Questions to ask about your new Social Media Site

Which Channels Are Right For My Business?
To determine whether or not you’re using the right social media channels to convert leads and drive sales, here are five questions to consider before engaging with a new social media site.

1. What are the Four W’s? – When assessing a new social network, start by reviewing the 4 W’s: who, what, when, and why. Who’s using the site (demographic); what are they doing on it (engagement factors); when are they most active; and finally, why have they chosen the site? What is drawing them to it? This is where you want to analyze whether a site’s buyer personas mesh with those of your brand.Take Pinterest for example, a social network used mostly by women. If you’re trying to market your new men’s hair loss product, Pinterest might not be the best fit. If you are unable to provide a way to meet the needs of a site’s particular demographic, than maybe that site isn’t right for your brand. Nonetheless, don’t feel the need to repurpose your entire brand just to look appealing to a given social network.
2. Who’s Likely to Use the Network in the Long Run? – Given the unpredictable future of many social media sites, it is important to understand which demographic is most likely to be engaging with the site down the line. Are they potential customers, or do they have the ability to persuade potential customers? Because word of mouth has such a large impact on businesses, especially through social media channels, your brand should look into how these potential customers share content across the site.
3. What Types of Content Are People Sharing? – Are the products and services your business provides relevant to the content people are sharing? Make sure that your content is fit for the particular network you’re engaging with. For example; you wouldn’t go posting information about a new book you just read on MySpace, which is largely dominated by bands and music. If it’s obvious that a particular site is industry-specific, make sure that the content you share is relevant to that industry.
4. How Much Time and How Many Resources? – Oftentimes business don’t have the personnel required to stay up-to-date on their social media efforts. It takes a lot of time and effort to stay current with social media, so don’t spread yourself too thin. Instead, select a few social networks that align with your business and utilize them to their fullest potential. Another thing to consider when sharing content across multiple sites is the use of social media management tools such as Hootsuite. This will allow you to monitor and post across all your sites from a single hub.²
5. Is There a Promising ROI in the Future? – Sharing valuable content, engaging with your audience and collecting lead information is not enough. In order to understand the effectiveness of your social media efforts, analyze how much traffic and leads are generated across your social platforms. Measuring these results will allow you to evaluate and make corrections on any aspect of your social presence that isn’t up to par.²

By following these five steps, you can separate the wheat from the chaff, and engage with the social media sites that are best for your business.

India: Preparing for a Demographic Dividend

Demographics are destiny. Countries with a large and expanding workforce and relatively few people of dependent age (under 15 or over 64) can reap what Harvard School of Public Health demographer David Bloom has called a “demographic dividend.” Young, unencumbered workers spur entrepreneurship and innovation, enabling significant gains in productivity, savings, and capital inflows.

As fresh ideas flourish, governments can focus on improving infrastructure and helping to fund such critical technologies as intelligent transportation systems, smart utility grids, and renewable energy. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the demographic dividend can increase a country’s GDP growth by as much as a third.

No country is better poised to take advantage of the demographic dividend than India. In 2020, the average age in India will be only 29 years, compared with 37 in China and the United States, 45 in western Europe, and 48 in Japan.

Moreover, 70 percent of Indians will be of working age in 2025, up from 61 percent now. Also by 2025, the proportion of children younger than 15 will fall to 23 percent of India’s total population, from 34 percent today, while the share of people older than 65 will remain around just 5 percent.

China’s demographics are not as rosy as India’s, because the government’s policies to limit population growth will have created an abnormally large cohort of people over age 60 by 2040.

Other emerging nations, such as Pakistan, Indonesia, and certain countries in Latin America and Africa, will produce much larger workforces in the coming years. But their demographic dividends may be inhibited by political and social instability that impedes efforts to put this young population to productive use; a country with massive numbers of unemployed young people and no constructive economic outlet for their dynamism is headed for trouble.

To read the full article follow the link: Preparing for a Demographic Dividend

Kindle and eBook Readers: Nice to have but ...

The introduction of e-book readers to challenge Amazon’s Kindle has brought new price competition to the market.

The launch of Sony’s $199 Reader and Interead’s $249 Cool-er prompted Amazon to drop the price of its introductory-level Kindle 2 to $299 from $359 within months of its debut.

Despite this change, prices still have a long way to go before e-book readers get beyond the early adopter demographic, according to a study released this week by Forrester Research.

Even among frequent readers with a disposable income and a household income above $75,000, current prices put e-book devices firmly in the expensive luxury category. Forrester’s survey of 4,700 online consumers in the U.S. found average consumers believe the real value of e-book readers is between $50 and $99. This is well below the cheapest reader, currently on the market.

Only 14 percent of consumers said that prices of $199 or higher fall even within the “It’s expensive but I might consider it” range, according to Forrester.

“The maximum addressable market for e-readers as they are currently priced is substantial — but to reach the largest market possible, the prices will need to come way down,” Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps wrote in a blog post about the report. “And even then, e-readers are never going to be as big a market as MP3 players, which 110 million U.S. consumers own.”

3 Growth Areas for the Automotive Industry

What does the future hold? A Firey Red Ferrari 458 for all?

Millions of people around the world take part in the daily commute. Making their weary way into cities and using automobiles as a means to sustain a better more comfortable life.

That momentum may have slowed in 2008 and 2009, but it hasn’t vanished and can only grow. Recent research conducted by Booz & Company shows that the global customer base for automobiles over the next 10 years falls into three broad categories, based primarily on which countries customers live in.

1. The rapidly emerging economies (REEs) consist of the so-called BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and a group of other relatively wealthy developing nations, such as Malaysia, Argentina, Mexico, Turkey, Thailand, Iran, and Indonesia. Millions of families in these countries are making or contemplating the purchase of their first automobile.
2. The lower-growth economies (compared to the REEs) consist of about 100 nations with relatively impoverished populations and poor economic prospects. However, their political leaders are interested in building up the middle class and see personal mobility as a major stepping stone. These countries may become markets for motorised transportation after 2020.
3. The mature economies include the established industrialised nations in North America, Europe, and Japan. Population growth and vehicle replacement, rather than economic growth, will determine the market for automobiles there.

These three groups add up to an enormous amount of market potential: Booz & Company estimates suggest that more than 370 million additional vehicles could be sold by 2013 and more than 715 million by 2018, but business models in the auto industry are not currently equipped to capture these increases.