Everyone is Talking about Conversation Marketing

Digital marketing is focusing increasingly on mapping content. Due to the existing trends of sharing even banal stuff on social media through check-ins and posts, and the race for inducing others’ likes or comments, the amount of content getting published has increased exponentially. Add blogging as a concept, and it becomes clear that the world is getting more narcissistic. Market research suggests that on average a blog has a readership of 1.2 people. Thus conversation marketing has entered our lexicon where conversations are being tapped for inserting thinly veiled advertising. As word-of-mouth has escalated through social media, marketers are taking advantage and including conversation marketing as part of corporate strategy.

10 Ideas to Inspire your next Blog Post

Blogging has now become a critical part of digital marketing. Certain ideas have been proven through business research to have lasting impacts to inspire such postings. Trending questions must be answered first. Posts which seem to give solutions and have phrases such as ‘how to’ always inspire the readers. Announcements must be made on blogs from time to time. Occasionally even question-answer sessions must be posed on them. Firm’s employees must be featured frequently. New products launched can be reviewed recurrently. Various products may even be measured against each other. Customers must be provided with proper training to use the same. Top ten lists are among most trending blogs in present times. Even YouTube videos may be launched with some refurbishment. 

How the Internet of Things is Disrupting the C- Suite

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is changing the way members of the C-Suite are functioning. CEOs have become more technology savvy and incorporating business analytics tools like Kissmetrics increasingly as part of their corporate strategy. CFOs are increasingly taking into account behaviors of customers online and not just operations and sales teams’ reports as was the earlier case. The CMO profile has experience most drastic change having incorporated digital marketing into campaigns. COOs are involving CTOs in their planning and decision making with big data being now a critical part of operations. CTOs meanwhile have seen a rise in their importance at firms. Their profile is no longer based on daily operations but are now part of revenue planning like the rest of the C-Suite.

What Apple, Lending Club and AirBnB Know About Collaborating with Customers

As per business research, four levels of customers have been identified. Transactors are those lacking loyalty but who made a choice due to pressing requirements. Supporters are existing repeat customers. Promoters are customers who not only buy repeatedly but promote the brand across media channels. Co-creators are ones who work closely with the brand and create assets and knowledge which convert into business propositions. Apple. AirBnB and Lending Club have been identified as firms doing the most effective co-creation which is included as part of their corporate strategy. This enables increased revenue growth and reduced marginal cost. It also facilitates business analytics as customer insights can be tapped. Crucially, co-creation also leads to greater organizational flexibility.

What Government Should do to Boost India’s Travel Industry?

Business consulting members representing tourism have suggested to central government that the sector must be liberalized and not be seen as a source of taxation. In case taxation norms can be eased, earning of foreign exchange will contribute a much more significant portion as ,more travelers will pour in to India. Also numerous travel jobs are then set to be created as part of the broader ‘Make in India’ campaign. The CENVAT is one tax policy which if implemented can work very efficiently. Number of circuits have been created to attract greater inbound tourism.

Chatmeter Launches All-New Version of Leading Local Brand Management Dashboard

Digital marketing has become critical to the branding and sales of most firms these days thanks to the democratization among buyers that the internet has induced. Chatmeter has thus come up with a new version of their suite to help engagement with potential customers. It helps source product reviews, social media references and provides powerful marketing research tools. Greater level of micro-data can now be sifted through to enable focused brand management. The business analytics generated now also ensures product / firm specific data rather than undifferentiated material.                 

14 Million Travel Jobs at Risk as Talent Flies

Due to automation and inadequate talent management, up to fourteen million tourism jobs are in risk over a period of time. Better policies need to be implemented by governments across the globe as presently tourism is facing uphill task of convincing top levels that this is a money spinning industry. Business research conducted proves that there is massive skill gap with number of countries being unable to train staff for key roles in the industry. A number of talented people are leaving tourism and moving to other ones such as management consulting.

How Location-based Technology builds Customer Loyalty

Locations based technology using GPS is helping marketers build customer loyalty. Marketing is becoming more personalized as a process. Customers are welcomed on arrival at stores. Location based coupons are delivered to shoppers’ smartphones. Even map based way finding is helped. Even digital marketing is done through communication sent depending on customers’ location. Online retail is subsequently added to enable users. There is a process of conducting this. Presence of customers is tracked through vital customer information sifted using business research. Then zoning is enabled to track shoppers using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Finally positioning helps identify exact location of the subject.

Travel Blog of the day: Tourism with me

A lot of market research has taken place about tourists’ interests and numerous blogs have also been written about them. One of the writers Ms. Meritxell Garcia has been particularly acclaimed for her blogs on Barcelona and the Catalonia region. She writes about the region’s food, architecture, culture and history. In addition she has also written extensively about places that she has travelled to such as Thailand and Hungary. Blogs such as hers are generating enormous interest for a number of people to take up travel jobs.

Uncover Key Employee Insights to Drive Engagement and Business Performance

The art of talent management requires firms to ensure employee engagement. As part of business research conducted, it has been found that employees’ productivity rises most when engagement is wedded to corporate strategy and the development is holistic. Engagement must also be included in corporate training as critical employee insights can then be tracked which can be used to further improve processes. Also these engagement schemes must be facilitated by senior managers and not just by systems.

