Amazon Web Services ( AWS) - What It Is & What Can They Do For Your Business

Pondering on to run your IT related activities or handle the IT infrastructure without any hassles? Looking for an effective cloud environment for commercial purposes? Well, Amazon web services that rules the cloud computing paradigm is one of the best options to meet your requirements.

Amazon Web Services

The name itself speaks that it is a platform of web services provided by Amazon.com to offer solutions for networking, computing and storing of data at diverse layers of abstraction. One can utilize these services for running enterprise applications, mine tremendous amount of data as well as to host the websites.

Web services provided by this evolving cloud computing platform are sometimes called as remote computing services or cloud services. Two of the most prominent services of AWS are EC2, that offers virtual services and S3 that provides storage capacity. Aforesaid services can be used for replicating your current on-premises setup or develop a new setup from scratch.

Amazon Web Services is also well-known for providing organizations as well as the individuals with scalable, inexpensive and reliable cloud computing services. AWS support is one of the swift response support channels which plays a key role in offering Amazon Web Services products and features. In general AWS support has four tiers such as Basic, Developer, Business, and Enterprise. Basic tier is meant for gaining fine cognizance on account and billing issues and services. On the hand, the other three are used for handling the technical support cases.

Today, a plethora of businesses have their own IT infrastructure, but they lag in managing the cloud environment due to some technical issues or inability to handle them. Hence, they require an AWS support from professionals so as to manage, store and implement the data hassle-freely.

Which hardware powers Amazon Web Services?

Usually, it keeps the hardware being used in data centers as secret. The scale at which this advanced technology operates networking, storing and computing of data is tremendous. It uses commodity components so as to save the money. Failure of a hardware is handled by building it into real-world software and processes. On the other it also uses hardware that is specially developed for its use cases. One of a good example of it is the Xeon E5-2666 v3 CPU from Intel.

For more information on AWS or AWS services and solutions for custom maintenance windows, you can contact professionals of Etisbew today.

LAMP A CONSTRUCTIVE SOURCE

Built up on the combination of four components of the solution track referring the name  LAMP which includes the first letter of the four components, the characteristics of the solution stack composed entirely of free and open-source software, suitable for building high-avilability heavy-duty dynamic web sites, and capable of serving tens of thousands of requests simultaneously. Moving on to the meaning of the LAMP acronym where the initial L, come from the Linux, the operating system; for initial A, include Apache HTTP server, basically the wave server; next M which is for Mysql, MariaDB, mainly the data base management system; lastly, initial P for PHP, Perl, the scripting language all of these actually specific components used as a essential way for LAMP programming.

The presence highly elective, experienced and proficient individuals in the working panel makes it more easier and exact in the LAMP open-source development platform to bring out the exactness in the work of such officials, who are highly acknowledged by our customers across the world for the services they have rendered. So, the entire process can be held out to be well constructed and well formulated one. Its aptitude of making itself highly available is because it provide for the specific solution in the web site serving on the users part without demanding any downtime. Usual approach for the LAMP stack involves multiple web and database servers, with additional components providing logical aggregation of resources provided by each of the servers, and distribution of the workload across multiple servers and all this multiple qualities makes this technology  setup availability popular. Since, its certain qualities such LAMP setups are providing almost linear improvements in performance for services where the number of internal database reading operations, is much higher than the number of write or update operations. 

Even the characteristic showcases that those expertise in developing web applications on LAMP stack using popular frame works like Zend, Symfony, Cake PHP, Codeignitor etc happens to get on to their highest efficiency to make the out successful. Proficiency in enterprise content management solutions using content management systems (CMS) like Joomla, Word Press and Drupal. experience in building ecommerce platforms using OS Commerce, Magento. Special expertise in developing applications around social networking, web presence for non- profit organizations and e-commerce based web applications. These shows  the framework in the work of  LAMP  programming. These collateral bases of this programme make it to be a problem solver of programming technologies, as this source comes out to be a all-round objective planner. 

LAMP LINKS.

