How TeemingPod enhanced our Management Meet!

I have often awaited brainstorming sessions with much glee! It’s a great feeling to gather and discuss plans with diverse people from other teams. It helps one to plan further with valuable feedback and streamline the entire process. As you might guess right now, I have attended one such meet and I am glad to see it as a well-planned meet!

There is a very rich exchange of information that happens in these meets. Often, many things are exchanged in an informal way between individuals; however, this means every single person at the meet may not be aware of these conversations and inputs discussed between other team members.

This is probably the reason why I often felt a need for a structured information sharing approach due to which the whole process turns out as an enriching one for all! I also felt that information sharing should be easy and can serve as a rich source for those who are unable to be a part of all the discussions during the meet or are not able to attend the meet!

I was glad to see that we utilized social interaction to the fullest in this year’s management meet. There were various topics discussed right from leadership to strategy. There were more than 40 people who shared their views on every topic and there were some great discussion sessions. Just imagine if this discussion happened either through email or in the form of comments on a blog. Oops! What a mess it would have been with 40 people sharing and discussing their view points on every topic.

This is the moment when I can confidently say that TeemingPod deserves credit for a very structured approach I saw in these discussions. In TeemingPod, discussions were very well organized; such as the various views on the topic were well distinguished, users who are inclined towards a given view and their supporting points could be easily distinguished, which points are attracting debatable answers and so on.

Apart from all the above advantages, one more advantage which we could get out of TeemingPod was usage of all these viewpoints even later on during our group discussions! This helped one to see clearly the strengths or shortcomings of a given approach from various angles as seen in the discussions.

Probably this was the first time people indirectly contributed in individual group discussion by putting forward their view points well ahead of time.

Some astounding new ideas were also put forward and I must say, there was an amazing response! There were suggestions that came pouring in and the entire team could utilize this information to the maximum.

Not to say that such meets are complete without any presentations. These thought-provoking and decision making presentations when shared ahead of time with the people; receives a good response in terms of feedback and comments during the presentation. Sharing such presentations well ahead of time provides sufficient time for people to go through the presentation and get their queries resolved during the presentation. For those, who could not share their inputs verbally; had an option of sharing ideas through comments in TeemingPod. Hence, not a single valuable thought was lost in this process!

TeemingPod thus allows social interaction anywhere and anytime. I must say, this has been one of our most productive sessions. Are you ready to go the TeemingPod way?

A New Idea for the New Year!

It’s a brand New Year and I am sure you all must have had a very enjoyable time! There are many who may even be still extending their holiday plans! This is the time one cherishes being with family and friends. I am sure it also brings back fond memories.

The other day, I was deciding upon enhancing the way social interaction happens online and I happened to go back to my school days. The endless sessions of lessons were a great time to connect with friends on the back bench! Those are the days which actually gave me an idea about something new and useful.

I remember the classroom sessions that often made us discuss things amongst each other rather than ask questions to the professor directly. In fact, I even remember that some of the most valid points were brought up in the midst of these discussions. The main point here I would like to bring attention to is the amount of valuable information that is generated through these discussions. We can observe the same scenario in a professional setup as well. There are many presentations and conferences that are conducted to impart/share knowledge with others. In this case, I have noticed that the amount of information and discussions that happen, during and after the presentation; is a valuable resource for both the presenter and audience. The feedback however may never reach others who are not a part of the discussion or have not attended the presentation, as most of it may be purely verbal or shared online at various places.

Sharing presentations online was one way to share the PPT file with others. However, this missed the most valuable discussions which happened during the session. To share this valuable information, currently, the trend of ‘twittering’ is very widespread and is visible amongst professionals and youngsters alike. I have often noticed users posting tweets about good inputs about a presentation or an interesting conference. This however, does not give other users a clue about the actual presentation and its content. The simple reason being, a person who is reading the tweet has never seen the presentation. Either the presentation is not shared at all or is shared on a third party site which is different from where the tweets appear.

Also, when people start tweeting about the presentation; others may not know the right hash tag or keyword to use as search terms to obtain all the tweets related to that presentation.

The point I am trying to make is all this information (discussions or comments among people and the tweets on the presentation) can be more useful when it is shared at one spot so that users can connect instantly and know feedback in a structured way. In this manner, professionals giving presentations and the audience can be well-informed about the latest updates and feedback.

