The City of Pittsburgh is making its final preparations before over 20 of the world's leaders converge on the city on Thursday and Friday. Many of the people who live and work in the city are thinking more about the travel restrictions and protests than the actual summit, or what will be discussed during the meeting. So, what will the G20 members be meeting about later this week?
The main topic that the G20 members will discuss is the worldwide economic situation, and how they can bring balance to the global economy. In a document that outlines the U.S. position on this topic, the US believes that exporters (like China, Germany, and Japan) should consume more, while countries with a lot of debt (like the US) should boost their savings. The document claims that "The world will face anemic growth if adjustments in one part of the global economy are not matched by offsetting adjustments in other parts." The US also imagines that the International Monetary Fund will have a greater hand in policy recommendations and assessments.
This kind of approach makes sense to us at IntellaCore. The world is no longer run by only a handful of large countries. Instead, as countries develop, they are gaining even footing with the once dominant countries. Many countries should be included in the solution to the problem.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to push for a larger role for developing countries in the global economy. He is also expected to restate India's position against all forms of protectionism, including trade, goods and services, and investment.
There will also be some focus on tightening financial regulations. There will be proposals to restrain bank executive pay and tightening the standards in the banking system to prevent another economic meltdown. Recently French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called to limit banker bonuses, and has actually promised to walk out of the summit if there is no agreement to cap executive pay and compensation.
But with all of this hype that we are experiencing in Pittsburgh, will anything actually come of the summit? The G20 has no real lawmaking power, so any changes that come from this summit will be the result of the lawmaking authorities for each of the countries. Some experts who have covered meetings like this in the past state that there will be a lot of self-congratulation, and the participants will say it was a great success. If any changes do come about because of this summit, don't expect anything to really start until November.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
5 Easy Steps to Build a Blog for Your Business
By now you have probably heard about blogs and somewhat of what they entail. What you may not know is how it can help your business. Many businesses have found that blogs are a great way to express your company's opinions, keep your company in your customers' minds, and create discussion among your readers. Blogs are a social media that can enhance your company's marketing capabilities.
Blogs can attract a larger audience to your business. When used in combination with other social media strategies, like Twitter and LinkedIn, visitors who are attracted to your products or services may be able to find your website more easily. Most blogs are constructed to offer a high degree of search engine access, creating even more chances for consumers to come across your business.
We have compiled five easy steps to start building your own blog. Read them below and start writing!
1. Set Goals for your Blog
First, you need to pick out what you are blogging about. If you do not determine what you are blogging about, your blog will soon die. Find your blog's niche and then go from there. Choose a topic you have a lot to talk about, pick something that interests you, and pick something that will further your career.
Then, you need to set goals for yourself and determine what you are trying to accomplish with your blog. Ask yourself questions like: Do I want to start a blog to complement my business, products, and services? For notoriety? To open doors to other opportunities? To help others? After you have answered these questions, develop a mission statement outlining what the blog is meant to achieve and how it will benefit your company as well as your readers.
Next, you need to create an interesting title, one that will spark curiosity in its viewers and intrigue them to click the link and read on. Humor is always the best way to catch a viewer's eye, but your title does not have to be funny as long as it remains alluring to readers. Consider the title an extension of your company's branding.
2. Decide on the Platform You Will Host Your Blog on
You will have to choose if you want your blog to be on a hosted or non-hosted platform. There are pros and cons to each. More serious bloggers use non-hosted blogs, while some less experienced bloggers use hosted blogs. With a hosted platform like Blogger or Type Pad, your blog will be housed on the platform’s server. Choose this option if you do not have a website, or if you are unsure of how to host the blog on your own website. Also, if you are a beginner, hosted blogs are definitely easier to use. On the other hand, these types of blogs usually look less professional.
A non-hosted blog, like Wordpress, is housed on your server. Use this option if you or someone in your company can easily determine how to host a blog on your website. Non-hosted blogs do give you more control over the way your blog works, but you should be comfortable with HTML, CSS, and PHP.
