Another fantastic year is coming to a close, and we are super excited to ring in the new year with much better customer service, technical support and products for 2012. Wishing you a happy holiday and a New Year filled with health, happiness and success.
GoDaddy, the world’s largest domain registrar and known for its sexy Super Bowl ads and controversial CEO with a penchant for elephant killing, has been sold. The deal valued $2.25 billion.
The deal between both parties took place late Friday as per company announcement and the three private equity firms are KKR & Co., Silver Late Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures. They agree to take on GoDaddy’s debt which is roughly half of the value of deal.
GoDaddy founder and CEO Bob Parsons predicted further growth under its new ownership. In an interview with Los Angeles Times, Bob Parson said:
What these guys see is a company with a lot more potential internationally and more potential to make partnerships and acquisitions. They’ll help us finance and they’ll help us recruit talent.
GoDaddy, also known for its sexy Super Bowl advertisements and controversial CEO with a penchant for elephant killing,
There has been significant growth in the past three years, with sales rising by 25% to around $947 million from 2009 to 2010. The new ownership will continue that trend in 2011 and quoting $1.1 billion for the year.
After a failed attempt of initiating its own social networking platform (Google Buzz) Google has now once again launched another of its social media tool entitled Google+. It seems that Google has not yet forgotten the bitter memories of its previous letdown and has merely proclaimed Google + as a test trial version or more modestly a testing project.
MC Siegler at Tech Crunch stated:
Google+ is easily already the most compelling social project Google has ever done. The most appealing of the new launch can be listed as:
- Circles — online places users create to socialize and interact with different groups of people, not everyone. They’re private to anyone who isn’t designated to participate. So Jake can share openly with his Tea Party friends without alienating his Clinton-era Democratic parents.
- Hangouts — Hangout will allow users to do video or text chat with anyone willing to do so. It’s multi-person video calling.
- Mobile — Group messaging, location services and photo and video uploads and sharing.
- Sparks — Sparks will allow users to access the content in which they are interested from across the web through Google.
Many people and analysts are of the opinion that Facebook which has over 600 million members now has to face a competitor, although no such statement has been given from Google’s platform.
Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post expressed her views over Google+ as:
Google Plus isn’t the new Facebook. It’s the grown-up Facebook. Perhaps this makes it the anti-Facebook.
Deciding that Google+ will takeover Facebook is quite a pre-mature decision at present as Google has not yet drawn curtains over all features and secrets that in store for its users. Facebook on the other hand has massive number of users and applications, and surpassing them all will be hard nut to crack for Google. Only upcoming time will decide as to which of the titans captures the social media platform in future.
16Jun
How do women use Social Media?
Tags: Facebook, social media, social sites, women and social media
“The world’s gone social. And women are more social than men.” –Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
Nowadays it is an open secret that social media sites are dramatically changing the way we live and conduct our lives online. But the role played by women in it is commonly overlooked. Perhaps surprisingly, women are online and interacting on social sites just as much if not, more than their male counterparts. Hence, it is important to understand how women use social networks and the powerful effects of social media sites on their sites.
It’s no shock that men and women act differently online, just as they do in everyday life .Men use social media forums and sites as means to gather information and increase their status. In contrast to this, women often use online social networking tools to make connections and share items from their personal lives. “We’re women–we like to talk about things. Women use social media as a way to connect,” says Jodi Kahn, the head of iVillage.
Furthermore, men are active blog participant. They are more likely to read, write and post comments to blogs. Surprisingly, both men and women report that their most common blog topic is “my life,” she says. However, the second most popular topic for men is business and career, and food and fashion are tied in second place for women.
A summary of how women use social media can be listed as follows:
- 53% of adult females use social media at least on a weekly basis.
- Their top interests are entertainment, food, health/wellness, and recipes/cooking. Fashion/beauty/shopping comes in fifth.
- 34% of women use social networks to get information.
- 20% of women are looking for advice and recommendations.
