Author Archives: 123outsource

An emotional experience with a Russian Software outsourcing company

September 18, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

They were a software company in Belarus. We called them and they were anxious to work for us. The boss liked us so much, he offered to pick me up at the airport when I visited. By the way, just for the record — if you do business in Eastern Europe, Belarus is by far the most friendly and hospitable country that has software development companies. We found the Ukrainians to be a little bit snobby and the Russians gave us a bad feeling.

In any case, we asked this Belarus Software Company to do a quick bid for us. They got the bid back to us very quickly. They wanted triple the necessary amount of hours to do a very simplistic programming job for us. We told them that the bid was not realistic. He became very emotional. He started raising his voice, showing signs of despair, asking “Why, why why?”. He really wanted our job, but his hour padding policy didn’t seem ethical or cost effective to us.

I remember that when I talked to my assistant we had a quick conversation about this boss. My assistant said that he was very hospitable and that I should work with him. I told my assistant that I want to see how hospitable he is six months after we are doing business. Well, we found out that in two days his hospitality went down the drain!

Another interesting story from Belarus!

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Case studies in how to spruce up your tweets!

September 18, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Ur tweets ain’t got no style kid.
Case studies in how to spruce up your tweets!
#socialmedia #marketing

I am on Twitter every day for at least an hour. I find it very interesting to see what works, what is hot, and what is not. Unfortunately for me, I have no formal writing background. I write for around two hours per day, and am getting better at it. But, writing tweets is a very different kind of writing. I have found it much harder to write successful tweets than to write a popular blog.

I learned that you can be a mediocre writer, yet have a successful blog providing you pick interesting topics that your audience likes and bring up interesting points within the article. However, writing tweets that get systematically retweeted requires a very different skill set which includes a knowledge of tags, ability to create slogan type phrases, and identify what is hot.

Below are some case studies of how I jazzed up my own tweets. I do a lot of trial and error. It is hard to put great information in 140 characters or less, plus fit a link and a tag or two in there as well.

Case #1.
The first line of the tweet should be an intro.
If you have a tweet, it is good to have the tweet on more than one line for best results. The reader’s eye needs to catch the main point. Many people suggest having shorter tweets. However, what I found is that long tweets are better than short ones — just make sure the first line of the tweet is short so the reader’s eye can process the information when they are scanning through thousands of tweets.

The second line should develop the theme.
Normally, when I write tweets, the second line of the tweet gives useful additional information about the article being linked to. You can’t fit all of the main points of the article in the tweet, but you can put some of the more salient features. Sometimes you can put a list of things to do or see on the second line. Putting lists of countries hasn’t worked well for me in the past, but lists of activities works — if they are hot with your audience. Although in Twitter, people tend to use bad grammar and sentence fragments, try to avoid this. If you are going to use a sentence fragment, at least use a complete sentence fragment.

People responded better to my second version of this tweet.
For some reason, people often retweet you more if you put a number in the tweet. 5 ways to improve your business; 6 places to have crab; 7 ways to annoy your boss, etc. I think that “crab or crabcakes” annoyed the reader with a perceived unnecessary variation in terms. Roast crab didn’t entice the readers too much, but the idea of fusion from exotic places like Cuba and Vietnam struck a chord. Getting retweeted is about catching the reader’s attention pushing the their buttons.

Best places to have #Crab or #Crabcakes in #LosAngeles
Roast crab, crab/salmon sashimi on a tortilla, more!
http://blog.meander411.com/2014/06/06/places-to-have-crab-crab-cakes-in-los-angeles/ …
#foodie
(This one got no retweets)

6 places to have #Crabcakes in #LosAngeles
Cuban fusion, Vietnamese fusion, sashimi & traditional
http://blog.meander411.com/2014/06/06/places-to-have-crab-crab-cakes-in-los-angeles/ …
#foodie
(This one got several retweets.)

Case #2
The first version of this tweet about the hills of Los Angeles was boring. People are not so interested in hiking unless you can put a twist on it. Views can be exciting if you can elaborate on what made the view special or show a picture. The second version was hot because it included mingling with the stars which is a very cool concept. In real life, the stars are not going to give you the time of day, but it is exciting to think about passing by them on a hiking trail which really happened to me. Skybar is one of the most bling-bling bars in the entire state of California. Merely mentioning it provokes thoughts of Los Angeles’ most chic people lounging with an amazing view of the metro.

