“A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something.”

• Wilson Mizner ( 1876-1933 )

In my last post, we talked about social media and its implications to your PR strategy. I promised you that we were going to cover the issue of listening on what people say about you and/or your company.

Before we start, it will be very crucial to remember that listening is a very big part of communication. In fact, it could even be argued that listening is a part of life that we can’t live without. Any good communicators out there will confirm this fact. Just ask somebody you admire for his / her communication skills. It’s undeniable.

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In the context of Social Media, it can become quite confusing, – especially for a first-timer -, to scan and monitor what people say about you. As in real-life communication, it takes a skill to listen. The good news is, it’s easy to acquire the ability to listen in Social Media. Enter the “Search” function.

To elaborate more on this, we’re going to use Twitter as an example. By now, you must know already about what is it. If you have not join Twitter, do so now. You owe it to yourself. Find some important people to follow, – or better yet -, some people who is relevant to your field.

Assuming that you have already done all of the above, what you need to do now is searching the public timeline for the topic pertaining to your field. Owing to Twitter’s wild popularity, there are some excellent tools out there to do this very thing. Make use of them. Followings are three of them that I myself use most often :

• Twitter official search tool
• Tweetscan
• TwitterTroll

Official Twitter Search page

Now all you need to do is go to their sites and type your topic, much as the way you use Google or other search engines. For example : Peter is in the business of airlines. He would want to search for “airlines”, “flying”, “flight” or other similar search terms. The search tool will then give him tweets from people that used such words in it. Don’t just stop there, however. Push your listening act a little bit further. You might want to even search for your brand. Type “Apple” for instance, and you will see what I mean.

Once you reach this point, it will become easy for you to see what people say about you and/or your brands. Don’t forget other valuable information like what their needs, preferences or anything else that might help you to sell more. Good luck !

First and foremost, let me state that this post is just an introduction to a Social Media Strategy, – and as such, will quote a lot from other authoritative sources in the field. Among those experts that helped elaborate about this issue are well-known Web Strategist and Gurus like :

• Jeremiah Owyang
• Brian Solis
• Sparkplug blog, by Wendy Piersall
• Chris Brogan

First of all, let’s take a look at why should we need to learn more about Social Media and utilizing it in your Public Relations strategy. There are so many apparent reasons for this, but among the most interesting ones are :

• Mainstream media is increasingly looking to social media to connect with site visitors
• Mainstream media is using sites like Digg, del.icio.us and Netscape to source content. and ideas for their own articles/news stories .
• Search Engines pay attention – the posts that do well on social media sites rank extremely well – and nearly instantly. This also influences your overall site rank (I can only say this second part speculatively, can anyone confirm?).
• Site exposure to new readers/visitors that would never find your site otherwise.
• Significantly increased Technorati and Alexa ranks which translates into higher advertising revenues
• The ‘Secondary Gain” includes all of the above, plus an influx of activity from many smaller social media sites such as DogDott, PopURLs, YCombinator, DiggRiver, DiggMirror/DuggTrends, and many others.

To be more concise, Chris Brogan sums it up succinctly as this list of goals :

• Increase customer base.
• Generate leads.
• Drive sales.
• Build awareness.
• Make money from your content.
• Establish thought leadership.
• Educate customers.
• Customer-source part of your product development.
• Reach new channels of customers.
• Improve internal communication.

Seems obvious ? Indeed. But there are some more important factors to remember before you devise your company’s Social Media PR Strategy. The essential things-to-remember must include :

• Listening: implement at least a rudimentary listening platform. We’ll cover this in a later post.
• Communications: build a starting place to hold your conversations. And by this, I mean a blogging platform.
• Methods: determine the mix of content you intend to create, and build workflow around it.
• Community: most social media strategies have to address community and how you will embrace the people you seek to gather around your business.
• Neighbors: develop a plan to reach out to others in your community, comment, and share.
• Outposts: develop social network outposts where you can communicate with other communities, and also share the way back to your own platform.
• Marketplace: if your strategy involves making money, build a marketplace external to your community. Keep these separate.
• Attention: learn how to build awareness and encourage relationships with the media you’re making.

