A different approach
All posts by admin
What Can You Do With Smoke
No fire with out smoke
Businesses Neglecting Websites
A survey from design and marketing company Netflare has revealed some shocking results. Small businesses across 19 different sectors were surveyed and: – 23% said their sites hadn’t been updated since their launch leading to inaccurate and obsolete content – Only 8% even had an eCommerce element to their site – 25% had no way of tracking online sales – 38% didn’t have a budget at all for updating their sites
These are obviously big obstacles to making money online. You would think any of these things would be a given, but clearly they are not, and are being overlooked by many businesses.
We can work in conjunction with your website, and other advertising mediums to help get your business message effectively across.
Some Twitter Links
We haven’t had a honeypost in some time and my bookmarks are just overflowing with interesting snippets for all of you to enjoy. I have so much to choose from that I decided to focus today on
- How Twitter was born: Some interesting insight into the birth of Twitter.
- How to use Twitter for Business: An excellent introduction to Twitter which walks through how it can be applicable to marketing, PR and customer service.
- 8 patterns in social media ecosystems: Not directly about Twitter but relevant to anyone interested in learning more about social media.
- Pancheros integrates Twitter into stores: A real life example of how a US retailer is embracing new technology. Expect the trend to grow. It’s only a matter of time before you can buy New York Yankees tickets on Twitter too
- Add a TweetRoll to your blog: How to add a WordPress widget that shows off your friends and followers.
- Top cigar aficionados on Twitter: Yes, you can find anything your heart desires on Twitter.
- TweetWheel: A great way to visualise your friends and who’s connected to whom.
- Twhirl: My favourite Twitter client. Much recommended. Especially as the new version includes a spell checker to stop those embarrassing typos.
- Twittervision: An awesome way to while away your free time. Watch as Tweets pop up all over the world. Great visualisation mashup.
So great links there, especially if you’re into Twitter. If you’re not, well maybe now is the time to sign up and give it a try. If you’re in there, don’t forget to follow me.
Innovation: A recipe for success
Interesting post today on Richard Branson’s blog by one of his colleagues who talks about how innovation was the key component behind making the Virgin brand so successful. My favourite line is right at the bottom:
One of the key things I have learnt from Richard over the past 15 years or so is always challenge. Challenge your business to innovate by asking the unaskable, challenge industry norms and always ask, why? And then more importantly, why not?
I concur with Jayne-Anne, who wrote the post, about how innovation is so
metimes lumped together into the same camp where technology lives; but in reality can apply to anything that disrupts the status quo. Anything that prevents a process from following the same linear motion that has been running for days, months or years has the potential to provide you with competitive advantage. Don’t get me wrong, there’s always risk attached to change. But without change, challenge or questions a business stagnates, ends up living in the past and is doomed to failure (The recent demise of Woolworths is a case in point here). You can read the whole post by Jayne-Anne Gadhia here.
So, the question is .. when was the last time you were disruptive?
Do you “get” Social Media Marketing?
Here’s a great video you might find interesting:
Don’t discount the first few minutes of the video, Perry talks through the basics of social media, then puts together a flow of how the Marketing side of it works. He compares social networking websites to a Party, your blog as your Home. When you go to a party you don’t ram what you do down people’s throats. Rather you are nice to people, you may even invite them to your home and possibly tell them what you do. The people you meet will remember you for this and recommend you to their friends, extending your reach way beyong the few social contacts you have made.
Moral of the story: Be Cool .. interesting concept.
Make sure you have backups
I was speaking to a Phil, a friend of mine who runs a limo service here in the Isle of Man and who’s had a spot of bother with his PC. He had trouble for a few days, tried a system restore and ended up in a worse situation than he thought, with his Internet not working and all his applications messed up. Finally, he tried messing around with his Windows CDs and accidentally wiped his PC clean. And when I say wiped, I mean he deleted all his files, his photos, his videos, his emails, everything. And guess what … no backup!
What he really needed was an external USB drive to backup things to. And it wouldn’t have cost the world either. I was looking at the sale on buy.com and saw a 1Tb Iomega Desktop Hard Drive for a whopping $129.99 (at least that’s the price this week). With a hard disk that size you can take backups as many times as you want, and even take a few extra just to be on the safe side. It even comes complete with a license for some backup software that’s designed to make your life easier. Setup should be no more complex than plugging in a cable into one of the USB sockets in your computer.
So Phil, next time may sure you have a backup!