Explore the hills of Los Angeles
Hike at Griffith Park and enjoy ocean views in Malibu
(include link and tags here)

Explore the local hills of #LosAngeles
Mingle w/the stars @Runyan Canyon, then visit Skybar in W Hollywood

http://blog.meander411.com/2013/11/12/have-you-ever-taken-a-hill-tour-of-los-angeles-ca/
#ttot

Case #3
The first version of this tweet has a list of interesting or unusual activities. It accentuated some of the highlights of Thailand which is good, but the tweet in general didn’t catch the audience’s positive response. The second one was more popular because it used some simple basic grammar structures which made it more pleasant to read. Verb-Activity; Verb Noun. Although there was not room for complete sentences, it used acceptable grammar for “headers” which made it easy to read. I put the activities eachon a different line which made it easier to read. Additionally, there was a different verb for each activity which made it comfortable and enjoyable to read — and a bit like a travel commercial aimed at children. We actually experimented with composing tweets in the same style that Disney does which is very what I call, “G Major” and childlike. Childish tweets that are cute and endearing can be very popular with adults and children alike.

Adventuous things to do in Thailand
Coral Diving, kick boxing, eating insects, and more…
(include link and tags here)

Adventurous things to do in #Thailand
Go Coral diving
Try Thai kick-boxing
Eat a silkworm
(include link and tags here)

Case #4
This was a fun one. I like to read other people’s blogs. If the blogs have content that usually pleases me, I will become a regular visitor. The article I tweeted about here was written by a very interesting girl who is an actress and world traveler. the first version was fun and got some response. But, the second version got retweeted, and the retweets got retweeted. It went slightly viral which is exciting. I combined verbiage suitable for a very formal sounding tutorial and combined it with the ridiculous and provocative theme of crashing weddings in India (of all places) and it was an instant hit. Then, I added a little more information about the article about bollywood and cultural advice which further interested the readers. I wish tweets could be longer than 140 characters — it would allow so much more flexibility and options.

Crashing weddings in India
What to do and what not to do
(include link and tags here)

A step by step guide to crashing weddings in India
Bollywood dancing & general cultural advice
(include link and tags here)

I hope you enjoyed reading about sprucing up your tweets. I have never seen an article before with case studies of improving tweets one by one. Normally people write very generic advice about tweeting which isn’t so easy to apply. I hope you learned something and feel free to tweet questions to me.

Not understanding #tags will cost you

September 17, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Not understanding #tags will cost you!

In my experience of internet marketing over the years, tags are a topic matter that eludes me. I use tags daily in my blogs and twitter posts, but which tags to use is not that easy. What matters is knowing which tags will get you found.

Blogging Tags
On my blog, I noticed that tags that were too popular didn’t do me much good, because the search engines wouldn’t pick me up under those tags. So, I started trying to use multi-word tags which worked a bit better. Google is complicated and will pick you up under a combination of a tag and other text in your article making it hard to understand what type of strategy to use. If you use tags on your blog, they will do you good, but how they do you good will change over time and be hard to analyze.

Tweeting your blog tags
On a brighter note, your main tags that you use frequently on your blog should be tweeted at least every 2-4 months on Twitter. I make the mistake of tweeting only links to blog entries, but rarely to tags. Tweeting to tags needs to be something you do on schedule. Work it into your daily or weekly routine! My advice is to create your tweets long ahead of time, put them in a printout, and enter them on Twitter manually one by one. Maybe one tag per day and mix them up with your other tweets.

Twitter Tags
Which tag to use on Twitter is not something that makes “sense.” You use tags that get you retweeted somehow. There are many people that follow the feeds for particular tags and might like your content. If those people see you, they will retweet you. If those individuals happen to prefer one tag over another, you will win if you pick the tag that they like. Once again, there is no logic to what makes one tag better than the other. You have to experiment and find out what tags work in general for your account, and what tags work for particular types of tweets.

In general verses particular tweets.
Obviously a tweet about motivation needs a motivation tag. But, if you tweet regularly about general business topics. a business, management or marketing tag might work well for most of your tweets. I was tweeting about outsourcing which is a specialize business topic. I got an average of less than one retweet per post. The minute I started using tags, I started averaging two or three retweets or favorites per tweet. That is roughly four times as much as I was getting before. The quality of your tweet makes a night and day difference, but your choice of tags is equally important.

