Facebook for instance, has had a huge growth over the last two years, but such growth is due to the “social” applications and integrations it has incorporated within its network. Being able to share with your friends and family your pictures, videos, what you are doing, where you are, what you have recently done, and what you have in mind, are few of the many ways people use these networks. Games for example, are used by 40% of all Facebook users (Article).

What these “people” don’t understand is that the online world is now part of our lives and that will not change any time soon. Additionally, all mobile phones are now “connected”, meaning you can now use your phone as a laptop and your time online has increased drastically compared to few years back. It is now much easier to read product reviews, research pricing differences, cons and pros, availability, and much more from the palm of your customers’ hand.

Having access to the internet from mobile devices is one third of the equation, the other third is the social side of the online world. Being social is not just Facebook or Twitter. Social websites are popping daily across the world, making communication much easier than ever before. Within twenty-four hours your product or company can be known around the world or it could also be destroyed. To be successful now days you need to embrace the social side of the internet, and accept it as you have already accepted emails, fax machines, and standard postal services. Understanding social websites is extremely powerful because it will tell you exactly how your company and products are perceived by the customers. No need to create questionnaires, or focus groups. Instead understand social media and read what the “word” on the street is about your company.

The third side of the equation is SEO. When you type on Google or Yahoo! the name of your business or product name does it come up as number one on the search results? How about on the first page? Understanding how to promote your website and online presence is an art and every company needs to pay attention to this and not take it for granted. After all, Google will only show the pages that they “think” are important, and if your website is not too relevant to them, they will ignore it and you will never be found.

To justify the investment into these sectors have the following goals in mind:

• Increase brand awareness
• Improve reputation
• Focus on specific benefits you want
• Cross-leverage your social media profiles

How is your company embracing these new technologies? Cons, pros, ideas, thoughts, suggestions… share them, we all want to learn from you.

Useful links on this subject:

• Social Media Networking and ROI: How to Maximize Value and Minimize Cost
• Predicting the ROI for Future SEO Efforts
• ROI for SEO: Proving Value to the CFO
• Learn the SEO + SEM = ROI Equation from the CEO and Founder of Wall Street’s GetMeOnTop

Now more than ever, generating traffic is a very difficult task. It is an art, and a silver bullet does not exist. Even if you have successfully created and launched a website that generated traffic in the past, it does not mean you will be able to use the same techniques on a new website. Algorithms within search engines get modified constantly and more websites are launched daily. The internet grows by the second worldwide, so finding your website across the internet could be harder than finding a needle in a haystack.

To launch a successful website you need to spend time performing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). SEO is the process required for your website to be found when someone does a search on Google or Yahoo!. If you do a search and your website is not on the top three results or even the first page, that should be a hint that you do not have a successful SEO strategy.

To SEO successfully you need to understand your own content and your targeted audience. Most importantly, you need to have fresh content that is trust worthy.  This means third-party websites have either talked or written about you on a story, blog, review, etc. Your content needs to also be updated frequently and have the appropriate meta tags that truthfully and accurately describe your business. Meta tags are pieces of content and information that are part of your website for search engines to “better understand” what your website is all about.

To read more about SEO a good starting point is at Wikipedia.

Once you have put efforts into your website being found by search engines and your visitors are increasing, it is time to market it. Marketing your website is easy, but could also be very expensive if you don’t know what you are doing. Making sure you spend time identifying the keywords that best describe your business is the best way to get the greatest ROI. Once the keywords have been identified, purchase ad space on search engines such as Google and Yahoo! so that your ad is displayed when potential customers do their search. To learn more or SEM, visit Wikipedia.

So remember, a good looking website will not increase your online presence unless you invest on SEO and SEM. Tell us your stories on implementing SEO or SEM for your website so that we can all learn more.

Mobile phones have been “online” for nearly a decade now. In the early 2000′s Microsoft was the prominent “smart-phone” operating system, which literally enabled anyone with such phones to connect to the internet and be able to browse just about any web page. Unfortunately, Microsoft failed to differentiate the usability from a normal computer to how a small screen device would be used. This huge barrier slowed down the growth of the “smart-phones” for many years… Thankfully, the times have now changed.

Thanks to Apple’s creation of the iPhone and really thinking the “usability” of websites and mobile applications with a small hand-held screen a new sector and chapter within the internet era has been created. Shortly after the launch and rapid adoption by the masses of the iPhone, Google launched their smart-phones using their own operating system called Android. Microsoft has also re-developed their Microsoft operating system for mobile devices with the “mobile usability” in mind.

