Monthly Archives: September 2008

Consultancy, E-Commerce, Generate, money

Answer – How effective is Social Media?

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This is one answer to a bunch of questions that I posted here on social media, more answers to follow to that post in the future.

First the easiest way to answer this question; How effective is Social Media? is to demonstrate it:

Go to Google and type in: How effective is social media?

Google doing what it does best comes back with a nice varied selection of articles. From the good side to the bad side and the ugly of course.

On the good side you have

Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester Research recently met experts in the field to discuss how effective social media is in a recession

Article here:

On the bad Side:

Social media “struggling for effective metrics” Just what is success and how do you measure it click here for the article

And the ugly:

Leon Apel makes a case that all the time and effort may not be worth it:

Article here:

There are many other results on the page that are worth looking at, this is just my selection.

I posted the same question in this forum: http://workconnexions.com/node/35#comment-153

business, fun, Management, Personal

Channel The Information – The Question

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This is part of a series called – Channel Internet Information.
  

It was predicted and it did deliver. The information highway (the internet) has more information than many of us had every imagined. At the press of a button we’ll find documents relating to family history or how to bake tart or pay our bills. Ten years ago you used the yellow pages and now you Google it. What does all this information mean to you and me? And more importantly, how are you going to make the best of it?

The internet in all its diversity can be overwhelming. A lot of intelligent and not so intelligent people just switch off to it because they can not to decipher all the information. What are your thoughts about using the internet?

The next post  is posted here – Eight Point Plan to Channel Internet Information

 

 

Consultancy, Leo

An Easy Personal Backup Plan

How Is Everybodies Backup Procedure?

Having just brought my second USB storage device. I have decided that it is about time that I update my own personal backup procedure for my home files and www.whooah.biz In the past I have always had great annoyance with backups on to DVD/CD media as you have to spend quite a lot of time setting it up each time and than checking it. Ultimately more time than the backup is really worth.

Project justification:

Ok we know that the question is not will you have a hardware failure but when will you have a hardware failure. If destiny has anything to do it. It will be right when you not made a backup and you need an email address to get in touch with somebody.

What ever it is a backup plan is modern business necessity and probably home computing too.

Hardware needed:

2 portable storage devices or other media. (dvd/server)

Software:

Any software that can provide an incremental backup recognise different medias, and be scheduled. I have chosen Backup4all but there are lots of others just do a search for: incremental backup software.

Files:

It is important in backing up files to insure that you are backing up the right files. One backup strategy is just to make a backup of everything on your computer including the OS. The problem with that in my view is that operating system over time slowly starts to get corrupt. Hence why we do so many clean fresh installs to insure optimum performance of the operating system. I used to make a backup off Windows XP just after I had installed it. This has served me well of over the years enabling me to restore my laptop at a moments notice and be up and running literally in 40 mins. With the advent of Vista one big change has happen in relation to backups: it got big. A basic install now takes up 6 +GB. So I have opted just to backup the first clean install and afterwards the files that I use. Microsoft provides the tools to transfer all the important bits of data and settings from one pc to another if you are looking at installing on several different machines, like a laptop for example.

Frequency:

How often should you back up? This is a tricky one, ultimately every time a file is created or changed. I am sure in reality this does not happen. You can set up a backup so that it will only backup recent file changes. Effectively creating a small job that only does what is necessary. For my home PC I have choose to do a backup once a week. As I am only editing documents and than emailing them I feel this is a risk I am comfortable with. I think that really is the answer to the question. What are you comfortable having backed up after analysing your own situation.

An important point to remember here is that if your hard disk fails in operation is very likely that the data is still on the disk. So if you take the disk to a professional data recovery service. They will be able to recovery data for a price depending on the amount of data. The down side to this is that it will take time. If it contains mission critical data you may well have a problem.

Method:

I have chosen to use two usb storage devices for my backups I will use each one alternate weeks with one device going off site in case of fire. My main reason for using storage devices is that data management is much easier. In the past I have used CD/DVD but the amount time spent cataloguing and organising the date has proven not to be time effective. Fundamentally with usb storage devices the data is accessible up to date and online at time that you require it.

