Women Bloggers and Social Media

Online marketers - take notice!

A 2009 Social Media Study summarized by eMarketer and conducted by iVillage, BlogHer and Compass Partners, showed that women like social media and blogging. Me being a woman myself, I wasn't surprised that 53% of the female online population said they were engaged in social media. After all, women tend to be very social and expressive beings. Here are some interesting facts from the study:

• 75% of the women studied said they took part in social networking sites and 55% said they used blogs
• Time spent on blogs and social sites, replaced time spent with other online and traditional sources of information.
• Participants spent equal amounts of time reading and writing on blogs

Why do women participate in social media?

• For fun (68%)
• Get information (64%)
• For entertainment (56%)
• Share opinion (55%)
• Seed advice and recommendations (43%)
• For professional purposes (14%)

Managing Business Outside of the Box

Susan Boyle, a very ordinary, plain woman from Britain, landed a chance to show the world her incredible gift, and became an overnight singing sensation despite the odds stacked against her. The reason was not a lack of opportunities, a lack of education or a lack of motivation, it was the way she looked. When she walked out onto the world stage, everyone expected a voice that matched her appearance - plain, almost homely - and before she opened her mouth, the audience had already written her off. She proved them wrong, and to the shock of the world, belted out an intensely beautiful song.

There is a huge lesson here, right?

Peter Bregman, from Harvard Business Publishing thought so too. In April 2009, he published a blog post titled "Susan Boyle: A Lesson in Talent Management" in which he reviewed a study conducted by a couple of graduates from the University of Pennsylvania's Applied Positive Psychology Program. The study analyzed the effects of positive re-enforcement management techniques in business and found that managers who provided frequent recognition and encouragement to employees had a 31% increase in productivity. Pretty significant.

Harvard Business Publishing took the idea of positive re-enforcement a bit further by suggesting that the difference between good and great managers, is their ability to recognize the unique talents and abilities of an employee and harnessing it by creating a specific role for them to use it. Peter wrote, "Great managers remove the obstacles that prevent their employees from unleashing their talent. And they make sure each employee has the right opportunities, the right stage, the right audience, to be fully appreciated." In other words, they think outside of the box.

The Lesson? Don't judge a book by its cover and take the time to notice and encourage the talents of your employees, even if it doesn't fall within their "job description." Think outside of the box, and you may end up with a star-studded team.

How does this apply to email management? It doesn't - not really - but we were so inspired by the concept, we felt it necessary to share. How do you think outside the box?

Are We Too Dependent on Google?

On May 14th, late morning on the East coast, I sat at my computer trying to access Google Docs to update a proposal that was due that day. To my horror, I discovered that Google was down. "How is this be possible?" I thought. "And what on earth am I going to do?" Not only was Google Docs down, but every Google app that we depended on - Search, Analytics, Gmail, Calendar, etc. - was down. I was suddenly faced with how dependent we had become on Google and how inaccessible the web seemed without them.

Needless to say, we were back up in less than an hour with no loss of data. But the experience left me wondering, "How dependent are we on Google?"

Did you experience the outage? How dependent on Google are you? Let us know by replying to our tweet @ifmodules or by answering our blog poll.

Staying Positive is Good for Business!

This blog has been moved to our main site at the following location:

http://www.ifmodules.com/blog/2009/02/staying-positive-for-business/

Boomers and their Online Buying Trends!

Studies are confirming what we all know - Boomers are a powerful bunch!

Research is showing that Boomers, those between the ages of 44 and 62, are now one of the largest groups of online users. They are doing everything from shopping, gathering information on products and services and staying in touch with friends and family. Understanding and adapting websites to their buying trends would be beneficial to online Marketers.

Read the full article at eMarketer
You’ve Come a Long Way, Boomers, and You’re Online Now! – December 4, 2008

Email Marketing Terminology

This blog has been moved to our new email management blog at the following location:

http://www.ifmodules.com/blog/2008/10/email-marketing-terminology/

Businesses Get a Boost From Their Website

Concern over the economy has impacted many businesses, even over the Internet, despite the growing trend to purchase goods online. But we think (and the numbers agree) that the impact on e-commerce will be much less damaging for companies that have an active online presence, providing consumers with the ability to research products and / or purchase them online.

eMarketer also published an article connecting online research to in-store sales, stating that consumers prefer online research over recommendations from friends and family. Sites they spent the most time on were typically the retail stores they purchased from.