3. Customize Your Blog
Once you have your blog set up, you will want to begin customizing it. You definitely want your blog to be unique and stand out from other blogs in both voice and style. If you are experienced with HTML and CSS, you can probably build your own template, or build off other available templates. However, if you are a beginner, you will want to first start with a template that appeals to you.
Once you have a template, start changing it to your own specifications. You can add a new banner at the top of the page. This could be your company's logo. Change the color scheme if you would like to. And add some widgets, but not too many because you don't want to drag a reader's attention away from your content. Add your company's Twitter feed or a custom RSS newsfeed to a sidebar. And definitely add photos. Whether the pictures are of you, your business, or pictures that pertain to the content of your blog, they will catch a reader's eye and draw them in. If you are using Wordpress, install some plugins for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), social networking, and plugins that enhance the performance of the blog.
4. Add Web Analytics to Your Blog
Who is reading your blog? What are the most popular posts? How are visitors finding your blog? Web analytics can show you this. When web analytics are installed on your blog, you can see which posts are your most popular, and then write more like them to keep people coming back to your website.
You can also analyze referring links - the links on other websites that people click on to get to yours. Figure out which sites are linking to yours, and then build a relationship with those sites so they will continue to link to your site. You can also see what visitors are typing into search engines to get to your site. If there are some keyword searches that show up many times, focus on those. If there are some keywords that don't see in the results, focus on them and write more posts about them.
5. Start Writing
To start off, make an interesting first post about you and your blog. You want to catch the reader's attention, so tell a little bit about what makes your company and your blog unique and why this blog will interest them.
Once you have the first post done, start to focus on writing actual content for your blog. This may be the biggest challenge. Make sure you are writing about something that intrigues you, that way you will have more to say and will avoid the common blogger dread of getting "burned out." In order to stay true to your audience, research and be sure about your facts to maintain your blog's credibility. However, your content does not have to remain heavy and packed with pure information. Write in your own voice and provide interesting thoughts and opinions. Your readers should enjoy reading your blog, find value in it, and want to stay tuned to see what is to come.
Finally, socialize with other bloggers. Begin by fraternizing with bloggers like you. Be yourself but be warned not to give out any personal data, passwords, or even your analytics report.
Blogs can attract a larger audience to your business. When used in combination with other social media strategies, like Twitter and LinkedIn, visitors who are attracted to your products or services may be able to find your website more easily. Most blogs are constructed to offer a high degree of search engine access, creating even more chances for consumers to come across your business.
We have compiled five easy steps to start building your own blog. Read them below and start writing!
1. Set Goals for your Blog
First, you need to pick out what you are blogging about. If you do not determine what you are blogging about, your blog will soon die. Find your blog's niche and then go from there. Choose a topic you have a lot to talk about, pick something that interests you, and pick something that will further your career.
Then, you need to set goals for yourself and determine what you are trying to accomplish with your blog. Ask yourself questions like: Do I want to start a blog to complement my business, products, and services? For notoriety? To open doors to other opportunities? To help others? After you have answered these questions, develop a mission statement outlining what the blog is meant to achieve and how it will benefit your company as well as your readers.
Next, you need to create an interesting title, one that will spark curiosity in its viewers and intrigue them to click the link and read on. Humor is always the best way to catch a viewer's eye, but your title does not have to be funny as long as it remains alluring to readers. Consider the title an extension of your company's branding.
2. Decide on the Platform You Will Host Your Blog on
You will have to choose if you want your blog to be on a hosted or non-hosted platform. There are pros and cons to each. More serious bloggers use non-hosted blogs, while some less experienced bloggers use hosted blogs. With a hosted platform like Blogger or Type Pad, your blog will be housed on the platform’s server. Choose this option if you do not have a website, or if you are unsure of how to host the blog on your own website. Also, if you are a beginner, hosted blogs are definitely easier to use. On the other hand, these types of blogs usually look less professional.
A non-hosted blog, like Wordpress, is housed on your server. Use this option if you or someone in your company can easily determine how to host a blog on your website. Non-hosted blogs do give you more control over the way your blog works, but you should be comfortable with HTML, CSS, and PHP.
3. Customize Your Blog
Once you have your blog set up, you will want to begin customizing it. You definitely want your blog to be unique and stand out from other blogs in both voice and style. If you are experienced with HTML and CSS, you can probably build your own template, or build off other available templates. However, if you are a beginner, you will want to first start with a template that appeals to you.
Once you have a template, start changing it to your own specifications. You can add a new banner at the top of the page. This could be your company's logo. Change the color scheme if you would like to. And add some widgets, but not too many because you don't want to drag a reader's attention away from your content. Add your company's Twitter feed or a custom RSS newsfeed to a sidebar. And definitely add photos. Whether the pictures are of you, your business, or pictures that pertain to the content of your blog, they will catch a reader's eye and draw them in. If you are using Wordpress, install some plugins for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), social networking, and plugins that enhance the performance of the blog.
4. Add Web Analytics to Your Blog
Who is reading your blog? What are the most popular posts? How are visitors finding your blog? Web analytics can show you this. When web analytics are installed on your blog, you can see which posts are your most popular, and then write more like them to keep people coming back to your website.
You can also analyze referring links - the links on other websites that people click on to get to yours. Figure out which sites are linking to yours, and then build a relationship with those sites so they will continue to link to your site. You can also see what visitors are typing into search engines to get to your site. If there are some keyword searches that show up many times, focus on those. If there are some keywords that don't see in the results, focus on them and write more posts about them.
5. Start Writing
To start off, make an interesting first post about you and your blog. You want to catch the reader's attention, so tell a little bit about what makes your company and your blog unique and why this blog will interest them.
Once you have the first post done, start to focus on writing actual content for your blog. This may be the biggest challenge. Make sure you are writing about something that intrigues you, that way you will have more to say and will avoid the common blogger dread of getting "burned out." In order to stay true to your audience, research and be sure about your facts to maintain your blog's credibility. However, your content does not have to remain heavy and packed with pure information. Write in your own voice and provide interesting thoughts and opinions. Your readers should enjoy reading your blog, find value in it, and want to stay tuned to see what is to come.
Finally, socialize with other bloggers. Begin by fraternizing with bloggers like you. Be yourself but be warned not to give out any personal data, passwords, or even your analytics report.
Friday, September 11, 2009
The Importance of a Website
Wouldn't it be great if your business were open to the world 24/7, 365 days a year? Customers could access information about your products and services, you could promote your services, you could make sales, and gather leads. You could do many of the things you do Monday - Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, without doing anything. But how could you do this?
You can easily do all of this with a website.
Websites are essential to becoming a 21st century company. Michael Dell, of Dell Computers was once quoted as saying, "Show me a business that's not on the Internet, and I'll show you a business that's out of touch with the future." Websites, along with the Internet, are the future of business. It is how businesses are reaching customers, and how customers are reaching out to businesses.
Think your business is too small to have a website? Small businesses can benefit tremendously from websites. A professional website can help a company to grow in ways that traditional marketing cannot.
Yes, customers can access a website from wherever they are - domestically, and internationally - but customers can also reach local businesses through the Internet. Many people have found businesses by going to Google and typing "city, product/service". What do prospective customers find when they type in your town and your product or service? You no longer have to rely on traditional forms of advertising to market your products and services locally.
Your company does not even have to sell products on a website. If you provide basic information about your company and your products or services, and have contact information or inquiry forms on a visible part of the website, customers will come to you.
Websites can even help your company refine its operations. You can include a Frequently Asked Questions section on your company's website that has answers to common issues with your products and services. Instead of calling your company's customer service line, customers may seek out the FAQ page first, leaving your customer service representative free to answer other calls. Additionally, you can use forms and surveys on your website for lead generation and information gathering. This would save you time from manually entering the information and actively finding leads.
Finally, and perhaps more importantly, a well-designed website can give your business a strong, professional image. A professional web presence and a unified marketing message is important, especially if your competitors already have a website. If your competitors do have a website, analyze it, and then figure out how you can make your website better.
If you have any questions about building a website, or if you have a website and would like it to make it easier for your customers and prospective customers to find, join our webinar on Tuesday, September 15th at 2:00 PM ET titled Top 10 Tips for Increasing Your Website's Visibility. You can learn more by viewing the blog post below.
