All posts by Editor

business, development, E-Commerce, Marketing

Web 2.0 for every Business, this Christmas?

It has puzzled me why the uptake of Web 2.0 in certain industries and places has been so slow. On one hand I can understand it, effectively web 2.0 can represent a loss of control. If your company engages in open communication with its customers and employees one may perceive a loss of control. No longer are topics discussed by a few individuals with in close proximity of each other. They can be discussed by whole departments across continents. What one customer may write about an employee or product is no longer a conversation with two or three people but can be seen and read by a hundred times that number.

Sherrilynne of Strive Pr  pointed me to this recent blog “ Social networking could turn out to be a costly “white elephant” for businesses that rush to invest in the technology. ” While some companies may be debating the merits and the cost of web 2.0. Can one really run the risk of not implementing and engaging your company in what is effectively the most important communications medium since democracy.

 

Yes there is risk that your business could suffer, but can you afford to dismiss it. If you have a service to offer and you work in competitive industry than you have to compete. I have listed some of the positive and negative advantages of web 2.0 below. 

 

Positive Advantages:

Direct Communication medium to customers, and employees.
Increased web visitors – potential increase business.
Increased web presence – lower cost of marketing.
Business and product development.
Content is Timeless – With any other form of communication the life span is limited. 
Real Time Statistics – Measure the Success of a promotion campaign.
Saves Time – Implementing projects correctly.
Lower advertising cost.
Generates marketing information for use in offline media.
Provides transparency for companies.
Can be used to make part of an assessment of an employee’s performance.

Disadvantages:

Reputations can be damaged and business lost if not properly implemented and handled.

There might be some more disadvantages but I cannot think of them now. This is what Wcx does, also I notice have given myself 13 topics to blog about over the next couple of months.

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Best Business guides and closing the sale

I recently received in the post a Best Business Guides. It is a very fine looking booklet, with a glossy cover. It almost feels as if you are booking to go on holiday, which is probably the idea. The concept of the book is that customers can fill in the questionnaire about their favourite businesses. To encourage more people to do this, vouchers and gifts are offered for completed surveys. It is a very generous offer, you almost wonder if it really matters what you fill in as long as you get your free Marks & Spencer vouchers. The idea behind the book is that with all this information the publishers can compile a list of companies that they think form the best business in the area. Now, of course, some of the businesses can pay a little more and get a full page explaining about their business in colour with a photograph. Make no mistake it is a lot nicer to have this book by your telephone as the editors advises you, then the Manx Telecom guide. I must take my hat off to people who have dreamed up this scheme. Of course it is just a ploy. The company does not allow any detailed examination of how they come to their decision. The quotes are not referenced so there is no checking possible. It will look nice next to my phone but is probably useless.

Although I have to say the magazine has spurred me on to adding  a voting system to our next email where people can vote on their favourite business, say who they are and why they choose that business. It will be one of the first things to be published in our forums due shortly. Glossy is nice but transparency is nicer if you are spending several thousands of pounds.

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Ten ways to boost Innovation

The IOD featured an article in this month’s issue by Paul Sloan on ways to boost innovation in a company. The list is as follows:

1. Have a vision for change

2. Fight the fear of change

3. Think like a venture capitalist

4. Have a dynamic suggestion scheme

5. Break the rules

6. Give every one two Jobs (Key objectives)

7. Collaborate

8. Welcome failure

9. Build prototypes

10. Be passionate

I particular like the number 7: Collaborate. There is a lot of mileage to be had of working with people outside your own organisations. As they often can see what needs to be done. While managers argue about the best way forward, an outsider can give real direction especially if he has done it himself.

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Why your employees should stay at home

In what we now describe as ‘The Modern Age’, how are we using the benefits of technology to develop our lives?

Most people will spend at least one third of their life working. If they were to sit down and say how they would like to work, the answers would be as wide and varied as life itself.

Is our work place that varied?

With home ownership growing in the EU, we invest considerable time in making our homes a place of comfort, a place where we like to be.

Work environments, on the other hand, do not have anywhere near the same amount of enjoyment. Many companies now recognise that the place its employees spend one third of their lives has to represent the people that work there. Google encourage their employees to work from sofas that they provide, or hotspots around the company. They have a number of different distractions to keep the interest of the employees while they are at work. Employees are encouraged to work 20 percent of their own time on their own projects.

