Microsoft\'s Ballmer to retire in 12 months

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, who helped Bill Gates transform the company from a tiny startup into the world's most valuable business, announced plans Friday to retire sometime in the next year, a move that presents another challenge to the tech giant as it struggles to move beyond the era of the personal computer.

Microsoft and other companies that thrived in the PC business have been scrambling to win back consumers who increasingly prefer smartphones and tablets.

Detractors say Ballmer contributed to the situation by not taking early threats from Apple and Google seriously enough. He consistently pooh-poohed Google as a one-trick company and in 2007 declared: "No chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share."

Ballmer's jeers proved premature. Google quickly made important inroads in Internet video, online maps, email and mobile computing. Those successes contributed to the damage that Apple's iPhone and iPad did to Microsoft and its partners in thePC market.

Although it derives some three-quarters of its revenue from sales of software and services to businesses, Microsoft has failed to capture the imagination of consumers who have become more enamored with mobile gadgets.

Response to the newest version of its flagship Windows operating system, Windows 8, has been lukewarm.

When Ballmer took the helm in January 2000, the company was worth more than US$601 billion. Today, its value is less than half that amount, at nearly US$270 billion.

"There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time," Ballmer, 57, said in a statement. He planned to stay on until a replacement is found. Microsoft said the search committee would include Gates.

After the news broke, Microsoft's stock shot up as much as 9 per cent and later came within two dollars of a 52-week high.

Ballmer's announcement comes less than two months after the company unveiled a sweeping reorganization of its business i! n an attempt to catch up with Apple and Google.

In his statement, Ballmer noted that Microsoft is moving in a new direction and needs a CEO that will be there for the longer term.

Microsoft, he added, "has all its best days ahead."

Ballmer met Gates in 1973 while they were living down a dormitory hall from each other at Harvard University. He joined Microsoft in 1980 to bring some business discipline and salesmanship to a company that had just landed a contract to supply an operating system for a personal computer that IBM would release in 1981.

Ballmer, a zealous executive prone to arm-waving and hollering, did the job so well that he would become Gates' sounding board and succeed him as CEO. He has worked at Microsoft for 33 years, matching the tenure of Gates, who left the company in 2008.

Though investors cheered the news on Friday, BGC financial analyst Colin Gillis cautioned that it could be a "tough 12 months" for the company.

The obvious successor former Widows head Steven Sinofsky got booted by Ballmer, he said.

Sinofsky left the company last year shortly after the launch of Windows 8. He recently announced that he joined the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Veteran executive Julie Larson-Green, the head of Microsoft's devices and studios engineering group, has been floated as a potential successor. She was promoted to her most recent position in July, after being tapped in November to lead all Windows software and hardware engineering.

Although the company said Friday that it will consider both internal and external candidates, some analysts are betting that the company's next leader will come from outside.

When Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980, it was populated with geeky programmers, led by Gates and the other founder, Paul Allen. Ballmer had already held a product-management job at Procter & Gamble and was attending Stanford University's graduate school of business when Gates convinced him to move to the Seatt! le area t! o whip Microsoft into shape.

Ballmer dropped out of Stanford, but only after Gates agreed to give him an 8.75 per cent stake in the then-tiny startup that had not even incorporated as a company. It turned out to be one of the world's greatest business partnerships.

By late 2012, Ballmer had accumulated an estimated fortune of nearly $16 billion from his initial Microsoft stake and additional stock options he later received.

He also was instrumental in growing Microsoft from a company that had fewer than 40 employees and $12 million in annual revenue when he came aboard. In 2012, Microsoft had 94,000 employees and $74 billion in annual revenue.

When he took to the stage to extol Microsoft, Ballmer often acted more like a crazed cheerleader than the chief executive of an influential company. In one presentation that eventually became a viral sensation on the Internet, Ballmer bounded across the stage, jumping up and down while yelping and imploring the audience to stand up, before reathlessly proclaiming, "I LOVE THIS COMPANY!"

But Microsoft enjoyed its greatest success with Gates at the helm and Ballmer as his sidekick.

