It’s no surprise that word-of- of-mouth works. Salespeople and marketers have known this for years. However, now more than ever, there are even more opportunities to maximize word-of-mouth marketing technologies. We live in a society of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. These websites once started off as a buzz among friends but have quickly turned into hot advertising channels and popular social media outlets.

Today I read an interesting 8 page special report on Leveraging Social Media to Boost E-Commerce Holiday sales. If you are planning on selling your products and/or services online this holiday season, I urge you to take take a a look at the following article by TechNewsWorld. You can access it here.

Share on Facebook

Refugees in Kenya are now finding Internet-based work that is not only bringing them out of poverty, but tripling what they could ever possibly learn before!  Thanks to a nonprofit known as Samasource, workers stuck in the world’s largest refugee camp are given a chance to make some cash and improve their living conditions.

Samasource has built a unique business model around the idea that there are some necessary computer projects that must be done, yet they’ve been deemed too small for Americans workers to spend their workdays carrying out. However, these jobs are the perfect size to be completed successfully remotely, and that’s where the Third World refugees come in and put their talents to work! While some may suspect this type of work is actually exploitation of the refugees, experts have confirmed that it’s exactly this type of work — work that can pay 3x or more than any other available jobs in these areas — that will begin to turn around the extremely impoverished conditions in some of these desolate countries around the world.

Experts say that Samasource is not displacing work opportunities for Americans, but expanding what American entrepreneurs can do with a limited budget. One example of a typical project that Samasource workers have done for a client who is a solar panels repairman: Workers soured satellite photos of American cities for houses with solar set-ups in order to generate sales leads.

Just to put this into perspective: The best possible work that’s available to most in the refugee camp is pounding rock in a quarry. What does it pay?  A mere 50 cents a day, if that. Not to mention that the camp has over 300 thousand people living on top of each other, and fighting for the little available work against one another. On the other hand, Samasource’s clients pay $2 an hour to these workers. From a quality of life perspective, Samasource has a lot to offer, and is committed to offering even more to these workers in the near future, as their number one goal is increasing wages!

With all the negativity in the news today, it’s nice to stop and appreciate  organizations like this who are looking to better the living conditions for less fortunate people, and also improve the overall state of our current world.  Please visit Samasource’s website for more information on this great nonprofit organization, or to “give work” now to Samasource workers.

Stephanie Spino
Marketing Manager
Everon Technology Services, LLC

Share on Facebook

If you’ve used Twitter, I’m sure you’ve wondered if it has any actual value in the world. I wondered the same thing for a while, but I’ve been sold on the potential of using Twitter to generate business.

I just read an interesting article about the selling power of Twitter that seems to confirm this potential.

According to Warrillow & Co, a small business market research firm, Twitter has 7x the selling potential of social networks in the small business market. Here is an excerpt from the article:

Have you considered using Twitter as a sales and marketing tool at your business? If not, you should – particularly if you are in a retail business, where the transactional nature of Twitter lines up nicely with the transactional nature of retail.

Mike Cooch
CEO
Everon

Share on Facebook

Microsoft said Thursday, August 13th that it plans to develop a new version of its Outlook email client for Apple computers to replace its Mac-based Entourage product.  This will allow Mac users to fully integrate their Exchange mailboxes, public folders, contacts, and calendars into their OS 10.6 Snow Leopard OS’s when released.

“Outlook will be a Cocoa application,” Wilfrid said, citing the development layer of Mac OS X. “We’re building on the most modern OS X framework to make Outlook beautiful, to make it high performance, and to make it well integrated with the operating system.”

The application will also include information rights management with cross-platform support. The technology will allow users of Outlook on Mac and Windows to share confidential information on either platform. Features such as flagging messages, creating and accessing public folders and managed folders, and category sync will all be cross-platform as well.  Outlook 2010 for Mac will be available sometime this 2009 Holiday Season.

Apple is also releasing its newest Operation System – 10.6 (Snow Leopard) sometime this coming September, which will feature full Active Sync integration with Exchange.  Native apps like Address Book and iCal will now synchronize via LDAP with Exchange 2007 servers’ Global Address Lists and Calendars.

We are beginning to observe Microsoft and Apple converge towards a smooth operating cross-platform meeting environment, empowering consumers to be proactive in choosing an OS without interfering with overall business productivity.

If you are interested in learning more about incorporating Macs into your business environment, please contact Everon at 888-244-1748.

Danny Sears
Everon Network Engineer

Share on Facebook

I’ve long been a student of business.  It fascinates me to know what makes one company thrive while another struggles.

Of course, there are lots of factors that contribute: vision, cash flow, employee engagement, market events, strength of your competitors, etc.

To effectively manage as many of these factors as possible, managers need a system that gives them the greatest chance of success with as many of these factors as possible.  For my money, that system is Open Book Management.

I first learned of Open Book Management by reading a book called The Great Game of Business by author Jack Stack of the Springfield Remanufacturing Corp in Springfield, MO.  An unlikely source of management wisdom, perhaps, but don’t be fooled – this is the good stuff!

Jack had inherited a failing business, and had developed his own internal Open Book Management system to turn the company around and eventually build an empire.  One of the companies in his stable (he has north of 30 now) is dedicated to teaching this model – called The Great Game of Business – to as many companies as will listen.

Fairly recently, I decided to take the members of our management team to see Jack in Springfield to learn their system.  We were incredibly impressed, and the results for Everon have been nothing short of fantastic.  We have better metrics, more engaged employees, and a stronger financial position.  And most importantly, I believe that our team really feels in control of the results of the business; they know that putting in effort will create results.

I’d highly encourage all business owners and managers to invest in the training at the Great Game of Business.  Start by buying their book – I’m sure you’ll learn something from it and be motivated to continue the journey of Open Book Management at your company.

Michael Cooch
CEO
Everon Technology Services, LLC

Share on Facebook