Will You Be My Valentine?

In case you didnt know Valentines Day, which falls on Feb 14, is when
lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine cards, flowers,
chocolates or perhaps laddus. For history buffs, the occasion is named after two
of the early Christian martyrs, both named Valentine. The romance associated
with Saint Valentine began in the Middle Ages during the times of Geoffrey
Chaucer in Britain.

But it was in America that the business of sending love cards was born. In
1847, Esther Howland ran what we can now call as a SOHO (small office, home
office) from her home in Worcester, Massachusetts with hand-made Valentine
cards. What Esther began has boomed into a multi-billion dollar global business
now. The US Greeting Card Association says about a billion valentines are sent
every Feb 14 globally, making Valentines Day the second largest card-sending
holiday, behind Christmas. Women buy about 85% of all Valentines.

So much for history. Whats Valentines Day got to do with IT? Everything.
Modern Valentine greetings go out more via SMS, or email, or e-greeting, or
through other electronic means. A huge boost comes from the boom in social
networking sites; there are 380 currently, including ones like Orkut, Facebook,
LinkedIn, Badu, Bahu, Mixi, MocoSpace, MySpace, Friendster, Cyworld, Bebo, Hi5,
Twitter, Xiaonei, Netlog, Reunion, Skyrock and Windows Live Spaces.

According to one estimate, for every Valentines Day card sent by snail mail
or courier, there are twenty e-greetings emailed out and thirty text messages
shot out from cell phones. Thats a huge volume for any business that deals in
this sudden spike in seasonal demand for a day. Many businesses are also getting
wise about making hay.

Take the US for example. More than 600,000 small businesses plan to deploy
integrated social networking services in the next 12 monthsup from about
300,000 currently, according to the latest study by AMI Partners. In percentage
terms, 300,000 represents about 5% of the total number of SBs in the US.

To response to this demand, social networking services are creating branches
dedicated to entrepreneurs. Examples include LinkedIn Company Groups, Moli Small
Business Center and Ryze.com. These sites offer higher levels of online
security, stricter privacy controls, and more avenues to boost businesses
relationships and share knowledge.

Are businesses responding? Yes. This year, about 500,000 small businesses in
the US will use social networking to advertise their wares, network, find
business partners, and promote their activities. This makes more sense in a
recession-ridden year. Business-focused social networking works, is easy on the
wallet, keeps the communications channel open with customers, prospects, channel
partners and suppliers, and also helps to incubate new relationships.

Raju Chellam

Look at the trend. The share of adult Internet users who have a profile on an
online social network site has more than quadrupled in the past four yearsfrom
8% in 2005 to 35% now, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Projects
Dec 2008 tracking survey. Younger online adults are more likely than their older
adults to use social networks, with 75% of adults age 18-24 using these
networks, compared to just 7% of adults 65 and older.

At its core, use of online social networks is still a phenomenon of the
young, the Pew study states. Overall, personal use of social networks seems to
be more prevalent than professional use of networks, both in the orientation of
the networks that adults choose to use, as well as the reasons they give for
using the apps. Most adults, like teens, are using online social networks to
connect with people they already know.

Thats the picture as of now. However, as the teens get older, they will
continue to log on and connect on social networking sites. As such the trend is
just about beginning. If youre running a business, it is imperative that you
recognize it and give some thought on how you might be able to take advantage of
it to further your business goals, going forward. For all you know, you might
just find our business Valentine online.

The writer, a former Dataquest editor, is
currently vice president (Asia-Pacific) with Access Markets International (AMI)
Partners, based in Singapore. He can be reached at
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in