The increasing adoption emerging Web and Communications technologies in the business arena has lead to new ways for groups to work together. Working with virtual or remote teams is no longer a novelty. For many small businesses, working through such virtual arrangements may be the only way to survive in this era of increasing costs.

However, simply adopting the latest web tools and communications gear is not enough to ensure the success of your virtual team. Managing virtual and remote teams requires skills sets that are very different from that required for managing in traditional office environments.

One key challenge is building up trust within your virtual team. Synchronizing the internets of the various individuals with that of the team can prove especially difficult when team-members can’t physically interact with each other regularly.

Check out Chris Bowler’s recent post on the Anywired blog for some general tips on cultivating trust and communication within virtual teams.

Most businesses are failing to take advantage of the potential benefits offered by the rapid growth of the social networking phenomenon. This according to a recent Gartner study which claims that businesses that harness the social web appropriately can “increase savings, productivity and profits”.

The gut reaction of most businesses is to block their employees’ access to social sites as such activity is perceived to be frivolous time-wasting. However, some smart firms are starting to realize that incorporating the social networks into their work-flows can actually dramatically increase their employees reach and productivity.

One such example is the use of social networks in the recruitment space. Many organizations have discovered that social networking sites are proving more cost-effective and efficient at recruiting the right talent than even specialized recruitment consultants. Indeed, even the high-end recruitment firms themselves are already using the social web as a key resource for tracking down the right candidates.

Another interesting development is in the way employees within an organization are communicating amongst themselves. Many teams have discovered that the messaging capabilities embedded in most social networking sites are far more effective at enabling collaboration and team-work than such traditional tools as email.

Bottom line – don’t dismiss the social networking phenomenon as a passing fad or distraction. It’s here to stay and can actually be turned into a powerful productivity tool if incorporated properly into your workflow.

Just came across a useful free report from Schneider PR listing some of the key ingredients for a successful business-to-business (B2B) product or service launch.

Based on their survey results, the top ten success factors are:

1. Create a documented launch process.

2. Set a separate launch budget and make sure
it is adequate to meet the launch challenges
you face.

3. Establish your launch budget as early in the
product development phase as possible.

4. Keep your launch budget stable
throughout the implementation phase.

5. Determine your launch performance
measures before the launch begins.

6. Measure the “right” success metrics.

7. Include the “right” external launch
professionals on your team.

8. Fight for bigger budgets.

9. Educate your sales force and other internal
audiences about your new product or
service. Also focus on distributor, retailer or
dealer education.

10. Spend money on word-of-mouth campaigns
rather than on advertising.

That last point is particularly pertinent to small businesses – instead of blowing your limited budget on generic, me-too advertising, you should instead concentrate on creating a “buzz” around your product in the right circles.

Used properly, web engagement tools likes blogs, wikis and forums are ideal for initiating such word-of-mouth campaigns. Indeed, a majority of the subjects in Scheider’s study listed their online campaigns as being far more critical to the success of their new product launches than advertising.

Click here to download a copy of Schneider’s B2B Launch Survey report.

Having designed and launched a few blogs for our small business clients, I’ve learned that for the blog to succeed, the designated blogger or bloggers must develop a sustainable blogging ‘workflow’.

The workflow details – or ‘blog blueprint’ – is naturally fairly unique to each blog, but they all begin with a similar general template. The first step is to clearly define the goals of the blog. Next, you need to establish a set of processes that help generate a steady flow of relevant topics and content for the blog. Finally, practices to effectively promote the blog to its targeted audience will also need to be established.

A recent post by Chris Brogan describes the mechanics of developing a sustainable blogging workflow in some detail – well worth a read for tips on how to improve your own blogging habits.

The web forum engages and builds a community of people fascinated by the minutiae of hiFi audio – and then converting them into repeat, life-long, customers becomes almost incidental.

Read the article Here.

The Jaben Network, a small store in the Adelphi, City Hall has long been an open secret in Singapore’s small HiFi portable audio community. It finally got some mainstream press attention with an article in the Straits Times on Tuesday, commenting on the way the tiny store had managed to build an international community using a wordpress blog and web forum. On such a small scale, traditonal retail chanels were out of the question, and with such a tiny target market – the headphones can cost thousands of dollars – Jaben saw that traditional broadcast marketing woud not work.

Visit the Jaben Forums here.