The blend of social media and customer relationship management referred to as social CRM enhances traditional CRM and engages it with social media which tracks new leads from Twitter and Facebook into the sales funnel. According to Jon Ferrara, CEO of Nimble, realizing the importance of authentic and relevant human connections in business customer relationship management has become an integral part of our lives. Customers nowadays want to connect with the real people they do business with and get delighted and empowered resulting in a renaissance of customer management. Nowadays marketing has gone beyond just driving customers to get the order. Today customers have moved beyond commercials, glossy stick marketing materials and “Slick Willy” sales people. They now can have converse online and expect relevant conversations. Instead of pushing customers to just buy their products social businesses should become a part of the marketing and buyer funnel adding value to those conversations to become trust worthy. Markets are utilizing the new technology today where conversations happen already in public, private and in others various mediums. Companies instead of controlling conversations and employees they should educate and empower both employees and customers. Companies now empower their customer-facing team members to share content and engage on a worldwide basis, and they understand that they are selling to a community comprising influencers, editors, analysts, tech partners, third party developers, value-added resellers etc. empowering, educating and adding value results in success which breeds success.

read more at: http://www.exacttarget.com/blog/how-social-media-and-crm-work-together-successfully/

WhatsApp and Snapchat being simple and ubiquitous are now the perfect crossroads of mobile and social media. A new study suggests that in spite of forcing the top five global digital platforms namely Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft to evolve. Apps like Line and WhatsApp have still not been able to reach a massive scale yet. Mobile and social strategies of majority marketers being immature are being unable to utilize the growing opportunities properly and bring a clear return. In reality these messaging apps at the cross road of mobile and social only complicate the challenge according to Thomas Husson. New developments are being made recently to have a frictionless mode of communication but the idea is still new and yet to be successful. Read more at: http://www.cio.com/article/2454370/social-media/are-messaging-apps-the-future-of-social-networking.html

Consumers these days are using social media for communications. Mention of brand names is done in huge numbers among which 76 percent mentions were neutral, 17.6 percent were positive and 5.8 percent were negative. . Majority of the neutral mentions comprises of queries about the company’s process and products.

Apart from increasing engagement, building brand awareness and marketing this study has been found to play a major role in customer service.  The names of companies are mentioned on social media more on weekdays than on weekends. Moreover most posts are mentioned in English followed by French and Spanish. Thus social media is a tool for global communication and social mentions increases exposure. Read more at:http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/social-media-equals-modern-day-customer-service-43281/

With the advent of web and social media the speed of the evolution of language has increased dramatically. There are many contributing factors to language that affect the changes. Big data takes linguistics to the next level and the technology like Hadoop helps in assisting interested parties in gaining deeper and clearer insights into linguistics. The reasons why Linguistics should be understand are that- Firstly, to benefit from the insights into linguistics provided by big data whether it may be vocabulary or grammar or something else. Secondly, today's technology continues to develop and improve, the use of voice commands for phones, TV's and game systems is going to increase and it's more important that developers understand the language people will be speaking to their devices in order to ensure the responsiveness. Big data will greatly enhance their ability to provide such speech oriented aspects. Thirdly, in case of learning a language and the way it is learned, understanding of linguistics matters a lot. Finally, to understand the past and looking to the future, it is again important to understand linguistics. With big data technology, the huge amount of data and information can be gathered and used to provide better insights into the past and future of language. Read more at:http://analytics.theiegroup.com/article/53bd6b6d3723a864d8000023/The-Impact-Of-Big-Data-On-Linguistics

Despite having the technological advancements which makes the process of job finding easier and user friendly, the whole thing is not so easy and in many cases it's more complicated. Here comes the role of Big Data which is now making its way into the field of recruitment and helps recruiters to find best people for the right positions. Some companies receive thousands of resumes for a single post and with such a huge number of resumes, companies are engaging in people analytics, applying big data analytics practices to a field of prospective job seekers. Many businesses build their own resumes of candidates by identifying details from people's social media profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other sites. From these profiles, companies use big data to identify patterns of behavior, interests, skills and attitudes that they are qualifying factors for current and future job openings. So, job seekers need to manage their profiles to get a job. But, as a negative impact, there are concerns over relying on it too much and as a matter of fact a heavy use of big data also takes factors like race, gender, and religion out of the equation. However, despite the drawbacks big data is of vital importance and job seekers should put themselves in a position to take advantage of big data and utilize it to get noticed.