I encourage you to dig more about this if you aspire to succeed in using Social Media as part of your PR strategy. As I said in the beginning of this post, there are some valuable written gems ( read : blog posts ) out there. Read them up. You can start with the following well-written advices from the experts :

• “10 Social Media Strategies for the Fortune 1000 Corporations” by Jeremiah Owyang

• “The Poetry of Social Networking to Court Customers and Invest in Relationships” by Brian Solis

• “An Introduction to Social Media Strategy and Socially Driven Content“ from Sparkplug

• And finally, “Starting a Social Media Strategy” from Chris Brogan

When we enter the last month of the year, it is always interesting to predict what will happen in the next year. Not only amusing, a successful prediction often lead to a good anticipation of important business decisions to make. In this post, we are going to look at some available predictions from several sources.

• On Internet Marketing : “Internet marketing continues to grow in importance for many marketing managers”, according to Ad Operations. Creative digital marketing agency Strange (www.strangecorp.com) has also published a report outlining next year’s key trends in online marketing. As more advertisers look to digital, Strange believes that keyword inflation will most likely continue at a high level, and foresees more negotiating over CPA (cost per action/acquisition) advertising. Key areas for expansion will be mobile advertising, local search/localized services and social media.
• On Internet and Social Media : Compassion In Politics published an interesting prediction. In it, they identified some key points like : crowd sourcing will be a huge social media trend for 2009, a renewed focus on technology efficiency and productivity, leveraging offline connection with online connection, mobile and iPhone will continue to see massive user and application growth, video driven communities that drive conversation will take off in social media, and monetization will prove to be huge as more startups have to confront budgetary and cost-cutting issues. The WPromoter agrees with them on at least one point, – which is the prevalence of online video. On the other hand, they put more emphasis on the rise of local search, the supremacy of creativity, a more personal web and user-generated content.
• On Mobile : Daniel Robinson of Vnunet.com mentioned that mobile services specialist Critical Path sees five top trends already developing: the emergence of the ‘real’ smartphone; the development of vertical ecosystems such as Nokia’s Ovi; the digital divide; the re-emergence of location-based services; and the economic outlook. The ‘big five’ handset makers are likely to survive, but the market could see the emergence of a ‘big eight’ instead, as Apple, Google and RIM increase their share at the expense of the current dominant players, according to Donald Dew, chief technology officer at Critical Path.

All in all, their predictions clearly highlight that 2009 will be a very exciting year indeed. Just reading their predictions will give you all the excitements, – let alone incorporating them into your business planning of the oncoming year.

To get a better picture of the predictions, I strongly encourage you to read their post which I cite below :

• Key Online and Internet Marketing Trends in 2009 Revealed by Strange
• Top Seven Social Media, Online Marketing, and Internet Trends for 2009.
• 5 Trends to Watch for in 2009 and How to Make Them Work for Your Business.
• Critical Paths highlights key mobile trends for 2009

Being a freelancer almost always has passed into anyone’s mind as a desired job.  It carries several desired things with it, including but not limited to :

• Work whenever you want

• Work wherever you want

• Manage your own time schedule

In short, it promises to let you be your own boss.  It is only logical then that the adventurous folks move in that direction to try their hands on it.  The question is : should you follow their steps ?

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First, let’s take a look at your current professional position.  People have different motivations that drive them forward.  Some may value money, others may put doing something new above everything.  All are equally valid.  In the context of your current job, do you feel the need to change the direction you are taking now ?  What drives you on ?  Does your current job pay you enough ?  Or has it become a boring, business-as-usual set of tasks ?  If you feel any need to change at all ( whatever your motivation is ), then being a web freelancer may well work for you.
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Second, – and this is the harder question you need to deal with :  Do you have what it takes to be a succesful freelancer ? Since one of the essential factors of freelancing is self-management, do you have the required discipline, perseverance and consistency ? Discipline is required to deliver your job on schedule.  Perseverance is crucial as most of your beginning time will be spent on searching and applying for jobs ( which sometimes feel like they will never come ).  Similarly, consistency is needed for maintaining your online credibility via personal blogs, online resume, or participating in forums.

Of course, there are more useful traits you need to acquire, but I think those are the three that you must absolutely possess to be a successful web freelancer.  Be honest to yourself and examine those characteristics in you closely.
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That being said, it quickly become clear that being a freelancer is not for everyone.  Yet this is not to say that you should not try it.  On the contrary, I encourage you to have a go at it, if only for the experience.  Two of the most trusted and respected sites on the web where you can find freelance jobs are Brighthub and oDesk. I wish you the best of luck !

P.S. :  A good reference of how you should start your freelance career can be read here.