Result

If I was to have a major hardware failure and a hurricane destroyed my house the most date I would lose would be the last 2 weeks of work. Now having reached this point a couple of parting thoughts. Folder share allows you to mirror files on two machines over a network and it is free. If one is concerned about the integrity ands security of their data a good online service such as Idrive will provide a great service in data backup all for a couple of dollars a month and much less of a hastle.

I hope this give you a few ideas for your own backup plan.

business, Consultancy, E-Commerce, money, Relationship, work connexions

Online Shop and how much should it cost. Retail Versus Online

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In hard times people get a little bit more creative about making money. As there is less money to go around one wants to insure that what one has can go a long way. One might be tempted to visit markets and a sell some products or maybe open an online shop. As Owen, a friend of mine, pointed out that online businesses or websites tend to be seen as a cheap option. no rent, no expensive layout costs, staff recruitment cost. Is that so?

It is common misconception that online stores are cheap and easy. It can be best be summoned up by you get what you pay/put in. For example Ebay provides excellent e-commerce facilities. The only down side with it is the cost. All our clients that use that service are trying unsuccessfully to get away from it. They are tired of Ebay taking their percentage. Unfortunately building up customer trust on there own website is proving difficult. But that need not be the case with  the right planning and investment.

This is where the shop comparison comes in. If you would spend ten thousand pounds setting up out high street retail shop, you will need to spend at least that on an internet retail business to make it successful. There are few shortcuts that really work. If you want to create a successful business you will need to either spend the money to employ somebody to set it up for you in the way that create positive sales, or you will have to spend the time yourself. If you thing that just buying a domain name and putting some e-commerce software purchased for a couple of hundred bucks is going to create an online business, I have news for you. It ain’t going to happen. Pity you may say, but the good news is that with the right tick sheet you can solve many of the problems.

Before you’ll begin you may want to think about the following:

Customer registration and account management, News letter signup, Automatic email confirmation, Search feature, Secure user login, User behaviour statistics, Varied Payment options, Email to a friend

Or maybe not, How about this:

1)Target Audience:
Who is your website directed at? Other businesses, older people, all age groups? It is important to understand who you are talking to and what goals you have for the site.

2) Number of Pages:
Do you know the number and types of pages and how they relate to each other? You don’t need to know the exact details but try and think about what types of pages you should have.

3) Content:
This means the text inside the pages and it is the most important part of the website. The rest of the site builds what we call in the industry rapport, but the contents are what sell your product or services. In fact if your site looked horrible but had great content it could still be successful, but not the other way around.

4) Design:
Do you know what colors you would like or the type of graphic contents? Do you have logos ready to be used? Your site can be graphic heavy as we say or it can be clean and sparse. It is your choice and is very much a personal decision. If you don’t know what you want, you can surf the internet and find some sites you like.

5) Images:
Do you have all the pictures for the site and are they in a digital format?

6) Forms:
These pages are the ones that collect information from your visitors and then send you this information as an email. You can contact us to discuss your options. We will guide you through the process, one step at a time.

When you have considered this you will then need to discuss with an expert in this field who can help you and guide you through this market.

Advertisement: At Wcx we know social media and online business, we know what works and what does not. We have the expertise and contacts to create a site that will fulfil your Gaols. Take a look at www.WorkConneXions.com or our company Site www.http://web.web.http://web.wcx.me/ for more information.
 
Networking, Owen, Work Connexions SMO

Leveraging Social Media

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Leveraging Social Media –

What do all these people love?






Yup, you guess it, we’re all big fans of Pringles. Ted Murphy from Izea posted to Twitter that he was looking for some Pringlish pictures for his presentation at Cincinnati AMA Digital Marketing Summit and he got responses from Drew, Corrin, Connie and yours truly. It was great fun to do and Ted’s presentation went very well. Here are some comments from the blogosphere:

From: R.O. Why! Marketing:

Ted gave some very helpful pointers on how to get started in the maze of social media opportunities. While we’re all caught up in traditional brand development and the interactive marketing programs we’ve always done, there’s an entire ecosystem out there right now of consumers, fans, critics and their conversations that happen whether we participate or not. It’s time to get involved, and to start influencing the conversation.

My key takeaways:

  1. Start listening -What is currently being said?
  2. Create some goals for your social media efforts
  3. Determine what content you can draw from -Text, video, photos, audio, etc.
  4. Find content you can capture -Customers, partners, employees
  5. Decide what you’re willing to share
  6. Choose your platforms
  7. Participate in other conversations, don’t just broadcast -The most important conversations may not be those you start. Seek out conversations about your brand & add value to them.
  8. Create your own storm of social media content

Really great event, and I think Ted’s talk helped make some sense out of the social media storm, and gave everyone a few clear steps to getting involved.