Read the Full Article
Retail Shoppers Hit the Web First - July 28, 2008

Higher Gas Prices Good for E-Commerce

Some hope for online business from the depths of economic troubled waters...

eMarketer published an article last week about the rising prices of gas and how they affect online shopping habits. Retail stores showed a decline in sales while their websites showed a significant increase. While Convenience remained the #1 reason to buy online, 54% cited rising gas prices as incentive while 48% cited overall lower pricing.

Read the Full Article
Gas Prices Boost E-Commerce - July 25, 2008

eMarketer Study for E-commerce Growth

eMarketer published some interesting statistics about e-commerce sales for both the US and European markets. The statistics show that the economic downturn will affect retail stores more than online retailers and that consumer confidence in buying online is quite strong - very promising news for those of us with online businesses.

Read the articles:

• US Retail E-Commerce: Slower But Still Steady Growth
  May 2008


• The Economy and European E-Commerce
  June 9, 2008

eMail Manager and Web 2.0

Interestingly enough, eMail Manager (our email management tool) is becoming popular among Web 2.0 sites that list products and services that are considered part of the Web 2.0 generation. This is great for us - and for our customers - so we thought we would share a few of the sites with you:

1. Everything 2.0
   
2. Simple Spark
3. Emily Chang - eHub
   
4. listio

By the way, you can also vote and/or add comments about applications - including eMail Manager :-). It really promotes the Web 2.0 ideal of information sharing and user generated content.

Want to know what Web 2.0 is all about? Check out The Web 2.0 Mystery.

The Web 2.0 Mystery

Web 2.0. What exactly does that mean? Lately, I have seen this term plastered all over blogs and companies frequently refer to themselves as part of the next Web 2.0 generation. A few weeks ago, BNET did a very informative article on the definition of Web 2.0 and I found it interesting enough to post here. Below are a few bullets to describe what Web 2.0 means. Be sure to read the article too. Enjoy !

What Makes a Company (or application) Part of the Web 2.0 Generation?

• Use of next generation technologies (such as Ajax)
  
• Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity. Complex problems can be solved with simple applications. Companies employing this train of thought are on well on their way.
  
• Applications that require interaction from users to manipulate the content
  
• Applications that replace desktop functionalities
  
• Anywhere, anytime access
  
• More value in content than in the application itself
  
• Data is easily shared
  

Read the Article: What is Web 2.0?

eMail Manager Achieves HIPAA Compliance

This article has moved to our main site.
Click here to view

IFM eMail Manager Posted to eHub

Just a quick announcement to let everyone know that Emily Chang's eHub has posted a blurb about IFM eMail Manager. If you have not heard of eHub, it is a Blog that provides information about web applications, services, sites, and more. It primarily showcases apps that best represent the Web 2.0 ideal. A great site for research.

- View Post

eMail Manager, CRM and The Sales Team

BNET posted an interesting blog about CRM vendors and the industries' habit of belittling sales people (a large % of their customer base) because of their reluctance to use cumbersome and over-bearing CRM packages. And lets be honest, if a CRM package does not help a sales person close a deal, why bother using it. This is much the same premise we had when we built eMail Manager some years ago. Email management is merely a part of what it takes to manage tasks associated with sales. We wanted to focus on that one important task and make it the best we could while making it easy to use - a required feature. In fact, most of our releases are based on customer comments and requests that are merged and simplified to make a better experience for everyone using the system.

Let me finish by saying that I am really blown away at how the CRM vendor started a pitch letter by knocking sales people. Isn't there some sort of rule not to insult potential customers? Hello?

