Category Archives: Marketing

Content is Timeless

As with the last couple weeks I have been blogging about why communities and online social media groups are going to grow significantly more and will change all forms of media in the next 18 months. Is this really interesting? Well the change could be, as advertisers are going to have so much choice to reach their target market that marketing departments are going to be expanding and working overtime to understand and use this technology.

There is nothing essentially new in blogging, in the old days you had magazines and papers where people submitted or where commissioned to write news pieces about relevant issues. The readers than replied to that by sending in a letter to say what they thought about any relevant topic. After about a month that whole particular topic would pass and the readers would move on to discuss a new hot issue. In the online media if you can write one good article in theory that article can be discussed for 6 months, a year, two years. So from one piece of advertising/writing you can get so much more advertising milege. As the article sits on the internet it can become internet real estate growing in value over the months as traffic comes to the site and comments increase. If you are going to say something on the internet, it is good to remember that although it may be a fast form of communication, your writing contribution will be there possibly for a long time.

I could write about the new year now as I am typing this on the last day of year but that would limit its market. So to gain the maximum affect, It is good to take the long term view. Whoever would have thought that about online media?

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.

Who are we marketing to with www.workconnexions.com

Our market is Businesses and Working professionals for our Wcx site. At present there is no social networking site that offers businesses this or the chance to interact with each other using Web 2.0 communication. Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc are all aimed at the individuals. While some of these social networking sites are used for business. We believe they are fatally flawed for business, in that they concentrate on the individual’s private life, and most professional people do not want to be exposed and interact in this type of environment.

The .net Awards 2007 Following Web Host’s Initiative For Recognition

A Manx website, Work Connexions, has been short listed for a prestigious UK national award following an awareness campaign lead by Netcetera, the Isle of Man’s leading web hosting company, to recognise and foster web design excellence in the Isle of Man. Work Connexions, www.workconnexions.com, the Isle of Man’s own social media website, has been short listed in the category of ‘People’s Choice: New Site of The Year’ in the .net Awards 2007.

The nomination follows a grassroots campaign launched in October by Netcetera in which the company encouraged the people of the Isle of Man to vote for their favourite Manx sites online at the awards website. A successful PR campaign coupled with a Facebook initiative and a dedicated web page all combined to make the Netcetera’s .net Awards drive a success.

“The Isle of Man boasts an innovative Internet culture and were happy to play a role in fostering creativity and excellence,” commented Dave Boswell, chief operating officer, Netcetera. “The .net 2007 Awards are recognised as the industry’ s most respected accolade, and this year we were determined to help Isle of Man web design receive the recognition it deserves. We congratulate Work Connexions on this achievement.”

In addition, Netcetera sponsored the Innovation of the Year category in the .net Awards 2007; Joost, Adobe Premier Express, Second Life and Google Calendar were all finalists. Google Earth was awarded the Innovation of the Year accolade.

The Work Connexions website offers interactive social media features, popularly known as Web 2.0, to both people and businesses. It includes online advertising, blogging, bulletin boards and a business directory among other services.

“Business is starting to understand the influence of social media and our site makes it easy to tap this powerful medium for people that may not have the technical know-how or the time to build their own interactive web presence, ” said Leo Cussons, operations director, Work Connexions. “It’s an honour to be recognised in the .net Awards, but doubly so because it’s in the People’s Choice category. We are delighted that so many people took the time to vote for Work Connexions and are grateful to Netcetera for their support.”

Netcetera is a full-service web hosting company with more than 10 years experience serving a broad range of customers from around the world. The company’s new data centre, the £10 million Dataport in the Freeport in Ballasalla, is the Isle of Man’s largest and most advanced.

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.

20,000 Page Views in a Single Day for Work Connexions Blogger

Work Connexions blogger Marie Claire Cooper who’s recent personal finance management guide blog post climbed in Popularity on Digg. Demonstrates the power of blogging and just what it can do for your business.

Marie-Claire Coopers blog profile: http://workconnexions.com/blog/198

Stats report: http://workconnexions.com/newsletterArchive/Stats/PageViewsDec13th2007.pdf

Digg link: http://digg.com/business_finance/4_Simple_Financial_Rules_you_SHOULD_know_before_DIVORCE

http://workconnexions.com/node/156

Changing of World Media

New Media, there has been some discussion about this on the internet and it is clear that Newspapers, music, film, magazine are all changing. The changes that begun in the nineties are now coming to fruition. Media will never be the same again. Read Seth’s blog post here about what he predicted. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/12/how-long-has-it.html . If you tie this in with mobile phones it is going to be a very different world. Maybe even more exciting than the Roman Empire.