In the past few days I've been reading about the increased use of bans on blogging. One company held a meeting where it banned anyone from blogging. The company, Nielsen, is a well known and respected media business, so why did they ban bloggers from their meeting? They claim it's because the meeting was a private client meeting. But that misses the point. Every day, there are private client meetings in offices and hotel rooms worldwide. And after every one of those meetings the clients come out and talk about what happened in the meetings. Almost never are those meetings kept secret. It is normal human behaviour to want to talk about what you discovered in a meeting. Blogging is merely an online replication of that behaviour. To ban it is to straight-jacket people. It's the same as saying you must never, ever, talk about what was said in a meeting. Even if a meeting is "held behind closed doors" and is supposed to be confidential, we still find ways of anonymising the details so that we can discuss what happened. Banning blogging from conferences will feel like a huge restriction to delegates and will make them less likely to attend.

Plus, there's another problem. Blogging from meetings adds to the reputation of the company who hold the meeting. Banning blogging makes it more likely that there will be negative blogs from the people who cannot write about what they hear or who feel restricted. The result in the "blogosphere" will be more negativity and less positivity about the company involved. In other words, banning blogging will reduce a company's reputation, not enhance it.

Labels: blogging, politics

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Just when you thought you had this infoproduct business cracked, along comes Adobe to mess it all up for you. For several years now, people have been getting used to - and liking – the PDF format which allows you to publish your books online and for your readers to buy them and use them with free software. Now Adobe is set to change all that by introducing “Digital Editions”. This is effectively iTunes for PDF files. In order to read the ebooks you’ll need to have the Digital Editions software and you’ll only be able to read them with that software – they won’t be able to be opened by Adobe Reader. What the folks at Adobe have done is to jump on the iTunes bandwagon. They have seen an opportunity to repeat the success that Apple has had with music, in the printed word area. What Adobe (and Apple) have failed to realise is that they are using technology to fix a problem that doesn’t exist. They want to control our access to copyrighted material – the concept of digital rights. But that’s a 20th Century problem. Nowadays, the business model of copyrighted material is changing. People expect things free. Free music, free books, free digital products. They pay for them via advertising, sponsorship and so on. Forcing people to use something like Digital Editions is bound to fail as it no longer matches people’s expectations. I’m predicting the end of iTunes within five years and Digital Editions won’t last that long.

Labels: future, internet marketing

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The international Blog Business Summit has just finished in Seattle and provided some thought provoking ideas. What’s clear from the summit is how much the blog business world is focused on itself, rather than it’s readers and customers. For instance, one of the speakers claimed your blog was useless unless it was listed in Technorati’s Top 100 blogs. But as I said in a comment to a blog reporting that speech, being in the Technorati Top 100 is useless. What’s more important for your blog is that your target readers visit it and subscribe. So focus your efforts on reaching your readers and your target market, rather than wasting your time striving to be in some popularity list. You’ll find that Jeremy Pepper agrees with me.

Labels: blogging, internet

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At October 30, 2006 1:53 AM  Robert said…

At November 12, 2006 9:05 AM  Graham Jones said…

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It’s only the end of October and there are nearly nine weeks until Christmas, but if your web site isn’t selling seasonal specials now, you could have missed out already. Some new research on shopping habits shows that 40% of people have completed their Christmas shopping by the end of October. Only 22% of people do their Christmas shopping in December. That means if you are setting up Christmas specials for your web site, you could be too late if you wait until the time feels right. Indeed, you should have added your Christmas specials to your web site back in September.

Labels: internet marketing, shopping

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You would have thought, wouldn’t you, that those creative types based in Hollywood would be really switched on when it comes to new technology like the Internet. But they are not. In spite of a few examples, such as the Blair Witch Project, film makers in Hollywood have yet to exploit the Internet in any major way. This is made clear in a new report on movie studio advertising spend which shows that only 3% of their spend was on the Internet – this is in spite of almost half their audience using the Web as their main source of information on new movies. So what’s going on? Are the money men behind the creatives so old-fashioned they have yet to hear of the Internet? Is the movie industry so traditional and set in its ways that it can’t yet conceive of advertising outside newspapers and magazines? Or is something else happening? Chances are it is the “something else”. You see, movie studios are not alone. Many mainstream industries that target young people have yet to exploit the Internet. Big business can’t move fast enough for the Internet world. For huge movie-making corporations and other big businesses, decisions take time. But the Internet doesn’t give them time. As a large business goes through the process of making its mind up about some novel online technology, the technology itself is changed. Before they get time to implement their decisions about online activity, the Internet world has changed, rendering those decisions useless. The movie industry is a great example of where big isn’t always great in the online world. If they want to stay big, they have to think small and behave like a small business so that decision making is rapid, allowing for exploitation of the Internet. Without doing that we’ll be back here in a year or two saying that Hollywood is still old-fashioned and out of date.