Now I get 4x the retweets
Once again, by using tags more innovatively and properly than before, I am getting roughly four times as many retweets as before. I am going to be happy watching my accounts skyrocket now! One already is!

Collaborative Blogging – how does it work?

September 17, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Many people do blogging. It is fun! You can express yourself, and get others to enjoy reading what you wrote. You might even have a popular blog that shows up well on Google and have people retweet your blog posts. But, there is more. Sometimes you need different skill sets to write a single blog!

Title creation
When I hire, or try to hire other people to help me blog, I always run into trouble. Most of them do not know how to pick a good blog title. They want to rely on me to pick titles. Picking a good title is 30% of the work. Why do I have to negotiate with you, babysit you, and then pay you for a boring blog when you can’t even pick a good title? So, title creation is a huge part of the blog writing process and could be done by a separate person who specializes in picking titles. I will tell you something funny. My best title idea person is amazing, but he thinks of the same idea every month. He doesn’t keep a log book of which ideas have already been used.

Plot development
I can write a blog in about ten or twenty minutes unless it is a complicated topic that requires research. But, I can’t always develop a plot, or come up with ways to develop my main theme for the blog entry. I like to have my title creation expert come up with some good jokes, and “sub-ideas” for developing the main concepts of the blog. If he gives me four to seven good sentences to work with, I can create a very interesting post combining his ideas with my own. Although we might not be working on the same blog at the same time, we pass the blog along during its formation in a sort of an assembly line system using the internet.

Writing
Any idiot can write a blog. The irony is that you don’t have to be a good writer to be popular as a blogger. I have professionally written content on my blog that is not anywhere near as popular as the “stuff” that I churned out in 20 minutes. If the reader is attracted to the theme of the blog entry and the points you make, you can write in a mediocre way and still be popular. Many social media companies want to charge $80, $100, or more per article, but they can’t even come up with a good title. In my mind this is a rip off.

Tagging & posting
After the blog article is written, it still needs to be posted on my blog. I need to login, post it, create tags which requires time to read the article to see which main terms repeat themselves and which are the most relevant. I need to create links to related content too. Posting the blog is 30% of the work. I can’t pay someone else to do that because I would have to give them my password, and then they would probably make mistakes posting the blog.

Other collaborative methods
Sometimes I will write a blog entry and then hand it off to my professional writer for him to touch it up. In many cases he will completely rewrite the entry so that I can publish both versions. Other times, my writer will come up with a concept for a blog entry, but he will need me for industry specific information to add to the blog. He doesn’t understand the notary industry, so I have to fill in the blanks. Other times, I will think of an idea, and he will think of a few great jokes. I try to incorporate his jokes into the context in an artful way. There are many ways to do collaborative blogging. It is fun, you meet new people, and often come out with winning content.

Overall Quality
Some of the best blog entries I have ever written came from collaborative blogging. When two minds are working in unison, fully focused, miracles can happen!

Business is always hard, but don’t despair

September 17, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged | Leave a comment

Business is never easy.

I heard two Chinese Americans talking over a year ago about business. They agreed that if it were easy, that everyone would do it. I think they were talking about Real Estate business, but what they were talking about applies to anything in life. Nothing in life is easy, especially not business. My father always used to say that business was a “know-nothing” profession. This is true in his case, because he knows nothing about business. I think he meant that it didn’t require any “real” knowledge like book knowledge or scientific knowledge.

The type of skills and knowledge that you need for business are not taught so much in schools. Sure, during your MBA, they will talk a lot about many higher level business concepts. But, if you are starting a business from scratch, you need more nuts and bolts knowledge which schools typically don’t know how to teach and probably don’t want to either. Too pedantic!

People who are young and new to business often make many mistakes. Here are a few.

(1) They choose the wrong partner.
In business, it is hard to choose the right partner. Everyone is the wrong partner. If you have no skills or money, you will not attract the right partner. So be your own partner. 99% of partner relationships experience serious problems. One partner loses interest, or they don’t want to do particular tasks, or they don’t want to work as hard, or they just aren’t that talented. You might have more serious problems if a partner is stealing from you. It is common for a partner to want to sell out early. The fact is that no two people are ever completely on the same page which is why partnerships generally don’t work — even if they are close family members. As a general rule, try to do it yourself, and team up with others in a way where you are not dependent on them. You can hire them as a consultant, subcontractor, or they could have an investment relationship with your company as well. That way if it doesn’t work out you can easily replace them.

