Released in mid–2010, Social Media Metrics provides insight into techniques for measuring and optimizing the social dimension of marketing investments. The book is applicable to emerging businesses with limited budgets as well as larger companies with diversified marketing and analytic staff.

The author addresses technology options while exploring the process for determining the metrics appropriate for the situation. The book concludes with a perspective on the future of web analytics – specifically a flip of the current B2C model to one managed and controlled by consumers, in effect C2B. Sterne provides guidance on organization change and professional development. He also provides a valuable Appendix that includes a wide range of references and sources for further pursuit, as well as sources of definitions and standards are subject to on-going development.

The Appendix and plethora of other references scattered throughout the book more than justify the modest cost of the book.

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Released in mid-2010, the book provides understandable technical content and concepts along with coaching and advise to readers seeking career advancement and impact within small and large enterprises. The book emphasizes and highlights techniques for data-driven insight and promotes analytic creativity and gathering of insights.

The wealth of examples and low or no-cost tools cover challenging topics such as on and off-line campaigns analysis, multi-channel attribution, and latent conversion. The book concludes with tactics on how to create a data driven culture within your organization.

This book is relevant to any small or large company seeking to act smarter in their marketing, sales, search, and social media initiatives. It includes a CD with podcasts, videos, and PowerPoint presentations reinforcing the topics addressed in the text.

Click here to buy this book through ActSeed’s Marketplace – hosted by Amazon.com (…and at same price as you’ll find on the regular Amazon site, too!)

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Monique Reece is a creative subject matter expert, and her integration of social media as a component of market development is current and relevant. Her presentation of the PRAISE methodology is easy to understand, explain, and implement across the organization.

You can purchase it from ActSeed’s Amazon Store now (Kindle version also available) by clicking here.

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Don’t become one of the 50% of companies that fail. Join other focused, dedicated professionals who use ActSeed’s cost-effective resources to help avoid wrong turns, poor decisions and bad investments.”

Business planning is more than helpful. It is necessary.

Investors will listen to a good idea but will only invest if they believe you have a solid plan and are prepared to execute that plan toward a profitable return on their invested dollars.

What does 50% mean?

A very good batting average.

A very bad mortality rate.

If you are building a young business, less than 50% is approximately how many will survive at least five years, and more than 50% is how many will fail.

ActSeed exists to make sure YOU are on the right side of this statistic.

So how do you start leveraging ActSeed toward your success?  Click the “Join Now” button at the top of the page or just click here.

Questions? Send us a note or click the “help” link on the registration page.

Selling a new product or service when representing a new, largely unknown entity (as most of us do when starting a new company) is definitely challenging, and properly supporting your products and services is critical. Understanding how to position your wares against entrenched competitors with brand recognition and often a large war chest of marketing funds isn’t easy, but those of us who figure out how to get – and keep – sales traction, can appreciate the importance of disciplined sales and support even when our company is in its most nascent stage of existence.

Greenberg outlines the concept and mechanics of social media-enabled CRM – “sCRM” – as a complement to traditional CRM systems. Edition Four includes a great deal of new content to address the impacts and potential for an expanded view of engagement in customer relationships. It also includes a detailed and current landscape of traditional and new vendors in a wide range of customer-related categories. This book is valuable to anyone seeking a strategic, yet practical view on managing and benefiting from the transition. Relevant to start-ups seeking to craft their customer service plans or seeking to enter the market for sCRM products.

We met with Gustavo Chamorro, Director of the Rancho Santiago Community College District’s Digital Media Center (”DMC”) and Dean Hopkins, the District’s Electronic Media Specialist.  We applaud what Mr. Chamorro and Mr. Hopkins are doing for Santa Ana and the southern California area they cover.   The facility is first class and running at capacity.  Not only do they house promising startups, they have classroom and commercial-grade production facilities that enable students in the digital media field to collaborate with startup founders.

