STAY COMM

As the unemployment rate continues to rise (note: it's a lagging indicator and the perceived increase must be taken with a grain of salt), marketers are finding that their knowledge is best applied to making themselves stand out against the growing competition amongst creative professionals looking for work.  The tech-savvy have a significant advantage; Internet gurus who have been practicing interactive marketing know to use social media to position themselves as conversation starters and thought-leaders.  But even the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have become too mainstream to act as significant differentiators since they are practically a minimum requirement for a decent marketing effort.

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With the right tools, an economic recession can translate to an entrepreneurial opportunity for out-of-work professionals.  Despite the down economy, interest in starting businesses has gone up 25% in the last year, according to the Small Business Administration (SBA).  If you're a go-getter who has been affected by these leaner times, now may be your chance to launch the business you've always wanted. Adopt alternatives to traditional software, switch to a digital workplace, embrace social marketing, and you'll be well on your way to a powerful, cost-effective success strategy.  Though modern technology can be intimidating, today's options offer complete, effective, and easy-to-use business solutions that won't break the bank. 

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This weekend I picked up a new Blackberry Tour and HP Mini netbook thanks to a promotion that Verizon Wireless is currently offering: Buy a Blackberry Tour and get a FREE HP Mini Netbook (with a two-year agreement on both wireless service and mobile broadband).  Total cost of hardware: $199.

Essentially, I get nearly unlimited access to the Internet all the time for $90/month.  With my montly $29.99 Blackberry data plan (unlimited data usage) and $59.99 mobile broadband plan (5GB), I can work from anywhere that receives a Verizon Wireless 3G signal; in New York City, that's virtually everywhere.  What follows will be a review of the hardware and service. Bottom line: a very worthwhile investment for the net-savvy professional.

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Years ago, traditional marketers viewed social media as a second-class, low-budget alternative to proper (and costly) branding.

By 2009, a company that wasn't harnessing the power of the Internet, particularly social media, as a marketing and branding tool would be at risk of falling to competitors who keep on their social media A-game. Yet until now, there has always been one integral caveat to trusting social media professionally: the inability to produce hard data and lack of analytics (read: tangible evidence that it works!).

Enter Viralheat, a startup that just made Mashable's "Spark of Genius" series with their affordable solution to tracking social media marketing campaigns.

From the Viralheat website:

• Monitor social media like never before. Viralheat tracks hundreds of video sharing sites, twitter, blogs, social networks, groups and forums in real-time
• Viralheat goes above and beyond monitoring by delivering analytics that help you optimize your outreach and engagement on social media platforms.

Watch their video tour and see for yourself how Viralheat can provide amazing insight into social media trends.  We're impressed.

Now check out the Viralheat website to search social trends for free!

"It's as easy as writing things down, and gives you the overview you need to get things done."

They use @ tags, similar to Twitter!

Best part is the narrator's accent.

STAY COMM requested a Private Beta invitation.

In the days of ole, before email, Blackberries, and Twitter, people used to order business cards by the hundreds and hand them out left and right. A business card was a status symbol of sorts - if you had a business card, you had a real job. Today, not the case.

Not only are traditional business cards becoming less common, but they also mean bubkiss for your image unless you're ... a CPA?

Instead of wasting time, money, and resources on cards, why not jump on the bandwagon of virtual business cards?  There are so many services out there to choose from, from free and simple like Hoocard  to fully customizable and professional like DropCard Elite, there's no excuse to keep littering the environment with useless business cards that everyone loses anyway. 

Mashable posted a great article last month detailing ways to go digital, from using a service like the ones mentioned above to Twitter and Google Profiles.  The article even provides insight on what to do with all the old contacts' cards you do have (i.e. transfer them to an online database and then recyle the damn things!).  Surprisingly, they didn't mention the easiest way of all to share your info digitally - email signatures!

Unless your 9 to 5 still requires you to maintain at least a handful of your contact information printed on environment-killing paper, give it up!  Besides, with the Internet industry continuing to grow exponentially, virtual cards, show off your A-game by staying on the cutting edge.  Business cards are so passé.