Lucian Beebe may go down in history as one of the people responsible for a major shift in the way people do business. Who is he, you ask? Well, he is in charge of product management at LinkedIn, the business social network. And how does that make him so important?

Well he quietly announced on his blog that LinkedIn was "opening up" its system to developers who would be able to add applications to LinkedIn, or use LinkedIn output in other web sites. The whole notion of "closed" social networks, such as LinkedIn, is only temporary and bound to fail since people want to extend contacts widely. Closed social networks would be like having a brand of pizza restaurant that refused to serve you unless you were a member - and then you couldn't see your friends there because they are members of another chain. It just wouldn't happen; the same is true online.

Hence for general social networks, like LinkedIn, the only way forward is to open up. But why is LinkedIn's announcement so pivotal? Well, they are way ahead in the business arena. They are by far the biggest business social network around, dwarfing seemingly popular sites like Ecademy. And, already the magazine Business Week has signed up to use aspects of this new technology. The result is that social networking tools for serious business people will become focused on LinkedIn's attributes and capabilities.

If you are not already part of LinkedIn, you will need to be for future business. Remember, businesses do business with people. They have always bought and sold from people they know. Now, they can get to know you more quickly if you use social networking features of things like LinkedIn. But the new "openness" will mean your information will be spread much further and wider than merely within LinkedIn.

Labels: internet marketing, social networking

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Entrepreneurs are always seeking new ways of making money online. But sometimes it is more simple than you think. Take, for instance, making money from the media. For years newspapers and magazines have paid large amounts of cash for "exclusive" photographs. Yonks ago I made my own mini fortune from national newspapers when I (and a couple of colleagues) sold the story of the punk group The Stranglers abandoning a BBC recording of the programme "Rock Goes To College". That made the front page of several tabloids - thanks!

Nowadays, the cash paid for good stories can be even higher. Take, for instance, the story about the missing canoeist from Hartlepool. This is a story that has captivated the nation. But just how did the Daily Mirror get those "exclusive" pictures of John Darwin and his wife?

Well, someone sold them to the Mirror for a reputed £10,000. So how did that person get those pictures in the first place? Quite simply it seems. Apparently, according to my mate "in the know", the seller of the pictures simply used Google Image Search. He found the pictures, publicly available, online and sold them to the Mirror. Oops.

What does this show? Well, it reveals that the Internet includes all sorts of traces of us that sometimes people may not wish to be found. It also suggests that the Daily Mirror needs a lesson or two in how to use the Internet. But as ever, it shows that people will pay for something that you can find, even if they could find it themselves. For example, people pay for private investigators to find out what their partner is up to in their spare time; yet that's easy to find out without paying someone. We even pay for services like 192.com to get people's addresses, when they are publicly available in the local library.

The fact that information is already publicly available does not mean people will not pay for it. So what specific information sources can you tap into that other people will pay for? That's the main way people are making money online these days.

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At December 11, 2007 4:15 PM  Alex said…

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Big business is notorious for failing to either understand the Internet or to use it effectively. Indeed, the vast majority of large corporations have web sites which have cost them tens of thousands but which have no impact on their income. In other words, for most businesses, the Internet actually costs them money, rather than makes them money.

Even those large businesses who earn money from their web sites are not earning as much as they should or could. They appear happy with 2% conversion rates - a rate at which they would shut down their High Street operations without thinking twice.

Now, we discover they have got together in a group called "The Blog Council" to discuss blogging. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against big business forming a community to help them discuss things. But it's the thinking behind it that is telling. According to The Blog Council - which has Coca Cola, Dell and Microsoft amongst its members - "corporate blogging is different". Er, no it isn't.

It doesn't matter how big or small your organisation is, blogging is the same. It is holding a conversation with your audience. Simple. Apparently, says The Blog Council, big businesses "have to speak for a corporation, but never sound corporate". Well you shouldn't "sound" corporate in anything you do. That's why so many big business fail to engage with their customers - they seem to think that being big means speaking in some dreadful language invented by MBA students to make them sound important.

Then The Blog Council says that big firms "have to reconcile the often contrasting rules of corporate communications and blog etiquette". Well if you need "rules" for communication, you're probably in deep doo-doo anyway. One of the reasons for huge turnovers in corporate staffing is that big businesses simply won't allow people to be themselves.

