Category Archives: Ask a Question

Ask a Question, Consultancy, ideas, Marketing

RSS – Really Simple Sex

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Only Geeks would come up with something like RSS. The really funny thing  is that nobody knows what it stands for, really simple, rich  site syndication. (http://www.voidstar.com/node.php?id=140) So what does that mean to the average person than?  Not a lot as you can imagine. Most people  have no idea about RSS and what it can do. So we have hundreds and thousands of Geeks all following what is going on the Internet through RSS feeds. You see if they’d call it something like, really simple sex, it would have got out of that geeky mould. One can  use  RSS to keep updated with information on your favourite webrss-imagesites (BBC, Blogs, Email, etc). Sounds complicated, it is not and of course you can compile it in whatever reader you like to read.

Unlike computers, which are incredible unpredictable that you never know what they are doing. Using RSS is easy. While it may take a long time visiting your favourite sites. Using a reader such as Google, there are a few others.  It will make your reading life a lot easier.  As a result you will be able to see all the content  your heart desires in one browser window.

So what does this icon look like and do? here is a video to show you.

Now that you have got your shiny new reader, and content streaming through. What is it that you may like to reflect upon.

Well some of my reflections from RSS goes something like this.

It seems that good old Gordy (British PM) is getting bushwhacked all over the place. Interestingly, I noticed last night on ‘Have I got news for you ‘(TV program) that Paul Merton was not laughing, maybe he is one of the few Brownites left . I do feel a certain amount of compassion for him but as John Wayne once said “you have got to go, when you have got to go”  Which kind of reminds me of an old school friend who did not befriend me on Facebook considering that I have not seen him for 20 years. It was hard to imagine what he could be concerned about. Maybe it was the fact that we use to call him ……. and he considers himself beyond such school humour. One does have to be careful what they write on the Internet as a magistrate found out this week due to twittering he lost his job in the courts. What is the problem he asked? all  the information is already in the public domain and published by the record division of the courts.

One can see there is a vast array of information to be gathered through RSS. From your Google e-mail through to your Facebook status. Pretty much everything. For the boys if you think of it as really simple sex and the for the girls as really simple shop. You should find it a lot easier than everything else that you may do on the computer.

You can subscribe to my feed here.

Ask a Question, business, Marketing, Relationship, work

Could your Company be the first to break the Twitter mould and really interact and develop your Business?

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What is it that people do these days? If you are to believe the headlines twitter is all the rage. What defines a good twitter profile? What defines a good online profile? Is it the fact that one may have 2000 followers. Is it the fact they have almost twittered over 10,000 tweets. What characteristics would define someone that you follow?

If you’re a famous off-line celebrity say for example Schwarzenegger or Stephen Fry then without much ado it easy to be successful online. An example of this is Oprah Winfrey who set up an online Twitter profile only three days ago and already has over 10,000 followers. This is all probably very predictable.

What about from a personal point of view those of us who work every day and do not suffer from celebrity status. Is there really any benefit to using twitter. I am amazed at just how many companies and people use twitter try to sell me things most of them don’t understand the first thing about permission marketing. Can one really build a relationship in just 140 characters. It is not easy and like any relationship takes time and mutual interest.  To put it in perspective this idea I suggest that you are only as successful on-line as you are offline. Some of my best relationships that I have online also exist in the real world when I go to a restaurant or the cafe. I think that I am just staying in touch. As it is not always possible to see people on a regular basis.

twitter-queastionsWhat about the business development and customer care opportunities. Out of experience I will never follow anyone unless I have a particular interest. Ones that use a company name I will not follow. In my experience the company never offers or interacts in the way an individual would. There is always a feeling that they are protecting or selling something. A company that could break this mould could achieve a significant amount of followers and would have a real story to tell to the media. Plus this would certainly gain a lot of extra free publicity. It is conceivable that a company could employ a group of people just to respond to people’s questions on twitter.

If you are going to stay the distance it is about quality. It is better to have 10 followers that are really interested in what you got to say then 10,000 who are not. An example of this is the Velvet Underground whose first record only sold a couple of hundred copies. Their influence though is felt by just about every major rock band that has ever made music. Although comparatively they are still not that well known.

So in summing up if you are genuine and have a genuine interest  to interact. Then it is possible to build a quality network a word of warning though when I survey the number of people that follow me 90% are not  interested in a two-way conversation and significant less amount are operating highly queastionable/fruadelent activities.

Ask a Question, ideas

Small Elections – Making them Effective

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Should societies be allowed to represent institutions when they hold ineffective elections with a low turn out?

I presume the point of any society is to represent its members and their area of interest on a wider scale. (this idea is  open to debate) . If  members feel that elections are a more a popularity contest and by this a mean that by influencing the vote and winning the competition it will make them more popular. It makes a mockery of the society and its stated aims.  A lot more could be done to insure that fair elections are held in small societies and committees.

int_00_elections-day

A considerable amount of time is taken by  people standing to prepare speeches and ideas and they should be judged on their contribution to the societies and the ideas that they put forward. If they feel that the process was a ineffective and due to a number of predetermined votes that have been decided before and are able to shift the balance of the outcome these elections. The society will never attract the best calibre of candidates.