The importance of Twitter definitely cannot be ignored. Many tweets can actually be a value addition for one’s professional work.

I am hoping to add more value to the way we interact online. Keeping this in mind, I would surely like to know any suggestions from your side for my new idea!

The Limitations of Online Social Interactions!

Social interaction and its presence on the web can be seen in terms of the popularity of this concept. Although many sites are yet to adopt this strategy, it goes without saying that it does lend a valuable contribution to websites.

Apart from social networking websites, interaction online is useful for professionals all around the globe. It helps a firm to collaborate and solve issues even if teams are located in different areas of the world.

The most common ways of interacting within a group is through online webinar sessions. Once the date and time is fixed, everyone can attend it from any area all over the world.

However, I am sure you must have faced some issues which have been my concerns as well. I have listed these below:

• You can attend the presentation or the online meeting only if you are present online at the given time.

• If you are unable to attend it, there is no other medium through which you can know details about the discussion.

• Even if you do try to gather inputs post the presentation, you may be able to connect only with the host and trying to get in touch with all the participants would be a tough task!

• You can probably interact or know about details through mail but it does not have the same effect as a live interaction with users online.

TeemingPod users however may have experienced that social interaction continues whether or not the person is online at the same time. A user is able to share presentations and connect with others at his/her leisure. A user can even refer to the FAQ or Ideation section to know about the kind of interaction that has been going on between others.

In fact, it’s online social interaction without the restrictions!

The Burning Need for Social Interaction

There are many people who always talk about being with the times. There is a need to accept new ideas and be in sync with things happening around us! Pull on a flowered shirt today and you are considered old fashioned! A desktop is no longer the most-sought after commodity with the arrival of laptops.

As we know that tastes change, preferences can change but there are some things that should hopefully never change. (Things that bring about a smile to our face such as sumptuous home-cooked meals or listening to the pitter-patter of the raindrops!)

As the Internet rules our lives, things surely have taken a different turn in the new age. The reason could be to shop, lookup information, bank online, search for a new eat-out, etc. The Internet serves as a medium for our every need. But then, in a fast-paced environment, how connected are we really? Actual interaction between people has reduced visibly, as users resort to social interaction online.

Social interaction is required not only on a personal one-to-one basis, but even online. Net addicts turn to chat to find friends and connect. A website that contains these modes to connect with users is most popular. Social networking sites such as Facebook or Orkut are therefore successful as users sign up to stay connected with old friends or discover new friends! It’s time we embrace the change and equip ourselves in the best possible way!

The Much-Needed Factor for Websites: Social Interaction

The other day, I was checking my mail and I realized I had received an email from a very earnest person. I wish to share some of his concerns with you.

It went in this manner….

“I have a very talented design team who has used their creativity to come up with an excellent design for my product site. The website includes a display of all the products with details required by my consumers. It also contains a varied range! Yet, I feel that I do not have the right kind of response that I wish to generate for this website. Please have a look at my website and kindly let me know where the problem exists for the site.”

The first thing that struck me after reading this post was that if the website is good then why should he seek feedback a person who has never visited his website before? It would definitely make sense to talk to his visitors directly and check out their views and opinions. Well, still wearing a critique’s hat I surfed through this website to see what could be the issue.

My first impression was exactly how the mail stated; it was attractive and interesting to look at. I could view all the pages with ease. Yet, there was an element that seemed missing from the picture.

I saw everything seemed fine in terms of design. The missing piece seemed the lack of activity on the web page! The web pages and their product display played the function of attracting the users. The thing about the website was that it did not create any action for the user!

The website basically lacked a very important factor - creation of social interaction amongst users. This is why the website owner did not receive the desired results. One may wonder what the importance of social interaction is! The answer lies in the results which are seen after the use of social interaction!

What happened here was that due to lack of interaction with the consumer, the website owner had to resort to seeking my advice. This not only created a longer channel for the website owner, it did not give him the chance of knowing the consumer opinions!

The use of social interaction on the web pages would solve many things! This gives the website owner a chance to interact with the users online. Users can put forth their views. This gives better and faster results once the changes are implemented. These changes when implemented also make consumers feel that their suggestions are valued. It only generates loyal traffic for the website!