This is extremely important because cell phones are always on our pockets, making them more accessible than laptops and our office/home computer. Being connected to the internet, browsing websites, using mobile applications and receiving notifications on our mobile phone are daily routines of our lives. This adoption has increased at such a rapid rate that new companies have generated fortunes in few years; something that would have taken decades just few years back.

Companies of all sizes and sectors need to care about this movement in technology to take advantage of “being in-touch” with their customers at all times. If you want your product or company to be found quicker than your competitors you must embrace the mobile world. If you want to engage with your existing customers and continue building the relationship, you must not ignore the benefits that mobile applications could bring to your relationships.

In addition to your customers having mobile access to your services, mobile applications and mobile websites for your employees are essential. They should be seen as a business tool to streamline business processes and control costs. Personnel that works remotely can use mobile technologies to improve productivity and make data collection and decision making faster, easier and more reliable.

One of the biggest hurdles in “going mobile” is finding the right company to build your mobile needs. All projects have different scopes and usage; finding the right partner is essential to make sure the investment becomes an extension to your business, and not a “most-have” to be cool. Your website, your mobile presence, and your products should all be tied together.

Check out the chart below showing the adoption rate on mobile development in recent months…. this alone should show you why you should care about mobile applications.

How do you use mobile within your company? We would love to hear from you.

If you think the above statement is true then you need to get a reality check. Social networks did begin as a way for “kids” to talk among each other. Thanks to companies like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, this powerful methods of communication have expanded to many more areas of our lives.

Social networks are the new “core” for the continued growth of the online world. Being social online, has the same core benefits as being social with your real life friends. You are able to talk about what you did yesterday, or about what you are doing tomorrow, or even about how great or horrible your latest gadget is. Being able to express your opinion online is now easier than ever thanks to these websites. Because of this, you should pay attention to what people are saying about your company and products.

Companies that embrace social networks have greater chances of staying in business than the ones that don’t. Imagine a business that does not have an email address, or a physical office address, or even a telephone number… how can they be in business? Well, if you have a phone number, address, and email, you better start embracing social media.

Social websites are growing at an unprecedented rate. They are being embraced by consumers, and companies of all sizes. It’s so common now, that teenagers send far more messages via social networks than via email. In fact, only 11% of teenagers use email daily now days!

Below is a presentation that demonstrates how rapidly times are changing from traditional email to social networks.

How are you using social platforms within your company or organization? We would love to learn from you.

Capital raising is expensive. It will take a lot of time from the rest of tasks in the company. It also requires a bunch of documents to be prepared such as a business plan, presentations, executive summaries, and elevator pitch. You will also need to setup the legal structure of the company to sell stock and offering documents such as a Private Placement Memorandum (PPM) needs to be created. Raising capital can come from many different angles, or combination of. Before you start the process make sure you know what you need to raise. It should be enough to meet major milestones plus some extra cushion in case things are to take longer than expected.

Once you are ready to start raising capital it’s good to evaluate who you know, and see if there are ways you can raise the capital from within yourself or family and friends. Some creative ways to find money outside of savings and trust funds are credit cards, loans against assets, and second mortgages. The more you can invest at the beginning the more ownership and control you will retain moving forward. This is a great way of funding a venture, however, it also has its disadvantages.

Investors need to bring more than just money. Money is what you think you need, but in reality, you need experience and expertise. You need more brains believing in what you are working towards. You need more contacts, and a greater network of people. You need different perspectives, and you also need money. If you can get other people to co-invest with you that is the best option. This will reduce your investor’s risk, and increase your probabilities of getting to market quicker.

When looking for outside investors you can look for various types of angels such as family and friends. Super-angels such as very wealthy investors that will invest large chunks of money (typically over $200K) at an angel valuation. If you need more money and you do not have access to more angel based capital, you can then explore other methods of funding such as venture capital or institutional funding. These types of funding are great in respect to the resources that will come along with their investment, however, it will be very expensive. They will devalue your company and typically take control of the vision and management team.

So ask yourself and be honest to what you actually need. Take as much capital as you can get, however, know and understand the consequences. Study the different options and contingencies of each. Capital is essential for a company to stay in business, but it is not easy to get and can be very expensive.

Regardless of which option you go with, try to always have fun in what you’re doing and make sure you can preserve the culture you’ve created. Investors will be investing in the technology, management team and company’s culture.