Gates turned over the reins to Ballmer in January 2000 in what was considered to be a surprise move, because Ballmer had been considered more of a numbers and sales specialist, not a technology specialist.

The CEO change came just a few weeks after Microsoft's stock hit a record high of nearly $60, on a split-adjusted basis.

Janney Capital Markets analyst Yun Kim said investors shouldn't get too excited, because the company itself won't change overnight.

Kim said the new CEO, who will likely come from outside the company, faces the "daunting task" of making Windows relevant amid the continued consumer shift away from PCs.

Ted Schadler, an analyst at Forrester, said that while some may try to write its obituary, Microsoft still has some reliable cash cows. Its software, like Windows and Office, is still popular. So is M! icrosoft ! Enterprise, which helps big companies run databases, and the Xbox gaming system. Schadler noted that about 70 per cent of business email is still sent on Microsoft software.

Part of Microsoft's downfall stemmed from the bursting of a technology bubble that helped inflate the company's stock just before Ballmer took over.

But Microsoft also fell out of favor because many investors concluded that it was more interested in protecting its Windows franchise than coming up with new ideas and products to enter promising new markets.

By the time Ballmer took Google more seriously and began pouring money into a better Internet search engine, Microsoft already was hopelessly behind. The company's online division lost billions of dollars without putting a serious dent into Google's dominance of the field.

Google's rise riled the quick-tempered Ballmer, especially when key Microsoft engineers began defecting to the then-smaller company. After one Microsoft employee met with Ballmer in Novembr 2004 to tell him he was leaving to join Google, Ballmer threw a chair across his office, according to a sworn declaration filed in a lawsuit. Ballmer then launched into an obscenity-laced tirade In which vowed to "kill" Google.

By 2012, the iPhone was generating more revenue than Microsoft was as an entire company and giving people less reason to replace their PCs. Again, Ballmer had to scramble to adapt and ordered a dramatic makeover of Windows so it could run on mobile devices as well.

The new system, Windows 8, borrowed many of its ideas from the software that ran the iPhone, just as Microsoft had copied some of the concepts for its early versions of Windows from Apple's Macintosh.

Meanwhile, the iPhone's immense popularity helped Apple overtake Microsoft as the world's most valuable company while Ballmer was CEO.

Microsoft also absorbed a $900 million charge to its most recent quarterly earnings to account for its expected losses from a company-produced Surface tabl! et that r! elies on a slimmed-down version of Windows 8 called RT.

Microsoft shares rose $2.36, or over 7 per cent, to close at $34.75. Over the past 52 weeks, the company's shares have traded between $26.26 and $36.43.

- AP



How to Create a LinkedIn Company Page That Drives Sales

linked

There’s no better time to create or update your LinkedIn company page.  With the July 31, 2013 launch of LinkedIn company page analytics, and new company page functionality launched in late 2012, you now have better tools.

Below I give you a step-by-step guide to creating a LinkedIn company page that rocks â€" and drives sales.

Before You Get Started

Before you consider adding a new company page, make sure that you can meet all of LinkedIn’s requirements:

  • You’re a current company employee.
  • Your position is listed in the Experience section on your profile.
  • You have a company email address (e.g., james@yourcompanyname.com) added and confirmed on your LinkedIn account.
  • Your company’s email domain is unique to the company. (Note: A domain cannot be used more than once to create a company page. Because domains like gmail.com or yahoo.com or similar generic email services are not unique to one company, those email domains cannot be used to create a company page.)
  • Your profile strength must be listed as intermediate or all star.
  • You must have several connections on your personal profile.

Create a Sales-Driving LinkedIn Company Page

As recommended for your personal profile in “5 Essential Elements of an Optimized and Useful LinkedIn Profile,” make sure that you complete all areas in your LinkedIn company page.  The more attention you pay to detail, the better and more powerful your company page will be.

Start by filling out the company overview section.