Various  external linkage has been introduce making the work more spreading  all the important information creating a programming space  for many ideas and option to sets in. With this introduction of linkage utility there also be greater availability the LAMP. It is also provided with equivalent installation of Microsoft Windows operating system. Thereafter, with the providence of many aids this application throttles nearly 70% of the global internet and it is not owned but rather  backed and developed by the open source community.

Source: LAMP PHP Application Development Company

Social Media Marketing for Those Just Getting Started

Social media marketing searches are gradually changing content and key word relevancy in Google’s decision of the relevancy of a hyperlink. This advancement has come up following a important part social networking websites are enjoying in web marketing. Having a link shared with a buddy on social is currently being regarded an indicator of great content.

                                       

It’s now simpler to enhance your search engine positions by obtaining accepted by other customers through new platforms like Google. You don’t have to be a huge business which has a long background or many links. Because its uptake has been high in comparison to other web platforms social marketing has become a lot popular than any other sort of marketing. You want to enter it earlier than later, if you never have considered entrenching social in the center of the marketing strategy.

Here are sensible measures that will assist you make the very best of it.

1. Get social media marketing accounts.

The starting point would be to get registered with well-known social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, FriendFinder and LinkedIn. This may help you to get going on your long trip of social media marketing. You may instantly start to become obvious to a broader potential customer’s foundation and also learn from others. Instantly you get going, begin linking to individuals and creating a good contribution to buzz and discussions. Through this, you will maintain a great place to have folks start to trust you and like your articles.

2.Get on Google

Google is among the single most important components of the net that any serious marketer should adopt or shed out. Google is currently among the important variables used for Google search engine position and optimization. All you need is folks to include you inside their circle and the advantage is gained by you. Being a Google device, the advantages are much more as you might keep that place for a while.

3. Be Lively When Social Media Marketing

Having a presence on social without regular publishing and interaction with other members renders your account worthless. Deliberate efforts must be made by you to generate buzz in what you are doing and get folks to start to be aware of your posts. Link new posts with your social networking pages together with upgrades and movies. This content will get indexed quicker than if you never shared.

4. Add social media marketing buttons to your website.

Integrating all of your advertising techniques has tremendous advantages. You will have to add buttons linking to all of your other webpages in your primary web site. It’s will enable your guests to link directly to their social profiles without leaving your website as well as make it simple for them to hyperlink to you. Ultimately, social media marketing is about sharing what you want and joining with people. The more energetic you have the more connections you get and your community expands. The most significant component is that how several as if you have of the page or site.

Social media marketing can be utilized by every specialist now. In Social Media Marketing we join with individuals and we discuss what we like or merely any page. Increases are ranked by our website if our page is liked by anyone then.

Extending ColdFusion with application wide UDFs

I've been exploring different methods of structuring my ColdFusion applications and I'm looking for some opinions on the best way to provide application wide UDFs.
For each of my apps, I generally use a bunch of extra functions that don't really belong in any particular object. Data manipulation stuff mostly. I want these functions to be available throughout my application, both for use in CFM templates and in Application instantiated CFCs.
The way I see it there are various methods of achieving this, but they all have their own limitations:

1. Instantiate a base Utils CFC in the Application scope. This is the method I've used most often. All the functions are available app wide, but if I instantiate the same CFC from multiple applications then they'll each have their own application scope - meaning that each has to instantiate their own base Utils CFC. There's nothing wrong with this but it feels like I'm not encapsulating the CFC well enough.
   
   I'm not keen on referencing the Application scope from within the CFC.
   
   
2. Create an base Utils CFC and make every other CFC extend this. This works fine, and it means the CFC can reference the Utils functions directly from the CFC's THIS scope - However it means the Utils functions are kept in memory for every CFC. It also doesn't sit right conceptually as my other CFCs have no relationship with the Utils CFC.
   
   
3. Inject my base Utils CFC into my other CFCs. Another method I've been playing with is instantiating my base Utils CFC in the Application scope, but then passing that as an object to an argument in my other CFCs. This works for me conceptually, and for encapsulation. In the same way that I'll set up my datasources in my init method, I can do the same with my UDFs. This has the same issue that the UDFs are included in each CFC. When I dump all my CFCs I get each UDF multiple times - however as I'm passing an instantiated object, I'm assuming that it's not taking any extra memory space. If anyone could confirm that, it'd be helpful - I'm just assuming! The only real problem I have with this method is that it seems a bit convoluted.
   