Labels: internet

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I’ve just got back from a meeting of the West Berkshire Business Club where I spoke about blogging for small businesses. I was asked several questions about the way to set up blogs, how to get visitors and how to make money from them. There was only one person in the room who already had a blog of their own, but it was clear there was real enthusiasm for blogging amongst the members. That’s because they can see the value of having a blog to help boost their reputation and create new business. By the end of my talk there were people ready to set up blogs on their business, their home life, as project management tools and so on. One person even told me they were going to set up a blog in praise of their mother-in-law…now that’s dedication!

Labels: blogging, speaking

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At October 26, 2006 5:43 PM  Nigel Morgan - Morgan PR said…

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CISCO, the technology company, has just launched a new virtual meeting tool which it hopes will replace typical video conferences links. The product competes directly with Hewlett Packard’s “telepresence” technology which some people say is so realistic they even try to shake hands with people in the meeting. These new technologies use the Internet to transmit high definition TV onto specially positioned screens in meeting rooms. Apparently, users feel as though their colleagues are in the same room, even though they may be thousands of miles away. However, participants will know their colleagues are not present. Technology companies are always excited by technology and often fail to see the human side until non technology companies start to use the products. Knowing someone is present in the room with you involves more human senses than just seeing and hearing. You can smell them, feel their physical movement and touch them. Until telepresence can do all that, it will always be inferior to actual meetings.

Labels: future, internet

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Yesterday I was running a workshop on blogging where I pointed out that you should include an email address in all articles you publish. That way, I argued, you can get to know exactly who is interested in your information. If you only included a link to your web site, you might get click throughs, but you wouldn’t know who from. One of the delegates said, however, that he would never respond to an email address simply from an article as he would like to find out more before making direct contact. This just goes to show how every one of your users is different. You need to provide a variety of means of contact if your web site is to succeed. Simply providing one method for people to find out more from one of your articles isn’t enough.

Labels: internet, speaking

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An interesting comparison of highly ranked web sites reveals some interesting findings. The researchers looked at the top 10 web sites for helping people lose weight. They then analysed the quality of the material offered on those web sites. The Mayo Clinic, for instance, ranked 9th in terms of web traffic, but was in the top three for quality. There were several other interesting differences, as well. For example, one of the worst in terms of quality of material (MSN Health and Fitness) was one of the best in terms of traffic ranking. So what does this tell us about the Internet? Well, for a start, traffic isn’t always the best guide to success. Just because you have lots of people looking at your site doesn’t mean it will do well. Those masses of people could take a look, realise your site is not very good and depart. Whereas, lower numbers of people might look at your site, realise it is very good, stay around and even buy some things from you. The most important measure of success for a site isn’t the numbers of people you get. So, if you are an Internet marketer, stop chasing traffic and chase business instead.

Labels: internet, internet marketing

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At October 24, 2006 12:54 PM  Opacity said…

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A fascinating step forward in the social networking phenomenon has begun in Australia and is about to move worldwide. Called “FunkySexyCool” the idea is social networking on mobile phones. The system has been on show in the past week at the annual European Technology Round Table in Barcelona. Although the system is a bit wacky it points the way to more social networking. Expect social networking systems to be added to all sorts of technology, including digital TV and telephony of all kinds.

Labels: social networking

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At October 23, 2006 4:03 PM  Anonymous said…

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I’ve just been listening to a programme on BBC Radio Four where there was a man from the Sherlock Holmes Society of London talking. He spends part of his life dressed up as Watson, playing the Victorian, fictional character. Alongside 65 other members of the society he recently went to Switzerland where he spent a week in character. During the interview he was asked if this was different to people who spend their life online in some imaginary world. Of course, it isn’t. Many people online invent characters they would like to use. They become these characters on their blogs, in chat rooms, even on their web sites. Some people would have you believe this kind of behaviour is not acceptable. But it is normal. Some people pretend they are Dr Watson at the weekend. Some become an online character. Others play golf, imagining they are really Tiger Woods, others go to football matches and shout their heads off, while at work they are very quiet indeed. In other words, we all inhabit several worlds in our heads. The fact that the Internet allows us to expand on our imaginary worlds is not the problem it has been cracked up to be – it is normal. However, if you are doing Internet marketing and you don’t allow your potential customers to take on imaginary roles in some way, you may be reducing your sales potential.

Labels: internet, internet marketing

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All the media coverage would have us think that MySpace is the place where teenagers and those in their early 20s hang out. But demographic data from MySpace shows us that this is far from the truth. Indeed less than a third of the users of MySpace are aged under 24. The biggest age group, with almost 30% of MySpace usage are the 35–49s. What this shows us from an Internet marketing perspective is not to believe all that you read in the press. Instead, use actual data to guide you through the Internet marketing maze. If you want to target people in their 40s you may well miss out MySpace users. But with the demographic data in your hand, you would focus on MySpace. To help your online marketing campaigns, always use reliable data rather than guesswork.