(2) Quitting your day job
Don’t be in a hurry to quit your day job. I have quit my day job several times, and the time I waited a long time was the best time. Sure, you’ll be busy, but businesses have ups and downs and take time to get stable. If you quit prematurely because you made money the previous month, what about next month. You don’t know what’s going to happen. Take your time, and develop your skills and client base first. I’m talking about taking a few years even. Go slow and steady — be stable!

(3) Trying to predict
As a young entrepreneur, you will be likely to have big dreams and huge predictions. The reality is that you don’t know what is going to happen. Thinking positively translates into thinking wildly unrealistically. Picture yourself succeeding, but be careful of assuming that things will go one way or the other. You don’t know what is going to happen, even if you have been in business twenty years! Sometimes even when you do a good job, growth is slow, and often you might end up in a new direction due to market conditions. Expect the unexpected. Business is like life — unpredictable. Business planning consequently doesn’t make sense to me. It is good to have a formal written direction, but you need to change course a lot in business, so try to be flexible in your thinking. Accept change.

(4) Lack of critical skills
One of the reasons so many entrepreneurs fail is that they lack critical skills. I believe that if you have the conviction, you’ll find a way to make it even if you lack a lot of skills. But, it takes time to develop skills, and you also need to focus on it. Instead of focusing purely on making money as fast as possible, try to focus on the skills you are worst at and really work on those for a year or so. In the long run you’ll need those skills. I’m talking about five, ten, and twenty years after the fact. Try to think long term without predicting a particular outcome. Regardless of outcome you will need skills. What type of skills am I talking about?

You need industry specific technical skills, analytical skills, you need to pick good locations or market segments to target, you need hiring and firing skills, marketing skills, accounting, and time management skills too. This is a lot for one person to master. So, work on your skills one by one. I’m bad at hiring, so I am working on that more this year. You can’t really expect big success in business unless you have attained functionality in your basic business skills — all of them. Even if you hire others to do particular tasks for you, you won’t know if they are doing a good job or not if you are severely limited in your own skills.

(5) Lack of experience hiring people
I covered this point in a previous section, but I’ll mention it again. You can’t survive in any type of business if you are not good at hiring people. How you determine who is good is up to you. But, it is complicated. Some people are smart, but not reliable. Others are kind, but not punctual. Some are boring, but get the job done, while others have bad attitudes. You might find someone perfect who can only work ten hours a week. How do you choose from all of these diverse characteristics? You choose by trying people out and seeing what happens. Your choices ideally should be ones that are good for the long run, not the short run!

(6) Willingness to work non-stop
As an entrepreneur, you have to be willing to work non-stop for a goal that you might never achieve. I worked three years on my first serious business as an adult before breaking even. I worked 55 hours a week as a mobile notary and 15 hours a week building my online directory business. It paid off big, but boy did I commit to it when it wasn’t paying off. I had unbreakable passion and fanaticism about what I was doing. If I had lacked that drive, I never would have made it. If you are considering being an entrepreneur. Consider this point before you devote your life to your business. If you don’t have the drive, when the going gets rough, you might crack. You might have it fine in the beginning of your business and then have problems years after, or like most, you might have most of your problems the first five years. Personally, I always have problems. It is my drive that gets me through them — not my brains!

Business is hard, but don’t despair. It is meaningful when you get your reward. You earn your freedom and you make big money if you do it right. I make it a practice to go to five-star restaurants from time to time to remind myself that I worked hard and made it. Maybe I should remind myself in more ways. But, after my rewards, it is back to the computer for more work! If you succeed, you need to keep that success alive by keeping the ball rolling!

Ignoring your clients as a business strategy

September 17, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged | Leave a comment

There once was a businessman.
Well, actually more than one businessman.
To be frank, more like 99% of businessmen meet this description.

Clients and prospective clients tried to reach him but never could.

Eventually those clients became frustrated because they couldn’t interact with him enough to get their projects moving forward. So, those clients tried to move on to other firms, but the same thing happened. The boss was too busy to talk to them. Some of the other bosses hired salespeople and customer service reps who were good enough to handle those clients. Some hired incompetent fools to answer their phones which just upset their clients and prospects.

But, our businessman who we refered to in sentence #1 had nobody help him answer the phone. He just ignored his clients. He thought they were a nuisance.