We do not go to work just to work, we go there to improve our lives. This is not just on a monetary level, but in all areas that we function, from socialising, to developing new skills. How do we, as a company, do that?

By taking a leaf from “Googleplex” the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, that boasts free lunches, on-site dental care and dog-friendliness we can begin to provide more for our employees.

The key to doing pretty much anything in life is to have a degree of happiness. Happy employees will do anything so long as they can stay happy. The reverse of this does not bear thinking about. This ultimately changes the relationship that employees have with their employer. If we only look at the legal requirements for health and safety, the employer has to be the perfect parent. As a parent all I can say is good luck. I can give my son a slap when he is not doing his home work with out getting a legal case.(!!) So how do companies harness the potential of their employees? It requires a good relationship and good management, where both parties are working towards the same goal.

I work a fair amount from home and it means that I can plan my day and have more control over my life. Being a single parent means that I usually take a few hours off in the afternoon when my son comes home. My best work is often done in the dark winter evenings. I will often go for a morning stroll when the sun is shining and enjoy a mug of coffee the way I like it. Since I have been working from home I have never been happier or more relaxed. I am more productive and enjoy my life a lot more.

So what is the benefit for the employer?

Well, in the first place there is the cost saving, from the price of my desk, through to the costs incurred travelling to work. In the second place, the quality of work is higher due to less stress. In third place, I am willing to bet that employees will take a lot less time off work, be it through sickness or other reasons.

The technology that is available to us now means that you can communicate with anybody for very little cost. If you fancy a change or needed to,you could always go work with another colleague, be it in the workplace at work or their home.

development, Personal

Feeding the Brain, what do you read?

 

Recently I have been reading a few books that make different connexions to the unconscious mind. While twenty years ago little reference in mainstream media was made to unconscious or super conscious thought. It has in recent years started to be more talked about. It was Carl Jung who first defined the unconscious so it has been discussed in limited groups for some time.

 

One of the books I am reading talks about auto suggestion and how that relays information in to our unconsciousness that later on will appear in a different form. For example as dreams, recollections, spontaneous thought and actions. Some people argue it is the predominant driving force of our persona. I can agree with the argument for this. As much as we like to think that we are in control it is surprising how often we get surprised. Things that we thought we knew about ourselves our not as straight forward as we possibly first thought. Our minds are extremely powerful pieces of equipment. Being able to master this tool or just being aware of it will reap huge benefits.

 

The power of the brain can be more powerful than some people can handle, hence why some people seek to change their state of consciousness. Even now with all the modern development very little is known for sure about how the brain works and how much of it we are using. In that respect computers are very primitive indeed and our books that feed the brain very powerful.

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Business registration and setup

We have discovered that some businesses prefer us to set up an online profile and post their adverts for them. This can be done by a trained member of the Work connexions team for as little as £30 for 12 months. We can give you a one to one demonstration. walk you through the process and show you how to design an advert or alternatively manage your account completely. Contact us on: 0121 2889051 for more information.

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Modern Politics from a Male Perspective

Balancing the many pressures that are involved with running a business is never going to be a simple task. On one side you want to be liberal and understanding to all those around you. On the other side the job needs to get done. Creating the right environment where all can flourish can be compared to modern politics. Whether expected or not the change has been significant, in the last month not least just in the UK, where the change of Prime Minister has raised more questions than one might expect. Surely the role of a leader is not to make personally differentiating polices from other leaders. Maybe when one looks closely it is the male testosterone of beating the chest that rules the tribe.
An example of this is with the rise of China as a economic power. China has grown significantly in the last 10 years. As it prepares to take its place on the centre stage, it would seem that when such an event occurs it is also necessary to have sufficient power to wipe out any one that disagrees with your ideas. China has embarked on a Military program second only to America. Powerful as these countries may be, they still appear as a social mess. China with no recognisable form of democracy and America with not even the basic social system to ensure justice. Unfortunately neither of them seem preoccupied with these problems, much more concerned about who has the biggest tank, army, ship etc.