A good culture is to be enforced daily and if done properly it will make all employees want to come to work, it will make them proud of where they work at, and make your company feel more personal. Setting up a culture is not an easy task to do. It requires communication, setting up guidelines, expectations, deadlines and contingencies. What time should I come to work? What is the dress code? Who do I report to? Can I work from home? Can I bring my pet to work? Can I take a longer lunch and stay longer at the office? Do I need to work weekends? How many sick days do we get? How many vacation days do I get? What happens if I don’t meet a deadline? What if I decide to work longer hours but come to work at 10am? Does the company give equity? If so, how does it work? These are few of the many questions that you should have an answer for when setting a culture.

When setting up a culture have one thing certain, not all employees will meet the requirements to sustain a healthy culture level. Sometimes it’s a good thing to have a trial period with new employees to see if they are a match or not. If you have doubts of a culture match, let that person go. He or she will will become a greater headache / liability down the road and it will be more difficult to get rid of them at a later time. One bad employee can spoil a company’s culture, causing miss communication and failure in accomplish goals and deadlines.

As a founder or top executive at a company you should remember that it’s better to have greater work load in a healthy environment than less work in an unpleasant place of work. If you are feeling that personalities are not interacting effectively and efficiently, take a look at it and fix it. Don’t let it drag, probabilities are that time will not fix personalities, and time is your most valuable asset, so cherish it.

One bad apple spoils the bunch.

A common mistake by most people going into business for first time is thinking they can worry about the legal side at a later stage… that’s a very bad way of thinking. You are going into business with the hope of making money by solving a present pain in the marketplace. This will require lots of time, obligations, and tons of stress from multiple angles; angles that most of the time are nearly impossible to predict.

What happens if your company gets acquired? What happens if you get funded and one of your new investors does not like one of you? What happens if time to market extends longer than financially possible, and forces one of you to not continue and has to leave the company? What happens if your goals and mission changes during the process and can’t see eye to eye? These are some of the many questions that unless you have things in writing prior to them happening things will go in a downward spiral. This will not be an easy situation to deal with and relationships once thought of being great can turn into nightmares.

Prior to going to bed with someone do each other a favor, talk, talk, talk, and then put things in writing. Once that’s done then do whatever it takes to execute your product to market. It is sad to know that some of my good friends have been burned for forgetting to exercise this simple, but yet important step. If you can’t talk about these subjects with your “future” partner, don’t even think about going to bed with them. Once money is involved (or lack of), people will change, I guarantee that. Choose wisely on who you go to bed with, because it is a marriage.

When you are in a relationship and you want to start a company, be honest to yourself, but most importantly, to your loved one. I made the mistake of thinking about myself and my company for many years. I worked non-stop around the clock, averaging 18 hour days, seven days a week. Myself being a workaholic and having OCD my entire life, it is easy to loose track of time and work non-stop…. seeing my product take shape and users using it was even more fuel being added to keep the adrenaline going… and working harder and harder every time.

This entire time I thought I was being successful, but in reality I was failing. What was fueling my body and keeping me going ended up being what was also slowing me down and killing me. I had forgotten about my girlfriend, my best friend. I was able to work so many hours but I had forgotten there are only so many hours in a day…. so how was the house being cleaned? How was food being made? How were chores getting done? How were the dogs being walked? How come I was feeling loved but yet I was not giving any love back? How was the infrastructure of the relationship being sustained? The answer is simple, her.

Life is not about “commitment”, it’s about finding a balance among the things you want to be “committed” to. I’m one lucky guy that I was able to be in a relationship with an amazing and beautiful woman that supported me but also cared enough to eventually talk to me and make me realize that a relationship will never work unless both people are committed to it. Having realized that was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I still work more hours than the average person, but I now appreciate her and focus on quality time every day of the week.

Be honest to yourself, your loved one, and people that surround you. Work to improve your life and have a realistic goal in mind. I can now say that I was able to accomplish two of the hardest things in life at the same time, but it was not done alone. Nothing amazing is ever done alone, there will always be people around you that will influence you and keep you motivated enough to continue going…. so don’t forget about them, it’s an easy thing to do.

Cheers.

I can only speak for technology companies since that’s what I’ve been part of most of my professional life. Starting a company is not easy, you need to come up with a million + 1 things to just get going in addition to money itself. So how do you do it? It’s easy, bootstrap, continue bootstrapping, and do as much as you can on your own and with family and friends that share your idea. Your initial goal should be to create a prototype and generate some traffic, then show it to potential investors and begin pitching your idea.

In this economy finding capital is tougher than ever, and competition is stronger and much more knowledgeable. My best advice is to work hard and set realistic goals that can be achieved with your current resources. Review your goals daily and don’t be afraid to talk to people. The number one mistake that people make is not talking to other on fear of their idea being stolen. If execution was easy there would be many more companies out there… so don’t be afraid to get feedback as you build!

Happy building.