   
4. Have my Application CFC extend my Utils CFC. This is what a lot of frameworks seem to do. I've not used this method, but I'm sure there are pros and cons.
   
   
5. CFInclude my UDFs from separate templates, directly in Application.cfc This is functionally similar to instantiating in the Application scope.
   
   
6. Add my UDFs to the server's Components.cfc It's a great idea in theory - I can maintain one copy of the base Utils and be sure that everything on the server can access them - However, if I want to run apps across multiple servers then they'll all need those functions. Plus any update to the server may overwrite the components. It just feels like hacking the core - which I'm sure we can all atest from bitter experience, is bad.

So - my question is this: What is the best practice for extending CF with UDFs in an elegant and reusable way? Any of the above options or something I've not thought of?

4 Social Basics for Business

Here are four basics in social media that businesses both large and small should always revisit.

Twitter conversations ‘behind your back’

The ‘backchannel’ generates stupendous interest from Twitterati. Even as CEOs and marketing VPs delivered presentations in lofty air-conditioned halls, and on-road advertising campaigns ran in full swing, simultaneous Twitter conversations on these events/presentations/launches (‘backchannels’) took this social media platform by storm. In essence, the backchannel conversations were aiding publicity and marketing. And of course, marketing teams jumped on the bandwagon, using Hashtags and forming dedicated Twitter teams to initiate and encourage discussions. Lesson to learn? Leverage the Twitter backchannel to create excitement and awareness about your brand.

Viral ads and the trend towards greater visualization

Instagram and Pinterest made a huge impact in 2012, pointing to the growing trend of greater visualization in social media platforms. Content, of course, continued playing an important role in social media campaigns and the demand for writing services did not abate. But the emphasis was also on a ‘lot of watching’. Attention-grabbing and even bordering on controversial, quite a few ads posted by businesses on YouTube went viral. Oreo’s ad was just one of the handful, and was extensively shared on Facebook and other sites.

Memes added creativity and fun

Memes add to the entertainment factor of social media marketing. They make businesses appear less stiff and more personable. Once again, in line with the trend towards greater visualization, memes manifested themselves into pictures and videos. Virgin Media’s ‘Success Kid’ and Hyundai’s ‘Pomplamoose’ were just two of the many much-talked about memes that the young, Twitter-friendly crowd whole-heartedly enjoyed and embraced.

Marketers leverage the added customization options offered by social media sites

LinkedIn’s gift to member businesses in 2012 was more flexibility to add images and greater control over the how corporate images could be presented. If you don’t already have a LinkedIn page or you overlooked this new custom option, think about how best you can reach out to customers or businesses in your niche with more compelling images. Facebook also added newsfeed updates that enabled marketers to leverage ‘targeted updates’ to engage users based on location and the industries they follow.

Oracle Releases Oracle's PeopleSoft 9.2

Enabling customers to maximize their investment in Oracle's PeopleSoft
    applications, Oracle today announced that PeopleSoft Human Capital
    Management 9.2, PeopleSoft Financials 9.2 and Supply Chain Management
    9.2 will be generally available Friday, March 22.
--  Oracle demonstrates its commitment to continue to invest in PeopleSoft
    by including more than 1,000 new features, functions, and enhancements
    in PeopleSoft 9.2.
--  PeopleSoft 9.2 delivers an innovative new user experience, expanded
    product functionality, while helping to reduce total cost of
    ownership.
--  As with PeopleSoft 9.1, Oracle plans to continue to deliver new
    capabilities on top of PeopleSoft 9.2 via Feature Packs.
--  PeopleSoft 9.2 leverages important new technology capabilities
    delivered in PeopleTools 8.53.
--  With the delivery of PeopleSoft 9.2, Oracle will simultaneously
    provide upgrade scripts as well as the multi-language version of this
    release, a first for PeopleSoft applications. This enables PeopleSoft
    customers around the world to immediately begin implementing
    PeopleSoft 9.2 and reap its benefits sooner.
--  A number of customers and partners have been working with Oracle as
    early adopters of PeopleSoft 9.2 and have already started their
    implementation and upgrade projects. Some of these customers include:
    AARP, Caterpillar Inc., Daimler, Franklin Templeton Investments,
    Washington University in St. Louis, Westfield, and Verizon. Partners
    working with Oracle include: Accenture LLC, BTR Group, Cardinal Point
    Solutions, Cognizant, CSC, Deloitte Consulting, Ellire, GreyHeller,
    Huron Consulting Group, Infosys, KPMG, MIPRO, Newbury Consulting
    Group, PwC, Regents Consulting LLC, SmartERP Solutions, Succeed
    Consultancy LLC, Wipro, and Zanett.