In other words, these views about corporate blogging indicate deep seated problems in the whole nature of big business. They clearly haven't even seen that the world is changing around them. The Internet is the biggest threat to corporations there has ever been - indeed, we don't need them at all any more. It's perfectly possible to set up multibillion pound enterprises with a loosely organised community of people all working independently, all being themselves, rather than some corporate robot.

The Blog Council's concepts indicates that the desire for big business to have some kind of group of clones working for them is still rife. Younger generations are rejecting that notion in huge numbers. Combine that with the lack of big business to engage with the Internet and they are sealing their own death warrants.

And it's not just me who think The Blog Council have got this wrong. Take a look at The Marketing Pilgrim's views.

Labels: blogging

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At December 12, 2007 9:03 AM  Rob Watson said…

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Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, was in London earlier this week speaking about the benefits of Web 2.0 for businesses. He'd highlighted what he was going to say in an interview last month with Computing magazine.

However, in spite of his enthusiastic support for Web 2.0 and online collaboration, most of the businesses who will have heard him or read about Web 2.0 are not convinced. According to research conducted by the IT services company, Parity, and published in their White Paper on Web 2.0, less than one in three businesses use any form of Web 2.0 technology. Almost a half said that they could see no benefit in Web 2.0 at all.

So, there's no benefit in being able to connect and converse with your customers? No benefit in allowing staff to collaborate more easily and effectively? No benefit in sales staff, for instance, sharing best practice?

Interestingly, the Parity research revealed that a significant slice of IT managers did not even understand what Web 2.0 was about. There is growing evidence that the modern way of doing business online is leaving traditional businesses behind. Is it any wonder when boardrooms are still full of people who would rather use a pen than an email? Or when IT specialists don't even understand the technology they are supposed to be responsible for? I'm predicting wholesale change in the FTSE100 in the coming years. We are going to see traditional big businesses disappear, being replaced by those "young upstarts" who use all that "internet thingy".

Labels: internet, social networking, user-generated

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At December 07, 2007 12:13 AM  Jeremy Jacobs said…

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Doctors either have a "bedside manner" or they don't. I remember being told about a top cancer specialist who could not engage with patients, so merely used to tap them on their foot as they lay dying in their bed, look the other way and say "soon be OK old chap". My doctor mate who was his registrar, decided to leave - he couldn't stand working with someone who had no way of empathising with patients.

And according to a new study of the way doctors connect with patients, empathy appears to be a significant factor in whether or not we trust our doctors. Sadly, only 15% of doctors tested appear to be able to behave empathetically - it seems that the bulk of them treat us in a biomedical/scientific way.

In other words, those doctors who "see" medicine from the scientific perspective are the least liked, they are less trusted - and significantly they tend to have poorer patient outcomes than those who focus on being empathetic. This is yet more evidence that when we see things from our own perspective, the people we are talking to don't like it.

It's the same for Internet marketing - indeed any form of marketing. See things from your business perspective and you won't do as well if you see things from your customer's perspective. As an example of what I mean, consider for a moment the Daily Star newspaper in the UK. This is squarely aimed at young men - pictures of almost naked women, cheeky headlines and loads of sports news...oh and a smattering of important news items...! The newspaper itself is owned by the publishing empire, Northern and Shell, which has altogether a different image. This is much more sober - people with PhDs on the board, PriceWaterhouseCoopers as accountants, and a charitable trust which gave away more than £10m last year to needy causes.

There is clearly a huge gulf between the people who operate the company and the readers of the Daily Star. Indeed, the shareholders of Northern and Shell may not even like what the Daily Star prints - but here's the important point - they know that the Daily Star's readers like it. In other words, they see the newspaper from their readers' perspective, not their own, perhaps more moral position on semi-naked ladies.

And that's where most Internet marketing goes wrong - not it's lack of semi-naked lovelies, but rather its failure to see things from the perspective of the audience. There is a huge lack of empathy amongst most marketing. Almost every web site is from the perspective of the company that it's about, rather than from the perspective of the audience.

Probably, the doctor's survey stands true for the Internet too. If only 15% of doctors are showing any empathy towards their patients, it's probably the case too that only 15% of web sites show any concern for their readers.

Labels: internet marketing

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At January 03, 2008 7:35 PM  Kat said…

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Every once in a while a report comes your way that makes you wish you had written it yourself. A new report from Paul Smithson, the founder of the XSite Pro web design program is one such document.

The report is the first in the "Real Reason" series and focuses on why so many online businesses fail. Paul points out that only a comparatively few Internet marketing experts have truly succeeded. Most don't achieve the success they dream of.

