All posts by Editor

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Creating Postive Marketing, in a Cycnical MarketPlace

It is interesting, both within my own environment and further afield, how cynical marketing is viewed. Getting ones message across is ever more difficult in a diverse world with expanding markets. What might appeal to one person in one country will not appeal to somebody else in another, for example Facebook in Germany, English chips in Holland, etc.

Of course we should all be marketing, whether it be a personal, or professional level. Maybe if more of us did that, we would need to have such departments. Everybody would be marketing. Still every organisation has to define what their message is.

business, development, work

Number Crunching for the Business Plan

For example the recruitment market in the Isle of Man breaks down like this:
80,000 People living in the Isle of Man

41,000 Actively working

13 Recruitment companies

70 People employed in recruitment

– 10,000 Employed in local government – no recruitment allowed for Goverment.

310 People per each consultant working in recruitment

1820 + Jobs advertised locally in the press per year

26 Jobs per each consultant

Estimated success rate of placing candidates 10 %

What do these figures mean? Number crunching is always handy in order to calculate a market.

business, Marketing, sales, Websites, work connexions

Generation X & Y the Internet Consumers

When we started this business, we made a strategic decision to concentrate on the Isle of Man. The very fact that it is an Island led us to the thought that e-commerce for its residents would be important. As the islanders here have 41 miles of sea in front of them the market is limited. To anybody wanting to increase their business e-commerce would seem to be a very logical way forward. Additionally the Isle of Man government is pushing e-commerce as one of its development strategies.

The reality is quite different. Many small businesses only depend upon the Island for making a living. Being that the community is quite small everybody knows what everybody else is doing. We have spent quite a bit of time and money on informing people on the changing use of the web. I am quite certain that within the next 18 months web 2.0 is going to play a more central role for all businesses. If I was to sum it up in a few words. It would be like this. If you want to reach generation X and before (under 35’s) then you have got to be thinking internet and web 2.0. If your market is above that generation then more traditional forms of advertising would apply. What do we have to do to increase our market? Inform the generation above X.

business, development, sales, work

Doing Business, Who Has The Advantage

I have never been a great armchair sports fan, as I always enjoyed sport more being a player in the game. I can understand why so many people like watching sport, two teams, or players battling it out on the same course. What makes it exciting is that it is a fair match, as teams usually battle teams of similar level. For the spectator it must be thrilling as only one team can win, a fact of the game is that the playing field is level. A truly buoyant economy is an exciting economy where everyone can benefit. But it is important that monopolies official or unofficial are kept in check or are introduced to sufficient competition. This same philosophy is the basis of democratic society. Every person who is born into society by law has the same chance in life. When the playing field is sloping towards one side we have a problem.

Uncategorized

Twitter in the Isle of Man

Twitter, the social networking company based in California, is now using a number sourced in the Isle of Man for it customer services to the UK. Why are they doing this? Because of the Isle of Man tax status. Under the present arrangements they will make more money. This opportunity could exist for a lot companies.

Excerpt from Article: http://uk.techcrunch.com/2007/11/19/twitter-starts-to-limit-outbound-sms-in-uk/

Twitter is using an SMS number sourced in the Isle of Man, rather than in the UK, so they do get some money (1p or 1.5p) per incoming text. However, they still need to pay at least 4 pence outbound, which in technical terms means they are… losing money hand over fist. Note also that the 07624 in Twitter’s number (+44 762 4801423) means it is actually billed as “international” by 3 and T-Mobile, making it a pricey service for those who like to tweet via SMS.

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

Check out my twitter profile here: http://twitter.com/LeoC

business, development, sales

If You Want A Different Result Then Try Something Different

“If you want a different result then do something different”

I am sure this is an age old motto. Unfortunately, I cannot recall where I first heard it. For example, if you are trying to launch a new product, recruit or increase sales, there are several ways to do this. They can be divided into two categories. Processes that you have tried, and those that you have not. Fundamentally doing what you have done before is not a guarantee for the same results the next time. It would appear that a new idea often has a certain sparkle. Quite often people ask me; why would I advertise in the Work Connexions magazine? What would be the result? If magazine publishers could answer this question, maybe our lives would be perfect. The best one can do, in my opinion, is due diligence and make sure that it does what its says on the packet. One tip, people read something because it is interesting.

If you find it interesting than you are halfway there.

Quality

W3C why it is so important on the internet

Presentation of content is just as important as the content. Regularly spending a couple of hours per a day surfing the internet for new content can become quite sore on the eyes. The number of non-compliant W3C sites is astounding. Why should a site even think about it? Well, there are two reasons:

1.The number of people that suffer from one form or another of disability is extraordinarily high. In this group you have to include sight, cognitive, physical, mental impairments etc…

2.In the UK it is now law that your site has to be accessible by all users. If you are providing a service and you fail to do this you can be fined. Even if the site is hosted in another country.

These reasons aside there is very little point in writing something if it cannot be understood by the people reading it. As it is becoming increasingly apparent, the fastest growing group of users on the internet are the silver surfers, and as you grow older your eyesight deteriorates. The question you have to ask yourself: Can you really afford to lose this group of customers through bad presentation?

Here are some tips from the WC3 website:

Although some people cannot use images, movies, sounds, applets, etc. directly, they may still use pages that include equivalent information to the visual or auditory content. The equivalent information must serve the same purpose as the visual or auditory content. Thus, a text equivalent for an image of an upward arrow that links to a table of contents could be “Go to table of contents”. In some cases, an equivalent should also describe the appearance of visual content (e.g., for complex charts, billboards, or diagrams) or the sound of auditory content (e.g., for audio samples used in education).

 

This guideline emphasizes the importance of providing text equivalents of non-text content (images, pre-recorded audio, video). The power of text equivalents lies in their capacity to be rendered in ways that are accessible to people from various disability groups using a variety of technologies. Text can be readily output to speech synthesizers and braille displays, and can be presented visually (in a variety of sizes) on computer displays and paper. Synthesized speech is critical for individuals who are blind and for many people with the reading difficulties that often accompany cognitive disabilities, learning disabilities, and deafness. Braille is essential for individuals who are both deaf and blind, as well as many individuals whose only sensory disability is blindness. Text displayed visually benefits users who are deaf as well as the majority of Web users.

 

Providing non-text equivalents (e.g., pictures, videos, and pre-recorded audio) of text is also beneficial to some users, especially nonreaders or people who have difficulty reading. In movies or visual presentations, visual action such as body language or other visual cues may not be accompanied by enough audio information to convey the same information. Unless verbal descriptions of this visual information are provided, people who cannot see (or look at) the visual content will not be able to perceive it.