One can use many ways to interact with users. The use of a Presentation slide show that showcases the latest achievements of the week may garner more interest. This can make a user take active interest and watch the slide show of the products, either to submit comments or view those from other users.

The website users should also get a chance to interact with each other that helps them to discover more about the options being offered on a website. There could be an FAQ, which users refer to for information posted on a website. They can also ask their questions to which other users or a website owner can answer. In this manner, live chats, sharing of images or links can be utilized to make the whole experience socially interactive!

Implementing social interaction on a website helps users to interact amongst each other, which in turn proves to be useful for a website. Apart from creative presentations, a website that obtains feedback from users will get better results!

This is what I finally replied to the email I had received. I received a long email thereafter that thanked me for everything!

The Latest Brew: Social Interaction!

Walking through the cobbled street always gave me a sense of pleasure every morning. It was like a complete experience, passing by the green lawns and shops bustling with activity in the busy morning hours! I loved looking at these scenes and nodding a quick ‘Good Morning’ to people around. It is on this note I would like to share something interesting with you!

As I said before, I loved walking through this street. The thing I loved doing most was sipping on a cup of coffee and looking across lazily at the people across the street. The enticing aroma of coffee tempted me to stop by for a sip! The presence of two coffee shops on this lane drew many people throughout the day. I always ensured I visited both throughout the week. The total crowd that visited these shops always seemed equal in number. While one was named ‘Java Lovers’, the other was named as ‘Something’s Brewing!’ I loved being at both places as the crowd and ambience rocked. I noticed for many months that the number of people that visited these coffee shops were equal.

Then, it was on a sunny morning, when I passed through this lane again, I realized, ‘Something’s Brewing’ seemed a little more packed than ever. This scenario continued for many more weeks. Whenever I passed by this lane, I wondered what the buzz was all about! Yet, as I wondered, I shyly went into the other coffee shop for my brew!

It was then I decided that I need to visit ‘Something’s Brewing’ to find out what brought about such a change in the number of customers. As I pushed the glass door open, I was greeted by a large number of people happily sipping their cup of coffee over conversation. I managed to locate an empty seat in the corner and turned into the silent observer. As I observed, I noticed the guy behind the counter read things out aloud whilst looking at his mobile phone. I leaned forward to hear and I could catch some latest gossip being read out. “Jennifer Anniston will be featured on the latest issue of Vogue”, he said. The people listening in turn gathered around him for more gossip and of course, cups of hot, steaming coffee! After a few minutes, he announced some more news items related to technology. This immediately caught the attention of the professional crowd sitting on the other side! The person behind the counter was doing a marvelous job of reading latest updates from his cell phone and engaging the people present there. I even saw two groups mingle together and share their table for more cups of coffee and goodies.

I rested back in my chair and was surprised to see some people approach me in a bid to have a general chit chat! I chatted around and as I left the coffee shop, a little delayed, I realized I have made 2 new friends! The following morning I was eager to meet the same. As before, the same person announced latest news updates and I met up with my new set of friends! With time, I felt my friend circle increase! A simple change of strategy changed things not only in the coffee shop, but even the way I spent time! There was more than just something brewing in ‘Something’s Brewing’!

A simple change in business strategy helped ‘Something’s Brewing’! It soon became the most popular hangout in this area! This shows the power of social interaction. It can even be applied to a website. Social interaction when applied to a website can give the website owner more traffic! Once users interact with each other rather than going through normal text and visuals, it surely has a different effect. Users tend to return back to the website to interact and befriend other users. It proves to an effective way to increase traffic and also the stickiness factor for the website. Websites with social interaction tools on their pages will surely stand out from the rest! So, are you game for the same?

Five Tips for Building a Successful Online Community

We are all aware about online communities and how they bring about like-minded people together. These are now touted as one of the busiest places online. Although setting up an online community is definitely not rocket science, there is more to it than meets the eye! A community manager needs to be prepared to tackle things in the appropriate manner to ensure active participation in the community to make it a ‘go to’ place for its target audience.

There’s no secret to building communities online…but there’s surely a basic formula for its success. Let me share with you five tips that you must get right to build a successful online community!