Company Overview

  • Step 1:  Choose “Companies” Under the “Interests” section on the main page.
  • Step 2:  On the next page, choose “Add a Company” from the right-hand side of the page button.
  • Step 3:  On the next page, fill in your company information (company name and your email address) and check the confirmation box.
  • Step 4:  After receiving an email from LinkedIn confirming your page, you can go to your company page and start inputting your information.

The information you need to fill in includes company language, name, type, size, website, industry, operating status, year founded and locations. When putting your description together, make sure you include appropriate keywords.  You’ll be able to describe products and services in detail in another section. The company description is critical.

According to Lana Khavinson of LinkedIn, “Google indexes company pages, which means your page becomes a tool for strengthening your company’s rank in organic search results. The results will also display the first 156 characters of your company description, so be sure to lead with the most important information.”

  • Step 5: Add a banner image and logos. The banner image is what people will see first when they visit your Company Page, so make sure it’s consistent with the Company image you want to portray. Here are the image requirements, which must be either jpg, png or gif formats:  Image - Minimum 646 x 220 pixels, maximum 2 MB. Logo - 100 x 60 pixels, maximum 2 MB.

After you’ve filled everything out, click “publish.”  Your page will now be live.

Add Products and Services

Next, you’ll want to include information on your Products page.  These can be products or services you offer.

  • Step 1:  Go to your Main Company page and choose “products.”
  • Step 2:  After clicking on “edit page” on the right-hand side, choose “add product or service” from the drop-down menu, and you’ll get to this page:

linkedin company page

This seems pretty daunting, which is why many people don’t fill out this part.

However, you’d be missing out on incredible opportunities if you don’t.  So spend a few minutes and input the information.  Don’t forget to include keywords in the description, images and video if you have any.

And remember:  since many people don’t bother to fill out this section, by being thorough you may gain an advantage over competitors.

  • Step 3: After you’ve filled everything out, click “publish” and the page will go live on LinkedIn.

Add Product and Service Overview

  • Step 1:  Go to your main company page and choose “products.”
  • Step 2:  After clicking on “edit page” on the right-hand side, choose “edit page” in the drop-down menu, and you’ll get to a page with the following: Step 1:  Create multiple variations of this page (we’ll skip this for now). Step 2:  Describe what your company offers.

Call to Action

In addition to the title, you can include a summary description of your products and services. I also like to use this area to include a call to action.

If someone is spending the time to review your products and services, you don’t want him or her to leave without (hopefully) providing contact information. That way you will be able to continue to market to your prospect. In exchange for your prospect’s contact information, you should provide something in return  - a free report, ebook, etc.

There are several ways to include calls to action on your products page. One is to build a link into your product banner image, similar to the “free demo” offered by Hubspot:

Hubspot linkedin company page

InSegment, a full service digital marketing agency based in Newton, MA,  gained a 200% traffic increase from LinkedIn to their website. How? They added banners with a clickable “Learn More” and website URL to the top of their LinkedIn company pages:

InSegment linkedin company page

Another way is to include a call to action in the description section of the products page. On the overview page, you can also add a YouTube video and 3 banner images.

  • Step 3: Next, you can change the order of the products you show.  The first one is the most important, as it will also appear on your LinkedIn company home page:

After you’ve filled everything out, click “publish” and the page will go live on LinkedIn.

Request Product and Service Recommendations

Once you’ve added your products and services, you can get recommendations for them. Recommendations are very powerful sales tools.  You’ll just need to go to your product page and click on “request recommendations.” You’ll get a pre-filled out request form that you can modify â€" or use as is.

Careers

Is hiring and promoting job opportunities important to your company? If so, you may be interested in upgrading your company pages to be able to add the “careers” button on your company page.

Final Thoughts

For more inspiration, check out LinkedIn’s top company pages of 2012 in this Shideshare presentation:




How to Create a LinkedIn Company Page That Drives Sales

linked

There’s no better time to create or update your LinkedIn company page.  With the July 31, 2013 launch of LinkedIn company page analytics, and new company page functionality launched in late 2012, you now have better tools.

Below I give you a step-by-step guide to creating a LinkedIn company page that rocks â€" and drives sales.

