[caption id="attachment_3233" align="alignleft" width="150"] The People Have Spoken![/caption]

The people have spoken! The Daily Record’s 2018 Reader Rankings are in and JMRConnect has been voted a top Baltimore PR Agency by readers. More than 1,400 nominations were collected during the nomination period in March.

[caption id="attachment_175" align="alignleft" width="150"] How strategic PR helps private equity firms raise money[/caption]

 What private equity firms need to tell their story While the private equity market remains robust, it’s no longer a given that firms will make the kind of money they did just a few years back. In the fourth quarter of 2012, U.S. private equity activity hit a lofty high—with 1,070 deals closed to the tune of $190 billion, according to PitchBook. Fast forward to mid-2016, though, and it’s slower going. The 719 second-quarter deals, worth $135 billion, marked a one-third drop in volume. Yet in the quest to survive and thrive, the value of media attention often goes overlooked. That’s understandable, given that the phrases “private equity” and “public relations” imply diametrically opposite spheres.Since public listing or trading never enters the picture, does it really make sense for private equity firms to seek attention? The answer, it turns out, is ...”

[caption id="attachment_3150" align="alignleft" width="150"] Employee Advocacy with CEI: JMRConnect's award-winning platform[/caption]

Converting brand excitement into sales: building your business through employee advocacy

Who speaks for you in the marketplace? If it’s your ad agency, you’re at least getting the word out. But you can go much further by getting the people who work for you to carry that same message, only in a less scripted way your current and potential customers will instantly find more authentic.

Imagine for a minute that your sales team had the ability to exponentially amplify visibility for case studies, whitepapers, blogs and other strategic content with prospects and partners through a simple click of their mouse?

That is the power of employee advocacy programs that make it easy and rewarding for people to share brand-approved messaging and content on social media, which, per an Inc. article, results in a 5x increase in web traffic and 25% more leads. That might sound like a point of debate, until you consider this: Only 15 percent of people trust recommendations from brands, while a whopping 84 percent trust recommendations from people they know, and employee advocacy programs that make it easy and rewarding for people to share brand-approved messaging and content on social media,

 

[caption id="attachment_3219" align="alignleft" width="150"] WebRTC for real-time communications[/caption]

WebRTC is a free, open project that provides browsers and mobile applications with Real-Time Communications (RTC) capabilities via simple APIs.

WebRTC also represents the latest evolution in the world of real-time communication. WebRTC reuses many of the protocols and standards that were analyzed in the previous articles (Media transfer in Unified Communications – SDP Protocol, RTP, RTCP and Jitter Buffer) to create real-time communications between different devices. Other standards, such as TURN / ICE / STUN, have been also used by WebRTC. We will discuss these standards later in this article.

The complexity of using these standards is hidden behind a simple set of Javascript APIs, which...

[caption id="attachment_3216" align="alignleft" width="150"] According to a study in Mountain Marketing Group, an ad featuring a custom vanity number had a response rate of 30% or better.[/caption]

How many times have you needed customer support and couldn’t for the life of you find a company number? Or are you just frustrated and exhausted by the constant ping of a chatbot that can’t really solve your problem? You’re not alone.

There is still a big contingent of consumers who want to talk to a real human. And if you’re a small business that offers a service, you need to be available to help if the going gets tough. For some customers, solving problems online or through messenger apps simply isn’t enough. So if you’re a new startup, an emerging business, or an established company looking for a refresh, you’d be wise to jazz up your phone number.

A custom vanity toll free number isn’t just an assurance that your customer base or potential new customers can reach a real person, it’s a fantastic marketing tool.

[caption id="attachment_3211" align="alignleft" width="150"] NexusTek Cloud Services[/caption]

Buyout activity is booming for American small businesses, and the prices being paid are at or near records for companies up to $50 million in value, brokers say.

Many small-business owners are fielding more cold calls asking if their companies are for sale, and owners who do put their businesses on the market are often receiving multiple bids. "I'm excited because now we have more capital, more access, more people," he said, "and we can really tactically execute on the vision" to become a national leader in what has been a regionalized industry.

[caption id="attachment_3208" align="alignleft" width="150"] NexusTek Cloud Services[/caption]

 Businesses have options

Thursday, September 13, 2018 — As cloud technology has grown, new options are available for businesses besides traditional locally-hosted information technology solutions. How should a business decide what cloud technologies to adopt, as well as when to keep or develop resources in-house?

James Hwang, chief operating officer of NexusTek, a cloud technology, managed IT services and cybersecurity consulting firm based in Denver, says a business must not rely just on cloud security, but must consider physical aspects of security when using these services, such as, “how is it encrypted, what levels of encryption are there and who has the roles and roles-based access.” A third issue to consider is what access specific users have and who does the logging when the products or data are accessed.

[caption id="attachment_3205" align="alignleft" width="150"] ZINK Zero Ink[/caption]

Zink Imaging, based in Billerica, is counting on a renewed interest in instant-print photos.

In 2015, one of the last vestiges of the once-great Polaroid Corp. was “teetering on the brink of insolvency,” recalls Chaim Piekarski.

That vestige, Billerica-based Zink Imaging, had raised nearly $150 million to commercialize a new version of instant color photo printing, developed in Polaroid’s research labs. What made this new process different was that it didn’t rely on traditional film or ink cartridges. Its name, Zink, referred to “zero ink.” It was a moment when 400 million Instagram users were uploading 40 million photos every day, but consumers hadn’t... 

[caption id="attachment_3172" align="alignleft" width="150"] Acquiring distress assets[/caption]

How Second-movers Can Identify When a Failing Business Venture Merits Investment? For the aware and open-minded entrepreneur eyeing the purchase of distressed assets, it is critical to identify and understand the factors behind the target company’s demise. Due diligence can solve the riddle as to why a company failed, and provide answers to questions such as: