Narrowcasting The News Is Good For Business

Broadcasting is the term most often used to describe the act of disseminating the news, but for some companies, narrowcasting the news may be a good business strategy.

People’s news gathering habits have changed drastically over the past few years. Businesses that use digital signage can benefit from adding a news feed to their signs. Not only will narrowcasting the news get more people’s attention, it fits right in with the way many coveted demographics (affluent, educated and under 40) get their news – on the fly and in small chunks.

Trends in News Gathering

It used to be that people got their news from their daily paper or their nightly national news broadcast. With the rise of the Internet, news seekers have shifted to online sources in huge numbers. According to an August, 2008 report by the Pew Center for the People & the Press, the changes have been dramatic:

• In 1998, 13% of the public went online for news three days a week. In 2008, that number had increased to 37%.

• In 1998 only 6% of respondents went online for news on a daily basis. In 2008, that number had increased to 25%.

• In 2008, 80% of people reported that they absorb news in some way every day. But traditional news sources (newspaper, TV networks and radio) saw their share of the news gathering audience shrink from 90% in 1994 to 73% in 1998.

What does all of this mean to companies with narrowcasting networks in their restaurants, bank branches, transit platforms and waiting rooms? People want to be informed. They want the latest news. And they are comfortable getting it from a wide range of sources, even those that might have been frowned upon as less than trustworthy a decade ago.

Including news in your narrowcasting network adds value. Instead of feeling they are being advertised to, people will appreciate the information being provided and gain a positive impression of your business.

And how does your business stand to gain? Again, we can extrapolate from the Pew Center study. The study divided groups into segments, including Integrators and Net-Newsers. The Integrators gather news from traditional and online sources. Net-Newsers rely much more heavily on online sources for their news.

It is what these segments have in common that is of most interest to creators of narrowcasting programming. They are both well-educated and affluent. Net-newsers are younger, but both groups combined represent a highly desired demographic in the eyes of advertisers.

How Narrowcasting the News Might Work in Your Business

News narrowcasting is not suited to every business. Busy grocery or department store shoppers will not stop to read news items on a digital sign. But for businesses where customers need to wait, narrowcasting the news makes sense: in a restaurant lounge where people wait for a table; in a medical office; in a bank branch; on a commuter train or subway platform.

The news feed can be incorporated as a small segment of the screen, leaving ample opportunity for your narrowcasting network to display video and images that promote your business. A balanced approach to informing and marketing will resonate strongly with your audience, and have a positive influence on your business.

By: Bruce Orr

Read More......

Simple Guides in Making Productivity Formula

Is there really a set of formula on making an ordinary business turn into a very profitable and lucrative one? Is it made up of a single set of doís or doníts rules? Does it apply for all business people or only to some? Or, is it relative on the persons, places and type of business?

At first, we need to know what it means to be productive. Being productive is being able to bring greater results or output at the shortest time compared before. Time is an important factor in identifying whether one is productive or not because it is the number element that is considered. Productivity then, is the measure of work done per unit time.

We may ask, what are the uses of measuring productivity? This is essential to business for productivity usually equates to increasing profits. One is to estimate the length of time a job will take, or how fancy a piece of work can be stuffed into the available time.

The other is a way to evaluate employees and staffs on whether they are doing work well. Judging the employeesí performances are often based on the amount and quality of output and results they actually did. But, this may lead to double-edged effects, sometimes it may result to organizational improvement or reduction of efficiency because of assigning blames.

Many books, internet articles and published magazines talks about how to improve and increase productivity. Steps and procedures can come from various sources: academe who studied economics or managing business, businessmen who had first-hand experiences sharing their wisdom, or common persons who gathered ideas from daily observations and reactions. All sorts of information come our way the moment we give time to search on these.

But if we look at the generation were in today, where information is abundant and flooding, it poses a challenge for people to be more critical and analytic in choosing the most appropriate information for them. In particular, the business world nowadays is dominated by new technologies so; we need also to devise a formula in line with the IT principles to bring better results.

Today, we can see several strategies used to adjust to the growing industrial industry. Many companies invest on developing skilled workers and employees in a more coordinated manner to make information transfer and exchange easier. For instance, team building is a common strategy to manage the array of works held in several locations. Organizational response and management tools are used to ensure coordination among employers, vendors, and customers.

Decision making skills are also developed together with the aid of IT business solutions. New information and decision making skills are enhanced to provide answers to particular target groups and harmonize these across national borders.

There are also several moves to improve business from time to time. In business establishments, there are almost no static processes, responding to problems often result to little changes or greater changes. Find out how to identify and eradicate inefficiencies in your present business procedures, and be able to think of strategies that will improve your business in the future.

Be creative in using technology at its fullest. Utilize the advantages of technology in coming up with best ways to automate and streamline existing business manual processes, and incorporate or apply professionalism to expand and gain more customers.

Final point, business is not just an economic process but a social process. Interactions of owners, customers, suppliers and partners bring the supply-demand functions to run smoothly. Collaboration with all these groups of people is a major priority for business executives and industries today. Learning strategies in building personal networks is a must to be productive.

By: Daegan Smith, is An Expert Home Business Coach And Trainer

Read More......