1. Content Should be Classified

An online community that contains a haphazard display of information only leads to more confusion! A user needs information to be classified properly while searching for it. A threaded discussion will increase interaction amongst users. A structured and organized approached ensures better participation from users.

2. Allow Users to Interact and Express their Opinions

To ensure you achieve a success rate for your online community, you must allow users to interact freely and let them be a judge of the activities. A user needs to be able to express her/his views freely. For example, if a user likes a particular post; he/she should be able to vote for it. Or if the user gets an answer to a query, he/she should be able to mark it as complete so that others know the thread has been ended successfully. Allow users to judge each other so that it builds an appropriate environment for the community.

3. Follow the Basic Rules of Netiquette

The basic purpose of a community is to provide an exclusive space online, for people to interact and discuss. In that case, every user needs to be given freedom to post his/her views as long as it adheres to the rules of the community. Answers that are posted to questions can be replied with a simple ‘Thank You’. This can work wonders! Appreciation for other users is important. That’s what netiquette is all about!

4. Easy-to-Use Tools/Features

To build a successful community online also requires the use of appropriate tools. Some of the most commonly used community building tools are chats, message boards, emails, etc. These tools should be easy-to-use to ensure easy social interaction amongst users. Social community tools should make interaction exciting and provide options such as email alerts that keep a user informed about any new post in a thread. Addition of useful features in a structured way without disrupting the natural flow of conversation is very important for successful community building.

5. Ensure Good Leadership

A successful community needs a good leader or a moderator who takes care of the content and the social interactions amongst users. A good moderator is one who ensures the right kind of attitude is maintained throughout the forums being discussed. A moderator who does not weigh down his/her presence yet ensures decorum is maintained is bound to have a more interactive and focused community. A community can have more than one moderator or expert panel to ensure that the responsibilities are divided.

A successful community thus needs the combination of right features and tools and all the points mentioned above. Eventually, community managers would hope for a tool that encompasses all the above points.

TeemingPod is a tool that is very apt for setting up a community for all the above stated reasons. With TeemingPod, you get to use different activities such as Presentation, Ideation, Spot Polls, Discussions, etc which are needed to keep a community informative and engaging. Apart from this, features such as email alerts and rating allow more options through one mode. It allows users to extract useful information in a PDF format for their future usage which is a unique advantage for community users. All this is possible without straying away from the main page. This ensures that attention is concentrated on one spot despite many activities being carried out by users.

Although the Internet trends have changed over the years, the bottom line remains that users love sharing and interacting online, amongst each other. After all, enhancing this user experience is what TeemingPod does best!

See how Easy it is to Make your Web Pages Socially Interactive!

We have all seen how TeemingPod increases social interaction amongst users! With TeemingPod, all you need to do is use the various activities to communicate with users in a structured way. With TeemingPod, you provide a space for users to interact better and also increase the stickiness and engagement factor for a web site.
Well, you won’t know the sheer magic of TeemingPod unless you take a trial for yourself. To register for the free trial, check out the guided tour that highlights the steps to be followed.

Bridging the Gap between a Government and its Citizens…

Technology is something that’s always undergoing constant change. Adapting to it and making the best use of it is the smartest option in today’s times! Take a look at the way the Internet has taken the world by storm and brought people closer to each other. With the advent of Web 2.0, things have taken a different turn. Today, business enterprises of all sorts are making the maximum use of the Internet and new trends to reap rewards!

When so many organizations and business enterprises are following this route, there are certain sectors that genuinely need to implement these ideas to have better and quicker results. A Government is responsible for different laws and rules that are enforced in a nation. Many organizations are aptly making use of new technologies for better service. Similarly, a Government needs to think on similar lines. In fact, many public service organizations are recognizing the possibilities of the same. Reaching out to citizens is of utmost importance for any such organization. The citizens of today expect a more personalized and receptive service from a Government. In that case, it is necessary that any Governmental organization should be able to interact effectively with its citizens.

Many organizations always have a web site to connect with users. A web site then best represents what the Government is planning for the citizens, their agenda, etc. A web site can turn out to be the main communication point where millions of users come together electronically to collaborate about different issues. Citizens, users in this case, nowadays know that they have the power to voice their opinions. A Government also needs to garner feedback to know about issues that concern citizens and focus on things that need attention.