    

Innovations in PeopleSoft 9.2 Extend Business Value for Customers


--  Designed to reduce the cost to stay current, PeopleSoft Update Manager
    transforms the maintenance process. With PeopleSoft Update Manager,
    customers can:
    --  Define change packages so they are tailored to their specific
        needs
    --  Apply maintenance on their schedules
    --  Get current regardless of prior maintenance levels
    --  Streamline maintenance processes
    --  Minimize costs and disruptions associated with applying
        maintenance (e.g. regression testing) and maximize the impact of
        desired updates
--  A new global, free text search across multiple objects and multiple
    instances within PeopleSoft 9.2 via Oracle's Secure Enterprise Search
    provides more than 120 indices to enable users to quickly retrieve
    accurate and actionable search results for a more efficient
    search-driven approach to navigating.
--  PeopleSoft 9.2 adopts the expanded Related Actions Framework delivered
    in PeopleTools 8.53, which further streamlines navigation by enabling
    users to take contextually relevant actions on objects in place of
    using traditional menu paths.
--  This release delivers new visual guides to help casual users better
    navigate the system and execute activities faster and more easily:
    --  Activity Guides enable intuitive, step-by-step processes that
        simplify a casual user's interaction with the system. Activity
        Guides are used in pre-built Life Events for the self-service
        management of actions related to marriage, a new born baby,
        adoption and divorce/legal separation.
    --  Train Stop visualizations lay out steps of a process in a highly
        visual manner across the top of a work screen to help casual users
        better navigate other self-service actions such as Pay Check
        Modeling and Supplier On-Boarding.
--  In addition to making changes to assist casual users, Oracle has also
    made changes to PeopleSoft 9.2 intended to help high-impact users be
    more productive by delivering a number of out-of-the-box WorkCenters.
    WorkCenters are designed to dramatically improve the effectiveness by
    consolidating user tasks, exceptions, alerts, links, reports, and
    queries into a single, secure, role based, cockpit style "command
    center" that can be personalized via end user configuration.
--  PeopleSoft applications take advantage of new real-time,
    multi-dimensional decision support analysis capabilities enabled by
    PeopleTools 8.53 with over 60 prebuilt self-service Pivot Grids
    delivered in release 9.2.
--  New and enhanced features and functions in PeopleSoft 9.2 create
    comprehensive business and industry solutions designed to address the
    most intricate requirements.
    --  PeopleSoft Human Capital Management 9.2 includes smart HR
        template-based transactions, Mid-Period Reviews, a
        consumer-oriented recruiting user experience, Learning dashboard,
        and redesigned time entry process.
    --  PeopleSoft Financials and Supply Chain Management 9.2 include mass
        GL Journal Approval, Matching History, Supplier On-Boarding, Cash
        Forecasting, Multi-Dimensional Project Rate Definition, Asset
        Retirement Obligation Accounting, new intuitive self-service
        eProcurement requisitioning, and redesigned Expense entry.
    --  Industry-specific applications include Approval Workflow for
        Commitment Control budget journals for Public Sector, support of
        Global Location Numbers (GLN) for Healthcare, balance sheet
        valuation through settlement date for Financial Services, a new
        Grants WorkCenter for Higher Education, and a new Staffing
        WorkCenter and branch recruiter productivity tools for the
        Staffing industry.
--  Building upon recent mobile capabilities, PeopleSoft 9.2 includes new
    mobile capabilities for requisitioning for purchasing users via
    eProcurement, which enables users to place and approve orders from
    their mobile devices.
--  Existing PeopleSoft customers and partners may access release notes
    and various other PeopleSoft 9.2 materials at My Oracle Support.

