get everything delivered in just two working days, for free. That just makes online shopping even more appealing. 

While mobile phones like iPhone, Galaxy, and other smart phones are usually used by consumers to do research and compare prices on the go, it still does not offer a good enough experience for consumers to go online shopping entirely. Hence, there is still a lot of potential to be offered by mobile phone to enhance a greater online shopping experience. For instance, many firm companies have long started to leverage on social media platforms to feed consumers with latest deals and information through mobile sites. Besides, with the development of mobile payments starting to take off, like Google Wallet and ISIS, mobile and online retail are going to be really exciting in the coming few years. Those big companies with lack of strong internet/online presence might find themselves losing their edge to competitors soon!

E-Commerce on Trad Retail

In the competition for getting on the e-commerce's train, it is no easy feat for every traditional brick and mortar stores to have a winning formula to replicate the success such as Amazon and Netflix. Notwithstanding the difficulty of hardware installation or setting up the websites, online businesses still have quite a number of challenges. First of all, not  all type of businesses are suitable for online e-commerce. Groceries and liquor stores may find it difficult to have online website and have groceries delivered to the customers without the scale and IT specialty. 

However, the biggest problem is to replicate brick value propositions in the online world. Conversion rate, which is defined as purchases divided by store visits, are the essence of sales success. For instance, Walmart’s online conversion is still a mere 8%, which means that over 90% of the online visitors visit their website without making any purchases. Traditional retailers need to understand the user experience and the dynamics of online user interactions and reflect that understanding in the design of their e-commerce services. To many consumers and for many transactions, online store has a particular advantage in pricing and convenience, as they can shop at whatever hour they want and comparing websites with several different websites. On the other hand, customer service which involves real person answering, can be hard to be provided online 24/7. And some customers might prefer to hold the products in their hands before buying them. Therefore, retailers must be able to integrate their offline and online channels so that they can satisfy their customers.