A couple of days ago, we discussed about the basics of RSS. While a lot of people know about it already, we still need to touch on some basic points to help those who don’t. Once we got on that, now I am going to suggest some ways to utilize RSS to help your business.

Here they are :

• Subscribe to feeds that you read often or daily

This is just a practice based on a common sense. By doing that, you’ll save huge chunks of time from your typically-busy day.

• Find some feeds from a field that’s relevant to your business, – and subscribe to them

If you are in the tech business, you should subscribe to TechCrunch, Mashable and other prominent tech blogs out there. If you’re into news, catch the feeds of CNN, New York Times, and the likes. It goes similar way in whatever field your business in.

At first glance, this is also a sensible practice. Yet many of us ( – including me back then ), missed doing this because they can’t see the point. Please refrain from doing the same mistake. It will help you heavily in staying abreast of the most recent development in your particular business field. It will help you catch the newest trend and fad in the way you never thought possible.

There are 2 ways of doing this :

· If you already knew what sites are relevant to your business, you can go to their URLs, and subscribe manually. The process is elaborated in the first post of the series.

· If you are not sure, then Google is your friend. Find the best sites there is, and subscribe to their feeds. Alternatively, you can go to Google Blogsearch, and search for your topic. On your result page, just click the “RSS” link under the “Subscribe” menu in the left side of the page. You will then be asked to enter your preference of Feed Reader, – and you’re done.

• The last point you really need to consider has something to do with your business online activities. Does your business have its own website / blog ? If yes, then by default it will provide an option for people to subscribe to its own RSS feed. In this sense, you are a feed publisher.

What I will recommend for a serious feed publisher is : signing up for a feed optimizer service. The most well-known ( and so far has proven to be reliable for me ) is Feedburner. Acquired by Google in 2007, you can sign up for their service for free. Once registered, you can optimize your feed by customizing it in such a way to fit your readers’ needs. For example, you can include a menu below each feed, where any reader can bookmark your post to social bookmarking sites like Delicious or Digg; – all without going to your site. There are many other features to browse and use. Bottom line : better publication for you and your business. Try it.

There you go. I don’t pretend to be an expert on this matter. That’s why I said I “offer” some suggestions. One thing I do know : RSS is a very powerful thing to use, – both for personal productivity purpose, and as a platform to help growing your business. Have fun !

First of all, let’s take a look back as to what ICT is. According to Wikibooks, a collection of open-content textbooks in the Net, ICT stands for “information and communication technologies and are defined, for the purposes of this primer, as a “diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate, and to create, disseminate, store, and manage information.” These technologies include computers, the Internet, broadcasting technologies (radio and television), and telephony.”

By this definition, it is largely supposed that a lot of what ALL companies do must involve ICT in whatever degree. From simple filing systems to sophisticated e-commerce implementations, no business can afford to ignore ICT if they are to exist at all in today’s world.

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Reading TechCrunch post today, it is a bit frightening that in ICT field alone, there are about 18,885 layoffs in the world this week. This is closely related to the ongoing global financial crisis that is happening. It is saddening, – especially for us ICT professionals, because although it may sound morbid, yet the fact remains and cannot be denied : we are in a crisis.

One question begs to be answered, though. Should you, – as a business owner, blindly cut back your ICT spending and erased it from your next financial year’s budget projecting ? By all means no. This was clearly argued by Sol. E. Solomon of ZDNet Asia in his piece titled “Global Crisis Hits Asian Finance Tech”. Drawing on authoritative sources like Ben Watson ( managing director of project management company, PTS Consulting ) and Malcolm Lister (CA’s Asia-Pacific and Japan vice president of alliances and industry solutions ); it’s hard to ignore his systematic arguments.

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Lister clearly made the point when he stated that what the crisis means is that the global financial sector is heading into an increasingly regulated climate. Banks will be battling with a number of key issues, including issues related to governance, risk management and compliance (GRC). According to PTS Consulting’s Watson, three common traits will be heightened in terms of governance, risk management and compliance: – need for information to be shared in a transparent fashion; – need to manage information flows; and – need to provide an audit trail of information flow, and any subsequent approval or rejection of that information.

Further, “Ensuring the correct technology is in place to facilitate these requirements will be key, and IT departments’ interaction with the overall business will need to be as close as ever to understand these changing requirements and deliver upon them,” he said.

Granted, this may have some limited applications to banks and financial institutions only. But the lessons are clear : ICT has become an inseparable and indispensable part of whatever business you are in. You owe it to yourself to bear this fact in mind.