From The Future Value of Business:

Ted’s message about blogging was all about making a personal connection with your customers. Blogging allows a company to show its human side. A company no longer has to be just a name and a logo. A company blog shows your customers the passion, excitement and intelligence of the employees who contribute to the blog. The company now has feeling and a pulse. The company can now show their customers that employees are engaged, content, and willing to share their work experiences. Great Companies inspire Great Work.

From Pimp My Keywords:

His topic, “The Social Media Symphony” was subtitled “Harness the power of social media to drive traffic and sales.”

Far too many people are unaware of what social media means and Murphy explained it well pointing out that social media is a platform and distribution channels that provide scale to reach millions of people.

Consider this: Murphy said five years ago only a few people would have viewed a video of him snoring in the backseat of a car. Today, however, that video can be easily viewed by millions of people. The potential is unlimited.

Today, with Web 2.0, the difference is “social” and is now about people, conversations, interaction and community. A huge difference.

According to Murphy, the way social media works is to “listen.”

Listen for mentions of your company or brands. Understand what your customers are saying.

Listen for mentions of your competitors. And, listen for mentions of subjects related to your industry.

These “conversations” are happening at:

  • Facebook
  • Friendfeed
  • Twitter
  • Utterz
  • Plurk
  • Brightkite
  • Tailrank
  • Techmeme
  • Digg
  • Google Blog Search
  • Technorati
  • CoComment

Murphy added that once you have located a discussion, you need to conduct your research (Who started the conversation? What is their relationship with your firm? What is their goal?), then determine your goal and never ever go straight into a sales pitch.

While social media does take time (and who has “time” these days?), you have to start somewhere and do what you can to get involved and participate.

Sounds like it was a great talk. I wonder if the slides are available for download anywhere

Personal, work connexions

Finger on The Pulse

Having your finger on the pulse is what separates good ideas from successful ideas. Timing is absolutely everything in life. If you launch an e-mail campaign when everybody is talking about spam, except you, subscribers are not going to be flocking to your list.

Choosing the right sort of events is paramount if you want your company to grow. Sometimes you can be too clever and choose someone when the market is just not ready. Choice is all about getting it just right.

For example I wanted to bring Andy Beal over to the Isle of Man to speak at an IOD event. The concept seemed strong, the Isle of Man encouraging e-commerce, this, in theory could have benefits for everyone as whole. Unfortunately having contacted all the local companies the response was mute. There are a number of possible reasons for this. Perhaps we are not quite developed enough in the e-commerce market to realise such an opportunity. May be the companies are feeling the pinch financially. I do hope in the future that he will come.

On the other side we have had a number of visitors from participants from the Dragons den. The inventor of the reggae sauce Levi Roots, Yo sushi entrepreneur. Of course doing another event in that line could possible be old hat.

So what sort of event would be on the pulse now?

Consultancy, Marketing

Communicating What it is Your Company Does

How many times do you get asked; what is it that your company does? The thing that most people who work have in common, is that they have worked for several companies.

Practically every time you are introduced to somebody, the first inevitable question asked , whether in a private or a professional setting, will be: What is that you do or what line of business are you in? For me the answer to this question would vary as I would try out different explanations to fit in the situation, suit the enquirer or similar.

There is no one answer that fits all. For example a recruitment company may say we recruit executives with a proven track record. Another company may say we recruit and train office staff. For each segment of the market you have to adapt your message.

Sometimes a deep explanation may be necessary for the enquirer to understand what it is that you do an you may (or not as the case maybe) have to give more back ground information. A lot of people ask me what Wcx does. We tried a number of different explanations such as “Social networking for businesses” “One stop development shop” In the end we have chosen this one “Work Connexions does your Advertising, Marketing, Recruitment and Blogging. Online and offline” Of course this is only the start of effective communication “a short one liner”. It will be every companies top concern to prove the buyer that uses their products and services it does just what it says.

On balance one of the reasons why I like blogging is that it gives everyone involved in the company, project, etc the chance to understand how a company or organisation communicates with its employees and customers.