The Promo Direct Blog

When you hear about facebook, you think of it as an entity paramount in revolutionizing the world of social networking or as a site that set another milestone in the world of internet and search engines. An unchallenged giant of social networking as of now, facebook has all the eyes glued on every move it makes.  The movie “The Social Network” based on the founder of facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, won three Golden Globe awards, and led to a significant rise in the interest for the same. The glory of this site is such that it has become unavoidable for anyone to not take interest in it.Facebook started its journey in the year 2004 as an internal social networking website for the Harvard University. With easy success as an intranet service, the potential of the website was expanded as it stepped out and made appearance in the world beyond the university doors. The success story was repeated again and facebook became very popular the world over. The lawsuits and a long battle fought between two Harvadians over the ownership of the site then started. However, the popularity of the site remained undiminished and its impact is now looming large as it sets forth to achieve new milestones.

Click To Enlarge

What has made this website such a success in the world? With some analysis, there are a few hidden secrets that are revealed. You can learn and implement them in your business development strategy as well:

Market Analysis: Market analysis is elementary for any new business venture. It is common knowledge and followed by almost all. However, if the data assimilated is used more creatively and looked at with a new viewpoint, it reveals some unseen pattern that is very useful. The popularity of facebook lies in the fact that during inception they directly addressed the most important demand that the students of the university were facing that is the lack of a social networking site.

Stick to your principles:  One of the secrets behind the success of facebook is its strict adherence to its core principle. One of the employees of facebook says in their blog, “ …Facebook is a work in progress. We constantly try to improve things and we understand that our work isn’t perfect. We appreciate the thousands of you who have written in to give us feedback…”  To realize that there is more to achieve is an essential business tip. Knowing that there is more to be done, keeps audiences intrigued about your new business plans and keeps your employees motivated too.

With these business planning and marketing tips inspired from facebook, it is easy to gauge at the market and make an impeccable business success plan.

Join our business page on Facebook

Rumor has it the second time over, that Google and Facebook are in “low level” talks with Twitter for business acquisition.  Several businesses and analysts have been thinking of the pros and cons of this move and the impact it will have on the two business giants. Another important point of consideration is the reason a growing business like Twitter might want to sell itself.

The answers to these questions are fairly simple really. Caught between two industry giants looking to monopolize the market in their respective domains, twitter cannot establish a spectrum of its own. Besides, reluctant to turn its venture commercial, Twitter incurs growing losses each year. However, as a part of either Facebook or Google, twitter has much to gain in financial terms and otherwise. On the part of these companies, this micro-blogging site, represents a treasure-trove of information that is sure to give these two giants a value added service and in turn more customers.

This analysis leads us to the most pertinent question, namely what lessons can we learn to make a strategic business plan for our business development from this occurrence.

One of the main learning lessons is that Acquisitions are not all that evil. Off-course they are evil for the employees working there. They are even evil for those at the selling point in certain ways, for they tuck in their feet to sell out on the basic morals and principles that governed their functioning in the first place. However, an acquisition also defines smart business sense, which can save a more drastic result by “holding on” rather than selling when there is “still time”. When the choice lies between losing jobs completely or having to deal with a new management, what would you rather take?

Also as opposed to the popular perception of things, acquisitions does not necessarily mean, a failed business. The case in the point is obviously Twitter, which has new user sign-ups each day. Their add placement on the site lately also suggests that they are not really drowning down. This then is a classic case of “thinking ahead of time”. A smart business idea then would be to think ahead, be aware of the ongoing in the businesses you deal in and the approximate outcome result.

A new business idea to get from the Google-Facebook-Twitter dealing is to understand that there are newer avenues which always open up for any business no matter its huge success or even faliure. It is upto us to not be drastically bogged down or be scared by the business developments, but to implement new business strategy to move ahead and conquer situations.

To view a large variety of promotional products for your business promotion and to enjoy low price and discounts please visit our website at www.promodirect.com

Twitter has launched a new site known as “Twitter for Business”. The site looks like an expanded version of Twitter 101; an online business guide which was launched back in July of 2009. The site, which is available at /business.twitter.com, opens up its previously limited advertising products and lets anyone put in a request to buy ads on the service. At the same time, it also represents a significant step for the company in terms of offering a formal and organized set of products for the business community.

Essentially, Twitter is saying, “We’re open for business.”

Out of the many new additions, the most noteworthy is a Start Advertising form that lets anyone contact Twitter with an interest in advertising on the site.

Twitter’s ad products — Promoted Accounts, Promoted Tweets, and Promoted Trends — have previously been limited to a small group of test advertisers. And Twitter has been especially cautious in rolling out those products widely across its platform. This move signals that Twitter is ready to take another step in opening up its ad products to a wider group of advertisers. Noteworthy form fields include one that asks for an estimated budget, and one that asks how soon you want to start advertising; choices include 1-4 weeks, 1-3 months, and 3+ months.

Also of note is the inclusion of Twitter’s first official reveal of its analytics dashboard, which the company says provides “in-depth insight into both paid and unpaid activity on Twitter.”

Overall, the new Twitter for Business is an impressive marketing addition. While the company has generally been somewhat guarded about its business-related services, this signifies a more serious approach to its advertising capabilities. It’s also a message to detractors who’ve always criticized Twitter for not having a business plan.

Follow @PromoDirect on Twitter to get updates on business, branding, advertising, promotional products, offers & services.

By now you’ve probably heard the news that Facebook might be shutting down in March 2011. Like me, you were probably extremely shocked upon hearing the news. Indeed, for most people around the world now, imagining life without Facebook is simply impossible.According to a report on weeklyworldnews.com, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and President, Facebook, said in a press conference outside his Palo Alto office that, “Facebook has gotten out of control and the stress of managing this company has ruined my life. I need to put an end to all the madness.”Indeed, as the movie ‘The Social Network’ released in 2010 depicted, Facebook has affected his few true relationships and it appears that Facebook is all Zuckerberg really has in his life now.But owning Facebook is certainly a big deal. Facebook is currently ranked as one of the wealthiest businesses in the world, with economists estimating its value at around $ 41 billion. Facebook reportedly has more than 500 million active users around the world.With statistics like this it seems unbelievable that Zuckerberg would want to shut down Facebook. It comes as no surprise then that a day after weeklyworldnews.com published the story that Facebook was shutting down, mashable.com published a contradicting story that Facebook is most certainly not shutting down in the near future.The mashable.com story claims that Facebook Director of Corporate Communications, Larry Yu confirmed that the rumor is false. Yu said, “The answer is no, so please help us put an end to this silliness.” He added, “We didn’t get the memo about shutting down and there’s lots to do, so we’ll just keep cranking away like always.”

According to this story, Facebook had announced just a few days ago that it will be receiving funding consisting of $450 million from Goldman Sachs and $50 million from Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies.

Mashable.com concludes its story by wondering if people will believe anything?

As far as I’m concerned, both stories seem to have some truth to them. And with Mark Zuckerberg, you really never know. So what do you think; will Facebook shut down soon? And if it does, how would it impact your life and business?