What you can do is maybe striking out any large-scale IT projects for immediate cost-savings. Yet you cannot just leave it altogether because ICT is a platform where your business must stand to rise itself above the crisis tide. To do otherwise is simply unwise.

Nurudin Jauhari is arguably one of the most productive WordPress theme maker, not only in Indonesia, but in the world as well.  His works and ideas my be seen in his personal blog, his Bahasa Indonesia blog, and his professional website.  Followings are the excerpts of my interview with him :

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Q : What is your general view about Internet trends and related developments in general ?  What things in particular are actual and need keeping up with ?

A : I personally think that especially in the last 10 years, the Internet has grown more than twice the scope it had when it was first introduced in the 80s.  So many new things came all of a sudden, created a boom and became a trend.  We now have so many alternative sources of information, including blogs which are getting more and more acceptance from the general public.  Also, in various ways, the business aspect has started to kick in : people are now selling things online, the online-advertising field is growing, and the genesis of social media / website, web 2.0, AJAX and Flash.  These things might well be unthinkable in the early 90s.  In fact, if I remember correctly, I read somewhere that Bill Gates himself once expressed his lack of faith of Internet.  In the end, he changed his mind and joined the crowd.

Q :  Specifically, what about the related development of things in Indonesia ?  Is it moving in the same direction as global Internet growth ?

A :  Technologically speaking, our country is in the same road with the global trends.  What remains high for now is the cost, which somehow limits the growth to Java, Bali and several big cities in the other islands.  I think the government needs to help to introduce the technology to broader audience and society.  On the other hand, when we talk about software implementation, I think our country can be considered advanced enough.  There are a lot of excellent designers and programmers from our nation.  I even recall that some of our college students have won several times the contests in Google Code.

Q :  As one of the most productive WordPress theme maker in the field, how do you view blogs as a form of media ?  What are its potentials and weakness ?

A :  Blogging, which started as a somewhat narcissistic kind of media, has evolved to be a business in itself.  This business opportunity enticed a lot of people to try their hands at it.  Even Kompas ( a famous Indonesian newspaper ) and Detik ( a prominent Indonesian news portal ) have launched their blogs.  This implies that blogs enable people to read an issue from various viewpoints.  I think it’s understandable if a lot of blogs are written subjectively.  On the other hand, I think blogs could be a lot more productive and supported the real, social life.  Just like the recent Blog Action Day with its poverty theme, bloggers could explore ways to help solve the problem.  Of course, weaknesses are always there, but it will get better over time.

Q :  Elaborating more on what you mentioned, do you think blogging is still relevant to be a focus in, say, 5 years from now ?

A :  Yes, I feel so.  Probably there will be changes in the form or methods, just like Microblogging as we know now, – Twitter, Tumblr, Plurk, Jaiku, etc.  It is actually a blog platform where people can blog by brief messages, usually limited below 150 characters.  It’s also accessible via various mobile medias like mobile phones, Blackberry, iPhone and other gadgets.

Q :  Can blogging be an earning profession that pays ?  What are your suggestions to people who wants to blog professionally ?

A :  It really depends on the person.  A lot of bloggers write just because they want to write, others do it because they want to extend their contact networks.  Still, others have pure business motives, offering useful services and all.  My personal suggestions for those who want to make blogging an occupation, be a unique blogger, write everything tied in a theme.  For example, if you want to write about mobile phones, do it without spilling into laptops.  Similarly, focus in design if that’s your niche, this will gain you loyal readers who are getting real benefits from your blog.  Most importantly, avoid copy/pasting from other sources and be original.  Get into the network by leaving positive comments in other blogs or joining forums like wordpressrepublik.com.

Q :  What’s the role of public enthusiasm in the future of blogging ?  How could such enthusiasm be nurtured ?  What about the government’s part in this ?

A :  I think the enthusiasm is quite high.  Indonesian bloggers seem to have a good position, – both in quantity and quality.  If we’re talking about comparison, we are on the same level as our counterparts in Australia ( info from Metro TV, e-lifestyle, Sunday 19 Oct. 2008 ).  Almost in every town there is a blogger community, – in my city it is BloggerNgalam.com.  Some of them are quite active, even involving themselves in social activities.  I feel that this method works well in igniting strong interests to blog.  As to the government, they can take part as long as it will not be spun into some projects with unclear directions.  Like for now, we can see some schools have started to require their students to have their own blogs.  I think it’s a good idea.