The facility is a great example of bringing funding together from federal, municipal and other local sources to create this state-of-the-art program.

ActSeed is exploring the positive impact that community colleges are making on entrepreneurship across the country, and we’re excited to be building a promising relationship with Mr. Chamorro and his team and designing a foundational approach for ActSeed to help serve community colleges and their entrepreneur programs across the US.

With over 70 community college districts and over 110 community colleges in California alone, there is an amazing opportunity to serve the needs of the small business community.  The more all of us can engage them and support them, the more they can respond in kind.  The DMC is at capacity and exploring how to help more startups beyond physical office space.  We’re glad to be helping.

In summary, if you are looking for local resources to help you take your big idea and turn it into a big business, don’t overlook your local community college.  If you are in the Santa Ana / Orange County area and building a digital media business, definitely check out the DMC.

You can find out more about the DMC and the resources they have to offer on their web site by clicking here.

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ActSeed is proud to partner with the Rancho Santiago Community College District’s Digital Media Center (DMC).

The DMC business incubator offers a dynamic workspace for 10 to 15 emerging digital media companies accompanied by a wide variety of business support services.  Established in August 2006, the DMC is the first facility of its kind in Orange County, California combining education and business in the digital media industry. The center was created to stimulate economic growth in Orange County by attracting emerging businesses to the area and providing educational programs in digital media arts.

The DMC-ActSeed partnership provides entrepreneurs and small business owners in the Santa Ana area with the facility-based resources at the DMC with ActSeed’s online business community and “Entrepreneur’s Toolbox” of resources.  Together, the DMC and ActSeed can give emerging companies the best opportunity to compete and succeed. 

Entrepreneurs and Service Providers affiliated with the DMC are eligible for special discounts on ActSeed’s premium group memberships.  When joining the Entrepreneur Group or Service Provider Group, you can apply the discount code DMC2010A for a 25% discount on annual memberships or DMC2010M for a 10% discount on monthly memberships.  These discounts are valid for group registrations through December 31, 2010 and will remain valid through each renewal period as long as you maintain your membership without cancellation. 

The 28,000 square-foot, two-story center features a welcome center, business incubator for emerging digital media businesses; classrooms equipped with remote desktop connection software and production facilities that serve as the home of the Santa Ana College TV/Video department and SAC-TV.

The recently launched DMC Affiliate Program is an alternative to tenancy at the DMC facility.  The Affiliate Program is available to qualifying early-stage entrepreneurial technology companies that can benefit from some of the DMC’s Business Incubator services without having to lease office space.

To learn more about becoming a DMC business incubator tenant or Affiliate Program member, please visit the DMC website or visit the facility at 1300 South Bristol St. (corner of West Wilshire Ave. and Bristol) in Santa Ana, California.

More About the Digital Media Center

The Digital Media Center (DMC), an economic development program of Rancho Santiago Community College District (RSCCD) and a Santa Ana College (SAC) instructional center, joins technology, business and education under one roof. The DMC was made possible through a $1.6 million U.S. Department of Commerce grant facilitated by the WRJ Group, land donated by the City of Santa Ana and Measure E funds. The DMC features a RSCCD-hosted business incubator nurturing digital media companies and college programs and seminars in the digital media arts, TV/video and business.

The DMC business incubator offers the following specialized business support resources and services:

• Competitive lease rates;
• High-speed network infrastructure, wireless Ethernet and a centralized server room;
• Business mentoring services such as legal consultation, patent specialists, research and development grants and venture capital groups;
• One-on-one counseling in basic business practices, marketing/advertising, human resources, accounting, web and promotional design through resources, including the Orange County Small Business Development Center (OCSBDC) and the TriTech SBDC;
• Networking opportunities with other entrepreneurial technology businesses;
• On-site educational classes and seminars to enhance your working knowledge of business basics;
• Opportunities to work with graphic design students to improve communication media.