Anyone running an online business should read Paul's 49-page report; it provides down to earth, practical and useful advice which will help anyone struggling with their Internet business to turn the corner and start making money online.

There is a plethora of useful links in this report as well as an excellent scheme for planning your time so that you can be sure of achieving all your tasks. Other people have produced less professional books, with less information and charged a fortune. Paul's report is free of charge, making it even more remarkable. Even if you don't use or want XSite Pro, but you run an online business, you should read this report.

Labels: internet, internet marketing

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Internet criminals must be rubbing their hands in glee. Not only does the British Government lose the bank account details of 10 million families, but now it seems they are making the local bobby the person who should investigate Internet crime. Pardon, did I say that correctly? Yes, that's right the "strategy" from the Home Office is that any Internet crime will now be dealt with locally by your happy, village police officer.

Now call me daft if you like, but I reckon that's a recipe for success for any Internet criminal. All you have to do is set up some scam that only affects people who are in the UK. You don't need to be in the UK, of course and could well be hiding behind a proxy server. Then just wait for the local village bobby to be confused and rake in the money. Simple.

This new Government strategy to deal with cybercrime came to light today following complaints from the IT Forum that Internet crime is not being treated seriously in the UK. Now, we shouldn't be surprised; there are countless examples of the Government failing to understand the Internet and how it is changing society and business. Indeed, most Governments worldwide appear to be planning on the basis that it's just a "fad" and it will go away soon when people get bored with it...!

But it's not only Governments that don't understand the nature of the Internet or cybercrime. Only last week I was told about a major FTSE 100 technology company that stores its customer account PIN numbers as actual numbers - not as "stars" or encrypted in any way. Not only that, these numbers are available on the internal system to everyone in their call centres, including third-party agencies abroad. The reasoning behind this decision is so that the company can remind people what their PIN number is in case they forget it...! Talk about leaving the system open to widespread fraud.

I reckon in the not too distant future that oversight will be cracked open - it's not difficult after all is it? Then the company will blame the Internet, those nasty cybercriminals, spotty teenagers - anybody but themselves.

It's time for big business and the Government to face some facts. Cybercrime is not the preserve of youths in their jim-jams; it is a multibillion enterprise involving criminal gangs. The Internet is not going to go away - it is going to become increasingly central to our very existence. Security policies that were OK in the 1990s are not acceptable now; there needs to be a major overhaul of security concepts and ideas at every business.

And that means at your business too. What policies do you have in place which are checked and updated every few months to enable your business to stay free of cybercrime? What preventative operations do you have in place to ensure your online business protects your customers? What are you doing to ensure your offline activities cannot help criminal gangs access your online data? Anyone running an online business needs to be able to answer these questions - and more. Otherwise your business could be used to defraud other people (implicating you as the criminal), or your business could be subject to rip-offs and frauds leading to your bankruptcy. You can't any longer think that cybercrime won't affect you. It will - and if it does you will only have the local village police officer to help you. Oh dear.

Labels: internet

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At December 05, 2007 9:16 PM  Mike said…

At December 05, 2007 11:03 PM  Graham Jones said…

At December 12, 2007 12:29 PM  mjr.towers.org.uk said…

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People often swap web site names between each other. They tell them to their friends, neighbours, colleagues and so on. Think how difficult it would have been for Google if their web site name (domain) had been something like "www.automatedsearchenginesystemnotrelyingonhumaneditors.com". And what about people who try to recommend web sites along the lines of "www.ourcompanyname.com/reports/pdf/public/12345-abc.htm"; such things are hardly catchy, easy to remember and pass on.

Often, online business owners forget that one of the principal ways in which their web site will gain traffic is by the passing on of their domain name by "word of mouth". Hence it is vital to have an easy to recall, catchy name. However, new research shows that businesses often neglect the name of their web site.

Indeed, the study conducted for Fasthosts and reported in New Business magazine found that one in every 20 businesses can't even remember their own domain name....!

The fact is, according to the survey, that businesses spend less than an hour thinking of a domain name, or the possible variants. The result is that many online business owners are unhappy with the domain name they have, but feel it is too complicated to change. Consequently, they probably don't do as much online business as they might - if they had given proper attention to the domain name.

You can find out more about how to choose and use domain names at my latest in-depth article.