Q :  What is the correlation between blogging and the proportionally-low internet coverage in Indonesia ?  Which should come first :  blogging to incite interests, or infrastructure building ?

A :  I think they should run simultaneously.  Just like the way both of our feet walk harmoniously, they should go together.  They are closely related to each other, in spite of the different frameworks.  They do not need to “agree” with each other, but have to work in one agreement.

Q :  What sparked your interest to Internet and blogging at the first place ?

A :  All I wanted to do was documenting my daily life.  Then I started to share what I can do, which is WordPress design.

Q :  What are your daily activities beside blogging ?

A :  I am currently still working as a staff in a property company in Malang.  I wish to be able to devote my time totally to blogging and freelance work in the year 2009.  Apart from that, I am also an active member of my company’s futsal squad.

Q :  How do you do your time management between blogging, work and your personal life ?

A :  I only keep one thing in mind, – to act professionally.  When I’m at work, I work as hard as I can ( Though I may steal some time to read several blogs in my feed reader ).  For blogging, I don’t have a specially-defined schedule.  Usually it’s done in the morning before office, – or in the afternoon in between family time.  My special time for family is in weekends, holidays and when we dine together.  I try to keep them balanced.

Q :  Apart from designing free, downloadable WordPress themes; what business model do you adopt ?  Any suggestions in layman terms ?

A :  I sell services.  They could be design, programming, content-writing and affiliates programs.  You could also sell stuffs online, like books, clothing, household equipments and others.  There is no secret success recipe in the Internet.  All you need to do is doing your very best and believe that the success is within your reach.

Q :  What about the role of community for Internet practitioners like you ?

A :  I actively engage in several forums, both domestic and international.  We also have regular lively discussions via Yahoo Messenger or GTalk.

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We thank him for this interview opportunity.  Any translation mistake is mine, and mine only.  We wish him the best for his future endeavors.

On a lighter side, this weekend the Internet was pleasantly surprised with the news of a proposal happened over Twitter. Prominent blogger Sean Bonner has proposed to his beautiful, nerdy girlfriend Tara Brown publicly on Twitter. They didn’t even use the Direct Message feature on that. An excellent example of digital nativity this one is. And now they are happily engaged. Congratulation, pals… !

We in NET are not going to discuss their decision in doing so in the Internet. Everybody knows what’s best for them. We are just happy for them.

Although certainly not recommended for everyone, now you know another good use of Twitter..!

Related stories can be read in :

• Tara’s own blog
• Boing Boing

If you ever think about building your persona online, and build a business from there, there are some things that you can not afford to neglect. If you’re like me, you will feel unsatisfied at some point. I mean, back then I wonder, – OK, I’m on Twitter, Facebook, and I blog, – now what ? How do I use my profile to my advantage ? How do I build my online credibility to the point where I could gain something from it ? This is the point where I sat back and consider the best lesson there is : the Internet celebrities, – so to speak.

You see, when we consider the most prominent Internet personas and the way they market their respective credibility, the first character trait that comes to mind is consistency. From the larger-than-life Robert Scoble, the calmer proto-blogger Dave Winer, web strategist Jeremiah Owyang, or marketer-cum-writer Guy Kawasaki with his Alltop portal; – they all have consistency as the main key and leverage of their success. What they do may differ dramatically, – yet they agree on that one single important point.

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First, let’s take a look at some definition. Taken from Merriam – Webster online :

Main Entry: con·sis·ten·cy

Pronunciation: \kən-ˈsis-tən(t)-sē\

Function: noun

Inflected Form(s): plural con·sis·ten·cies

Date: 1594

1 a archaic : condition of adhering together : firmness of material substance b: firmness of constitution or character : persistency 2: degree of firmness, density, viscosity, or resistance to movement or separation of constituent particles <boil the juice to the consistency of a thick syrup>3 a: agreement or harmony of parts or features to one another or a whole : correspondence ; specifically : ability to be asserted together without contradiction b: harmony of conduct or practice with profession <followed her own advice with consistency>

Taken as our starting cue, this definition serves us excellently in trying to comprehend what consistency is and apply it to what we do. The goal of this post is to underline this.

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Now, I believe there are several dimensions involved when we talk about the concept of consistency. I am going to offer two of them for you to think about.

