Smart phones have made the cellular experience more fun filled for the users and the credit goes to the applications for smart phones that have made the lives of the users much easier. Mobile application development market is on boom and a number of apps are introduced each day, how to make your application stand out depends totally on the user experience it is providing. As a simple rule of thumb don’t forget the easier the learning experience of the users the higher the ranking of the app would be. Follow the following set of tips to get a user friendly application designed:

• Try and conduct a user survey on your idea so that you can have some functional requirements in front of you before you proceed further. These functional requirements will define what functionality to expect from the mobile application.
• Next define the non-functional requirements clearly. This includes the performance of the application (speed, precision and capacity etc.) and technological support needed for the application in terms of software and hardware and communication interface needed for the application. Trust me! Lay out your plan and you can do wonders. 
• It is always wise to draw the follow of your application on paper and then on computer even before opening Photoshop or any other text editor that you are using. There are a number of free tools available online which can help like Google Drawings. Remember! the disturbed flow of application annoys the users, so at this stage make sure every single click makes sense.
• Never complicate the application by inducing various ideas in one. You can always develop a new application for a new idea.
• While making the actual application makes sure the user interface is interactive and simple. There are certain guidelines stated by Android and iOS don’t forget to follow them.
• Test-run the application and try to remove the bugs on the spot. Also trail run the application on various users’ cell phones and record the reactions. Incorporate the feedback given by the users before the launch, to make sure application does not lapse any major functionality. 

One of the applications that I thoroughly enjoy because of its UX is LinkedIn app for android. Those who have seen and used it know well how interactive and user friendly it is. However recently I got to use Pin Share for Blackberry, the application is weird in terms of its UX, it is slow and would get stuck up a number of times. The look and feel and fonts everything somehow irritated me to bits. Try some of the applications and share your experience, it is always good to learn.

 

Time has seen new developments taking place not only in the educational front and jobs market but also in careers. Sticking to one kind of job exposure will not do any good. In this era, to stay at the top of the game, one has to prove their worth in more than one domain. This is what I was told when I was introduced to the new area of Business Development.

business development

Business Development is rather a new terminology but gives a diverse working experience. Lately the sales executives were responsible for bringing in numbers, marketing executives were to introduce new marketing campaigns, product developers had their defined responsibilities, accounts and legal department were to look after the after-sales and legal matters respectively. Today put all these job responsibilities in a blender and you get a perfect blend in the form of a Business Developer. A lot of young graduates would think, business developers are jack of all trades, I must agree, yes! They are and in a good sense. Business development is a high potential and growth career which offers a lot of learning and responsibility instead of keeping the prospect to a dull monotonous job.

What makes business development more exciting is the exposure one can gain by bringing in more clients as the key account person, understanding the client’s needs and offering the right product, developing a perfect marketing message to bring in more clients and consequently numbers. It also asks for the candidate to have the financial and budgeting exposure in addition to having some legal knowledge, as these people are also responsible for developing legal papers like NDAs and MOUs etc.

Business Development is the perfect job an MBA can dream of; all it needs is energy and passion to succeed. When I mixed and matched my MBA majors (marketing and finance) people would ask, where do you want to land? Didn’t know there is one domain particularly made for people like me who have guts to challenge themselves. Take my word if you are a BD person you can take on anything that pleases you, make your own marketing campaign, make your pitch, bring in numbers, make your budget, get discounts, make legal papers and develop all type of collateral, where will you get more exposure then this?

 

Few questions before we talk about our topic in detail. Are you keeping up with Social media for your recruitments? Are you already engaged with clients and followers using the social media? Are you an HR executive or human resources professional and wondering just what is social media and how can social media support your business agenda ?

People are central to social media and its success. Social connections and interactions make an obvious difference in promoting any business and capturing the market more easily on a large scale. Many successful HR consultants are pretty evangelistic about using this tool as it offers looking beyond the organization to find new talent.

“Social media can give you a great and efficient way to engage with your community – candidates, clients, customers, partners, prospects, etc. – on a very level playing field with the companies you are competing with for talent (or business).” says Chris Havrilla national recruiting manager Hitachi Consulting, a global leader in delivering business and IT strategies.

An HR can be efficient enough to make its organization stand out in hiring people that are diligent. Social media increases the visibility among jobseekers that enables the HR personnel to communicate about their company culture and the many benefits that are offered to the employees.

It invites a pool of talented and potential jobseekers which we may not find the other way. Business and organizations that recruit successfully through Social media use this space to interact with users on a personal level. Hiring through social media also gives potential employers unique insight into the candidate’s true character that is not likely to be revealed during the conventional interview process.

According to the latest research by the ACHIEVE Group, 10% of respondents surveyed in the Recruitment through Social Media Report 2011 have used social networking sites to hire staff. The results of this report have indeed showcased a novel and fascinating trend emerging, as more and more companies begin using social media as a recruitment tool.

Recruiting through social media is gaining momentum and it will emerge as most hyped trend. So are you geared up for Social Media Recruiting?