Governments around the world are making efforts to interact with people. Since citizens require that the Government should involve their opinions or set priorities according to the needs of the citizens, there comes a need for a two-way dialogue which is beyond press conferences or simple surveys.

A web site can serve as a two-way communication medium between the Government and citizens. A web site can be made socially interactive wherein people can be educated about their rights and they can respond by sharing their ideas and thoughts. A web site then needs to be empowered with the right tools to ensure that citizens are able to interact and share their ideas and thoughts.

For example, the web site can include many socially interactive activities such as discussions and polls. People can share their viewpoints and provide opinion on various topics through such discussion activities. There can be a FAQ which can be used to inform people about their rights and people can help each other to resolve their queries.

An important aspect of all such discussions is that it needs to be structured and presented in a way that people can easily find and relate to it. If the information is presented in an abrupt way it would increase confusion amongst the citizens, driving them away from the discussion.

To increase citizen engagement and ensure active participation, Government web sites need a tool that can be used effectively by both citizens and Government bodies. A Government should be able to harness the discussion in proper format for further reference while making decisions.

TeemingPod is one such mode through which all these requirements can be met successfully. With TeemingPod on a web page, one can start a discussion or share opinions and ideas with great ease. This not only enhances the way a Government can perform, it bridges the gap between the Government and the citizens! Truly a path-breaking idea!

The Much-Needed Makeover for Communities and Forums!

With the surge in social networking web sites, it is almost like a norm to be connected to each other through these sites. Logging in to a site and being updated with everything connected to your friends’ lives is like an addiction! Timely updates help us to keep a track on what’s happening in town or the hippest party for the weekend. There are many like me, who use web sites like these to find and interact with likeminded people on the web.

I am a member of various web design communities which I often visit to be updated about the latest trends in this field. Last week, I was reading an article on web design tools and I had few questions about the points mentioned in that article. I was very anxious and I felt it would have been good if I could have a community on this very page itself so that I could ask my questions and get instant feedback! I knew that there were many people at that very moment who were reading the same article. It would have been great if I could interact with them directly rather than going to other web sites and forums and posting my queries there. This usually translates into an endless wait that lasts for days or maybe even months, to get my queries resolved.

This is a common problem with most of the communities and forums. Most of the communities are not in context with what we are reading. Hence, I still feel disconnected with the people who are interested in reading the same article which I am reading at that moment. Many communities serve as a good meeting point to share information rather than discuss and interact on the topics. This creates the need to have an easy solution where people of similar interests can discuss and share things easily with one another on the go.

Thankfully, there is a tool named TeemingPod! It allows users to interact and share information online through various activities. Keeping the needs of the users in mind, TeemingPod is engineered to make social interaction much easier! Once you float TeemingPod on your page, you can begin a discussion, generate a poll, gather diverse views, post important links on various subjects and much more! Use it on your own web site and see an increase in the engagement factor amongst users. Allow users to interact on the topic on that page itself to get faster and better results.

The complete answer to online social interaction…TeemingPod. Bring about a new wave of innovation online!

Online Shopping Just Became an Interactive Venture!

We all know how shopping is amongst the most favored activities and this is evident with the number of boutiques and shopping malls that are mushrooming every where. Retail therapy is very much in vogue and companies are doing their best to woo customers! From up-market shopping areas to classy service for esteemed clientèle, companies are constantly trying to upgrade their approach towards the way they handle their steady clientèle.

Websites are often the face of the company as it gives information regarding the company, products offered and services etc. Online shopping is often considered to be an easy option by people who do not find the time to browse through stores. It’s a must therefore to have a web site that portrays the company in the correct manner and creates interaction amongst the users and even with the web site owner.

As a web site owner of any clothing brand or designer label, you must bear in mind that you need to attract users and interact with them. Trusted customers can interact with other customers too, sharing their experiences about the site and products. The addition of such types of interactions gives an added boost to a well-designed layout.

You can let customers share their views about a product through a discussion. How about answering queries put forth by customers through FAQ where the answers are provided by other customers, who have used the product or service. This proves to be a better solution rather than waiting for a support representative to answer such questions! Customers are more comfortable while purchasing certain things once they know that some another customer with a similar requirement has purchased it earlier and the product has fulfilled its requirements to the fullest.