    

Supporting Quotes


--  "With revolutionary innovations in user experience, Oracle's
    PeopleSoft 9.2 has new features and functionality designed to help
    users work more efficiently, get their work done quicker, and in a way
    that's more familiar based on consumer technologies. And, with
    dramatic improvements in operational cost management, we believe
    Oracle's PeopleSoft 9.2 is a game changing release," said Paco
    Aubrejuan, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle's
    PeopleSoft Applications.
--  "WorkCenters in Oracle's PeopleSoft 9.2 provide users with a single
    page that contains all of their work. This new innovation will enable
    users to be more effective and efficient by the ability to see and
    manage their work on a single page. WorkCenters include information
    users need to complete their tasks, truly making them a one-stop
    center for users," said David Baugh, director, Financial Systems,
    University of Louisville.
--  "We anticipate that features like pivot grids, enhanced mobile
    integration options as well as the improved functions and usability in
    several modules (e.g. Recruiting) will enable our HR users and
    employees to improve the overall experience with PeopleSoft 9.2. In
    conjunction with our Exadata/Exalogic infrastructure, we believe
    PeopleSoft 9.2 alongside its interaction-hub will deliver significant
    benefits for Daimler when it comes to user performance," said Vielsack
    Guido, Director Corporate Processes and Systems at Daimler.
--  "The implementation of Oracle's PeopleSoft 9.2 will provide AARP with
    a platform that will allow for system consolidation savings, best in
    class processes, high power user interface that improves productivity
    and efficiency, increased financial data visibility and enhanced data
    integrity," said Robert Hagans, Jr., Executive Vice President &
    Chief Financial Officer at AARP.
--  "When looking at our PeopleSoft environment, Scott & White
    Healthcare realized we had to make a decision. After seeing previews
    of Oracle's PeopleSoft 9.2 at Oracle OpenWorld 2012 the decision was
    made clear. PeopleSoft 9.2 brings overall usability, recruiting, and
    other talent management functions to the next level. We believe the
    move to upgrade to 9.2 will bring significant stability, reliability,
    and an improved user experience to the application. Together with
    Oracle's PeopleTools 8.53, Oracle's Secure Enterprise Search, and the
    PeopleSoft interaction hub enhancements, our executives, managers, and
    employees will be able to get the right data at the right time," said
    Jeremy Pelley, Director of Business Applications, Scott & White
    Healthcare.

    

Supporting Resources


--  Oracle's PeopleSoft Applications
--  Oracle's PeopleSoft 9.2
--  Oracle's PeopleSoft Videos on YouTube
--  PeopleSoft Apps Strategy Blog

    

About Oracle Applications
 Over 65,000 customers worldwide rely on
Oracle's complete, open and integrated enterprise applications to achieve
superior results. Oracle provides a secure path for customers to benefit
from the latest technology advances that improve the customer software
experience and drive better business performance. Oracle Applications
Unlimited is Oracle's commitment to customer choice through continuous
investment and innovation in current applications offerings. Oracle's
next-generation Fusion Applications build upon that commitment, and are
designed to work with and evolve your existing applications investments.
Oracle's lifetime support policy helps ensure customers will continue to
have a choice in upgrade paths, based on their enterprise needs. For more
information on the latest Oracle Applications releases go to:
www.oracle.com/applications.

Source: 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/18/idUSnMKW97475a+1c0+MKW20130318

20 Ways To Get More Website Traffic This Year (Ethically!)

20 Ways To Get More Website Traffic This Year (Ethically!).

Looking for a few ways to attract website visitors in the new year without compromising your ethics or stooping to spam techniques? Give any of the following options a try:

1. Focus on content creation.

Good content markets itself. When you put the effort into building and promoting great pieces of content, the natural result is more traffic to your website via shares and referrals.

2. Add social sharing buttons to your website.

Don’t assume that your readers will take the initiative to share your content on their own. Instead, make it easy for your site to accrue more visitors from social networking sites by adding social sharing buttons to your company’s blog posts.