Labels: internet

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At December 05, 2007 9:57 AM  pigsandbees.blogspot.com said…

At December 05, 2007 11:05 PM  Graham Jones said…

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Back in January I suggested that the blogging company Six Apart was going to be sold. A representative of the company soon contacted me and told me that I shouldn't read too much in the reports I'd read and added a comment to my blog entry. However, today I read that Six Apart has indeed sold off one of its blogging platforms, LiveJournal. So I was nearly right...!

What's interesting in the coverage of this sale is that it has gone to Russia, where other blogging platforms, like Blogger or WordPress have failed to gain any substantial users. Maybe LiveJournal supports the Russian alphabet more easily than Blogger or WordPress. Maybe Six Apart has had some really vocal fans in Russia that have helped them gain popularity for LiveJournal. Maybe I was right all along - that SixApart is selling up.

There are several different blogging platforms, from Blogger, to WordPress, Microsoft's offering Live Spaces as well as those from SixApart, including LiveJournal and Movable Type. There are dozens of others, as well as scripts you can download to set up your own blogging system on your own web site.

Much debate goes on in the blogging world as to which is the best system. Indeed, the sale of LiveJournal has sparked a debate, with some disgruntled customers suggesting SixApart always gave higher priority to their other blogging services. Whatever the truth of the matter, worldwide Blogger is the most popular system. It has its critics, true, and it has its problems. But, for anyone starting a blog - and for those wishing to easily integrate a blog into their own web site (such as this one) - it is by far the most straightforward system there is. It's not "No. 1" in the blogging hit parade for nothing.

If you want to integrate a blog into your business, don't let the renewed debate sparked by LiveJournal's sale, misdirect you into various dead ends of testing all the various systems out there. Just choose one you like and get going; for most people Blogger will be the solution as you can have your blog up and running within five minutes.

Labels: blogging

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At December 05, 2007 1:40 PM  Rob Watson said…

At December 05, 2007 11:07 PM  Graham Jones said…

At December 29, 2007 10:02 PM  Damien Senn said…

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Experts frequently fail to get things right. History is littered with so-called experts who predicted things totally incorrectly. The boss of IBM famously said there would only ever be a need for a handful of computers. Ha..!

So, why should we believe the "experts" at Ofcom and BT who tell us that expanding the UK's broadband system is "premature". Apparently there is "no evidence" that we need a better system. They said that when the M1 was built; there was no evidence that we needed great big roads. Mmmm. Equally, there was no evidence that we needed radio or TV transmitters being built when broadacsting was in its infancy. And who would have thought a hundred years ago when the Wright brothers managed a few hundred yards off the ground, that we'd need "air traffic control"?

The evidence for the need for improved broadband is already with us; take a look at Korea, for instance, where Internet usage is virtually essential to life.

The "experts" then tell us that people may not be prepared to pay the extra cash needed. Five years ago people were paying fro dial-up, pennies in comparison to the £120 a year on average spent now. Price is almost never a barrier to service; if it's good, people will pay. So, the pricing argument against development of super-fast broadband in the UK fails as well.

Come on Ofcom and BT - the rest of us are in the 21st Century, come and join us, it's lovely. However, we won't be here for long if you don't catch up. If broadband is not improved and uprated in the UK, many businesses will leave since it will be an essential infrastructure. It will be like asking an international business to be based in Reading, without the M4 to get them to Heathrow. We provide essential infrastructure like roads, why not an uprated broadband; it's no longer good enough to say there is no evidence. Ofcom needs to show leadership - and fast.

Labels: future, internet

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At December 04, 2007 1:04 AM  Jeremy Jacobs said…

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Old people - that is those aged over 19 - use email frequently. But teenagers hardly every use it; instead they are into instant messaging, big time. Although there is a marginal increase in email usage amongst teenagers, the vast majority still prefer instant messaging.

Indeed, a week or two ago I was at a meeting where a younger person (lots younger than me) said that "email was really old fashioned". Wow! It's only been around for 12 years or so and it's already past it...!

However, for anyone running an online business this is of more than academic interest. Marketers often target younger people - they have much more disposable income than those of us with commitments such as mortgages and (even more costly) children. So, that means for many online businesses email marketing will cease to have any impact within a few years.

All those teenagers will, within the next few years, become the main "target" for many marketers. And that means reaching them will be difficult via email; they won't be using it. Instead, you need to start thinking of new ways of getting to them - now. Otherwise, online business will gradually diminish. Just as record sales are being made online, along comes another change in the way people behave to stir things up again..!

Labels: future, internet

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At December 12, 2007 12:25 PM  MJ Ray said…

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