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                                 – from “Pitching Hacks” introduction

I’ll try to be as concise in my post as the book is in guiding you toward successful fund raising.

Nivi and Naval have a storied career with startups, both as fund-raising entrepreneurs and as investors, not to mention facilitators for other entrepreneurs and investors.

I’ve authored more business presentations, projections and plans than I’ve read about how others do it. But I’ve read a few books, and “Pitching Hacks” is the most concise, the most pragmatic and the most useful.

If you are about to “walk the fundraising gauntlet” – even if you’ve lived on Sand Hill Road before – read this book. For the first-time entrepreneur, it’s a gold nugget of guidance. For the seasoned startup veteran, it’s a superb refresher.

As authors Nivi and Naval say: “Investors don’t invest in businesses. They invest in stories about businesses.“

To buy this incredibly affordable book (<$19), go to the Amazon-powered ActSeed Marketplace (or if you prefer, go directly to Amazon)!

If you’re one of the rare companies that doesn’t even need a computer, read no further.  On second thought, how are you reading this in the first place?  For the rest of us business owners who need a little or a lot of IT to get our job done, I found a great book.

Leslie Knight recently published a book called “Navigating the IT Minefield“.  It’s a very readable font size – 11 chapters and 150 pages of useful information for us small business owners who want a framework to address our technology needs and keep us from getting swindled by consultants.  It’s not full of jargon.  It’s full of useful and well-organized information. It’s not available in stores or Amazon as of this post, but you can find it here.

How about this scenario:
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”
“I don’t much care where.”
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
While this is actually an excerpt from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, it could be a conversation between a small business owner and an IT consultant (with the last statement likely being what the consultant is thinking, not saying out loud).

Leslie’s 19 years of IT experience (Amoco and Gartner Group) is just part of where the value of this book is derived. Her work in management consulting and involvement in “CEO Space” helps her relate to the rest of us who aren’t IT gurus.

What is the value of a fire extinguisher?  That somewhat depends upon if you use it, but investing in a fire extinguisher is no different than investing a couple of hours reading Leslie’s book and having it handy for reference.

I’m not paid to promote Leslie’s book, nor is ActSeed an affiliate marketer of this book.  It’s just a book I definitely believe is worth a few of your shekels.

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A recent post (”Two-Sided Markets: Which Side First?”) by Mark Peter Davis on his blog called “Venture Made Transparent” prompted me to weigh in on his post with a comment.  It also spurred me to post a corollary thought here.

Mark’s post aptly recommends focusing on the side of the market that is most eager to leverage the network.

I have another suggestion to add here:

Provide immediate value to at least one of the “market sides”.  If possible, provide something valuable directly to your community members before they attempt to connect with others.

Within ActSeed, each “market side” is defined as a group within the startup ecosystem.  The focus within ActSeed is business creation and growth.  The primary “market side” or group is the entrepreneur who is at the center of business creation.  Before entrepreneurs link with a prospective investor, service provider, mentor or worker, ActSeed addresses the entrepreneur’s need to assess where they are with respect to strategic planning and basic preparations for raising capital, entering the market and dominating their competitors.  This provides immediate value, while the completed profile is then utilized to match entrepreneurs with relevant capital and labor resources. 

Solving an immediate need isn’t a strategy limited to building a community.  It works with almost every startup.  I know we entrepreneurs sometimes want to address all of a market’s needs right out of the gate, but start with addressing one simple pain point of your customer.  Do it well and do it fast, and the customer will ask for more services.  What you must do at this stage – more than closing a sale – is establish trust and reliability.  I can point to three startups where I was a COO or CEO where we applied this mantra and every time, we expanded our relationship.

In summary, heed the useful advice of Mark Peter Davis.  Pick one side to cultivate first. Additionally, try to provide immediate value that doesn’t rely on the prospect of future demand from other “sides” that will arrive later in the market.  Solve one problem quickly and solve it well.