One day, his clients started leaving and sought greener pastures — they found other companies who would answer their questions without having to harrass them five or ten times just to answer a single question.

His clients left one by one.

One day he woke up in the morning and realized that he had no clients.

This businessman said to himself, “My life is so much more peaceful without these pesky clients. But, honestly, how do I get my pestulent landlord to go away. Now, HE is bothering me! All he talks about is money money money — where is the money — GET a life man!”

According to Indian spiritual philosophy. If you want someone to go away. Just IGNORE them like you would ignore an uninvited guest, and eventually they will go away. We use this philosophy while meditating. If unwanted thoughts come into our mind, we ignore them until they go away. The same is true for clients!

How to acquire clients for your call center: long term goals!

September 17, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Any motivational speaker will talk about long term goals. It is common knowledge that if you write your long terms down, you are 41 times as likely to reach your goal. I made up that number, but statistically, there is documentation that proves that you are much much much more likely to achieve your goal if you write your goals down. If you strive daily to attain a goal, that helps too. If you change your goals daily, that is a deal breaker in the goal game.

But, what are your goals? What I have learned is that call center professionals know their game, and know what to do. They have been in the call center game for years, and keep doing what they are doing and might keep growing. Sometimes they might move their operation from Bangalore to Noida to save on costs. Or they might abandon India and move operations to Cebu in the Philippines. Perhaps they might try a place with high unemployment like Assam in the Northeast Corner of India. But, the game is the same. Find good clients, find good workers, have a good facility, put it all together and make it work.

Young Indians who want to start call centers typically do not have the business skills to pull off having a full fledged call center. They might have managerial experience at a call center (or not), but it takes a lot more than that to have a real call center. To those guys I suggest starting small, and getting your experience while small so you don’t lose any large sum of money or ruin your reputation too much.

But, what should your long term goals be in a call center? To have a 100-seater overnight? That is insanity, not a goal. How about to think small and have a 20-seater? That is still small. You have to choose your workers, find contracts, train people, monitor people. It is a lot of work unless you have a manager. Plus, how do you even select a good manager if you have no experience owning a business? It is not that easy. That is why you start small.

If I were mentoring you — and I sort of am — many young Indians read my blog for inspiration, and I hope they get lots of inspiration without feeling too discouraged by me — I would give you this long term goal chopped up into smaller goals.

(1) Start your business in a tiny office or at home. Get top notch equipment so that people can hear you properly.
(2) Acquire small clients. They are easier to get, and easier to keep if you treat them right. Your goal should be to see if you can RETAIN your clients for a long time and get referrals from them. If you give them really good service at a reasonable price you might achieve this goal.
(3) Only hire a few people. Train them well, and keep an eye on them. If you are not experienced, you will not know how to train others. If you are so busy you can not see straight, you won’t have time to train others. To keep clients, you need good service, and there is no good service without well manicured employees.
(4) Once you have been maintaining a very stable client base, and have retrained your employees, then it is time to expand. Slowly. Remember, that having new clients is more work. The new ones are uncertain and need more time negotiating deals. Existing clients might need a little more or a little less at certain times, but they are more stable. Hiring new workers is also time consuming. You have to interview many to find one acceptable worker, and then you have to train them and watch them to make sure they are reliable. If your people quit often, you have to repeat this process which gets in the way of what your real business is — doing call center work for your clients.

Your philosophical long term goal should not be about money. Money comes on it’s own (or it doesn’t). Focus on finding out what your clients want (or think they want) and giving that to them as masterfully as you can. If you get a reputation of taking care of people better than anyone else, then your business will grow on its own. You might not even need to advertise. I have heard stories of people with huge businesses who never spent a penny on advertising in your life. Expecting not to need to advertise is not realistic, but keep the thought of its possibility alive. Focus on helping others and then they will help you with money. The world works like this.

Don’t think big… think small, and grow as fast as the forces of nature let you grow.
You can become a millionaire — just don’t try to do it overnight. let it happen naturally over time as you provide great value to the universe!!!

