07 Nov 10 Online Education – Is It Worth The Money?

In not so old days, a person needs to enroll him in a classroom should he want to educate himself. Then came postal education services, which enabled people to enrich them without having to join a classroom. This whole idea of distance learning was taken to a new level by the coming of the Internet, and more so, by the coming of broadband (high-speed Internet).

Now all kinds of materials are available — from text to audio to video to interactive and non-interactive presentations to podcasts to workbooks to checklists to cheat sheets, etc. But a fundamental question needs to be answered before you go on with an online education program. Is it worth it?

Is it worth it?

It is worth the money invested, but if you are looking for real-world classroom interaction than you will be a bit disappointed because the nature of interaction here, at best, is virtual. You may exchange text messages, talk on microphones, or see each other on web cams, but you cannot nudge the fellow student or tap on his or her back. This experience you will miss.

Real world or recorded?

It does not matter as long as the content is structured. But my personal favorite is recorded session replayed in presence of the one who has recorded it, so that students can stop him and ask him questions to clear their doubts.

Forum participation

A course that does not invite forum participation is not worth going for because learning is always limited if there is no peer-to-peer interaction among people taking the course.

Study material

Every course comes with a guide book, and so does courses offered on the Internet. Make sure the study material is comprehensive enough, and you must read it to take full advantage of the course.

These are some of the prerequisite of an online course, if a course meets these criteria, then it is worth the money and effort.

Tags: Classroom Interaction, Distance Learning, Doubts, Education Money, Education Program, Education Services, Fellow Student, Forum Participation, Fundamental Question, High Speed Internet, Interactive Presentations, Microphones, Online Education, Prerequisite, Real World, Study Material, Tap, Text Messages, Web Cams, World Classroom

Filed in Online Education with 0 Comments

15 Oct 10 Cold Prospecting – Which Medium to Use?

Many marketers look at cold prospecting tools with much disdain. They contempt the use of such tools, but many among them secretly use some of these as well. My stand at this should not be seen either as in favor or against it, for the mere goal of this article is to tell you what tool to use, if you have to use cold prospecting to grow your business.

What are the tools of cold prospecting?

Ideally, any tool that connects you with your audience could be uses for cold prospecting, but practically, many of those tools cannot be used because of the expense involved. Typically, a business will use one or more of the following communication tools for cold prospecting:

Call on cell phones
Call on landlines
Text messages
E-mails
Direct mails on home or office address

Each of the above tools are also overused (read abused) tools, and that is why all the unsolicited attempts to get in touch with your future market are considered spam or junk. This perception is not too far from reality. It is such perception that renders these tools useless?

Then how to use any?

This is a natural question that springs out in the mind. But the good news is that there is a way to put these tools in use, which I going to outline below.

The very first rule of cold prospecting is moderation. Do not go on steroid. Everyone equally hates, and some hates more, cold callers. But not all the time. At times people are receptive to the messages they receive. Do not bombard users with multiple calls or multiple variants of your message. They are already too bogged down by such messages.
Once a user expressed his unwillingness to buy your product or services, strike out his or her name from your database. Your database software should have a list of out of bound contacts, whom you should never contact.
Instead of cold calls, send emails, text messages, and creatively done postcards to suspects. These are less intrusive mean of communication.
Never call in the peak time or the peak season when your suspects are busy doing their important works.

Take the above precautions, and you will increase your chances of acceptance. Your cold calls will not remain as mindless.

Tags: Attempts, Audience, Cell Phones, Cold Callers, Cold Calls, Communication Tools, Contempt, Database Software, Disdain, Future Market, Marketers, Moderation, Natural Question, Office Address, Peak Time, Perception, Postcards, Prospecting Tools, Text Messages, Variants

Filed in Sales with 0 Comments

23 Nov 09 5 More Reasons Why You Should Join Twitter

he 140-character magic has made us more creative. Now we know about our power to express whatever we want in 140 characters. Before twitter, it was unbelievable. We thought we can never say anything by spending so less letters. Even our text messages used more letters than that. Twitter came and showed us what all we are capable of, but not everyone believed it. There still are people who do not know why Twitter is such a phenomenon. In the last post, I gave 5 Reasons in favor of Joining Twitter, which I think was not sufficient, therefore, I am writing 5 more reasons here.

Reason 1: To express what you feel

We express ourselves, we do it daily, and we do it in huge chunks. We talk about how we feel about certain government decision, certain blog, certain people, certain ideas, certain system, etc., but what about “what are you doing” questions? Well, twitter asks you this, and it gets all sorts of answers in maximum 140 characters. This is a great way to express yourself by giving bit-size information, rather than bearing the burden of need lot to say

Reason 2: To listen what others have to say

A good communication is the one in which you listen double as much as you speak. People will listen to you only when you will listen to them. It holds true with twitter communication as well. This tool help you listen to what people has to say, and to understand their point of view on the matter as well.

Reason 3: To strike conversation

Twitter is not Instant messaging (IM) service, but still you can strike conversation here, Use @your friend’s name to send a reply to what your friend has to say, or send a direct message (or DM them in twitter term) and begin the ping-pong game of conversation.

Reason 4: To know where is your friend

In most of the cases, your friend will tell on her own that where she is and what she is doing. If you are following your friend closely then I am sure she will tell you all about her there. As the news has come to me, twitter is going to allow geo-stamp (geographic location stamp) on the tweets, which means you can tell from where your friend has tweeted.

Reason 5: To sound knowledgeable

You do not need to be an Einstein to sound knowledgeable, you just need to be on top of the news, and what too is better than twitter in achieving that? Follow what you love most or what your peer group wants to hear from you and talk as if you own the information. Twitter can help you in doing all this.

Tags: All Sorts, Chunks, Communication, Creative, Express, Government Decision, Magic, People, Phenomenon, Ping Pong Game, Point Of View, Reason 2, Reply, Text Messages, Tw, Twitter

Filed in Internet with 0 Comments