First, consistency applies to your own credibility. You need to be consistent in building your online existence to help you gain audience and influence. Do your homework. Examine closely your strength and weakness as a person. You might even need to ask your self this question : How do I want people to know me ? Define your USP ( Unique Selling Point ), and be consistent on that. Scoble, again, is a fine example of this. He knows that his particular strength is in technology, – having spent some time working for Microsoft. And that’s what he built. Successfully.

Secondly, consistency also is closely related to the concept of perseverance when the going gets tough. I am talking about the daily grind of blog writing here, among several things. Sadly, this is where a lot of very potential person fails. They build their “brand” as a person strong and loud, – only to disappoint us in the end because their most recent blog entries is 6-months-old, – for example. Never let daily activities hinder you from maintaining what you did before. Learn from Guy Kawasaki. Devoted to his portal project alltop.com, he painstakingly keep it updated with new sections. Of course, let’s not forget how he tell the world about the new section afterwards.

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Of course, consistency is only one of the key values that you have to acquire. However, I strongly feel that it probably is the most important core value to adopt if I’m to succeed in what I do. Back to the context of this post, being consistent will help you build your online existence to the point where you gain some advantage for it. Be it a business, new client, or some other intangible benefits, – it’s your choice. Good luck !

It has increasingly became apparent that social networks are here to stay. Granted, there are a lot of unsuccessful followers in the field, but the giants of social networks like Twitter and Facebook continue to stay abreast for the foreseeable future, come low or high tide.

What does it mean for a business owner like you ? In this post, I’m going to talk about three companies who use social network as a way to maintain close communication with their customer; and about my experience as their products’ user.

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First, some explanations are due. The three companies are :

1. Digsby

Digsby is a recently popular chat program that tries to incorporate all your usual chat platform in one software. They are aiming to be a swiss-army knife of instant-messenger applications, – so to speak. At the time of this blog posting, you can use it to chat with your Yahoo ID, MSN Live, GTalk, Facebook Chat, AIM, – and even updating your social networks status in Twitter, Facebook and Myspace. Their Twitter page can be viewed here.

2. Flock

Flock basically is a Firefox equipped with a custom-built add-ons, making it a browser where you can instantly get signed-in in your various social networks and engage in their activities. There is even a built-in blog editor where you can write a blog post without going to your blog platform website. For the newest version of Flock and its features, you can visit its website.

3. Evernote

If you are anything like me, you will feel the need of organizing various notes or snippets of text files that you jotted down whenever you think of something. Standard methods of filing in Windows folder just don’t seem to be enough as it can get wildly confusing after a couple of weeks or so. Here’s where Evernote figures. An organizer software where you can store practically anything, it will also give you a free online account ( with some limitations ) where you can back up your important notes. A couple of months ago, I wrote a short review of Evernote and what it can do that you can read here. Alternatively, you can visit their website.

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What those three otherwise-very-different companies have in common is : They all use Twitter to communicate with their users. By this I mean, they create a special Twitter account where they then use to scan various issues other users may have about their products; and replying whenever necessary.

Now, as a user of their products, I can think of at least 3 ( three ) reasons why I will continue to use their products. Bear with me as I get to the following points :

1. Because they are companies who care about their customers

Some of you may argue this point, stating that of course any company will care about its customers, that’s where the money comes from. Indeed. But a company who cares enough to dedicate time and ( in some cases ) a special staff to communicate with their customer using a supposedly-intangible media as Twitter ? I am impressed.

2. Because of the speed of their response

Let’s admit it. Complaining, – or even just asking, about a feature of a product you just recently acquired is most of the times frustrating. Those dreaded automated phone systems or faxing proof of purchase almost always spends more time than necessary. On the contrary, the three companies I mentioned respond to their users’ complaints and enquiries almost instantly, – sometimes even under a couple of minutes.

3. Because I am dealing with companies who update themselves on new developments of technology

To average people you meet in the streets, Web 2.0 raises more questions than it answers. This means that as a technology, it is still relatively new. Not in the term of age, mind you; but in the sense that more people don’t know about it than those who do. All it implies is that Digsby, Flock and Evernote are companies who make it a point to keep on updating themselves of new technology. I surely can’t complain about company who has that characteristics.

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Let’s stop here and consider my experience as the customer of the three companies and why I’ll be a repeat user of their products. Do you want a loyal, repeat customer who buys your product more than once ? How about five ? Or a hundred, even thousands of them ?

Depending on the nature of the business, now may be the right time to take a plunge to the lake of Social Networking. Sink or swim, it’s your choice…