Finance & Accounting Outsourcing

September 17, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Accounting | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Finance & Accounting Outsourcing
Finance & Accounting Outsourcing (F&A outsourcing) represents a huge percentage of the global outsourcing revenue.  The US dominates Finance & Accounting outsourcing revenue, but the UK and Australia also do a lot of F&A outsourcing.  123outsource.net has many companies in India that specialize in various types of accounting and finance.  There are companies that specialize in UK  accounting that can computer your VAT tax, and other types of taxes as well. These companies can put together financial statements, spreadsheets, calculate sales taxes, income taxes and much more.  With the high cost of services in America, UK and Australia, outsourcing to India has become a popular way to save on expenses.  Many companies in India do a great job on various types of services, and in addition, offer fast turnaround which in many industries is virtually impossible in America.

Finance & Accounting is one of the fastest growing outsourcing industries, along with Legal Process Outsourcing and Pharmaceutical Research. Future growth of Indian companies in this industry rest in their communication and marketing strengths.  If they can successfully woo Western clients, and offer smooth interaction, and reliable work, companies in India will win over many Accounting and Finance contracts. Although there is a lot of global competition for any type of outsourcing work, India has their history of being colonized by the British in their favor.  The educated classes generally have a good command of English in India, not to mention a long standing cultural relationship with the UK and America!
I am wondering if all of the outsourcing to India will cause a general widespread reduction in hourly fees for Accounting and Finance services.  This happened in the IT industry about a decade or two ago due to mass outsourcing.  We will wait and see.  Let’s hope that India will save a few industries for the rest of us, otherwise we will all have to move to Bangalore!

Tweets:
(1) Accounting is the one task you can outsource to India and consistently get really smart people
(2) Finance & Accounting Outsourcing: who does it and what can you expect?

You might also like:

Accounting India in the News
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2011/04/07/accounting-india-in-the-news/

I love giving outsourcers a cash tip
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/10/13/i-love-giving-outsourcers-a-cash-tip/

KPO Definition and Information

September 17, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
KPO Definition and Information
 
There is another blog primarily about BPO:  it’s definition, and information about what type of specialties would be included in that category. KPO is a more advanced type of outsourcing that involves primarily research and analytics, although it could involve web technology, software development, accounting, legal work, and more.
 
 
KPO companies with a broader scope might get involved in legal research, patent research, document drafting, and litigation support, which are all specialties associated with the more narrow term LPO.  Financial research, and accounting analysis work are also common for KPO companies to take part in. A few KPO companies even get involved in India’s new growth industry which is pharmaceutical research.  However, the most common types of work that a KPO company would do would include market research, business research, business intelligence, data analysis, market segmentation, marketing strategies, etc.  A few firms even do content writing, and other types of technical writing.
 
123outsource.net has a directory of KPO companies that you can browse to find KPO firms in any part of the world.  We have a majority in India, but there are American, Filipino, Latin American, and European companies as well.  Additionally, we have a huge selection of global BPO, call center, data entry, medical billing, medical transcription, web design, software development and other specialties as well.  We currently have roughly 3000 listings of outsourcing companies and the number is growing at more than 100 per month!
 
Outsourcing KPO work to India is very popular, because you can gain the services of a very educated team of individuals for a fraction of the cost of what it would be elsewhere.

Suggestions for Google+

September 16, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

I like Google+ and consider it to be the most interesting and well thought out social media site out there. The membership count is significantly lower than Twitter, but that could change. Here are some ideas to make it better.

(1) Seeing your feed.
When you login to Twitter, the first thing you see is the posts of your followers. On Google, you put people in your circles, but what difference does it make if your material is not in their face regularly. Even on Twitter where your material is in their face, very few people dig down enough to see your content much if at all. On Twitter the problem is that people follow too many others and your stuff gets lost in the shuffle. When I login to my business Google+ account, I have to dig to see what my followers posted.

(2) Favorite accounts vs. favorite posts
Twitter allows you to favorite a post. Google allows you to circle an account in any circle you want, or in more than one which is great. What I like to do is to have favorite accounts. I find most people boring, so I want to see the accounts that I really like. Google allows me to do this, but they should have a standard and mandatory circle for all accounts called Favorite Profiles. Google could rank accounts not only by how many people circled them, but by how many people favorited their account! Smart!

(3) Multiple repeats
When you retweet or repost something on Google+, the original post still stays on whatever feed(s) it is on. You might see an identical post three or more times on a particular feed. This is a problem and really annoying since I run into this problem several times per day.

My solution to the multiple repeat post syndrome issue is to have posts show up once. If the post gets retweeted, then show the icon of the last retweeter as well as the icon of the original account posting the content on general feeds. When it gets retweeted, it should jump up on the algorithm for where it appears on the feeds, but should appear only once.