The above analysis shows that women are increasing using social media platforms to find answers to their queries, connect to friends and family and play online games. Therefore in the future social media developers must focus on this up-coming trend and develop applications and sites that focus feminine audience.
16Jun
Business Guide Revealed
Starting a new business is analogous to sailing in deep waters without a life jacket. You can either reach to the shore or drown within the blink of an eye; it is all matter of how you execute yourself. There are no set rules as to starting or maintaining a business yet we will provide you with some basic rules that in turn will aid you to turn your business setup into a big hit, but then again there are no guarantees in life.
Igniting the Engine:
The first step of any business venture is to plan out as to how the business would be like.
Firstly, one must do a market survey and tabulate an analysis as to which product is in more demand and what’s not. Moreover; that respective thing must be also be of your interest. Doing something half-heartedly would only run for a few days. Hence the type of business must also be of the owner’s liking.
Secondly, the amount of capital must also be kept in mind. A big project may require a large investment which may lead to borrowing loans from bank. Therefore the pay-back period must also be calculated. Such a type of trade must be chosen that is able to generate profits in the least course of time so as to overcome the initial investment as soon as possible.
Thirdly, to run any business effectively skilled and professional employees are required. So make sure you hire people who are talented in the kind of work that they do. They are a basic building block of any venture; a strong force of them will make the business quite stable. They must also be kept motivated through bonus, praises on good work and sometimes a company get-together. It keeps the employees happy, they work with more dedication which in turn will generate more income and customer satisfaction.
This can be summarized into:
Profits & Customer satisfaction ∝ Employee
Profits & Customer satisfaction=K* Employee
Where K=Happiness.
Advertising:
One of the key needs of business is promoting it through all means that is, marketing. Advertisement of your business increases your market value and also brings it to the knowledge of a wide audience due to its availability 24/7. There are many channels of marketing but I will tell you about the most effective method and its types:
Web Marketing
Internet marketing, also known as digital marketing, web marketing, online marketing, search marketing or e-marketing, is the marketing (generally promotion) of products or services over the Internet. It is the most fast and inexpensive technique of promotion where a large audience can be catered.
Types of online marketing:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): In this kind of marketing, the website is made more search engine friendly so that when any keyword or search is typed, the site will make it into the top search results. This type of Internet marketing is more appropriate method to attract the potential customers.
- Online Auctions: Online auctions are just as the auctions that take place in the real time. Items are put up for sale and the minimum price is quoted by the seller. Interested parties then start biding and the one with the highest bid is given that item. The buyers in case of online auction can be form any part of the world
- Email-Marketing: The promotion of products or services via email is termed as Email Marketing. It is an inexpensive way to advertise your company and its products and/or services compared to many other types of marketing.
- Banner advertising: Here banners of the advertiser are displayed on certain website. The advertisers pay a certain amount of money to get the banner displayed on the website for a certain period of time. The banners are usually visually appealing to attract the customers. The respond it will get depends upon the website it has been displayed.
- Social Media Marketing: Social media marketing is the systematic process of building relationships which leads to sales.
It may be classified into:
- Twitter: Twitter allows companies to promote products on an individual level. The use of a product can be explained in short messages that are more likely to be read.
- Facebook: Facebook profiles are more detailed than Twitter. They allow a product to provide videos, photos, and longer descriptions. Videos can show when a product can be used as well as how to use it.
- Blogging: Blogging is a new method to keep your client up to date and and inform him/her about the new brands our services one has to offer. An active blog will surely bring in more business.
Administering:
Customer satisfaction: It is extremely significant to keep the client satisfied with what we provide him with or else he would turn away to substitute goods causing to lose business. This can only be accomplished by providing consistent and good quality products at all times.
Customer service centers: These are made to assist clients provide service solution and get feedback on those solutions. Customer services should be an integral part of your client satisfaction scheme.
Lastly, there are many options for starting a business, downfalls and upheavals are a part of life but as the saying goes “Fortune favors the bold.”
Hence follow the 3 basic principles mentioned above and proceed for setting up your own business setup.