Before You Get Started

Before you consider adding a new company page, make sure that you can meet all of LinkedIn’s requirements:

  • You’re a current company employee.
  • Your position is listed in the Experience section on your profile.
  • You have a company email address (e.g., james@yourcompanyname.com) added and confirmed on your LinkedIn account.
  • Your company’s email domain is unique to the company. (Note: A domain cannot be used more than once to create a company page. Because domains like gmail.com or yahoo.com or similar generic email services are not unique to one company, those email domains cannot be used to create a company page.)
  • Your profile strength must be listed as intermediate or all star.
  • You must have several connections on your personal profile.

Create a Sales-Driving LinkedIn Company Page

As recommended for your personal profile in “5 Essential Elements of an Optimized and Useful LinkedIn Profile,” make sure that you complete all areas in your LinkedIn company page.  The more attention you pay to detail, the better and more powerful your company page will be.

Start by filling out the company overview section.

Company Overview

  • Step 1:  Choose “Companies” Under the “Interests” section on the main page.
  • Step 2:  On the next page, choose “Add a Company” from the right-hand side of the page button.
  • Step 3:  On the next page, fill in your company information (company name and your email address) and check the confirmation box.
  • Step 4:  After receiving an email from LinkedIn confirming your page, you can go to your company page and start inputting your information.

The information you need to fill in includes company language, name, type, size, website, industry, operating status, year founded and locations. When putting your description together, make sure you include appropriate keywords.  You’ll be able to describe products and services in detail in another section. The company description is critical.

According to Lana Khavinson of LinkedIn, “Google indexes company pages, which means your page becomes a tool for strengthening your company’s rank in organic search results. The results will also display the first 156 characters of your company description, so be sure to lead with the most important information.”

  • Step 5: Add a banner image and logos. The banner image is what people will see first when they visit your Company Page, so make sure it’s consistent with the Company image you want to portray. Here are the image requirements, which must be either jpg, png or gif formats:  Image - Minimum 646 x 220 pixels, maximum 2 MB. Logo - 100 x 60 pixels, maximum 2 MB.

After you’ve filled everything out, click “publish.”  Your page will now be live.

Add Products and Services

Next, you’ll want to include information on your Products page.  These can be products or services you offer.

  • Step 1:  Go to your Main Company page and choose “products.”
  • Step 2:  After clicking on “edit page” on the right-hand side, choose “add product or service” from the drop-down menu, and you’ll get to this page:

linkedin company page

This seems pretty daunting, which is why many people don’t fill out this part.

However, you’d be missing out on incredible opportunities if you don’t.  So spend a few minutes and input the information.  Don’t forget to include keywords in the description, images and video if you have any.

And remember:  since many people don’t bother to fill out this section, by being thorough you may gain an advantage over competitors.

  • Step 3: After you’ve filled everything out, click “publish” and the page will go live on LinkedIn.

Add Product and Service Overview

  • Step 1:  Go to your main company page and choose “products.”
  • Step 2:  After clicking on “edit page” on the right-hand side, choose “edit page” in the drop-down menu, and you’ll get to a page with the following: Step 1:  Create multiple variations of this page (we’ll skip this for now). Step 2:  Describe what your company offers.

Call to Action

In addition to the title, you can include a summary description of your products and services. I also like to use this area to include a call to action.

If someone is spending the time to review your products and services, you don’t want him or her to leave without (hopefully) providing contact information. That way you will be able to continue to market to your prospect. In exchange for your prospect’s contact information, you should provide something in return  - a free report, ebook, etc.

There are several ways to include calls to action on your products page. One is to build a link into your product banner image, similar to the “free demo” offered by Hubspot:

Hubspot linkedin company page

InSegment, a full service digital marketing agency based in Newton, MA,  gained a 200% traffic increase from LinkedIn to their website. How? They added banners with a clickable “Learn More” and website URL to the top of their LinkedIn company pages:

InSegment linkedin company page

Another way is to include a call to action in the description section of the products page. On the overview page, you can also add a YouTube video and 3 banner images.