(4) Notifications
I don’t like clicking on the bell to get a thin display of critical information that could get lost easily. It is better the way Twitter does it by having a full scroll of interactions. I like the idea that you can delete unwanted interaction information on Google+, but the problem is that content gets deleted by accident the minute you are not paying attention. Perhaps an “are you sure you want to delete this” button would be a good safeguard.

(5) It is hard to get followers
Does it get easier over time to accumulate followers? On Twitter it is a snap to get followers. I can get 20-40 per day without even spending more than 25 minutes per account. But, on Google+ I spend an hour and only get three or four new followers. Couldn’t there be an easier way to get circled?

(6) Take the tour
I feel that if Google+ had their own communities for several dozen popular interests and put amazing content picked by experts, that would be amazing. Then, prospects who are interested in Google+ could take the tour and be impressed out of their mind at how good the content is. Even people who don’t want to join Google+ might change their mind after they saw that the content was superior to any other medium in social media today!

Can they do it on their own?

September 16, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Hiring & Firing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

I hire people to do all types of tasks for me. The ones who last can do what they are supposed to do without any intervention from me. I hired someone to do sales. I don’t need to badger her to ask if she did what she was supposed to. She just does what she is supposed to and I just pay her. It is simple.

But, I sometimes unknowingly hire other people who just don’t do what they are supposed to. None of the programmers who I have hired get anything done without me constantly cracking the whip. They complain bitterly about how they don’t like me bothering them all the time, but they don’t function on their own, so I wasn’t given a choice.

Then, there are writers. I find people who can write. But, the writing process involves more than just writing. Topic selection is very important. There needs to be some analytics knowledge to be able to pick the type of subjects that will be popular with your audience. But, to pick catchy and unique titles is not that easy. So far only two of the writers I have worked with can come out with lots of ideas. The only problem is that one of them comes up with the same ideas every time I ask him to brainstorm. Once again, if I am not part of the process, things go sour. The other writer just sends me articles. They are pretty good. I don’t have to tell him anything. The articles just come, and enough of them are popular so that I can keep him. Minimal intervention is okay, but constantly having to oversee someone’s work is too much for me to do. If I do that, I don’t have time to do my work!

The best worker not only gets work done on their own, but offers helpful ideas without being asked. Obviously they shouldn’t shove the ideas down your throat, but the idea that they offer on their initiative is amazing, particularly if their ideas are useful.

When you are doing your work, ask yourself if you do what you are supposed to without intervention. Do you get back to people when the job is finished, or do you make them track you down to find out what happened? People who get ahead have their own initiative and crack their own whip. I am saying this after staying up until 4:30am to finish writing 20 blog articles in a single day. I hope they are entertaining!

Outsourcing has a ceiling – a limit of skilled workers

September 16, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: BPO | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Outsourcing is a popular way for companies to get specific tasks done overseas for a fraction of what it would cost domestically.  However, outsourcing destinations such as India, Philippines, and other countries have a finite limit of skilled human resources.  Global outsourcing is growing in many countries by a rate exceeding 10% per year, often much higher than that. However, it is less clear how quickly the labor force can be replenished. India has been having a skilled labor shortage for several years, and the consequences are devastating for many companies. 

It is common for Indian workers in the outsourcing industry to jump from company to company seeking better benefits, better pay, and overall better conditions. Each time an employee jumps, it costs the mother company a pretty penny to retrain a new employee to fill their space.  In the long run, it seems obvious that higher wages will be the reality for BPO workers in India in many sectors.  Supply and demand are always in flux in any industry, but eventually, reality sets in, and bosses realize that they need to pay workers well to keep them.  Additionally, they need comfortable recreation rooms, delicious lunches, and maybe even prettier secretaries.  These workers these days have endless agendas on their check lists for who to work for!

One of the solutions being offered in the Philippines is more free educational courses.  Prospective employees would be trained to do outsourcing work, and English teachers will also be trained. The only way to bring more trained employees into the workplace is to train individuals who are not already trained!
On a sadder note, India is filled with semi-literate job-seekers who are simply not qualified for any type of outsourcing job.  There doesn’t seem to be a place where they can go to quickly brush-up on their language skills.  Sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation are all missing in their writing.  It would occur to many that thinking skills among these semi-literate individuals are also vacant, although that is an extrapolation!