Labels: social networking, user-generated

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So, Carphone Warehouse has bought AOL UK after Time Warner decided to get rid of it. In a deal worth £370m, Carphone Warehouse has acquired the name and the 2.1m customers of AOL UK. Plus the deal will allow cross selling of each company’s products. However, ask yourself why did Time Warner want rid of the business? Over recent years, we have seen traditional publishing companies, like Time Warner, rushing into the online sector. Time Warner realised that having a broadband supplier and online portal was not core business. Carphone Warehouse has a broadband business – on numbers alone, the third best in the country. On customer service, you might think different. Their launch of free broadband was more successful than they predicted leading to huge customer relationship problems. It makes you worry about the forecasting capabilities at Carphone if they got this so badly wrong. The new AOL UK deal also makes you worry about the business – even though the City rewarded Carphone Warehouse with a 5% share price increase. Carphone Warehouse succeeded in the mobile phone market where others had failed. Why? Because it had a focused, niche – just car phones and mobiles. Competitors didn’t survive – they offered office phone systems, mobiles, computing and the like all under one roof. The focus of the Carphone Warehouse made it successful. Now it has added broadband, with huge difficulties and an extra £20m cost above budget. Furthermore, it’s going into the online portal business with AOL UK. Be warned: Time Warner got rid of AOL UK partly because it took it away from its focus. Carphone Warehouse’s addition of AOL UK takes it away from its own focus. If there is one thing that running an e-business teaches you very quickly, it is the need for focusing on a narrow niche. Successful entrepreneurs always do that - at the outset. But the lure of expansion and growth often takes businesses away from the very focus that got them their success. Is that what is happening with Carphone Warehouse?

Labels: future, internet

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It was great to read that teachers in Miami are exploiting the Internet and modern technology to help teach children. According to the Miami Herald newspaper one art teacher is using blogging to engage more with children in classes. Another teacher has started using iPods to deliver digital content to children. What a fantastic idea – use the technology children are using to connect with them. Schools in the UK are so behind the times. They are slowly investing in “smart board” technology which helps teachers interact with PowerPoint projections. But that is so last century, as far as children are concerned. So come on teachers, get blogging and downloading stuff to the kids iPods.

Labels: blogging, internet

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New market research suggests location based services are going to take off in a big way. According to the research published in eMarketer, the current 12 million subscribers to location based services will skyrocket to more than 300 million in the next five years. Location based services mean you integrate Global Positioning Services (GPS) within your mobile phone enhanced web site. So, for instance, if someone visiting your web site wants to know how close they are to your office, a GPS device will tell them. Equally, if you run a restaurant web site, people will be able to find you based more upon their location – i.e. they could look for a restaurant within walking distance of their hotel. If you have location based services within your web site, you’ll come top of their search. More fruitfully, advertisers will be able to push specific adverts onto mobile phones based on the location of the handset. However, be warned. When TV on mobiles was first mooted, market research showed an enormous take up. Ten years later, suppliers are struggling to get take-up. Location based services could suffer the same fate. It may be difficult for users to give up the feeling of control they have. If location based services push advertising based on location too much, the chances are users will reject it because of the lack of apparent control. And that means the predictions of millions of subscribers could be wrong.

Labels: future, internet

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So, Google has bought YouTube for $1.65 billion. Wow! In case you don’t know, YouTube is an online video sharing web site. You can post your home videos up there and anyone can have a peek at them. So why is Google that interested in YouTube? Advertising. Pure and simple. YouTube is only 18 months old, but already 100 million videos are watched every day – that’s 1,157 every second…! Google is arguing that it allows them to organise and deliver “the world’s information”. They also suggest it will allow them to deliver a “more comprehensive entertainment experience”. What they really mean is they can deliver more adverts. Google’s only source of income is advertising. Unless they can distribute online video, Google will be left only with text and graphics based advertising. In order to deliver video adverts it badly needed a proper distribution channel for such material. The YouTube deal provides just what they need. You can expect to see entrepreneurs jumping on the bandwagon fairly soon, producing videos with little content, but lots of adverts.

Labels: future, social networking

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Internet users are confused by the jargon surrounding them. Research from Nielsen/NetRatings shows that people are buying new technology and are using it, but have significant misunderstandings because they are faced with so much jargon and “geekspeak”.  According to the research Internet users have little idea what “podcast” means and have almost no notion of a “wiki”. Three out of four people have no idea of what VOD means – it’s Video On Demand. Nor do they know what PVR software is for – it’s Personal Video Recorder. Considering the research was done amongst people already using modern technology, there must be even more confusion amongst the general population. Technology companies must do more to try to connect with their users. Talking to them, asking them and doing some proper market research would be a start. At the moment, many technology companies appear to restrict their research and analysis to people who are techno-savvy. Talking to some real people would be a good start.

Labels: internet

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