Read more at:http://analytics.theiegroup.com/article/53b522e83723a80d7e000065/The-Modern-Job-Hunt-How-to-Beat-the-Big-Data-System

Checking emails have become the primary activity for smart phone and tablet users. Thus informing patients about new health care services through emails have become compulsory. Images are the best method of interacting with, informing and empowering patients.  This is because brain processes visual data faster which consists of 90% of the transmitted data. Twitter these days have become the best medium to interact with the aging population who consumes a major portion of the health services. In 2014, more than 50% internet users will redeem a digital coupon which can be used by partners for patient cost saving and adherence.  Marketing needs to be done on multiple platforms and for many devices because the internet device connection has become vast which includes Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. The reviews of previous patients' online matters the most as 90% people get influenced by peer recommendations. Among the 10.3 billion Google searchers and 78% internet users a major portion hit the top links. Thus the top hits of any organization conclude the bottom line. Content marketing is cheaper than traditional marketing and generates an income 3 times as many leads. So for any strategy the target audience and their choices are to be realized first. Patients receiving newsletters along with emails spend more and are more informed. Most patients prefer articles to direct advertisements. Thus advertising campaigns along with patient experience testimonies, community reviews are important to highlight work being done inside out. Read more at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolefisher/2014/07/15/10-things-hospital-leadership-need-to-know-about-social-media-and-marketing/

According to Mark Zuckerberg the potential of improving business through social media is very high. Sponsored ads appear everywhere nowadays in all social media platforms. If your ads are of quality customer service and eye catching visuals you can convert visitors to loyal customers. But there are few strategies required to gain from the use of social media. Firstly, be active but do not be overactive. One needs to have knowledge about how much his competitors are posting and then decide on how much to post every day. Compiling all content in an easy to read editorial calendar is a good idea which can be further separated by social channels. Secondly, ach channel should be treated as an individual entity. The content which might be spread across all channels should be adjusted depending on the audience for that channel. For example, LinkedIn has more business focused audience while Instagram has audiences looking for engaging visual content. Thirdly, tweets or other feedbacks made by customers should be answered properly and quickly. While positive feedbacks are to be responded with acknowledgements negative feedbacks should be dealt with patience and respect. Fourthly, one should accept their mistakes made on their posts. But reposting several times is not a good idea. One can send out content from their social accounts to make the customers aware. Fifthly, metrics important to one's business should be reviewed monthly, like number of posts, follower growth, clicks, page views, likes and shares etc. Tracking can be done by free tools like bit.ly, Google analytics etc. Lastly, being active on Google+ helps you to receive essential free ad space when users search for you on Google. Read more at:  http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/01/09/social-media-marketing-strategies

Social media defines an array of internet sites that enable people from all over the world to interact. Social media affects our mental health and well-being. Facebook might cause anxiety and make life miserable. Facebook followed by My Space, Twitter, LinkedIn are leading social networking sites. Majorly below 30 aged men women use internet and 42 percent of them use multiple sites. The ability to connect to the people around the world attracts people to these sites. Social media has become a way of self-distraction and boredom relief. This leads to addiction. Scoring four of six criteria indicates addiction. People who are more anxious and socially insecure tend to use Facebook more. They tend to gain attention and boost self-esteem through Facebook. 

Again these sites can feel less confident comparing their popularity with their friends which leads to negative emotion. It also creates worry and discomfort for people hampering face to face interactions. Moreover there are cases of cyber bullying by adolescents.

In spite of these facts social media could be helpful to identify mental health issues. For example people with less pictures and friends might have the inability to enjoy from activities which normal people enjoy. Moreover a happy status may sometimes inspire others to post happy updates too. They might cause their friends’ emotional expression to change. Positive expressions spread more than negative expressions. In a magnified version this might cause an ‘epidemic of well-being’. But in conclusion whatever might be the affects, positive or negative, the usage of internet and social media is unlikely to fade any time soon. read more at : http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/275361.php

Social relationship management focuses more on social media than structured data. Social CRM is people driven and creates a personalized relationship between the customer and the company. When properly used it can improve the reputation of one's brand beyond Facebook and twitter. It is mutually beneficial for both the customer and the company. Unlike traditional CRM the benefits are not only focused on the company’s side. Out of 1802 internet users 62 percent men and 71 percent females uses social networking sites. Social CRM is more popular between the age group of 18 and 29. For young consumers web is an integral part of their life. Companies need to capitalize on this popularity for social media. Customers interacting via social media spend 40 percent more and 56 percent feel a stronger bond with companies through social media. Integrating social media reduces expenses by 58 percent, increases sales by 40 percent, and improves reputation by 64 percent. Whether a company requires social CRM or not depends on the company’s size, number of competitors and whether the critical systems and operations capable of accommodating social CRM. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/using-social-crm-to-bolster-your-business-62011