By Fatima Ahmed.

 

Many of us wonder how brands are coming up with so creative marketing campaigns – making their target audience jump from the seat and get in action. We can see some top advertising trends  being done in 2010 with a lot of innovation involved. So what is it that really sets fire in a marketing campaign and at same time, everyone gets some benefit out of it. campaigns become powerful when designed on better user experience.

I won’t bind user experience with just software or cool Apple devices, but with anything that lets everyone make most of anything a business owner has to offer its consumers. So back to campaigns, QR codes are a new way into engage user and get online and offline experiences. As a matter of fact, they offer even more on both consumer and business ends. Smart marketers make sure they put in some nice piece of information when a user scans the QR code from mobile. Better experiences don’t just related to scanning codes but a powerful campaign would involve leveraging all platforms in a synchronized way – traditional as well as new digital mediums. A welcome Facebook page offers some discounts, group discounts or local deals websites, collaborative offers, promo videos on YouTube and what not :).

Here the first implementation of QR codes is a public awareness message. Like, a QR code with few instructions and how to scan – I recommend using BeeTag and Kaywa; as they support most of the mobile phones with camera. Seems like a hassle doesn’t it? Going through the download of a reader from native app stores is a single exercise making the next moves smooth and easy. Once this public campaign gets a good footprint, the job is done for many businesses. Then you go posting QR codes on store windows, street lamps, magazines, flyers, coupons, event tickets and where not. It’s easy said than done. As discussed earlier, a marketing campaign today needs to be coherent. Let’s play QR codes!

 

Learn More about Mobile Tagging at Microsoft Tag.

 

“Whether you are a Mac person or a PC person, even the briefest exposure to the Apple logo may make you behave more creatively, according to recent research from Duke University”

 

I happened to be at a furnishing store and checked out new furniture designs. Initially, I felt lost in picking out some nice trendy designs. I was looking at various aspects like design, size, wood, portability, durability and lot more. And then out of nowhere comes the salesman with a worn out catalog. Nothing really seemed appealing to my perfectionist eyes since spending this lot of money needs justification :). While I flipped pages over and over looking for an optimum solution, the lightning struck – my personalized bed. I was precisely looking for a customized solution and not a boxed product.

Likewise, we can relate such customized solutions to open ended business services. Services turned solutions are the way consumers / clients are expecting from businesses. Merging a couple of features from different samples, I got a design matching  the interior theme at my home while also gratifying the aesthetics sense.  I could’ve even ask for embossing my name on each piece, but let’s just keep it here. Similarly, we keep ourselves in the paradigm of successful product selling rather considering the customer experience in mind. Even then, companies hardly pay attention to the end user experience of the boxes sold out. The customer experience remains ignored while dynamic businesses keep bringing better services turned business solutions to their customers.

Implying expertise and skills in a unique market or improving user experience in particular business domain is what is the trend now and we can see so many companies imparting this concept.  The ultimate focus now remains to optimize the end user experience. In our area of expertise, the faith lies in understanding the pain points of customer to bring quality, retention and satisfaction – resulting in a partner program initiative. Proper requirement gathering, analysis and elicitation eventually lead to closely matching what customer wants. In my case above, the most amazing furnishing experience at home.

New trends are pushing companies to be more engaged with customer to get feedback on user experience. Crowd-sourcing, real-time collaboration and social media engagement platforms are bringing more customer-centric solutions to our agendas while being the most trusted partner of our customers.

 

“The user is NOT a lower life form” – Ken Becker

 

I notice businesses adapting social media not just for having an online presence but also for promoting their brands. Social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, foursquare etc.) help bridge the gap more cost effectively – and above all support the crowd sourcing idea.

While managing the brands on these platforms is pretty interesting but require some careful steps to keep the promotion stone rolling. So let’s look at some handy tips for defining your social media strategy:

• Maintain a proactive presence. Keep a list of on-going to-do’s for each social media platform along with open requests for new tasks. Reactive behavior will pile up tasks on table and create a mess where you keep looking at the scattered post-its on your desktop.
• Become a program manager. It’s tough to keep track of all activities but a stitch in time saves nine. Work on all your strategy tools – project charts, business models, analysis, resources and time management – you definitely need to work on these multiple areas for a streamlined social media strategy.
• Train your human resources. A well educated team can save a lot of effort and time to boost your brand across all social media platforms. Tip – publish social media guidelines across the company.
• Succeed with organization. For an organized strategy – define your governance policy, roll out processes/procedures and finally broadcast a training program.

• Become a Facilitator. Controlling multiple reins is tough so let each business unit manage its horse (social media unit). Help and train the units while acting as internal social media consultant.
• Implement  social media plans. Actions speak louder than words – so a good strategy is to setup communities, campaign management systems and social  media CRM’s. This helps establishing channels to communicate with customers keeping the community and organization grow in parallel.
• Expand your branding. Now marketing isn’t sufficient anymore so improve the customer experience with better reach, engagement, experience and service in real time. And the world is yours !