3. Answer questions on social networking sites.

When you see people asking questions online, provide whatever helpful information you can. Doing so will earn you both website traffic and customers for life.

4. Distribute press releases for actual achievements.

While you shouldn’t abuse press release distribution websites to promote insignificant accomplishments, take advantage of this traffic stream whenever you have something noteworthy to share.

5. Use SEO responsibly.

Don’t over-optimize your website, but do make use of current SEO best practices (which put the emphasis on looking “natural”) to let the search engines know where they should list your site in the natural search results. High rankings will result in plenty of new visitors to your website.

6. Invest in your website’s blog.

By publishing high-value posts consistently, you’ll build your relationship with your readers, resulting in visitors who check back frequently to view your latest posts.

7. Share slide decks and other presentations.

Posting informative materials to sites like Slideshare and Scribd will help you to increase both brand awareness and website traffic through exposure to new markets and new potential customers.

8. Build a killer email newsletter.

When readers find valuable email newsletters, they tend to share them with others. If your current email followup sequence is lackluster, making improvements here could result in significantly more referral traffic.

9. Publish a helpful podcast.

Similarly, producing a regular, high-quality podcast will increase referred website visitors, while reaching new visitors through podcast directories.

10. Deploy infographics.

Infographics get shared more often than most other types of content. This makes them ideal candidates for traffic generation campaigns that make use of content marketing.

11. Run a YouTube channel.

YouTube is one of the web’s largest search engines, making it a great way to expose new audiences to your brand. As an added bonus, your videos may be listed in Google’s blended search results, leading to even more traffic!

12. Ask visitors to share your site with others.

Simply asking your visitors to forward your articles to others or share them on their social networking profiles is a great way to quickly boost page views.

13. Write guest posts for top industry sites.

Ask other websites in your industry if you can pen guest posts for their blogs. Having your content featured there isn’t just great for traffic – it’s a good way to build your perceived authority as well.

14. Connect with influences in your niche.

Having an authority figure in your industry share just one of your blog articles can result in a tremendous amount of new traffic, subscribers and buyers, so make relationship building a key part of your company’s marketing strategy.

15. Pay attention to up-and-coming social networks.

Newer social networks like Tumblr and Pinterest are sprouting up all the time. Because there can be a significant “first adopter” advantage to the people that establish a presence on these sites early on, keep an eye out for these future opportunities.

16. Eliminate website errors.

If the search engines aren’t able to index your website properly (which can occur due to a number of different errors), you may not be receiving all the search traffic you should be. Check your Google Webmaster Tools account for information on common problems.

17. Add pillar content to your website.

Every website should have at least a few pieces of “pillar” content — in-depth, well-written content that will always be of interest to readers — to help drive traffic via person-to-person sharing.

18. Over-deliver on your company’s products or services.

From a word-of-mouth traffic standpoint, over-delivering can’t be beat. When you go above and beyond in your industry, customers will recommend you to others – leading to more traffic and a higher marketing ROI.

19. Interview experts within your industry.

People love hearing from experts, so if you can snag an interview and publish it on your site, you’re in for a big surge of traffic from the authority’s existing audience.

20. Comment on other websites.

Leaving valuable comments on other websites’ blogs can be a great way to build traffic back to your own site. Just be sure to say more in your comment than, “Great post!” or “Thanks for sharing!”

Major Social Media Services Guide

Facebook.com: This social media giant is a great place for travel agents to start to build an audience. The platform is based on the concept of interacting with "friends" ­-- people who already know you or who know people who know you -- creating a growing network of potential clients. Because it offers the ability to comb through your email for potential friends, Facebook is the quickest way to start a following. If you have already established a personal Facebook account, consider creating a separate, more public account that can be viewed by anyone on the service.

Twitter.com: Based on the concept of creating networks of "followers," Twitter is not the easiest platform to understand, but with a little insight gleaned from training and practice, it can quickly become a travel agent's most efficient tool for creating a network and communicating with members of that network.

Instagram.com: Do you use a smartphone or tablet? If so, make sure you get this free app for photo sharing. Travel agents can take photos or use photos already on their mobile devices, customize them, then share them by linking this app to their other social networks.