Analytics for Small Medium Businesses (SMB) today, is a much discussed topic. SMBs face the challenges of effectively using analytical tools to gain precious business insights from data generated. Today markets are able to provide solutions to SMBs which were costly before and this was made possible by the advent of Qlikview, Tableau etc. in Analytics sector. SMBs are realizing that analytics can help them understand customer preferences, expand their market share, cut down cost, increase efficiency and give them a competitive advantage even against the big players. Moreover, with the advent of new technologies like cloud, social media and open source platforms like Pentaho and Hadoop, the requirement for big infrastructural set-up and capital cost have been reduced considerably. The success of Analytics tools depends to a large extent on collecting and managing data and in such case ERP and CRM tools are a must for success. For successful implementation of analytics tool, SMBs need to assess the external market as well as their internal systems and processes. However, SMBs will soon be able to adapt their systems to bring in the external big data from social media like any other big enterprises and hence make their analytics more robust. Read more at:http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/perspective/296888/value-analytics-businesses

Is our privacy at risk?- This is the most discussed question in today's world of big data where companies like Google is able to capture data from homes and offices as well as video footage for storage anywhere in cloud, provided by Amazon Web Services. According to Danielle Hughes of Divine Capital, computers are learning to interact with one another and this is raising concerns. Though, it is true that people are living in the post-privacy world today as younger ones have no issues in sharing their personal information in social media. But, Hughes thinks, this is the beginning and in the future machines will start to teach other machines and tell back the information analytically to big companies. She also concludes that it will not lack investments in future, as for example IBM is already projecting $20 billion in revenue from big data in 2015. Read more at:http://analytics.theiegroup.com/article/53ac20613723a8031500002b/Our-Connected-World-Big-Data-Big-Profits-And-No-Privacy

2014 is expected to be the year of cheaper analytics. Along with the announcements of new features from some SaaS providers like Gainsight, gShift and pricier systems from Adobe, IBM, Oracle etc., a firm Rival IQ has recently released the beta version of a new SEO analytics features which is now included in all the company's service tiers and its service includes analytics for websites and social media. It might also provide an easier approach for marketers who are now technically backward. About 1,000 companies are now the users of digital marketing/analytics. One of the officials of HP's cloud computing division has started using Rival IQ and said that they are trying to provide enough data across all the different areas at a very cheap rate so that one can easily grab charts, and see reports from one place and then export everything to PowerPoint, CSV or PDFs. The landscape features of this SEO analytics also allow users to see what their competitors are doing in social and SEO and can be used to research best practices for a whole area like e-commerce. Read more at:http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/a-cheaper-alternative-to-marketing-analytics-025687.php

According to Tali Yahalom, consumers want to be treated indivually and not like any other consumer you deal with every day. Companies should realize that changing rules once in a while is less costly than losing a customer. Moreover, social mediums like Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp have become extremely useful in tracking one's reputation online. One should be considerate towards a customer's emotional state of frustration and listen calmly to him/her instead of becoming defensive. Nowadays, companies have tools for collecting consumer feedbacks and suggestions which are extremely important. A company should be optimistic towards feedbacks and try and learn from it. To know more, follow this link: http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/12/the-new-rules-of-handling-customer-complaints.html

Unless one puts in the effort of being beside their customers they can never receive helpful word of mouth. In times of crisis if employees want to protect the company's reputation, they should instil a customer service culture, then empower staffs for making decisions, and perform properly in case of a problem. In times of crisis a briefing should be done to the frontline staffs about the crisis, which is a part of the crisis communication plan. This approach helps protecting one's reputation. Words of support from the directly affected people provides opportunity to enhance one's reputation further. There is no formula for gaining goodwill and loads of satisfied tweets and Facebook posts from customers. Frontline staffs as brand ambassadors and crisis communicators and hard work only pleases customers and satisfies them. Read more at:http://managementhelp.org/blogs/crisis-management/2010/12/13/crisis-management-customer-service/ 

Big Data has joined the crowd of millions with the fever of 2014 FIFA World Cup on. Much like the social media, marketing, advertising- big data has become important. With a whooping figure of 3.2 billion people who watched the last World Cup, this year the figure is expected to explode even further. Ronaldo's Nike shoes ad is one of the example to illustrate the growth and potential of online videos. It was seen online by 78 million people before it appeared on TV. 12.2 million tweets about the 'first-match' all during the hours match was played, depicts the social captivity of the universe. An event of this magnitude is likely to generate Big Data. The 2014 World Cup is so big that it is expected to have a negative impact on the economy of Brazil, as "major Brazilian cities have the power to grant local public holidays on the dates that World Cup matches are played". Read more at: http://www.infinitive.com/category/big-data/