Set up a poll for your customers to know their priorities, like’s and dislikes. You can involve customers to create various new product reviews. Let your customers experience that your web site allows them to interact with other customers and that their inputs are valuable for you. With social interactions, you can’t really go wrong with your business goal. Fret not! All this can be done through one single social interaction tool named TeemingPod.

TeemingPod allows you to embed social interactions right inside your web site. A user does not have to leave your web site to know more about the product. You can enjoy interacting with your customers using FAQ, Spot Polls, Debates etc. in a structured way that gets rid of the clutter. TeemingPod will thus provide a space for people who share similar interests to get together and interact in one Pod on a web page. Now, watch that do wonders for your business profile!

I think you sure do need to check out the free trial to know what TeemingPod is all about! I am sure; you will not be able to resist the temptation to float your own Pod on the web site!

Click here for a free trial.

Online Meetings Made Engaging Through TeemingPod

Meetings and conferences, these are a part of a professional life. Be it any profession, meeting together for brainstorming sessions or conducting conferences with clients who are overseas is a must for any business. This is when we have conference calls or webinar sessions to discuss, solve, disseminate information or even conduct polls to gather majority opinion. I am sure everyone of us have already faced such situations on the professional front. 

A typical day in any professional company requires one to interact with team members and conduct group discussions for a given task. With the teams going global, all of these team members are never in the same premises to book a conference room and resolve the matter. Also, due to busy schedules, it becomes difficult to gather all of them under one roof. Hence, most conference meetings or webinars are conducted online. During the call if a decision needs to be made, the message is sent via chat to which the members reply using the same chat window. The chat window displays the views of all the members in a very unorganized way making it very difficult to take a decision immediately.

So, how does one probably ease such situations at work? It is necessary that one finds an easy way to organize information and make use of a fixed structure to make faster and timely decisions.

TeemingPod is a tool which helps to organize information in a structured way and streamline the whole process. It is a SaaS component which enables you to add powerful social interactions right into your web pages. With TeemingPod, you can interact on any web page without moving from the current page. 

You might wonder how a social interaction tool can help in such online meetings! Well, it's pretty simple. You can create a TeemingPod account and invite all your team members to that pod. Pre-meeting, members can add their queries and concerns in the pod to which others can reply using FAQ and discussion activities. Hence, before the meeting commences, all the members can share information, thus making the calls more fruitful and decisive. During the call, everyone can login to the pod and can ask questions and reply to answers, share useful links etc., thus sharing information in a structured way.

When the times comes to take a decision, all of them can cast their vote and TeemingPod can show instant results in various graphical forms like pie-chart and bar graph. Thus, it helps to take instant decisions.

To add to its advantages, users can take a back-up of discussions in the pod for future reference! To top it all, it can be done in a structured and detailed way. Isn’t this something everyone loves to view as compared to an unformatted text file?

This approach is not only being used by teams for discussions or taking decisions, but also being used by CEOs to make a company wide presentation to share its vision!

Isn’t this just the right tool to be used for making any live presentation? We leave that up to you once you check out the free trial session!

Add Powerful Social Interactions, Easily…

A typical day in any professional company is never complete without discussions, meetings, brainstorming sessions and exchange of ideas and opinions. This can include collaborating with larger groups of people and trying to note down everyone’s ideas and suggestions. After all, social interaction is very much necessary if you wish to perform well in any given task. And this is something I first noticed when I began my steps on the professional front. I had to converse and meet many team members to know about the thought process and ways to improve my project.

A simple situation that I faced while collecting data for my project was the need to mingle with different team members. A senior suggested the use of online webinar and conference sessions. I eagerly lapped the idea and the end result – plenty of documents that had to be sorted out and a need to maintain everybody’s viewpoints. With already more than enough work on hand, I had this additional task of taking care of inputs and maintaining all views of people who did not agree with the reports.

Then one fine sunny evening, things changed when the team members yelled ‘Eureka!’ When I did grasp what all the excitement was about, I almost joined in the encore. They were celebrating the creation of a very unique product. This was designed to make social interactions easy and gave a whole new definition to the way a person interacted online!

TeemingPod, the new product on the block, is an innovative idea created by our team of inspiring engineers. TeemingPod surely changes the way a person interacts online. With this product, a user can use powerful social interactions right inside a web page to interact with others. It also provides a structured way of storing information which helps reduce all the discussion clutter stored in document format.

So did TeemingPod change the way I work?! It is a true marvel that now I can start a discussion or a poll required in one go and contact the concerned group through TeemingPod. Within a matter of minutes I can know about a group opinion in a single meeting! The FAQ section is where we post any questions related to the task and receive valuable and genuine feedback from all team members. It helps us to clear our doubts before the meeting. Thus we all are on the same platform and the meetings are much more fruitful.

Further, debate activity is the one which has resolved most of my issues. Through this activity I can review important, contradictory inputs from different sets of people without maintaining them in multiple documents. This also becomes helpful for all of us to refer to in our further follow-up meetings. Through the Link Set option, we can share important work-related links for reviews. The Tag Cloud section is where I can share and search for key words that saves time for the entire team!

Since then, there has been a complete change in the way my entire team works. We no longer have to manage multiple files that contain inputs. Our meetings have become more fruitful as most of the background information is already shared through TeemingPod for all of us to look at. Apart from saving time, TeemingPod added a fun element to the way we work. So, isn’t it time you tried it out as well?

Social Interaction - Way To Boost Your Web Site

Surveys have confirmed that the main growth in the use of the Internet is in the area of "networking". Connecting people is a significant part of the Internet through use of web sites to discuss things with like-minded people.

Until recently, the only way of being connected was via email. That is mostly one-to-one and has inherent delays. Nowadays, you can share text, audio and video using social networking sites. These are not one-to-one, but many-to-many and are also immediate. Groups of like-minded people are getting together, swapping information and passing on useful ideas and products.

But for those people trying to earn money online, it's good to understand the fact that there is this essential human need for people to interconnect when online. If your business web site doesn't have any means of interconnection, you are less likely to attract the modern Internet user, who sees interaction as fundamental. No longer can your business rely on a support email address or a "contact us" form.

These days you need to allow your web site visitors to interact with you AND with each other. That means you need a forum, for instance, or at the very least a blog where people can comment on what you've written. You could also do with the ability for people to add content to your web site, such as articles, images or video clip. Such features in a business web site will help create a sense of belonging, of identity.

In the future a good business web site will be one where a community of people meet together to discuss what the business offers. Internet users in the modern broadband connected world want interactivity. If your web site doesn't offer some kind of interactive feature, you will lose out to competing web sites that do.

TeemingPod is one such a way to allow people to interact with YOU and other site visitors. It is a platform that helps you embed powerful social interactions right inside a web page. It allows people to interact in various forms like discussions, doing a poll, sharing useful links etc. It also has a cool looking user interface to attract more visitors to use it.

To know how TeemingPod helps sizzle up your website, check out this post.
To know how TeemingPod helps add interaction to your site, visit our website or view demo.

Speaking of Eating Your Own Dog Food…

TeemingPod was designed for web developers who want to add social interaction to sites and applications. As someone involved in the making of TeemingPod, I’m quite excited about the platform. So, when someone asked me last week “How do YOU use TeemingPod?” I thought I would reply through this post.

Speaking of eating your own dog food, we use TeemingPod in a variety of innovative ways, and today I am going to describe the most unusual one.

The TeemingPod product team uses TeemingPod to report their daily work activities. Surprised? Wonder how they do it? Read on…

First, the background. Flash back to January 2008. Every Friday, my inbox received weekly reports from all ten engineers in the product team, and my task was to consolidate them in one report. It was a tedious job to get a snapshot of the week’s output from ten different reports. It got worse as the team grew.

There were further challenges: keeping the reports organized in folders, making them accessible during travel, tracking who has not reported, going back and forth to get reports in the right format, and so on. All this consumed a huge amount of my productive time.

Now, the big idea. One Friday, when I was fretting over this weekly chore, one team member came up with a bright idea: Can’t we use TeemingPod instead of these reports?