Pinterest.com: This platform is a match made in heaven for agents. Travel sellers can appeal to people's dreams by employing Pinterest's visual environment to create "pinboards" of content that appeals to travelers. Members control their own pinboards and share images that are "pinned" to their boards. Links to pins can be shared on Facebook and Twitter to increase impressions.

YouTube.com: Among the best-known and most widely used social media platforms, YouTube enables members to upload, edit, share, comment on and "like" video content. Travel agents can increase audience reach to attract potential clients and improve their presence on search engines by posting their videos to YouTube.

Google+: This social network is Google's version of Facebook and Twitter. Travel agents should at least tinker with this platform. Though you're no doubt crunched for time and wondering how you will ever be able to keep up with all the platforms, you should, at a minimum, share photos of your favorite travel products on Google+. Ideally, you will use it to plug links to offers and content on your website while you wait for your friends to show up and "hangout," a Google+ feature.

Flickr.com: Upload your travel photos to Flickr, an online photo management and sharing application that interacts with your other platforms. For example, you can "pin" your best Flickr shots to Pinterest or add them to your Facebook page.

LinkedIn.com: This is the premier business-to-business social media platform. While you are probably more interested in business-to-consumer relationships, cultivating your network of business connections is a good investment of time. LinkedIn is also a great place to network and find groups that can help you grow your bottom line.

WordPress.com: If you don't have a website that enables readers to leave comments and to drive clicks from social media sites, consider opening a free WordPress "blog," essentially, a place to store all your shared content online. Photos, videos and product reviews need to be stored somewhere permanently online where they can be linked to all your other social media platforms. Done right, your blog will attract a wide audience who will leave comments -- the ultimate social network.

Social media 101, for agents

Where do you fit in?

If you are one of the holdouts who has been secretly hoping social media would go away but was also drawn to its possibilities, read on: I will be sharing best practices with the readers of Travel Weekly to help you discover what the buzz is all about. I have more than 20 years' experience as a technology trainer, and I have been a travel agent, so I can help you get a jump-start in ways that are specifically relevant to your business.

In this day and age, social media must become part of a travel agent's marketing plan. Along with direct mail, cold calls, trade shows, client-appreciation parties and websites, travel agents need to be ready to integrate social media into their marketing strategy.

The difference between all those other marketing tools and social media has to do with the tone and purpose of the message. Social media are tools to help prospects and current clients get to know you better and to introduce you to potential new clients. While traditional marketing techniques are aggressive calls to action, reserve social media to help strengthen relationships.

One key reason to use social media is that a lot of your customers already are. Relationships are the cornerstone of your business, and consumers aren't afraid of sharing online, which means you could be losing opportunities to maintain relationships. Your customers and potential clients are engaging online, and they will continue to engage that way, with or without you.

You owe it to your business to see what is happening in social media, and if you can, you need to get in on the conversations, playing the role of an unbiased third-party expert, the voice of reason. Although this might not close a deal, you will establish yourself as an authority about your travel niche, and that is great public relations.

Travel agents I have met are social by nature, which is a key ingredient to developing a social media presence. Moreover, agents are passionate about their travel niches, knowledgeable and ready to answer questions. Social media offers a way to harness that outgoing enthusiasm and share it online.

In addition, you can use social media tools to track what people are saying about you and your company, generate publicity about upcoming events and to promote yourself, in addition to sharing links to hot deals (although it's best to keep the deals-and-discounts aspect to a minimum). 

Getting started

Social media refers to content that is shared online with and among groups of people. The content, which can be text, photos, audio or video, is posted to social network platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Each takes its own unique form, offers its own way of communicating with various parts of your business universe and therefore represents potential for interaction between you and friends, customers and potential prospects.

Whatever the platform, keep it simple. Post photos from your travels, site inspections and fam trips. Comment about favorite destinations. Follow with updates that reveal your personality and business knowledge.