IFModules and iguanafarmGroup Get a New Home

This blog has been moved to our new email management blog at the following new location:

http://www.ifmodules.com/blog/2007/04/email-software-company-moves/

Managing Email Should Be Easy - Not Complicated

I was perusing articles I hadn't read in a while and came across one from CMS Wire that reminded me of a key feature in eMail Manager - Ease of Use. It is a few days old (ancient, I know), but a very interesting read on the importance of simplicity and usability on the web. The article is titled "Easy to Use: Why the Web Demands Simplicity" and describes the very essence of eMail Manager and our continued development philosophies. From the beginning, our goal was to create an email management product that focused on usability and task completion without all the fluff and added costs.

Here are a couple of good quotes by the author Gerry McGovern that drove this point home ...

"A key reason we embrace the Web is because it increases transparency and reduces complexity." - Thank you !

"The best websites are simple, not because they think being simple is a nice thing to do, but because they know that simplicity is necessary for success." - Words to live by.

Latin American Cultures Have It Right - Let's Nap

All right. I know that an Email Management Blog is not the place you
expected to see a post about napping, but in light of recent articles,
I thought it might be an interesting read. It is, actually, a very
relevant issue when it comes to better performance and happier people
(so they say). In Latin America (and many other cultures), a siesta is
not just a guilty pleasure, it is a way of life. Everyone goes to work,
comes home for lunch, takes a quick nap and returns to work. The
typical work day tends to be a bit longer and it definitely helps pass
the time when the rains unleash in afternoons, but who cares - at least
they are getting a bit of rest in between. I love vacationing there for
that very reason. But why wait for time off?

So what do the scientists say? Some recommend power naps of 15-20 minutes for a quick pick-me-up. Web Worker Daily also reports that a 90-120 minute nap is also beneficial. Anything in-between is not restful enough to make much of a difference.
For more details on the science, you can read the Web Worker Daily Post Nap
Your Way To Success or consult my favorite source Wikipedia.

Better yet, maybe you should log off and conduct your own experiment by catching a few zzz's yourself.

Great Blog Find: Web Worker Daily

While perusing the net for some industry news in the middle of the night, I found a great Blog geared toward people working on the web or Digital Bedouins as they sometimes like to be called. It has many categories, product reviews, industry news, etc.

Take a look at webworkerdaily.com.

Digital Bedouins - How Do They Manage Email?

Have you ever heard of a Bedouin? Neither had I until I read the article from SFGate, Where Neo-Nomad's Ideas Percolate. The word bedouin originated as a description of nomadic Arabs who wandered freely in the desert, frequently dreaming of the next battle. Although mobile office workers today probably feel like that sometimes, a Digital Bedouin refers to mobile office workers who use laptop computers and Wi-Fi connectivity to work from unorthodox locations. Sound like you? Me too. I fluctuate from home and the actual office and sometimes the ever-increasing (working) vacation. I haven't quite made it to the coffee shop yet, but I do make the occasional trip to the porch or the park with my laptop.

I think that many eMail Manager customers fit somewhere in this modern-day take on an old culture because many of us are slowly trading traditional work spaces for ones a little more inspiring (or less distracting). This is why many web application are getting so popular.

Are you a Bedouin? How do you manage your email (hopefully with eMail Manager)?

Are we losing data?

No, not really. But according to an eMarketer email I received today titled The Data Dump, the US and UK are generating 9 exabytes more than we have available storage for (oops). Fortunately, not all of that data gets stored, but it certainly gets my attention. An even more interesting part of the article was the attitude of managers toward data accessibility and usefulness within the company. Evidently, data storage is not the only hurdle businesses have to face.

The article hit home with me because it was related to our recent post addressing faster response to emails (Fast Email Responses = Happy Customers). In the post we talk about organizing email (essential data) by assigning categories and references (tags) to help businesses react more quickly to customer needs.

In any case, today I learned a new word: exabytes. According to Wikipedia, an exabyte (EB) is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one quintillion bytes (huh?). Ok, put into perspective it equals 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes. Still lost? Me too, but it is definately a lot of data. Here's to generating a few more bytes.

BTW. Found this article a few days after posting this message. Lots' of interesting facts about what type of data we actually create: Information and the Web Worker