The objections were immediate: TeemingPod has polls, debates, FAQs and so on, but it does not have a “Reporting” activity. That wouldn’t stop our creative minds, so someone suggested: Can’t we use the Debate activity for reporting?

“How so?” I asked. And the ideas flowed. Everyday, we could create a “debate”, identified by today’s date as the “topic.” Every team member’s work becomes a “view” within the debate. Each team member simply logs into the pod and enters his “view” of the day. The team manager accesses the pod to get a daily report.

That day we realized that creativity has not stopped at the product itself, but it continues on how can we effectively use a TeemingPod activity in our day-to-day life.

The system went into operation in February 2008.

Fast forward to today. We have been using this reporting mechanism for almost a year now. Our team reports that TeemingPod has had over 250 “debates” as of today, which I can scan in no time by simply accessing the pod. I can search for information in a single click. Now searching for information like bug 239 is no longer time-consuming. Nor do I have to worry about reports while traveling. There is no headache of arranging them in a proper format and no back and forth of emails. It is all there in a single pod and a single click away, anytime, anywhere!

Of course, the content of the pod is secured, as only my team members are invited to the pod.

Now for the bonus benefits. TeemingPod has helped me a lot to raise my team’s enthusiasm and motivation. If a team member does a great job or solves a complex issue, I simply give him or her a TeamingPod thumbs-up. This increases their ranking on that day (their view’s ranking in the debate). This has introduced a healthy competition within the team to do their task in the best possible way and become the team member of the day.

This is how we have been using TeemingPod as a daily reporting tool for a year. I can definitely state that usage of TeemingPod is limited only by its users’ creativity!

Increasing stickiness and engagement of website

When taking a stock of things that happened in 2008, I was thinking of few terms in Web world which have ruled the market. Some of the terms which came to my mind were mash-ups, web services, micro-blogging, social networking etc. A major challenge faced by every website in 2008 was to increase stickiness and engagement of the web site so that the user spends maximum time on web site.

There is a subtle difference between stickiness and engagement which makes a huge difference on how you design your web page. A fine balance must be struck between stickiness and engagement.

Stickiness concerns itself with keeping the user on the page whereas engagement has to do with keeping user involved in doing something. Most engagement tools (hyperlinks, buttons, blog links etc) actually drive the user away from the webpage, thus reducing stickiness. On the other hand stickiness enhancing tools (widgets, mash-ups, RSS feeds etc) end up in a one-way communication, eliminating engagement.

Below is a graph which shows Engagement vs. Stickiness.

Websites which are designed for Content Syndication is an example of high stickiness, but low engagement.

iGoogle / Gaming websites are a good example of website which has high engagement but low stickiness.

When we write an article and just provide few related references of other articles/websites, has neither engagement nor stickiness.

The right way to make a web page interactive is to provide both engagement and stickiness. Hence, to provide high engagement and stickiness to your web page, it should be embedded with social interaction. TeemingPod is a great way to embed social interactions in any web page. To know the process of embedding TeemingPod in your web page, click here.

Increasing Social Interaction in a Blog Using TeemingPod

As blogging evolves, one natural trend that is emerging strongly is making your blog more social. It becomes less of something to simply read, and more of a community destination in which to interact.

TeemingPod is a platform that helps you embed powerful social interactions right inside any web page, such as your blog. It provides a space on the blog for readers to do things together. It enables users to poll, debate, ask questions, leave useful links and perform group search. The idea is to bring community features to life on your blog and to stimulate social interaction.

The process for adding TeemingPod to your blog is quick and easy. TeemingPod provides a small code snippet which you can drop in your blog page easily.

Depending on how you want to control access to social interactions on your blog, TeemingPod provides two options.

TeemingPod provides public pods where blog readers can contribute to the pod with a “Guest” identity.

TeemingPod also supports private pods where user can login to the pod using her/his TeemingPod login, if she/he is a member of that pod.

Blogger has moderation rights for the pod to remove unwanted content. This keeps the social collaboration space clean and free of unwanted clutter. Blogger can also extract data from TeemingPod to a simple text file for further reference.

TeemingPod adds all the Web2.0 sizzle to any web page in no time, and your blog is no exception. This in turn increases stickiness and engagement of your blog. To read an interesting post on the tradeoffs between stickiness and engagement, do read our next article on this blog.