Before you get online

To start things off, I've assembled a general overview for jump-starting your online marketing strategy. In subsequent columns I will focus on specific platforms and offer suggestions about how to get started as well as shortcuts and tips to turn newbies into power-users. For now, here are the basic beginning steps:

• Find a flattering headshot of yourself (preferably smiling), and use it on all your sites as a sort of avatar, a consistent visual image by which others will recognize you. This will help with branding and reinforce the impression that you are everywhere.
•  For uniform messaging, create a short bio and use it on all your social networking profiles. Write your bio using links and keywords that best describe your business for search engine optimization, or SEO, which will help people find you online.
• Research your competition's online presence and determine which among them is best employing social media. Which competitor seems to be everywhere, mixing it up with your target interest groups? You'll learn a lot from this exercise.
• Using email or a newsletter, create an informal poll asking your current customers what social networks they prefer, then use the results to determine where you should spend your time online initially.
• Discover what trade media, associations and suppliers are doing online to interact with travel agents and consumers. Look for clues about how each relates to its audience and which might be potential strategic partners.
• Begin engaging. Monitor what is happening online and get comfortable leaving comments.

Now, armed with this intelligence and experience, determine which of the following social media platforms best suit your business needs: 

Outsourcing vs. Offshoring

1. What is the difference between Outsourcing and Offshoring?

Offshoring is simply one of many choices you have to make when outsourcing – and just one subset of the outsourcing process. The first decision to make is either a) to keep a certain company function and those skilled enough to perform that function in house, or b) to outsource it to a company that specializes in that area of expertise and is optimized to deliver that function cost-effectively. Call center staffing is a perfect example. Most call centers are staffed with large numbers of people with similar profiles. Turnover is typically high and keeping a call center staffed often requires an ongoing hiring program that’s able to identify and bring on hundreds of people with similar backgrounds on pretty much a continuous basis. Because of the arduousness of hiring and training, many companies prefer not to assume the costs and administrative burden of keeping their call centers staffed by in-house recruiters. Instead they “outsource” the work to companies that are experts at staffing call centers and who do it at scale. Only after deciding to outsource does a company begin to consider whether to use a domestic or offshore resource to deliver the service.

  2. Why would a company chose to use either strategy?

 For most companies both outsourcing and offshoring come down to answering the very basic question of “What is the goal?” If the company’s objective is purely cost-driven, then offshoring to a company in the Asia Pacific region (APAC) may be a simple solution. If cost is part of the equation, but the more important driver is “quality,” we’re seeing a shift to domestic outsourcing, where ease-of access and the lack of language and time-zone barriers make it easy to keep a close watch on quality control. If there are issues regarding brand equity or reputation in the mix, domestic outsourcing is rapidly becoming the only option. For instance, a lot of basic call center work that was being done in India just a few years ago is moving back to the U.S., even though it’s usually more expensive here. Companies seem to be figuring out there is a direct hit to the cost of their reputation when American customers become frustrated with cultural and language differences experienced with call center representatives. These issues weaken the company-customer relationship – negating the on-surface savings that were the reason for offshoring in the first place. Another factor in deciding whether to outsource is the generally negative public sentiment of being identified as an “outsourcer.” This stigma has led many companies to bring their outsourced functions back to domestic providers. They’re still outsourcing, but without the cultural and language differences highlighting the fact that the function has been outsourced, it can easily go unnoticed by customers. This helps avoid the damaging hit to the brand, negative perception of customer service and political fallout, and if the company desires it, avoid public awareness of the use of outsourcing at all.

  3. As an outsourced hiring agency, what trends have you been noticing in the hiring process? 

We are a recruitment outsourcing company that employs its people onshore instead of offshore. At Seven Step we see a trend of companies bringing jobs that were once offshored to foreign companies for savings back to the U.S. because the cost benefits abroad are no longer as great. Because the cost advantage has lessened, companies are now looking at their quality and customer experience and recognizing that the branding exposure and risk of offshoring may outweigh the benefit. Therefore, manufacturing, call center and even software development jobs are now making their way back onto U.S. soil. Companies are likely to still outsource to specialty manufacturers, call center management companies or recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) firms, but would prefer that those delivery centers be based in the U.S. Recruitment Process Outsourcing was one of the last disciplines of the broader outsourcing business to gain general acceptance. Today, most companies, especially the larger ones, or those that tend to hire large numbers of people with similar profiles, have some or all of their recruitment strategy outsourced to providers like ours.