If people come there purely to vote on the basis of agreement than on what each candidate can offer. The ultimate result is  that people that can make a considerable contribution end up feeling short changed and mistrust the process which creates a negative and  ineffective society.

Something that I would like to see implemented across all societies but for certain in smaller societies is block voting clause in the constitution to safe guard against this practise.

For a example a team of 8 people that have block voted in election from a total of 27 votes. Could insure that 5 members of that particular team that may be  standing gain a place on the committee . If one mathematically breaks this down it shows that they achieved a guaranteed 25 percent of the vote. by this practise. Which is an unfair advantaged for any other candidate standing not adopting such a practise.

This link explains that theory on a bigger scale

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plurality_at_large

Constitutions of societies could also be changed so that if one considers the elections to be unfair they have some sort of readdress, ultimately decided by the current exec or an independent panel. For example, If the ballot papers were named and there appears 8 papers with the exact same voting pattern it should be easily identifiable as weather some thing is amiss considering the current election factors.  With out doing something about block voting, societies will never engage and represent all the people they are suppose to. It is important for it to be seen to be fair and just and give people the idea that are being represented by a democratic process and want to get involved in the societies activities.

Another idea is to raise the minimum percentage number that needs to be present at an election before it is binding. With out at least 40 percent of the members voting. Is it representative?

The last idea is to invoke active and non active member voting rights. Where members only gain voting rights provided that you have been present at a number of the society’s events as a whole.

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Google tells us what we look for

There is a very interesting article over at the BBC talking about what we are looking for on the Internet. As explained below.

“The most searched term for Google users in the UK was Facebook while the BBC came second and its iPlayer service was the fastest rising query.”

The top ten world list was even more interesting:

Sarah Palin

Beijing 2008

Facebook login

TuentiHeath Ledger

Obama

Nasza Klasa

Wer Kennt Wen

Euro 2008

Jonas Brothers

I kind of find it strange that people search for the Facebook login page via Google. I would have thought that they could manage to type that one themselves. The top ten in the UK were:

Facebook

BBC

YouTube

eBay

Games

News

Hotmail

Bebo

Yahoo

Jobs

Obviously social networking is up there. I have to confess too that I have typed in Sarah Palin and You tube. Most of the others are not on my search list.

Ask a Question, business, Consultancy

Company Law

There is a very interesting, well written post over at http://link4business.info which deals with some of the practicalities of setting up a company.

Questions like: Must all companies have a secretary? Are answered.

Here is an excerpt.

“Yes and No. From 6th April 2008 private companies will not need to have a company secretary but public limited companies still will. Furthermore companies registered before 6th April 2008 will have to change their Articles of Association at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the shareholders to remove the requirement to have a company secretary.

It should be noted that although a director of a company can also be the secretary that only applies if there are more than one director. A sole director cannot also be the secretary.”

I recommend taking a look at the site for more information about forming a company.

Ask a Question, SMO, work connexions

Networks Are A Bit Confusing

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Networks are bit confusing especially as there are so many of them. I tried Xing for while on a recommendation, but it seems to be a bit restrictive unless you pay full whack. Of course 5 Euros a month is not a great deal to pay. So may be one should just pay that and be happy.

It is cheaper after all that ecademy.

If price is not question which one should you use? I quite often see people posting all sorts of job adverts/advertisement in forums on LinkedIn. I know this happens on all networking sites. I suspect still that the problem is deeper than the question which site should you use?

As one may still not be sure whether they are reaching the most productive audience (or any audience). In short I guess it is better to have all these discussions on your own website.

Which is what work connexions is about, we can build that sort interactive market for business consumers in there choosen field.

Thoughts

Ask a Question, E-Commerce

AdWords – About Quality Score

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In a clever way to deliver a better product to their customers, Google Adwords have come up with the quality score. As explained below.

“A Quality Score is calculated every time your keyword matches a search query—that is, every time your keyword has the potential to trigger an ad. Quality Score is used in several different ways, including influencing your keywords’ actual cost-per-clicks (CPCs) and estimating the first page bids that you see in your account. It also partly determines if a keyword is eligible to enter the ad auction that occurs when a user enters a search query and, if it is, how high the ad will be ranked. In general, the higher your Quality Score, the lower your costs and the better your ad position.

Quality Score helps ensure that only the most relevant ads appear to users on Google and the Google Network. The AdWords system works best for everybody—advertisers, users, publishers and Google too—when the ads we display match our users’ needs as closely as possible. Relevant ads tend to earn more clicks, appear in a higher position and bring you the most success.”

It would appear the Google are saying that you cannot buy your way to the top. It would appear that you need to have a quality website to insure your adwords are successful.

What are your thoughts?