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According to Gartner, SaaS (Software as a Service) will be a key element for the ecommerce market by 2013.

According to Gartner, at least 90% of eCommerce sites will leverage SaaS (Software as a Service) by 2013.  As Gene Alvarez, research vice president for Gartner, says, “The trend toward SaaS applications has affected customer relationship management (CRM) and other applications, and e-commerce isn’t exempt from this trend.”

Sitofono, my company’s click to engage SaaS, empowers eCommerce by providing a quick and effective way to engage potential customers while they came across your website looking for something to buy.

Gartner is just confirming our view and strategy for Sitofono, but it’s important that this message could quickly reach the people in charge of making ecommerce websites more and more effective. Many marketing and sales directors got it already but many others haven’t got it yet.

Technorati Tags: Business, customer engagement, Customer service, Electronic commerce, Gartner, luca filigheddu, Marketing, sitofono, Software as a service

I expressed my love for LinkedIn more than once in this blog. It’s a great and useful service and that’s the reason why I would like to share at least 14 reasons why anyone should use LinkedIn. Hope this could help people who haven’t joined this service yet and people who have under-used it so far.

1. Everyone is on LinkedIn. Being on LinkedIn means that you can be found more easily and people can find an easy way to get in touch with you. That could mean business.
2. Find people you would like to get in touch with. Through your connections, you can build a strong professional network and finding people becomes easier than ever. Your contacts can introduce you to new contacts very easily.
3. Trust: if you are on LinkedIn, people trust you more. When I try to get in touch with someone and I discover he’s not on LinkedIn, my perception is that his level of “smartness” is lower than normal and that he’s not that connected with people who count. This is not necessarily true, of course, but this is my perception at first sight.
4. More business: if you try to get in touch with someone you want to make business with through LinkedIn, the probability to succeed is much higher. This because people can have a quick look at who you are and at whom is connected to you.
5. Job Opportunities: LinkedIn is considered the most advanced and trusted Job service on the Internet. If you are willing to change your job, you can easily find thousand job offerings coming from other trusted LinkedIn users. The pro to use LinkedIn is that if you are lucky enough, the job poster could be connected with one of your contacts and ask for references about you. In this case, people trust you more, too.
6. Re-connect: through LinkedIn, you can easily find people you have used to be in touch with in the past, former colleagues, friends or business partners. What about your classmates? If you think that finding them is easier on Facebook, try LinkedIn and share your experience. You’ll be much surprised.
7. Who is the CEO of XYZ? Thanks to LinkedIn, you can easily find people who hold certain positions in companies you are interested to deal with. Who is the CEO of this company? Who is the Marketing Manager of that company? After you start building your network of trusted contacts, finding an answer to those questions will be easier than ever.
8. Show your expertise by answering questions coming from the Community. In addition, learn from others’ experiences. I found the Q&A section of LinkedIn really useful. 
9. Make better choices. Are you looking for a web developer? Look for references and get advice about web developers belonging to the LinkedIn community, you will surely get to a better choice. And this can work with any kind of professional or firm that could offer professional services you need.
10. Who is looking for you? There is an interesting option on Linkedin that lets you see who viewed your profile recently. This gives you an idea on who wants to deal with you or is looking for information about you. The starting point for a new business deal or a new job?
11. Recommend and get recommended: if you want to share your opinion about all or some of your contacts with other LinkedIn users, you can do that and this can be helpful for the whole community. At the sam time, you can get recommended by people who worked with you closely. This improve your reputation and increase opportunities to be contacted by other people who want to deal with you, hopefully with a measurable business return.
12. Contact people directly: if you want to contact the marketing manager of the company ABC, just send him a message. The more you are active on LinkedIn, the more your message will be considered and hopefully replied. This is a premium feature of LinkedIn, called InMail, but it’s really worth it when it comes to find a way to facilitate business deals. Don’t abuse of it, of course, and use it properly if you are a recipient of InMails yourself.
13. A live business card. LinkedIn is a great business card, a live profile about yourself that you can share with your contacts, with the whole LinkedIn community or with anyone who comes across your public profile. The more you share it, the most you get out of it.
14. I’m on LinkedIn. This is not really a reason. I just didn’t want to leave 13 reasons…

Technorati Tags: Business, linkedin, luca filigheddu, Marketing, social networks