10 Online Programmes to Boost your Business Skills

The trend of executive MBA has caught up so much that several online courses have sprung up to support the module. Business research has come up with ten of them which are the very best. Coursera of course has the maximum following. EdX is not far behind. Hello fearless has a ten week programme specially aimed at female entrepreneurs. HP LIFE which is an initiative of the technology giant- Hewlett Packard- in collaboration with UN bodies offers business and technology courses. Lynda.com is one suite ideal for online management training. NovoEd has a similar module to Coursera and edX, where it offers courses of partner universities. Open-Learn is an offering from the stables of the Open University (OU). Udacity is ideal for extremely niche level courses. Small Business Administration is an online open source tool aimed at startups and SMEs. Thrive15 and 2U are two of the other courses increasing in awareness and popularity.

7 Alternative LMS Trends for 2015

Learning Management Systems (LMS) specially designed for executive MBA are now in vogue. Business research has picked up certain trends for LMS. They are also applicable for LMS used at management training. In organizations, various business verticals must jointly operate the LMS. Its impact on business generation must be tangible in the medium to long run. Eventually the LMS will turn into a profit centre as that is where it is headed. The processes must be streamlined across departments. The LMS must execute based on competency levels. The content generated for the same must be contributed with feedback taken from final consumers. One must not bracket LMS with self-learning alone, but indeed it is part of group or corporate training.

Government steps up efforts to boost Tourism

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has stepped up efforts to increase tourist footfalls in the country. This is sure to generate good number of travel jobs in the kingdom. Recently a delegation attended a global tourism conference in Cambodia and focus was put about the KSA’s glittering cultural footprint and history. Even the presence of antiquities in KSA was factored in while interacting with representatives from around a hundred nations including forty five tourism ministers.

Google Classroom: A Free Learning Management System for eLearning

A latest Cloud based LMS that can aid executive MBA has been developed by Google called Classroom. It can be used in different ways. Professionals can deliver documents directly to students and other partners. Videos, articles and online links can be shared. Data can be collected from online users eventually helping in digital marketing. Peer level collaboration and feedback is encouraged on this platform. There also exist some benefits of using Google Classroom. It can be set up without much fuss easily anywhere. It enables time saving. Teamwork and communication accelerate. The data can be stored at central point. Importantly, online sharing is facilitated at quick pace. 

Why Smartphone use helps develop 21^st Century Skills in Higher Education

Much as smartphones have been chastised at some quarters, there is no denying the utility they provide. They help 21^st century students to be critical thinkers. Certain courses have been developed specifically for executive MBA that can be convened using smartphones. The curriculum can be well covered using the same. Smartphones also enable a learning environment through peer based sharing. Eventually it helps data collection which aids digital marketing which further fuels the purchasing behavior of higher value products. It also makes the environment more mobile.

Obama Says Tourism Boosted America by $222 Billion in 2014

As per market research conducted, almost seventy five million international visitors entered the USA in 2014 generating more than two hundred million US dollars. This surge supports at present supports around eight million tourism jobs. China is one market that is being tapped heavily as due to ever increasing prosperity levels there, outbound tourism is bound to rise. For safety issues, special provisions have been made with American nationals and Canadians being exempt from certain steps but otherwise the process has been made swifter.

Innovation Strategy Models

As per marketing research conducted by PwC aimed at the C-suite, it was understood that most firms require one of three key innovations as part of corporate strategy. Those three strategies came to be identified as- need seekers, technology drivers and market readers. In order to help firms execute this, PwC came up with Innovation Strategy profiler. Innovative concepts can now all be whetted through this profiler and their practicality gauged using case studies within same industry from past and present.  

Distance Learning: MOOCS may be Key to Pay Rise and Promotion

As per market research conducted, MBA and other work related professional courses’ completion have been cited as top reason for promotion at workplace. Executive MBA is proving really popular. Completion of management training has also featured prominently as second most desired. Online courses have also risen in popularity. While Coursera remains most popular interface, MOOCS comes in as one of the fastest rising tools. The survey also reveals that employees in the UK are extremely hard-working. More business schools are thus channeling this work ethic to design courses using MOOCS specially suited to working professionals.

Dubai Tourism Welcomes Meeting Planners to Emirate

While continuing to position itself as a premier tourism hub, Dubai has concluded a familiarization trip for journalists and meeting planners to organize corporate events in the Emirate. It can also serve as an ideal destination for management training. Popular destinations such as the BurjKhalifa, MadinatJumeirah and the various malls were part of the visit itinerary. Plans are afoot to ensure twenty million tourist arrivals by the year 2020 which will also generate countless tourism jobs.

Top 10 eLearning Resources you may not have Thought of

There exist certain eLearning tools which are not well known yet make working life easier and are applicable for executive MBA. One is Xerte which provides interactive online study material. Audacity helps in editing eLearning audio. Content creation can be done using Ninja Essays. Wink helps create tutorials. VIDIZMO helps create presentation for corporate training and communication. Thinking Cap allows content to be shared across platforms and formats. Scate Ignite 4 enables mashup of media content including videos, podcasts and social media. INOVAE allows creation of online modules. Seminar E-Learning System helps design courses and quizzes for online platforms. E Learning Authority Tool helps create courses using audio, text, flash animation and video.