As companies continue to create and share quality content with customers, prospects, and the like-minded, we recently announced that solution providers can now share their entire range of content media on their site.  The sharing and distribution of presentations has continued to grow among the business community and now solution providers will be able to share that content on FYIndOut along with white papers, case studies, additional links, videos and other marketing collateral. 

Companies can now display their SlideShare and Google presentations for their various solutions on FYIndOut without having to download them to multiple sites. 

All you have to do is enter the Title, URL, Description, and Tags for the presentation you wish to share and click “Save”.

When users go through your marketing collateral, they can view the presentations on our site without leaving the site and missing the opportunity to save your solution to their short list. 

It’s that easy and efficient.

We’re always interested in making sure we provide what you need for your business so please feel free to contact us and give us your suggestions as to how we can make FYIndOut work for you.

Thanks.

Today is a big day for Americans.  We swore in a new President and ushered in a new era for the U.S.  We experienced an inauguration unlike any other where people watched the event and shared the experience in real time over multiple platforms like Twitter, Flickr,  and Facebook.  January 20^th will definitely be a point in time remembered throughout the ages.

But for our team here at FYIndOut, today will also be a great day to remember because we implemented our new design and went into production!  After a productive beta and a lot of work, we’re finally ready to roll.

With FYIndOut, companies will now be able to find and promote business applications and services the same way we do in our consumer lives.  We believe that the process for finding and marketing b-to-b solutions is pretty messed up and highly biased towards those with the largest advertising budget and we’re here to change that.  Our goal is to greatly improve the interaction between buyers and sellers of business applications and services so that both parties can have a more efficient and informed experience. 

So if you’re a professional that’s looking for a solution for your business or a great solution provider that can add value, join FYIndOut!  If you’re not sure yet, take our tour to learn more.

Thanks and we look forward to working with you!

All of Us at FYIndOut

You don’t have to go too far to read about the impact of the economy on the ad market.  If you take a look at the article by Peter Kafka in today’s Silicon Alley Insider, you’ll see a chart that probably won’t make you jump for joy. (Watch the video below it. That’ll help.)

So when we all know that marketing and advertising dollars are not going to grow in 2009 and may even go down, what does that mean?  It means that companies are actually going to take the time to figure out how and where they’re getting the most for their dollars.  For those of us that are entrepreneurs, we’re already making sure we know how to best spend our money.  We don’t have a choice.  Every dollar counts. However, for large corporations, the Marketing team is going to have to buckle down and really analyze how they’re spending their budgets and the value they’re receiving for those investments.  The days of, “Hey, we spent our marketing budget and this year’s revenue also happens to have increased so it must be because of us.” are gone. 

For those companies providing internet advertising space, the news isn’t as bleak.  Most companies are seeing increased value every year by advertising online and that trend is not going to change.  The key is to make sure that your site is of value to your customers first, and your advertiser second.  If you’re in the newspaper or magazine industry, the trend is pretty much the opposite.  Also, many companies, especially us small businesses, are asking, “Do we really need a PR company?” For the most part with today’s technology and the many zero-barrier ways to communicate with the world, the answer is no.

Over the next year or so, quality of marketing spend and quality of the service or product being sold are going to take top priority for those companies that want to succeed.  The number of conversions will take precedent over the number of hits on metric charts.  Some big brands will need to actually improve the quality of their products that have made it so far due to the brand name or marketing dollars if they want to keep their customers.  Because, whether you take your clients to a game or not, they HAVE to buy the best and most efficiently priced product to succeed.  Recommendations and peer reviews are going to mean more in the commercial world now more then ever.  This is a great opportunity for businesses with quality solutions to step in and show prospective customers what they can offer because many companies out there can’t afford not to listen. You just need to know where the best places are to speak and be heard.

Today, everyone said “Ouch” financially, and consumers and businesses alike are realizing that they will need to tighten their wallets in 2009.  For businesses, credit is going to be harder to come by and professionals and business owners are going to have to do more with less.  This is one of many reasons that I want to point out that the recommendation age has hit the commercial world.

For the last few years as consumers, merely doing a search for what we’re interested in isn’t enough.  The majority of us use our site of choice to read reviews and ratings from other consumers.  We utilize that information as a key factor in our decision making process — whether it’s buying a camera on Amazon.com, finding a restaurant on Yelp, or choosing a hotel on TripAdvisor.  We do this because our money and time is important to us and we want to make the most of it. 

However, for some reason in our professional lives, when it comes to finding an application or service, we’ve been satisfied with usually one of three options:
 •Ask our current vendors if they or their business partners have what we’re looking for (Of course, they do.),
 •Pick a search engine of choice and start fishing through the myriad of results,
 •Pay an analyst firm a good chunk of money for a report of solution providers that they’ve researched but never used. 

Whether you’re a small business owner or a group within a large company…which could soon be bought into a much larger company, none of us will have much money for marketing and we will all need to do our best in selecting the right product or service to invest in when we need it.  That’s why it’s critical that professionals use the same recommendation approach we’re used to in our consumer lives when buying a $200 camera, and use it when our business is buying software for $200,000 or using a lawyer or consultant at $250 an hour.  We need to know what we’re getting for our money before we’ve spent it.  We can’t afford not to.

Going forward, the quality of service and/or the product is going to count for more then the amount of marketing dollars a solution provider spends.  For those smaller businesses with great solutions but not as much brand recognition, this will be a key time for growth.  For those solution providers heavy on marketing and low on value, not so much.  The five customers you take to dinner and sporting events won’t be the only feedback prospects have access to about your solutions. 

When we started FYIndOut, we knew the value it would provide to professionals and businesses regardless of the economy; it was only a matter of time.  We just didn’t think it would come this soon.

We wish you and your business the best of luck,

Scott