Technologies, today, have enabled bank customers to make payments, track spending or move money between different accounts easily just by going online with a PC, phone or tablet. People are using popular websites like PayPal, for cheap loans and saving returns. Cash machines, ATMs have also become more advanced and multi-functional which means customers will soon be able to send money overseas, receive money transfers, purchase foreign currency and carry out transactions such as applying for loans. According to futurologists, smartphones will become mobile wallets soon enabling a customer to use discount vouchers and earn cashback on any transactions.  Banks will also have to exploit social media well i.e. listening to customers and have conversations on networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Mobile banking also helps banks to know the physical location of their customers and provide services accordingly. For example, banks might text to offer foreign currency when the customer arrives at an airport. However, new rules and improved technology have made it easier to switch current accounts and will make it even easier in future which in turn provides enough incentives for the banks to excel in technology, in all aspects of their service. Read more at:http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/moneymatters/article3925149.ece

Big Data does not necessarily mean good data. And that, as increasing number of experts are saying more insistently, Big Data does not automatically yield good analytics. As everyone realizes, bad data equates to bad intelligence, which equates to bad decision-making and thus equates to bad things happening in your business. If the data is incomplete, out of context or otherwise contaminated, it can lead to decisions that could undermine the competitiveness of an enterprise or damage the personal lives of individuals. So how do we detect that? Firstly it's important to understand where your data originates. Has it been captured by your own work force? What measures were put in place to ensure that the very best job has been done and that the data being captured lives up to expectations? What are the requirements for the data your business needs and uses daily? Do you enhance your data from other sources (external or internal)? An example of how out of context data can lead to distorted conclusions comes from Harvard University professor Gary King, director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science who was attempting to use Twitter feeds and other social media posts to predict the U.S. unemployment rate, by monitoring key words like "jobs," "unemployment," and "classifieds." To read more about the episode visit: http://www.infoworld.com/d/business-intelligence/big-data-without-good-analytics-can-lead-bad-decisions-225608.

In the present world, advertising is shifting towards digital media, and experts say that small business owners should keep up with that trend in spite of prevalence of billboards and newspapers ads. Whatever the product is, marketing the product to target customer is critical. With the limited budget advertising decisions should be taken wisely. According to Eric Schiffer (head of marketing firms' digitalmarketing.com and socialmediamarketing.com) "You can easily throw a lot of money down the drain if you don't think about the right strategy and right platforms". Owners can build a local business profile on either Facebook or Twitter, and they will be presented with buttons to "promote" or "advertise" their page. Using this process will enable the owners to identify and convert customers at far less cost compared to search based advertising. According to Sidney Smith "E-mail is still king, and building out your e-mail list is so important". Services such as ConstantContact, Vertical Response and iContact can be used to manage an e-mail marketing list. Companies uses GPS data to push coupons and deals via text messages to individuals near a store. To know more about usage of social media, e-mails, text messages and loyalty cards for advertising visit: 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/small-business-guide-how-to-invest-your-digital-advertising-dollars/2014/04/20/67f5ad6c-c4a7-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html  .

Companies can maintain customer support department to answer customer doubts and problems in social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook. Answers to customers should be quick and within few hours of posting. We can implement softwares that can be synchronized with Facebook, to manage private messages and posts, and to keep track of customer service questions & problems and also to serve requests. Some of these softwares are Sales Force Desk, Happy Fox etc. One can use the Facebook page to spread the problems associated with that particular product and other product issues. Social space provides a platform to make people aware of the product defects. It will demonstrate the business house's willingness to take responsibility for mistakes making fans aware of the present business scenario and maintaining transparency. Some brands often offer their fans monthly exclusive deals and some host frequent giveaways. To know about this aspect follow Jim Belosic (CEO of ShortStack)'s link: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-customer-service-facebook/ .

This article elaborates on the sentiment analysis from tweets using data mining techniques. Instead of using SQL, it shows how to conduct such analysis using a more sophisticated software called RapidMiner. It explains how one can extract Twitter data into Google Docs spread sheet and then transfer it into a local environment utilizing two different methods. The emphasis is on how to amass a decent pool of tweets in two different ways using a service called Zapier, Google Docs and a tool called GDocBackUpCMD, along with SSIS and a little bit of C#. Zapier is used to extract Twitter feeds into Google Docs spread sheet and then copy the data across to local environment to mine it for sentiment trends. Next, it is shown how this data can be analyzed for sentiments i.e. whether a concrete Twitter feed can be considered as negative or positive. For this purpose, RapidMiner as well as two separate data sets of already pre-relegated tweets for model learning and Microsoft SQL Server for some data polishing and storage engine. Read more at:http://bicortex.com/twitter-sentiment-analysis-mining-twitter-data-using-rapidminer-part-1/