You can sign up for the webinar by clicking here.
You can easily do all of this with a website.
Websites are essential to becoming a 21st century company. Michael Dell, of Dell Computers was once quoted as saying, "Show me a business that's not on the Internet, and I'll show you a business that's out of touch with the future." Websites, along with the Internet, are the future of business. It is how businesses are reaching customers, and how customers are reaching out to businesses.
Think your business is too small to have a website? Small businesses can benefit tremendously from websites. A professional website can help a company to grow in ways that traditional marketing cannot.
Yes, customers can access a website from wherever they are - domestically, and internationally - but customers can also reach local businesses through the Internet. Many people have found businesses by going to Google and typing "city, product/service". What do prospective customers find when they type in your town and your product or service? You no longer have to rely on traditional forms of advertising to market your products and services locally.
Your company does not even have to sell products on a website. If you provide basic information about your company and your products or services, and have contact information or inquiry forms on a visible part of the website, customers will come to you.
Websites can even help your company refine its operations. You can include a Frequently Asked Questions section on your company's website that has answers to common issues with your products and services. Instead of calling your company's customer service line, customers may seek out the FAQ page first, leaving your customer service representative free to answer other calls. Additionally, you can use forms and surveys on your website for lead generation and information gathering. This would save you time from manually entering the information and actively finding leads.
Finally, and perhaps more importantly, a well-designed website can give your business a strong, professional image. A professional web presence and a unified marketing message is important, especially if your competitors already have a website. If your competitors do have a website, analyze it, and then figure out how you can make your website better.
If you have any questions about building a website, or if you have a website and would like it to make it easier for your customers and prospective customers to find, join our webinar on Tuesday, September 15th at 2:00 PM ET titled Top 10 Tips for Increasing Your Website's Visibility. You can learn more by viewing the blog post below.
You can sign up for the webinar by clicking here.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Webinar: Top 10 Tips for Increasing Your Website's Visibility
Top 10 Tips Webinar Series
Tuesday, September 15th 2:00PM – 2:30PM EDT
Top Ten Tips is a series of practical, fact-based webinars using the Path To Success methodology developed at IntellaCore. The webinars are short, hard-hitting, and are always combined with a whitepaper. Each webinar breaks down an important way that a company can increase revenue, reduce costs, and become a sustainable, competitive business.
The next Top Ten Tips webinar will be held on Tuesday, September 15th at 2:00 PM EST. The topic will be Top 10 Tips for Increasing Your Website's Visibility. Click here to register. Please enter NEWSLETTER in the Invitation Code text box.
Are you using your website as a sales and marketing tool? Are your strategies effective? Join this webinar to learn tips and tricks you can use to make more customers and prospects aware of your products and services through your website.
The Top 10 Tips you will learn more about in the webinar are:
- Establish an online strategy
- Analyze your website's current traffic
- Research your target audience, and develop relevant keywords
- Review your website design if needed and focus on delivering relevant information to the identified audiences
- Keep the design of your website simple
- Search Engine Optimize your website
- Ask other relevant sites in your network to link to yours.
- Try to create buzz around your products and company by using social media daily
- Advertise
- Add your website address to your packaged products and business cards
Click here to join the webinar.
While there are many international experts or technology experts, we are both. IntellaCore has a unique point of view because we are positioned at the critical crossroad where very few are -- that place where the global economy meets the Internet. Based on decades of experience in both International business and Internet-based activity, Path to Success aligns technology to the business plan, internally transforms the operations of the business, and expands their market presence into new domestic, international, and virtual markets.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Join IntellaCore: Surviving and Thriving in a Flat World Economy Event
The "ENTREPRENEURIAL THURSDAYS" Happy Hour Show
Live Music by City's Great Jazz/R&B Artists!
Interviews @ Musical Break with City's Leading Entrepreneurs/Innovators!
Great Business & Professional Networking!
Where: Little E's Jazz & Blues
949 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
2nd Floor above Mahoney's Restaurant
412.392.2217
Cover Charge: Only $5.00!
September 10, 2009
"Surviving & Thriving in a Flat World Economy "
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