  • Step 3: Next, you can change the order of the products you show.  The first one is the most important, as it will also appear on your LinkedIn company home page:

After you’ve filled everything out, click “publish” and the page will go live on LinkedIn.

Request Product and Service Recommendations

Once you’ve added your products and services, you can get recommendations for them. Recommendations are very powerful sales tools.  You’ll just need to go to your product page and click on “request recommendations.” You’ll get a pre-filled out request form that you can modify â€" or use as is.

Careers

Is hiring and promoting job opportunities important to your company? If so, you may be interested in upgrading your company pages to be able to add the “careers” button on your company page.

Final Thoughts

For more inspiration, check out LinkedIn’s top company pages of 2012 in this Shideshare presentation:




“Social Media Engagement for Dummies” is a Smart Book

social media engagement for dummiesIf you’re a fan of the “…for Dummies” books, then you will want to grab this one.

Social Media Engagement for Dummies is by Aliza Sherman and Danielle Elliott Smith. It was published by John Wiley & Sons  in June.  Social media isn’t new any more.  If you’ve been finding yourself spending lots of time on social media, but not reaping the benefits, then hunker down for this review.

Dig Into Social Media Engagement for Your Marketing Plan

With summer heading into its dog days, you know that it’s almost time for planning your marketing strategies for next year.  This is the ideal time to take a look at Social Media Engagement for Dummies.

I love these Dummies books for their pure simplicity and practicality. If you aren’t sure what to do or when to do it - just grab one of these puppies. You will be in action in under thirty minutes.

This is a hefty book with over 300 pages of powerful content to dig through.  That’s why I recommend starting with the table of contents.  Highlight the chapters you feel you want to focus on in your business.

There are six parts or sections to this book:

  1. The Basics of Social Media Engagement - if you still feel like you know about social media, but aren’t sure how to use it to get and keep customers, this is an important section to focus on.
  2. Exploring the Elements of Social Media Engagement - In this section, you’ll start with setting realistic goals and structuring your social media strategy.  I especially love the practical advice about how to tap into trending topics to start conversations and how to offer freebies and discounts.
  3. Examining the Basic Engagement Tools - This is a must-read section because it covers affordable time-saving tools that will help you leverage your time spent on social media.
  4. Engaging through Additional Social Channels - If you’ve heard about the power of Pinterest and Google+, but weren’t sure how it might help your business - this is where you want to put your attention.
  5. Leveraging Audio and Video for Engagement - You can no longer afford to ignore video or audio channels just because it seems complicated or you don’t like how you look or sound.  Get over it and get into this section.
  6. The Part of Tens - The book ends with ten social media mistakes to avoid. You also find 10 businesses that actually might look like yours - including how they are using social media to grow sales.

About the Authors

I have to say that one of the big reasons this book is so powerful is because it was written by small business owners. Aliza Sherman (@alizasherman) launched the first full-service Internet company, Cybergrrl. She also launched the first global Internet networking organization for women, Webgrrls International.  Danielle Elliott Smith (@DanielleSmithTV) is a digital correspondent, speaker, brand spokesperson and Founder of ExtraordinaryMommy.com.

While the authors have built successful businesses, you won’t find their head in the clouds or any really big thinking here.  It’s all practical advice that you can read in one minute and implement the next. And many times, that’s exactly what you need.

Why Get Another Social Media Book

When was the last time you purchased a social media strategy book?  If it’s been a year or two, you’ll want to get this update.

Here’s why.  Each of the major social media platforms have undergone massive updates.  Things have changed so much that your business will be behind the curve if you haven’t kept up.

Another reason to get this book is to help you choose and focus on the social media platforms that will work best for your business.

If you’ve been playing in every social media space, but not fully committing to one or two - you will want to read this book.  You might be missing out on opportunities by spreading yourself too thin.  Read this book from the context of choosing a platform or two where you can really get the most bang for the time and money spent and then focus on it.

Social Media Engagement for Dummies isn’t a book for beginners (although the name might make you think so).  It’s a book for smart business owners who are ready to put the social media marketing machine to work in getting and keeping profitable loyal customers.